Alexander Kent - Bolitho 20 Darkening Sea

by Darkening Sea [lit]

  Avery commented, "Smart boat, Sir Richard."

  The bowman was already standing with his boat hook poised: the lieutenant was beside the coxswain, gauging the moment.

  "Oars, up!' The boat's crew tossed their oars, each blade in perfect line with the next. It said a lot for their training, when Valkyrie had been commissioned for so short a time.

  The gig glided alongside the weed-covered stairs and the bowman hooked on to a mooring ring.

  The lieutenant scrambled ashore, his hat already in his hand as he snapped stiffly to attention with a flourish.

  Tinlay, Sir Richard, fourth lieutenant!"

  Bolitho saw the young officer's eyes flicker between them, from the famous vice-admiral to the lieutenant with the twist of gold cord at his shoulder to mark him as Bolitho's aide.

  "Very well, Mr. Finlay. You have an impressive crew." He saw the lieutenant blink, as if he were unused to praise.

  "Thank you, Sir Richard!"

  Avery climbed down into the stern sheets and looked up to watch his new master as he turned, shading his eye to look at the land, the green hump of Mount Edgcumbe, the tiny cottages huddled together in the sunshine.

  Bolitho knew the two lieutenants were observing him. Only the gig's crew remained motionless on their thwarts, although the nearness of dry land was usually enough to relax even the tightness of any discipline.

  Good-bye, my dearest Kate. Though distance separates us, you are always with me.

  Then, holding the presentation sword against his hip, he climbed down into the boat.

  The lieutenant jumped down and called, "Cast off! Bear off forrard!" And as the stream carried them clear he added, "Out oars! Give way all!"

  There was a breeze on the water and Bolitho could feel it stinging his eyes, as if to mock his formality. He glanced at the oarsmen, well turned out in their checkered shirts and tarred hats. There was something different, something wrong. Their eyes were fixed on the stroke oar, their bodies pushing the looms, then leaning back as the blades bit into the water as one. He tried to put it from his mind. A new ship, a different captain to most of them, a future as yet unknown; it was to be expected. He turned to watch a passing guard boat, oars tossed and an officer standing in the stern sheets his hat raised in salute as he saw the flag officer in the gig. They would probably all know by now, he thought. He glanced at the seamen again. Not hostile, not indifferent. Cowed. It was the only description.

  So Trevenen had not changed. On matters of discipline and performance he had been described as a fanatic.

  Finlay the fourth lieutenant ventured hesitantly, There she lies, Sir Richard."

  Bolitho shaded his eyes. Valkyrie was big, right enough. From a distance she looked almost as large as Hyperion had been, and she had been a two-decked seventy-four.

  Finlay was shifting nervously on his seat. "Watch her, Cox'n! You have the current under your coat-tails!"

  The man at the tiller nodded, his eyes measuring the boat's speed through the water.

  Bolitho saw the scarlet coats of the marines already in position and had the impression they had been there for a long time. Sunlight flashed on several telescopes, and even at this distance he thought he heard the trill of calls. It had taken him years to get used to these moments, steeling himself for the first encounter. He had always tried to put it in proper perspective, telling himself that they would be more worried about him than he should be about them.

  Another boat was leaving the frigate from the opposite side, moving fast, two armed marines in the stern.

  Avery said quietly, There's a body in that cutter, sir."

  Bolitho had already seen it. Covered in a piece of canvas, one arm outflung as if the man was asleep.

  Bolitho asked, "What has happened?" When Finlay remained silent he snapped, "That was a question, Mr. Finlay!"

  The lieutenant stared ahead of the boat and answered unhappily, "A defaulter, Sir Richard." He swallowed hard. "He died under punishment this forenoon."

  Bolitho saw the stroke oarsman watching him for just a few seconds before he stared fixedly aft again. He had been looking at him, trying to find something. As if he were pleading.

  Bolitho pulled down his hat more tightly as the breeze dashed spray over the gunwale.

  "What had he done?"

  Finlay had gone pale, as if he was revealing something improper which might rebound on him.

  "He he swore at a midshipman, Sir Richard."

  "And?"

  "Three dozen lashes, Sir Richard." He was biting his lip so hard it was a wonder it did not bleed.

  Bolitho was aware that his flag lieutenant was listening, learning, trying perhaps to understand why someone so well-placed in the navy should care about a common seaman. Men were flogged every day: one more would make no difference. There were always the hard men who could withstand three dozen and many more and live to boast about the scars left by the infamous cat. The discipline of the lower deck was often worse when one of their own was caught stealing from a shipmate's meagre possessions. It was something that happened and everyone knew about it, and that crude justice separated them from the wardroom and warrant officers as surely as the after guard and the ship's marines.

