A Brig of War nd-3

by Richard Woodman

  'Surely the honour should go to the officer whose exertions secured the prize? Isn't that the tradition?'

  Blankett waved the assumption aside. 'Well 'tis tradition, to be sure, but sometimes a little done for one's friends… you know well enough, Strangford.'

  'True sir, but I thought myself,' Wrinch laid a little emphasis on the pronoun to indicate his was a position of some influence, 'that the officer most deserving was Drinkwater. His efforts have been indefatigable.' Wrinch met the eyes of the admiral. 'I am sure you agree with me, sir, now that Griffiths is dead, that you will see eye to eye in the matter.' Wrinch's voice had an edge to it which changed abruptly to a tone of complicit bonhomie, 'As of course we have over so much lately: your accommodation at my house with its attendant comforts, the matter of the disbursement to my Arab friends at Al Wejh…' he trailed off, allowing the significance of his meaning to sink in.

  But Blankett was unabashed and shrugged urbanely. 'Perhaps, Strangford, but Mr Morris is a pressing candidate, he has some clout with their Lordships though why he is only a lieutenant I cannot guess. I shall consult Ball upon the matter. At all events I am obliged to hold an enquiry into the loss of the Hellebore, the more now that their Lordships are screaming out for her speedy return home.'

  The court was convened aboard Leopard on 1st October 1799 under the chairmanship of the rear-admiral. The members of the court were Captain Surridge of the Leopard, Ball and Stuart of Daedalus and Fox, and Commander Grace of the Hotspur, the sloop that had brought Morris out from England.

  In his capacity as British consular agent Strangford Wrinch, having some formal knowledge of the law, sat as judge advocate. He wore European clothes for the purpose.

  In the absence of her commander, Drinkwater was called first. His deposition as to the brig's loss was read out. In it he outlined his own misgivings about the accuracy of their assumed position. It was followed by that of Mr Lestock, a cautiously worded and prolix document which said a great deal about Mr Lestock's character and little in favour of his abilities. It called forth a sotto voce comment from the admiral that the master seemed very like his 'damned namesake', referring to an Admiral Lestock who had failed to support his principal in battle half a century earlier.

  Rogers's statement was then read out to the court who were by this time finding the heat in Leopard's cabin excessive, packed as it was by so many officers in blue broadcloth coats. Rogers was called to the stand.

  'Well, Mr, er…'

  'Rogers, sir.'

  '… Rogers,' said the admiral whose wig was awry above his florid face, 'this ain't a hanging offence but it does seem that you presumed a great deal, eh?' On either side of him three post-captains and the commander nodded sagely, as if men of their eminence never made errors of judgement.

  'It was hardly "a misfortune" that breakers turned out to be over a reef, sir, is it, eh? Stap me, where else d'you expect to find 'em? Had you hove-to and found two hundred fathoms and made yourself the laughing stock of the whole damned squadron you could hardly have been blamed. It would certainly have made more sense.'

  Drinkwater watched the colour mount to Rogers's face and felt sorry for him. He knew the loss of the brig had been acutely felt by Rogers. It had tempered his fiery self-conceit into an altogether different metal. Blankett whispered to the officers on either side of him. Drinkwater noted Commander Grace seemed to be making a point and looking in his direction. Blankett passed a napkin across his streaming face and addressed the court.

  'Very well gentlemen, I see there are mitigating factors. Captain Grace reminds me of Mr Drinkwater's observations about refraction and adds he has been making a study of the phenomena. In the circumstances the court take cognizance of these factors, though these do not relate directly to Mr, er, er the lieutenant's conduct on the night in question.' He looked round at his fellow judges and they each nodded agreement.

  'It is the opinion of this court of enquiry that the loss of His Britannic Majesty's Brig-of-War Hellebore upon the night of 19th August last was due to circumstances of misadventure. But it wishes to record a motion of censure upon Lieutenant…'

  'Rogers,' put in Wrinch helpfully.

  'Rogers, as to the degree of care he employs while in charge of a watch aboard one of His Majesty's ships of war.' The sweat was pouring down Blankett's face and he wiped it solemnly. 'That I think concludes our business.'

