Drake David. A Grand Tour

"A Grand Tour", written by David Drake, is the second short story in the first Honorverse anthology More Than Honor, first published in 1998.Lord Sir Hakon Nessler, 14th Earl of Greatgap, travels to the planet Hope with Edith Mincio, his university tutor and occasional gambling teacher, to do research on an ancient race known as the Alphanes, when he hears of the destruction of HMS L'Imperieuse by the Havenite cruiser Rienzi.He then plots to gain control of the Melungeon light cruiser Colonel Arabi and crew it with the survivors of the Manticoran crew and Melungeon workers, with himself commanding the vessel he renamed HMS Ajax. They manage to bluff the crew of Rienzi into abandoning and than scuttling the ship.