'Very well.' Gardiner stared at him for a while, the grey eyes somewhat cruel. His musty wig reeked of law, judgement and penalty. 'Would it be true or untrue to state that you were in a position to understand the totality of events on the quarterdeck that night?'
Kydd paused as he unravelled the words. The junior clerk's quill hung motionless in the dusty air. Kydd knew that any common seaman who found himself afoul of the system would be lost in its coils, hopelessly enmeshed in unfathomable complication. Renzi, with his logic, would have known how to answer, but he had been asleep below at the time and had not been called as a witness.
Looking up, Kydd said carefully, 'Sir, the duty of a quartermaster is th' helm, an' he is bound to obey th' officer-o'-the-watch in this, an' stand by him f'r orders. That was L'tenant Rowley, sir.'
Lines deepened between Gardiner's eyes. 'My meaning seems to have escaped you, Kydd. I will make it plainer. I asked whether or not you would claim to be in a position to know all that happened.'
It was an unfair question, and Kydd suspected he was being offered the option to withdraw gracefully from the hazard of being a key witness open to hostile questioning from all quarters. He had no idea why.
'I was never absent fr'm my place o' duty, sir,' he said quietly.
'Then you are saying that you can of a surety be relied upon to state just why your ship was lost?' The disbelief bordered on sarcasm.
'Sir, there was a blow on that night, but I could hear L'tenant Rowley's words — every one!' he said, with rising anger.
Gardiner frowned and threw a quick glance at the clerk, who had not resumed scratching. 'I wonder if you appreciate the full implications of what you are saying,' he said, with a steely edge to his voice.
Kydd remained mute, and stared back doggedly. He would speak the truth — nothing more or less.
'Are you saying that simply because you could hear Lieutenant Rowley you can tell why your ship was lost?' The tone was acid, but hardening.
'Sir.' Kydd finally spoke, his voice strengthening. 'We sighted breakers fine to wind'd,' he said, and recalled the wild stab of fear that the sudden frantic hail there in the open Atlantic had prompted. L’tenant Rowley ordered helm hard a'weather, and—'
Gardiner interjected. 'By that I assume he immediately and correctly acted to turn the ship away from the hazard?'
Kydd did not take the bait. 'The ship bore away quickly off th' wind, but L'tenant Parry came on deck and gave orders f'r the helm to go hard down—'
Gardiner struck like a snake. 'But Parry was not officer-of-the-watch, he did not have the ship!' His head thrust forward aggressively.
'Sir, L'tenant Parry was senior t' L'tenant Rowley, an' he could—'
'But he was not officer-of-the-watch!' Gardiner drew in his breath.
Kydd felt threatened by his strange hostility. The lawyer was there to find the facts, not make it hard for witnesses, especially one who could explain it all.
'But he was right, sir!'
Gardiner tensed, but did not speak.
The truth would set matters right, Kydd thought, and he had had an odd regard for the plebeian Parry, whom he had seen suffer so much from the dandy Rowley. He was dead now, but Kydd would make sure his memory was not betrayed. 'Ye should put the helm down when y' sees a hazard, that way th' ship is taken aback.' He saw a guarded incomprehension on Gardiner's face, and explained further so there would be no mistake on this vital point. 'That way, the ship stops in th' water, stops fr'm getting into more trouble till you've worked out what t' do.'
'And you allege that Lieutenant Rowley's act — to go away from the hazard — was the wrong one?' Gardiner snapped.
