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 amp; 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 pecuniary 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