#Ile de la Reunion
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tropic-havens · 7 days ago
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Sainte-Anne, Arrondissement de Saint-Benoît, Réunion
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vinylespassion · 22 days ago
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Ile de la Réunion, NRJ Mobile, pub SFR
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ilook4uinevery1 · 9 months ago
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Saint-Denis, île de la Réunion (2017)
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alcbluepage · 1 year ago
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(via Cahier à spiraleundefined avec l'œuvre « Vole de paille en queue » de l'artiste alc-bluepage20)
Si vous aimez les oiseaux et plus précisément la beauté des paille en queue se petit carnet est fait pour vous !!
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esselte974 · 2 years ago
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For your business trips, consider the Travel Advantage application to pay less! 🔥🔥🔥 https://linktr.ee/ericdrulavip
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aivoluptulicious · 7 months ago
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Attractive girl from Reunion Island
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aurierstorecash · 8 months ago
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ayumoandlongani · 8 months ago
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💛
La petite sirène (Manon Amacouty, 2019)
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meilleur-voyant-marabout · 1 year ago
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(via SIKILI MOUSSA, MEILLEUR MARABOUT AFRICAIN SERIEUX A ILE DE LA REUNION)
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d-bovet · 2 years ago
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St Leu beach : sunrise (Reunion Island)
Indian Ocean
Artist SAB 2022
Copyright reserved : Then and now !
Picture : 2022 October
Drawing 2022 December
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kilfeur · 4 months ago
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J'aime bien la dynamique de Soren et Corvus dans cette épisode, leur permettant de plaisanter un peu tout en étant sérieux. Comme le fait que Soren explique qu'il croyait en Zubeia quand il disait que cette blessure n'était rien pour elle. Et que le fait que Soren s'inquiète pour Zubeia est parce que c'est la mère de Zym. Mais ça lui fait penser à la sienne et Corvus lui dit que Zym l'a lui. Ok, je ship maintenant ! Et les retrouvailles de Zubeia et Zym, c'est rassurant de la voir en vie mais Zubeia sera la grande absente de cette saison vu que ses blessures prendront du temps à guérir. Du coup Zym est le roi temporaire des dragons non ?
I like Soren and Corvus' dynamic in this episode, allowing them to joke around a bit while still being serious. Like Soren explaining that he believed in Zubeia when he said that this wound was nothing to her. And that Soren's concern for Zubeia is because she's Zym's mother. But it makes him think of his own, and Corvus tells him that Zym has him. Okay, I ship now! And the reunion of Zubeia and Zym, it's reassuring to see her alive but Zubeia will be the big absentee of this season as her wounds will take time to heal. So Zym is the temporary king of dragons, isn't he?
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she-is-a-weapon · 5 months ago
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Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo's interview for Le Parisien (translated from French)
Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David, played by Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo, are a beloved couple among NCIS fans. This time, they're preparing for a major reunion in their own spin-off series, 'NCIS: Tony & Ziva.' We caught up with the two actors at the 63rd Monte Carlo Television Festival, running until June 18th.
"Because Tony and Ziva are outside their comfort zone, away from their NCIS cocoon, they have to rely on each other. They can no longer seek help from their former colleagues," says Weatherly. It's in Budapest, Hungary, that the shooting will take place. "Several locations will be recreated there, but we'll also explore other places. I won't tell you where, it's top secret."
Among the new characters, Tali, the daughter of the couple, will clearly play a central role. "She's 11 years old and has a little bit of Tony and a little bit of Ziva in her. She's brave and audacious," says de Pablo.
"Tali is bound to have a complex psychology," says Weatherly. "Because you have to look at things from this child's perspective: she has a father whose existence she didn���t know about until she was three, and then she’s only with him from that age, thinking her mother is dead. Then her mother comes back!"
Ziva's return inevitably shook Tony's world as well. "For me, Tony was always number 2 behind his boss," states Weatherly. "Then he had to go and look after this child who reminded him every day of the love of his life. His departure to Paris was a means to detach himself from the NCIS world. And he had to become a father. That means digging deep inside himself to take responsibility and make decisions. He set up a company and it was like a leader emerged in him that he didn't know he had. And just as all that was falling into place, Ziva reappeared. So this series explores the consequences of all that."
