A Tall Ship / On Other Naval Occasions

r back comfortably against a ridge of

st be some shrub or flower--" She opened her eyes and looked along t

d winding adventurously among the clumps of gorse at the very edge of the cliffs, drew her eyes farther and farther to the west. In the far distance the track dipped

"I'm so glad to see you again," he said, "that I can't think of anythi

ought them to this sheltered hollow in the cliffs. The woman was, of the two, the more reluctant to brid

r, after all these years. Tell me about yourself. Your letters-yes,

d quietly. "No,

ps watched her profile against the sky wistfully, studying the pure brow, the threads of silver appearing here and there in h

aused as if expecting some comment from her companion: none came-"Pauline Dacre; she was at school with mother: they were great friend

ort of

s nodded. "And then, when I knew enough to teach others, I went to-to thi

h showed in the faintly accentuated cheekbones and w

l. Why have you

l. But I've saved some money; I can afford a rest. I'm what is called 'an inde

u are going bac

h frank surprise. "Of

e meant for other things. . . . I suppose you have to sleep on a hard bed, and get up in the dark when a bell rings. There aren't any carpets,

he curate? Trevor, you wouldn't like me to come to that in my old age, would you?" She spoke with gentle bant

his hea

." His thin, strong hand closed over hers, resting on the turf between t

a little sadly-"if I-if things were different-that I should have written to ask you to meet me to-day? Have you learned so little of w

out women, Margaret, but

hand. "Trevor, we're n

er and wi

le lonelier. There's never been anyone but you. I've never looked across the road at a woman in my life-except

ing her thoughts and setting the

u want me. If there were no one else who I thought had a greater claim, you should-no, hush! listen, dear-I would give you-what you want . . . gladly-oh, gladly! But the chi

, staring out to se

in a way that will make them worthy of their share of the inheritance? They have to be taught ideals of honour and courage and intelligent patriotism, so that they can help and encourage their men in years to come. They must learn to cook and sew, learn the laws of Nature and hygiene, so that they can make the home no

ad as if to speak,

naemic to-to care for you, and that I am trying to shelter myself behind talk o

ning something to an impatient child. "You naval men ought to know. There is talk of war everywhere-of war with Germany. They say we are on

ething of the sort-no, not

om the obvious answer and plucked a grass-stem to put between his teeth. "You would obey, wouldn't you, because it is your duty-h

was low in the west, and a snake-like flotilla of destroyers crept out across the quiet sea from the harbour hidden by a fold in the hills. Torps watched t

t hear it. I might have learned to pipe a tune that would make you not want to hear it. . . . I don't know. . . . But I accept all you say-although deep down in my heart I know you are wrong. There wil

I am not wrong: and we keep our friendship still, sweet and sane--" She broke off suddenly and raised a slim forefinger, holding h

elf back with an e

ste

iste

he waves alon

. . . T

an hear. . . . It s

sea! How odd when we were just talking

ned till they could scarcely catch the beats. Anon it swelled louder: the unm

Of course it's a drum. It ca

ith mock solemnity. "There's a leg

o gaze beneath her palms out towards the west. The sun had set, and a thin grey ha

and he's 'drumming up the Channel'! They say it foretells war . . . that noise. . . ." Margaret gave a little

time she noticed that his hair was going grey about the temples, and, had he known it, Margaret came very n

h as you. It-it--" He turned abruptly towards the sea. The noise that resembled a distant

sound in all t

*

e side of his plate, the centre of which the boatman was scouring with a piece of bread (preparatory to occupying it with damson jam), wh

ree Signal

. 'Oo

of bread. Outside the little room the wind thrummed in the halliards of the signal-mast. The clock over the

and men are recalled from leave. Detail

still masticating, he executed a species of

ud. "That means war,

see a bloke an' 'is young woman along there this afternoon. I'd ha' said he was a naval orficer if anyone was to ask me."

be unhappy, will you, Trevor?" she was saying. "You will understand, you--" She broke off to watch the coast

d at her s

spotted handkerchief, for he had been running. "Beg pardon, sir," he

eplied To

's a telephone message

ll officers and men are

. "Where did it com

was to warn anyone I

going back now." He t

here was a queer note

plied quietly

I

AIN'S

last chord of the National Anthem died away on the

up the jackstaff, proceeded to "breakfast and clean." The signalman whose duty it was to hoist the Ens

le of letters beside his plate, propped the morning paper against the teapot, and commenced his meal. He ate with the d

lete grasp of the day's affairs. The naval appointments he read carefully. His memory for names and individuals was unfailing; he never forgot anyone who had served

writers with a glance at the handwriting on each envelope. Only one was unknown to him: that he placed last, and car

quence, its contents were nobody's affair but his own. He r

ore it up and put the pieces in the fire before taking up the third. This was an appeal for assistance from a former watch-keeper who aspired to the Flying Corps. The next was also a request f

a silver photograph frame. . . . He'll want me to be g

he fire. The last envelope, in the unknown hand, he scrutinised for a moment before opening. The postmark was local, the caligraphy illiterate. He opened the letter and read it with an inscru

responsibilities, occasionally receive communications of this nature. Their life i

