Dewey Lambdin - King`s Captain Страница 27

"Uhm… let me, ask, Captain, sir," Handcocks mumbled, slinking off \ to join the group of Sandwiches by the entry-port, who were still deep in a frustrated conversation over the keys.

"Mister Coote, you here, sir?" Lewrie asked, turning about.

"Aye, sir," a shaken Coote replied. "I s'pose."

"Stand ready to go ashore. Mister Langlie? With Lieutenant Ludlow off the quarterdeck, do you take charge of the Forenoon Watch. Tell-off men to assist the Purser ashore. Mister Pendarves?" Lewrie bellowed down to the gun-deck. "Assemble working parties to ferry stores offshore!"

"Aye, aye, sir!" Pendarves shouted back, looking about as forlorn as a landed trout and eager for a command from a proper authority.

"Now look here, sir…!" McCann snapped, returning, reinforced by his own followers from Sandwich and the Proteus mutineer leaders.

"Proteus must be stocked with four months' supplies for sea," Lewrie informed him soberly. "We're short of salt-meat, flour, biscuit, small beer, rum, wine, cheeses, dried peas, portable soup… presently she has but half the powder and shot required. Now, sir… do you say you're loyal Britons, mutinying for your grievances… and not traitorous rebels in the pay of foreign foes! Then readying this ship for sea, does the mutiny end and we're ordered out to fight the Dutch, or the French, is vital. A normal ship's routine, which you just said you would not interfere with? Surely, even you can see that."

"Gawd, I wish…!" McCann gargled, raising a fist. "Ye an' yer sort, yer all alike! Thinkin' yer so damn' clever an' smug! I…!"

"Short of rations, powder and shot, mate," Bales hinted, from the rear of the pack, elbowing and sidling forward to stand alongside McCann. "Do they cut us off from the warehouses in Sheerness, what'll we do then? Think on't. What'll we eat 'til it's settled?"

"Th' people're for us! Th' common folk'd not let 'em!" McCann countered, eyes bulging with fervour. "Th' high an' mighty'll tremble in their beds do they even try t'cut us off! The whole nation arise…!"

"Aye, though… we should stock her, gunn'1-deep." The Gunner sighed. "Just in case, like."

"Right, then!" McCann sneered, sensing another defeat within a five-minute span. "Go 'head an' stock her. But no midshipmen, none o' their brutal sort're t'work th' boats. Senior hands. Loyal men on th' tillers an' oars… brothers t'th' cause. No escape for th' weak, them as won't swear t'uphold th' cause neither."

"Very good then." Lewrie nodded, striving to not look as glad as he felt that he was dealing with a witless escapee from Bedlam. "I assume normal duties also encompasses my hearing for Landsman Haslip? Mister Pendarves! Muster boat-crews! We will go below…"

"Nossir, ye won't!" McCann barked. "We'll do it! Man's a thief! Stole from brother sailors, so he'll get sailors' justice! An' no boat-crews t'go ashore 'til ye've elected yer delegates, Handcocks… picked yer committee 'board ship for runnin' her, an' delegates t'th' committee 'board Sandwich." He nudged Handcocks under the ribs. "An' weed out them as'd cozen ye… Have ev'ry man-jack in an' make 'em swear on a Bible t'be loyal or else."

"No," Lewrie insisted once more, quite flatly, and pinching at the bridge of his nose as if wearied beyond endurance.

"Now, lookee…!" McCann threatened, going wild-eyed again.

"Justice is mine, McCann," Lewrie pointed out. "Determining the crime and punishment for it 'board this ship is the Captain's prerogative alone, and well you know it. You assure me and the others that this mutiny will end when the grievances are satisfactorily settled… and ships at the Nore are included in the terms. That's what you told my crew to get them to join you? That's what you profess?"

"It is!" McCann shouted back.

"Then once you return to subordination and discipline, you will once more be under a captain's supervision, which includes hearing any violations of the Articles of War, or Admiralty Regulations," Lewrie hammered home. "To unsurp my right to hear and judge Haslip will make any sentence you and the… delegates!… decide, illegal. Unless you… or some one of you…" he growled, searching the nearest faces for defiance, "wish to declare himself a Commission Officer and presume to issue orders.. • then the custom and usage of the Sea Service says that I, alone, can judge. You can go below and do all the… electing!… you wish to choose your delegates. But you will not usurp my power of command! Or my right to conduct 'captain's mast.' "

"Arrr!" McCann howled with frustration, "a pox on ye, an' th' Devil take all officers! I wish t'God we could just hang ye all an' be done! Choose new'uns an' start fresh, by God!"

