‘Surely . . . that cannot be our true purpose, sir, when our written instruction is merely to follow and report the Terces’ destination . . . ain’t it?’
‘Y’will kindly allow me to know the purpose, Mr Hayter, and all of you.’ Glaring round the table at them.
‘Very good, sir.’ James, politely inclining his head.
Rennie stood, and walked to the stern-gallery window. At last turned, and:
‘Very well, thank you, gentlemen. You have made your reports. Return to your duties, if y’please.’ And as they all made to leave: ‘Mr Loftus, will you pass the word for the gunner, the carpenter and the boatswain to attend me in the waist in half a glass? And Mr Hayter, I will like you to remain.’
When the others had gone, Rennie returned to the table, sat down and rubbed the back of his neck. James remained standing. Rennie did not look at him, and called:
‘Colley Cutton! Bring me a pint of grog!’
A brief delay, and still Rennie did not turn his gaze on James, but sat quietly at the table, staring at his hands in front of him. Cutton brought his pint of grog.
‘Is it three water?’
‘Hit is, sir, yes. Three parts water and one part spirit, sir.’
‘Very well. Y’may go.’
The steward departed. James shifted his feet, and looked up at the deckhead immediately above. And waited. Rennie took up his grog, and sucked down a draught. Sniffed. Sucked down another draught, then set the tankard down.
‘Mr Hayter . . . James.’ At last, lifting his eyes to look at his lieutenant.
‘Sir?’
‘I did not mean to bite off your head, just now. Sit y’down, will you?’
‘Thank you, sir. I prefer to stand.’
‘Oh, good God, I am about to make you an apology. Will not y’sit down while I do it?’
‘If that is your wish . . .’ And James did sit down at the table.
‘I am at fault, James.’
His companion said nothing.
‘I should have listened close when you wished us to clear for action. You were quite right. You were quite right, and what has happened to Expedient is very dreadful, and I deeply regret it.’
James remained silent, and waited.
‘However, we cannot lie motionless upon the sea, waiting for providence to come to our aid. We must resume the pursuit, and repair as we proceed. There is nothing else to be done. We must make amends for our folly. My folly.’
James took a breath, but did not speak.
‘You ain’t in accord with me? Hm?’
James was obliged to answer this direct question, and: ‘I do not think, sir, with respect, that Expedient can be made whole enough, at sea, to continue the pursuit in anything but name, given the very great damage she has took.’
‘You don’t think it right we should pursue this wretch Broadman, that has had the temerity to fire on one of His Majesty’s ships unprovoked?’
‘In course, sir, had Expedient weathered the encounter better, we should be obliged to pursue him and fulfil our duty of commission. However, we were not in a position to engage, and now we are crippled.’
‘We are not crippled! Good God, Mr Adgett has made repairs to Expedient at sea when she was damaged worse than this!’
‘Sir, will you allow me as Pursuit Officer to advise you?’ Then he swiftly added: ‘I do not mean to tell you your duty.’
Rennie, with the ghost of a smile, and a sigh: ‘Well well – say what you must say.’
‘You asked me to apply myself to my task with all my powers of attention and concentration, as to the activities of Terces and her master. To use my instincts. I have seen Mr Leigh’s list of injuries to the ship, and Mr Loftus’s. I have observed these same injuries myself, when you had not yet regained your senses, sir, and were carried below. If we were to pursue Terces in our present condition – even if we made some little improvement by repair – Terces could well turn on us again, attack and inflict further terrible damage. Perhaps sink us. We could not hope to match her in handling nor manoeuvre, given our present impediments. Our starboard battery is gravely reduced, four of our guns broke or smashed entire.’
‘Have you finished?’ Rennie, raising his eyebrows.
‘Not quite yet, sir, with your indulgence. It ain’t for me to say what was in Mr Mappin’s mind when he gave us this task – nor Their Lordships’. I do not know why we pursue this ship, why it is so vital to the nation’s interest that we discover her destination. I do not know why she fired on us. Nay, I do not. I do know that to attempt to carry through this task, when we have suffered such grievous harm – would be folly.’
