Read Online An Eye of the Fleet by Richard Woodman - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Richard Woodman
Tags: Fiction, Historical fiction, Historical, Action & Adventure, Sea stories, War & Military, Great Britain, Drinkwater; Nathaniel (Fictitious Character), Men's Adventure, Great Britain - History; Naval - 18th Century
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age; for Devaux the means of re-entering society and, hopefully, contracting an advantageous marriage. To men like Morris, Tregembo and O’Malley fantasies of splendid proportions rose in their imaginations as they prepared to make obeisance at the temples of Bacchus and Aphrodite.
But as the two frigates and their empty convoy sailed northward the initial excitement passed. Arguments broke out as to how much hard money was involved and, more important, how much each man would receive. Rumour, speculation and conjecture rippled through the ship like wind through standing corn. A chance remark made by an officer, overheard by a quartermaster and passed along the lower deck, sparked off fresh waves of debate based on no single thread of fact but by mountains of wishful thinking. Only the previous year frigates like Cyclops had taken the annual treasure fleet from the Spanish Indies. It had made their captains fabulously wealthy; even able-seamen had received the sum ofаг182. But it was not always visions of untold wealth that occupied the imaginations of her people. As the frigate drew north other rumours gained currency. Perhaps Santa Teresa had been retaken by the Spaniards who were once again besieging Gibraltar. Or sunk by shell-fire, or burned by fireshipsЕ
If the Spanish could not take her would they not have made an attempt to redress their honour by destroying at least some of the prizes in Gibraltar Bay?
Gloom spread throughout Cyclops and as the days passed the talk of prize money occurred less and less frequently. By the time Cyclops sighted the Lizard all discussions on the subject had become taboo. A strange superstition had seized the hands, including the officers. A feeling that if the subject were mentioned their greed would raise the ire of the fate that ruled their lives with such arbitrary harshness. No seaman, irrespective of his class or station, could admit the philosophical contention that Atropos, Lachesis or Clotho and their elemental agents acted with impartiality. His own experience continually proved the contrary.
Gales, battles, leaks, dismastings, disease and death; Acts of God, Acts of My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty and all the other factors which combined to cause maritime discomfort, seemed to direct the whole weight of their malice at Jack Tar. Hardship was a necessary function of existence and the brief appearance of a golden ladder to a haven of wealth and ease became regarded with the deepest suspicion.
When Cyclops’s cable rumbled through the hawse and she brought up to her bower at Spithead no man dared mention Santa Teresa. But when the first lieutenant called away the captain’s gig there was not a soul on board whose heartbeat did not quicken.
Hope was absent from the ship for three hours.
Even when he returned to the boat lying at King’s Stairs the gig’s crew were unable to read anything from his facial expression. Drinkwater was coxswain of the gig and set himself the task of conning her through the maze of small craft that thronged Portsmouth Harbour. In fact Drinkwater had thought less than most about the prize money. Money was something he had no experience of. There had been enough, barely enough, in his home and his interest in his new profession had both prevented him from dwelling on the subject of poverty or from realising how little he had. As yet the disturbance of lust had been a confused experience in which the romantic concepts imparted by a rudimentary education were at sharp variance with the world he found around him. He had not yet realised the power of money to purchase pleasure and his adolescent view of the opposite sex was one of total ambivalence. Besides, whilst there were no other distractions, he found the business of a sea-officer vastly more interesting and he had changed significantly since his first boat trip on the waters of Spithead. Although he had added little to his girth and height his body had hardened. His muscles were
But as the two frigates and their empty convoy sailed northward the initial excitement passed. Arguments broke out as to how much hard money was involved and, more important, how much each man would receive. Rumour, speculation and conjecture rippled through the ship like wind through standing corn. A chance remark made by an officer, overheard by a quartermaster and passed along the lower deck, sparked off fresh waves of debate based on no single thread of fact but by mountains of wishful thinking. Only the previous year frigates like Cyclops had taken the annual treasure fleet from the Spanish Indies. It had made their captains fabulously wealthy; even able-seamen had received the sum ofаг182. But it was not always visions of untold wealth that occupied the imaginations of her people. As the frigate drew north other rumours gained currency. Perhaps Santa Teresa had been retaken by the Spaniards who were once again besieging Gibraltar. Or sunk by shell-fire, or burned by fireshipsЕ
If the Spanish could not take her would they not have made an attempt to redress their honour by destroying at least some of the prizes in Gibraltar Bay?
Gloom spread throughout Cyclops and as the days passed the talk of prize money occurred less and less frequently. By the time Cyclops sighted the Lizard all discussions on the subject had become taboo. A strange superstition had seized the hands, including the officers. A feeling that if the subject were mentioned their greed would raise the ire of the fate that ruled their lives with such arbitrary harshness. No seaman, irrespective of his class or station, could admit the philosophical contention that Atropos, Lachesis or Clotho and their elemental agents acted with impartiality. His own experience continually proved the contrary.
Gales, battles, leaks, dismastings, disease and death; Acts of God, Acts of My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty and all the other factors which combined to cause maritime discomfort, seemed to direct the whole weight of their malice at Jack Tar. Hardship was a necessary function of existence and the brief appearance of a golden ladder to a haven of wealth and ease became regarded with the deepest suspicion.
When Cyclops’s cable rumbled through the hawse and she brought up to her bower at Spithead no man dared mention Santa Teresa. But when the first lieutenant called away the captain’s gig there was not a soul on board whose heartbeat did not quicken.
Hope was absent from the ship for three hours.
Even when he returned to the boat lying at King’s Stairs the gig’s crew were unable to read anything from his facial expression. Drinkwater was coxswain of the gig and set himself the task of conning her through the maze of small craft that thronged Portsmouth Harbour. In fact Drinkwater had thought less than most about the prize money. Money was something he had no experience of. There had been enough, barely enough, in his home and his interest in his new profession had both prevented him from dwelling on the subject of poverty or from realising how little he had. As yet the disturbance of lust had been a confused experience in which the romantic concepts imparted by a rudimentary education were at sharp variance with the world he found around him. He had not yet realised the power of money to purchase pleasure and his adolescent view of the opposite sex was one of total ambivalence. Besides, whilst there were no other distractions, he found the business of a sea-officer vastly more interesting and he had changed significantly since his first boat trip on the waters of Spithead. Although he had added little to his girth and height his body had hardened. His muscles were
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