Caine Mutiny, The - Herman Wouk [146]
“That’s not the point,” exclaimed Queeg. “Why is everybody so goddamned stupid on this ship? Don’t you think I know how much water we have? The point is, the men on this ship have been wasting water, and for their own good they’ve got to be taught a lesson, that’s all.”
“Captain, they’ve learned their lesson. One day of this is like a week without water.”
The captain pursed his lips. “No, Steve, I said forty-eight hours and I meant forty-eight hours. If these men get the idea that I’m one of these shilly-shallyers who doesn’t mean what he says there’ll be no controlling them. Hell, I’d like a shower myself, Steve. I know how you feel. But we’ve got to put up with these inconveniences for the sake of the men’s own good-”
“I wasn’t asking for myself, sir. But the men-”
“Now don’t give me any of that!” Queeg raised up on one elbow, and glared at the executive officer. “I’m as interested in the men’s welfare as you are, and don’t you go playing the hero. Did they or didn’t they waste water? They did. Well, what do you want me to do about it-give them all letters of commendation?”
“Sir, consumption went up ten per cent. It was an invasion day. It wasn’t really what I’d call wasting-”
“All right, all right, Mr. Maryk.” Queeg lay back on the bed. “I see you simply want an argument for argument’s sake. Sorry I can’t accommodate you, but it’s too hot and smelly at the moment. That’s all.”
Maryk heaved his broad chest in a painful sigh. “Sir, how about one fifteen-minute shower period after the sweep-down?”
“God damn it, no! They’ll get enough water in their soup and coffee to keep from getting dehydrated. That’s all that matters. Next time they’ll remember not to waste water on my ship! You can go, Steve.”
The following wind did not desert the Caine that night nor the next day. Below decks, the air that came through the ventilators was intolerable; most of it was stack gas. The sailors swarmed out of the compartments and slept in clusters on the after deckhouse or on the main deck, as far from the stacks as they could get. Some of them brought mattresses, but mostly they curled themselves on the rusted deck plates, with life jackets for pillows. On the bridge everyone breathed in gasps through the night. During certain legs of the zigzag the breeze blew at a slight angle, instead of from dead astern, and then it was possible, by stretching one’s neck far out over the bulwark, to catch a gulp or two of warm, fresh, unbelievably sweet air.
A hot sun rose out of the sea next morning and glared redly on a ship which appeared stricken by a plague. Dirty half-naked bodies sprawled all over the decks, apparently lifeless. The boatswain, piping reveille, wrought only a halfhearted resurrection. The bodies stirred, and rose, and began to move through chores with leaden limbs, like the crew of dead men in the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The Caine was now fifty miles from the equator, sailing almost due south. With each hour that the sun rose in the sky the air grew hotter and more humid. And-still the ship wallowed over the glittering sea, trapped in its own stench of stack gas and cabbages.
Around noon, human nature revolted. The black gang began to bootleg water in the after engine room, where the evaporators were, so that no pressure would be found by Queeg in any pipes. The word passed through the ship like a telegram. The two narrow steel ladders descending to the broiling, clanking engine space became choked with sailors. Paynter quickly discovered what was happening, and reported it to Maryk in the charthouse. The executive officer shrugged. “Can’t hear a word you’re saying,” he said. “Stack gas has got my ears ringing.”
This blessed relief was available only to the crew. Word of it soon reached all the officers; but, unanimously disloyal though they were to Queeg, a vague yet pervasive sense of the symbolism of an officer’s cap kept them from descending the engine-room ladders.
Ducely, indeed, dropped his head on his arms beside the coding machine at three o’clock, and bleated to Willie that he could stand it no more;