Yorke #02 - Admiral by Dudley Pope

Author:Dudley Pope [Pope, Dudley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Great Britain, Historical, War & Military, Sea Stories, Buccaneers
ISBN: 9780755104383
Google: r-ul4lrzxY8C
Amazon: 0755104382
Publisher: House of Stratus
Published: 1983-01-01T23:00:00+00:00

Late that evening Ned and Thomas, worn out from the day's work, almost deafened by the explosions which sent old cannon recoiling over the cliffs, and feet throbbing from so much unaccustomed walking, most of it up or down hill, looked at the pages of the inventory of materials taken from Santa Catalina and still being ferried out to the ships.

"One thing is certain," Ned said, "either Hernández didn't really know what there was in the castle and forts, or he was deliberately telling us there was a lot less."

"Why do that?" Thomas asked. "He knew we were going to take it."

"I know, but I can't credit a garrison commander being so wrong — unless, I suppose, you look at the governor."

"You saw Vásquez's house?" Thomas asked, and when Ned nodded, added: "You didn't come right inside with me. I don't think his wife, or mistress, that big, fat, sulky-looking woman, gives him a moment's peace in bed or out of it. But his main interests, I think, are eating and playing cards. It was the house of a spoiled man, not a soldier. He's just living out the rest of his life on a pension, glad to be forgotten by his superiors."

Ned grinned at the thought of Vásquez, full of food and wine after an unlucky evening at cards, being harried in bed by an importunate wife. He started reading through the inventories, and referring to a list of his own.

"We have fourteen bronze falcons, all with land carriages. They fire a 2- or 3-pound ball and we have one hundred for each of them. They're useful guns and are light enough to be hauled by hand — half a dozen men, I should think.

"Then come eight iron falcons (I believe you can also call them half-sakers) and fortress carriages, firing a 4-pound ball. A hundred shot for each of them. Five bronze sakers and carriages firing a 6-pound ball, seven sakers (also called quarter culverins, aren't they?) with a 9-pound shot, and three mortars.

"We blew up nine culverins and eight whole culverins. They fired a 40-pound shot. Seeing the crown and rose on top of the barrel, and 'Pour défendre', one could almost imagine Drake watching us and shaking his head."

He put two pages to one side. "So much for the great guns. Oh yes, I forgot to mention — the falcons can be carried on horses, according to Secco. He showed me how you take the carriages apart. The wheels unbolt from the axles and you sling a barrel on each side on one horse, and another carries two wheels, trail and axle ..."

Thomas grunted unenthusiastically. "We're turning ourselves into soldiers," he grumbled.

Ned's brow wrinkled with impatience as he said: "We've been into all that before. . . . We stay soldiers until the Spaniards get more ships and put to sea. Anyway, let's read on. Muskets — seventy-three pipes. They've opened them up and shared them out among our ships, 730 matchlocks."

Again Thomas growled his disapproval. "Muskets in the Tropics.

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