The French Admiral

much heavier artillery to back her up, but being of deeper draft she wasn't much help close inshore.

'Passage'll be 'bout a mile off Cape Henry,' Mister Monk said, referring to one of his heavily pencilled and grease-stained charts by the binnacle. He was partly teaching, partly talking aloud to himself. 'Far enough offshore ta avoid the Cape Henry shoals, an' 'bout two mile off a the Middle Ground. Ya young gentlemen mark the Middle Ground? Silt an' sand shoal.'

Forrester, Avery, and Lewrie peered over his shoulder to mark it in their minds, while Carey, who was much shorter, wormed his way through to peek almost from Monk's capacious armpit.

'What about north of the Middle Ground, sir?' Carey asked, turning his gingery face up to their sailing master. 'Up by Cape Charles?'

'No, main entrance is this'n, south o' the Middle Ground. To the north of it, ya'd never know how much depth ya'd have, wot with the scour. At high tide, ya might find a five-fathom channel, 'un then agin ya could pile her up on a sand bar in two, so deep draft merchantmen an' warships use the south pass. With our two-and-a-half-fathom draft, we'd most like be safe up there, but anythin' bigger'n a fifth-rate'd spend a week gettin' off.'

'It's big once you're in, though,' Avery observed, looking at the chart past the entrance they were discussing.

'Like the gunner told the whore,' Alan whispered.

'Let's keep our little minds on seamanship, awright Mister Lewrie?'

'Aye, Mister Monk, sir,' Alan replied with an attempt at a saintly expression.

'Now look ya here,' Monk went on, tapping the chart with a stub of wood splinter for a pointer. 'Once yer in, there's Lynnhaven Bay. Un from Cape Henry ta Old Point Comfort, due west, mind ye, ya got deep water an' good holdin' ground. But—and mind ya this even better—from 'bout a mile north o' Point Comfort an' from there up ta these islands at the mouth o' the York River, ya got shoal water at low tide, and this shoal, they think, sticks out damn near thirty miles east, pointin' right at the heart o' the entrance. So ya can never stand too far in at low tide or on a early makin' tide without ya choose Lynnhaven Bay er bear off west-nor'-west for the York, er up nor'-west into the bay, itself.'

'So the best places to base a fleet or squadron would be either in Lynnhaven Bay or in the mouth of the York, sir,' Avery said.

'Right you are, Mister Avery, right you are.'

'Which is why Cornwallis and his army have marched north from Wilmington in the Carolinas, to set up a naval base to control the Chesapeake,' Alan said, marveling.

'Un right you are, too, Mister Lewrie.' Monk beamed, proud of his students. 'Either way ya enter, ya got ta choose Lynnhaven Bay, York River, er further up, but if ya take that route, ya gotta be aware o' this here shoal comin' outa the north shore o' the Gloucester Peninsula north o' the York, so that cuts yer choices down even more. I'd never stand in further than ten miles past Cape Henry afore choosin', and God help ya you ever do otherwise yerselves if yer ever in command o' a King's ship, Lord spare us.'

'And there are no markers or aids to navigation?' Forrester asked.

'Nary a one, sir,' Monk replied. 'Mosta the shippin' roundabouts is shallow draft coasters an' barges ta serve all these tobacco wharfs on the plantations, er carryin' trade ta Williamsburg further up the James, so up ta now, there wasn't no need fer 'em. But, up the James er up the York, er way up the Bay, it's the world's best anchorage ta my thinkin' for a fleet.'

'Then why haven't we set one up here before, sir?' Carey asked.

'There's not much ta the Continental Navy, in spite o' that fight we had in the Virgins last month. Biggest threat was de Barras up in Newport, an' the North American Squadron covers them. Most o' the fightin' was around New York or down in the Carolinas. But now this bugger de Grasse is on his way here, we'll control the place.'

'And with ships here in the Chesapeake, we'd be free to range from way up here on the Patowmac and Baltimore down to Norfolk and the entrance,' Alan said, smiling. He could see what Clinton and Cornwallis had in mind. 'We'd cut the communications from Washington and Rochambeau to his southern forces.'

