After yet another day of only ghosting, making few miles and having to soothe the tempers of restless men (an annoying task to be sure, Frederick had no wish to act as a sort of nursery maid diffusing tantrums and resolving pointless shouting matches without inflicting the corporal punishments which would likely only worsen the men's mood) when Frederick retired to his cabin his mind seemed to immediately snap back to the problem of whether there might be anyone aboard that he could confide in about Anne. He thought through likely candidates going down the ranks. Although many of the men might have compassion upon him and his situation, it seemed that for each of the senior wardroom officers, there was a reason why he would be a poor choice.
Frederick's first impulse was to discuss the matter with his second in command, but that could not be, simply based on the trouble it would engender with his third in command, one Lieutenant Dowding. Although more than a decade Frederick's senior, Dowding did not have his own ship yet (and would likely not be recommended for promotion by Frederick for the same reason) because he had trouble guarding his tongue.
A commander or captain needed to keep his own counsel. There would be times when a captain might get orders that dismayed him or have an officer confide in him about a matter of some delicacy (perhaps a conflict between two petty officers that could best be resolved by having them work different watches) but it would not do for the rest of the crew to know.
Frederick had quickly learned when Dowding was placed upon his ship that anything told to him would soon be communicated to the entire crew. Frederick suspected that Dowding found spreading scuttlebutt a way of integrating himself with his inferiors and enjoyed the sound of his own voice overmuch. In all other respects he was a competent and reliable officer and yet Frederick could not wait to get him off his ship.
His other lieutenant was a few years Frederick's junior. Lieutenant Benwick, while greener than Dowding, had the makings of a fine captain in Frederick's opinion, though in temperament he was very different from Frederick. Benwick was always with his books when not on duty. He liked to contemplate the deeper questions in life and could spend hours trying to derive all possible meaning from a few lines in a poem. Fredrick thought perhaps Benwick should have found his occupation in the church rather than at sea.
Yet all that time in contemplation also meant that he was excellent at strategy and seemed to be able to quickly size up a man's character and know what approach would get the best work out of him. Frederick would hate to lose Benwick but it would not be fair to keep him from his own command especially as he knew Benwick had some interest in courting Captain Harville's sister.
Benwick previously served under Captain Harville. Frederick had as well, though they had not served under Captain Harville on the Percival at the same time. It was Frederick becoming a commander though turned ashore on half-pay in the year six while the Percival was being repaired at Plymouth by the ship's husband. Frederick leaving the Percival created an opening in the ranks. Benwick received his posting a few weeks before the Percival was fit for duty again, taking the lowest lieutenant vacancy left when others moved up the ranks.
Captain Harville's wife and sister had joined him in Plymouth to spend as much time with him as they could before he departed for the sea again. When Mrs. Harville heard her husband's latest officer knew almost no one in Plymouth, save for the family he was renting a room from, she insisted that he join them for dinner a time or two and it was at these dinners that he met Miss Fanny Harville.
While Frederick had never met Miss Harville, even from only being in company with her a few times, Benwick seemed to greatly admire her. He had admitted as much to Frederick one day about six months prior to the present when the two of them were the first ones to arrive at the officer's mess, though he uttered not a word stating it was so. Now Benwick was a fine one at keeping his own counsel but Frederick was most discerning when perceiving the trappings of a man in love and Benwick's very conduct communicated all that Frederick needed to know to confirm his instinct about it.
On that occasion Benwick was reviewing a letter he had received from Captain Harville on the packet ship that reached them the previous day, and knowing that Frederick knew Harville and as no one else was yet around, Benwick read the letter to him. Frederick was cheered by the letter. Captain Harville had occasion to see Mrs. Harville, his sister and his children and gave an amusing story regarding the visit. When Benwick read a line devoted entirely to what Miss Harville was doing, Benwick read the line aloud most slowly with a cadence and rhythm that was similar to how he recited poems that he had memorized. He also paused before resuming the letter which he read in the typical fashion. That little hint was enough for Frederick to confirm that Benwick was certainly not indifferent when it came to Miss Harville.
Of course, Frederick already had a basis for suspecting as much. While Frederick kept his own counsel about the matter, Captain Harville had mentioned a mutual attraction between his sister and Benwick in a letter to Frederick shortly after he learned that Benwick's new position was aboard the Laconia. Captain Harville thought they would be a fair match but that they must have a bit more time together before anything could be sorted and even if it could then, Benwick would need to gain some prize money and further promotions before they could marry if all worked out as Captain Harville anticipated.
Frederick had already resolved to make such a recommendation for Benwick's promotion upon his return, not because Benwick would need it before he married, but because Benwick deserved it. Frederick considered the irony that by giving honest recommendations he was stuck with Dowding but must eventually lose Benwick (though when this event would take place was an uncertain matter, the admiralty and how it decided on promotions was still a fair mystery to him, he knew how it should work, but it seldom seemed to work that way). Frederick suspected that Dowding had received his promotion and appointment to the Laconia because a fellow captain wished to be rid of him.
