Their Lordships Request: A Harry Heron Adventure Read online

  "I know the family of course, sir," replied Harry carefully.

  Captain Blackwood studied him quizzically for a moment. "Yes, I expect you do. There is still an unsettled dispute between you is there not?"

  "I think my family regard it as settled, sir. I cannot answer for the Barclays," Harry responded, not wishing to open this topic in public debate.

  "Quite so, but, if memory serves it was over a claim involving tenants of your family dispossessed by a grant of land made under the Commonwealth, is that not so?"

  "The O'Connors. That is so, sir, but it was settled by the High Court in Dublin over a hundred years ago. The court cleared my great grandfather and censured the Barclay of the time. I believe that matter is closed as far as my family are concerned," replied Harry steadily. He did not explain that the property at Raholp was a part of his family's holding, seized by Cromwell after charges were brought by the Barclay's against his great-grandfather's sire.

  The Heron's having been dispossessed, their tenants were subjected to a campaign of vilification and harassment. That culminated in the seizure of several who, having then been accused of rebellion, where offered for sale and transport to the new world as slaves. Harry's family somehow raised sufficient money to pay the bond price and then worked to frustrate all further attempts in this regard by the Barclays. It reached its conclusion in the High Court some considerable time later – with the court rejecting the Barclay claim to the bounty for rebels and the slave price for the members of the families they had attempted to sell. That they retained the Raholp lands rankled with the Heron's, themselves plantationers granted this land under Queen Elizabeth, with other smaller grants elsewhere in the County, Scrabo being one of these.

  "Hmmm," began Captain Blackwood. "Very well, Mister Heron. I am, as Captain Cooke has no doubt informed you, to offer you an opportunity to transfer to my ship. I have vacancies for two midshipmen. Knowing your family, I feel you could be one of them, but I must warn you Midshipman Barclay will be the Gunroom Senior. I should understand perfectly if you were to decline this opportunity."

  Harry replied, "Sir, I feel I should accept this post, but I am torn by the fact Captain Cooke accepted me as one of his Midshipmen and I owe him a debt of loyalty for it."

  "Nonsense, my boy," Captain Cooke responded. "I took you on as a Midshipman for the very good reason I saw in you a likely lad. You have more than lived up to my expectations, as have you, Mister Tanner. That is why I have commended you both to Captain Blackwood." The Captain paused. "Make no doubt, this ship will be tied to her moorings for some time, reduced to men enough to work the ship if the need arises and no more. Captain Blackwood is to undertake a voyage which will provide you both with an opportunity to learn your craft as few others will do."

  "Thank you, sir."

  "This ill feeling between your family and the Barclays, do you think it will make it impossible for you to do your duty aboard the Spartan? If so, tell us now and I will see what else I can do for you."

  "I do not see an old dispute need stand between me and my duty, sir. If Mister Barclay is prepared to leave the past aside, then I have no misgivings on that head," replied Harry.

  "Well said," replied Captain Blackwood. "Then I think we can make the necessary transfer through the Port Admiral." He paused frowning, then asked, "You brought a man with you to this ship did you not? Will he wish to transfer with you?"

  "Ferghal?" I cannot speak for him entirely, but he has said on many occasions he would wish to stay on the same ship as myself, sir."

  "And does he have a name other than just Ferghal?"

  "Aye, sir, it is O'Connor."

  Captain Blackwood sat back and gave Harry a long considering look. Then he said, "I guessed as much. Your father's groom's son by any chance?"

  "Aye, sir, we have grown up together and Ferghal was my companion in the school room at Scrabo."

  "Very well, but you'd best tell him of Mister Barclay's position yourself. Warn him I will not tolerate insubordination no matter the provocation, is that clear?"

  "Aye, aye, sir."

  -

  After a few more minutes of conversation with Kit Tanner, the pair were dismissed to collect their chests and possessions. "Be at the entry port for the boat at eight bells in the afternoon, gentlemen."

  Hurrying below to the Gunroom, Kit Tanner said, "Whew, for a minute there I thought you might refuse the offer. What is this dispute between your family and this Barclay?"

  "It is as I told the Captain, it goes back to Cromwell's Commonwealth and the laws enacted to suppress rebellion. The Barclays tried to have our tenants attainted and sold into slavery in the Americas, the fate of many of my countrymen, but my ancestor succeeded in preventing it, at no small cost to our family. The Barclays have resented that ever since."

  "So the feud is over the treatment of some tenants?"

  He raised his chin and looked directly into Kit's eye. "We Herons look after our own and fight our own fights, unlike the Barclays who bully when they can and draw in allies when they cannot. You will do well to guard your own back with this one, Kit. If he is true to his nature he will be quick to seize upon any sign of weakness in us."

  Almost the same words were being said by Captain Blackwood in the great cabin. He added, "Were it not I have an obligation to take the wretched fellow, I would as lief have chosen another for this voyage. I have managed to obtain the posting of a lad as the second senior who will ensure Master Barclay does not become too much the bully. You may know him, Thomas Bowles, his father commanded the frigate Ariadne."

