Battle Fleet (2007) (4 page)

The smoke we could see came from smouldering volcanoes on some of the islands. When we sailed into the wind, the air filled with the whiff of sulphur. I had hoped to see them spew rocks and fire into the sky, until Garrick told me that it would probably be the last thing I would see.

The older hands told us that terrifying creatures like tigers and black panthers lurked within the dense, emerald forests around these blunted peaks. I had seen such creatures in my father’s books. There were dragons too – scaly monsters with forked tongues. And strange, hairy, orange creatures called orang-utans that were almost human. I strained my eyes at the shore, sometimes borrowing a telescope, but saw only the odd flash of colour as a parrot or cockatoo darted between the highest branches.

Sydney seemed indifferent to the far-off calls of his feathery kind. Perhaps he’d got used to life aboard the
Orion
, and liked the fuss we made of him and the food he was given three times a day.

Lizzie and Bel were frequently seen on deck, gazing excitedly towards the islands. ‘We must ask the Captain to take us ashore,’ I heard Lizzie say to Bel. ‘What a treat for us to be away from the ship and to walk along
one of those lovely beaches.’ She turned to me. ‘D’you think he’ll let us? I get so restless on the ship. One does long for a change of scenery.’

‘No harm in asking, Miss Lizzie,’ I said. ‘Maybe if Richard and me promise to look after you.’

She gave me one of her arch smiles and said nothing. I suspected she thought Lieutenant Hossack would be a more appropriate escort.

As we sailed past our first island, Evison called the crew together. ‘Those of you unfamiliar with these waters take heed. Those who’ve been here before, let this act as a reminder. They can be treacherous, the Malays, and until we clear the northern shores of Sumatra I want the guns loaded and ready with round and grapeshot. We shall need a chest of arms upon the deck and the Bosun will see to it that there is always a lighted match to hand. The fo’c’sle, poop and gangways shall be constantly guarded. At night the officer of the watch will go round the ship once every quarter hour. And from eight o’clock at night the guards will call out ‘All’s well’ at the same interval until the break of day. If we keep our wits about us, we will have a safe journey.’

I was surprised by his frankness. The passengers had not been summoned to hear the Captain’s instructions but neither had any attempt been made to keep this information from them. Lizzie and Bel came out to
listen and were clearly concerned. ‘Teach us how to wield a pistol, Sam,’ said Lizzie.

‘Won’t the Lieutenant show you?’ I asked mischievously.

‘The Lieutenant won’t hear of it,’ she said briskly.

Bel joined in. ‘If we’re attacked, I’m not goin’ to have me throat slit without puttin’ up a good fight, and neither’s Lizzie.’

Evison forbade their use of firearms too when I asked him, but he did agree they should learn how to defend themselves. Out on the deck we ran through the moves we had learned aboard HMS
Miranda
– the strange, balletic steps of cutlass play that let the swordsman keep as great a distance as possible from his opponent. At first they were mocked by the crew. Lizzie was a bit lead-footed but Bel had a fluid grace about her and drew enough admiring glances to make me feel jealous.

One evening when I was talking to Bel on her own, she told me she was running out of books to read. ‘Captain Evison has quite a collection in his cabin,’ I said. ‘Can you borrow some of his?’

‘I’ll have to get Lizzie to ask,’ she said. ‘He wouldn’t lend them to me.’

‘Who taught you to read?’ I asked. I knew it was quite something for a poor London girl to be literate. She
took my question as an excuse to tell me something about herself.

‘Brought up in Bermondsey, I was,’ she said. ‘My ma’s a fishwife at Billingsgate. My dad’s a lighterman. We live and breathe by that River Thames. Neither of them can read a word. But I got taught by the vicar’s missus. Wonderful lady she was. She took me off, told me how to make sense of them squiggles. My ma’s ever so proud of me being able to read. My dad’s not bothered though. “What bleedin’ use is that?” he’d say. “You’re a bleedin’ girl!”

