Quinn of the Fury [antikvár]

CHAPTER ONE A PRIZE FOR ALTHEA From the Log of H.M. Frigate Althea: 23rd October 1803. Lat. 430 30' N. Long. 70 10' E. Wind moderate, south-easterly. Sea calm. Topmen exercised at 6 bells afternoon watch. No sail sighted. 1 There was a day in early November of the year 1803 when the First Consul of Republican France was heard by his secretary to consign a British midshipman to the devil. That was just after Napoleon Bonaparte had been handed a report concerning the failure of certain plans of his in the Mediterranean, a failure which (declared his agents) was due to the hell-inspired activities of one Kvin or Kin, a junior officer in the Navy of King George the Third. This person was, in fact, Mr. Midshipman Septimus Quinn, of the frigate Althea. At about the same time the Mediterranean Fleet was chuckling over the exploits of "Quinn of the Fury". Thanks to the detailed log of his doings which Midshipman Quinn kept, in his schoolboyish but legible hand, it is possible to trace the course of the events which led to the chuckles of the Fleet and the execrations of Napoleon, as also to the appearance on the Mediterranean coast of the warship Fury—a matter which has hitherto puzzled naval historians. Those events began, appropriately enough, with an explosion. The sound of the explosion penetrated to the captain's cabin on board the frigate Althea and woke Captain Sainsbury. It was 7