O'brian Patrick - Aub-Mat 10 - The Far Side of the World

The Far Side of the World

by Patrick O'Brian

Chapter One

'Pass the word for Captain Aubrey, pass the word for Captain Aubrey,' cried a sequence

of voices, at first dim and muffled far aft on the flagship's maindeck, then growing louder

and more distinct as the call wafted up to the quarterdeck and so along the gangway to

the forecastle, where Captain Aubrey stood by the starboard thirty-two-pounder carronade

contemplating the Emperor of Morocco's purple galley as it lay off Jumper's Bastion with

the vast grey and tawny Rock of Gibraltar soaring behind it, while Mr Blake, once a puny

member of his midshipman's berth but now a tall, stout lieutenant almost as massive as

his former captain, explained the new carriage he had invented, a carriage that should

enable carronades to fire twice as fast, with no fear of oversetting, twice as far, and with

perfect accuracy, thus virtually putting an end to war.

Only a flag-officer could 'pass the word' for a post-captain, and Jack Aubrey had

been dreading the summons ever since the Caledonia came in, a little after dawn: within

minutes of receiving it he would have to tell the Commander-in Chief how it came about

that his orders had not been obeyed. Seeing that Aubrey's small, elderly, but sweet-sailing

frigate Surprise was to return from Malta to England, there to be laid up or sold out of the

service or even sent to the breaker's yard, Admiral Sir Francis Ives, the Commander-in-

Chief, Mediterranean, had directed him to go by way of Zambra on the Barbary Coast,

there to reason with the Dey of Mascara, the ruler of those parts, who showed a tendency

to side with the French and who had uttered threats of hostile action if he were not given

an enormous sum of money: if the Dey proved stubborn, Aubrey was to embark the British

consul

and to tell his Highness that the instant any of these threats were carried into action, all

ships bearing the Mascarene flag should be seized, burnt, sunk, or otherwise destroyed,

and the Dey's ports blocked up. Aubrey was to sail in company with the Pollux, an even

older sixty-gun ship that was carrying Rear-Admiral Harte back to England as a

passenger, but the mission to the Dey was his alone; and having accomplished it he was

to report to the Commander-in-Chief at Gibraltar. It seemed to him a fairly straightforward

assignment, particularly as he had an unusually well qualified political adviser in his

surgeon, Dr Maturin, and off the mouth of Zambra Bay he left the Pollux with an easy

mind, or at least with a mind as easy as was right in one who had spent most of his life on

the sea, that dangerous, utterly unreliable element, with nothing but a plank between him

and eternity.

But they had been betrayed. At some point the Commander-in-Chief's plan had

become known to the enemy and a French ship of the line together with two frigates

appeared from the windward, in evident collusion with the Mascarenes; the Dey's forts had

fired on the Surprise; and in the subsequent activity Aubrey had neither had an interview

with the ruler nor embarked Mr Consul Eliot. The Pollux, closely engaged by the French

eighty-gun ship, had blown up with the loss of all hands, and although by her brilliant

sailing qualities the Surprise had run clear, Jack Aubrey had in fact accomplished nothing

of what he had been sent to do. To be sure, he could represent that in the course of the

manoeuvres he had wrecked a heavy French frigate by luring her over a reef, and that the

Pollux had so mauled her adversary in the fight and had so shattered her in blowing up

that there was little likelihood of her ever regaining Toulon; but he had nothing tangible to

show, and although he was satisfied in his own mind that materially the Royal Navy had

gained rather than lost by the encounter he was by no means sure that the Commander-

in-Chief would see it in the same light. And he was all the more uneasy since adverse

winds had delayed his run from Zambra Bay to Gibraltar, where he had expected to find

the Commander-in-Chief, and since

he could not tell whether the boats he had sent off to Malta and Port Mahon had reached

the Admiral in time for him to deal with the crippled Frenchman. Sir Francis had an

alarming reputation, not only as a rigid disciplinarian and a right Tartar, but also as one

who would break an erring subordinate without compunction. It was also known that Sir

Francis longed for victory even more than most commanders-in-chief: for evident, positive

victory that would please public opinion and even more the present ministry, the effective

source of honours. How the Zambra action would appear in this respect Jack could not

decide. 'Another couple of minutes will tell me, however,' he said to himself as he hurried

aft in the wake of a nervous, inaudible youngster, keeping his best white tights and silk

stockings well clear of the buckets of pitch that were carrying forward.

