Chapter 354: Each travels separately
Chapter 351: Each Traveling on Their Own
In the parlor of the Golden Lion Inn, words and laughter rang out from time to time.
Arthur asked, “Mr. Owen, did it turn out that you were serving in the U.S. Army in 1812?”
Owen shifted his glass, “Well, while I’ve always thought it was foolish to fight in a war, given that the Royal Navy was already present off New York at the time, the New Yorker in me said I’d have to pick up a gun and defend my home. My service was short-lived, though, and I retired as soon as the siege of New York was lifted.”
General Napier, sitting in his couch, smiled broadly at this and returned, “In that case, the shortest distance between the two of us in 1812 was perhaps only a few miles.”
Owen frowned and asked, “You are an officer in the Royal Navy?”
Napier just smiled and shook his head, “Not anymore, at least not now. Like you, I retired myself from active duty in the Royal Navy after that war. As you know, the Royal Navy hasn’t had any opponents worth mentioning since the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. Without a war to fight, there’s no money to be made, and it’s better to stay there than to get out and do some business.”
Arthur sniffed and snickered, “Is that so? Sir, that’s not the same story I heard from Admiral Codrington. Admiral Codrington said that you were ordered by the Department of the Navy to be forcibly discharged due to battlefield disobedience.”
When Napier heard this, he just raised an eyebrow and said, “You brat are quite aware of my experience. But did Codrington tell you that the one who gave me the order at that time was that rusty-headed thing Gambier? Gambier’s only principle in commanding the fleet is not to make mistakes, as to whether it’s possible to expand the results of the battle, and at what time to strike in order to seize the greatest benefits, he does not consider it at all. If I listen to his orders, that’s what’s wrong with my head.”
Owen was also interested in the Royal Navy’s internal anecdotes, he couldn’t help but ask, “Allow me to take the liberty of asking, is the Gambier you speak of Royal Navy Marshal Gambier?”
Napier disdainfully squeezed a breath out of his nose, “Who else could it be but him? The office marshal of the Royal Navy, if it wasn’t for the fact that His Majesty had served under him in his early years, how could he possibly sit as a marshal with his war record? But having Gambier as a marshal wasn’t without its benefits, at least the group wouldn’t have to worry about him being outcast to the position of Grand Fleet Admiral again. He’s far less harmful sitting in the office than putting him out.”
Arthur smiled back, “It does seem that Marshal Gambier does not have a good reputation in the Royal Navy. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard a senior officer in the Royal Navy spout off about his leadership.”
“Hmm?” Napier asked, “Who else have you heard cursing him? I don’t suppose it was Admiral Codrington? He’s been getting a lot more careful about what he says and does now, ever since he let the Foreign Office clean up his act.”
Arthur returned, “General Sidney Smith, and General Thomas Cochran.”
“Ah them two, they can both really scold Gambier.”
Napier couldn’t help but let out a laugh when he heard those two names, “General Smith was following General Rodney back when he was a cadet trainee on the Sandwich. And by the time he was officially commissioned, he became General Hood’s subordinate. Even if, based on seniority alone, General Smith pointed at Gambier’s nose and cursed him, Gambier wouldn’t dare to stand up to him.
Not to mention General Smith’s record is equally impressive, when he was not happy with the internal management of the Royal Navy, directly resigned and went to Sweden as a naval adviser to Gustav III. He commanded the Swedish Navy to hold down the head of the Russian Baltic Fleet to fight, three naval battles directly to the Russians in the Baltic Sea sea power is gone.
After the war, he returned home in style with a knighthood conferred on him by Sweden, and the gang at the Admiralty, still souring on him, privately nicknamed him the ‘Swedish Knight’.”
Arthur smiled at that and returned, “General Smith sounds like a wonderful man.”
Napier laughed out loud and said, “That’s not all. When the French Revolution broke out, General Smith’s maneuvering was even more breathtaking. He was supposed to be doing business in the Levant at the time, but when the news of the war came, he jumped on a ship to return home without looking back.
Before he got back to London, he ran into his old boss, General Hood, in the waters off Toulon, France. At that time, Toulon was not willing to submit to the leadership of the French revolutionary government, so it was in the midst of an uprising. Outside the city of Toulon was a counter-insurgency army sent by the French revolutionary government, and the leader of the army, whom you should also recognize, was Napoleon.
