It has been a while since I thanked reviewers, so shout-outs to A Fan, Guests, nanciellen, liysyl, and Shey72. It means a lot when you take the time to write a little something.
I hope y'all have been liking the last couple of chapters. No news, or in this case almost no reviews when I know I'm getting views, is good news, right? I am guessing that I will get more comments when I post more forward action on Frederick's and Anne's reunion. The past couple of chapters and this one have been necessary in my opinion to help you know what is going on with life aboard the Laconia so that when (not if, I wouldn't be that mean) Anne is aboard that you understand some of the dynamics at play so we that I don't have to slow down the action to explain a lot of background things when we are seeing their new life together. I don't want this to be a "they get married and that's the end" type of story.
I am still doing research. I finally found the time to read through the Dictionary of Vulgar Tongue and will be using a few words from it from now on. I also did some research on the history of venereal disease which was a huge issue on naval ships and stumbled on a great resource for finding about what medical treatments on ships were like, www dot nationalarchives dot gov dot uk / surgeonsatsea / which has actual journals and diaries of royal naval surgeons from 1793 to 1880 which I am sure will be a treasure trove; I've only had time to look at the highlights guide.
Fair warning, there is a fairly extensive discussion of prostitution and venereal disease in this chapter but there is some humor in using all the funny slang words which you should more of less be able to figure out in context (if you have any questions I'll explain).
Also coming up, though not in this chapter, we will find out why Mrs. Holmes's family has treated her so badly besides her dependence on them due to her relative poverty. Does anyone have a guess? It may not be what you expect. I'd like to get her into a better situation by the end of the story but am still considering how to do that.
The next morning Frederick was still resolute about arranging to talk to the ship surgeon about Anne. The complication with talking with anyone aboard the ship was that given the lack of space aboard by necessity there were very few places they could go to talk in private where others would not be entering and exiting to go about their duties. However, Frederick met weekly with Mr. Dash for a report about the crew's health, sooner if there was a particular concern that needed prompt addressing. They had a practice of meeting in the sickbay for such reports and early on they had established it was the better practice to speak without the surgeon's mates or loblolly boys able to hear them as certain matters were better discussed without any in attendance.
A common discussion topic that Frederick would have preferred to avoid, was who among the crew had been diagnosed and was being treated for venereal disease, a pernicious ailment with dire consequences whose frequent discussion in graphic details by Mr. Dash curbed any more recent temptation for Frederick to indulge with those who peddled their bodies to his crew at each port. While most of those women were in poor condition and his crew should have expected they might be diseased, when offered an opportunity to dock with them they seemed not to consider that they might be dirty puzzles. Frederick wished to believe that there was less chance of becoming frenchified from better nunneries that the officers tended to visit. Undoubtedly those had both cleaner women of pleasure and the Corinthians should be less likely to be infected themselves, but had not quiffed any himself.
This was not out of a moralist or religious belief that such action was wrong. Undoubtedly, it was wrong to participate in such debauchery and provide a market for the selling of woman's commodity, but Frederick knew Miss Laycock would always be in demand.
Instead, while he did not see his father often while he had yet to join a ship and his father was away on his own, he remembered a most serious conversation they had when he was little more than a lad which was later reinforced in other conversations and allusions to it in letters. His father gave him the following advice which Frederick never forgot:
"Freddy, I have known too many good men who after visiting ladies of easy virtue, whether at a respectable bawdy house or taking a flyer with a romp, who come back having burned his poker. One night of rogering can lead to a lifetime of mercury, which never cures and may even kill. The clap can result in an infection of the tallywags and a pego that does not work. However, the French disease is worse. I have known men who eventually ended up with fallen noses, blindness, went mad and died. Furthermore, a man who indulges in this manner can bring these illnesses to his wife and afflict any children she may bear. Please, please Freddy, listen to your father. Never treat your tackle as a whore pipe. A few minutes of mowing can ruin your whole life. That bottomless pit that the cat shares with you is aptly called man trap. Instead, marry a virtuous woman and enjoy congress with her."
With such foreknowledge, when Frederick was aboard his first ship along with listening to all the bawdy talk (of which there was an endless supply, men bragging about making the buttock ball, enjoying a muff, discussing the dairy and pitcher on a Covenant Garden Nun, talking about how his hair splitter took cock alley with a Drury Lane vestal, how a female screw's dugs bounced while riding St. George), he also noted things that perhaps the other lads would not have. He heard men complain of having to see the ship's surgeon for treatments, of pissing pins and needles, he saw one man's yard that had sores, he heard another man mention his dropping member which had the gleets, and he even saw how a man with open ulcers upon his skin sickened further and died (and the whispered comment that he had suffered for years with the Drury Lane Ague). So Frederick, by the time he was old enough to consider amorous congress, was fully convinced of the veracity of his father's wisdom.
When Frederick met Anne he was convinced that his father had the right of it. He would happily commit to the mousetrap, knowing that he could enjoy the feather-bed jig with her. This was also why he was so eager to marry even before he had begun his first command. He would not be one of these men who married, left a wife and then joined gibblets with a lady of easy virtue at the first opportunity. Far better to marry and keep her close.
Even when Anne had ended their engagement and Frederick was tempted to visit a nanny house, he refrained both because he knew the potential consequences and because the idea of enjoying another's bushel bubby and quim was distasteful. Frederick was glad of this decision when he became captain of the Laconia and began getting Mr. Dash's crew reports. The sheer number of men afflicted with venus's curse, the clap or both was astonishing, nearly a third of the crew.
