There is a delightful paragraph about "the British Navy's celebrated hot toddies". There is a lot of poking fun in this book.
The paragraph follows when one of the officers invites one of the young lady visitors to sample one of the aforementioned drinks. Then the this follows to describe our narrator (another officer):
"Crozier knew how to lead men into battle as into peace, he knew how to read the sea and the landscape, the clouds and the stars. He knew the great wooden body of his ship as certainly as that of a faithful dog, but he did not and would never know how to offer a cup of lukewarm, sour liquid to a lady in such a way that she would find it delicious and consider herself obliged to him. For that, he would have been willing to trade the rest."
Well, it's historical fiction. I think the fiction aspect is pretty strong in this one. I would have expected upper-class ladies in the 1840s to be quite hardy drinkers, if you think about how much wine would have been served with numerous courses at dinner. Not an expert, tho.
The paragraph follows when one of the officers invites one of the young lady visitors to sample one of the aforementioned drinks. Then the this follows to describe our narrator (another officer):
"Crozier knew how to lead men into battle as into peace, he knew how to read the sea and the landscape, the clouds and the stars. He knew the great wooden body of his ship as certainly as that of a faithful dog, but he did not and would never know how to offer a cup of lukewarm, sour liquid to a lady in such a way that she would find it delicious and consider herself obliged to him. For that, he would have been willing to trade the rest."