Building Utopia Ch. 12

I want to thank my editor "Wires" for his assistance with this story. His efforts have greatly improved my submission. As always the errors remain mine however.

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Finally, nearly a year after the sinking of the English Frigate and the capture of the surviving crew Roger decided it was time to make the trip to England. It was now 1606 and they had three of the new warships in commission. He took two of them on the mission along with a freighter carrying items the Captain thought would sell well in Great Britain. The cargo consisted of furs, some native handicrafts, oak mast timbers, samples of food, and some fish that had been salted down. Also included were several cases of citrus fruits.

Roger boarded a platoon of his finest troops along with their weapons for protection. The English Captain asked how long Roger thought the passage would take and was shocked when Roger replied "No longer than ten days I would expect. It all depends on fuel usage. We cannot obtain fuel for our ships in England so have to move at a pace that will conserve our on board supplies. We have enough on board to make the crossing to England and back with enough to spare for one more crossing if need arises. High seas and wind as well as high speed maneuvering would deplete the fuel faster."

"Amazing. Simply amazing."

The ships departed on the next high tide. The English Captain obtained a sextant somewhere and constantly took sightings that he plotted on a chart he kept with him. He walked around in a constant state of amazement from the speed with which they were crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

On the morning of the eighth day they came in sight of the mouth of the Thames River. Over the last two days ships of all sizes were seen by the NAU vessel. None of them were ever close enough to hail however. Some of them even looked as if they were beating away from the strange ships sailing down the channel without visible means of propulsion. When they entered the river heading for the anchorage at London Roger's NAU ships were finally confronted by two warships. Roger allowed the frigates to close with his ships. When the two English frigates came within hailing range the senior English Captain shouted, "Heave to, there. What manner of vessel are you that you can move without sails? I see no paddles for galley slaves. I demand to know from whence you come and the purpose of your visit."

"Roger once again spoke for his ships. "I am Admiral Roger Timmons from the North American Union. We are on a diplomatic mission from our country. We wish to arrange trade treaties and perhaps work out an agreement for some of your people to immigrate to our country. I also have aboard some of your countrymen that I am repatriating. I am afraid their ship was sunk and they had no way home until we were able to bring them."

After he finished talking Roger handed the megaphone to the English Captain. He took the device and said, "I am Captain Smyth, formerly of HMS Frightful. Unfortunately for us, we attacked King Roger's ship several months ago and came out the worse for it. He has graciously agreed to repatriate us as a show of goodwill. I carry a message for the King and Admiralty from him. We request permission for these three ships to move to an anchorage pending approval for him to go ashore and present his credentials to the representatives of the crown."

The Captain that had previously hailed said, "Permission to move to anchorage is granted. Follow us to your assigned anchorage point." The small flotilla proceeded under the watchful eyes of the two warships. It took until dusk for them to traverse the remaining distance to the assigned anchorage and make their ships secure.

After he finished talking to the senior officer on board the English Frigate, Captain Smyth handed the megaphone back to Roger. He smiled and said, "It is wonderful to be back in England, Your Majesty. If I had not taken the sightings and plotted the course myself though I do not think I would ever have believed the crossing from America to Great Britain could have been made as rapidly as your ships made it. Who would have believed you could cross the entire Atlantic Ocean in eight days? Certainly not I. Or, at least, I would not have believed it before you showed me it was possible. I wonder what other wonderful things you have in America that I have yet to see."

The English Captain opted to remain on board Roger's Flagship for one more night before he and his men returned to shore. His first duty the next day would be to report to the Admiralty and deliver a message for Roger as well as report on the failure of his mission. Of course, he assumed the merchant ship he was escorting made its way back home and reported the sinking of his frigate. The captain was also anxious to see his wife in the hopes she had enough faith in him to have remained waiting for his return.

After they anchored close together where they could mutually defend each other, Roger's ships set their anchor watches and armed guards. To the surprise of the other anchored ships, as darkness fell, great bright lights came on illuminating the three ships and the waters around them. Armed guards could be seen carefully watching the waters around the three strange ships.

