The King`s Coat

down past him, is that right, Mister Lewrie?' the sharp-featured one put in. ’Aye, sir.’

’Did that strike you as odd?’

‘Excuse me, but what a midshipman of so little experience holds as an opinion is of no interest,' a much older captain grumped.

And God save me from serving under you, Lewrie thought. 'Did your officers find it odd? Did they say anything about the fact that Ariadne would be full of dangerous sources of splinters should the ship be called upon to fight?' the sharp one pressed. ’I asked Mister Harm if we should not clear, sir. But he did not like me asking questions.’

’What did he say?’

‘To keep my trap shut, sir.' Which raised a laugh from the court. 'Yess,' the sharp captain drawled, 'so you went to Quarters at one bell of the Day Watch. And you did not engage until one bell of the First Dog. Is that your recollection?’

‘Aye, sir. We stood easy for a long time.’

They got to the point when the Spaniard was only two cables off and struck her false Dutch flag, that awful first broadside, and the revelation of their foe's true identity. ’And what happened on the lower gun deck?’

‘Mister Harm was killed immediately, sir,' Lewrie replied, seeing again that shaved skull and the huge splinter in the man's eye and in his brain. 'Splinters from our cutter came through the gun ports, one gun was dismounted, one burst and a powder charge blew up.’

’The cutter had been lowered from the boat-tiers?’

‘Aye, sir.’

’What about the other boats?’

‘At divisions that morning, sir, they were all on the boat-tier. But after we went to gun drill, I cannot say, sir.’

’I would like to point out,' the sharp-faced captain said, 'There goes someone asking an opinion of a newly again,' the old captain muttered. ’I shall let this one stand,' the president of the court said. ’Aye, sir, I felt we were competent,' Lewrie lied, knowing that they had been terrible shots, grudgingly adequate at best, men who had never considered gun drill a serious business; who could go through the motions but had found fighting for their lives to be a horror, not even used to the sound of their own gunfire.

Poor Bales is fucked, Alan thought. And I've put one of the nails in his coffin. The least I can do is soften the blow for him… God, where did I get so noble suddenly? Then Alan also realized that anything he said in Bales' defense would look good for him as well before the members of the court. After all, he too was soon to be unemployed. Oh, you wretch… ’If I may say something about Captain Bales, sir?' Lewrie said, and received a nod. 'If I have learned anything in my short time in the Navy it's that Captain Bales is a good officer, and a fine captain. When we were on convoy duty he was the one we all looked to when it was blowing a full gale. No matter what happened when.that Spaniard tried to ambush us, and we did do him more damage than he did to us, I was glad to have Captain Bales as our commanding officer. I'd sail with him again, sirs.’

’Ah, well, I think that's all. You are dismissed, Mister Lewrie,' the president said, all but piping his eyes. ’Aye aye, sir,' Lewrie said crisply, rising from his seat. God, you are such a toadying little shit, Lewrie, he told himself, turning red with embarrassment. Did I lay it on a trifle thick? Maybe it will even help the old bastard a little bit in the end. But if I'd been on the listening side I'd have spewed and then kicked my young arse out… ’God bless you, Mister Lewrie,' Captain Bales whispered to him as he passed him on the way out. 'I'll not forget that. ’

‘I meant it, sir,' Lewrie said, knowing that he hadn't meant a bloody word of it and eager to get away. Ariadne was condemned. Her topmasts were struck for the last time, and she was warped alongside a stone dock. there to be a receiving ship. Most of her hands were dispersed to the hungry vessels that still had a job to do. Without them, she felt eerily empty.

Captain Bales, found guilty by the court of Article Ten, and Lieutenant Swift being found guilty of the same charge, were dismissed from the service, to be sent home to England. Lieutenant Church was found guilty of Article Twelve, Cowardice and Neglect of Duty; he was liable to the death penalty, but also dismissed from the Navy.

