James Emerson Fletcher
9 Brattle Lane
London
October 24, 1803
Miss Jacky Faber
The Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls
Beacon Street
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Dearest Jacky,
I hope this letter finds you safe, well, and happy and that you are continuing to profit from your schooling and that you are enjoying the companionship of your new friends. I am sure that you are most popular with the others, considering your wealth of charm and your infectious high spirits.
I am sorry to tell you that the crew of the Dolphin has been broken up. Upon our arrival in Britain, an inspection of the repairs needed to get her back shipshape showed that they were much more extensive than we had previously thought, and she would have to go into dry dock for a long time. The Brotherhood is scattered, I’m afraid—Davy to the Raleigh, Tink to the Endeavor, and Willy to Temeraire. I am posted to the frigate Essex, along with George Elliot, whom you will remember as being a fellow midshipman on the Dolphin. He is a very decent sort and we have become quite good friends. It is a very good posting, the Essex, and we have Captain Locke to thank for it, for it was his recommendation that secured it for us. We will soon set sail to join Lord Nelson’s fleet, which has bottled up the French fleet at Toulon. It is important work, for Napoleon intended to use his fleet to invade our country, and he has been thwarted in that attempt. May Britannia always rule the seas!
It is rumored that we might even meet the great man himself, can you believe it?
Perhaps it is well that I have left the dear Dolphin because in my time on her after your departure, when on watch or in the performance of my regular duties, I would see you in all our old nooks and crannies and it would both delight me and sorely oppress my mind. The day before we left her, I climbed to the foretop and carved our initials there—JF + JF—I wonder what future generations of ship’s boys will make of that? At least in leaving the Dolphin, I will no longer be subjected to the looks of envy directed toward the scoundrel who wormed his unworthy self into the affections of the redoubtable Jacky Faber, Girl Sailor, Midshipman, and the Scourge of the Seven Seas.
Well might they be envious, for I am a very lucky man to have been loved by such as you. I hope that I continue to be lucky by remaining uppermost in your heart, but I fear that I may be mistaken and unlucky after all—I have received no letters from you, Jacky, and the Shannon has returned from Boston, as well as the Sprite and the Plymouth. I check with my mother each time I am home, but she informs me, to my infinite sorrow, that there is nothing from you. I am cruelly disappointed and I am beginning to be worried.
My mother further implores me to seek out alliances of those “within our own set,” but I will not allow her to continue in this vein. I inform her that there is none for me but my brown-eyed sailor.
We leave on the tide tomorrow. There are many rumors flying about, but it seems certain we are about to blockade the French fleet at Toulon, and will be on station for many months. I shall continue writing, but I fear the delivery of my letters will be chancy, at best.
Please be careful. I worry about you, given your propensity for plunging into trouble. And please write to me.
Your most devoted servant,
Jaimy