The actors also promise plenty of action. "We've read the scripts for the first five episodes. And I can tell you that there are car chases, aerial action and at least one fight scene that looks like it's out of a Luc Besson film, completely crazy," enthuses Weatherly.
"But time has passed, so the characters are older, let's not forget that," reminds de Pablo. "We can't wait to explore them from this new angle.”
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diceriadelluntore · 2 months ago
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Storia Di Musica #341, Bee Gees, Main Course, 1975
Per le storie di musica con almeno tre fratelli coinvolti non potevano mancare. Oltre questo motivo importante, mi spinge a scrivere di loro anche il fatto che, come poche altre band, sono fisse nell'immaginario collettivo per un disco, la colonna sonora de La Febbre Del Sabato Sera. Sebbene il disco sia uno dei più venduti di tutti i tempi (probabilmente oltre 40 milioni di copie vendute), legato non solo al mondo musicale ma anche a quello cinematografico, si finisce per dimenticarsi di tutto il resto, cioè di una delle band più longeve e più di successo di tutti i tempi, che nella loro carriera lunga 60 anni ha sperimentato di tutto.
Barry, Robin e Maurice Gibb nascono appena dopo la guerra (Barry nel 1946, Robin e Maurice gemelli nel 1949, hanno anche una sorella maggiore, Leslie, nata nel 1945) sull'isola di Man. Si trasferiscono piccolissimi nei sobborghi di Manchester, dove Barry è coinvolto in numerosi episodi di vandalismo, che gli valgono una condanna con la condizionale. I genitori decisero di emigrare nei pressi di Brisbane, in Australia, nel 1958, dove nel marzo di quell'anno nacque Andy, l'ultimo dei fratelli Gibb. Lì sviluppano, in maniera spontanea, una grande intesa canora e musicale, tanto che i tre fratellini cantano in trio in una radio privata, Radio Brisbane. il deejay che li annuncia si chiama Bill Gates, l'autista che li va a prendere per portargli agli studi radiofonici si chiama Bill Goode. Pensando anche che fossero i Brothers Gibb, decidono di chiamare la band B.G.'s, poi scritto Bee Gees.
Sarebbe lunghissimo scrivere tutta la loro carriera, ma alcune cose le voglio ricordare: nel 1966, dopo una serie di successi in Australia, decidono di tornare in Gran Bretagna, il loro manager Robert Stigwood aggiunge al trio Vince Melouney alla chitarra e Colin Peterson alla batteria. In pochi anni collezionano successi a ripetizione, tra il 1967 e il 1969 pubblicano 4 album e decine di singoli, che vanno in classifica in tutto il mondo, Italia compresa. Tra questi dischi spicca il bellissimo Odessa, un concept album sulla scomparsa di una fittizia nave nel Mar Nero nel 1899, disco che ebbe brutta critica all'epoca, ma che oggi è considerato un capolavoro nascosto di quegli anni. E portò anche ad una rottura tra i fratelli: in disaccordo sull'idea di musica da fare, Robin si allontana dai due fratelli e sceglie di scrivere musica da solo. Barry e Maurice scelgono di proseguire senza di lui: esce così Tomorrow Tomorrow che è superato in quanto a vendite dal singolo di esordio di Robin, Saved By The Bell; Robin pubblicò anche due singoli cantati in lingua italiana, Agosto Ottobre e Un Milione Di Anni Fa. Più tardi provò a bissare il successo con One Million Years ma senza riuscirci, mentre il suo primo album, Robin's Reign, uscì nel 1970. A fine anni '70 ci fu la reunion, che venne considerata alla stregua di una rifondazione, e qui inizia il periodo d'oro della band.
Iniziano a collaborare con il grande produttore Arif Mardin, della etichetta Atlantic, che intuisce che per sfruttare al meglio le perfette armonie canore di cui sono capaci devono virare su suoni più decisi. Li avvicina alle sonorità soul, r'n'b, al funk e alla nascente disco music per farli diventare il gruppo bianco più famoso del genere. Il disco che ho scelto oggi è quello che i critici considerano il primo passo verso questo percorso.
