It has already been said that the account of the battle of Toulon had been sent to the Times by Lieutenant Thomas Bowling, R.N., a half-pay officer who had been a guest in the Benbow. In thus corresponding with a newspaper this officer had, of course, broken the regulations; and it must be admitted that the peculiar circumstances of the case did not tend to diminish his fault in the eyes of his superiors. All that he had to say should have been said to their Lordships, and not to the public; and when the natural excitement consequent upon participation in the stirring events concerning which he telegraphed had subsided, Mr. Bowling was as willing as anyone to admit this. Unfortunately, he had acted upon the impulse of the moment, and under the conviction that a whole country was waiting in awful suspense to hear what he happened to be able to relate; and this rashness cost him dearly. On Wednesday the moribund Admiralty summarily removed Mr. Bowling’s name from the Navy List, and ordered that the delinquent should be informed that his services were no longer required by Her Majesty.

The next step taken by their Lordships was more important, and possibly more necessary. They convened by telegraph a meeting of certain naval officers of high rank and great experience at the Admiralty. They also obtained the presence of the sorely-worried Prime Minister, and of several of his colleagues; and by three o’clock in the afternoon of Friday, the Admiralty, as such, had ceased to exist. Its place had been taken by, and its powers transferred to, a Supreme Board of War, and the nominations to the Board had all been duly confirmed by Her Majesty. This Board was constituted under the presidency of one of the Royal princes, a personage of great tact and experience in the conduct of affairs, and devoid, of course, of political bias; and it consisted of two branches, the Naval and the Military. Of the Military it is unnecessary here to say more than that it was not, as the Naval branch was, a new formation. The Naval branch was placed under the control of a Chief Director of Fleets; and for that high and responsible office Sir Humphrey Thornbeigh, an Admiral of the widest knowledge, remarkable decision of character, and unrivalled administrative ability, was chosen by acclamation. Immediately under him were the chiefs of the various departments—viz., the Staff and Intelligence Department, the Construction Department, the Engineering Department, the Ordnance Department, the Victualling Department, the Hydrographic Department, the Stores Department, the Sanitary Department, and the Secretarial Department. Many of the old permanent officials were retained, but many also were discharged; and for these, retired officers and a few civilians, who were chosen because they possessed special technical knowledge, were substituted. The chiefs of departments were, in all cases, officers of flag or post rank; several being men who, although they were on the retired list, were still full of work and energy; and, in spite of the fact that the new arrangements could obviously be not expected to work with perfect smoothness at first, the knowledge that such officers as Sir Humphrey Thornbeigh, Sir George Lyon, Sir William Howl, Sir Mewstone Hewart, and their like, had undertaken the management of affairs, exerted, from the very first, a salutary influence on the rather depressed spirits of the Royal Navy.

The Channel Fleet had sailed from Vigo before the advent of the new Board to office: but several fast cruisers were despatched to intercept it, and new orders were sent to the coastguard vessels and the various dockyards; with the result, that by Saturday, May 2nd, without the occurrence in the interim of any further mishap, the following ships, with steam up and everything ready for sea, were assembled within proper defences at Spithead. Battleships: Hercules, Neptune, Audacious, Iron Duke, Hotspur, Belleisle, Royal Sovereign, Anson, Agamemnon, Howe, Rodney, Triumph, Superb, Conqueror, Achilles, and Black Prince. At Plymouth were the coast defence ironclads Hecate, Hydra, Gorgon, Cyclops, and Prince Albert, and the armoured cruisers Northampton, Shannon, Aurora, Immortalité, and Narcissus. And in the Channel were the lighter cruisers Forth, Thames, Mersey, Indefatigable, Latona, Melampus, Inconstant, Intrepid, Naiad, Arethusa, Medea, Medusa, Barham, Bellona, Barossa, Seagull, Rattlesnake, Spanker, Sharpshooter, Barracouta, Grasshopper, Salamander, Skipjack, Curlew, Speedwell, and Sheldrake. These ships were largely manned by Naval Reserve men, who had by this time become available in considerable numbers, and by members of the recently-disbanded Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers, a corps which at last began to be appreciated. The reinforced French Channel Fleet, consisting of the ironclads Tonnerre, Requin, Victorieuse, Furieux, Suffren, Vengeur, Fulminant, La Galissonnière, and Tempête, with the cruisers and gun-vessels Surcouf Aréthuse, Coëtlogon, Duguay-Trouin, Epervier, Lance, and Salve, besides torpedo vessels, had gone out with the intention of meeting our Fleet on its way from Vigo, but had been evaded, and was still at sea. For the moment the country was almost reassured, although reports that were in themselves sufficiently bad reached England almost every hour, of merchant vessels captured or burnt, both in the Channel and in the Mediterranean as well as elsewhere.

