Some quotes:

Two paragraphs about Mr. Allen
As he spoke, he looked intently at Allen. a tall, upright, middle-aged man with a fine strong face. wearing the plain uniform of a master in the Royal navy, and as he took of his hat to a superior officer, a lieutenant of barely twenty, Jack saw that his hair was grey. 'I like the look of him,' he said.

It was just as well that Dundas had spoken highly of Mr. Allen, for otherwise Jack would have made little of him: Allen did not do himself justice at all. From his boyhood Jack had been an open friendly creature, expecting to like and be liked, and although he was by no means forward or overconfident he was not at all given to shyness, and he found it difficult to conceive that the emotion could still paralyse a man of fifty or more, filling him with a repulsive reserve, so that he responded to no civil advance, never smiled, nor spoke except in reply to direct questions.
Far Side of the World

Years after passing for lieutenant, he finally gets his promotion…
'A gentleman to see you, sir,' said the waiter. 'A lieutenant.'

'A lieutenant?' said Stephen; and after a pause, 'Desire him to walk up.'

A thundering on the stairs, as though someone had released a bull; the door burst inwards, trembling, and Pullings appeared, lighting up the room with his happiness and his new blue coat. 'I'm made, sir,' he cried, seizing Stephen's hand. 'Made at last! My commission came down with the mail. Oh, wish me joy!'

'Why, so I do,' Said Stephen, wincing in that iron grip, 'if more joy you can contain – if more felicity will not make your cup overflow. Have you been drinking, Lieutenant Pullings? Pray, sit in a chair like a rational being, and do not spring about the room.'

'Oh, say it again, sir,' said the lieutenant, sitting and gazing at Stephen with pure love beaming from his face. 'Not a drop.'
Post Captain

Stephen's desperate proposal
'Are you going to take me into keeping too, Stephen?' she asked, with a smile.

'No,' he said, endeavoring to imitate her. he privately crossed his bosom, and then, speaking somewhat at random in his agitation, he went on, 'I have never made a woman an offer of marriage – am ignorant of the accepted forms. I am sorry for my ignorance. But I beg you will have the goodness, the very great goodness, to marry me.' As she did not reply, he added, 'It would oblige me extremely, Diana.'

'Why, Stephen,' she said at last, still gazing at him with candid wonder. 'Upon my word and honor, you astonish me. I can hardly speak. it was the kindest thing you could possibly have said to me. but your friendship, your affection, is leading you away; it is your dear good heart full of pity for a friend that…"

'No, no, no,' he cried passionately. 'This is a deliberate, long-mediated statement, conceived a great while since, and matured over twelve thousand miles and more. I am painfully aware,' he said, clasping and unclasping his hands behind his back, 'that my appearance does not serve me; that there are objections to my person, my birth, and my religion; and that my fortune is nothing in comparison with that of a wealthy man. But I am not the penniless nonentity I was when we first met; I can offer an honourable if not a brilliant marriage; and at the very lowest I can provide my wife – my widow, my relict – with a decent competence, and assured future.'
H.M.S. Surprise


A Public Apology

In the warm air of the cabin, Jack shed his waistcoat and neckcloth. Stephen had gone to check on Rose, for they had both been more than a little concerned after hearing the horror that she had endured, but he returned only a very short time later with a thoughtful look on his face. "Jack, would you say I am a landsman?"

The question surprised Jack, and he looked at the doctor in bewilderment. "You are rated an officer, of course, as surgeon."

"No, that's not what I meant. Am I a landsman? I am certainly no mariner."

"You are something of a landsman, though not what you once were." He looked at the other man suspiciously. "Is the lady not yet calmed? Do not say she called you a landsman in a fit of pique."

"Not at all," he remarked slowly, pouring himself some of the port and then going to a chair by the window.

"Oh?"

"I didn't actually speak with her. She was making amends with Tom Pullings for the harsh things she said today, I believe."

"Ah, yes. Well, that's good. Poor man! I've never seen Tom in such a state. I feared they'd come to blows in another minute."

"Or something equally passionate."

"Yes, I've heard the talk as well. Damned unfortunate." Jack was not of a vindictive nature and still looked with benevolence upon Rose despite her earlier rejection of his advances. Seeing her and his lieutenant together made him wonder at the truth behind the rumors. Whatever had happened, he did not think badly of either of them, but he did allow himself a bit of self-pity for losing out on the affection of such a hot-blooded lady. Much as he disapproved of out-spoken and headstrong women, Jack had to admit that the lady never looked so well as when she was in a passion. Tall and straight with her head held high and unconscious grace, she was completely unaware of how alluring she was.

"Surely, she is not the first lady so besmirched by talk among the hands."

"Oh, the men will talk; that's not what concerns me. You see, I was planning on waylaying the Gallant and lifting one very young mid from Captain Hawkes. Can you imagine that little sea-faring lad of eight coming on as a mid? It's eleven years before he can hope of making lieutenant! No, I think you can't understand how valuable one experienced boy can be in helping the greenhorns learn their place. For sure, I want one of those young Stirlings amidships here! Both, if I could. I cannot, however, in good conscience, expose a little child to such gossip about his mama."

In fact, Jack was very fond of youngsters and as often as he spoke of the midshipmen's laziness and uselessness and the unfortunate future of the navy with such wastrels, he also had a care for their well-being and oversaw their education with pleasure.

Stephen was not really listening, for his thoughts were elsewhere. His surprise at discovering Rose had told Tom about her premature daughter without mentioning it to him. The remarkable ease with which she enticed Tom into a rage, and also that not-quite-chaste little kiss he had happened upon when he had stopped by the gunroom to check on her. Her rather interesting, impetuous way of disarming and unmanning Captain Howard. "Did you know that the officers let her take the place of some of the crew on rough seas?"

