Hostile Shores (44 page)

Reliant
received two live bullocks and four hefty pigs, guaranteeing fresh meat for all hands for several days, and at least a week’s worth of much fresher salt-meat in casks. All of it was welcomed aboard as enthusiastically as chests of prize-money.

Equally welcome were the fresh vegetables and fruit. The Argentine had been settled for centuries, time enough for orchards and market gardens to provide a year-round cornucopia of European staples and the more exotic crops native to the Indios. Yeovill scrambled from one case or keg to the next, gathering all manner of peppers and raw spices or herbs, snagging hands of green bananas, mangoes, guavas, and Spanish fruits for Lewrie’s table, trailed by the Purser, Mister Cadbury, and his Jack-in-the-Breadroom who were trying to inventory the lot before it could be pilfered.

Cadbury was pleased, as well, for with all the victuals, there were sacks of coffee beans, bundles of leaf tobacco, and many kegs of local red wine suitable for issue in lieu of the Navy’s “Blackstrap”, and for once it would not cost him a single pence, for it was all for free, taken as booty from a conquered foe!

“A steak for your supper tonight, sir!” Yeovill promised with glee. “Along with these wee white potatoes, broad beans, and baked rolls. Medium rare, as you like it, the potatoes roasted in wedges with garlic, onion, and rosemary, the beans in oil … as good as any shore supper you ever tasted! Will you be having guests in, sir?”

“Not tonight, Yeovill,” Lewrie told him, “for I fully intend t’be a pig and feast upon this bounty all by myself. I will even try the local red wine.”

And so will Pettus, Jessop, and yourself,
Lewrie assured himself, for a captain’s servants in essence ate from the same dishes as the man they served, even if it was only the left-overs. But, it was the wise captain who did not question how much was prepared for him alone! Even his clerk, Faulkes, usually shared in the bounty, at least the tastier bits, though he was officially fed alongside the sailors.

“Hoy, there!” Lewrie called over to the older Midshipman from the
Narcissus
frigate, who was in charge of the victualling vessel as another net-sling load of goods was swayed up from her holds by the main course yardarm. “Any orders for us?”

“None, sir!” the Mid called back.

“How do things go in town?” Lewrie asked.

“
Mostly
quiet, sir, in the main,” the Midshipman answered, “though there have been some … scuffles with the locals. They are not happy with our being there, and some trouble-makers have become bold enough to shake their fists and shout, but the Army patrols daunt them … so far. That is the last due you, sir,” he said, pointing to the sling-load. “I will be off to victual
Diadem.
Is she still anchored off Montevideo, or does she cruise?”

“No matter, sir, she’s the only vessel swimming off there,” Lewrie assured him, “and thankee kindly for all the goodies!”

“As the French say, sir,
bon appétit
!” the Midshipman cried as he began to get his little ship back under way.

Lewrie turned his attention back to
Reliant
’s forward weather decks, where their burly Black Ship’s Cook, idle sailors, and ship’s boys were herding the hogs into the forecastle manger and barring them in, and hobbling the two bullocks, preparatory to one of them being slaughtered.

“Thank God today is not a Banyan Day, sir,” the Sailing Master, Mr. Caldwell, jovially said from nearby on the quarterdeck. “It’d be hard on the people to see all that juicy meat on the hoof, and still be fed on porridge, bisquit, and cheese!”

“And the officers’ mess is so looking forward to a hefty beef roast, hey?” Lewrie teased.

“Individual steaks, sir, at least a pound apiece I was told,” Caldwell chortled. “Grilled, not boiled, praise the Lord! It appears that if there will be no prize-money doled out for taking the Argentine, there are at least
some
compensations.”

“Even if there were prize-money awarded, we weren’t ‘In Sight’ at the moment of capture, and are unable to share,” Lewrie said with a sigh. “Come to think on it, neither were
Encounter
and
Narcissus
 … where they lay at anchor off Point Quilmes was twelve miles or more from the city.”

“It was all seized by the Army, sir,” Mr. Caldwell countered as he patted his belly. “Mark my words, it will all be deemed to be Droits of The Crown, not Droits of The Admiralty, and be whisked to England, soon as dammit.”

“One may only hope, then, t’be the ship that whisks it,” Lewrie said with a snicker. “There’s a wee percentage allowed the ‘whiskee’, at least.”

“Then it is just too bad that we draw too much water to be able to go and fetch it, sir,” Caldwell said with a disappointed grimace.

