Caine Mutiny, The - Herman Wouk [85]
“Kay,” said the captain, initialing the despatch and returning the board to the sailor.
“Thank you, sir.” Urban scuttled out.
“Now,” said Queeg, rattling the balls in his fist, “that’s another thing I want knocked off right away, Mr. Gorton.”
“What, sir?”
“You know damn well what. Since when do uniform regulations permit the crew to wear their shirts outside their trousers? They’re sailors, not Filipino bus boys.”
“Aye aye, sir,” said Gorton resignedly.
“Aye aye, sir, hell!” snapped Queeg. “I’m serious about this, Burt. You will make the following announcement in the plan of the day tomorrow. ‘Hereafter all shirts will be tucked inside trousers. Failure to comply will result in heavy disciplinary action.’ ”
“Yes, sir,” said Gorton. “They’ve been doing it for years on this ship. I don’t know if we can change them overnight-”
“Those are orders,” said Queeg, “and sailors don’t have to be changed overnight to obey orders. If there’s any trouble we’ll hand out a few captain’s masts, and if necessary we’ll hand out deck courts, and if necessary we’ll hand out general court-martials for defiance of orders-but there will be no more flapping shirttails on my ship! Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And I want a meeting of all officers in the wardroom at 1300.”
“Aye aye, sir.” The exec went out, closing the door softly. Captain Queeg lay back on his bed and stared at the green overhead. Rub, rub, rub, rub, went the little steel balls.
The officers of the Caine sat around the green table, chatting in low tones, a ring of perplexed, sullen faces. “Two wardroom meetings in a week,” said Keefer aside to Maryk. “De Vriess didn’t have two all the time he was captain.”
“Take it easy, Tom,” muttered Maryk.
“I’m just beginning to wonder, that’s all,” said Keefer, very low.
Gorton came out of Queeg’s room. “The captain, gentlemen.”
All the officers rose. Keefer slouched, his hands in his pockets. Captain Queeg entered at a businesslike pace, head down, rolling the balls as usual. “Kay,” he said. “Kay, gentlemen.” He sat, and the officers did, too. He pulled out a fresh package of cigarettes, opened it, took out a cigarette, lit it, and laid the cigarettes and matches carefully on the table.
“Gentlemen,” he said at last, looking out from under his eyebrows at the empty air over the table, “I regret to say that I am displeased.”
His eyes shifted momentarily from side to side, taking in the faces around him, and he resumed his stare at nothing. “I am displeased, gentlemen, because I have told you that on my ship I expect excellent performance to be standard-and-well, it isn’t standard. No, it isn’t standard. You all know what I’m talking about, so I won’t embarrass the department heads by going into particulars. Perhaps some of you feel that in your departments excellent performance is standard. Well, in that case, I’m not addressing you. But those whom the shoe fits-well, they’d better get on the ball, that’s all.
“Now, as you know, this ship was supposed to go to Pago Pago. Well, this ship isn’t going to Pago Pago. This ship is going to stay at Pearl Harbor and tow targets. Nice, soft, pleasant duty. The only question is, why have we been favored so generously by ComServPac?
“Well, your guess is as good as mine. A naval officer isn’t supposed to speculate about his orders. He’s supposed to execute them. That’s exactly what I intend to do, and don’t kid yourselves about that!” He looked around at blank faces. “Kay, any questions? No? Then I assume you all know exactly what I’m driving at, is that correct? Kay. Now I would like to point out that there are only two possible reasons why we got our orders changed. Either ComServPac decided that this ship is so outstanding that it deserves some extra-nice duty-or ComServPac decided that this ship is so lousy that it might not be competent to carry out an assignment in the forward area. Can anybody here suggest any other possible reason?
“Kay. Now, I’m not saying which I think it is. But if this ship is not outstanding now it had damn well better become so P.D.Q., meaning pretty