Dewey Lambdin - Sea of Grey
Now, even here past 15 degrees West and 34 degrees North, where he had been at last allowed to open those intriguing additional advisories, the weather was foul; just better by matter of degree. It was no longer frigid… now it could perhaps be described as only "cool and brisk." And he had finally thawed out!
He slapped his hands together behind his back and rocked on the balls of his feet as he swayed from side to side along with his ship, pondering.
No matter several expeditions sent out from France attempting to reclaim their prewar island colonies, the French had lost most of them, except for Guadeloupe, and the much smaller isles nestled close around Guadeloupe-Marie-Galante, La Desirade, the tiny Iles de Saintes and Iles de la Petite Terre. They had lost St. Barthйlйmy, Dominica, and Saint Martin, which they had shared with the Dutch; they had lost Martinique, its planters and settlers welcoming British occupation as salvation from the brutal Jacobin terrors of Parisian revolutionary officials who panted to behead or hang anyone suspected of less than total ardour for the Republic.
The French had also lost Tobago, Grenada, and Saint Vincent, and for a time had lost Saint Lucia, 'til the islanders had rebelled, driving British troops off the island three years before, in '95. Grenada was also "iffy," with British forces only holding Fort St. George, and the rest of the island in the hands of a slave rebellion led by a coloured planter, Julien Fйdon.
Guadeloupe (so Lewrie was informed) was a hornet's nest of privateers, with everything from proper merchant ships to longboats outfitted and armed. French frigates, corvettes, and smaller National Ships sometimes called there for resupply. A particularly vicious and greedy bastard by name of Victor Hugues had landed with a small army in June of 1793, after Guadeloupe had been occupied by British regiments under General Sir Charles Grey, and had defeated them. Ever since, he had sent agents provocateurs to stir up revolution on the former French islands, among the French-speaking slaves and free coloureds on Dominica and Grenada, among the Black Caribs of Saint Vincent. A bloodthirsty fanatic, he had guillotined over 1,200 "disloyal" white settlers so far. But he was brutally effective, even getting agents, arms, and money to British-owned islands' slaves and freedmen.
Lewrie and Proteus were, therefore, to patrol vigourously, with an eye out for privateers, proper French warships, and anything suspicious, no matter how small, that might help foment more troubles.
Right, so far so good, he thought; so's especial care to protect British merchantmen, and enforce the Navigation Acts. British goods in British bottoms, to and from British colonies… and everyone else can go sing for thescraps!
Except for the Americans… temporarily!
The Spanish were still at war with England, but his "advisories" didn't make them sound up to much; Cuba had few ships, and was under a heavy blockade from Jamaica. The aforementioned Santo Domingo was not a real factor; neither was Puerto Rico, even if the locals had driven off a British expeditionary force. Should French ships not be able to use French ports, their privateers and warships might be found near a Spanish possession, or lurking among the Danish Virgin Islands… Then there was Saint Domingue… and the Americans, again. Before the French Revolution in 1789 (so his "advisories" told him), Saint Domingue had been the richest prize in the West Indies, and its trade in sugar, molasses, rum and arrack, coffee and dye-woods had been worth more than all the British colonies put together. William Pitt the Younger, the Prime Minister, along with Lord Dundas and those worthies in Whitehall, had desired it above all.
Another British expeditionary force had invaded Saint Domingue from Jamaica in 1793, with eager help from white French planters and traders, the so-called grands blancs, those richest, with the most "to lose… along with their heads; most were royalists who'd be first in line for the turnbrils to the guillotine. At present, British soldiers held most of the seaports in South Province and West Province, with the French Republicans pretty much in charge of North Province.
Tired of staring at the ocean, Lewrie turned and strode forrud to his chart-space for a peek at a map. Toulon woke from a nap and trotted beside him.
"Good puss," Lewrie cooed as Toulon rolled onto his back atop a map of the island of Hispaniola. "That's it… crush the Dons in Santo Domingo, not this half."
Saint Domingue was like the letter U laid on its side, the two long arms aimed Westerly. First settled and richest, North Province was the
upper arm and long peninsula that thrust towards Cuba and the Windward Passage. British troops held the harbour of Mole St. Nicholas near its western tip, and Port de Paix; the Royal Navy blockaded the provincial and colonial capital, Cap Francois-he made a note to himself that the locals referred to it as "Le Cap"-and the port of Fort Dauphin, near the eastern border with Spanish Santo Domingo.
