Percy F. Westerman
Midshipman Raxworthy
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Title: Midshipman Raxworthy
Date of first publication: 1936
Author: Percy F. Westerman (1876-1959)
Date first posted: Jan. 30, 2018
Date last updated: Jan. 30, 2018
Faded Page eBook #20180158
This ebook was produced by: Al Haines, Jen Haines & the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net
Printed in Great Britain by Blackie & Son, Ltd., Glasgow
Books by Percy F. Westerman:
Haunted Harbour.
His Unfinished Voyage.
Midshipman Webb’s Treasure.
Winged Might.
Captain Flick.
Tireless Wings.
His First Ship.
The Red Pirate.
The Call of the Sea.
Standish of the Air Police.
Sleuths of the Air.
Andy-All-Alone.
The Westow Talisman.
The White Arab.
The Buccaneers of Boya.
Rounding up the Raider.
Captain Fosdyke’s Gold.
In Defiance of the Ban.
The Senior Cadet.
The Amir’s Ruby.
The Secret of the Plateau.
Leslie Dexter, Cadet.
All Hands to the Boats.
A Mystery of the Broads.
Rivals of the Reef.
Captain Starlight.
On the Wings of the Wind.
Captain Blundell’s Treasure.
The Third Officer.
Unconquered Wings.
Pat Stobart in the “Golden Dawn”.
Ringed by Fire.
Midshipman Raxworthy.
Chums of the “Golden Vanity”.
Clipped Wings.
Rocks Ahead.
King for a Month.
The Disappearing Dhow.
The Luck of the “Golden Dawn”.
The Salving of the “Fusi Yama”.
Winning his Wings.
The Good Ship “Golden Effort”.
East in the “Golden Gain”.
The Quest of the “Golden Hope”.
The Wireless Officer.
The Submarine Hunters.
The Thick of the Fray at Zeebrugge.
With Beatty off Jutland.
The Dispatch Riders.
A Cadet of the Mercantile Marine.
With the Last of the Buccaneers.
A Lively Bit of the Front.
The Westerman Omnibus Book.
Contents
PART I. Raxworthy’s Luck .......... 9
PART II. The Pirate Junk ........... 83
PART III. Deferred Promotion ..... 129
PART IV. Raxworthy’s Ruse ........ 171
Illustrations:
(facing page)
The Smoke was Increasing .......... Frontispiece
A Tall Shape Loomed Up ............. 48
“Wake up, Doc! We’re Saved!” ... 128
PART I
RAXWORTHY’S LUCK
The way in which the commander summed up the situation was brief and to the point—very much so.
“Sheer carelessness; leave jammed!”
Midshipman Kenneth Raxworthy set his jaw firmly, looked the commander straight in the face and said nothing. He wanted to expostulate at the injustice of the sentence—which meant that long-looked-for Christmas leave would be denied him—but the strong sense of naval discipline prevailed. He must swallow the bitter pill unflinchingly. In the Royal Navy orders must be carried out smartly and unquestioningly. After they have been executed one may relieve one’s feelings by grousing about their futility or otherwise, provided the grumble does not reach the ears of the officer responsible for the order.
It certainly was hard lines on the young midshipman. In bringing the motor-picket-boat alongside her parent ship—the light cruiser Kirkham—the helm had jammed, with the result that, before way could be taken off her, the picket-boat had smashed her stem-head against the ship’s side.
To make matters worse, the accident had been witnessed both by the captain and the commander, who happened to be on the fore-bridge. The Owner, as the captain of a warship is commonly dubbed, requested the Bloke, otherwise the commander, to investigate the cause of the mishap and deal with the delinquent in a suitable manner should the midshipman be at fault.
Directly the motor-pinnace had been hoisted Kenneth formally reported the accident to the officer-of-the-watch, who was pacing the quarter-deck.
“Commander wishes to see you in his cabin, my lad,” observed the officer-of-the-watch.
Knowing full well that the Bloke’s wishes were a command, Kenneth went below “at the double”, and knocked at the sliding door bearing the intimation in raised brass letters that it gave access to the cabin of the immediate arbiter of his destinies.
“Of all the lubberly ways of coming alongside, yours is the worst exhibition I’ve seen since I’ve been in the Service,” began the commander without any preamble. “What have you to say?”
“I tried to put the wheel hard-a-starboard and it jammed, sir.”
Ever since he had gained the rank that gave him gilt oak leaves on his cap, the commander had almost daily listened to excuses from lower-deck defaulters, and less frequently to explanations often highly exaggerated from junior officers. Long familiarity had bred contempt and invariably he looked upon an excuse as a feeble attempt to mitigate the penalty. He had become a past master in the art of bowling out a defaulter.
“Stand fast a minute,” he ordered, and left the cabin.
In point of fact the midshipman had to “stand fast” for a long five minutes before the Bloke returned with a cold triumphant look in his eyes.
“The steering-gear has been thoroughly tested,” he announced bluntly. “It operates quite easily.”
Since there was no question there could be no reply. It was considered worse than bad form for a junior to contradict a senior officer’s statement. Kenneth remained silent.
“Sheer carelessness!” declared the Bloke. “Leave jammed!”
Accepting the silent gesture of dismissal the midshipman saluted and, leaving the cabin, hurried along the half-deck to the gun-room.
The only occupants of the midshipmen’s den at the moment were two cheerful-looking youths, one of whom was disentombing articles of clothing from the depths of a sea-chest, while the other was poring over the pages of Bradshaw to reassure himself that a certain train did start at a certain time. At intervals for the last ten days he had looked up that train, making sure that asterisks and other mysterious signs did not affect its departure and subsequent arrival at its destination.
Already news had reached the gun-room that Kenneth Raxworthy had been “on the carpet” before the inexorable commander.