Può sembrare sciocco definire il dodicesimo album di un gruppo con una serie di otto anni di dischi d'oro alle spalle una "svolta", ma è questo che è stato Main Course, che esce nel 1975. In copertina, un bellissimo disegno di Drew Struzan, famoso disegnatore, autore dei più famosi manifesti cinematografici. Main Course ha segnato un enorme cambiamento nel sound dei Bee Gees, abbandonando la forma ballata per un disco fresco, pieno di sonorità innovative e che ha altri primati che scopriremo tra poco. Registrato, su consiglio dell'amico Eric Clapton che lì si era trasferito (al 461 di Ocean Boulevard di Golden Beach, vicino Miami, come il titolo di un suo bellissimo disco) in Florida, le ballate dei dischi precedenti ci sono ancora, come Songbird e Country Lanes, ma la scrittura era più semplice e il resto era composto da orecchiabili melodie dance fortemente influenzate dalla musica soul di Philadelphia del periodo. Trainato dai singoli Jive Talkin', Nights On Broadway, la prima canzone a sfoggiare il falsetto che li renderà iconici e Fanny (Be Tender With My Love), attirò milioni di nuovi ascoltatori. La voce in falsetto di Barry Gibb divenne oggetto di scherno negli anni successivi, ma funziona: riusciva ad essere credibile in senso romantico quanto piuttosto una conquista per la serata, il che era in linea con i costumi sessuali della metà degli anni '70. Arif Mardin aveva convinto i Bee Gees a volgere il loro talento verso una direzione musicale che avevano sempre amato ma mai abbracciato, e basta ascoltare Wind Of Change o Edge Of The Universe per capirne il risultato eccellente. Barry, Robin e Maurice Gibb erano affascinati da R&B e soul da anni (To Love Somebody era stata scritta perché Otis Redding la cantasse), ma, in quanto britannici bianchi, temendo che potessero sembrare ridicoli, non avevano mai adattato quei suoni da soli. Non solo non sembravano ridicoli, ma divennero gli interpreti principi di questo stile, segnando un'era. In Main Course li accompagnano fior di musicisti: Blue Weaver, alle tastiere elettroniche, un marchio di fabbrica di qui in avanti, e calderone di idee infinite, Alan Kendall, che suonava in uno stile di chitarra funky e il batterista Dennis Byron, che suonava pattern più complicati di quanto gli fosse stato chiesto negli anni, furono anche loro felici della nuova direzione e costituirono il nucleo strumentale della band per i successivi sei anni.
Tra i record dei Bee Gees: oltre 250 milioni di copie vendute, un ruolo non sono da interpreti, ma da autori fondamentale (Barry ha scritto sedici "numeri uno" in America, come produttore quattordici). Sono presenti nella Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame (1997), nella Songwriters Hall Of Fame (1994), nella Vocal Group Hall Of Fame (2001) e hanno vinto otto Grammy Award tra cui il Grammy Legend Award. Sembra abbastanza per non essere coverizzati per la pubblicità dei fermenti anticolesterolo.
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ilook4uinevery1 · 1 year ago
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Home. Reunion Island circa 2012 ~ 2013 Taken with a Sony Cybershot DSC-S2100 (hello bluriness) A decade ago.
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some-siren · 1 year ago
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What’s puzzling to me is why people say Aziraphale’s French is bad, like-
No it’s not. It’s quite good even. Sure he has a thick (no really) accent but that’s about it. Everything he says to Justine is something you can hear in the streets, and it’s correct too-
Az: Euuh.. Bonjour Justine ! Euh, pardonnez-moi ! Euh, mais euhm... [Uuh.. Hello Justine! Uh, excuse me (formal)! Uh, but uum...] J: Mister Fell, I speak fluent English. I’ve been living here for fifteen years.
