The Corvette (21 page)

Seeing Singleton, Meetuck looked up and smiled, his thin lips puckering the wind-burned cheeks and his mongol eyes became dark slits. He said something and indicated the skins, particularly that of the polar bear, which he gently smoothed.

‘It was a great bear,' Singleton translated for the puzzled seamen, ‘and he who killed it was a mighty hunter . . .' The two men seemed to think this a quaint turn of phrase and giggled, having been much amused by Meetuck's antics and incomprehension at their inability to speak as did Singleton. Singleton was affronted by their attitude, his almost humourless disposition unable to see the amusement caused by the eskimo. ‘Like Nimrod . . .' His voice trailed away and he turned aft to see the captain coming on deck, his boat cloak over the greygoe in the intense cold. It struck him that Drinkwater would benefit himself from warmer clothing and he turned below again in search of Mount.

The marine lieutenant was dicing with Rispin when he entered the gunroom.

‘Ho, there, Singleton, d'you come to taste the delights of damnation then?' Mount grinned at the sober missionary whose disapproval extended to almost all the leisure activities of both officers and midshipmen, especially, as was now the case, it was accompanied by the drinking of alcohol. Singleton swallowed his disapproval and gave one of his rare, dry smiles.

‘Ah, Mount, I wish you to prove that you deceive my eyes and are not yet sunk to a depravity that is beyond redemption.'

Mount rolled his eyes at Rispin, ‘Lo, Rispin, I do believe I am being granted a little Christian forbearance. What is it you want?'

‘Your polar bear's hide.'

‘Egad,' Mount smote his breast in mock horror, ‘you press me sore, good sir. Why?'

‘I wish to have it for a good cause.'

‘Ah-ha! Now it becomes clear, Mr Singleton, you wish to deprive me of the spoils of my skill so that I shall freeze and you will be warm as an ember, eh?'

‘You misunderstand . . .'

Mount held up his hand, ‘Are you aware what trouble I went to to stop that whelp Quilhampton from claiming the damned animal was his. He had the nerve to claim that without his winging the brute I should not have struck him. There! What d'you think of that, eh?'

‘I think it most likely, certainly he did very well to hit a target with his wooden hand.'

‘Oh, I do not think you need worry about Mr Q's abilities. He does not seem in any way handicapped. No, Mr Singleton, you want the bear's pelt and so do I. Now what do you suggest we do with it, Rispin? How would you, old Solomon, decide between the two of us,
eh?' Mount's eyes fell significantly upon the dice.

‘But, Mount, it is not for myself that I wish to have the skin, I have already purchased several of the seal-skins.'

‘What is it for then? Not that damned eskimo friend of yours?'

‘No. For the Captain, I fear he may have taken a chill and you know that in this weather a chill may become bronchitic or worse, induce a pulmonary inflammation.'

‘Why this
is
Christian charity . . . come, Singleton, let us ask Rispin to resolve the matter.'

‘Very well,' said Singleton, refusing to rise to Mount's bait. ‘Mr Rispin?'

‘Let the dice decide,' Rispin said, incurring a furious glare from Singleton.

‘That is dishonourable, Mr Rispin, you know I do not approve . . .'

‘But it would be amusing, Singleton, come, let us see whether the Almighty will influence the dice . . .'

‘That's blasphemy, Mr Mount! I do not mind you having your joke at my expense but I will not tolerate this.' Singleton turned on his heel indignantly and smashed his forehead against a deck-beam. ‘God-damn!' he swore, leaving the gunroom to the peals of laughter from the two officers.

Drinkwater lowered his glass and addressed Bourne. ‘Heave-to under his stern, Mr Bourne.'

