Holbrooke's Tide by Chris Durbin

Author:Chris Durbin [Durbin, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-02-08T05:00:00+00:00

The major had become a firm favourite of the gunroom in the two days he’d been onboard. He was interested in everything; in the workings of the sails, the management of the guns – so different from field, siege or garrison artillery and a world away from the mortars which were the major’s principal passion – and the household economy of this strange floating company. He’d been shown the mysteries of the bosun’s art, following Jackson into the ultimate pinnacles of the masts, his knees shaking as he was helped down from the main t’gallant cross-trees. And the carpenter had taken him into his holy of holies – the carpenter’s walk – the narrow passageway in the cloistered extremities of the hold that ran the length of the ship on each side so that he and his mates could come at any damage. The major had made such a good impression – and after all, he wasn’t an enemy – that discipline would have suffered if he hadn’t been granted every consideration that was in the sloop’s power.

Kestrel spent three days in Harwich. It took that long for Holbrooke’s letter to reach the Admiralty, for Clevland to consult with Admiral Forbes and the First Lord and for a reply to be sent back. The sloop was ordered to sail as soon as she’d completed her stores, to deliver Major Albach to the Emden garrison and to continue with her previous orders. In those three days, the Kestrels were delighted to learn that the two bilanders had been duly condemned and that their cargoes and the ships themselves would be auctioned where they lay. The bilanders’ crews were cheerfully rowed out to a small brig that would take them to Dover where they’d join the regular cartel to Calais. They’d be home not much later than they would have been if their vessels hadn’t been taken. The carpenter had completed the boot-topping, adding perhaps as much as a knot to Kestrel’s speed, the rigging had been overhauled and made ready for another spell at sea and the stores had been completed.

‘Take us to sea, Mister Fairview,’ said Holbrooke after he’d seen the port commissioner over the side. He was a most obliging commissioner, and the reason for his friendliness had been discovered by the purser. By a variety of stratagems involving a small percentage here and a modest encouragement there, the commissioner reckoned to pocket at least five per cent of the condemned value of any prize that passed through his hands. A most satisfactory arrangement for an officer who thought his service days were long over.

And there was one more thing that encouraged Holbrooke. He hadn’t heard the name of the former first lieutenant spoken during the whole of their stay in Harwich. As Clevland had forecast, intense activity and prizes had driven Deschamps from the minds of Kestrel’s people.

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