Warlord by Westropp George & Edwardson George

Author:Westropp, George & Edwardson, George
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-05-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

It took the carpenters from Plymouth’s dockyard five weeks to repair the collision damage to Warlord. Finally, the ship was officially handed back to her captain and declared ready for sea again.

Wharton had been back on board for a full week and used the time to review the manning levels and department management with his first lieutenant and the master. It was Tommy Beamish’s view that very little needed change, while Swan tinkered with some promotions amongst the quartermaster’s mates.

Johnnie was more concerned about the balance of the divisions and was determined to get some of the purser’s more junior assistants off the ship. In his view, they were idle at best and bloody-minded at worst. Overall, however, he was as sure of his ship, on the day he took back command as any captain of a King’s ship could be.

Then, nothing. No orders arrived from the Admiralty, or via the Port Supervisor, and days stretched into two more weeks with the third-rate still at anchor. Johnnie looked enviously as other ships arrived, were revictualled and sailed out into the Channel again.

One highlight of this frustrating time was a courtesy call by Stephen Edge, captain of the schooner Firefly. The commander was excellent company and Johnnie prevailed on the young officer to stay aboard and join him for dinner in the great cabin with Warlord’s lieutenants.

‘No orders either Mr Edge?’ Johnnie asked.

‘Yes and no, sir. I am told by the admiral supervisor that I will have orders shortly. The destination is secret, and I am warned that it will be a long cruise. All rather mysterious. D’you see Blake over there,’ he said pointing towards the dock. ‘Will Strong has been told something similar. He has no idea where he is to go either. Have you heard anything?’

‘Nothing, even from the supervisor. Are there any other ships that you know of out here awaiting orders?’

Edge shook his head. ‘Just the three of us. I wondered if it has anything to do with the convoy we escorted last month. I don’t think we have done anything wrong between us. We delivered every one of the merchantmen safely into British waters after all.’

‘I can think of no reason that the delay has anything to do with our convoy duty,’ Wharton mused. ‘No, I think there must be some mission needing a squadron of three or four ships and the Admiralty is mighty concerned to keep it secret from the French. Frankly, I have no clue. We shall just have to be patient.’

The following morning, Warlord was ordered to lift her anchor and go alongside. A water hoy warped alongside shortly after and a party of men from the victualling warehouse stared delivering barrels of pork and beef and many bags of wheat flower. Lastly, beer and rum arrived. The 74 was being stored up for a long cruise, no doubt to everyone aboard.

Another third-rate HMS Conqueror dropped anchor a few hundred yards from Warlord just as the light was going that evening.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.