Chapter 18: Fitting Out

The week in High Matcham ended much too fast. Both Tony and Harriet felt that the house and the surrounding land had grown on them, but they had to return to Portsmouth. They started out early on that Thursday morning, and Nadine Blacket accompanied them in the coach. Of course, with their faithful housekeeper on board, there was no danger of starving. They stopped in the village to drop off John Little at the tavern. He would collect the volunteers and follow in a second, smaller coach that Tony had rented for the purpose, together with parts of their luggage. He was surprised to see not three, but seven volunteers waiting for Little. Word had spread, and four more boys had decided to try their luck in the Navy. That would make for cramped seating, but would give them a first taste of the living conditions on board his Majesty’s ships, Tony thought grimly.

They reached Portsmouth before evening. The house was cold and dark, and Tony thought he would need to have staff for both of his houses after his return to England.

“Let us get a fire going and then have dinner at Carpenter’s,” Tony suggested.

“Zat is a good idea, Sir Anthony,” Nadine agreed. “By ze time you get back, I shall ‘ave ze fire going and ze kitchen hearz, too.”

“No, I meant all of us,” Tony laughed.

“But I could not...” Nadine began.

“Disobey my orders?” Tony continued. “No I suppose you couldn’t. Let us go then.”

Harriet pressed her husband’s arm to show her agreement. Quickly, a fire was started in the great kitchen hearth, and coals were added. A fire in the great fireplace in the living room would make no sense, and so they left the house, a reluctant Nadine Blacket in tow.

Carpenter’s was crowded, but the head waiter saw Tony’s rich uniform and Harriet’s costly dress. He overlooked Nadine’s plain but well-cut clothes and seated them at a table fairly towards the front. Somebody waved at them from a table further in the back, and Tony squinted his eyes.

“That’s Elizabeth,” Harriet smiled and rushed over to greet the woman. After ordering wine and an entree, Tony joined them. Elizabeth was sitting with a woman Tony knew from somewhere. Yes, it was Mrs. Archer, Gwendolyn Archer, the widowed daughter of Sir Robert Norton, the merchant, and now a cloth merchant in her own right as Tony remembered.

“Mrs. Archer, Miss Wilson, I am enchanted to see you again,” he said, bowing politely.

“Sir Anthony, the joy is mine and mine only. And this must be Lady Carter? I am Gwendolyn Archer. I am happy to meet you. Your husband braved my mother’s attempts to snare him for me, and now that I meet you, I can see what made him so resistant to my charms,” she added, laughing happily.

Harriet had heard the story from Tony, and she could easily recognise the self-assured woman from Tony’s tale.

“I am happy to meet you too, but please call me Harriet. What brings you to Portsmouth, if I may be so curious.”

“This young woman does. A friend of mine was here in town, and unexpectedly, she needed an evening gown. She was referred to Miss Wilson, she was fitted for a gown, and she could not stop talking about it. I also remembered Sir Anthony talking about the talented seamstress who tailored his uniforms. So, here I am. I am a cloth merchant, a business that I inherited from my husband. I love beautiful dresses and gowns, too. I wanted to talk Miss Wilson into a partnership.”

“I accepted,” Elizabeth answered in a small voice as if she still could not believe it. “Just think of it: I shall move my shop to London! In Bond Street! I, Elizabeth Wilson, seamstress.”

“Oh come on, Elizabeth, I always told you that you are far more than a seamstress. You should have heard the people when they saw my wedding gown! I spread your name in London already. You will find customers in no time, dear,” Harriet encouraged her erstwhile rival.

“I see that the sommelier is coming with our wine,” Tony interrupted. “Would you care to join us at our table?”

They did, and it turned out to be a delightful evening. Even Nadine Blacket thawed once the food arrived, and she commented favourably on its quality, to the quiet amusement of the others. It was almost midnight when the company parted, and everybody agreed it had been a wonderful evening. Harriet promised to visit Elizabeth’s shop the next morning to place an order for her travel clothes, joking that she had to hurry before Elizabeth’s prices went up too far.

