Alexander Kent - THE INSHORE SQUADRON

'Well, thank you, sir.' He did not know what to say. It was all happening so quickly. A squadron, a new station, and almost at once he was off again on something quite different. He had a feeling he was going to find Browne very useful after all.

Damerum added suddenly, 'In any doubts at all, send a fast vessel to find me. Half of my ships are returning to England for overhaul, the remainder are to reinforce the Dutch blockade. It is all in the written instructions which even now my flag lieutenant is handing to yours. They are lucky men. They handle the destiny of a fleet, but take no part in the skill of responsibility for it, damn them!'

Water dashed against the stern windows like pellets. It had begun to rain or worse.

Bolitho stood up. 'I shall find my fresh instructions interesting reading, Sir Samuel.' He held out his hand. 'And thank you for the trust you have placed in me.'

As he said it he realized the true meaning for the first time. It was like having a line severed. The instructions were for him to interpret as he saw fit. There was nobody nearby to run to for guidance or advice. Right or wrong, it was his decision.

'I'll not see you over the side, if you don't mind, Bolitho. I've letters to write to catch the courier brig for England.' As they walked to the screen door, beyond which Browne was conversing with a very weary looking lieutenant, he said, 'So good luck in Copenhagen. It's a fair city, I'm told.'

After a perilous descent down the flagship's side, Bolitho and Browne wedged themselves in the sternsheets and wrapped their boat-cloaks around their bodies.

Through chattering teeth Browne asked, 'All well, sir? I should have been with you, but the admiral's aide was waiting to head me off. I did not even get offered a glass, sir!' He sounded quietly outraged.

Bolitho said, 'We are going to Copenhagen, Mr Browne.' He saw the lieutenant's eye light up. 'Does that suit?' 'Indeed it does, sir!'

It was good to be back aboard Benbow. New she might be, and as yet untried, but already she had 'a personality, a warmth which had been lacking aboard the ship he had just visited. Perhaps it was Herrick's influence at work. You never knew for certain with ships, Bolitho thought.

Herrick joined him in the cabin and waited patiently while Bolitho rid himself of his dripping cloak and hat.

'Copenhagen, Thomas. We will lay a course for The Skaw at once, and I shall inform the squadron what is to happen.' He grinned at Herrick's grave expression. 'When I know myself, that is!'

It was a hundred miles at least to The Skaw, the northernmost point of Denmark. It would give him ample time to study his instructions, and perhaps even to read that which had been left out.

Bolitho lay back in a chair while Allday finished shaving him. It was early morning and barely light beyond the salt-streaked windows, but Bolitho had been awake for an hour, preparing himself for a testing day and going over his instructions to see if he had missed anything.

Bolitho was surprised he was so relaxed. He was able to drowse while the razor slid smoothly up his throat, to listen to the sluice of water overhead and the attendant march of bare feet as the decks were washed down.

He thought he heard the boatswain's thick voice, too. Swale, Big Tom as he was called, had a strange sounding tone, almost a lisp, caused by the loss of most of his front teeth. In battle or brawl, Bolitho did not know. Herrick had said he was a good boatswain, and at this moment he was probably examining the poop and quarterdeck again. It was always a strain for the first weeks at sea for a newly built ship. Timber, not always as well seasoned as it should be after years of war and shortages, could do strange things with the hull rolling about in all directions.

Benbow certainly sailed well, he thought. Several times the other two-deckers had been forced to spread more canvas to keep up with her. A fine ship. She alone must have taken-the best part of a forest to build.

Bolitho jerked upright in the chair, making Allday exclaim, 'Easy, sir! I all but parted your windpipe just then!'

Then he said, 'I heard it, too. Gunfire!'

Bolitho started to rise and then lay back again. 'Finish the shave, please.' He controlled his sudden excitement. 'It won't do for me to go rushing on deck.'

It was hard, all the same. He had always been used to going at once to the quarterdeck to assess the circumstances for himself. He recalled one of his first captains, when as a midshipman he had been ordered to pass an urgent message aft to that same lordly presence.

The captain had been drinking in his stern cabin. Bolitho could picture him without effort. As he had stammered out the message, the captain had turned merely to nod and say, 'My compliments to the first lieutenant, Mr Bolitho. Tell him I will come up shortly. That is, if you have still the breath for it!'

Perhaps he, too, had been dying to see for himself, as Bolitho was now.

There was a tap at the screen door and Herrick entered the cabin.

'Good morning, Thomas.' He smiled. It was wrong to play games with Herrick and he added, 'I heard firing.'

Herrick nodded. 'From the bearing I would say it is Lookout, sir, to the nor'-east.'

Bolitho wiped his skin with a towel and stood up, feeling the deck quiver as the rudder fell heavily in a trough. Lookout was the little sloop-of-war, and her captain was Commander Veitch, Herrick's previous first lieutenant. A stern-looking man from Tynemouth, utterly dependable, who had earned his promotion the hard way. If he was tackling something on his own, then it was small and agile… Veitch obviously considered there was no time to inform his flagship or call for assistance. He was not that sort of man anyway.

Herrick suggested, 'Probably a blockade runner, sir.'

Ozzard hurried in with Bolitho's coat and held it out like a Spaniard tormenting a bull.

Bolitho said, 'Are either of the frigates in sight yet?'

More explosions echoed against the Benbow's side. Short and

sharp. Lookout's bow-chasers from their sound.

Herrick replied, 'Not when I was on deck, sir. Relentless

should be away to the sou'-west and Styx down to lee'rd as

instructed.'

'Good.' He slipped into his coat. It felt damp. 'Let us see for ourselves.'

The sky was much brighter when they walked from beneath the poop, and Wolfe hurried to meet them. 'Masthead reports Lookout in sight, sir. She's in company with another smaller craft. Either a brig or a ship with one mast shot out of her!' He bared his teeth.

Bolitho could read his mind. An early capture. Prize-money. A command for somebody. Even a temporary one as prizemaster was all it needed in wartime. And some luck. Bolitho had had both, and had so won his own first command.

People bustled about the quarterdeck, securing the pumps and scrubbers, faces still obscured in shadow. But all well aware that their admiral was up and about. What did it mean to them? A sea fight? Death or mutilation? It would certainly be a break in the monotony of daily routine.

Bolitho saw some of the officers on the lee side of the deck. Byrd and Manley, the fourth and fifth lieutenants, and, younger still, Courtenay, the sixth, whom Allday had ousted from his barge.

He must find time to meet and get to know them. He was lucky to know the minds of the officers who captained the squadron, but if the Benbow was driven into a hard battle, a young lieutenant could find himself in command after one devastating broadside.

Wolfe had a telescope to his eye and said, 'Here comes Relentless! I can just see her sky-scrapers. She-scents the smell of battle, sir.'

Bolitho could imagine the activity aboard the thirty-six-gun frigate. He had met her young captain, Rowley Peel, only twice. He was the odd one out in the squadron, but was quick to move when need be. Dashing down from his station to protect his heavier consorts, to harry the enemy, to attempt whatever was so ordered by the flagship.