Naval Occasions, and Some Traits of the Sailor-man

one of the anchored battleships and came speeding across the harbour. Breathless, they watched it approach, saw bow and stern-sheet men stoop for their boat-hooks, heard the warning clang of t

late: have you been waitin

matter. Perhaps the Midshipman of the boat realised it too, for he abandoned the wheel and assisted i

ing Stoker to "Whack her up!" And so they failed to realise that they were throbbing through the water at a speed which, though causing the Midshipmen of passing boats to

r's edge. The occupant of the stockhold threw up the hatch of his miniature Inferno and thrust a perspiring head into view; but it is to be feared that no one noticed him, though he had contribute

and rows of black-topped chests, and, as the guide paused before a curtained door, a glimpse forward of crowded mess-decks. Then, a little bewildered, they found themselves in a narrow apartment, lit by four brass-bound scuttles. A long table ran the length of the room, with tea things laid at one end; overhead were racks of golf-clubs and hockey-sticks, cricket-bats

ge of pride in his voice, "is the

ce," murmured

id not add that under his personal supervision a harassed throng of junior

es of the after 12-inch guns: they crossed the immaculate planking and looked down to the level waters of the harbour, thirty feet below. They admired the neatly-coiled boat's falls, the trim and slightly self-cons

ilor salute?" in

you know." So much for his summary of a custom that has survived from days w

mysterious dials, and a brass-studded steering-wheel. Then up a ladder to the signal-bridge, where barefooted men, with skins tanned brick-red and telescopes under their arms, swung ceaselessly to and fro. They examined th

opened with a clang to show the spiral grooved bore-rifled to prevent the projectile from turning somersaults.... The younger girl wiped a foot of wet paint off the coaming of a hatch and said sweetly it didn't matter in the least. They invaded the sanctity of the wireless room, with its crackling spark and networ

ere they fingered serge and duck with feminine appreciation. They saw the nettings where the hammocks were stowed, and the overhea

*

sped the elder girl, as the

he boy who steered the boat that brought us back?-he had

ulging in a well-earned glass of Marsala. Outside the gunroom pantry the grimy gentleman whose sphere

ntrary to the King's Regulati