A Penguin in the Pacific

Tales from the Pacific

During the Second World War each night at sea in the Royal Navy the practice was for the Officer of the Day to do his ‘rounds’ of the lower deck. This story is about one such ceremony aboard the light cruiser HMS Argonaut while in the Pacific.

For the ‘rounds’ the Mess Deck had to be clean and, under the table at each small mess (averaging ten Ratings), was the ‘Gash Bucket’ in which all the slops from the day’s meals were emptied. This bucket had to be empty and scrubbed clean prior to the nightly inspection.

The Officer of the Day’s arrival was signalled by a blast on a bugle and the Officer was accompanied by a Petty Officer. On this occasion the officer in question had obviously indulged somewhat overly on the Wardroom’s pink gins. As he reached Ten mess he decided to demonstrate that he was in total command of his faculties. Having glared at the ten of us he went down on his haunches and closely inspected the Gash Bucket. As he did so a baby penguin waddled along right under his nose. He looked quickly up at us but we were all at attention and staring straight ahead. His gaze swung to the Petty Officer and thence to the Bugler but they too had their eyes fixed straight ahead. The officer shook his head as if to clear his vision, looked again at the floor, the penguin had disappeared behind some lockers. He straightened, mumbled; “Carry on” and went back up the ladder, whether to consume more pink gins or to forswear all alcohol is not recorded. As to how a penguin came to be aboard a Royal Navy Cruiser in the middle of the Pacific ocean — well, that’s another story.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.