Tom Riley
Character Profile
| Name: | Tom Riley |
| Date of Birth: | |
| Service: | Royal Navy |
| Rank: | Captain |
| Nationality: | British |
| Billets: | HMS Belize, Third Lieutenant HMS Reliant, Second Lieutenant, First Lieutenant, Captain HMS Allegiance, Captain |
Biography
Tom Riley was an officer in the Royal Navy, a longtime friend and colleague of William Laurence. In appearance, he had fair, freckled skin, and tended to telegraph his emotions on his face. He was ordinarily of an easy-going humour.
Riley's father owned substantial plantations in the West Indies, including Jamaica, and several hundred slaves to work them. Riley himself owed no small portion of his personal wealth to these plantations. He was also deeply attached to his father. This initially put him at odds with Laurence, whose father Lord Allendale was a staunch abolitionist and had mentioned Riley's father by name in the House of Lords, as one of the slaveowners who "disgrace the name of Christian, and blight the character and reputation of their country."
Riley quite naturally resented this public insult. Laurence, on the other hand, was not particularly attached to his father personally but did share Lord Allendale's abhorrence of slavery. The two men never made peace on this subject but simply came to an unspoken agreement not to discuss it.
At the time the Amitie was captured by the HMS Reliant in January 1805, Laurence was captain and Riley was second lieutenant. Riley had been with Laurence since 1797, when he was a midshipman, including service aboard the HMS Belize as Laurence's third lieutenant. Had it been up to Laurence, Riley would have been first lieutenant of the Reliant rather than Gibbs, who had been imposed on Laurence by the Admiralty.
As first lieutenant, Gibbs was assigned to take the Amitie into port, with the expectation that he would be confirmed as her captain. Thus, Riley was the ranking officer aboard the Reliant when Temeraire hatched and chose Laurence as his own captain, effectively removing Laurence from the Navy to be pulled into service in the Aerial Corps. Laurence took advantage of this opportunity to brevet Riley to captain, a promotion that was eventually confirmed by the Admiralty despite Admiral Croft's desire to give either the Reliant or the Amitie to some favourite of his own.
Captain Riley and the Allegiance
Captain Riley commanded the Reliant from January to October 1805, when the ship sailed with Nelson's fleet and took part in the blockade at Cadiz prior to the Battle of Trafalgar. The Reliant was seriously damaged in a storm following the battle, and Riley found himself a captain without a ship, and without seniority or influence in the Admiralty to help him obtain a new command.
Shortly afterwards, Laurence came within danger of becoming a captain with a dragon. Temeraire's display of the Divine Wind at the Battle of Dover had made public the fact that he was not an Imperial dragon, as had been supposed, but rather one of the much more rare and valued Celestial dragons. A delegation led by Prince Yongxing came from China to Britain to demand that Temeraire be turned over to them.
Unsurprisingly to anyone familiar with dragons, Temeraire refused to leave Laurence, while Laurence refused to lie to him in order to trick him aboard a ship bound for China. This dilemma was resolved by sending Laurence and in fact Temeraire's entire crew along with the dragon aboard the dragon transport HMS Allegiance. The ship did not have a captain at the time, so Laurence was able to do Riley another favour by sending him a note advising him to apply for the position - without mentioning Laurence's name, as at this point the Lord Barham, the First Lord of the Admiralty, was thoroughly fed up with Laurence.
The trip caused some tension between Riley and Laurence. Riley had grown into his position and acquired an authority that was new to Laurence, who for most of their acquaintance had known him as a subordinate. The Valerie engagement complicated the situation in two ways. First, Temeraire was injured severely enough that the dragon surgeon Keynes banned him from flying for a month. This meant that he could not feed himself by fishing, which in turn required that the ship would have to make a stop at Cape Coast, a slave port, to take on additional livestock.
Second, Temeraire's first and second lieutenants, Granby and Evans, were both severely injured in the engagement, leaving third lieutenant Ferris in charge of the aviators. Ferris lacked Granby's experience and did not know how to persuade the other aviators to take no notice of the sailors' jibes.
