14-Caribbee: A Kydd Sea Adventure Read online

  The Caymans are doing well, due in no small part to the generosity of King George III who, in response to the islanders’ bravery in coming to the aid of ten ships wrecked one night in a tempest, bestowed a tax-free status that is in force to this day. Cayman Brac is a wonderful spot for scuba and, apart from scattered settlement, presents the same seaward aspect as Kydd encountered. Curaçao is still appealingly Dutch; her multicoloured houses in neat rows much as they were then. The interior waters of the Schottegat, however, are now home to oil-tankers rather than privateers, and pretty little marinas nestle under the once formidable forts.

  Looked at through modern eyes it’s hard to conceive of the colossal importance of the West Indies to Britain during Kydd’s time. At the start of the Napoleonic wars, four-fifths of all overseas Exchequer receipts came from these parts, mainly sugar and sugar products. More than two million gallons of rum a year made its way over the Atlantic, and Renzi’s brother was not exaggerating in the slightest the voracious appetite of sweet-toothed Britain for his crop. Consequently the islands were fought over bitterly, the record held by St Lucia, which changed hands no fewer than fourteen times in the period of the wars.

  Without an effective naval strategy France found it impossible to defend her own islands and secure her own imports and consequently suffered. Napoleon’s decree, the Continental System, was a clever move, for it closed off Europe not only to Britain’s sugar but also to its increasingly important manufactured goods, threatening bankruptcy and revolution. It also contained the seed of his own destruction. The continent, with a well-developed sugar habit and unwilling to forgo the baubles and ironmongery produced so cheaply by the industrial revolution, fell victim to widespread smuggling and it failed in its object, again for want of an effective military sea arm to compel it. When Napoleon turned on his ally Russia in 1812, for not enforcing it vigorously enough, the end was in sight for him and his system. At the peace of 1815 most of the islands were returned to their previous owners, Danish, Dutch and even Swedish; each still retains its distinctiveness, but all were involved in the ever-vital sugar trade.

  America, however, did handsomely out of the war as neutral, freighting for both sides, but when months later the British responded with their own decree Cousin Jonathan found his business opportunities sharply declining, his fast-growing merchant fleet now idle. This, no doubt, contributed to the frustration that boiled over into the war of 1812, the first conducted with an economic objective openly at its heart.

  And in another important historical development less than one year following the end of this book, Kydd’s valet Tysoe would see the slave trade not only stopped by Britain but actively opposed by this nation, which nobly employed its naval supremacy in the cause of its suppression. Acting under a legal framework that regarded slave-trading in the same light as piracy, the Royal Navy chased and seized ships under any flag that carried on the odious trade, but it was not until 1834 that slavery itself was abolished. The irony is that by this time industrial methods of extraction from sugar-beet in Europe had been found and the Caribbean had lost its importance.

  Readers who have followed the series will note that this is the second book set in the Caribbean. I am not sure yet when the two friends will return to this sultry clime but I can promise an important personal milestone for Renzi in the near future.

  It is the writer’s name that is on the cover but many people contribute directly and indirectly to any literary endeavour. To everyone who assisted in some way in the research for this book, I am deeply grateful. I am also appreciative of the electronic charts produced by the Hydrographic Office of the Admiralty at Taunton, which have replaced the paper ones I used when I first began writing the series, and which have made navigational computations just a matter of a few clicks of the mouse. And I would like to pay special tribute to my publisher Hodder & Stoughton – editors Oliver Johnson and Anne Perry, publicist Poppy North, copy editor Hazel Orme, and all the other consummate professionals at 338 Euston Road, London.

  As ever, my heartfelt appreciation goes to my wife and literary partner, Kathy, and my agent Carole Blake, who this year celebrates a luminous career in the book trade spanning fifty years. As the Georgians would say, I drink her health in a bumper!

  Glossary

  a-caper Dutch; abroad on a warlike mischief

  a-taunto all standing proudly on end, as masts

  a-tupping as on a farm with a ram among the ewes

  Abolitionists the political movement in England that ended with the abolition of slavery

  admiral’s pen the admiral’s residence, after Jamaican term for a holding

  aloes a medicinal plant whose leaf gel relieves skin ailments

  avast stop immediately

  belaying pin a wooden pin set for convenience into a holed rail to which ropes coming from aloft are tied

  binnacle the protective casing around the compass

  bonehead a useless seaman

  bower the most favoured anchor

  broadside the entire side of a ship; in gunnery, all the guns on that side

  buckra term for white man, from Ibo, mbakara

  bugaboo variant of ‘bogey’

  calipash and calipee the upper and lower shells of a turtle

  catblash nonsense, no content, as in a cat loudly vomiting only a fur-ball

  cathead beam set into the bow of a ship such that when an anchor is heaved in clear of the water a tackle might be attached to swing it in to the ship’s side for stowing

  clerk of the cheque a senior dockyard official who comes aboard to muster the crew before disbursing pay entitlements

  cobbs Spanish dollars, from Gibraltar garrison

  cruiser a lone man-o’-war, usually a frigate, tasked to range the seas looking for prey

