i6 
Land oc Water 
May 30, 19 1 8 
Her Air Service was first in the field. Some months ago 
half a dozen airmen, drawn from both Army and Navy, 
arrived in England, and more will follow. 
Her entry into the war was as the unlocking of flood- 
gates as far as the supply of materials for ship-repairing 
and even shipbuilding (a' much harder proposition) were 
concerned. The magnificent harbour of Rio will now come 
into its own. Previously there was not enough material to 
work with, now the cry is for more skilled artisans to cope 
with the pressure of work. The dockyards have already 
done admirable work in repairing the damaged German 
ships. When these ships, some twenty in a]], were taken 
over, the Genuans had damaged their machinery and boilers 
to such an extent that it looked as if they would have 
to' be renewed throughout. The ~fenemy openly boasted, 
"What a German'has torn to pieces it will take a German 
to put together again." Their boast has met its answer. 
If ever engineer had an extraordinary feat to perform it was 
the repair of those ships, yet they are under steam to-day. 
It would open the eyes of stay-at-home Britons to see 
what a number of large enterprises are either entirely or in 
part conducted by their fellow-countrymen. With the ex- 
ception of submarines. Great Britain built the Brazilian 
Navy of to-day. Englishmen control her railways and mills,, 
and huge power-stations ; Englishmen represent great Amer- 
can firhis ; England provides overseers and chargemen for 
the yards and docks. If only people at home realised some- 
thing of the promise of the country, Germany would stand 
but a poor chance of reasserting herself, as slie certainly 
intends to do, in Brazil after the war. 
A Naval Incident : By Capricornus 
IT was ohe of the most lovely mornings I remember. 
We were anchored off Asia Minor at the moment, 
during a spell of delightful weather, and the smooth 
sea and golden sunshine gave the early hours of my 
morninj watch a most peaceful charm. It was before 
the war. Later on, the ordinary routine of a man-of-war 
began, and with much clatter of scrubbers and swishing of 
water, the ship was made clean. 
The bugle rousing the "Guard" to wakefulness had just 
been sounded. Here I must digress for a moment to explain 
that the "Guard" are those marines detailed for the various 
sentry posts in the ship, who, in naval parlance, are allowed 
to "lie in," i.e., they may remain in their hammocks iin hour 
or so after the others. For their convenience ' they are 
usually allotted a separate part of the ship to sleep in. In 
my particular ship they slept in a "flat," the port side, just 
before the half-deck ; a hatchway and a ladder led from 
the upper deck to this flat. Though more quiet -than the 
ordinary- mess-deck, this flat is really a gangway through 
which a certain amount of traffic would always be "passing. 
I had been watching the changing shadows on the hills 
ahead of us as the sun slowly rose above them. The air was 
full of the scent of the myriad flowers which bloomed on 
their blue-shadowed slopes, and I pictured to myself the dark 
groves of orange trees with their golden burden, and the 
yellow roses which grew beneath them. How one longs, 
after many days at sea, for the sight and sound, and the very 
smell, of Mother Earth. 
Meanwhile, the sound of 'gentle scrubbing blended with 
my thoughts. It was Payne, the ship's lark, beginning a 
new day, and his song was the song of the scrubbing brush. 
Payne was considered rather a character on board. An old 
five badge Marine, with a good conduct medal, he had been 
everywhere, and seen most things, including a deal of service. 
Like the laws of the Medes and Persians, he never changed. 
We almost looked on Ijim as one of the fittings of the half- 
deck ; he was such a quiet, hardworking old man, and the 
gleaming enamel and brasswork in his charge were standing 
tributes to his industry and perseverance. In his odd 
moments he turned an extra penny by haircutting, and had 
cut mine to perfection and shaved me the day before. 
A good soul he was. and my thoughts, accompanied by the 
sound of his scrubbing and the gentle lapping of the water, 
flitted back to the land of the blue shadows. 
It was not for long. My peaceful musings were suddenly 
and relentlessly shattered, "the vision beautiful vanished, and 
in its place stood a grim, terror-stricken Marine, pale and 
disiicvelled. He w;is clad only in the scanty garments in 
which he had retired to sleep; he 'was ttembling violently, 
and I shall not easily forget the look of horror in his eye's. 
