The downfall of Captain Nugent was for some time a welcome subject of conversation in marine circles at Sunwich.

At The Goblets, a rambling old inn with paved courtyard and wooden galleries, which almost backed on to the churchyard, brother-captains attributed it to an error of judgment; at the Two Schooners on the quay the profanest of sailormen readily attributed it to an all-seeing Providence with a dislike of over-bearing ship-masters.
[Illustration: "A welcome subject of conversation in marine circles."] The captain's cup was filled to the brim by the promotion of his first officer to the command of the _Conqueror_.

It was by far the largest craft which sailed from the port of Sunwich, and its master held a corresponding dignity amongst the captains of lesser vessels.

Their allegiance was now transferred to Captain Hardy, and the master of a brig which was in the last stages of senile decay, meeting Nugent in The Goblets, actually showed him by means of two lucifer matches how the collision might have been avoided.
A touching feature in the business, and a source of much gratification to Mr.Wilks by the sentimental applause evoked by it, was his renunciation of the post of steward on the ss._Conqueror_.

Sunwich buzzed with the tidings that after eighteen years' service with Captain Nugent he preferred starvation ashore to serving under another master.