MAES 18: Back to Our Own Captain
AN: I was touched at Bonden’s meeting with Stephen in Simon’s Town, and wondered how his story of his group’s trying to get back to Jack really went, and how they received the news of their transfer. I know that besides Bonden and Killick, there’s Michael Bolton, and presumably Davies (mentioned in chapter nine) among those who came out to join Jack. I added Joe Plaice, too, since he’s Bonden’s cousin, and they seem to stick together, although I can’t at present remember his name being mentioned in the book. The others you can fill in as you please.
‘What I mean is, that in the first place me and Killick and the rest want to get back to our own captain: and in the second, we want to get out before things turn nasty. And at the gait they are going now - well, I shouldn’t give too much for Captain Corbett’s life, nor some of his officers, come an action, or even maybe a dirty night with no moon; and we want no part in it.’
- The Mauritius Command, pg. 97, Norton Press paperback
Back to Our Own Captain
HMS Nereide lay at anchor in calm waters off Simon’s Town. The Boadicea had long since come in, and her arrival had sparked a deeply anxious meeting among several of her people. These people were a little unusual compared to their shipmates, for where most of the frigate’s people were of a mutinous disposition, the tone of this not-quite-clandestine meeting was rebellious in another sense entirely.
Barret Bonden held the floor at present, looking from one man to the other and saying anxiously, “But he’d never let us go, mates, you know that as well as I do.”
“He has to let us go! We never would have come aboard if he hadn’t been bound to join Captain Jack, and Captain Dundas told him so when he arranged to transfer us,” Michael Bolton protested, without much conviction.
Bonden shook his head. “I’ll wager Corbett’ll be all too eager to forget that, if we was to go to him and remind him of what Dundas said. Either that, or he’ll say he needs us more, and give us all a strong fifty strokes for presuming to speak to him at all. No, mates,” looking from one to the other. “Let me try and find the doctor first, and leave him a note. If the Captain’s here, you can be sure the doctor is too. I’ll write to him, saying that we’re all here and asking him to put in a word for us. A right awkward bastard Corbett may be, but he can’t refuse a request from a Commodore. We may have to wait until the Captain hoists his pendant official, but I’m sure he’ll not forget us.”
Killick nodded in agreement. “Aye, mates. Let ‘im write the letter, just so long as he delivers it secret like, so’s we won’t get in no trouble from Corbett. He’ll see it as no less than desertion, and we all know what happens then.”
Nods all around. Bonden stood up, ignoring the painful twinges in his back. “I’ll go see the purser for a scrap of paper and some ink, then. You’s can all sign it, or make your X once I’ve wrote it out nice.”
Bonden did write it out nice, explaining their mutual desire to join Aubrey’s command, and that it ‘may go better, if the request to Corbett were to come from Captain Aubrey himself, rather than from us.’ There was some argument about whether or not they should describe the state of affairs aboard, to give Doctor Maturin a clearer understanding of why they were so anxious to leave Corbett’s ship, but Bonden said it would never do; if the note were read by any eyes other than the doctor’s it could spell trouble for them all.
They all took turns with the pen, laboriously signing their names or scrawling their X next to Bonden’s printing of their names. Davies was particularly adamant that Bonden add the nickname ‘Awkward’ next to his own X, for “There’s another cove in larboard watch with my name, and I’ll not have Corbett transfer him instead of me. He’d jump at the chance, mates, for all that he’s never served with our Captain before.” Bonden could only nod at this; there wasn’t a man on board who wouldn’t flee if given the chance.
0~0
When Bonden visited the Boadicea, he had half-hoped to see Jack there. If he did, he might well have made the request of the Captain himself, rather than go through the doctor as his mouthpiece. But Captain Aubrey was meeting with Admiral Bertie, or so he learned from the officer of the watch, and was not expected back until the next day. Bonden found the surgeon’s cabin, and would have known without being told that Maturin was in residence; the haphazard array of books, specimens, and medical instruments was familiar to him.
He left the carefully-folded letter on the cot, and placed a book atop one corner so it would not blow away. That little piece of paper contained all his hopes, as well as that of his shipmates, and was far too valuable to risk losing.
Rather than returning to the Nereide, he went ashore with some other members of the frigate. He had some money on him, and thought he might as well have a drink as not. In the best of circumstances, he would not be moved to the Boadicea today at all, and he thought a good glass of strong alcohol might give him the fortitude to face at least one more night on the Nereide.