"It's Bill, sir," he roared, as though I was eightv yards 
away instead of standing all attention at his elbow^ "Bill 
Kennedy what sleeps alongside of me, sir." His voice grew 
ever louder, and he never removed liis dilated eyes from my 
face. 
"Vers, yes," I said in a soothing tone, "but what about 
Bill'" 
"He's dead, sir. dead," he added softly and emphatically, 
as though trying to realise the full force of" what he said. 
The man. Private Jackson, was verv shaken and upset, 
but eventually 1 gathered that having" been roused by the 
bugle, he had turned as usual to Bill, whi^ was a verv 
heavy sleeper, "to shake him properlv," when to his horror, 
he saw that Bill Kennedy's head was hanging over the side 
of his hammock, with his neck almost completely severed. 
Overcome with shock and fright at the dreadful fate of his 
bed-fellow, Jackson had rushed to the upper deck, and tO' 
-me, the Officer of the Watch, for assistance. 
To pass from the peaceful harbour routine, in calm and 
sunlight, to murder and sudden death, is an ugly Shock, and 
I remember the sight of poor Kennedy to this day. We 
could do nothing for him, poor fellow. He had passed ahead. 
I had the doors of the flat closed, and the place and the 
near cabins all searched and the occupants questioned, but 
without result. One or two of the officers' servants were 
about the half-deck, and Private Payne, the sweeper, but 
they had nothing to report. 
Well, we had "poor Bill" removed and the flat cleaned, 
but the shadow of Cain was on us. Suspicion ran amongst 
us. We were all murderer-hunters. 
The Captain, in duty bound, had been informed at once 
of the death of one of his ship's company, and after Divisions 
— corresponding to Parade ashore — he ordered the "lower 
deck to be cleared," and every one to assemble aft. Having 
briefly detailed the tragedy, he announced that every in- 
dividual should pass before him and be interrogated in the 
presence of all as to his knowledge of the affair. The Cap- 
tain was a fair judge of character, and no doubt he knew 
well that this necessarily slow and deliberate method of ob- 
taining information would add to every one's nervous tension. 
One by one, officers and men, we "all paused at a small 
table opposite the Captain, stated what we knew or did not 
know, and passed on. The end of the line had nearly been 
reached, the marines were filing past, and so far no more 
infonnation had been obtained. Now only three remained 
to be questioned, wlien Payne, the last of "the line, stopped 
opposite the little table. We thought he was explaining 
how close a friend he had been to the dead man, and we all 
closed in to hear. 
I stood directly behind him and could only guess at the 
grieved expression on his lined old face. The grey, bowed 
head shook sadly, as his deep musical voice went on : 
"You see. sir, it was like this. Just before the bugle 
sounded, I had occasion to go forward to the flat, for some 
fresh water for my paint work. While my bucket was filling, 
I stood looking at the boys asleep. Novv Kennedy, he slept 
on the outside of the row, and was the one nearest me. His 
head was hung back, like, a little, like this, sir," and the old 
man threw back his head and stroked his gnarled old neck. 
"He had a beautiful throat, sir, smooth and >-oung." 
There was pity in the old fellow's voice. To have had time 
to acquire five badges a Marine can be no chicken, and no 
doubt he felt the tragedy of his mess-mate. He paused for 
a moment, tlunkmg deeply, and wagging his grev head from 
side to side as though smitten with the tragedy of life and 
death : » 
''Well, sir, I turned the water off," once more he paused, 
and we waited sympathetically, "he had such a smooth 
throat, sir I just took me razor out, and slit it from ear to 
ear then I cleans me razor in the bucket, puts it awav in my 
pocket, and goes on cleaning of my paint work sir " " 
The righteousness in his last words was evident to all of 
us. He liad seen a throat which seemed to him meant to 
be cut, and he had cut it. The temporary diversion over, 
he ]iad gone on with his work, "cleaning of my paint work, 
I think we all felt a little sick. Payne excepted 
He was led awav. and now scrubs the paintwork in a naval 
lunatic asylum. We dispersed, and under the influence of 
routine were soon forgetting, but the flat at night is still a 
nfle uneasy : and 1 remember how carefully and slowly 
Private Payne had shaved me the night heiore 
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