It was not, Frey thought, as Drinkwater and the grey-coated gentleman disappeared below, a very propitious start to the new commission. An absentee first luff, a crew of farm hands and footpads, with what looked like a diplomatic mission, did not augur well for the future. Mr Metcalfe had appeared eventually, in time to throw his weight about while they had completed rigging, warped alongside the hulk and taken in powder and shot. He had a talent, Frey had observed as they dropped down to the anchorage at Cawsand, for a dangerous inconsistency which threatened to set the ship on its ears and kept its unsettled, ignorant and inexpert company in a constant state of nerves.

Mr Metcalfe was of the opinion efficiency manifested itself in proportion to the number of officers disposed about the deck and the orders given. He believed any transgression or failure should be corrected, not by instruction, but by abuse and punishment. Tactful attempts by the mild and sensitive David Gordon to point out the folly of this procedure brought down the wrath of Mr Metcalfe on the unfortunate head of the second lieutenant.

Out of Metcalfe's hearing Moncrieff had shrewdly observed it a matter of prudence to 'keep the weather gauge of Mr Metcalfe. He wants at least one of you Johnnies betwixt himself and trouble.' And failing to see the light of any comprehension in his messmates' eyes in the aftermath of Metcalfe's humiliation of Gordon, he had added, 'to keep his own yard-arm clear, d'you see, and the smell of himself sweet in his own nostrils.'

The quaintness of Moncrieff's assertion had imprinted itself on the minds of his listeners and Mr Wyatt had affirmed the opinion as sound by a loud and conspicuous hawking into the cuspidor.

Sadly, the first lieutenant had had his way, for the mysteries of 'official business' had kept Captain Drinkwater ashore almost continuously until this evening and Frey had not enjoyed his commander's absence.