The Two Admirals (43 page)

"It is something to have made it at all. I was not aware it could be
seen from deck?"

"Nor can it, sir; but, by going up half-a-dozen ratlins we get a look at
it. Captain Drinkwater bowses up his lights to the gaff-end, and I can
see him always ten minutes sooner than any other ship in the fleet,
under the same circumstances."

"Drinkwater is a careful officer; do the bearings of his light alter
enough to tell the course he is steering?"

"I think they do, sir, though our standing out athwart his line of
sailing would make the change slow, of course. Every foot we get to the
southward, you know, sir, would throw his bearings farther west; while
every foot he comes east, would counteract that change and throw his
bearings further south."

"That's very clear; but, as he must go three fathoms to our one, running
off with square yards before such a breeze, I think we should be
constantly altering his bearings to the southward."

"No doubt of it, in the world, sir; and that is just what we
are
doing. I think I can see a difference of half a point, already; but,
when we get his light fairly in view from the poop, we shall be able to
tell with perfect accuracy."

"All very well, Cornet. Do me the favour to desire Captain Stowel to
step into the cabin and keep a bright look-out for the ships of the
division. Stay, for a single instant; what particularly sharp-eyed
youngster happens to belong to the watch on deck?"

"I know none keener in that way than Lord Geoffrey Cleveland, sir; he
can see all the roguery that is going on in the whole fleet, at any
rate, and ought to see other things."

"He will do perfectly well; send the young gentleman to me, sir; but,
first inform the officer of the watch that I have need of him."

Bluewater was unusually fastidious in exercising his authority over
those who had temporary superiors on the assigned duty of the ship; and
he never sent an order to any of the watch, without causing it to pass
through the officer of that watch. He waited but a minute before the boy
appeared.

"Have you a good gripe to-night, boy?" asked the rear-admiral, smiling;
"or will it be both hands for yourself and none for the king? I want you
on the fore-top-gallant-yard, for eight or ten minutes."

"Well, sir, it's a plain road there, and one I've often travelled,"
returned the lad, cheerfully.

"That I well know; you are certainly no skulk when duty is to be done.
Go aloft then, and ascertain if the lights of any of Sir Gervaise's
squadron are to be seen. You will remember that the Dover bears
somewhere about south-west from us, and that she is still a long way to
seaward. I should think all of Sir Gervaise's ships must be quite as far
to windward as that point would bring them, but much further off. By
looking sharp a point or half a point to windward of the Dover, you may
possibly see the light of the Warspite, and then we shall get a correct
idea of the bearings of all the rest of the division—"

"Ay-ay-sir," interrupted the boy; "I think I understand exactly what you
wish to know, Admiral Bluewater."

"That is a natural gift at sixteen, my lord," returned the admiral,
smiling; "but it may be improved a little, perhaps, by the experience of
fifty. Now, it is possible Sir Gervaise may have gone about, as soon as
the flood made; in which case he ought to bear nearly west of us, and
you will also look in that direction. On the other hand, Sir Gervaise
may have stretched so far over towards the French coast before night
shut in, as to feel satisfied Monsieur de Vervillin is still to the
eastward of him; in which case he would keep off a little, and may, at
this moment, be nearly ahead of us. So that, under all the
circumstances, you will sweep the horizon, from the weather-beam to the
lee-bow, ranging forward. Am I understood, now, my lord?"

"Yes, sir, I think you are," answered the boy, blushing at his own
impetuosity. "You will excuse my indiscretion, Admiral Bluewater; but I
thought
I understood all you desired, when I spoke so hastily."

"No doubt you did, Geoffrey, but you perceive you did not. Nature has
made you quick of apprehension, but not quick enough to
foresee
all an
old man's gossip. Come nearer, now, and let us shake hands. So go aloft,
and hold on well, for it is a windy night, and I do not desire to lose
you overboard."

The boy did as told, squeezed Bluewater's hand, and dashed out of the
cabin to conceal his tears. As for the rear-admiral, he immediately
relapsed into his fit of forgetfulness, waiting for the arrival of
Stowel.

