He seized Blackwood’s arm and gasped urgently, above the chaos, “We have to get forrard.”
It was a desperate journey: the roaring blaze blinding them with its light in the blackness, the conflagration’s heat and roar beating on them as they passed, paralysing Kydd’s mind with the stark terror of elemental fire, wild and berserk.
On the far side were the long gangways leading over the waist of the ship and past the boats, still on their skids, to the foredeck. There were scores of men at the ship’s side, broken and gasping, staring at the flaring blaze taking pitiless hold aft, then looking down into the inky blackness of the water. Very few could swim and in the blackness their struggles would be invisible, their cries unheard against the crackling din. Every man now faced a stark choice—to be incinerated or drowned.
“They’re not coming,” Blackwood said, in a low voice, gesturing to the other ships.
The few boats that had been launched were hanging back, fearful of what must come. They knew that when the fires reached the grand magazine of the great guns Ajax would cease to be.
“We’ve got to go,” Kydd urged, but he, too, was held in deadly thrall by the still, dark waters.
Blackwood drew himself up. In strong, solemn tones, he told his men, “There’s no hope for it, I’m sorry to say. Cast yourselves over-side is your only chance. God bless you and keep you.”
Several plunged into the sea but many more held back in eye-bulging terror.
Unexpectedly, Blackwood touched Kydd’s arm. “Dear chap. I hesitate to ask it, but if you’d help me, I’d be much obliged to you.”
In the wildness of the night his calmness reached out to Kydd. “Of course. How might I … ?”
It was the act of a brave and intelligent man. Blackwood knew that his ship was destined for destruction but he realised that the rest of those in the anchorage could not escape in time and would be caught up in the holocaust. He had noticed that they were all riding to their anchors facing into the slight night breeze so he was asking Kydd to help him cut the cable of Ajax to let her drift through the fleet and away before the cataclysm.
They stumbled down the fore-hatchway in near pitch dark, the smoke choking, blinding, while they fumbled about for the riding bitts where the anchor cable was belayed, feeling their way in a howling chaos of panic and death. And all the time the fire was raging out of control. The final blast could happen at any moment; the actual time would depend on where the fire had started. If above the level of the magazine, then the rising heat of the blaze would consume the upper part of the vessel before it ate its way down. If not, then the next second could be their last.
They found the massive square bitts. Grabbing a fire-axe from each side of the fore-mast they threw off their coats and, coughing helplessly, eyes streaming, by turns swung in savage hits at the six-inch thick cable.
Obstinately the cable remained iron-hard and unyielding—the thousands of tons of battleship at her anchor tautening it.
In the confined space they couldn’t take a vertical swing or be sure to strike in the same place and, in despair, Kydd saw that their efforts were only stranding the massive rope. Nearly blinded now with sweat and tears he swung and hit mechanically, on and on, until suddenly the rope parted with a bang and slithered and bumped away out of the hawse.
“Let’s be out!” Kydd gasped, and they made for the broad ladder to the foredeck.
He saw by the other ships starkly illuminated in the outer blackness that they had begun imperceptibly to slip away sternwards.
“Shall we go?” he said, hesitating with his leg over the side-rail.
“I’ll—I’ll be along presently,” Blackwood said, his eyes fixed on the raging fire now turning the whole after end of the ship into a white-hot furnace.
Kydd crossed to him quickly, tugging at his sleeve. “We have to go now—she’ll blow any second!”
Blackwood turned slowly to him with a sad smile. “You see, I can’t swim, old chap.”
Kydd ran to one of the boats and pulled out an oar. “Clap hold of this when you’re in the water until they find you.”
He pushed him to the beakhead, the closer for Blackwood to drop into the water. The man swung down on to the small grating above the bowsprit and, hesitating only a little, grabbed a line and lowered himself down, dropping the last few feet into the blackness. Kydd saw him, frantically splashing about, and quickly let the oar go to float near him. Blackwood grabbed it, giving a shamefaced wave.
