Re the Dreadnaught sailors bored at Scappa Flow in the Orkneys.
p. 25: They made their own amusements. “Calm-natured men took life philosophically and passed their time reading anything that came to hand, even the ship’s notices; restless ones paced any small space of deck available.” They tried their hand with home-made lobster-pots, catapulted seagulls, learned languages, took music lessons, played ragtime, staged amateur dramatics, and got morose. Gambling was illegal “and therefore flourished”, and ship’s dances became ominously popular (considering the absence of females). But their “principal occupation [was just] looking at the other ships”; and while the Army was coming to terms with ‘shellshock’, the Navy was discovering ‘Orkneyitis’, a mild form of dementia which could strike in unpredictable guises.