Truth and Beauty 4-2

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Jack awoke to a genteel tapping on his cabin’s door.  “Just on seven bells, sir,” said his steward.  Jack had slept through the change of watch at 0400, when the starbolines came on duty and the larbolines retired below for four-hours’ sleep.

He yawned and stretched, then slipped out of his cot and stretched fully.  Finding his phone, he pulled up Roth’s muster book and located his steward’s name, “thank you, Bollwerk.”

“Yes, sir” said his steward, still on the other side of the door.  “Will you be wanting breakfast?”

“Coffee, please, in the great cabin.  Three eggs scrambled, or sunny-side up if they’re real, and toast.”

He walked into the great cabin, where the first thing he saw was the midshipman’s hat, still sitting where he had left it the night before.  He frowned at it again, but its presence put him in mind of the need to send a midshipman to the inn for his chest.  This, in turn, reminded him that he had to send a midshipman for Russ, which reminded him that he had no idea what Russ’s last name was.  Well, first things first, he thought as his servant brought in his coffee and toast, “thank you, Bollwerk.”

“Eggs be in in a moment, sir,”

Jack was pouring his second cup of coffee when Bollwerk returned with his eggs, served on heavy ship’s crockery.  The eggs were real, with soft, round, vibrantly yellow yolks that Jack prodded and then punctured with a corner of toast.  He dawdled through breakfast, enjoying the double luxury of being on board ship and having an unhurried meal.  In time, however, the eggs, the rye toast, and the multi-grain toast were all finished, and Jack found himself again frowning at the errant midshipman’s hat.

Eventually he went so far as to pick up the hat and look inside it, where he found Mister Carl Barus, Midshipman, Royal Navy, carefully written in ink along the sweat band, together with the double-underlined admonition DO NOT TOUCH WITHOUT AXPRESS PERMISSION, followed by several exclamation marks.

The passageway opened and Bollwerk appeared to clear away the remains of breakfast.  “Pass the word for Mister Barus, please,” said Jack.

“Mister Barus it is, sir, to report to the cabin.”

Jack was still working out the issue of how to address the issue of Mister Barus’s hat when the sentry announced the midshipman.  “Ah,” said Jack, when Barus appeared, flustered and fully uniformed, except for his hat.  “Mister Barus, I will need you to meet a friend of min in London, and bring him back to the Roth.  We are without a surgeon, and I hope that if we make him comfortable he will consent to stay as one.  At the same time you will collect my trunk, along with any dunnage the doctor has, and bring them all back to the brig.  Do you know how to charge a wherry to the Roth’s account?”

“Yes sir I touch my ID to the reader enter the ship’s - the brig’s ID then my ID then the tip sir.”

“Very good.  Give a 15% tip in absence of compelling reasons not to.  You know how to calculate 15%?”

“Yes sir times 15 and the percent button sir then the equals button.”

“That will have to do for now.  Be certain to get a folding truck off the bosun for the dunnage.  I don’t suppose you have a fare card for the London tube?”

Mister Barus blushed and shook his head.  “No sir,” he muttered.

“You can use mine,” said Jack, pulling it from his wallet and handing it over.  “Now cut along, you’ll need to be there by 1600 - eight bells in the afternoon watch.  And Mister Barus?”

“Yes sir?” squeaked Barus.

“This means full uniform, so you’ll need your hat.”

Mister Midshipman Barus received his hat, dropped it on the floor, apologized, fetched and dropped the hat again before it firmly and retreating.

“Bollwerk,” called Jack, “pass the work for Mister Greensteet.”

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