The Corvette

'That matter has already been settled, Captain. Abel Sawyers, here, has been elected to be our commodore.' Harvey's ugly face smiled.

'Then that is most satisfactory…'

'There is one thing, Captain.' Waller's apparent insignificance was enhanced by a thin voice with an insinuating quality.

'What is that, Captain Waller?'

'I do not think you understand the diversity of individual method employed by masters in the whalefishery. We do not expect to be constrained by you in any way. We wish to be free to chase fish wherever we think it to our advantage.'

Drinkwater shrugged, irritated by the man's pedantic manner. Alone among the whale-ship masters Waller seemed the least appropriate to his calling.

'Captain Waller, I have my orders and they are to extend to you the protection of a ship of war. I cannot prevent you from hunting the whale wherever you desire, but I can and have arranged a rendezvous and a distress signal to use if you are attacked.'

'And what do you propose?'

'My gunner is preparing Blue Lights for you. A Blue Light shot into the sky and accompanied by two guns may transmit your distress over a large distance and if this signal is used whenever strange sails are sighted I am sanguine that Melusine may be deployed to cover you.'

'And if we are attacked from two directions simultaneously?' asked Waller.

'I shall deal with hypothetical situations when they become real, sir, you ain't the only people used to active operations with boats, Captain.'

'And you are not the only people fitted with cannon. There have been instances where whale-ships have driven off an enemy…'

'Chiefly, I believe,' snapped Drinkwater, 'when the enemy was one of their own kind disputing the possession of a fish. Frankly, Captain Waller, since you have made it clear that you intend to fish off Spitzbergen I cannot see why you wish to enquire into the methods I intend to employ to protect the trade.'

Waller did not retort but lolled back into his chair. 'Aye, Captain, you will perfectly satisfy me if you do not interfere.'

Angrily Drinkwater looked at Harvey and Sawyers. They were clearly out of sympathy with Waller but said nothing as he equally obviously represented a body of opinion among this curious Arctic democracy. Drinkwater swallowed pride and anger. 'Another glass, gentlemen,' he conciliated. 'I suggest that we remain in company until the seventy-second parallel in eight degrees easterly longitude.' He laid a finger on the chart and the three men bent over the table. 'From here the Spitzbergen ships can detach.'

'I think that would be most agreeable,' said Sawyers.

'Agreed,' added Harvey.

Waller on the left, smoothed the chart out and nodded. 'Aye, 'twill do,' he said thoughtfully. Drinkwater saw his three visitors to their boats. The sun had disappeared behind a bank of cloud as they came on deck.

'I shall hoist the signal to weigh at noon tomorrow then, gentlemen.' They all agreed. Drinkwater looked across the Sound at the whalers. Odd shapes had appeared at their mastheads.

'Crow's nests,' explained Sawyers in answer to Drinkwater's question. 'It is necessary to provide an elevated lookout post both for sighting the fish and for navigating through the ice. I myself have spent many hours aloft there and have a nest of my own devising.'

'I see… Good night, Captain Waller.'

'They are also indispensable for shooting unicorns, Captain,' added Harvey.

'Unicorns? Come sir you haze me…'

'A name given to the Narwhal or Tusked Dolphin, Captain Drinkwater, after which my own ship is named. He may be hit from the masthead where a shot from the deck will be deceived by the refraction of the sea.'

'Ahhh… Your boat, Captain Harvey.'

Harvey's ugly face cracked into a grin and he held out his hand. 'If a King's Officer won't.take offence from an old man, may I suggest that excessive concern will have a bad effect on you. Whatever heated air may have been blown about back in Hull, no-one expects the impossible. While we don't want to be attacked by plaguey Frenchmen we are more anxious to hunt fish.'

'I fear I cut a poor figure.'

'Not at all, man, not at all. You are unfamiliar with our ways and your zeal does you credit.'

'Thank you.'

'And I'll go further and say, speaking plainly as a Yorkshireman, you'm a damned sight better than that bloody Palgrave.' Harvey went over the side still smiling. Drinkwater turned to say farewell to Sawyers. The Quaker was staring aloft.

'Thou woulds't oblige thyself, Captain, by constructing a similar contrivance aloft.'

'Crow's nest? But it would incommode the striking of my t'gallant masts in a gale, Captain Sawyers.'

Sawyers nodded. 'Thou hast a dilemma, Friend; to keep thy lofty spars in order to have the advantage in a chase, or to snug thy rig down and render it practical.'

Drinkwater looked aloft and Sawyers added, 'Come, Friend, visit the Faithful tomorrow forenoon and familiarise yourself with the workings of a whale-ship.'

'I am obliged to you, Captain.' They shook hands and Sawyers clambered down into his boat. Drinkwater watched him pulled away, across the steel-grey waters of the Sound.

Immediately after Lieutenant Germaney had seen the captain over the side the following morning he returned to the gunroom and kicked out those of its occupants who lingered over their breakfasts. He took four glasses of blackstrap in quick succession and sent for the Reverend Obadiah Singleton.

'Take a seat, Mr Singleton. A glass of blackstrap?'

'I do not touch liquor, Mr Germaney. What is it you wish to see me about?'

'You are a physician are you not?'

Singleton nodded. 'Can you cure clap?'

Singleton's astonishment was exceeded by Germaney's sense of relief. The wine now induced a sense of euphoria but he deemed it prudent to restrain Singleton from any moralising. 'I don't want your offices as a damned parson, d'you hear? Well, what d'you say, God damn it?'

'Kindly refrain from blasphemy, Mr Germaney. I had thought of you as a gentleman.'

Germaney looked sharply at Singleton. 'A gentleman may be unfortunate in the matter of his bedfellows, Singleton.'

'I was referring to the intemperance of your language, but no matter. You contracted this in Hull, eh?'

Germaney nodded. 'A God da… a bawdy house.'

'Were you alone?'

'No. I was in company.'

'With whom, Mr Germaney? Please do not trifle with me, I beg you.'

'Captain Sir James Palgrave, the Lord Walmsley and the Honourable Alexander Glencross.'

'All gentlemen,' observed Singleton drily. 'May I ask you whether you have advertised your affliction to these other young men?'

'Good God no!'

'And why have you not consulted Mr Macpherson?'

'Because the man is a drunken gossip in whom I have not the slightest faith.'

'He will have greater experience of this sort of disease than myself, Mr Germaney, that I can assure you.'

Germaney shook his head, the euphoria wearing off and being again replaced by the dread that had been his constant companion since his first intimation of the disease. 'Can you cure me Singleton? I'll endow your mission…'

'Let us leave it to God and your constitution, Germaney. Now what are your symptoms?'

'I have a gleet that stings like the very devil…'

Germaney described his agony and Singleton nodded. 'You appear to be a good diagnostician, Mr Germaney. You are not a married man?'