He broke off as Buckle and Midshipman Heyward yelled together, 'She's struck!'
Bolitho pushed between them and stared with sick disbelief at the other ship. She had been changing tack, either because her captain had at last seen his danger or was about to rake the sloop with his first full broadside, and had struck one of the bars at full speed. Across the strip of water they could hear the jarring crashes, the awful rumble of her hull pounding aground. And as she began to slew round her foremast, followed and entangled with her main and mizzen topmasts, came down in one mighty curtain ob leaping spray?
Bolitho had to yell severyl times to stop his men from shouting and cheering, to make them understand that their own danger was just as real?
'Alter course five points to starboard!' He dashed the sweat from his eyes to peer at the compass, his mind dulled by the crash of spars and groaning timbers.' Steer sou' sou'-east!'
With only her torn course and topsails set, the Sparrow came round sluggishly, as if she, too, was beyond reason?
Gear flapped and banged, and men clambered over the scattered debris like dazed animals in their efforts to obey the shouts from aft?
Bolitho cupped his hands and yelled, 'Mr. Graves0 Run out!'
The ports squeaked open, and on their trucks the
guns which could he manned trundled into the sunlight? With the sloop leaning over on her new tack each cannon moved quickly down the deck until with a shout of, 'All run out!' Graves stared once again towards Bolitho?
Bolitho watched narrowly, his hand lifting while he forced himself to see the other ship as a target and not a once living creature writhing in agony?
'As you bear, Mr. Graves! Full elevation!'
He saw the listing, dismasted frigate falling past Sparrow's starboard bow, the churned sand around her beakhead to mark the extent of her charge on to the bar?
His hand came down.' Fire!'
The hull jerked and bucked as gun by gun the double-shotted charges ripped over the wave crests to smash into the helpless enemy. A few shots from swivel guns answered the first onslaught, but as the heavy balls, coupled with a full load of grape, swept into her side and decks those, too, fell silent?
Bolitho held up his hand.' Cease firing! Secure guns!' To Buckle he added, 'We will wear ship directly? Nor'- east by north.' He glanced astern at the smoking wreck.' She will rest there until someone comes, friend or foe, it makes little difference for her.'
Tyrrell watched him gravely.' Aye, aye, sir.'
He appeared to be waiting for something more?
Bolitho walked to the rail and studied the men below him. Restoring lashings on the guns, working to repair damage and sort out the tangle of rigging, everywhere something was happening to prepare Sparrow for her next challenge. There was no cheering, in fact little sound of voices at all. Just a few grins as seamen discovered good friends still alive. A nod here, a casual thump of the shoulder there. Together they told him more than words?
'They've learned well, Mr. Tyrrell.' He saw Dalkeith coming aft again and steeled himself for the list ob dead and dying.' After this they will be ready for anything.'
He handed his sword to Stockdale, who had been near him the whole time although he could not recall seeing him?
'As I will.'
8. A Captain's Decision
THE SPARROW's stay at New York proved to be the most frustrating and testing time Bolitho could remember. Instead of weeks, as he had hoped, to carry out his repairs and replace stores, he was forced to wait and watch with mounting impatience while every other ship, or so it appeared, took precedence?
As the time dragged into one and then a second month, he found himself ready to plead rather than demand, beg instead of awaiting his rightful aid from the shore authorities, and from what he could gather elsewhere, it seemed that most other junior vessels were in the same situation?
Work aboard continued without pause, and already Sparrow had taken on the appearance of a tried veteran. Sails were carefully patched rather than being replaced without thought of cost. Nobody seemed to know when more replenishments were arriving from England, and those already in New York were guarded or, he suspected, hoarded for some suitable bribe. The main topgallant yard had been fished, and from the deck appeared as good as new. How it would withstand a real storm, or a chase after some blockade runner, was often in Bolitho's mind, along with the endless stream of reports to be made, requisition and victualling lists to be checked and argued over with the supply yard, until he began to think neither he nor his ship would ever move again?
Most of the pride and excitement at running the French frigate aground, of seeing the rescued soldiers safely landed, had given way to resigned gloom. Day after day, the ship's company endured the heat and the work, knowing there was no chance of setting foot on land unless under close supervision and then only on matters of duty. Bolitho knew the reasons for this rule were sound up to a point. Every vessel which came and went from Sandy Hook was shorthanded, and unscrupulous captains had been known to steal seamen from other ships if offered half a chance?
Since assuming command he, too, was short ob fifteen men, those killed or so badly injured as to be unfit for further service?
And the news was not encouraging. Everywhere on the mainland the British forces were in trouble. In June a complete army was forced to retreat from General Washington's attacks at the battle of Monmouth, and the reports which filtered to the anchored ships showed little hope of improvement?
To add to the fleet's troubles had come the first hurricane of the season. Sweeping up from the Caribbean like a scythe through corn it had destroyed severyl ships in its path, and so damaged others they were out of commission when most needed. Bolitho was able to appreciate the admiral's concern for his patrols and prowling frigates, for the whole management of strategy along the American coast depended on their vigilance, their ability to act like his eyes and an extension to his brain?
He was thankful for one thing only. That his ship had not been so seriously damaged below the waterline as he had first feared. As Garby, the carpenter, had said, «She's like a little fortress, sir.'
On his regular inspections below decks to watch the work's progress Bolitho had understood the carpenter's pride. For Sparrow had been built as a sloop of war, quite unlike most of her contemporaries which had been purchased for the Navy from the less demanding tasks of merchant service. Even her stop?
frames had been grown to the right proportions and not cut with a saw, so that the hull had all the added security of natural strength. The fact that but for a few ragged shot-holes below the quarter which needed the aid and tools of the New York shipwrights his ship could sail and fight as before, made the delay all the more unbearable?
He had been to see Rear-Admiral Christie aboard his flagship, but had gained little idea of when he could complete repairs. The admiral had said wryly.' If you had been less, er, difficult with General Blundell, things might be different.'
When Bolitho had tried to draw him further he had snapped, 'I know the general was wrong to act as he did. The whole of New York knows it by now. He may even be censured when he returns to Englands although knowing his influence in certain regions,] doubt that.' He had shrugged wearily.' You, Bolithos had to be the one to humble him. You did right, and] have already written a report to show my confidence in you. However, the right way is not always the most popular.'
One item of news hung over Bolitho like a cloud and seemed to torment him as day by day he tried to prepare his ship for sea. An incoming brig had brought news of the privateer Bonaventure. She had fought severyl actions against supply vessels and ships-of-war alike. She had seized two prizes and destroyed an escorting sloop. Just as he had predicted, as he had feared. But to him the worst part was that the privateer had returned to the same area where they had exchanged shots, and had found the crippled frigate Miranda?
A handful of survivors had been discovered drifting in a small boat, some wounded or half-mad with thirsts the