‘Aye, aye, sir.' Raising the telescope again Drinkwater stared at
Narwhal
. It was the third time that forenoon she had lowered her boats after whales and the third time she had recovered them as the beasts eluded the hunt and swam steadily north-west. For two days the
Narwhal, Faithful, Diana, Earl Percy
and
Provident
and
Truelove
had worked their way north-west with
Melusine
accompanying them. Only Captain Renaudson of the
Diana
had hit a whale using his brass harpoon gun, and that had turned out to be a razorback.

As
Melusine
came up under
Narwhal
's lee, Drinkwater hoisted himself onto the rail, holding onto the mizen rigging.

‘Narwhal
, ahoy!' He saw Jaybez Harvey's pock-marked features similarly elevate themselves and he waved in a friendly fashion. ‘No success, Captain?'

Harvey shook his head. ‘No, there be sommat curious about the fish,' he shouted. ‘ 'Tis unusual for them to swim north-west in such schools. Happen they know sommat, right whales is slow, but these
devils aren't wanting to fill the lamps of London Town, Captain, that I do know.'

Drinkwater jumped down on deck as
Narwhal
's hands squared her yards and she moved forward again, bumping aside an ice floe upon which a seal looked up at her in sudden surprise.

‘If I hit him, may we lower, sir?' asked Walmsley, eagerly lifting a musket. Drinkwater looked at the seal as it rolled over.

‘It's hardly sport, Mr Walmsley, ah . . . too late . . .' Drinkwater was saved the trouble of a decision as the seal, worried by the shadow of the
Narwhal
that passed over it, sought the familiarity of the sea.

Drinkwater saw the grin of pleasure that it had escaped cross Mr Frey's face as he sorted the signalling flags with the yeoman. ‘Bad luck, Mr Walmsley, perhaps another time.'

‘Aye, aye, sir.' Walmsley grimaced at Frey who grinned back triumphantly. ‘God knows what you'll do when you meet a Frenchman, Frey, ask him to sit for his bloody portrait I shouldn't wonder . . .'

Drinkwater heard the jibe, but affected to ignore it. Walmsley's concern was unnecessary, the likelihood of their meeting a Frenchman so remote a possibility that Drinkwater considered Mr Frey's talents with pencil and watercolour box the only profitable part of the voyage.

They braced the yards round and
Melusine
reached east, across the sterns of the
Narwhal
, the
Diana
and the
Faithful
, tacking at noon in a sea that was scattered with loose floes. Only a dozen ice bergs were visible from the deck and the light north-easterly breeze had reestablished clear weather. It was still bitterly cold, but the wind was strong enough to keep the surface of the sea moving, otherwise Drinkwater suspected it might freeze over. Although this would be unseasonable it was a constant worry for him as he inspected the readings of the thermometer in the log book.

Another problem he had faced was that of employment in the ship. During the days since the abatement of the gale there had been less danger from the ice, and they had worked slowly north in the wake of the whalers under easy sail. The diversions they had used on the passage north from the Humber had been re-started, although the weather was too cold for fencing, making the foil blades brittle. But the cutter had been lowered to pursue seals, for Drinkwater wanted all hands to be better clad than Palgrave's slops would allow, and hunting had ceased to be the prerogative of the officers. Marines and topmen trained in the use of small arms under Lieutenant Mount's
direction, made up the shooting parties and it was certain that
Melusine
was the best fed warship in the Royal Navy. This fresh meat was most welcome and thought to be an excellent anti-scorbutic.

Drinkwater devised what amusements he could, even to the extent of purchasing some of the baleen from the whalers, in order that the seamen might attempt to decorate it in the same manner as the men in the whale-ships. As he looked along the waist where Meetuck supervised the cleaning of a fresh batch of seal skins and the gunner checked the flints in the gun-locks, he felt that the ship's services were somewhat wasted. They still went to quarters twice a day and exercised the guns with powder every third day; the unaccustomed presence of a marine sentry at his door and the pendant of a ‘private' ship of war at the mainmasthead were constant reminders that
Melusine
was a King's ship, a man-of-war.