'A nacky plan, ain't it?' Monk said, as though he had thought of it himself. 'So ya all look sharp as we work our way inta the bay, and y'll see the Middle Ground, all swirly like a maelstrom sometimes. Two leadsmen in the foremast chains by four bells o' the forenoon, now we're in soundin's. And we'll lower a cutter an' sound ahead, too, as we're comin' in on the ebb tide.'

'Let me,' Carey volunteered, almost leaping in eagerness.

'Aye, the boat's yours, Mister Carey. Ya put these younkers ta shame sometimes, so ya do!'

'And the leads, sir?' Alan asked.

'Do ya take yer copy o' the Atlantic Neptune an' place yourself in the foretop, Mister Lewrie. Mister Avery, y'll be with the hands in the forechains. Un Mister Forrester, I 'spect the captain'll wish ya ta be on the quarterdeck ta handle any signalin'.'

'Aye, sir,' Forrester said with a smug grin.

Desperate was ready for any trouble entering the bay. The hawse bucklers were removed and cable ready to run at bow and stern, both the best and second bowers seized to their lines, and a kedge and a stream anchor on the stern should she have to maneuver herself off a shoal with muscle power.

'Cape Henry, sir,' Monk said to Treghues on the quarterdeck. 'I'd feel better a point ta starboard if ya so mind, sir.'

'Hands to the braces, stand by to wear a point to starboard!' Treghues shouted, then turned to Lieutenant Railsford. 'Brail up the main course now and get a little way off her, but leave the tops'ls for now.'

'Aye, aye, sir.'

With guarded caution that to an outsider might still have seemed almost dashingly rash, Desperate made her way to the entrance, arrowing almost due west down the three- mile-wide channel, past the disturbed water of the Middle Ground, past the tip of Cape Henry into Lynnhaven Bay. Beyond, the Chesapeake was a sparkling sack of water, nearly devoid of shipping but for a few small British ships servicing the troops ashore, along with a large frigate, the Charon, a sloop of war just slightly smaller than Desperate, the Guadeloupe, and some small armed cutters and store-ships drafted from the coastal traffic.

Desperate finally idled close enough to Charon to be able to speak to her, and from her commander Captain Symonds they discovered that the French were nowhere to be seen as of yet. There were some armed gunboats working further up the bay near Annapolis to keep some Continental infantry units from taking to the water in some homemade barges.

They also learned that Symonds and Cornwallis had rejected Old Point Comfort west of Lynnhaven Bay as the naval base. The bay would be too exposed to the coming hurricane season, and the land around Old Point Comfort was too low and marshy to be fortified—was barely two feet above high tide. A French ship, with her higher mounted guns, could drift right down on any battery established there and shoot it to pieces. Instead, Cornwallis would fortify the south bank of the York River just east of the town of York and the narrows at Gloucester Point. The land was much higher there, with steep bluffs to discourage any attempt to storm them, and batteries dug into the bluffs could return the favor to a ship of any force that attempted to get close enough for cannon fire. They would also be free of the marshes and their agues, and would have several choices of streams for fresh water if they had to hold out for any length of time.

So far, Cornwallis and his troops had had little trouble in these rebellious Virginias, raiding far west up toward Williamsburg and Jamestown, getting into one scrap on the James. But the enemy had been too daring and had tried to force a crossing into low marshland and forests right in the teeth of the field artillery and had gotten cut up badly. After scouring the neighborhood for victuals and harvesting what crops there were, the general was moving slowly back to Yorktown to begin his fortifications and was awaiting the arrival of the fleet into the bay. They had heard of the possible arrival of the French, and Clinton and Admiral Graves had promised to return troops south, so the possibilities were excellent for a grand battle which would not only destroy the French fleet in the Americas and knock them out of the alliance with the Rebels, but also destroy what men and guns that the Rebels were assembling from the south. Once what passed for an army in the Virginias was destroyed, the entire country was open to British troops as far west as the Appalachians, which would cut the rebellion in two. Symonds's news was electric, and reeking of confidence.

After a quick survey up north around the York River anchorages-to-be, Desperate wheeled about and made her way back out of the bay to carry the glad tidings to Admiral Hood and the Leeward