  The admiral rose heavily and withdrew as the court broke up. Drinkwater found himself approached by Grace who wished to see his figures on refraction while Rogers hovered uncomfortably. When Grace had been satisfied Drinkwater turned to Rogers. 'Well Sam, 'twasn't too bad, eh?'

  'Is that it? Does that mean there will be no formal court-martial?'

  'I think not. Griffiths is dead and the navigation of the Red Sea intricate enough to mollify this court. By the time the admiral's secretary has dressed up the minutes of these proceedings for the consumption of a London quill-pusher, and by the time it takes for the mills of Admiralty to grind, I wager you'll not hear another word about it.'

  They went out into the blinding sunshine of the quarterdeck to bid Wrinch farewell.

  'I doubt we will meet again, Nathaniel,' said Wrinch extending his hand which emerged from an over lavish profusion of cuff extending from a sober black sleeve. 'Now that the matter of the brig's loss is concluded Blankett will be anxious to have you on your way. I have done you a little service. I think by sunset you will have an epaulette.' Wrinch smiled while Drinkwater stammered his thanks. 'Do not mention it, my dear fellow. God go with you and do you mind that sot Morris, there's no love for him in the squadron and I think he'll accompany you home.'

  They watched him descend into the admiral's barge and were on the point of calling their own boat when a midshipman approached Drinkwater.

  'The admiral desires that you attend him in the cabin, sir.'

  Drinkwater returned to the admiral's presence. The green baize covered table was swept clear of papers and a bottle and glass had replaced them. The admiral sat in his shirt-sleeves with his stock loosened.

  'Ah, Mr er, Mr…'

  'Drinkwater, sir.'

  'Ah, yes, quite so. Prefer wine myself,' chuckled the admiral pouring himself a glass. He swallowed half of it and looked up. 'The matter of the Antigone. I have it in mind to promote you, subject of course to their lordships' ratification. You will receive your commission and your orders to proceed without delay to Spithead. You will also carry my dispatches. Have the goodness to send an officer an hour before sunset. I understand the frigate is adequately supplied?'

  Drinkwater expressed his gratitude. 'As to provisions, sir, she was wanting only her guns when we took her. The French had salted a quantity of mutton looted from the Arabs and we were able to salvage much from the Hellebore.'

  'Good, good. Now Mr, er, Mr Drinkwater, as to the conduct of the prize, I understand that Commander Griffiths had no prize money arrangement with Stuart or Ball, is that so?' Blankett's voice was suddenly confidential.

  'I believe that to be the case, sir.'

  'Good. Well you stand to profit from the venture if you bring her home in one piece.' The admiral fixed Drinkwater with a steely eye.

  'I think your eighth will be safe, sir,' he volunteered, forming the shrewd and accurate suspicion that the rear-admiral had some designs on Griffiths's share of the head money on the action with La Torride as well as his portion of the condemned value of the Antigone. Blankett scratched his head beneath his wig.

  'You will need an additional officer; best keep that fellow Morris with you. Ball don't want him aboard Daedalus. Damned fellow's got some petticoat influence but Ball says he's a sodomite. I'll send the bugger home before I have to hang him.'

  Drinkwater's mouth fell open. It was clear Blankett would not want Morris left on his hands, even that he knew all about him to the point of remembering his name.

  'That will do, Mr, er… yes that will do, now be damned sure you look after that frigate. Use caution
in the Soundings, I don't want my prize money ending up as firewood in some poxy Cornish wrecker's hovel.'

  Drinkwater withdrew, mixed feelings raging within him. He stopped outside the admiral's cabin to trim his hat. 'Commander Nathaniel Drinkwater,' he muttered experimentally beneath his breath. Then he flushed as the rigid marine sentry, bull-necked and bright red in the heat, coughed discreetly. He strode out on to Leopard's quarterdeck.

  'Nothing serious I hope?' asked Rogers anxiously, still smarting over the censuring of the court. Drinkwater smiled.

  'Depends on your point of view, Samuel.'

  'I'm sorry, I don't follow.'

  'That venal old reprobate,' Drinkwater checked his wild exuberance at having his step in rank at last, 'His Excellency Rear-Admiral John Blankett has had the goodness to promote me to commander.'