  Bolitho looked at the frigate, closer now, her mastheads towering to the sky and the Red Ensign streaming above her taffrail, the Union Flag in the bows. He studied Valkyrie's impressive figurehead: a maiden in horned helmet and breastplate, one of Odin's faithful attendants, one hand raised as if to beckon a dead hero to Valhalla. He was surprised that the beautifully carved figure was decorated only with dull yellow dockyard paint. That was strange. Most captains would pay out of their own pockets to adorn their ships' figureheads and the 'gingerbread' around the stern, as Adam had paid for the seductive nymph on Anemone, all gold apart from her eyes. Apart from anything else the gesture showed that the ship had a successful captain, who was not unwilling to spend some of his own prize money. A small thing in its way: but there was more to Trevenen than he had thought.

  He still did not know why his father had disliked the Trevenen family, and his grandfather had apparently loathed them. Land, property, or some other conflict it could be anything.

  He looked at the main battery of guns as the gig swept beneath the tapering jib-boom. They were powerful eighteen-pounders, whereas many of the older frigates still mounted twelve-pounders, as his own had done.

  He had heard that the new American navy had gone even further, and their larger frigates carried twenty-four-pounders. Less manoeuvrable perhaps, but with a broadside like that they could dismast any enemy before she could get within range.

  The gig turned in a tight arc and Bolitho saw the figures at the entry port, the neatly packed hammocks in the nettings, the fresh black and buff paint, which made the hull reflect the current alongside as if it were glass.

  "Boat ahoy!" The age-old challenge echoed across the water, although the telescopes would have revealed much earlier that their expected flag officer had arrived.

  The lieutenant raised a speaking trumpet and replied, "Flag, Valkyrie?

  Bolitho thought of Allday. He would have used just one hand to make his voice carry.

  Avery saw Bolitho's fingers adjusting the gleaming presentation sword. It was a steep climb up the frigate's side, slippery too. No officer, let alone an admiral, would want to pitch headlong into the water after tripping over his sword.

  Bolitho was also thinking as much. Allday had always been there to offer his hand if need be: he was even more protective now that he knew about the damaged eye, and carried the secret like some special award, shared only with the trusted few.

  With oars tossed again the gig hooked on to the main chains and Bolitho reached out to the guide-ropes, waited for the boat to rise on the swell, and then climbed quickly up the ship's tumble home He thought of Catherine, the many walks they had enjoyed, the rides across country at full gallop. It had worked wonders. As he stepped into the entry port he was not even breathless.


  Then, as the Royal Marines presented arms, a cloud of pipe clay lifting above their glinting bayonets, and the calls twittered and shrilled, a small band of boy drummers and fifers struck up Heart of Oak. After the quietness of the gig it was deafening.

  Bolitho doffed his hat to the quarterdeck and the ensign, while from the foremast truck his own flag broke out into the wind.

  He saw Captain Aaron Trevenen stepping forward from his officers, his lined face grave and unsmiling as he said, "Welcome aboard, Sir Richard. You honour me by hoisting your flag above my command, no matter how temporarily."

  Bolitho was equally formal. "A fine ship, Captain Trevenen." He heard Avery coming aboard behind him, probably wondering how Valkyrie would suit him after a ponderous ship-of-the-line.

  He glanced around at the crowded figures on the gangways and clinging in the shrouds, the mass of blue and white on the quarterdeck where the lieutenants and warrant officers waited in respectful silence.

  Trevenen said, "Your quarters are ready, Sir Richard. If there is anything you need, I shall do my best to provide it." His deepset eyes flickered across Bolitho's frocked coat and the Nile medal around his neck. The presentation sword was not missed, either.

  "Perhaps you would wish to meet my officers at your convenience?"

  Bolitho looked at him calmly. "It is a long passage to Cape Town, Captain Trevenen. I hope I shall meet every man-Jack before that." He spoke without raising his voice, but he saw the deepset eyes spark as if he had shouted an insult.

  The captain removed his hat and called, "A cheer for Sir Richard Bolitho! Huzza! Huzza!"

  The watching sailors and petty officers responded loudly. But there was no life in it, no warmth, and as the cheers died away he was reminded of the gig's crew.

  It was then that he saw Allday for the first time. He was standing beside a long eighteen-pounder, somehow managing to look apart from everyone else in his smart gilt-buttoned coat.

  Across the frigate's wide deck their eyes met and held. Only then did Allday give a barely perceptible shake of the head.

  It was all he needed.

  SEVEN

  Confrontations

  Bolitho was standing in the cabin's quarter gallery, shading his eyes from the reflected glare while he studied the impressive slab of the Rock of Gibraltar. Valkyrie had made a fast passage despite her size, only five days, and could have done it faster but for the need to stay in company with the captured French frigate, now renamed Laertes. He could just make her out through a lazy haze that floated above the busy anchorage like an artist's impression of gunsmoke. If he had been right about Baratte, would he already know of his old ship's departure from England under her new name? It seemed quite likely, he thought. Their lordships would probably have retained her original name but there was already a Triton on the Navy List, so that had settled it.

  Bare feet moved about the deck above, and occasionally an authoritative voice called out an order which was always obeyed instantly. It was uncanny after the frigates he had known. Everything was done at the double and in silence. Failure to respond immediately, or walking rather than running to the call even of a lowly midshipman invited a starting at the hands of any boatswain's mate or petty officer on duty.

