Battle Fleet (2007) (16 page)

Viscount Neville waved his hand to dismiss these concerns. ‘Sam, I shall be your patron. I shall fund your training, purchase your uniform and oversee your progress.’

He was talking of hundreds of pounds. ‘Sir, I’m very grateful for your kindness, but I could not accept. Perhaps you would allow me to repay you over time?’

Neville nodded. The fox-like smile remained. ‘Sam, if it wasn’t for you, I would not be sitting here dining with my dear son. Now what is that worth? You can’t put a price on it. Supporting your training as a midshipman, and, in time, as a lieutenant, will fulfil two extremely
worthy purposes. Firstly, it will thank you for saving Robert’s life when the
Miranda
was lost. Secondly, I am convinced you will make a first-rate officer, so it will be a useful service to our nation. I’m going to go home now and leave you two to talk. Sleep on it tonight and tell me your answer tomorrow.’

A nod brought the waiter over to our table and Viscount Neville paid for our meal and ordered another bottle of wine for Robert and me.

After he left we talked more freely.

‘You’d be a fool to turn this down, Sam. Besides, the Navy needs men like you. Do it for your country as well as for yourself!’

I did not share Robert’s patriotic zeal, in fact I did not really know how serious he was being. I liked my country and my King, but found it hard to believe a government that would press boys into the Navy was any better than any other nation in Europe.

‘And all humbug aside,’ he continued, ‘it’s a racing certainty you’ll be picked up by a press gang.’

I wanted to blub my grateful thanks for being given a second chance, and offer gushing apologies for not having the wit to take it before. But I thought it wisest not to point this out.

‘I’d be honoured to take up your father’s offer, Robert,’ I said calmly. ‘I’m very grateful to you and your family.’

He grinned and raised his glass. ‘Well that, my good friend, has made my day.’ We drank our wine, then walked out into Piccadilly and the hot summer night. London was such an exciting and beautiful city, at least this part of it was. As I climbed aboard a hackney carriage to take me home, Robert said, ‘I think the old man likes the idea of us serving together. We shall look out for each other.’

I lay awake that night, mind racing with these possibilities. When Richard left, I couldn’t imagine going back to the Navy without him. It was such a brutal place to be. But now I would have Robert as a companion. That appealed to me. Especially as the division of rank between us would be gone.

The pay alone would be five or six times more than I could expect as an ordinary seaman. And lieutenants were also entitled to a generous slice of prize money from any captured ship. And lieutenants became first lieutenants, and first lieutenants became captains. Unlikely, I knew, but fate had been strange enough to me already, during my time at sea. Who knew what might happen?

I spoke about it to Bel when we met the next day at noon to share our dinner. ‘Sam, you must do this,’ she said. ‘Don’t think I won’t miss you. I will. But you won’t ever have another chance like this. I know you,
Sam Witchall. You wouldn’t suit a stay-at-home kind of job. You’ve got the sea in your bones. Besides, you being a midshipman, you’ll get to take leave when your ship comes into port and you and me can meet up then. What d’you think?’

That afternoon I went straight back to Grosvenor Square. I was ushered into the Viscount’s study and he signalled me to sit down by his desk. ‘We need to establish what your skills are, and what you need to learn. Can you go aloft and furl and reef a sail?’

‘Yes.’

‘Can you bend and unbend a canvas?’

‘Yes.’

‘Can you set up the ropes for the hoisting of stores?’

‘Yes.’

I interrupted this flow of questions. ‘Sir, I’ve served aboard Navy ships and merchantmen since I was thirteen years old. I’m familiar with all aspects of seamanship.’

‘Good. Because you will be questioned at great length, and I need to be sure I’m recommending someone who’s worthy of it. Now, how about your navigation?’

‘Robert taught me to use a sextant and the constellations to calculate a ship’s position at sea.’

‘That’s all very well, but how’s your trigonometry? Calculus?’

I looked blank.

