The King's Marauder by Dewey Lambdin Page B

he had had aboard Reliant ! Sailors, boys, and Marines, all gawking at him!
    “By virtue of the Power and Authority to us given, we do hereby constitute and appoint you Captain of His Majesty’s Ship, Sapphire, willing and requiring you forthwith to go on board and take upon you the Charge and Command of Captain in her accordingly. Strictly charging all the Officers and Company belonging to the said Ship subordinate to you to behave themselves jointly and severally in their Respective Employments with all due Respect and Obedience unto you their said Captain, and you likewise…” he continued, right through to the date of his commission, and the year of the King’s reign.
    He folded that precious document up, again, and stuck it in a side pocket of his uniform coat, then leaned his palms on the railing.
    “Just about ten years ago to the month, here at the Nore, I was made Post into my first command, the Proteus frigate,” he told his new crew, now that they were all officially his, “and I have been fortunate to command several frigates over the years. Sapphire is my first two-decker. She is new to me, as you are, as well … just as I am new to you. It may take me twice as long to get to know you all by face and name than I did the men of my last ship, the Reliant frigate, so I ask for your indulgence on that head.
    “ Sapphire may not be as swift and dashing as a frigate, but we … you and me together.…” he continued, “will still find ways to toe up against our King’s enemies and bash them to kindling and send Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Dutchmen, and all who side with Bonaparte, to the eternal fires of Hell! I am not one to tolerate boredom for long, and have always found a way to hear my guns roar in earnest, as I trust you all wish, as well. So, let’s be at it, and ready our ship for great deeds to come!”
    He turned and nodded to Lt. Westcott, who stepped forward to bellow dismissal of the hands, then walked over to his waiting officers and Mids. “If you’ll do the honours, Mister Westcott?” he asked.
    There was the ship’s Second Lieutenant, Arnold Harcourt, a man in his mid-thirties with dark hair and eyes, and a lean and weathered face. The Third Lieutenant, Edward Elmes, was younger, leaner, and blond. Sapphire ’s Sailing Master was a rough-hewn Cornishman, George Yelland, with a great hooked beak of a nose. There were two Marine officers, First Lieutenant John Keane, a ruddy-faced fellow in his late twenties with ginger hair, and Second Lieutenant Richard Roe, a slip of a lad not quite nineteen with brown hair and blue eyes, who looked to be as new to the sea as a fresh-baked loaf, a right “Merry Andrew” with a possible impish streak, a counterbalance to Keane’s severe nature.
    There were a whole ten Midshipmen, led by a burly fellow in his late twenties named Hillhouse, whom the First Secretary had thought to make Acting-Lieutenant before Lewrie had offered up Westcott. He did look salty enough. Behind him were Britton and Leverett, two more men with poor connexions most-like, for they were in their mid-twenties and still had not gained their Lieutenancies. Below them were the usual sort of Mids in their late teens, Kibworth, Carey, Spears, Harvey, and Griffin, then two lads in their early teens, Ward and Fywell.
    Sapphire ’s Purser and his clerk, the “Jack In The Bread Room”, Mister Joseph Cadrick, and Irby, Lewrie decided to keep a chary eye on, for though butter would not melt in their mouths on the first introductions, Lewrie sensed a “fly” streak.
    The Surgeon was a thin and scholarly-looking man named Andrew Snelling who looked as if a stiff breeze would carry his skeletal frame away. The Surgeon’s Mates, Phelps and Twomey, in their middle twenties, cheerfully admitted that they were medical students who were too poor at present to attend physicians’ colleges, but were happy to serve alongside Snelling, who seemed to know everything medicinal, or surgical,