In the meantime, Mr. Thomas Bowling, after having travelled with all haste by way of Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland, had reached England on Friday, May 1st, and had found, to his intense chagrin, that his occupation had deserted him. An officer who loved his profession as he did could have received no heavier blow. No one doubted his bravery, his capacity, or his single-heartedness. He owed the loss of his commission to no fault that reflected on his honour, but solely to the very impulsiveness which, in other circumstances, might have shown him the way to professional distinction. His position was not enviable, so far as his professional prospects were concerned.

Thomas Bowling, or, as he was invariably called in the service, Tom Bowling, was a lieutenant of a little more than eight years’ seniority, and had worn his extra half stripe for scarcely three months when all was taken from him. Rich and well connected, a favourite in society, and a man of great ability, he was, according to the opinion of nearly all his unprofessional friends, wasted in the service. They would have preferred to see him in Parliament, or in the army, or even living the life of an English country gentleman. But Tom Bowling did not adopt that view. He was not fond of unnecessary talk, therefore he had no Parliamentary aspirations. He did not think that the army opened a more suitable career than the Royal Navy to an Englishman. And as for country life, he liked it only as a temporary relaxation. It must be admitted that he was not particularly well fitted for military life as we know it in England. His small wiry figure would have looked wholly insignificant in the uniform of any regiment; and he had for what may be called the superior niceties of dress an unaffected contempt, which would scarcely have harmonised with the pipe-clay conventionalities of the parade ground, or the fashions of a woman’s boudoir. The sea was the only place where he felt completely at home. He could shoot or hunt on every day of a fortnight’s leave, but at the end of that time he had always had enough of it, and invariably longed to be on board ship again. He was completely wrapt up in his profession; and although he had an income of nearly twenty thousand a year, he would, when he returned to England on the 1st of May, have gladly surrendered the whole of it rather than lose his commission.

He heard the news as soon as he arrived in town, and for a moment it overwhelmed him. But he was not a man to be for long cast down. He had been foolish, but he had done nothing to be ashamed of. His naval friends still had confidence in him: he was rich, young, and strong, and he had an equable buoyancy of spirits that no misfortune could permanently depress.

“They have kicked me out of the service,” he said to an officer whom he met in that cheerless waiting-room in which the Admiralty has for generations permitted its professional visitors to cool their heels, “and I suppose that they are right. But if I live I am going to find my way in again, so I’m not going to sell my uniform yet, though I hope that when I put it on once more, I shall find another half stripe at least on it.”

“I’m devilish sorry, Bowling,” said his friend, “and I wish you all the luck in the world, but you’ll find it an uphill game, I’m afraid. After all, you know, they’ve let you down pretty easily. They might have court-martialled you.”

“And shot me, perhaps,” continued Bowling, laughing; “for Heaven only knows what they can do in war time. One of the things that I must certainly do is to take a course of Queen’s Regulations before I get back into the service.”

“And what else are you thinking of doing in the meantime?” asked his friend.

“Well, I’ve come here to take Uncle Humphrey’s advice, if I can get it, and whether I can get it depends upon whether, in his new billet, he has leisure to see me. I was at sea with him years ago. You see, France has decided not to observe the stipulations of the Treaty of Paris, and both she and we are issuing letters of marque. My own idea is to get a ship and make a privateer of myself. Do you know of anyone who will stand in with me?”