‘Yes, well well. Thank you, James. You have succeeded in iterating your case with great vigour and determination, great soul. You are very eloquent.’ He drank off the remainder of his grog.
‘Then . . . you will order us to return to the Nore, and go into Sheerness or Chatham to undergo repair?’
‘Very eloquent, indeed.’ Setting the empty tankard down on the table. ‘Was you not an exceptional sea officer, I should say that you had missed your calling, you know.’
‘Calling?’
‘Ay – of theatrical. Haven’t heard such a moving soliloquy since I went with Sylvia to the play in London, months since. There is only one flaw. A ship of war ain’t a theatre. Make-believe and tearful beating of the breast will not answer here.’
‘Make-believe!’
‘James, James . . . hhh. Why must you always and always make it so difficult for yourself to be complaisant and obedient? You must know that I value your loyalty and experience above all of my other officers. I asked you to remain because I felt that you was owed an apology, and I have done my best to make it. In addition I must tell you that in fact I have seen for myself the damage to the ship, when I came to consciousness, and before I called all of ye to come here to the great cabin. I am well aware of it, well aware.’
‘Sir, I—’
‘God’s love, will y’keep silent for one moment! Will not you apprehend, will not you grasp – that I am in command? That I must make the running – in everything? Now then.’
‘Sir?’
‘Will you please – in light of all I have said – allow me to do my duty, my dear James, while you attend to yours? Hm?’
‘We do not return to port?’
‘We do not. We pursue.’ He rose, and reached for his hat. ‘I am going on deck.’ And then he staggered very slightly, and touched a hand to his forehead. James at once moved forward to aid him. Rennie stood straight, and:
‘Nay. Nay. I am all right.’ And he strode from the cabin, leaving James to take up his own hat and follow.
HM frigate Expedient, thirty-six – bloodstained and limping, trailing debris – sailed on.
*
At first James was very angry with Rennie, and very disappointed in him. Since he had no distinctive duty in assisting with repair to the ship, and it was conveyed to him on deck that he was in the way, James went below and lay disconsolate in his hanging cot in the cabin that had been give him on the starboard side of the lower deck, between those of Mr Tindall and the gunner Mr Storey. In usual this cabin would have been occupied by the captain of Marines, but this commission there was no such officer, only Lieutenant Harcher. In her recent refit Expedient had been afforded for the first time timber partitions, bulkheads and doors for the officers’ cabins on the lower deck, replacing the original canvas screens. Space was minimal, but at least there was some measure of privacy. Now, today, as Expedient echoed to the sounds of urgent repair, James found himself entirely alone. He lay gently swinging with the movement of the ship, and his anger and resentment simmered.
‘He don’t hear a single thing I say to him, because he will not listen.’ Muttering. ‘My position as Pursuit Officer is a sham, an invented nonsense of a duty that he has disguised as something vital and profound. My work could be done as a matter of routine by any of the other officers. His only wish was to oblige me to return to
Expedient as his glorified bloody clerk, and sounding board. He has no pertinent understanding of this commission. It is pure blind arrogance that drives him on. When we are smashed and beaten, for Christ’s sake! Because of his own blockhead deafness to all opinion above his own, including that we should protect the ship by beating to quarters. A fundamental thing, known to the dullest middy in the service! – I turn my back. I can do nothing, I am absolved of all responsibility.’
Presently he swung his legs to the deck, found his copy of Milton, and lay down again to read by the light of the lantern. Turning a page at random he read:
He asked the waves, and asked the felon winds,
What hard mishap hath doomed this gentle swain?
And questioned every gust of rugged wings,
That blows from off each beaked promontory:
They knew not of his story,
And sage Hippotades their answer brings,
That not a blast was from his dungeon strayed,
The air was calm, and on the level brine
Sleek Panope with all her sisters played.
It was that fatal and perfidious bark
Built in th’ eclipse, and rigged with curses dark
That sunk so low that sacred head of thine.