Az: Excellent. Excellent !.. Uuh, well erm. Bien (alt. Viens) ! Maintenant, j’ai une réunion de l’association de tout les (alt. des) commerçants de la rue, dont (alt. dans) mon magasin de livres — des! — des livres. Uh, je serais honoré si vous pouviez venir. Il y aura des vol-au-vents. [Excellent. Excellent !.. Uuh, well erm. Good(alt. Come!)¹! Now², I have a reunion of the association of all the (alt. of the)³ merchants of the street, of which (alt. in)⁴ my store of books — of the! — of the books.⁵ Uh, I would be honoured if you could come. There will be vol-au-vents.] J: Mister Fell, if it’s about the street traders meeting, I can be there, but only until seven, as we start to get really busy then. Az: Oh, merci bien ! Uuh, il est à six heures trente. [Oh, thank good!⁶ Uuh, it⁷ is at six hours thirty.⁸] J: Yes, six-thirty. See you there. Az: (incomprehensible) Au revoir! [(incomprehensible)⁹ Goodbye!]
¹ "Viens" (Come!) instead of "Bien" (Good, well) would be weird in this situation for a couple of reasons: firstly "Viens" is the informal form of the imperative for "venir" (to come), the form one would use with people one is close to — like friends or family —, which is in contradiction with the formal way he first addresses Justine. Secondly, while it could — emphasis on could — be "Viens" on a purely phonological basis (when I say his accent is thick I mean it), it isn't correct in this context, same as English.
² "Now, " is perfectly correct in English, but it is weird in French. "Maintenant" will most of the time mean "right now" in French, and it is no exception here. Therefore what Aziraphale says is grammatically incorrect, because it would suppose the object of the sentence (the association meeting) is either currently happening or is just about to start. Although don't get me wrong, it's a very minor mistake; the sentence is still entirely comprehensible.
³ "des" (of the; plural) is what I hear instead of "les" (the; plural). If he is indeed saying the former, then it is a grammatical error, because it would be like he is saying "a reunion of all of the traders". "tout" (all) expects a direct object after it (all what?) and "des", here, is an indefinite article, a bit like "some" in English, and induces an indirect object. On the other hand if he is saying "les", then the sentence is correct because it is an (definite) article introducing a direct object. It's slightly confusing to hear, but that's about it.
⁴ I am almost certain he is saying "dans" (in, inside of) but because of his (BLOODY THICK) accent it sounds like "dont" (which, in/of which). If he says "dont" his sentence is missing an indirect object. "Dont" is a relative pronoun (here referring to the subject, aka the association reunion) which induces a new proposition, so like a new part of the sentence, that here is dependent of the first proposition. Basically it needs a verb but it doesn't have one. Which is to say his sentence if he used "dont" should have been "dont mon magasin de livres fait partie" (which my bookshop is a part of). On the other hand, if he said "dans", his sentence is correct.
⁵ "of books — of the! — of the books", just as bad in French as it sounds in English. Aziraphale was right when he said "de" and wrong when he corrected to "des". I could not if my life depended on it explain why it's wrong but it is. Made me wince.
⁶ "Oh, thank good" sounds weird in English but it's quite a common (although slightly fancy and old-fashioned) figure of speech in French. It doesn't have a real equivalent in English and most of the time will be translated to "thank you very much" or "thanks a lot"
⁷ "il" (he, it; masculine, can take on a neutral gender) is referring to the reunion, which is feminine in French. Wrong gender, mate
⁸ "six hours thirty", is a perfectly correct and normal construction. We say "hours" in French, it's usually translated to "o'clock" in English.
⁹ An utterly incomprehensible pile of sound vaguely resembling "(au) revoir", only understandable thanks to context.
Ok I know it's not very flattering but like. This angel speaks great French, especially for someone who learnt the hard way. Like suuuuure her accent is terrible, but in that weirdly endearing way British people speak French (also I have heard WAY WORSE), so really we're giving her a hard time for no real reason
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bomberqueen17 · 2 months ago
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Liveblogging the Aubreyad: Book 4, The Mauritius Command (pt 1)
So at the end of the last book, Jack closes things out by looking forward to the paradise he will finally reach when he gets home with his financial solvency and his soon-to-be wife, and in typical unromantic fashion, the next book opens with a lovingly detailed description of just how not-paradise the situation actually is.
