Season One, Episode Ten
“ A very important passenger”
Callon is approached by a mysterious stranger who asks him to take an important passenger on board one of his ships which is heading towards Italy, however the stranger will not reveal the name of the person. He is offering to pay handsomely, but the secrecy of the endeavour and the implicit danger makes Callon shy from the offer. He does though volunteer James Onedin, making a very good case for the unlikelihood of anyone suspecting this “important passenger” to be travelling on such a small ship. He also points out that the Onedins are in need of cash, and will jump at a third of what Callon is being offered by this mysterious gentleman. Thinking about it, the stranger decides that maybe it is not too bad an idea and does indeed approach James, but contrary to what Callon told him, Onedin does not jump at a hundred pounds, but is very suspicious as to why Callon --- whom, he is told, recommended his services to the gentleman who wishes to remain anonymous --- turned down the commission.
In the end, James is able to extract four hundred pounds from the man, more than Callon was to have been paid, and is sworn to secrecy. Robert, though somewhat in awe of his brother's bargaining powers, is delighted to see that they now have enough to buy his shop: once James returns with the passenger safely delivered, as this is a half-now-half-later deal. Still, it's more money than they've seen in a long time. Bad news follows good though, as he is told by Anne that Mister Baines will not be sailing with them, having been taken ill at a hostel. Luckily for him, there just happens to be a replacement looking for a berth, and he signs the man on as mate. He in turn picks the crew, and thankfully James is able to leave on time, the passenger turning up at the very last moment and jumping on board even as the ship slips its moorings. There's trouble brewing of course though: the new mate, Medcalfe, seems to know who their passenger is, even if the captain does not, and the helmsman, Santos, grins that it will be an honour to kill him.
We do find out that the mysterious man who offered the money, and shepherds the stranger on board, goes by the name of Sir George. Not that you couldn't tell from his speech, manner, bearing and dress that he is a man of social standing, but it's interesting to have it confirmed. The passenger also mentions that he will someday repay the Prime Minister's kindness, so we know he has moved in the very highest echelons of British society and government. An important passenger, indeed!
When James discovers that the passenger has a pistol in his possession, he takes it from him, advising him that as captain the rules are his to enforce, and he does not allow firearms on board. He is, however, intrigued by the design of the pistol; a new one, in which the chamber revolves, allowing for more than one shot before it must be reloaded, unlike most other pistols of the time. Despite his contention that it is for self-defence only, the passenger cannot prevent Onedin from taking it from him. In the fo'csle, the two assassins discuss how best to murder the man James Onedin has just deprived of his only means of protection, but the mate says they must wait till they are out further to sea; it must look like an accident, he tells his crony.
James, on receiving sealed orders from his passenger (“It is best you do not know who they came from”) is annoyed to find that he is being told to divert to Sardinia, and certainly irked by the fact that this man seems to have taken over his ship. He again tries to discern the identity of his passenger but is rebuffed, told that such information may endanger his life. Back in Liverpool, Robert is approached by Callon, who lets him know that, although he had to knock down the elder Onedin's shop to make way for his new dock, he has another for sale. On board the
Charlotte Rhodes, the assassins make their move, tired of waiting for a fair wind and running out of patience, and time. Their efforts are thwarted by James, however, who pushes the assassin's target out of the way as a freshly-cut rigging rope allows the sail to drop on him. Furious, James tells the mate to bring the seaman to him.
However the passenger tells him that he has a suspicion this was more than just an accident, and when he hears that not only has the man in the rigging not sailed with Onedin before, but that none of the crew have, his eyes harden with a steely realisation. When Anne relates the tale of Baines's mysteriously taking ill, only hours before the ship sailed, he postulates that the regular mate of the
Charlotte Rhodes may have been poisoned, and in exchange for the return of his pistol, he reveals to James and Anne his identity.
He is Giuseppe Garibaldi, known to history as the man who united Italy's warring principalities into one strong country, and there are of course vested interests desperate to ensure he never returns home to carry out his campaign. His assassination would cause political unrest back home, so he theorises that an accident has been arranged to make certain he never again sets foot on his home soil. The incident with the sail, he tells Onedin, was just the first such; there will be others.
Robert, seeking advice, goes to see Albert Frazer, who counsels him not to buy the shop Callon is offering. Why, he asks, did Callon not put the shop up for auction, and force the highest price for it? Why is he being so accommodating to a man whose entire family he professes to hate? And more to the point, should Robert sign anything and James not carry out his commission, thereby forfeiting the other half of the fee, Robert would be indebted to Callon, an agreement sealed, and the magnate would not be long about seizing Onedin Line assets if Robert could not meet his commitments. No, don't touch it, says Albert. There's something very wrong with this deal. He tells Robert to prevaricate; he will find him a better property.
