On their first evening at sea, when they went down to Captain Absolom’s state cabin for dinner, they found that he had one other passenger, who was introduced as Mr. Silas van Wyck. He was a fine-looking, ruddy-faced, middle-aged American of Dutch descent, well-dressed and with pleasant manners. They soon learned that he was a merchant and that his family had traded in woollen goods with England for several generations, so he had excellent business connections in Yorkshire and intended to pick up a cargo of woollen goods in Hull for the return voyage to Sweden.
As Roger had heard so little about this new war in which Britain was engaged, he was eager to learn from the Americans how it was progressing. Captain Absolom’s natural interest in the effect of the war at sea led him to reply to Roger’s questions.
‘We folks are in such a poor way for naval craft that there’s little we can do against you English. When trouble started, way back in ’07, we had only twelve frigates. Mr. Jefferson did nothin’ to better matters. He even allowed three of those to rot at their moorings. We’ve not a single ship-o’-the-line, and last year there were built only two eighteen-gun sloops and two sixteen-gun brigs.’
‘Nevertheless,’ put in Mr. van Wyck, ‘we’re a thorn in the side of the British. Seven years have passed since Trafalgar and in that time Boney’s many naval yards from Copenhagen round to Venice have been far from idle. He has again a powerful fleet at his disposal, and Britain needs all the ships she has to keep his squadrons in their ports. Every sail she despatches across the Atlantic to blockade us renders her more vulnerable to her great enemy.’
‘Aye,’ agreed the Captain. ‘Yer right in that, Sir. And to blockade us effectively she’d need to send many more ships than she dare afford. In the Indies and along our southern coast where clement weather mostly prevails she can bottle us up in our ports. But not in the north. No, Sir! The New England coast has rugged shores and is subject to tempestuous weather. The elements there are our friends and render it impossible for British squadrons to keep station. From Boston, Narragansett and New York our frigates be free to come an’ go much as they will, and have roved far out into the ocean, even as far as Madeira and the English Channel. On these voyages our principal Captains: Decatur, Bainbridge and John Rogers, have had good success interfeerin’ with British commerce. There have, too, been several actions by our ships against vessels of the Royal Navy.’
‘How did they fare in these encounters?’ Roger enquired with interest.
‘Toward the end of August Captain Isaac Hull, in Constitution, come up with the British frigate Guerrière, and give her a rare pasting. Dismasted her and holed her with thirty shot below the water line. She hauled down her flag and was so bad damaged that come mornin’ they had to take off the prisoners and sink her.’
‘To be fair,’ remarked van Wyck, ‘it should be stated that, although ’tis said Captain Hull handled Constitution in a most creditable manner, she had a broadside weighing seven hundred and thirty-six pounds against the Guerrière’s five hundred and seventy; so an advantage of thirty per cent over the British ship.’
‘’Tis true; but our sloop Wasp had no such advantage in her fight with the brig Frolic. They bombarded each other till both were near wrecks, yet ’twas the American who boarded the Britisher an’ forced her to surrender. That Wasp was later robbed of her prize and taken herself by a British ship-o’-the-line coming on the scene was just durned bad luck. In October, too, Captain Decatur’s United States bashed and captured the Macedonian, although there agin I’ll admit that the American was much the more powerful o’ the two.’
‘It seems then,’ Mary smiled, ‘that although we lost both the Guerrière and Macedonian, the honours due to Captains and crews were not uneven.’
‘What of the war on land?’ Roger asked.
Van Wyck shook his head, ‘There again we are paying the price of our lack of preparation. When Mr. Madison succeeded Jefferson as President, our army numbered fewer than seven thousand, and Madison was shockingly tardy in making our country ready for war. ’Twas not until last January a Bill was passed authorising an increase up to thirty-five thousand. When last I heard, not half that number had been raised, and our forces must still consist mainly of raw recruits. There are also other factors that render it anything but formidable. Close on forty years have elapsed since our War of Independence, so very few of our troops have had any experience of war. Again, owing to Jefferson’s intense antipathy to closer Federation, the Militia in one State is not compelled to serve in any other. By now the law may have been altered, but to begin with it made the concentration of any considerable force on the Canadian frontier out of the question.’
‘How have matters so far gone there?’
‘Badly for my country, Mr. Brook. As I just now remarked, it is over half a life time since American soldiers were called on to fight a more capable enemy than tribes of Indians. For senior officers who had any experience of a white man’s war we could call only on men who were no more than youngsters during our War of Independence and are now in their sixties. The command of the northeastern front, from Niagara to Boston, was given to Major General Henry Dearborn, and the north-western, consisting mainly of the isthmus between Lakes Erie and Huron, to Brigadier William Hull, uncle to Captain Hull of the Constitution.
‘These two greyheads—one might say amateurs at war—were pitted against a most redoubtable opponent, the Lieutenant-General of Upper Canada, Isaac Brock, with his British regulars. General Brock is only forty-two and a master of his trade. He at once seized the initiative.
‘Realising the importance of gaining allies among the Indian tribes by persuading them that they would be on the winning side, he at once despatched a detachment of two hundred troops and four hundred Indians to the narrows between Lakes Huron and Michigan. They took our garrison there at Fort Mackinac by surprise, captured it and so secured Brock’s western flank.
‘Our first attack was launched in the Niagara area which lies between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. It seems that Brock foresaw that would be so and, as the British had a strong superiority of armed vessels on both lakes, felt confident that he could hold it. So he sent his main force down to the western end of Lake Erie and strongly reinforced the garrisons at Fort Maiden and Amhurstburg.