As Mr. Dash was at the central mast each morning for the sick call in which any who were newly sick were to report, along with the able-bodied wounded still undergoing treatment, Frederick went ahead and attended to his regular morning duties which included getting a report from the night watch and other status reports. As they were still becalmed, the weather was clear and no other ships had been spotted, there was nothing much to report. Still that took a bit of time and when these meetings were concluded Frederick expected that Mr. Dash would likely be found in his office.
Mr. Dash's office was a tiny room tucked into the corner of his sickbay, which consisted of little more than a fold down shelf that functioned as a writing desk that jutted out from a bookcase built into the wall which was filled with medical reference books, with locking containers built into the opposite wall in which herbs and more expensive equipment was stored along with the logbooks that recorded the crew's condition and treatments, and two sturdy stools that nested to conserve space when not in use. This room also had a small locking door which enabled privacy, though Mr. Dash generally did not close it unless talking about something confidential as the room had no ventilation making it stifling to have it remain in such a state overly long, but which avoided anyone listening in. He did lock it at night to try to dissuade any who might attempt to treat themselves to his medicines.
Mr. Dash looked up from his writing when he heard Frederick's steps, with a slightly quizzical expression on his face. Frederick imagined Mr. Dash was wondering why he was there when it was Tuesday and not Friday, when they normally met. Still, Mr. Dash gestured him inside, though he did not rise (as early on Frederick had established he did not want such formalities from his wardroom officers). Frederick closed the door and took the remaining stool as Mr. Dash lay down his quill and turned toward Frederick. As the shelf was still jutting out with the open logbook, ink-pot and quill upon it, their knees nearly touched.
"What may I do for you, Captain?" Mr. Dash asked, one eyebrow slightly quirked with curiosity. Though he had been a ship surgeon for more than twenty years, his manner of speech with his captain and other gentlemen officers revealed his education. Mr. Dash likely had the most education of anyone aboard, though Benwick had self-educated himself about many things that would serve him well in parlor conversation but less well on a ship; Frederick had, too, but the things he chose to learn were largely practical and related to what he believed he needed to know to most effectively command the ship. However, Mr, Dash
"I wish to speak to you about a matter of some importance," Frederick began, "which has to do with your duties. I am trusting in your discretion to keep the matter I am about to discuss with you private."
"I take it you were not really having dinner with your sister a couple of months past when in port. Temptation is hard for anyone to resist. You never need fear I would tell the crew anything that is the matter with your sugar stick or twiddle-diddles," Mr. Dash answered and then not giving Frederick time to reply asked, "Venus's curse afflicts many, as does the clap. Have you a discharge, sores or a shanker?"
Frederick gave a short barking laugh, "No, it is nothing like that, though it does involve a matter of the heart, which would likely have the most effect on you and your mates. I truly was visiting my sister, Mrs. Croft. I had dinner with her and her husband Captain Croft."
Mr. Dash leaned forward, clearly curious.
"I may be getting married and bringing my bride to live on our ship," Frederick revealed, "and Miss Anne Elliot has been training with an apothecary in the healing arts, so as to have purpose once aboard. However, it has occurred to me that this is a matter in which you may wish to be heard before such an event transpires."
Mr. Dash leaned back in apparent astonishment, managing to bump his elbow on the writing shelf with enough force that he gasped in pain and upset his ink-pot. The next few moments were spent in cleaning up the resulting mess while Frederick waited.
Frederick thought Mr. Dash was taking his time in cleaning up while he considered the matter. But finally there was nothing more that could be done to fix the darkened stain, short of sanding the wood later.
When Mr. Dash resumed his seat, his writing implements and journal tucked away, he said evenly, "I did not know you were seeking to become a tenant for life. I have never heard mention of her before."
"In the year six for a brief time Miss Elliot was my betrothed. She nearly broke my heart when she was persuaded by others to give me up. You see at the time I had been named a commander but as of then had no ship and uncertain prospects. I have recently learned that she has been hoping I would renew my addresses and had even gone so far as to study diligently to be a nurse as I once blithely suggested would be a way for her to assist me once I had a ship and we were married."
"I have heard of captains whose wives live aboard, though I have never served on a ship with such an arrangement."
Mr. Dash grimaced and paused, apparently thinking, before adding in a respectful though firm tone, "In my opinion it ought never be attempted but as you are the captain it is your decision not mine."
He said more softly, almost to himself, "To think this ship may end up a hen frigate; will she then be the captain?"
Mr. Dash then sat up straighter and proclaimed, "Sickbay is my domain and I will not be gainsaid here. I will not have someone who had dabbled in the medical arts mucking about with my medical arrangements, harming men through her ignorance, though I suppose she might be some use in tending to delirious men calling for their wives and mothers."
"I cannot speak to precisely how much she knows," Frederick said evenly, trying not to let his irritation show, perhaps it had been overly optimistic to think that Mr. Dash would welcome Anne's help, "but knowing her and based on the letter I received from the apothecary training her, I imagine she is more well prepared than you would imagine. Surely you would not deny her an opportunity to assist you without at least getting a measure of her knowledge?"
"I suppose not," Mr. Dash told him. "However, are you sure you are not thinking more with your silent flute than with your upper story? A ship is no place for a woman, especially one who plans to spend time with your crew. Would you really relish her spending time alone with me, my mates and our patients? You ought not to have encouraged her in such a manner; far better to have encouraged her to mend men's slops or entertain us all by learning to become a gut scrapper. We could all enjoy some fiddled tunes."