On the King's Sea Service: A John Phillips Novel (War at Sea Book 1) by Richard Testrake

available for reloads; if we need them. The launch should be readied, Ackroyd to command, with the boat gun aboard, ready to assist the jolly boat if needed.”
    “It should stand by a bit to the south so it will not mask our guns. I also would like a spring on the anchor cable. Our port broadside should bear on the beach where our boat is landing.”
     
    This last would entail some trouble, as it called for running a cable via the capstan through a rear port, then forward to the anchor cable itself. A turn of the capstan would turn the long axis of the ship. The ship’s broadside could be shifted from one aiming point to another in short order by men heaving at the capstan.
    The master had remained by the helm, with his night glass focused on the jolly boat, now nearing the shore. He warned, “Landing party ashore now.”
    At that moment, there was the blast of a gun on shore, followed by the crackle of musketry. Phillips roared, “Fire on that gun and reload with grape.” As the broadside crashed out, three more guns on the beach fired at the jolly boat, which was trying to get off shore. Phillips quietly ordered Braddock to sweep the beach with grape.
    The guns continued firing until no further fire from the beach was apparent then he ordered the launch to investigate. From the Exeter, the jolly boat appeared to be dead in the water. The master approached with his night glass extended, “Sir, I can just see men on the beach road. Don’t see any guns.”
    Phillips took the glass, but had a difficult time with it. The image it showed was upside down and hard to decipher. None the less, the order was given to buoy the cable and let slip. The ship would follow the retreating men down the beach path, firing as they sailed.
    It was difficult for the fleeing enemy to escape. The ship was faster than they could travel. Some tried to climb the cliff, but a blast of grape soon ended that plan. Some tried to take refuge in the water, but even when hiding underwater a few inches, the grape could often find them.
     
    When the ship finally gave up the chase and returned to the landing beach, the launch was waiting for them. The jolly boat was drawn up on shore. As Ackroyd reported, she had taken much of a charge of grape, killing or wounding half her crew and leaving the boat in a sinking condition.
    Ackroyd had beached the jolly boat, giving such aid to its crew that he could, with the launch standing just offshore covering the area with the boat gun. While searching the beach, his men discovered the bodies of Fitzhugh and his men. The bodies had been riddled with the musket caliber grape the French were using in their light field guns.
     
    Phillips oversaw a burial party to lay his dead to their final rest, but decided to leave the French casualties to their own people. One wounded enemy officer was found and brought aboard ship. He had a lot to say. It seemed the M. D’Orleans, the Viscount’s friend, had been captured early on and forced to pen letters to Britons who might wish to aid him.
    When he had finally refused to write more, he had been summarily executed. The letters written to Fitzhugh and his friends were inspired by the area’s radical political leaders for the sole purpose of sabotaging British efforts to bring the war to the continent.

CHAPTER EIGHT
     
    Battle by Land and Sea
     
     
    It was a blustery fall day when Exeter found the Thunderer, close-hauled to a strong westerly wind. In the absence of instructions from her, Phillips came in astern and followed the battleship. Later that same day, the lookouts spotted a brig, hull down to the west. As she drew nearer, she signaled her number to the liner, which Exeter’s new signal midshipman also read.
    Mullins reported, “She’s gun brig Bulldog, sixteen guns, Sir. Lieutenant Drummond commanding.”
    “Well, we will no longer be the junior ship on the station”, Phillips mused to the master.
     
    Next morning, Lieutenant Braddock, coming up from the