captainhornblower | Tenth Dispatch

Tenth Dispatch - [written]

[Hornblower's nerves are shot.

Talk of ghosts, Jilly's disappearance, a falling moon threatening the ship, nightmares... Jilly's return to normal and painting the Britannia had acted as a balm, but... Now Archie had been taken. Taken. And he'd been powerless to stop them. Jilly had returned. Jilly had returned. That was something of a comfort. But he still remembered the friend taken... who he had not seen again, and had woken one morning to find his things gone. Part of him wanted to sit in Archie's room and watch his things, give them no chance to vanish... but another part feared they still would, and he did not want to see that happen.

He found a strange comfort in sitting alone in the captain's cabin and commiting to a laborous exercise-- the copying down of the Articles of War from memory. He knew every word, had listened to them almost every Sunday since he was seventeen. More often when Captain Sawyer got in a mood. It was something of a pointless exercise, but having to call up the exact wording of every Article and set pen to paper left less time and room in his mind for the doubt and blame he knew he would have to reckon with later.

For now, though, this would keep it at bay. For now.]

The Articles of War, as set down by His Britannic Majesty, upheld by Parliament, and carried out by the Admiralty Board.

[He drew a small design of curved lines to set off that from the rest.]

I. All commanders, captains, and officers, in or belonging to any of His Majesty's ships or vessels of war, shall cause the public worship of Almighty God, according to the liturgy of the Church of England established by law, to be solemnly, orderly and reverently performed in their respective ships; and shall take care that prayers and preaching, by the chaplains in holy orders of the respective ships, be performed diligently; and that the Lord's day be observed according to law.

II. All flag officers, and all persons in or belonging to His Majesty's ships or vessels of war, being guilty of profane oaths, cursings, execrations, drunkenness, uncleanness, or other scandalous actions, in derogation of God's honour, and corruption of good manners, shall incur such punishment as a court martial shall think fit to impose, and as the nature and degree of their offence shall deserve.

III. If any officer, mariner, soldier, or other person of the fleet, shall give, hold, or entertain intelligence to or with any enemy or rebel, without leave from the king's majesty, or the lord high admiral, or the commissioners for executing the office of lord high admiral, commander in chief, or his commanding officer, every such person so offending, and being thereof convicted by the sentence of a court martial, shall be punished with death.

IV. If any letter of message from any enemy or rebel, be conveyed to any officer, mariner, or soldier or other in the fleet, and the said officer, mariner, or soldier, or other as aforesaid, shall not, within twelve hours, having opportunity so to do, acquaint his superior or a commanding officer, or if any superior officer being acquainted therewith, shall not in convenient time reveal the same to the commander in chief of the squadron, every such person so offending, and being convicted thereof by the sentence of the court martial, shall be punished with death, or such other punishment as the nature and degree of the offense shall deserve, and the court martial shall impose.

V. All spies, and all persons whatsoever, who shall come, or be found, in the nature of spies, to bring or deliver any seducing letters or messages from any enemy or rebel, or endeavor to corrupt any captain, officer, mariner, or other in the fleet, to betray his trust, being convicted of any such offense by the sentence of the court martial, shall be punished with death, or such other punishment, as the nature and degree of the offence shall deserve, and the court martial shall impose.

VI. No person in the fleet shall receive an enemy or rebel with money, victuals, powder, shot, arms, ammunition, or any other supplies whatsoever, directly or indirectly, upon pain of death, or such other punishment as the court martial shall think fit to impose, and as the nature and degree of the crime shall deserve.

VII. All the papers, charter parties, bills of lading, passports, and other writings whatsoever, that shall be taken, seized, or found aboard any ship or ships which shall be surprized or taken as prize, shall be duly preserved, and the very originals shall by the commanding officer of the ship which shall take such prize, be sent entirely, and without fraud, to the court of the admiralty, or such other court of commissioners, as shall be authorized to determine whether such prize be lawful capture, there to be viewed, made use of, and proceeded upon according to law, upon pain that every person offending herein, shall forfeit and lose his share of the capture, and shall suffer such further punishment, as the nature and degree of his offense shall be found to deserve, and the court martial shall impose.