The officer smiled. “I shouldn’t mind something of the sort myself,” he said, “but I’m going to commission the Gossamer to-morrow morning. I wish you were going with me, old chap; and I’ll take you on board as a passenger if you like to come; but as for helping you in the privateer business, why, I haven’t any money to put into it. I wish I had.”

“I can get the money, I suppose,” said Bowling, awkwardly. “The most serious difficulty is to get men. It is a pity that I can’t serve under you as my skipper. That’s what I should like.”

“Thanks for the compliment,” returned Lieutenant St. John warmly; “but I am booked. If you take my advice, you will command your own craft. You won’t find a better qualified man. They are digging up all the retired commanders and lieutenants for the new men-of-war, the coast defence business, or the merchant cruisers. There is a terrible dearth of officers, as well as of seamen-gunners and stokers; and I really am almost astonished that they plucked up courage to get rid of you. You may take it as settled that you won’t be able to get any retired naval officer, who is fit for duty, to join you.”

“That’s encouraging. Then I must get the best men I can. Do you know any yachtsmen who are worth their grub and who know something of navigation?”

“I know Day. He would, I am sure, go with you if I were to advise him to do so. I will give you a line to him. He is a barrister, who, instead of practising, likes to wander about the world in a twenty ton yawl, or to hunt for treasures on desert islands, or to do anything of that kind. You may trust him as a sailorman as you would trust yourself, and I happen to know that he is in town. I daresay, too, that he can introduce you to some more men of the same sort. How are you going to get a ship?”

“I haven’t the ghost of an idea yet. I only got home this morning, and I haven’t had time to look about.”

“And what sort of a sum are you prepared to pay for her? Don’t think me inquisitive. I may be able to help you.”

“As much as I can raise,” answered Bowling. “I’m ready to put all I am worth into the business, and I fancy that I know others who will take a share. Do you really know of a vessel?”

“Yes, I do, but the figure is high. Of course, since war broke out, no man-of-war that happened to be lying in the contractors’ yards has been allowed to leave. Now, there’s a very fine armoured cruiser in the Tyne. She has been built for one of the South American Governments, and she is practically ready for sea. Indeed she was to have been handed over yesterday. I happen to know that the builders are going to offer her to the Admiralty for £300,000. That’s a big sum, but the craft is a very smart and likely one, and she can do her 17 knots without using forced draught. Why not try to get her? The Admiralty—I mean the Board of War—is scarcely likely to buy her; for we can hardly man the ships we have.”

Bowling knitted his brows and gazed reflectively at the bare floor. “Humph!” he exclaimed after a pause, “it is a big sum; but I’ll think about it. Who are the builders?”

“The Elswick Company; and the ship’s name is the Valdivia.”

“Then give me that line to your friend Day. I’m staying at the Grand Hotel.”

St. John scribbled a hasty note and gave it to Bowling. “Good-bye,” he said, “and good luck to you, and don’t forget to drink the saucy Gossamer’s health.” And, having been at length summoned to the presence of one of the chiefs, he hurried away upstairs.

Bowling himself saw Sir Humphrey Thornbeigh, or Uncle Humphrey as he was affectionately called in the service; but when, after giving him as many details as possible of the Toulon affair, he sounded him upon the subject of restoration to the Navy, the Admiral assumed a rather horny-eyed expression, and gave him no encouragement. “You have contravened the Queen’s Regulations; you must take the consequences as they have been dealt to you by the late Board.” That was Uncle Humphrey’s verdict, and the brief interview was ended.

But Bowling, who knew the Admiral well, was not very astonished when, later in the day, a messenger brought him a note which ran: “My dear Bowling, make it convenient to take an unofficial breakfast with me to-morrow morning at the Admiralty at eight o’clock, and in the meantime believe me yours faithfully, Humphrey Thornbeigh.”

It was barely noon when Bowling left the Admiralty—noon on Friday, the 1st of May. He walked thoughtfully to his hotel, sat for five minutes with a pipe between his lips in the smoking-room, and then rose suddenly, left a message as to where he might be found, and hurried across the road to Craig’s Court. His solicitor had an office there. The solicitor was a little Jew, shrewd, but honest as the day.