Lieutenant Dowding, having been passed over many times, would be sensitive as to any hint that Frederick was recommending Benwick's promotion for personal reasons. Therefore, although Benwick was who Frederick would most like to talk to about Anne, he did not dare to show any hint he was favoring Benwick and it would be natural if he shared something so personal with Benwick that the natural affinity between them would increase.
The Captain of the Marines, Galpin, was very competent in his role and Frederick had no particular complaints about his character or ability to keep a confidence. Confiding in him would have the advantage that he was not a rival of Dowding, but Frederick felt no particular affinity with him. They did not spend much time together as he was occupied, and rightfully so, with commanding his Lobsters. So while he was a good choice, Frederick ultimately decided against him.
Next he considered the junior wardroom officers. First up was his sailing master. Frederick did not want to think that he viewed this man who had come through the ranks as his inferior, and indeed he knew he could trust Coombs with his life, yet Frederick did not want to trust him with the tender feelings of his heart. Coombs was a man who, though of advancing years, had no wife and seemingly had no desire for one. Instead, he was seemingly the first man to welcome the doxies that anxiously awaited ships preparing to dock and his great compatriot in such endeavors was the purser.
They were always telling ribald stories about their exploits, stories that though Frederick should be immune to by now, still managed to pink his ears on occasion. Unlike some captains, Frederick had no desire to try to curb his crew members' behavior when they were at port. He felt they had earned the right to enjoy themselves as they would when off duty. He merely asked that the ship always come first when they were on duty and he did not worry about the rest.
Many men would talk with a chaplain when they were troubled and the men who were in such positions were used to keeping confidences, but Frederick had no sin regarding Anne to confess. Too, he no longer had a chaplain aboard. His last chaplain had died of a prolonged illness and that man of God had not died well, blubbering and raving at the end, begging all that would listen for his life as if the ship's officers might have some authority over life and death and as if there was no afterlife to pass into. It was rather depressing that in the end he seemed to have no belief in the thing that his occupation was all about.
The ship's surgeon, Mr. Dash, had done his best to help the chaplain while in sickbay, but seemed more proficient with tending to wounds than illnesses. Frederick supposed, though, that there was nothing to be done on many occasions than to make sure an ill man had plenty of water and loblolly and then wait to see whether the man's body would be bear up during the ensuing struggle between life and death. At least the surgeon faithfully visited the chaplain twice a day as he was supposed to do and while there did what he could for him.
Frederick respected Mr. Dash. While perhaps not the best at treating illnesses, he had quite a bit of technical proficiency with repairing wounded men. It seemed to be as much art as science to stitch together a man whose muscles, skin and other parts that Frederick did not even know the names of, which had been rent apart from some trauma or another, into a working whole.
Frederick himself had a deep gash along his left arm skillfully repaired by Mr. Dash, which left only a narrow flat scar. He was lucky that such was the only real marring which had occurred to his flesh in all his years in the navy, other than a slightly bent finger, the result of a broken bone which Mr. Dash opined should have been straightened before being bound.
Frederick had been only a midshipman when that minor injury occurred as a result of his finger getting caught while he was aloft. Somehow one of his hands had slipped from the knob knot and in trying to prevent a fall his finger got tangled in the rigging. His captain at that time, who seemed to notice everything, noted the handkerchief he had bound about it and sent him to the ship's surgeon.
That surgeon was of a prior generation to this one. He was grizzled, cantankerous and an old salt.
When Frederick showed him his crooked and swollen right index finger, the man had said, "What do you expect me to do, snotty?"
Perhaps if Frederick had been a ranked man at the time rather than an officer in training, he would have said the first thing that came to mind, which was, "Your job, man." Instead Frederick only said, "The captain told me to see you, but not what he expected you to do."
The surgeon gave a bit of a snort, held Frederick's finger up to the light and said, "The bone has not pierced the skin so you will heal all right, I suppose. Bind it to the finger next to it and avoid using it in going aloft while it heals. It may continue to bruise and swell but so long as the bone does not pierce the skin, there is no horrid smell and no red streak appears on your arm, you need not see me again."
The surgeon glanced at Frederick's knuckles then and said, "If you think you are prone to slipping fingers, you should perhaps get your knuckles tattooed with 'hold fast'; it works for some, although I wager you would rather keep your hands unmarked, a smart looking fellow like yourself. Listen to me now, when you meet a pretty gal make sure you have come up with a sufficiently good story for why your finger is the way it will end up."
None of the things the surgeon warned Frederick against came to pass and so Frederick did not see him again. While he considered his other advice, he did not act on it.
Thinking about the current surgeon, Mr. Dash, and that past one, made Frederick think of Anne. It occurred to him that he was expecting her, if she indeed was able to come to him, to serve in a role that might be considered to be usurping the domain of the surgeon or his mates; that gave him a good reason to talk to Mr. Dash about Anne, which he resolved to do in the morning.