But he was mistaken: the call had originated in the other flag-officer aboard, the

Captain of the Fleet, who was confined to his cabin by the present bout of influenza but

who wished Jack to know that his wife had taken a house no great way from Ashgrove

Cottage, and that she should be very happy in Mrs Aubrey's acquaintance. Their children

were much of the same age, he said; and then, they being fond parents and long, long

from home, each gave the other a pretty detailed account of his brood, while the Captain

of the Fleet showed his daughters' birthday letters, received some two months ago, and a

little scrubby rat-gnawn penwiper, the work of his eldest's unaided hand.

During this time the Commander-in-Chief himself carried on with what was left of

his paper-work, a task that he had begun just after sunrise. 'This to Captain Lewis, and his

damn-fool words about an enquiry,' he said. '"Sir, Your letter has not contributed in the

smallest degree to alter the opinion I had formed of your having determined to avail

yourself of this influenza to get the Gloucester again into port. The most serious charge

made against you is the savage rudeness offered to Dr Harrington on the quarterdeck of

the Gloucester, wholly unbecoming the character of her commander and particularly

reprehensible in the desponding

state in which your improper conduct has placed the crew of His Majesty's ship under your

command. If you continue to court enquiry in the style of the letter I am replying to, it will

come sooner than you are aware of. I am, Sir, your most obedient servant." Damned

rogue, to try to bully me.' The two clerks made no reply to this, but kept their pens plying

fast, the one on a fair copy of the previous letter, the other on a rough of this, though the

other inhabitants of the great cabin, Mr Yarrow, the Admiral's secretary, and Mr Pocock,

his political adviser responded with a 'Tut, tut, tut'.

'To Captain Bates,' said Sir Francis, as soon as one pen had stopped squeaking. '"Sir,

The very disorderly state of His Majesty's ship under your command, obliges me to require

that neither yourself nor any of your officers are to go on shore on what is called pleasure.

I am, Sir, etc." And now a memorandum. "There being reason to apprehend that a number

of women have been clandestinely brought from England in several ships, more

particularly so in those which have arrived in the Mediterranean in this last and the present

year, the respective captains are required by the Admiral to admonish those ladies upon

the waste of water, and other disorders committed by them, and to make known to all, that

on the first proof of water being obtained for washing from the scuttle-butt or otherwise,

under false pretences, every woman in the fleet who had not been admitted under the

authority of the Admiralty or the Commander-in Chief, will be shipped for England by the

first convoy, and the officers are strictly enjoined to watch vigilantly their behaviour, and to

see that no waste or improper consumption of water happen in the future."' He turned to

the second clerk, now ready to write. 'To the respective captains: "The Admiral having

observed a flippancy in the behaviour of officers when coming upon the Caledonia's

quarterdeck, and sometimes in receiving orders from a superior officer, and that they do

not pull off their hats, and some not even touch them: it is his positive direction, that any

officer who shall in future so forget this essential duty of respect and subordination,

be admonished publicly; and he expects the officers of the Caledonia will set the example

by taking off their hats, and not touch them with an air of negligence."' To Mr Pocock he

observed, 'The young people now coming up are for the most part frippery and gimcrack. I

wish we could revive the old school,' and then continued, '"To the respective captains: the

Commander-in-Chief having seen several officers of the fleet on shore dressed like shop-

keepers, in coloured clothes, and others wearing round hats, with their uniforms, in

violation of the late order from the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the

Admiralty, does positively direct, that any officer offending against this wholesome and

necessary regulation in future, is put under arrest, and reported to the Admiral, and, let the

sentence of a court-martial upon such offenders be what it may, that he is never permitted

to go ashore while under the command of Sir Francis Ives."'

While the pens flew on he picked up a letter and said to Mr Pocock, 'Here is J. S.

begging me to intercede with the Royal Bird again. I wonder at it: and I cannot but think

that this form of application must end ill. I wonder at it, I say; for surely, with such a high

mind and unrivalled pretensions, a peerage is an object beneath him.'