VIII. No person in or belonging to the fleet shall take out of any prize, or ship seized for prize, any money, plate, or goods, unless it shall be necessary for the better securing thereof, or for the necessary use and service of any of His Majesty's ships or vessels of war, before the same be adjudged lawful prize in some admiralty court; but the full and entire account of the whole, without embezzlement, shall be brought in, and judgement passed entirely upon the whole without fraud, upon pain that every person offending hemin shall forfeit and lose his share of the capture, and suffer such further punishment as shall be imposed by a court martial, or such court of admiralty, according to the nature and degree of the offense.

IX. If any ship or vessel be taken as prize, none of the officers, mariners, or other persons on board her, shall be stripped of their clothes, or in any sort pillaged, beaten, or evil-intreated, upon the pain that the person or persons so offending, shall be liable to such punishment as a court martial shall think fit to inflict.

X. Every flag officer, captain and commander in the fleet, who, upon signal or order of fight, or sight of any ship or ships which it may be his duty to engage, or who, upon likelihood of engagement, shall not make the necessary preparations for fight, and shall not in his own person, and according to his place, encourage the inferior officers and men to fight courageously, shall suffer death, or such other punishment, as from the nature and degree of the offence a court martial shall deem him to deserve; and if any person in the fleet shall treacherously or cowardly yield or cry for quarter, every person so offending, and being convicted thereof by the sentence of a court martial, shall suffer death.

XI. Every person in the fleet, who shall not duly observe the orders of the admiral, flag officer, commander of any squadron or division, or other his superior officer, for assailing, joining battle with, or making defense against any fleet, squadron, or ship, or shall not obey the orders of his superior officer as aforesaid in the time of action, to the best of his power, or shall not use all possible endeavours to put the same effectually into execution, every person so offending, and being convicted thereof by the sentence of the court martial, shall suffer death, or such other punishment, as from the nature and degree of the offence a court martial shall deem him to deserve.

XII. Every person in the fleet, who through cowardice, negligence, or disaffection, shall in time of action withdraw or keep back, or not come into the fight or engagement, or shall not do his utmost to take or destroy every ship which it shall be his duty to engage, and to assist and relieve all and every of His Majesty's ships, or those of his allies, which it shall be his duty to assist and relieve, every such person so offending, and being convicted thereof by the sentence of a court martial, shall suffer death.

XIII. Every person in the fleet, who though cowardice, negligence, or disaffection, shall forbear to pursue the chase of any enemy, pirate or rebel, beaten or flying; or shall not relieve or assist a known friend in view to the utmost of his power; being convicted of any such offense by the sentence of a court martial, shall suffer death.

XIV. If when action, or any service shall be commanded, any person in the fleet shall presume or to delay or discourage the said action or service, upon pretence of arrears of wages, or upon any pretence whatsoever, every person so offending, being convicted thereof by the sentence of the court martial, shall suffer death, or such other punishment, as from the nature and degree of the offense a court martial shall deem him to deserve.

XV. Every person in or belonging to the fleet, who shall desert to the enemy, pirate, or rebel, or run away with any of His Majesty's ships or vessels of war, or any ordnance, ammunition, stores, or provision belonging thereto, to the weakening of the service, or yield up the same cowardly or treacherously to the enemy, pirate, or rebel, being convicted of any such offence by the sentence of the court martial, shall suffer death.

XVI. Every person in or belonging to the fleet, who shall desert or entice others so to do, shall suffer death, or such other punishment as the circumstances of the offense shall deserve, and a court martial shall judge fit: and if any commanding officer of any of His Majesty's ships or vessels of war shall receive or entertain a deserter from any other of His Majesty's ships or vessels, after discovering him to be such deserter, and shall not with all convenient speed give notice to the captain of the ship or vessel to which such deserter belongs; or if the said ships or vessels are at any considerable distance from each other, to the secretary of the admiralty, or to the commander in chief; every person so offending, and being convicted thereof by the sentence of the court martial, shall be cashiered.

