The Following Wind Page 8
‘Tropic waters, Mr. Hallett.’ A grim nod. ‘Teredo worm.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Hell and damnation.’ Quietly now. A deep breath, then: ‘Very well. How long?’
‘D’y’mean how long have we known, or how--’
‘How long will the work now take, for God’s sake!’
‘I I believe it will occupy a month, sir. Perhaps longer, if her timbers are badly damaged. We must wait for a dry dock that is available, and take our turn.’
‘Take our turn? D’y’mean the work cannot be done immediate?’
‘No, sir. I am very sorry, but the Master Shipwright--’
‘Yes, yes, I know. He died.’ Rising from his chair. ‘Why he had to die just at this time I do not know, for the life of me, but more damned delay is intolerable. I will not suffer it, not for a single further moment. I must see the Commissioner at once. You will come with me, Mr. Hallett. We will go to his house. And straight-way afterward we will go to the Port Admiral.’
‘Very good, sir.’
‘The country is at war, and the dockyard is asleep! I will wake it up, by God!
I will light a blazing hot fire under it’s damned slovenly arse!’
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The Dockyard Commissioner at Portsmouth was Captain Lionel Blasey RN, and the Port Admiral was Sir Joyce Hemming, rear admiral of the blue. Neither of these officers was able to help James.
Captain Blasey said: ‘I wonder you come to me, Sir James, when I have not heard from you until this moment, nor any other of your officers. No call at my house, out of courtesy. Not even a polite word sent in.’
‘Forgive me, Captain Blasey, I had meant to call, but the--’
‘In any case I cannot assist.’ Over him. ‘The minutiae of dockyard business is no business of mine. I maintain the broad view, not the particular.’
Sir Joyce Hemming said: ‘Come in, come in, gentlemen. May I give you something to drink?’ Then, when James began his explication: ‘Sir James .Captain Hayter. You and Mr. Hallett are most welcome in my office, you know, at any time. However, I cannot influence events in the dockyard. You must see Blasey about that. He is the Dockyard Commissioner. I keep watch over the port. Quite a different thing.’
The man James should have turned to was the late Master Shipwright’s deputy, Mr. Albert Worringer. As acting Master Shipwright Mr. Worringer effectively controlled the day to day working of the dockyard, in concert with the Master Attendant, his equal in direct administration. James turned to neither of these men at once because he was so bitterly disappointed with the service they had so far provided. Now he determined on a different course altogether.
When James and Lieutenant Hallett came away from the Port Admiral’s office,
James said:
‘Do you know the principal artificers assigned to Ventura? The quartermen and leading hands?’
‘Some few of them, that I have spoke to.’
‘Gather them together, this evening. Not a formal muster, in course. Ask them polite.’
‘Sir?’
‘Say that I have something to put to them.’
‘Very good, sir. And if they ask me what it is .?’
‘Say that it will be very much to their advantage.’
‘Aye-aye, sir. May I suggest the Anchor Tavern, near to the dockyard?’
‘An excellent suggestion, Mr. Hallett. I will provide supper. And Mr. Hallett ’
‘Sir?’
‘No word to any of the dockyard officers. Not one breath.’
At seven in the evening, when James came to the Anchor, he found that Lieutenant Hallett had done his work well. Half a dozen leading artificers were seated drinking round a broad table in the comparative privacy of the parlour.
James came straight to his point. ‘You know who I am. And you know my ship, HM frigate Ventura. I want her ready for the sea in a fortnight. I cannot wait longer. Accordingly, I am here to make you an offer.’
James lifted a leather bag heavy with coin, and chinked it down on the table.
‘That is fifty gold guineas. If the work is done in a fortnight, there will be a further fifty guineas on this table.’
One of the artificers, a broad shouldered man with a shock of dark hair, spoke up:
‘Tha’s all right well, Captain if we got a dry dock to put her in. Ain’t no dry dock
‘vailable to Ventura.’