With a last glance at the terrible scene Kydd peered down at the dark waters to check they were clear, and let go. A half-second of weightlessness and then shocking cold. He spluttered and kicked until he was head above water and looked around.
On one side was the immense bulk of the battleship, on the other the fleet, its boats hanging back in fear and impossibly far off. The cold was ferocious, clamping in and forcing his inner core of warmth smaller and smaller. He knew that when it was finally extinguished he would be dead.
There were men in the water here and there, some splashing and shouting, others ominously still, but no sign of Blackwood.
He stroked clumsily to a piece of wreckage. It turned out to be a chicken coop, drowned fowls still inside and a body slumped half across it. There was no sign of life, its eyes stared sightlessly up. He gently pushed it off and tried to pull himself up. It was a mistake—out of water the wind cut into him cruelly and, reluctantly, he slid back into it.
The burning hulk of Ajax retreated into the distance and the boats finally moved in.
At the last extremity of bitter cold Kydd was dragged out of the water and a rough blanket wrapped tenderly about him. He joined two or three others bundled on the bottom boards. Shuddering uncontrollably he took a gulp from the flask of rum offered, then lay down, letting the fire of the spirit spread through his body.
It was now only a matter of enduring.
“I think I speak for all of us,” Duckworth declared ponderously, “when I say how in sympathy we are for Captain Blackwood on the loss of his ship.”
“And her company,” muttered Smith.
“And at such tragic cost,” he added, glaring at his junior.
“So we think it in the region of some, two—three hundred perished?” Smith remarked drily.
“By muster, two hundred and fifty-two,” snapped Blackwood, looking haggard and drained. “All good men. Most fought and survived at Trafalgar, poor souls.”
“Then we must think it one of the worst disasters the Navy has suffered in these wars,” Smith came back smoothly.
Kydd felt a rush of anger. Petty bickering to make points when the burial parties had not yet returned from Tenedos. Ajax had drifted as planned, taking the ground on the island to detonate in a thunderous cataclysm in the early hours of the morning.
Duckworth shifted uncomfortably. “Gentlemen, gentlemen, I won’t have any further talk on the loss of Ajax before the court of inquiry sits. We are in the presence of the enemy as well you know and have decisions to make.”
“Then you have reconsidered this venture, sir?” Smith asked innocently.
Duckworth fiddled with a pencil. “We must reflect on our position, I believe. That no one in modern times has forced the Dardanelles bears hard on our hopes that we might be an exception. And with the wind still foul …”
“As is a delay enabling the Turk to be forewarned and bring up his navy,” Smith said.
“Admiral Smith! I am annoyed and wearied by your attitude. Your duty as a senior officer is to support His Majesty’s arms in any operation ordered by their lordships. You’ll be more positive and helpful in your remarks or, by God, I’ll have you relieved of your command, sir!”
Smith gave a half-smile and looked down.
“Now! The ambassador requires we should proceed in this enterprise. We have no option in the matter.” He tugged at his collar irritably.
“Admiral Smith, do you care to outline the military situation that confronts us?”
�
�Why, that’s simple enough,” Smith answered easily, as if nothing had happened. “The forts are paired along the strait, one on the north, European, shore and another on the Asiatic side. The chief ones are at the entrance, then the outer castles at Sedil Bahr, where it narrows to a couple of miles. Some nine miles further on we have the inner castles at Chanak Kaleh, where the entire width of the Dardanelles is less than three-quarters of a mile. More defences under Point Pesquies, but if we get past those we’ve clear sailing for a space—until the worst is to be met with at Gallipoli.”
“A hard tale,” Boyles of Windsor Castle remarked softly. “And after Gallipoli what must we face?”
“Afterwards? Nothing. We enter the Sea of Marmora with naught but the open waters between us and Constantinople.”
“Except the Ottoman Navy,” Duckworth said darkly. “My information is that their order of battle includes ships-of-the-line and frigates by the score.”
