We Saw The Sea

'To succeed in the Navy you've got to humour madmen,' Paul Vincent explains to Michael Hobbes when they meet again for the first time since they left H.M.S. Barsetshire, the Cadet Training Cruiser. Both have long since finished their training and are now Lieutenants just appointed to H.M.S. Carousel, a cruiser on the Far Eastern Station, an unusual ship whose shape has been changed so often that even Jane's Fighting Ships has despaired of her. In the trooper Michael and Paul come to close quarters with those strange but allied species - the Army and the R.A.F. They also meet a very old acquaintance, Carousel's new First Lieutenant, none other than Lieutenant Commander Robert Bollinger Badger, D.S.C., R.N., known throughout the Navy as The Artful Bodger. The Bodger is still a man of resource. He demonstrates how to deal with impertinent Army officers who ask him to play deck games under a broiling afternoon sun and how to run a children's fancy dress party in circumstances which would have made a full Admiral blench. H.M.S. Carousel has a varied commission. Her officers entertain everyone from the Borneo chief who offers to shrink the Chief Steward's head free of charge to the boffins who designed Miranda (the super-intelligent secret weapon who takes charge of her own trials). Michael and Paul meet again Freddie Spink, by now the uncrowned King of Hong Kong's night life, and George Dewberry, living the life of a Shogun of Old Japan on suki yaki and explosive rice wine, surrounded by geisha girls. Meanwhile, the Bodger is on top form. He settles accounts with the American destroyer, Hiram K. Salt, arranges a Damage Control exercise which leaves its mark on the ship, and rides an elephant back to the oddest tea party he has ever attended. We Joined the Navy was perhaps the most successful first novel published, and all who read it will welcome its successor.