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SHARPE’S Island
Richard Sharpe and the
Expedition for Manila
Novel by Paul Kaster
Based on Characters created byBernard Cornwell.
Chapter 1
1797 August
Prince of Wales Island (Penang)
Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Wesley stands with his senior officers, Lieutenant Colonel John Sherbrooke and Majors John Shee and Walter Elliott. From the beach west of Fort Cornwallis, they watch the ten ships that carry the ten companies of their regiment, the 33rd Foot.
“At Manila we most likely will have to land onto a beach to take the settlement from the Spanish.
“We will train the men to assault these beaches.” He points to the beaches that stretch to the west of Fort Cornwallis.
“The men have been aboard ship for more than a month. They need them to move.”
Wesley knew how weeks aboard ship can cause the health of men to deteriorate. He had seen the men when they came off the ships at Calcutta after months aboard on the trip out from England.
For this trip, he had set rules for the men’s lives aboard ship that would increase their health daily. He wrote thirty-six orders governing how every man and their officers of the regiment would maintain their health. On prior trips to the Netherlands and India, the regiments had been placed under the care of the ships’ captains. For this trip, he would retain responsibility of the men, but gained agreement from the captains to support his orders.
Every day, each man was to wash. At least every two weeks, each man was to clean his hammock, including washing with seawater and then drying it. With the help of the ships’ crews air was directed below decks to remove “bad air”. Wesley held the officers, sergeants and corporals accountable to enforce these orders.
The orders also included keeping the men active while aboard ship. By sections, time was devoted to walking laps around the ships and lifting weights made from chain or bar shot.
Likewise every man was to bathe daily. Fitness was expected to be maintained by exercise which included lifting dumbbells or other weights.
When the expedition arrived at Prince of Wales’ George Town, Wesley had all the officers report to him with the fitness reports for each of their men. Surprisingly, all of the regiment were fit for duty.
“If the weather permits, tomorrow and each day until we are satisfied, we will practice the men to board the boats, unload on the beach, form up and secure the beach.”
Major Shee has been listening while Wesley talks. “Sir, it is quite warm.” All of them are wearing their standard uniforms which are designed for colder climates. Shee frequently uses a cloth to wipe sweat from his head.
“Yes, it is quite warm.” Wesley considers how the men can train in the heat.
“Have the men train without their coats and stocks. Firelocks,, bayonets, pouches, packs, bedrolls, water bottles and hats should do. When we land at Manila, the coats can be brought to them after we secure the land. I don’t expect that any of them will freeze without their coats, eh?”
The other officers smile at the thought.
“Oh, and gentlemen, officers can forego coats and neckwear too.”
“I am told that each ship has two boats that can be crewed to carry roughly twenty men each. We will need four boats for each company. I will request the captains first to provide four boats each to the ships that carry the grenadier and light companies and companies two to four first. After the boats deliver these five, they will return to collect companies five to nine. Elliott and I will go with the first boats. Sherbrooke and Shee with second. Ensign Quin will be waiting on the beach for us to record what he sees.”
Sherbrooke looks at the ships and then to Fort Cornwallis. “Will we return to the ships over the beaches, sir?”
Wesley looks to Fort Cornwallis. “We will march to Georgetown. The march will be good for the men. We will repeat the order of the companies. Loading from the pier will be safer.”
“Now gentlemen, will you join me to walk back to George Town to dine?”
Sherbrooke smiles. “It will be our pleasure, colonel.”
They turned to start the two mile walk.
Richard Sharpe stands along the port side of the transport that brought them to Prince of Wales Island. In front of him are the men of the Light Company’s first section. Captain Hughes at the front of the two rows of men.
“The Light Company will board the boats on the command. Officers, sergeants and corporals will go first and move to the rear of the boats. Front rank will go next and sit on the starboard side of the boat. Rear rank will follow and sit on the port side of the boat.”
Someone calls out without Hughes noticing who calls. “What’s starboard?”
Sergeant Hakeswill turns to the looks from port to starboard at the rows of men. “No talking!!! Officer is talking!!!”
Hughes quietly tells Hakeswill, “Thank you, sergeant.”
“Men, port side is your left side. Starboard is your right. Just as we march, left foot goes before right foot.
“When we reach the beach, the experienced men in each rank will be first out of the boats.
Sharpe looks at his section. Hughes had arranged first and third sections on the port side. Second and fourth on the starboard side. Two of the ship’s boats and two from another transport waited below them with sailors manning the oars and tillers. Each boat would transport up to two dozen men of the Light Company to the beach. with his section as they wait to board the ship’s boats.
Looks over the side of the ship as the boats rise and fall in the water. He does not know how to swim.