Early the next morning Roger ordered two boats lowered over the sides so the English sailors could be returned to their homeland. The boats quickly motored to the pier and offloaded the English sailors. They returned to their ship just as rapidly where they were once again lifted back on board and secured to their davits. Throughout their trek to the shore and back the local people stared and watched in awe. Many of them seemed fearful of the almost magically appearing small boats that flew through the water with no visible means of propulsion.

Early the next day, Captain Smyth returned and was rowed out to Roger's Flagship. He was piped aboard and delivered a message to Roger. "Your Highness, I am afraid I have bad news for you. The king is angry with you. He is beyond angry in fact. His ministers were afraid he was going to die of apoplexy when your message was delivered to him. He states the Americas belong to the crown and you are an interloper. He has ordered me to offer you surrender terms. The terms are very generous considering his anger. I believe they are so generous solely because of your treatment of me and my crew. You are ordered to surrender yourself, your crews and your ships immediately or you will be sunk where you are anchored. You will be tried for piracy as will your Captains. Your crews will be allowed to go into the British fleet as sailors. I'm afraid the King considers you English citizens and is treating you as such, Your Majesty."

Roger laughed and said, "You are joking right? Did you tell them what happened when you tried to sink just one of my ships? Did you tell them it took only two shells for me to sink one of the largest most powerful warships in the English fleet?"

"Yes, Your Highness, I did, but they do not believe me. They have convinced themselves that you must have set off some of my powder to cause such a large explosion. Sire, I am sorry but I must return immediately with your answer."

Roger looked at the Captain and said, "Tell your King we will not surrender our ships and we will not tolerate any invasion of our land. I will consider unauthorized colonies to be an invasion of my lands just as I would the landing of troops. Tell him we will welcome trade but we will sink any ships guilty of trying to colonize our land or trying to land soldiers. I will consider landing armed soldiers as an invasion and an act of war. I will respond accordingly. Further tell your King that I am leaving now and will sink any ship that attempts to stop me. I will fire upon any land based battery that brings my ships under fire."

Captain Smyth sighed, bowed and said, "Yes, Sire, you respond as I suspected you would. I am truly sorry. With your permission, I will go now."

Roger stood for a moment then said, "Of course, Captain. You may leave the ship." Just before Captain Smyth climbed over the Gunwale Roger raised his voice and said, "Captain Smyth!"

The departing Captain stopped and looked at Roger. Roger saluted him and said, "Captain, should you ever find your way back to the NAU and desire to become one of our citizens I would be pleased to have you command one of my ships. If you were to bring some quality settlers and seamen with you that would be a good thing also, sir. They would be welcome."

Captain Smyth hesitated for a moment, returned the salute and said, "Thank you, Sire. You never know what fate will befall one. It would be a pleasure indeed to once again see you in more pleasant circumstances."

The rowboat carrying the Captain had only gone about ten feet before Roger ordered his ships to General Quarters. As soon as all battle stations were manned the order to weigh anchor and get underway was given. When the warships surrounding them saw the anchor chains coming up they beat to quarters and ran out their cannons. No further orders to surrender were given. Almost simultaneously the nearest English ships opened fire on Roger's ships. As before the cannon balls bounced off the hulls. Unfortunately for the ships firing on Roger, his shells did not bounce off their wooden hulls. Each of the attacking warships was given one shot right at the waterline just abaft the bow. That one shot was all it took. They began to list and sank in varying amounts of time. Some of them began burning as they sank. The harbor was littered with debris and floating bodies. Roger ignored the carnage and his ships slowly moved downstream. Every time another ship or a shore battery took him under fire he responded in kind. By his best count they sank 23 English warships and badly damaged four forts and three shore batteries as they departed. The last seven warships he came close to struck their colors in surrender as the NAU ships approached. Roger considered removing their crews and sinking them but decided not to do so. He felt England would need the ships to defend herself from the French and Spanish.