But Drinkwater was aware of a feeling seeping through the ship that she had undergone some curious enchantment, that, for all the hazards they had and would encounter, these were natural phenomena. He could not throw off the growing feeling that they were on some elaborate, dangerous but nevertheless curiously pleasurable yachting excursion. Preoccupied with this consideration he was surprised at the little party of officers that suddenly confronted him.

‘Beg pardon, sir.'

‘Yes, Mr Mount, what is the matter?' It seemed like some deputation and for a moment his heart missed a beat in alarm, for his thoughts had run from yachting to naval expeditions like Cook's and, inevitably, Bligh's. He looked at the officers. With Mount were Rispin and Hill, Gorton, Quilhampton.

Walmsley, Glencross, Dutfield and Wickham with an angry Obadiah Singleton apparently bringing up the rear with some reluctance. They seemed to be carrying a bundle.

‘We thought, sir, that you might consider accepting a gift from us all . . .'

‘A gift, Mr Mount . . .?'

‘Something to keep you warm, sir, as Mr Hill informs me we crossed the seventy-second parallel at noon.'

They offered him the magnificent pelt of the polar bear.

Greatly daring Mount said, ‘The Thirty-sixth Article of War is of little use in a boat sir.' It was an impropriety, but an impropriety made in the spirit of the moment, in tune with the bitingly cold, clean air and the sunshine breaking through the clouds. It was all thoroughly unreal for the quarterdeck of a sloop of war.

‘Thank you, gentlemen,' he said, ‘thank you very much. I am indebted to you all.'

Bourne crossed the deck to join them. ‘Perhaps, sir, at a suitable occasion you will honour the gunroom for dinner.'

Drinkwater nodded. ‘I shall be delighted,' he said, removing cloak and greygoe and flinging the great skin around him. ‘What happened to the animal's head?'

‘We had him
Mounted
, sir,' said Walmsley mischievously and they drifted forward in high spirits, just as if they were on a yachting cruise.

Mr Quilhampton swung the glass from larboard beam to starboard bow. At first he saw nothing unusual for they had been aware that the loose floes would give way to close pack ice and probably to an ice shelf, from the ice blink that had been in sight for some twelve hours. He was taking some comfort from the isolation of the crow's nest to nurse his wounded pride. He was disappointed at Mr Gorton's advancement, and although he acknowledged the kindness of Mr Hill in mollifying him, it did not prevent him from suffering. He would have liked to return home a lieutenant, to indulge in a little swagger with a new hanger at his hip and a cuff of buttons instead of the white collar patches of the novice, when he entered the Edinburgh drawing-room of Catriona MacEwan. He had already furnished and populated the room in his imagination, but he was still perfecting the manner of his entrance, torn between an amusing frightening of Catriona's perfectly awful aunt with his wooden hand, or the upstaging of a languid rival who would probably be wearing the theatrical uniform of a volunteer yeomanry regiment. Although amusing, he had already astonished the old lady with his hand, and, in any case, the jape smacked more of the cockpit he wished to leave, than the gunroom to which he aspired. No, the discomfiture of the rival it must be, then . . .

‘Masthead there!' He looked down. The master was looking aloft.

‘Sir?'

‘
Narwhal
's signalling, what d'you make of it?'

Recalled to his duty Quilhampton levelled the big watch glass. The six whalers were bowling along on the larboard tack.
Melusine
was slightly to leeward of them all, but astern of
Narwhal
. The whaler's signal flaps streamed out in a straight line towards the sloop and were impossible to read. He struggled with the glass but could not make head or tail of the flag hoist. He hailed the deck and told Hill. Looking round the horizon again he saw the reason almost at once. The fast moving school of whales that they had so patiently followed for three
days now, beating to windward as the great fish swam with steady purpose to the north-west had slowed. They were circling and there were more of them. Quilhampton wondered if it was the entire school on the surface at the same time or whether they had made some sort of rendezvous for breeding purposes. And then he saw something else, something quite extraordinary.