Julian Stockwin - Tyger

Kydd Sea Adventures by Julian Stockwin

KYDD

ARTEMIS

SEAFLOWER

MUTINY

QUARTERDECK

TENACIOUS

COMMAND

THE ADMIRAL’S DAUGHTER

THE PRIVATEER’S REVENGE*

INVASION

VICTORY

CONQUEST

BETRAYAL

CARIBBEE

PASHA

* Published in the U.K. as TREACHERY

To Keith

*indicates fictitious character

*Sir Thomas Kydd, captain of HMS Tyger

*Nicholas Renzi, Lord Farndon, friend and former confidential secretary

TYGER, SHIP’S COMPANY

*Borden, master’s mate

*Bowden, replacement second lieutenant

*Bray, replacement first lieutenant

*Brice, replacement third lieutenant

*Clinton, Royal Marines captain

*Darby, gunner

*Dawes, boatswain

*Dawkins, able seaman

*Digby, quartermaster’s mate

*Doud, seaman

*Flynn, steward

*Gordon, carpenter’s mate

*Haffner, able seaman

*Halgren, captain’s coxswain

*Harman, purser

*Herne, replacement boatswain

*Hollis, first lieutenant

*Jemmy, ship’s boy

*Joyce, replacement master

*Le Breton, sailing master

*Legge, carpenter

*Maynard, master’s mate

*Nowell, third lieutenant

*Oxley, surgeon

*Paddon, second lieutenant

*Payne, lieutenant of Marines

*Pinto, seaman

*Pollard, bosun’s mate

*Smyth, master’s mate

*Stirk, gunner’s mate

*Tully, master-at-arms

OTHERS

Adams, master shipbuilder of Beaulieu

*Bazely, captain, Fenella

Bellingham, British prisoner in Archangel

Bennigsen, Count, commander of coalition forces in East Prussia

Blucher, Generalleutnant, aide to King Friedrich

*Blunt, Muscovy Company

Bourne, secretary of the Treasury during Pitt’s office

Browne, former master attendant at Cape of Good Hope

*Cecilia, nee Kydd, Lady Farndon

Collingwood, admiral, commander-in-chief Mediterranean

Davout, French general

Dundas, first lord of the Admiralty

*Engelhardt, subaltern friend of Gursten

Essington, rear admiral

*Felkins, London solicitor

*Gursten, Flugelleutnant, staff lieutenant in Prussian headquarters

*Hohenlau, Generalleutnant, Prussian commander under Bennigsen

*Horner, Arctic pilot

*Hozier, captain, Lively

Jervis, Earl St Vincent

Jervis, Mr, nephew of Earl St Vincent, crown prosecutor in Popham court-martial

*Knowles, reporting agent

Labanoff, Russian cavalry general

*Marceau, captain, Preussen

*Miss Sophy, young London socialite

Mulgrave, first lord of the Admiralty

*Parker, former captain of Tyger

Phillip, rear admiral, Impress Service

Popham, Sir Home, senior post captain

Popov, mayor of Archangel

*Purvis, Renzi’s butler

* Rogers, captain, Stoat

Russell, vice admiral

Scharnhorst, Prussian chief of general staff

Soult, French general

*Stuart, foreign office

Victor, French general

Voronov, Kapitan, port captain of Archangel

Wilkinstone, rear admiral

Young, admiral, president of court-martial

L’AURORE WAS NEW-MOORED off the legendary Plymouth Hoe. After so long at sea, and the strangeness and allure of foreign shores, it was gratifying to take in the deep green softness of England.

“Do excuse my not seeing you ashore, Renzi old fellow,” Captain Sir Thomas Kydd said, taking his friend’s hand warmly. “You know I’m bound to sail back to Cadiz to rejoin the fleet and-”

“Dear chap, allow that I’ve a modicum of experience in the sea service and do respect your bounden duty. To be borne back to England in your inestimable bark has been more than my deserving.”

Kydd’s commander-in-chief, Admiral Collingwood, had been generous in allowing the frigate that had rescued this peer of the realm from a Turkish prison to continue on to England. Now they must part-Renzi to his seat in Wiltshire and Kydd to restore HMS L’Aurore to the blockading fleet as soon as possible.

“You’ll give my respects to Cec-that is, your noble wife, won’t you?” That his young sister had married an earl and was now a countess was still a thing of wonder to Kydd.

“I will. Providing I have your promise that you’ll honour us with a visit just as soon as you’re able?”

“You may count on it, Nicholas.”

He watched his closest friend swing over the bulwarks and, with a last wave, descend into the boat hooked on alongside. He heard his coxswain Poulden’s gruff “Bear off-give way together,” and saw it stroke smartly off.

It had been this way before: a boat bearing Renzi shorewards after far voyaging, once after the near-mortal illness that had ended his naval career, and again after his high-minded but doomed attempt to start a new life in New South Wales, Kydd himself, as a lowly sloop commander, heading ashore to social ruin after spurning an admiral’s daughter for a country girl. But now he and Renzi were immeasurably different creatures.

The first lieutenant broke in on his thoughts with a discreet cough.

“Yes, Mr Curzon?”

“The carpenter asks if he might have a word.”

The mild and obliging Legge came forward with a worry frown fixed in place and touched his hat. “Sir Thomas, m’ duty, an’ I begs to know how long we’m here at all.”

“Why do you need to know that, Mr Legge?”

“Me an’ m’ mates had another look at that garb’d an’ I has m’ strong doubts about ’un.”

“Go on.”

“It’s druxy timbers, I’d swear on it.”

Kydd’s expression tightened. This was not good news: the carpenter suspected rot, and in the worst part of the ship-the garboard strake was the range of planks that met the keel, all but impossible to get to from inboard. It was, as well, the natural resting place for bilge water. In those dark and secretive spaces, ill-ventilated and never to be kissed by sunlight, it would be the first to yield to the insidious miasma that would turn to rank decay.

It was said to have been the cause of the loss of Royal George at anchor in Spithead, with the deaths of her admiral and nine hundred souls-the bottom had dropped out of her. And so many other ships had put to sea to disappear for ever, meeting a lonely fate far out on the ocean when rotten timber deep within their bowels had given way under stress of storm.

“Very well, Mr Legge. I’ll send for a dockyard survey.”

They arrived promptly and disappeared below with their augers and probes but came back up with dismaying haste. The extracted sample told it all: instead of tough, dark timber, this was spongy, white-veined-and spurted foul water when squeezed.