Chapter Two finds the newest lieutenant on the H.M.S. Renown on deck duty along with a seaman standing by. The sea is unusually rough and more sail is needed to navigate the churning waters. Orders are that the captain is to be called in such a case. Bush has been mulling over the strange behavior of the officers on this ship. The other lieutenants say very little to one another. Their only communication seems to be that for topics of absolute necessity. Bush as, Ira Riklis knows, has learned that the Renown’s captain is extremely paranoid, and Bush can only assume that the silence on the part of the other officers is because of their fear. This fear is that of being accused of conspiracy with or without reason.

Reluctantly Bush has the captain summoned to the deck. When the captain arrives, he seems less concerned about the rough seas than he is about inflicting punishment on some lowly seamen almost for sport but ordered in the name of discipline. So a couple of the lowly are chosen almost at random to suffer lashes for no good reason, and although Bush tries to divert the captain’s attention away from such orders, the torture takes place.

Shortly thereafter, our hero Hornblower, as Ira Riklis could guess, appears on deck to relieve Bush and tells Bush that he, Hornblower, has been ordered by the captain to have deck duty four hours on and four hours off for an extended period of time undoubtedly as punishment for some imaginary crime.