The Bomb Vessel by Richard Woodman Page B

has got out of his bed,’ offered Easton.
    ‘At Parker’s age he’ll be a deuced long time getting up with a young bride in his bed,’ added Lettsom with a grin, sniping at the more accessible admiral in the absence of a king.
    ‘At Parker’s age he’ll be a deuced long time getting it up, you mean Mr Lettsom,’ grunted Rogers coarsely.
    ‘Yes, I wonder who exhausts whom, for it is fearful unequal combat to pit eighteen years against sixty-four.’
    ‘Experience against enthusiasm, eh?’
    ‘More like impotence against ignorance, but wait, I have the muse upon me,’ Lettsom paused. ‘I am uncertain on whom to lay the greater blame for our woes.
    ‘Why here is a thing to raise liberal hopes;
    Government can’t do as it pleases,
    While the entire fleet ‘waits the order to strike
    Addington awaits the King’s sneezes.’
    A cheer greeted this doggerel but Lettsom shook his head with dissatisfaction.
    ‘It don’t scan to my liking. I think the admiral the better inspiration:
    ‘Tis not for his slowness in firing his shot
    That our admiral is known every night,
    But his laxness in heaving his anchor aweigh
    Must dub him a most tardy knight.’
    There were more cheers for the surgeon and it was generally accepted that the second verse was much better than the first.
    ‘But the lady’s no fool, Mr Lettsom, and I’ll not subscribe to her ignorance,’ Rogers said as the laughter died away. ‘Parker flew his flag in the West Indies. He’s the richest admiral on the list. His fortune is supposed to be worth a hundred thousand and all she has to put up with is a few years of the old pig grunting about the sheets before the lot’ll fall into her lap. Why ‘tis a capital match and I’ll drink to Lady Parker. There’s many a man as would marry for the same reason, eh Mr Jex?’ Rogers leered towards the purser.
    Jex shot a venomous look at the first lieutenant. His conduct during the fight with the luggers had not been exactly valorous and he had dreaded this exposure as the butt of the officers’ jests.
    ‘Ah, Mr Jex has seen victory betwixt the sheets and is accustomed to seek it between the sails, eh?’ There was another roar of laughter. At the end of the action off the Sunk Jex had been discovered hiding in the spare sails below decks.
    ‘You are being uncharitable towards Mr Jex, Mr Rogers. I have it on good authority he was looking for his honour,’ Lettsom said as Jex stormed from the cabin the colour of a beetroot.
     
    ‘Come in. Yes Mr Q, what is it?’ Drinkwater’s voice was weary.
    ‘Beg pardon, sir, but the vice-admiral’s entering the anchorage.’ Drinkwater looked up. There was a light in the young man’s eyes. ‘Lord Nelson, sir,’ he added excitedly. Drinkwater could not resist Quilhampton’s infectious enthusiasm.
    ‘Thank you, Mr Q,’ he said smiling. The hero of the Nile had a strange way of affecting the demeanour of his juniors. Drinkwater remembered their brief meeting at Syracuse and that same infectious enthusiasm that had seemed to imbue Nelson’s entire fleet, despite their vain manoeuvrings in chase of Bonaparte. What a shame the same spirit was absent from the present assembly of ships. Drinkwater sighed. The subsequent scandal with Hamilton’s wife and the vainglorious progress through Europe that followed the victory at Aboukir Bay, had curled the lip of many of Nelson’s equals, but Drinkwater had no more appetite for his paper-work and he found himself pulling a muffler round his neck under his boat cloak to join the men at Virago’s rail cheering the little admiral as the St George stood through the gatway into Yarmouth Roads.
    The battleship with her three yellow strakes flew a blue flag at her foremasthead and came in with two other warships. Hardly had her sheet anchor dropped from her bow than her cannon boomed out in salute to Parker’s flag, flying nominally at the mainmasthead of the 64-gun Ardent until the arrival of Parker’s proper flagship.