The Special Operations Flotilla Page 5

  “Perfect for the work then” said Marty. “I was wondering have you seen any French ships around the size of a sloop laid up in any of the ports over there that we could – acquire?”

  “What you want one of them fer?” asked Peter

  “Well there be a lot of ‘neutral’ ships supplying goods to the French and we figure that if’n we could divert some of those goods over to here and put the blame on French privateers it would be good for business.”

  Ash and Bill laughed at that and said “The perfect crime and who would man this ship?”

  “Why we figured that for a cut of the take your men might like to make up the numbers” Marty said with a smirk

  “You mean we make up a crew like a privateer?” Bill asked

  “Yes, top heavy on men so we can man more than one prize per voyage. Get up close and board them in French waters, either offload their cargo to our ship and let them sail on empty or take them as a prize and put the crew in a long boat so they can row ashore” Marty explained. “If we bring any boats back they will have to have all means of identification removed before we sell them on so it may be better to sink them if they be obviously foreign built”

  “Well you gentlemen will have to think on that fer later” said Ash “It be time to get under way”

  “I’ll see you on the beach by the ‘Carine’” said Marty and got up to go to the Kings Arms.

  ‘The package’ was sat in the common room and looked exactly as Bill had described. Marty checked the room for any threats and then made his way to the table where he was sat.

  “Good Evening, is the weather in London fine?” He asked.

  “No, the snow has been heavy” was the reply. Recognition signal requested and given thought Marty.

  “Come your transport awaits” said Marty, waited for the man to stand and retrieve his bag then turned and walked to the door.

  He looked up and down the street, took the man by the arm and led him to the beach. It was quiet. Word had gotten around that something was ‘on’ that evening and the locals had prudently stayed indoors. Once there, he found the fishing boat that was pulled up on the sand with Carine on the stern.

  Ash stuck his head over the rail and said “Get aboard the horses are on their way”

  There was a set of steps to one side and they climbed up and into the boat. Just then two draft horses in harness came down the beach driven by a single man accompanied by five fishermen. Marty watched with professional interest as the men hitched the horses to two tackles that were laid out from the bow. The horses took the strain and the boat started to slip down the sand. Marty saw it was aided by pieces of wood laid at regular intervals for the keel to run over. The boat slid into the surf and the men boarded over the sides.

  When the horses were chest deep the tackles were cast off and they rowed out past the surf until they could raise the sail and make way. They were heading for Calais on a regular run.

  “Has it quietened down over there now?” asked Marty once they were settled on course.

  “Yes it has, but it were right awkward for a bit.” He looked at Marty suspiciously. “What do you know about that?” he asked.

  “Oh I just heard that they lost some money is all” Marty replied with what could only be described as a feral grin.

  “Hmm well it be said they lost a great deal of money” said Ash “and whoever took it got clean away”

  “It was probably the best heist in recent history” said their passenger. “It caused absolute chaos throughout the Ministry of Marine and a major witch hunt. The civil servants, Army and Navy didn’t get paid that quarter”

  “Yea the cost of bribes went through the roof because of it. They had to make up the money from somewhere” moaned Ash.

  “And several high ranking soldiers lost their heads over it as well” the passenger concluded.

  Marty sat back and just smiled. The eighth he had shared with Armand had almost equalled the prize money from the Mediterranean and was earning nice interest in the four percent’s.

  It was a dull overcast night and the trip across only took a couple of hours. As they approached the dock it was just after 11pm. The passenger changed into fisherman’s clothes and after they had talked with the clerk of the docks and paid the usual graft he accompanied Marty and Ash to visit the merchant who was supplying their goods. As they passed an alley where the torch at the entrance had ‘conveniently’ gone out he slid away from them into the shadows.

  When they entered the warehouse they were met by a merchant who Ash had obviously done business with before. He looked suspiciously at Marty as Ash introduced him as their new business partner.

  Marty said in French “Good evening Sir. It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance. I would like to discuss the purchase of some of your best brandy and a selection of Claret and Bordeaux wines”

  Ash looked at him with his mouth agape and eyes wide. The merchant was taken aback by the young man with the almost perfect Parisienne accent and hesitated for a second before recovering.

  “But yes sir and how will you be paying?”

  “In Louis D’Or naturally” said Marty and flourished a coin he had concealed in his hand. The merchant took it, bit it and then went to a table where there were some scales and weighed it. He nodded and went to put it in his pocket.

  Marty’s Bowie Knife made an uncomfortably loud thud as the point drove into the table one inch from his hand.

  “Tsk tsk Sir, we must finalize our business before you get to keep that trinket.” Marty said with a smile that made the merchant’s blood run cold. “I would like to sample what you have on offer and then we can get down to business”

  The man practically ran to some casks and dipped a couple of glasses of amber brandy using a cup on the end of a long thin handle and offered them to Ash and Marty. He was wringing his hands as the glasses were rolled in their hands to warm them, the brandy sniffed and finally tasted.

  “Better stuff than we is normally getting” said Ash

  “Yes it’s not bad is it.” replied Marty and to the merchant “excellent we will take 10 casks”. Each cask held four and a half gallons or twenty Litres and would have been classified as pins in England.

