H.M.S. COCKEREL

What a cod's-head's error, he sighed to himself-conking myself addlepated on a deck beam! Like a raw, whipjack midshipman! Which thoughts made him wonder just how rusty (and treacly!) he really was after four years on half-pay. And what had ever possessed him to thirst for a sea commission. It was Lewrie's curse to be burdened with a touch more self-awareness and introspection than the run-of-the-mill Sea Officer. He knew his faults; they were legion. Predominant among them was a fear that he would be found wanting someday, that his swaggering reputation far exceeded the competence upon which such a tarry odour should be based. That he was a thinly disguised sham.

He glanced about the quarterdeck, the wheel, the guns and their tackles. He gazed aloft up the mizzenmast, naming things to himself, recalling the pestiferously quirky terms real seamen used. Braces, lifts, jears, clews, harbour gaskets, lubber's hole in the mizzen top, ratlines strung on the side-stays, and… and what the bloody hell were those?

Tensioning shrouds strung spider-taut from larboard to starboard stays below the mizzen top, they were… oh, Jesus! Uppers were called catharpins… lowers? Swifters! Right, swifters. There's a backstay outrigger… travellin' backstay? No, breast-backstay outrigger, there is the travellin' backstay… there, the standing.

Christ, what a dunce you are, you poxy clown! It'll come to me. It'll come, soon as I'm pitched in-I think. It had better.

He determined that, in the shank of his first evening aboard, he would, on the sly, swot up on his tarry, dog- eared copy of Falconer's Marine Dictionary. Along with the peculiarities of Captain Braxton's idiosyncratic Order Book.

'Excuse me, sir. You are our new first?' another intruded upon Alan's glum musings of disaster.

'Aye,' he replied, happy for any distraction at that moment.

'Allow me to name myself, sir… Dimmock, sir. Nathan Dimmock,' the other fellow informed him, doffing his hat in salute. 'The sailing master. Your servant, sir.'

'Lewrie. Alan Lewrie, sir,' he responded with a like courtesy.

Dimmock was a sturdy fellow, bluff and square, just a bit shorter than Lewrie; soberly dressed in a plain blue frock coat, red waist-coat and blue breeches. Before he clapped his hat back on, Alan saw that he wore his hair quite short, barely over his ears on the sides, with a tiny queue in back.

'Well, Mister Dimmock, how do you find Cockerel, sir?' Lewrie asked him.

'An excellent ship, sir,' Dimmock replied. 'A most excellently crafted vessel, sir.'

'Been aboard long, have you?'

'Five weeks, sir, my mates and I.'

'So your department is prepared for sea, in all respects?'

'There are some charts I lack, Mister Lewrie, sir, but other than those, we are ready, aye.'

'But not the entire ship, I take it?' Lewrie pressed, mystified by the stresses Dimmock put on his words. Dimmock all but grimaced, inclined his head towards the open skylights in the coach top, then began to mutter his answer. Lewrie got the hint. He put his hands in the small of his back, and paced slowly away forrud to the nettings overlooking the waist, for more privacy.

'If I may speak plain, sir?' Dimmock grimaced again, as if he were fearful that his words would come back to haunt him, even so.

'As long as you do not speak insolence, sir,' Alan chid him in a grim tone. As first lieutenant, he must quash the first sign of any carping or backbiting against his captain, no matter what he thought personally.

'She's a queer ship, sir,' Dimmock fretted, with a shake of his roundish head.

'A Jonah?' Lewrie stiffened. He'd heard of hard-luck vessels, with souls perverse as Harpies, where no sailor'd ever prospered.

'Oh, no, sir… no sign of thatl' Dimmock was quick to assure him. 'I speak more of a certain… tension, more like. Listen, sir. Pause a moment and give her ear.'

Lewrie peeked about, cocking his head to heed any odd sounds, half-expecting some eldritch screech or moan beyond the normal creak of timbers, irons and stays, of masts working with the soft, whispery groans of the damned. But, beyond the sough of the morning wind and the far-off piping mutters of taut rigging, he heard nought.

