The French Admiral

Monk added. 'Deep water just offshore, mayhap thirty-five ta forty fathom, 'bout a cable out. Closer in, ya got only six fathom, but that's right under the bluffs an' at low tide, too. Lotta tobacco comes outa here. Even outa the Gloucester side. Virginia's famous fer it. If the army ain't burned it fer spite, I'll get me some ta chew.'

'Looks pretty low over there, sir,' Alan noted on the north shore.

'Aye, once past Gaines Point goin' back ta sea, ya get inta some salt marshes and swamps an' bottom land —Guinea Neck, they calls it. They's farms in there, even so. Corn, tobacco, an' such like. Some pines fer pitch an' tar an' board.'

'So the scour of the tide, and the current of the river, lay to the suthr'd, sir, below the bluffs and runs sou'- west along the shoals,' Alan said. 'With Moore's House on your larboard bow…'

'Aye, so it does. Keep the House ta yer larboard, 'bout five points an' no closer, ya'll not tangle with the shoals, an' you'll have smooth sailin' right inta the York and firm anchor. 'Til the tide turns, o'course.'

Treghues emerged on deck, lips pressed tight together in obvious dislike for the bad news Railsford had given him about their wasted effort of the night and how badly they had been fooled. That ended the lesson from Mister Monk on how to get into the York.

'I have the deck, Mister Monk,' Railsford said, coming to stand by him to leeward of the wheel, giving the windward, now the landward, side of the deck to the captain. 'Stations for anchoring, Mister Coke. We shall require the captain's gig led round to the entry port as soon as the hook is on the bottom, Mister Weems.'

'Passin' the word fer the captain's cox'n!'

In contrast to everyone else's appearance, Treghues was freshly shaved and washed, his linen clean and white and his coat brushed free of lint and dust.

You're hating it, Alan thought. You're going to have to tell the bad news about the battle to Symonds and Cornwallis. And admit you failed last night. I must be awesomely tired—I almost feel sorry for the poor bastard!

Still, Alan felt that it was a lesson. A landed army obviously meant large transports, so that was what Treghues wished to see and that was what he thought he had seen. He had risked the ship for nothing, and if they had succeeded in getting into the anchorage and burning all those coasters and local scows, they would have been trapped by the guard ships, including the one frigate they had seen just at dawn up the James, and Desperate would have been destroyed for an exchange that would not have made a decent stake at The Cocoa Tree on a throw of the dice. Not only was Treghues mistaken about the transports, he was mistaken in wanting to attack them at all. Their primary duty had been to deliver despatches, and they had almost lost the chance to do that as well.

Maybe he feels like he has to prove something, to make up for a bad admiral or a lost battle, Alan thought. By God, it's one thing to make the best of what Providence drops in your lap, but quite another to try and force the issue and make your own luck.

'Stations for wearing ship!' Treghues called. 'Prepare to anchor!'

Desperate plodded on into the tiny fleet gathering and rounded up into the wind, backing her tops'ls to bring her to a complete halt, at which point the best bower splashed into the bottom and she began to stream back from her mooring. The side boys and officers assembled as Treghues went over the side, saluting amid the squeal of bosun's pipes until their captain's head had dropped below the level of the upper deck.

'Not much to the place, is there?' Avery said, walking over to Lewrie by the entry port which now faced the small town of York. 'I hear it aspires to be called York Town, but York Village is more like it.'

'I've seen better villages back home, even on Sunday.' Lewrie smiled. 'Looks half deserted.'

'You'd leave, too, if you were about to be stuck into the middle of an army encampment surrounded by the French,' David said. 'By God, we shall get shore leave here, see if we don't. It looks so damned dull that an entire troop of devils couldn't raise enough mischief to wake a country parson.'

'I don't know, David,' Alan replied, feeling that odd dread come over him once more whenever he was in close proximity to the place. 'I think there will be some fine mischief raised before we see the last of it.'

