The Wine-Dark Sea

by Patrick O'Brian

  Henry Vidal, a master-mariner shipping as a forecastle-hand for this voyage, bought West's formal coat and breeches. He and his Knipperdolling friends removed all the lace and any ornament that could be taken for a mark of rank, and it was in these severe garments that he presented himself, on his promotion to acting second lieutenant, for his first dinner in the gunroom.

  For this occasion too Stephen dined below; but the nature of the present feast was entirely different. For one thing the ship was still a great way from her settled routine; there was still a great deal to be done aboard the frigate and in the Franklin, and this could not be the leisurely ceremony with which Grainger had been welcomed. For another the atmosphere was much more like that of a civilian gathering, three of the eight people having nothing whatsoever to do with the Navy: at the foot of the table, on either side of Mr Adams, sat two ransomers, men taken from her prizes by the Franklin as security for the sum the ships had agreed to pay for their release; in Pullings' absence Grainger was at the head, with Stephen on his right and Vidal on his left, while in the middle of the table Martin sat opposite Dutourd, invited by Adams on a hint from the Captain.

  It was therefore much less of an ordeal for Vidal: there was no intimidating gold lace; many of the people were as much strangers to the table as he was himself; and he was very well with his neighbours, Grainger, whom he had known from boyhood, and Dutourd, whom he found particularly sympathetic; while Dr Maturin, his shipmate in three commissions, was not a man to put a newcomer out of countenance.

  Indeed, after their first kindly welcome of the new officer there was no need for taking any special care of him: Vidal joined in the fine steady flow of talk, and presently Stephen, abandoning his social duties, as he so often did, confined himself to his dinner, his wine and to contemplating his messmates.

  The ransomers on either side of Adams, the one a supercargo and the other a merchant, both out of fur-traders, were still in the full joy of their liberation, and sometimes they laughed for no reason whatsoever, while a joke such as 'What answer was given to him, that dissuaded one from marrying a wife because she was now wiser? "I desire," said he, "my wife should have no more wit, than to be able to distinguish my bed from another man's,'" threw them into convulsions. It was noticeable that they were both on good terms with Dutourd; and this did not seem to Stephen to be merely the result of their being set free, but a settled state of affairs.

  As for Dutourd himself, Stephen already knew him pretty well in his present condition, since Dutourd came every day to visit those Franklins who had been brought across to be cared for in the Surprise's capacious sick-berth. Stephen necessarily spoke French to these patients, and with such frequent contact it would have been childish to conceal his fluency. Dutourd for his part took it for granted and made no comment, any more than Stephen took notice of Dutourd's English, remarkably exact and idiomatic, though occasionally marked by the nasal twang of the northern colonies, in which he had spent some early years.

  He was sitting there in the middle of the table, upright, buoyant, wearing a light-blue coat and his own hair, cropped in the Brutus fashion, talking away right and left, suiting himself to his company and apparently enjoying his dinner: yet he had lost everything, and that everything was sailing along under the lee of the Surprise, commanded by those who had taken him prisoner. Insensibility? Stoicism? Magnanimity? Stephen could not tell: but it was certainly not mere levity, for what Stephen did know was that Dutourd was a highly intelligent man with an enquiring not to say an inquisitive mind. He was now engaged in extracting an account of English municipal government from Vidal, his right-hand neighbour and Stephen's vis-a-vis.

  Vidal was a middle-aged seaman with much of the dignity that Stephen had often observed in those who were masters of their trade: yet apart from his earrings one would scarcely have taken him for a sailor. His face, though tanned mahogany, was more that of a good-natured reading man and it would have been no surprise to see him reach for a pair of spectacles. He had the habitual gravity expected of an elder, but his expression was far from humourless; there was nothing of the Holy Joe about him and he was perfectly at home in a ribald, profane ship's company and in a bloody, close-fought action. He laughed at his messmates' mediaeval jokes, at the young men's occasional horseplay, and at the facetiousness of his cousin the bosun; but no one, at any time, would have attempted to make game of him.