“I rather fancy these will be in the north, arrayed against the Russians whom they are not fond of, but I could be wrong,” Smith said languidly.
Duckworth glowered, then gave a thin smile. “You are ready enough with your opinions, sir. Now, tell me, is it in your conceiving that the forces opposing us are too formidable to contemplate an attempt on the Dardanelles?”
Smith paused, and Kydd knew why. He was being asked either to hand Duckworth the excuse he needed to call off the operation, or to hazard his reputation on predicting a successful outcome.
“These forces are daunting indeed, yet I believe it will be the fortunes of war that will as ever determine the issue,” he answered.
“Ah! So you see before us no immediate impediment to the expedition?”
“Beyond those I have mentioned, no.”
“Thank you,” Duckworth said. “And with that assurance from you we shall advance the operation.”
So Smith was to be implicated in the event of a failure. It would not stand up in a court-martial but might perhaps colour the findings.
Duckworth leaned back. “My orders are this. If, and only if, a fair wind is squarely in our favour, we shall proceed. You, Admiral Smith, will form one division in the rear, comprising Pompée, Thunderer, Standard, L’Aurore and the two bomb-ketches, while I shall command from Royal George in the van with the heavier class of ships. We shall enter in line-of-battle and engage the forts hotly as we pass.”
There was more: detail on signals, towing and other matters, but it added up to just one thing. The British fleet would penetrate into the Dardanelles. They would go in single line ahead and trust to their fire-power to silence the forts on the way.
There was much to think about as Kydd returned to L’Aurore. A pall was hanging over the whole operation and it wasn’t just from the so-recent distressing scenes of Ajax’s immolation. A divided command, not just politically but in personalities—it cast the worst of omens before them.
He was in Smith’s squadron. While Duckworth’s heavies would stay dutifully together, the restless Smith would take any opportunity for action, however far it strayed from the main mission, if only to prove how active he was compared to his senior.
Why did such a gifted and intelligent man have to be so damned contrary? And was it really so necessary to flatten the ancient city, the beautiful Hagia Sophia and all? It probably wouldn’t happen—the odds were very much against them ever getting past all of thirty-eight fortresses with their hundreds of guns.
In a black mood he took to his cabin and sat by the stern windows, automatically leaving “Renzi’s seat” vacant. But Renzi was part of the past. He was alone now and had to make the best of it. He’d have the old chair struck down in the hold and be damned to it all.
Tysoe appeared, like magic, with a whisky and water and left quickly. How the devil did the villain know?
He sipped appreciatively and let his thoughts wander. It was now more probable than not that some day he would be an admiral himself. How would he have dealt with a junior like Smith? And such a situation with the civil power telling him what he had to do. Well, he wasn’t an admiral yet and therefore didn’t have to find an answer. He began to feel better.
Then his eyes strayed to the work he’d taken out ready from his locked escritoire and his sour mood returned. It was his dispatches to Collingwood, following his return from Constantinople, and they were pressing: a cutter would leave shortly with those from all captains, as well as Arbuthnot’s, and his weren’t ready.
He swore out loud. It wasn’t the communication itself that took the time—it was a plain enough tale—but the ciphering afterwards. A tedious but important task that, until now, Renzi had quietly relieved him of. Some captains told off one of the officers for the duty but he would never do that. First, it involved taking the officer off the watch bill, understandably unpopular with his fellows, but more importantly, he would no longer have the assurance that the captain alone knew the content of the dispatch.
God damn, but he missed Renzi!
He rose reluctantly—then had a thought. He employed a confidential secretary. Why shouldn’t he make use of him?
Admiralty regulations gave no hard and fast rules over who should do the ciphering, merely that the captain must be in a position to assure himself of their strict confidentiality. Renzi, previously a naval officer, had had impeccable credentials. Did Dillon?
He quashed the retort that he could never be another Renzi, for no one could. He had to be taken on his own terms or not at all.
