someone upstairs at the paper had a hook with the admiralty , we 've always been big on naval stories , and given the service a good show , so after some wrangling , and no doubt an exchange of a sweetener or two to assuage their lordships ' misgivings about loose cannons on the gun-deck , i was duly presented with a document of free passage as an acting unpaid honorary lieutenant to satisfy the niceties of naval etiquette .