In the hotel smoke-room after lunch there was no sugar for our coffee.

His sea-training began to show at once. "The thing you 'ave to learn to

do at sea is to go on your own. Nobody doing much for a chap that 'e

don't do for hisself, is there?" From his coat pocket he drew an

envelope which once held a letter from home--in place of the letter now

was sugar. "Preparedness--'ere it is"--and sweetened our coffee from the

envelope.

He spoke of his life at sea. "I can't say that I like it--I can't say I

don't like it--but it was my life before the war and it 'as to be since.

You've seen my ship, 'aven't you, lying to moorings? Nothing great to

look at, is she? but the managing director of our company--he has the

'andling of maybe a 'undred more like her--'Let 'em 'ave their grand

passenger ships,' 'e says, 'but give me my cargo boats that pays for

theirselves every two voyages.' The right idea 'e 'ad, I'll say for 'im.

And for my part of it there is no everlastin' polishin' o' brahss and

painting o' white work and no buying o' gold-laced uniforms at your own

cost. And there's the bonus for me. Oh, aye! A bit of bonus ain't a bit

of 'arm, you know, especially when you've a wife that's no eyesore to

look at, and little kiddies growin' up.

"Torpedoed? Oh, aye. It's not to be expected of a man to escape that

these days. My chum Bob, remember 'im--that was seven hours to Alexandria

and back--with a rose in his coat? His fourth time torpedoed, that was.

I've been blowed up only three times myself. Nothing much of anything

special, the last time and the time before that--a matter of getting into

boats and by and by being picked up--no more than that--no. But the first

time--maybe it was a novelty-like then. 'Owever, I'd carried a load of

coal to Naples and getting twenty-two pounds a ton for coal that cost two

pound ten in Cardiff maybe makes it a bit clearer what the managing

director 'ad in mind when 'e said: 'let 'em have their grand passenger
ships, but give me my little cargo boats.'

"From Naples I go on to Piræus in Greece, and we take a load on

there--admiralty stuff, and not to be spoken of--and we put out for

'ome. She was a good old single-crew, this one o' mine. Twenty-five year

old--not the worst, though I'd seen better. Well warmed up she could

squeeze out eight knots, or maybe eight and a 'alf. I 'ung close to the

land along that Greek shore, for if anything should 'appen ther's no

sense 'aving too long a row to the beach in boats.

"Very good. We're rollin' along one morning when the radio man came in

with a message which read: 'PUT INTO NEAREST PORT. U-BOATS.'

"And without ado we puts into a little place down at the 'eel of Italy,

and that night I 'ad a 'ot barth an' a lovely long sleep in my brahss

bed which the missus 'ad given me for Christmas the last time 'ome. And

a great pleasure it was, I say.

"Next mornin' we put to sea again, and next day after comes another

radio, and it says: 'PUT INTO NEAREST PORT. U-BOATS.' And we put into

Malta, and that night again I 'ad another 'ot barth and a fine sleep in

my brahss bed.

"We resume our voyage from Malta, and a two days later I gets another

radio--more U-boats--and I puts into Algiers. Three times in one week

that made with me 'aving me 'ot barth and a fine sleep in me brahss

bed--grand good luck, I say now, and said it then to the mate, adding to

it: 'There's a signal station west of Gibraltar--wouldn't it be delightful

passing that signal station to get the word to put back to Gib and stop

there for another night and I 'ave another 'ot barth and a lovely sleep

in my four-poster bed.' But the mate 'e only says 'e didn't have no brahss
bed aboard ship to sleep in, and he saved his 'ot barths, he did,'til he

got 'ome to enjoy 'em proper.

"Summer-time it was, and I likes to take my little siesta after

lunch--just like the Dons theirselves, y' know--and I'm 'aving me siesta

next day after lunch when something woke me up. There's a shelf of books

on the wall o' my room--chart-books and the like--and when all at once I

see them pilin' down on top of me I say to myself: 'Somethin's 'appened.'

And so it 'ad. The mate 'e sticks 'is 'ead in the door and says: 'We're

torpedoed, sir.'

"'There goes my bonus,' I says, and goes on deck.

"We carried a 3-inch gun in a little 'ouse aft, and there was the mate

firing at the U-boat, which was out of water and maybe two miles away.

It was one of those out-of-date guns the navy would have no more to do

with, and so they passes it on to us. New good guns would probably be

wasted on us, and maybe that's true. None of us aboard ever fired a shot

from the gory weapon till this day. The mate fired two shots at the

U-boat, but 'e don't 'it anything. The U-boat fires two shots at us and

she 'its something. One of 'em pahsses through the chart house, and the

other tears a nice little 'ole in 'er for'ard.

"That'll do for that gun practice,' I says.

"'Aren't you goin' to 'ave a go at 'em?' says the mate.

"'You can 'ave all the go at 'em you please,' I says, 'after we leave

the ship. Besides you there's 19 men and 4 Eurasians in this crew, and

some of 'em will maybe like to see 'ome again--I know I do!'