Chapter 3: Meeting With the Past

June, 1818

It was already early June when Thomas received a letter from the Royal Naval College and its headmaster, Professor James Inman.

That was quite a surprise for Thomas. True, in his first years after graduation, he had, as demanded, sent short reports about his progress in the Navy, in fact, up until his posting to the Sultan third-rate as fourth lieutenant. Never having received an acknowledgement or reply, he simply stopped writing those reports, reasoning that he had more important duties on board. This even more so, when he was made commander in the Tempest. He wondered why his alma mater so suddenly remembered him.

That was answered two days later, when another letter arrived, this time from somebody he knew and admired.

This certainly cleared things up, Thomas thought, and after clearing the issue with Mirabel and Robert, he wrote his answering letters in the next morning. Thanking both men for the honour of being invited, he told them of his acceptance and let them know that the Lady Grey would accompany him. He also included an answering letter by Robert, who accepted the implied invitation and promised his attendance. This gave Mirabel a month for preparations and Robert the same time frame to convince Harriet-Anne to accompany him to the event.

Robert prevailed in the end, and after a tearful — on Mirabel’s side — goodbye to their children, leaving them in the care of their dedicated servants and Little Theo’s wet nurse Sally, they took their travel coach to Portsmouth, accompanied by Suzette and Broderick, their personal servants. The College had reserved rooms for them in a respectable inn close to the Navy Yard, and Patterson found it easily enough.

A billet was waiting for them in which they were invited to dinner at the house of Captain Andrew Lambert, Sir Anthony’s brother-in-law, where Sir Anthony and Lady Harriet Carter were currently lodging. This of course required Mirabel and Harriet-Anne to change into dinner dresses before they made their way to the Captain Lambert’s house.

Their host and his wife, named Lydia, received them with obvious pleasure and led them to the dining room where the Carters were already waiting. Introductions were effected during which Harriet-Anne was introduced by Robert as ‘Lady Manning, my affianced bride’, surprising only Thomas, since Mirabel had already been let in on the secret. Accordingly, Robert gave Thomas a smug grin afterwards.

The dinner was not elaborate, but afterwards the four captains congregated in the study for cigars and brandy. Captain Lambert was of course the son of Admiral Lord Lambert and a captain of excellent repute. He had spent much of his career with the Channel Fleet under Lord Gardner, but in the latter stages of the war, he had served as flag captain of his brother-in-law in the West Indies. Each of the four captains had sailed on many stations, giving them a wide spectrum of experiences, and even the most junior, Robert, had fascinating tales to tell.

Meanwhile, the ladies had remained in the dinner hall for their sherries, obviously getting along famously to guess from the merry mood in which their husbands found them when it was time for the guests to return to their lodgings.

When Thomas and Mirabel lay in bed a half hour later, Mirabel was still excited over meeting the other ladies.

“Lydia Lambert is a bit shy, but she’s so devoted to her husband!”

“I had that impression, too. How did Harriet-Anne fit in?”

“Easily. She and Lady Harriet found a lot of common ground regarding first husbands,” Mirabel giggled. “Robert also made a very good impression on the ladies. He really is a handsome and witty man.”

“We were inseparable in the Academy as you know, so I know his qualities.”

“Yes, I know of your endeavours, Thomas!”

“Yes, but that was only part of it. He was always at my side when trouble was brewing.”

“It is good for you to have found him again. Elias is more like a father to you, always with sound advice. Robert brings out your boyish side. Do you think that we may attend their wedding, I mean Robert and Harriet-Anne’s? It is likely to be held in Kilmarnock. He is the Younger Laird after all.”

“I suppose we can. I liked the Bryces quite well. In fact, I envied Robert his family. He had a brother and two great sisters, whilst I had my grandfather and mother for company whilst father was at sea. It wasn’t until I sailed in the Cormorant that I had boys my age as mates.”

“I only had my mum growing up. The girls at the school where I went had their noses in the air around me.”

“Yes, we were lonely growing up, Mirabel, but look at us now: we have good friends and we have each other.”

“Yes, of course, but I can understand your envy of Robert. Having siblings must be wonderful.”

The anniversary celebrations started early in the next morning with a church service in the Dockyard chapel. It was afterwards that Thomas met Admiral Moorbanke, the former Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, and his benefactor. He had to be close to eighty years old, and he was the oldest living graduate of the old Academy. He was accompanied by a younger gentleman who supported the old man.

“I wish you a good morning, Sir!” Thomas greeting him politely. “I am overjoyed to see you again.”

“That you, Grey? Must be. My eyes are not that good anymore. Alice, is that young Grey?”

Thomas did a double take, for the young gentleman at the admiral’s side was in fact tall and slender Alice Houghton wearing fashionable men’s clothes and a wide grin on her face.

“Yes, Grandfather, it’s Thomas Grey, or rather Sir Thomas Grey.”

“Oh yes, he collects knighthoods left and right,” Moorbanke chuckled. “You have made us proud, Captain!”

“Thank you, Sir. I owe a lot to the guidance I received from officers like you. May I introduce my dear wife Mirabel, the Lady Grey?”

“Is she pretty, Alice?” Moorbanke asked his granddaughter.

“No Grandfather, she’s beautiful,” Alice laughed. “Not that I expected less from Thomas.” She then shocked Mirabel by taking her hand and kissing it, but also made her laugh.

