The Middies' Berth

"true that.. won't know till we're there. n' even then 't will be t' weather n' sea tellin' us we're elsewhere than our own usual sea, n' 'fcourse the land." Or with middies something more, for they had lessons and teachings that were something more than the marines could hope for.

" N' us." He added curtly and looked up. "..We're on this voyage ter drop off our guests, isn't it?" He meant Edrington and that other cavalry man that seemed to have disappeared below for good. "Well 'tleast part of it, is for them. t' rest is ter make ourselves useful when needed. N' we're needed about where he's going too."

(ooc - night night! )

"Aye. Frigates get to do a lot of things that bigger ships don't, 'cause they'm more handy. Sail better and that, even if they can't fight in the line of battle like a first or second-rate ship. Dunno what we'm goin' to do after we get where we'm goin', but then, that's for the Captain to worry about. Not the likes of me, sir."

".. Certainly won't be asked about it. " He agreed. " bein' a private n' all, and of course a marine." He added and shrugged. "Might firs' hope we'm be gettin' any prize money like, n' having Terspy refit. If we can't be doin' enough while we sail." He wondered about the extent of damage and how much of the work they could do at the spot and how much they needed to be in port in. He wasn't all thought of how to abuse and use men, which proved when he had his mind on other things. Rarely, but truly.

"t' cap'n 's like t' Lord n' King on a ship." Which was more something he mused about really, than anything he wished to enlighten the marine with. ".. t' marines are his guards.. like." He continued with the image then dropped it. Silly enough to be talking of that.

"The captain can run his ship however he likes, sir. If he wants to have a happy ship, he'll make sure to be fair and that his officers are fair. And if he don't, if he likes the cat, well, there ain't nobody can stop him. And us Marines... we have to stand 'tween the officers and the men. Standin' sentry ain't the only thing we do though, of course."

Though if the Marines were treated as badly as the sailors - s they were on some ships - that would make the threat of mutiny even more real, because they would be less likely to want to stand in the way and more likely to want to join it. Thompson was thankful he'd never served on such a ship.

"Aye, yer throw yer weight around like, n' help where it's physically needed." He nodded. "...to a capn' t' properly trained n' minded marines are as important as officers, I think. For.. is t' marines who can protect t' captain if all else fails. Officers of course are his extended power." He smiled and shifted again.

" We'um important. 's a fine thing being a midshipman. 'tleast if you compare it ter being them sailors. 'fcourse it's finer ter be a lieutenant like. But.." He looked glad he was what he was, almost proud perhaps even if he'd really done nothing much to deserve his station.

"I like bein' a middie.. a young gentleman like, an officer. N' they have ter salute me n' obey me." He grinned.

"You'm Quality, sir. Couldn't be anythin' else but a middy. An' me... Well, I'm fair content with bein' a Marine, even if that means I don't get the same respec' you do. It's still a fair good thing t'be. Though I prob'ly won't ever be anythin' but a Private, I like it well enough. It's better'n starvin', anyways, and I didn't have much else to look forward to afore I 'listed."

There had never been much money for anything when Thompson was a child, and he'd always been thin and hungry and dressed in rags. The first proper clothes he'd ever worn was the uniform issued to recruits: trousers, shirt, stockings, shoes, undress (drill) jacket and forage hat.

"Ye made a wise choice. N' you chose ter be a marine, which is... summat that then you know ter trust. Someone who's forced.. they don't have t' mindset like. Ye understand? " He nodded light. The private was from a fair different background than himself, as opposite a kind as they could get, but there was oddly still a way that they could talk in civil manner.

"Even if yer came fer better food n' clothin'.. but you did come to serve too?.. t' King n' country?"

Thompson leant on his musket and considered the question. "Not... not really, sir. Th'King's well enough, like, only I don't know much about him, and I 'listed 'cause I was hungry all the time, and I knew if I didn't, sooner or later the Press would get me and make me go to sea anyway. And I'd rather go to sea in me own way, by me own choice. And now I'm in the Marines, I fight for me mates and me ship."

He shrugged, and turned to look at De Guarde. "It's hard to fight for someone you've only heard of, and never met, nor are never likely to meet. I never even seed a picher of the King, apart from the one on the coins if'n I was lucky enough to ever have a farthin' of me own."

"'s not t' man.. in a way that yer fight for.. but fer t' image.. t' ideal. Like. Well.. I was told ter be proud ter fight for him." He shrugged his shoulders lightly. "N' I didn't have any hunger ter make me join' nor do I think I'd be made ter." He looked at Thompson. "'tleast wasn't by a press, like you would've. Or other men like."

He served for duty, not for the men nor ship. It was a concept that might have been harder to grasp, yet when he did serve and did his part, it was because it was his duty to, and when he bullied.. well that was an excuse of an extention of it.

"The idea of it... I 'member once, Captain Aubrey sayin', jest afore a battle, that our ship was England. So, I s'pose I do fight King an' country, a bit. Though, like I said, I joined mostly so's I wouldn't be so hungry all the time. And, mostly, I ain't been. Though it's easier to fight for your mates - to kill a Frenchy afore he can do for you or someone you've swapped a duty with, that sort of thing."

