The Pierhead Jump (Tinfish Run Book 2) by Ronald Bassett

Author:Ronald Bassett [Bassett, Ronald]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2015-09-14T00:00:00+00:00

Seven

To the Chaplain’s resentment, the small Chapel of St Peter in Daemon was too frequently utilized in other roles, as the venue for the ship’s modest lending library, a quiet sanctuary for letter-writing, a meeting-place for the canteen committee and, more recently, for Paymaster-Lieutenant Gasnier and Signalman Ludd. The Chaplain had tentatively complained to the Captain, but had been politely rebuffed. Space in any warship with a wartime complement was at a premium. The ship’s company’s church service, when circumstances permitted, was held on the quarterdeck, and a weekly Communion service for a half-dozen faithful did not justify an exclusive appropriation for religious purposes. Regretfully, the Lord’s occupancy must be shared.

Lieutenant Gasnier had not embarked upon his task with enthusiasm, but neither had he expected the assignment to be either prolonged or arduous. Ratings got odd ideas occasionally, Lieutenant Cotton assured him, like becoming Seventh Day Adventists, studying Yoga, or building a ten-foot model of the Taj Mahal with matchsticks, but their dedication did not long resist the conflicting distractions of the Fleet Club or the Egyptian Queen. He had known a rating once who had a pair of eyes tattooed on his buttocks accompanied by the words ‘I see you’. It just went to show. Lieutenant Gasnier was not sure what it showed, but he spent a whole evening polishing up his own grasp of the essentials of grammar and syntax, just in case his pupil showed more determination than Cotton suggested.

Signalman Ludd, however, was more than just determined. He had armed himself with a signal pad, three pencils, a ruler and an eraser, and began devouring nouns, verbs and conjunctions with such voracity that, startled, Gasnier was himself thrown back on the necessity for daily study to meet the requirements of each coming session. English grammar was not his subject, he told an unsympathetic Lieutenant Cotton. ‘Why doesn’t the fellow want to knit socks, or collect beer-bottle labels, or mess about with glue? Why does he have to be a B.Litt? He’s one of yours, isn’t he? Why don’t you turn in every night muttering, “Tommy will ring the bell, Tommy rang the bell, the bell has been rung”? I mean, it’s a bit thick, old boy. It’s affecting my whole way of life.’

‘You’re doing a grand job, Gassy,’ Cotton explained. ‘Who knows what uncut gem you have in your warm little hands? This chap Ludd could be First Lord one day. A. V. Alexander was a stoker, wasn’t he? That’s what I mean. Little acorns and all that. If you play your cards well, Gassy, you might end up as Under-Secretary.’

Lieutenant Gasnier was not placated but, to his relief, his dog-watch obligations were suddenly halted. The chapel’s seating had disappeared, to be replaced by a table covered by a brown rubber sheet, an anaesthetics machine, cylinders, a trolley of instruments, mounds of linen and dressings, a smell of disinfectant and a sick bay petty officer.

‘That’s a pity,’ Lieutenant Gasnier said.

Lobby Ludd nodded. ‘Yessir. It looks like we’ll have to use your cabin.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.