Short story about a mutiny on a spaceship and a polite captain

The name of the pictureThe name of the pictureThe name of the pictureClash Royale CLAN TAG#URR8PPP





.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty margin-bottom:0;







up vote
24
down vote

favorite
2












It was in a collection of short stories by different authors, which I read in the mid 80's.



The crew of the ship keep complaining about how the Captain is rude to them and the only 'person' he says 'please' and 'thank you' to is the ship's computer.



Eventually they decide on mutiny and murder the Captain after forcing him to make recordings of the voice commands necessary to steer the ship. It is not until after they kill the Captain, that they realise the commands he recorded lacked the 'please' and 'thank you', which were crucial to make them work.



Thus the crew of the ship drift through space contemplating the irony.







share|improve this question


















  • 1




    Possibly something here will jog your memory (under the literature tab) Sapient Ships - TVTropes (Standard TVTropes warning)
    – Edlothiad
    Aug 21 at 9:08






  • 3




    Shouldn't there be a pointer here to the other question about (probably) the same story?
    – user14111
    Aug 21 at 9:51










  • I've identified the story so I guess we should close one of the two questions as a duplicate since the OP explicitly states this is a duplicate. I guess I should probably have answered the original question then closed this one.
    – John Rennie
    Aug 21 at 11:36










  • Asked here a month ago by @neith-little, but no answers there, so if this answer gets Accepted then we should dupe 191332 to this one.
    – gowenfawr
    Aug 21 at 14:09

















up vote
24
down vote

favorite
2












It was in a collection of short stories by different authors, which I read in the mid 80's.



The crew of the ship keep complaining about how the Captain is rude to them and the only 'person' he says 'please' and 'thank you' to is the ship's computer.



Eventually they decide on mutiny and murder the Captain after forcing him to make recordings of the voice commands necessary to steer the ship. It is not until after they kill the Captain, that they realise the commands he recorded lacked the 'please' and 'thank you', which were crucial to make them work.



Thus the crew of the ship drift through space contemplating the irony.







share|improve this question


















  • 1




    Possibly something here will jog your memory (under the literature tab) Sapient Ships - TVTropes (Standard TVTropes warning)
    – Edlothiad
    Aug 21 at 9:08






  • 3




    Shouldn't there be a pointer here to the other question about (probably) the same story?
    – user14111
    Aug 21 at 9:51










  • I've identified the story so I guess we should close one of the two questions as a duplicate since the OP explicitly states this is a duplicate. I guess I should probably have answered the original question then closed this one.
    – John Rennie
    Aug 21 at 11:36










  • Asked here a month ago by @neith-little, but no answers there, so if this answer gets Accepted then we should dupe 191332 to this one.
    – gowenfawr
    Aug 21 at 14:09













up vote
24
down vote

favorite
2









up vote
24
down vote

favorite
2






2





It was in a collection of short stories by different authors, which I read in the mid 80's.



The crew of the ship keep complaining about how the Captain is rude to them and the only 'person' he says 'please' and 'thank you' to is the ship's computer.



Eventually they decide on mutiny and murder the Captain after forcing him to make recordings of the voice commands necessary to steer the ship. It is not until after they kill the Captain, that they realise the commands he recorded lacked the 'please' and 'thank you', which were crucial to make them work.



Thus the crew of the ship drift through space contemplating the irony.







share|improve this question














It was in a collection of short stories by different authors, which I read in the mid 80's.



The crew of the ship keep complaining about how the Captain is rude to them and the only 'person' he says 'please' and 'thank you' to is the ship's computer.



Eventually they decide on mutiny and murder the Captain after forcing him to make recordings of the voice commands necessary to steer the ship. It is not until after they kill the Captain, that they realise the commands he recorded lacked the 'please' and 'thank you', which were crucial to make them work.



Thus the crew of the ship drift through space contemplating the irony.









share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited Aug 21 at 8:50









Edlothiad

53.5k20281290




53.5k20281290










asked Aug 21 at 8:50









Michael

12114




12114







  • 1




    Possibly something here will jog your memory (under the literature tab) Sapient Ships - TVTropes (Standard TVTropes warning)
    – Edlothiad
    Aug 21 at 9:08






  • 3




    Shouldn't there be a pointer here to the other question about (probably) the same story?
    – user14111
    Aug 21 at 9:51










  • I've identified the story so I guess we should close one of the two questions as a duplicate since the OP explicitly states this is a duplicate. I guess I should probably have answered the original question then closed this one.
    – John Rennie
    Aug 21 at 11:36










