06 - Tenacious by Julian Stockwin

Author:Julian Stockwin
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781848947405
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2009-12-11T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

‘Minorca! Of course…’

‘It has t’ be,’ agreed Kydd, offering the remaining whitebait to Renzi. It did not take much deliberation to understand why an invasion of the easternmost of the three main islands of the Balearics was thought so necessary. Britain had re-entered the Mediterranean, but her victorious fleet was alone in a hostile sea; it was urgent that a forward base be established to maintain it. In Port Mahon there was a compendious harbour and a fine dockyard – and Minorca was an island, therefore defensible once taken. And, unlike Gibraltar, with reliable winds.

Kydd glanced up the table. It was odd to see Bampton at the head, president of the mess. He looked to the other end where their new junior mess member sat quietly. ‘Mr Dugdale, did y’ ever visit Minorca at all?’

‘Why, yes, Mr Kydd,’ the man said warily, reluctant to imperil his position with any ill-considered move. He was older than almost all of the other officers, far from the green newly promoted midshipman they had expected. He had found a place as a midshipman in the last war, then been left without a ship at its end, and had eked out a penurious existence ashore until the outbreak of the present war. Only now had he the good fortune to secure an acting lieutenancy.

‘Well, spit it out, man!’ Kydd said, helping himself to the last of the haunch of rabbit.

‘It was only a brief visit, sir. As you’ll know, it had been British for twenty years before. The people were used to our ways and, dare I say it, contented with their lot, for the Spanish rule was not always welcome to your average Minorcan. There are two main towns – Ciudadela to the west and Port Mahon to the east. The Spanish kept mainly behind the city walls of Ciudadela while we were happy with Mahon. A first-class harbour, it is, splendid careening and repair, fine quarters ashore in English style and guarded by great forts. Should this be our base in the future, why, I cannot think of a finer.’

Bampton stirred. ‘If it becomes so. You’re rather forgetting that it’s been in the hands of the Spanish these sixteen years and they’re not about to present their fortresses to us upon our request. We shall have to fight for them – and this means nothing less than an assault, an amphibious landing. Has anyone here had the joy of going into battle with the army? No?’

Kydd kept quiet, the ill-fated descent on Guadeloupe in the Caribbean he had experienced as a young petty officer would probably not count.

‘Then consider yourselves fortunate. An opinionated and ignorant tribe, I fancy we’ll need every mort of patience we can muster on the day.’

‘How’s th’ island defended?’ Kydd asked Dugdale.

His brow wrinkled. ‘There are big forts on each side of the entrance to Mahon. The biggest as I remember is Fort St Philip, which would stand next to any in Europe, and many minor forts and batteries around and about.

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