After a rather short night, Tony was up early since he had to inspect his ship, and over the next days, he immersed himself in the various tasks involved in the fitting out of a ship of the line. As promised, Sir Richard Lambert had collected information about the available officers and had recommended several for his son-in-law’s attention. He would have to interview them over the next days. The ship now had its full complement of standing officers: sailing master, purser, boatswain, sail-maker, cook, gunner, cooper, and carpenter. Two of those were wardroom members, the purser, Mr. Juliard, a tallish man of Tony’s age, and the sailing master, Mr. Jones, likely the oldest man on board. Mr. Galbraith was still in charge of the efforts, but it had been made clear to Tony that the position of First Lieutenant had to be filled with a senior lieutenant. That requirement was easily met by Mr. Percival Dougherty, who was interviewed by Tony as the first candidate. He lived in Portsmouth, and had been on half pay since his former ship had paid off to be broken up. He was in his late thirties and had held officer’s rank for nearly sixteen years. There was not a single negative remark about him in the papers that he presented, but he had been in the wrong ships at the wrong times, never seeing decisive action, never getting a chance to prove himself. There was a trace of resentment in his eyes at being interviewed by a senior captain eight years his junior, but immeasurably senior to him in the service. That could be a difficult relationship, Tony mused, but the man deserved a chance.

“Mr. Dougherty, first let me tell you that I shall appreciate an officer with your vast experience to serve under me.”

Mr. Dougherty nodded, already expecting a qualifier. It came.

“However, I need to make one thing clear right from the start. A ship under my command is run my way. As my second-in-command, I expect unconditional loyalty from you. You will have to enforce the discipline on board, but the right to dole out corporal punishment will rest with me alone. I believe in a fair treatment of the crew, including appropriate provisions and clothing. My crews have always been loyal to me because I was loyal to them, and my record speaks for itself. Do you see any problems with that? Please answer honestly.”

Dougherty only needed a second to shake his head.

“As long as discipline is maintained, Sir, I fully approve of your methods. You can rely on my loyalty, Sir.”

“That is good to hear, Mr. Dougherty. When do you wish to start?”

“Right away, Sir? There is no such thing as being too early in the service.”

“I shall write a notice to this effect to the port admiral. We shall have passengers en route to Barbados. Sir Pierce Fallon will be accompanied by Lady Fallon, and Lady Carter will accompany me as well. We shall need sleeping accommodations for at least two maidservants on both decks. There may also be one additional female passenger. Since this is a roomy ship, this should not be much of a problem.”

Dougherty nodded. “We shall have to make sure the crew dresses properly, then. Are the ladies knowledgeable about the life at sea, Sir?”

“Lady Carter is,” Tony answered smilingly. “Her father is Admiral Sir Richard Lambert, and she travelled to the West Indies when he was commander-in-chief there. Lady Fallon is a novice, I fear, but my wife will help her along. As for the additional passenger, she sailed all the way to the Great South Sea and back, and to my knowledge she never became seasick.”

“I’ll also have a word with the warrant officers and their mates to curb their language, Sir.”

“That is not a bad idea anyway, Mr. Dougherty. You may take your leave now and get your dunnage. I shall inform Mr. Galbraith that you will take over from him.”

“He seems to have done quite well, Sir. There was no slack in those work parties I saw. Is he a senior lieutenant?”

“Five years, give or take. He should rank as 3rd or even 2nd. We shall also have Lt. Dugan. He was a master’s mate in the Clyde under me. Captain Fortescue had no opening for a lieutenant when he passed his exam, and he asked me if I wanted him. You will have one wardroom member who knows my ways already.”

After Mr. Dougherty had gone, Tony’s new secretary, Mr. Derek, brought in the mail, already sorted.

“This looked like a personal letter, Sir Anthony. I didn’t open it, Sir.”

He pointed to an unopened envelope. Tony’s eyebrow shot up when he recognised the sender. He cut the envelope open and began to read.

Tony smiled. This was happy news for Harriet. It was happy news for the Asia and her crew as well, to have a competent surgeon. Another thought came to him. John Sykes, former surgeon of the Clyde was still awaiting his execution. He had appealed to the King for mercy, and Tony hoped the matter would not be decided before he left for Barbados. Although he approved of the verdict, he was not keen on witnessing an execution.

Later that day, a carpenter from the shore came to examine the cabins. Tony and Sir Pierce had their cabins on the quarter deck and on the upper gundeck, respectively, but Sir Pierce had suggested to procure two matching dining tables for either cabin. That way, the tables could be joined and one large table could be set up if the need for on board entertainment arose. For this reason, they had also agreed on identical lamps and chairs. It was a sound idea, Tony thought. The carpenter now took his measurements and Tony specified the order. Harriet and Lady Fallon would get together to pick things such as cushions and curtains. The ship’s carpenter was also ordered to built solid shutters for the windows in the night cabins. Tony knew that some sailors would risk everything to get a glimpse of a woman, and the shutters were meant to forestall any such attempt.

