This was Mostyn's first impression of Captain Antonius Bullock, master of the good ship _West Barbican_.
"No doubt his bark is worse than his bite," soliloquized Peter, then, aloud, he said:
"Another time you come into my cabin do as you're told," growled the Old Man. "Can't waste my breath telling people to come in--may want it badly some day. Where's your permanent discharge book?"
Mostyn had the article ready to hand--one of those thin, blue-covered booklets which, according to Board of Trade Regulations, must be in the possession of every officer and man of the British Mercantile Marine. It is his passport through life as long as he remains under the Red Ensign, and corresponds with the parchment certificate of the Royal Navy.
"'Report of character: for ability, very good; for general conduct, very good'," read the Old Man aloud. "Let's hope that'll continue. Hello! what's this: last ship the _Donibristle_. I hope I haven't shipped a Jonah."
"Carry on, then," was the brief rejoinder, and the introductory interview terminated.
Truth to tell, Captain Antonius Bullock was not particularly fond of wireless operators. This antipathy was not due to the individual but to the system. Although wireless officers came under the captain's orders for disciplinary purposes, they were governed by the rules and regulations of the wireless company who employed them. Consequently it was possible, and often probable, that the Old Man might issue an order to the radio staff that ran directly counter to the wireless regulations; and, if the skipper were short-tempered and disinclined to listen to explanations, matters would come to a climax by the wireless officer flatly but firmly declining to carry out the Old Man's behests.
On the previous voyage such an incident had actually occurred. Captain Bullock had given an impossible order--impossible according to the wireless operator's reading of the regulations. The Old Man lost his temper and told the operator to work double watches for the rest of the voyage; the latter retaliated by "logging" the skipper. This drastic step rather frightened the choleric Bullock, especially when, on further consideration, he found that he was in the wrong. Before the _West Barbican_ arrived in London River, skipper and wireless operator had a private and amicable conversation, with the result that the latter expunged the offending record from the log. But the matter still rankled in Captain Antonius Bullock's broad bosom, and, since he could not consign the system to perdition, he vented his resentment upon the wireless officers under his command.