XVII. The officers and seamen of all ships appointed for convoy and guard of merchant ships, or of any other, shall diligently attend upon that charge, without delay, according to their instructions in that behalf; and whosoever shall be faulty therein, and shall not faithfully perform their duty, and defend the ships and goods in their convoy, without either diverting to other parts or occasions, or refusing or neglecting to fight in their defence, if they be assailed, or running away cowardly, and submitting the ships in their convoy to peril and hazard; or shall demand or exact any money or other reward from any merchant or master for convoying any ships or vessels entrusted to their care, or shall misuse the masters or mariners thereof; shall be condemned to make reparation of the damage to the merchants, owners, and others, as the court of admiralty shall adjudge, and also be punished criminally according to the quality of their offences, be it by pains of death, or other punishment, according as shall be adjudged fit by the court martial.

XVIII. If any captain, commander, or other officer of any of His Majesty's ships or vessels, shall receive on board, or permit to be received on board such ship or vessel, any goods or merchandizes whatsoever, other than for the sole use of the ship or vessel, except gold, silver, or jewels, and except the goods and merchandizes belonging to any merchant, or other ship or vessel which may be shipwrecked, or in imminent danger of being shipwrecked, either on the high seas, or in any port, creek, or harbour, in order to the preserving them for their proper owners, and except such goods or merchandizes as he shall at any time be ordered to take or receive on board by order of the lord high admiral of Great Britain, or the commissioners for executing the office of lord high admiral for the time being; every person so offending, being convicted thereof by the sentence of the court martial shall be cashiered, and be for ever afterwards rendered incapable to serve in any place or office in the naval service of His Majesty, his heirs and successors.

XIX. If any person in or belonging to the fleet shall make or endeavor to make any mutinous assembly upon any pretence whatsoever, every person offending herein, and being convicted thereof by the sentence of the court martial, shall suffer death: and if any person in or belonging to the fleet shall utter any words of sedition or mutiny, he shall suffer death, or such other punishment as a court martial shall deem him to deserve: and if any officer, mariner, or soldier on or belonging to the fleet, shall behave himself with contempt to his superior officer, being in the execution of his office, he shall be punished according to the nature of his offence by the judgement of a court martial.

XX. If any person in the fleet shall conceal any traiterous or mutinous practice or design, being convicted thereof by the sentence of a court martial, he shall suffer death, or any other punishment as a court martial shall think fit; and if any person, in or belonging to the fleet, shall conceal any traiterous or mutinous words spoken by any, to the prejudice of His Majesty or government, or any words, practice, or design, tending to the hindrance of the service, and shall not forthwith reveal the same to the commanding officer, or being present at any mutiny or sedition, shall not use his utmost endeavours to suppress the same, he shall be punished as a court martial shall think he deserves.

XXI. If any person in the fleet shall find cause of complaint of the unwholesomeness of the victual, or upon other just ground, he shall quietly make the same known to his superior, or captain, or commander in chief, as the occasion may deserve, that such present remedy may be had as the matter may require; and the said superior, captain, or commander in chief, shall, as far as he is able, cause the same to be presently remedied; and no person in the fleet, upon any such or other pretence, shall attempt to stir up any disturbance, upon pain of such punishment, as a court martial shall think fit to inflict, according to the degree of the offence.

XXII. If any officer, mariner, soldier or other person in the fleet, shall strike any of his superior officers, or draw, or offer to draw, or lift up any weapon against him, being in the execution of his office, on any pretence whatsoever, every such person being convicted of any such offense, by the sentence of a court martial, shall suffer death; and if any officer, mariner, soldier or other person in the fleet, shall presume to quarrel with any of his superior officers, being in the execution of his office, or shall disobey any lawful command of any of his superior officers; every such person being convicted of any such offence, by the sentence of a court martial, shall suffer death, or such other punishment, as shall, according to the nature and degree of his offence, be inflicted upon him by the sentence of a court martial.

XXIII. If any person in the fleet shall quarrel or fight with any other person in the fleet, or use reproachful or provoking speeches or gestures, tending to make any quarrel or disturbance, he shall, upon being convicted thereof, suffer such punishment as the offence shall deserve, and a court martial shall impose.

XXIV. There shall be no wasteful expence of any powder, shot, ammunition, or other stores in the fleet, nor any embezzlement thereof, but the stores and provisions shall be careful preserved , upon pain of such punishment to be inflicted upon the offenders, abettors, buyers and receivers (being persons subject to naval discipline) as shall be by a court martial found just in that behalf.

