My hammock and kitbag weighed me down and I had bad dhobi itch as well. Dhobi itch is a weeping rash in the crutch caused by failing to rinse the suds out .from one’s underpants. It is a most dispiriting complaint.I reported to the Petty Officer on duty. He told me the barracks were full and that I was to sleep on HMS Argus, a superannuated aircraft carrier rusting away in the dockyards adjoining the barracks, and which was in use as an overflow base. ‘Don’t bother to make yourself cushy though,’ he advised me with a wolfish smile. ‘We’ll ’ave you out East before the fuckin’ week’s out.’I tried to appear enthusiastic at this prospect, picked up my hammock and kitbag again, and walked bow-legged and in some discomfort through the dockyard gates in the direction indicated. Twenty breathless and sweaty minutes later I found the Argus looming up into the darkening drizzle, and staggered up the gangway on to the Quarter Deck. Formalities completed, I was shown my Mess Deck and later, after a revolting supper of what appeared to be camel’s entrails, slung my hammock for the first time.