  Stephen's mind wandered away on the subject of authority, its nature, origin, base or bases: authority whether innate or acquired, and if acquired then by what means? Authority as opposed to mere power, how exactly to be defined? Its etymology : its relation to auctor. From these thoughts he was aroused by an expectant silence opposite him, and looking up he saw Dutourd and Vidal looking at him across the table, their forks poised: reaching back in his mind he caught the echo of a question: 'What do you think of democracy?'

  'The gentleman was asking what you thought of democracy, sir,' said Vidal, smiling.

  'Alas I cannot tell you, sir,' said Stephen, returning the smile. 'For although it would not be proper to call this barque or vessel a King's ship except in the largest sense, we nevertheless adhere strictly to the naval tradition which forbids the discussion of religion, women, or politics in our mess. It has been objected that this rule makes for insipidity, which may be so; yet on the other hand it has its uses, since in this case for example it prevents any member from wounding any other gentleman present by saying that he did not think the policy that put Socrates to death and that left Athens prostrate was the highest expression of human wisdom, or by quoting Aristotle's definition of democracy as mob-rule, the depraved version of a commonwealth.'

  'Can you suggest a better system?' asked Dutourd.

  'Sir,' said Stephen, 'my words were those of some hypothetical person: where my own views are concerned, tradition seals my mouth. As I have told you, we do not discuss politics at this table.'

  'Quite right too,' called out the merchant on Adams' left. 'If there is one thing I hate more than topics it is politics. Damn all talk of Whigs, Tories and Radicals, say I: and damn all topics too, like the state of the poor and slavery and reform. Let us talk about the enclosing of commons, annuities and South Sea stock, like this gentleman here, and how to make two groats where only one grew before, ha, ha!' He clapped Martin on the shoulder and repeated 'Two groats where only one grew before.'

  'I am very sorry to have offended against your tradition, gentlemen,' said Dutourd, recollecting himself, 'but I am no seaman, and I have never before had the honour of sitting down in an English officers' mess.'

  'A glass of wine with you, sir,' said Stephen, bowing to him across the table.

  It had been foreseen that with so much work to do inboard and out the dinner would come to an early end; and once the cloth was drawn it moved on quickly to the loyal toast.

  'You understand, sir,' said Grainger to Dutourd in terms that he had prepared beforehand, 'that those parties who have not the happiness of being his subjects are not required to drink the King.'

  'You are very good, sir,' replied Dutourd, 'but I am perfectly willing to drink to the gentleman's good health: God bless him.'

  Shortly after this the table emptied and Stephen and Martin took a turn on the quarterdeck until six bells, when they were invited to drink coffee with the Captain, who however hungry he might be was required by custom to dine later than anyone else. After the shadowy gunroom the full day was almost intolerably bright, a blue day with white clouds sailing on the warm breeze, a white ripple on the small cross-seas, no marked roll or pitch. They paced up and down with their eyes narrowed until they became used to the brilliance; and Martin said, 'An odd, somewhat disturbing thing happened to me this morning. I was coming back from the Franklin when Johnson pointed out a bird, a small pale bird that overtook us, circled the boat and flew on: certainly a petrel and probably Hahnemann's. Yet although I watched it with a certain pleasure I suddenly realized that I did not really care. I did not mind what i
t was called.'

  'We have never yet seen Hahnemann's petrel.'

  'No. That was what made it so disturbing. I must not compare great things with small, but one hears of men losing their faith: waking up one morning and finding that they do not believe in the Creed they must recite to the congregation in a few hours' time.'

  'One does, too. And on a scale of infinitely less consequence but still distressing there was a cousin of mine in the County Down who found - one morning, just as you say - that he no longer loved the young woman to whom he had made an offer. She was the same young woman, with the same physical advantages and the same accomplishments; she had done nothing reprehensible; but he did not love her.'

  'What did the poor man do?'

  'He married her.'

  'Was the marriage happy?'

  'When you look about among your acquaintance do you find many happy marriages?'

  Martin considered. 'No,' he said, 'I do not. My own is very happy, however; and with that,' nodding over the water at the prize, 'it is likely to be even happier. All the hands who have been on the Nootka run say she is extremely rich. And sometimes I wonder whether, with such a wife, a parish and the promise of preferment, I am justified in leading my present wandering life, delightful though it may be on such a day as this.'

