Mutiny (49 page)

_{Kydd lowered his head,
and tried to cool his anger. Renzi's words made sense: there was nothing at all
he could do about his situation other than humbly accept his fortune and move
on.}

_{'Shall we rejoin Kitty?' Renzi said
gendy. 'I have been promised a mutton pie, which I lust for.'}

_{Kydd sat for a litde
longer, then lifted his head. 'Yes.' He stood facing the far-off men-o'-war.
'It's all over, then, Nicholas,' he said thickly. His eyes glistened.}

_{'All
over, my dear friend.'}

_{They
walked together down the hill.}

_{'Nicholas,'
Kydd began hesitantly, 'y'r decision t' return to y' family. May I know—' 'My
position is unaltered.'}

_{'Welcome aboard, Mr Kydd. You're in
Mr Monckton's watch, he'll be expectin' you.' The master of HMS Triumph shook
Kydd's hand and escorted him below. A considerate Hartwell had ensured that he
would rejoin the fleet as a master's mate in a new ship, a well-tried 74-gun
vessel in for minor repair.}

_{Monckton looked at him
keenly. 'I heard you were caught up in the late mutiny.'}

_{Kydd tensed, then said carefully, 'Aye,
sir, I was.' He returned the curious gaze steadily.}

_{Monckton did not pursue
the matter, and went on to outline Kydd's duties and battle quarters. He looked
at Kydd again, then added, 'And everyone knows of your splendid open-boat
voyage. I'm sure you'll be a credit to Triumph, Mr Kydd.'}

_{The ship was due to
return to station at Yarmouth, but first she joined others in taking position
in the Medway, at Blackstakes. Kydd knew what was happening — Sandwich was
moored midstream, ships of the fleet around her. On the banks of the river
spectator stands were erected; at Queenborough and the public landing place at
Sheerness small craft were sculling about, kept in their place by naval
guardboats.}

_{Troops filed out of the
fort and along the foreshore. With fixed bayonets they faced seaward in a
double line towards Sandwich. The crowd surged behind them, chattering
excitedly, and boats started heading towards the big three-decker.}

_{At
nine, the frigate Espion fired a fo'c'sle gun. A yellow flag broke at her
masthead, the fleet signal for capital punishment. Sandwich obediently hoisted
a yellow flag in turn.}

_{Kydd watched with an
expression of stone, but his soul wept.}

_{Just a few hundred
yards away a temporary platform had been built on the starboard cathead, a
scaffold -the prominence would give a crowd-pleasing view.}

_{'Clear lower deck! Haaaands to muster,
t' witness punishment!' The boatswain's mates of HMS Triumph stalked about
below until the whole ship's company was on deck, many in the rigging, the
fighting tops and even out along the yards.}

_{Kydd stood between the
officers and the seamen, and moved to the ship's side. In Sandwich the men had
similarly been called on deck, with marines in solid ranks forward and aft.}

_{A rusde of sighs arose
at the sight of a figure entirely in black emerging on deck from the main
hatchway, flanked with an escort. It was too far away to distinguish features,
but Kydd knew who it was.}

_{Parker paused. His face
could be seen looking about as if in amazement at the scene. Over on the Isle
of Grain women jostled each other for the best view of the spectacle and men
stood on the seafront with telescopes trained.}

_{The distant prisoner
knelt for a few moments before a chaplain on the quarterdeck. When he arose his
hands were bound and he passed down the length of the vessel to the fo'c'sle,
then to the cathead under the fore yardarm.}

_{An
interchange occurred; was Parker being allowed to speak? It seemed he was, and
he turned aft to address his old shipmates. The provost marshal approached with
the halter, which would be bent to the yard-rope, but there was some difficulty,
and the presiding boatswain's mate was needed to secure the halter above. The
provost marshal put a handkerchief into Parker's hands, and he stumbled up to
the scaffold. The officer pulled a hood over Parker's head, then stepped down.}

_{Parker stood alone. A
party of seamen was ranged down the deck with the yard-rope fall ready to pull.
The signal to haul would be a fo'c'sle gun, their cue apparently Parker's
handkerchief.}

_{In that endless moment
Kydd struggled for control, the edge of madness very near.}

_{Without warning Parker
jumped into space. Taken by surprise, the gun then fired, and the sailors ran
away with the hanging rope, jerking Parker's body up. It contorted once, then
hung stark. A handkerchief fluttered gently to the water.}

_{Kydd bit his lip. Even to the last
Parker had thought of the seamen: he had effectively hanged himself to spare
them the guilt.}

_{The next day five vessels at the Great
Nore flew the Blue Peter; Triumph was one. The North Sea squadron would be
whole again, and at sea.}

_{Of all the memories Sheerness would
hold, there was one that shone like a beacon for Kydd. He secured an
understanding permission to go ashore for a few hours before the ship sailed,
and stepped out for the hulks.}

_{'Kitty,
how do I find ye?' He hugged her close.}

_{'Come in, Tom,
darlin',' she said, but her voice was tired, subdued.}

_{Kydd entered the
familiar room and sat in the armchair. Kitty went to fetch him an ale. 'I'm
master's mate in Triumph seventy-four,' he called to her. 'She's gettin' on in
years but a good 'un - Cap'n Essington.'}

_{She didn't reply, but
returned with his tankard. He looked at her while he drank. 'We're North Sea
squadron,' he explained. 'C'n expect to fall back on Sheerness t' vittle 'n'
repair, ye know.'}

_{'Yes, Tom,' she said, then unexpectedly
kissed him before sitting down opposite.}

_{Kydd looked at her
fondly. 'Kitty, I've been thinkin', maybe you 'n' me should—'}

_{'No, Tom.' She looked
him in the eyes. 'I've been thinkin' too, m' love.' She looked away. 'I told ye
I was fey, didn't I?'}

