“These ships come with crews,” said Elena, matter of factly.
“They do, but then we add impressment to commandeering and I’d say we’ll make a fine ship of pirates, all out for a little unscheduled jaunt to the Greek islands and back. Of course, there’s no Royal Navy in the Med to be worrying about, and no one will mind one whit if we do such things.”
Morgan was being sarcastic, of course, for there was a strong Royal Navy presence in the Med that year, commanded by Admiral Nelson himself, intent on blockading the port of Toulon. He wasted little time sharing this information with Elena, folding his arms with the sort of finality that said he had made an unassailable point to settle the argument.
“That would be a fine mess—Lord Nelson out after us with half the British Mediterranean Squadron.”
“How would he possibly know we were at sea,” Elena protested. “Come on now, Mack, it’s not like the folks at Gibraltar are going to get off a radio message to the man. There’s no way he could be contacted before we’ve done our business and returned.”
“Are you so sure of that?” Morgan wasn’t giving up his hill. “Suppose a ship is dispatched after us, and they get to Nelson with news that one of their vessels has been seized by pirates? We’ve no way of knowing that Nelson would never learn of our doings.”
“Of course, there’s always a risk, but I like my odds that we would get away Scot-free, and remain unbothered by the Royal Navy.”
“I’m not so sure,” said Morgan. “These ships might be lucky to make 12 knots, on a good day, and the wind won’t always be our friend. So let’s just say you average ten knots, day and night. That will be nearly a week to the destination, weather permitting. If we give ourselves some leeway, let’s say ten days out, a few days ashore, and ten days back. It’s only 800 nautical miles to Toulon from Gibraltar. If anyone follows us, or sends word to Nelson by ship, he could learn that we’ve pirated this ship four days after we leave!”
“Speculation,” Elena waved her hand.
“And then the good Admiral could have a squadron patrolling the Sicilian Narrows to intercept us on the way home.” Morgan persisted.
“How would they know we’d be returning to Gibraltar?”
“He wouldn’t, but he might easily calculate our farthest on, and if anyone spots our direction as heading east into the Med, he’d know our approximate whereabouts the day he receives the news, at least along that circle. In fact, that’s where we’d be—right in the Sicilian Narrows four days out of port from Gibraltar.”
“Mack, we could be anywhere within that farthest on. There’s no way he could determine our real location, and even if he did, Toulon is what, 500 miles north of the Sicilian Narrows? He could get the news, send out his ships, and we’d be two days ahead of them. They’d never find us.”
Morgan was getting more frustrated. “I don’t like it,” he said. “There was a lot going on in the Med. The bloody Americans even had a military naval squadron there, out after the very sort of thing we’d be doing—piracy! Ever hear of the Barbary Pirates? They operated off the Algerian and Libyan coast, and used Tripoli as a main harbor. Miss Fairchild, these are dangerous waters. So I hope you plan on hijacking a warship. It’s very likely that we’ll run into other ships, and some may not be friendly, even if we do give Lord Nelson the slip.”
“Point taken,” said Elena. “But we can handle ourselves.”
“Aye, that we can,” said Gordon. He had been listening, somewhat amused with Morgan’s frustration, but he knew the man had good reason for his misgivings, and now he spoke. “There’s one other consideration. It occurred to me while I was having tea on the weather deck yesterday after we concocted this plan. I looked down and saw that a curious fly was fluttering about in my tea! If we do this, I thought, then we’ll be the fly in the teacup.”
Elena looked at him, knowing he meant more with that metaphor than a simple reinforcement of Mack Morgan’s warning of danger. “You mean the history,” she said, giving him a look.
“Aye, the history. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think it will record that an intrepid group of men in strange garb, escorting a lovely lady, seized and commandeered a military vessel in Gibraltar, crew and all, and then high-tailed it out to sea. We’re going to make waves, Elena, just like that fly fluttering in the last of my tea. We’re going to change things.”
Elena was silent, the words of the Prime Minister still in her mind: “Might I advise caution while you are there. I know your Argonauts are quite effective, but a bullet in the wrong place might have some alarming repercussions. You might shoot someone’s grandfather, if you fathom what I’m getting at.”
Morgan knew enough not to say another word, for Captain MacRae had just put forward the real problem with this whole idea—contamination of the time meridian. Yes, they were going to change things. Their very presence in that year would be an anomaly, and every breath they would take would be stolen from history of 1804.
The two scouts they sent through the passage beneath St. Michael’s Cave had already caused a little trouble, raising suspicion of the local constabulary and being chased into the cave as a result. They evaded further discovery, and were lucky to take the correct passage that led them to the severed rope, leading the way home. Elena had her team throw it down through the crevasse, with a lit flashlight tied to the end, all in the hope they would find it. She got lucky with that fishing expedition, but even so, one of her men came back with Yellow Fever. So there were more things to worry about than Lord Nelson, the Royal Navy, and the Barbary Pirates of the Med. They might have an encounter—do something—that ended up creating a transformation in the history, and the Captain had finally hit a nerve.
“Now,” said Gordon. “The less we shove, the better. What’s all this talk about commandeering a ship? We could be gentlemanly, and see if we might buy passage east out of Gibraltar instead of trying to take a ship there by force. To my mind, the less force used, the better. Gold has a way of opening doors and gaining cooperation, doesn’t it? I’ll warrant there will be more than a few hungry sea captains there who might like to undertake a charter for wealthy patrons. Going that route eliminates all this talk of Lord Nelson, though we’d still have those Barbary Pirates to consider.”
“Good point, Gordon,” said Elena, and Morgan gave him those eyes again, for he had just solved one problem, but still threw a log on her fire.
“We’ll take along a good sum of gold….” Elena was thinking. “I didn’t think we could find coin that would be legal tender for that time period, but Mister Churchill put in a call to the Bank of England, and was able to get me a good sum in old King George III Spade Guineas issued between 1787 and 1799. They were worth a Pound back then, but in our time, they sell for as much as £1,000, so it was a very generous offer. I have some ingots in the safe here as well, just in case we need more buying power. Once we get there, we might use them to obtain more currency.”
“Gold glitters better than anything,” said MacRae.
“So we’ll be trotting about with ingots of gold in our haversacks?” Morgan was still objecting.
“It won’t take many,” said Elena. “The coinage we have should suffice. In fact, because of the threat of invasion by Napoleon, the Banks were somewhat skittish, and hoarding their coin. They issued one and two pound notes, though they were not in wide circulation. There’s no chance we could find those, so the coins the Prime Minister provided will have to do. I’ve a hundred Spade Guineas, and another twenty pounds in Shillings for our walking around money. That should do. Most people of that day might never even see a Guinea come their way. They earned five to ten shillings per week, if they were lucky, with an average annual income of no more than 20 pounds. So even a few small gold ingots would go a very long way if we need them, and for that matter, we could also take diamonds.”