Mr Pocock was a little embarrassed to reply, particularly as he knew that the clerks,

in spite of their busy pens, were listening intently; for it was common knowledge

throughout the fleet that Sir Francis longed to be a lord, thus rivalling his brothers, and that

he had fought with unparalleled fury for the Mediterranean command, as the most likely

means to that end. 'Perhaps. . .' he began, but he was interrupted by a scream of

barbarous trumpets close at hand, and stepping over to the stern-gallery he said, 'Bless

me, the Emperor's envoy has put off already.'

'God damn and blast the man,' cried the Admiral, looking angrily at the clock. 'Let

him go and ... no: we must not offend the Moors. I shall not have time for Aubrey. Pray tell

him so, Mr Yarrow - make my excuses - force majeure

-do the civil thing - bid him to dinner and let him bring

Dr Maturin; or let them come tomorrow morning, if that don't suit.'

It did not suit. Aubrey was infinitely concerned, but it was not in his power to dine

with the Commander-in-Chief today; he was already engaged, engaged to a lady. At

Jack's first words to Mr Yarrow the Captain of the Fleet's eyebrows shot up under his

nightcap; at his last, the only excuse that in a naval context could acquit him of being a

wicked contumelious discontented froward mutinous dog, the eyebrows reappeared in

their usual place and the Captain of the Fleet said, 'I wish I were engaged to dine with a

lady. I may draw a rear-admiral's pay,, but I have not seen one, apart from the bosun's

wife, since Malta; and what with this damned influenza and having to give an example I do

not suppose I shall see another until we drop anchor in the Grand Harbour again, alas.

There is something wonderfully comfortable about having a lady's legs under one's table,

Aubrey.'

In principle Aubrey was all agreement: by land he was quite devoted to women

indeed, his devotion had very nearly been his undoing before this - and he dearly loved to

have their legs under his table. But in the case of these particular legs (an uncommonly

elegant pair) and of this particular dinner, his mind was far from easy: in fact uneasiness

of one sort or another fairly crammed his mind today, leaving little room for its usual

cheerfulness. He had given Laura Fielding, the lady in question, a lift from Valletta to

Gibraltar, and in ordinary circumstances it was a perfectly usual thing to carry a fellow-

officer's wife from one port to another. These circumstances however were very far from

ordinary: Mrs Fielding, an Italian lady with dark red hair, had appeared in the middle of a

midnight downpour with no baggage, under the protection of Stephen Maturin, who

offered no explanation of her presence, only observing that in Captain Aubrey's name he

had promised her a passage to Gibraltar. Jack knew very well that his intimate friend

Maturin was deeply concerned with naval and political intelligence and he asked no

questions, accepting the situation as a necessary evil. But as a very considerable evil,

since

rumour had connected Jack's name with Laura's at a time when her husband was a

prisoner of war in the hands of the French: yet in this instance rumour was mistaken, for

although Jack was at one point very willing to give it consistency Laura was not.

Nevertheless the rumour had reached the Adriatic, and there the escaping husband,

Lieutenant Charles Fielding of the Navy, had met it aboard HMS Nymphe; and being of an

intensely jealous nature had believed it at once. He had followed the Surprise to Gibraltar,

landing from the Hecla bomb the night before. On hearing the news Jack had at once sent

the pair an invitation to dinner the next day; but in spite of Laura's kind note of acceptance

he was by no means convinced that he might not have an exceedingly awkward situation

on his hands at half past two o'clock, when he was to receive his guests at Reid's hotel.

Landing at the Ragged Staff a little before noon he sent his barge back to the

Surprise, with very unnecessarily repeated instructions to his coxswain about the rig, the

cleanliness and the promptitude of those hands who were to assist at the dinner; for the

Navy, though often reduced to salt horse and hard tack, ate it in style, every officer and

guest having a servant behind his chair, a style that few hotels could equal. Then,

observing that the Parade was almost empty, he walked along towards the Alameda

gardens, meaning to sit on the bench under the dragon-tree; he did not choose to return to

his ship at present, for not only was it painful to him to see her, knowing that she was

condemned, but in spite of his efforts the news of her fate had spread and sadness with it,

so that the Joyful Surprise, as she was known in the service, was now but a dismal place.

