Patrick O'Brian - The Letter of Marque

'Mayn't we board too?'

'No, William; at least not in the first assault. The Surprises have been going through all the motions of boarding a frigate twice a night since what seems the beginning of time; they know exactly what to do - each man has his own task - and the presence of other people would only distract them. But of course if the Dianes prove uncommon awkward, we can always sing out for help.'

Babbington considered for some moments, looking at his former captain now and then. 'Well, sir,' he said, 'it seems a capital plan to me, and I certainly cannot suggest any improvements. Should you like me to signal for all captains now?'

'If you please, William. And there is a point I had almost forgot: when you stand in tomorrow, I shall stand farther out. Then tomorrow evening you make a particular point of moving out into the offing very well lit up: when you are far out I shall slip past you without a glim, taking your boats in tow as I pass. I need hardly say that if any of your lobster-boats hears of Surprise being here, we might as well go home, rather than creep in under courses with the hope of finding the Diane unprepared.'

'I shall look after that, sir.'

'But discreetly, William, discreetly. Do not treat them unfriendly or wave them away, or they will smoke there is something amiss.'

'I shall chatter with them myself, and allow no one else to speak.' He went on deck to give orders for the signal and when he came back Jack said 'I remember the Doctor talking about women and gunfire: it was off Cape Creus in the last war, when we took a French sloop loaded with powder. The master had taken his wife with him and she was having a baby - the Doctor delivered it. Dear me, those were happy days. The Admiral gave us cruise after cruise.'

'And we took prize after prize. Oh, it was glorious. And then there was the Cacafuego! Do you remember how we starbowlins blacked our faces in the galley and boarded her screeching like boiled cats? Mowett wrote a poem about it.'

They were still talking eagerly about the last war when the first of the boats came alongside, followed almost immediately by the others.

'Sir,' said Babbington, after the sounds of proper reception, the midshipman's announcement, and the procession on the ladder, 'Sir, allow me to name Captain Griffiths of the Dolphin, Mr Leigh, captain of the Camel, and Mr Strype of the Vulture.'

'Good evening, gentlemen,' said Jack, looking at them attentively: Griffiths was a small, bright-eyed, round-headed very young commander newly appointed to a very old sloop that should not have been at sea at all; Leigh, a tall, elderly, one-armed lieutenant without the least hope of promotion who was happier in the command of a transport than living ashore with a large family on less than a hundred pounds a year; Strype, of the Vulture slop-ship, was so silent and pale as to be almost non-existent - it was strange to see him wearing the King's uniform.

'Now, gentlemen,' said Babbington, and Jack was astonished at the unassuming natural authority with which he spoke - astonished, because their conversation had so vividly brought back the little boy of the midshipmen's berth in the Sophie, who still had to be told to blow his nose - 'I have orders to cooperate with Mr Aubrey of the Surprise in an operation he intends to carry out against the Diane. I will beg him to give an outline of his plan for your information, but first I must observe, that he and I are in entire agreement as to the general strategy. You will therefore be so good as to listen without comment until he asks for your observations, which will bear only upon such points as currents, soundings or the enemy's dispositions on which you may have particular information. Mr Aubrey, sir, allow me to bring the lamp a little nearer.'

Jack described his plan once more, pointing to the various positions on the chart as he did so and ending 'If any officer has questions to ask or observations to make, I should be glad to hear them.'

There was a long silence, broken only by the lapping of the sea against the Tartarus's side, until the grizzled lieutenant stood up and placing his hook on the breakwater said 'The only observation I have to make is that at flood and slack water there is a current that sets up against the rampart here. Time and again I have seen smallcraft fend off from the wall or absolutely graze it as they turn into the harbour. You might think that worth bearing in mind for the boats, sir, if they wish to pass unseen.'

'Thank you, sir,' said Jack. 'That is a most valuable point. Captain Griffiths, did you wish to speak?'

'Only to say that with Captain Babbington's permission I should be happy to lead the squadron's boats, sir.'

Babbington instantly said 'Mr Aubrey and I are agreed that the captains should remain with their commands. The squadron will stand in shortly after the operation begins, and there may be important decisions to make in the event of - if all don't go well.'

'Bless you, William,' said Jack inwardly. 'I never knew you were so quick.' And aloud, in answer to the unspoken question that hung there in the cabin, 'Captain Pullings, who accompanies me as a volunteer and who is the most senior King's officer in these waters, will be taking command of the Surprise in my absence. Mr Strype, have you a remark?'

'Yes,' said Strype, and for the first time it became apparent that he was drunk, pale drunk with solitary gin, 'how do we stand for prize-money?'

This was said with a particularly knowing, cynical leer, and the others reddened with shame. Jack looked at him coldly and said 'That is surely selling the bear... that is surely counting your bears ..." he hesitated. 'In any case the question is premature and likely to bring misfortune,' he went on. 'It will of course be dealt with according to the custom of the sea. Those that tow share equally with those that take.'

'Fair enough,' said Leigh. 'It was like that in the last war, and in the American war before that.'

'And now that we have returned to the subject of boats,' Jack continued, 'I will be more exact. Captain Babbington and I are agreed that the largest belonging to each ship, launch, longboat or pinnace, would be best. They should be fully manned, with spare rowers for a long pull, and the men should be well armed for boarding, though I hope they will not be called upon to do so. They should be equipped with hook-ropes and all the necessary tackle and they would be best commanded by the bosun or a senior master's mate. Yet even more important, they must be made to understand that silence is absolutely essential - matting on the thole-pins or rowlocks, naturally, but above all no talking: not a word. The boats lie on their oars when I cast them off and neither move nor speak till they are called in by name, either to tow or help in overcoming resistance. Since they may have to board they should have white armbands, to be put on at the last moment, like the Surprises: the password is Merry Christmas and the answer Happy New Year. I think that is all, gentlemen.' He stood up: he had seen far too many meetings of this kind rendered vague and obscure by an interminable discussion of points that had little or nothing to do with the main issue, and it seemed to him better to leave his plan in its simplest form. Yet when the captains were gone he sat down with Babbington and the master of the Tartarus, checking soundings and bearings and the order of the French ships along the quay: a worthless brig, two gunboats mounting thirty-two pounders, the Diane, and two fair-sized merchantmen that had recently moved from the bottom of the basin, presumably with the intention of slipping out in her wake. These, together with the shoals to be avoided on leaving the port, they traced in three copies, together with a statement of the successive stages of the operation in the simplest, most unambiguous language they could work out; and when the three were finished Jack Aubrey said 'There. I believe we have done all we can. If you will issue these as part of an order, William, and let your captains mull over them all tomorrow, getting them by rote themselves and teaching the boat-crews until they are word-perfect, you will do me a great service. I shall leave you now and take the ship some way out into the offing. I shall pick up the boats tomorrow on my way in, and if all goes well I hope to see you about midnight or a little after. But if it don't, William, if I make a cock of it, you must not - I repeat must not - follow me in or let any of your ships do so. If this business drags out long enough for the French to recover their wits and find that the isthmus is not being invaded after all, they will keep up such a fire on the narrow pass that no ship will get out alive. I have told Tom Pullings the same, and he has agreed."