The assassins have decided to take Garibaldi out when they land at Gibraltar, but given that he has no cargo for there James has decided not to bother and is continuing on. This puts a crimp in the plans of the men, and Garibaldi wonders why James does not take the opportunity to change his entire crew here? James however is loath to pay them all off, as he must do if they are to suspect nothing, and will take his chances. Garibaldi is doubtful, but he must commend the man's bravery, if not his fiscal prudence. Robert has a visit from Albert and Elizabeth, who tell them they have heard of a chandler hard by who is soon to sell up, and that Robert should move fast. When he hears the price though, Robert laments that he has not enough to cover the sale, and Albert “generously” offers to buy his Onedin Line shares. Tempted (the idea of gonig back to being a simple shopkeeper without having to run all his decisions by his brother is indeed diverting), Robert declines the offer, probably knowing that James would hit the roof were he to allow Frazer to gain an interest in his business.
The crew plan a mutiny, and put it into effect just as Garibaldi pleads for Onedin to change his plans and land him at Sardinia first, whereas James wants to meet a bonus deadline by unloading his cargo first . Taking Onedin hostage they bring him out on deck and confront Garibaldi. Medcalfe tells the general that if he gives himself up Onedin and his wife will not be harmed, and Garibaldi begins to walk towards him. Before he gets in range of the assassin's flintlock pistol though, Santos declares “He is for the knife!” and advances towards his target. Garibaldi draws his pistol and requests permission to fire it into the air, as a last gesture and proof that he died like a soldier. Seeing no harm in this, Medcalfe allows it. He is of course unaware of the new pistol, and thinks Garibaldi has used his only shot. He discovers his error a moment later, when the general levels the (to the assassin's mind, empty) pistol at Santo and fires, and the knifeman goes down. Taken by surprise, Medcalfe allows Onedin to get the jump on him, but quickly recovers. Garibaldi, pointing the pistol at him, tells him to let the captain go, but Medcalfe believes that the most that the general's gun could contain is two cartridges. This time, his error proves fatal.
As they head towards Sardinia, they are overtaken by a Navy frigate, which, the captain (an admiral, no less!) tells them has been waiting for their arrival. It will escort them to port and the Navy will supply men to replace the dead crewmen, though this will of course all be kept secret. Garibaldi leaves the
Charlotte Rhodes to begin his mission, full of gratitude for and somewhat in awe of Captain Onedin's courage, taken with Anne's beauty and grace and with, according to Robert when they return to Liverpool, a very good chance of succeeding in uniting his country.
Robert is less happy when, on advising his brother that he has bought the chandler's shop that Albert suggested to him, he is told that it will be run not by him, but by the Company. Well, it was the money for the voyage that bought the shop, and as James archly points out, it was he who ensured Garibaldi's safe passage back to Italy, and did he but know it, helped both make history and birth a nation in the process.
Quotes
Anne: “You don't really mean royalty, do you?”
James: “For that kind of money, he can be the Devil incarnate!”
(And you feel that, were he to need passage and offer that sort of cash, James would have no problem shipping the Prince of Darkness wherever he needed to go!)
James: “Ask too many questions and you'll never be rich!”
Anne: “Oh! I thought it was my husband, Sir.”
Garibaldi: “It is my misfortune, ma'am, that I am not.”
James: “You find it necessary to carry a weapon?”
Garibaldi: “Ah, that depends on which country I am in, Sir.”
Garibaldi: “I do not enjoy good health in my limbs. I hope my country will use me before I break up!”
(Very appropriate, as at the time of this episode Italy was a fragmented country, as he goes on to explain to Anne, and he is to be the one to reunite it into one whole)
James: “Does he think he's chartered the ship?”
Anne: “I think he does. James, he's used to having orders obeyed.”
James: “Has he told you who he is?”
Anne: “No, but clearly he's no ordinary passenger.”
James: “Aboard my ship he is.”
James: “My passenger's name, please, for the ship's log?”
Garibaldi: “Am I a passenger? Not freight: very high value freight, for four hundred pounds?”
James: “How do I know that it's not in my interests to know your name?”
Garibaldi: “I have powerful enemies set against me, Sir, who would prevent this voyage if they could. If you transport me wittingly you may set them against you too!”
James: “I'm not concerned with your state among men.”
Garibaldi: “Not men, Sir. Nations!”
Anne: “James, this is more important than any bonus!”
James: “Aye, it would be. If I was convinced”
Garibaldi: “You doubt my word?”
James: “You plan to overthrow the armies of both France and Austria: you think I'm going to gamble my bonus day on that?”
Garibaldi: “Your own Minister Gladstone gambled his entire career because he spoke out about men he saw rotting in Neapolitan jails!”
James: “You think if I land you first it'll help to free one of them?”
Garibaldi: “I do! And when we have freed all our people you will never lack for trade in Italian ports.”
James: “But if you fail, General, I'll be banned from every port in Europe controlled by your enemies!”
(A sticky problem indeed: who to bet your money on? The already established
powers, though they be poised to go to war and destablise the entire region, or this seeming dreamer who intends to take them all on and win? Whichever way he lays down his coin will determine the future of any business Onedin intends to carry out in the Mediterranean.)
