Behind him is his own honour and reputation; the honour of his ship and her imperious demands; for there is no excuse in the Navy. If he fails in any one particular he severs just one nerve of the ship's life. If he fails in all the ship dies--a prisoner to the set of the sea--a gift to the nearest enemy.
And, as I have seen him, he is infinitely patient, resourceful, and unhurried. However it might have been in the old days, when men clung obstinately to sticks and strings and cloths, the newer generation, bred to pole-masts, know that he is the king-pin of their system. Our Assistant-Engineer had been with the engines from the beginning, and one night he told me their story, utterly unconscious that there was anything out of the way in the noble little tale.
It was his business so to arrange that no single demand from the bridge should go unfulfilled for more than five seconds. To that ideal he toiled unsparingly with his Chief--a black sweating demon in his working hours, and a quiet student of professional papers in his scanty leisure.
'An' they come into the ward-room,' says Twenty-One, 'and you know they've been having a young hell of a time down below, but they never growl at us or get stuffy or anything. No end good men, I swear they are.'
'Thank you, Twenty-One,' I said. 'I'll let that stand for the whole Navy if you don't mind.'
A ship who attempted to dress on her service allowance of paint would in three months be as disreputable as a battery or regiment which kept its mess or band on the strict army footing. Therefore, over and above anything that they may secure by strategy and foresight, the officers must dip into their own pockets to supply the many trifles (none of them cheap) which make for the smartness of a ship. This was forcibly brought home to me when I admired a shield and scroll-work at the bows of a large cruiser. 'Yes,' said a friend, 'it takes about fifty books (of gold-leaf) to gild that decently.'
'Well, somebody's got to gild it, and the Yard don't give you seventy books for nothing,' was the significant reply.
If there were any means of reckoning, the tax-payer would be somewhat astonished at the sums spent by Navy and Army for the privilege of serving the Queen. Both services have curious and crusted tales bearing on this head.