When Tony went ashore in the evening, he felt tired but satisfied. He would have an excellent ship and live in comparable comfort during the next years. There was a nagging worry in the back of his head regarding the crew. He had four hundred hands now, not counting the marine complement, which meant he was over a hundred men short. As soon as he had his wardroom complete, he would send out the officers on recruiting missions into the country side. Another option would be to send boats to smaller villages for night time raids. That would not yield sailors, though, and would only be a last resort. He had already arranged to wine and dine the governor of Bodmin Prison next week, to get as many convicts as possible. Most of these people were no real criminals; petty theft and debt were the main reasons for imprisonment. With good training, they could be useful members of the crew.

Dinner was waiting for him when he arrived home, and so was Harriet. The wide smile on her face told him that she had received a letter from Lucy. This was confirmed after he had claimed a kiss from his wife.

“This is going to be so wonderful! I shall have my husband and my dearest friend with me.”

“And I shall have a competent surgeon on board. It is an excellent arrangement. I have already given orders to have a separate cabin set up for Lucy.”

“You are a darling,” Harriet squealed, kissing him again. “I was at Elizabeth’s, and we talked about my needs on the journey. The woman is wonderful. I complained that skirts can be a problem on board, seeing that the wind can catch in them and blow them up. She will make a special skirt for me with whale bone stays to keep it from flapping. Another one will be made of suede leather, too heavy and stiff to be blown up.”

“I had so hoped for the wind to reveal your charms,” Tony grinned.

“Don’t worry, you’ll see enough of my legs. We’ll share a cabin after all.”

“That sounds promising. I may take you up on that tonight.”

“You do that, darling,” Harriet laughed. She enjoyed the open talk with her husband; there were no secrets between them, no false shame.

“If we keep doing all those wonderful things, there is a good chance that you will be with child soon. You should ask your mother what you may need in that case. Not everything may be available in Bridgetown.”

“You are sweet, thinking about that. As a matter of fact, there is a sea chest in our house in London with all the items I may need. But I shall pass on that kind of warning to Lady Fallon when I’ll meet her. She will come to Portsmouth next week with her husband. I suppose he wants to inspect his flagship. She and I can then decide on the decorations for the cabins.”

After dinner, Tony wrote a letter to his attorney, Mr. Hogsbotham, asking the man to investigate the availability of the Woodbridge manor property and to proceed with the purchase if the price was reasonable. Mr. Hogsbotham was a shrewd man, and Tony trusted his judgement.

They went to bed early that night, and Harriet made good on her promise to give her husband more than a glimpse of her legs.

Two days later, Sir Pierce and his wife arrived in Portsmouth. Together with Tony, the admiral inspected the Asia and he was very pleased with his new flagship. Two more lieutenants had been appointed, both junior to Mr. Galbraith, with two and four years seniority, respectively. The sixth vacancy would be filled with whoever passed the lieutenant’s exam next, Tony was informed by the port admiral. The dinner with the governor of the Bodmin prison had also gone well. Tony informed his admiral that they would receive fifty convicts within the next week. Another eighty hands were needed, and Tony had sent out the new lieutenants to scour the countryside for volunteers. Sir Pierce found no reason to complain.

In the meantime, Harriet had taken care of Lady Fallon, assembling a list of what she would need on a sea journey, things such as soft tallow for her skin and lips, and special ship’s biscuit in tin-lined boxes, safe from the ever-present maggots. The young woman was grateful for the advice and expressed her appreciation for having female company. She was clearly scared of the adventures looming ahead but took heart in the fact that Harriet felt no apprehensions whatsoever. When Harriet mentioned the possibility of a pregnancy, Amanda Fallon smiled shyly, and admitted that she was past possibility in this regard, adding to her apprehensions. This was a sore point for Harriet, with her worries about her prior miscarriage, but she covered her feelings and assuaged the younger woman’s fears, telling her that a prominent London surgeon would serve in Asia. All in all, they parted with the prospect of a budding friendship.

The Fallons accepted a dinner invitation, and they spent a nice evening at the Carters’ house. It helped that Sir Pierce was an old acquaintance of the Lamberts, and it helped that Lady Fallon was a grateful recipient of Harriet’s friendly advances. At eleven o’clock, the guests retired to their lodgings, and Tony and Harriet went to sleep.

