'Thank you, Mr White, have the goodness to desire him to send a boat with an officer.'

'Aye, aye, my lord.' He turned to Lee who was already chalking the signal on his slate and calling the flag numbers to his yeoman.

White, who had given the commander his courtesy title when addressing the punctilious St Vincent, was wondering where he had heard the name before. It was not long before he had his answer.

When the brig's boat hooked on to Victory's chains he recognised the figure who came in at the entry.

'Nathaniel! My dear fellow, so you're still with Griffiths, eh? How capital to see you! And you've been made.' White indicated the gilt-buttoned lieutenant's cuff that he was vigorously pumping up and down in welcome. 'Damn me but I'm delighted, delighted, but come, St Vincent will not tolerate our gossiping.'

Drinkwater followed his old friend apprehensively. It was many years since he had 'trod such a flagship's deck and the ordered precision of Victory combined with her size to show Admiral Duncan's smaller, weathered and worn-out Venerable in a poor light. Drinkwater uncovered and made a small and, he hoped, elegant bow as White introduced him to the earl. He felt himself under the keenest scrutiny by a pair of shrewd old eyes that shone from a face that any moment might slip from approbation to castigation. Lord St Vincent studied the man before him. Drinkwater's intelligent gaze met that of the admiral. He was thirty-four, lean and of middle height. His face was weathered and creased about the grey eyes and mouth, with the thin line of an old scar puckering down the left cheek. There were some small blue powder burns about the eyes, like random inkspots. Drinkwater's hair, uncovered by the doffed hat, was still a rich brown, clubbed in a long queue behind the head. Not, the admiral concluded, a flagship officer, but well enough, judging by the firm, full mouth and steady eyes. The mouth was not unlike Nelson's, St Vincent thought with wry affection, and Nelson had been a damned pain until he had hoisted his own flag.