His anger subsided, faded, and disappeared. He put the book aside, and:
‘Very probably he meant what he said in apology. In truth, he must feel desperate sad about the killed men. Very probably I was wrong in thinking he wished me to return to duty solely for his own gratification and comfort. Likely he wished only to aid an old friend, and went out of his way to get him a commission. Ain’t it? Ay . . . ay, it is. I must not think ill of him, in that regard.’
He heard the striking of the bell, and the changing of the watch.
‘I had better go on deck, and offer my services. Even if I do not agree with him in resuming the pursuit, I must not be petulant. I am a sea officer, and must behave accordingly. There will be something for me to do, I am in no doubt.’
He put on his hat and went up the ladder.
On deck he found that his lookouts had already been sent aloft. He busied himself by asking questions. His brother officers, sorely pressed, virtually ignored him, and he was left with only the midshipmen on duty, and Captain Rennie, who paced his quarterdeck alone abaft the skylight. James exchanged a few words with one of the duty mids, Mr Madeley, but the boy was so clearly upset at the death of one of his companions in the middies’ berth, and so monosyllabic in his replies, that James let him be. At that moment Rennie turned at the tafferel, lifted his head and saw James, and beckoned him.
When James was by his side Rennie nodded forrard and:
‘There is nothing too fierce nor terrible, you see?’
James looked, saw destruction everywhere – torn rigging, torn sails, shattered boats, shattered breast-rail, the starboard gangway hammock cranes ripped away, everything splashed and stained with sprays and blotches of dried blood – and lied through his teeth:
‘Indeed, sir, we are nearly restored to full health.’
Presently: ‘The starboard battery must be brought into a fighting condition.’
James waited, hoping that Rennie would assign him this task. Rennie sniffed, and:
‘Mr Leigh must undertake this, just as soon as he has—’
‘With your permission, sir, I should like to propose myself for this task.’
‘No no, James, that will not do, you know. You are Pursuit Officer, and cannot deviate from that duty. No, Mr Leigh must consult with the gunner, find out which of the damaged guns may be repaired, and which must be got into the hold by tackles. It may be that he will need to send guns from the larboard battery across the deck, and place them in the starboard ports where the damaged guns have been took away.’
‘Balance the batteries?’
‘Exact. An equal number of guns for each side of the ship.’
‘If I may make a suggestion, sir . . .’
‘Eh? Well?’ Looking forrard anxiously as a shout went up and a block fell.
‘Send down the nine-pounders from the fo’c’sle and the quarterdeck, sir, and make up the full number of guns in the starboard battery with these. Then the larboard battery need not be reduced. Treble-shot the nine-pounders, and they will be nearly as effective as our double-shotted eighteens.’
Rennie turned to look at his lieutenant. A frown, then:
‘That is a damned good suggestion, by God. Very well, James, I will take you up on your offer. Find Mr Storey directly, choose a crew of men between you – as many as y’need without grossly impairing other working parties – and go to it with a will. Your pursuit duties may be neglected for the moment. Our guns, and weight of metal per broadside, may not.’
‘And Mr Leigh . . . ?’
‘I will say a word to Mr Leigh.’
‘Very good, sir.’ His hat off and on, and he hurried below before the captain could change his mind. As he went it occurred to him that the slightly lower weight of each nine-pounder that replaced an eighteen-pounder might well cause a difficulty in the trimming of the ship on the starboard side.
‘I had better say a word to Bernard Loftus.’
As always in a ship of war the burial service was conducted with the minimum of delay. Rennie read from his prayer book over the bowed heads of the assembled people, and the eleven corpses, sewn in their shot-weighted shrouds, were duly committed to the depths of the North Sea. In the brief lull, all repairs temporarily halted, the ship was sombre, but once the dead were out of her the mood almost imperceptibly lifted.
