 Call all hands, speak to quarters, have a battery. One broadside into it, if you please, Captain Bush. Pointes on target, blint stops ready. He's a indomitable man of the sea, a ratio of hornblower. Under me in the sting of the channel wind on my face, I was bored as I sat in Westminster Abbey dressed in crimson and white and laden with regalia, listening to a dull sermon. While around me the beautiful building blazed with the colors and arms of fellow knights and nobles. I sat in a stupor of boredom, which was suddenly broken into by a whispering naval lieutenant who appeared at my elbow. His lordship would like a word with you immediately. Oh, sir, with me? Oh, yes, he was a midshipman with me under Pellew. If Jason's still only a left-set about it any way you like it. The line, if you want him, a couple of frigate bomb vessels with even a rocket vessel if you think you could use it. It doesn't seem the sort of situation where sheer force would be of much use, my lord. Give me full powers, well, to negotiate, for instance. No, dammit, I will not negotiate. Well, I know what you're up against. Those insolent swankens slip into the mouth of the sane and give themselves up at the first sign of danger. Well, if they do that, Burnapart will have his finest propaganda story in 20 years. Yes, I know. It's brains that are needed here. Now, that's why I sent for you. Besides, the seamen like you, ornblower, they follow you and listen to you. But if you want me to talk to them, it implies that I'm negotiating, my lord. No negotiations. You've had enough of that in 94. Well, then, the carte blanche you gave me is no more than the usual maple officers' orders, my lord. Forgive me if I point out my position, sir, but this is a difficult task. Failure endangers the country and makes me the laughing stock of the navy. Success brings no honor, for it must remain secret. I submit, sir, that the least I should have is full powers to do whatever seems best on the spot. All right, you shall have your powers. I'll draw up the orders to that effect. You'll hold your appointment as Commodore, of course. Lovely fighting machine. Smash anything of our own size. We carry provisions enough to stay at sea indefinitely, and she'll stand any well that comes. Yes, but to do all that with 190 tons means the crew has to be content with conditions that would be, well, hard on cattle. Oh, they're used to it. Any orders when we cite the flames, sir? They'll deal with the situation when it arises, Mr. Freeman. My orders give me power to negotiate, but I feel that negotiation would be a sign of weakness. Somehow or other, I shall have to trick a hundred English seamen into my power so that they can be hanged or flogged or something. I might feel like doing myself under similar circumstances. I don't envy you at all, sir. Anything wrong, sir? You look a bit... Going below, sir. Call me if necessary. Better now, sir. My cold day is beginning to fear again, sir. You always were sick of the starboard trip, sir. I'm too insolent, Brown. I am not sick of it. Yes, of course I'm tired, sir. I'm bucking on plunging not to tell anyone. When you go on deck again, sir, the leadership hospital will see that you wore this silk scarf she made there. It's very light and warm as a toaster. Thank you. That gale was interminable. Night and day had raged, and though Freeman clawed into it as much as he dared, I knew that it was gradually drifting us away from the course we needed to make to find the mutineers. In the meantime, I fought my squeamish stomach and learned my way about the ship and tried to pretend to myself that I should know how to handle mutineers when the time came. Freeman was a good captain and his vessel was well kept in his crew as happy as any crew could be in such weather and circumstances. You've been buzzing with pleasures at a ratio since you recognized that semen yesterday. Is it often they see a Commodore shake hands with an ordinary semen? He taught me a lot of good work, Mr. Freeman. You won't really tell the men why you're here, will you, sir? I'm afraid I'll have to. We may have to fight and I can't ask Englishman to kill Englishman without some explanation. The watch is changing up. This will be as good a time as any. Happy goodness to summon them out, will you? Very well, sir. Are you? Mr. Carlos! My god, he's running a risk. Isn't he saying the word mutiny to a gang like this? They know that Bonaparte will heap wealth and luxury on any crew who brings in a British ship. Now listen, man. The French have no use to mutineers and it's our mission to dig