When Josephine appears, Ralph confesses his love in terms surprisingly eloquent for a common sailor. Shocked by his views, the sailors force Dick to listen to Sir Joseph’s song before they withdraw, leaving Ralph alone on deck. This delights his shipmates with the exception of Dick Deadeye, who maintains that equality’s out of the question when people have to obey others’ orders.
Bolstered by Sir Joseph’s views on equality, Ralph decides to declare his love to Josephine. Sir Joseph has even composed a song to illustrate the point, and he presents a copy to Ralph.
He then delivers a lesson in etiquette to the Captain, instructing him always to say ‘if you please’ after giving an order, as a British sailor is any man’s equal – excepting Sir Joseph’s. He recounts his meteoric rise from humble beginnings to his present exalted position, achieved entirely through persistence – and despite his lack of nautical qualifications. Sir Joseph is piped on board, accompanied by his considerable retinue of admiring female relatives. However, she assures him that, as a dutiful daughter, she will never reveal her feelings to this sailor. Josephine enters and tells her father that she is in love with a humble member of his crew. As she leaves, the Captain remarks on her attractive demeanour. Buttercup says that she knows what it is like to love in vain. After the sailors leave, the Captain confesses to Buttercup that Josephine is reluctant to consider marriage to Sir Joseph Porter, the First Lord of the Admiralty. The gentlemanly and popular Captain Corcoran greets his crew and compliments them on their politeness he returns the favour by never himself using bad language. His shipmates offer their sympathies, for they know there is little hope of Ralph’s feelings being reciprocated. She hints that, despite her innocent appearance, she may be hiding a dark secretĪble Seaman Ralph Rackstraw, widely regarded as the most proficient sailor in all the fleet, declares his love for the Captain’s daughter, Josephine. The sailors are working on deck when Little Buttercup, a dockside vendor, comes on board to sell her wares. The action takes place on the quarter-deck of HMS Pinafore, at anchor off Portsmouth.
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