The transport’s captain had the crew rig gangways and ladders from both sides of the ships. The men can walk down to the boats while holding the rope guide ropes on the ladders. If they had had to use rope ladders only, the risk was higher that some would fall into the water before they got onto the boats. Sharpe was thankful to whomever had ordered the gangways instead of the ladders.
The ship’s bell rings two times. Hughes had been told to load the boats at two bells of the forenoon watch. The regiments colonels and majors would be boarding with other companies today. Wesley had chosen to go with the grenadiers. Hughes gives the command to board the boats t to Hakeswill.
Hakeswill turns to the rows of men on his side of the ship.
“The Light Company will board the boats as instructed on my command.”
He turns to the starboard side and repeats the command. When he finishes, he turns to Hughes.
Hughes nods.
“Company! Board!”
Hughes followed by the men of the first section begin to walk out onto the gangway and then down to their boat. Sharpe will be one of the last to board, so he watches. First section moves quickly and orderly. On the starboard side, second section leaves as well. When the last of the privates of section one are on the gangway, Hakeswill goes. He stops to look down. Sharpe notices that the knuckles of his hand holding the guide rope are white.
Sharpe resists asking Hakeswill if he is afraid. He can see that Hakeswill fears going to the boat.
Ensign Fitzgerald stands at the gangway behind Hakeswill.
“Sergeant Hakeswill? Are you able to proceed?”
“Proceed, sir? Yes, sir. Proceeding now sir. Waiting for my place in the boat, sir.” Hakeswill’s face and neck twitch as he spits the words out.
“Good then, sergeant. Ah, it appears all are in the boat. Your place appears to be ready.”
Sharpe smiles as he hears the young ensign’s words. Hakeswill will have to go now.
Slowly, Hakeswill walks down to the boat.
“Move aside. Move aside. Give me room to board.”
Using his spontoon to help to balance, he puts first one leg and then the other in the boat. He shoves men to the side so that he may move to the bow of the boat. As he sits, Hughes commands to boat’s coxswain.
“We are ready to go.”
The coxwain command’s the boat’s crew. “Ready oars. Shove off.”
The oarsmen on the side of the boat push them away. Once clear the coxswain calls the pace for them to row as he steers with the tiller.
When the first boat is clear, the second moves into place below the gangway.
Fitzgerald advances onto the platform to watch the boat. When the coxswain signals to him, Fitzgerald turns to third section.
“Our turn, men.” Then he descends the walkway ladder.
Sharpe watches Tom and the his men of second rank go. Corporal Green then leads first rank to the boat. Finally, Sharpe is on the gangway. Like Hakeswill, he pauses, but only briefly.
“If I’m to drown, I’m to drown. No one else, not even Hakeswill went into the water. Have to be terribly clumsy to be the only one. Never clumsy when I burgled in London.” He smiles at the thought of climbing in and out of homes when he was younger. He still smiles when he sits in the boat’s bow.
Tom sits next to him. “Why are you so happy?”
“Thinking how easy boarding the boat was. Harder to burgle.”
Before Tom can comment, Sharpe adds, “And, thinking how scared Hakeswill was. Our sergeant says he can’t be killed. He does fear something, eh?” Sharpe smiles as the boat pulls towards their island.
Sharpe’s boat is second from the end of the row of twenty boats. Fourth sections boat is to his left. The eighteen boats of companies two, three, four and the grenadiers is to his right. Together the twenty boats form a jagged row that covers five hundred yards before the beach. The boats alternate take the lead or drop behind as the crews pull on the oars. He watches as each boat surges forward from the strokes of the oars. Ahead of him, the surf line grows closer and closer. When the boat grounds on the beach, Tom and he will be the first to climb out of the boat and into the water. Tom and he will wade through the water to the beach and set the marks for the ranks to form. The men behind him will follow until Green and Fitzgerald end the landing.
Each minute, the beach draws closer. Sharpe prepares himself to jump. He sees that they are less than a hundred yards from the surf line. The coxswain yells his commands to the boat crew. Ensign Fitzgerald is ready to command the section to unload. As the boat crew backs their oars, the bow of the boat grounds on the sand. Sharpe has his firelock slung over his back so that he may use both hands to launch himself over the boats gunwale. When the boat shudders to a halt, he grabs and launches. He knows how to vault from making his way over rooftops in London. The boat’s stern lifts with a wave as he goes which accelerates his speed out. He is able to maintain his position so that both his feet splash into the water together. The water reaches above his knees. The surf pushes against him, but he is able to keep his balance. He looks to Tom who is already moving towards the sand. Sharpe goes too. Up the beach and away from the surf they go. Hughes had directed them to go thirty yards beyond the surfline to stop. Quickly they go.
