ions, sir. You are guilty of gross neglect and
carelessness!"

Falland left the poop.

The damage was not sufficiently serious to delay the ship, and, having
chopped herself free, she proceeded on her journey, her Commander
taking upon himself the duties of the deposed Navigator.

It was unfortunate that, in calculating the course to be steered, he
applied 3 deg. deviation the wrong way. It was equally unfortunate that he
miscalculated the set of the current, since it was these two things
which, at 11.53 a.m. precisely, caused the gunboat to come into violent
contact with a ledge of rocks with barely six feet of water over them
at high water.

"Good heavens! What's that?" shouted the skipper, as there came a
series of muffled, grinding crashes under water and the ship stopped
dead.

"We've hit something, sir," said Pardoe, who was on the poop. They
had, and for some hours remained stuck fast. In fact, the _Puffin's_
bones would have been there to this day if she had not been steaming at
her leisurely, economical speed of 7 1/2 knots, and it was only by
sheer good luck, and with the assistance of salvage tugs and appliances
from Hong-Kong, that she was ever got off at all. As it was she was
merely badly damaged, and came back into harbour in tow of one tug,
while a couple of others, with their pumps working at full speed and
gushing forth streams of water, were lashed alongside her.

Falland was not court-martialled, but a week later Commander Potvin,
after an interview with the Admiral and certain medical officers, found
that the climate of Hong-Kong was too rigorous for his constitution,
and embarked on board a P. and O. steamer for passage home to England
_en route_ for Yarmouth.

The gunboat's officers watched her until she was out of sight, and then
repaired to the wardroom and indulged in cocktails.

"I'm sorry for him," said No. One, lifting his glass with a grin.

"Here's luck to him, and to us."

"Salve," nodded the doctor, swallowing his potion at a gulp.

The Royal Naval Hospital for mental cases is situated at Yarmouth.

[1] The commanding officer of a man-of-war, whatever his rank, is
always "the captain." More familiarly he may be referred to "the
owner," "skipper," or "old man."

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