General Hood feared that after the fall of Toulon, the ships in the harbor would be used by the French against Britain. So General Smith volunteered to sail into the harbor of Toulon in a small boat, and he burned the harbor of Toulon with such a small number of men that half of the ships of the Toulon fleet were so taken out by him.
It was because of this that the Frenchmen had always held a grudge against him. When General Smith was captured in Egypt, they were unwilling to release General Smith back to England, no matter what prisoners of war we offered. These Frenchies sentenced him to life imprisonment for ‘Toulon arson’.”
As a historical novelist, Owen was always concerned about this kind of secret history, “So how did he get back to Britain afterward?”
Napier returned, “It was thanks to our allies, the French royalists. They forged administrative documents and rescued General Smith under the name of transferring the prison.”
“What a legendary story.” Arthur smiled and spoke, “Admirals of the Royal Navy always have legendary experiences.”
Napier shook his head sarcastically, “No, no, no, Gambier has no such legend. Wow, you can’t say that, his story is quite legendary in a sense. Being an officer in the Royal Navy, sitting in an office for over a decade and rising to the rank of Field Marshal, what could be more legendary than that?”
Speaking of which, Napier couldn’t help but sigh, “I joined the Royal Navy in the first place because I heard that it was better than the Army, had I known that both sides were just as bad, I might as well have followed my cousins over there.”
“Cousins?” Arthur slightly recalled the active generals of the Army, he spoke up and asked, “Are you talking about Rear Admiral James Napier of the Army?”
“That’s right, all three of the male members of our generation of the Napier family were interested in the military, I went to the Royal Navy, and two of my cousins went to the Army, one was James Napier, and the other was Will Napier, who also had a work on the history of the war, The History of the War in the Pyrenees and the South of France, have you read it?”
Arthur’s face suddenly became odd when he heard the name: “That book? …… I read it when I was at college, and I remember when it was published, didn’t it cause some controversy in Parliament and in the historiographical world?”
Owen also remembered, “If I remember correctly, the literary critics at the time seemed to be unanimous in their opinion that the book was ‘the single best French report on the war that has never been written’.”
Arthur laughed, “If I remember correctly, Blackwood’s even seemed to have published an article at the time saying that it was fortunate that the commander-in-chief of the Peninsular War was the Duke of Wellington, and that he was afraid that he would have surrendered to Napoleon straight away if General Wee Napier had been leading the army.”
Napier sipped his tea, “Let them curse as much as they like, the manhood of the Napier family is not something they can bring down with a few words. On top of that, they have to be thankful that we have enough cultivation and stomach. If it was a different Cochran handling this matter, he would have to bring someone to teach these guys a lesson anyways.”
Arthur asked, “Are you talking about the time when General Cochran was suspected of manipulating the stock market, and as a result, not only did he not cooperate with the parliamentary investigation, but also brought his officers to beat up the investigation committee officials?”
“More than that.” Napier put down his teacup and said, “Later on, didn’t the Ministry of Navy send someone over and let him beat them up together as well? Those idiots from the Admiralty didn’t think about it, but Cochran was the one who stood up at the court martial and called his superior, Gambier, ‘a coward and a cabin rat’ in court.”
Arthur asked, “But General Cochran inherited his old man’s earldom this year, so that irascible temper of his should have been tempered, right?” “Tempered? You’re really overthinking it.”
Napier spoke up, “He’s clearly better now than he ever was before, and with a seat in the House of Lords, he naturally speaks even harder to the Admiralty. If it weren’t for the fact that he can’t be commanded, how could the Admiralty have handpicked me?
Alas, they can’t hold Cochrane, but they can hold me! I’ll be damned! If I hadn’t gone into some steamship company back then, I wouldn’t have broken the bank and been reduced to the point of being rubbed by the Admiralty at will.”
“A steamship company?”
Arthur was about to ask what was going on, but unexpectedly, Owen on the side suddenly came to a realization.
Owen opened his mouth and said, “So that steamship passenger transportation company that crossed the English Channel back then was invested by you?”
Napier was surprised, “You know about this?”
Owen commented, “More than knowing about it, I even rode on it. But with all due respect, steamships don’t seem to travel any faster than sails. It’s a novelty the first time you take it, but for a long round trip, it’s obviously much more expensive than the average sail ferry.”