  • Asked here a month ago by @neith-little, but no answers there, so if this answer gets Accepted then we should dupe 191332 to this one.
    – gowenfawr
    Aug 21 at 14:09













  • 1




    Possibly something here will jog your memory (under the literature tab) Sapient Ships - TVTropes (Standard TVTropes warning)
    – Edlothiad
    Aug 21 at 9:08






  • 3




    Shouldn't there be a pointer here to the other question about (probably) the same story?
    – user14111
    Aug 21 at 9:51










  • I've identified the story so I guess we should close one of the two questions as a duplicate since the OP explicitly states this is a duplicate. I guess I should probably have answered the original question then closed this one.
    – John Rennie
    Aug 21 at 11:36










  • Asked here a month ago by @neith-little, but no answers there, so if this answer gets Accepted then we should dupe 191332 to this one.
    – gowenfawr
    Aug 21 at 14:09








1




1




Possibly something here will jog your memory (under the literature tab) Sapient Ships - TVTropes (Standard TVTropes warning)
– Edlothiad
Aug 21 at 9:08




Possibly something here will jog your memory (under the literature tab) Sapient Ships - TVTropes (Standard TVTropes warning)
– Edlothiad
Aug 21 at 9:08




3




3




Shouldn't there be a pointer here to the other question about (probably) the same story?
– user14111
Aug 21 at 9:51




Shouldn't there be a pointer here to the other question about (probably) the same story?
– user14111
Aug 21 at 9:51












I've identified the story so I guess we should close one of the two questions as a duplicate since the OP explicitly states this is a duplicate. I guess I should probably have answered the original question then closed this one.
– John Rennie
Aug 21 at 11:36




I've identified the story so I guess we should close one of the two questions as a duplicate since the OP explicitly states this is a duplicate. I guess I should probably have answered the original question then closed this one.
– John Rennie
Aug 21 at 11:36












Asked here a month ago by @neith-little, but no answers there, so if this answer gets Accepted then we should dupe 191332 to this one.
– gowenfawr
Aug 21 at 14:09





Asked here a month ago by @neith-little, but no answers there, so if this answer gets Accepted then we should dupe 191332 to this one.
– gowenfawr
Aug 21 at 14:09











1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes

















up vote
37
down vote













I'm 99% certain I've found this, but oh my goodness it's an obscure one. The story is Mutiny by Malcolm Hulke and it has appeared only in two little known anthologies Galactic Adventures and Purnell's Book of Adventures in Space (the latter has been mentioned in Who wrote "The Monsters" short story published by Purnell. They are the same book, but released under two different titles).



The only trace I can find of the story in the Google Books page on Galactic Adventures, though that page is only partially complete. Only fragmentary extracts of the book text are available from Google Books, but the few extracts available make it fairly clear this is the story in question. For example here we find:




... computer only followed instructions that began with the captain's voice saying please. That's why he was always polite to the computer. And we just erased all his voice-prints from the tape. He's fooled us.







share|improve this answer


















  • 1




    I had a copy of that book in my hands several months ago so that I could confirm some other stories, but it was an Inter-Library Loan, I'm pretty sure, so it would take time for me to acquire this again.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Aug 21 at 11:40










  • @FuzzyBoots: presumably related to this answer?
    – John Rennie
    Aug 21 at 11:46










  • Also scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/175036 and scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/6741
    – FuzzyBoots
    Aug 21 at 12:18










  • @JohnRennie nice job!
    – Organic Marble
    Aug 21 at 13:02










  • Amazing! Thanks for the effort. I am grateful and impressed.
    – Michael
    Aug 25 at 5:01










Your Answer







StackExchange.ready(function()
var channelOptions =
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "186"
;
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
createEditor();
);

else
createEditor();

);

function createEditor()
StackExchange.prepareEditor(
heartbeatType: 'answer',
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: false,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
);



);








 

draft saved


draft discarded


















StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fscifi.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f193251%2fshort-story-about-a-mutiny-on-a-spaceship-and-a-polite-captain%23new-answer', 'question_page');

);

Post as a guest






























1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes








1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes








up vote
37
down vote













I'm 99% certain I've found this, but oh my goodness it's an obscure one. The story is Mutiny by Malcolm Hulke and it has appeared only in two little known anthologies Galactic Adventures and Purnell's Book of Adventures in Space (the latter has been mentioned in Who wrote "The Monsters" short story published by Purnell. They are the same book, but released under two different titles).



