April: Between a rock and a hard Place

[TexaS]

The dashing Captain, in his mid twenties, stood on the rail of the bulwark on the Swedish frigate HMS Sprengtporten of 24 guns, one hand holding on to a stay the other shading his eyes, leaning slightly out over the side of the ship. He was looking at what he thought to be at least a thousand troops being loaded onto a Russian 74 gun ship. There was also a 38 gun frigate escorting it and it was just setting sails, coming his way.



The captain's name was William Sidney Smith. He was a British captain who had as many others in peacetimes found employment in other navies to make a name for himself. He leapt into action. "Let's get going!" he shouted, continuing "We're no match for them and we need to warn the army." as he leapt down on deck and hurried back to the quarterdeck where the ansvarsstyrman asked "Vilken kurs... what course?" The captain brushed back some dark curls from his forehead and put on his hat that was handed to him by a skeppsgosse. "Keep us to windward of them. I want to see their heading before I tell you, but I have my suspicions."



For some time the larger Russian ships and the small Swedish frigate played a game of cat and mouse but Sidney was too cautious to be caught. Finally the Russian ships gave up and set their course. They were heading west hugging the southern coast of Finland. Sidney studied the map. He found what he was looking for. "If they land near Virojoki they could cut off a large part of the retreating Swedish army. That would most surely lead to a lot of casualties, possibly the destruction of an entire army corps." The ansvarsstyrman looked surprised at him. "I shared a glass with Gustaf Adolf von Siegroth" Sidney answered with a smile to his unspoken question. He still formed one with a troubled look, saying "We must warn the fleet... men det äro omöjligt att hinna i tid! How... how?" Sidney caught the meaning of it, even though his Swedish was very rudimentary, commenting "We have no choice. We will have to run the gauntlet of Trångsund, otherwise, as you said, we will never make it in time."