XXV. Every person in the fleet, who shall unlawfully burn or set fire to any magazine or store of powder, or ship, boat, ketch, hoy or vessel, or tackle or furniture thereunto belonging, not then appertaining to an enemy, pirate, or rebel, being convicted of any such offence, by the sentence of a court martial, shall suffer death.

XXVI. Care shall be taken in the conducting and steering of any of His Majesty's ships, that through wilfulness, negligence, or other defaults, no ship be stranded, or run upon any rocks or sands, or split or hazarded, upon pain, that such as shall be found guilty therein, be punished by death, or such other punishment, as the offence by a court martial shall be judged to deserve.

XXVII. No person in or belonging to the fleet shall sleep upon his watch, or negligently perform the duty imposed on him, or forsake his station, upon pain of death, or such other punishment as a court martial shall think fit to impose, and as the circumstances of the case shall require.

XXVIII. All murders committed by any person in the fleet, shall be punished with death by the sentence of a court martial.

XXIX. If any person in the fleet shall commit the unnatural and detestable sin of buggery and sodomy with man or beast, he shall be punished with death by the sentence of a court martial.

XXX. All robbery committed by any person in the fleet, shall be punished with death, or otherwise, as a court martial, upon consideration of the circumstances, shall find meet.

XXXI. Every officer or other person in the fleet, who shall knowingly make or sign a false muster or muster book, or who shall command, counsel, or procure the making or signing thereof, or who shall aid or abet any other person in the making or signing thereof, shall, upon proof of any such offence being made before a court martial, be cashiered, and rendered incapable of further employment in His Majesty's naval service.

XXXII. No provost martial belonging to the fleet shall refuse to apprehend any criminal, whom he shall be authorized by legal warrant to apprehend, or to receive or keep any prisoner committed to his charge, or wilfully suffer him to escape, being once in his custody, or dismiss him without lawful order, upon pain of such punishment as a court martial shall deem him fit to deserve; and all captains, officers, and others in the fleet, shall do their endeavour to detect, apprehend, and bring to punishment all offenders, and shall assist the officers appointed for that purpose therein, upon pain of being proceeded against, and punished by a court martial, according to the nature and degree of the offence.

XXXIII. If any flag officer, captain, or commander, or lieutenant belonging to the fleet, shall be convicted before a court martial of behaving in a scandalous, infamous, cruel, oppressive, or fraudulent manner, unbecoming the character of an officer, he shall be dismissed from His Majesty's service.

XXXIV. Every person being in actual service and full pay, and part of the crew in or belonging to any of His Majesty's ships or vessels of war, who shall be guilty of mutiny, desertion, or disobedience to any lawful command, in any part of His Majesty's dominions on shore, when in actual service relative to the fleet, shall be liable to be tried by a court martial, and suffer the like punishment for every such offence, as if the same had been committed at sea on board any of His Majesty's ships or vessels of war.

XXXV. If any person who shall be in the actual service and full pay of His Majesty' ships and vessels of war, shall commit upon the shore, in any place or places out of His Majesty's dominions, any of the crimes punishable by these articles and orders, the person so offending shall be liable to be tried and punished for the same, in like manner, to all intents and purposes, as if the same crimes had been committed at sea, on board any of His Majesty's ships or vessels of war.

XXXVI. All other crimes not capital committed by any person or persons in the fleet, which are not mentioned in this act, or for which no punishment is hereby directed to be inflicted, shall be punished by the laws and customs in such cases used at sea.

[...Sadly, Luceti, he still has no idea (nor does he care at the present moment) how to make any kind of privacy filter on this.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[And there was the difficulty. More so than Horatio could acknowledge.]

The nature of command gives little room for the weaknesses of humanity. Those are enemies to be conquered.

I used to think like that. Used to live like that. Didn't feel a whole lot like living at all, though. If you ask me -- which, I understand, you didn't.

I do my duty.

To them. What about to yourself?

[ buffy is the last person who should be talking about this. and then also the first. when it comes to duty, she never picks herself first. she empties herself for anyone else. friends, lovers, slayers, strangers. ]

It is the same duty.

