Part 37 (1/2)
The infantrymen had been confined to the hold for the entire trip, on dungeonlike gun decks illuminated by only a few dim candles. Since naval vessels required a far larger crew than merchant s.h.i.+ps, owing to the men needed for the gun crews, there was actually less s.p.a.ce for extra personnel than an ordinary merchantman would have afforded. A frigate the size of the Rainbowe already had two watches of approximately thirty men each, together with twenty-five or more specialists--carpenters, cooks, gunnery mates. How, Morris wondered, could they expect anything save sickness and misery on a s.h.i.+p when they took aboard an additional hundred or two hundred landsmen sure to be seasick for the whole of the voyage? Need anyone be surprised when his soldiers were soon lying in their own vomit, surrounded by slos.h.i.+ng buckets of excrement and too sick to make their way to the head up by the bowsprit, where the seamen squatted to relieve themselves. Scarce wonder more men died every day.
”What's your latest estimate of their strength here on this side of the island?” Morris turned back to Powlett, trying to ignore the stench that wafted up out of the scuttles. ”a.s.suming the intelligence you've been getting is worth anything.”
”I can do without your tone, sir,” the vice admiral snapped. ”We have it on authority that the rebels have managed to raise some six thousand foot and four hundred horse. But their militia's strung out the length of the coast. Any place we make a landing--unless it's bungled--we should have the advantage of surprise and numbers. All you have to do is storm the breastwork and spike their ordnance. It should be a pa.s.sing easy night's work.”
”Nothing's easy. The trick'll be to land the men before they can alert the entire island.” Morris turned back to Calvert. ”I'll need flintlocks for the first wave, not matchlocks, if we're to have the benefit of surprise. And I've got a feeling we'll need every advantage we can muster.”
”We can manage that easily enough. I'd guess we've got nearly two hundred flintlocks. And about six hundred matchlocks. So I can issue every man you have a musket and pike, and a bandolier with twelve rounds of powder and shot. As well as six yards of matchcord for the matchlocks.”
”So what you're saying is, we've got mostly matchlocks?” Morris' voice was grim.
”That's all their militia'll have, depend on it.”
That was doubtless true, Morris told himself. It would be an oldstyle war, but plenty deadly, for it all.
From the time some two centuries earlier when the musket came into general use, the most common means for firing had been to ignite a small amount of powder in an external container, the ”powder pan,”
which then directed a flash through a tiny hole in the side of the barrel, igniting the powder of the main charge. The powder pan of a matchlock was set off using a burning ”matchcord,” a powder-impregnated length of cotton twine kept lit in readiness for firing the gun. The technique differed very little from the way a cannon was fired. A smoldering end of the matchcord was attached to the hammer or ”c.o.c.k” of the gun, which shoved it into the powder pan whenever the trigger was pulled. An infantryman using a matchlock musket carried several yards of matchcord, prudently burning at both ends. Matchlocks were cheap and simple and the mainstay of regular infantry throughout Europe.
There was, however, an improved type of firing mechanism recently come into use, called the flintlock, much preferred by sportsmen and anyone wealthy enough to afford it. The flintlock musket ignited the powder in the external pan by striking flint against steel when the trigger was pulled, and it was a concealable weapon which could also be used in rainy weather, since it did not require a burning cord. A flintlock cost three or four times as much as a matchlock and required almost constant maintenance by a skilled gunsmith. Morris suspected that whereas a few of the rich royalist exiles on Barbados might own flintlocks, most of the poorer planters probably had nothing more than cheap matchlocks.
”We'd also be advised to off-load some provisions once
we get ash.o.r.e, in case we get pinned down.” Morris looked coldly at Powlett. ”I'm thinking a few quarters of that pickled beef you took from the Dutchmen wouldn't be amiss.”
”In time, sir. For now I can let you have twenty hogsheads of water, and I'll set ash.o.r.e some salt pork from our regular stores.”
”What if I offered to trade all that for just a few kegs of brandy?”
Morris appealed to Calvert. ”I warrant the men'd sooner have it.”
Calvert glanced at Powlett, knowing the vice admiral had hinted at their noonday Council he preferred keeping all the Dutch brandy for the navy's men. ”I'd say we can spare you a couple of kegs. It should be enough for a day or two's supply. But I'll not send it ash.o.r.e till the breastwork is fully secured. . . .”
Now the _Rainbowe _was entering the outer perimeter of the small bay at Jamestown, and the admiral excused himself to begin giving orders for reefing the mainsail. Through the dark they could see the outline of the torch-lit breastwork, a low brick fortress outlined against the palms.
It's all but certain to be bristling with ordnance, Morris thought. And what if their militia's waiting for us somewhere in those d.a.m.ned trees?
How many men will I lose before daylight?
He inhaled the humid night air, then turned to Powlett. ”We should start bringing the men up on deck. We've got to launch the longboats as soon as we drop anchor. Before the militia in the breastwork has time to summon reinforcements.”
Powlett nodded and pa.s.sed the order to the quartermaster. ”Then I'll unlock the fo'c'sle, so we can begin issuing muskets and bandoliers.”
The infantrymen emerged from the hold in companies, each led by an officer. The general mismatch of body armor, the ”breast” and ”back,”
bespoke what a ragtag army it was. Also, the helmets, or ”pots,” for those fortunate enough to have one, were a mixture of all the age had produced: some with flat brims, some that curled upward front and back.
Some were too large for their wearers, others too small. Doublets too were a rainbow of colors, many with old-fas.h.i.+oned ruffs--taken from dead or captured royalists during the Civil War--and the rest plain and patched with rough country cloth.
The night perfume of the tropical sh.o.r.e and the sea was obliterated by the stench of the emerging soldiers. Their faces were smeared with soot from the beams of the gun decks where they had been quartered, and they smelled strongly of sweat and the rankness of the hold. As they set grimly to work readying their weapons, a row of longboats along mids.h.i.+ps was unlashed and quietly lowered over the side. The two other wars.h.i.+ps, which had anch.o.r.ed astern of the _Rainbowe_, also began launching their invasion craft. Kegs of water, salt pork, and black powder were a.s.sembled on deck and readied to be landed after the first wave of the a.s.sault.
The guns of the wars.h.i.+ps were already primed and run out, set to provide artillery support if necessary when the longboats neared the beach. But with luck the breastwork could be overrun and its gun emplacements seized before the militia had a chance to set and fire its ordnance. Once the Jamestown fortress was disabled, there would be a permanent breach in the island's defenses, a c.h.i.n.k not easily repaired.