Between the two arms lay a vast bight, and West Province, with all its freshwater rivers running down from the high mountains, where the French had dug intricate irrigation canals to water their fields. British troops held the port of Gonaives, just above the river Ester and the port of Saint Marc.
In the south, the small island of Gonave was lightly garrisoned by British troops. The isle broke the Bay of Port Au Prince into two channels leading to the large harbour and town of the same name, down at the "elbow bend" where South Province 's peninsula began. British troops had a firm grip on South Province, and the port towns of Grand Goave and Petit Goave, on the northern coast, and Jacmel on the southern shore. South Province had been last to be settled and farmed with slaves; it was much drier and less productive, since it lay in the lee of those storm-breaking mountains, in the "rain shadow." Most nourishing rainwater fell on West Province, therefore.
Such a rich place, so lush and green… and so deadly.
"Murjf?" Toulon asked, sprawled on his belly, with his chin on the border, looking for "pets."
"Damn' bad place, aye… you're right, puss," Lewrie said, as he swept him up to cradle him and tickle his white belly.
It was no wonder to him that the British forces, now under General Maitland, had gone little farther inland. After all that "Libertй, Fraternitй, Egalitй" bumf of the revolutionary mobs, Saint Domingue had erupted in civil war between Royalists and Republicans, with the grands blancs and the petits blancs-which could mean any white settler from a modest tradesman or overseer to a drunken harbour layabout-up in arms, with the help of those aspiring gens de coleur, the free Blacks and mixed race Mulattoes. Until the Whites had made it plain that the colony wished freedom from France, but would keep the slave plantation system and the strict racial hierarchy, that is; then the "persons of colour" had made it a three-sided civil war. High-flown edicts written in Paris, granting full voting rights to gens de coleur born free, and of two free parents (maybe 400 in all the island!) had enraged the lower class petits blancs, who would die before being valued lower than a "Cuffy".
And, to top it all off, in 1791, the 450,000 darkly black slaves in the countryside had risen in revolt, murdering their masters, burning lush manor houses, raping white women, raiding and looting, before forming into loose battalions that used hoes, pitchforks, scythes, and cane knives to fight and defeat European-trained and armed soldiers and militias, as well as the countryside police, who were mostly Mulatto or half-coloured to begin with.
Paris had sent another slobbering fanatic, Lйger Sonthonax, to Saint Domingue, with 7,000 European troops and some portable guillotines. More Free Blacks had arrived, too, fresh from the Terror to lead the cause of full equality. Sonthonax thought that all island whites, no matter their station, were Royalist or separatist, so his guillotines stayed busy, and as his home-bred troops died of malaria and the Yellow Jack, or got massacred in the back-country by slave rebels, he aligned with the Mulatto militias, who aspired to emulate their white parents rather than side with the darker, mostly illiterate plantation slaves.
Now the interior of the colony was controlled by the slaves in arms- well-armed, too, so Lewrie was informed-and led by a man who styled himself General Toussaint L'Ouverture, a former house slave himself. When the war began in '93, a Spanish army of 14,000 men had tried to invade Saint Domingue from Santo Domingo; now L'Ouverture was just about ready to invade the Spanish half of Hispaniola to free his fellow Spanish Blacks!
Such servile unrest, his orders firmly advised, was not to be allowed off that unhappy isle; he was to take, sink, or burn any ships of a "slave navy" departing Saint Domingue, before rebellion, along with arms and encouragement, could get to Jamaica and other colonies.
"But on the other hand, Toulon…" Lewrie wryly mused, as he stroked the ram-cat's silky belly, making Toulon rattle-purr and half shut his eyes in bliss.
He was to do nothing to impede the slaves, since they were good at making mincemeat of what troops the French still had ashore, or had a chance of fetching from Europe. As the orders subtly hinted, "arms and munitions imported by whatever means are not to be discouraged, so long as no hint of future export to British colonies is suspected."
It was hoped, the advisories stated, that this spring of '98, General Maitland could march inland and defeat the ill-fed, barefoot slaves, further isolate any remaining French garrisons, and finally conquer the damned place. Failing that, the semblance of amity, encouragement, and cooperation with the slaves' aspirations, to either delude them long enough to disarm them, or "bring them into the fold" as temporary allies would suit.