  Six bells, and they hurried down the companion-ladder. 'Come in, gentlemen, come in,' cried Jack. He was always a little over-cordial with Martin, whom he did not like very much and whom he did not invite as often as he felt he ought. Killick's arrival with the coffee and his mate's with little toasted slices of dried breadfruit masked the slight, the very slight, awkwardness and when they were all sitting comfortably, holding their little cups and gazing out of the sweep of windows that formed the aftermost wall of the great cabin, Jack asked, 'What news of your instrument, Mr Martin?'

  The instrument in question was a viola, upon which, before it was broken, Martin played indifferently, having an uncertain ear and an imperfect sense of time. No one had expected to hear it again this voyage, or at least not until they touched at Callao; but the fortune of war had brought them a French repairer, a craftsman who had been sent to Louisiana for a variety of crimes, mostly crapulous, and who, escaping from bondage, had joined the Franklin.

  'Gourin says that Mr Bentley has promised him a piece of lignum vitae as soon as he has a moment to spare: then it will be only half a day's work, and time for the glue to dry.'

  'I am so glad,' said Jack. 'We must have some more music one of these days. There is another thing I wanted to ask, for you know a great deal about the various religious persuasions, as I recall?'

  'I should, sir, because in the days when I was only an unbeneficed clergyman,' said Martin, with a bow towards his patron, 'I translated the whole of Muller's great book, wrote my version out again in a fair copy, saw it through the press and corrected two sets of proofs; every word I read five times, and some very curious sects did I come across. There were the Ascitants, for example, who used to dance round an inflated wine-skin.'

  'The people I should like to know about are Knipperdollings.'

  'Our Knipperdollings?'

  'Oh, Knipperdollings in general: I do not mean anything personal.'

  'Well, sir, historically they were the followers of Bernhard Knipperdolling, one of those Miinster Anabaptists who went to such very ill-considered lengths, enforcing equality and the community of goods and then going on to polygamy - John of Leiden had four wives at a time, one of them being Knipperdolling's daughter - and I am afraid that even worse disorders followed. Yet I think they left little in the way of doctrinal posterity, unless they can be said to live on in the Socinians and Mennonites, which few would accept. Those who use the name at present are descendants of the Levellers. The Levellers, as you will recall, sir, were a party with strong republican views in the Civil War; they wished to level all differences of rank, reducing the nation to an equality; and some of them wanted land to be held in common - no private ownership of land. They were very troublesome in the army and the state; they earned a thoroughly bad name and eventually they were put down, leaving only a few scattered communities. I believe the Levellers as a body did not have a religious as opposed to a social or political unity, though I cannot think that any of them belonged to the Established Church; yet some of these remaining communities formed a sect with strange notions of the Trinity and a dislike of infant baptism; and to avoid the odium attached to the name of Levellers and indeed the persecution they called themselves Knipperdollings, thinking that more respectable or at least more obscure. I imagine they knew very little of the Knipperdollings' religious teaching but had retained a traditional knowledge of their notions of social justice, which made them think the name appropriate.'

  'It is remarkable,' observed Stephen after a pause, 'that the Surprise, with her many sects, should be such a peaceful ship. To be sure, there was that slight want of harmony between the Sethians and the Knipperdollings at Botany Bay - and in passing I may once more point out, sir, that if this vessel supplied her people with round rather than square plates, these differences would be slighter still; for you are to consider that a square plate has four corners, each one of which makes it more than a mere contunding instrument.' He perceived from the civil inclinations of Captain Aubrey's head and the reserved expression on his face that the square plates issued to the Surprise when she was captured from the French in 1796 would retain their lethal corners as long as he or any other right-minded sea-officer commanded her: the Royal Navy's traditions were not to be changed for the sake of a few broken heads. Stephen continued '... but generally speaking there is no discord at all; whereas very often the least difference of opinion leads to downright hatred.'

  'That may be because they tend to leave their particular observances on shore,' said Martin. 'The Thraskites are a Judaizing body and they would recoil from a ham at Shelmerston, but here they eat up their salt pork, aye, and fresh too when they can get it. And then when we rig church on Sundays they and all the others sing the Anglican psalms and hymns with great good will.'