A summons to a captain does not as immediately produce a visit, on board
a vessel of war, as a summons to a midshipman. Captain Stowel was busy
in looking at the manner in which his boats were stowed, when Cornet
told him of the rear-admiral's request; and then he had to give some
orders to the first lieutenant concerning the fresh meat that had been
got off, and one or two other similar little things, before he was at
leisure to comply.

"See me, do you say, Mr. Cornet; in his own cabin, as soon as it is
convenient?" he at length remarked, when all these several offices had
been duly performed.

The signal-officer repeated the request, word for word as he had heard
it, when he turned to take another look at the light of the Dover. As
for Stowel, he cared no more for the Dover, windy and dark as the night
promised to be, than the burgher is apt to care for his neighbour's
house when the whole street is threatened with destruction. To him the
Cæsar was the great centre of attraction, and Cornet paid him off in
kind; for, of all the vessels in the fleet, the Cæsar was precisely the
one to which he gave the least attention; and this for the simple reason
that she was the only ship to which he never gave, or from which he
never received, a signal.

"Well, Mr. Bluff," said Stowel to the first lieutenant; "one of us will
have to be on deck most of the night, and I'll take a slant below, for
half an hour first, and see what the admiral wishes."

Thus saying, the captain left the deck, in order to ascertain his
superior's pleasure. Captain Stowel was several years the senior of
Bluewater, having actually been a lieutenant in one of the frigates in
which the rear-admiral had served as a midshipman; a circumstance to
which he occasionally alluded in their present intercourse. The change
in the relative positions was the result of the family influence of the
junior, who had passed his senior in the grade of master and commander;
a rank that then brought many an honest man up for life, in the English
marine. At the age of five-and-forty, that at which Bluewater first
hoisted his flag, Stowell was posted; and soon after he was invited by
his old shipmate, who had once had him under him as his first lieutenant
in a sloop of war, to take the command of his flag-ship. From that day
down to the present moment, the two officers had sailed together,
whenever they sailed at all, perfectly good friends; though the captain
never appeared entirely to forget the time when they were in the
aforesaid frigate; one a gun-room officer, and the other only a
"youngster."

Stowel must now have been about sixty-five; a square, hard-featured,
red-faced seaman, who knew all about his ship, from her truck to her
limber-rope, but who troubled himself very little about any thing else.
He had married a widow when he was posted, but was childless, and had
long since permitted his affections to wander back into their former
channels; from the domestic hearth to his ship. He seldom spoke of
matrimony, but the little he saw fit to say on the subject was
comprehensive and to the point. A perfectly sober man, he consumed large
quantities of both wine and brandy, as well as of tobacco, and never
seemed to be the worse for either. Loyal he was by political faith, and
he looked upon a revolution, let its object be what it might, as he
would have regarded a mutiny in the Cæsar. He was exceedingly
pertinacious of his rights as "captain of his own ship," both ashore and
afloat; a disposition that produced less trouble with the mild and
gentlemanly rear-admiral, than with Mrs. Stowel. If we add that this
plain sailor never looked into a book, his proper scientific works
excepted, we shall have said all of him that his connection with our
tale demands.

"Good-evening, Admiral Bluewater," said this true tar, saluting the
rear-admiral, as one neighbour would greet another, on dropping in of an
evening, for they occupied different cabins. "Mr. Cornet told me you
would like to say a word to me, before I turned in; if, indeed, turn in
at all, I do this blessed night."

"Take a seat, Stowel, and a glass of this sherry, in the bargain,"
Bluewater answered, kindly, showing how well he understood his man, by
the manner in which he shoved both bottle and glass within reach of his
hand. "How goes the night?—and is this wind likely to stand?"

"I'm of opinion, sir—we'll drink His Majesty, if you've no objection,
Admiral Bluewater,—I'm of opinion, we shall stretch the threads of that
new main-top-sail, before we've done with the breeze, sir. I believe
I've not told you, yet, that I've had the new sail bent, since we last
spoke together on the subject. It's a good fit, sir; and, close-reefed,
the sails stands like the side of a house."

