The Gunroom

During their passage to England, John and Hugh heard many golden legends of the East, but, apart from these, they had a reason of their own for looking eagerly towards the futur...

On the morning of his first full day in the _King Arthur_ John Lynwood enjoyed the luxury of a lie-in until a quarter-past seven. In the course of ordinary routine, he and all m...

About the middle of July the squadron left Wei-hai-wei to visit Chemulpo and Seoul. John was now attached to the Engine-room staff. He kept no more watches on the Upper Deck, at...

Late on an afternoon in September a boy, wearing a naval mackintosh and a felt hat, came out of Torquay railway-station and hailed a cab. His figure, his voice, and his manner,...

The fleet put in to Arosa Bay, and, in less than twelve hours, sailed thence without regret. On the day following their departure an event occurred which, for the time being, ch...

On the afternoon of the first Sunday after the _Pathshire_ sailed from Colombo for Singapore, Hartington was sitting alone in his cabin when a double knock sounded at the door a...

Mr. Fane-Herbert had recently returned to Wei-hai-wei after what his household was led to believe had been a prosperous absence. He bullied the Chinese boys with cheerful energy...

A few days after John had rejoined his ship at Portsmouth, Mr. Baring, who was keeping the first dog watch, turned his telescope on to a shore-boat of shabby appearance which se...

There is something in physical drill before breakfast that dissolves the fabric of dreams. This John had discovered long ago, turning out of a hammock in whose warm comfort all...

Those streets at Singapore where the harlots of East and West sit at their doors and in their verandahs, stretching out their whitened arms towards the passers-by, were investig...

After leave which extended longer than any of them had hoped, the junior midshipmen, who had parted at the _King Arthur’s_ gangway, joined the _Colonsay_. In the sense that in t...

In the early days of the New Year, when the _Pathshire_, after her voyage to Woo-Sung, had proceeded to Hong Kong to refit, Margaret found herself singularly alone at Wei-hai. H...

When John said to Driss that he had made up his mind, he thought that the decision at which he had arrived was unalterable. If it were possible, he would leave the Service. The...

In a ship there is neither bud nor fallen leaf. There is no ploughing of furrows, no scattering of seed. The winds are never sweet with the fragrance of broken earth. Fingers of...

Mr. Fane-Herbert decided to be in London with the spring. Ibble’s and Ordith’s were to remain independent, an arrangement of which both he and Nick Ordith saw the advantages, an...

There was no Gunnery after the first days of September, and on the fifth the squadron sailed for Yokohama in order that it might send representatives to the Mikado’s funeral. Th...

“Hullo, are you the new snotties?” he asked. “I’m Reedham, three terms senior to you--probably you remember me at Dartmouth? You are Lynwood, aren’t you? Weren’t you the fellow...

Though assuredly not with fear, nor with any sense of impending dissolution, the officers and men of the _Pathshire_--and, perhaps, of the whole Navy--regarded war with Germany,...

At Colombo the exchange of crews between _Pathshire_ and _Colonsay_ was effected as an evolution. With the exception of a few hands left behind for indispensable duties, both sh...

It happened that his mother’s reply, reaching the _Pathshire_ in the middle of October, came to John soon after he had learnt of what he believed to be his irretrievable loss of...

It was not long after they sailed from England that the midshipmen decided that many of their dreams were coming true. The _Colonsay_, though she was a poor ship to look at, pas...

John’s request to leave the Service did not find his mother wholly unprepared. Her realization of the mistake he had made had been earlier than his own, and for many months now...

On Sunday, John and Ordith were much with Margaret, and even when she contrived to be alone she found she could not exclude them from her mind. To think of either was disquietin...

Under the hot sun of an early August day in 1914 John walked from Parliament Square towards Whitehall. More than a fortnight earlier he had gone to the Admiralty and offered his...