Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh

Author:Evelyn Waugh [Waugh, Evelyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Classics, Psychology
ISBN: 9780316216654
Publisher: Little, Brown
Published: 1953-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Five

The International Incident

It was the conversation of the two generals, overheard as he lay in his cabin after luncheon, which first made Mr. Pinfold aware of the international crisis which had been developing while he lay ill. There had been no hint of it in the newspapers he had listlessly scanned before embarkation; or, if there had been, he had not, in his confused state, appreciated its importance. Now, it appeared, there was a first-class row about the possession of Gibraltar. Some days ago the Spaniards had laid formal, peremptory claim to the fortress and were now exercising the very dubious right of stopping and searching ships passing through the straits in what they defined as their territorial waters. During luncheon the Caliban had hove-to and Spanish officials had come on board. They were demanding that the ship put into Algeciras for an examination of cargo and passengers.

The two generals were incensed against General Franco and made free use of “tin-pot dictator,” “twopenny-halfpenny Hitler,” “dago,” “priest-ridden puppet,” and similar opprobrious epithets. They also spoke contemptuously of the British government who were prepared to “truckle” to him.

“It’s nothing short of a blockade. If I were in command I’d call their bluff, go full steam ahead and tell them to shoot and be damned.”

“That would be an act of war, of course.”

“Serve ’em right. We haven’t sunk so low that we can’t lick the Spaniards, I hope.”

“It’s all this UNO.”

“And the Americans.”

“Anyway, this is one thing that can’t be blamed on Russia.”

“It means the end of NATO.”

“Good riddance.”

“The Captain has to take his orders from home, I suppose.”

“That’s the trouble. He can’t get any orders.”

Captain Steerforth was now fully restored to Mr. Pinfold’s confidence. He saw him as a simple sailor obliged to make a momentous decision, not only for the safety of his own vessel but for the peace of the world. Throughout that long afternoon Mr. Pinfold followed the frantic attempts of the signalmen to get into touch with the shipping company, the Foreign Office, the Governor of Gibraltar, the Mediterranean fleet. All were without avail. Captain Steerforth stood quite alone as the representative of international justice and British prestige. Mr. Pinfold thought of Jenkins’s ear and the Private of the Buffs. Captain Steerforth was a good man forced into an importance quite beyond his capabilities. Mr. Pinfold wished he could stand beside him on the bridge, exhort him to defiance, run the ship under the Spanish guns into the wide, free inland sea where all the antique heroes of history and legend had sailed to glory.

As factions resolve in common danger, Mr. Pinfold forgot the enmity of the young hooligans. All on board the Caliban were comrades-in-arms against foreign aggression.

The Spanish officials were polite enough. Mr. Pinfold could hear them talking in the Captain’s cabin. In excellent English they explained how deeply repugnant they, personally, found the orders they had to carry out. It was a question of politics, they said. No doubt the matter would be adjusted satisfactorily at a congress.

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