A Brig of War

Chapter Eighteen Morris

Drinkwater was not listening to the garbled words of divine service as Morris mumbled his way through them. Morris's voice had not the resonant conviction of Griffiths's splendid diction and Drinkwater's loathing of Morris's too-obvious feet of clay made parody of the Book of Common Prayer. Instead Drinkwater looked forward, beyond the semi-circle of commissioned and warrant officers in full uniform with their left hands upon their sword hilts and cocked hats beneath their elbows, at the hands massed in the waist. There were about eighty men left to take the big frigate home, not many to work her, not enough to fight her.

But it was not the quality of the number that concerned Drinkwater. His acute senses were tuned to their mood, and in the present calm as the Indian Ocean lay quiet waiting for the first breath of the north-east monsoon, there was an ugliness about it. It was as though the expectant oiliness of the sea exerted some influence upon the minds of the men like that of the moon upon the sea itself.

Drinkwater discarded the over-ripe metaphor, aware that his own chronic disappointment was souring him. Their hurried departure from Mocha, the stunned disbelief as he had stood as he did now and listened to Morris confidently reading his commission to the ship's company had triggered his depression and sent him miserable to his cabin, to grieve over his own ill-fortune and, at last, the loss of Griffiths.

In reality that onset of depression had saved him from rashness. Later Rogers had accosted him over the matter, only to reveal that he had himself sent Mr Dalziell to obtain the commission. Now Rogers, already shaken in his confidence over the loss of the brig and the censure of the admiral, had retreated into his own resentment. With the two lieutenants nursing their private grievances Morris had triumphed and Antigone was out of the Gulf of Aden before Drinkwater cast aside his 'blue devils' and resolved to make the best of things.

But he knew it was already too late. While the officers had sulked the men had been scourged. Morris flogged savagely for every small offence that was brought to his notice by his toadies. Among these was a man name Rattray, Morris's servant sent over from Daedalus, a thin seedy man who padded silently about the ship and swiftly became known, predictably, as 'the Rat'. There was Dalziell, of course, promoted acting lieutenant by Morris, who terrorised the hands to Drinkwater's fury; and there was Lestock, whose fussing temperament seemed seduced by Morris's brand of command by terror. It was these men who formed the Praetorian Guard round their new commander, a little coterie of self-seekers and survivors who wielded enormous influence and filled the punishment book with trivial entries.

Drinkwater's mouth set in a hard line as he thought of the increased number of times he had had to make entries in that book. The binding no longer cracked as it had done when Griffiths commanded them. Of course the entries read well. Insolence for a man laughing too loudly when the captain was on deck; Defiling the Deck for a man who spilled his mess kit by accident; Improper Conduct when a rope was untidily belayed on the fife-rails, all trivial matters ending up with the culprit being seized to the gratings.

Morris closed the Prayer Book with a snap, recalling Drinkwater to his duty.

'On hats!' Routinely Drinkwater touched his hat brim as Morris went below.

'Bosun! Pipe the hands to dinner!' he turned away to find Rattray alongside him, as though he had been there all the time, silently listening to Drinkwater's thoughts.

'Cap'n's compliments, sir, and he'd be obleeged if you'd join him for dinner at four bells.'

Drinkwater searched the man's face for some reason for this unexpected courtesy. He found nothing except a pair of shifty eyes and replied. 'Very well. My thanks to the captain.'

He looked forward again to see Appleby and Catherine Best crossing the deck. They had become very close since Morris took command and Drinkwater thought that the presence of the woman even exerted some restraining influence upon Morris himself. Drinkwater uncovered to her. 'Mornin' Mistress Best. I see Mr Wrinch's promise of something more suitable to wear was no vain boast.'

Catherine smiled at him, a shy kind of happiness lighting her eyes while her right hand swirled the skirt of Arab cotton in a small coquettish movement.

'Indeed, Mr Drinkwater, it was not.' Drinkwater looked at Appleby, who was blushing furiously. He smiled, touched his hat again and turned to the quartermaster.

'Well bless my soul,' he muttered to himself, then, in a louder tone, 'call me if there's any wind.' The quartermaster acknowledged the first lieutenant and Drinkwater went below to change his shirt.