Some time has elapsed. Jack is married, owns a romantical little cottage with a not very thriving kitchen garden, and has twin daughters. His mother-in-law has also bankrupted herself and now lives with them, as does his niece Cecelia, since his wife's sister (also Cecelia) cannot actually look after her child, since she was hastily married to a soldier who had, it is implied, knocked her up, and is off camp-following said soldier. Mrs. Williams in her greed also gambled away Sophie's dowry on the investment scheme that broke her, so Sophie is also broke. They are living on Jack's half-pay and have to be very frugal. Jack has not been able to get a ship and has been assigned instead to the unglamorous, not particularly remunerative Sea Fencibles, a kind of militia in fishing boats.
But, he is not under threat of arrest for debt, so at least technically he is doing better than he has been for the last two books.
And he is in tolerably cheerful spirits despite all of it, because after all, he does have his wife and his cottage, and his new habit of mathematics has extended to becoming quite a keen hand at astronomy, including grinding his own telescopes, and he has a little observatory in the yard that he built himself from copper salvaged from old ship hulls (which the dockyard let him have from pity).
He mostly uses this observatory to look at the ships in the harbor, as Stephen finds out when he shows up to visit.
But better things are coming, as Stephen's visit presages. Their first inkling is when a message arrives from Lady Clonfert, the wife of a fellow Naval captain, asking Jack if he can give her a lift to the Cape. Stephen is incredibly annoyed at this for some reason, while everyone else is baffled.
Stephen drags Jack outside to talk in private and goes off on a tirade about lack of discretion and how terrible it is from an intelligence perspective, and through this Jack gradually comes to understand that Stephen has managed, for intelligence reasons, to get Jack a ship in fact, and this fact makes Jack so irrepressibly happy despite the fact that he understands just why Stephen is angry and that Stephen is justified to be angry that Stephen eventually has to stop his tirade and be like.... now we have to wait out here until the official messenger arrives, and Jack is like why and Stephen is like because you are so obviously delighted that there is no way you can keep a secret about this, and jack is like... i can be quiet and stephen is like no. you cannot.
Sophie does not know about Stephen's role in intelligence, and cannot know. No one in the family can know. So they stay outside, huddled in Jack's observatory as it rains, until the messenger shows up with Jack's orders.
It's a complicated mission and Jack doesn't get to take any of his people. (He has had to dismiss Killick and Bonden; he couldn't afford to pay them as servants.) But he has command of HMS Boadicea, a 38-gun frigate, to repair to the Indian Ocean, there to command a squadron to resist four new French frigates that have been despatched to the Ile de France (Mauritius), and have been playing havoc with British commercial shipping in the area. It involves playing the role of a commodore, which is not a promotion for Jack but is a great deal of prestige and in fact should not come to one of his seniority except by Stephen's intervention-- because Stephen has learned that if he is to do intelligence work, he is much better off with Jack nearby, and intelligence work he has to do, and delicate stuff at that: they aim to take Mauritius and La Reunion away from the French, no small undertaking.
Jack needs to borrow money from Stephen to outfit himself for this voyage, which gives us this fantastic, extremely-typical line as he brings up the topic:
“Money, is it?" said Stephen, who had been thinking about lemurs.
Jack resolves to leave that very afternoon, and sail that night. Sophie is glad he has a ship but dismayed at the suddenness, and contrives to convince him to stay at home one more night. This becomes plot-significant later but as this is Stephen's POV it is glossed-over because he does not care what they get up to.
He gets to sea, and contrives to avoid giving Lady Clonfert a ride; she is very pretty, and he had noticed Sophie seemed a little jealous and uneasy, and besides it eventually comes out that he does not like Lord Clonfert for extremely good reasons, and he is uneasy about the whole thing.
He does not contrive to avoid the politico they must bring on board to be ready to become the governor of Mauritus if they succeed in taking it. He seems okayish, and Stephen likes him fine; his name is Farquhar and he has a background in law.