“Look here, Lawson,” Bowling began, as soon as he was in the presence of the lawyer. “I’ve not come to spin you a yarn about the battle, and I don’t want sympathy, and I don’t want advice; I just want your help. Can you give me the rest of the day, luncheon time and all?”

“I suppose I can, if it is a matter of business,” said Mr. Lawson.

“Very good. First of all, tell me how much money have you in the house? I want a deuce of a lot at once. In the meantime be good enough to send this note to Mr. Day, of Gray’s Inn, and let the messenger ask Mr. Day, with my compliments, whether he can make it convenient to call and see me here as soon as possible.”

The solicitor called a clerk, and despatched him with the note. “I could let you have a thousand in an hour, Mr. Bowling,” he said.

“A thousand! Why, man, that’s of no use to me. I want heaps more. What am I good for? How much can you raise on me? How much can you borrow on me?”

“What do you want?”

“I want three hundred thousand pounds by this time to-morrow.”

Mr. Lawson fell back gasping. “Three hundred thousand pounds!” he ejaculated. “What?”

“Three hundred thousand pounds,” repeated Bowling. “Can you raise it, or can you not?”

“I daresay I can raise it, if only I have time enough; but by this time to-morrow—”

“If you can’t do it, or the greater part of it, someone else must. But you can do it; you have interest with bankers and people of that sort. Now, be a good fellow and spare no pains and no expense; and, above all, waste no time over the business. Sell me up entirely if necessary, body and soul. Get rid of everything.”

“But, Mr. Bowling,” said the solicitor, who suspected his client of sudden madness, “in justice to yourself, let me know what you are going to do?”

“You know that they have deprived me of my commission?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’m going to buy it back again. I’m going to endeavour to render them anxious to have my services once more. To be brief: I’m going to buy a ship and take out letters of marque, and get to sea as soon as I can manage it. Now you know all you want to know.”

“But surely you are not going thus hastily to embark your whole fortune in such a precarious venture?”

“Well, don’t let us argue: that is my intention. Now, will you take the needful steps at once? This office must be mine for the next day or two. You must give me a room in which I can see people, and a clerk to write letters, and a boy to run messages; and I must be able to carry on here, if necessary, night and day.”

Lawson made no audible reply, but rang a bell, in answer to which a second gentleman of Hebrew physiognomy entered.

“Lazarus,” said the solicitor, “Mr. Bowling wants to raise three hundred thousand pounds at once—mind you, at once. Please see what can be done, and don’t lose a moment. You have the papers, and Mr. Bowling will be close at hand. I wish him to have a table here. Put another also for Mr. Brownlow, who is to hold himself at Mr. Bowling’s entire disposal until further notice. I can undertake no further business to-day. If anyone calls, say that I am engaged.”

Mr. Lazarus disappeared. “He’ll do his best,” said Lawson, “and I’ll do mine.”

Mr. Brownlow was a most capable clerk and shorthand writer, and he saved Bowling no end of trouble. He took down from Bowling’s dictation a long telegram to Sir W. Armstrong, Mitchell & Co., asking that firm to send immediately to London an agent fully competent to negotiate for the disposal of the Valdivia. He also took down telegrams to several people who, Bowling imagined, might be willing to assist or join him. Finally, the clerk took down a telegram addressed to the proprietors of the Times. “In consequence of my dispatch to you from San Remo,” it ran, “the Admiralty has removed my name from the Navy List. I intend to take out letters of marque, and I shall be glad to learn what assistance or co-operation you may be inclined to render me in fitting out a vessel. Time presses.”

In the course of the afternoon Mr. Day called in reply to Bowling’s note. He was a tall, untidy, slim, slightly bowed man, with black hair and moustache, spectacles, and a somewhat hesitating and nervous manner of speech. He looked very little like a barrister, and still less like a sailor; and at first, Bowling was very far from being favourably impressed. But it soon appeared from his conversation that Mr. Day knew a good deal about the sea, and, what was perhaps as important, he proved to be an intimate friend of the Duke of Norland, a nobleman who, besides being of immense wealth, possessed an adventurous spirit, and had much influence.