The meal, at which no others were present, was conducted in silence. Rattray padded behind their chairs and even with the after sashes lowered the air in the large cabin was stale and hot. When the dishes were cleared away a bottle of port was decanted in Santhonax's personal crystal and, Drinkwater noticed, circulation was slow. The decanter did duty at Morris's glass three times before being shoved reluctantly in his direction. Drinkwater drank sparingly, aware that Morris's appetite was gross.

'Have you seen that?' Morris pointed to where, half hidden behind the cabin door a woman's portrait hung on the white bulkhead. Already his voice was slurred. 'I presume it to be the Frog's whore.' Drinkwater found the portrait amazing. Hortense's grey eyes stared out of the canvas, her long neck bared and her flaming hair piled up above her head, wound with pearls. A wisp of gauze covered the swell of her breasts. He remembered the woman in the cabin of Kestrel and stumbling on the beach at Criel where they had let her go free. He found the portrait disquieting and turned back to Morris. The man was watching him from beneath his hooded eyelids.

'She's his wife,' said Drinkwater, returning Morris's stare.

'And what of Appleby's whore, Nathaniel? Is she what I am told she is, a convict?'

It was pointless to deny it, but then it was unnecessary to confirm it. 'I believe she has redeemed herself by her services to the ship. As to her status, I think you are mistaken.'

Morris waved aside Drinkwater's compassion, to him the pompous assertion of a liberal. 'Pah! She is Appleby's whore,' repeated Morris, slumping back into his chair.

Drinkwater shrugged, aware that Morris was wary, beating about the bush of his intention in asking Drinkwater to dine. He wished they might reach a truce, unaware that Morris had left him upon the beach at Kosseir. Their enmity aboard Cyclops was long past, they were grown men now. Whatever Morris's private desires were, they were not overt.

'You are wondering why I have asked you to dine with me, eh? You, who crossed me years ago, who saw to it that I was dismissed out of Cyclops…'

'I did no such thing, sir.'

'Don't haze me, damn you!' Morris restrained himself and Drinkwater was increasingly worried about the reason for this cosy chat. Drinkwater had played a small part in Morris's disgrace, which had largely been accomplished by his own character. The captain of the frigate was long dead; the first lieutenant, now Lord Dungarth, beyond Morris's vengeance. But Drinkwater was again at his mercy and Morris had intended his ruin, for he had nursed a longing for revenge for twenty years; twenty years that had twisted rejected desire into an obsession.

The pure, vindictive hatred that had made Morris drop the fainting Drinkwater on the beach at Kosseir had been thwarted in the latter's survival, but was now complicated by his reliance on the man he had tried to kill.

'I have my own command now, Drinkwater,' he said, his mouth slack, his chin on his chest, a sinister cartoon by Rowlandson. 'Do anything to prejudice me again and I'll see you in hell…'

'I shall do my duty, sir,' said Drinkwater cautiously, but too primly for Morris's liking.

'Aye by God you will!' Spittle shot from Morris's mouth.

'Then why should you suppose…'

'Because there is a damned rumour persisting in this ship that I have the swab,' he gestured at the damaged epaulette on his shoulders that he had rifled from Griffiths's belongings, 'that should have gone to you.' It was not the only reason but one on which Morris might draw a reaction from Drinkwater whom he now watched closely, his mind concentrated by alcohol on the focus of his obsession.

But Drinkwater did not perceive this, merely saw the matter as something to be raised between them, another ghost to be laid. 'I was given to understand Admiral Blankett desired I should command the prize, certainly. Whatever made him change his mind is no longer any concern of mine.' He paused, sitting up, hoping to terminate the interview. 'But in the meantime I shall do my duty as first lieutenant as I did for Commander Griffiths, sir.' Then he added, irritated at being catechised: 'Unless you have a notion to promote Mr Dalziell over my head.'

'What the hell d'you mean by that?' flared Morris, and Drinkwater sensed he had touched a nerve. Dalziell. The relative, quiescent of late. A catamite? Drinkwater looked sharply at Morris. The commander's glare was unchanged but a sheen of sweat had erupted across his face.