‘A dry dock will be found. Leave that to me. Well?’
‘Does Worringer know what you got in mind, ‘ere? Payin’ us extra?’
‘Why do you ask?’
‘If ‘e discover what you pre-pose, ‘e will not like nor approve it, I can tellee that.’ Murmurs and laughter round the table.
‘Mr. Worringer and I will come to an understanding of our own, and a dry dock will be found. What I need from you tonight your hands across this table in accord. Well? Are you able and willing to do the work, in two weeks?’
The broad shouldered artificer glanced round the table, saw nothing but nods, and:
‘All right, then.’
‘There is one condition.’
Six faces across the table lost their smiles. James paused, looked hard at each face in turn, then:
‘If Ventura ain’t ready in a fortnight two weeks from tomorrow morning then there will be no more money on this table not one damned farthing.’
He picked up the leather bag in his left hand, and held out his right hand over the table. One by one the artificers stood and took it. James nodded, then dropped the bag with another heavy chink, spilling gold coins across the oak.
Later that night, at the door of the acting Master Shipwright’s house, on the far side of the dockyard, James said:
‘I am come here tonight on a matter of the gravest urgency.’
Mr. Worringer peered at him, and: ‘Ain’t you Captain Hay--’
‘Nay, no names!’ Over him, in a hoarse whisper. ‘Fetch a dark coat, and walk with me.’
‘At this hour of the night?’
‘We must walk and talk.’
‘But why? What is all this ab--’
‘There ain’t a moment to lose, I tell you! Fetch your coat.’
Mr. Worringer disappeared briefly, and returned shrugging into his coat, and putting on his hat.
‘Now then, Cap .sir .Before I walk with you, I must know what it is you--’
James hurried him away from the door, and in the subdued light of a pole lantern pulled from the pocket of his coat a folded letter with a broken seal. ‘I act upon the direct order of the Prime Minister. Here is the letter.’ He thrust the letter away in his coat. ‘HMS Ventura must be ready for the sea in two weeks. The one available dry dock is number three. She must go into that dock tomorrow morning.’
‘But that dock has been booked weeks since for HMS Tyrone, an inspection, then HMS Vigorous directly following. I cannot simply--’
‘They must wait.’ James now had a hand at Mr. Worringer’s elbow, hurrying him.
‘The quartermen have already been spoke to, and they are ready.’
‘Already been spoke to .? Sir, I do not like this, not at all. It is most irregular, and I cannot--’
‘Master Shipwright.’ James brought him to an abrupt halt, gripping his arm.
‘D’y’wish to retain your position?’
‘Retain my pos--’
‘Do you wish to become the Master Shipwright altogether, and not merely the acting Master Shipwright?’
‘That is my hope, yes. But I--’
‘Then it would not look well to be arrested for treason, I think.’
‘What ?’
‘Do you wish to be arrested on a charge of treason?’
‘In course I do not!’
‘No more do I. I may not defy the Prime Minister.’ Tapping his coat. ‘Nor may you. If one or t’other of us does, in time of war we commit treason. Now d’y’see?’
‘Well .’ Dubiously. ‘ if you put it in those terms .’
‘I do.’
‘But what am I to say to the captains of those two ships that was booked to go into number three Tyrone and Vigorous?’
‘Refer them to the Dockyard Commissioner.’ James, firmly. ‘Now, then. Are we agreed? You will do as I ask?’
‘I I expect I had better try to do so .if I am able.’
‘That will not answer. I want your oath, on this holy book.’ James pulled from another pocket a leather bound prayer-book. ‘Put your hand on it.’
‘Well ’ Mr. Worringer reluctantly placed his hand on the book.
‘Swear by Almighty God that you will do as I have asked, put Ventura into dry
dock number three tomorrow morning, and never disclose the reason behind it
to any man on earth.’
‘Erm very well I will.’
‘Swear it.’
‘I swear.’