'Dead silence, sir,' Dimmock hissed softly. 'No shouting or chaffering. We're still in-Discipline, e'en so, but… a crew must make some sound, sir. But no. They're below, silent as a pack of whipped curs. And more'n a few already wearin' the bosun's 'chequer.' Hands on watch, hands below, they're ordered to maintain the 'Still.' A dead-silent ship's beyond my experience, sir. And a dead-silent ship's dev'lish queer.'

'Not a mutiny plot, surely!' Lewrie scoffed, though he found Cockerel's silence almost belly-chillin' eerie himself. 'Six weeks in commission? Hardly, Mister Dimmock!'

'I'll not be the one dare to call it mutinous, Mister Lewrie,' Dimmock gloomed, shrugging deeper into his coat collar. 'Though, do we drive 'em taut as we've done so far… tauter'n any ship I've ever been aboard, well. There is the possibility, someday, d'ye see, sir?'

'Captain Braxton informed me he's a taut-hand,' Lewrie allowed.

'Oh, aye, sir,' Dimmock sneered.

'Ahum!' Lewrie granted in warning. 'I think we're stretching the bounds of proper discussion too far, Mister Dimmock. Hate him or love him, he is our captain. And he must be obeyed. Chearly. Most of all by his commission officers and warrants.'

'And your impression of him, sir?'

'Mister Dimmock, what / think don't signify. Now, unless we've professional matters to discuss?' Lewrie shot back sternly.

'Well, then, sir,' Dimmock coloured, huffing up as if stifling a belch. 'You will excuse me. There's to be a flogging at five bells o' the forenoon, so I must go. You'll wish to get settled in. Speak to our illustrious second lieutenant, too. I'm mortal certain you've been bid do so? Mister Braxton?'

'Captain Braxton,' Lewrie growled between clenched teeth. He had never heard the like from a professional officer. Not even from himself, and Lewrie could backbite and carp with the best of 'em.

'No, sir. Lieutenant Clement Braxton, I meant,' Dimmock said, grinning sardonically. 'Not Captain Howard Braxton.'

'Nephew?' Lewrie frowned deeper.

'His son, sir,' Dimmock said with all signs of great pleasure. 'Damme, it really does become confusing. We've a Mister Midshipman Anthony Braxton. Now, I do believe he is a nephew. And then, there's Midshipman Dulwer. He's cousin to them all, somehow. And the captain's clerk, Mister Boutwell. Oh, it's quite the grand family outing, this frigate of ours, Mister Lewrie, sir!'

'Bloody Helll' Lewrie exclaimed cautiously, dropping the stern demeanour required of first lieutenants. 'Any more under foot, Mister Dimmock? Mean t'say… how far may one carry nepotism? How many of the hands turned over with him? Any of the warrants?'

'Ah, now that's the queerest bit, sir,' Dimmock sighed. 'Captain Braxton's Indiaman? A war declared, soon as he drops the hook, guinea a man Joining Bounty, and all? And nary a hand, nary a mate from his past ships followed him to the Fleet, sir.'

'Christ,' Lewrie all but groaned. That was hellish queer, that a captain could not entice a single tar to serve under him. Even the hardest captains had some loyal to 'em! Even the fools did!

'Forgive me for speaking plain for the nonce, Mister Lewrie, sir,' Dimmock gloomed. 'And that's the last you'll hear from me, by way of insubordination. My word on't, sir. But I thought you had to know. There's good men aboard, afore the mast and in the wardroom. There's many as could be good men, given half a chance, and a dose o' 'firm-but-fair' whilst they're learning. But the captain is not the onliest aboard who's… 'taut-handed.' Runs in the family, so to speak. They're a hard lot, sir. Ask Lieutenant Mylett.'

'Wish I could, sir,' Lewrie shivered, though not with cold. 'I was told… no matter. Mister Dimmock, well met,