  They then sampled Claret and Bordeaux wines and selected the ones they wanted.

  The merchant had their order loaded into a couple of carts and added up the bill which he itemised and handed to Marty.

  Marty made a show of looking at it and said “I believe you made a mistake”

  The merchant, who still had a very clear image in his mind of the huge knife appearing out of nowhere gulped and took the paper back and examined it.

  “Oh mon Dieu I forgot your discount of ten” he looked at Marty who just examined his fingernails “No fifteen percent”

  Marty relented, smiled and said “Perfect! It has been a joy doing business with you and I look forward to returning and doing much more”. That mollified the merchant somewhat and when Marty counted out a pile of Louis d’Or coins in payment he forgot about feeling put out altogether.

  They rode the carts back to the boat as that way an onlooker would probably not notice they were a man short.

  When they got to the dock Marty and Ash went directly below and checked the receipt the merchant had given them. The crew, aided by the merchant’s men, loaded their cargo into the hold and covered it with fishing nets.

  “Why did you push him so hard on the discount?” Ash asked “We had plenty of profit margin without it”

  “It was Armand’s suggestion.” Marty replied “The merchant will remember me as a sharp business man and one who is ruthless. The Louis d’Or coins were there to fix in his mind that we are serious and have good connections. He doesn’t realise they were nicked from them in the first place.”

  “You mean the theft the passenger mentioned?” Ash asked in some awe.

  Marty just smiled and then the Mate came in with the tally of what had been loaded.

  The whole e
xercise from landing to being ready to leave has taken less than 3 hours and they were able to leave the Harbour at two in the morning just at the turn of the tide.

  Marty stood on deck as they left and had a good look at the ships lying in the harbour. He couldn’t see much but nothing stood out as a likely candidate for their second ship and as it was such a dark night they decided to head straight back to Deal.

  As they approached the beach they hoisted two lights, a red over a white and they were answered with a white over a red. The all clear. They dropped the sails some 100 yards offshore and the Men rowed them in the last stretch. The horses were waiting. The crew turned the boat so she was stern first and, as soon as it was shallow enough, 4 of them jumped over the side into the water to steady her. The horses were hitched and the boat pulled ashore.

  It was what happened next that impressed Marty. Around 30 men appeared out of the dark and formed a line from the boat to the firm land behind the sandy beach. The crew handed out the cargo piece by piece and it was passed rapidly up the line to waiting carts. They were completely unloaded in less than 15 minutes and everyone was on their way home. It was a slick well organised exercise and he now knew why it was so difficult for the excise to catch the smugglers at it without knowing when the boats were arriving.

  He stayed what was left of the night at the Wagon and Horses and made his way back to their Headquarters after a hearty breakfast.

  When he got there it was all quiet and no one seemed to be around so he stabled his horse and went into the house. The only person there was their steward, Will Barbour, who told him that the Cutter had arrived and everyone had gone down to the harbour to check it over. He changed into his uniform and walked over there.

  When he got there he found that it had been sailed in by the extra crew they had asked for under the command of a Bosun’s mate. To his utter surprise he saw the unmistakable figure of Wilson, the giant of a man that he had sailed with on the Fortune, and recognised Du Demaine as well. The cutter, called the Snipe, was tied up to the wharf next to the Ariadne so he walked up the gangway.

  Armand was dressed in uniform and was just setting up to read himself in when he saw Marty walk up the gangplank. He waited until he had made his way over, welcomed him and asked

  “Did it go well?”

  “Yes, just as expected” was the reply.

  He then stood erect and taking a deep breath began to read himself in. The orders were loose and basically said they were an independent unit and could do whatever they liked. All in all it was a formality to make the men comfortable, but they had their first ship.

  Marty made his way around the deck greeting the new men and trying to learn their names. He soon found Wilson and Du Demaine, greeted them by name and said,

  “I am very pleased to see you both, but how on earth did you get yourselves on this detail?”

  Wilson stepped forward and said

  “Well you see Sir, the Fortune were brought back into Portsmouth fer a minor refit when this Lieutenant came on board and spoke to Mr Gentry. He called fer us to go to his cabin like and we was asked if we would be interested in joining you as crew on a Cutter. He said that you were there with the rest of the men from the Fortune and had mentioned our names. He said he had orders from Admiral Hood.”

  “Ahh” said Marty “That old fox doesn’t miss a trick. I bet he read your names in the report of the taking of those prizes in the Mediterranean.”

  He turned to Dudemain and said in French “Hello Roland. We will need your knowledge for the work we do here” and then in English. “Did they tell you anything about what we do?”

  “Nary a word” said Wilson “But the boys have mentioned that it’s not what it seems and to expect a few surprises”

  Marty went to Armand and said “We better brief these men on security and what we are doing. I’m sure that they are all dedicated Navy so they won’t run, but they need to know to keep their traps shut and the best place to do that is at sea where no one can overhear.”

  “Agreed,” said Armand “let’s get under sail”.

  The good thing about cutters is they have sweeps, oars that can be used if needed for manoeuvring. They cast off and using the sweeps and the sluggish current of the river Stour they made their way out of the estuary and to sea.