Behind them, the rest of the section follows. Only Palin is wet above his knees.
“Poor Palin is the clumsiest man in the section. No surprise that he stumbled and got wet.” Sharpe thinks.
He says softly. “Only Palin got wet. Lads did well out of the boat, Tom.”
“That they did. Did you see Hakeswill?”
Sharpe looks to his right. First section is forming, but Hakeswill is still climbing the sand towards them and Captain Hughes. Hakeswill is wet from head to toe. Water drips off his tophat.
Sharpe smiles.
“Seems Hakeswill is clumsier than Palin, eh Tom?”
“Must be. Do ya think someone pushed him out of the boat? He needed to be urged to get into it.”
“If someone pushed him, should have done it in deeper water, eh?”
Tom chuckles.
To Sharpe’s right, Sergeant Bickerstaff hears Sharpe and Tom talking. He too chuckles.
“Sharpe, shut your gob. Hakeswill have you on punishment if he hears Tom and you talking without permission.”
Sharpe knows that Bickerstaff heard what they said. He smiles that Bickerstaff didn’t charge them for talking and talking about Hakeswill. “Good sergeant, our Bickerstaff.” He thinks.
Down the line to his right, Sharpe sees Colonel Wesley walking towards them. When he reaches the light company he addresses them all.
“Men, you have done well. The boats are returning for the rest of our regiment. Light Company, you will move your left so that our other five companies may fill their spaces in the line.”
“Hughes, dress your lines five companies to the left.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Sergeant Hakeswill, the company will dress five companies to the left on my order.”
“Sir!!!”
Hakeswill turns to the company.
“Company, prepare to dress left five companies.”
Hughes nods.
Sharpe knows that he must wait for fourth section to move first, he will then move the nine sidesteps of one section to his left. When he reaches fourth section, he will stop. Fourth section will then move again. They will do this twenty times until there is space for the twenty sections of the next companies that are coming in the boats. Tom and his rank will do the same.
“Company, dress left!”
Wesley watches as Hughes and Hakeswill move the company.
Hughes has moves like this before on the drill field. They have practiced to move one or more companies. Hughes is the last to move with each transition of the line. Wesley moves part of the way with them. When the Light Company reaches its destination, Wesley touches his hat towards Hughes to signal that he is pleased. He then turns his attention to the next landing.
Sharpe looks down the line at Hughes and Hakeswill.
Before he can say anything, Bickerstaff moves closer to him to say, “Sharpe, you handle your section well. Shame Hakeswill insisted that colonel take away your corporal’s cord.”
“Thank you, sergeant.”
“Hakeswill doesn’t like you.”
“Hasn’t since he recruited me in Yorkshire.”
“Watch yourself with him. He’ll have you flogged if you don’t.”
“Yes, sergeant.”
“And, would have been fun to see him out of the boat in deeper water. We’d see if he really can’t be killed, eh?”
Sharpe smiles only. Bickerstaff is a good sergeant.
While Sharpe is musing, the remaining companies of the regiment land and form up. Wesley moves to the center of the line. Down the line, the orders come.
Hughes calls out, “On the command, the regiment will advance one hundred paces.”
From Wesley, the signal is given.
Hughes calls, “Company, advance.”
Sharpe steps forward. After one hundred paces, they stop. He notes that the tree line is three hundred yards ahead.
“The regiment will fire one volley.”
On the command, the men load their firelocks. Front rank fires. Then rear rank steps through them and fires. Sharpe can nolonger see the trees because of the smoke from the volley.
Wesley walks along the rows of his men again. He goes first to the grenadiers and then to the light company.
“Hughes, on the command, form your company into column. You will lead us to George town so that we may return to the ships. The boats will take us off in the same order as we arrived.”
Wesley returns to the center of the regiment.
Sharpe heard Wesley instruct Hughes. He prepares to turn his ranks to form column for the march. Fourth section will lead the march. Bickerstaff, Green and Fitzgerald will move to the head of the line with fourth section when they form column.
“Sergeant Bickerstaff?”
“Sharpe?”
“Permission for the men to sing while we march, sergeant?”
“Will ask Ensign Fitzgerald.”
Sharpe knows that Fitzgerald likes to sing and to sing with the men. Sharpe likes that the men sing. He can see the town ahead. He guesses that it will take them about one hour to reach it. Singing will make the march go faster.
For the next hour, Sharpe marches and sings. When they reach the town, Wesley halts them to drink and eat. The weather is warm. Even though they left their wook coats on the ships, they sweat in the tropical heat.
