“It hasn’t happened yet.”
“But it licks ’em into shape,” Aggett had suggested good-humouredly, believing what he said. “Spare the rod and spoil the child, you know.”
“I disagree absolutely.... Besides, they are not children. They are out in the world. My help is scarcely needed in the hurting of them.”
Once again, in a scene that has already been recorded, Aggett had returned to the attack, frankly amazed that any attack should be needed. Couldn’t this fellow Hartington see for himself that what midshipmen needed was firm treatment? It seemed so obvious.... And now the engineering midshipmen had been placed under Aggett’s control. Lynwood, Hartington’s friend, and Driss—that chin-tilting Irishman—were his to train. He’d train ’em! He’d show ’em! And if they weren’t more tractable when he’d done with ’em, well——
So John and Driss were ordered, while at sea, “to keep watch and watch, the Afternoon kept”—that is, they were to be on duty in alternate watches day and night, with this relief, that in the afternoon, from noon to 4 p.m., neither went below. In these circumstances, to suit their own convenience, and to vary the rotation of labour, they regarded the two Dog Watches as a single watch of four hours. By Service custom they were excused early morning physical drill, one being on watch at the time and the other not having come off watch until 4 a.m.
They made out a table of their watches for forty-eight hours thus obtaining a graphic representation of a routine which, while they were at sea, repeated itself every two days.
“Keeping the First and Morning,” said Driss, “will be hell.”
“After all,” John said, to encourage himself, “it means only twenty hours on duty in forty-eight. Average of ten in twenty-four. Not so bad.”
Driss smiled. “Now let’s make a summary. First, how many hours are we going to get in our hammocks? Don’t forget that one has to have a bath to get the filth off after every watch. Follow through your case on the timetable from 8 a.m. on the 14th. After your first watch you come off at midnight, turn in at twelve-thirty, and sleep till you are called at ten-to-four—three hours and twenty minutes. On the 15th you finish the Dogs at eight p.m.; dinner at eight-thirty; asleep, with luck, at ten-thirty; sleep till ten minutes before midnight—one hour and twenty minutes. On the 16th you finish your Middle at four a.m.; asleep by four-thirty; sleep till hammocks are made up at seven-fifteen—two hours and forty-five minutes.”