A Burton in the Gravy
disintegrated or settled down, half-full of water, to float for a few Precarious moments. For invariably the shock of the impact concussed some of the crew, and injured others; their actions Were fumbling or irrational or downright stupid. The shock, too, dislodged safety equipment, so that it did not come to hand : hatches which had always opened easily in practices now mysteri- ously jammed; and for a few minutes all concerned struggled in a nightmare world of frustration.
Frustration is the dominant emotion of the ditched crew: the frustration of drills going awry; of equipment disappearing; of hircraft or ships passing by within hailing range; of land seen, but
In a sense, quotation gives an unfair impression of Ralph
loarker's style. Taken in isolated paragraphs it is no better or s'orse tan that of a score of servers-up f reheated wartime lintsventure and escape; often it is as slipshod o as you would expect b5 ees as)' get not of reach; of fellow-sufferers grating on each other's nerves. It can I3 the particular quality of Down in the Drink that Ralph Barker manages to preserve its dominance, in spite of the temptation to .ant concentrate on the less exasperating emotions, fear and suffering, courage and endurance. In these eight ditching stories from the s it War, he has successfully avoided the error into which so many at writers — particularly writers of film scripts — have fallen : of Mistaking understatement for realism.'There are few strong, silent Ilion in these tales; 'Chas' is more representative:
He pulled out the first-aid kit and noticed it was stamped 'Air Ministry. The package was sheathed in a rubberised fabric and his numbed fingers felt for the joint. Somewhere you were sup- posed to tear across the dotted line. He couldn't find it. Water- proof, he thought. Everything's bloody well waterproof so that oan't get at it. He tried to read the instructions on the package but he could not concentrate. . . . Air Ministry. That was funny. Nothing from Air Ministry was ever any good anyway. He flung the package into the sea.
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