*

leading aft through two heavy steel doors on to the stern-walk. The doors were open on that particular mo

e sleeping-cabin and bathroom, the other from the fore-cabin, which the Captain had just qui

nd the bulkheads, affixed to white enamelled battens, hung water-colour paintings of his ships. A sloop of war under full sail; a brig, close-hauled, beating out of Plymouth Sound; a tiny gunboat at anchor in a backwater of the Upper Yangtse. There were spick-and-span cruisers; a quaint, top-heavy looking b

orner near the door-a small, glass-topped table such as collectors of curios gather their treasures in. The contents of this table, however, w

Bits of string, a marble polished by friction, a piece of coloured glass, an old nail-in themselves r

boy is secretive and reticent about the particular associa

ith all the seven seas and the shores they wash. Mementoes of folly or

ern Asia. Memories, too, of the whaler's beat back to the fleet in the teeth of a rising gale that

hs of unrelaxed study. A copper bangle from the wrist of a Korean dancing-girl (it was somebody else's story, though). A wooden ju-ju from Benin, dark-stained and repulsive; a tiny clay godling that had guarded the mummied heart o

table, select some object from his miscellany, and hold it up with a "D'you remember--?" And one or other of his guests-sometimes all of them-would laugh and nod and blow great clouds of s

k; not very interesting books: old Navy Lists, a "King's Regulations," a "Manual of Court Martial Procedure," one or two volumes on Inter

ifference of opinion with the Captain's valet (conducted sotto voce) over the method of their arrangement. The Coxswain won on the claim of being

*

ipped his letters into a pigeon-hole, and closed the desk again. As he

for divisions. The Chaplain

e? What's t

y playing football. The Fleet

gain: "By the way, that fellow I gave ninety days to yesterday-was there a woman in the c

siness it is as Executive Officer to control the affairs of close on a thousand of his

me that a woman was at the bottom of

nk y

moment later the bugle overh

oman's writing," adde

r!" The Commander salu

the salute briskly.

for prayers, and the band on the after shelter-d

where the shadow of the White Ensign curved and flickered across the planking. Perhaps the Captain, who stood there, was himself a student of the

d, and stood easy. The band stopped abruptly. The bell ceased tolling. In the brie

ody aft

a side pocket. The Commander gave a curt orde

nd e

ea, the familiar words-of appeal and praise alike-assumed somehow an unwonted significance; and when he closed the book, slipped it back into his pocket, and looked up, the face

*

ed the sick-list to the Captain, who read it with care. For the fir

" He made an imperceptible upward movement of

heavily freighted, was passing slowly down-stream. His eyes followed the brown sail absently as lon

ought and musing aloud as was his habit. Then, still in a br

ers," he said to the marine sen

Captain's Clerk: that is to say, the junior accountant officer, detailed by the Captain to conduct his official correspondence and perform secretarial work generally. The position

the truth be known, he had small relish for this busines

pen to clean a pipe ou

no,

tting paper the Captain removed fragments of tobacco ash and nicotine from the nib, and

last of the pile of documents and lit a cigaret

defau

none for y

buy him a pair of white kid glov

k upon the desk open a

down them wi

? Oh, yes, I know: youngster in the quarter-deck division with a broken nose. The Commander spoke to me about him." The pencil slowly descended to the bottom of th

e put in his request

He didn't say wh

book. "All seamen, eh?

, s

apers together and departed. As he went out there was a t

"If you've got anything to r

o the ship, and, as everyone knows, all captains have their little peculi

o knock when they come

ung woman in

id the Chief Yeoman

*

oard side of the quarter-deck. "When your names is called out, step smartly up to the table

l this a good many times before,

up and down the other

turned together and c

ened the request-book

pt

oned the Master-at-Arms

sts award of first

ame at the top of the page, glanced keenl

arted with authority to wear on his left arm the triangular red bad

milar requests, and trotted forward again at a d

nt." The Captain

you al

other

t she w

toker, little more than a boy

of his jumper and produced his sad evidence-a letter from a clergyman, one or two from lay-workers in some north-countr

in the Navy, sir. But she ain't goin' ter 'ave no

id the Captai

t-Arms, and the allotter passed forward ou

d Leading S

ed forward and fixed eyes of a

nce of men into the scales of judgment. "There is a vacancy for a Leading Seaman's rate

ing Seaman.

