Post Captain

‘Poor dear,’ said Jack, his mind still with his ship, ‘I am afraid she is growing old: all the spirit in the world, but anno domini can’t be beat.

‘Now, gentlemen, this is a delicate business: we must not offend the Company’s officers, and some of them are very touchy – the least sense of ill-feeling would be disastrous. The men must be made to understand that thoroughly: no pride, no distance, no reference to tea-waggons, or how we do things in the Navy. Our one aim must be to keep their gun