The tight, well knit community of some two hundred men was about to fall apart, and he

reflected upon the pity of it, the waste - a hand-picked crew of able seamen, many of

whom had sailed with him for years and some, like his coxswain, his steward, and four of

his bargemen, ever since his first command - they were used to one another, used to their

officers - a ship's company in which punishment was extremely rare and where discipline

did not have to be imposed since it

came naturally - while for gunnery and seamanship he did not know their equal - and this

invaluable body of men was to be dispersed among a score of ships or even, in the case

of the officers, thrown on shore, unemployed, simply because the five-hundred-ton,

twenty-eight-gun Surprise was too small a frigate for modern requirements. Instead of

being reinforced and moved as a whole to a larger ship, such as the thousand-ton, thirty-

eight-gun Blackwater that Jack had been promised, the crew was to be scattered; while

the promise had gone the way of so many promises. The influential Captain Irby had been

given the Blackwater, and Jack, whose affairs were in a state of horrible confusion, had no

certainty whatsoever of another ship, no certainty of anything at all but half-pay of half a

guinea a day and a mountain of debt. Just how high a mountain he could not tell, for all his

skill in navigation and astronomy, since several lawyers were concerned, each with a

different notion of the case or rather cases. These thoughts were interrupted by a cough

and a diffident 'Captain Aubrey, sir. Good day to you.' Looking up he saw a tall thin man of

between thirty and forty with his hat raised from his head. He was wearing naval uniform,

the threadbare uniform of a midshipman, its white patches yellow in the sun. 'You do not

remember me, sir: my name is Hollom, and I had the honour of serving under you in

Lively.'

Of course. Jack had been acting-captain of the Lively for a few months at the

beginning of the war, and in the early days of his command he had seen something of a

not very efficient, not very enterprising midshipman of that name, a passed midshipman

with the rating of master's mate: not a great deal, since Hollom, falling sick, had soon

removed to the hospital ship, not particularly regretted by anyone except perhaps the

schoolmaster, another elderly passed midshipman, and the grey-haired captain's clerk,

who formed a little mess of their own, well away from the more usual and more turbulent

midshipmen in their teens. As far as Jack could remember there was no vice in Hollom,

but there was no obvious merit either; he was the kind of midshipman who

had not improved in his profession, who had no evident zeal for seamanship or gunnery or

navigation and no gift for dealing with men, the kind of midshipman that captains were

happy to pass on. Long before Jack first met him, a good-humoured board had passed

Hollom as fit for a lieutenant's commission; but the commission itself had never appeared.

This happened often enough to young men with no particular abilities, or no patron or

family to speak for them, but whereas most of these unfortunates bore up after a few

years and either applied for a master's warrant if their mathematics and navigation were

good enough, or left the service altogether, Hollom and a good many others like him went

on hoping until it was too late to make any change, so that they remained perpetual mids,

perpetual young gentlemen, with an income of about thirty pounds a year when they could

find a captain to admit them to his quarterdeck and nothing at all if they could not,

midshipmen having no half-pay. Theirs was perhaps the most unenviable position in the

whole service and Jack pitied them extremely: nevertheless he hardened his heart against

the request that was sure to come - a forty-year old could not possibly fit into his

midshipman's berth. Besides, it was evident that Hollom was an unlucky man, one that

would bring bad luck to the ship; the crew, an intensely superstitious set of men, would

dislike him and perhaps treat him with disrespect, which would mean starting the hateful

round of punishment and resentment all over again.

It was clear from Hollom's account of himself that he was finding more and more

captains of this opinion: his last ship, Leviathan, had paid off seven months ago, and he

had come out to Gibraltar in the hope either of a death-vacancy or a meeting with one of

his many former commanders who might be in need of an experienced master's mate.

Neither had occurred and now Hollom was at his last extremity.

'I am very sorry to say so, but I am afraid it is quite impossible for me to find room

for you on my quarterdeck,' said Jack. 'In any case, there would be no point in it, since the

ship will be paying off in the next few weeks.'

