Chapter 102: The blue ship flag was raised high!
Chapter 102 The blue ship’s flag is raised high!
At the bow of the Beagle, sailors climbed up and down the mast like monkeys, the three sails snapped open, and the Blue Ship Flag, symbolizing the Royal Navy Reserve, was raised high.
At Colonel Fitzroy’s command, the Beagle, with a frantic whistle all the way, stormed at full speed towards the Thames Inlet.
Such a move naturally drew curses from the incoming and outgoing cargo ships on the Thames.
“Fuck you! No eyes?”
“Sons of bitches, are you in a hurry to go to hell?”
There were even freighter sailors who were so angry that they threw dead rats and fermented herring at the Beagle from a distance.
“Fuck you, I’ll smoke you to death you stinking fools!”
For the cargo ship sailors’ shouting, the sailors didn’t open their mouths to retaliate, they just skillfully lifted the wooden boards covering the ten gun positions on both sides of the Beagle.
When the cargo ship sailors found that the gun position stretched out the black hole of the twelve-pound gun barrel, even if the mouth stinks as they are, but also instantly upright and quiet as an uninitiated upper class lady.
In fact, in general, the sailors do not have such a high motivation for the sea.
However, when they heard that the target of this sea voyage was changed to chasing the ‘Blackthorn’ ship, they instantly felt that their body and mind were full of inexhaustible energy.
Seeing that the sailors were enthusiastically taking the initiative to undertake various tasks, Tom was somewhat moved.
“I knew that justice still exists in this world.”
But as soon as he said this, Elder poured cold water on him, “Come on, Tom. Maybe the sailors do have justice in their hearts, but I think the main reason is that the target of this strike is a slave smuggling ship.”
Tony wondered, “Is there any relationship between the two?”
This time, without waiting for Elder to answer for them, Arthur exhaled a smoke ring and spoke, “For the Royal Navy, it should be hard to stumble upon such a legitimate plundering business since the enactment of the Convoy Act in the 18th century.”
Elder winked at Arthur with a wicked grin, “Isn’t it? I’ve just had a look at the nominal displacement of the Blackthorn, and if we towed her back, she’d fetch five or six thousand pounds, even conservatively!
It’s customary for Captain Fitzroy to take a quarter, and there’s no Admiral of the Fleet on board the Beagle, so the rest goes to the crew. There are 100 of us on board, and each of us will easily get 45 pounds.
And on top of that, we might even get some Admiralty awards and honors. Anyone who doesn’t work hard is purely messing with their own good fortune.”
“Forty-five pounds?” Tom exclaimed, “That’s more than a year’s wages for me!”
Elder grinned, “Isn’t it? I’m still counting the value of the merchant ship alone, and I haven’t even added the income from the rest of the unknown items. If I did, the final result would be even more frightening. Why else do you think I’ve been looking forward to a war with the French?
Ordinary merchant ships are this expensive, if you haul back a Frenchie first class battleship, tsk tsk …… that thing can cost a hundred thousand pounds to build.”
Tony heard this, could not help but sigh: “No wonder so many people go to be pirates, this business to money is fast!”
Elder said back, “Who says it is not, the good times are over! Now the issuance of privateer’s license is also too damn strict, before the Napoleonic wars, as long as you can afford to pay eight thousand pounds, you can legally loot, now even if you have money and connections, it may not be issued to you.”
Elder had just said this when he heard Darwin’s voice from behind him.
“Arthur, Elder, Colonel Fitzroy has summoned you to the officers’ mess for a bite to eat.”
Hearing this, Elder couldn’t help but bark at Arthur, “Old man is going out of his way for you this time. Arthur, you mustn’t fool me about the ‘Blackthorn’ ship! Otherwise, even if Colonel Fitzroy doesn’t bother with me, if it gets to my uncle’s ears, he’ll have to skin me.”
Arthur glanced at him, “Don’t worry, brother can’t lose you. How could I use this kind of thing to cheat you?”
“That’s good.”
The two followed Darwin down to the officers’ mess in the cabin.
Perhaps limited by the cramped size of the Beagle, the dining room was not very large, just barely able to fit a dining table large enough for four people to sit around and a cupboard for utensils.
The well-dressed Colonel Fitzroy was cutting the lamb chops on the plate with a knife and fork.
He didn’t get up when he saw Arthur and Elder arrive, but just smiled and nodded at them, “Make yourself comfortable.”
Arthur and Elder had just sat down when their meal was already brought up by the bladdered cook.
Today’s officer’s breakfast was hearty, not only lamb chops, but also peas and fried eggs.
Fitzroy saw that Arthur’s face was a little white from the wind, and he couldn’t help but smile and ask, “Would you like a glass of ‘Nelson’s Blood’?”
Hearing this, Arthur asked in confusion, “What’s that?”
But before anyone could answer for him, the cook had already brought the glass of wine from the dinner plate to Arthur.
While fanning himself with the dinner plate, he returned, “It’s nothing serious, it’s just Royal Navy-flavored rum, you’ll see when you try it.”
Elder grinned broadly as he rested one hand on the chair and twisted a pea into his mouth, “That’s right, you’ll know it when you taste it.” Arthur picked up the glass and took a sip, carefully savoring the taste, he felt as if it wasn’t that different from regular rum.
