This made me rather sick, though, as you can imagine I’d have liked to have a tub of my own during the war! Then Fourgues explained. He had had time to go to Paris and had brought back a lot of information. It seems that in France all construction is suspended because the war will be over before the end of the year and we should think of nothing but war-work and munitions. As all the merchant-ships are being used at the present moment, I shan’t get a command for the deuce of a time. Fourgues also saw the owner and had rather a hot encounter because he would not pay for the wireless, saying that the _Pamir_ had got along like this for nearly ten months and that it was not worth while undertaking the expense, for whereas wireless was good for the illustrated papers that tell tall stories about it, at bottom it wasn’t much use. There was nothing to be done with the owner, so Fourgues went to the Admiralty where they said much the same thing. It seems that we are quite safe on the sea, that we’ve got the upper hand, that the German submarines are all bluff, and that, anyway, the Germans haven’t any. Fourgues is not of this opinion, not exactly. He says that the Germans aren’t so stupid as to leave us in peace on the sea and that they are preparing one of their extra-specials for us. But all the official Johnnies wouldn’t hear of this, so there was nothing to be done--the _Pamir_ went out as before. The owner told him to add nothing, not even a lookout at the masthead. But Fourgues had one installed under the pretext that fifty francs more or less would ruin neither the owner nor the shareholders. They don’t lose their time, those gentlemen! The _Pamir_, which is nearly twenty years old, is chartered at about fifty pounds a day, without counting the coal, repairs, insurance, freight, and everything. The shareholders have only to open their pockets--the money tumbles in! At that rate, in a year they will have enough to pay for two or three other _Pamirs_, but not enough, of course, for them to spare a few thousand francs for the wireless! But I nearly forgot to tell you about another fuss. You will remember that we struck the cruiser _Lamartine_ on the occasion of our first coaling at sea and that we smashed her davits and one of our lifeboats. It wasn’t Fourgues’ fault, you remember, and he said that it must all be repaired at Newcastle. But the owner refused outright to pay anything, saying that that sort of damages were not included in the agreement. The Navy also refused, under the pretext that it is not responsible henceforth for a ship on which the captain is not in the Government service. They demanded a report from Fourgues and will also ask the _Lamartine_ for one. All that will mean filling up forms and complications without end. Nevertheless, we sail with two lifeboats, as Fourgues preferred to pay out of his own pocket for the new one rather than do without.