1805 Read Online Free Page B

She was a thing of loveliness on such a morning and was sending up her royals to cut a dash and impress the
Antigone
’s company with her handiness and discipline. The two frigates exchanged recognition and private signals.
    â€˜Number Three-One-Three, sir.
Sirius
, thirty-six, Captain William Prowse.’
    â€˜Very well.’ Drinkwater stood upon the carronade slide and waved his hat as the two cruisers passed on opposite tacks.
    â€˜The flagship’s two points to starboard, sir,’ the ever-attentive Quilhampton informed him.
    â€˜Very well, Mr Q, ease her off a little.’ He wondered how
Antigone
appeared from
Sirius
as the look-out frigate tacked in her wake and hauled her own yards, swinging round to regain station. Drinkwater cast a critical eye aloft and then along the deck. Tregembo was mustering the barge’s crew in the waist before ordering them into the boat. Although he was far from being a wealthy officer, he had managed a degree of uniformity for his boat’s crew due to the large number of slops he had acquired in two previous ships. Over their flannel shirts and duck trousers the men wore cut-down greycoats that gave the appearance of pilot jackets, while upon their heads Tregembo had placed warm seal-skin caps, part of the profit of the
Melusine
’s voyage among the ice-floes of the Arctic seas. It was a piece of conceit in which Drinkwater took a secret delight.
    He was proud of the frigate too. Notwithstanding the deplorable state of the dockyards and the desperate shortage of every necessity for fitting out ships of war caused by Lord St Vincent’s reforms, she was cause for self-congratulation. The First Lord’s zeal in rooting out corruption might have long-term benefits, but for the present the disruptions and shortages had made the commissioning of men-of-war a nightmare for their commanders. Drinkwater recognised his good fortune. The dreadful condition of
Melusine
on her return from the Arctic had removed her from active service and they had managedto take out of her a quantity of stores which, with what the dockyard at Chatham allowed, had enabled them to get
Antigone
down to Black-stakes for her powder in good time. Best of all he had employed seamen in her fitting out and not the convict labour St Vincent advocated. Besides, the ship herself had been in good condition. Built by the French in Cherbourg only nine years earlier, she had been captured in the Red Sea in September 1798 by a party of British seamen that included Drinkwater himself. His appointment to this particular ship was, he knew, a mark of favour from the First Lord. Originally armed with twenty-six long 24-pounder cannon, she had been taken with most of her guns on shore and the Navy Board had seen fit to reduce her force to conform with other frigates of the Royal Navy. Now she mounted twenty-six black 18-pounder long guns upon her gun-deck, two long 9-pounder bow-chasers upon her fo’c’s’le together with eight stubby 36-pounder carronades. On her quarterdeck were eight further long nines and the two brass carronades that had formerly gleamed at the hances of
Melusine
.
    Drinkwater grunted his satisfaction as Hill reported the flagship a league distant and gave his permission for sail to be shortened. There were occasions when he regretted not being able to handle the ship in the day-to-day routines but on an occasion such as the present one it gave him equal pleasure to watch the officers and men go about their duty, to remark on the performance of individuals and to note the weaker officers and petty officers in the ship. There was also the necessity to observe the whale-men he had pressed from the Hull whalers
Nimrod
and
Conqueror
; in particular a man named Waller, formerly the commander of the
Conqueror
, who had only escaped hanging by Drinkwater’s clemency. * Waller was expiating treason before the mast as a common seaman and Drinkwater kept an eye on him. He had