The Bomb Vessel

mourning. Drinkwater smiled approvingly, discovering a half-finished note about mortars.

'You did not complete this, Mr Q?'

'No sir. Mr Tumilty left us before I had finished catechising him.'

'I see. How would you stow barrels, Mr Q?'

'Bung up and bilge free, sir.'

'A ship is north of the equator. To find the latitude, given the sun's declination is south and the altitude on the meridian is reduced to give a correct zenith distance, how do you apply that zenith distance to the declination?'

'The declination is subtracted from the zenith distance, sir, to give the latitude.'

'A vessel is close hauled on the larboard tack, wind southwesterly and weather thick. You have the deck and notice the air clearing with blue sky to windward. Of what would you beware and what steps would you take?'

'That the ship might be thrown aback, the wind veering into the north west. I would order the quartermaster to keep the vessel's head off the wind a point more than was necessary by the wind.'

'Under what circumstances would you not do this?'

Quilhampton's face puckered into a frown and he caught his lip in his teeth.

'Well, Mr Q? You are almost aback, sir.'

'I… er.'

'Come now. Under what circumstances might you not be able to let the vessel's head pay off? Come, summon your imagination.'

'If you had a danger under the lee bow, sir,' said Quilhampton with sudden relief.

'Then what would you do?'

'Tack ship, sir.'

'You have left it too late, sir, the ship's head is in irons…' Drinkwater looked at the sheen of sweat on the midshipman's brow. There was enough evidence in the books beneath Drinkwater's hands of Quilhampton's imagination and he was even now beset by anxiety on his imaginary quarterdeck.

'Pass word for the captain, sir?' Quilhampton suggested hopefully.

'The captain is incapacitated and you are first lieutenant, Mr Q, you cannot expect to be extricated from this mess.'

'Make a stern board and hope to throw the ship upon the starboard tack, sir.'

'Anything else?' Drinkwater looked fixedly at the midshipman. 'What if you fail in the sternboard?'

'Anchor, sir.'

'At last! Never neglect the properties of anchors, Mr Q. You may lose an anchor and not submit your actions to a court-martial, but it is quite otherwise if you lose the ship. A prudent man, knowing he might be embayed, would have prepared to club-haul his ship with the larboard anchor. Do you know how to club-haul a ship?'

Quilhampton swallowed, his prominent Adam's apple bobbing round his grubby stock.

'Only in general principle, sir.'

'Make it your business to discover the matter in detail. Now, how is a topmast stuns'l set?'

'The boom is rigged out and the gear bent. Pull up the halliards and tack, keeping fast the end of the deck sheet. The stops are cut by a man on the lower yard. The tack is hauled out and the halliards hove. The short sheet is rove round the boom heel and secured in the top.'

Drinkwater smiled, recognising the words. 'Very well, Mr Q. Consequent upon the death of Mr Mason I am rating you acting master's mate. You will take over Mason's duties. Please take your journals with you.'

He waved aside Quilhampton's thanks. 'You will not thank me when the duty becomes arduous or I am dissatisfied with your conduct. Go and look up how to club-haul in that excellent primer of yours.'

Drinkwater picked up his pen and returned to the task he had deliberately interrupted by summoning Quilhampton.

Dear Sir, he began to write, It is with great regret that my painful duty compels me to inform you of the death of your son…

Explosion and the rest of the squadron came into Yarmouth Roads during the next two days to join the growing number of British men of war anchored there. Most of the other bomb vessels had been blown to leeward and Martin merely nodded when Drinkwater presented his report. The fleet was reduced to waiting while the officers eagerly seized on the newspapers to learn any-thing about the intentions of the government in respect of the Baltic crisis.

A number of British officers serving with the Russian navy returned to Britain. One in particular arrived in Yarmouth: a Captain Nicholas Tomlinson, who had been reduced to half-pay after the American War and served with the Russians at the same period as the American John Paul Jones. He volunteered his services to the commander-in-chief. Admiral Parker, comfortably ensconced at the Wrestler's Inn with his young bride, refused to see Tomlinson.

No orders emanated from either Parker or London. It was a matter that preoccupied the officers of Virago as they dined in their captain's absence.

'Lieutenant Drinkwater is endeavouring to discover some news of our intentions either from Martin or anyone else who knows,' explained Rogers as he took his place at the head of the cabin table and nodded to the messman.

'I hear the King caught a severe chill at the National Fast and Humiliation,' said Mr Jex in his fussy way, 'upon the thirteenth of last month.'

'National Farce,' corrected Rogers, sarcastically.

'I heard he caught a cold in the head,' put in the surgeon with heavy emphasis.

'At all events we must wait until either Addington's kissed hands or Parker has got out of his bed,' offered Easton.

'At Parker's age he'll be a deuced long time getting up with a young bride in his bed,' added Lettsom with a grin, sniping at the more accessible admiral in the absence of a king.

'At Parker's age he'll be a deuced long time getting it up, you mean Mr Lettsom,' grunted Rogers coarsely.

'Yes, I wonder who exhausts whom, for it is fearful unequal combat to pit eighteen years against sixty- four.'

'Experience against enthusiasm, eh?'

'More like impotence against ignorance, but wait, I have the muse upon me,' Lettsom paused. 'I am uncertain on whom to lay the greater blame for our woes.

'Why here is a thing to raise liberal hopes;

Government can't do as it pleases,

While the entire fleet 'waits the order to strike

Addington awaits the King's sneezes.'

A cheer greeted this doggerel but Lettsom shook his head with dissatisfaction.

'It don't scan to my liking. I think the admiral the better inspiration:

'Tis not for his slowness in firing his shot

That our admiral is known every night,

But his laxness in heaving his anchor aweigh

Must dub him a most tardy knight.'

There were more cheers for the surgeon and it was generally accepted that the second verse was much better than the first.

'But the lady's no fool, Mr Lettsom, and I'll not subscribe to her ignorance,' Rogers said as the laughter died away. 'Parker flew his flag in the West Indies. He's the richest admiral on the list. His fortune is supposed to be worth a hundred thousand and all she has to put up with is a few years of the old pig grunting about the sheets before the lot'll fall into her lap. Why 'tis a capital match and I'll drink to Lady Parker. There's many a man as would marry for the same reason, eh Mr Jex?' Rogers leered towards the purser.

Jex shot a venomous look at the first lieutenant. His conduct during the fight with the luggers had not been exactly valorous and he had dreaded this exposure as the butt of the officers' jests.

'Ah, Mr Jex has seen victory betwixt the sheets and is accustomed to seek it between the sails, eh?' There