We Joined The Navy

"An intelligent man," the President of the Admiralty Interview Board tells the other members, "never makes a good naval officer. He embarrasses everyone." They nod md eighty cadets in brand new uniform are )lunged into a strange and uncomfortable world inhabited by such characters as the destroyer captain, Poggles, who anchors his ;hip with the aid of brewers' signs, and dislikes cadets; Captain Sir Douglas Mainwaring Gregson, Bart., who breeds red letters and ignores cadets; and Able Seaman Froggins, who lives a malevolent, hermit-like life in the darkness of his locker and thinks all cadets are as wet as scrubbers.Their training is more comprehensive than they expect. They scrub decks in the early morning and repel the advances of amorous Spanish barmaids by night. They paint the ship's side and play cricket against a West Indian team, the ground, the crowd and a calypso steel band. They sail boats and quell i revolution in Central America. All who love the sea and all who enjoy laughter will revel in John Winton's first book.