Garibaldi: “Are you on their side, Jackie?”
Jackie: “Oh I'm on the side that wins, Sir. Have to be.”
Tightfist
Even though, as Robert points out to him, the chandler's shop was sold to Callon out of necessity born from James's absence, the younger Onedin brother does not see it that way. Robert wants James to use the profits from their voyages to enable him to buy back the shop, but James has other plans. Even though he is directly responsible for the loss of Robert's livelihood, he is not willing to help him out. When he (theoretically really, and just to make a point) asks Robert how much he would need to buy a new shop --- or his own back --- he then has to remind his brother that there is also the cost of outgoings, stock... by the time they're through, he has almost doubled the amount Robert said he would need.
When Robert accuses him of being able to find the money quick enough if it were a new ship they were discussing, James angrily reminds him that they are in the shipping business. To which Robert, equally angrily --- and, it must be said, rationally and validly --- replies that chandlering
is shipping business. When Robert pushes the issue though, James pulls rank on him, telling him that his eighty-five percent shareholding makes him the decision maker, and he has decided that The Onedin Line cannot afford to buy a new chandler shop. End of meeting, end of subject.
James is quite aware that a man who will offer one hundred pounds for a passenger's berth and then quickly ups the offer to two hundred can be convinced to go to three hundred, and when he hears that it was Callon who recommended him, he knows something is afoot. Why didn't his rival accept the fee? What is there about this passenger --- for whose passage this man who will not give his name is prepared to pay far more than the standard fare for a passenger ship to a man whose livelihood is in cargo --- that Callon did not like the sound of it? And how can he use that to his advantage in this negotiation? Answer: he beats the man up to four hundred, a one hundred percent increase on what Callon would have been paid. He knows there is risk, and he expects to be paid accordingly.
Manners and mores
It's typical of Victorian society that even the small gesture of kissing the hand of a lady he does not know earns Garibaldi a stern, even shocked look from Anne. It's the tiniest of breaches of social etiquette, but she frowns at him as if he had made an improper suggestion. But of course he is Italian, and they do things differently over there, even then. Of course, it may be more than that: Garibaldi is a powerful man with a magnetic, almost irresistible charm and personality, and Anne may, despite herself and her loyalty to her husband, be experiencing the very slightest beginnings of attraction to him, and wish to distance herself from that.
She is also scandalised to hear that Garibaldi has been married more than once, although he contends this is only “in my heart”. She cannot reconcile the debonair, graceful and charming man before her with the faithless rogue and womaniser he tells her freely that he is. In Victorian society, of course, marriage was for life and to be divorced was almost unheard of. As we have seen previously with Elizabeth, for a woman to leave her husband is sheer folly and looked upon with the utmost repugnance; an act of irreconcilable shame. For a man to do so is perhaps just as bad, but a man will always get the benefit of the doubt, here in the nineteenth century. However, Victorian men hold their honour and their values in great esteem, so even if they do cheat they will hotly deny such accusations, perhaps even fight duels over them. It is not quite so much the fact that Garibaldi cheats that is abhorrent to Anne Onedin, more the blase indifference, almost pride with which he confesses it to her.
The Industrial Revolution
The nineteenth century in England was of course a time when some wonderful inventions came to light, from the steam engine to the cotton mill, and here I'll be looking at when these inventions are introduced as part of the storyline, and if, at all, they contribute to it.
Garibaldi shows Onedin a new type of pistol. Unlike the ones popular at the time, which fired a single shot and had to be reloaded (basically a portable version of the musket) this one has a revolving chamber. This means, of course, that it can fire several shots without needing to be reloaded. Its ingenuity, even its existence passes most people of this time by, so that James is interested in it, but more to the point, it actually saves Garibaldi's life, when the would-be assassin thinks he has discharged one shot and there is no further danger from the gun.
History lessons
Garibaldi explains to Anne how volatile the situation in Italy is at that moment. Both France and Austria lay claim to parts of the country, different kingdoms, and he fears they may both go to war over them. If so, the war will of course spill out into the rest of Europe. The only real way to prevent this is to make sure that both powers are driven out of Italy, which he intends to do. Should England, which is neutral in the conflict, be seen to be openly supporting Garibaldi, it will make enemies for her of both France and Austria, who may indeed decide to war against her, or at best will be poorly disposed towards her in the future. So Lord Palmerston, the British Prime Minister of the time, is giving his aid in secret, in the hope of both preventing war in Europe and uniting Italy, thus stabilising the whole area without having been seen to have been involved.
It's hard to think of Italy as other than the single country we now see on maps, yet we should recall, if we're old enough, the reverse plight of Yugoslavia, which, after many years of wars, broke up into separate countries, the countries we know today, like Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Croatia. Indeed, to a degree, the breakup of the old Soviet Union can also be a case in point. I'm not quite sure though where we can find a similar example of a country which was split into separate kingdoms coming together under one flag.