  'For my own part,' said Captain Aubrey, 'I have no notion of disliking a man for his beliefs, above all if he was born with them. I find I can get along very well with Jews or even...' The P of Papists was already formed, and the word was obliged to come out as Pindoos.

  Yet it had hardly fallen upon Stephen's ear before a shriek and the crash of glass expelled embarrassment: young Arthur Wedell, a ransomer of Reade's age, who lived and messed in the midshipmen's berth, fell through the skylight into the cabin.

  Reade had been deprived of youthful company for a great while, and although he was often invited to the gunroom and the cabin he missed it sorely: at first Norton, though a great big fellow for his age, had been too bashful to be much of a companion in the berth, but now that Arthur had been added to them his shyness wore away entirely and the three made enough noise for thirty, laughing and hooting far into the night, playing cricket on the 'tween-decks when the hammocks were out of the way or football in the vacant larboard berth when they were not; but this was the first time they had ever hurled one of their number into the cabin.

  'Mr Grainger,' said Jack, when it had been found that Wedell was not materially injured and when the lieutenant had been summoned from the head, 'Mr Wedell will jump up to the mizen masthead immediately, Mr Norton to the fore, and you will have Mr Reade whipped up to the main. They will stay there until I call them down. Pass the word for the carpenter; or for my joiner, if Mr Bentley is not in the way.'

  'I have rarely known such delightful weather in what we must, I suppose, call the torrid zone,' said Stephen, dining as usual in the cabin. 'Balmy zephyrs, a placid ocean, two certain Hahnemann's petrels, and perhaps a third.'

  'It would be all very capital for a picnic with ladies on a lake, particularly if they shared your passion for singular birds; but I tell you, Stephen, that these balmy zephyrs of yours have not propelled the ship seventy sea-miles between noon and noon thes
e last four days. It is true that we could get along a little faster ourselves, but clearly we cannot leave the Franklin behind; and with her present rig she is but a dull sailer.'

  'I noticed that you have changed her elegant great triangular sail behind.'

  'Yes. Now that we are making progess with her lower masts we can no longer afford that very long lateen yard: we need it for pole topgallants. Presently you will see that twin jury mainmast of hers replaced by something less horrible made up from everything you can imagine by Mr Bentley and that valuable carpenter we rescued: upper-tree, side-trees, heel-pieces, side-fishes, cheeks, front-fish and cant-pieces, all scarfed, coaked, bolted, hooped and woolded together; it will be a wonderful sight when it is finished, as solid as the Ark of the Covenant. Then with that in place, and the respectable fore and mizen we already possess, we can send up topmasts and the pole topgallants I was telling you about. That will be best of what breeze there is. How I long to see her royals! I have sworn not to touch my fiddle until they are set.'

  'You are in a great hurry to reach Peru, I find.'

  'Of course I am. So would you be, could you see our bread-room, our spirit-room, reckon up our water and count our pork and beef casks, with all these new hands aboard. Above all our water. We had no time to fill at Moahu, or the Franklin would have run clear. And she having pumped all hers over the side, we are now in a sad way. There is only one thing for it: no fresh water will be allowed for washing clothes or anything else: only a small ration for drinking - no scuttle-butts standing about -and a minimum for the steep-tubs to get what salt off the pork and beef that towing them in a net over the side won't do.'

  'But since we can go so much faster, could you not give the Franklin a modicum, sail briskly on and let her follow? After all, Tom found his way here: he could surely find it back.'

  'What a fellow you are, Stephen. My whole plan is to arm her with our carronades and cruise in company, snapping up what China ships, whalers and fur-traders may appear, then to send Surprise in to Callao with, I hope, a captured ship or two so that they can be disposed of there and you can go ashore. Tom will be in command - they are used to him in Callao because of the prizes he took on the way out - and the barky will go on topping it the privateer. And while you are looking after your affairs and Tom is victualling, watering and getting in stores, I shall cruise alone offshore, sending in captures from time to time or at all events a boat. But without we spread more canvas we shall never get there before we die of thirst and starvation: that is why I am so eager to see the Franklin fully masted and looking like a Christian ship at last, instead of a God-damned curiosity.'