  'Well I'm damned! I mean, damn it, congratulations, Mr Drinkwater.'

  'That's very decent of you, Samuel. But don't let us count our chickens just yet. This news will poison Morris.'

  'Isn't he to return to Daedalus… sir?'

  'No, I regret he is not. By a wonderful irony he is to be my first lieutenant. I'm sorry it ain't you, Samuel, but there we are.'

  They hailed their boat, resolving to remain silent upon the matter until Drinkwater had the commission in his hand and could read himself in.

  He waited impatiently for the interminable afternoon to draw to a close. At two bells in the first dog watch he quietly desired Rogers to send a boat to Leopard for their orders. Rogers sent Mr Dalziell.

  Drinkwater sat in his cabin and took out his journal and began to write. It was with great satisfaction that I attended the R.Ad this morning and was acquainted with the fact that I am to be made Master and Commander. This in my thirty-sixth year, after twenty years' sea service. This step in rank removes many apprehensions and vain imaginings from my mind. He paused then added: I thank God for it.

  It was both pious and pompous but he felt his moment of vanity, though it might earn a rebuke from Elizabeth, could be allowed expression in the privacy of his journal. He fell into a brown study dreaming of home.

  Aboard Leopard Mr Dalziell waited in the admiral's secretary's cabin while that worthy, a man named Wishart, inscribed with painful slowness upon a packet.

  'There are your orders.' He carefully handed over a sealed bundle and being a proper man insisted Dalziell signed the receipt before receiving a second. 'And there are the admiral's dispatches. See that your commander puts them in a secure place.' Again they performed the ritual of signature and exchange. And now,' said Mr Wishart drawing a paper towards him, 'the admiral has a dreadful memory for names, what is the name of your senior lieutenant, eh?'

  He dipped his pen and held it expectantly. 'Morris, sir, Mr Augustus Morris, related by marriage to the Earl of Dungarth not unknown to the Earl of Sandwich sir,' Dalziell wheedled ingratiatingly.

  'Is that so? In that case,' said Mr Wishart, sprinkling sand over the recipient's name, 'he seems admirably fitted to sail so fine a frigate home. Here is Mr Morris's commission as Commander.'

  Chapter Eighteen

  Morris

  October 1799

  Drinkwater was not listening to the garbled words of divine service as Morris mumbled his way through them. Morris's voice had not the resonant conviction of Griffiths's splendid diction and Drinkwater's loathing of Morris's too-obvious feet of clay made parody of the Book of Common Prayer. Instead Drinkwater looked forward, beyond the semi-circle of commissioned and warrant officers in full uniform with their left hands upon their sword hilts and cocked hats beneath their elbows, at the hands massed in the waist. There were about eighty men left to take the big frigate home, not many to work her, not enough to fight her.

  But it was not the quality of the number that concerned Drinkwater. His acute senses were tuned to their mood, and in the present calm as the Indian Ocean lay quiet waiting for the first breath of the north-east monsoon, there was an ugliness about it. It was as though the expectant oiliness of the sea exerted some influence upon the minds of the men like that of the moon upon the sea itself.

  Drinkwater discarded the over-ripe metaphor, aware that his own chronic disappointment was souring him. Their hurried departure from Mocha, the stunned disbelief as he had stood as he did now and listened to Morris confidently reading his commission to the ship's company had triggered his depression and sent him miserable to his cabin, to grieve over his own ill-fortune and, at last, the loss of Griffiths.

  In reality that onset of depression had saved him from rashness. Later Rogers had accosted him over the matter, only to reveal that he had himself sent Mr Dalziell to obtain the commission. Now Rogers, already shaken in his confidence over the loss of the brig and the censure of the admiral, had retreated into his own resentment. With the two lieutenants nursing their private grievances Morris had triumphed and Antigone was out of the Gulf of Aden before Drinkwater cast aside his 'blue devils' and resolved to make the best of things.

