Dead Reckoning Read Online Free

attractive in his manners and accent, quite a good officer but rather quarrelsome. Greenwell began on the lower deck and is a good practical seaman but nothing more. Sevendale of the Royal Marines is rather taciturn, but is, I suspect, a very good officer. Mr Ragley, master, is elderly and inactive. Soon after we dropped anchor here Sir Home Popham announced that there would be an examination for those who might aspire to the rank of lieutenant. The Laura had three candidates, Northmore having already passed, and there was a frenzy of last-minute poring over Hamilton Moore’s classic work. The examining board was formidable but I think perfectly fair, with Byng of the Belliqueux, Edwards of the Diomede, and Josias Rowley in the chair. The result was very much what I expected. Topley and Stock both passed but the stolid Wayland, senior to both of them, failed in navigation and seamanship. My nightmare is to see all my good officers promoted and find myself left with men I cannot trust to prevent the ship falling overboard. One or two of the other midshipmen are promising but the rest are mere children. Northmore is signals officer and did well on the voyage hither from Portsmouth. Our seven West Indiamen were kept tolerably together and responded (eventually) to our suggestions about making more sail. I have a great deal of sympathyfor the masters of merchantmen. We impress all their best hands and then blame them for poor sail drill! I had them to dinner one day when we were becalmed and consoled them with plenty of wine. They voted me a very good fellow after that and I thought more highly of them!
    Madeira is a delightful island, perhaps the most beautiful I have seen, but the mischief is that ships call here on the outward and never on the homeward passage. So I cannot entrust this letter to any ship bound for England but must trust to luck and hope to fall in later with some vessel going in the right direction. When it finally reaches you it will bring my kind regards to all our friends in Guensey, to Lady Saumarez, to old Savage, and to Sam Carter too if you should see him. Above all, it brings my love to you. You will probably have heard that men-of-war in Eastern waters have sometimes fallen in with a Spanish register ship bound from Acapulco to Manila, bringing riches to the captain and some useful sum in prize-money for every man on board. People may have pointed out to you that such luck as that may come my way and that we shall end with our town house in St Peter Port. You ask little in that way, I know, but I beg you not to heed those who predict for you so prosperous a future. Why do I say this? Because I am not one of those to whom good fortune comes easily. What comfort you have (all too little for your deserving) we owe mostly to my capture of the Bonaparte just before the last war ended. I was lucky then but years may pass before I have such another windfall. As for a treasure ship, we find that such a prize falls, more often than not, to the son or nephew of a Commander-in-Chief, an early-promoted youngster whose ship just happens to be there, bythe merest chance, when the Spaniard comes in sight. What little success I have I shall have to earn and perhaps deserve. As Shakespeare makes Henry V say: “We are but warriors for the working day. Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirch’d, With rainy marching in the painful field . . .” He thus paints me to the life! Let no one persuade you, then, that I am like to return as a Nabob from the Indies. It will be enough for me if I can come back unharmed and with credit. One thing you may depend on is that I shall never throw men’s lives away to make a name for myself. On this note I shall end but will write again from a different port of call, sending my second letter by the same ship, very likely, as will carry this.
    Remember me to all my friends and believe me
    Your most affectionate husband,
    Richard Delancey
    Delancey’s second letter