Читать книгу Down Under with the Prince - Everard Cotes - Страница 9

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The relations between the Royal Navy and H.M. King Neptune are known to partake of the spirit of compromise which so happily characterizes the British Empire elsewhere. Neptune permits the suzerainty but demands a certain ceremonial which acknowledges his ancient rights. The function has a date and a determination and is observed by all King George's vessels on crossing the Equatorial line. It is in the nature of an initiation and lends itself to gruesome and alarmist description. For days before the Renown reached the specified spot our feelings were harrowed and our dreams disturbed by foretellings of the unescapable ordeal of all novices. There was no immunity in being a passenger, even in being the Chief Passenger. Neptune was not aware of passengers. The wardroom was horrid with boding. Mercifully we were preserved from the imagination of the snotties.

The Royal Navy does nothing by half. Elaborate preparations were made long in advance. Active brains in Wardroom, Gunroom, Warrant Officers', Petty Officers', Engineers' and Stokers' messes and in the lower deck, found a morning and an evening occupation inventing rhymed patter, designing and making the weirdest of costumes, in which oakum, canvas, ship's-paint, and stove-soot all largely figured. An extensive stage was erected on the forecastle with a sail forty feet long, containing four feet of sea water, convenient for the "baptizing" of all those on the ship, of whom there must have been at least five hundred, who had not previously crossed the line. Wooden razors the size of cutlasses, barrels of lather made of coloured flour and water, whitewash brushes for applying the same to the countenance were provided, also a gauge-glass for a clinical thermometer, a cutlass for a lancet, and quantities of dough-pills, the size of marbles, well flavoured with bitter quinine, for physicking the victim before his ablution.

The Prince himself was one of the most active of the conspirators. To an inquiry sent "up top" (i.e. to the Prince's quarters) a reply signed by Captain Dudley North, R.N., was received by the "Father of the ship" (i.e. the Commander), upon whose broad shoulders falls responsibility of every kind.

It ran:

"His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has not yet crossed the Line. I am desired by H.R.H. to say that he is looking forward with interest to his meeting with His Majesty King Neptune and Amphitrite, his wife, and also to his initiation as a Freeman of His Majesty's domains.

The following members of the staff have crossed the Line, and are entitled to wear the various classes of the Order of the Bath bestowed on them by His Majesty:—

Rear-Admiral Sir Lionel Halsey has crossed the Line on upwards of 200 occasions; in fact, for some time this officer is understood to have supported himself on it. It is understood that he has been strongly recommended for the order of the 'Old Sea Dog.'

Captain Dudley North has crossed the Line nine times, and has been personally decorated by His Majesty.

Lieut.-Colonel Grigg and Lord Claud Hamilton have already crossed the Line—the former twice, the latter four times. These officers have, however, stated that owing possibly to some special favour, or else to some serious preoccupation on the part of His Majesty, they were not privileged to undergo the full ceremony of initiation. They are all the more anxious, therefore, on this account, to pay every respect to His Majesty, and not to presume on his former graciousness. In expressing their humble duty to His Majesty they await, with great humility, the verdict of his most excellent Court as to whether they will be required to be initiated or not.

The following members of H.R.H.'s staff have not yet crossed the Line or had the honour of an audience with His Majesty:—

Sir Godfrey Thomas, Bart. Captain the Hon. Piers Leigh. The Bears will, no doubt, attend to these gentlemen."

Each novice upon the ship meanwhile received a notice summoning him to present himself at noon on the 10th April:

"Before our Court, at the Equator, in order that we may confer upon you the Freedom of the Seas, and our permission to enter the other hemisphere."

The proceedings began after dinner over-night when the Prince and his staff accompanied the Captain to the Bridge. The lights were turned off and in the darkness one could feel the presence of the entire ship's company crowded upon every vantage point.

Out of the blackness from in front came the shout

"Ship-ahoy!"

with the Captain's deep

"Aye, Aye,"

in reply, as searchlights swept the sea.

Neptune: "What ship are you?"

Captain: "His Britannic Majesty's Battle-Cruiser Renown."

Neptune: "I wish to come on board."

Captain (to Officer of Watch): "Stop both." (To Neptune, shouting). "My engines are stopped. I am sending an officer to conduct Your Majesty to my Bridge."

Rockets went up, and in a falling shower of sparks a procession of strange figures climbed into the ship from over the side. Neptune, Amphitrite, judge, barber, and doctor, with attendant imps, bears, and policemen were there in the most realistic of scales, fins, mermaids' hair and ursine fur. They carried brobdingnagian batons, razors, shaving brushes and trident. Their appearance was terrific.

The party was escorted with much formality to the Bridge, where Neptune and Amphitrite were presented to the Prince and drinks were stood to Their Majesties and the Court party, neither were there any heel-taps. Pourparlers were exchanged in ceremonial verse, Captain Taylor making the following frank explanation:

"Our business is to take a Royal Prince To see a portion of our Empire's land. The Prince of Wales, he is our passenger Who hopes to meet your Bears and clasp your hand."

It seemed impossible for the spirits of the deep to communicate in anything less metrical than this, and Neptune acknowledged his reception and announced his intention to hold an Investiture as well as a few other things, the following day, in the same fashion.

Next morning the circumstance was even more elaborate. Proceedings began upon the quarter-deck, where the "Companionship of the Royal Order of the Equatorial Bath" was solemnly conferred upon the Prince, and a "Knight Commandership of the Ancient Order of the Old Sea Dog" upon Admiral Halsey. H.R.H. responded in lyrical strains which concluded:—

"I know I'm for it, King; so, boys, Don't let me keep the party waiting"—

a touch of panache that was duly applauded. The Court-Martial of two selected prisoners came next to a roar from Neptune:

"And if they drown I do not care a fig. Arrest Mountbatten and the Man called Grigg!"

For the moment these unhappy persons were roped and bound, while the Investiture went forward. Captain Dudley North was made a Knight Commander of the Aged Cod in these terms:

"Dudley dear, I'm pleased to meet you Once again. Now let me treat you To the old established Order of the Very Ancient Cod. Its privilege is this, That you may daily kiss The most beauteous of my mermaids if you catch her on the nod."

A move was finally made to the forecastle where was duly performed the physicking, shaving and ducking of the novices, beginning with the Prince and members of his staff and going down to the youngest seamen on the lower deck. The novices were marched up and seated, one after another, in the barber's chair, where a pill was squeezed into each one's mouth, despite the most lively struggles; the lather was laid on, a rough scrape with the wooden razor followed, the chair was upset and the now seasoned novice was sent head over heels into the swimming bath, where the Bears ducked him handsomely to the cheerful rhyme:

"Shave him and bash him, Duck him and splash him, Torture and smash him, And don't let him go!"

The Prince underwent a full share of the horse-play; and that he took a "three-times-three ducking" with the best, was the opinion of every one of the thirteen hundred sailor-men who looked on, and would have been candour itself if the ritual had been in any way reduced or evaded.

It was a spectacle impossible to imagine anywhere but in the British Navy, and helped hilariously to relieve the monotony of the voyage. The cost of the material employed was probably less than a hundred shillings. The labour and artistry voluntarily bestowed by the ship's Company to make it what it was, cost nothing at all; the preparations, from the elaborate embroidering of Amphitrite's scales and the careful scenting of her golden hair, to the fine turning and engraving of the Insignia of the Equatorial Order of the Royal Bath, were all the work of off-duty hours when the sailor ordinarily would have been asleep. We are but children of a larger growth and happy are the traditions that keep us so in His Majesty's Navy.