_{'V did, Kitty.'}

_{She leaned forward.
'Tom Kydd, in y'r stars it's sayin' that y're going t' be a great man — truly!'}

_{'Ah, I don' reckon on
that kind o' thing, Kitty,' Kydd said, pink with embarrassment.}

_{'You will be, m' love,
mark my words.' The light died in her eyes. 'An' when that day comes, you'll
have a lady who'll be by y'r side an' part o' your world.'}

_{'Aye, but—'}

_{'Tom, y' know little of
the female sex. Do y' think I'd want t' be there, among all them lords 'n'
their ladies, knowin' they were giggling' behind y'r back at this jumped-up
seamstress o' buntin'? Havin' the fat ol' ladies liftin' their noses 'cos I
don't know manners? Have you all th' time apologisin' for your wife? No, dear
Tom, I don' want that. 'Sides, I couldn't stand th' life - I'm free t' do what
I want now.' She came over and held his hand. 'Next week, I'm leavin'
Sheerness. What wi' Ned 'n' all, there's too many memories here. I'm off t' my
father in Bristol.' 'Kitty, I'll write, let me—'}

_{'No, love. It's
better t' say our goodbye now. I remember Ned once said, "A ship's like a
woman. To think kindly of her, y' have t' leave her while y'r still in
love." That's us, Tom.'}

_{Triumph put to sea, her destination
in no doubt. She would be part of Admiral Duncan's vital North Sea squadron,
there to prevent the powerful Dutch fleet emerging from the Texel anchorage. If
they did — if the Channel was theirs for just hours — the French could at last
begin the conquest of England.}

_{It was at some cost to
ships and men: beating up and down the coast of Holland, the French-occupied
Batavian Republic, was hard, dangerous work. The land was low and fringed with
invisible sandbanks, a fearful danger for ships who had to keep in with the
land, deep-sea ships whose keels brushed shoals while the Dutch vessels,
designed with shallow draught, could sail down the coast and away.}

_{But it was also a priceless school
for seamen. With prevailing winds in the west, the coast was a perpetual lee
shore threatening shipwreck to any caught close in by stormy winds. And as the
warm airs of summer were replaced by the cool blusters of autumn and the chill
hammering of early winter, it needed all the seamanship the Royal Navy had at
its command to stay on station off the Texel.}

_{Kydd hardened, as much
as by conflicts within as by the ceaseless work of keeping the seas. The mutiny
of two months ago was now receding into the past, but he had still not put it
truly behind him.}

_{He accepted the
precious gift of reprieve, however achieved: life itself. But so many had paid
the price: the gentle Coxall, the fiery Hulme, the fine seaman Davis, Joe
Fearon, Charles McCarthy, Famall, others. The Inflexibles, led by Blake, had
stolen a fishing-smack and gone to an unknown fate in France.}

_{It could have been
worse: vengeance had been tempered, and of the ten thousand men involved, only
four hundred had faced a court, and less than thirty had met their end at a
yardarm.}

_{To say farewell to
Kitty had brought pain and loneliness, and with Renzi about to return to his
previous life, there was now not a soul he could say was truly his friend,
someone who would know him, forgive his oddities as he would theirs in the
human transactions that were friendship.}

_{His reticence about
speaking of recent events had stifled social conversation, and a burning need
to be hard on himself had extended to others, further isolating him. He
withdrew into himself, his spirit shrivelling.}

_{Days, weeks, months,
the same ships that had been in open mutiny were now at sea so continuously
that the first symptoms of scurvy appeared. Sails frayed, ropes stranded,
timbers failed, and still they remained on station. By October signals from the
flagship showed that even the doughty Duncan was prepared to return to Yarmouth
to revictual and repair.}

_{The
storm-battered fleet anchored, but there would be no rest. Duncan had said, 'I
shall not set foot out of my ship . .-.'It would be a foolhardy captain indeed
who found he had business ashore. Storing ship, caulking gaping seams, bending
on winter canvas — there was no rest for any.}

_{Then, early one morning in the teeth of
a northwesterly blow, the Black Joke, an armed lugger, appeared from out of
the sea fret to seaward of Yarmouth sands. Signal flags whipped furiously to
leeward; a small gun cracked out to give emphasis to them, the smoke snatched
away in the stiff wind. 'Glory be!' said Triumph's officer-of-the-watch peering
through his telescope. 'An' I do believe the Dutch are out!'}

_{By noon the North Sea
squadron had secured for sea, and without a minute lost, Duncan's fleet put out
into the white-streaked waters under a dark, brooding sky with every piece of
canvas that could draw set on straining spars.}

_{The wind, however, was
astern; the fleet streamed towards Holland in an exhilarating and terrifying
charge. The next day they raised land, the Texel, the ancient home of the Dutch
fleet, low, sprawling and foreboding under grey skies.}

_{The Dutch were not
there, but Duncan's scouts were. Their dogged tracking of the enemy fleet
enabled them to inform Duncan that indeed the Dutch were at sea -and heading
southwards. The British fleet wheeled to follow, keeping the shore in sight
under their lee all the time. Now at last there was a chance that the enemy
could be brought to bay.}

_{If they caught up, then
without doubt there would be a major battle, a formal clash of fleets that
would enter history. The stakes could hardly be higher: if they lost the day
then the way would be clear for enemy troops to make a landing on the shores of
England.}

_{It would be Kydd's
first major fleet action. He almost looked forward to the fight: a purging by
combat of all the devils that haunted his soul.}

_{But would ex-mutineers
fight? Under Lieutenant Monckton, Kydd was in charge of the centre main-deck
twenty-four-pounders, and to his certain knowledge there were five in the
gun-crews he had seen parading under the red flag, including both
quarter-gunners.}