The Commander-in-Chief gave him his hand and they parted on better terms than Jack would have believed possible.
Aboard Surprise again, and in ordinary working clothes, he called for the carpenter and said, ‘All things considered, Chips, which do you think our fastest, most weatherly boat?’
‘Oh, the blue cutter, sir, without a doubt: the blue cutter, with Mr Daniel at the helm.
He can coax her an extra halfpoint nearer the wind, and an extra half knot.’
‘Very good: pray run an eye over her, and if anything is wanting let Mr Harding know: the gunner will give you some blue and red lights and some star-bursts.’ Then directing his voice over the still water he called, ‘Ringle: Mr. Reade, we shall be moving out into the Strait very soon, so if you have
any women aboard they had better go ashore directly. And when we are well clear of the mole, I should like to have a word with you.’
How easy it seemed, the quiet departure of the two vessels a little after the evening gun: scarcely an order was needed, and scarcely any were uttered: long-practised hands coiled down the familiar ropes, hauled the bowlines as the ship left the mole and made all fast with scarcely a conscious reflection. But Jack did check the customary hoisting of the toplight; and he called for only one single stern-lantern. The Surprises winked at one another and jerked their heads in a very knowing fashion: they were perfectly aware that something was up, and presently they knew just what that something was.
Jack called William Reade to join him and his officers on the quarterdeck.
‘Gentlemen,’ he said, ‘you are all perfectly aware that this voyage was undertaken in order to discourage Bonaparte at sea: but it also had another side. From the landward point of view Napoleon’s supporters in Bosnia, Serbia and those parts believed that if they could prevent the Russian and Austrian armies from joining the British and Prussians, he would be able to defeat each of the Allies separately, piecemeal. For this intervention they had to hire a large number of Balkan Muslim mercenaries: we stopped the Dey of Algiers letting the money pass through his country, but now it is on its way by sea from Morocco in a large galley that means to run through the Straits tonight. According to our intelligence the galley intends to lie under Tarifa until the turn of the tide, and then, the wind being
favourable, to run through the Straits. And if the breeze fails him, then to row: they can make seven or even eight knots for a burst. And then again there is the advantage of the eastward current. The captain of the galley, a wellknown, active corsair, has hired two others to act as decoys, one on the African side and one in mid-channel. We shall take no ndtice of them, but make steadily for Tarifa, Ringle to larboard and Mr Daniel in the blue cutter to starboard, each three cable’s lengths abeam of Surprise. The first to sight the galley will send up a blue light if the enemy is to starboard, red if to port, and a star-burst if the galley is right ahead.’
‘Blue to starboard, red to larboard, white if right ahead,’ they murmured, and Reade went back to his command, while the blue cutter was lowered down.
No moon, but a most splendid wealth of stars – Orion in his glory, great Vega blazing on the larboard quarter and Deneb beyond; a little forward of the beam, both bears and the Pole Star; Arcturus and Spica on the starboard bow:
and had the foresail not been in the way, Stephen would have seen Sirius, but he was shown Procyon. Then on the larboard bow Capella, low down but still brilliant, and both Castor and Pollux – ‘Castor is a glorious double,’ said Jack, pointing them out to Stephen.
‘I must show him to you in my telescope when we are at home.’ Then raising his voice a little, ‘Mr Harding, I believe we may shorten sail a little,’ for the faint wafts of vapour – they could scarcely be called cloud – beneath the stars were now some five or even six degrees more southerly than they had been when first he had started pointing them out to Stephen. The breeze was certainly backing, and if it went on at this rate the Surprise would certainly be well to windward of the galley by the time they reached Tarifa.
Furthermore, if Jack waited for the turn of the Atlantic tide there was a strong likelihood that the galley would begin her run; and although she could sail half a point nearer the wind than a square-rigged ship, once the corsair was a little way into the Strait, Surprise would even more certainly have the weather-gage and an encounter could not be avoided.
No moon, of course; but the suffused starlight gave a practised eye a fair view of the Spanish skyline – Punta Carnero, Punta Secreta, Punta del Fraile, and Punta Acebuche were all astern: Tarifa was not far off.
‘Topsails alone,’ said Jack quite low; and some of the way came off the ship.
‘Four knots and two fathoms, sir, if you please,’ said the midshipman in charge of the log, murmuring low.
There was a steadily mounting sense of crisis aboard, and for some time now the quartermaster had sounded the bells only with his knuckles. Almost no talk or even whispering along the deck, where the guns were already run out and the slow-match smouldered in the tubs.
It was Daniel in the blue cutter who first saw the galley, inshore of him and already under sail, two fine lateens sheeted well in and rounded with the breeze. He sent up a blue light and its lasting effulgence showed the enemy clear, the sea, and its own smoke, still more distinctly drifting from the south.
The galley was not quite as deeply engaged in the Strait as Jack could have wished, but she lay pretty well: pretty well, indeed. He signalled Ringle to pick up the cutter and follow him, then spread all the canvas the Surprise could carry in this moderate breeze, increasing as it backed, and he hauled her as close as ever she would lie.
The galley, seeing that she had been detected by perhaps as many as three men-of-war – possibly with others towards the eastern end warned of her approach –
abandoned all hope of racing through the channel, struck her sails and took to her oars, steering into the eye of the wind.
The frigate’s great spread of white sail showed clearly enough in the starlight for Murad Reis to chance a long shot with his larboard chaser when the galley was head-and-stern in line with Surprise: the heavy guns could not be traversed: they had to be aimed by means of the vessel that carried them, and he moved the rudder with an expert hand.
A long shot: but the combination of good aiming, excellent bore and powder, and the toss of the sea caused the twentyfour pound ball to strike the second gun of the Surprise’s starboard,broadside, killing Bonden, its captain, and young Hallam, the midshipman of the division. Once the gun had been secured Jack ran the length of the battery, checking the captains’ pointing – though indeed the low-lying galley was but the faintest blur – urging highest elevation and then, on the rise, he cried, ‘Fire!’
Even with his night-glass in the maintop he could not make out for sure whether the guns had had any effect: but after a few more distant exchanges in which the Surprise received only a harmless, spent ricochet, it seemed probable. At all events, after twenty minutes the galley’s pace seemed to slacken, either because of damaged oars (terribly vulnerable to broadside fire) or because that first dash had exhausted the rowers.
While his glass focused on what was almost certainly the galley (for their courses were convergent) Jack ordered a forward gun to fire, and in the flash he distinctly saw her making sail.
She was fast, and her lateen rig gave her the advantage on a wind; but in their present positions and with the breeze still backing steadily, any attempt on her part to cross the frigate’s bows or stern before the changing wind made it quite impossible would expose her to at least three or four unanswerable broadsides: a galley, however heavy, wellhandled and however dangerous her bow- and stern-chasers, could not stand broadside-to-broadside combat with a manof-war mounting fourteen twelve-pounders a side, apart from chasers, swivel-guns in the tops, and musketry, to say nothing of much stouter timbers.
There was no possibility of boarding, either, without the certainty of being raked fore and aft several times before coming alongside; and although Murad Reis had boarded and taken merchantmen heavier than Surprise, the truly naval speed and efficiency of her broadside convinced him that the attempt would not answer and he turned to the only other alternative – that of outsailing her (a galley could be very fast in a reasonably smooth sea with a following