Julian Stockwin - Quarterdeck

"Heave to, please," Houghton ordered, as he took the officer-of-the-watch's speaking trumpet and waited. The sloop barrelled up to leeward and backed her headsails. Close by, the little vessel's appalling motion was only too apparent—she was bucking in deep, jerky movements, bursts of spray sheeting over the small huddle at the wheel.

"Where—is— Lord—Woolmer?" Houghton called.

A figure in the sloop made his way to the shiny wet shrouds and aimed a speaking trumpet. Kydd could hear thin sounds from it, but not make out what was said. The sloop showed canvas enough for it to ease in, its exaggerated bucketing so much the more pitiable as it lurched closer alongside.

" Woolmer— sprung mainmast—left her at fifty-five twenty west—running down forty-three north . . ."

At that longitude she was considerably to eastward of her course; somewhere in the stormy grey of the Atlantic she had encountered a squall that had nearly taken her mainmast by the board. She would have fished the mast with capstan bars and anything to hand, then been grateful for the easterly, which at least would have her heading slowly but surely for Halifax.

Looking down from the deck of Tenacious, Kydd felt for the sloop commander. Without a soul to ease the decision out there in the lonely ocean he had needed to weigh the consequences of standing by the injured vessel with her important cargo or resume his watch over the convoy. His presence was proof of the hard resolution he had made: to him the value to England of the merchant ships had outweighed that of one big ship and her passenger.

The sloop sheeted home and thrashed away after her convoy. Houghton turned to the master. "Mr Hambly, all sail conformable to weather. I believe we shall lay on the larb'd tack initially, with a view to returning to starb'd and intersecting our forty-three north line of latitude somewhere about fifty-seven west longitude."

Much depended on the weather. Lord Woolmer was heading westwards as close as she could stay to a known line of latitude. If Tenacious sailed along the same line in the opposite direction they should meet. The problem was that the wind was dead foul from the east—in difficult conditions Tenacious would need to tack twice to intersect the line at the probable furthest on of the other ship. And Woolmer herself would be finding it hard to be sure of her latitude without sight of the sun for days at a time.

Kydd went below to find a dry shirt. He was watch-on-deck for the last dog-watch and wanted to be as comfortable as possible; there would be no going below later. As he came back up the companionway he saw the master, face set grimly, entering his tiny sea cabin. "Do ye think th' easterly will hold?" Kydd asked, wedging himself against the door for balance. The hanging lan-thorn cast moving shadows in the gloom.

"See this?" Hambly tapped the barometer, its vertical case on gimbals also a-swing. His face seemed old and more lined in the dim light. "Twenty-nine 'n' three fourths. These waters, as soon as we gets a drop more'n a tenth of an inch below our mean f'r the season, stand by. An' we've had a drop o' two tenths since this morning."

He checked the chart again and straightened. "North Atlantic, even at this time o' year, it's folly to trust. It wouldn't surprise me t' see it veer more southerly, an' if that's with a further drop we're in for a hammering."

Kydd turned to go, then asked, "You'll be about tonight, Mr Hambly?"

"I will, sir," said the master, with a tired smile.

In the last of the light the foretop lookout sighted strange sail. It was Lord Woolmer with no fore and aft canvas from the main or anything above her course. She put up her helm to run down on Tenacious, and Kydd could imagine the relief and joy aboard. With luck they would be safe in Halifax harbour in two or three days and the story of their crossing would be told in the warmth and safety of their homes for months to come.

By the time the ship had come up with Tenacious it was too dark for manoeuvres, so they waited until the big, somewhat ungainly merchantman pulled ahead then fell in astern, three lanthorns at her foreyard to comfort the other ship, whose stern lanthorns were plainly visible.

The morning brought the south-easterly that the master had feared; the wind had strengthened and the barometer dropped. It was time for even a well-found ship like Tenacious to take the weather seriously.

Houghton did not waste time. "Mr Pearce, Mr Renzi, we'll have the t'gallant masts on deck." The jibboom was brought in forward. Aloft, all rigging that could possibly carry away to disaster was doubled up, preventer braces, rolling tackles put on the yards, slings, trusses—nothing could be trusted to hold in the great forces unleashed in a storm.

Anchors were stowed outboard—they would be of crucial importance should land be seen to leeward—and were secured against the smash of seas on the bows with tough double ring painters and lashing along the length of the stock.

The rudder, too, was vital to safeguard: a relieving tackle was rigged in the wardroom and a spare tiller brought out. It would need fast work to ship a new one—Rawson could be trusted in this, or to rouse out a portable compass and align its lubber-line to the ship's head for use if the tiller ropes from the wheel on deck broke. The relieving tackle would then be used to steer.

On each deck a hatchway forward and aft ventilated the space through gratings. These now were covered with strong canvas and fastened securely with battens nailed around the coaming. Seas breaking aboard might otherwise send tons of water into the ship's bowels.

The most feared event in a storm was a gun breaking loose: a big cannon might smash through the ship's side. The gunner and his party worked from forward and secured them; each muzzle seized like an ox to the ringbolt above the closed gunport, with double breechings and side frappings. Finally, on deck, lifelines were rigged fore and aft on each side of the masts, and on the weather mizzen shrouds a canvas cloth was spread to break the blast for the helm crew.

Tenacious was now snugged for a blow. Kydd hoped that the same was true for the merchantman. What would probably be of most concern to her captain was the state of his noble passengers. However splendid their appointments, their cabins would now be a hell on earth: the motion would be such that the only movement possible would be hand to hand, their only rest taken tied into a wildly moving cot, their world confined to a box shaken into a malodorous, seasick chaos.

The ships plunged on into the angry seas. Aboard, muscles wearying of the continual bracing and staggering along the deck, eyes salt-sore in the raw cold and the streaming wet, Kydd made a circuit of the deck looking for anything that could conceivably fret itself into a rapidly spiralling danger. He checked little things, that the drain-holes of the boats were kept open, their deck-gripes bar-taut, spare spars under them lashed into immobility. When he stripped off in the damp fug of the wardroom, he could see his own concern reflected in others' eyes, and Renzi wore a taut expression.

He pulled on wool: long undergarments, loose pullovers. Anything to keep out the sapping cold of the streaming wind.

This was no longer an exhilarating contest with Neptune, but something sinister. The first feelings of anxiety stole over Kydd— there was a point in every storm when the elements turned from hard boisterousness to malevolence, a sign that mankind was an interloper in something bigger than himself, where lives counted for nothing.

Back on deck Kydd had no need to check the compass to see that the wind had veered further: the angle of the treble-reefed topsails was now much sharper. If it continued much past south they stood to be headed, prevented from making for Nova Scotia to the west, no more than two days away.