All was suddenly clear to Drinkwater. Morris had obtained his command at last. Unable to earn it by his own merits, a twist of fate had delivered it unexpectedly into his lap. A further helix in that turn of circumstances had made Drinkwater both his unwitting benefactor and first lieutenant on whose abilities he must rely to take advantage of this new opportunity. He would not sacrifice the possibility of a post-captaincy even for revenge on Drinkwater, but Drinkwater knew of his past and might know of his present. Morris, long driven by vengeance, could not imagine another dismissing such an opportunity with contempt. Even a sanctimonious liberal like Drinkwater. And Morris was guilty of unnatural crimes specifically proscribed by the Articles of War.

But this potential nemesis was of small apparent consolation to Nathaniel. He merely found it odd that that usurped tangle of gold wire could tame so disturbed a spirit as Augustus Morris's.

'It was a poor jest, sir. I am sure you will know how to keep Mr Dalziell in his proper place.' Drinkwater rose. It had not been a deliberate innuendo but Morris continued to stare suspiciously at him. 'Thank you for the courtesy of your invitation.' He turned for the door, his eye falling on the picture of Hortense. 'By the way sir, the surgeon tells me Santhonax would benefit from some fresh air. May I have permission to exercise him on deck tomorrow?'

'Solicitude for prisoners, eh?' slurred Morris, his eyes clouding, turning inwards. 'Do as you see fit…' He dismissed Drinkwater with a flick of his wrist, then reached for the decanter. Alone, he saw, with the perception of the drunk the pair of level grey eyes staring at him from the bulkhead. They seemed to accuse him with the whole mess of his life. Viciously his hand found a fork left on the table by the careless Rattray. With sudden venom he flung it at the canvas. The tines vibrated in the creamy shoulder, reminding Morris of the past, good old days when the senior midshipmen drove a fork into a deck beam as a signal to send their juniors to bed while they 'sported'. The euphemism covered many sins. Things had changed in His Majesty's navy since the mutinies of 1797. Now canting bastards like Drinkwater with their liberal ideas were ruining the Service, God damn them. He flung his head back and roared 'Rattray!'

'Sir?'

'Pass word for Mr Dalziell.'

Drinkwater drew the air into his lungs. After the calm the strengthening north-easter was like champagne. Above his head the watch had just taken in the royals and were descending via the backstays. Those to windward were taut and harping gently as a patter of spray came over the windward rail. He walked over to the binnacle. 'Steer small now, a good course will bring us home the sooner.'

He resumed his pacing, free of the effects of his bruising and the cauterised cut on his leg that would not even leave a scar worth mentioning. He passed along the squat black breeches of the quarterdeck carronades, as near content as his circumstances would permit. After the dinner with Morris he sensed an easing of tension between them, aware that his own duties preoccupied him while Morris, isolated in command, would brood in his cabin. Despite the promotion of Dalziell to acting lieutenant, Drinkwater had not relinquished his watch. He might have availed himself of big-ship tradition, had not the notion with so small a crew been a piece of conceit that ran contrary to his nature. In Dalziell's abilities he had no confidence whatsoever, regarding his elevation as a shameful abuse of the system, a blatant piece of influence that he thought unlikely to last long after their return home. For himself he kept the privacy of his morning and evening watches while the poor devils forward were compelled to work watch and watch. It could not be helped. It was the way of the world and the naval service in particular.

Unfamiliar figures emerged on deck and Drinkwater remembered his own orders. Gaston Bruilhac assisted the tall figure of Edouard Santhonax whose arm was still slung beneath his coat. The hands idled curiously as Santhonax cast his eyes aloft, noting the set of the sails.

'Good mornin', sir.' Drinkwater touched his hat out of formal courtesy. Long enmity had bred a respect for the Frenchman and Drinkwater hoped his presence as a prisoner satisfied the shade of Madoc Griffiths.

'Good morning, Boireleau…' He winced, adjusting himself against the motion of the ship. 'Perhaps I should call you Drinkwater, now the ship is yours.'

'I should be honoured, sir. She is a fine ship.'

'That is a compliment, yes?'

'It was intended so, sir, and the only one I can offer, under the circumstances.'

Santhonax narrowed his eyes. 'You do not have many men to work her.'

'Sufficient, sir.'

'You are pleased with your success, hein?' He bit his lip as a wave of pain swept over him, 'pleased that I am your prisoner?'

'C'est la guerre, sir, the fortune of war. I would rather Griffiths lived, you have the advantage over him there.'

