"You are interested in guns?"
"Very deeply interested."
"But you have not been stationed at one of the guns?"
"No, sir."
"Would you like to be? Would you prefer to be a member of a gun crew?"
"It has been my ambition to join a gun crew, sir. I feel that I should do well in that position."
"Then you shall. Coates, will you be good enough to tell the ship's writer to enter Seaman Davis as a member of the starboard seven-inch crew?"
"Yes, sir."
"Thank you, sir," answered the Battleship Boy, his eyes gleaming with pleasure. "I shall try not to be a discredit to the seven-inch, sir."
"You will not. That goes without saying."