Suddenly the man’s face broke into a rueful grin. ‘Well, be damned to it but you’ve landed us fair ’n’ square!’ He chuckled.
‘You’re American?’ Renzi said, in astonishment.
‘Right ’nough. Jonathan Miller’s my handle.’
‘You give the orders?’ Renzi said in disbelief.
‘I do, an’ I don’t take kindly to this guff about the French Navy takin’ all the credit.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Who’m I talkin’ to?’
‘Smith,’ Renzi said neutrally. ‘Nicholas Smith.’
Miller gave a conspiratorial smile. ‘It’ll do as well as mine, I guess.’
‘You were saying?’ prompted Renzi.
‘Well …’
‘We have the operations room and all the papers,’ Renzi said, ‘largely unburned. It shouldn’t take long to put it all together.’
With a sigh Miller began, ‘It’s quite a story, Mr Smith.’
‘I’ve got time.’
‘A splash o’ wine would help.’
Renzi called for some, then settled back to hear Miller’s tale.
‘I’m a businessman from Charleston, where I’m known as one savvy trader, I’ll have you believe.’
‘Go on.’
Miller took charge of the wine and poured a glass for them both, then drank deeply.
‘It’s like this. In business when you see an opportunity you go at it with both hands, you know what I mean?’
‘Quite. Please continue.’
‘The French here, they have a problem. You. So I figure a way out for ’em.’
‘You did? This is a naval matter, I’ll remind you.’
‘Ha! No, it’s not – it’s a business prospect.’
‘Er, I don’t follow.’
‘They can’t ship sugar to France on account o’ your cruisers. No sugar, no trade, no revenue. I’m in the business to remedy just that.’
‘How?’
‘Like I said, it’s a business. We work together, partners like. I lay out the cash, supply the necessaries and take care o’ the management and they … well, they stump up the letters of marque.’
‘I don’t understand – those are for privateers.’
‘Just so! Yours truly has his own fleet of ’em, funded, run and managed by me, but under the French flag.’
‘A fleet of privateers?’
‘Why not? Have ’em working together, send ’em where the meat is. That’s why I’ve got the French Navy – they do all the operations stuff, signals and such. I concentrate on the money-making.’
Renzi gave a half-smile. Privateering was a business like any other, with investors and suppliers, profits and losses. By opening up to large scale – a fleet – it would be possible to pool expenses, lay in supplies wholesale and oversee manning efficiencies. When combined with the expertise of a navy in fleet-level deployments, the effects would be – had been – devastating.
He sat back in admiration. By funding the operation Miller had provided the French with a powerful naval tool and at no expense. It had been a huge capital risk but had no doubt paid him back handsomely.
It was masterful – and it threw up as many questions as it answered.
‘Do tell me, Mr Miller, how did you realise on your prizes? There are no French courts to condemn same that I know of in this part of the world.’
‘Ah, well, no harm to tell you now, seeing as it’s all over.’
He helped himself to another glass. ‘We take only ships we know about, and we plan smart. Make up papers as says she’s an American, new-bought from the English who are too frightened to sail. Papers say as how we’ve been tradin’ with French territory on our own account, as is legal for a neutral. She arrives in Charleston. We’ve a sympathetic Revenoo man who switches papers to show she’s a US trader heading for France under our own dear flag. So – the French madames get their sugar, we split the proceeds and everyone’s happy.’
‘Why are you telling me this? You know we’ll take action.’
‘’Cos in them papers you’ll not catch my name on a one. And on the other, I’d be a fool to think you British are going to take Boney’s Decree without you do something like it yourselves. So there’s only so long this’n is going to work – I’ve made my pile, time to get out.’
‘Well, while you’re in the mood, pray tell me, if you will, how this business works, at all. I’ve a suspicion it’s a very tight operation, well organised, brilliantly run.’
There was no harm in showing his admiration for this American entrepreneur.