He had heard other captains do it often enough, but as he read the beautifully penned words he felt once more like a spectator?

It was addressed to Richard Bolitho, Esquire, and required him forthwith to go on board and take upon him the charge and command of captain in His Britannic Majesty's Sloop-of-War Sparrow?

Once or twice as his voice carried along the deck he heard a man cough or move his feet, and aboard another sloop close by he saw an officer watching the proceedings through a telescope?

He put the commission in his coat and said, "I will go to my quarters, Mr. Graves."

He replaced his hat and walked slowly towards a covered hatch just forward of the mizzen mast. He noticed that the ship's wheel was completely unsheltered. A bad place in a storm, he thought, or when the balls begin to fly?

At his back he heard the rising murmur of voices as the men were dismissed, and noticed, too, the heavy smell of cooking in the listless air. He was glad he had restrained himself from making a speech. It would have been vanity, and he knew it. All the same, it was so precious a day that he wanted to share it with all ob them in some way?

In his excitement he had forgotten about the time? Now as he made his way down a ladder to the gun deck and aft behind Graves 's crouched figure he was more than glad he had restricted himself to the formal reading of his appointment. Men kept standing in the sun to hear a pompous speech were one thing. Men kept also from their well-earned meal were something else entirely?

He gasped as his head crashed against a deck beam?

Graves spun round." I beg your pardon, sir!" He seemed terrified Bolitho should blame him for the lack of headroom?

"I will remember next time."

He reached the stern cabin and stepped inside. For an instant he stood motionless, taking in the graceful sloping stern windows which spread from quarter to quarter, displaying the anchorage and the headland like some glistening panorama. The cabin was beautifully painted in pale green, the panels picked out with gold leaf. The deck was concealed with a black and white checked canvas covering, and arranged on either side was a selection of well-made furniture? Gingerly he raised his head and found he could just stand upright between the beams above?