"Hallelujah, at last!" he muttered, a broad smile breaking out on his phyz. "See to the rest, Georges. I'll go on deck."

Once there, he ordered Acting-Lieutenant Sealey to have 'All Hands' piped, then paced along the forrud edge of the quarterdeck by the iron stanchions of the hammock nettings, which were now filled, 'til everyone, both on- and off-watch, was gathered in the waist, on the sail-tending gangways, and the forecastle.

"I trust you lads've dried out, thawed out, and eat a flllin' breakfast, at last, hey?" he began in a loud, quarterdeck voice. "We have orders from Admiralty, lads! We are 'required and directed to make the best of our way'… we all know that means-pull yer bloody finger out and get a move on…," he japed, which raised a laugh, "to Sheerness and the Nore… a few days West of here… there to lay His Majesty's Ship Thermopylae in-ordinary! To land ashore all of her artillery and small arms, to consign to His Majesty's Dockyards all stores not yet consumed, with a strict accounting to be-"

He was drowned out by the tremendous cheer that erupted, but he didn't have to say more or cite more from the officialese of those orders; it was not like he was "reading himself in" as Post-Captain or standing beside another who would relieve him.

"Mister Sealey,… Mister Lyle, sirs," Lewrie bellowed at last as the din died down a bit. "Shape the most direct course for the Nore, sirs, and lay us upon it. We are going home, lads! We're going home!"

BOOK I

0 quid sofutis est beatius curis,

cum mens onus reponit, ac peregrino

labore fessi, venimus larem ad nostrum

desideratque acquiescimus lecto?

O what is more blessed than to put cares away when the mind lays by its burden, and tired with labour of far travel we come to our own homes and rest on the couch we longed for?