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September 2015 Solo Mission - Fishermans Shoals: By Vagabond Mar 2021
Ahh it’s good to see you Baptiste, it’s colder than the grave outside, come and pull up a chair, we can chat a little and pass the time. No I’ve not finished my drink, to be honest I was so exhausted by the climb up the hill to the bar that I needed a rest but if you would be so good, I would appreciate a restorative Brandy, yes quite correct the 98 as you know is my favourite and I feel tonight the dread weight of the angel of death on my shoulders so maybe a double or perhaps even a treble will keep him at bay. I’ll just sit here a minute and get my breath back, if you don’t mind.
Well thank you Baptiste, that is kind of you, I much appreciate your attention. Are you on your own tonight, no Hermione? Yes I understand, looking after her Mother must come first, but you say she will be along later. That cheers me up no end, it encourages me that she has such appreciation for the history of our Navy, no I don’t think so, how could she find the tales of an old man such as I entertaining. Well if you say so I will accept it but I’m feeling weary tonight, not my normal self, so I hope you will bear with me if I’m a little maudlin. Maudlin, yes it’s an English word, I’m not sure we have an equivalent in French, we are not such dour creatures as the Rosbifs but it is a word that suits me this evening.
Well that feels a little better, the 98 has that effect on me, what about you Baptiste? What do you mean you can’t afford it for yourself, don’t be silly and I’m afraid that one didn’t stay the course and is all gone, would you stop moaning about money and fetch me another, I feel much better now.
Good – here comes Hermione, oh she is with that fool Pierre.
Welcome Hermoine it’s a pleasure to see you tonight, I’ve been thinking about our last discussion regarding Sibylle when I was a 3rd Lieutenant and I wondered if you would like to hear about my escape through Fisherman’s Shoals in the Caribbean. Of course you would and here’s your father with my Brandy, I will commence then if you are comfortable.
This took place a few years later, I’m not sure how long but by this time I was now 1st Lieutenant on the Sibylle and looking forward to a Command of my own. We were carrying urgent dispatches for the Admiralty in France and our instructions were not to be delayed for one second but to break every rule to get there urgently.
Capitaine de Fregate Robert Auclaire was still in command of Sibylle but he was past his prime and a sick man, the Rosbifs call it The Yellow Jack an apt description, he had caught it in the Caribbean and was laid low in his cabin, so the sailing and day to day command of Sibylle fell to me.
We were being shadowed by one of the Rosbif’s ships, a frigate, from a distance she looked smaller than Sibylle, but she was fast and kept up with us. I had been improving the men’s sailing skills while the Captain was in his berth and if I say so myself we were a crack sailing frigate, that and the fact that we had a clean bottom meant our pursuer could not close the distance between us, but try as I might I could not break the invisible cord between us and leave her behind.
I determined we would need to take a big risk to lose him and so I decided to sail through Fisherman’s Shoals. It was a dangerous place, you understand from the name that this was an area of shallow seas, sand banks, treacherous winds and because of the shifting sands our charts were vague and incomplete. I could gain or lose all and to a man such as I, Hermione this was butter to my bread, Hollandaise Sauce to my Asparagus, brandy to my tongue, and now I think of that Baptiste, did you make that last glass a small one because it’s all gone now?
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I could draw you the layout of the shoals, I can see the chart now but after the last contra temps with Madame over drawing on her table tops I will just describe them for you. At the centre of the shoals was a small island, unusually called Fisherman’s Island, they are not very imaginative in the Caribbean. There is a narrow gap between most of the sandbanks and they are not much above sea level so if a ship was to run aground it would be more of an inconvenience than a danger. To the East are a few rock pinnacles that rise high, straight out of the sea but they are easy to see and so avoid.
The biggest danger in the area is the wind, it usually blows from one direction in the West of the area and a different direction in the East. One never knows where it will come from and in tight sailing this can make things very difficult and believe me this was a tight sailing situation, it could only be worse if there was a Dobbs current flowing.
You’ve never heard of a Dobbs current before Hermione? Well I could explain it and maybe sometime I will tell you of my first command, the Brig Marianne and the treacherous waters off the west coast of France, The Raze de Sein, and the other one who’s name eludes me right now. You need to catch the tide at the right time or the Dobbs current will see you on the rocks, either on the off shore islands or the west coast of France.