...Oh, come on. I've been on the far end of a week where you have to choose between food and sleep or making that one last patrol for the latest bad guy out to feast on your town. So it's not the same as captaining a ship but I think we both know that the self can get more than erased in the bigger picture.

And, apparently? That's not always a good thing.

But that is our duty. To not be concerned with ourselves. To put those we protect ahead of ourselves.

[And in this conversation, he can forget the differences. He can forget the two hundred years between them, the divide of sex, the politics. He can see another soldier, another commander. Someone who has felt the same weight... perhaps someone who has also almost buckled beneath it.

His voice is low, quiet... and he might well deny this story if she ever repeated it or even mentioned it again, but in the wake of Archie's being taken and the fear he won't come back, it comes out.]

Hotspur was just off the coast of France. Near Christmas. There was even snow on the deck.

It was midnight. I'd been on the quarterdeck watching for any sign of movement, any glimpse of enemy ships, for... for hours. Three. Nearly a whole watch that was not mine to keep.

Mister Bush, my first lieutenant, came up on deck behind him. I did not hear him. He put a boat-cloak over my shoulders-- reached around me and pulled it together.

Until he did that, I hadn't even realized I was shivering.

He seemed like...such a solid guy, when he was here. I liked him. [ softly approving of bush's tactic, avoiding any reproach of horatio himself. ]

The worst things got, back home? The harder I tended to push myself. I still can't get rid of the habit. But us depriving ourselves of the silly little basics. That's -- that's not what I mean, Horatio. I'm talking about getting so caught up in command that we lose the connection. [ he admitted something; now it's her turn. ] I spent a long, long time cut off from the people who should've been close to me, all in in the name of leadership. I convinced myself that I was so unimportant in comparison to them that I forgot they cared. Forgot that they worried. Forgot that they loved me. That's all I'm saying. Let yourself vent and crack now and then so you don't turn into that.

On his ship, a captain is God.

[It is said without ego. This is not boasting, and there is a weight to the words. A weight that makes his usually solid shoulders droop forward.]

He dines with his officers, but rarely. He does not converse with the men under his command. Rarely even his first lieutenant. He is, by the very nature of command, apart from them all. [A position Hornblower took to easily, being of that sort of disposition. Yet it had its strain, mostly because it did not force him to let others in.] He must follow his orders and do what he can to protect his men, but he is disconnected from him. He must be, to command effectively.

Sentiment... Getting too close... It is a weakness in a captain.

[ she has said things just as weighty. i'm the law perhaps being the weightiest.

but: ] So what about Archie? Timelines aside -- I mean, he's a friend. You and him are way more like what my set-up was, back home. Friends and family and allies. Trust. Love. Companionship. You don't cut yourself off from that, right?

Sentimentality is a weakness in a captain.

[He bows his head, staring at his open journal, passing one long, thin hand over his eyes. Finally, letting out a breath, he can reply.

Too much. Too trusting. Yet the words she has said make him hope that this will not come back to haunt him, not be used against him.]

And Archie is one of mine.

That boy is never gonna be a weakness. The way I see it? He can only lend strength. And here I was thinking he was gonna be the last person to figure that out. Looks like there's a tie for last place.

[Any argument will take too much time, reveal too much. He has exposed too many weaknesses here, told her too much already. To talk about Archie further, to say what Archie is to him, what he would do for Archie...

No. That is unnecessary. So he merely bows his head again.]

As you say.

[ an argument would have been met with stories of dawn -- how that girl, too, could never have been a weakness. how she had been wrong to see her as such. how perfectly matched dawn and archie were in that capacity.

but as he gives ground, so does she: ] There might be another way to deal with the feelings. Non-destructive ways.

[And Hornblower would have talked about berating Bush for refusing to shoot a man who had held a gun to him. And how, if not for another man, they would have lost everything...

No. Friends, sentimentality, anyone you... anyone you loved was a weakness, something that could make you put them over your duty.

...For Horatio would have done the same for William or for Archie. Too many weaknesses. Far too many weaknesses.]

I... plan to start looking for him. Tomorrow. Just...

[Just because there's nothing else I can do.]

But tonight, how about you tell me a story? Maybe your version of the dead chicken saga.

A story...

