23. NAVY CHAPS 



Most times there is a bluejacket on the Front, 

 always a naval pensioner or two. This little town 

 is Navy. It is no good begetting sons here and 

 mapping out their future with too much certainty. 

 They grow up till they begin to have secret minds 

 of their own. Something comes over them. Off 

 they go into the Navy, and one more family is 

 stretching its eyes about the world. 



Politicians and newspapers talk about ships, the 

 public reckons up its safety and its purse in terms 

 of battleships, and the Admiralty humours them 

 all for its own purposes. On occasion, chiefly 

 during an election, we too talk battleships; and a 

 pretty mess we make of it; for each man speaks 

 of the Navy that he knew; the ships he knows, 

 or did know years ago. But ordinarily, when we 

 speak of the Navy, we mean men, not ships; the 

 man behind the gun, as he calls himself in these 



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