Patrick O'Brian - The Letter of Marque

'By God, Stephen,' said Jack, shaking his hand, 'you could not have brought me happier news. May I tell Sophie?'

'No, sir, you may not; nor anyone else until we are at sea or upon the very point of heaving our weigh - I mean topping our boom. Now listen, Jack, will you? I have taken it upon myself to give your consent -'

'And well you might, ha, ha, ha!'

'- to the operation, to the attempted operation, and to the somewhat devious official aspect that it is to assume. We have let or hired the ship to the Crown, and the Admiralty has provided a document that will deal with the situation in the event of any serving officer's proving difficult or legalistic. Since dear William Babbington is now the senior officer present the likelihood of disagreement seems tolerably remote; but it is as well to have the paper and we may well think it the best cover or protection for our South American voyage. It begins By the Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral of Great Britain et cetera and it is addressed To the Flag Officers, Captains and Commanders of His Majesty's Ships and Vessels to whom this shall be exhibited. Then the body of it runs: Whereas we have directed John Aubrey, Esquire, to proceed in His Majesty's hired vessel the Surprise upon a particular service, you are hereby required and directed not to demand of him a sight of the Instructions he has received from us for his proceedings on the said service, nor upon any pretence whatever to detain him, but on the contrary to give him any assistance he may stand in need of, towards enabling him to carry the said instructions into execution. And it is signed by Melville and two other lords of the Admiralty, and at their command by that black thief Croker. And as you see, it is dated and sealed.'

Jack took the paper as reverentially as he would have taken an infinitely more holy substance: tears came into his eyes, and Stephen, knowing how apt the English were to display embarrassing emotion, said in a harsh voice, 'But I must tell you however that the Diane is commanded by an exceptionally capable officer, the brother of that Jean-Jacques Lucas who fought the Redoutable so nobly at Trafalgar. He has been allowed to pick his crew, and he has trained them accordin; to his brother's methods: their agility in changing the sails am so on surprises qualified observers, even more so the speed and accuracy of their small-arms and great-gun fire. The ship wil most probably have some civilians and their papers aboard am it would be a great stroke if we could seize them intact. Now, have you a map, a plan, a chart of the place at all, so that w may pore over it?'

'I have my own survey,' said Jack. 'The second one. Shall we walk into what I rather absurdly call the library? Bring your wine with you.'

Jack Aubrey was singularly exact and methodical in matter of this kind and within two minutes he spread out a slight! yellowed sheet on the library table, observing that he had mad it with Mr Donaldson, the master of the Bellerophon, the be; hydrographer in the Navy, during the year ninety-seven: 'th variation of the compass had altered thirty-one seconds eastwards since then and some of the soundings would nee revision, but he would undertake to lead in and moor his ship under the batteries without a pilot.'

The chart showed a deep narrow harbour, less than a quarter of a mile wide at its mouth and two miles deep, with six-gun battery at the bottom of it, the entrance narrowed by breakwater. Both shores were fairly steep-to, but that on tr southern side, which ran out in a bold headland carrying lighthouse was much higher except at its junction with the mainland, where the low isthmus was guarded by a conside able fortification. The town spread over most of the headlan east of the lighthouse and on the other side of the port; the men-of-war lay along a fine stone quay on the south side of the harbour; the merchant-men were generally but not always on the other side, while the smallcraft and fishing-boats kept in the bottom. The town might have four or five thousand peop as well as the garrison, and there were three churches. And I course the quite well known ship-building yards and stores.

'This,' said Jack, pointing to the isthmus, 'is where we landed at the beginning of the war and took them from behind, burning the yard and a twenty-gun ship on the stocks. Lord, what a famous blaze! Tar, paint, timber and sailcloth all roaring away in the strong southerly breeze - you could read as easy as kiss my hand. It was after that caper they threw up this battery. As you see, these sand-banks made it difficult for a ship drawing as much as a frigate to move straight in and out; and since the Diane don't want to run into the main off-shore squadron well to the north and since she must soon shape her course south-west, this is how she must come out on the ebb, and this' - pointing to a bold headland - 'is where we must wait for her, all lights dowsed. We call it Cape Bowhead.' He added some remarks on the breezes to be expected, the tides, and the effect of the wind upon them.

At last, when Stephen had the port, its approaches and the surrounding hills very clearly in his mind, Jack put the chart away and stood gazing out of the window at the slope that ran up to his little astronomical observatory with its copper dome. His credit with his children was, he found, enormously important to him: the pleasure of showing away with the West India merchants' silver had been far greater, of far more essential consequence than ever he could have conceived without experiencing it. They knew something of what had happened, but how exact their knowledge was or what they thought of it he could not tell; yet he did know that from this point of view alone, restoration to the Navy List would be well worth a right arm: even the thought of its real possibility made his head swim. He was on the point of speaking of his reflections in a general, impersonal way when Killick, in his ceremonial coat, opened the door and said 'Wittles is up sir, if you please.'

Mrs Williams was not gifted with any very high degree of perception, but she was as startled as her daughter when they saw Jack follow Stephen in, and she whispered 'If you cannot get Killick to keep the decanters well away from Mr Aubrey, I am afraid we shall have to leave the gentlemen very early in the meal.'

CHAPTER FIVE

Jack Aubrey had always disliked the practice, by no means uncommon in the Navy, of coming aboard without notice and catching his ship's people unawares; but this time, there being neither ship's boat nor coxswain at hand, he had no choice. And he was just as glad, because now as he and Stephen were being taken out in a Shelmerston skiff, he saw that the Surprise was a quite unfeigned model of industry. Stages were over the side; the last traces of blue paint had vanished under a fine fresh white; Mr Bulkeley and his mates were creeping about the rigging like huge spiders, renewing fair-leads and clapping red leather jackets on to the larger strops, a very pretty touch; and although her trim was not quite what he could have wished - she was a trifle by the head -it was clear that she had most of her water in. Shelmerston water was the best south of the Thames for going far foreign, but it was not easily come-at-able and in his absence the Surprises must have made many a weary voyage in the boats.

As he contemplated the ship he listened with half an ear to the boatman, whose son (like so many others in the little town) was very wishful to ship with Captain Aubrey: he was a right seaman, had made three Canton voyages and one to Botany Bay, rated able from the first, and was a rare hand with the fiddle; sober, too, and not in the least quarrelsome, except on the enemy's deck; Church of England, and (emphatically) always obedient to command.

'Ay,' said Jack, 'I am sure he is a good young man. But we have all the hands we need, you know. Still, when the rest of the prize-money comes in and is properly shared out there may be some vacancies: I believe there are men who mean to set up on their own, or buy public houses.'