The Admirals' Game Read Free

French Navy would merely have to re-gun those vessels to return them to service, and instead of being a distant threat in the Mediterranean, they were now in some proximity to the English Channel, not an outcome likely to please an Admiralty or a nation for whom the security of that stretch of water was the primary strategic concern.
    Nearly as unwelcome were the private dispatches from the king’s first minister, William Pitt. If Sam Hood was a successful admiral with an impressive record, he was also a political animal who had been, prior to taking up his command, the Senior Naval Lord on the Board of Admiralty and a strong supporter of Pitt’s Tory government. These private letters constantly urged him to treat his second-in-command, Admiral Sir William Hotham, with some consideration, not easy since he had no time for the man in question either as an admiral or as a political opponent.
    The Duke of Portland, a leading Whig politician, had split his party to form a supportive coalition government with William Pitt. Both men were committed to fightingthe French Revolution, but that did not mean politics failed to intrude into what was an uneasy alliance. Portland sought increased ministerial positions for his adherents, Pitt sought to minimise the power he gave away. Admiral Sir William Hotham was a staunch supporter of Portland, and the latter, in consequence, had already received several missives from Hotham questioning Hood’s actions, both in taking over the port of Toulon and the manner of his agreement with the French naval authorities – he had agreed to hold the port and fleet in trust instead of accepting a surrender – along with a great deal of what had happened since.
    â€˜Damn me, Parker,’ Hood moaned, ‘they ask a great deal. Treat Hotham with kid gloves? I’d like to chuck the bugger in the cable tier.’
    The person so vehemently addressed, Rear Admiral Hyde Parker, in his capacity as Hood’s Captain of the Fleet, acted as the executor of his superior’s wishes. If the fleet was run on standards set by Hood, it was Parker who implemented them. He was therefore, of necessity, both a friend and ally of his commanding officer, as well as the sounding board against which Hood could let off steam.
    â€˜Tread carefully they say,’ Hood added, ‘without even acknowledging that the man is a trial.’
    Hood was the master of a good scowl, having the craggy visage, the prominent nose and the bushy eyebrows to give it effect. Parker was smoother by far; indeed there was a touch of excess in the flesh of his body, replicatedin his smooth and rosy-cheeked countenance. While Hood had an air of activity and impatience about him, with a tongue to match, Parker seemed to reek of passive contentment, which was as it should be; two irascible souls seeking to work in tandem to control a fleet could be a recipe for trouble.
    â€˜I was looking over the papers on Captain Barclay’s court martial,’ Parker said.
    â€˜A travesty,’ Hood growled, wondering at the abrupt change of subject. ‘He gets no more than a reprimand, which is like a slap on the wrist, when the man is fit to be drummed out of the service.’
    Hood had little time for Captain Ralph Barclay of the frigate HMS
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, and that had applied prior to the recent court martial, the charge being one of illegal impressment. He and Hood had clashed in London the previous year, before either man sailed for the Mediterranean. Barclay, ordered to weigh from Sheerness, complained that he lacked the hands necessary to man his frigate. Despite a verbal warning from Hood to have a care in how he resolved that dilemma, Barclay had led out a press gang. That in itself was not a worry; it was the chosen location which caused the problem, a section of the Thames riverside known as the Liberties of the Savoy. Seeking to press men for sea service within the boundaries of the Liberties was an act