10 Clay and the Immortal Memory by Philip K. Allan

Author:Philip K. Allan [Allan, Philip K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-31T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12 Nelson

In the early morning light the Rock of Gibraltar cast a blue shadow across the warships moored at its feet. The Griffin had signalled that she had news of the enemy as she ghosted into the harbour, propelled by the last push of the Atlantic. She picked up a vacant buoy and began firing her salute. But the echo of the last gun had barely come back to her from the cliffs above, when a line of coloured flags rose quickly up the Victory’s mizzen mast.

‘Our number, sir,’ announced the signal midshipman. ‘Captain to repair on board.’

‘Barge away!’ roared Taylor, to where Sedgwick already had his crew assembled on the main deck. They were smartly turned out in white shirts and straw hats decorated with ribbons of the same green as the oar blades and hull of their captain’s barge.

‘Thank you, Mr Taylor,’ said Clay, who was freshly shaven and in his full-dress uniform, despite having only risen from bed a scant forty minutes earlier. He slipped a hand into his coat to check that his report was there. ‘In my absence kindly see about revictualling the ship. I hope that our visit will not be a lengthy one.’

‘Aye aye, sir.’

‘Shove off in the bow!’ ordered Sedgwick, the moment that his captain had settled on to the seat beside him. ‘Take a stroke, starboards! And another! Now together!’

The boat set off through the fleet, threading its way between the looming warships. Despite the early hour, the harbour was already busy. Broad lighters, heaped with provisions, were creeping out from the victualling yard, manned by locals who propelled their craft standing with long handled sweeps. They passed a big water hoy warped alongside a seventy-four, the canvas hose that trailed through a lower gun port pulsing and jerking as fresh water was pumped across. Everywhere ships’ boats were heading to and fro. Sedgwick was forced to stand up as he deftly piloted his way through the traffic towards the flagship.

They approached the three-decker from behind, her big stern curving out above them, a mass of windows and decoration picked out in a yellow that contrasted with her black timbers. A midshipman appeared over the taffrail and levelled a speaking trumpet towards them. ‘Boat ahoy!’ he yelled.

‘Griffin!’ replied Sedgwick, holding three fingers up to let the officer know a senior post captain was coming on board.

Now the barge was level with the first rate’s side. All her gunports were open, and her cannon run out to maximise the available space on board. The lower tier of massive thirty-two-pounders were passing a few feet above Clay’s head. From within came the sound of animated conversation and the scrape of spoon on bowl as the crew had their breakfast. Suddenly a sailor with a gold hoop in one ear thrust his head out of a porthole to spit into the sea, halting mid-hawk at finding himself in the presence of a captain. Clay stifled a smile as the man opted for a bout of theatrical coughing instead, before vanishing from sight.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.