“She is terribly shy,” Harriet mused as she peeled herself out of her evening dress. “I imagine life was hard for her. She went to all those expensive schools and the other girls were probably cruel to her.”

“Isn’t her father a rich merchant?” Tony asked, not fully aware of Lady Fallon’s background.

“He only became rich during the last years, since the war started. She told me that she was born in a wooden shack behind her father’s storage. They have the largest mansion in Manchester now, but people don’t forget her humble origin.”

“Well, my background is humble, too.”

“But you grew up in an environment where your abilities and achievements counted. In a girls school, there are no achievements, and abilities are mostly ignored. It is really only about who your parents and grandparents are. I should know, I was just as shallow, spurning the friendship of girls I deemed below me.”

“But you overcame that, Harriet, and that’s quite an achievement.”

“Not before I caused great hurt,” she sighed. “Fortunately, a certain young mate held me in his arms and shattered my prejudice.”

“You would not think that there may be some prejudices left?” Tony asked, opening his arms.

Harriet laughed brightly and leaned back against Tony who hugged her.

“You always make me laugh, Tony. Please don’t ever stop that, it’s one of the reasons I love you so much.”

“And, pray, what might be the other reasons?”

Harriet blushed. “Stop flustering me!”

She snuggled with her back against him and fell asleep in his embrace, with his right hand on her breast.

Tony awoke at dawn. He had a busy day planned, and he cautiously disengaged from Harriet so as not to wake her, but it was too late.

“Good morning, darling,” she mumbled sleepily. “What time is it?”

“A little after six bells,” he answered mechanically, “sorry, 7 o’clock. I heard a ship’s bell from the harbour.”

“Time for a breakfast then?”

“I suppose so. Yes, I better get up. There are things to do, after all.”

“Yes, you are bound to be busy, darling. Thank you for taking such good care of me in spite of your duties,” Harriet smiled. “Give me a kiss, and then we shall break the fast!”

The next week went by in a flurry of activities for both of them. Harriet came on board with Tony to help him furnish the cabins. She had a sense for colours and she knew about furniture, and Tony gave her free rein. The recruiting had gone better than he had feared, yielding 68 new recruits, seventeen of them real volunteers; the rest had been tricked into accepting the signing money, made drunk or both. The Asia was now manned sufficiently to put to sea. They would try to press more men from merchantmen that would come their way. Tony gave orders to begin with the gun drills whilst they were still in port. Once they were in the Channel, they might always encounter a French battleship, and it was better to start the drill as early as possible. By the end of the week, Tony was confident that he could leave the ship for a week.

They had to attend two weddings in the next eight days. James Palmer and Moira McTaggart came first, and a week later, Jonathan Wilkes and Lucy were due to marry. They travelled to London in Harriet’s coach. For the first time, Tony slept in the city house that had been Rupert Palmer’s. The atmosphere was unpleasant. Tony and Harriet had decided to rent the place out during their absence, and Harriet had given the staff notice for mid-March. Some of them, including the butler, had already found new employment and had left. To ease things for the remaining servants, Tony gave each of them a three month’s pay, and that brightened the atmosphere considerably. Only Harriet’s faithful maid servant, Nell Simmons, would continue in her employ and was ready to accompany her to Barbados.

Harriet’s mother had found an agent who would take an inventory of the house, have the personal belongings moved into storage, and then find tenants. They learned soon, that he had already found a candidate both eager to move in and able to match their asking rent. He would move in as soon as the Carters vacated the house after the weddings.

Moira McTaggart’s wedding to James Palmer was a splendid affair and possibly even bigger than Harriet and Tony’s. Lord Brougham had a large number of friends, and his son was popular with his fellow officers. St. Paul’s Cathedral was fairly filled with the guests and with a large number of onlookers and Moira had never looked more beautiful. Her off-white silk dress contrasted splendidly with her long raven hair that fell in waves over her back. Her groom watched her all the time as if he had difficulties believing his luck. Moira, in turn, was beaming at everyone, smiling her way into the hearts of the onlookers.

Harriet and Tony had a place in the front pews, with Harriet being related to James by marriage. There was a mother and daughter couple sitting behind them, the mother grumbling all the time how a young gentleman of James Palmer’s prospects could marry the penniless daughter of a nobody. Harriet had a hard time restraining herself, but when Moira’s veil was lifted, the two women gasped.