E-text prepared by Al Haines
Transcriber's note:
"Taffrail" is the pseudonym of Henry Taprell Dorling.
The book from which this etext was prepared was missing the leaf containing pages 41 and 42.
Naval Sketches and Stories
by
Author of "Carry On!" "Pincher Martin O.D., Etc."
London
C. Arthur Pearson, Limited
Henrietta Street, W.C.
1916
It seems almost unnecessary to remark that the characters and shipsfiguring in the sketches throughout this book are entirely fictitious.
"Bunting," "The Acting Sub," "Our Happy Home," "The Lost Sheep," "The
'Muckle Flugga' Hussars," and "The Mother Ship" appeared in the Daily
Mail, and "The 'Pirates'" in the Weekly Despatch. They are here
reprinted, with minor alterations, by kind permission of the Editors.
1916.
He was a very junior young officer indeed when the powers that be firstgladdened his heart and ruined his clothes by sending him to adestroyer. A mere sub-lieutenant with "(acting)" after his name,which, as any proper "sub" will tell you, is a sign of extremejuniority. Moreover, the single gold stripe on his monkey jacket wasstill suspiciously new and terribly untarnished.
Not so very long before he had been a "snotty" (midshipman) in abattleship, a mere "dog's body," who had to obey the orders of almostevery officer in the ship except those few who happened to be junior tohim. It is true that he exercised his authority and a severediscipline on those midshipmen who had the misfortune to be a year orso younger than himself, and that he expressed a lordly contempt forthe assistant clerk. But he lived in the gun-room, slept in a hammock,kept all his worldly possessions in a sea-chest, and bathed and dressedin the company of fifteen other boisterous young gentlemen.
Then he had his watches to keep at sea and his picket boat to run inharbour, while his spare time was fully employed in mastering thesubtleties of gunnery, torpedo work, and electricity, and in rubbing uphis rapidly dwindling knowledge of engineering and x and y. It waswell that he did so, for at some distant period when the war ceased hewould have to pass certain stringent examinations before he could beconfirmed in the rank of lieutenant.
So on the whole he had been kept fairly busy, more particularly aswatch-keeping at the guns with the ship at sea in all weathers in wartime was not all jam.
But when he was sent to a destroyer he found the life was morestrenuous, for the little ship spent far more time at sea. The weatherwas sometimes very bad indeed, and at first he was sea-sick, but it wasalways a consolation to have a cabin of his own, to live in thewardroom, and to be treat