He closed the glass with a snap. "Lay her on the larboard tack and prepare to shorten sail, Mr. Stepkyne."
Stepkyne touched his hat, "Aye, aye, sir." He rarely said much, unless to use his tongue on some clumsy or careless seaman. He seemed unwilling or unable to share either confidence or casual conversation with his brother officers, and Bolitho knew as little about him now as the first day he had met him. For all that, he was a very capable seaman, and Bolitho had been unable to find fault with any task he had carried out.
Even now he was rapping out orders, his hands on his hips as he watched the men being roused once more to man braces and halyards.
Bolitho shut Stepkyne's cold efficiency and Inch's bumbling efforts from his mind. If the weather moderated, just for a few days, even Inch would get a chance to drill the hands to better results.
He said curtly, "Steer east by south, Mr. Gossett."
The masthead lookout's voice called faintly above the cracking canvas, "Three sail o' th' line, sir!" A pause while every unemployed eye peered aloft at the tiny figure outlined against the racing clouds. "Leadin' ship wears a broad pendant, sir!"
A shoe scraped on the deck and Bolitho saw Inch hurrying towards him, some biscuit crumbs clinging to his coat.
He touched his hat. "I am sorry to be late on deck sir." He glanced round anxiously. "I must have fallen asleep for a moment."
Bolitho studied him gravely. He would have to do something about Inch, he thought. He looked desperately tired, and there were dark shadows under his eyes.
He said quietly, "You, may call all hands now, Mr. Inch. We will be up with the squadron directly and may have to wear ship or heave to." He smiled. "Commodores are no different from admirals when it comes to immediate requirements."
But Inch merely nodded glumly. "Aye, aye, sir."
Slowly but surely the other ships grew out of the tossing murk until they stood in line, hulls shining with spray, their reefed topsails straining and gleaming like pressed steel in the blustering wind.
They were all seventy-fours like Hyperion, and to a landsman might look as much alike as peas in a pod. But Bolitho knew from hard experience that even ships launched side by side in the same dockyard could be as unalike as salt from wine, just as their individual captains might choose to make them.
Gossett, who had been studying the leading two-decker, said absently, "I know the commodore's ship well enough, sir. She's the Indomitable, Cap'n Winstanley. I fought alongside 'er in '81." He glanced severely at Midshipman Gascoigne. "You should 'ave seen 'er and reported earlier, young gentleman!'
Bolitho studied the leading ship through narrowed eyes as flags broke from her yards, and after what seemed like mere seconds the whole line tacked slowly round until the Indomitable was running almost parallel with Hyperion and barely two cables distant. Even without a glass it was possible to see the great streaks of caked salt and sea slime around her beakhead and bows, while as she plunged heavily into a shallow trough her lower gunports were momentarily awash. But her sail drill and manoeuvring were impeccable, and behind him Bolitho heard Gosset murmur, "Cap'n Winstanley 'as the feel of the old lady well enough." From him that was praise of the highest order.
This time Gascoigne was ready. As more balls soared up the Indomitable's yards and broke stiffly to the wind he yelled, "Flag to Hyperion. Captain repair on board forthwith!"
Bolitho smiled grimly. No doubt the commodore was impatient to hear what his old enemy had said about him.
"Heave to, if you please. Call away my barge."
He stared at the leaping wavecrests and imagined his bargemen cursing the commodore for his early summons.
With the hands straining at the braces and the sails cracking and booming like cannonshots the Hyperion swung slowly and unwillingly into the wind, while Tomlin bellowed lustily at his boat-handling party to sway Bolitho's barge up and clear of the nettings. One of the steadying lines from the barge caught a young seaman round the throat and he fell heavily against some of the men at the main topsail brace. For an instant there was complete confusion, with the spray-swollen rope screaming out through its block, and bodies falling and scattering like puppets until a bosun's mate hurled himself into the mass of shouting and cursing men and checked it himself.
Stepkyne, who was in charge of the main deck seized the unfortunate seaman and yelled at him, their faces only inches apart. "You stupid, whimpering bugger! I'll teach you to behave!"
The seaman held up his hand to his throat which had been flayed raw by the steadying line. "But, sir, I couldn't help it!" He was almost weeping. "Worn't my fault, sir!"
Stepkyne seemed beside himself. Had the bosun's mate not intervened the confusion might have caused a disaster, especially to the men working aloft on the topsail yard, but with the weight of the boat on one end of the line and the strength of several bargemen on the other, the man was lucky not to have lost his head.
Inch gripped the quarterdeck rail and shouted above the wind, "Fend off that boat! And you can dismiss that man below to the surgeon, Mr. Stepkyne!"
The wretched seaman scurried for the hatch but Stepkyne stood his ground, his eyes blazing as he stared up at the quarterdeck. "Need never have happened! If these men had been properly drilled that fool would have seen the danger in time!"
Allday called, "Barge is alongside, Captain!" But his eyes were on Inch and Stepkyne.
Bolitho ran quickly down the quarterdeck ladder and said coldly, "When I return I will see you in my cabin, Mr. Stepkyne. When an order is passed you will do well to obey it without question, do you understand?"
He kept his voice low, but knew the damage was done. Stepkyne was wrong to question Inch, let alone criticise his actions. But Bolitho knew too that his anger was justified. Inch should have checked each man before allotting him his station. Especially new and untried ones.
More than anything else he blamed himself for allowing Inch to remain as first lieutenant.
Touching his hat briefly he lowered himself through the entry port, and after waiting a few seconds jumped outward and down into the pitching barge.
As the boat pulled clear of the side Bolitho did not look back. It would all be waiting for him when he returned, by which time he must decide what action to take.
Captain Amelius Winstanley was ready to receive Bolitho at the Indomitable's entry port, and even before the trilling pipes had fallen silent he stepped forward and gripped his hand and wrung it warmly with obvious relief.
"A man after my own heart, Bolitho!" He was grinning as Bolitho endeavoured to straighten his cocked hat and readjust his sword. "I never could take a bosun's chair up the side of a strange ship m'self either!"
Bolithb recovered his breath and tried to ignore the rivulets of water which were running down his chest and legs. The barge had made a rough passage to the flagship, but the last part had been -by far the worst. As the Indomitable's towering side had lifted and. rolled above them he had stood swaying in the sternsheets, his teeth gritted to control his impatience and apprehension as the bowman made one frantic attempt after another to hook on to the ship's main chains and secure the madly tossing boat. Once, when an anxious Allday had reached up to steady his arm he had rasped, "I can manage, damn you!" And it was perhaps his coxswain's obvious lack of confidence in his ability to jump the wide gap to the ship's side which had finally decided him to decline the offer of a bosun's chair. It was far safer, but Bolitho had always considered it undignified when he had watched other captains swaying above a ship's side, legs spiralling, while seamen busily manipulated guide lines as if they were handling so much cargo.