The young man was willing enough, but his romantic leanings were out of place in a man-of-war. Apparently he wrote poetry, had declaimed into his first Mediterranean sunset and had grown soulful over the distant sight of Lesbos—much as Renzi had, Kydd was forced to admit.
Then again he’d seen him dress for a gun-room dinner in a blue velvet jacket and artistically déshabillé neck-cloth, his hair unclubbed and long. The rig of a trusted and discreet amanuensis?
With his easy manner Dillon had found acceptance there, a character in his own right. That he didn’t know his nauticals was no bar to fellowship for he’d made it plain that this was not his calling. At the first-night dinner, when Curzon had cattily put him right over the meaning of “martingale” as applied to a bowsprit, he had innocently asked him to explain the word itself. At Curzon’s reluctance, Dillon had lightly mused on its horse-coping usage and then, to the delight of the others, had gone on to trace its probable Middle English origins back to Chaucer and Piers Plowman.
Kydd sighed. If he didn’t trust the man he had no right to engage him as a secretary. He’d served in L’Aurore now for some time and never shown himself unfit for the position or slack in stays as regards diligence—and if he couldn’t bring the man on he would have to do the work himself indefinitely.
It was being forced on him but there was little choice. He’d do it—perhaps with the proviso that Dillon swore himself to confidentiality.
This last idea pleased him, and it led to another. If he was being entrusted with codes, vital national secrets, then surely he was to be trusted with his personal matters. Kydd was a martyr to paperwork, loathing its passive nature, tedium and need for form and correctness, but had not felt able to turn it over to Dillon because it felt a violation of privacy. His humble origins as a wig-maker and pressed man were now behind him, but if he gave access to his papers, his financial details and so on, Dillon would know everything.
He didn’t recall who had said it but the old saw “No man can be a hero to his valet” came to mind.
“Desire Mr Dillon to attend on me,” he ordered at the door, and returned to his chair to consider his decision.
“Sir Thomas?”
As usual he stood loosely, features composed and respectful.
“Ah, Dillon. A word with you,” Kydd harrumphed.
“Sir?”
“I think it time for you to earn your keep. I desire that you assume duties of a more confidential nature.”
“Of course, sir. I’d be delighte
d.” There was an animation that seemed to show he had been waiting for just this moment—a release from the mundane?
“Then you’ll be instructed in ciphering, for you will be transcribing my dispatches from this point forward.”
“I understand, Sir Thomas. About the grave nature of being privy to such secrets, I mean.”
“Good. I shall, of course, require you swear that you will keep them and so forth. Have you any objection?”
“None, Sir Thomas.”
“Very well. And, further, you are to undertake the care and upkeep of my personal correspondence and papers.”
“I’m honoured by your trust, sir.”
“Yes. Well, that’s decided, then. How are you settling in—the gun-room mess, that is?”
“Happily, thank you, Sir Thomas. In large part I’m obliged to Lieutenant Bowden for his amiable manners and patience, which have enabled me to take my place in such august and hearty company.”
It appeared the young man was succeeding well in fitting in and finding fulfilment in their fellowship.
Kydd continued, “I see you are keeping the young gentlemen to their studies. Are they progressing well?”
“Both in their way, sir. But, you see, there is …”
“Yes?”
“My grasp of mathematicals is slender, I do confess, and their navigation studies require that …”
“Well. Perhaps we shall leave that side to the sailing master.” It was oddly gratifying that he’d discovered a weakness in the young man.
“Thank you, Sir Thomas.”
“I should mention that your confidential work will be carried out in this cabin. You may use the escritoire, for which I have the key, and … and should you have need of good daylight, do feel free to use … that chair.” Renzi’s accustomed seat.
“Right. Well, we’ll begin this afternoon at three bells. Good day to you, Dillon.”
But the next day the winds relented, veering to a playful southerly. Almost as soon as it was light enough to see, Royal George ran up a signal: “Prepare to weigh.”
Kydd felt a lurch of unreality. Against all reason it was going ahead: the British fleet was on its way to force the Dardanelles and level Constantinople to the ground.
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