The Wages Of Virtue (A Poor Man at the Gate Series, Book 8)

by Andrew Wareham

Sir William dug out papers from his desk.

  "Now then, my lord, the first thing is that it ain't a measure of weight, it's by volume at so many bushels, but the bushel itself is now measured more by weight than by size under the new Act, so the mine-owners have agreed amongst themselves what it shall be. Generally speaking, the coal men in Newcastle have laid down that their chaldron shall be of fifty-three hundredweights, each of eight stones of fourteen pounds avoirdupois - that is sixteen ounces dry weight - which is some five thousand nine hundred and thirty-six pounds - more or less two and two thirds of a ton, of coal, that is. But the bushel is measured both in terms of wheat, at one half of a hundredweight, and in water at seventy-seven pounds, and as a cylindrical measure of eight inches across by eighteen and one half tall; so in reality we can argue forever just what a chaldron might or might not be!"

  Robert sat with pencil and paper, came up with about seven hundred and fifty chaldrons to the collier load, assuming the large new vessels became the general rule.

  "Now, my lord, depending on the grade of coal and the pits it comes from, the price in Newcastle is about thirty five shillings to the chaldron, together with a tax of six and six, making about two pounds one shilling and sixpence all told. In London household coals sell at about forty shillings the chaldron, a little less or more, showing a tendency to rise. Of course, the London chaldron is not the same as the Newcastle, being a lot smaller."

  "How much?"

  "Your seven hundred and fifty chaldrons will have become about one thousand four hundred and twenty by the time they reach London, my lord."

  "The tax is paid in Newcastle, you say?"

  "Always, my lord - it would be foolish indeed to pay it in London. If we used the canals then the tax would be about half as much, my lord. I have looked at the costs, but there would be little gain to putting the coal in narrow boats and taking it down river a few miles and then shifting it onto a collier - handling the coal twice would be expensive."

  Too many chances for a dishonest merchant to shave his odds, it seemed. Buy in Newcastle chaldrons and sell in London tons, rounding up your figures and throwing in a few pence more or less for convenience, who could tell just what the mark-up might be? It could be interesting when the taxman arrived, however.

  "Buy exclusively from our own pits and sell only to a named merchant who is our contractor; a degree of control would seem to be wise. How much are we talking about, Sir William?"

  "By guess rather than exact count, a little less than one and a half millions of London chaldrons a year, my lord, rising as the number of people grows, out of course. I had first estimated two million tons, but the figures for taxes paid make it more than that. Reckoning that there's not too much fiddling of the taxes, because loading ships is an obvious, out in the open sort of business, then about two tons of coal a head, or a little less. The amount of smoke in winter says it's a great deal."

  "A thousand loads on one of your new colliers, Sir William, and growing. I would recommend that you ensure your first ship works well, sir - there is a lot of money to be earned!"

  "More to come, my lord, if what they are saying about coal-gas should come to pass. There is street lighting already in every large town, so they tell me."

  "Pall Mall has had its row of gas lamps for fifteen years. They work, as well, much to the annoyance of those who knew that they would do no more than explode the whole roadway as the pipes inevitably rotted away"

  "Extension of the projects to the smaller towns and cities, my lord - a hundred or more of local enterprises. As well, there will be a profit in extending the lighting to every street in London, and it is possible already to bring smaller lights inside houses to augment the candelabra and oil-lamps. I have heard, though I have no direct knowledge of such, that there is such a thing as a gas cooking range."

  Many more establishments for the actual production of gas; local firms to lay and maintain pipes, both great and small; some means of policing the system, for the felonious would very soon seek to abstract gas unlawfully for their own use.

  "The mayor and corporation involved, of course, they having to give permission, and probably a Private Act of Parliament to create each local gas plant, Sir William. Fees to be paid and land bought and canal wharves enlarged. I suspect there might be cash flying in all directions..."

  They exchanged looks of understanding, needing to say no more.