The group had learned the way to the best drinking house from a cheerful member of the Otter, and were making their way there when out of the corner of his eye he saw Doctor Maturin himself, along with a black man pushing a wheelbarrow with an insensate man lying in it, (Bonden diagnosed drunkenness without much difficulty) and when one of his shipmates asked what he was staring at with that fool’s grin on his face, Bonden called out, “It’s the Doctor!”
0~0
After returning Doctor Maturin to his ship, Bonden rowed back to the Nereide as swiftly as he could. His cousin Plaice was the first, and not the last, to ask him if he had succeeded, if the message had been delivered. Bonden happily replied that he had met the Doctor himself when he had gone ashore, and that Maturin had told him that Jack regretted his absence. When Killick asked eagerly if Aubrey regretted him too, Bonden hid a smile and said that if so, Maturin hadn’t mentioned it, but it was quite likely, since as he’d left he’d heard the cook screeching at the captain’s steward for breaking the coffeepot.
Killick grinned at this, quite smugly, for he would never have been so careless in his duty. “Aye, he’ll want me back for sure. I know how he likes his coffee; and everything else too. I’ll do right by him, as soon as I go over.” He chuckled to himself, passing two coral teethers, a gift for Jack to send home to his daughters, from hand to hand.
Even if Killick and Bonden now felt quite assured that the transfer would certainly take place, the others dared not be so confident. There seemed something unlucky in hoping too hard for something that was so desperately wanted.
They need not have worried. Late the next afternoon, after Corbett returned from his meeting with the newly-appointed Commodore Aubrey, he ordered the bosun to pipe all hands on deck, and when the diminished crew had assembled, he announced the welcome news.
“Commodore Aubrey has requested a trade of men. Why he wishes to give us more than we shall send over I do not know, but he asked the exchange be made directly. If I call your name, go below after I dismiss you all, collect your property, and prepare to leave the ship. You will go over in the Boadicea’s launch, and she will return with the new men later on.” He said this in his usual disobliging tone, but Bonden could tell he was secretly pleased about the transfer; his frigate was short of men, and if he had been a better officer, Bonden thought he might realize why.
Corbett withdrew a piece of paper from his pocket, and began reading off names. “Barret Bonden. Joseph Plaice. Michael Bolton…”
They had all known it was coming, but there was still a certain tension in them all that did not dissipate entirely until they heard their name said aloud. Even then, all rejoicing must be suppressed. Their unfortunate shipmates were also affected: a certain wild hope had entered their hearts at mention of a transfer, and even those men who had never served with Captain Aubrey before prayed their name might be among those read aloud. The disappointment when Corbett read the last name and dismissed the company was palpable, and with the exception of those who had just been granted their freedom, they went back to their duties in sullen silence.
Bonden and the others packed their belongings as though there were a prize for who should finish the fastest. They tried not to grin at each other too much, for a good many of the ship’s remaining crew were casting them sullen, envious, even angry glances. One man begged Bonden, in a hoarse whisper, to put his name forward if Aubrey ever needed anyone else, and he got the chance to mention it to the Commodore. “Surely he’d listen to you, mate. If he wants you back bad enough to request you, surely you could talk to him?” Bonden made no promises, but said if the chance offered, he’d do his best.
The Nereide’s launch was put over the side, and they rowed eagerly to the Boadicea. Even before they came alongside, they saw Captain Aubrey looking at them, smiling as he raised a hand to shield his eyes from the sun. It was very like a salute, and at Bonden’s order they all tossed oars to salute him in return.
Aubrey welcomed them aboard, greeting each by name, shaking hands, and giving orders to his lieutenant to have their names entered in the ship’s books. Killick immediately went below-decks to find Jack’s clumsy steward and ‘have a word or two with him’ about just who would be looking after the Captain from now on. Bonden was immediately restored to his old duties as coxswain, for Jack was soon to depart on his tour of the squadron.
“But if you’d rather not just now, Bonden, that’s fine. The Doctor gave me to understand you’d been flogged recently,” said Jack kindly, looking at him in some concern.
Bonden smiled. “Bless you, sir. I’m well enough now and all the better for being here. Besides, I’d not let another cove do the honors for you, no, not if it was ever so.”
It was with his own coxswain at his side, therefore, that the Commodore put off for his tour of the squadron. ‘This is like old times, Bonden,’ he said, as they approached the Sirius. ‘Yes, sir; only better,’ murmured Bonden: and then, in answer to the frigate’s hail, he roared, ‘Pendant,’ in a voice to wake the dead.
-The Mauritius Command, pg. 110, Norton Press paperback