better looked after than the Spray at Gibraltar.
Later in the day came the hail: “ Spray ahoy! Mrs. Bruce would like to come on board and shake hands with the Spray . Will it be convenient today!” “Very!” I joyfully shouted.
On the following day Sir F. Carrington, at the time governor of Gibraltar, with other high officers of the garrison, and all the commanders of the battleships, came on board and signed their names in the Spray ’s logbook. Again there was a hail, “ Spray ahoy!” “Hello!” “Commander Reynolds’s compliments. You are invited on board H.M.S. Collingwood , ‘at home’ at 4:30 p.m. Not later than 5:30 p.m. ” I had already hinted at the limited amount of my wardrobe, and that I could never succeed as a dude. “You are expected, sir, in a stovepipe hat and a claw-hammer coat!” “Then I can’t come.” “Dash it! come in what you have on; that is what we mean.” “Aye, aye, sir!” The Collingwood ’s cheer was good, and had I worn a silk hat as high as the moon I could not have had a better time or been made more at home. An Englishman, even on his great battleship, unbends when the stranger passes his gangway, and when he says “at home” he means it.