Sacred Hunger - Barry Unsworth [32]
Barton, who had been regarding the abstracted captain with a look of stealthy dislike, said, ‘What compact is that, Cap’n Thurso?’
‘Never mind, never mind. I have kept my square, I am still here.’
‘Some owner, he is,’ Barton said after a moment. ‘He is all over the place. Still, we have taken on a fair mix of cargo, I will say that for him. He has ordered everything just right for the trade.’
Kemp had been diligent in this as in all else, and he had taken counsel. In these last few days, in addition to victuals, they had stowed away muskets, flints, gunpowder, glass beads, iron bars, bolts of brightly coloured cottons, bales of taffeta and silk, gold-braided cocked hats, knives of various sorts, copper kettles and basins, casks of brandy and rum, five hundred looking-glasses. Together with this were articles not intended for sale: whips, thumbscrews, branding irons and a quantity of manacles, fetters, chains and padlocks, all of good substance and well wrought.
‘All the same,’ Barton said, ‘three negroes privilege for a second mate, that is unheard of, that is carryin’ phalinthroppy beyond what is warranted.’
Thurso drank and mused, head lowered now. He had a way of removing his attention, as if others were no longer in the room with him. The tide was on the ebb, he had felt the change in the way the ship rode at her anchor. The lamp was turning through a slight arc and light from it moved over the oak panelling, which still smelled of varnish, and over Thurso’s lowered head and the suddenly indignant face of his first officer.
‘No, it ain’t right,’ Barton said. ‘He could give somethin’ to the carpenter or the gunner, they are vallible people aboard. We know what a second mate is, on the Guinea run.’
Thurso raised his head and fixed the other with a sombre stare. ‘Don’t you concern yourself with that,’ he said. ‘Who knows where the second mate will be, or the gunner or the carpenter, by the time we reach Jamaica? When were you last on a ship that brought all her crew back from Africa?’
‘Then there is the doctor,’ Barton said in the same tone of indignation. ‘Relative of the owner, never been to sea before, what the jig is he doin’ aboard of us?’
‘Aye, there is something there,’ Thurso said. ‘There is something pressing on him that he might be ready to talk of to the right man. Try to smoke him out, Barton. Do it friendly like, you will know how.’
‘I will do my best.’ Barton looked earnestly at the bottle. ‘My level best, Cap’n Thurso.’
‘Have some more brandy. After that I will require you to go ashore.’
‘Tonight?’
‘Aye, tonight,’ Thurso said irritably. ‘Are you afraid you will melt in the rain? The sailing has been posted for three weeks now but we still have only twenty-two men signed. Homeward bound, with the blacks discharged, it will not matter if we are light. But we cannot set out with less than twenty-five. Take Haines along with you, he looks a handy fellow. See what you can find along the waterfront.’
‘Can I take a third man, in case of things turnin’ out unreasonable? Libby, say, him with the eye-patch? He is friendly with Haines, I see them talkin’ together.’
‘Mr Barton, I am surprised at you. Set an ordinary seaman on a slaveship to press men on to the same ship? There would be blood all over the deck before we were out of the Formby Channel. From the officers they will take it, not from one of themselves. No, if you and Haines need help you will have to pay some scum there to help you. You can split up if you like, when you get ashore. Get back here about nine. I will leave Simmonds in charge and we will go over together to see what the posters have done for us. You had better stir yourself. You and Haines stay sober, or it is on your head, you being the senior. We need more crew, Mr Barton, and it