[The chicken... Well. That was one of Archie's favourites. But one settled in Horatio's mind, and he smiled faintly.]

Has he told you about jumping off a cliff?

[ she believes she might have heard it -- something to do with bush, right? but she believes herself to be gracious when she sets that knowledge aside and shrugs. ]

Nah. I don't think he has. Do share.

[He is no storyteller, and he knows it. Instantly, he regrets offering even this. Still, he begins where there is no harm in beginning.]

Our crew had just taken a fort, located in Samaná Bay. Part of the local population [the slave population, but that might invite political discussion, and he would not venture that] was rebelling, and we learned that the Spaniards who had held the fort were under siege.

We did not have the men or the arms or the time to keep the fort in our hands, so our acting-captain, Buckland-- damned fool of a man, but that hardly matters for this-- ordered the fort destroyed, so it would be of no use to the rebels. [How Buckland became acting captain, he would not bother with. That was too convoluted a tale, best left untold now. Though, as it always did when he spoke of Buckland, a strain of true bitterness entered his voice, disdain...

Coming from a man who rarely spoke ill of anyone.] It was a task that required only one man.

[ buffy does the man a favour and does not chase his strained tones. mostly, she sees too much of herself in that bitterness. while her flashy language and unique idioms seem as though they ought to lend themselves to story-telling, time and time again she has found that her tales were just too dark to share. even the sweeter, more innocent stories were mixed up in terrible things. so when she hears his hesitation on some points, she decides that he too must be unable to wholly divorce the better story fodder from the darker moments. ]

But did only one man go?

[Archie spoke about telling stories of heroics as if it were easy. With a soldier, one might explain the rough edges, but, as they had spoken about it, telling such things to a wife... How did one separate the good and the bad?]

I thought so.

At least until I was laying the charges when, to my surprise, there's another Englishman speaking to me. Archie. And William Bush following right behind him.

We lit the charges, fort went up in smoke. All well and good...

Until we realized that our ship, Renown had not expected survivors and was, thus, heading out to sea. Acting-captain Buckland, you see, had no idea that there were three members of his crew-- three officers still on shore.

One might have been expendable. [And had been considered such.]

But the fort behind us was useless and we had a rebel army on their way.

[ if one ignored the worst of the implications -- and they were there, lurking under the surface -- it was a rather exciting, daring tale. ]

How very action-adventure. How long did you guys have?

["So, Mister Buckland. The destruction of the fort. Did you expect Mister Hornblower to survive it?"
"Of course."
"Did you want him to survive it?"
"I resent that, sir."
"With respect, Commodore, I must object to this accusation, which has no bearing on the charges before us."
"Your objection is noted. Mister Buckland, resent it or resent it not, did you want Mister Hornblower to survive?"
"I do not send men to their deaths, sir."

The words of the court martial echoed in his mind. He had known even then that Buckland's final say on the matter had been a lie. Perhaps he had expected him survive. But he he had not wanted him to. Otherwise, he would have sent either William Bush-- who was Hornblower's senior and Buckland's direct subordinate and who should have been trusted with the assignment-- or the furthest subordinate lieutenant, Archie Kennedy. There was, and they had all known it, no reason to explicitly send the third lieutenant...

Except to remove him.

But that was not the story at hand, and he put the idea out of mind for now.]

Well, as you can imagine, having seen the size of a seventy-four-- Justinian isn't identical to Renown, but they're about the same size, at least-- those ships do not easily come about. Plus it would have been a waste of a wind.

So the only way to come back for us would be to let me row a small boat back. The ship can cover in a minute what can take men rowing... if the breeze is only fair, then ten minutes. But that is being generous.

So every second was vital, standing on that cliff top and watching the Renown head out for sea.

[Worse still for a man scared of heights, peering over the edge. But he did not yet divulge that detail.]

So you had to jump. And jump fast. What was the water like, below?

Very cool, but we'd been blowing up a fort in the middle of the Caribbean at midday. It wasn't unwelcome.

[He chuckled.]

We had to drag Mister Bush off the cliff-- Archie and I. He demanded we abandon our course of action immediately... and thankfully decided not to be too cross that we defied a superior officer.

...Of course part of his hesitation might have been over the fact that he could not swim.

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