Badger Billy O'Dea arrived in Monterey via the Truelove's pinnace, which he had the foresight to keep handy when the whaler last put in to port. A surprise nominee, even to himself, he did his best to look the part. He'd bathed and was freshly shaven, in his best tweed jacket and very fine bowler hat. His (non functioning) pocket watch was polished to a high sheen, as was his (highly functional) unique koa wood shillelagh, scrimshawed with the St Brendan's cross and other nautical motifs. He was leaning on it as though it were an elegant walking stick, and generally strutting down the gangway, pleased with life in general.
A modest crowd gathered. Monterey lived largely by its port. Under Mexican law it was the sole legal point of import and export, and much as that rule was ignored it had helped establish the town as the capital of business. Aside from the fate of this law, the navy secretary must in the natural order of things make countless appointments, from officers commissions to customs agents. Many people might owe their livelihoods to the goodwill of this odd, unknown fellow.
Badger Billy knew all this and reveled in it. Appearantly on a whim, he jumped up on to a barrel and began to speak.
"Buenas dias, chaps. You might have guessed, but I'm William Patrick O'Dea, Secretary of the Navy. But seeing as there ain't strictly speaking a navy just yet, you can go ahead and call my Badger Billy, or just plain Badger. Now, you might be thinking I'd be spouting off about glorious fleets, full of three deckers and heavy frigates and colonies and what not. Well, you can put all that out your mind, not for years an' years yet.
I've sailed all seven seas and then some, and let me tell you somethin' that's true on all of them. What happens at sea, it starts on land, savvy? Now this here country has some of the best harbors on the most important ocean of all of them. So why is it that all three times I've sailed on whalers we had to take all the spare masts and spars and rigging we could with us 'fore we rounded the horn? Because there ain't any to be had on this side, that's why, and what nothing there is would cost you your eye.
Before we get going with a proper fleet we need proper ports, with proper dockyards. Not just for fighting ships neither. Won't be long before half the worlds money will be floating off this coast. And if we don't build up our ports, you know where it'll go? Up north in Oregon Country, or down south to Old Mexico. And then what proper flats we'll look.
Now I'll get us sorted. And if you don't like how I do it, you go on and get you someone else. But I'll promise you, it ain't going to be free, and it won't make everybody happy. It'll mean a lot of work, but one day you'll be glad ol Badger Billy was around to get you started. Right, now who knows where to get a decent drink and a cleanish bunk around here?"
A modest crowd gathered. Monterey lived largely by its port. Under Mexican law it was the sole legal point of import and export, and much as that rule was ignored it had helped establish the town as the capital of business. Aside from the fate of this law, the navy secretary must in the natural order of things make countless appointments, from officers commissions to customs agents. Many people might owe their livelihoods to the goodwill of this odd, unknown fellow.
Badger Billy knew all this and reveled in it. Appearantly on a whim, he jumped up on to a barrel and began to speak.
"Buenas dias, chaps. You might have guessed, but I'm William Patrick O'Dea, Secretary of the Navy. But seeing as there ain't strictly speaking a navy just yet, you can go ahead and call my Badger Billy, or just plain Badger. Now, you might be thinking I'd be spouting off about glorious fleets, full of three deckers and heavy frigates and colonies and what not. Well, you can put all that out your mind, not for years an' years yet.
I've sailed all seven seas and then some, and let me tell you somethin' that's true on all of them. What happens at sea, it starts on land, savvy? Now this here country has some of the best harbors on the most important ocean of all of them. So why is it that all three times I've sailed on whalers we had to take all the spare masts and spars and rigging we could with us 'fore we rounded the horn? Because there ain't any to be had on this side, that's why, and what nothing there is would cost you your eye.
Before we get going with a proper fleet we need proper ports, with proper dockyards. Not just for fighting ships neither. Won't be long before half the worlds money will be floating off this coast. And if we don't build up our ports, you know where it'll go? Up north in Oregon Country, or down south to Old Mexico. And then what proper flats we'll look.
Now I'll get us sorted. And if you don't like how I do it, you go on and get you someone else. But I'll promise you, it ain't going to be free, and it won't make everybody happy. It'll mean a lot of work, but one day you'll be glad ol Badger Billy was around to get you started. Right, now who knows where to get a decent drink and a cleanish bunk around here?"