  Dansker a Danish national

  dit sea term for a polished story, informally told

  fore-bitter naval song performed by seamen in leisure time forward around the fore-bitts

  fried milk a sweet milk pudding with crunchy top

  gunroom in a large ship, the gunner’s abode; in frigates, the officer’s dining and mess room

  gunwale sides of a ship where strengthened to take gun-port piercing

  gyre a spiral motion or vortex as in a large-scale ocean current or air mass

  hugger-mugger clandestine

  invest to lay siege to

  jalousie louvred window that can be opened to allow airflow but restrict rain entry

  jerk spiced meat dried over a wood fire

  keckling improvised padding around an anchor cable to prevent chafing or damage from sharp coral

  kedge an anchor light enough to be taken to a distance by a boat to allow the ship to haul itself up to it

  koonerman Creole for king’s sailor

  lasking sailing easily downwind

  letter of marque legal document proving the vessel is duly authorised by a state to engage in privateering

  lubber a man hopeless in his nauticals

  lubber’s hole an aperture in the tops that allows a sailor climbing the shrouds to take the easy way through and on up

  mauby beer tree-bark based beer, widely known in the Caribbean, variously spiced and sweetened

  mole long pier usually of stone, set out in a harbour to break the force of the waves

  mumchance to stand tongue-tied

  piccaninny a young child

  prame shallow draft but fully ship-rigged French invasion frigate

  prigger thief

  privateer private man-o’-war; licensed by the state to capture enemy ships

  quarters after the ship is cleared for action the men close up at quarters for battle

  quips and quillets idiosyncrasies, from classical ‘quodlibet’, a polite disputation on nice points

  reefer midshipman, from their part-of-ship for handing sail on the yards

  reprisal legal device to justify a privateer to take action against a state for the purpose of obtaining pecuniar
y redress

  roadstead the approaches to a harbour where ships may safely anchor

  scow derogatory term for vessel, after flat barge in ports used to discharge waste from anchored ships

  scran food at sea, from northern English for broken victuals, scraps

  shab eighteenth-century term for ill-dressed person, from shabbroon

  shaddock large round fruit with a coarse-grained pulp, after the popularising seventeenth-century Captain Shaddock

  soursop Caribbean fruit with a creamy sour flavour

  spithead area off Portsmouth where the fleet anchors when in port

  stingo the stronger brews of English beer

  tack in order to gain ground against the wind a square-rigged vessel must first take the wind closely on one side then the other

  top it the tiger showing bravery and courage, as a tiger

  tuileries the royal palace of the doomed King Louis, later taken for his own by Emperor Bonaparte

  volunteer opposite of pressed man; also rate of youngster before being made midshipman

  yaw to slew either side of the true course, intentionally or otherwise

  younker affectionate term for youngster

  zephyr a barely perceptible breeze

  Timeline

  1773 Thomas Paine Kydd is born 20 June, in Guildford, Surrey, son of Walter and Fanny Kydd.

  1789 The Storming of the Bastille, 14 July.

  1793–1794 Louis XVI executed, 21 January 1793.

  France declares war on England; Kydd, a wig-maker by trade, is press-ganged into the 98-gun ship of the line Duke William. KYDD

  The Reign of Terror begins, 5 September 1793–28 July 1794. ARTEMIS

  Transferred aboard the crack frigate Artemis, Kydd is now a true Jack Tar who comes to love the sea-going life.

  1795 The Netherlands is invaded by France, 19 January, and becomes the Batavian Republic. SEAFLOWER

  In the Caribbean, Kydd continues to grow as a prime seaman.

  1797 Battle of Cape St Vincent, 14 February. Mutiny at the Nore, 17 April.

  Kydd is promoted to acting lieutenant at Battle of Camperdown, 11 October. MUTINY

  1798–1799 Kydd passes exam for lieutenancy; now he must become a gentleman. QUARTERDECK

  From the Halifax station, Kydd and his ship are summoned to join Nelson on an urgent mission.

  The Battle of the Nile, 1 August 1798. Britain takes Minorca as a naval base from Spain, 16 November 1798.

  Siege of Acre, March–May 1799. TENACIOUS

  1801–1802 Prime Minister Pitt resigns February 1801. Battle of Copenhagen, 2 April 1801. Kydd is made commander of brig-sloop Teazer but his jubilation is cut short when peace is declared and he finds himself unemployed.

  Peace at Treaty of Amiens, 25 March 1802. COMMAND

  1803 War resumes 18 May, with Britain declaring war on the French.

  Unexpectedly, Kydd finds himself back in command of his beloved Teazer . THE ADMIRAL’S DAUGHTER

  Kydd is dismissed his ship in the Channel Islands station. TREACHERY

  1804 Napoleon’s invasion plans are to the fore.

  May, Pitt becomes Prime Minister again Napoleon is crowned Emperor, 2 December INVASION

  1805 Kydd is made post-captain of L’Aurore.

  The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805. VICTORY

  1806 The race to empire begins in South Africa. British forces take Cape Town, 12 January.

  A bold attack on Buenos Aires is successful, 2 July 1806. CONQUEST

  Effective end of The Fourth Coalition, 14 October 1806. BETRAYAL

  In the Caribbean, the French threat takes a new and menacing form. CARIBBEE