Chapter 8: Female Crew

Admiral Henry Hargreaves now held another meeting with his senior officers. First he asked about ranks on board.

"There are far fewer ranks in the Kobekistani Navy than in the Royal Navy," explained the Second Officer, "You are an Admiral. You report direct to the Emir's Military Advisor, General Mustapha, but he won't take any interest in what happens here. I am a Second Officer, the next rank down and the other two who report directly to you, the Purser and the Chief Engineer, are Third Officers. None of us came through the ranks of the Navy, but were hired in separately as you were. We each have some Junior Officers reporting to us and there are a few Midshipmen about who are essentially trainee officers. In the Other Ranks there are Sergeants, who actually run things, Corporals who report to them and Seamen who do the work."

The Admiral then inquired exactly what the duties of each officer had been under the former captain, Admiral Peitsche, and it was the Purser who spoke up first.

"Admiral, there was a clear division of duties, which I believe was the Emir's wish. I, as Purser, was solely responsible for the well-being and entertainment of guests aboard the Imperial Voyager. That is to say, the hotel element of all voyages, taking all detailed responsibility for those aspects away from the Admiral. The Admiral was responsible for the ship herself; he took her wherever he was ordered to go and had all the normal duties of the ship's master. At sea he was in absolute control in all matters pertaining to the voyage. Entertainment and so forth were my responsibility."

Second Officer Charles LeBoeuf then added, "That is so, Skipper. You don't have to worry about the guests, except for appearing at dinner and so forth in dress uniform. For the rest, the Chief Engineer and I divide the responsibilities for the ship along normal naval lines, he has the machinery and the grease monkeys; I have the ship, navigation and sailors. We both report to you. All three of us are responsible for provisioning, and in that respect we all report to you. All Admiral Peitsche did on his own was to handle the discipline side and ensure that we were doing our jobs."

Henry considered this and decided that if these men were good at their jobs, he would have quite a pleasant life, so he said, "Well, for the moment we will not change that, except that I will delegate all minor discipline to you three for your own departments. I will hold a Captain's defaulters when necessary. Only serious defaults will come to me."

The Purser asked, "Does that mean I get to discipline the women, Skipper? Admiral Peitsche took particular care of that himself."

"Do you want it?" asked Henry.

"Oh, yes, Skipper. It will make things much easier for me if I don't have to send every little complaint to you."

"Very well. However, Defaulters' Logs will be kept on the computer and I will review them regularly. I reserve the right to step in as and when I deem it necessary. Naturally any discipline of your immediate reports, the Junior Officers, is always referred to me. Also I will be available as an appeal from any punishment you may order."

"Appeal?" asked the Purser.

"Yes. If anyone wishes to appeal against any discipline any of you hand out, I will hear that appeal. Is that not usual?"

"Not in Kobekistan, Skipper," said Charles.

"Well it is on my ship," replied Henry, with heavy emphasis on 'my', "When you tell your staff of this right of appeal, you might point out that I will double the punishment on any failed appeal. That will make them think twice before appealing."

'And the right of appeal will make you think twice before being too harsh, ' he thought.

Aloud he added, "Now I think I should meet the rest of the crew."

Accompanied by the Purser, he went to the guest suites, where he was first introduced to the ship's Chief Eunuch. It was explained that he had primary responsibility for the eunuchs and concubines provided to the guests.

Curious as to the hierarchy on board, he asked, "Do you supervise my eunuchs as well as the ones in this area?"

"Not under Admiral Peitsche, Master, but it is as the Master wishes."

"Yes, please take over my eunuchs also," he replied, and then added, "But not my wife or my daughter. You might care to use working directly for me as a promotion for your eunuchs."