Chapter 16: The Royal Navy’s Assessment System
Chapter 16 The Royal Navy’s Assessment System
Today’s weather was obviously not as good as yesterday’s, the sky was foggy, the streets were drizzling with annoying drizzle, and a dampness that seeped into the marrow of the bones permeated everywhere.
If it had been any other time, Arthur would have had to point at the heavens and curse twice before he left the house.
But now, he didn’t care, not one bit.
Well, at least, that’s what he said on his lips.
An ordinary pub in London’s East End, where the all-night rave had just ended not long ago.
The waiter hadn’t even had time to clean the wine stains and grease off the table, and the limp table with half a leg missing was occupied by two new arrivals.
One of the two guests was a geeky broad with a pipe in his mouth, a sailor’s hat on his head, lantern pants over his head, and big head shoes on his feet.
As for the other, it was even stranger.
The other guest had an unopened bottle of wine dangling from his left hand, a ninety percent new pipe in his right hand, a live stray rabbit tied to his shoulder with twine, and a deck of playing cards just bought from the store in his pants pocket.
His eyes stared straight at the waitress until the other party’s face was red and hot, then he politely opened his mouth and inquired, “Ma’am, can I marry you?”
Seeing this, that geeky broad finally couldn’t hold back his curses.
“Arthur! What the hell are you fucking up? You don’t look like a hooligan at all, you look like a douchebag! Fuckin’ thing, your handsome face is really wasted! Have you forgotten what I just taught you? Get out of the way, I’ll do it!”
After saying that, the geeky broad personally walked in front of the waitress to demonstrate for Arthur.
His teasing eyes glanced back and forth between the other party’s breasts and face as he used his fingertips to pick up the other party’s chin, and then spoke in a flirty tone, “Little girl, are you interested in playing with me?”
“Go play with your mother, bastard!”
There was a crunching sound.
The left side of Elder’s face had an additional, clearly visible slap mark.
The waitress pinched her waist and pointed at Elder’s nose and scolded angrily, ”You messed with the wrong person! How dare you come to touch my old lady’s bad luck, haven’t you heard of your grandmother’s ‘Pepper Penny’s’ great name from the mouths of the drunkards in the neighborhood?”
Elder covered the left side of his face and crouched on the ground as he screamed in pain.
“Fuck! Why does she have such a strong hand for a pussy?”
Arthur looked at the tray full of beer glasses in the waitress’s hand and shrugged innocently.
“I don’t think someone who can hold up twelve pint glasses of beer with one hand, even if she’s a petite, lovely lady, should be any less strong.”
“Shut up, Arthur!”
“You don’t seem to be any stronger than me, at least I didn’t take a beating.”
“Wasn’t I showing you the ropes?”
“Wrong demonstration?”
Arthur’s sentence topped Elder’s almost out of breath.
He held his tongue for half a second before he spoke, “Arthur.”
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s a shame you went to history school.”
Arthur fell for his remark, and he nodded, “I think so too.”
“You’d have been a great writer sooner or later if you’d come to read the classics. Shelley? Byron? Those two don’t even deserve your shoes. You’re the true master of satire.”
“Elder, you are so overrated.” Arthur said modestly, “I usually consider myself just about on par with them, not much beyond.”
“Are you serious?”
“Of course. But only if you were also serious in that previous statement.” Elder threw up his hands, “Okay, okay, I surrender. Let’s just sit down and eat something. You called me out early in the morning in the rain, you didn’t come all the way here to fight with me, did you?”
“That’s not true, I wanted to come and ask you about the arrangements behind you. Is it true that I don’t have to do anything before sailing?”
Elder leaned back in his seat, one leg on the table, and nearly kicked the oil lamp over.
“That’s not so bad, the Royal Navy is lax in their management during the break, but given that it’s your first time on a ship, you should be given some basic training.
Things like teaching you how to use a sextant to identify your heading, what winds blow in what seas during what seasons, giving you an idea of the basic structure of the ship’s interior and exterior, probably stuff like that.
But that doesn’t matter, anyway, most of the work will be given to the sailors and officers to take care of, you just don’t have to learn too much.
Because when you’re done learning, chances are the Admiralty will do a couple of simple tests on you.
If you fail the tests, you’ll be in big trouble.”
Arthur ordered a bowl of mashed potatoes, and as he ate, he asked, “That sounds pretty formal. Why isn’t it quite the same as what you described to me before? Didn’t you say that the Royal Navy is a crap organization with rampant internal corruption, nepotism, and rigid management regulations?”
Elder even rolled his eyes and said, “Unfortunately, Arthur. While the Royal Navy is a garbage organization, I do have to admit that it does have some good in it.”
“Such as?”
“For example, the Royal Navy’s officer selection mechanism.”
“Didn’t you say that most of those selected up are related? Right, I almost forgot, your uncle is a Rear Admiral in the Royal Navy.
If that’s the case, why don’t you go get an officer. Navy Captain Elder, listen to that title, it’s just handsome as hell.”
Elder snatched the wine from Arthur’s side, snapped the cork out with a raw hand, and tilted his head back to take a sip.
He cursed, “Handsome my ass! What’s so handsome about a Navy Captain, it’s just the lowest rank of the official Navy officers.”
Arthur snickered, “It’s cooler than Patrol Sergeant Arthur, right?”
“That’s true.” Elder laughed out loud, “But you’re not Constable Arthur anymore, you’re Arthur the Museum Man.”
“You still haven’t told me why you didn’t go become an officer.”
“Because I’m past my prime, of course. If I had really made up my mind to follow the naval path, I should have gone to naval school when I was twelve. After a year of training at the school, you have to go to a ship as a cadet for six years of apprenticeship and exercise. During those six years, I had to do basically every job on the ship. Arthur, does that seem like a human life to you?”
Arthur thought about it and responded, “It is indeed quite hard. But if I can become an officer, six years of hard work will be worth it, once I get through this part.”
“Wow! Arthur, what are you thinking? You don’t necessarily become a naval officer after six years; some people don’t even get to be an acting ensign after six years.
And the most critical thing is that all cadets have to return to the Admiralty after six years of apprenticeship to take the examination, qualified to become a full officer of the Royal Navy, unqualified will be waiting to switch to the merchant navy to run the ship.
The pass rate for that exam is ridiculously low, if you don’t have some means in your family, even if they’re slightly softer, don’t even think about passing.”
Arthur asked, “If that’s the case, then why do you still say it’s a strength of the Royal Navy?”
Elder took another swig of his drink, and in that time he had already drunk half of Arthur’s bottle.
“Even though you have to have connections to pass this exam, you can’t do it without some skill. What’s more, even if the guy who passes the test is no good, he’s still been on a ship for six years proper since he was a teenager, which is a lot better than those real losers who are pampered on shore.”
Arthur was still a little skeptical, “Isn’t there anyone with connections hard enough to not take this test?”
Elder shook his head in a serious manner, “That’s one of the few things the Royal Navy has going for it. Do you know Prince William? He’s the son of a king, but he also had to do six years on a ship and then pass an exam to be commissioned. The Admiralty is usually so stiff it’s almost like a medieval antique, but that’s the only thing I recognize about them.”
“Then why didn’t you go to naval school back then? Wasn’t your uncle a Rear Admiral?”
Elder rolled his eyes and spoke, “How was I supposed to know he’d be a Rear Admiral back there, he was only a Colonel when I was twelve. If I had known he would climb so fast, I wouldn’t have been stubborn back then.”
(End of chapter)