Majestic by George Edwardson

Author:George Edwardson [Edwardson, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-25T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Johnnie Wharton allowed himself to relax slightly after the grimmest night of his life. The gundeck was nothing more than a charnel house. Piles of bodies had been dragged into the middle between the two lines of guns, many of which were dismounted and useless. Wounded men with horrific injuries were screaming or whimpering where they fell, with missing arms and legs or terribly disfigured faces. It was a picture of hell. If this was victory, he could not even conceive what defeat must be like.

Satisfied that he could do no more at the moment other than order men to assist the wounded or clear the dead, he staggered up the companionway towards the quarterdeck. The sea around Majestic was an awful sight. The whole bay was covered with dead bodies; mangled, wounded or scorched, many floating naked in the water. Several French ships had been driven onto the shore of Aboukir Bay, a few had either blown up or were on fire with more explosions imminent, he guessed. Shattered wood of every shape and length littered the sea amongst the floating corpses.

What Wharton saw was like a physical blow. He staggered sideways and would have fallen but for the ship’s rail. He grabbed the smooth wood, took a deep breath and straightened. There was going to be so much to do now.

He heard a slight cough behind him and turned to find a grey-faced Toby Smeeton at his shoulder. ‘Thought you might like to know, sir, we have seven guns loaded and run out on the larboard side and eight to starboard. Old Majestic can still fight back,’ the gunner’s mate growled, looking about him at the devastation. ‘By all that is Holy, I never saw the like,’ he added making his way slowly back down to his guns.

*

Captain Cuthbert and his remaining officers stood together on the debris-strewn quarterdeck surveying the last acts of the great drama, as ship after ship of the French fleet was boarded and their surrender accepted. The battered Majestic rode at anchor just a few hundred yards from the dismasted Bellerophon, the two most damaged of the whole of Nelson’s fleet.

Cuthbert was impatient to take back possession of the great cabin. They could all hear the carpenters working to replace the partitions below them while other men were dragging up Westcott’s furniture from the hold.

‘This is no place for a conference, gentlemen. I want a full damage report – every part of the ship – within the next half hour in my cabin. Mr Leighton, find the carpenter, boatswain, gunner, purser and any other mate and tell them that I wish a complete report from each of them within the hour. Mr Wharton go and talk with the surgeon and come back with a report on our casualties. Mr Hardy, you and Mr Rowlands are to maintain our readiness to defend ourselves in case one of the French ships breaks out and tries to attack us. We must look a wreck and unable to defend ourselves.

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