Free Cochrane by Donald Thomas Page B

junior lieutenants were respectful to his face and laughed at him behind his back. There was an occasion for great hilarity when someone contrived that Beaver should be hauled before the admiral for having sent his own correspondence at the reduced seaman's rate. It was a trivial enough matter and Beaver was soon proved innocent of it, but the air of pompous gravity which he displayed on his return must have caused further ill-suppressed snorts of mirth. "No man can be too careful of character," he announced over the matter of the postage stamp. "Such an accusation might have been whispered at a future time, but its utter falsehood is now placed on record." 8
    As a matter of fact, Beaver's record was good but not distinguished. He had joined the navy at eleven and fought under Rodney against D'Orvillers at twelve. After seven years as a midshipman and fifteen as a lieutenant his promotion seemed ominously long-delayed. Apart from an attempt to found a colony of high-minded men and women on an island off Sierra Leone, which had ended in disaster, the Royal Navy had been his life.
    But there was a flaw in Beaver's character, as Cochrane saw it. On several occasions the Barfleur left the blockade force to collect supplies from the North African port of Tetuan. Instead of taking on cattle already slaughtered, the animals were embarked five and slaughtered on board. Beaver permitted this, though he knew it was done to allow certain officers to run a lucrative trade in hides. These were stowed in empty casks. The result, as the noses of Cochrane and his companions soon detected, was that throughout the months of the blockade the Barfleur reeked like an ill-ventilated glue factory. Other ships of the squadron caught a hint of it, cheerfully hailing their leader as "The Stinking Scotch Ship", a compliment to Keith's nationality rather than Cochrane's. 9
    The wardroom storm broke after a visit to Tetuan. Cochrane and Captain Cuthbert of the Marines had been ashore duck-shooting. They returned in the launch just as the Barfleur was about to sail, both of them covered in mud. Deciding that it would be "disrespectful" to report to the quarterdeck in that state, the two men went to change. Lieutenant Beaver had watched them come aboard, so there was no urgency. By the time that Cochrane emerged from his cabin into the wardroom, the Barfleur had weighed anchor and set sail for the Spanish coast. Almost at once, he was followed into the wardroom by Beaver, who began to berate Cochrane and Cuthbert in front of the other officers.
    "You have both made me appear exceedingly ridiculous, for I have just reported you to the captain as left on shore, not having heard of your return to the ship!"
    This outburst, from a man who had watched them come aboard, was calculated to bring out the worst in Cochrane. His temper was violent but, as his adversaries discovered, its expression was controlled and withering.
    "I cannot help it," he said casually, "if you appear ridiculous to the captain." The "parliamentary" lieutenants goggled.
    Beaver, totally unaccustomed to such language from a junior officer, stopped abruptly. But his was the ultimate weapon.
    "Unless I am acquainted with your return to the ship," he said sharply, "while I am first lieutenant, you shall not go out of this ship."
    "Aye," said Cochrane softly, as Beaver sat down at the wardroom table. Then he added, "Lieutenant Beaver, I do not wish to hear more on the subject now, but you shall hear from me on the subject another time."
    And having said this, Cochrane turned his back on Beaver, looking towards the windows in the stern, and began to whistle. Beaver sat upright, got to his feet, and strode from the wardroom to the quarterdeck, where he complained that the arrogant young Lord Cochrane, when reprimanded, had challenged him to a duel. The warm and sickly odour of rotting hide was hardly noticed in the new wardroom atmosphere of insulted honour and abused authority. 10
    It was in