these rats from their holes. Forgotten their duties to king and country. Twice of their villainy. If they've had enough to offer fight, then we must fight them. The bloodshed that will be remembered in their favor at their trial. I want unquestioning obedience. Before she reached Harbour Grass. We'll have to let her go, miss. If it wasn't for the flame, we might have taken her. That would have meant at least 10 pounds of man prize money. Yes, sir. That won't make the men any better disposed towards than this one is. The flame standing steadily in, sir. She's obviously not going to let us get nearer. She'll give us up to the French if we do. Pity, we can't get to wind it over. We'll have to come to do it before she gets away. No. Please have her boat hoisted out for me. I'll have to go and parley with the villains. Aye, aye, sir. Don't meet to be taken by surprise, sir. The guns are out and our balding knitting's rigged. Guns and man, look out for luck. More and older are, sir. All children proper like this. Well, aye, sir, my own brand stay, sir. Not any of the sweetest. The only thing at all unusual about his appearance was a pistol stuck in his belt. Englander sent you here to swing me on the ga... That means the gallows. I'm lucky compared with some of the others. You shall have a fair and honest and taken into consideration. The only trial I'd attend to be to bear witness against Chadwick is till I we killed James Jones, a chipped boy, and deported that he died of fever. Aye, and a few other things, too. Our terms are full pardon for us, and a fair... Nothing can stay true from your country's vengeance. But Boney can. No doubt, but you and your gang, he didn't got it new to me. His power rests too much on his own army. You'll hand your back, he'll be made an example of. Really, now. Look at these letters. Three of them. Oh, no, I'll keep all that from thinking. This is from the military governor of Albert Grace. And that only promises her the welcome. This is from the prefect of the department of the inferior scene. It promises us provisions and water if we need them. And this is a letter from Paris sent down to us by post. It promises us immunity from arrest, civil rights in France, and a pension for every man from the age of 60. And he annouce signed by. Marie-Louise Empress, Queen and Regent. Boney won't go back on his wife's word. You mean to tell me, man, that you've been in communication with us, or...? Aye, we have. And if you had the prospect before you of being flogged around the fleet, you'd do the same. He's watching on every movement. Oh, like our own brain. Oh, he might be looking into the reflection of this vessel. As I'm afraid, now he orders the fact that at the moment we're helping in my attempt to win them over and I can see no possibility of them abating their terms. Either I grant them a free pardon, or I drive them into the hands of Bonaparte. I feel, you know, Freeman, if I had this rig and the flame under my command, he could set the whole sane estuary in an uproar. Yes, but there doesn't seem much hope of getting hold of the flame. I don't know, Mr. Freeman. It might be done. Uh, will you pass the word for the sailmaker to come here? And I shall want his mates and every hand who could use a needle and palm. Yes, but what, eh...? Aye, aye, sir. Look at the flame, Mr. Freeman. You said to yourself that she's an exact replica of the port at Chalier. But there's one difference which I think could be remedied. I confess, sir, I don't understand it. Oh, here's Swinson, the sailmaker. Oh, come here, Swinson. You take my glass and carefully study that patched portopsil on the flame. Can you see it? Uh, yes. Well, then mark it well. I want this ship to have a portopsil just like that so that no eye can distinguish any difference between the two. Can that be done? Oh, yes, sir. I can do that, then. Well, might I ask what's in your mind, sir, ain't you? You may, Mr. Freeman. What I propose is this. Flame and port at Chalier is like as two pieces, you said yourself, and they'll be like a yet when we bend that portopsil. The mutineers have been in communication with the shore. And they have a promise of immunity if they go in. But we don't want them to go in, sir. No, and she won't. Sweet won't give himself up to the French unless he's driven to it. So we won't drive him. We'll sail into the mist. But we'll go in, Mr. Freeman. And they'll think we are the flame, don't you think? We'll sail in as safely as we were going into Portman Harbor. My effin' sir, it's brilliant. Music composed and conducted by Sydney Torch.