Seventh Dispatch - [voice]/[action]

[captainhornblower]

[Horatio Hornblower's voice is very calm, very quiet. It sounds... not even curious. He is almost stating a fact, rather than asking a question.]

Lieutenant Bush's things are gone.

Why? What is the meaning of this?

[His housemates... will find him in his own room now, seated at his desk, the journal lying open in front of him-- if they dare disturb.]

Comments

[simplestgift]

Don't put the cart before the horse, Horatio. We need a ship first.

[captainhornblower]

Hopefully this place's library will have books on constructing ships of war.

[He almost laughs... half out of worry that they won't.]

[simplestgift]

Surely they will have one. You've seen the size, haven't you? Though we might want to begin with something smaller. A small boat, perhaps, till we know what we're doing.

[captainhornblower]

That might do us good.

And models. Practice on scale-models, too, perhaps.

[simplestgift]

[Archie starts rummaging around for paper and pencil now. He finds a scrap of paper and starts doodling.]

Twenty-two guns, yes? Three masts, I suppose, and with enough sail to cover England. [Sketching out a sail plan now.] Of course, the more sail we have, the more crew we'll need.

[captainhornblower]

[And Horatio will just be watching Archie sketch over his shoulder.]

Crew we can find, I'm sure.

[Then the thought strikes him, and he looks at the sketch.]

Do we want her like a frigate? Or a sloop?

[A small frigate-style ship was more suited to a post-captain, and what a twenty-two gun ship would usually warrant, he knew, but his lovely Hotspur was still burned into his mind. Its fight against the Liore...]

[simplestgift]

We won't be able to build anything terribly strong, so we must aim for fast. [He's sketching some more, rigging it more like a sloop, albeit a large one, and adding stern and bow chasers.] Remember the Droits de l'Homme. How to take on a much larger ship.

[captainhornblower]

[Horatio has to smile.]

If she can't hit you, you don't have to worry about damage.

[simplestgift]

Precisely! [He adds length to the masts and now each has three sails. Then a jib, and a forestaysail on the bowsprit.] Of course, we can't go into every battle hoping for a storm.

[captainhornblower]

No, certainly not. [He's still smiling.] But it doesn't take a storm to out-manoeuvre a larger ship. Pull them into a chase, feign going in one direction to force them to follow, then change your movement. If their ship can't keep up...

[simplestgift]

That's to escape, not to fight, Horatio. [He pauses, tapping the pencil against the paper thoughtfully, trying to think what else needs to be added or changed.]

[captainhornblower]

You'd be surprised.

[Horatio chuckled faintly and flashed Archie a smile. One that usually preceded a brush with near-disaster.

His eyes focused on the paper, and he cocked his head, admiring the sketch.

A fine ship, certainly, once she was built. And with the man who should have always been his lieutenant. He couldn't ask for much more, not here.]