  They sailed south through Sandwich bay towards Deal and once they were off of Deal Beach Marty called all the men to assemble on deck.

  “You new men have all been hand-picked by the Admiralty as being true Navy men who are loyal to the crown, to the service and who can be trusted. You are probably wondering what the hell you have gotten yourselves into” said Marty in a voice loud enough to carry to the bowsprit. “I am sure that all of you have been given hints by the old hands to expect the unexpected or things not being what they seem. Well I can tell you that to the outside world we are a training unit and if anybody asks that is all you tell them. But to the Admiralty and the Intelligence Service of his Majesty’s Government, we are the Special Operations Flotilla, or the S.O.F. as we call it, and answer directly to the First Sea Lord and Admiral Hood. If you tell anybody outside of this crew anything about what you do or have done as part of the S.O.F. you will be hung for treason. You will get extra pay for ‘hazardous duty’, paid in cash and will all benefit from higher rates of prize money than ‘normal’ sailors.” He paused and looked around at the men who looked surprised at that and more than a few were grinning.

  “Discipline will be more relaxed than you are used to and you will understand why with time. But that doesn’t mean you can take the piss! If we don’t get what we expect from you, life will get very unpleasant very quickly. If any of you doubt my word on this, talk to the men who have sailed with me in the past. Any questions?”

  One man raised his hand “Do you mean we don’t get paid with chits?”

  “Yes, you get paid with cold, hard coin”

  There was a general murmur around the men and then another hand went up.

  “It’s all well getting paid in coin but if we’s not allowed ashore to spend it what’s the point?”

  “You will spend more time ashore with us than you ever have. You will understand why later as well. But that doesn’t mean you can go off and visit your people in Portsmouth or wherever. You will be restricted to Deal while you are here. There are plenty of whores there and most of them are clean” that caused a laugh.

  “But be warned. Run and we will hunt you down like a dog and hang you ourselves or cut your throat and bury you in a ditch. We look after our own and if anyone betrays us, then God help them. Anyone want to leave now? He indicated the side and the waves lapping gently passed them. No one moved or said anything. There was not even a murmur. “So you are all in?”

  “AYE AYE SIR!” was the reply.

  Chapter 8 A Cutting Trip

  Marty was in the Wagon and Horses meeting with Bill Clarence the leader of the smugglers.

  “So there is a Corvette laid up in St Valery up the Somme River” said Marty

  “That’s what we saw” Bill replied “and when we asked they said she ‘ad been brought in as she ‘ad lost a mast and while they were fixing ‘er the army came and took all their gunners. Then the rest of her crew were dispatched to Brest to a new frigate. She’s only got an ‘arbour crew on board now”

  “Sounds ideal” said Marty

  Just then an argument broke out between a couple of the S.O.F. and some smugglers. Marty watched as it progressed from loud voices, to pushing and the first punch being thrown. It soon collapsed into a general melee and as long as no weapons were pulled he and Bill were happy to let it run its course.

  “Well I’ll get back and start working out a plan with Armand” he said, “but have your men ready to sail at short notice. We will need at least forty to get her back here.” On his way out he ducked a stray punch and pushed the fighter back into the fray. He then tossed a couple of coins to the landlord and told him “drinks all round”.

 
Later he sat with Armand pouring over a map of the French coast and particularly the area around the estuary of the river Somme. It was tricky to navigate with anything bigger than a fishing boat as there was a single deep channel that ran from the sea up to the village of St Valery. For the skipper of the corvette to make the entrance he must have been desperate and unable to get to Boulogne or Le Touquet which had more accessible harbours.

  “We will need forty men to sail her out and that is a lot to get on one cutter isn’t it?” asked Armand

  “It is, and we will need at least 10 men to sail the cutter home, meaning we will need 50 men plus you me and the Bosun”.

  “Can we use some of the smuggler’s boats?” asked Armand

  “No they don’t want to spoil their relationship with the locals” replied Marty

  “So we’re left with just the Ariadne and the Snipe. We can get ‘ow many on the Snipe?”

  “Well she normally has a crew of twenty and the trip to St Valery will take at least ten hours including navigating the river, if we have a favourable wind. I wouldn’t want to cram more than forty on her. We could get another ten on the Ariadne if we tow her back unmanned.”

  “So I command the Snipe and you command the Ariadne on the way down and on the way back you command the Corvette as you have sailed one before and tow the Ariadne” said Armand.

  “That sounds like a plan” said Marty. “What time of day would you want to cut it out?”

  “If we want to navigate the deep channel then somewhere around mid-day at high tide which means arriving at the estuary around 10 in the morning” replied Armand.

  “Then we had better leave here on the evening tide to give us some leeway in case of contrary weather. When do we cast off?” Marty asked.

  “When is the full moon?” asked Armand

  Marty consulted an almanac and said “18th and 19th”.

  “Then we leave on the 17th to make sure that if we have to navigate the Somme at night we can see what where we are going” concluded Armand.

  “Good that gives us 5 days to prepare. I’ll get started first thing in the morning” said Marty