  "Goldsmids Bank, I think, having gone to Mostyns for the insurance, Sir William. I shall arrange for you to speak to them in a week or two. I am sure that you can have a proposal to put to them!"

  "When I was a navigator, my lord, there was an expression much used - I was more than once told to 'put me money where me mouth was'. I think that you have just done that to me now, my lord. I would prefer three weeks rather than two, if that be possible."

  "A married man with a son to inherit must make his fortune, Sir William..."

  "And you are putting me in the way of so doing, my lord. Thank'ee kindly, sir!"

  Robert left, chuckling very quietly and aware that he must not play favourites; he had just put, in potential at least, several tens of thousands into Sir William's pocket - now he must do as much for Fraser.

  Sir William peered at the list on his desk, 'Things To Do This Week' scribed neatly across the top; he worked out just how many hours he would need and decided that he would require something close to one hundred and seventy. On top of that, he would, in the ordinary way of things, spend at least four hours of the weekdays out in the yard, watching what was happening, talking to the lads, being seen.

  "'Six days shalt thou labour', but if I put in all seven and did not waste time sleeping or eating I still should not have enough hours!"

  He had never hired a clerk as an assistant, and now he required more than a pen-pusher, he must have a manager, and a place to put him - a desk and a room, an office purpose built.

  There were two juniors in the yard, crammed into a hutch next to the carpenter's shop, and responsible for the wages and the recording of all expenditures; both were elderly in fact, bald little widowed chaps hunched over their ledgers, earning a pound a week and living invisibly in diggings. Neither could take on more responsibility.

  "Better do it well than make half a job of it!"

  He wrote an advertisement for the local Gazette, inviting applications for the posts of Yard Manager and Commercial Manager and calling for a 'Young Man of a Mathematical Turn of Mind' to consider questions of the 'Design of Steam Ships'.

  Having no office boy he realised that he must walk two streets away to deliver the instruction by hand; he called for his foreman.

  "Knocker, we need a boy to run errands and make the tea and do a bit of clerking besides. Put the word around the lads, ask if any have a son of twelve or so who has his letters and would fancy making a start on the office side of things."

  There would probably be half a dozen candidates to choose between if he put up a notice in the yard, leaving him to make a choice and disappoint five or more of his men. Knocker would do the whole thing discreetly, knowing the hands and their families and also aware of, for example, widow-women whose men had worked at the yard and had left children behind.

  A stroll in the winter sunshine to the newspaper office, acknowledging salutes and raised hats as he passed through the shopping street, much aware of his standing as a great man of the Borough. The editor of the Gazette promised to set the type himself - no errors at all - and to place it prominently in the week's paper.

  "Replies to be made in writing only, Sir William, and delivered to this office?"

  Gracious assent was given, Sir William having forgotten that part. He paid over his silver and took a hand-written receipt which would be submitted with the month's accounts - never a penny left unrecorded. He would dismiss a man for mislaying tuppence of the firm's funds, must be known to be equally rigorous himself.

  Along the road, round the corner, into a busy back street and the premises of the bigge
st of the local builders, recognised immediately and with pleased surprise, Roberts Yard having done all of its own construction work in the past.

  "An office building, Mr Watson, in brick, to replace the wooden shed which was put up temporarily-like when we opened up and is long overdue to go! Three managers' rooms, and one with a big window facing into the sunlight for a drawing office, with a floor sufficient for four desks, which it stands to reason we may one day need. A kitchen space and a cleaner's cupboard, and a place to keep a pair of filing cabinets and a chair for the boy to sit when he must."

  "Yourself to be one of those managers, Sir William? A room of appropriate dimensions then, sir. I shall have a drawing within three days, Sir William, all done proper-like from my man in the architectural line, and a price to go with it, sir. You have a site picked out in your yard, sir?"

  There would be, Sir William promised, he knew just where it was to go.

  He would have liked to locate the offices on the river bank, able to look out of his window and see everything on the slips, but health reasons demanded that he should set up next to the gate, three or four feet higher and a hundred yards back from the water. The Thames was not to be approached lightly, or at all if possible - a dangerous waterway, contaminated beyond all reason.

