The _Baffin_ was a typical unit of the post-War fleet--long, lean, with two funnels of unequal size; a tripod mast with a decidedly ugly raking topmast, and an aftermast that, by reason of its position, should be termed a mainmast, but, on account of its stumpiness, could not reasonably be expected to be so termed. As if to make amends for its insignificance, the after-mast flew a white pennant, streaming yards and yards astern and terminating in a gilded bladder that bobbed and curtsied in the frothy wake of the swiftly-moving vessel. That streamer--the paying-off pennant--indicated the cruiser's immediate programme. She was on the eve of completing her two years' commission. To the lower-deck ratings that pennant meant home, and with it long "leaf" and freedom from strict discipline, watch on and watch off, divisions, subdivisions, "tricks", and other items of routine that combine to make up Jack's working day and night afloat. The town-bred bluejacket or stoker would probably make for his old haunts and, with a seaman's typical philosophy, note the fact that many of his former acquaintances were vainly looking for work. Then, at the expiration of his "leaf", he would shoulder his bundle and return to the depot, thankful that he would have to take no thought for the morrow as to how he was to obtain his next meal. Then, too, the seaman recruited from the country would make tracks for his native village, there to spend the next few weeks contemplating the dull-witted son of the soil--his companion of boyhood days--plodding at the tail-end of a plough. Quite possibly the labourer was being paid far more than he--the highly-trained product of a mechanical age in which electricity and oil-fed turbine engines have supplanted masts and yards. But, on the other hand, the bluejacket will thank his lucky stars that fate--usually in the guise of a naval recruiting officer--drew him from the unimaginative land and set his course upon the boundless ocean. At all events his outlook on life was not bordered by the hedges that surrounded the fields which the boon companions of his youth tilled from one year's end to another. To the officers, "paying off" presented a somewhat different aspect. Working, eating, drinking, and playing together for the space of two years, inevitably thrown into each other's society owing to the limits of the ward- and gun-rooms, they cannot but form deep attachments for each other. Only those men who have served a commission afloat can thoroughly realize the meaning of the term "band of brothers".