The Adventures of Roderick Random

Chapter 31 reveals the two seamen Mackshane bribed to lie have quarreled, and one reveals the plot to Roderick and Morgan: the “Greek” was Irish, they were paid to perjure themselves. Since the fleet is within sight of Jamaica, Mackshane fears his malice will be exposed at a court-martial, so he intercedes with Oakum to release Roderick and Morgan, who are freed, Roderick’s body blistered by sun and limbs numb from irons. Morgan initially refuses to leave irons until a court-martial, but Roderick persuades him by promising he can take revenge on Mackshane when they return to England. They fire the mess boy who perjured himself, who confesses Mackshane bribed him with stockings and shirts. They discover Morgan’s provisions have been stolen from his locker, Morgan is furious, threatens to prosecute the thief, but calms down when Roderick points out they can replace the stores in port. Mackshane visits to pretend to congratulate them, Morgan replies mysteriously that “there is a time for throwing stones and gathering them up”, and Mackshane leaves in a pet. The fleet joins a second West India squadron, lies at anchor in Port Royal, Jamaica for a month, with critics (including Roderick’s interpretation) arguing the delay wasted precious time and let the Spanish prepare their defences, though Roderick suggests the delay was due to the commanders’ generosity in not taking unfair advantage of the Spanish. The fleet then sails to the Isle of Vache to attack the French fleet, but the French have sailed for Europe, having first sent an advice boat to Carthagena warning of the English fleet’s strength and destination. The fleet loiters to take on brackish water (a quart per man per day, far below the half-gallon needed in the tropical heat), then sails to Carthagena, anchoring 10 miles from the harbour for 10 more days, with critics again arguing the delay was a mistake, though Roderick suggests it was generosity. They land marines on the beach under enemy fire, with Roderick noting critics question why raw recruits plucked from the plough were used instead of veteran troops, a choice that would lead to catastrophic casualties in the failed assault on the castle of St. Lazar, where 8,000 men were reduced to 1,500 effective fighters in a single attack. The admiral’s subsequent futile attempt to bombard the town with a captured Spanish ship of 16 guns is widely criticized as either incompetent or motivated by personal pique rather than strategy, a choice that contributed to the expedition’s ultimate failure and the loss of thousands of British lives to combat and disease.

(Word count: 1498)

CHAPTER XXXV – CHAPTER XLI

In the mid-eighteenth century West Indies, Roderick Random was transferred from his position under the foppish Captain Whiffle to the Lizard sloop-of-war, an event that would set him on a course toward violence, exile, and unexpected reunion. Whiffle, whose conduct aboard ship had already provoked scandal among his crew, summoned Roderick only after first inspecting him through a spy-glass and weighing the precise amount of blood to be drawn using scales, allowing no more than an ounce and three drams. The arrival of Mr. Simper, an effeminate young surgeon who replaced the bleeding with castor and laudanum, led to a cabin being built contiguous to Whiffle’s state room—arrangements that fueled crew gossip about the captain’s character. When the admiral’s surgeon came aboard demanding that one surgeon’s mate from every homeward-bound ship be detained in the West Indies due to a critical shortage of medical staff, Roderick, weighing his lack of patronage in England against the rapid promotion available locally, voluntarily submitted to be left behind. He was appointed surgeon’s mate of the Lizard and sold his ticket at forty percent discount through a Jewish broker in port. His old antagonist Crampley, having procured a lieutenant’s commission through influence, now stood as his superior officer. The Lizard soon took a Spanish barcolongo carrying an English prize, and Roderick was sent to Port Morant to tend sixteen wounded prisoners alongside his kind messmate Brayl, who presented him with a silver-hilted hanger and pistols taken as spoils.

The most significant event at Port Morant was Roderick’s reunion with Thompson, his former shipmate believed drowned after a presumed suicide from the Thunder. Riding alone along the road at night, Thompson revealed by his voice that he had survived three hours at sea on a drifting chest before being rescued by a Rhode Island schooner captained by Robertson, a school-fellow. Thompson had refused to return to his tyrannical ship and instead secured a position as surgeon and overseer on a Jamaican plantation, where he was now courting the daughter of his employer with the parents’ favor. Thompson entertained Roderick lavishly for ten days, gave him ten pistoles, and later supplied shirts, waistcoats, stockings, and four doubloons—a generosity that allowed Roderick to “look upon myself as a gentleman of some consequence.”

This period of comfort ended with the Lizard’s return. Crampley had used Roderick’s absence to slander him before the captain, alleging prior conviction for theft and a flogging, but the surgeon Tomlins defended Roderick strenuously and confirmed his innocence through correspondence with Thompson. While Roderick was ashore, his captain was promoted to a twenty-gun ship, and an eighty-year-old lieutenant who had served since King William’s reign assumed command of the Lizard after expending prize money on influence. Brayl, after twenty-five years as midshipman and mate, was finally made an officer. Selected to carry dispatches to England, the Lizard set sail with Roderick aboard.

The passage home became a study in tyrannical command. The new captain, an old man given to treating his gout with Holland gin, died in his sleep, whereupon Crampley assumed command. He immediately threw the surgeon’s hencoops overboard, barred Tomlins and Roderick from the quarter-deck, and—when Tomlins protested—confined the surgeon to his cabin, where lack of air produced a fever that killed him within days. Tomlins bequeathed his watch and instruments to Roderick, but Crampley refused burial rites, asserting the surgeon had poisoned himself from fear of mutiny charges. Roderick, expelled from the mess at Crampley’s instigation, ate in solitude for the remainder of the voyage. After seven weeks at sea, when the gunner insisted the ship was in soundings, Crampley refused to heave the lead; the sloop struck a sandbank at three in the morning. In the chaos of sailors breaking open officers’ chests and drinking their liquor, Roderick armed himself and fought his way into the overcrowded boat. Reaching shore, he immediately challenged Crampley to single combat with pistols. They exchanged shots, Roderick disarmed his opponent and wounded him severely, but was then treacherously felled from behind and robbed of clothes, money, watch, and buckles—left with only shirt, breeches, shoes, and stockings.