‘Good, very good. Thankee, Master Shipwright.’ James put the book away in his coat, felt deeper in the pocket, and as if on an afterthought: ‘Oh, in course. He obliged me to give you this.’ He drew from the pocket a silk tied leather purse, and held it out it to Mr. Worringer. ‘It is an official token, a pledge.’
‘Eh? A what?’
‘Fifty guineas, in gold.’
‘Good heaven .’
‘Take it, man, take it. Now that you have sworn the oath, it is yours.’
Mr. Worringer hesitated and then he took the purse.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
In a storm of rain Rennie moved from the uncomfortable inn at Chatham to a post inn nearer to the dockyard, arrived very wet, and as he hung up his coat and changed his stockings thought of sending for his wife Sylvia. Glancing out of the window at the glum wet courtyard he thought that Sylvia would not care for Chatham, and when he sat down to write to her explained his changed circum-stances, and said that he would come home to Norfolk to say goodbye before he sailed. He said nothing of the incident in Water Passage, nothing of his initial decision to refuse the new commission in Expedient, and very little about this new commission, except that it involved long foreign service.
Out of courtesy he called at the Dockyard Commissioner’s office, and there found an old acquaintance, Captain Harald Yateman, who had not long been in the position. At Chatham Dockyard the duties of Commissioner were far more onerous than at Portsmouth. Here the Commissioner was directly responsible to the Navy Board for the affairs of the yard, and for all ships in Ordinary, and was thus in daily close association with the dockyard officers.
‘Yes, I saw your name on her papers, and hoped y’would call.’ Captain Yateman was a stocky, sturdy, ruddy-faced man of Rennie’s age, but a thatch of white hair made him look older.
Rennie accepted a glass of madeira, and: ‘You saw my name on her papers? Tell me, Harry, when was this?’
‘Why, when she first came in, many weeks since. In course I inquired at the Master Shipwright’s office, but he had not seen you, and I tried the Master Attendant, and he had not seen you, neither. So I concluded you would come when the repair was nearer to completion. And now, happily, here you are.
Your health, William.’ Raising his glass.
Rennie did not respond to the toast. Instead he said: ‘Let me get this squared away. You saw my name on Expedient’s ship’s papers how many weeks since?’
‘I expect it was seven or eight weeks ago at least. Why do you ask?’
‘That is a surprise to me, Harry.’
‘A surprise to you? Don’t follow ’
‘Until a few days ago, I knew nothing of the great repair to Expedient. She had sustained very severe damage our last commission, and I was nearly certain she would be broke up. As to my own career as a sea officer I had thought I was to be on the beach permanent, without hope of further employment. Then I learned that I was to have her again after all, but I thought that this had been decided
only quite recent. I had no notion, until now, that it was decided months ago.’
‘Well, your name was there on Expedient’s papers when she was towed to the yard for repair, I am entirely certain. I recall noting it at the time, because of the very extensive work that was required to be done on her a full dry dock great repair, and the work to be carried through with all dispatch, no matter the cost.’ A thought occurred to Captain Yateman, and he held up a finger. ‘Ah perhaps your name was already on her papers because you had her in earlier commissions, hey?’
‘Nay, I do not think so. The commission was confirmed only a day or two since, in London, after I had been offered another ship entire, and had accepted. Only then was I offered Expedient, d’y’see? Nothing was certain before.’
‘Hm, well, who can say with confidence, at any one time, quite what is in their Lordships’ minds, hey? Nor when it came there. The salient fact is that you have got Expedient, and happily here you are at Chatham. Your health.’ Again he held up his glass.
Rennie could not say that it was not their Lordships who were responsible for his new commission, but another agency, and so instead he replied:
‘Thankee, Harry. And yours.’
They drank, and chatted amiably, one sea officer reminiscing with another, but Rennie’s mind was not on these pleasantries. After half-an-hour he came away from the Commissioner’s house still thoroughly bemused.
On his return to the post inn the landlord Mr. Huckle, a retired naval purser, was waiting for him.
