The Corvette

'Very well. Do that if you please.' Drinkwater looked forward. 'But first, I think you had better luff, Mr Hill'

'Jesus!' Hill's jaw dropped in alarm as the berg reared over them. Drinkwater held his breath lest Melusine struck some underwater projection from the icy mass that towered over the mastheads. 'Down helm!'

Melusine swooped into the wind, her sails shivering, then paid off again as the berg drew astern. Their pursuer, his attention focussed ahead, had laid a course to pass almost as clear as his quarry. That the Melusine could shave the berg indicated that it was safe for him to do so, and Drinkwater remarked to Hill on the skill of their enemy.

'Aye, sir, and that argues strongly that he's a letter-of-marque.'

Drinkwater nodded. 'And he'll be able to read our name across our stern and know all about our being a French prize.'

Hill nodded and Bourne rejoined them. 'Meggs says he'll be a further ten minutes, sir, before the keg is ready.'

'Very good, Mr Bourne. Will you direct Rispin to take watch on the fo'c'sle and warn us of any ice ahead. Take over the starboard battery yourself.'

Bourne looked crestfallen but acknowledged the order and moved forward to the waist.

Meggs brought the wrapped keg to the quarterdeck in person.

'Three-minute fuse, sir,' he said, handing over the keg to Hill who had mustered three sail-trimmers to carry the thing forward, together with the log-line tub. Five minutes later Drinkwater saw him straighten up and look expectantly aft. Drinkwater nodded and leaned over the side. The keg drifted astern as Melusine rushed past, the log-line paying out. Snatching up his glass Drinkwater knelt and focussed his telescope, levelling it on the taffrail and shouting for Quilhampton.

'Mr Q! The instant I say, you are to tell Hill to hold on.'

'Hold on, aye, aye, sir.'

Drinkwater could see the canvas sack lying in the water. It jerked a few times, sending up little spurts of water as the ship dragged it along when the line became tight, but in the main it drifted astern without appreciably disturbing the wake. He wondered if his opponent would have a vigilant lookout at the knightheads. He did not seem a man to underestimate.

Suddenly in the image glass he saw not only the keg, but the stem of the advancing ship. The bow wave washed the keg to one side.

'Hold on!'

'Hold on!' repeated Quilhampton and Drinkwater saw the line jerk tight and then the persistent feather of water as Melusine dragged the keg astern, right under the larboard bow of the pursuing Frenchman.

He wondered how long it had taken to veer the thing astern. Perhaps no more than a minute or a minute and a half. He wondered, too, how good a fuse Meggs had set. It was quite likely that the damned thing would be extinguished by now. It was, as he had admitted to Hill, a long shot.

'Stand by to tack ship, Mr Q!'

Quilhampton passed the order and Drinkwater stood up. He could do no more, and his shoulder hurt from the awkward position it was necessary to assume to stare with such concentration at the enemy's bow. The keg blew apart as he bent to rub his knees.

'Larboard tack!'

He felt the deck cant as the helm went down and Hill ran aft telling his men to haul in the log-line. Struggling down on his knees again he levelled his glass. At first he thought that they had achieved nothing and then he saw the Frenchman's bowsprit slowly rise, The bobstay at least had suffered and, deprived of its downward pull the jibs and staysails set on the forestays above combined with the leeward pull of the foremast to crack the big spar. He saw it splinter and the sails pull it in two. There was a mass of men upon the enemy fo'c's'le.

He spun his feet. 'We have him now, by God!' But Melusine had ceased to turn to starboard. She was paying off before the wind.

'She won't answer, sir! She won't answer!'

It was then that Drinkwater remembered the rudder.

Chapter Fifteen The Action with the 'Requin'

28 July 1803 

Drinkwater did not know how much damage he had inflicted upon the enemy, only that his own ship was now effectively at the mercy of the other. It was true the loss of a bowsprit severely hampered the manoeuvrability of a ship, but by shortening down and balancing his loss of forward sail with a reduction aft, the enemy still had his vessel under command. And there was a good enough breeze to assist any manoeuvre carried out in such a condition.

As for themselves, he had no time to think of the loss of the rudder, beyond the fact that they were a sitting duck. But the enemy could not guess what damage had been inflicted by fortune upon the Melusine.

'Heave the ship to under topsails, Mr Hill!' Drinkwater hoped he might convey to his opponent the impression of being a cautious man. A man who would not throw away his honour entirely, but one who considered that, having inflicted a measure of damage upon his enemy, would then heave to and await the acceptance of his challenge without seeking out further punishment.

Despatching Hill to examine and report upon the damage to the rudder Drinkwater called Bourne aft.

'Now, Mr Bourne, if I read yon fellow aright, he ain't a man to refuse our provocation. It's my guess that he will work up to windward of us then close and board. I want every man issued with small arms, cutlasses, pikes and tomahawks. The larboard guns you are to abandon, the gun crews doubling to starboard so that the fastest possible fire may be directed at his hull. Canister and ball into his waist. Mr Mount! Your men to pick off the officers, you may station them where you like, but I want six marines and twenty seamen below as reinforcements. You will command 'em, Mr Bourne, and I want 'em out of the stern windows and up over the taffrail. So muster them in my cabin and open the skylight. Either myself, Hill or Quilhampton will pass word to you. But you are not to appear unless I order it. Do you understand?'

'Aye, aye, sir.'

'Oh, and Mr Bourne, blacken your faces at the galley range on your way below.'

'Very good, sir.'

'And you had better warn Singleton what is about to take place. Tell him he'll have some work to do. By the way who was hit by that first ball?'

'Cawkwell, sir. He's lost a leg, I believe.'

'Poor devil.'

'He was closing the cabin sashes, sir.'

'Oh.'

Drinkwater turned away and watched the enemy. As he had guessed, the Frenchman was moving up to windward. They had perhaps a quarter of an hour to wait.

'Mr Frey!'

'Are your two carronades loaded?'

'Aye, sir.'

'I think you may have employment for them soon. Now you are to man the windward one first and you are not to fire until I pass you the express order to do so. When I order you to open fire you are to direct the discharge into the thickest mass of men which crowd the enemy waist. Do you understand?'

The boy nodded. 'I need a cool head for the job, Mr Frey.' He lowered his voice confidentially. 'It's a post of honour, Mr Frey, I beg you not to let me down.' The boy's eyes opened wide. He was likely to be dead or covered in