‘Right. That’s something to remedy. You’ll have to join the younger middies and have your lessons aboard ship.’

He tossed me over a copy of the King James Bible. ‘Pick a page at random and read me a passage.’

I did and began to read from the Gospel According to John.

‘
Then said they unto him, Who art thou? That we may give an answer unto them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? And he said I am the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord –
’

‘Fine,’ barked the Viscount, cutting me off mid-flow. ‘You’re obviously lettered, and a confident reader with it. You read very well, Sam. Ever thought of becoming a parson?’

I met Robert the following day. We had an appointment at a tailor’s in Old Burlington Street which specialised in Navy clothes. I was to be fitted for my midshipman’s uniform. He said, ‘You’re not to worry about the cost, Sam. In fact, I don’t want to mention money again. My father insists on it. You’ll have the best we can get. There’ll be snobbery from some of the other middies when you first join, so I want you looking tip-top to save you from any jibes about your apparel.’

I hadn’t thought of that. All the midshipmen I had
come across had been boys from wealthy families. They were all well-spoken. Some, like Robert, were even titled. Until now I hadn’t considered what my fellow midshipmen would make of me.

‘D’you think there’ll be a lot of that?’ I asked.

‘The midshipmen’s berth is a rough and ready place, Sam. I often used to envy you and your mess mates on the
Miranda
. You looked after each other. And when a seaman was caught stealing and sent to run the gauntlet, I thought that was odd. Middies steal from each other all the time. There’s a lot of horseplay and dirty tricks – downright tomfoolery really. You’ll have to get used to that. Some of these lads are straight from boarding school and it’s just a continuation of the high jinks they get up to there.

‘You’ll have to give as good as you get. Don’t forget, the rules for midshipmen are different from the rules for men before the mast. You won’t get flogged for fighting a fellow middie, and you won’t have to run the gauntlet if you steal from him. You’ll have to look after yourself with your fists for the first few months, until they realise you’re as good as them, if not a damn sight better.

‘And if they become unbearable, then we’ll have to remind them that Lord Nelson himself came from a very ordinary background.’

I knew a lot about Nelson, but was curious to learn more about his family.

‘His father is only a parson. The family are well-connected but hardly have a penny to rub together.’

Robert’s reply made me laugh. I said, ‘Where I come from, parsons are considered among the best sort of people.’

The conversation was making me uncomfortable. Still, I thought, having to deal with a few snooty boys would be child’s play after the brutal attention of bosun’s mates.

The tailor’s shop had a beautiful carved wood and glass front. When the bell chimed as we pushed at the door, a fawning assistant appeared at once. The smell of the place, with its polished leather shoes and starched and pressed linen shirts, spoke of luxury way beyond my pocket.

‘Good day,’ said Robert. ‘My friend Mr Witchall here will soon be going to sea. We shall require a uniform for a midshipman.’

I was measured and asked to come back in two days.

On my return I brought Bel with me. ‘Ma and dad, they’re mightily impressed by all this,’ she said with a mischievous twinkle. ‘Overnight, you’ve gone from “that sailor” to “Young Samuel”. They don’t think you’re so bad after all.’

Robert met us at the shop. He and Bel had only met once before and had not taken to each other. She
thought him aloof and pompous, especially for someone so young. He said nothing to me about her, but he rarely spoke to her and I couldn’t help feeling he thought she was beneath his attention.

Out came the new uniform from its boxes, each item wrapped in thin crinkly paper. My transformation began. I went to a curtained booth and stripped to my undergarments. I felt a mixture of pride, curiosity and fear. I was about to change from Sam Witchall, grocer’s son, merchant seaman, and no one in particular, to Midshipman Witchall, Royal Navy, officer in waiting. As soon as I donned this uniform I would be treated differently by the world around me. My hands began to tremble. This was it. I was going back to the Navy. The Navy that almost cost me my life on more occasions than I cared to remember. The Navy that treated its men with cold contempt and cruelty. The Navy that kidnapped sailors from the streets and their ships to crew its men-o’-war. And what’s more I was joining
them
– the ones responsible for the cruelty and the kidnapping. Was I doing the right thing? Would I become as callous as some of the officers I had served under, or would I be soft on the men and earn their scorn?