  "A deep drainage ditch, Mr Watson - we must never be flooded!"

  The prospect was appalling - an office that had been drenched in Thames water would be fit for burning and nothing else.

  There was a letter from Southampton next day; the new collier had been launched, as Sir William knew, and fitting out had been completed and they had taken her out into Southampton Water for her first trials. Certain problems had shown themselves and Sir William might wish to venture down to Southampton to inspect them himself.

  It was the last thing Sir William wanted to hear, or see, but he knew there was no alternative; he ordered post-chaise and four for the morning, gloomily made his way homewards.

  "Southampton tomorrow, Milly! I do not want to go and discover something that I do not wish to know but will be forced to take responsibility for."

  She did not fully understand him.

  "What I mean is, to put it plainly, I have persuaded my lord that our new, big, collier is a wonderful innovation that will make his fortune and mine - and the bloody thing don't work!"

  She thought it might be possible to make a recover, to amend the faults, whatever they might be.

  "Knowles and Hathaway would have put right anything minor - and would be announcing proudly that they had done so and saved the project. They want me there because it can't be done and they want me to say so and carry the can for it!"

  "What will you do, William?"

  "Swear?"

  It rained as well, the seventy miles to Southampton stretching into two days of travel, damp, uncomfortable, tedious. Expensive, too, it was a good thing the firm was paying. He arrived too late on the second day to do anything useful, was forced to wait overnight in his posting house and show up at the yard as the gates opened.

  He stared at the great iron hull tied up at the wharf, far too wide for her length, the boxes for the paddles exaggerating her beam so that she seemed almost square. Two large, black funnels; a bridge high above the deck, open to the elements; three masts, each with a pair of booms and winches to make sail, saving on the numbers of seamen.

  "Steam on those winches, Mr Knowles?"

  "No, Sir William - that is a good suggestion, one to be followed on future vessels."

  "What is the problem, Mr Knowles?"

  "Three knots, Sir William. Unladen! Insufficient to do more than breast the current - we had to bring her back to her berth under tow."

  "Underpowered - the engines lacking the strength to pull her along. Load her with her seven hundred and fifty Newcastle chaldrons and she will not make one knot, if she moves at all. Bigger boilers? Higher steam pressure? Greater bore or stroke on the pistons?"

  Knowles shook his head - each solution would bring another problem in its train, every possibility he had thought of would fail.

  "A bursten boiler would be the sole result, I fear Sir William. I do not see that she can be made to swim."

  It remained only to try to reduce their losses.

  "Break her up and use the plates and engines in smaller vessels?"

  "Costly, Sir William - each rivet to be struck off with hammer and cold chisel and the recovered plates to be patched and new rivet holes bored. Not practical, I fear. The engines can be stripped and installed elsewhere and the wheels themselves can be lifted out by crane."

  "Then what is to be done with the hull?"

  "Cut off the superstructure, Sir William, and then tow her to the end of our wharves and sink her at right angles to the current, having first loaded her with shingle. A breakwater, Sir William, the Itchen being a silty sort of river and the wharves needing to be dredged very frequently."

  "A lot of money spent to catch mud, Mr Knowles."

  "We have learned a useful lesson, Sir William, albeit rather expensively."

  "We have been taught several lessons, Mr Knowles! I have been, I should say! What else have you on the stocks, sir? I can see that you are busy - is that the new ferry for the Isle of Wight on number three slip?"

  "Two closed cabins, Sir William, one of them to be a tea-room, for passengers willing to pay a few pence extra."

  They inspected the yard, then entered on the less enjoyable survey of the books.

  "A net loss of not less than four thousands on the failed collier, Mr Knowles, enough to wipe out almost all profit for the year. Not acceptable, sir, that your bonus should be destroyed by my failure. Strike her costs out of your accounts, Mr Knowles, and write her up separately, assigned to the London yard as an anomalous, uncovenanted, special item. Keep a copy for your records but send the originals to me when all is tidied up. I shall present the self-indictment to my lord - and hope to survive the experience!"

