Dewey Lambdin - The French Admiral

"There's not much ta the Continental Navy, in spite o' that fight we had in the Virgins last month. Biggest threat was de Barras up in Newport, an' the North American Squadron covers them. Most o' the fightin' was around New York or down in the Carolinas. But now this bugger de Grasse is on his way here, we'll control the place."

"And with ships here in the Chesapeake, we'd be free to range from way up here on the Patowmac and Baltimore down to Norfolk and the entrance," Alan said, smiling. He could see what Clinton and Cornwallis had in mind. "We'd cut the communications from Washington and Rochambeau to his southern forces."

"A nacky plan, ain't it?" Monk said, as though he had thought of it himself. "So ya all look sharp as we work our way inta the bay, and y'll see the Middle Ground, all swirly like a maelstrom sometimes. Two leadsmen in the foremast chains by four bells o' the forenoon, now we're in soundin's. And we'll lower a cutter an' sound ahead, too, as we're comin' in on the ebb tide."

"Let me," Carey volunteered, almost leaping in eagerness.

"Aye, the boat's yours, Mister Carey. Ya put these younkers ta shame sometimes, so ya do!"

"And the leads, sir?" Alan asked.

"Do ya take yer copy o' the Atlantic Neptune an' place yourself in the foretop, Mister Lewrie. Mister Avery, y'll be with the hands in the forechains. Un Mister Forrester, I 'spect the captain'll wish ya ta be on the quarterdeck ta handle any signalin'."

"Aye, sir," Forrester said with a smug grin.

Desperate was ready for any trouble entering the bay. The hawse bucklers were removed and cable ready to run at bow and stern, both the best and second bowers seized to their lines, and a kedge and a stream anchor on the stern should she have to maneuver herself off a shoal with muscle power.

"Cape Henry, sir," Monk said to Treghues on the quarterdeck. "I'd feel better a point ta starboard if ya so mind, sir."

"Hands to the braces, stand by to wear a point to starboard!" Treghues shouted, then turned to Lieutenant Railsford. "Brail up the main course now and get a little way off her, but leave the tops'ls for now."

"Aye, aye, sir."

With guarded caution that to an outsider might still have seemed almost dashingly rash, Desperate made her way to the entrance, arrowing almost due west down the three-mile-wide channel, past the disturbed water of the Middle Ground, past the tip of Cape Henry into Lynnhaven Bay. Beyond, the Chesapeake was a sparkling sack of water, nearly devoid of shipping but for a few small British ships servicing the troops ashore, along with a large frigate, the Charon , a sloop of war just slightly smaller than Desperate , the Guadeloupe , and some small armed cutters and store-ships drafted from the coastal traffic.

Desperate finally idled close enough to Charon to be able to speak to her, and from her commander Captain Symonds they discovered that the French were nowhere to be seen as of yet. There were some armed gunboats working further up the bay near Annapolis to keep some Continental infantry units from taking to the water in some homemade barges.

They also learned that Symonds and Cornwallis had rejected Old Point Comfort west of Lynnhaven Bay as the naval base. The bay would be too exposed to the coming hurricane season, and the land around Old Point Comfort was too low and marshy to be fortified—was barely two feet above high tide. A French ship, with her higher mounted guns, could drift right down on any battery established there and shoot it to pieces. Instead, Cornwallis would fortify the south bank of the York River just east of the town of York and the narrows at Gloucester Point. The land was much higher there, with steep bluffs to discourage any attempt to storm them, and batteries dug into the bluffs could return the favor to a ship of any force that attempted to get close enough for cannon fire. They would also be free of the marshes and their agues, and would have several choices of streams for fresh water if they had to hold out for any length of time.

So far, Cornwallis and his troops had had little trouble in these rebellious Virginias, raiding far west up toward Williamsburg and Jamestown, getting into one scrap on the James. But the enemy had been too daring and had tried to force a crossing into low marshland and forests right in the teeth of the field artillery and had gotten cut up badly. After scouring the neighborhood for victuals and harvesting what crops there were, the general was moving slowly back to Yorktown to begin his fortifications and was awaiting the arrival of the fleet into the bay. They had heard of the possible arrival of the French, and Clinton and Admiral Graves had promised to return troops south, so the possibilities were excellent for a grand battle which would not only destroy the French fleet in the Americas and knock them out of the alliance with the Rebels, but also destroy what men and guns that the Rebels were assembling from the south. Once what passed for an army in the Virginias was destroyed, the entire country was open to British troops as far west as the Appalachians, which would cut the rebellion in two. Symonds's news was electric, and reeking of confidence.

After a quick survey up north around the York River anchorages-to-be, Desperate wheeled about and made her way back out of the bay to carry the glad tidings to Admiral Hood and the Leeward Islands Squadron.

It was puzzling to Lewrie, all the same, as to just where those French had gotten to, and he mentioned it to Lieutenant Railsford in the evening watch as their ship once more trailed the taffrail lanterns of the heavy units of the fleet, now on their way to New York to collect Admiral Graves and his line-of-battle ships.

"We have beaten them to the coast," Railsford commented.

"But what happens if the French are now busy retaking Charlestown and the Carolinas, sir?" Alan demanded, as much as a midshipman could make a demand upon a commissioned officer.

"The information all points to the Chesapeake," Railsford said, looking up at the set of the tops'ls that shone like eery shadow wings in the night. "So we must expect that the information is correct. Even if they did land south of us, they must know that their fleet could be bottled up in Charleston harbor and lost to the rest of the war effort. And it would only be a matter of time before our ships, with Admiral Graves's as well, and all of Cornwallis's army, would march or sail south and put them under the same sort of siege that won the place last year anyway. The Chesapeake is more vital at this moment, and closer for de Grasse to link up with de Barras's few ships in Newport. Like us, they could only stay on the coast until the equinox, and then have to flee back to the Indies, so here is the best place to effect something strategic. Cornwallis and his army is the magnet that will draw them, as it draws us."

"Well, sir, it seems to me that if de Grasse is behind us, then he could be sailing into the Chesapeake right now, and us none the wiser. Why not simply take our present fleet into the anchorage at the York River, or wait off the capes while we send a frigate to Admiral Graves and wait for him to arrive?"

"Because we would be only evenly matched without Graves and end up fighting a draw much like Arbuthnot did last year," Railsford said, grinning at Alan's efforts at strategy. "And if de Grasse came by way of Cape Francois, who is to say that he has not made combination with other French ships, or stirred those Dons out of Havana? They had ten sail of the line."

"By way of the Old Bahama Passage!" Alan was enthusiastic. "I thought that was the way they might come."

"But then we might be the ones outnumbered and overwhelmed," Railsford said.

"But if we cruised out to sea, sent frigates to scout, and could fall on the transports, even if we were outnumbered, we could cancel this de Grasse's plans overnight. If I were in charge, I'd… well, sir, there is a hopeful thought for you."