'He saved your life.' Santhonax looked down at his shoulder.

'But you are not dead, Capitaine.'

Santhonax smiled. 'He intended to kill me.'

'He was intent upon revenge.'

'Revenge? Pourquoi?'

'Major Brown,' Drinkwater said icily, 'rotting on a gibbet over the guns of Kijkduin.'

Santhonax frowned. 'Ah, the English spy we caught…' Drinkwater remembered the jolly brevet-major Santhonax had captured in Holland. He and Griffiths had been friends, brothers-inarms.

Santhonax shrugged. 'Most assuredly, Lieutenant, we are all of us mortal. My wife has not yet forgiven you this…' His finger reached up and indicated the disfigurement of his face. 'I doubt she ever will.'

For a moment it occurred to Drinkwater to roll up his sleeve and reveal the twisted flesh of his own right arm, but the childishness of such an action suddenly struck him. He remained silent.

'You are bound for England, yes?' Santhonax went on. Drinkwater nodded. 'It is a long way yet, eh?' Santhonax turned and began to pace the deck, leaning on Bruilhac's shoulder.

'Mr Drinkwater!' Morris's voice cut across the quarterdeck as he emerged from the companionway.

'Mornin' sir,' Drinkwater uncovered again.

'Mr Drinkwater, hands are to witness punishment at four bells.'

'Punishment, sir? Nothing has been reported to me…'

'Insolence, Mr Drinkwater, insolence was reported to me at six bells in the first watch, Mr Dalziell's watch.'

'And the offender sir?'

'Your lackey, Drinkwater,' said Morris with evident pleasure, Tregembo.'

Drinkwater forced himself to watch Tregembo's face. The eyes were tight shut and the teeth bit into the leather pad that prevented the Cornishman from biting through his own tongue as each stroke of the cat made him flinch. At the twelfth stripe the bosun's mates changed. The second man ran the bloody tails of cat through his hand as he braced his feet. He hesitated.

'Lay on there, damn you!' Morris snapped and Drinkwater sensed the wave of resentment that ran through the people assembled in the waist. Tregembo's 'insolence', Drinkwater had learned in the roundabout way that a good first lieutenant might determine the true course of events, had consisted of no more than being last back on deck after working aloft during Dalziell's watch. When accused of idleness Tregembo had mumbled that one must always be last on deck and it was usually the first aloft who had been working on the yardarm.

For this piece of logic Tregembo was now being flayed. The bosun's mates changed again. Drinkwater recollected Dalziell's earlier attempt to have Tregembo flogged and the smirk on the young man's face fully confirmed his present satisfaction. Morris too had a reason for flogging Tregembo. The Cornishman had been a witness to his disgrace aboard Cyclops, indeed Tregembo had had a hand in the disappearance one night of one of Morris's cabal.

Drinkwater was pleased to note that Lieutenant Rogers appeared most unhappy over an issue that previously might have pleased him, while Quilhampton, Appleby and the rest stood mutely averting their eyes. At the conclusion of the third dozen Tregembo was cut down. Drinkwater dismissed the hands in a dispassionate voice.

That evening it fell calm again, the sea smooth on its surface with the ship rolling on a lazy swell. The sun had set blood-red, leaving an after glow of scarlet reaching almost to the zenith, through which the cold pin-pricks of stars were beginning to break. Venus blazed above Africa eighty leagues to the west. Drinkwater paced the deck, an hour and a half of his watch to go. His uniform coat stuck to his back, a prickling example of Morris's tyranny, for the commander had refused to allow his officers to appear on the quarterdeck in their shirt-sleeves as they had done under Griffiths.

Already shadows were deepening about the deck. The second dog-watch idled about restlessly. Drinkwater picked up the quadrant Quilhampton had brought up.

'Ready, Mr Q?'

'All ready, sir,' replied the midshipman, squatting down on the deck next to the chronometer box and jamming the slate between his crossed knees in the position he had found most suitable, minus one hand, for jotting down the first lieutenant's observations. Drinkwater smiled at the small, crouched figure. The boy frowned in concentration as he watched the second hand jerk round, the slate pencil poised in his only fist.

