For the Honor of the Flag: A John Phillips Novel (War at Sea Book 2) Read Online Free

Inconnue been a ship under British commission, Phillips would have ordered her to come about and attempt to cripple one of the corvettes. In this case though, he was reluctant to see her damaged severely, since she was a prize that had not yet gone through the prize court formalities, and was not in British commission. If she was damaged or lost, he and his crew might lose what they would otherwise have earned in prize money. Also of course, she did not have a full crew, and would fight at a disadvantage.
    Courageous and the leading enemy corvette sailed at each other bows on. At two cables distance, each captain tried to turn to cross his opponent’s bow, so as to rake the other ship. The two did this almost at the same moment, so each of the ships faced the other’s broadside. The difference was the corvette had a total of ten guns on a side, each a French eight pounder. The Courageous however, had eighteen guns on a side, with sixteen of them being eighteen pounder long guns, and another two thirty six pound carronades. One broadside from her could obliterate the thin skinned corvette.
     
    Both ships fired at the same time, and a few of the French eight pounder shot did come aboard Courageous. One seaman in the rigging was knocked off and fell into the sea, never to be seen again. That seaman was the only fatality on Courageous. With little previous practice, the British gunners did not ‘obliterate’ their enemy, but they didn’t need to. Fully half of the eighteen pounder long guns hit the corvette with their heavy iron balls, while the two carronades did fearsome carnage with their individual loads of thirty six pounds of iron grape shot. Both the main and mizzen masts fell at the same time, and the foremast had a deep score in it from a hit.
    The other corvette set out for the safety of Brest harbor. Inconnue sailed after her, firing as she went. Phillips ordered that ship back, judging it unlikely she could capture her opponent before reaching Brest.
     
    With time to investigate now, Phillips learned from Burns, in command of Inconnue, that the brig was a British merchantman captured by a French privateer off Cornwall and sent in to Brest with a prize crew. Burns, with no one paying any attention to him had anchored in the Brest harbor among a collection of merchant ships. During the day, his crew had heard and seen the prize crew celebrating their good luck. That night, loading much of the Inconnue’s crew aboard the boats, they cut out the ‘Charity Smith’. The French prize crew was mostly drunk from the rum they had looted from their prize and put up little struggle. However, a few pistols and a musket were fired, and this alerted the authorities. The merchant’s crew was still aboard and set free, with the French prize crew taking their place in the lazarette. She set sail, escorted by Inconnue, being saluted on their way by a battery on shore. The two corvettes were sent after the pair, but it took them a few hours to sort themselves out, which allowed the prey time to get ahead of their pursuers. As it turned out, there were over twenty line-of-battle ships in port, along with a number of frigates and smaller naval vessels.
    With no enemy ships now visible, the small fleet set themselves to work making repairs. Along with her cargo of hides and tallow, the brig had a deck cargo of spars. This was fortunate, since the newly captured corvette had lost her main and mizzen, and her foremast was severely damaged. Phillips was at first prepared to set fire to the captured warship, but the seas being relatively quiet, and with timber available, he decided to make what repairs he could. The Republicaine, as the captured corvette proved to be, needed first to have her wounded foremast strengthened. Splints of oak two by fours were tightly bound to the mast. While Courageous’ carpenter went below in the Republicaine to loosen the wedges holding the stub of the mainmast in place on the step, a large block was