How else can they have known of it?
We roared back to them, all of the men on all of the ships together, until the Red Sea was the home of thunder, and our ships' whistles screamed them official greeting through the din.
I spent many hours wondering what those men's thoughts might be.
Never was such a sight, sahib! Behind our ships was darkness, for the wind was from the north and the funnels belched forth smoke that trailed and spread.

I watched it with fascination until one day Gooja Singh came and watched beside me near the stern.

His rank was the same as mine, although I was more than a year his senior.

There was never too much love between us.

Step by step I earned promotion first, and he was jealous.