‘Meanwhile, Hull had brought his force up the Maumee river to Frenchtown on the shore of the lake. From there, intending to reinforce Detroit, he rashly sent ahead of him a ship carrying his baggage and papers. The British captured it, and sent the papers to Brock. Undeterred by this calamity, Hull, still more rashly, crossed into Canada and based himself on Sandwich with the intention of laying siege to Fort Maiden.
‘All this happened in mid-July, but it was well into August before he could get his artillery into position and begin the siege. By then Brock who, incidentally, had served under Wellington at Copenhagen, had arrived on the scene, and soon forced Hull to retreat on Detroit. By the 16th of the month Brock had surrounded that important town and forced Hull to capitulate with his whole army of two thousand five hundred men.’
Although it was a British victory, Mary could not forbear to exclaim sympathetically, ‘Oh, how terrible for the poor man!’
‘It was, indeed,’ van Wyck agreed. ‘But it was due to his own folly and over-confidence. That same month, too, our attempts to invade Canada on the Niagara front and north from Lake Champlain both failed.’
‘ ’Tis true our armies took a beating,’ put in Captain Absolom, ‘but our seamen on the lakes showed better mettle.’
Van Wyck nodded. ‘Yes, in their encounters they have shown themselves the equals of the British; although at first it went hard with them. Captain Chauncy was given command of our few ships on the lakes and planned to build others. He sent a hundred and forty shipwrights and over a hundred cannon up to Sacketts Harbour, which lies at no great distance from our side of the entrance to the St. Lawrence river. Unfortunately, his choice of place was too close. Opposite it lies the considerable town of Kingston. Ships from there were able to fire upon the building yard, so drove the shipwrights to abandon their work.’
‘Aye, Sir,’ put in Absolom, ‘but Lieutenant Elliot proved a wiser man in choosing Squaw Island. Behind it he built two three-hundred-tonners, then proved himself a real hero.’
With a smile van Wyck turned to Roger. ‘Captain Absolom is right in that. We may well be proud of young Elliot. Early in October two British armed brigs crossed the lake from Fort Maiden and anchored off Fort Erie. At one o’clock in the morning of the 9th, Elliot took a hundred seamen in two longboats. At 3 a.m. he brought them alongside the brigs and boarded them, capturing both with hardly a shot fired.’
Roger returned the smile and, as a courtesy, raised his glass. ‘That was the real Nelson touch. Here’s a health to him.’
When they had drunk he said, ‘I take it that by then winter was closing in, so put an end to the campaigning season?’
After a moment van Wyck admitted, a shade reluctantly, ‘There was one more major engagement. At dawn on October 13th a large force under General Van Reusselaer attempted to seize the heights of Kingston, at the head of Lake Ontario. Six hundred regular troops took the heights, then General Brock arrived with reinforcements from Fort George, but was killed in the first charge he led. Such a disaster for the British should have given us a certain victory. We were robbed of it by the cowardice of our own people. The regiments of unseasoned recruits who should have supported the attack refused to cross the river. In consequence, Van Reusselaer and the brave men with him were driven from the cliff down to the river, and there compelled to surrender.’
‘A sad business,’ Roger commented. ‘And, although your force lost the battle, from all you have told me the loss of such a brilliant Commander may well prove an even more serious blow to us.’
By this time the Cape Cod had passed the point of Denmark and entered the Skagerrak, so she was pitching in a medium rough sea. Roger, who had always been a bad sailor, had already begun to feel queasy, so he excused himself and went with Mary to their cabin.
He managed to keep down his dinner and got through the night, but by midday next day the weather had worsened and he suffered his first bout of sea-sickness in the Cape Cod. Fortunately, Mary proved to be a good sailor, so was able to look after and comfort him as best she could by telling him that Captain Absolom had said that, if the present favourable wind held, they would reach Hull within two or, at the most, three more days.
It was on the following afternoon that the Cape Cod met with another American merchantman, and the two Captains exchanged news through loud-hailers. At the time Roger was still in his cabin but feeling better; so, half-an-hour later, he went up on deck to get some fresh air.
While leaning over the gunwale on the poop with Mary, he noticed that below them, amidships, Captain Absolom was conferring with a group of men which included his two mates, Silas van Wyck, the bosun and the supercargo. A few minutes later the group broke up, the Captain came up on to the poop and shouted several orders. These resulted in the ship changing course from southwest to north.
Van Wyck had followed the Captain up on to the poop. Looking far from happy, he walked over to the Brooks, and Roger asked, ‘What means it that the ship has been put about?’
‘It means bad news for you both,’ the American replied, ‘and for myself, as I’ll incur a serious financial loss. So, too, will many British merchants. The ship Captain Absolom spoke with a while back gave us most unwelcome tidings. The British Government recently decided to cut off their noses to spite their faces. They have now decreed a complete blockade against all United States ships, under whatever flag they may be flying. Do we enter Hull, or any other English port, the Cape Cod will be impounded and her crew become prisoners of war.’
‘Surely you do not mean …’ Roger gasped.
‘I do, and can only condole with you. At the meeting amidships just held, Captain Absolom spoke with the senior members of his crew. They were of the unanimous opinion that even to lie off some small port and unload our cargo by lighter would now be too great a risk. So the Cape Cod will keep to the open ocean and head for her home port, New York.’