Read Online The Continental Risque by James Nelson - Free Book Online

underrepresented in naval officers. Experience and nepotism had leaned the committee heavily toward the northeast, and there were rumblings in Congress that this was not an American navy at all, but a New England navy. If they were to get the cooperation of the entire Congress, then the entire Congress had to feel they had a stake in these affairs. John Adams, Hopkins knew, understood this.
    â€˜If this committee needs further convincing,’ Hewes added, ‘let me mention that Tottenhill has put recruiters to work at his own expense. He expects to have thirty or so seamen coming shortly from North Carolina who can be used to fill out the
Charlemagne
’s crew.’
    This news sent a murmur through the committee. The delegates were well aware of how the privateers were already depleting the Colonies’ supply of able seamen.
    Hopkins spoke, making a decision for the committee. ‘We can issue Rumstone a commission tonight. He’ll be junior to everyone, but at least he’ll be properly commissioned, and he can continue on as second officer aboard
Charlemagne
. We’ll appoint Tottenhill as first, and we’ll write out a commission for the
Charlemagne
to take her into the navy. We’ll have to put a contingent of marines on board, fifteen or twenty, I should think, and some sort of marine lieutenant.’
    He paused as he considered the amount of work that still needed to be done, thanks to John Adams’s poorly timed suggestion. His eyes flickered over at the sideboard and the bottle of Jamaican rum. ‘To hell with it, we’ll do it in the morning, get William Stanton to bear a hand with some of this.’
    He stepped over to the sideboard and pulled the cork from the bottle, splashing the pungent rum into a cup. ‘Rum with you gentlemen?’ he asked. ‘Mr Lee, will you have a glass with me? Of course. Mr Adams, some wine with you?’
    He could feel the men in the room relax, like releasing a breath after holding it. He had that effect on these men, could alter their moods at his will. He knew it and it amused him. ‘Now, gentlemen,’ he said, distributing glasses of liquor to the Naval Committee, ‘we were discussing Hesiod’s
Works and Days
at close of business last night, if I am not very much mistaken, and how Hesiod’s vision of the perfect society was one in which no man would ever have to go to sea.’
    It was nearly midnight before the jovial and fairly intoxicated Naval Committee left off their discussion of classical Greek literature and adjourned for the night. Joseph Hewes was the last to leave, bidding his fellows good-night and hesitating on the sidewalk outside the tavern as he watched them disappear down the black street. Then he turned and stepped inside again, not to the upstairs room but to the tavern on the street level, where he knew Roger Tottenhill would be waiting.
    The lieutenant, the newly appointed lieutenant, was indeed waiting, sitting at a table in the far corner, a mug clutched in both hands, deep in an animated and one-sided conversation with a bored-looking man sitting beside him. Hewes had feared that the meeting would go on as long as it had, leaving Tottenhill to wait for hours, drinking all the while. Hewes was afraid that he was already quite in his cups.
    He stood by the door for a moment, unseen, considering the young man in the expensive blue coat and silk breeches and stockings. Tottenhill was twenty-nine years old, handsome in a fine-boned way, with dark brown hair tied back in a queue. He came from a good family, a wealthy family, and had the concomitant breeding and manners. Hewes’s cousin, of course, would not have been allowed to marry anyone less.
    The man at Tottenhill’s table nodded his head at some point that Tottenhill had made, then glanced away, clearly not listening. That, unfortunately, was the other side of Tottenhill’s character.
    He was an extraordinary bore.
    To be sure,