‘Whether he will succeed in his purpose I do not know. He sees the trouble as being caused by the enmity between the officers who are attracted to Mrs Oakes, and these officers being supported by their own men, so that there are rival clans in the ship. But there are complexities that escape him, and now that I have time and to spare and the cabin to myself I shall endeavour to set them out as well as I can. The divisions, if I may so call them, amount to at least half a dozen: there are those (the majority) who condemn Clarissa for lying with any member of the quarterdeck at all apart from her husband; those who condemn her for lying with any officer but their own; those who support Oakes without reserve (they belong for the most part to his division and they are known as the Oak-Apples); those who condemn him for having beaten his wife; those who support their divisional officer whatever his situation with regard to her; and those who still look upon Clarissa with affectionate esteem – the sailmaker, for example, has recently made her a tarpaulin cloak, in which she now sits by the taffrail.
‘Even if it were right for me to open my mind to Jack, I doubt it would be useful: I do not think I could ever make him understand that for her the sexual act is trivial, of no consequence. Our ordinary salute, the kiss, is held infamous among the Japanese if bestowed in public: with them, says Pinto, it is as much a deed of darkness or at least of total privacy as physical love-making is with us. For her, because of the particularity of her bringing-up, kiss and coition are much the same in insignificance; furthermore, she takes not the slightest pleasure in either. If therefore, through a variety of motives in which good nature and even compassion certainly have a part as well as a general desire to be liked, she has admitted some men to her bed, she has done so very innocently: “If an ill-looking pitiful fellow with say a thorn in his foot begged you to take it out, sure you would consent, even if doing so were rather unpleasant than otherwise.” To her astonishment she had found herself loved and hated in various degrees, rather than merely liked, by those she obliged; and condemned by many who were in no way concerned.
‘At different times I had tried to explain the violent male desire for exclusive possession –
the standard by which a wide variety of partners if not promiscuity is laudable in oneself, vile in women – the want of sequence or even common honesty of mind coupled with unshakable conviction – the unreasonable yet very strong and very painful emotions that arise from jealousy (a feeling to which she is almost entirely a stranger) – and the very great force of rivalry. I also told her, with authority, that nothing can be done aboard ship without its being known. I spoke each time at some length, with real concern for her; she listened attentively and I think she believed me. In any event she is determined to renounce fornication: though how she will fare I know not. She has lit a fire that will not easily be put out; and although for the moment Jack keeps all hands in such a state of perpetual activity that the members of the gunroom mess can hardly put one foot in front of the other when they come below, these passions, confined as they are in space, may burst out later with a shocking force.’
He sat there, lost in his reflections, until Killick came in and said, as he had so often said before, ‘Why, sir, you are sitting in the dark.’ He brought a light, a lantern that swung in gimbals, and Stephen returned to his contemplation, holding his pen in the air.
‘Scribble, scribble, scribble, Dr Maturin,’ said Jack.
‘You are not wet at all, I find,’ said Stephen.
‘No,’ said Jack. ‘Not to put too fine a point on it, I am quite dry; and was you to put your nose above the coaming and look at the dog-vane, you would see why. The wind has veered a whole point, and the spray goes well away to leeward. In any case the sea has gone down. Could you do with a cup of coffee and a breadfruit biscuit?’
‘I could, too.’
‘Killick! Killick, there.’
‘Sir?’ said Killick, still unnaturally meek, though a shade of the familiar shrewishness could now be detected. Indeed, he had recovered enough assurance to bring them only a meagre plate of the dried breadfruit slices, he being devoted to them himself.
The coffee came; and when half had been drunk Jack said ‘Do you remember that I spoke to you about a flying column?’
‘I remember it well; and I wondered at the time how and where it was to fly.’
Jack took a sheet from his desk and said ‘This is Wainwright’s chart of Moahu, and I am particularly grateful to him for the soundings of the reef off Pabay here in the north, and the channel into the harbour: the same for Eeahu down in the south. This hatching across the neck of the hourglass – a damned wide neck for an hourglass, I may say – represents the mountains that separate the two lobes, Kalahua’s country in the top half, Queen Puolani’s in the bottom. Now my plan is to sail straight into Pabay, preferably in the evening, but that depends on tide and weather, to sail in looking as like a whaler as possible, and to lay the Franklin aboard directly, dealing with her out of hand as we did the Diane at St Martin’s. But time and tide may not serve, and she may have thrown up batteries on either side of the narrows, using the Truelove’s guns. I may have to lie off and deal with them first. So it seems to me that if things do not go as smooth as they did at St Martin’s, we should land a body of men here’ -pointing to a bay half a mile south of the harbour – ‘to make a diversion – to take them from behind while we are battering them from in front. That is my flying column; and what I should like you to do as a medical man is to help me choose the most active, intelligent and of course healthy of the twenty or thirty men we can afford. I do not want any poxed hands – and I know you have the usual crop after Annamooka – or bursten bellies, however brave they may be, nor any ancients, above thirty-five. They must be extremely nimble. So please look at the list Tom and I have drawn up and tell me if there is an objection to any of the names from a medical point of view.’
‘Very well,’ said Stephen: and having run his eyes down the list he went on ‘Tell me, are we far from Moahu?’
‘About four days sail. I mean to ease off tomorrow, and give them a quiet Sunday: then target-practice on Monday, to air their intellects; and in the evening I may tell them what is afoot.’
‘I see. Now as to your list, I have made a mark against the least medically sound: it is not necessarily discreditable at all.’
‘Many thanks. Then of course there is the command; but I hesitate to question you about your messmates …”
Stephen’s face closed: he said, ‘Purely as the ship’s surgeon, I should make no exception to any of them.’
‘I am happy to hear it.’
There was a somewhat embarrassed silence, and to break it Stephen said ‘Had we but world enough and time you could choose your band in the Irish manner. Did I ever tell you of Finn Mac Cool?’
‘The gentleman that was so fond of salmon?’
‘Himself. Now he commanded the forces of the nation, the Fianna Eirion, and none was accepted into any of the seven cohorts – I quote from a fallible memory, Jack, but at least I am sure of my figures – until he had learned the twelve Irish books of poetry and could say them without book: if the party to be accepted would defend himself with his target and sword from nine throws of the javelin from nine of the company that would stand but nine ridges from him at distance, and either cut the javelin with his sword or receive them all on his target without bleeding on him, he would be accepted; otherwise not. If the party running through the thickest wood of Ireland were overtaken by any of the seven cohorts and they pursuing him with all their might and main he would not be taken of them in their company. But if he had outrun them all without loss of any hair of his head, without breaking any old stick under his feet and he leaping over any tree that he should meet as high as the top of his head without impediment, and stooping under a tree as low as his knee and taking a thorn out of his foot (if it should chance to be in it) with his nail without impediment of his running, all which if he had done, he would be accepted as one of the company: otherwise not.’