“It is very curious,” said Day, after Bowling’s plans had been partially explained to him, “that only last night, when I was dining with the Duke, he suggested that I should buy a steam yacht and fit her out as a privateer. He offered to supply some money—he didn’t say how much—and I told him that I was quite ready to put down what I could afford, though that, I am sorry to say, is only a matter of a few hundreds. The worst of it is, however—and I told him so—that I know nothing about steamships. I’m quite willing to join you in any capacity; indeed I shall be only too pleased if I can be useful. I’ll go and see the duke at once, and try whether I can’t persuade him to take a hand in your venture. Of course, he won’t go himself; but I don’t doubt that he’ll take a share, possibly a big one.” And Mr. Day departed, promising to lose no time and to return later.

This was satisfactory, as far as it went. Not less so was the reply of the proprietors of the Times, who, in the course of the afternoon, sent a representative to Craig’s Court. This gentleman, after thanking Bowling for his account of the Toulon affair, listened to the outlines of the scheme, and then said he was empowered by his principals to take on their behalf a twentieth share in the first cost of the vessel, on condition that a twenty-fourth share in the net profits—if any—of the venture should be guaranteed to them, and that Bowling should contrive to act as their correspondent. Lawson at once drew up a form of agreement to this effect, and the representative of the Times took it away with him, he also promising to return later.

The next visitor of importance was an emissary from Elswick. He had, upon receipt of Bowling’s telegram, been despatched by special train to town, and brought with him full particulars of the Valdivia. These were briefly as follows:—

The Valdivia is a steel twin-screw armoured cruiser of 6900 tons displacement, with engines capable of developing 8000 indicated horse-power with natural draught, and of giving a speed of seventeen knots; and capable of developing 12,000 indicated horse-power with forced draught, and of giving a speed of nineteen knots. The vessel’s dimensions are: length, 328 ft.; beam, 60 ft. 8 in.; depth to upper deck beams, 35 ft.; mean draught, 21 ft. 10 in. She has a complete water-line belt of compound armour, over 6 ft. 5 in. wide, with a maximum thickness of 11¾ in., a complete protective deck of 2-in. steel, and above the deck a light central redoubt 134 ft. 6 in. long, armoured with 4-in. steel. The armament consists of four 9·2-in. 23-ton breech-loaders thus disposed—viz., one on the forecastle, having an arc of training over 135 deg. on each bow; one on the poop, with a similar arc of training on each quarter; and one in a sponson on each broadside amidships, with an arc of training over 180 deg. on the beam. Each of these guns fires en barbette over an armoured breastwork, and is covered by a steel screen. The secondary armament consists of eight 4·7-in. quick-firing guns disposed in pairs in lightly armoured steel turrets, one on each bow somewhat abaft the barbette, and one on each quarter somewhat before the barbette. These guns all train over arcs of 135 deg. The twelve guns above named are on the upper deck, where also are mounted four 6-pounder quick-firing guns, and six 5-barrelled Nordenfelt machine-guns. In each of the two tops there is a Maxim gun of rifle calibre; and on the main deck there are ten 6-pounder quick-firing guns, three being on each broadside within the redoubt, two forward and two aft. There are six ejectors for Whitehead torpedoes, one in the bow and one in the stern being under water. There are also three powerful electric search-lights, a steam cutter, and steam pinnace, and the usual boats and fittings. The ship has two funnels, and has fore-and-aft sail on two light masts, each of which is provided with a military top. The coal capacity of the bunkers is 400 tons, an amount sufficient for 7000 knots, steaming at a speed of ten knots.

The Elswick agent laid before Bowling these, together with more detailed particulars, as well as plans, diagrams, and inventories; and Bowling very speedily decided that, if he could raise the necessary money, the vessel would exactly suit his views. She was of a type, fast and well armed and fairly well protected, especially at the water-line, that was absolutely unrepresented in the Royal Navy, although the Chilian ship Arturo Prat was on very similar lines. He felt that, while she promised to be an excellent cruiser, she was powerful enough to tackle, in case of need, any but the most formidable battleship. Having, therefore, engaged the agent to remain for twenty-four hours in London, and to keep open Messrs. Armstrong’s offer for that length of time, Bowling set to work with renewed energy to solve the financial problem.