  "Ah, yes I do know the father. By the sound of it, this Barclay has a somewhat unfortunate reputation," observed Captain Cooke.

  "It is a family that breeds bad blood I'm thinking," agreed Captain Blackwood. "They have not been good landlords and they are not good neighbours, always seeking disputes. The Heron's were unfortunate in the matter of the property at Raholp. It was ultimately down to the Barclays having the ear of Cromwell's Commissioner at that time. For the rest they attempted, so the story goes, to have the Heron's former tenants sold to the Americas under the law permitting the sale of rebel Irish prisoners as slaves. It was a bad time to be Irish during the Commonwealth, and has given fuel too much of the discontent since. I do not know all the particulars, but it is said the head of the Heron clan at that time raised a considerable sum and bought off the charges. The O'Connors have been their tenants and retainers since."

  "Indeed, I wondered at the eagerness of the youth who came with Mister Heron to join this ship," Captain Cooke replied slowly. "Yet, the relationship is more like that of brothers than of servant and Master. O'Connor is never far from Heron if there is action threatened, he has even moved Divisions to remain in Heron's company." He smiled. "And I must tell you that there will be several more will follow him to your ship. The boy has made an interesting impression upon some of the men since he joined this ship. It must be said he is conscientious and quick to learn, and he has a talent with his brush and pen should you need an accurate sketch. You will find him useful I assure you."

  -

  Chapter 2 — The Spartan

  The transfer to the new Spartan was affected smoothly and Harry and Kit soon found themselves settled into their new home in her gunroom. Being among the younger Midshipmen meant they lived at the after end of the lower battery, adjacent to the Bread Room and other stores, while the older Midshipmen occupied the Orlop, the two groups coming together for meals and study at all other times.

  Harry's first encounter with Midshipman Barclay was somewhat tempered by Tom Bowles, the second senior making very plain that he would not be party to any bullying. Even so, Eamon Barclay made it obvious Harry would have to watch his step very carefully.

  "Heron is it? Still defending rebels in your house," sneered Barclay.

  "Only those we consider wrongly accused," replied Harry coolly. "Though not, to my knowledge since we gave up Raholp."

  "Gave up? You mean since you w
ere sent packing," snarled Barclay.

  "A matter of interpretation I suppose," replied Harry standing his ground, his nails digging into his palms as he tried to contain his anger at this unprovoked enmity. "Since the land was seized – and the goods and animals which did not form part of the grant as I recall. But the High Court settled it some years before ever you or I were born."

  "A false judgement," snarled the other. "We have never recognised it, nor ever will."

  "As you wish, Mister Barclay. I have no desire to pursue any claim while we serve together on this ship. Our duty is surely to the ship and her Captain in this instance and not to a dispute between our families that has its roots in falsehood."

  "Easy, Eamon," interjected Tom Bowles quickly as the other's face flushed dangerously. "This is not the Glatton and Captain Blackwood will not tolerate the actions permitted under our last Captain as you well know. You would not wish to have our new Captain endorse your certificates before we even weigh would you?" To Harry and Kit he smiled and extended a greeting. "Welcome to Spartan, don't mind Eamon, he had hoped to be promoted but has been set back by the peace and must needs now wait until the French break it." He grinned. "And so must several more of us. This voyage may well be our best hope of preferment if all goes well."

  Harry was pleased to find Ferghal was already settled; grinning as he informed him he was now the junior Messman to the Gunroom and posted to the Number Eight mess on the lower battery.

  "My hammock is to be with the other boys, I am charged with their care," he told Harry. "And I am told I must keep you young gentlemen in this space in order," he added with a laugh.

  "Grand news," said Harry. "I must warn you however, our Gunroom Senior is a Barclay of Raholp. Be cautious around him, he will be the kind who seeks to injure me through you if opportunity arises. Take care how you deal with him; I may not be able to prevent his having you flogged on some pretext if you offer him the chance."

  "Fear not, Master Harry, I shall be careful about him, but you had best take care as well. Some may find other opportunities to cause you harm, I shall warn our division. Small and several others have transferred with us."

  "Take care you warn them they may be his targets as well and to be scrupulous in all their dealings with him." A sudden thought struck him. "Has Small been assigned a post where his arm will not be his downfall? If not I shall see what I can arrange with the Lieutenants." The seaman mentioned had joined the Bellerophon from a prison hulk, misfortune and a badly weakened arm, the result of a serious wound, having led him there.

  "Small is here as assistant to the Sailmaker. Fear not, he has his friends aboard this ship as well. The Boatswain served with him when he got the wound and has taken care to place him where he is out of harm's way." Ferghal looked about him at the cramped space. "Strange how the ship is already gathering her own smell is it not? Different from that of the Billy, yet familiar. I wonder what the Great South Sea will be like and whether the women there are as beautiful as they say?"

  "I should think the same as here." Harry grinned. "And probably not for the likes of us anyway. We are sure to be told we are too young or some such thing should the chance to meet some be offered. And, if we linger much longer I shall be liable to a spell in the rigging and you no doubt for a meeting with the Gunner's Daughter."

