"MacDonnell, J E - 021 - The Coxswain" - читать интересную книгу автора (MacDonnell J E)

on a year in which to train his ship's company. It may be an aphorism
to state that any weapon is only as good as the men who handle it.
Wind Rode was a beautiful weapon of offence-fast, powerful, heavily-
gunned; designed by the experience behind centuries of tradition
and sea-fighting. Bentley and his first-lieutenant had seen to it that
her capabilities had not been wasted.
Bentley was thinking, as he stood on the bridge, in terms related
to this. It had not been easy. . . . One book might succeed in outlining
the schemes and plans, the manoeuvres and drills, the sternness, the
cajoling, the psychological devices used by her captain over the past
year to weld his heterogeneous team of 200 officers and men into
- J.E. Macdonnell: The Coxswain Page 6 -



the single-minded unit they now were.
But it had been done, Bentley mused, the coxswain's book opened
in his hand. It would not be anywhere near the truth to report that the
captain thought of the state of his crew only occasionally: their well-
being and efficiency and state of mind were in his mind constantly,
sometimes deliberately as now, at other times subconsciously.
Today was Thursday, the day of Captain's requestmen and
defaulters. Bentley could have waited another day or so, until they
were safely berthed in Moresby; the fact that he was holding his
court this Thursday morning at sea was simply a part of his unceasing
endeavour to maintain his ship in its present state of undoubted
competence. A typhoon or an enemy attack might disrupt the routine
he had laid down, but nothing else.
These thoughts threaded subconsciously through his mind as he
glanced down the morning's list while the coxswain waited beside
him. There is a saying that a ship is known by her boats-she is also
known by her quarterly punishment returns. For the past six months
Wind Rode's returns had been almost negligible. This morning's court
would not add to them.
There was three requests. Able-seaman McConnell wanted
compassionate leave, Able-seaman Ellis desired to increase his
allotment to his wife, and Leading-seaman Billson required official
and automatic seal on his entitlement to his third good-conduct badge.
And one defaulter. In any ship, and especially in this one, for a
man's offence to go before the officer of the watch, and then be
passed on to the first-lieutenant, and then be considered serious
enough to require the captain's decision, was bad. Obviously he had
committed one of the cardinal sins.
Able-seaman Nesbitt had done this. He had been caught asleep
on watch, at sea, in wartime.
Randall, the first-lieutenant, had had no option but to put him in
the captain's report. And had then immediately called on Bentley in
his sea-cabin. Bentley had not even
been angry-surprise, approaching astonishment, had been his
reaction, which speaks very decisively indeed for the opinion of