In this he was greatly assisted by the Duke of Norland, who in the course of the evening drove to Craig’s Court with Day. The Duke was an eminently practical man. He was too old, he said, to go to sea in the Valdivia, and he could, he knew, be more useful on shore. What he would do was this. He would undertake, in conjunction with his friends, to form a syndicate which should take a half share in the cost and a two-fifths share in the proceeds of the venture, provided that Bowling and his friends would bear the remaining half of the cost and accept the remaining three-fifths of the proceeds. In the meantime, Bowling might draw on him personally to the amount of a hundred thousand pounds.

During the interview, in the course of which this unexpectedly satisfactory arrangement was arrived at, several of Bowling’s friends, who had been summoned by telegraph, called; and as Day had mentioned the business to some of his acquaintances who were yachting men, several of them also dropped in. Moreover, the representative of the Times returned; the Duke sent round to the clubs for certain of his friends, naval and otherwise, in whom he placed confidence; and the emissary from Elswick was summoned from his hotel. By midnight, therefore, a committee of ways and means, with full powers, was in session in the largest room of Mr. Lawson’s office, and when it broke up at daylight, nearly everything was settled. The Duke drove home; Day and two of his friends departed to visit the various ports and to engage men; and Bowling, finding that it was nearly five o’clock, and remembering that he was due at Sir Humphrey Thornbeigh’s breakfast table at the Admiralty at eight, relinquished every idea of turning in, and, instead, wrote some letters, had a cold tub in the kitchen by favour of Lawson’s housekeeper, and then walked over to Whitehall.

Sir Humphrey was waiting for him. “Well, Bowling,” he said, “yesterday you came to see the Admiral, who, I hope, made you feel that you had behaved most improperly. To-day you have come to breakfast with the old friend and shipmate, who is very sorry that you are out of the service, and who will do all that is in his power to help you. I don’t mind saying that I look upon you as too good an officer to lie rusting on shore in such times as these. What are you going to do? Have you any plans?”

Bowling related not only what he proposed to do, but what he had already done; and Uncle Humphrey’s grey eyes sparkled. “You haven’t let the grass grow under your feet,” he said: “but you don’t suppose that I’m going to let you take such a fine fighting craft as the Valdivia out of the country, and man her with a lot of ‘long-shore ullage’ that will render her anything but a credit to everyone concerned. Not I! yet since you have been so prompt, so energetic, and, I may add, so disinterested, I don’t feel that I should be altogether consulting Her Majesty’s interests by thwarting you. Perhaps, even, it is my duty to help you a bit. Oblige me by ringing the bell, Bowling.”

A servant appeared, and Sir Humphrey ordered him to bring in certain volumes and lists which he mentioned. When they were before him, he said, “Now, Bowling, you know how hard pressed we are for men. I’m afraid we can’t spare you much that is worth having. But here are the names of some retired officers, commissioned and otherwise, whom we intend to call out. Some have not been long out of employment, as you may see. If you like to choose half-a-dozen of them, and can let me know that they are willing to go with you, I’ll undertake that the Royal Navy shall not want them just at present. Do you understand? I believe that they may be as useful with you as with us, for the Valdivia is a fine craft, and you ought to be able to make something of her. But, mind you, I reserve the right to take these officers when I want them, and I expect you to submit yourself in a general way to my orders. You know me well enough to understand exactly what I mean. You have your chance, Bowling, and it seems to me a bright one. May God bless you.”

Bowling was much moved by Sir Humphrey’s kindness to and confidence in him. He selected two warrant officers and three lieutenants, substituting for his first choice one or two names which Sir Humphrey suggested as being more suitable. Then, with a feeling that some of his most formidable initial difficulties had been removed, he bade good-bye to his patron, walked to his hotel, packed up his gear, and, in pursuance of an understanding which had been come to at the meeting in Craig’s Court, took the earliest possible train to Newcastle, where, alone, he could attend to the immediate fitting for sea of his first command. In the train he enjoyed the most refreshing sleep that had come to him since the catastrophe off Toulon, for new hopes and enthusiasms had taken the place of old anxieties and despondencies.