Mutiny
A Kydd Novel
Chapter 1
"Bear a fist there, y' scowbunkin' lubbers!" The loud bellow startled the group around the forebitts who were amiably watching the sailors at the pin-rail swigging off on the topsail lift. The men moved quickly to obey: this was Thomas Kydd, the hard-horse master's mate, whose hellish open-boat voyage in the Caribbean eighteen months ago was still talked about in the navy.
Kydd's eyes moved about the deck. It was his way never to go below at the end of a watch until all was neatly squared away, ready for those relieving, but there was little to criticize in these balmy breezes on the foredeck of the 64-gun ship-of-the-line Achilles as she crossed the broad Atlantic bound for Gibraltar.
Kydd was content -- to be a master's mate after just four years before the mast was a rare achievement. It entitled him to walk the quarterdeck with the officers, to mess in the gunroom, and to wear a proper uniform complete with long coat and breeches. No one could mistake him now for a common sailor.
Royal blue seas, with an occasional tumbling line of white, and towering ... read full excerpt from: Mutiny, A Kydd Novel ebook
