A Boxing Match with Crampley
The narrator’s former adversary, the midshipman Crampley, continues his persecution even after the narrator’s promotion. During a medical procedure, Crampley sings a song offensive to Scottish honor, prompting the narrator to retort that Scots expect enemies among the ignorant and malicious. This defiance so enrages Crampley that he strikes the narrator in the face. Following Morgan’s intervention, the two agree to settle their grievance through boxing. Though Crampley possesses superior technique learned at Hockley-in-the-Hole, the narrator eventually prevails by delivering a powerful combined head, hand, and foot attack that sends Crampley tumbling down the main hatchway. The fall leaves Crampley unconscious with a dislocated shoulder. Morgan pronounces the injury serious but not fatal, and the narrator gains considerable reputation from the twenty-minute bout.
Captain Oakum Comes Aboard
The ship receives sailing orders, and Captain Oakum arrives to assume command, bringing with him a new surgeon named Mackshane. This replacement immediately reveals the magnitude of the loss from Doctor Atkins’s departure. The new surgeon proves grossly ignorant, imperiously arrogant, false, vindictive, and unforgiving—a merciless tyrant to subordinates who compensates through abject sycophancy toward superiors.
The Captain Disputes the Sick List
The first mate presents the sick list to the captain according to custom. Oakum reacts with furious indignation at finding sixty-one sick aboard his vessel, declaring he will suffer no sick men on his ship. When Morgan explains his duty in presenting the list, the captain flings the document at him and declares there shall be no illness while he commands. Morgan’s retort that the captain should direct his anger at Providence rather than medical officers provokes further rage, with Oakum threatening to have Morgan pinioned to the deck. The proud Welshman begins to assert his gentle birth in response, but the captain’s steward removes him from the cabin before the situation escalates further.
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