  ***

  For Harry and the others the next several days passed in a whirl of activity as the ship took in stores, water, shot and powder. Officer's stores and the Captain's private stores had to be stowed carefully in the Lazarette aft of the Orlop and slowly more and more men arrived and found spaces for their meagre possessions and their hammocks. As one of the youngest Midshipmen, Harry found that his assigned station was with the flag party on the quarterdeck, or, on watch, with one of the senior Midshipmen as an assistant to the Officer of the Watch. He liked the First Lieutenant, an amiable and very capable man named Thomas Bell, and was fortunate in his Divisional Officer, the Third Lieutenant, Matthew Beasley. The other Lieutenants seemed to be a varied collection, ironically the oldest of the Lieutenants, was the Fifth, John Evans, a Bristol man who had worked his way up from the lower deck and happily asserted he had no expectation of rising any higher.

  Late in the week Harry was present when Lieutenant Bell dealt with a sharp faced man who dragged a cowering and half starved child aboard. Asserting the child was his nephew and as his mother was recently dead, the man declared, " 'E's no 'ome, yer 'onour. 'is mum on'y jus' kep' 'im fed as it were. An' there be no room in my 'ouse fer 'im. Me wife's sister she were – and the father be a sailor in the Chunnel Fleet – if 'e's still living."

  "So you say." Mister Bell's frown deepened. "Is there not a place for him in the Work House?"

  "T' workhouse'll kill him, yer honour," the sharpfaced man declared. "It 'ud be a cruelty not t' let 'm volunteer fer t' sea service."

  "No doubt," agreed Lieutenant Bell, his face grim as he surveyed the man and the obviously terrified child. "Yet it is a hard life for a child on a ship – harder perhaps than the workhouse."

  "Indeed, yer 'onour." The man shuffled his feet uncomfortably under the lieutenant's stare. He tried wheedling. "But t' bounty fer a volunteer wud 'elp pay …." The man's voice faltered under the lieutenant's glare of contempt.

  Harry pitied the terrified child and was relieved when Mister Bell spoke kindly to him.

  Shifting his gaze the Lieutenant asked the cowering child, "Do you wish to serve your King?"

  With a frightened glance at his "uncle" the boy nodded and muttered something inaudible.

  The man cuffed him and snarled, "Speak up yer worthless brat! Tell the Capting you'm willing to serve."

  "Steady there," said the Lieutenant. "There is no call for that. I heard well enough. Mister Treliving." He called a Master's Mate. "See this man gets his bounty and send him on his way." He beckoned to the child. "Mister Heron, take this boy to your Messman and instruct him to see that he is properly clothed and given some food. Tell O'Connor to see to it that he is taken to the Boatswain, assigned a berth and shown his duties."

  "Aye, aye, sir." Harry touched his hat. He wondered why he was being given this task when it would normally have been given to one of the Master's Mates. He smiled at the frightened boy and said, "Come with me, and tell me your name."

  It took three attempts before Harry caught the name, by which time they were already descending the companionway to the lower gundeck. "Well, Danny, we won't eat you here on Spartan, and Mister Billing the Boatswain will see you are taken care of." He found Ferghal making his way to the gunroom in preparation for their dinner. "Ferghal, this is Danny, take him to Mister Billing and see he is signed on properly. He is to be given a meal and some clothes from the slops chest. You may wish to finish your present task quickly and then show Danny the way."

  Ferghal grinned. "All is now ready for your dinner, Master Harry. Fear not, I shall see to the little 'un. The Boatswain will doubtless know what's to be done with him."

  "I know he is in good hands now." Harry grinned. To the still frightened youngster he said, "Mind you do as Ferghal here tells you, he will take care of you." He returned to his task on the quarterdeck wondering how this latest addition to Spartan's crew would survive, sure that between the Boatswain and Ferghal young Danny would be well looked after – probably better now than at any time in his life to date.

  -

  Chapter 3 — A new ship building

  Captain James O'Niall Heron surveyed his new command from the observation deck of the vast building dock platform in orbit around Mars. The dock was now a third 'moon' to the arid red planet below. He'd earlier thought somewhat wryly that, despite the best efforts of mankind, little change could be seen despite over a hundred years of effort to bring the planet back to life. His new ship, however, was another matter. The most modern of the new breed of starships being built for the North European Confederate Fleet, Vanguard was vast.

  The first of a planned group of four ships of the same
class, she incorporated all the knowledge human ingenuity could devise. It would be another two years before she would be ready to take her place in the fleet, by which time her sisters would be nearing completion as well. Some still questioned the need for starships at all though there was plenty of danger from human renegades already. Though the frigates and corvettes could deal with these, anything on the further reaches of the galactic arm needed larger ships. In addition, as they explored further, it brought ever nearer the possibility of encountering another species which might not be friendly.

  In appearance not unlike a twentieth century submarine, except she boasted four long and substantial "fins" at her cardinal points amidships and four smaller fins right aft each carrying the powerful projectors known as hyperpods – the hyperdrive propulsion units. It was these units which allowed these ships to slip between dimensions, through what was referred to as "hyperspace" and what the Fleet and other spacefarers referred to as "transit".