TMC Ch 10: Everybody Else

[tootsiemuppet]

Admiral Bertie, Pullings, Keating, Clonfert and McAdam, and everyone else!

McAdam sat on the side of the bed, weeping now, his fury gone with his shouting; and between his sobs he said, "It was the cheering that woke him. What are they cheering for? says he, and I said the French have surrendered. Aubrey will be here and you shall have your Nereide

Comments

[esteven]

McAdam loved Clonfert very much. Unfortunately the lord did not see that. Otherwise, he would not have let it happen that the other officers taunted the doctor.

Anyway, I feel for McAdam because in his sorrow he just had to hurt Stephen as much as he maligned Jack with Your Jack Aubrey destroyed him. That Stephen did not reply, shows how he understands the doctor. It leaves me to think about how Stephen may have reacted if Jack had been in Clonfert's place...

[esteven]

Oh, that is so, so wonderful. What makes the situation so charming is how everybody is mad on Jack's behalf. It is made perfect by the fact that even our dear doctor takes Jack's side by excercising some elementary spyhatty business.
...in fact the sneaking underhand little tale was admirably suited to the ears that received it a few minutes after Peter's departure. It explained Aubrey's disconcerting nonchalance: a man with such allies must be handled with care.

Let copulation thrive

[esteven]

He and Jack are very much alike in their dealings with battle situations and they love to lose not a minute, but I liked the difference in which they seemed to have celebrated the victory. While the seamen all thought that their skipper had been brought aboard as drunk as Davy's sow, it was really Keating who had been brought down in a wheelbarrow; it was he who had so often cried "Let copulation thrive." Well, he should know with his half dozen of children. *g*

Re: Let copulation thrive

[ozfille]

I think the crew love to think the worse of their Commodore even though they do love him. It appeals to them that he should be drunk as Davy's sow, especially when they think of when he admonishes them for being drunk. *g*

Re: Let copulation thrive

[esteven]

*g*
I have the sneaking suspicion that the idea of him being rolled aboard in a wheelbarrow even raises their esteem of him. And they know he has to give them a rollicking to satisfy form. It would not do if he overlooked their drunkenness.

Oh, in their very own way, they mollycoddle their captain as much as their doctor.

Re: Let copulation thrive

[ozfille]

Well he is not one of those blue-light captains which some of the men must have absolutely loathed. Could you imagine being delivered homilies every Sunday from these captains and urged to be good Christians and then in the next breath told to kill as many of the enemy as possible. I think the men prefer the more honest commanders who were a little more clear-eyed about their purpose.

[ozfille]

Killick's response amused me when after Jack in his joy of the news of a son, pushes a handful of money into his hands. His suspicion and disapproval of Jack's joy as if his mood must always hit rock bottom when Jack is at his most joyful and his opposite reaction when things go badly for Jack. It is as if he has a superstitious fear of welcoming good news.

[esteven]

Killick is also used to being called everything bad under the sun, so it is small wonder he is deeply suspicious of Jack's good mood. He is simply wondering when the other boot will drop.

[ozfille]

Yes maybe he is more honest with himself than expected in that he knows he hasn't done anything in particular to deserve the money and can only be suspicious of what Jack expects in return.

[esteven]

We would become suspicious if Killick were nice and pliable.

General Abercrombie's speech

[sidlj]

'I take no credit to myself.' Cries of No, no; and cheers. 'No. It is all due,' pause, 'to a young lady in Madras.'

'Sir, sir,' hissed his aide-de-camp, 'you have turned over two pages. You have come to the joke.'

*smishes POB with great glee* :-D