Richard Castle and the USS Santa Barbara
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: Except for the true parts, this is fiction. Rating: K, mostly. Time: The turn of the 20th Century.
Castle looked at the line of ships coming towards him. They were moving quite slowly as to maintain formation they could only go as fast as the slowest ship.
"Ring all ahead full, of you please." Castle said. "And be prepared to turn sharply to port."
The Santa Barbara's screws bit into the water and the ship began moving faster and faster until she passed twenty knots.
Castle could see the crews of the enemy ships standing on their bows, waving their weapons and screaming. He smiled.
"Hard a port and fire as the guns bear." He commanded.
The ship heeled over and as the Santa Barbara sped parallel to the line of enemy ships, the guns opened fire. First the five-inch guns, then the 57mm guns, the one pounder pom poms and lastly the machine guns mounted in the fighting tops.
Castle could see the other crews being blown to bloody rags by his guns and damage was being inflicted on half of the enemy ships. He could see fires springing up, but none of his enemies seemed to be sinking.
"Quartermaster, turn about to starboard. We'll go by the last ships in their line and see if we can sink the bastards."
The rudder pushed the ship around and Castle could see that the last two ships in the line had fallen back because of their damage. The Santa Barbara's gunners opened fire and were rewarded with a large explosion on the nearest junk.
"We must have hit her magazine." De Kalb yelled as the junk slowly collapsed in on itself. The next two junks in line were badly battered and one had a decidedly bad list while the other was on fire. Castle could see the crews of both vessels jumping overboard.
The Santa Barbara sped away from the now shattered line of enemy ships.
"Sir," Yelled Franklin. "The steamers are coming after us, leaving the junks behind."
"All ahead emergency and bring her about. They're going to try to use their speed to get close enough for us to board. We'll go between the two on our port side and knock them both out."
The fastest pirate ship was a paddle wheel steamer armed with some elderly muzzle loading cannons. Although old, they could still do damage.
As Castle tried to sail his ship between the two, they both veered towards the Santa Barbara.
"Quartermaster. Ten degrees to starboard. I want to sheer off her paddle wheel. That'll leave her helpless."
The bow of the Santa Barbara slammed into the paddle wheel. The impact not only destroyed the paddle wheel, but it knocked the pirates who were preparing to try to board off their feet. By the time they were up again, Santa Barbara was out of reach.
"Captain!" Yelled Franklin. "The ship to our port is trying to grapple with us."
Castle rushed to the port side and saw that the other pirate ship had gotten way too close for comfort. Pirates were throwing grappling hooks onto the Santa Barbara, hoping to catch them on something and pull their ship close enough to board. As fast as the grappling hooks were thrown, Marines and sailors slashed at their ropes, cutting them loose. Then a large grappling hook, attached to a heavy chain was thrown. It hooked onto the ship and the pirates slowly puled their ship closer. The Marines and sailors tried to cut the chain with rifle fire, but their bullets hardly damaged the steel chain. Then the two ships were together.
The five-inch guns couldn't depress enough to hit the pirate ship, but the other guns fired into her, leaving a bloody mess on her deck. But pirates poured off the ship onto Santa Barbara. As Castle's men were being pushed back or swarmed under, Lieutenant Smith arrive with a party of men. He fired a volley into the mass of pirates and then the fight dissolved into a swirling mass of men and weapons.
Castle saw two pirates leap onto the ship and land just behind Smith, who was concentrating on what was in front of him. Castle raised his own rifle and shot one man off Smith, but he knew he'd never fire in time to save Smith. Then there was an explosion next to his ear. He turned and saw Miss Beckett working the bolt of her rifle. The other pirate was dead, and Smith was alive.
The firepower from Santa Barbara drove the pirates back aboard their own ship. Suddenly Orlovsky appeared with a large crowbar. He used his strength to pry one link of the chain open and the ships moved away from each other. As the range lengthened, the five-inch guns opened up on the pirate at point blank range. Holes were torn in her hull, water poured in, and the pirate soon disappeared under the waves.
"Sir," Someone yelled. "Mr. Potter is wounded."
Castle turned to see Potter slumped against the bulkhead, looking at his bleeding left arm.
"Where is Lieutenant Hawes?" Castle yelled.
"I think he was showing his skill with a rifle on the starboard side." Franklin said, looking down. "I don't see him now."
"Let me look." Miss Beckett said, pulling a wooden box containing first aid materials from the bulkhead. She told Potter to lay down and cut away the sleeve of his uniform.
"That's not so bad." She said. "The bullet went along the grain of your muscles and the wound isn't too deep. I'm going to put some mercurochrome on it and wrap your arm in cotton waste. That should hold you until Dr. Hawes can see you."
"Thank you. Ma'am." Potter said.
"Now, the mercurochrome will hurt a bit." Miss Beckett said as she slathered it on his wound. Potter grimaced, but made no sound. She wrapped the wound with tape and stood up. As she did, she looked out the porthole.
"Dear me. There are some wounded men on the deck." Without another word, she left the bridge.