Napier slapped his forehead, “Sure enough, even you, a layman, see the problem. Alas …… speaking back, I was also impulsive in the beginning. Ever since I saw that Robert Fulton-built steamship in New York, I couldn’t get it out of my mind.
At that time the whole of Britain did not have a steamship company, I thought in my heart that these people are really stupid, so good business opportunities actually can not grasp. As a result, I realized that there was a reason why there was no steamship company in Britain. Sailing speed than the sail warships can not be faster than where, most of the cases still have to rely on sails as an auxiliary power, and this thing is also particularly waste of coal, from any point of view it is not much cost-effective.”
Arthur couldn’t help but laugh out loud when he heard the name Fulton, “Why are all the Royal Navy admirals fans of it? Admiral Sidney Smith recommends Fulton’s invention of mines to the Admiralty every day, Admiral Thomas Cochran loves his submarines, and you ……”
Before Arthur could finish his sentence, Napier brightened and asked, “A submarine? Right! How did I almost forget about that before. Maybe I can consider starting another submarine company after I finish this trip?”
Hearing this, Arthur hurriedly advised, “You should not decide in a hurry. Before opening a company, you should probably visit Paris first. If the French haven’t torn down Fulton’s invention, that submarine he invented should be parked near the Seine.”
“Is it?” Napier fished his book out of his pocket and took careful notes, “What was the name of that submarine? When I have time, I’ll stop by Paris and take a look.”
Arthur smiled back, “That submarine in Fulton is called the Nautilus. But I think it would be better for you to write a novel with it than to use it to start a company.”
Owen snickered back, “A novel? Then it looks like it’s necessary for me to tag along on the expedition as well? It’s not likely that I’ll be inspired and leave behind a monumental masterpiece as well.”
Arthur smiled and shook his head, “Mr. Owen, your fame is already great. Let’s leave the Nautilus for someone else, and perhaps we’d better talk about what exactly was the reason for that nickname you gave New York in the middle of the Smorgasbord?”
“A nickname?” Owen started, then laughed, “Oh! You mean Gotham, right? I just filled it in off the top of my head, it doesn’t mean anything in particular. If you have to figure out the meaning, well, Gotham means Village of Fools. But that aside, I didn’t realize that you actually read Smorgasbord, that magazine must be over twenty years old.”
A few people were talking when suddenly, Louie pushed his way into the parlor.
He smiled and spoke, “Mr. Owen, Mr. Napier, your outbound ships are ready. The ships from Schweyer & Sons, one is under the Azores and the other is transiting the West Indies.”
Upon hearing this, Owen and Napier picked up the wooden suitcases beside them and rose to take their leave, “Mr. Hastings, thank you so much for this time.”
Arthur also smiled and got up, “I look forward to meeting you both again next time, have a safe journey.”
He watched the two of them leave the parlor, led by their servants, and suddenly turned his head to ask at Louis, “Is my car about to leave as well?”
Louis nodded slightly, “At 1:00 this afternoon, the same car will be accompanied by not only you, but also the officials sent by the Liverpool City Council to London to report on their duties, plus the lobbyist group of the Liverpool Association. Of course, that diplomat from the Foreign Office is also on the list.”
Hearing this, Arthur gathered his collar and nodded, “It seems the group is in quite a hurry, so let’s go out now and remember to call Alexander and Heinrich along. Louis, I’m counting on you over here while I’m away in Liverpool.”
“Don’t worry. But …… Arthur, there’s a matter, I don’t know if it’s convenient ……”
Arthur, while putting on his coat and gloves, spoke without lifting his head, “About that cousin of yours, Valevski?”
“Well …… if you find out where he is, or go further and find him directly, could you ……”
“You want to meet him?”
“Yes, but don’t you worry, our meeting is definitely not detrimental to Britannia’s interests.”
Arthur smoothed his gloves, looked up at Louis, and suddenly smiled, “Louis, you don’t need to emphasize this to me. When it comes to harming Britain’s interests, who better than the Britons themselves? Every nation’s greatest enemy is itself. Even if you want to damage it, it will be to the detriment of France, oh yes, and Poland.”
“So ……”
Arthur pushed open the door to the parlor, “You guys want to meet, no problem at all. But only if …… I want to make sure the shot in the back wasn’t from him first.”
(End of chapter)