Three more British frigates came in from seaward during the day; Medea, Iris, and Richmond, bearing despatches both from Graves still far out to sea and from Clinton in New York. They had been sent in just a few hours after Desperate; evidently Graves had had more to say, or had forgotten some important items in the first place.

Their arrival brought no cheer to the small flotilla anchored in the York; when they had left the fleet, the wind and sea had been getting up, and Terrible was taking so much water in her bilges that Admiral Graves had been considering taking her people off and sinking her. They still had not caught up with the French fleet under de Grasse and showed little sign of really wanting to, with their own ships so badly cut up in their top-hamper. The last bit of bad news was that none of the newly arrived frigates had any spare spars for Desperate. Nor did any of the few ships of worth in the anchorage, so repairs would take longer than they hoped, unless they could find some decent timber ashore and cut it down themselves.

'Take a good tree ta make a new topmast, sir,' Coke the bosun told Treghues that afternoon. 'Trestletrees on the mainmast top were sprung an' need new timber, crosstrees gone ta kindlin', tops'l yard is saved but needs fishin' with a lighter piece er some flat iron. New royal an' topgallant yard as well, sir, not ta mention a new topgallant mast.'

'But the shore fairly bristles with good pine, does it not, Mister Coke?' Treghues said, once more seemingly in good cheer and normal state of his faculties. 'We could send a working party ashore to hew what we need.'

'Aye, sir,' Coke agreed. 'But where we'd get the horse teams ta do the draggin', I don't know. Army might have some ta spare.'

'Artillery beasts, aye,' Treghues said. 'Mister Railsford, I would admire if you would go ashore with the bosun and a working party. See Captain Symonds and discover who in the army we need to talk to about getting some help in felling trees with which to make repairs.'

'Aye, aye, sir,' Railsford said. 'How many men, Mister Coke?'

'Carpenter an' his crew, sir, mayhap a dozen more hands ta do the strippin' an haulin', some what knows horses,' Coke speculated. 'Maybe twenty all told, sir, at best.'

'We shall take the barge and cutter,' Railsford decided. 'You and I, Weems and… Lewrie in the other.'

Alan had been standing near enough to hear and Railsford's eye had fallen on him first. Treghues was in another of his more complaisant moods and made no objection.

'Perhaps I should go ashore now, sir, to liaise with the 'lobsters' first,' Railsford said. 'It is late in the day to organize any aid from shore and select proper trees before dark.'

'Aye, my compliments to Captain Symonds,' Treghues said. 'See him first, and then talk to the army. We shall put the working party to their labors after breakfast.'

'Lewrie, get a crew together for the jolly boat and we shall go ashore now.'

'Aye, Mister Railsford, sir,' Alan said. He hustled up Weems, who quickly got him a boat's crew and led the towed jolly boat around to the entry port.

They put in at one of the town docks, leaving the boat's crew at the landing under a petty officer, a quarter- gunner with strict instructions to avoid trouble, and walked down the dirt street toward the house that had been indicated as the naval shore party's office. The town teemed with troops in various uniforms of green, red, and blue of the various regiments in Cornwallis's army, even the tartans and kilts of either British or Loyalist Highlanders, Carolina Volunteer units, German mercenaries, and regular line units.

'Quite a muddle, sir,' Alan observed, pointing at all the men and horses active around the town. 'One hopes Lord Cornwallis knows what he is about.'

'Our role is not to question, Mister Lewrie,' Railsford said, almost rolling drunkenly after spending months on an unstable deck and foxed by the steadiness of the land. 'We must obey and… and hang the larger issues.'

'Aye, sir,' Alan said.

'There is still time to win a victory over the French and the Rebels, Lewrie,' Railsford told him. 'Were I you, I would try to put the best face on it before the hands and not let them see their officers looking distressed. You shall get in a lot less trouble with the captain if you do. At this moment he needs all the enthusiasm and cheerfulness he can get from his people. He would be most cross with anyone that showed any signs of worry or defeatism. You are