Noble Duty

6. Growing Concern

Relieved by our decision to continue, Gillian and I returned our attention to the chart. "Except for these two islands that France was allowed to keep at the end of the war, this entire coast is now British from the Florida border to Newfoundland."

"So, you can trade all along it."

"Indeed, but Grandfather chose to trade in the Caribbean and Virginia to not compete."

"Hunh? Not compete?"

"Most of the valuable trade from the colonies north of here is fur, and it would be a conflict of interest with the family's holdings in the Hudson's Bay Company. "

"Oh, my! Fair and willing trade without slavery. Father held this company as a model in his arguments to the Lords. How had your family become involved?"

"Great-grandfather was a furrier, hatter and haberdasher, his main trade being to the gentry and nobility. As the fire swept through London, he removed all his stock in trade from its path, and following the recommendations of his wealthy clientage, he reestablished with them across the river in Bermondsey. Some among these were involved in establishing a new fur trading venture, and he became an investor."

Gillian nodded. "To secure his supply of furs."

"Indeed, and hoping to increase the family's fortune. Grandfather was twelve at that time and fifteen when he sailed as the cabin boy on their first trading voyage into Hudson's Bay."

"Cabin boy?"

"A privileged appointment for a promising boy. He performs menial tasks for the captain – serving his meals, cleaning his quarters and so on, though, effectively, he is under his tutelage in all matters nautical. It was my position on my first voyage with Father."

"What a fine way to learn." She glanced around our quarters and at the chart, then giggled. "So, with my arranging and cleaning and your tutelage of me, I am your cabin boy."

I chuckled. "Would that all captains were so blessed."

"So, your grandfather established the family's seafaring tradition."

"He did. In three voyages to Hudson's Bay, he gained sufficient experience to be taken into the Navy as a midshipman."

"Midshipman?"

"An officer in training. He gained the King's commission as a Lieutenant the month before the end of the war with the Dutch."

Gillian tilted her head. "Which one? There were so many of them."

"The one we now call the Third, the one that ended in 1674. Without the steady need to replace officers injured or killed, there was little opportunity for advancement."

She winced. "The grim reality of war."

"Indeed, and when the Navy set him ashore, he signed aboard a merchantman bound for the Caribbean. In 1682, after a long series of successful voyages, with his father's assistance, he purchased a Dutch prize."

"Prize?"

"A ship captured from the enemy. The Admiralty often put prizes up for auction, and he purchased Stavoreen, a forty-eight-gun ship-of-the-line."

"Lost again, Jarvis. Of what line?"

"Of heavily armed ships. In modern naval battles, the opposing fleets sail in long, tight lines as they approach to fire broadsides at each other."

"Dear Lord!" She slapped a hand to her mouth. "What horrors men have devised."

"Aye, war is what nations descend to when talk and negotiation fail."