“No.”
There was silence for a moment; each of them was reliving, from his own point of view, those awful minutes while the Renown was being recaptured, while the Spaniards who tried to fight it out were slaughtered without mercy.
“You know about the court of inquiry, I suppose?” asked Bush; it was a logical step from his last train of thought.
“Yes. How did you know about it?”
“Cogshill’s just been in here to warn me that I’ll have to give evidence.”
“I see.”
There followed silence more pregnant than the last as they thought about the ordeal ahead. Hornblower deliberately broke it.
“I was going to tell you,” he said, “that I had to reeve new tiller lines in Renown. Both of them were frayed—there’s too much wear there. I think they’re led round too sharp an angle.”
That provoked a technical discussion which Hornblower encouraged until it was time for him to leave.