m group to group to collect
sufficient people to play deck cricket, quoits, or bull-board, while
yet another, armed with a notebook and a pencil, would be endeavouring
to inveigle recalcitrant ladies with strict notions as to the sins of
gambling into taking tickets for a sweepstake on the next day's mileage.

One would hear the laughter of children as they chased each other round
the decks, and the sotto-voce remarks of some old gentleman roused from
his afternoon nap by the sudden impact of a podgy infant of four
tripping heavily over his outstretched feet.

After dark in some secluded corner one might happen upon a man and a
girl. They would be sitting very close together, and behaving... well,
as men and maidens sometimes do, to beguile the tedium of voyages at
sea.

Everything would be calm and peaceful. Everybody would be happy, even
the young gentleman with no prospects travelling second class, who
having won the sweepstake on the day's run and suddenly finding himself
L20 the richer, celebrated his luck with his friends in the
smoking-room.

* * * * *

But then the war came and changed everything.

The Admiralty requisitioned the ship and armed her with guns. They
painted her a dull grey all over, and tore down all her polished
woodwork to lessen the chances of fire in action, leaving nothing but
the bare steel walls. Most of the cabins were stripped of their
furniture and fittings, only enough being left intact to provide
accommodation for the officers.

The carved woodwork and most of the tables and chairs in the saloons
were taken away, and though the painted frescoes and glass domes still
remained, they were dusty and neglected.

In one corner of the first-class saloon was the wardroom, a space
partitioned off by painted canvas screens to provide messing
accommodation for the more senior officers. Opposite to it was the
gunroom, a similar enclosure for the juniors.

They manned her with a crew of between three and four hundred Royal
Navy Reserve men, with a leavening of Royal Navy ratings and a few
Marines. They appointed a Captain R.N. in command and two or three
other naval officers, but by far the greater proportion of officers and
crew belonged to the Reserve, and excellent fellows they were.

Certain of the men had served on beard in peace-time, and had elected
to remain on, but the majority came to her for the first time when she
commissioned as a man-of-war