I thought then and there to run out of the shop and not stop until I had reached the inn for the Norwich stagecoach. But Robert and Bel were there. Something,
perhaps pride, perhaps cowardice, probably a mixture of the two, made me stay.

I pulled on my breeches, made with a buff yellow cloth fabric from China known as nankeen. Then came a finely tailored linen shirt, a nankeen waistcoat and a black silk handkerchief to tie around my neck. As I removed the jacket from its box, I could see it was a beautiful piece of work – a blue tailcoat in heavy cotton, lined with white silk, and adorned with small gold buttons, each embossed with an anchor. I sat down on the chair provided and pulled on my black leather shoes. They were a perfect fit, and I hoped I had stopped growing, for a new pair six months later would be way beyond my means. Finally, there was the hat – three-cornered with a gold loop and cockade.

This uniform felt strange on me – like dressing up for a part in a performance. It reminded me most of all of dressing as a grand gentleman for the village Christmas play when I was a boy. I felt like a fraud, but I was dying to know what I looked like in this magnificent outfit.

Pulling back the curtain, I stepped out. Robert and Bel were standing apart and had not said a word to each other while I was changing. Robert cheered and Bel began to clap, sheer delight on her face. ‘Sam, you look like a proper gentleman,’ she said and kissed me on the cheek.

Robert smiled broadly. ‘Quite the picture, old chap.
You look the part to a T.’ I did too.

The assistant fussed around me, checking the fitting, asking me to stretch and bend my arms, enquiring about my shoes.

‘Now let’s have a look at the dirks, and the rest of it,’ said Robert. I selected a brand new dirk to hang at my belt and shuddered at the price of it – several months’ work as a boy seaman. ‘And we shall need a watch coat,’ said Robert, and I tried on several heavy coats. Just the thing for a freezing night watch. Robert ordered more shirts, breeches and stockings and a large sea chest to keep them in.

The purchase that excited me most was my telescope. Robert insisted we visit an optical instrument shop to buy one ‘and damn the expense’. We chose a leather-covered silver brass model. ‘Got to have your name on it, so no one can steal it,’ said Robert. I held it in my hand, with
Samuel Henry Witchall, R.N.
engraved on the draw tube, and felt delighted at my good fortune.

Our posting was decided within days. I was visiting Robert when the despatch arrived. He hurriedly tore it open.

‘It’s HMS
Victory
, Sam!’ He could not have looked more delighted. ‘We’ll need to catch the Portsmouth coach tomorrow. We’re to serve with Lord Nelson again. What a marvellous honour!’

I grinned in amusement at his bulldog enthusiasm. ‘Well that will be interesting,’ I said, trying to sound a bit excited.

He caught my mood in an instant. ‘What’s bothering
you, Sam?’

‘I’ve never served on a First Rate,’ I said.

‘Does it matter?’

I did not know whether I could be totally open with Robert. I owed him so much I did not want to disappoint him. I chose my words with care.

‘I’d prefer to take up my first midshipman posting on a Navy ship I know well, like a frigate or a 74.’

‘First rates aren’t that different from a 74,’ said Robert. ‘You’ve got three gun decks rather than two. A hundred or so cannon rather than seventy-four. Eight or nine hundred seamen and marines, rather than five hundred. There’ll be a couple of dozen midshipmen too, so you’ll not stand out in the way you would on a frigate. Believe me, I felt very conspicuous on the
Miranda
.’

I thought I’d be honest with him. If I couldn’t be honest with my closest friend on the ship, I couldn’t be honest with anyone.

‘Lord Nelson is an extraordinary man,’ I said carefully. ‘But he’s a fearless commander. And sometimes, being fearless is close to being foolhardy.’