It stilled conversation about the table until Kydd said lightly, ‘Save only where the ship is a man-o’-war under the flag of an enemy power. And I take Infanta to be so, even if in a private line of business.’
There was a relieved murmuring about the table but then Owen, the dry Welshman and purser, spoke: ‘Then it were better our books of account were put in order before our return.’
‘Books?’ Kydd said, puzzled.
‘Yes, Captain. Should you have taken up this vessel into your service, then there must be a line of disbursement for stores and equipment. Neither I nor the gunner nor boatswain can be expected to write off items consumed without a proper ticket.’
‘Oh. Well, what do you recommend, Mr Owen?’
‘Why, there’s naught to say. The deed is done.’
Kydd sighed. The last thing he needed was the prospect of having to explain himself later to a clerk of the cheque concerning the expenditure of funds intended for L’Aurore upon another vessel.
‘There’s nothing I can do?’
‘As I said, the books must be squared.’
Kydd was irritated by this intrusion into the warmth of the evening. ‘How will we do that?’
‘I can do this, but I must have your predated certificate that Infanta is taken up as tender to HMS L’Aurore.’
A tender. A minor craft set in menial attendance on a much larger, usually a ship-of-the-line when in port, to convey passengers, supplies and generally be at beck and call. Then it dawned: a tender was borne on the books of its mother ship for stores and victualling, but much more important was what it implied.
‘You shall have your certificate, Mr Owen.’
Kydd grinned as the idea grew to full flower. ‘And thank you for the steer. Gentlemen, our sainted purser has solved our accounting problems and given us a splendid opportunity at one and the same time.’
Kydd raised his glass to the mystified purser. ‘Do I explain, sir, or will you? No? Then it shall be me.’
He had their full attention. ‘Mr Owen is pointing out that we now have a regular-going tender, just like a battleship. And what do tenders do? They go where they’re bid, no questions asked. So if, while we’re on patrol in the Mona Passage, it is sent on a whim to, say, twenty degrees north, there’s none to gainsay us.’
Enjoying the baffled looks around the table, he continued, ‘It being a rascally part of the world it is naturally armed. Which would be fortunate, should it fall in with an enemy. That is, any enemy.’
Smiles began to appear as his drift became apparent. ‘Which is to say, even hostile merchant vessels who choose to cross its bows, which can never be suffered by any under the King’s colours, even if only a paltry tender.’
There was open laughter now. ‘So I must find an officer well acquainted with these coasts who I may trust with the charge of L’Aurore’s tender,’ Kydd concluded. ‘One not to be daunted by service in a small ship and one of undoubted sagacity in tight circumstances.’
He looked about, then allowed his gaze to settle on the hero of the hour. ‘Mr Buckle, I give you joy of your command. Gentlemen, do raise your glasses to … His Majesty’s jolly Privateer Infanta!’
Chapter 6
It was showy, but Kydd couldn’t resist His Majesty’s Frigate L’Aurore returning to her harbour home of Port Royal proudly at the head of a procession. Not one or two but four prizes followed in her wake at regularly spaced intervals, each with the ensign of the Royal Navy above that of the vanquished. They weren’t the largest or most spectacular ever seen, and one in the amount of salvage only, but Kydd was confident it would put the admiral in the right frame of mind when he explained about the tender.
‘North settin’ current,’ the master warned, eyeing the less-than-hundred-yard gap between Gun Cay and tiny Rackham Cay. It was a tricky passage, but Kydd knew the current’s effect would be offset by the balmy north-easterly. Kendall was right to bring it to his notice but this more direct course had the advantage that their approach would lead them close by the land for all to admire his little show.
They proceeded around Port Royal Point and into Kingston Harbour, punctilious in their salutes. Kydd allowed a smile at the thought of the words of jealousy aboard Northumberland at the sight of the pretty frigate arriving with prizes at her tail.
The admiral’s flag was at the main, so he could pay his call immediately instead of taking carriage to the residence on the hill. He went below to change, reflecting that he would remember this time in his naval service as one of contentment, the larger war somewhere on the other side of the Atlantic and Bonaparte caged in Europe, powerless to affect this agreeable existence.