THE TWO ADMIRALS: A Tale

In the summer of 1745 a British fleet sails unexpectedly into a minor home country port. It is led by Vice Admiral Sir Gervaise Oakes, with second in command Rear Admiral Richard Bluewater. The two admirals are invited to dine with the local magnate, 84 year old bachelor baronet Sir Wycherly Wychecombe. News suddenly arrives of Bonnie Prince Charlie's landing in Scotland to restore his father to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland. The intensely Whig (i. e. loyal to the usurping German House of Brunswick) baronet Sir Wycherly overdoes his toasts to the reigning monarch in London, suffers a stroke of apoplexy and soon dies in the presence of the two admirals, as he struggles in vain to rewrite a will for his entailed estate (there being no apparent legitimate heir). *****Thirty years later major players of this novel meet again in Westminster Abbey, London. They assemble at the tomb of Rear Admiral Bluewater who fell in battle in 1745, often affectionately called simply Admiral Blue by his sailors. There ancient and long retired Admiral Oakes falls on his knees before his old friend's monument, after recalling a great victory they won together over the French in 1745 -- one of several in their careers. Oakes then falls dead. Tears flow all about. It is almost the very day of the battle of rebellious colonials against a British army and fleet at Bunker Hill near Boston. ***** In between the death of the two octogenarian knights, separated of course by 30 years of British and North American history, takes place James Fenimore Cooper's novel of 1842, THE TWO ADMIRALS: A TALE OF THE SEA. Fully 2/3 of the story is on land, in or near terrible cliffs above the little port. A good quarter of the yarn, however, plays out during a storm at sea as the British fleet sails away to search for and try to destroy a more powerful French fleet. On land it is mostly talk: about the dying Sir Wycherly Wychecombe and a young naval lieutenant also named Wycherly Wychecombe who makes no claims either to be or not to be a relative of the baronet. Tom the eldest of three illegitimate but acknowledged sons of the baronet's younger brother, a judge recently deceased, at once claims to be the new baronet. No one, not even the dying baronet wishes this to happen, although Sir Wycherly had written an earlier will in favor of Tom. Meanwhile Vice Admiral Bluewater is drawn powerfully to the beautiful young daughter of a disgraced naval man whose job is to maintain watch on the cliffs above the anchored fleet. She reminds him powerfully of the noble Agnes Hedworth, a woman both he and his Colonel brother (long dead) had wooed decades earlier. ***** A political complication: Admiral Bluewater is a secret adherent of the deposed Stuart family. He is strongly tempted to resign his commission and go up to Scotland to fight for his rightful king. Bluewater and Oakes, both bachelors, are the closest of friends and have been since they entered the navy together in their earliest teens. Politically, Bluewater looks back and Oakes looks forward. Will the two friends part company if the French fleet is thought to be at sea in support of the United Kingdom's Young Pretender, Bonnie Prince Charles Edward Stuart? Read this great yarn and find out. -OOO-