There was a delay as the lookout raised a telescope and tried his best to fix it on the frigate. At length he lowered the glass and called down, ‘Make sail, course south-west, until further orders.’

‘South-west?’ Arthur frowned. ‘Why south-west?’

‘For safety.We head south and we might come up on Ushant. West and we might hit the Cornish coast.’

‘In all this sea?’ Arthur shook his head. ‘Surely not. They are hundreds of miles apart.’

‘True,’ Captain Hodges admitted.‘But do you know where we are at this moment? Precisely where we are? Neither do I, and I won’t until I can shoot the sun. In this weather who knows how long that will be. So until then, we play safe and steer south-west.’

The following dawn revealed a storm-tossed horizon clear of any ships and Captain Hodges kept to the course he had been given. More days passed with grinding monotony as the transport sailed with the wind on her port quarter, rising up on each wave, then lurching and swooping into the trough as the wave passed on ahead. Rain squalls constantly swept over the ship and water found its way between decks so that soon nothing seemed dry and it was almost impossible to keep warm.

One morning, as Arthur emerged for his regular attempt at a walk up and down the quarterdeck, Captain Hodges came over to greet him with a brief knuckle to the brim of his hat.

‘Good day to you, Colonel.’

‘Any sign of the other ships?’

‘None, sir. Not for several days now.’

‘Any idea how far we’ve come?’

‘Difficult to say. We’re making six knots through the sea, but over the ground?’ He shrugged. ‘But if the wind stays steady, it’s fair for the West Indies and we’ll make good time.’

‘That’s something of a comfort.’

‘Yes, sir.’ Hodges nodded and turned back to keep an eye on his ship, then paused and glanced back at Arthur. ‘One other thing, sir.’

‘Oh?’

‘Merry Christmas.’

‘Christmas? Oh, Christ, of course it is.’Arthur laughed.‘Merry Christmas to you too, Captain!’

The next day the wind began to veer. Slowly, degree by degree, until it had shifted far enough to the west to force the captain to change course and he tacked for six hours at a time before going about and clawing back with the wind on the opposite bow, pointing as close to the wind as the ship would steer. And still the storm continued, day after day, week after week, until nearly seven weeks into the voyage the lookout called down to the deck.

‘Land ho!’

‘Where away?’ Hodges called back.