About this story
Aboard ship, Lieutenant Trotter and his wife talk you out of nearly all your money for a private mess, and a drunken brawl behind a canvas screen ends with Mrs. Trotter taking refuge in your hammock. When Savage demands who spread the ship's wildest rumors about him, you choose to protect your shipmates rather than curry favor.
How it opens
Family influence selected fourteen-year-old Peter Simple for the navy before knowledge supplied preparation.
Captain SavageWhich ship are you joining, youngster, and have you no letter of introduction?
Captain SavageThat sealed introduction bears my name; let me see what your family asks of me.
You snatched it back and declared that anyone opening another man's letter could be no gentleman.
Midshipman JenkinsSavage flogs whole watches for slow sailing and works new boys until they drop.
I have trusted uniforms, jokes, and sealed paper without knowing which deserved it.