Busy pulling apart musical instruments...

I have finished "Master and Commander" and have now embarked on "Post Captain." These are really marvellous books. They are particularly reminding me of the Richard Bolitho books, in that there is a good deal of human drama, and in that the characters actually *care* about one another. They worry about each other, and are glad to see each other, and when someone dies they actually mourn for them.
I was pleasantly surprised to find the character Mr. Marshall in a book published in 1970, and was much taken with this little passage from p.292 (Chapter 9) of M&C: "Mr. Marshall offered a few observations that brought no response, then contemplated him [Jack] for a while and then, with infinite tenderness, eased his feet up on to the locker, cradled him back with a cushion behind his head, rolled up the charts and tiptoed away." I was disappointed to find that he has not reappeared in Post Captain.

I'm still practising Off to Sea Once More..I can play it on the concertina, and I can sing it, but doing both at the same time is proving troublesome. Unfortunately, I was practising with such enthusiasm that I managed to pull the left thumb strap right off the concertina, so I can't play it at all until I fill in the screw holes (which were completely stripped) and drill new ones. Grrrr...