  "Sir William has burnt his fingers, it seems! Better perhaps he should stick to what he knows rather than dabble in engineering, Sir Matthew!"

  Alec Fraser was openly gleeful - if only the Navvy Knight had learned his mathematics and then applied the simple sums to his great new vessel!

  "The beam of his new ship must have grown far more in proportion than the length of the hull, Sir Matthew, thus creating what might be called a 'drag' through the water and a waste of power. A ship of two thousand tons burthen, its boilers side by side, as paddle wheels would seem to predicate, sir, demands far too much from our current engines - as I would have told him, had only he asked!"

  "The firm has learned, Mr Fraser. Expensively, perhaps, but very thoroughly. I would not like to think that our competitors might come to hear of this commercial disaster, sir!"

  Fraser would have delighted in spreading the news of the failure of his uneducated rival - but it would have caused too much harm, it must not be done, not even the most oblique reference to be made.

  "The Southampton people have asked for a design for a winch to be taken off the boiler, Sir Matthew, to raise sail using fewer hands. A pair of booms, their plan, on pole masts."

  It made simple sense; they sketched a sail plan, decided it should work.

  "Courses alone - no topmasts and no great mass of rigging; only a few able-bodied seamen required. No overwhelming need to retain the old patterns, either, Mr Fraser. Why not four or five, even six masts? Sturdy poles, each to carry a derrick as well and a hatch close besides to access the hold, for shifting cargo, using the same winch."

  A few days, a dozen drawings and they realised that they could separate the hull into three or four or more holds on either side of the engine space - a gain in safety, for the hull would be far less easily flooded with the presence of the additional bulkheads.

  "We should send the instructions to the southern yards, Sir Matthew. I am forced to admit - reluctantly, I must confess - that the German Ocean is less often storm-wracked than our western seas, and the col
liers need not partake of the nature of the ocean-going vessel."

  "Innovation may well be safer there than here, Mr Fraser."

  "Four thousand pounds is a substantial sum, my lord; one must admit that!"

  Sir Matthew addressed his wife's brother with almost an excess of formality - large sums of money should not be treated trivially.

  "It must be said, however, my lord, that we have gained an amount of knowledge and will be launching a substantially improved design of collier within six months. The drawings are to hand, my lord, and you will notice the number of masts, the new steam winches and derricks - or small cranes, one might call them - which will reduce the time needed to fill or empty the holds, and thus permit the vessel to be at sea rather than wasting time and money tied up at wharfside. Two years, at most, my lord, and we will have recouped this loss."

  "I am not a gambling man, as you know, Sir Matthew, but I am told that favourite horses do not always win their races and that you cannot make a gain without risking a loss. Sir William took a chance, and it did not, as they say, 'come off'. The next one may - so I shall speak with him, discover the lessons he has learned, and then tell him that we cannot hope to attain perfection in this life. There will be no dismissal or downgrading, no degradation of a fine worker for the firm. You will wish to have a quiet word with Mr Fraser, no doubt."

  "I have done so, my lord - he will be making no public parade of triumph."

  "Nor he should, Sir Matthew. Of interest to him is that we are examining the possibilities inherent in coal-gas, particularly in lighting the streets, and possibly the houses, of our less prominent cities - thought should be given to the design of smaller coking plants to produce the noxious substance within the limits of an ancient town, and to the laying of pipes appropriate to the function, presumably underground, and, I imagine, to the means of storage of some supply of the gas. The whole could only be enterprised on the banks of a canal or river, or such is my first thought - coal to be brought in and coke taken away. There must as well be a solution to the problem of tar. Was Mr Fraser to produce a set of plans of universal application then he would expect to take a share in the ownership of each such local corporation. Sir William, I would add, is to examine the possibilities of extending street lighting throughout the country."