Jack nodded impatiently. "Some things on board a ship require me to look the other way sometimes. It does no harm and certainly puts her in no danger. For certain, she is more of a mariner than the landsmen and the boys. And any matter, she is really counted as one of the Surprises by now." A moment passed while his expression grew darker and more thunderous, and then finally he cried, "What sort of man could do that to a young girl expecting a child? No matter what her crime?"

"A desperate man," Stephen replied. "And her crime was just knowing too much. Many women die in childbirth. Perhaps he thought it would be easier to get rid of her that way. He may have thought she knew something and was afraid he would be exposed at her trial."

Jack considered it, trying to see it from that viewpoint. "Then why not kill her outright and be certain that the deed was done?"

"With his wife as a witness? Do you think that such a coward would have the nerve? He could explain this saying he thought she was attempting to trick them into opening the door."

"Foul bully," muttered Jack grimly, shaking his head.

"Jack, once we have the papers aboard, do you think the death sentence against her will be rescinded?"

"Little reason to eliminate her once we have the evidence," said Jack. "Though perhaps they will afterward come gunning for us." He swore and shook his head. "The only way to succeed there is to sink us and leave no survivors."

During the morning watch, Stephen came to fetch her. Rose looked almost like she was being lead off to her execution. "I am ready," she told him with a sigh.

"Rose, he is a gentleman," he chided. "Do you really think he is going to make this difficult for you?"

She cast an annoyed glance at him but had to admit that he was right. "Oh, you must know by now that I have little control over my feelings. I'm a poor excuse even for a common harridan trying to play the lady."

Stephen, who had seen nothing of a harridan but rather a consort worthy of one of the ancient warrior princes, smiled at the thought. "It would depend on one's definition of a lady, I should think."

"No double meanings and plays on words today, I beg of you," she asked a trifle sharply, but she was so nervous and agitated that he let it pass without taking offense.

Once on deck, she could see that it was another magnificent morning running fast for Jamaica. Word had gotten around, as it invariably did, and all hands were hanging about. All the officers, including the captain, were gathered at the waist of the ship so that everyone could witness what was to occur. Out of kindness and consideration for her, gentlemen all, they had arranged themselves so that her distasteful errand was as easy as possible. "It's shaping up to be quite a show with me as the main attraction," she muttered to Stephen before steeling herself and approaching the group amidst many quiet calls of, "Good morning, ma'am." He was forced to smile in appreciation, for the event had certainly been staged with the skill of an opera.

They all turned to her and took off their hats when she approached. Without hesitating, she came to Captain Howard and looked directly into his eyes. "Captain Howard, please accept my apology for speaking to you in a most inappropriate way yesterday," she said loud enough for all to hear. "I am afraid it was most unladylike of me."

"My dear Mrs. Stirling!" he exclaimed, a smile lighting his face. "No such apology is necessary! It is enough to see you are recovered from your fever."

The gracious reply left her momentarily speechless.

"How concerned we all were when we discovered you were ill! It is a tonic to see you so well and in such good mettle. Come, dear lady!" He offered her his arm. "Will you take a turn with me?"

"Yes, of course," she replied, going with him but a confused frown darkening her face. Once they had a bit of privacy on the quarterdeck, she felt compelled to speak. "Sir, you are too kind by far," she said, taking her hand from his arm and facing him.

"Nonsense." He smiled. "I cannot say how it cheers me to see the color returned to your cheeks."

She looked down. "Sir, you know very well that I was not ill."

"Well," he sighed. "Do not fret yourself, ma'am. I do not like to see you distressed over something so trivial."

Shaking her head, she gazed at him with a look of apology. "Captain, I have treated you infernally. I am terribly ashamed of myself."

"Now, we cannot have this," he told her seriously. "Ma'am, you are too fine a lady to treat any man badly. You have always been exceedingly kind, and, if I may say, you have often smiled at an old marine in a way that made him feel like a dashing young lad again."

A slight blush flooded her face and she looked away in embarrassment, for he was by no means old and was actually of an appropriate age her.

"Captain Aubrey says nothing of the reasons why you must travel so far alone in a gunship with so much protection," he continued very gently. "You are troubled, it is evident. Do not let anything distress you more. I am your servant, ma'am, and only hope to lighten your days a bit, if I may."

Feeling even more wretched, she shook her head. "Sir, you are an excellent man," she sighed. "Whatever you say, I don't deserve it."

"Stuff and nonsense, ma'am." He caught up her hand, bowed elegantly, and pressed a kiss upon her knuckles.

His obliging, chivalrous manner humbled her. "I am honored to call you a friend."

Captain Howard again tucked her hand into the crook of his arm, he lead her to resume their stroll. "It may amuse you to know that my brother officers have sat down with me to explain how some sea creatures are sacred to sailors."

"They have?" she asked in surprise.

"Each one."

"You are all far too indulgent with me and my shortcomings," she admitted, both pleased and chagrined. "The plain truth is that I do not approve of the sport of shooting. To kill another creature for food or protection is one thing, but for vanity and entertainment is another."

At first, he frowned a little at her. "Well, many ladies are too delicate for such violent sports, you are certainly not the only one!" Now, he was smiling again. "I shall of course refrain from such things while you are on board, ma'am. It is easily done."

"Sir, you are kindness itself," she replied, wondering if the word delicate had ever before been used to describe her. Everything was easy between them, and there was respect and esteem despite their differences.

The lady was heard to laugh aloud at something that the marine captain had said. The men went back to work and the officers drifted back to the quarterdeck. The wind was with them and Jamaica was but a few days away.