AAR December mission. Last bite of the cherry. Cpt. David McBride.

[Bligh]

PREAMBLE.

The Refit.



Captain McBride mopped his brow as he waited in the anteroom at Bombay castle. It was sweltering even here in the shaded rooms of the HEIC, and with the Monsoon only a month or so away, no time to be sitting toying with his dress sword and awaiting the pleasure of the Chief Secretary.

Finally a clerk approached. McBride stood expecting to be ushered into the Board room to meet Governor Duncan. Instead the clerk merely proffered David a sealed packet sealed with red wax, together with a quill pen to sign the register indicating that he had received it.


Hardly glancing at the official seal and coat of arms of the Company within the outer cover


McBride ripped the package open, and read the few lines written there. His orders were to disembark his Bombay Marines and make sail with immediate effect for Calcutta, there to have his ship undergo a complete overhaul, including the addition of Carronades to his upper gundeck.



Any shipping encountered on the voyage were to be challenged and brought to action if they proved to be hostile.

Short of Marines, McBride just hoped that any vessels he chanced upon would not be a swarm of Malay Pirates who would probably outnumber him ten to one.

Bligh.