"'Aye aye, sir,' said Bush, philosophically.
Hornblower was the only captain he had ever heard of who bothered his head about the use of starters. Starters were as much part of navy life as bad food and eighteen inches per hammock and peril at sea. Bush could never understand Hornblower's discliplinary methods. He had been positively horrified when he had heard his captain's public admission that he too had baths under the washdeck pump—it seemed madness for a captain to allow his men to guess that they were of the same flesh as his. But two years under Hornblower's command had taught him that Hornblower's strange ways sometimes attained surprising results. He was ready to obey him, loyally though blindly, resigned and yet admiring." (p. 21)

"He felt that no price would be too great t pay at the moment to be able to slip away...