And speaking of temporary allies…
Those orders and advisories waxed eloquent about the Americans. They were back at sea with a real navy, after scrapping their last old Continental Navy ships in 1785, no longer dependent upon a tiny clutch of revenue cutters in the Treasury Department, or small customs vessels maintained in coastal waters by the several states.
Not that the Continental Navy had been worth all that much in those days, Lewrie recalled with a snort of derision. He'd only seen one real warship, and she'd gone down with her guns firing in a hopelessly one-sided fight with his old ship, HMS Desperate. The brig o' war… Liberty, had been her name?
No matter. The Royal Navy had taken, sunk or burned, or blockaded most of them 'til they'd rotted at their anchorages. No, it had been their adventurous privateers that had carried the fight, decimating British trade. Americans were an odd lot, Lewrie had gathered; if war came at sea, they'd prefer the lax discipline, and hope of profit-sharing, of a privateer to the regimented life of a navy vessel! Patriotism for flinty-eyed, avaricious "Yankee Doodles" went down better when sweetened by plunder, prize money, and the chance to gallivant in high adventure for a few months.
The Americans he'd met when a callow Midshipman during the Revolution had struck him as leery of a central government with too much power, of a large standing army at the beck and call of potential tyrants or despots… in that regard, at least, Americans and Englishmen were of one mind. They'd much prefer a sea-going batch of "Minutemen," what they called their casual, volunteer farmer-soldier militias, to the high cost of a formal fleet.
"Perhaps an American navy's more palatable, puss," Lewrie told his cat, now Stretched nigh-boneless across his lap. "Out of sight and no threat ashore. 'Less they smash up the taverns."
American trade had grown like mildew in his dirty shirts, though. Merchant ships under their peculiar "gridiron" striped banner were seen on every sea these days, trading with anyone despite the war, belligerent or neutral, and admittedly bore a fair portion of British goods. As neutrals, they were raking in the "blunt" with both fists. He was advised that American merchantmen could be encountered in the Indies in large numbers, even entering Spanish ports on Cuba and Puerto Rico, and he was to follow a wary but "hands-off" policy unless he suspected any contraband going to French or Spanish ports.
Lately, though, their old friends, the French, had turned a new leaf in their dealings with America. French trade was practically nonexistent due to the Royal Navy, but even so, the Frogs were now stopping and searching American ships for "contraband," requiring them to produce not just passenger lists and manifests, but lists that showed the names and nationality of officers and crew, rфles d'йquipage or else. America and Great Britain had recently signed a treaty that had settled some border disputes in the Pacific Northwest, and disputes at sea about exactly what "neutral" really meant, and that treaty had piqued the French even more. They had renounced the American notion that "free ships make free goods," a clause of their own Treaty of Amity and Commerce with America in force since 1778! France had stated that, henceforth, they would treat neutrals in the same manner that England did… whatever that meant. If American ships carried cargoes to or from England or her allies, and lately even if they carried goods to or from France and her allies, they were subject to search and seizure. The British ambassador to the United States had estimated that nearly 200 ships had been taken in the Caribbean alone since 1796!
It was all part of an ongoing plan to bully, threaten, cajole, coax, or bribe the United States into war on France 's side. French agents had been tampering with American domestic politics for years, in point of
fact, even after "neutral" American merchant ships had both fed and clothed them in the early days of their Revolution, when crops had failed year after year, and France was rocked by internal revolts against the Jacobin republic.
Now, the advisories said, France had declared that any American ships caught carrying any British goods were "bonne prise " and prey for their warships and privateers.
Worst thing t'do to a Yankee Doodle, Lewrie thought; hit him in the coin-purse!
Engraged at last, so the British ambassador had written, those Americans were rushing to finish six large 5th Rate frigates that had been started in '94 and '95, and patriotic public subscriptions were being solicited in every seaport from Maine to Georgia to buy and arm, or quickly build, a United States Navy.
The advisories hinted that America might even declare war upon the French, and ally themselves with Great Britain! So captains were warned to do nothing to discourage such a declaration, perhaps find a way to encourage such a move. They could always use another ally, and one with nautical experience and knacky skill-as shown by the privateers in the last war, at any rate-would be more than welcome. An ally that did not need vast bargeloads of silver to prop them up, like the Austrians and Prussians and Neapolitans did during the time of the so-called First Coalition in 1793, would be doubly welcome!
