Afternoon Aloft, 1st July

"Aye, it did. Those was sloops." Chase swallowed another foul mouthful of tobacco juice and winked at the lad. "Mebbe you'll end up in one some day, too."

"Fink I like frigates," Terry said loyally, despite not knowing anything else. "You... you ever bin in a... in a ship of the line?"

"Aye. Four years in Donegal, seventy-four. She's about as big a ship as ever I wanna be in."

"What's it like bein' in a big ship, then?" Terry wanted to know. He couldn't imagine what it was like in anything that was bigger than Terpsichore.

"Everythin's bigger. More lads aboard, more guns... the work's the same, though. Confusin' as all hell for a lad who's only known sloops!"

"Was you... Was you a able then?" Terry wanted know.

He nodded. "Aye. I got made Able a couple years after I joined her. Got put in the mizzentop though." At this, he shook his head ruefully. The mizzentop was no place for him!

Terry grinned. Maybe one day, he'd get to be an Able just like Chase. He couldn't really imagine it, though.

"Was she a good ship?" he asked, giving up on the attempt to imagine himself as a grown up sailor.

"Aye. Not so good's this'n, but fair. I wouldn't trade this lot for that one agin, though. Convoy duty's pure misery." Chase shrugged and swallowed some more tobacco juice. "Ain't possible to always have good cruises, of course, but shepherdin' convoys ain't a job anybody likes."

"What..." He took a breath. This was probably going to sound like a very stupid question, and he was glad to be up here where nobody else could hear him - and with Chase, who'd never said a harsh word to him. "What makes a good ship? For you, I mean."

His memory wandered back to the conversation he'd had with Mister Fletcher, which had been along a similar line. Boys had little notion of good and bad in ships. It was an ignorance Chase sometimes envied.

"A good first luff, more'n a good cap'n, 'cause he's the one dealin' with the crew night an' day. Havin' a set of proper seamen is important too. Can't have an easy time of it when the whole company's landsmen needin' to be trained." He paused to think a moment. "A good ship's one that's got officers what know their b'ness but ain't tyrants or the like, an' makes sure the lads what run the ship does their duty willingly. Sorta like how our Terpsy is."

Which was pretty much what Mister Leat had said. "Wouldja say... wouldja say Mister Leat's a good officer?"

Terry thought the Lieutenant was, but not really having that much experience, he wanted to know what Chase thought.

"Aye, he is."

Terry grinned, proud to be servant to an officer that Cob Chase thought was a good'n.

"Who's the best officer you've 'ad?"

"Cap'n Butterfield," said Chase. "I weren't with Hazard long, but I learned a fair bit of stuff under him."

Chase paused entirely too often, but then, that gave Terry openings to ask questions. He grinned up at the sailor before picking a bit of tar from under a fingernail. "Like what?"

Loads of things. Chase grinned.

"All sorts of things. A fair few knots, a good bit of carpenterin', how to use an axe... the cap'n himself didn't do a whole lot of teachin', mind, but he wanted every man an' boy in his ship to know as much's they could 'bout the runnin' of a ship. Their duties an' all."

"Was you a powder monkey in Hazard?" Terry asked, still having trouble picturing Chase as anything other than the grown sailor talking to him.

He shook his head. "Nope. Carpenter's boy." There was a slight pause, during which Chase instinctively scanned the horizon, then he added, "Quick now. Do up a bowline on a bight."

"Huh?" Terry blinked at the suddenness of the command, then realisation dawned. "Oh." He scrabbled for the length of spunyarn, had to think for a moment to remember which one the bowline on a bight was and fumbled a little in tying it.

"That'n?" he said, holding it up.

Good lad! "Aye. Trickiest bit's to remember to pass the last loop round itself, so it's round the standin' part, but you gots it."

Terry grinned at the praise. "What's the best ship you served in - Terpsy or Hazard or summat else?"

"Raven sloop, actually. Her cap'n weren't the best but I got rated Ordinary in her, an' her lads was prime seamen, all of 'em. Started really learnin' the trade there. Sloops are the best places to learn an' learn well, anyways. After frigates, of course!"

"I dunno as I'll ever get to be as good's you," Terry admitted with a shrug. It didn't really matter, though - things were a lot better now than they had been even a few weeks back, and being here was much nicer than the Foundling Home had ever been.

"Can happen, though. Takes loads of work but it ain't impossible."