Lewrie thought that if they all went back horne in the same ship it would make a cozy little gathering in the passenger's mess-Bales, Swift, Church, Chapman now minus his leg and doomed to a life of poverty and being chased by children in the street calling him Mr. Hop-kiD's, and young Beckett, minus a foot at twelve years of age, all J;Uing the day they had joined the Fleet, and Ariadne, for she had been bad luck for everybody.

Lewrie was moved into the old officers' wardroom but still had to sling a hammock. Some form of ship's routine still went on; rising to scrub decks, stow hammocks, sail drill with the courses. anything to keep the newly arrived hands busy before they were assigned ships. He also supervised a lot of working parties at the dockyard and stores warehouses. All his friends left. Osmonde went to an eighty-gun ship of the line whose Marine Captain had been cashiered; Ashburn attended the flagship and passed his examination for lieutenancy, and took his place as sixth officer in Glatton, which was easy duty since it had been months since that ship had seen the seaward view of Cape Shirley and was rumored to be resting on a reef of beef bones. Shirke was on the mend in hospital while Bascombe went into a fine frigate. All the senior warrants and mates disappeared. except for the oldest and slowest. He languished for weeks in limbo, waiting for his call.

A very old lieutenant had charge of Ariadne, a man so old that he made Bales look like a spry young topman. When Lieutenant Cork drank, Alan drank. In fact, everybody drank. Cork knew he wasn't going anywhere important for the rest of the century, so he drank a lot, which meant that Lewrie had to sit and drink with him almost every night.

On those nights when Lieutenant Cork had started early, or simply forgot that he had a ready-made audience for his maunderings, Lewrie had the chance to slip ashore and caterwaul. He checked out the whores, he ate the spiciest foods he could find which were such a change from the Navy's idea of what to do with rock-hard salt-meat.

But it was an expensive island. and wartime wasn't helping to hold down prices, and he found himself in the miserable p0sition of having to go ashore to get away from the drudgery, but not being able to afford doing it more than once a week. His hundred guineas were going fast, and there was no guarantee that his father ever intended to honor their agreement, now that he was thousands of miles away. He had sent Pilchard a letter so his new guineas would catch up with him, but he wasn't holding his breath waiting for them.

He found himself in the miserable position one night of really wishing he were at sea, if just to cut his expenses, and he knew that he was going mad even to consider it! Once Lieutenant Cork went face-down in a puddle of claret (Lewrie had to give the man credit for supplying a good vintage, and free to boot) he went on deck to think out the fumes in his head with fresh air, and leaned on the railing, wondering what was going on aboard all the other ships in harbor. ’Mister Lewrie?' a familiar voice called from the darkness. 'Aye?’

‘Lewrie, you're cup-shot!' Lewrie could not make out who it was and stepped closer before he made the wrong answer to someone more senior. 'Mister Kenyon?' he gasped, once he could make out the uniform and a hint of the face. ’It's me, right enough. How do you keep?’

‘Like a ghost, sir. I think I'm the only soul left from the old crew,' he said, happy to see his favorite officer and hoping that it wasn't just a social call. ’Too much idle time on your young hands, if you ask me, Mister Lewrie.’

’Too true, sir.’

’Then how would you like something that would keep you out of mischief?’

‘I like mischief, sir, frankly. But this is getting boresome. ’

‘So you wouldn't turn down a chance to be a midshipman in an independent command.’

’Mischief be damned, sir, where do I go?' he whooped. 'Admiral Matthews has just given me command of HMS Parrot. She is a big fore n' aft schooner, American built and English took. I'm allowed two midshipmen and I was delighted to find that you were available. Matter of fact, Matthews was quite taken with the report about you and was saving you for something good.’

’Lead me to her, sir.' 'We'll be doing some interesting things, running fleet mails and orders all up and down the Leewards, over to Jamaica now and then, maybe as far as the Bahamas or the Colonies. ’

‘I'll go pack, sir,' Lewrie told him, aware that he was much happier than the last time