"I'm glad to hear it, Stowel; though I think all your canvass usually
appears to be in its place."

"Why you know, Admiral Bluewater, that I've been long enough at it, to
understand something about the matter. It is now more than forty years
since we were in the Calypso together, and ever since that time I've
borne the commission of an officer. You were then a youngster, and
thought more of your joke, than of bending sails, or of seeing how they
would stand."

"There wasn't much of me, certainly, forty years ago, Stowel; but I well
remember the knack you had of making every robin, sheet, bowline, and
thread do its duty, then, as you do to-day. By the way, can you tell me
any thing of the Dover, this evening?"

"Not I, sir; she came out with the rest of us I suppose, and must be
somewhere in the fleet; though I dare say the log will have it all, if
she has been anywhere near us, lately. I am sorry we did not go into one
of the watering-ports, instead of this open roadstead, for we must be at
least twenty-seven hundred gallons short of what we ought to have, by my
calculation; and then we want a new set of light spars, pretty much all
round; and the lower hold hasn't as many barrels of provisions in it, by
thirty-odd, as I could wish to see there."

"I leave these things to you, entirely, Stowel; you will report in time
to keep the ship efficient."

"No fear of the Cæsar, sir; for, between Mr. Bluff, the master, and
myself, we know pretty much all about
her
, though I dare say there are
men in the fleet who can tell you more about the Dublin, or the Dover,
or the York. We will drink the queen, and all the royal family, if you
please, sir."

As usual, Bluewater merely bowed, for his companion required no further
acquiescence in his toasts. Just at that moment, too, it would have
needed a general order, at least, to induce him to drink any of the
family of the reigning house.

"Oakes must be well off, mid-channel, by this time, Captain Stowel?"

"I should think he might be, sir; though I can't say I took particular
notice of the time he sailed. I dare say it's all in the log. The
Plantagenet is a fast ship, sir, and Captain Greenly understands her
trim, and what she can do on all tacks; and, yet, I do think His Majesty
has one ship in this fleet that can find a Frenchman quite as soon, and
deal with him, when found, quite as much to the purpose."

"Of course you mean the Cæsar;—well, I'm quite of your way of thinking,
though Sir Gervaise manages never to be in a slow ship. I suppose you
know, Stowel, that Monsieur de Vervillin is out, and that we may expect
to see or hear something of him, to-morrow."

"Yes, sir, there is some such conversation in the ship, I know; but the
quantity of galley-news is so great in this squadron, that I never
attend much to what is said. One of the officers brought off a rumour, I
believe, that there was a sort of a row in Scotland. By the way, sir,
there is a supernumerary lieutenant on board, and as he has joined
entirely without orders, I'm at a loss how to berth or to provision him.
We can treat the gentleman hospitably to-night; but in the morning I
shall be obliged to get him regularly on paper."

"You mean Sir Wycherly Wychecombe; he shall come into my mess, rather
than give you any trouble."

"I shall not presume to meddle with any gentleman you may please to
invite into your cabin, sir," answered Stowel, with a stiff bow, in the
way of apology. "That's what I always tell Mrs. Stowel, sir;—that my
cabin
is my
own
, and even a wife has no right to shake a broom in
it."

"Which is a great advantage to us seamen; for it gives us a citadel to
retreat to, when the outworks are pressed. You appear to take but little
interest in this civil war, Stowel!"

"Then it's true, is it, sir? I didn't know but it might turn out to be
galley-news. Pray what is the rumpus all about, Admiral Bluewater? for,
I never could get that story fidded properly, so as to set up the
rigging, and have the spar well stayed in its place."

"It is merely a war to decide who shall be king of England; nothing
else, I do assure you, sir."

"They're an uneasy set ashore, sir, if the truth must be said of them!
We've got one king, already; and on what principle does any man wish for
more? Now, there was Captain Blakely, from the Elizabeth, on board of me
this afternoon; and we talked the matter over a little, and both of us
concluded that they got these things up much as a matter of profit among
the army contractors, and the dealers in warlike stores."