*
Expedient, still very slow, now at 54 degrees and 35 minutes north, 3 degrees and 28 minutes east, the wind getting up from the south, and the sea grey, white-capped, beginning turbulent, with a swell running. The ship rolling and pitching more than Captain Rennie liked, with stays and shrouds weakened and her masts therefore vulnerable. Repairs continuing apace, men a-swarm in the tops, on the fo’c’sle and along the gangways, and the rippling crack of mallets and adzes. Tackles rigged amidships to send down the injured guns into the hold, and James came to Rennie, touched his hat, and:
‘Sir, I will like to make a further suggestion.’
‘Well?’
‘That we put the damaged guns over the side, sir.’
‘What? Nay . . .’ Shaking his head, making a face.
‘Sir, it will aid us in recovered speed, in pursuit. Eight ton less of metal to propel through the sea. We have sufficient armament, with the nines on the upper deck, and our carronades in addition, on the quarterdeck. The smashed guns are merely dead weight.’
Rennie thought a moment, turned briefly to look aft, then:
‘Very well, ye’ve carried your case, Mr Hayter. The four eighteen-pounders that are broke to go over the side. Make it so.’
‘Very good, sir.’
‘Only we had better catch this bugger Broadman, else I shall be hard pressed explaining to Their Lordships why I have lost two best bowers, and four of my great guns too, without result.’
Bernard Loftus now approached, as James retreated.
‘Yes, Mr Loftus? Walk with me to the tafferel, will ye?’
The sailing master walked aft with his captain. ‘I have solved the little difficulty of the trim, I think, sir.’
‘Trim? Oh, you mean what Mr Hayter proposes?’
‘Yes, he was anxious we should not upset it with the lighter guns on the starboard side. What I—’
‘But they are to go overboard, now.’
‘Eh?’
‘Yes, did not he mention this to you? We have just agreed it.’
‘Ah. Ah. I must – recalculate, then, in light of what you have just told me, sir. I was going to bring up additional carronade roundshot to place by the nines. However, if the eighteens are to go in to the sea, that is eight ton less weight of metal, and we must think about retrimming her accordingly, altogether.’
‘Exact, Mr Loftus, exact. Make it so, if y’please.
’ As if his sailing master were slow-witted today.
‘Very good, sir.’ Bernard Loftus departed forrard, stung to resentment.
Sunset, and Rennie and James in the great cabin. The damaged great guns thrown overboard, and replaced by the nine-pounders. Repairs continuing on deck by the light of lanterns, on Rennie’s orders. He had said to Bernard Loftus:
‘A double ration of grog for every man that works on past down hammocks, and they may have their rum unwatered if they wish.’
‘D’y’mean . . . even the duty men of the new watch, sir, the first watch men?’
‘Nay, Bernard, only the men of the repair crews. You are a little slow today, hm?’
Rennie sat on the bench by the stern-gallery window, apparently quite at ease, listening to the wind whip and whistle round the ship. His cat Dulcie lay curled up asleep in his lap, oblivious of the movements of the ship. James, over the wind, and the rolling sea:
‘Will he not reach Norway far ahead of us, sir?’
‘Then we must endeavour to catch him up, James.’ Mildly.
‘Norway has a very extensive coastline, literally hundreds of inlets, islands, and penetrating fjords. If he has not gone into one of the larger ports, likely we will have great difficulty in finding his ship. And again, how do we know that he will not go to Denmark, or Sweden? Are we quite certain of Norway?’
‘Look again at Mappin’s dispatch.’ Rennie nodded at the dispatch, which lay open on the table. He stroked the cat, and was rewarded with a thrumming purr.
James took up the letter. ‘It is perfunctory. “Latest intelligence indicates . . . bound for Norway.” We do not know where in Norway, nor why he goes there.’ He allowed the letter to fall to the table. ‘There is in course another possibility . . .’
Rennie, stroking his cat: ‘Yes?’
‘Yes, sir. That Norway never was his final destination at all.’
‘Goon . . .’
‘Suppose he merely calls there, for a reason we do not yet understand, and then proceeds elsewhere?’
Rennie appeared to consider this, and gave a bemused smile. ‘If that is so, then our commission is even more problematical . . . would not you say?’
The Pursuit Page 10