He'd never really thought about it before.

"It's easy to do y'r duty when it means your mates stay safe," he said. "If you don't mind me askin', what's the hardest duty you've ever had to do?"

"Hardest duty? ..depends what ye want ter define as it first, Thompson. There's a duty ter serve t' capn' n' lieutenants right?.. your duty ter do what they tell you. Yer mean what was t' hardest that I was ordered to do?"

The ship was England.

Well, then he'd only ever fought for the ship and served for the ship, for he did not fight for anyone else. Not for mates, since he hadn't quite had them, and no further for the lieutenants and captain as his duty extended, because of his duty.

"The hardest duty for you to do, sir, yes. Though I don't mean the most difficult duty to do, necessarily."

He wondered how his mates were doing - had done - without him. Was Branning - loyal, dependable Branning - hurt? Or quick-witted Allen? Or even Vining? He was always careless of how he stuffed his things back into their shared sea-chest, disregarding how he messed up Thompson's as he did so, yet if anything happened to him, Thompson would miss him badly.

"T' hardest.. well.." He didn't know. Not that there was nothing he hadn't considered hard, but there was a fine line between learning and duty and learning as duty and the more he considered it, the less he was sure that he was to give a smart and right answer to the given question.

"Well as duty.. 'twas quite unnervin' when we had ter go n' board t' other ship... that's one. When yer have ter lead your men n' ye don't know who'se worse. T' one behind you or t' one infront. But.." He continued. "..don't know if it were t' hardest...there were plenty of things. I like ter go up in the shrouds, so 'twas never a hrad thing to be ordered ter go. Well, almost never." He nodded and smiled. "'twas free, if ye were up there. Havin' control of all yer danger. n' 'twas so high everythin' else looked.. n' still looks all small, unimportant. That was a fun thin' even if ye aren't right ter show it."

"There ain't any harm in showing you enjoy summat, sir. Y'know, I wish you could meet Captain Aubrey... you'd like him, a lot, I think. An' there was times he'd go aloft, to mebbe see for himself what the lookout reported, or just for fun. An' there was the time he went up with our First Lieutenant - this was on Surprise - and they raced each other back down to deck, lookin' like a couple of middies, the way they had fun doin' it. He'd be able to tell you about a happy ship much better than I can, too."

He paused for a second, then said wistfully, "Best captain I ever had, he was, sir. Though I've had some real good'uns in my time. Him, an' Captain Ramage, an' now Captain Bolitho."

An incredilous look was mirrored openly on the youth's face. To imagine any captain racing down a lieutenant. To be racing him at all like a midshipman, but to be... it was something he had trouble imagining and thought for a moment that Thompson was telling him of some sea fable that mothers told their children while their fathers were at sea.

"If ye... if yer say so." He murmured and shook his head. A captain racing down with a lieutenant. He couldn't even imagine Bolitho do that, and he was a more open kind of captain by Thompson's description.

"Was he n' first lieutenant.. " He didn't believe it possible either, though a lot more than a midshipman to a sailor:" ..Friends.. like? Knew each other from before?"

"Yes, I think they'd sailed together when Captain Aubrey got promoted from Lieutenant to Commander, years ago. And Lieutenant Pullings was his Lieutenant then, too. Don't know if they knowed each other before that, though."

It was almost, to Thompson's mind, as thought there were two different Navies - the one he knew, with fair-minded officers, and the one Mister De Guarde had experienced, with nothing but criticism, suspicion, bullying and the cat.

"How... how often was the cat used, on Confdence?" he asked. "I mean, was there a flogging every day? Or several a day? Or only once a week, but several done then?" Why he kept coming back to De Guarde's previous ship, and the way it was run, he couldn't say. Maybe it was like having a loose tooth - you couldn't leave it alone, no matter what.

But it was the midshipman's only real experience of the Navy, and Thompson wanted to understand what it had been like for the lad.

"Depended really. Well..when I firs' came aboard.. I thought 'twas every day.. was so often like. There was always summat that someone could do wrong. Not always t' cat 'fcourse. Middies fer example didn' have ter cat. But t' puss, or cane n' there were other things too. Then ye had a midde sent up for example n' that happened sometimes. Fer more minor things. Yer wouldn't always get t' cane.. of course. " He nodded, feeling at ease to speak about his ship. It was something he knew and felt at home with, though he would have told many other a man to mind their own business.

But since the hours that passed while they two talked, Thompson didn't just stand there as another - other - man.

"If t' weather was bad for a few days, then you wouldn't get ter have any of t' cat. We were all pullin' our weight ter have t' ship safe. Didn't mean ye were forgotten though. Jus' meant that 'twas postponed. We weren't being risked ter go and hang in the shrouds when the storm was being wild. Wouldn't be smart that. Certain death. But if it was jus' rain.. then.."He shrugged his shoulders. "Why not."

