“Surely not before we’ve knocked Italy out of the war,” said Brooke.
“Frankly,” said Eisenhower, “I tend to agree with General Patton on that question. Attacking Rome will knock down the Italian government, Fascist or otherwise, but it won’t necessarily beat the Germans. We only have so much in the way of shipping and landing craft, so we need to plan this carefully. And remember, I’m to select seven divisions for transfer back to the UK for Overlord. Anything we do in Italy from this point forward will be determined by a lot of unanswered questions. Will Mussolini fall? Probably, but when, and how hard? Will Italy fight on? How many divisions will the Germans throw into this theater, and will they fight for the south? We need contingencies based on real intelligence of the enemy’s deployments. Then, no matter what we choose to do, we have to define clear objectives, a center of gravity for the entire operation, maintain a cooperative effort, plan proper phasing. We need a lot of answers before we can arrive at the best strategy here, and right now, all we have are the questions.”
There was a moment of silence before Brooke spoke again. “Does your General Marshall believe we can cross the Channel this year?”
“He hopes for that,” said Ike.
“Well, not to throw too many lumps in the tea, but Churchill has asked me to float one more idea. What about an invasion of France from the south? It would mean we take Corsica next, not Rome, and then from there we would have real choices. Do we strike east at Italy, or North and take Toulon and Marseilles? Remember, we can also muster troops in Spain for that. In this scenario, we might not want to transfer anything back home when we can put it to very good use right here.”
Too many cooks, it has been said, will spoil the broth.
Part XI
Curious Marbles
“I should wish to have, of the Acropolis, examples… of each cornice, each frieze, each capital of the decorated ceilings, of the fluted columns; specimens of the different architectural orders, of metopes and the like…. Finally, everything in the way of sculpture, medals and curious marbles that can be discovered by means of assiduous and indefatigable excavation.”
Chapter 31
The master of the ship was a Mister George Parry, and when Elena and her small company finally located him in the harbor at Gibraltar, their brief meeting went very well.
“I expect your associates here will get on well enough,” said Parry, particularly since you say they are all more than willing to take on ship’s duties. But I’m afraid we haven’t much in the way of accommodations for a woman such as yourself, m’lady. However, it is a rare event that we would have a lady of stature aboard a poor ship like this. House of Fairchild, is it? It would seem that the only chivalrous thing a gentleman might do is offer my cabin for your comfort. You are more than welcome.”
“I cannot thank you enough,” said Elena, fawning a bit, and even giving the man a flirtatious glance, which Captain MacRae could not fail to notice. He smiled, giving Mack Morgan a conspiratorial glance.
The Lady Shaw Stewart was a Brig, with two masts (fore and main), and square-rigged sails. It was larger than a schooner, but smaller than a frigate, or any ship of the line, and often used for fast naval duties, or as a merchant transport, which was the case here. Britain was already extending her influence heavily into the Med, the twin poles of Gibraltar and Malta being essential outposts that would endure through the centuries. Lord Nelson shipped all his fleet supplies from Gibraltar to Malta, and from there, the transports would call on other ports and anchorages, or simply rendezvous with Royal Navy ships at sea.
As cargos were valuable, even if a ship was only carrying foodstuffs, fresh water, or other simple necessities, it was common to escort a transport to give the impression of some strength that might discourage piracy. In this case, the escort ship was a smaller schooner, the Renard, formerly a French ship by that same name, captured in November of 1803 off the small port of Calvi on the Island of Corsica. Two ships in Nelson’s squadron HMS Cameleon, and HMS Stately, were credited with the capture. A fast ship, Renard had a crew of 60 men, with twelve 4-pounder guns (six on each side), and four more “swivel guns,” which could rotate to port or starboard. Nelson immediately put it to good use as a merchant escort and messenger ship. Normally, a ship would be renamed under these circumstances, and the new name “Crafty ” was already floating about in Nelson’s mind, though it had not yet been formalized.
At this time Renard was captained by Lieutenant Richard Spencer, who had once served on the very ship that first took Renard as a prize, the Cameleon. Spencer had been serving aboard Lord Nelson’s ship, HMS Victory, at the time he was appointed to take command of the Renard. He served well, except for one incident where Nelson had to reprimand him for temporarily leaving four merchant vessels to investigate rumors of a privateer off Syracuse.
The two ships would depart under favorable winds and head out into the Alboran Sea. It would be a journey of a thousand nautical miles to Malta, about five days sailing time if the wind could keep them moving at a speed between eight and ten knots. Few records remain to chronicle the voyages of Lady Shaw Stewart. At one point, she was intercepted by the Americans and taken as a prize, but at present, her duties were of a hum drum naval transport. The logs of the Renard record no incidents during the journey to Malta and on to Cerigo (Kythros).
No one aboard knew that this sailing would be the most significant mission ever undertaken by the ship. Elena could not believe their luck in finding it at just this time.
“You see, Mack,” she said by way of vindicating herself. “All this talk about us running afoul of pirates and changing history here by simply chartering a ship has now become a moot point. We will have a nice quiet journey. Finding this ship was a major windfall for our mission.”
“What makes you so sure?” said Morgan, still a bit wary.
“The history,” said Elena. “This ship reached Malta without incident. It also went on to Cerigo without incident, and was safely there until the coming February of 1805, when the marbles were finally loaded.”
“I wonder what took them so long,” said Morgan, hinting at something. “I mean, if we get there in the next few weeks, what happens in the five months between this day and 16 February, when the Marbles were loaded. You might ask this ship’s master when he expects to arrive at Kythros.”
“Call it Cerigo,” said Elena. “That’s what they called it at this time. And I can’t broach the subject with Master Parry just yet, because he doesn’t even know he’s going there.”
“What?”
“Think, Mack. We have the record of Lord Nelson’s letter ordering this ship to Cerigo, and it’s dated September 2, 1804. So Mister Parry hasn’t even received his orders yet. In fact, he probably won’t hear of this until we reach Malta, so hush up about Cerigo until we get there. Then we’ll take stock of the situation, and sort things out. I suggest you make yourself useful here, and help out with the ship. Otherwise, let’s enjoy the experience. It’s certainly going to be unique.”