22nd - around midnight and a little after

Chess. Johnson shook his head. He had little love for the Admiralty. "That's them, all right. And they don't know half of what's what in the squadrons no more, either. Damned shame is what it is." The corporal leaned against the rail. "No stomach for good fightin' neither!"

He smiled.

"True, very true." Words he will remember well. Oh yes, Claggart had a very good memory...
"It's good they are far and leave the figthing for us and our Captain."

Probably he'll know more about Captain Bolitho. All he heard so far was that he's a good captain...

"Aye," Johnson agreed. He patted his pockets a moment, giving himself time to work up his nerve to be openly supportive of officers. Ah, there was his pipe and tobacco. "Cap'n Bolitho's a rare one, that's sure. Looks after his ship and crew well enough but he ain't afraid to fight neither. We got ourselves a Frog frigate on the way into Lisbon. Handy scrap, that!"

The corporal stuffed a pinch of leaf into his pipe bowl and managed after a moment to get it lit. Now that he was started, he found it less difficult to go on than he had first thought. "But he's a sea officer for all of it. We got ourselves a new 'tenant in Lisbon too. Daftest sort I've ever knowed, but I'll tell you, he ain't half bad in a scrap. Fights like three lads. Never woulda 'magined it for an officer what weren't from the old Corps!"

"A lucky ship, then, with a captain like this."

Unlike his old ship - there was always some trouble.

"And with good lieutenants... as it should be, but it is rare indeed. Our luck is that those frogs are landlubbers by heart. They might sail, but never like us. They don't get depressed after a few weeks ashore..."

He did. He felt home when he felt the moving of a ship. Being ashore for a longer time period was worse than any punishment - it was then that he went to those opium lairs to get rid of the melancholy.

"Dammit, I'd rather go to ol' Davy tomorrow than spend decades more on land. They don't know what they be missing."

That was true enough. Johnson puffed at his pipe thoughtfully. "Bein' ashore's no place for a Tar to stay for long, aye. But us Marines can do just as well anywhere."

All the benefit of being 'sea-soldiers'. The corporal looked out over the rail and watched the moonlight ripple on the light waves. "Shore ain't no place to stay for a lad born to the sea, no. Not a bit."