The Sword And The Dagger

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  The war dragged on. In 1812 the formerly neutral United States declared war on the United Kingdom. The diversion of supplies and funds to defend Canada helped Napoleon in his efforts in Europe. An understanding was signed in December 1814 between the United States and United Kingdom, the status quo ante bellum. Spasmodic fighting took place for a few months after the treaty, including the Battle of New Orleans and the burning of Washington, but peace eventually prevailed.

  In 1815 the war of the seventh coalition in Europe raised the United Kingdom, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, Netherlands and German states against France. Napoleon engaged in a war against Russia, badly weakening his armies in the process. Declared neutral countries seized the opportunity to finish Napoleon. The French armies failed to keep the British, under Arthur Wellesley first Duke of Wellington, and the coalition forces apart at Waterloo in Belgium on the 18th of June 1815, forcing a retreat back to France. Politics and public outcry forced Napoleon to abdicate on the 22nd of June and a ceasefire was signed on the 4th of July. On the 15th of July Napoleon surrendered to the British at Rochefort near Brussels. The United Kingdom and its allies exiled Napoleon to St Helena Island in the South Atlantic where he died in May 1821.

  At the time of Napoleon’s death a brilliant engineering student, William Ryan McGuire, attending Cambridge University, England had recently celebrated his nineteenth birthday. He returned to his home in Bantry Bay, Ireland every Christmas holiday, spending time with his mother's parents who had raised him from a child.

  The reputation of his father had followed him everywhere and every Christmas he spent time next to an old hollow tree on Whiddy Island in Bantry Cove. It was this time that was the hardest for Will. He thought of his father and could see the Ghost firing her cannon in the bay and felt the power of the shock waves as he sat above the crashing waves that had carried his father far from him. This had always given him the strength to go on but inside he had always missed his father.

  Not much had been heard of Fial McMurrin, some said he was deep in the Congo jungle, others said he was dead. Ships of his fleet had joined the naval assault on France during the later years of the Napoleonic Wars bringing news of his father but he had been able to find out nothing in the last year, immersing himself in work to occupy his mind. Attempts to find him in Soyo were met with stiff resistance from strong African factions controlling the port and river Congo.

  William Ryan McGuire obtained a pass in mechanical arts and engineering in 1823 from Cambridge, opening an engineering shop in Cork, Ireland catering for the shipping and mining industry with high pressure steam engines. The first steam rail system was being built in Ireland and steam had started to replace sail in the shipping industry. He was asked by the church and locals to run for a seat in parliament but declined as he felt he had no heart for such a venture, preferring to help people at a grass roots level.

  Whilst on a visit to London he had a chance meeting with politician William Wilberforce. This rallied his resolve to find what had happened to his father as he was told of his father's quest for the freedom of the common man and equality for all. Will searched for information on his father in library archives in London but found his name mentioned nowhere, including the Battle of Trafalgar.

  In 1832 Will read of an uprising by slaves in Jamaica. Organised and determined they had taken control of their environment. It was rumoured the skills used by the slaves to organise the uprising had originated from the Congo. He had read much of William Wilberforce legislating for the abolition of the slave trade and became as interested and supportive of the man as his father had been after hearing he had set up an organisation called the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, animals being close to Will’s heart.

  Will was distressed to hear of the death of Wilberforce on the 29th July 1833. One month later he read of the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act, August 1833, officially abolishing slavery in the British Empire. Will was a businessman and used to reading fine print in supply contracts for the government. He acquired a copy of the act and did not like what he read. The act was two steps forward and one step back.

  At the age of thirty-one he decided to find his father, for he felt in his father he would find guidance.