Doctor at Sea

I looked like a caricature of a Prussian general; I suspected that Easter had learned the elements of barbering while serving one of his terms in jail. The advent of the Violet seemed to justify the Company’s Regulation Cap, so I fitted a new white cover and stepped back on deck with Easter’s art hidden underneath.
    By now there was an atmosphere of serious preparation on board. Captain Hogg was shouting at a pair of deckhands painting the large red F on the funnel, Hornbeam was supervising the desperate removal of a potful of black paint just spilled over the white bridge, and the Bos’n was trying to rig a line of electric bulbs along the gangway without disturbing the fat policeman who slept in a deckchair by the rail. As noon approached, the crew began leaning over the port rail and Captain Hogg climbed on the monkey island over the wheelhouse and impatiently trained his glasses towards the bow. I went to the boatdeck and squeezed between two davits, trying to catch the familiar Fathom Line houseflag moving slowly through the forest of strange masts.
    ‘Mind you don’t fall in,’ Hornbeam said, coming up the ladder. ’A mouthful of this water would kill you. Any sign of her yet?’
    ‘Can’t see anything from here.’
    ‘The Old Man and Beamish are great pals,’ he told me contentedly. ’They’d ram each other’s ships if they thought they could get away with it. Not that I have any time for Beamish,’ he added.’ In fact, I’m not certain I wouldn’t rather sail with the one we’ve got.’
    This struck me as severely damning to Captain Beamish.
    ‘What’s the matter with him?’
    ‘Thinks he’s one of the big ship boys - you know, everything frightfully pukka, wipe your feet at the top of the gangway, kiss me hand and call me Charlie. They say he was a cadet in the P. & O., but got chucked out. I can’t say I blame them.’
    ‘But surely,’ I said despairingly, ’there must be some good captains in the world?’
    ‘There’s one or two. Old Morris on the Daisy isn’t bad. He did me a good turn once in Belfast when I got mixed up with the cops. But as soon as they get their fourth ring most of ‘em get bloody-minded. You wait and see -I’ll go the same way.’
    We stood chatting between the lifeboats for a while, until Captain Hogg bellowed from above us:’ Ahoy there, Mr Trail! Stand by to dip ensign!’
    ‘There she is,’ Hornbeam said, pointing down the river.’ See?’
    ‘What, that?’
    His account of Captain Beamish made me imagine his ship as equally superior; but the Violet, as she swung round the bend in the river, turned out to be a vessel smaller than the Lotus, narrow, as angular as a piano, with patches on her plates and two tall, mournful ventilators drooping over her bridge. She was high in the water, with a wide streak of red showing at the bottom of her rusty hull, and the tips of her propeller blades cut the surface below her overhanging stern.
    ‘Makes us look like the Queen Lizzie, doesn’t it?’ Hornbeam said as she drew nearer.’ Watch for the fun when we start saluting.’
    It was clear that Captain Hogg was going to pay his respects grudgingly. He stood on top of the wheelhouse glaring across the water to the Violet, and on the wing of the Violet’s bridge a thin, tall figure in a shining white uniform glared back at him. As the mainmasts of the two ships drew level Captain Hogg shouted’ Lower away!’ and the Violet ’s ensign fluttered down a foot in curt acknowledgement. The two Captains scowled at each other as they passed, and no one in either crew would have been surprised if they had stuck out their tongues.
    ‘The brotherhood of the sea,’ Hornbeam said. ’I bet Father’s just waiting for her to foul our ropes as she comes alongside.’
    Captain Beamish nevertheless arrived for lunch on board the Lotus as soon as his gangway was down. He turned out to be a thin, brown, wrinkled man with a face like a tortoise. He compensated for his own shabby ship by turning himself out sprucely; his long neck stretched from the high, starched collar of his uniform, two rows of glossy medal ribbons shone on his bosom, his trousers were unsullied with sitting, and his feet stood in white buckskin shoes. He sat down at the table, placed a monocle in his right eye, and crumbled a roll in his bony hand with an expression on his face as if he expected it to release an unpleasant smell.
    Captain Hogg was coldly polite, and introduced us all.’ This is