Me dad was a miner there. He was killed in a fall.' His voice was toneless, as if he was speaking of another world. Til damn well killjcu if you treat my shirts like this one! ' Bolitho turned as another midshipman, flushed from the wind and rain, strode beneath the low beams. With Grenfell he was obviously one of the ship's three midshipmen remaining from the last commission, and like Grenfell too, still awaiting the chance to sit an examination for lieutenant. He was in ill humour, and had the sullen good looks of one bred to authority. Grenfell said, 'Easy, Samuel. The new boys are with us." The other one seemed to realize he was surrounded with awkward looking newcomers and snapped, 'I'm Samuel Marrack. Signals midshipman and captain's messenger.' Dancer said, 'It sounds important.' Marrack stared at him. 'It is. And when you appear before our illustrious captain it is best to do it in a clean shirt! ' He lashed out at the small servant with his hat and added, 'So remember that in future, you hound! ' He threw himself on to a chest. 'Get me some wine. I'm as dry as dust.' Bolitho sat down beside Dancer and watched the others opening and shutting their chests like blind men. He had hoped to be appointed to a frigate like his brother. Free of the fleet's heavy authority, able to cover great distances in a third of the time it would take the ponderous Gorgon, and with all the possibilities of adventure he had so often dreamed of. But Gorgon was his new home, and he would have to make the best of her for as long as the Navy dictated. A ship of the line.

2. Outward Bound

'All hands! All hands aloft to reef tops'Is! ' Like the insistent voice in a nightmare the order was piped and repeated along the Gorgon's decks until the ship quivered to the thud of feet as the watch below dashed to their stations to be mustered. Bolitho shook Dancer roughly by the shoulder until he almost fell from his hammock.