“The infamous Miss Houghton, I presume. There is quite a lot of talk about you, but I am happy to meet you in the flesh.”

“Ah, my reputation,” Alice Houghton laughed easily. “My dear, you made quite the catch with Thomas. I saw him only infrequently back then, but he and my grandfather were the only men I could stomach. He let me climb into the rigging of the old Duke!”

“Thomas claims that you would have made quite a sailor,” Mirabel answered.

“I would have for certain. I’d command my own ship by now.”

“You must speak to Lady Harriet Carter. She once captured back a ship from a French prize crew, together with three other women.”

“I read about that feat in the newspapers! Is she here?”

“I shall introduce you, my dear. She is a wonderful woman.”

That was just like Mirabel, Thomas mused, to win Alice Houghton over with just a few understanding words. Yet, there was no time now, for Sir Anthony was now standing behind a lectern and a ship’s bell sounded.

“Gentlemen and Ladies, in my capacity as Lieutenant Governor of the Royal Naval College and School of Naval Architecture, I welcome you to this celebration of the tenth founding anniversary. We invited a small number of distinguished alumni of this institution and the former Royal Naval Academy, most prominent amongst them Admiral of the Red Squadron Marcus Moorbanke who graduated here in 1740 and has since risen to the highest rank.”

With his granddaughter’s help, the old admiral came to his feet and bowed to polite applause from the attending officers, and then walked to the lectern.

“I offer my very sincere felicitations to the officers, masters and professors of this fine establishment. May this school for Royal Navy officers and shipbuilders flourish in the years to come! Thank you!”

Orchestrated by the head-boy, the officer cadets, as they were now called, cheered Moorbanke thrice. Sir Anthony spoke again.

“We also welcome another officer who graduated from the old Academy thirteen years ago, and who, in the short time span since then, has become one of the most distinguished younger captains in the Royal Navy. Sir Thomas Grey was awarded knighthoods in as many as three knightly orders for his dedicated service against the Barbary Coast slavers but also against the self-appointed Emperor Napoleon and his minions. He is also the recipient of the Royal Navy gold medal for a brave rescue undertaken when he was a junior lieutenant. Sir Thomas promised us a lecture for our officer cadets.”

Taking a deep breath, Thomas disengaged his arm from Mirabel’s hand and walked up to the lectern.

“Thank you, Sir Anthony! It is indeed a great honour and pleasure to address the officers, masters and professors of the Royal Naval College today. I also thank Sir Anthony for the kind introduction. It was a little over thirteen years ago, and I was serving on Admiral Moorbanke’s staff here at the Royal Navy Dockyard, when the Clyde frigate, under Sir Anthony’s command, anchored in Portsmouth with an 80-gun French third-rate as her proper prize, and I was allowed to summon the scholars of the Academy to the waterfront. I am proud to say that we were indeed the first to cheer that fine frigate and her heroic officers and crew.

“My own achievements in the following years pale against Sir Anthony’s feats. If you mention my name to other captains, most will only remember me for catching a French brigantine transporting the war booty of a French general, bullion and coined gold and silver, and lots of brandies, making officers and crew wealthy, if not famous.”

Most of the officers present chuckled over this.

“I am also somewhat notorious for rescuing damsels in distress from the sea, a quite useful way to impress admirals, I found out. Apart from that, my service was mostly of the routine variety, patrolling coasts, escorting merchantmen and transports, and suppressing piracy in the Mediterranean Sea; in short, performing important tasks in the overall effort to win the war. There are many captains with a similar vita, all of them doing their duty, and all of them worthy of emulation. We cannot all command a fleet at the moment of decision, nor capture a bullion ship. All we can do is to make certain that we are ready and prepared for moments of decision and for opportunities to reap prize monies.

“Therefore, young gentlemen, never fall into a routine, always be alert, and always be willing to throw your full weight into the scale, when Britain’s fate is in the balance. Oh yes, and learn how to swim! Thank you!”

His last remark made for spontaneous laughter, as he had hoped, and in the cover of that, he retreated to where Mirabel stood. Sir Anthony stood at the lectern again, still smiling.

“Sir Thomas has summed up what will be important for you officer cadets in the future. What he failed to say is that he engaged and sank an Algerian fourth-rate in the Unicorn frigate, and that he commanded the bombs and rocket ships during the Battle of Algiers, directing their fire to utmost effect. Young gentlemen, heed his advice! Thank you, Sir Thomas!

“May I next ask Captain Robert Bryce of Kilmarnock for a few words? He, too, graduated in ‘05, and served in Indian waters and the South Sea.”

Robert quickly stepped up to the lectern.

“I could probably entertain you with a few of Sir Thomas’s lesser known exploits during his time at the Academy, but he knows too much about my own misdeeds.

“Let me be serious. You cadets here at the Royal Naval College learn many very useful subjects, and if you apply yourself to your studies, you can put many an experienced sailing master to shame with your navigation skills. Yet, you still have to learn to do it on a wildly swaying deck with the captain tapping his feet behind you. You learn French, dancing and fencing, and yet you will find out that the officer facing you will not want to dance and may just pull a pistol on you, and he may not be inclined to courteous conversation. You learn to load and lay a gun, but that does not prepare you for doing it whilst under fire yourself. This will be something you will have to learn once your graduate. Apply yourself to those lessons as well as you apply yourself to French and Dance here. For my part, the only words in French I care to hear are ‘Je me rends’.¹”