Storm the Fort! by Anthony Barton

Author:Anthony Barton [Barton, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bulmer Press
Published: 2019-03-21T04:00:00+00:00

SHE decided to have a word with her friend Tom Potts, the Swift’s third lieutenant and her friend, before reporting as ordered to the Yeoman of Sheets.

She put her head into the cockpit. ‘Has anybody seen Mr. Potts? Is he still up in the crosstrees?’

‘They let him come down. I think he’s in the Purser’s cuddy,’ said Margaret Ann Bulkley, bending over a patient.

‘You managed to save Renwick’s leg? Well done!’

‘Thank you, captain.’

‘I shall not forget to mention you in my report to Lord Nelson, if I’m ever given the opportunity to write my report.’

‘Would you please tell the purser we are in need of ointments?’

‘I’ll shall be sure to mention it.’

She found Tom and the purser discussing the recent turn of events.

‘That bastard is making life in the gun room a misery, Mr. Hartnell,’ he was saying.

‘Ssh! Someone is coming.’

A rustle of muslin.

‘Ah, it is Miss Harriman with her parasol. A glass of sherry, miss?’ said the Purser respectfully. ‘We are greater than we know.’

‘I feel numb,’ said Corrie, settling herself upon a small stool and arranging her dress around her. Thank God she was not wearing hoops. She sipped the Purser’s sherry with appreciation, wondering how the devil he had obtained it. ‘Our Mr. Vibert has not confined our prisoners, and I am assigned to the Yeoman of Sheets to help sew a French flag. I suspect that we are bound for Le Havre.’

‘I am not surprised,’ said Tom. ‘Many who live on the isle of Jersey would rather join France in her conquest of the world than remain loyal to stubborn old England.’

‘We have to find some way to confound him,’ said Corrie, thinking out loud.

‘That won’t be easy. He’s read himself in. He’s the captain now. Already he is throwing his weight around. He could hang us just for having this conversation.’

Tom was right. Corrie was well aware that in the Royal Navy, the power of a captain detached from his fleet on independent service was boundless. The captain represented the King, and His Majesty was the head of the Church, so the captain represented God and the King. There could be no disobedience. Among the thirty-five Articles of War read out to the men on Sundays, the majority promised death for disobedience. Conniving with the enemy, hanging back from a fight, disobeying an order, and even speaking of undermining the captain’s authority, as Corrie and her friends were doing at this very moment, was considered mutinous. Captain Vibert could indeed hang them. Today.

‘We are discussing the ship’s play,’ said the Purser disarmingly, apparently mirroring her thoughts.

‘We are?’ said Tom, puzzled.

Hartnell regarded him levelly. ‘We are. The play is our one and only concern. All we think about is casting and production, properties and costumes. In our discussions we talk of the Ogre. We talk of the Cat Who Wears Boots.’

‘We had better defeat that Ogre soon,’ said Corrie gravely. ‘There have been three floggings this morning, and two midshipmen have been bent over a cannon. There is so much punishment going on that Margaret Ann Bulkley is running low on salves.

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