“Captain Donnelly, and
Narcissus,
” Lewrie supposed, grimacing along with the Sailing Master. “The lucky … fellow!”

“Sure to be, sir,” Caldwell gloomily agreed. “Sure to be.”

Up forward, a wash-deck pump was being rigged and manned before Mr. Cooke, who had so aptly named himself after fleeing slavery on Jamaica, began the killing. He had a middle maul with which to stun the beast, his sharpest and longest knife with which to cut its throat and bleed it—helpers stood by with buckets to catch as much blood as they could for other uses—and then a boarding axe and stouter, shorter knives with which to skin it and butcher it into eight-pound chunks. Bisquit was prancing about in anticipation, and in mock hunting growls and barks; it was quite possible he’d never seen a bullock, certainly not aboard ship, and didn’t know what it was. Idle crewmen stood about on gangways and the foredeck hatch cover, cheering, jeering, and ready to whoop in glee over the bullock’s impending demise.

“Shall we get under way, again, after the steer’s been dealt with, sir?” Lt. Westcott asked after he’d joined them.

“Hmm, no,” Lewrie decided. “We’ll stay at anchor the rest of the day and night. We’ve ten fathoms of depth, and a decent holding ground, for a change. Small arms practice, and an hour of cutlass drill after the hands have eat their fresh victuals.”

“Aye, sir,” Westcott said. “Your cook has lent ours a bottle of Worcestershire sauce for this evening’s steaks. Might you express our thanks to him, sir?”

“Of course, Mister Westcott,” Lewrie allowed, grinning. “Anything else that would please the wardroom?”

“Shore liberty, sir,” Westcott puckishly said, “a noon-to-noon, with ‘All Night In’.”

“All night in what?” Mr. Caldwell whispered with glee.

“Huzzah! Whoo! Done ’im wif one blow!” sailors were cheering and hooting as the bullock’s thick skull was crushed and it sprawled dead on the deck. Its compatriot bellowed and thrashed in terror of the deed, and ship’s boys leapt and capered over the carcass in glee.

“You might also ask Yeovill for some of his vinegary pepper sauce, Mister Westcott,” Lewrie suggested as he made his way to the ladderway. “If I can spare it, that is.”

*   *   *

The next evening, as
Reliant
cruised along under reduced sail in deep waters South of Maldonado and Lobos Island, the
Narcissus
frigate came calling, free of the banks and shoals of the Plate Estuary at long last, and laden with gold and silver. Her captain, Ross Donnelly, sounded jubilant as he brought his ship within easy hailing distance.

“Captain Donnelly, I hear that you are to be congratulated!” Lewrie shouted over with a brass speaking-trumpet. “Will you allow me to dine you in? If you are not sick of beef steak, by now, that is?”

“I will accept your offer most happily, Captain Lewrie!” Captain Donnelly shouted back. “I shall fetch you the wine! I discovered an anker of French Bordeaux in a warehouse, and your kind invitation is cause to broach it!”

“Come aboard, sir, come aboard!” Lewrie cried, then turned to Midshipman Shannon, who stood watch on the quarterdeck. “Pass word to my cook, Mister Shannon. He’s to cut my supper steak into two shares, and lay on a second course of roast rabbit, or quail, quick as he can.”

“Aye, sir!”

*   *   *

“A brandy before supper, sir, or would a Rhenish suit?” Lewrie offered, once Captain Donnelly was seated at his ease on the starboard-side settee.

“Rhenish would be delightful, thank you, sir,” Donnelly responded.

“Bound for England, I assume,” Lewrie commented.

“With but two brief breaks in passage,” Donnelly replied, “one at Cape Town, to drop a letter to General Sir David Baird, requesting more troops, and a second at Saint Helena to speak with the island’s governor, Patten, to do the same. Then, weather permitting, it will be ‘all to the royals’ for Portsmouth.”

“I envy you,” Lewrie baldly admitted as their wine arrived, “for doing something other than pace back and forth ’cross the mouth of the Plate. You’ll be bearing the loot, I take it?”

“Aye, over one million six hundred thousand dollars’ worth!” Donnelly exclaimed, more than happy to boast. “The most of it in silver, of course, but some gold coins as well. Droits of The Crown,” he added with a wince, “but, if the traditional customs are followed, and even if the Treasury is parsimonious, I could end up with a mere one percent of the total sum … and my family and estate and heirs set for life, ha ha!”