On the voyage down the Boadicea manages to take a prize, a French corvette that turns out to be the former British frigate Hyaena, and to also get salvage on the merchantman she had recently taken, a Guineaman, which Jack managed to delay long enough that 24h had elapsed so she was salvage instead of a rescue. So there's some money, but better still, he manages to send away the incompetent First Lieutenant he'd been saddled with as prize commander, and all the awkward buggers and hard cases as prize crews, and a really shitty midshipman to prize-command the recaptured merchant, and then on top of it he presses a bunch of right seamen out of the recaptured merchantman to replace them all with. So off he goes with a much, much better crew in his ship, for a very long voyage; right away he promotes the most deserving of his master's mates to acting lieutenant, another fellow like Tom Pullings with no powerful friends, who would never have got a step otherwise, thereby ensuring the man's lasting devotion and good service for life.
With his crew squared away, they spend the long voyage getting up to snuff on their sailing and gunnery. Jack also takes his newfound love of mathematics to the midshipmen's berth, educating them himself, and discovers that one of them, Dick Richardson (Spotted Dick because of his pimples, alas) is very mathematically gifted. This means Aubrey has to study even harder to stay ahead of him.
They finally arrive at Cape Town: he is under the authority of Admiral Bertie, and is to command, as a commodore, a squadron of assorted ships. Sirius, under a Captain Pym; Nereide under a Captain Corbett; the sloop Otter under Captain (master and commander, not a psot captain) Lord Clonfert; and finally an ancient and barely-seaworthy Raisonable as a flagship, a 64-gunner that can't actually do much.
(The subsequent plot of the novel takes a great deal from the real historical events of the Mauritius Campaign of 1809-11, so if one were inclined to look at maps it would likely be useful to start there.)
Ashore, Stephen meets the surgeon of the Otter, who passes out drunk into his arms. (The man, McAdam, is an old acquaintance, a specialist in diseases of the mind.) Trying to find any Otters to take him home, he runs into none other than Bonden. Bonden and Killick came down in the Nereide to try to catch up with Aubrey, hearing he was afloat again. But Stephen notices Bonden is moving stiffly, and is astonished to learn he was recently given the stunningly harsh punishment of fifty lashes, because a piece of brasswork wasn't shiny enough. Bonden, a steady and sober lifelong seaman, has never been flogged before in his life. He won't complain, but he does ask Stephen to ensure that Jack gets him and Killick as transfers, concerned that Corbett won't let them go as he's so short-handed. Nereide is on the brink of mutiny and everyone aboard who can do so deserts given any opportunity.
“What I mean is, that in the first place me and Killick and the rest want to get back to our own captain: and in the second, we want to get out before things turn nasty. And at the gait they are going now--well, I shouldn't give much for Captain Corbett's life, nor some of his officers, come an action, or even maybe a dirty night with no moon; and we want no part in it.”
As for the others-- Clonfert resents that Jack didn't bring his wife. Clonfert also is apparently aware that he behaved very, very shabbily to Jack when they were both in the Andromeda, letting Jack do all the hard dangerous work of a cutting-out expedition and then taking credit afterwards himself; Jack remembers the incident but does not hold a grudge and assumes he simply didn't know what really happened, but Clonfert, it is clear, very much knows he behaved badly and expects Jack to resent it, having underestimated just how good-natured Jack really is. And he resents that Jack has since that time advanced more in his career, Clonfert having lost seniority in a disciplinary situation of some kind. But at least Clonfert's ship is a reasonably happy one and his people like him and will work for him.
Pym is good-natured but not very bright and his ship is in poor condition through sheer age and use; he is willing, but there's not a lot Sirius can do.
They put to sea, under orders to find and destroy the French frigates. Meanwhile Stephen goes to La Reunion to liase with agents there. From Stephen's intelligence they discern that if they collaborate with the British soldiers stationed on Rodriguez, they could assault La Reunion and take its batteries, and then take the ships in its harbor St. Paul, which include two recently-captured British Indiamen. So they go to Rodriguez to persuade the Lt. Col. commanding the soldiers of the possiblity of executing this plan. Lt. Col. Keating is in fact admirably keen to join in with this daring plan, and they immediately begin to make arrangements.
