Alexander Kent - THE INSHORE SQUADRON

Like madmen the crews were already sponging out their weapons, ramming home fresh charges and balls before throwing their weight on the tackles once again.

And still the French captain had failed to fire a single shot in reply.

The hands of the gun captains were raised in a ragged line, and the first lieutenant yelled, `Stand by! Fire!'

Bolitho shaded his eyes to watch the dense smoke being driven downwind towards the other ship. They were on a converging tack, the slightly heavier Ajax spreading even her topgallants to fight her way into more open water.

There was a cheer as the Ajax 's topsails danced and shook to the onslaught, the wind exploring the shot holes and ripping the maincourse apart like an old sack.

Then the enemy replied. At a range of perhaps a cable, the broadside was ill-timed and badly aimed, but Bolitho felt the iron smashing into the Styx 's hull, and a stray ball striking further aft beneath his feet. The deck rebounded as if being struck by a great hammer, but Neale's gun crews did not even seem to notice.

'Stop your vents! Sponge out! Load!'

All the drills, the training and the threats had paid off. `Run out!'

The smoke writhed between the two ships, its heart bright with red and orange as if it contained life of its own. Then the balls crashed into the Styx 's side once more even as she returned the broadside.

Bolitho saw one gun overturned, some of its crew writhing across the deck, leaving patterns of scarlet to mark their agony. Holes appeared in the sails, and Bolitho heard a ball tear above the quarterdeck within feet of where he stood.

Neale was pacing back and forth, watching the helm, the sails, his gun crews, everything.

'Fire!'

Whooping and yelling the men threw themselves on their guns again, barely pausing to see where their shots had gone before they reloaded.

Bolitho walked aft, his feet slipping on slush as he raised his telescope to seek out the other man-of-war. She was still at anchor but her decks were crammed with sailors. But she was not making sail or even running out her artillery, and as he moved the glass further he saw the blue and white flag of Russia. The Tsar wished more than anything else to be a respected friend and ally of Napoleon. His captain obviously thought differently, probably still stunned by the ferocity of Styx 's attack.

A ball slammed through the nettings behind him and he heard a chorus of cries and shrieks. The line of marines, who had been training their muskets over' the tightly packed hammocks in readiness to engage, had been parted by bloody confusion. Men crawled and staggered through the smoke, and two were smashed to bloody gruel on the opposite side.

Their sergeant was yelling, `Stand fast, marines! Face yer front!'

The marine lieutenant was sitting with back to the bulwark, his face in his hands, his fingers the same colour as his coat.

Neale shouted, `The Frenchman has recovered his wits, sir! He'll try using chain-shot presently!'

Bolitho stared quickly around. It had been only minutes, yet felt an eternity. The cluster of English merchantmen were as before, but small figures dashed along their yards and gangways, cheering or calling for aid, it was impossible to tell.

Neale saw his glance and suggested, 'I'll send the quarter boat, sir! Those poor devils may have no officers to help them escape.'

Bolitho nodded, and as men rushed aft to the quarter boat he said to Browne, 'You go.' He clapped him on the shoulder, expecting him to be as relaxed as he looked. But his shoulder was like a carriage spring, and he added quietly, `Captain Neale has enough to contend with.'

Browne licked his lips and winced as more enemy shots crashed into the side, throwing up cruel splinters, one opening a man's arm and hurling him to the deck.

Then he said, `Very well, sir.' He forced a smile. `I shall have a fine view!'

Moments later the boat was pulling lustily towards the merchant ships. Somebody had even had the presence of mind to hoist a British ensign above the transom.

The Ajax was moving closer, her gunports flashing fire at regular intervals. But the wind was holding her over, and many of her balls shrieked above the Styx 's gangway, bringing down oddments of cordage and severed blocks like dead fruit.

Bolitho looked along the gundeck, seeing Pascoe's white breeches faintly through the smoke and snow as he directed the. forward guns towards the enemy.

The broadsides were getting more ragged, the men too dazed by the din and thunder of battle to keep up their original timing.

Some lay dead or badly injured, others tried to drag them clear of the recoiling cannon, their faces masks of determination and shock.

There came a wild chorus of yells from the forecastle, and Bolitho saw the Frenchman's foremast part like a carrot, the upper spars and yards, complete with thrashing canvas and rigging and not a few men, plunged across her forecastle. Even through the roar of battle they heard it, like a cliff falling,. and the effect was instantaneous. As most of the topmast staggered over the side, trailing broken shrouds like black weed behind it, the frigate swung drunkenly into the wind, the wreckage acting as a giant sea-anchor.

Neale cupped his hands, his sword dangling from his wrist, as he yelled, `Full broadside, Mr Pickthorn! Double-shotted with grape for good measure!'

Wallowing helplessly while her seamen tried to hack the trailing wreckage away, the Ajax drifted end-on towards Neale's battery. There was no fear of the double-shotting splitting the breeches now, Bolitho thought. The guns were so overheated that he could feel the nearest one like an open furnace.

He saw one old gun captain cradling each shot in his hard hands before allowing it to be rammed home. It had to be perfect this time.