'Very well then, Venus first.' Drinkwater set the index to zero and caught the planet in the mirrors, twisting his wrist and rotating the instrument about its index. His long fingers twiddled the vernier screw and he settled the planet's disc precisely on the horizon, his fingers turning slowly as he followed the mensurable descent of it, rocking the whole so that the disc oscillated on the tangent of the horizon. 'On!'

Quilhampton noted the time as Drinkwater read the altitude off the arc and called the figures to the midshipman. Quilhampton dutifully repeated them.

Drinkwater took a second observation of Venus then crossed the deck. 'Canopus next!'

'Get up, brat!' Drinkwater turned at the intrusion. Morris stood over the midshipman who, in his concentration had not seen the commander arrive on the quarterdeck. 'Have you never been taught respect, you damned whoreson?'

Quilhampton put out his left arm to push himself to his feet, forgetting he had no hand. The still soft stump gave under him and he slipped on to his knees, the colour draining from his face. 'I, I'm sorry sir, I was watching the chronometer…' Morris's foot came back and sent the chronometer box spinning across the deck. It caught against a ring bolt, tipped and the glass shattered.

Drinkwater swiftly crossed the deck. 'Turn a glass,' he snapped at the quartermaster by the binnacle. Perhaps there was not too much damage and any stopping of the timepiece might be allowed for, 'then go below and get the precise time from Mr Appleby's hunter.' Morris had begun to rail at the terrified midshipman. It was clear that he was drunk.

'I think, sir,' intervened Drinkwater, 'that you are mistaken in supposing Mr Quilhampton intended any disrespect. The loss of his hand necessitates that he…'

'Be silent, Mr Drinkwater,' slurred Morris, 'and have this scum at the foremasthead at once.'

Drinkwater took one look at the swaying figure of Morris. 'Up you go, Mr Q,' he said quietly, lowering the quadrant into its case. Quilhampton's eyes were filling with tears. Drinkwater jerked his head imperceptibly and the boy turned forward. Drinkwater bent over the chronometer case.

'Mr Drinkwater! I am addressing you!' Drinkwater picked up the case.

'Sir?' he was looking down at the bent gimbals. The second hand no longer moved. 'I don't expect that sort of disrespect on my quarterdeck…' Morris was very drunk. It was clear that he had not yet realised what it was he had kicked across the deck.

'I doubt that it will occur again, sir,' said Drinkwater looking down at the ruined chronometer.

'It had better bloody not.' Suddenly Morris heaved, swallowed and staggered below. Darkness stole over the ship. The time to take stellar observations had passed. Drinkwater did not know precisely where they were and, in truth, he did not greatly care.

'Don't worry, Mr Drinkwater,' said Lestock, apparently pleased at the destruction of the timepiece. 'Your theoretical navigation lost us a brig and the captain has had the sense to deprive you of your toy before you cause more damage.'

'Go to the devil, you addle-brained old fool!' snapped Drinkwater.

They got Quilhampton down at dawn, calling the surgeon to roll him in warmed blankets and chafe him with spirits. The inside of his left elbow was raw from where the laborious climb had caused him to use it as a hook. At the conclusion of his watch Drinkwater sought out the surgeon and found him still attending the boy in the company of Catherine Best.

'How is he?'

'He'll live, but he's chilled to the marrow and cramped.'

'Aye the damned wind got up during the middle watch and it's already half a gale. This is the monsoon all right.'

'Damn your monsoon, Nat, have we to put up with that vicious bastard aft all the way home? Oh, don't worry about Catherine,' he added seeing Drinkwater's covert glance at the woman, 'she well knows all my sentiments on Mister festering Morris.'

'You know the answer to your own question, Harry.'

'So it's shorten canvas and ride out the gale even if it lasts another three or four months, eh?'

'Your metaphor is good enough.'

'Pity he can't be ill like poor old Griffiths, then he could let you run the blasted ship.'

'I doubt he would allow that,' smiled Drinkwater resignedly.

'Well if he goes on swilling rum at the present rate he'll either destroy his intestines or drink us out of the damned stuff and be raving from delirium tremens!' Appleby stood up as Quilhampton opened his eyes. 'Then you would have to take over, eh?'

'That talk from another I would take as sedition, Harry,' said Drinkwater seriously. 'I beg you do not be so free with your opinions.'

'Bah!' said Appleby contemptuously while Catherine Best gave both the men an odd look.