Just as he was about to put the glass down, he looked up only to find the cook, Elder and Colonel Fitzroy all looking at him with an impish look on their faces.
Even Agareth, who had been silent beside him, couldn’t help but cover his mouth and snicker.
Arthur instantly sensed something was wrong.
“You guys ……”
The fat cook grinned as he clutched his dinner plate and asked, “Young man, do you know why this is called Nelson’s Blood?”
“Why?”
Elder couldn’t hold it in any longer at this point, and he let out a loud laugh while pounding the table with his fist.
“Because when General Nelson died in battle at Trafalgar back then, in order to prevent his body from rotting, the Royal Navy soaked the body in a rum barrel to keep it fresh. But by the time the fleet returned to England, the Admiralty realized that the rum in the cask had actually been drunk down to the last drop. Now you know where the nickname Nelson’s Blood came from, don’t you?”
The cook also laughed out loud, “But don’t worry, the barrels on our Beagle are all very clean, I purposely took fresh water and washed them many times before boarding the ship. But then, whether they have been filled with anything else before, I can’t guarantee.”
Hearing this, Arthur couldn’t help but pick up the table cloth and wipe his mouth, “I’ve heard from a long time ago that there are quite a lot of wicked things on board, and now it really seems to be true at all.”
“Where is this going?” Elder gushed at the cook, “Alan, did you bring any sheep on board this time? Go get one for my good man.”
Colonel Fitzroy sniffed and couldn’t help but throw the white gloves he had taken off on the table into Elder’s face as he glared.
“Elder! Almost done! You’re not ashamed of me enough, you’re really going to tell me everything! Sea training is only a week away, and if you can’t even stand that, you’ll have to go and catch a fish in a trawl net to sort it out yourself!”
Elder was reprimanded, so he smacked his mouth twice and obediently ate his lamb chops.
Fitzroy saw that he was at peace, and only then did he put on a smiling face and turn to Arthur.
“Mr. Hastings, it’s not that I don’t trust you about the pursuit of the Blackthorn. But out of an abundance of caution, I need to get more information from you. If it really is a slave smuggling ship, then it must have some degree of basic firepower.
In that case, I will have to consider what tactics to use for my approach.
And if it is merely an ordinary merchant ship, then I will have to make it clear to you that I certainly have no problem ordering the Beagle to intercept it for boarding and inspection.
However, if it is to fire at it, as you may not know, shelling a domestic merchant ship is punishable by a court martial ……”
As Arthur listened to this, he also realized exactly what kind of concerns the colonel had in mind.
He took out his Scotland Yard police card directly from his coat pocket, “You will have seen my name in the papers, Arthur Hastings, Inspector of Police for the Greenwich District of the London Metropolitan Police. You don’t want to joke about your future, Mr. Colonel, and I’m just like you, so now you can trust me?”
Colonel Fitzroy picked up the police officer’s card and took a look at it before exclaiming, “I told you, how could an ordinary man be all over the papers! No wonder your family didn’t let you get on the ship, so your path after you retired from the Army was all arranged by your family.
As soon as you entered Scotland Yard, you became a police inspector, and it seems that the position of Commissioner of the Greater London Police Department will be yours in the future. First do a few years in Scotland Yard, accumulate some popularity, exercise the ability to exercise, and then after that, elect a councillor, and then arranged into the Ministry of the Interior.
If you’re lucky, when you’re in your forties, you might already be in the Cabinet, and it’s not impossible for you to become Prime Minister in the future.
This path is indeed much better than coming to the Royal Navy, young man, you still need to listen to your family’s words more often, you have a promising future ahead of you!”
When Elder heard this, he just lowered his head and gnawed on the lamb chop, he held back his entire body shaking.
And Arthur didn’t comment on Colonel Fitzroy’s bold speculation, he just nodded, “I take your word for it.”
And Arthur’s non-denial in the eyes of Colonel Fitzroy is tantamount to an admission, he at this time full of Arthur’s future as the Secretary of the Navy scene already.
As soon as he thought of the possibility that the young man in front of him would become the future top boss of the Royal Navy, even the always composed colonel could not help but start to think of the scene where he was appointed by Arthur as the First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff of the Royal Navy.
He stood up in a trance and almost saluted Arthur on the spot, until his hand was halfway up in the air, when the colonel realized something was wrong.
He looked over to see the strange looks Arthur and Elder were giving him, and hurriedly lowered his hand in embarrassment, then assured them with a pat on the back.
“Please rest assured, this time the Blackthorn will definitely not be able to escape from me, and I will definitely cooperate with Scotland Yard to the utmost to complete this pursuit mission.”
At that, the colonel picked up his gloves and rushed out of the officers’ mess in a fiery hurry, and it wasn’t long before the loud roar of Colonel Fitzroy was heard from the deck.
“Helmsmen get lost and go to dinner, driving so slowly, let me teach you what it means to be at the top of your steering game today!”
The Red Devil glanced in the direction of the Colonel’s departure and leaned over to Arthur’s side and whispered, “See? Arthur. That’s the beauty of power. Even if it’s only fantasy power, it can still make a colonel in the Royal Navy delirious over it.”
(End of chapter)