The natural tensions between the sailors and naval officers on one hand and the aviators on the other erupted in an incident involving midshipman Reynolds, midwingman Martin and Blythe, the armourer's mate. Blythe, who was ground crew and not an officer, struck Reynolds, who was. Laurence intervened to stop Riley's first lieutenant, Lord Purbeck, from arresting Blythe on the spot. Riley in turn resented Laurence correcting Purbeck on deck and insisted on having Blythe flogged a full fifty lashes rather than a mere dozen. In the heat of the discussion, Laurence let slip his distaste for the stop at Cape Coast, which put Riley's back up.
Thus, the situation was already uncomfortable when the ship actually reached Cape Coast. Laurence sent the two young runners, Roland and Dyer, below deck to tidy his cabin in order to protect from the human misery on display. Temeraire, however, was too large to hide away and too curious to avoid asking questions, which Laurence was too honest to avoid answering. Furthermore, one of the Chinese officials, Sun Kai, overheard the conversation and asked Laurence questions of his own, referring to the practice of slavery as "dishonourable." This only deepened Riley's resentment, as well as the resentment of the sailors on behalf of their captain.
As a result of this unhappy situation, the usual ceremonies that accompanied the Allegiance's crossing of the equator were rather subdued.
It was shortly after this, after the feast hosted by the Chinese delegation to celebrate the Chinese New Year, that Riley made the discovery that Roland was a girl. He was quite shocked by this, as the presence of female officers in the Aerial Corps was generally kept secret outside the Corps. When Laurence explained to him that Longwings and a few other breeds would only accept female captains, Riley countered that after the Valerie engagement, he had met the leader of Laurence's formation with "his" Longwing. He was referring, of course, to Catherine Harcourt, a slender woman whom Riley had only seen in uniform, with the hood of her riding jacket pulled up over her long braid. Riley was dismayed to be contradicted by Temeraire, and he fled the conversation completely when Temeraire began to ask questions about human reproduction, it being news to him that humans did not hatch from eggs.
From western Africa to China is still a long voyage aboard a sailing ship. Both Riley's and Laurence's tempers cooled eventually. Temeraire saved the Allegiance from attack by a sea-serpent. Both Riley and Purbeck were then stricken with malaria, leaving the ship's third and fourth lieutenants in command. (The ship's second lieutenant was apparently not present for the voyage.) Having more experience of maintaining discipline among naval crews, Laurence stood watches in turn with the two younger officers. By the time the Allegiance reached Macao, the atmosphere on board was considerably more peaceful.
From Macao Laurence, Temeraire and ten of their crew, as well as the two runners, continued on to Peking by air. The Allegiance, with the rest of the aviators, continued on through the China Sea, stopping to assist a Chinese fleet that was attempting to subdue an enormous band of pirates established in the Zhoushan Islands. Eventually the Allegiance reached Peking, where she anchored in Tien-sing Harbour.
Laurence and Riley were further torn apart on their second journey. Upon return from China, Riley was once again pressed into the service of the Aerial Corps. This time the HMS Allegiance was bound for Africa, to find a cure for the dragon plague. However, Laurence brought Rev. Josiah Erasmus and his family aboard the ship, since the Reverend wished to become a missionary in Africa. As as freed slave, the Erasmuses presence was unacceptable to Riley. Laurence and Riley clashed over the treatment of Mrs. Erasmus on the day they set sail. Laurence believed she deserved greater attention as a lady, and Riley made it clear he did not consider her a lady.
Because of their rift, Catherine Harcourt is forced to act as a go between for Riley and Laurence. She becomes close to Riley. And when she announces that she is pregnant, Laurence is shocked to learn that the child is Riley's.
As a consequence of the pregnancy Harcourt and Riley are married on board the HMS Allegiance on it's return trip from Cape Town to Britain.
