“Very good, sir,” Smith said icily. “That leaves only the question of what to say when we fail.”
“Your attitude borders on the mutinous, sir. Explain yourself!”
“Certainly. I know these waters well-are you aware there are thirty-eight forts and batteries on the shores of the Dardanelles before ever the Sea of Marmora is reached? In a passage a mile or so wide this is hard enough to bear, I would have thought. A single ship is no threat and may pass unmolested, but a fleet such as ours will be an intolerable provocation.”
Duckworth looked as though he was going to say something but stayed quiet.
“Then there are the elements. The strait is long and narrow and there are currents and winds that can set the fairest vessel at a stand-I give you what the Turk calls the meltemi, a remorseless nor’easterly that can blow for days and, of course, is dead foul for passage through.”
There were nods about the table. A ponderous line-of-battle ship could sail no closer than six points off the wind’s eye and it didn’t take a lot of imagination to picture a scene of back-winded ships milling helplessly before the guns of a Turkish fortress.
“And did I say currents? There are some swifter than a man may run, many that will stem a ship motionless in a tops’l breeze. Sir, you may be confident of our first armed incursion into the strait since the Crusaders, but I am not.”
Duckworth glowered. “Why wasn’t I told of this in more detail? Don’t we have pilots as will preserve us through the hazards?”
“You’ll trust a Turk to conn us safely through to fall upon his countrymen?”
“Humph. A good point, o’ course. Thirty-eight fortifications, you say. This will not be easy-to reduce them one by one will take time.”
“And given the narrow width of the channel we cannot concentrate our fire-power at once,” Louis added. “It requires we brave the enemy’s shot ship by ship instead.”
“Quite,” Duckworth said, the frown now permanent. “In view of what I’ve heard on fortresses, winds, restricted waters and currents, I’m minded to delay the expedition until we have a clearer plan in hand. It seems obvious to me now that their lordships were never in possession of all the facts when they drew up their orders.”
“Sir,” Kydd intervened, “as I’m new returned from Constantinople, I’ve seen how fast things are happening there. If we’re indeed to make an impression on the Porte then we should move now, before the French can establish themselves further.”
“Port? What does he mean?”
“The Sublime Porte,” Smith said sharply. “The government of Turkey, named for the gateway where they meet the infidel. And he’s right. If we go through with this madness, better we do it before they get word and set up a resistance.”
“I will be the judge of when we sail. And I say we wait until we can look further into the obstacles that face us. That is my decision.”
An uncomfortable silence was broken by some kind of disturbance outside the cabin. The door opened and the flag-lieutenant poked his head in. “Sorry to interrupt, sir, but the ambassador, Mr Arbuthnot, is here and demands entry to any discussion concerning Constantinople.”
“Very well. Send him in.”
Arbuthnot showed no sign of any ailment. He bustled in, eyes a-gleam, seized a chair and sat close to Duckworth.
“I’ve just heard of your arrival, Admiral. How splendid!” he spluttered. “Excellent! London has been listening to what I’ve been saying these last months. A show of force! Nelson’s fleet!”
“I’m happy to see you’ve made a full recovery from your indisposition, sir.”
“Yes, yes, I’m quite ready to play my part, Admiral. Now, how then are we to proceed on our great expedition?”
“My orders are to lie off Constantinople and demand the persons of the French delegation. Failing that, to demand the handing over of the entire Ottoman fleet and stores to prevent their falling into French hands.”
“And if they won’t comply?”
“We are to bombard the city until it lies in ruins.”
“Splendid! Our standing among the Turks-who invariably connect power with prestige-will never be higher.”
“Or any other acts as you shall from time to time recommend,” Duckworth said heavily. “And are within my power to undertake.”
“It may not come to that, Admiral. So when might we start our chastising?”
“Sir, I’m not altogether of the opinion that you have a proper regard for the difficulties we are facing.”
“Difficulties?” Arbuthnot said, with surprise. “With a grand fleet such as this? They’ll run like rats at the first sight of it.”
“No, sir. I’m more referring to our forcing of a passage through the Dardanelles. Have you ever given thought to the fact that no hostile armada has ever gone through unopposed since before Drake’s time? There is a reason for that. Fortresses, currents-I won’t weary you with details, sir. Suffice it to say that it is my inviolable decision to delay any sailing until we have thoroughly considered the elements.”
“Delay? I thought I was talking to the fearless hero of San Domingo, sir.”
Duckworth smouldered. “It is not your career that is in jeopardy, Mr Arbuthnot, it is mine. To lose a fleet to the Turk would damn me for ever.”
“You are forgetting something, Admiral.”
“What is that, sir?” Duckworth said stiffly.
“Your orders, sir,” Arbuthnot replied silkily. “Which place my wishes to the fore. And these are that we waste no time in responding to our shameful ejection by the Ottomans by appearing before Constantinople at once. At once, sir!”
“I must first await the arrival of reinforcements from the Russian Navy under Admiral Senyavin before ever I can proceed, sir.”
“Admiral. I write my dispatches at the outset of this expedition tonight. Should you wish me to include the fact that we are lying idle at anchor indefinitely here while our high admiral waits for things to turn more in his favour?”
“I take note of your opinion, Mr Ambassador. Know that I also shall be writing dispatches-to lay before my commander-in-chief the grave professional difficulties we are under.”
“Do so, Admiral. As long as we’re on our way. The triumph will be yours too, never fear.”
“Very well. We get under way tomorrow.”
Smith, who had been listening to the exchange with a lazy smile and with his hands folded behind his head, declared confidently, “I rather think not.”
“What the devil do you mean, sir?”
“Has no one noticed? The wind’s in the north and veering. We’ll be headed by a dead foul wind in the morning-we’re going nowhere.”
As the captains waited for their boats on the spacious quarterdeck of the battleship, Blackwood came up to Kydd. “A pleasure to see you again, old fellow-oh, I do beg your pardon, Sir Thomas.”
“The pleasure is mine also, sir.”
“A trying time, this afternoon. Would you wish to take dinner with me tonight, at all? I’ve some capital lamb cutlets just come aboard that I’d like your opinion of-and perhaps we’ll remember the more uplifting times we’ve had together.”
It was just what he needed to raise his spirits.
Ajax was an old friend. He had seen her first in Alexandria, setting ashore Abercromby’s army that had finished the French in Egypt while he had been a junior commander in Teazer. And then it was Trafalgar-from the deck of his frigate he had seen her take on the bigger French flagship Bucentaure and then the even bigger Santissima Trinidad in an epic fight, nearly invisible in the boiling gun-smoke of the cannonading going on all around her.
Now for the first time he trod her decks-and as a guest.
“Welcome to my ship, Sir Thomas.” Blackwood greeted him warmly, shaking his hand in pleasure. “Shall we go below?”
The evening was settling in, the last dog-watchmen on deck, lanthorns being rigged.
Blackwood’s cabin was as austere as the man: a single polished table set squarely in the middle of the deck, a lamp on gimbals at either side and a candelabrum at the geometric centre. There were few domestic touches, a chaste, almost puritanical feel about it reflecting the personality of the man Kydd remembered.