'Even a few weeks would be infinitely welcome, sir,' cried Hollom with a ghastly

sprightliness: then, clutching at a straw he added, 'I should be happy to sling my hammock

before the mast, sir, if you would enter me as able.'

'No, no, Hollom, it would not do,' said Jack, shaking his head. 'But here is a fi'pun

note, to be repaid out of your next prize-money, if it would prove useful to you.'

'You are very good, sir,' said Hollom, clasping his hands behind his back, 'but I am

not. ..' What he was not never appeared; his face, still retaining something of its artificial

sprightly expression, twitched oddly, and Jack dreaded a burst of tears. 'However, I am

obliged for your kind intention. Good day to you, sir.'

'God damn it, God damn it,' said Jack to himself as Hollom walked away, looking

unnaturally stiff. 'This is infernal goddam blackmail.' And then aloud, 'Mr Hollom, Mr

Hollom, there.' He wrote in his pocket-book, tore out the page, and said, 'Report aboard

the Surprise for duty before noon and show this to the officer of the watch.'

A hundred yards farther on he met Captain Sutton of the Namur, Billy Sutton, a

very old friend, since they had been youngsters together in HMS Resolution. 'Lord Billy,'

cried Jack, 'I never thought to see you here - I never saw Namur come in. Where is she?'

'She is blockading Toulon, poor old soul, and Ponsonby is looking after her for me. I

was returned for Rye in the by-election. Stopford is running me home in his yacht.'

Jack congratulated him, and after some words about Parliament, yachts, and

acting-captains Sutton said, 'You look most uncommon hipped, Jack; like a cat that has

lost its kittens.'

'I dare say I do. Surprise is ordered home, you know, to be laid up or broke, and I

have spent some truly miserable weeks, making preparations, fobbing off whole boatloads

of people who want a lift for themselves or their families or friends. And not five minutes

ago I did a very foolish thing, clean against my principles: I took a middle-aged master's

mate off the shore because he looked so goddam thin, poor

devil. It was mere sentimentality, mere silly indulgence. It will do him no good in the end;

he will be neither grateful nor useful, and he will corrupt my youngsters and upset the

hands. He has Jonah written all over his face. Thank Heaven the Caledonia is in at last. I

can make my report and be away as soon as my launch returns from Mahon, before

anyone else comes 4board. The port-admiral has tried to foist a number of horrible

creatures on to me, and to take away all my best men by one dirty trick or another. I have

resisted pretty well so far; after all, the ship may come into action between this and the

Channel, and I should like her to do herself credit; but even so . . .'

'That was a sad business in Zambra Bay, Jack,' said Sutton, who had not been

attending.

'It was, indeed,' said Jack, shaking his head; then after a moment, 'You know about

it, then?'

'Of course I do. Your launch found the vice-admiral at Port Mahon, and he sent

Alacrity away for the C-in-C off Toulon directly.'

'How 1 hope she reached him in time. With any luck he should be able to snap up

the big Frenchman. There was something very dirty about that affair, you know, Billy. We

sailed straight into a trap.'

'So everyone says. And a returning victualler spoke of a great turmoil in Valletta -

some high civilian cutting his throat and half a dozen people shot. But it was all at second

or third hand.'

'There was no news of my cutter, I suppose? I sent it off for Malta with my second

lieutenant as soon as the wind came right round into her teeth, so there was no hope of

fetching Gibraltar for a great while.'

'Not that I have heard. But I do know your launch was put aboard the Berwick,

since she was to rendezvous with the C-in-C here. We sailed in company until yesterday

evening, when she carried away her foretopmast in a squall, and as Bennet dared not

face the Admiral until everything was perfectly shipshape, he signalled to us to go ahead.

But with the wind veering like this,' said Sutton, glancing at the high

ridge of Gibraltar, 'he will be backstrapped, if he don't mend his pace.'

'Billy,' said Jack, 'you know the Admiral far better than I do. Is he indeed still so very

savage?'

'Pretty savage,' said Sutton. 'Have you heard what he did to the midshipman that

looted the privateer?'