"Miss Beckett! Where are you going?" Castle demanded.
"There are men who need my aid. Don't worry. I have my rifle with me." And she was gone.
Castle moved out onto the bridge wing. There was the exact man he needed.
"Seaman Orlovsky!" He yelled.
As always, Orlovsky slammed to attention.
"Yes, sahr!" He bellowed.
"Your job is to protect Miss Beckett. Nothing is to happen to her. Understand?"
Orlovsky smiled.
"Yes, sahr."
Miss Beckett found that Hawes had already seen the wounded men and had decided they did not need his immediate attention. He had set up his surgery near the stern of the ship and was busy dealing with the badly wounded men.
Kate did what she could for the rest of the wounded men.
Back on the bridge, Castle checked the enemy. Half of their steamers were out of action and four of their war junks were sunk. As he counted the war junks, one began to list and slowly turned on its side and then sank.
"Okay, seven of them are left now."
The Santa Barbara withdrew a few miles to check for damage to the ship and count their dead and wounded.
"One 57mm gun is out of action, sir." Franklin reported. "It was hit by a stone cannon ball. Can you believe that? No one's used stone cannon balls since the Middle Ages. Anyway, the gun was knocked off its mount, and the barrel was bent. Two crewmen were wounded. Lieutenant Hawes reports we have twelve dead and seventeen wounded, not counting people with minor cuts and abrasions that Miss Beckett patched up. He says three of the wounded, at least, aren't likely to make it. There are six wounded that could fight if necessary. For instance, Marine Private Collins was hit in both legs but can still manage his rifle. In fact, he insisted on being released from sick bay."
"We're going to have to make sure we stay well away from the pirates." Castle said.
"They don't seem to be too anxious to come after us, sir. They're all bunched together. I think they may be deciding what to do next.'
Castle walked to the bridge wing and took out his binoculars. He studied the pirate ships for a long minute.
"We should help them make up their minds, I think. We'll sail to within a mile and a half of them and open fire with the main battery. If they head for us, we'll turn away and keep firing."
Once in range, the Santa Barbara opened fire. A junk and one of the steamers took direct hits and blew up. That was all the pirates needed to see of the American ship.
"Sir, they're headed for the beach. I think they're going to beach their ships and escape to dry land."
Castle nodded.
"We'll stay a good mile from them in case they're playing games with us, and if they're really fleeing, we'll go in and sink their ships."
But, the pirates were fleeing to shore. One pirate gun crew fired a last round at Santa Barbara, which fell hundreds of yards short.
Castle ordered the ship to close to within a mile of the beached pirate ships. He made sure that the ships would never sail again.
"Now we need to go to the port of Haikou. If we're in luck, there'll be no pirates there." Castle said.
They were not in luck.
Castle studied the Haikou Bay with his binoculars. It wasn't much of a bay, just a small indentation in the coastline. This meant that they could sail in and not worry about being trapped in a narrow body of water. But, there were two ships anchored in the harbor, not the one he'd expected. One was the collier he'd been searching for, and the other was a passenger ship. The passenger ship was anchored on the seaward side of the collier. Both were perhaps a half mile from shore.
"Damn." He said out loud. Then he remembered that there was a lady present. "My apologies, Miss Beckett for using such language in front of you."
She grinned.
"I think it's damned bad myself." She replied.
Castle smiled back at her. Her white dress was smeared with the blood of the men she'd helped and one sleeve was torn off. Castle decided she was quite a woman. He had even noticed that the men had begun saluting her as if she were an officer.
Franklin spoke.
"The passenger ship's markings on her funnels indicate she's from the Indo-Pacific Line, and I believe her to be the City of Benares. They sail between India and points all over the Pacific. I'd say that she probably has a couple of hundred passengers and as many crew on her. The collier probably has forty or so."
"I can see armed men aboard the passenger ship, but I can't tell how many." Castle said. "Why haven't they gotten to safety like the other pirates."
"I've heard some dreadful things about the pirate Chen Do, sir." That was Ensign Potter. "His men would probably rather face us than him. We'll kill them nice and cleanly if we can. Chen Do will kill them as slowly as he can."
"We'll have to board the passenger ship first. Just to make sure, we'll use the main battery to bombard the shore. I don't want to be rushed by pirates swarming us from the shore while we're trying to retake the two ships."
The five-inch guns shot up the small city of Haikou and started several fires that gradually merged into one large fire. Castle was sure there were no pirates hiding in the city now.
Castle had the engineers rig grappling irons connected by chains to the Santa Barbara. As the ship closed in on the liner, the grappling hooks were thrown and the two ships were pulled together.
"Mr. Franklin, you are in command. I'll be leading the boarding party." Castle said, buckling on a belt that held his sword and pistol.
"Sir, that's the job of the executive officer. In other words, me." Franklin protested.
"Mike, if I were a Commander, or even a Lieutenant Commander, you'd have the job. But we're both Lieutenants. So, I get to have some fun."
TBC