Cornwallis’s blue eyes were fixed on him.
“Mr Vice, the King,” said Cornwallis.
Hornblower came back from pink hazes of beatitude. He had to take a grip of himself, as when he had tacked Hotspur with the Loire in pursuit; he had to await the right moment for the attention of the company. Then he rose to his feet and lifted his glass, carrying out the ages old ritual of the junior officer present.
“Gentlemen, the King,” he said.
“The King!” echoed everyone present, and some added phrases like “God Bless him” and “Long may he reign” before they sat down again.
“His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence,” said Lord Henry in conversational tone, “told me that during his time at sea he had knocked his head — he’s a tall man, as you know — so often on so many deck beams while drinking his father’s health that he seriously was considering requesting His Majesty’s permission, as a special privilege, for the Royal Navy to drink the royal health while sitting down.”
At the other corner of the table Andrews, captain of the Flora, was going on with an interrupted conversation.
“Fifteen pounds a man,” he was saying. “That’s what my Jacks were paid on account of prize money, and we were in Cawsand Bay ready to sail. The women had left the ship, not a bumboat within call, and so my men — the ordinary seamen, mind you — still have fifteen pounds apiece in their pockets.”
“All the better when they get a chance to spend it,” said Marsfield.
Hornblower was making a rapid calculation. The Flora would have a crew of some three hundred men, who divided a quarter of the prize money between them. The captain had one quarter to himself, so that Andrews would have been paid — on account, not necessarily in full — some four thousand five hundred pounds as a result of some lucky cruise, probably without risk, probably without a life being lost, money for seizing French merchant ships intercepted at sea. Hornblower thought ruefully about Maria’s latest letter, and about the uses to which he could put four thousand five hundred pounds.
“There’ll be lively times in Plymouth when the Channel Fleet comes in,” said Andrews.
“That is something which I wish to explain to you gentlemen,” said Cornwallis, breaking in on the conversation. There was something flat and expressionless about his voice, and there was a kind of mask‑like expression on his good‑tempered face, so that all eyes turned on him.
“The Channel Fleet will not be coming in to Plymouth,” said Cornwallis. “This is the time to make that plain.”
A silence ensued, during which Cornwallis was clearly waiting for a cue. The saturnine Collins supplied it.
“What about water, sir? Provisions?”
“They are going to be sent out to us.”
“Water, sir?”
“Yes. I have had four water‑hoys constructed. They will bring us water. Victualling ships will bring us our food. Each new ship which joins us will bring us fresh food, vegetables and live cattle, all they can carry on deck. That will help against scurvy. I’m sending no ship back to replenish.”
“So we’ll have to wait for the winter gales before we see Plymouth again, sir?”
“Nor even then,” said Cornwallis. “No ship, no captain, is to enter Plymouth without my express orders. Do I have to explain why, to experienced officers like you?”
The reasons were as obvious to Hornblower as to the others. The Channel Fleet might well have to run for shelter when southwesterly gales blew, and with a gale at southwest the French fleet could not escape from Brest. But Plymouth Sound was difficult; a wind from the eastward would delay the British fleet’s exits, prolong it over several days, perhaps, during which time the wind would be fair for the French fleet to escape, There were plenty of other reasons, too. There was disease; every captain knew that ships grew healthier the longer they were at sea. There was desertion. There was the fact that discipline could be badly shaken by debauches on shore.
“But in a gale, sir?” asked someone. “We could get blown right up‑Channel.”
“No,” answered Cornwallis decisively. “If we’re blown off this station our rendezvous is Tor Bay. There we anchor.”