Truth and Beauty 5-1

CHAPTER 5
“This is the great cabin,” said Jack, gesturing around them, “but I’ve already told you about that.  We’ll be sharing it this voyage, since you’re traveling as my guest.  You saw my sleeping cabin,” he gestured toward the room where Stephen had rested, “and to starboard there’s the coach, where you’ll be sleeping.”

“I have my own room,” asked Stephen, “a private room?”

“Of course you do.  All of the officers above midshipmen do.”

“Midshipmen?”

“The midshipmen,” said Jack, struggling to find an explanation that a landsman might understand, “the boys - well, not the ship’s boys, but the boys who are studying to be officers - the cadets.”

“Ah,” said Stephen.  “And they bunk together, then?”

“They have a pair of rooms to do with as they choose, just forward of the wardroom,” said Jack, leading Stephen through a corridor between the coach and his sleeping cabin and so to the aft companion.  “Just down these steps - they say it’s always best to face the steps as you go down for your first three days afloat, that’s the rule.  Here, you see, under the chartroom.”  He knocked, received no answer, and opened the hatch enough to stick his head in.  “Yes,” he said, standing back to let Stephen see into the cabin, “they have both slung their hammocks here and I dare say they use the other cabin for meals and leisure.  Boys being boys I imagine they’ll have a falling out over some trivial matter and then each sling their hammock separately for a while before reconsolidating.  As long as they don’t have a duel I don’t suppose I care, though of course if they’re mixed gender you can’t have them sleeping together, that’s the rule.  And beneath that laundry is the number three gun, for what it’s worth.”

Stephen peered through the gloom and made out two hammocks, a pair of trunks, and the breech end of a gun, in use as a drying rack for an assortment of work shirts and small clothes.  “I had always thought cadets were in school on land,” he said.

“Yes, they do put in time on land - classroom rotations, you know.  But they have to have space time, too, and though much of that time is, well, not quite in space, without they spend some time afloat they are unlikely to pick up all of the experience they need.  Getting signed off for replenishment-under-weigh at a shore establishment does tend to raise eyebrows.”  He closed the hatch.  “Past this sentry is the wardroom.”

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