Caine Mutiny, The - Herman Wouk [95]
“I’m not commanding that tug, sir,” Queeg said with a sly little smile at his hands.
Grace screwed up his eyes and peered at Queeg as though he were in a very poor light. He rapped the ash out of his pipe against a horny palm into a heavy glass ashtray. “See here, Commander,” he said in a pleasanter tone than he had hitherto used, “I understand how you feel about your first command. You’re anxious to make no mistakes-it’s only natural. I was that way myself. But I made mistakes, and paid for them, and gradually grew into a fairly competent officer. Let’s be frank with each other, Commander Queeg, for the sake of your ship and, if I may say so, your future career. Forget that this is an official interview. From here on in everything is off the record.”
Queeg’s head was sinking down between his shoulders, and he regarded Grace warily from under his eyebrows.
“Between you and me,” Grace said, “you didn’t try to recover that target because you just didn’t know what to do in the situation. Isn’t that the truth?”
Queeg took a long, long, leisurely puff at his cigarette.
“If that’s the case, man,” said Grace in a fatherly way, “for Christ’s sake say so and let’s both put this incident behind us. On that basis I can understand it and forget it. It was a mistake, a mistake due to anxiety and inexperience. But there’s no man in the Navy who’s never made a mistake-”
Queeg shook his head decisively, reached forward, and crushed out his cigarette. “No, Captain, I assure you I appreciate what you say, but I am not so stupid as to lie to a superior officer, and I assure you my first version of what happened is correct and I do not believe I have made any mistake as yet in commanding the Caine nor do I intend to, and, as I say, finding the caliber of my officers and crew to be what it is, I am simply going to get seven times as tough as usual and bear down seven times as hard until the ship is up to snuff which I promise you will be soon.”
“Very well, Commander Queeg.” Grace rose, and when Queeg started to get up he said, “Stay where you are, stay where you are.” He went to a shelf on the wall, took down a round purple tin of expensive English tobacco, and refilled his pipe. When he was lighting the pipe with a thick wooden match he inquisitively regarded the Caine captain, who was rolling nonexistent balls again.
“Commander Queeg,” he said suddenly, “about the-puff puff-defective towline-puff puff-that broke. How much of a turn were you making?”
Queeg’s head tilted sidewise; he darted a look full of suspicion at the captain. “I was using standard rudder, of course, sir. I have never exceeded standard rudder with the target, as my logs will show-”
“That’s not what I mean.” Grace returned to his seat, and leaned forward, waving the smoking pipe at Queeg. “How far did you turn? Twenty degrees? Sixty degrees? Were you reversing course 180 degrees-or what?”
The Caine skipper gripped the arms of the chair with bony knuckles, saying, “I’d have to check in my logs, sir, but I don’t see what bearing it has on the matter how much of a turn it was, so long as-”
“Did you come around in a complete circle, Commander Queeg, and cut your own towline?”
Queeg’s jaw dropped. He closed and opened his mouth a couple of times and at last said in a low, furious tone, stammering a little, “Captain Grace, with all submission, sir, I must tell you that I resent that question, and regard it as a personal insult.”
Grace’s stern expression wavered. He looked away from Queeg. “No insult intended, Commander. Some questions are more unpleasant to ask than to answer- Did that happen or didn’t it?”
“If it did, sir, I think I ought to have recommended my own general court-martial.”
Grace stared hard at Queeg. “I must tell you, Commander, that you have troublemakers aboard your ship. We received such a rumor here this morning. I seldom take cognizance of such scuttlebutt. However, the admiral heard it, and in view of several other actions of yours which have seriously troubled