A courtly man hunt

In ‘He Fell Among Thieves’ Henry Newbolt describes a young man’s voyage to service in India:

He watch’d the liner’s stem ploughing the foam. He felt her trembling speed and the thrash of her screw; He heard the passengers’ voices talking of home. He saw the flag she flew.

And, with any luck, as ‘the moon made a silver path over the smooth sea’, he would find himself on the boat deck with his arm round the shoulders of an attractive girl and the prospect of an enjoyable shipboard romance ahead. The playfully nicknamed ‘Fishing Fleet’ was at sea with its cargo of girls in search of a husband in India or Ceylon, and men returning from leave in England on the lookout for a wife. It was not surprising that the opening salvoes in this campaign were often fired on the journey out: some disembarked in Colombo or Bombay already engaged and tied the knot only days after arrival.