Mr. Midshipman Glover, R.N.: A Tale of the Royal Navy of To-dayJeans, T. T. (Thomas Tendron)
General
Mr. Midshipman Glover, R.N.: A Tale of the Royal Navy of To-day
Jeans, T. T. (Thomas Tendron)
Adventure stories; Great Britain. Royal Navy -- Fiction; Seafaring life -- Fiction
It was nearly midnight before I finally turned in, and at two o’clock
Jeffreys, the Sub-lieutenant, woke me up and told me that the Captain
was walking up and down the quarter-deck in the rain, and would I speak
to him and try to make him go below, as no one else dare approach him.
He was walking up and down with long strides, his hands clasped behind
his back, his head drooped between his shoulders, and his eyes vacantly
staring ahead of him.
He seemed to wake, as if from sleep, when I put my hand on his shoulder
(his monkey-jacket was wet through).
"And this is the moment Bannerman chooses to ask me for the _Strong
Arm_," he said fiercely, "and poor Hunter not even buried yet. How I do
despise that man, and wish, with all my heart, that I could give her to
Cummins; but he won’t be fit for duty for weeks, and is junior to
Bannerman, so I suppose Bannerman must have her. It makes me boil over
with anger to think of him stepping into Hunter’s shoes."
This was not, I knew well enough, the real cause of his discomposure,
but I was only too glad that his thoughts should be turned into another
channel.
"He’ll be stepping into yours if you don’t take more care of yourself
and get below out of this rain," I told him.
Ultimately I managed to induce him to undress and go to bed; but his
mental condition seemed very unstable, and I much feared that the strain
of the whole expedition would result in his complete break-down.
However, he slept soundly enough after that, and was much more composed
in the morning.
That day every man who could be spared from the squadron was marched to
the top of One Gun Hill, and there Hunter, Richardson, and their men
were buried, and their graves marked by rough wooden crosses, with their
names carved on them.
Three volleys were fired. The buglers of the squadron sounded a
melancholy Last Post, and they were left there with that grim
bullet-splashed Krupp gun to guard them.
The expedition had been successful.
It was Helston who read the burial service, and before the men marched
down to their ships he made them a short address as they stood on the
plateau in a hollow square round him. He always showed to advantage on
these occasions with his tall figure, commanding features, and resonant
voice.
"Officers and men of the Royal Navy and Royal Naval Reserve," he
said—"we have paid the last honours to those of our comrades who lie
buried here on the summit of the hill they defended so valiantly, and no
words that I can say will add to their honour.
"They have, by their courage and devotion, enabled this expedition to be
completely successful, and now that our return to England will not long
be deferred, I want to say two things to you.
"Do not forget them.
"When we leave them here on this lonely hilltop standing in the midst of
a distant ocean, sometimes think of them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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