AAR For Honour and Glory, Action of 6 February 1798
Captain Frederick Wentworth was impatient. He walked the quarterdeck of HMS Indefatigable with brisk hard strides, his long leather-clad telescope under his arm, the metal plates of his hessian boots clacking on the holystoned deck. It was Sunday and church had been rigged. He was dressed in his full dress uniform, gold trim gleaming, ready for service when the lookout reported sails on the horizon a good three hours ago. He had asked for his glass and had not left his position, even to change out of his best clothes, since. The sighting was to the windward and the Indefatigable had close-hauled immediately and after a few words to a distracted audience struck church.
It was two ships, the larger chasing the smaller. As time went on Wentworth could only watch as what turned out to be a British merchant was caught by a French two decked ship of the line. He had been completely unable to prevent it and this vexed him profoundly. The Indefatigable, as close-hauled as she ever had been, with the master at the helm quickly responding to every shudder in the sails, edged her way closer and closer.
The French ship had been made out to be a Téméraire-class 74 gun ship of the line. He could not determine her name but that would be apparent once they got closer.
"That is a hard nut to crack." he started to his first lieutenant, continuing "When it is time, make the guns double shotted, if you please, Mr Dashwood."
"We're not beating to quarters, sir?"
"Unless she abandons her price, we still have plenty of time, but you may see to it that the chicken coops gets stowed below ."
"Clear the deck!" Dashwood commanded.
All of the crew aloft and on the deck had been casting watchful eyes at the other ships while doing their shores and the word had spread. When the captain finally gave the awaited order with a steady voice
"You may now beat to quarters, if you please, Mr Dashwood."
Seldom had an order been followed quicker. The able seamen had wondered close to their stations and shot and fire buckets had happened to appear by the guns. The walls came down as if they were just hanging by a thread and everything was ready for the coming action.
Wentworth stood on the very edge of the quarterdeck addressing the men.
"We face a formidable foe with 74 guns to our 44, but theirs are manned by french sailors. Ours are manned by the best navy in the world, and you men, are the best in the service!" He paused and there were some agitated murmur silenced by the bosun.
"They think they can snatch up that merchant right in front of our eyes? They think they can do what they want on the seas? Have they forgotten who we are? Lets teach them a lesson. Lets make them understand. Lets do our job!"
He was watching the French ship, intensively trying to interpret her manoeuvring to respond accordingly. It was as if the French captain had known this and the big ship of the line made small turns to both larboard and starboard but without changing sails. Minding the speed of the combatants and the angle of the wind he estimated when the Indie would be able to fire her guns and concluded the ship would be out of range of his broadside unless he tacked.
Tacking during an action was simply not done. Men needed for working the guns would be busy working the sails and they would be very predictable and vulnerable during the tack. Weighing his options he decided to risk it. It would be at the very start of the action and not really during. He waited until the very last minute to hide his intent from the enemy for a s long as possible.
"Prepare to tack, Mr Weston." he said calmly, adding "Mr Dashwood, I want a devastating first broadside. Aim at their hull. She may have thick planking, but we have 24 lb guns and at this close range our 42 lb carronades. They will be enough to smash through and we need to knock out as many of their guns as possible on this first strike to survive this. We may even be so lucky as to rake her if she continues her current turn."
"Yes sir." Dashwood answered.
"I want the men to reload the larboard guns as quickly as possible. Take all men not absolutely needed for the tack. Recall the marines from the tops and have all of them help manning the guns until after the first broadsides."
Wentworth waited for the right moment and then ordered:
"Take us into the wind, Mr. Weston."
As Indefatigable turned into the wind, the Téméraire-class ship followed the turn still pointing her bows straight at the Indie.
"What is this? Surely he doesn't believe he can board us?"
HMS Indefatigable started her tack and lost speed quickly. Slowly turning her broadside came to bear at the French ship. Feeling the top of the roll, Wentworth waited for a second calculating the time of the slow match to fire the gun, and shouted the order to fire at the top of his lungs. A deafening thunder of guns going off answered and a big smoke cloud hid the large French ship's bows before drifting through the Indie, aft. Wentworth could not help but feel exhilarated by the smell of burnt powder. He couldn't quite determine the extent of the damage but there were ominous holes in her stem.
"Reload as fast as you can and fire when ready!" he shouted "She can't follow our turn now that the wind draws again. Her broadside will soon bear!"
The Indefatigables were very well trained and managed to fire their second broadside just as the Jupiter fired her first.
"Apparently we didn't knock out as many guns as we had hoped, sir." Dashwood reflected in the relative silence after the powerful broadside fired from the 74 gun ship.
"We did enough damage." his captain answered, "They are hauling down the colours. From what I can see midships there are not many standing on the deck."
"The carpenter reports that there's a leak below the waterline, sir." came from midshipman Martin.
"Tell the carpenter he can have any repair crew he desires, and man the pumps, Mr Martin." Wentworth answered, and turning to the master "Mr Weston, we have fallen to much from the wind. Close-haul us. The merchantman has tacked and is trying to get away."
"Yes, sir."
The two ships were racing on a starboard tack, Indefatigable slowly gaining.
"Pity the starboard broadside is double shotted. It would have been in range otherwise." Dashwood ventured.
"Never mind. When we get a little closer we will tack and have the larboard broadside convince them to see things our way. But until then give the men an extra ration of grog to be served immediately. They did well."
Wentworth calculated the the point where the merchantman would have to tack to have any chance of escape and where the Indie would tack to have the best chance of getting in a good broadside. Indefatigable's captain told the master of his plans and the orders were given. The gun crews of the larboard broadside were thinned out as the men got ready to tack, but they were already loaded and run out. As the order came the ship started to tack and the eager gunners fired their guns in a rolling broadside but many before aligning with the merchant. Splashes showed that most missed but a few found its target and immediately the colours came down.
"Cease fire!" Wentworth shouted at the top of his lungs "She's struck!".
Noted in the logbook:
Action of 6 February 1798
Seized French ship of the line, Jupiter of 74 guns after a short fierce battle. Lost 5 killed and 16 wounded. Retook merchantman Dolphin of 950 tons burthen loaded with coffee and sugar.
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Originally Posted by TexaS
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