Ah I remember now, it is the Channel du Four, I don’t know why my memory plays such tricks on me, it never used to, but to press on with my story or we will be here all night.
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The ship chasing us had drawn closer as we approached the shoals and I could now make out she was a frigate, an Amazon class I was sure of it. Fine sailing vessels but in a straight fight we would defeat her.
How do I know, well Hermione it is simple mathematics. We can throw a broadside of shot that is heavier then she could throw. If we fired at the same rate per minute we would throw a greater weight of iron at her than she could throw at us. There are various other imponderables, training, ship handling, strength of the ship even luck but I was confident that we would win in a straight fight.
Ah, yes Hermione you have hit the nail on the head, we could not afford the time to fight, our mission was one of speed and so this was all irrelevant.
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I did have some anxiety though, as we entered the shoal area, the lookout shouted down, “sail ahoy” in French you understand, but the sail immediately disappeared behind one of the rock pinnacles at the east end of the shoals and he could not identify the ship.
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I needed to take us out of the Shoals at the north east side which meant I could chose to go south around Fisherman’s Island or north.
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I had originally decided to go north of the island and so turned to larboard around one of the great big sandbanks. This would give me an advantageous position and I could see the crew’s eyes brighten when they realized my plan.
They were like crouching tigers, a feral gleam in their eyes. What Pierre, you ask what a tiger is, you are such a stupid boy at times, it is a huge cat, like Mrs Tibbles there under the chair, they are a brown colour and have a great big mane of hair around their neck and eat antelope and stupid boys. Do not interrupt me again.
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The slow matches came down to the touch holes and there was a sound like rolling thunder as the canons fired at my command. I’m sorry to say that I had exercised the men hard in the art of sailing, they could hand and reef quickly but we didn’t have the store of powder and ball to practice as hard with the guns, and many of our shots fell wide of the target.
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The lookout shouted down that he could see the far sail again and she was almost certainly a Frigate but he couldn’t describe her further before she was again out of sight.
Was she a friend or foe, I could not tell yet but it was better to be prepared and assume she was an enemy ship so we should not be caught napping as the Rosbifs like to say, when they are sound asleep.
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Pass me the beer bottles again Baptiste and I will show you the overall position of the 3 ships.
These pretzels are the wind direction and you can see the problem I had. Yes Hermione, we had a favourable wind in the west but I could see by the whitecaps that the wind would be against us once we moved more to the east and what ever ship we faced there would have the wind in their favour.
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Our chasing angel of death was only able to bring her starboard bow battery to bear and her shooting was even worse than ours one or two balls hit and caused little damage. The ship in front of us could be seen clearly now, she was an enemy and had all the advantages of the wind.
In situations like these my mind runs at such a speed, calculating angles, wind speed, sail settings, a hundred different things can be computed instantly by a sailor of experience and wisdom.
By this time I knew that to go north around the island would be folly and so I decided to run in a south easterly direction keeping a long low sandbar between the new enemy and ourselves, then tacking around behind him and making our escape to the north east.
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As our guns came to bear we fired on the new ship, who was almost certainly another Amazon Class Frigate, but the most amazing thing happened. A lucky ball hit her foremast and it fell, oh so slowly at first but then gathering speed before it hit the water with a tremendous splash and she slewed around with the drag of it acting just like a drogue anchor in the water.
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The mast had fallen over her starboard bow and consequently she slewed that way, it meant she could fire her full broadside at us which caused great distress to both the men and my ship, but I knew we were safe from her at least and so we just had to play cat and mouse with our original pursuer.
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I was watching her closely and was cheered by the sight of a wind shift that pushed her hard in the direction of Fisherman’s Island, it looked as if she would almost certainly run aground and this would be much more serious than running aground on the soft low sandbanks of the shoals.
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The crew cheered when they saw both the Rosbifs ships run aground on Fisherman’s Island and of course I issued a large tot of rum (What did the French Navy drink, Brandy, Calvados, Grappa, Rum?) to celebrate.
The men deserved the reward, they had fought and sailed well. We made a fast passage and I was warmly commended when we arrived in La Rochelle with our despatches.
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Well talking of Rum or Brandy, it would be a nice gesture Baptiste if you would ask Madame for a parting glass of the 98 for me and then I will wend my way to bed.
Thank you for your company tonight Hermione, I came here maudlin, yes ask your Father for it’s meaning and I leave a much happier man for having your company tonight and being allowed to reminisce of past glories.
