Battle Fleet (2007) Read Online Free PDF Page A

‘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’tworry, 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 toshorten 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.



CHAPTER 4
‘Run Out the Guns!’
    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. Theheat 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