Frightfully, there were more than one or two growls of agreement from the men mustered before him; thankfully though, they seemed to be Sandwiches, not Proteuses. Bales, the new-come mutineer, even went so far as to take McCann by the elbow and whisper in his ear, to warn him to temper his remarks or hide his true sentiments.

Mutiny was one thing, Lewrie thought, turning to match eyes with his remaining officers; mutiny with the threat of physical violence or the murder of superiors was different. Lewrie thought to compare the almost-dignified, sober-headed truculence of what he'd experienced at Portsmouth-a much more respectful and respectable plea for better conditions-with the very beginnings of this version, which was led, he suspected, by a whole baying pack of hotheads like this McCann! If so, it was a damn' narrow razor's edge he'd have to tread before this was over!

Oddly, Lt. Langlie was looking back at him with the tiniest of grins on his face, the one corner of his mouth turned up, all but tipping him a conspiratorial wink of encouragement! He shrugged back his perplexity- and his gratitude for Langlie's silent support.

"Right, then," McCann announced quite grudgingly, much taken down from his rant of the short minute before. "Yer a Commission Sea Officer… 'mast' on this Haslip bastard is yours. But we'll choose who we will for delegates; get yer whole crew firm b'hind us…"

"And what of those who don't wish to swear allegiance with you, McCann?" Lewrie asked, feeling suddenly pleased that he'd regained a tiny bit of authority in the midst of raving chaos, already scheming as to how [he might undermine this particular mutiny aboard his ship. "Bligh over yonder," Alan said, gesturing towards HMS Director, a 64-gunner 'cross the harbour, "had his loyal hands who went in the longboat with him- even him!" He snorted in derision. "You can't just force everyone to be loyal to you if they don't wish to. Or are too fearful of the consequences… as you should be." He stuck on, slyly.

Oh, God, yes! he thought. Hull the buggers; make 'em sweat…!

"Ah, but isn't that what yoz and the Navy do, sir?" Able Seaman Bales just-as-slyly japed. "Make 'em loyal… without a chance to choose for themselves?"

The nearby mutineers had themselves a real knee-slapping hoot at that one and passed it on along the gangways, down into the waist, and aft to the taffrails to their mates, where it elicited the same mirth.

Lewrie's face suffused with sudden anger, that he'd been bested by an unexpected opponent, by an un-looked-for fount of wits. Whatever shred of authority he'd wished to salvage, whatever doubts he'd wished to plant in them, were ripped away in a twinkling, torn to atoms.

This is over, I'll see you swing in tar an' chains, you smarmy bastard! Lewrie swore to himself; you and McCann, most of all!

" We 'II let you know when we're done, sir," Bales smirked, with an air as if he had already been elected leader and was taking charge. "When we're ready to send boats to the storehouse wharves. Just'z soon as we've chosen delegates, Captain."

"And I, for my part, Seaman Bales," Lewrie gritted back, "will expect the crew to muster aft to witness punishment when / order them to… no matter where you are in your… elections. Hear me?"

"Oh, aye, sir… we're looking forward to that." Bales grinned.

"Twelve men for th' ship, mind," McCann advised as he followed them, remaining on the gangway so he could depart through the entry-port and go off to cause even more mischief aboard other ships. "Two for th' fleet committee, t'meet aboard Sandwich. An' one 'captain'… no matter his high-an'-mightiness… right, brothers?"

McCann was departing, shouting a last set of encouraging words to the crew in general and pumping Bales's hand quite vigourously.,

"There's a viper in our breast, no error," Lewrie gravelled, in a bleak mood. "And me that chose him, special! Damme, what a fool I was! He must be one of the chief plotters… planted on us as a sham volunteer just so he could stir 'em up to mischief…"

"Uh, sah…" Andrews suggested in a low voice, after a bashful cough into his fist. "Jus' one feller come aboard las' night, sah… 'E couldna stirred 'em up, much… not dot quick. Scheme musta been a-fest'rin' fo' some time. 'Mong some o' de lads we got at Chatham… even 'fore we got 'em, Cap'um."

"Aye, you're probably right, Andrews," Lewrie had to admit to his Cox'n. "Damme, what's the world coming to? What next? A total civilian rebellion too?"

There was no answer to that one.

Or nothing anyone would ever dare put into words!

He looked outboard, seeking salvation, like a marooned sailor on a desert isle might scan the horizon for a scrap of tops'ls which might mean rescue. But there was no cause for hope in sight.

Every ship at the Nore new the plain red flags of rebellion… every ship now sported yard ropes. Boats full of senior officers were streaming from Inflexible, steered by their personal coxswains, rowed by their personal boat-crews, rushing too late to reclaim the commands they'd lost.