Ha ha, mine arse!
Lewrie thought, appalled but striving not to show it;
The fortunate turd!

“My
word,
how marvellous for you!” he said instead. “You could afford a whole
county,
or your
own
frigate!”

“There’s at least another million dollars’ worth of goods in the warehouses we seized, as well, but it would take an armada to haul it all away, and flog on the London markets,” Donnelly further crowed.

“You’ll be carrying the Commodore’s report to Admiralty, and a revelation of where he’s got to, as well? I wonder how that’ll go down,” Lewrie speculated.

“Well, he
did
send word that he was quitting the Cape, and what he was intending,” Donnelly told him, more than happy to accept a top-up of his wine glass. “Now that we’ve succeeded, I expect that we’ll see the Crown back his play to the hilt, and accept it all as a
fait accompli.
Commodore Popham also entrusted me with an open letter to the merchants of London, adverting them to the commercial possibilities in the Argentine.”

“Would that not be forcing the Government’s hand?” Lewrie had to ask. “Rather …
high
-handedly? Runnin’ rough-shod over Parliament and the new Prime Minister?”

“The success, and the prospects of new sources of wealth,
may
gain him so many allies that he might be spared a court-martial. All the huzzahs and acclaim?”

“Well, as he’s told us so often, I’d think he already has more than
enough
allies,” Lewrie said with a smirk. “Most-like Popham has won over the local Argentines, to boot.”

“Not so one would notice, no,” Donnelly countered with a wink. “Oh, he’s tried dining in as many prominent people as he can, taking shore lodgings and laying on lavish feasts, but … they’ll drink his wines, eat his meals, and promise nothing. In point of fact, I am more than glad to depart. Does one go ashore for a few hours, one comes away with an uneasy feeling that the mood of the Argentines is going from a low simmer to half a boil.”

“Some trouble in the streets, I heard from the victualling vessel’s Midshipman?” Lewrie prompted, taking another glass of wine when Pettus offered. “Unrest?”

“It hasn’t gotten
too
bad … yet,” Captain Donnelly told him, leaning forward to speak in a lower voice. “General Beresford’s put more men in the streets, in larger parties, to keep the lid on, but the reason it hasn’t boiled over yet is the departure of the young men who would be causing trouble, were they still in Buenos Aires.”

“And with too few troops t’keep ’em in—?” Lewrie said.

“And no city walls, or gates to seal, aye, Lewrie,” Donnelly completed for him. “The soldiers can inspect any waggon or mule load coming in, or going out, but many Argentines possessed arms before we arrived, and without house-to-house searches to confiscate them, due to the lack of troops, God only knows whether weapons are being smuggled in, or carried out, in the dark of night by Spaniards trying to join up with armed bands beyond our reach. The terms of surrender put private property off-limits, so…,” he said with a hapless shrug. “There are rumours of a
criollo
by name of Puerdin or something like that who’s forming a patriot band, somewhere out in the hinterlands, and where the original Spanish troops that Beresford beat at Quilmes have gone is anyone’s guess.”

“Are defences being prepared, just in case?” Lewrie asked.

“Frankly, I haven’t a clue,” Donnelly admitted with a deprecating laugh. “After your adventure with the Army ashore at Cape Town, I expect you know bags more than I do of soldierly doings. The Commodore still
seems
confident, though.”

“But he would, wouldn’t he?” Lewrie said with an open sneer. “Commodore Popham is confidence personified. It’s a pity that his considerable charm is wasted on the Argentines.”

“Matter of fact,” Donnelly confided, “he told me that, had he but two more regiments, he’d have a go at Montevideo and make a clean sweep of the Plate Estuary’s last defences.”

“I’d think a brigade of three regiments,
with
a regiment of cavalry added,
might
be barely sufficient to hold Buenos Aires, alone,” Lewrie scoffed.

“Well, there you are, then,” Donnelly replied, laughing again. “Military problem solved! As I just said, you understand the ways of our redcoats better than I … all that square-bashing of theirs?”

“Addles the brains, eventually,” Lewrie japed. “Will you stand off-and-on with me ’til morning?”

“Yes, I thought I might,” Donnelly said, “then, with a decent slant of wind, I can fall down near the Fourtieth Latitude and catch the Westerlies, straight on to Cape Town.”

“Did the Commodore advise you on our mysterious sightings of a visitor offshore?” Lewrie asked.