'Not I.'

'Well, some boats from the squadron boarded a Gibraltar privateer, found her

papers all in order, and left her in peace. Some time later a midshipman belonging to the

Cambridge, a big hairy sixteen-year-old who loved to be popular with the hands, went

back and made them give him and his boat's crew porter, and then, having lost his wits

entirely I suppose, he put on the master's blue jacket with a silver watch in its pocket and

walked off laughing. The master complained and it was found in his hammock. I sat on the

court-martial.'

'Dismissed the service, I suppose?'

'No, no: not so lucky. The sentence was "to be degraded from the rank of

midshipman in the most ignominious manner, by having his uniform stripped from his back

on the quarterdeck of the Cambridge, and to be mulcted of the pay now due to him," and it

was to be read out aboard every ship in the command - you would have come in for it if

you had not been in Zambra. But that was not enough. Sir Francis wrote to Scott of the

Cambridge, and I saw the letter:

"Sir, You are hereby required and directed to carry out the sentence of the court-martial on

Albert Tompkins. And you are to cause his head to be shaved, and a label affixed to his

back, expressive of the disgraceful crime he has committed. And he is to be employed as

the constant scavenger for cleaning the head, until my further orders."'

'Good God,' cried Jack, reflecting upon the head of an eighty-gun ship of the line, a

common jakes or privy for more than five hundred men. 'Was the wretched boy of any

family, any education?'

'The son of a lawyer in Malta Tompkins of the Admiralty court.'

They took some steps in silence, and then Sutton said, 'I should have told you that

the Berwick has your former premier aboard, too, the one who was promoted for your

action with the Turk, going home to try to find himself a ship, poor fellow.'

'Pullings,' said Jack. 'How happy I shall be to see him - never was such a first

lieutenant. But as for a ship. . .' They both shook their heads, knowing that the Navy had

more than six hundred commanders and not half that number of sloops, the only vessels

they could command. 'I hope she has her chaplain aboard as well,' said Jack. 'A one-eyed

parson by the name of Martin, a very fine fellow and a great friend of my surgeon.' He

hesitated for a moment and then said, 'Billy, would you do me the kindness of dining with

me? I have rather a difficult party this afternoon and a witty cove like you rattling away

would be a great advantage. I am no great fist at conversation, as you know, and Maturin

has an awkward way of turning as mum as an oyster if the subject don't interest him.'

'What kind of party is it?' asked Sutton.

'Did you ever meet Mrs Fielding in Valletta?'

'The beautiful Mrs Fielding that gives Italian lessons?' asked Sutton, cocking an eye

at Jack. 'Yes, of course.'

'Well, I gave her a lift to Gibraltar: but because of some silly rumours - false, Billy,

false upon my honour, completely false - it seems that her husband conceived some

suspicion of me. It is the Fieldings that are coming to dinner, and although her note

assured me they should be delighted to come, yet I still feel that a source of sparkling

repartee would not come amiss. Lord, Billy, I have heard you address the electors of

Hampshire in the most fearless way - jokes, badinage, anecdotes, topics - why, it was

almost eloquence.'

Captain Aubrey's fears were unfounded. Between her husband's arrival yesterday

evening and the hour of dinner, Laura Fielding had found means of convincing him of her

perfect fidelity and unvarying attachment, and he came forward with an open smiling

expression on his face to shake Jack's hand and to thank him again for his kindness to

Laura.

Yet even so Captain Sutton's presence was by no means unwelcome. Both Jack and

Stephen, who were very fond of Mrs Fielding, felt uneasy in her husband's presence;

neither could understand what she saw in him - a heavy, dark man with a thick forehead

and small deep-set eyes - and they both resented her obvious fondness. It somewhat

diminished her in their opinion, and neither felt so strong an inclination for social effort as

they had before; while for his part Fielding, once he had given a bald account of his

escape from a French prison, had no more to say, but sat there smiling and fondling his

wife under the table-cloth.

It was now that Sutton proved his worth. His chief qualification as a Member of

Parliament was an ability to speak at great length in a smiling, cheerful way upon almost

O'brian Patrick - Aub-Mat 10 - The Far Side of the World

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