‘I don’t wanna spend the rest of my days guttin’ fish like my ma. Not that she’s thick or anything. She’s sharp as a pin. But I want to see the world. That’s why I’m happy to be with Miss Lizzie. She’s a nice girl. Bit hoitytoity sometimes, still, no one’s perfect. But she’s taken me under her wing and taught me a lot.’

‘Will you stay with her?’ I asked.

‘I’d be daft not to,’ she said at once. ‘She’s my ticket out of the fish market. She’s teaching me how to talk properly, good manners, the sort of things that stop people looking down their noses at you. I like the houses she lives in. I don’t like the people she usually mingles with, but they’re interesting. Most of them don’t even look at me. I might as well be invisible. So I just melt into the background and watch.’

We both rested our arms on the starboard rail, staring
out to sea. She leaned a little closer. ‘That Lieutenant, Hossack, he’s taken quite a shine to her,’ she whispered. ‘I think she quite likes him too. She has a soft spot for gentlemen in uniform, unfortunately.’

I was pleased Bel liked me enough to confide in me. As she talked, I looked at the side of her face in the setting sun and thought how pretty she was. I wondered if one day I might dare to kiss her.

The
Orion
caught a sudden squall, and as the sails billowed, the hull lurched in the water. Bel and I slipped together awkwardly, just as she noticed me looking at her.

‘Get yer saucy hands off me!’ she said, shrugging me off with a giggle.

I meant to protest it was unintended, but thought that would make too much of the incident. Besides, Bel carried on talking as if nothing had happened. But she stayed out of my way for a few days after that, and I sank into a deep gloom. Richard kept asking me why I looked so glum. I didn’t want to tell him. I felt guilty and I didn’t know why. Had I revealed my feelings for Bel too obviously? Had she really thought I’d tried to embrace her? Perhaps we shouldn’t even have been there, almost alone on deck at twilight?

Then one bright morning I saw three porpoises sporting just before the bow, weaving in and out of the water in an intricate dance. Bel was up on deck taking the air,
and without thinking I called her over, before hurrying off on my duties. She stayed for a good while, laughing to herself, mesmerised by the sight.

Later that day, she came over when she saw me on the deck. ‘Thanks, Sam, for showing me those big fish this morning. They were marvellous.’ I had been forgiven.

By strange coincidence the Captain called Richard and I to his cabin the next morning. ‘Mrs Evison here is worried that you boys might be up to something with the girls,’ he said.

‘Aye,’ said Mrs Evison, who was sitting by the window. ‘Especially Richard here and Miss Lizzie.’

Richard blushed deep crimson. ‘My intentions towards Miss Borrow are honourable, Mrs Evison,’ he spluttered.

She gave a dull chuckle. ‘There’s as much chance of that as getting drunk on brandy mince pies.’

Richard was affronted. ‘I can assure you –’

She cut him off. ‘You can talk with the girls as much as you like, there’s precious little else to do on a long voyage. But if I catch even a whisper of a rumour of any carrying on, then your wedding tackle will be dangling from the mizzen yard.’

Richard was too stunned to reply.

Then she turned to me. ‘Don’t you go getting any ideas about Miss Sparke either.’

Now it was my turn to blush. I nearly said, ‘Don’t
worry, I won’t be getting so much as a peck on the cheek from Miss Sparke’, but I held my tongue.

‘Once a girl is ruined she’s as good as finished in society,’ said Mrs Evison, trying to justify our scolding. ‘And you’ll never see a lady’s maid with a baby. I like those two girls and I’m making it my business to look after them. So, think on, boys. Think on.’

We were dismissed. Back on deck we giggled like naughty schoolboys. ‘Wedding tackle!’ said Richard with a snigger. He’d never heard that one before.

I don’t know whether the fear of pirate attack had made him uneasy but Lieutenant Hossack’s behaviour grew more brutal and objectionable by the day. Every order that was not obeyed in an instant was met by violence. I noticed Captain Evison having a quiet word with him on the quarterdeck, and wondered if he was telling his Lieutenant to moderate his behaviour. Hossack had taken to waiting at the foot of a mast, whenever men had been sent to lengthen or shorten the sail, and hitting the last man down from the tops. It seemed only a matter of time before one of them would slip in his haste to return to the deck and plunge to his death. Hossack also made a habit of hitting the last man on deck when all hands were called.

