Hell's Fire - By Brian Freemantle Page 0,45

great attention.’

‘What do you mean by “great attention”?’ asked Bunyan. ‘Do you mean in matters of seamanship?’

‘Yes,’ agreed Fryer, doubtfully.

‘And?’ prompted Bunyan.

‘In matters of personal friendship.’

‘Give the court an illustration of what you mean, Mr Fryer,’ insisted the lawyer.

Fryer hesitated. Then he said: ‘It was no secret that the captain gave Mr Christian the key to his personal liquor cabinet, so that he could help himself whenever he saw fit. Mr Christian boasted of the favour sometimes.’

‘This was on the outward voyage?’ qualified Bunyan.

‘Yes, sir.’

‘During which time you and the late Mr Huggan became so irritated by Captain Bligh’s behaviour that you refused to sit at his table?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Why didn’t Mr Christian share your irritation, do you suppose?’ asked Bunyan, ingenuously.

‘He was normally spared the captain’s temper,’ replied Fryer, as if suddenly annoyed.

Once again the lawyer surprised Hood by abandoning what appeared to be productive questioning.

‘The captain was a strict disciplinarian?’ asked Bunyan.

‘Yes,’ agreed Fryer.

‘And remained so in Tahiti, while the plants were being cultivated for transplanting?’

‘Yes,’ said Fryer, doubtful again.

‘Perhaps you’d like to qualify that answer,’ invited Bunyan, sensing the man’s attitude.

‘As I’ve said, he was a difficult man to satisfy. He had men flogged for infraction of regulations, yet permitted them to keep aboard any women they liked.’

That was not unusual, thought Hood. A common way of keeping seamen from deserting was to dispatch marines to fetch whores aboard.

‘For how long?’

‘Months, in some cases,’ enlarged Fryer.

Hood frowned. That was a stupid relaxation, decided the President. And there had been that disgusting tattooing, he remembered.

‘So the men were happy?’

‘Happy, yes, sir,’ agreed Fryer. ‘But they were often confused by the captain.’

‘And Mr Christian was still Captain Bligh’s only friend?’ demanded the lawyer.

Fryer hesitated and Bunyan waited, not hurrying the man.

‘It was different in Tahiti,’ he said at last.

‘What does that mean, Mr Fryer?’

‘They saw much less of each other. Mr Christian was appointed shore commander. He spent nearly the whole time living under canvas on the plantation established by the botanist, Mr Nelson.’

Bunyan nodded, as if the explanation had satisfied a number of doubts in his mind.

‘But they were still friends?’ he insisted.

Again Fryer hesitated and this time the lawyer pressed him.

‘But they were still friends?’ he repeated.

‘Less so,’ said Fryer.

‘Why was that?’ demanded Bunyan.

‘I don’t know,’ admitted Fryer. ‘In Tahiti, something happened.’

‘What?’ intruded the President, frightened that Bunyan, whom he considered had missed questions before, might ignore this one.

‘I don’t know,’ said Fryer again, unhelpfully. ‘Mr Christian appeared to annoy Captain Bligh a great deal.’

‘Which was unusual?’

‘Yes.’

‘And how did Captain Bligh manifest that annoyance?’

‘He was very savage to Mr Christian.’

‘And what was Mr Christian’s reaction?’

‘He just suffered it,’ said Fryer.

‘Knowing that you had fallen out with the captain, didn’t Mr Christian discuss the matter with you?’

‘No,’ insisted the master. ‘He did not.’

‘So you do not know his feelings at this apparent change in the captain’s behaviour towards him?’

‘Oh yes,’ said Fryer. ‘That was easy to see.’

‘And it was?’

‘Deep hurt. And distress. Captain Bligh was constantly undermining Mr Christian’s authority.’

‘So it was a very different ship that left Tahiti than that which arrived?’

The master nodded agreement.

‘Was the captain’s attention to detail the same?’ asked Bunyan. He had been speaking for almost three hours and his voice was creaking with hoarseness. He glanced down at his clerk and saw one notebook was already full. Edward Christian, waiting patiently at the inn, should be very grateful, he decided. He was establishing a picture of the Bounty far different from that which the enquiry had known when the hearing began that day.

‘Perhaps worse,’ conceded Fryer. ‘Some sails which should have been checked had been ignored and were found to be rotten. And insufficient care had been taken to protect the ship’s boats from worm; the bottom of the cutter was found to be almost eaten through. That’s why the captain wasn’t cast adrift in that boat, during the mutiny.’

‘Whose responsibility would that have been?’ came in the President again, sure of the answer.

He was lost, thought Fryer. After today’s hearing, he’d be lucky to get a berth as a common seaman in a merchant fleet.

‘I had given explicit instructions several times during our stay in Tahiti that they should be examined,’ insisted Fryer, desperately.

‘But not checked to your own satisfaction that the orders had been carried out?’ defeated the President.

‘No, sir,’ admitted Fryer.

‘So again you were at odds with the captain?’ came back Bunyan.

‘Not as much as I had expected,’ admitted Fryer.

‘Why was that?’

‘Captain Bligh seemed to vent his annoyance more upon