He looked thoughtful. "But..'twas something ye got used ter seeing. After a while 'twas like readin' ter' articles, aye?... ye listen n' ye know them all by heart, but ye still have ter listen ter them again. N' you don't count how many times ye've heard them any more."

The Articles of War that governed everything of life aboard ship were more familiar to most sailors and Marines - including Thompson - than the Ten Commandments.

He nodded. "Ain't good to be allus a-feared though. Makes men rush too much to be able to do a proper good job. Which means they'm likely to get punished anyways. Not fair on 'em, that, when they know their job and know how to do it, but can't 'cause of gettin' threatened with a startin' or the cat, or summat like that."

"Yer get used ter .seeing that though. First yer terrified.. aye. But then.. ye know ter do fast. N' maybe that's not enough sometimes n' maybe yer don't know what ye did wrong, but ye did enough so that.. 'stead of more often... ye get done less. N' that's good on ye and you try ter better that. ..n' by bettering that, t' officers are less keen ter see you learnin' their lessons." He nodded curtly. "s' all fine jus'.. not with havin' older middies.. actin' like they were of higher rank too. N' wakin' ye like... n' they know yer tired, but they have someone wake you.. n' wake yer again jus' because yer told him no."

"That ain't... that ain't right." Thompson was horrified at that and turned right round to look at the middy, shock obvious on his face. "Just 'cause you said summat they didn't like, they'd keep you awake your whole watch below? I.... You poor thing."

He shook his head. "Nothin' like that ever happened on Terpsy. Nor on any other of me ships, and it won't happen to you here, neither. The Captain won't stand fer it, or anythin' like it, not f'r a moment, I promise you, sir."

(OOC - I have to go to work this afternoon. See you later.)

"Well that was what Mr. Hollow was like. He was our eldest middie , ye see. We've never seen eye to eye. But he were respected by some of t' others. N' he was like... like a liuetenant amongst us. Meanin' what he said went. ..n' some others did too .. like they were bein'. .well similar ter him but subordinate ter him! Those elder than us, that spent more time on that ship n' knew t' tricks of sealife already! So we learnt." He shrugged his shoulders gently. " How things go, n' what ye have ter do. .."

He looked surprised at the expression he found clear on the marine's face. Such a shock? Well, it was an unpleasant experiece indeed, and had set him back to look even more tired and nearly fall asleep when he should have been awake. But that great of a shock. He felt as if the marine actually cared for a moment there.


"Hope yer right. " He smiled faintly.

(See you soon! )

"I wish... I really wish your first ship had bin Surprise or Calypso. You must hate the Navy after what you'm bin through, sir." If it was the folks on his previous ship who'd given him the ideas that he held about the sailors, Thompson hoped he could learn differently here. But that would only happen if he was open to new ideas, which seemed unlikely from what he'd seen. He wondered how much of what De Guarde said had been taught him on Confidence and how much was his own idea. Maybe one day the lad would learn the right way of things and develop into a nice friendly lad like Yates, willing to learn and help others. It was going to be a long road to get there, though, both for De Guarde and for those he came into contact with on the way.

(OOC - back, but needing to grab a shower. Be back properly in about half-an-hour or so. Hopefully less.)

"..You learn ter bear it. " He answered with a small frown. " It taught me lessons that I'm sure will help me later. N' it gave me.. well I be a middie. That's what navy gave me." He nodded with confidence. " ...t' men on t' ship. They aren't ter like or hate, but ter live with. If they are sailors ter order n' ter punish and if they are officers, ter do your duty to them. Not because you like them, or hate them. But because 'tis your duty." He looked very serious at that.

He didn't mention what one could do to survive, or what one needed to do to get ahead in the game, how one learnt the tricks of trade and what those tricks were. he didn't even mention the skills of falseness one had to learn so that one could get what they wanted. He was still learning them. He was fair good with the part of the bullying and intimidation. He'd had sent young Fletcher right in fright and then into a submissive kind companionship, where the boy was in ways subordinate to him.

He didn't regret it neither. It was how things were meant to be. And Terpsy was too odd in that it didn't agree.

(ooc - ok! *huggles under the warm blanket )

"Be nice if'n you could make friends with some of the other young gentlemen though, sir. It don't allus have to be you agin them, y'know. Though mebbe you don't understand how it can be different. I ain't... I ain't sayin' you'm wrong, sir. You'm a middy, and I wouldn't say that. I'm just sayin' things can be different here. Nicer, mebbe, an' you might need to think a bit different 'cause of it."

He sighed. "You don't really understand me, do you, sir? And I ain't got the words to explain it to you right. I'm sorry f'r that, sir."

"Don't apologise, Thompson."

The marine was trying to help, in whatever manner he thought was right and though the boy did not think he needed that, he sensed that it was done so and sensed that, or thought that atleast he did not mean anything ill with what he was saying.

"Yer sayin' what ye were thought.. n' what comes from yer point of view." He smiled encouragingly. "S' not me world.. that joins with yers. That's all."