Wet the swab,
These weeks and months of precious seniority slipping away – already Douglas of the Phoebe, Evans on the West Indies station, and a man he did not know called Raitt had been made; they were in the las...
The modesty and diffidence that the penniless, unemployed Standish had brought aboard were now no longer to be seen; and the assurance of a monthly income and a settled position had developed a disple...
You will not be afraid of all those rough men?’ asked Sophie, when Clarissa came down. ‘No. As far as I have seen, apart from mere brute strength they are no more formidable than we are. Less so, inde...
You were always grossly obese,' observed Stephen. 'Were you to walk ten miles a day, and eat half what you do in fact devour, with no butcher's meat and no malt liquors, you would be able to play at t...
Would you expect a mutiny?’ ‘Mutiny in the sense of outright revolt and refusal of command? No. But from some of the people I expect muttering, discontent, ill-will; and nothing makes work slower or m...
Word of all this had reached Diana, an unusually passionate, impulsive woman; she had written to him in unusually passionate, impulsive terms and his letter was designed to do away with her resentment...
Wondering just how Mr Church thought he had deserved anything short of impalement, Stephen walked into the cabin.
When Jack came in he found him sitting before a tray of bird's skins and labels. Stephen looked up, and after a moment said, 'To a tormented mind there is nothing, I believe, more irritating than comf...
What do you say to taking up our game where we left off? I was winning, you will recall.'Winning, for all love: how your ageing memory does betray you, my poor friend,' said Stephen, fetching his 'cel...
What are you tittering at, Mr Holles?' asked Captain Aubrey.'Nothing, sir.''Now I come to think of it, I have a letter from your guardian, Mr Holles. He wishes to be assured that your moral welfare is...
West was the only officer on the quarterdeck, and it so happened that the party of hands making dolphins and paunch-mats on the forecastle were all Shelmerstonians. West was gaping rather vacantly ove...
Were you ever in Elsinore, Mr Jagiello?’ asked Jack.Oh, many a time, sir,’ said Jagiello. ‘I know it well. I believe I could show you Hamlet’s grave from here.’I was really wondering whether they had...
There are some midshipmen who will never have the decency to lie down and die, whatever the circumstances. Because they are born to be hanged, no doubt,' added the lieutenant darkly.
The sea has receded!’ cried Stephen. ‘I am amazed.’ ‘They tell me it does so twice a day in these parts,’ said Jack. ‘It is technically known as the tide.
The lookout that first sights the cat shall have ten guineas and remission of sins, short of mutiny, sodomy, or damaging the paintwork.
The boomerang did all that Riley had said of it and more: at one point, having returned, it rose and floated above the Aboriginal’s head in a slow circle before descending into his hand. Stephen and M...
Stephen came on deck reflecting with satisfaction upon his sloth, now a parlour-boarder with the Irish Franciscans at Rio, and a secret drinker of the altar-wine.
She then recovered her wits and averting her eyes from the wreck of her house she shook Babbington's hand, embraced Stephen tenderly, greeted all the officers, young gentlemen and seamen she knew, and...
Of course she will put on a cap,’ said Sophie, with a pitying look. ‘How could she possibly receive strange gentlemen without a cap? But her hair must be dressed under it.