Sails Across the Sea: A Tim Phillips Novel (War at Sea Book 8) Read Free

gun brig, rated as a brig-sloop with eighteen thirty two pound carronades about to be commissioned. As such, she rated a Commander and he was prepared to offer the command to Phillips if he wished it. His old crew aboard the Aurora would man the Terrier.
     
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER FOUR
     
     
    Without a second thought, Phillips accepted the offer and soon after, the orders were drafted and he hired a shore-boat to take him out to the brig. The Terrier was new, fresh from the builder with only the few newly-appointed standing officers aboard. The senior petty officer aboard, Gunner’s Mate Wilcox, reported the gun wharf superintendent had come aboard earlier and assured him the brigs’ carronades were available to be delivered.
     
    Early on the next morning, staff began to appear. One of the first was the brig’s new first officer. Lieutenant Hawkins. Hawkins was a long-serving officer who had no influential patron behind him to push his career along. He had no money except his pay and had never been fortunate with prizes. Twice as old as his captain, Phillips wondered how their age difference was going to work out.
    Early on, the Royal Marines came aboard. A sergeant, a corporal and eighteen privates. The seamen and petty officers from the burned Aurora came aboard in a body and the brig was now alive. The stores and armament appeared along with all the tools that went along with a Royal Navy warship. Her new hull gradually sank lower into the water as tons of material were loaded on board.
                 
    The crew was unusually experienced, being handed over intact as it were. Most warships at this stage of the war tended to sail with a distressing percentage of its men being untrained landsmen. Phillips would have faced combat with an equal French warship with equanimity with this crew.
    However as long as he had the time to spare, he took the brig out in the Channel and began gun and sail drill to keep his men up to his standard. On the way back to the harbor he entertained Mister Hawkins in the cabin. During supper, he explained his difficulty with the brig’s armament.
     
    “We have eighteen ‘smashers’, Mister Hawkins. This gives us a broadside greater than many a frigate, but the enemy has become acquainted with our carronades by now. Any enemy ship we meet will do her best to remain out of range of our guns, and could give us a pasting if they have any long guns aboard.”
    We have a fast brig, and that will help us to keep up with any likely enemy and prevent them from getting to arm’s length, but I do wish we had some long guns to reach out to an enemy outside of carronade range.”
    “But what can we do about it, Captain? The Office of Ordnance handles these matters, and we cannot influence them.”
    “Oh, there are ways and means, Mister Hawkins. I will explore some of them. In the meantime, I would value your opinion on this Burgundy before us. I was told when I purchased it that it had just been landed.”
    “This is smuggled wine, Sir?”
    “I am sure it is. Mister Hawkins. Admiral Curtis gave me a course to the wine shop that stocked it.”
     
    Lieutenant Hawkins had a strong Methodist bringing, and was decidedly uncomfortable about freely discussing criminal activity, such as purchasing smuggled wine for consumption aboard a King’s ship. He had little to say the rest of the meal.
     
    Back in the harbor, Phillips made another visit to the Admiral’s office. He was not there at the time, so Phillips discussed his concerns with an elderly commander who was ‘holding the fort’ for Admiral Curtis in his absence.
    “Captain Davis”, Phillips offered, “I think I am tempting fate if I sail out to sea with just my 32 pounder carronades. Surely, I have an astonishing weight of broadside, but it is close range stuff and if a French ship with a few long guns can keep at arm’s length, she could well give us some serious trouble.”
    “Well, Phillips, just what the devil do