About this story
Ashore with your discharge and no mail boat for days, you wait at the Officers' Home, where Captain Giles questions your restlessness kindly. Tiffin turns to opportunity: a barque in port has lost her captain to sudden death, and fever is emptying her crew. Giles walks you to the shipping office as a sealed report arrives with the dead captain's last order.
How it opens
One morning, a good berth became intolerable without supplying a single reason.
Ship CaptainYou served eighteen months without complaint and resign between voyages.
The Eastern steamer was sound, the crew capable, and the trade almost comfortable.
I know how it looks, sir, but I must leave.
Ship CaptainI cannot keep you by force, and force would not cure this fever.
Choose
The work has become empty to me.
I need a command of my own.
I intend to go home.