ne Biggers, leading hand of the quarter-deck, who had returned from leave with a small flat flask tucked inside his cholera belt. The flask contained whisky, and had been thrust there by a friend ashore in an access of maudlin good-fellowship on part

his supplanter received the rating; but he eyed the ceremony stoically and without resentment. He had

to the first c

of a habit engendered by long familiarity with the

ed the Master-at-Arms

stcard (depicting a stout lady in a pink costume surf bathing) fell out on to the deck in the manner of an unexpected c

ean sheet? Right-restored to the first class

of future piety, and departed with an expression that suggested a halo had no

les. His skin resembled a piece of parchment that somebody had crumpled in a fit of petulance and made a half-hearted attem

xplanation: "This man wishes to se

e Carpenter, who had been hovering round waiting for his opportunity. The Master-at-Arms was standing by the bollards alternately sucking a stump of pencil and making cryptic notations in his request-book. The two ship's corporals had removed themselv

then, holding his chin in his fist and supporting the elbow with the other hand, he listened to the tale the small man with the crumpled ears had to unfold. It was

he table, talking in grave, kindly tones. He talked, not as Captains commonly talk to Leading Stokers, but as one man might talk to anot

, and the tot of rum served out at one-bell to the little man

*

ob's ladder to the quarter-boom and came inboard. The Captain was walking up and down,

sey, hinting at a spin in the galley, somehow reminded one of a spaniel when he sees the

her clinker-built sides. The brasswork in her gleamed in the sun like jewels set in ivory, for the woodwork was as near the whiteness of ivory as holystone and sharkskin could make it. She had

id the Captain. "I want

y was spinning across the sp

inches forward. Then she sailed to his light touch on the

nsheet in his hands, gazed rapturously at the new mainsail,

a witch?" h

running free like a white-winged gull, anon close-hauled, the razor bows cl

ment and stood up. Like Saul, he had taken the cares of high comm

of the boat, "that mainsail sets all right," an

the yard. "Perfection is fin

dn't shift the strop 'arf an

times, and the boatswain's mate beg

stinctive badge of

VEN-BE

bove the bridge rails, and the impatient semaphore

s against an angle of the chart house. "'Ere y'are! Write down, one 'and

ay be granted to offic

eave the vicinity of

te recall." He lower

. Down

halliard to the bridge rail and puckered his eyes, staring across the waters of the harbour to where the roofs of hous

he landing place; away to the left the sloping roof of what was

K PA

e cynic at the end of t

y and added, "

ed a notation on it, and handed it back: "Commander an' Officer o

ysteriously with the Boatswain over a length of six-inch wire hawser that lay along the upper deck. The Boatswain, with gloom in his countenance, was indicating a section where the strands were flattened and t

nference. Bitter experience in the past had taugh

e it's nipped, and p

ander was saying,

ion, one eye cocked on his face to note the effect of this momentous communication.

id, and turned again to the wire hawser. Truly a man of iron, reflected the

departed out of earshot he said something in an undertone and added: "Just my blooming luck." Then,

tenant, wearing over-alls, a streak of dirt running diagonally dow

y anything about a

e-thirty to seven p.m. It's three o'clock now, so I advis

shield of the turret. Fortunately, the consideration of

ds the distant town. "My missus--

he swiftly pinned the signal on to the notice board. The occupants of

rose and walked t

e!" And, with a glance at the

is messmates sat u

t ti

n ti

about

gh the open skylight overhead. "Wake up, you Weary

And he, too, made tracks for his cabin, followed by everybody who could be spared by "t

flying. Three were simultaneously performing their ablutions in one basin, the supply of water to the bathroom h

sy at a rabbit-hole. He emerged flushed but triumphant with a limp garment in his grasp. "I knew I had a clean shirt," he confided to

somehow had lately exhibited an obstinate determination to meet no more round his neck. However, physical strength achieved th

lready," replied the excavator, do

ere's your hair juice? All right, I've got it." He anointed himself generously with a mysterious green fluid out of

hly dusting his boots with a pyjama jacket, sig

the mouth of which a small fog-horn was fitted, and gave a loud blast. It was

rk ran distracted

e to borrow five bob from the me

u're about it," shouted a belated Enginero

uck up, for the Lord's sake, and

nted another visionary vol

ging his legs, tilted his cap on to the back of his head with a

ighbour, wielding a clo

coming ashore? It isn't

know that beastly six-inch wire hawser? We were bringin

blasts on his fog-horn. Che

ted his friend, and joined th

rom his chest and wended his way by devious and stealthy routes to the after conning-tower, where he smoked a surreptit

reward with the emancipated members of Wardroom and Gunr

nt, "come to the club and have t

ead. "No, thanks; I'm afraid I-

fully creased trousers, this liberal display of fine linen and flashing cuff-links withal? Our Sunday monkey-jacket, too

the Watchkeepers. "He wipes them furtively on the

Man reddened. "Y

ght. "He is-he is! He's going poodle-faki

out a lot of untutored clowns trying to

is." The Surgeon sniffed the air judicially. "The bay rum upon your hair proclaims it. A

about it. I haven't been shipmates with you for four years for nothing. Ther

alongside the landing

fficer of the party, his was the privilege of embarking last and disembarking

'll carry on, if I may." He leaped ashore, and set

g that the Indiarubber Man had suddenly assumed an unfamiliar an

ystified, sho