' Get another log-book, Mr. Sharpe; put down that it begins
this day at noon; and enter that Captain Robarts came on deck, found the
ship in a miserable condition, took the command, mustered the officers
and men, and stopped the ship's company's grog for a week for receiving
him with hats on."
Even Sharpe, that walking Obedience, was taken aback. "Stop--the ship's
company's--grog--for a week, sir?"
"Yes, sir, for a week; and if you fling my orders back in my face instead
of clapping on sail to execute them, I'll have you towed ashore on a
grating. Your name is Sharpe; well my name is Dammedsharpe, and so you'll
find."
In short, the new captain came down on the ship like a blight.
He was especially hard on Dodd: nothing that commander had done was
right, nor, had he done the contrary, would that have been right: he was
disgracefully behind time; and he ought to have put in to the Isle of
France, which would have retarded him: his rope bulwarks were lubberly:
his rudder a disgrace to navigation: he, Robarts, was not so green as to
believe that any master had really sailed sixteen hundred miles with it,
and if he had, more shame for him.
Pages:
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385