Sea of Grey

After all that 'Libertй, Fraternitй, Egalitй' bumf of the revolutionary mobs, Saint Domingue had erupted in civil war between Royalists and Republicans, with the grands blancs and the petits blancs-which could mean any white settler from a modest tradesman or overseer to a drunken harbour layabout-up in arms, with the help of those aspiring gens de coleur, the free Blacks and mixed race Mulattoes. Until the Whites had made it plain that the colony wished freedom from France, but would keep the slave plantation system and the strict racial hierarchy, that is; then the 'persons of colour' had made it a three-sided civil war. High-flown edicts written in Paris, granting full voting rights to gens de coleur born free, and of two free parents (maybe 400 in all the island!) had enraged the lower class petits blancs, who would die before being valued lower than a 'Cuffy'.

And, to top it all off, in 1791, the 450,000 darkly black slaves in the countryside had risen in revolt, murdering their masters, burning lush manor houses, raping white women, raiding and looting, before forming into loose battalions that used hoes, pitchforks, scythes, and cane knives to fight and defeat European-trained and armed soldiers and militias, as well as the countryside police, who were mostly Mulatto or half-coloured to begin with.

Paris had sent another slobbering fanatic, Lйger Sonthonax, to Saint Domingue, with 7,000 European troops and some portable guillotines. More Free Blacks had arrived, too, fresh from the Terror to lead the cause of full equality. Sonthonax thought that all island whites, no matter their station, were Royalist or separatist, so his guillotines stayed busy, and as his home-bred troops died of malaria and the Yellow Jack, or got massacred in the back-country by slave rebels, he aligned with the Mulatto militias, who aspired to emulate their white parents rather than side with the darker, mostly illiterate plantation slaves.

Now the interior of the colony was controlled by the slaves in arms- well-armed, too, so Lewrie was informed- and led by a man who styled himself General Toussaint L'Ouverture, a former house slave himself. When the war began in '93, a Spanish army of 14,000 men had tried to invade Saint Domingue from Santo Domingo; now L'Ouverture was just about ready to invade the Spanish half of Hispaniola to free his fellow Spanish Blacks!

Such servile unrest, his orders firmly advised, was not to be allowed off that unhappy isle; he was to take, sink, or burn any ships of a 'slave navy' departing Saint Domingue, before rebellion, along with arms and encouragement, could get to Jamaica and other colonies.

'But on the other hand, Toulon…' Lewrie wryly mused, as he stroked the ram-cat's silky belly, making Toulon rattle-purr and half shut his eyes in bliss.

He was to do nothing to impede the slaves, since they were good at making mincemeat of what troops the French still had ashore, or had a chance of fetching from Europe. As the orders subtly hinted, 'arms and munitions imported by whatever means are not to be discouraged, so long as no hint of future export to British colonies is suspected.'

It was hoped, the advisories stated, that this spring of '98, General Maitland could march inland and defeat the ill-fed, barefoot slaves, further isolate any remaining French garrisons, and finally conquer the damned place. Failing that, the semblance of amity, encouragement, and cooperation with the slaves' aspirations, to either delude them long enough to disarm them, or 'bring them into the fold' as temporary allies would suit.

And speaking of temporary allies…

Those orders and advisories waxed eloquent about the Americans. They were back at sea with a real navy, after scrapping their last old Continental Navy ships in 1785, no longer dependent upon a tiny clutch of revenue cutters in the Treasury Department, or small customs vessels maintained in coastal waters by the several states.

Not that the Continental Navy had been worth all that much in those days, Lewrie recalled with a snort of derision. He'd only seen one real warship, and she'd gone down with her guns firing in a hopelessly one-sided fight with his old ship, HMS Desperate. The brig o' war… Liberty, had been her name?

No matter. The Royal Navy had taken, sunk or burned, or blockaded most of them 'til they'd rotted at their anchorages. No, it had been their adventurous privateers that had carried the fight, decimating British trade. Americans were an odd lot, Lewrie had gathered; if war came at sea, they'd prefer the lax discipline, and hope of profit-sharing, of a privateer to the regimented life of a navy vessel! Patriotism for flinty- eyed, avaricious 'Yankee Doodles' went down better when sweetened by plunder, prize money, and the chance to gallivant in high adventure for a few months.

The Americans he'd met when a callow Midshipman during the Revolution had struck him as leery of a central government with too much power, of a large standing army at the beck and call of potential tyrants or despots… in that regard, at least, Americans and Englishmen were of one mind. They'd much prefer a sea-going batch of 'Minutemen,' what they called their casual, volunteer farmer-soldier militias, to the high cost of a formal fleet.

'Perhaps an American navy's more palatable, puss,' Lewrie told his cat, now Stretched nigh-boneless across his lap. 'Out of sight and no threat ashore. 'Less they smash up the taverns.'

American trade had grown like mildew in his dirty shirts, though. Merchant ships under their peculiar 'gridiron' striped banner were seen on every sea these days, trading with anyone despite the war, belligerent or neutral, and admittedly bore a fair portion of British goods. As neutrals, they were raking in the 'blunt' with both fists. He was advised that American merchantmen could be encountered in the Indies in large numbers, even entering Spanish ports on Cuba and Puerto Rico, and he was to follow a wary but 'hands-off' policy unless he suspected any contraband going to French or Spanish ports.

Lately, though, their old friends, the French, had turned a new leaf in their dealings with America. French trade was practically nonexistent due to the Royal Navy, but even so, the Frogs were now stopping and searching American ships for 'contraband,' requiring them to produce not just passenger lists and manifests, but lists that showed the names and nationality of officers and crew, rфles d'йquipage or else. America and Great Britain had recently signed a treaty that had settled some border disputes in the Pacific Northwest, and disputes at sea about exactly what 'neutral' really meant, and that treaty had piqued the French even more. They had renounced the American notion that 'free ships make free goods,' a clause of their own Treaty of Amity and Commerce with America in force since 1778! France had stated that, henceforth, they would treat neutrals in the same manner that England did… whatever that meant. If American ships carried cargoes to or from England or her allies, and lately even if they carried goods to or from France and her allies, they were subject to search and seizure. The British ambassador to the United States had estimated that nearly 200 ships had been taken in the Caribbean alone since 1796!

It was all part of an ongoing plan to bully, threaten, cajole, coax, or bribe the United States into war on France 's side. French agents had been tampering with American domestic politics for years, in point of

fact, even after 'neutral' American merchant ships had both fed and clothed them in the early days of their Revolution, when crops had failed year after year, and France was rocked by internal revolts against the Jacobin republic.

Now, the advisories said, France had declared that any American ships caught carrying any British goods were 'bonne prise ' and prey for their warships and privateers.

Worst thing t'do to a Yankee Doodle, Lewrie thought; hit him in the coin-purse!

Engraged at last, so the British ambassador had written, those Americans were rushing to finish six large 5th Rate frigates that had been started in '94 and '95, and patriotic public subscriptions were being solicited in every seaport from Maine to Georgia to buy and arm, or quickly build, a United States Navy.

The advisories hinted that America might even declare war upon the French, and ally themselves with Great Britain! So captains were warned to do nothing to discourage such a declaration, perhaps find a way to encourage such a move. They could always use another ally, and one with nautical experience and knacky skill-as shown by the privateers in the last war, at any rate-would be more than welcome. An ally that did not need vast bargeloads of silver to prop them up, like the Austrians and Prussians and Neapolitans did during the time of the so-called First Coalition in 1793, would be doubly welcome!

So American merchant ships must be protected from privateers or French cruisers, but on the other hand:..!