Julian Stockwin - 19 The Baltic Prize (Thomas Kydd #19)

Yet of all the bizarre oddities of this campaign none can match that of the lengths to which merchant-ship captains went to get their cargoes through. To circumvent the treasonable act of trading with the enemy, application was made for a private licence to do so. At first issued sparingly, by the end of the war these were turned out by the tens of thousands and were accepted on sight by British cruisers, while false papers were carried to get them into an enemy port. The ‘simulated papers’ were produced by skilled forgers in speciality firms situated in London, the latest information passed on from the Continent, and were so good that before long Lloyds would refuse insurance unless a ship could show a set.

Other scams were introduced: the Danish island of Heligoland, captured by the British, was turned over to the sole industry of cargo laundering where, in an area not much bigger than Hyde Park, colossal amounts of cargo from England were repackaged and re-stowed in a ‘neutral’ ship before being sent into Europe. Napoleon’s officials were helpless to stop this and before long became hopelessly corrupt – Prince Bernadotte considerably helped his offer for the Swedish throne by providing a massive state loan from the proceeds of his involvement. Insurance premiums fell, from 40 per cent when Saumarez first entered the Baltic to the usual two to three per cent when these measures got into their stride.

The French, without command of the sea, found their own ships levied a prohibitive 50 per cent or more and were effectively wiped from the trade routes. Grotesquely they found protection by going as ‘neutrals’ in Saumarez’s convoys and, flourishing genuine papers as simulated ones, they were able to insure their vessels at Lloyds, an English court ruling with impeccable fairness that merely being an enemy did not disqualify them from recovering on a duly accepted policy. It did them little good: under eye they had no chance of loading French export goods and ended taking British goods into the Continent, leading to the established fact that Bonaparte’s troops were clothed and booted on their march to Moscow by the factories of the Midlands.

Great Britain owes more than it realises to Admiral Saumarez. The Baltic trade, the only conduit left to it, would have, if severed, brought about the strangulation of the country and the end of the war. As it turned out, the trade swelled and blossomed and by the end of the war had generated a taste on the Continent for British trade goods that spread far and wide and which, after the war, led to an advantage that left Britain in the Victorian era the greatest commercial nation on earth.

I first came across this great sailor and diplomat while researching Treachery in Guernsey, where the lieutenant governor, Sir Fabian Malbon, was involved in establishing a fund to replace the Saumarez memorial, dynamited during the war by the German Wehrmacht.

To all those who assisted me in the research for this book I am deeply grateful. Particular thanks are due to two people. Eva Hult, archivist at the Maritime Museum in Stockholm, afforded me the great privilege of handling the actual plans of gunboats created by the gifted af Chapman, whose designs dominated the Baltic at the time this book is set. Ulla Toivanen in Finland, in a warm gesture from a stranger, readily shared insights into her country’s culture and history.

I visited many splendid museums in the Baltic region as part of the preparation for this book – but the Estonian Maritime Museum in Fat Margaret Tower, Tallinn, only an hour from Rågervik, stood out, providing a wealth of information.

My appreciation also goes to my agent Isobel Dixon, my editor at Hodder & Stoughton Oliver Johnson, designer Larry Rostant, for his superb cover design, and copy editor Hazel Orme.

And, as always, my heartfelt thanks to my wife and literary partner, Kathy.

Glossary

akvavit

a clear liquor flavoured with caraway seeds much esteemed by Scandinavians

a-low

the opposite of aloft

barkers

slang for firearms

blaggard

‘blackguard’

breeches

garment worn by gentlemen before pantaloons and ending at the knee

burgoo

porridge

Carrick bend

a knot to join two hawsers when intended to render around a capstan

chouse

make sport of

coach

that part of the captain’s quarters aft used as an office

colours

the distinguishing national ensign flown by a ship

conn

the men and equipment responsible for directing the ship on her course

Continental System

a system of economic warfare, essentially a blockade of Europe against the British by Bonaparte

Cyrillic

alphabet of the Slavic tongues

dame school

basic village school run by a lady of mature years

deal

a length of timber ready planed and finished in use for a building

dirk

a small poignard modelled after the Scottish dirk and worn by midshipmen in place of a full-sized sword

division

the sectioning of a warship’s company into a self-sufficient unit for special duties or combat

dog watches

in the Royal Navy a half-watch about sunset to give an uneven number of watches to be served at different times

douanier

French Customs official

double tides

working all day long, i.e. for both tides instead of one

figgy duff

pudding made with suet and raisins

fish-scut

the faeces of fish

flam

to trick

footling

trivial

glacis

a slope extending down from a fortification to slow an assault

griff

how things are done

gunwale

the uppermost strake of a boat

gyre

a swirling vortex; that which causes gyrations

Holger Danske

legendary Danish hero who sleeps in the crypt of Kronborg Castle ready to rise when Denmark is in peril

hove to

result of a manoeuvre to halt a vessel by backing its sails

Johnny Raw

a new-pressed or joined sailor on his first trip to sea

jolly boat

smallest boat aboard used for casual duties

kanonchalup

the larger type of gunboat. Armed with two 24-pound cannons and four four-pound howitzers; seventy men

kanonjolle

the smaller type of gunboat with one 24-pound cannon and two four-pound howitzers; forty men

Kem

mayor of Russian town in imperial times

Kronstadt

main island base of Russian Navy, to seaward of St Petersburg

larbowlines

those men in the larboard watch

League of Armed Neutrality

early attempt of neutrals to combine to resist British searches for contraband on the high seas

lee shore

downwind from the vessel, dangerous in bad weather

lop

small wave with enough curl to cause cresting

mole

a long pier made of masonry to form and protect a harbour

mountebank

a flamboyant charlatan

negus

a hot toddy of wine and lemon

noon sight

the midday reading of the apparent altitude of the sun to derive latitude

pawky

derisively small

perruquier

wig-maker

pinnace

carvel-built boat smaller than a cutter used for communication between ships

Pomor

medieval-origin Russian settlers in the extreme north

powder monkey

seaman, usually a youngster, carrying powder from the magazine to the gun

quoin

wedge-shaped piece of wood to raise or lower the breech of a gun to give elevation or depression

rake

the firing into an enemy down the length of a ship instead of into the side

ratlines