We Joined The Navy Read Online Free

you play any games?’
    ‘Oh yes. I was in the second rugger fifteen and the second cricket eleven, sir. I used to play in the first if anyone got crocked.’
    ‘Were those your only games?’
    ‘Oh no, sir. I used to play almost everything we had at school at odd times. I was fairly good at them all but not very good at any one of them.’
    ‘Do you play golf?’
    ‘I’ve never actually tried it, sir. I’m willing to give it a shot.’
    The Board beamed. Here was a broad-minded lad, free of prejudice, who was willing to try anything once.
    ‘Hobbes,’ said the Admiral, ‘why do you want to become a naval officer?’
    ‘I’ve always had it in mind, sir. I’ve never really thought about doing anything else.’
    ‘Do you come from a naval family?’
    ‘No, sir, this is all my idea.’
    The Psychiatrist wrote: ‘Hobbes--no sense of humour.’
    The Board were not getting any satisfaction from Hobbes. The Admiral tried a new tack.
    ‘If you were walking down a street, Hobbes, and you saw a taxi-driver knocked down and left lying by another man who ran off, what would you do? Would you leave the man where he was and drive the taxi to a hospital for an ambulance? Or put the man in the taxi and drive to a hospital? Or take the money from the meter and get another taxi to the hospital? Or leave the money ...’
    The Admiral was suddenly conscious that somewhere the problem had gone astray. He wondered where he had made a mistake. Hobbes, however, solved the problem.
    ‘There’s no money in a taxi-meter, sir,’ he said.
    ‘Quite so. All right, Hobbes. That’s all. You can go now.’
    ‘Thank you very much, sir.’
    ‘A very diffident young man,’ said the Admiral. ‘Obviously has no idea of his own capabilities.’
    The Board looked significantly at each other and wrote.
     
    Another candidate followed Hobbes after lunch, and after him, still another. The next day another batch arrived and the Board began again. One by one, the faces sat down in the chair, answered questions, and left again. Day after day, the Board questioned, probed, selected, and discarded, until they had interviewed over 200 boys. Their only method was by patient and never-ending questioning and by careful appraisal of the candidate as he answered.
    ‘Edward Maconochie.’
    ‘Why do you want to join the Navy, Maconochie?’
    ‘It’s not me who’s all that keen, sir. I thought it was you . They told me you were short of recruits, sort of like the Salvation Army. . . .’
     
    ‘Peter Eric Cleghorn.’
    ‘Why do you want to join the Navy, Cleghorn?’
    ‘They told me at. Pangbourne I hadn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of getting in the P. & O. and I’d better try the R.N. . . ’
     
    ‘Colin Timothy Stacforth.’
    ‘No need to ask you why you want to join the Navy, eh Stacforth? How’s your father keeping? . . .’
     
    ‘Isaiah Nine Smith.’
    ‘Why do you want to join the Navy, Smith?’
    ‘It was either that or being a parson, sir.’
     
    ‘Frederick Augustus Spink.’
    ‘Why do you want to join the Navy, Spink?’
    ‘Do you know, sir, when I see you all up there and me down here, do you know it reminds me of that picture “When Did You Last See Your Father?” ‘
     
    ‘Raymond Ball.’
    ‘Why do you want to join the Navy, Ball?’
    ‘Got a bit fed up with the girls round our way. Thought I’d try pastures new, so to speak. Dad says blokes that drink rum live to a great age.’
    When the last candidate had been interviewed, the Board checked and rechecked their opinions. When they had finally passed their verdict they sent the list to the Admiralty. Their job was now finished until the next entry but sometimes, when they thought over the events of the last weeks, they likened themselves to men who have made a huge snowball on a hilltop and who now set the snowball on its unpredictable path downwards. Where the snowball would land, and what the consequences of that landing would be, the Board had no means of