Signal flags flapped busily from the roof of the Dockyard Commissioner's house, and from Vice-Admiral Buckner's shore residence.

The semaphore tower on Garrison Point was "talking" in a flurry of whirling arms. To the next station at Queenborough, thence across the f low country to Gadshill or Beacon Hill, near Chatham. From there, the news would now be "flashed" in a matter of minutes to Swanscombe station near Greenhithe alerting the Tilbury river forts, then on to Shooter's Hill, about equidistant between the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich and Greenwich Naval Hospital-to New Cross, West Square on the south bank of the Thames, and at last across the river, to Admiralty.

Informing their Lords Commissioners that another entire bloody ad hoc fleet had been lost-to Mutiny!

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Permission to enter the gunroom, sir," Lewrie announced with a cough into his fist, as he stood by the berth-deck portal which led to his officers' quarters. Normally, the gunroom was a holy-of-holies, off-limits to all but those who lodged there, their personal hammockmen or body-servants, their cook or table-servants. Captains were included in the banned category, since they had their own great-cabins one deck above, equal in size to the hull space shared by eight or more men below them. The enforced separation allowed them a haven of peace and quiet from the tumult of a working vessel, from the wrath of a demanding captain, the sight of the common seamen… usually.

He waited, one brow up in demand, as Lt. Ludlow took his sweet time mulling over the heathenish idea of allowing him into their sanctuary, filling the doorway set into the insubstantial deal-and-canvas "bulkhead" partition, which was more a token of privacy than real.

"Aye, sir… come in, sir." Ludlow nodded at last, stepping to one side. He did not say that Lewrie was welcome though.

"Thankee, Mister Ludlow," Lewrie said, forcing himself to act pleasant as he stepped inside, his hat under his arm. "Ah. All here, I see, gentlemen… our middies too."

Langlie, Wyman, Mr. Winwood the Sailing Master, Surgeon Shirley, Purser Coote, and Marine Lieutenant Devereux filled the seats down both sides of their mess table. The chair at the head of the table was Ludlow 's, now empty. There was an eighth chair available, but Lewrie would not go f any further towards upsetting the gunroom's well-run order by taking it. Besides, it was at the vice-end of the table, below the salt-and a place for those inferior to Ludlow. Lewrie walked slowly aft, giving the midshipmen, who were perched on the sideboard or were forced to stand a'lean against the interior partitions, an encouraging smile or two.

"Might you do us the honour of partaking in a glass of brandy, sir?" Lt. Langlie offered. Lewrie could see that at least one bottle had already been rendered a "dead soldier," on its side atop the table, with a fresh one already half-drained beside it.

"Thankee, Mister Langlie, and I do appreciate the offer and the gun-room's hospitality, but… no," Lewrie told him pleasantly. "Bit early in the day for me, d'ye see. On a sensible day, mind. Proceed, though, yourselves… don't let my presence discourage your cheer."

"I thought it best, did we put our heads together… informally," he began to explain. "Summoning you to my cabins might have raised the suspicions of our so-called… committee. Might have made them refuse to allow it, and…"

"Damn 'em all, root and branch," Midshipman Peacham growled at that, with his glass halfway to his lips. "Ungrateful pigs!"

The committee had elected a dozen hands to run the ship, chosen the Master Gunner, Mr. Handcocks, and his mate, Morley, to represent her aboard the flagship of the mutiny, and had "requested" that watch-standing officers and midshipmen go below, off-duty, and remain out of sight unless there was an evolution to perform.

And had chosen that blackguard, Able Seaman Bales, to be their temporary "captain" in charge of Proteus until the seamen's grievances had been answered, and the mutiny was declared over! And Bales chose a day of "Rope Yarn Sunday" and celebration in place of those chores of lading ship he'd been so insistent upon two hours before.

Leaving the officers with nothing to do and no reason to stay on deck in the presence of their mutinous inferiors.

"Listen to 'em," Ludlow spat, reaching for the half-full bottle. "Cater-waulin' an' caperin'…"

Proteus thrummed to the stamp of feet as their mutineers danced their joy, clapped and sang rowdy songs to the music of the fiddle and the fife, and the songs echoed faintly as far as the gunroom, through those insubstantial screens.

"Quite clever of 'em," Lewrie snapped. "Take a day of rest to cajole the unconvinced. Like we do at a recruiting 'rondy,' to beguile 'em to join in the first place."

"Have 'em all in their pockets 'fore dark," Ludlow gloomed.

"I don't think so, Mister Ludlow," Lewrie disagreed. "That is the reason I'm here, so we may decide what to do tomorrow, when they begin to face reality. Hopefully, they are enough in league with Spithead to remain in a form of discipline, and…" '