Sharpe was happy for the rest. The air was hot and humid. While he ate and rested, he watched the regiment. To the side of the companies, Wesley had called all the company commanders, majors and Colonel Sherbrooke to him. Wesley took notes from Ensign Quin and then addressed each captain and then the majors. He gestured back to the beach that they had assaulted. Then he pointed to the village that lies to the right of the landing. He swept his arm from the village back along tree line towards George town.
Major Shee and three of the captains asked questions that Wesley quickly answered. Sharpe was curious what was being discussed. Wesley had trained with him and many of his section when they were recruits in Ireland. Sharpe liked Wesley. In Ireland and the Netherlands he was with the soldiers throughout. He expected much. But, he understood what the soldiers would need to deliver what he asked.
After more than thirty minutes, Wesley dismissed the officers. Hughes came back to the Light Company. Hakeswill called the men to attention.
“Men. We did well today. Colonel Wesley complimented us. Tomorrow, we will land again. He wants us to learn how to soldier so that we can answer every challenge as easily and quickly as we do to eat.”
He pauses. “Now some of you eat more sloppily than others, so we will work on your manners, eh?”
A few men of the men laughed.
“Now back to the ship. The boats are waiting for us at the wharf.”
At the wharf, Sharpe saw Hakeswill. He had resisted early opportunities to say something about Hakeswill’s exit from the boat. While Hughes was talking with the officers of the grenadier company, Hakeswill had walked down the company.
“Captain says you did well. But, tomorrow, you will do better. Make the colonel again. Make the captain look good. I know you’re not polished. Will make you polished.”
Sharpe spoke up. “Sergeant Hakeswill, permission to speak?”
“Sharpie, see lads, not a polished soldier. Sharpie. Not polished. Question Sharpie. Ask Sharpie, ask.”
Sharpe pauses, “Sergeant, since you are a proper, polished soldier, what will you do tonight on the ship with the extra time that you have?”
Hakeswill moves to the front of Sharpe. “Free time? Free time? I have no free time. Company sergeant I am, Sharpe. Where do I get extra free time?”
Sharpe stares ahead with his face as still as stone. “Well, sergeant, all of us need to wash daily. Colonel says so. If we don’t wash, we are not proper, healthy soldiers.”
“Washed soldiers are proper, healthy soldiers. Colonel says so.”
“Well, I figured you already washed today when you got out of the boat. You can do something else with that time while we wash.”
Hakeswill turns fire red. His neck and face twitch uncontrollably. “Sea water is not a proper wash! I have to wash. No free time! Have to wash.”
Corporal Green and Tom were standing near Sharpe as he addressed Hakeswill. They were trying desperately to hold back tears and laughing. The rest of third section where turning away to any side to avoid showing their amazement at what Sharpe has asked.
“Trouble Sharpie! Trouble you are Sharpie! Insubordinate trouble. Have you on charges, I will.”
Hakeswill stops and turns when he hears Ensign Fitzgerald address him.
“Sergeant Hakeswill, what has Sharpe done to deserve charges? I heard him ask a question and explain why he asked. No content worthy of charges.”
Hakeswill shudders and shakes as he looks at Fitzgerald. “Officer says so. Nothing charge worthy, sir.” Slowly and curtly he asks, “Permission to rejoin the captain, sir.”
Fitzgerald turns to see that Hughes is returning to them.
“Yes, sergeant, of course, of course, rejoin our captain.”
Hakeswill snaps to attention, salutes the ensign on his spontoon, then crisply marches off.
Fitzgerald watchs him go, He smiles.
Corporal Green comes up behind Sharpe. “My God, Sharpe you do NOT listen,”
“Corporal?”
“I warn you that Hakeswill is not to be played with. He calls you evil. He IS evil.”
“May be corporal. But, for this moment I couldn’t avoid temptation.” He smiled.
“My God, Sharpe, Tom and I nearly choked when you asked him if he was going to bathe. Tom spit some of his meal out.”
Tom nodded.
“Well, we do use salt water to bathe. Figured he saved some time washing himself and his uniform.”
He thought about Hakeswill in the water.
“Won’t work for us though.”
“Oh, why not,”
“If we wash everything, we get our cartridges and firelocks wet. Won’t fire. Would be worthy of charges.”
Green nods. “That his so. Make sure that none of you lads do a full wash while we practice these boats. Think we will do this many more times before we leave this island.”
“Will make sure third section is the best section in this company, corporal.”
“I’m sure you will, Sharpe. Now we need to get back to our ship.”
Sharpe looked down the wharf. It was time for them to go. Today had been a good day. The lads did well. He had given Hakewill a small payback for taking away his corporal’s cord. Tomorrow would be a new day of opportunities.
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