Lieutenant Bush came hastening on to the quarterdeck, and touched his hat to his captain. The stern swarthy face with its incongruous blue eyes broke into a smile just as incongruous. It gave Hornblower a queer twinge, almost of conscience, to see the evident pleasure which Bush experienced at sight of him. It was odd to know that he was admiredit might even be said that he was lovedby this very capable sailor, this splendid disciplinarian and fearless fighter who boasted so many of the good qualities in which Horn-blower felt himself to be lacking.
Good morning, Bush, he said. Have you seen the new draft?
No, sir. I was rowing guard for the middle watch and Ive only just turned out. Where do they hail from, sir?
Hornblower told him, and Bush rubbed his hands with pleasure.
Thirty! he said. Thats rare. I never hoped for more than a dozen from Exeter Assizes. And Bodmin Assizes open today. Please God we get another thirty there.
We wont get topmen from Bodmin Assizes, said Hornblower, comforted beyond measure at the equanimity with which Bush regarded the introduction of gaolbirds into the Sutherlands crew.
No, sir. But the West India convoys due this week. The guards ought to nab two hundred there. Well get twenty if we get our rights.
Mm, said Hornblower, and turned away uneasily. He was not the sort of captainneither the distinguished kind nor the wheedling kindwho could be sure of favours from the Port Admiral. I must look round below.
That changed the subject effectively enough.
The women are restless, said Bush. Id better come, too, sir, if you dont object.
The lower gun deck offered a strange spectacle, lit vaguely by the light which came through half a dozen open gun ports. There were fifty women there. Three or four were still in their hammocks, lying on their sides looking out on the others. Some were sitting in groups on the deck, chattering loud-voiced. One or two were chaffering for food through the gun ports with the occupants of shore boats floating just outside; the netting which impeded desertion had a broad enough mesh to allow a hand to pass through. Two more, each backed by a supporting group, were quarrelling violently. They were in odd contrastone was tall and dark, so tall as to have to crouch round-shouldered under the five foot deck beams, while the other, short, broad, and fair, was standing up boldly before her menacing advance.
Thats what I said, she maintained stoutly. And Ill say it again. I aint afeared o you, Mrs Dawson, as you call yourself.
A-ah, screamed the dark one at this crowning insult. She swooped forward, and with greedy hands she seized the other by the hair, shaking her head from side to side as if she would soon shake it off. In return her face was scratched and her shins were kicked by her stout-hearted opponent. They whirled round in a flurry of petticoats, when one of the women in the hammocks screamed a warning to them.
Stop it, you mad bitches! Eres the capn.
They fell apart, panting and tousled. Every eye was turned towards Hornblower as he walked forward in the patchy light, his head bowed under the deck above.
The next woman fighting will be put ashore instantly, growled Hornblower. The dark woman swept her hair from her eyes and sniffed with disdain.
You neednt put me ashore, Capn, she said. Im goin. There aint a farden to be had out o this starvation ship.
She was apparently expressing a sentiment which was shared by a good many of the women, for the speech was followed by a little buzz of approval.
Aint the men never goin to get their pay notes? piped up the woman in the hammock.
Enough o that, roared Bush, suddenly. He pushed forward anxious to save his captain from the insults to which he was exposed, thanks to a government which left its men still unpaid after a month in port. You there, what are you doing in your hammock after eight bells?
But this attempt to assume a counter offensive met with disaster.
Ill come out if you like, Mr. Lieutenant, she said, flicking off her blanket and sliding to the deck. I parted with
my gown to buy my Tom a sausage, and my petticoats bought him a soop o West Country ale. Would you have me on deck in my shift, Mr. Lieutenant?
A titter went round the deck.
Get back and be decent, spluttered Bush, on fire with embarrassment.
Hornblower was laughing, tooperhaps it was because he was married that the sight of a half-naked woman alarmed him not nearly as much as it did his first lieutenant.
Never will I be decent now, said the woman, swinging her legs up into the hammock and composedly draping the blanket over her, until my Tom gets his pay warrant.
An when he gets it, sneered the fair woman. What can he do with it without shore leave? Sell it to a bumboat shark for a quarter!
Fi pound for twenty-three months pay! added another. An me a month gone aready.
Avast there, said Bush.
Hornblower beat a retreat, abandoningforgetting, ratherthe object of his visit of inspection below. He could not face those women when the question of pay came up again. The men had been scandalously badly treated, imprisoned in the ship within sight of land, and their wives (some of them certainly were wives, although by Admiralty regulations a simple verbal declaration of the existence of a marriage was sufficient to allow them on board) had just cause of complaint. No one, not even Bush, knew that the few guineas which had been doled out among the crew represented a large part of Hornblowers accumulated payall he could spare, in fact, except for the necessary money to pay his officers expenses when they should start on their recruiting journeys.