Compassion
Both his greatest strength and most incredible weakness, Horatio’s compassion for the plight of others often leads him into positions he may have been able to avoid if not for that bleeding heart of his. Good examples of this would be Bunting as well as Mariette and Maria.
In the case of Bunting, Horatio’s mercy toward the man stems from the fact that he understands poverty, and hunger, and desperation on an intimate level. He’s seen men work themselves to their graves for families they can barely support, seen men starve themselves for the same reason, sewn up men who were stabbed for nothing more than the bread in their hands. He’s seen what hunger and fear can do and he can’t – fault any man for breaking when those things settle in, especially pressed men who have no reason to trust that relief will come.
The man’s insubordinate talk happened right after Finch died, which made Horatio even more understanding of where Bunting’s fear and frustration came from, because grief makes even the wisest of men behave in wilder fashions. And as Finch died of illness directly related to the limit on rations the terror is understandable all the more.
Horatio understands the value of rations, and he understands that no man should be above any other. But he also knows Bunting is right and that the lords and lieutenants eat better than the rest by law; if the chain of command collapses due to hunger, the entire ship is lost. Despite the logic of it, Horatio is indeed revolutionary at heart, and he cant fault Bunting for being bitter.
In the case of Mariette, Horatio’s compassion transcended nationality. He didn’t care that he was at war with France – the disparity he saw between Moncoutant and his men against the people was absolutely appalling to him. He knew – logically – that he could not save them all, but he was determined to save at least one. Which, as we know, backfired tremendously. ( Side note, though it is mentioned in my verses, Horatio had no romance with Mariette. )
With Maria, again, Horatio’s understanding of poverty comes into play. I’m going to be really brief here and simply remind everyone that my boy did not make a false proposal and then stick with it in order to resolve the family issue, but rather argued quietly with Maria that she was like a sister to him and approached the family angle in a platonic fashion. You can pry their friendship from my clutching talons, but I will never accept that disaster of a force ship on this blog.
Ocean Archive 