‘There was a visitor for you, Captain Rennie.’
Rennie was immediately fearful that the incident in Water Passage had caught up with him, somehow. He did his best to conceal his alarm.
‘Visitor, Mr. Huckle ?’
‘He wished to wait for you in your room.’ A little jerk of his head, a little grimace. ‘I said that unless a guest has told me partic’lar of such an arrangement, I could not allow it. I hope I did right, sir?’
‘Yes, quite right, thank you, Mr. Huckle. Erm where is the visitor?’
‘He went away, sir.’
‘Ah.’
‘However, he said he would come back later.’
‘Ah. And did he leave his name?’
‘He left a note for you, sir.’ Handing it to him.
Rennie opened the folded note addressed to ‘Capt Wm Rennie RN’ and read:
Sir,
You were kind enough to suggest that
should I ever wish to go to sea, I might
call on you for advice. I have formed
just such a notion, and hope that I may
call on you later today.
Daniel Allbright
‘How the devil did he know I was here ?’ Half aloud, refolding the note.
‘Beg pardon, sir?’
‘Nay, nothing, Mr. Huckle. Was he in uniform?’
‘No, sir, he was simply a young gentleman in a frock coat.’
‘I see, yes. Erm I am going out again, directly. Should the gentleman return before I do, would you ask him to wait?’
‘In your room, sir?’
‘Nay, in the parlour will do, I think.’
‘Very good, sir.’
‘And I should like some tea before I go out. Will you send it up to my room?’
He went up to his room, drank his tea, and fretted. What did he really know about his new commission? Only that he and James were to sail independently,
make rendezvous at sea, then open their sealed orders their full and final instructions and proceed to a Russian fort at Okhotsk, in the remote Far East, where they were to meet a Russian prince of great importance and value to England. There would likely be a prize, specified only as an eighth each to both captains of the sum realized. He knew nothing more. Neither did James or did he know more, by God? Was that why he had been attacked in Water Passage?
A further puzzlement was that if Rennie and James already knew the details of their final destination, and of the man they were to meet there then why were their instructions to be sealed? Could this mean that the details they had been given at the Admiralty differed from those in the sea
led instructions? Differed markedly, or even completely?
And why had his own name Captain William Rennie RN been entered on Expedient’s books all those weeks ago, when it had earlier been made abundantly clear to him that he was disgraced, and sent ashore permanent, and his ship condemned? Had he not been hoodwinked from the beginning, and the deceit compounded at the Admiralty, when he had gone there with James? Had James himself duplicitous in the matter of letters been party to the deceit, purely to get his friend to comply?
Fretfully he finished his tea, sealed his letter to Sylvia, and was about return to the dockyard when a letter came for him. It had been delivered first to the Commissioner’s house, then brought over to the post inn, at Captain Yateman’s direction, by a servant.
Rennie thanked the servant, gave him a coin, and broke the seal. And read:
My dear William,
I have addressed this letter to you as at the Port Commissioner’s house,
since I expect he will know where you are stopping at Chatham, or will
likely be able to discover where, and send it on direct.
I have had great difficulty in getting Ventura ready for the sea, and have
had to resort to outright bribery to meet my obligation. That is all in hand,
and we should be ready to weigh and make sail in a fortnight, and thus
make our rendezvous at sea with Expedient.
However my chief reason in writing to you is my urgent wish that you
will be vigilant at all times, and armed, in case of further assault. You will
not know because you did not spend a further night there that our
bedroom at Mrs. Peebles’ hotel was broke into by an intruder, the same
night after I was attacked in Water Passage. The intruder was shot dead, and Catherine and I came away at once by post chaise to Portsmouth.
In course I do not know for certain, but I think the two events may be
linked in some way, and that our new joint commission may be the
cause. If that is indeed so, then we may both be at risk, and I beg you to
take all precaution against further personal attack, as shall I.
Until we meet, I am, as always, your very sincere friend