SOURCE: Newsom, G. H. “‘Sea Constables’ and the Blockade of January 1915.” The Kipling Journal 58, no. 229 (March 1984): 12-29.

In the following essay, Newsom places Rudyard Kipling's “Sea Constables” within historical context—English-American relations before America's entry into World War I and the sea blockade off the coast of England in 1914.

The Date of the Story

“Sea Constables” was first published in the American magazines, Metropolitan and Nash's, in September and October 1915.¹ It was not published again until Debits and Credits in September 1926. I have compared Nash's with Debits and Credits; as one would expect, the latter version is more polished and more economical in its language.

The story consists of the conversation of three officers of the R.N.V.R. [Winchmore, Portson and Maddingham] and one regular officer of the Royal Navy [Tegg] over a comprehensive dinner at a West End restaurant. They are mainly concerned to describe...