Chapter Fifty-Four: Des Voeux
Oh gang, we're rapidly running out of living POV characters as you can see. But that means we do get a glimpse into the inner life of the Notorious C(F)DV, a generally sweet lad more akin to his real-life counterpart than to his gremlin-like show one.
Des Voeux is deliriously happy, right off the bat. As well as successfully hunting and gorging themselves on seal out on the pack, his party have spotted real proper leads in the ice with clear water all the way to the Adelaide Peninsula and Back's River.
"Everyone could leave Rescue Camp. Everyone there now had a chance at survival." :(((
His joy doesn't last for long, however, as his party returns to camp not to fanfare but to abject misery. The men at Rescue Camp are so despondent that they don't even react to the eight tasty seal carcasses Des Voeux and his men haul behind them.
"Did someone die?" asked Charles Frederick Des Voeux
The last men standing with any kind of seniority/rank gather in a tent to fill Des Voeux in, all but one of them smoking like chimneys all the while. They are: Second Mate Edward Couch, First Mate Robert Thomas, Captain of the Hold Joseph Andrews, and Captain of the Maintop Thomas Farr.
They've found the bloody carnage that Hickey's party left behind them:
"[the remaining bones and flesh] Had knife marks on them" finished Robert Thomas. "Lane and Goddard were butchered by a human being"
"Not a human being" said Thomas Farr. "But some vile thing in the shape of a man."
The conversation that follows has definite shades of the E10 Lawful Mutiny scene with Des Voeux cast in Little's role instead.
"We have to go after him and the murderers with him," said Des Voeux
No one spoke for a moment. Then Robert Thomas said, "Why?"
It's hard to disagree with them really. They discuss the lives that would be wasted in such a battle, mentioning Thomas Johnson again who - as we now know - was sent to track the Mutineers to ensure they really left only to fall bloody victim to them.
Des Voeux argues first for Crozier and then for Goodsir but the others reason that they don't even need the surgeon any longer - Tom Hartnell has learned enough to be able to administer what few medicines they have left and as for surgeries...
Couch smiled sadly, "Lad, do you really think that anyone who needs actual surgery from this point on in our travels is likely to survive, no matter what?"
That ever-so-slightly condescending reference to Des Voeux's youth gets to me especially, it really does! He's just a wee guy!
The assembled men still worry about predation from Hickey and the Mutineers as well and have some choice words to say on the matter:
"... He sees all of us as livestock. What if he's just waiting out there beyond the next rise, waiting to attack the whole camp?"
"You're turning the caulker's mate into a bogeyman" said Des Voeux.
"He done that to his self already." said Andrews, "But not a bogeyman, the Devil. The actual Devil..."
I feel like that specific phrasing - his self vs. himself - can do SO much heavy lifting if you want it to. You could interpret it as Hickey not just being corrupted but as devoting/losing his entire sense of self to that corruption. Delicious stuff!
The remaining men decide explicitly that Des Voeux should lead the Expedition entire as he's the highest ranking left among them. He accepts this though he vows to continue to consult closely with the other four in the tent where necessary.
Poor Hodgson is mentioned here, in a way that makes me laugh much much more than it really should:
"Technically," said Thomas Farr, "Lieutenant George Henry Hodgson is in charge of the expedition now"
"Oh, fuck Lieutenant George Henry Hodgson up the arse with a hot poker," said Joseph Andrews, "If the little weasel were to come crawlin' back now, I'd strangle 'im with me own hands and piss on his corpse."
It's not long before Des Voeux faces his first tough decision as official leader and, when it comes down to it, he turns more Le Vesconte than Little. You're not going to like this one, gang, or what it means for poor scurvy-ridden Jopson...!
"Here is my first decision as new commander of the Franklin Expedition. When we drag the boats to the ice in the morning, any man who can walk to the boats and get into harness - or even into one of the boats - comes with us... But tomorrow, only those who can walk to the boats will leave Rescue Camp." :(((