Clonfert and Corbett have an ugly public disagreement over where the best landing-place on La Reunion is, both of them having extensive local knowledge. Jack checks Clonfert over it-- it's unprofessional to argue like that and Corbett is the senior officer-- and shortly thereafter Stephen is called in to consult with Otter's eccentric surgeon McAdam. Clonfert has an inexplicable, painful recurring condition where he has fits, possibly psychosomatic but severe regardless, and he is taken by one after having been checked by Aubrey. McAdam mentions that Clonfert is mildly obsessed with Aubrey and very frequently discusses him.
In the end it is decided to use Corbett's landing place for the soldiers, so all the soldiers crowd onto Nereiad and the squadron sets off. They arrive in two days. Clonfert volunteers to lead the detachment of seamen, collected from all the ships to pad out the numbers of soldiers and Marines.
The Nereiad goes alone, while the rest of the squadron goes around to the island's main harbor slowly. Jack finds it very hard to give orders but not participate. It is his first taste of admiral-like responsibility and he does not care for it.
Stephen was already up, sitting there clean, shaven and respectably dressed under the swinging lamp. He said, "There is the strange look about you, brother?" "A strange feeling, too," said Jack. "Do you know, Stephen, that in about one hour's time the dust will begin to fly, and what I shall do is just lie there in the road and give orders while the other men do the work? It has never happened to me before, and I don't relish it, I find. Though to be sure, Sophie would approve." "She would also beg you to drink your coffee while it is hot: and she would be in the right of it. There are few things more discouraging to the mind that likes to believe it is master in its own house, than the unquestionable effect of a full belly. Allow me to pour you a cup.”
The landing parties do their work, take first one battery, then the next, then the French ships in the harbor (including two captured British Indiamen) begin to fire on the Englishmen ashore, but the English turn one of the batteries they have taken on them, and then the second, the Union Jack running up above the taken batteries. The British ships at sea cannot fire at the French, for fear of hitting their own people, so the squadron takes fire to which it cannot reply.
But the landing parties ashore have largely taken the town, and now it is only the French ships still firing. The British squadron stand in and engage them, and the ships surrender. Success: they have taken the harbor. They don't expect to hold it, not for long anyway, but the ships in the harbor are all theirs now, and they can destroy all the military stores and government records at their leisure.
Clonfert has done well but Jack is slightly worried that the man's motives are to one-up Corbett rather than get the job done in the most effective way. They secure the town, and Clonfert overzealously burns some things that turn out to have been valuable cargo from the Indiamen, which upsets him horribly.
But the French column enroute to retake the harbor does not arrive. The French commander has committed suicide, the rest do not wish to fight. St. Paul is safe for now.
Jack rewards Corbett, giving him the French frigate they captured to sail back to the Cape with their despatches, and then in turn promotes Clonfert to post captain from commander, and gives him Nereide, and gives Clonfert's first lieutenant the Otter. Clonfert is weirdly conflicted at having been made post by Aubrey, since he was once senior to him and still has this apparent one-sided rivalry going in his mind, of which Jack remains completely unaware.
“He is an odd fish, Clonfert," said Jack to Stephen, between two peaceful duets. "You might almost think I had done him an injury, giving him his step." "You did so advisedly, not from any sudden whim? It is the real expression of your sense of his deserts, and not an alms? He should in fact be made a post-captain?" "Why," said Jack, "it is rather a case of faute de mieux, as you would say. I should not like to have to rely upon him at all times; but one of them had to go, and he is a better captain than Corbett.”
Corbett's disaffected crew is reorganized into other ships, and Jack now no longer has to worry about a mutiny in his squadron; the entire thing was just to both do the right thing by his subordinates and also get Corbett out of the unhappy Nereiad.
Now what is needed is more soldiers for another decisive stroke to secure the whole island, but back at the Cape the higher command of soldiers will not stir without orders from on high, and there are no communications from on high. So they will not be able to make good their advantages.
I'll pause here, somehow this has gotten long. Well, I'm trying to write it while traveling and it turns out this takes concentration. But part 2 is coming and it has the arrival of a beloved recurring character so brace yourself.
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