  But he knew it was already too late. While the officers had sulked the men had been scourged. Morris flogged savagely for every small offence that was brought to his notice by his toadies. Among these was a man name Rattray, Morris's servant sent over from Daedalus, a thin seedy man who padded silently about the ship and swiftly became known, predictably, as 'the Rat'. There was Dalziell, of course, promoted acting lieutenant by Morris, who terrorised the hands to Drinkwater's fury; and there was Lestock, whose fussing temperament seemed seduced by Morris's brand of command by terror. It was these men who formed the Praetorian Guard round their new commander, a little coterie of self-seekers and survivors who wielded enormous influence and filled the punishment book with trivial entries.

  Drinkwater's mouth set in a hard line as he thought of the increased number of times he had had to make entries in that book. The binding no longer cracked as it had done when Griffiths commanded them. Of course the entries read well. Insolence for a man laughing too loudly when the captain was on deck; Defiling the Deck for a man who spilled his mess kit by accident; Improper Conduct when a rope was untidily belayed on the fife-rails, all trivial matters ending up with the culprit being seized to the gratings.

  Morris closed the Prayer Book with a snap, recalling Drinkwater to his duty.

  'On hats!' Routinely Drinkwater touched his hat brim as Morris went below.

  'Bosun! Pipe the hands to dinner!' he turned away to find Rattray alongside him, as though he had been there all the time, silently listening to Drinkwater's thoughts.

  'Cap'n's compliments, sir, and he'd be obleeged if you'd join him for dinner at four bells.'

  Drinkwater searched the man's face for some reason for this unexpected courtesy. He found nothing except a pair of shifty eyes and replied. 'Very well. My thanks to the captain.'

  He looked forward again to see Appleby and Catherine Best crossing the deck. They had become very close since Morris took command and Drinkwater thought that the presence of the woman even exerted some restraining influence upon Morris himself. Drinkwater uncovered to her. 'Mornin' Mistress Best. I see Mr Wrinch's promise of something more suitable to wear was no vain boast.'

  Catherine smiled at him, a shy kind of happiness lighting her eyes while her right hand swirled the skirt of Arab cotton in a small coquettish movement.

  'Indeed, Mr Drinkwater, it was not.' Drinkwater looked at Appleby, who was blushing furiously. He smiled, touched his hat again and turned to the quartermaster.

  'Well bless my soul,' he muttered to himself, then, in a louder tone, 'call me if there's any wind.' The quartermaster acknowledged the first lieutenant and Drinkwater went below to change his shirt.

  The meal, at which no others were present, was conducted in silence. Rattray padded behind their chairs and even with the after sashes lowered the air in the large cabin was stale and hot. When the dishes were cleared away a bottle of port was decanted in Santhonax's personal crystal and, Drinkwater noticed, circulation was slow. The decanter did duty a
t Morris's glass three times before being shoved reluctantly in his direction. Drinkwater drank sparingly, aware that Morris's appetite was gross.

  'Have you seen that?' Morris pointed to where, half hidden behind the cabin door a woman's portrait hung on the white bulkhead. Already his voice was slurred. 'I presume it to be the Frog's whore.' Drinkwater found the portrait amazing. Hortense's grey eyes stared out of the canvas, her long neck bared and her flaming hair piled up above her head, wound with pearls. A wisp of gauze covered the swell of her breasts. He remembered the woman in the cabin of Kestrel and stumbling on the beach at Criel where they had let her go free. He found the portrait disquieting and turned back to Morris. The man was watching him from beneath his hooded eyelids.

  'She's his wife,' said Drinkwater, returning Morris's stare.

  'And what of Appleby's whore, Nathaniel? Is she what I am told she is, a convict?'

  It was pointless to deny it, but then it was unnecessary to confirm it. 'I believe she has redeemed herself by her services to the ship. As to her status, I think you are mistaken.'

  Morris waved aside Drinkwater's compassion, to him the pompous assertion of a liberal. 'Pah! She is Appleby's whore,' repeated Morris, slumping back into his chair.

  Drinkwater shrugged, aware that Morris was wary, beating about the bush of his intention in asking Drinkwater to dine. He wished they might reach a truce, unaware that Morris had left him upon the beach at Kosseir. Their enmity aboard Cyclops was long past, they were grown men now. Whatever Morris's private desires were, they were not overt.

  'You are wondering why I have asked you to dine with me, eh? You, who crossed me years ago, who saw to it that I was dismissed out of Cyclops…'

  'I did no such thing, sir.'