In consequence, Roger had been very surprised to learn from Bernadotte that, after so many years of resentful inactivity, the United States had actually opened hostilities the previous summer. He had also immediately assumed that this would make it very much more difficult for Mary and himself to get back to England. But Bernadotte had at once reassured him by saying:
'The United States Navy is so insignificant that, according to my latest information, the British have so far virtually ignored it; and at sea the situation is little different from what it was a year ago. The only difference the state of war has made is that, on such voyages, the American merchant ships now sail under flags of neutral countries. I feel sure you will meet with no difficulty in finding a Captain who will give you and your lady passage.'
And so it had proved. On January 9th Roger and Mary went aboard the Cape Cod, which sailed a few hours later, flying the flag of Mexico, carrying a cargo of iron ore, of which Britain was in constant need for the manufacture of cannon and cannon-balls.
The two-bunk cabin they were given was small but clean and, for times when the weather was too inclement for them to sit up on deck, they had the use of the Captain's more roomy day-cabin in the stern of the ship.
Fond as Roger was of Mary, he had not been altogether happy about her while in Stockholm and Gothenburg. Apart from her schooling at an Academy for Young Ladies, she had few of the graces that went normally with the status of her birth. That was hardly surprising, as her brief married life with Mr. Wicklow had accustomed her to the habits and outlook of well-to-do traders which, in those days, were very different from the attitudes of the aristocracy. In company also he found her to be somewhat gauche, but he hoped that this awkwardness and lack of sophisticated humour would soon wear off when he had introduced her to London society. Moreover, while he could not help feeling flattered by her absorption in himself, he felt her tendency to show resentment, if left on her own, even for an hour, distinctly irritating, as he did her scarcely-hidden jealousy if he showed the least interest in any other woman. But he made allowances for the fact that while in Russia she had had him entirely to herself for so long, and felt reasonably confident that her jealous possessiveness would wear off after they had been mixing with his friends in London for a few weeks; and he was so looking forward to being home again at last that he gave litde thought to Mary's passionate obsession with him. Once home he would at long last be able to settle down, and enjoy a life of leisure, free from danger.
2
A Bitter Blow
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 Guerriere, 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. Guerriere'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 Guerriere 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 ?'