Neale clambered up into the lee shrouds and snatched his first lieutenant's speaking trumpet to shout, `Strike your colours! Surrender!' He sounded almost as if he were pleading. But the only answer was a volley of musket shots, one of which clanged against his sword like a bell.

He climbed down to the deck, his eyes bleak as he stared at the raised fists of his gun captains.

'So be it then.' He looked at his first lieutenant and gave a curt nod.

The broadside, which thundered with mounting fury from bow to stern, gun by gun, as the Styx sailed slowly past the enemy's figurehead, was terrible to see. Wreckage flew high in the air and the mainmast fell in a great swooping crash to join the other broken spars alongside. Bolitho thought he saw the frigate drop her bows under the murderous weight of iron, and he saw a young midshipman biting the sleeve of his coat with horror as long tendrils of blood ran from the Ajax 's scuppers, as if she and not her people were dying.

A master's mate shouted, `The merchantmen are weighing, sir.' He sounded beyond understanding, past belief.

Bolitho nodded, still watching the beaten frigate. Vanquished in battle, but her tricolour was still flying, and he knew from hard experience that she at least would live to fight again.

He guessed that Neale and many of his men still had fire enough to try and seize the Ajax as a prize. But they had done plenty, and far more than he had dared hope. To go further, and flaunt the authority of the Swedish commandant and the one-sided neutrality of a Russian warship, would be pushing the odds too far.

He looked instead at the merchantmen. There were six in all, their sailors busily spreading more sails and trying to avoid collision with one another as they steered towards the small frigate which flew four flags for all to see.

Neale wiped his smoke-grimed features and said, 'Your flag lieutenant will not be the same again, I fear, sir.' He sighed as a wounded man was carried past. 'Nor any of us, for that matter.'

He turned to watch the nearest merchantman passing abeam, her larboard gangway alive with cheering men.

He added dryly, `We did what we came to do, sir. I think it only fair we borrow a few of their prime seamen? The least they can do to show their gratitude!'

Pascoe came aft and touched his hat. He waited for Neale to walk away to deal with the countless problems left behind by the fight, then said, 'That was quickly done, sir!'

Bolitho rested one hand on his shoulder. 'Barely twenty minutes. I can scarce believe it. Captain Neale is a fine seaman.'

Pascoe did not look at him, but his mouth twitched in a smile.

`I believe he learned a lot in his first ship, Uncle?'

Mr Charles Inskip strode back and forth through the highceilinged room as if it were no longer big enough to contain him. Even his wig, which he had donned to lend dignity to his authority, was knocked awry with his agitation.

`God damn it, Bolitho, what am I to do about you?' He did not wait for a reply. 'You abuse the Danish neutrality and slink off in the night with some cock-and-bull scheme for a cuttingout expedition, and now you are back here in Cophenagen! You do not even have the sense to stay away!'

Bolitho waited for the squall to pass. He could sympathize with Inskip's unwelcome role here, but he had no regrets about the released ships. By now they would be passing through the narrows and out into the North Sea. To have left them in the Tsar's hands, to be handed possibly to the French as some kind of gift or bribe, was unthinkable. It would have been even more cruel to leave their luckless crews to rot in some prison camp or freeze to death in alien surroundings.

He said impassively, 'It was the least I could do, sir. The merchantmen have no cause to fear attack from the Danes. They were wrongly seized, much as the Danish ships were impounded by us this year. But if I had not anchored here again, had trailed my coat instead beneath the shore batteries of the Sound Channel, I would have provoked a disaster.'

He thought suddenly of the passage back. No one had had time to precede them and yet rumour had outpaced everything.' The waterfront had been packed with silent townspeople, in spite of the bitter cold, and later, when permission had been granted by the port admiral to carry out repairs and to carry the dead ashore for burial, something like a great sigh had gone up from the watchers.

Inskip did not seem to hear him. 'I might have expected such action from one of your captains. But the flag officer of a squadron, indeed not! Just by being there you represented your King and Parliament.'

`You mean that a mere captain could be dismissed, court martialled, if things went against him, sir?'

Inskip paused in his agitated pacing and said, `Well? You know the risks as well as the rewards for command!'

Bolitho knew he was getting nowhere and said, `Anyway, I should like to send word to my flag captain, if that is possible. I told him I might be away from the squadron for a week at the most. It is that now.'

Inskip glared at him. 'Oh dammit, Bolitho. I did not say you could not achieve what you set out to do. It was your method I doubted.' He gave a wry grin. `I have already sent a message to your squadron.' He shook his head. `I cannot imagine what they will say in Parliament, or here in the Palace, but I'd have given a lot to see you free our merchantmen! My aide has already spoken with your Captain Neale. That young man told him that the Styx dished up the enemy in no more than twenty minutes!'

Bolitho recalled Herrick's comment. Men, not ships, win battles.

'True, sir. It was the fastest frigate action I have yet witnessed.'

Inskip regarded him calmly. 'I suggest you were more than a mere witness.' He crossed to the window and peered at the square below. 'The snow has stopped.' Almost off-handedly he added, `You must prepare yourself to meet the Adjutant General while you are here. Possibly this evening. In the meantime you will remain as my guest.'