In the Wardroom--Signing In

Bush stood by the wardroom table, sighing impatiently as he waited for their new sailor to arrive. He had instructed that the man be brought to him in order that he be properly entered into the crew. Though in truth, Bush was not entirely relishing the thought of having to sign in Perry. The man had already disrespected the captain, the ship, and even the King himself. If Perry was really British, then he was a sad embarrassment to them all.

Thompson escorted Perry to the wardroom, hoping desperately that he wouldn't try anything stupid on a ship full of sailors and Marines. He saluted Mister Bush who was standing by the wardroom table with the muster book open in front of him, looking impatient.

[coming from here]


Perry stumbled in, shaking off the numbness in his feet as he stared around the wardroom. The same fierce lieutenant from before was sitting at the table with a book in front of him, probably the pay book. Perry's accompanying marine pushed him into place standing across from the lieutenant.

Now was a time for a bit of respect. "Sir," Perry said, offering a salute.

Bush cocked an eyebrow slightly upon seeing the man salute. Perhaps he had learned a little civility after being bound in irons for a while.

"Perry," he said, "After having been read the Articles of War and having been signed into the muster book, then you shall be an official member of the Terpischore's crew. But before that, there are several things I would need to know first. You have told us your name, but what is your age? And--until now--what has been your profession?"

"I'm... 26 sir. I think. And I been able seaman since I was 18, sir," he said with a slight proud defiance. Let him just try to put him down as ordinary! "But these couple a years I been more a waterman on the Douro, working for my wife's father. He's a wine seller. Speaking of which--"

"Your familial relations have no bearing on the question," Bush snapped. He had no desire to hear any more of Perry's drivel about his wife or her family.

He wrote down Perry's responses in the proper columns, then looked up at him again. "An able seaman? Then it seems that answers the question of what your seamanship abilities may be. But for how many years were you at sea before being rated able? I highly doubt you were given that distinction the moment you boarded a ship."

"Ten years, sir. Went aboard my first ship when I was 8. My father and brothers are seamen too, my whole family. It were my wife's brother-in-law that--"

"Perry, if you continue to prattle on about your family, I will not hesitate to have you flogged immediately after having signed you in," Bush snarled, giving the man a fierce glare before pausing to enter the given information, "Now, I want to know what ships you have served on, and whether they were merchantmen or ships-of-war."

Perry accepted the interruption complacently. "Well sir, when I was a boy - you want all of 'em?"

Bush frowned. The man was really beginning to try his patience.

"Of course I want all of them."

"All right, sir. Well first it was the Dolphin - that's just like a fishing trawler in the Chesapeake. Then there was the Sarah Bell. That was fishing too - went on her a coupla years, all the way up to Newfoundland. And up there I met fellas out of Nantucket, New Bedford, all the whalers, you know? They're hard to get in with, but my cousin--"

"Not fishing trawlers and whalers, Perry," Bush interrupted, resisting the urge to roll his eyes, "You may omit those if you please. I need to know what large ships you have served on. Which vessels, and when."

"Well I forgot one, the Polly. That were the first time I came to England, first time I went all the way across the Atlantic - Captain Woodford it was, out of Rappahannock where I was born. But sir, whalers are vessels! Went around the horn in whalers, half a dozen times!" He gazed at the lieutenant with sad reproach.

"Of course they are vessels, Perry, but I do not wish to know about the time you spent on whalers!" Bush had raised his voice now, hoping volume might get through to the man where plain requesting had failed. "I need to know what ships-of-war or merchantmen you have served on, not fishing boats from whatever place in America you claim to hail from!"

"Yes, sir," he said mildly, as if calming an angry child. "Polly were a merchantman, carrying tobacco to London. Virginia is prime for--" He cleared his throat to interrupt himself before carrying on, counting on his fingers. "I served on the Tulip, merchantman outta North Carolina to the caribbean, oh and the Fran, and the, um, Enterprise and Intrepid, and the Argonaut what brung me here where I met my wife." He looked down at the book where Bush was writing and did not meet his eyes.

Whalers were ships, proper sized ships. Didn't Mister Bush know that? Well, he obviously didn't care. Either that, or he didn't have enough room in his book to write them down as well. He wished Perry would just tell it straight and not spin yarns enough to put the First Luff in a temper.

"Oh and the Ariadne. Merchantman. After the Tulip and before the Fran. We carried timber, mostly, on the Ariadne."

Thank God, Bush thought, when Perry finally began giving a list of the other ships he had served on. He jotted down the names of the merchantmen the man had mentioned, but he paused when he heard the names of the ships-of-war.

"The Enterprise and the Intrepid? You served aboard both of those ships?"

"Yes sir," he answered guardedly.

Bush raised his eyebrows slightly. He knew of those two ships. Both were American naval vessels which had distinguished themselves in battles in the Barbary War, particularly the Intrepid. The ship had been commanded by a certain Lieutenant Decatur, a man who, apparently, had earned the admiration of Nelson himself. If Perry had really served aboard those ships, then he should have enough experience to know how to crew a Navy ship properly.

"How long did you serve aboard those ships, Perry?"

"Well the Intrepid, sir, you know, was just a coupla months, actually, taken as a prize, what had been the Mastico. But I was on her," he said with a quiet pride. "But the Enterprise, it was about... four years, give or take, sir."

It was clear that Perry was not going to expound on his entire time aboard the ships--if he really had been on them. Bush would have liked to have enough concrete evidence of that, but he knew it would be useless to try and pry the information out of Perry if he refused to give it. And that was not completely necessary either. For all he knew, all of the information Perry had already given him could have been false, so what was the sense in asking for more falsehoods?

"Four years, very well." Bush made a notation in the book, though the tone of his voice showed he was not entirely pleased with the lack of information, "I suppose that is sufficient enough."

"Sufficient enough?" Perry sound as if he took the words as a personal slight on his seamanship. "Sufficient enough for what?"

"For you to know how to properly crew a naval vessel. Anyone who served aboard such distinguished ships should be well aware of how things are done aboard a Navy ship."

Bush fixed Perry with another harsh stare as he added, "Unless you are lying to me, which would be highly unadvisable."

Perry looked down him and answered mildly, mollified by the compliment to his former ships. "I ain't lyin' to you, sir."