  They had been at Gibraltar swinging to their anchor for seven days, the new hands staring longingly at the Rock's grim outline or at the passing throng of colourful traders, who were never allowed to venture alongside. The water casks had been refilled, the mail bags had gone ashore. He could not order Captain Trevenen to delay any further.

  Bolitho knew him no better than when he had greeted him on board, and he wondered what his flag lieutenant thought of him. Even on the matter of discipline when Bolitho had mentioned the seaman who had died under the lash, he had not been able to read the man.

  Trevenen had answered almost indifferently, "I reported his death in my despatches to the Admiralty." He had allowed a small hint of triumph into his voice. "I am the senior officer of this squadron, and was authorised to act accordingly. You were not here, Sir Richard, and in any case it was hardly a major crisis."

  "A man's life, for instance?"

  It had been a strange experience to meet Hyperion's old surgeon, still as defiantly independent, and obviously ill at ease under Trevenen's command. Bolitho had avoided mentioning the flogging, but had said, "I thought you might have quit the sea after we lost Hyperion."

  "I pondered on it, Sir Richard. But they don't want me at home." Minchin had waved one powerful hand around the deck. "Besides, the rum's better in a King's ship!"

  The man who had lived through the battle, unable to see what was happening while the timbers shook and cracked around him, had even proved a match for Sir Piers Blachford, the great surgeon from London who had been in Hyperion throughout the battle. A more unlikely pair it was hard to imagine.

  Bolitho left the thick windows, their sills hot from the afternoon sun, and crossed to the small desk which had been provided for his and Yovell's use. Not like a ship-of-the-line but sufficient. In his mind's eye he could picture their weaving passage, first to Freetown then south again along the coast of Africa to Cape Town and Good Hope, where he had done and seen so much.

  At Freetown there might be more information available, which he could digest before the Cape. If they still intended to invade Mauritius they would need many soldiers, horses, guns and supplies. As in the Caribbean these essentials had to be protected, and if he could not root out the island that was being used as a base for French vessels then their lordships would have to support him with more men-of-war, whether they liked it or not. And every mile of the way, through each change of watch and Trevenen's continuous drills, he was being carried further and further away from Catherine. In the past he had expected it and had been prepared for parting. It was his life, as it had been for every sea-officer past and present.

  But with Catherine everything had changed. There had once been moments, up until the very day they had been reunited at Antigua, when he had cared very little if he lived or died. Only the reliance of the many men who had depended upon his skills, or lack of them, had held empty recklessness at bay.

  Unlike Jenour, Avery was little help beyond their daily routine and duty. Bolitho had known officers like him before, able to stay remote even in a crowded man-of-war. He messed in the wardroom but spent most of his time either in his hutch-like cabin, or on deck right aft by the taffrail watching the sea's change of moods.

  Bolitho had been invited to the wardroom just before they had left Plymouth: a pleasant collection of men, mostly young with the exception of the angry-eyed surgeon, the sailing master and the purser. An average wardroom in any such vessel: only a captain would know the strength and the weakness of these men and all the midshipmen and warrant ranks who supported them. They had been very curious about a vice-admiral being in their midst, but had been too polite to say much. If there were rebels against Trevenen's severity, apart from Minchin, they did not reveal themselves.

  There had been another flogging this forenoon. The process had seemed so slow and relentless, the rattle of the drums broken only by the crack of the lash across the man's naked back. Even after Ozzard had closed the cabin skylight he had been unable to shut it out. The defaulter had apparently been found drinking rum in the hold when he should have been painting.

  Two dozen lashes. The man had broken towards the end and had begun to whimper like a beaten animal.

  He is the captain, with all the authority, including mine, to support him. I can do nothing. Trevenen must know exactly what he was doing, how far he could go without criticism from above.

  But also he must surely know that Bolitho could ruin any hope of promotion to flag rank with only a few words in the right place. He must understand me better than I do him.

  Bolitho heard the boats being hoisted up and over the gangway to be swayed down on to their tier. The same would be happening aboard Laertes. The French prize was a command any young officer would c
herish. Originally of thirty-six guns and built in the renowned naval dockyard at Toulon, her main armament was reinforced by some heavy bow-chasers, which would prove invaluable if they ever ran the marauders to earth. Her captain was young and had been posted about the same time as Adam. His name was Peter Dawes, and as the son of an admiral he would seize any opportunity to prove his worth.

  The thought of Adam troubled him greatly. Anemone had been due here at Gibraltar just after them, two days at the most, with a complete ship's company or not. Trevenen had hinted at it, but seemed to be watching and waiting for Bolitho's final decision. He had made it shortly after the latest flogging. They would sail in company with Laertes and continue on passage to Freetown.

  Calls trilled, feet pattered along gangways and down ladders. Valkyrie stirred herself like an awakening beast.

  He could hear the clink of the capstan pawls, the scrape of a fiddle as the seamen threw themselves on the bars to drag the big frigate slowly towards her anchor.