One dark evening, when a storm was brewing, we were all ordered up and rushed from our bunks to
shorten the sails. Hossack was there, by the forward companionway, waiting for the last man to come out to the weather deck. I rushed past him and into the blackest night I had seen for months. A new moon and cloudy sky meant you could barely see your hand in front of your face. Was I the last one? I expected him to hit me, but someone else was clattering up the companionway behind me.

Hossack punched the man who came after, telling him he was a ‘tardy sluggard’. His victim immediately hit back with a punch that floored the Lieutenant. ‘You’ll be flogged for this,’ Hossack shouted indignantly from the deck.

‘I don’t think so, Lieutenant,’ said Captain Evison, for it was him Hossack had hit. ‘In fact, I understand striking the Captain is a capital offence.’

Every man on deck heard this exchange. I supposed the two of them sorted out the matter between them, but from then on, the beating stopped, although Hossack would still bellow at us as if we were cattle on the way to market.

Shortly after noon, a fortnight into our voyage through the islands, the lookout called, ‘Ship off the starboard bow.’ We ran over to the rail to see what was approaching. Sailing out from the bay of a nearby island was a fair-sized prau, as I had learned the natives called their sailing boats. There was only one, which was a relief, as Garrick had told us pirates often attacked in fleets of as many as fifty ships.

The vessel was making a line for us. ‘Run out the guns,’ said Evison. He was taking no chances. Then he said, ‘Hove to.’ There we sat, drifting in the water. The
heat was tempered by a mild breeze, and it was pleasant to do nothing for the ten minutes it took the prau to come up alongside us. Evison beckoned me over and told me to fetch a musket from the armoury and go to the top main royal. ‘If you see anything suspicious, take a pot shot. Don’t be too careless though. If they’re just merchants, I don’t want to frighten them off.’

The prau grew closer. Both bow and stern were carved to a sharp, almost vertical, point and the boat was painted a beautiful blue and red. ‘State your business,’ shouted Evison when we were in hailing distance. There was only a scattering of men aboard the prau – at least on the upper deck. I thought perhaps there might be more in the hull and scanned their flanks for evidence of guns pointing at us.

Most of the crew wore only loincloths on their spindly bodies, but then a fellow wearing a fine silk robe emerged from a covered structure at the stern. He shouted over, ‘Cloves, pepper. We trade for goods or money.’

Evison took his time replying. ‘We’ll come over.’ Then he despatched Hossack to oversee the launch of the
Orion
’s cutter. I was summoned down from the mast and told to join the crew of one of our starboard guns. ‘Bring him over here with a sample of his wares,’ I heard the Captain say to Hossack. He was still being careful.

The merchant brought across two small barrels of goods. Evison and he greeted each other formally and I sensed a growing trust between them. Although a native, he spoke enough English to begin a lively conversation and goods were offered for sampling. I watched with fascination as Evison sank his arm into a barrel of spices, took out a handful near the bottom, and sniffed and tasted the wares. Maybe one day I would have the skill and experience he obviously possessed.

The Captain nodded and the merchant smiled. They haggled awhile, then the fellow called over to his ship. A few minutes later she was nestling up to our starboard side. While some of us stood by our guns, the rest of the crew helped to haul a dozen barrels aboard. Evison inspected each one, and seemed well pleased with this unexpected opportunity. The business was completed by mid-afternoon and the prau headed back to the bay.

I expected us to sail away, but Evison announced we would wait for the merchant to return with more of his goods. ‘Fine nutmeg and ginger he tells me, and at a very favourable price.’

I supposed this was the way the Captain preferred to trade, away from harbour officials who might question his lack of licence.

‘I don’t want us getting careless though,’ he warned. ‘They can be a treacherous bunch these islanders, so we shall keep a full complement of men on the guns and
take all the usual precautions. We shall stay here until midnight and then sail on if he doesn’t return by then.’