The only trace I can find of the story in the Google Books page on Galactic Adventures, though that page is only partially complete. Only fragmentary extracts of the book text are available from Google Books, but the few extracts available make it fairly clear this is the story in question. For example here we find:




... computer only followed instructions that began with the captain's voice saying please. That's why he was always polite to the computer. And we just erased all his voice-prints from the tape. He's fooled us.







share|improve this answer


















  • 1




    I had a copy of that book in my hands several months ago so that I could confirm some other stories, but it was an Inter-Library Loan, I'm pretty sure, so it would take time for me to acquire this again.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Aug 21 at 11:40










  • @FuzzyBoots: presumably related to this answer?
    – John Rennie
    Aug 21 at 11:46










  • Also scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/175036 and scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/6741
    – FuzzyBoots
    Aug 21 at 12:18










  • @JohnRennie nice job!
    – Organic Marble
    Aug 21 at 13:02










  • Amazing! Thanks for the effort. I am grateful and impressed.
    – Michael
    Aug 25 at 5:01














up vote
37
down vote













I'm 99% certain I've found this, but oh my goodness it's an obscure one. The story is Mutiny by Malcolm Hulke and it has appeared only in two little known anthologies Galactic Adventures and Purnell's Book of Adventures in Space (the latter has been mentioned in Who wrote "The Monsters" short story published by Purnell. They are the same book, but released under two different titles).



The only trace I can find of the story in the Google Books page on Galactic Adventures, though that page is only partially complete. Only fragmentary extracts of the book text are available from Google Books, but the few extracts available make it fairly clear this is the story in question. For example here we find:




... computer only followed instructions that began with the captain's voice saying please. That's why he was always polite to the computer. And we just erased all his voice-prints from the tape. He's fooled us.







share|improve this answer


















  • 1




    I had a copy of that book in my hands several months ago so that I could confirm some other stories, but it was an Inter-Library Loan, I'm pretty sure, so it would take time for me to acquire this again.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Aug 21 at 11:40










  • @FuzzyBoots: presumably related to this answer?
    – John Rennie
    Aug 21 at 11:46










  • Also scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/175036 and scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/6741
    – FuzzyBoots
    Aug 21 at 12:18










  • @JohnRennie nice job!
    – Organic Marble
    Aug 21 at 13:02










  • Amazing! Thanks for the effort. I am grateful and impressed.
    – Michael
    Aug 25 at 5:01












up vote
37
down vote










up vote
37
down vote









I'm 99% certain I've found this, but oh my goodness it's an obscure one. The story is Mutiny by Malcolm Hulke and it has appeared only in two little known anthologies Galactic Adventures and Purnell's Book of Adventures in Space (the latter has been mentioned in Who wrote "The Monsters" short story published by Purnell. They are the same book, but released under two different titles).



The only trace I can find of the story in the Google Books page on Galactic Adventures, though that page is only partially complete. Only fragmentary extracts of the book text are available from Google Books, but the few extracts available make it fairly clear this is the story in question. For example here we find:




... computer only followed instructions that began with the captain's voice saying please. That's why he was always polite to the computer. And we just erased all his voice-prints from the tape. He's fooled us.







share|improve this answer














I'm 99% certain I've found this, but oh my goodness it's an obscure one. The story is Mutiny by Malcolm Hulke and it has appeared only in two little known anthologies Galactic Adventures and Purnell's Book of Adventures in Space (the latter has been mentioned in Who wrote "The Monsters" short story published by Purnell. They are the same book, but released under two different titles).



The only trace I can find of the story in the Google Books page on Galactic Adventures, though that page is only partially complete. Only fragmentary extracts of the book text are available from Google Books, but the few extracts available make it fairly clear this is the story in question. For example here we find:




... computer only followed instructions that began with the captain's voice saying please. That's why he was always polite to the computer. And we just erased all his voice-prints from the tape. He's fooled us.








share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited Aug 21 at 11:46









FuzzyBoots

80.8k10245388




80.8k10245388










answered Aug 21 at 11:32









John Rennie

25.4k271119




25.4k271119







  • 1




    I had a copy of that book in my hands several months ago so that I could confirm some other stories, but it was an Inter-Library Loan, I'm pretty sure, so it would take time for me to acquire this again.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Aug 21 at 11:40










  • @FuzzyBoots: presumably related to this answer?
    – John Rennie
    Aug 21 at 11:46










  • Also scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/175036 and scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/6741
    – FuzzyBoots
    Aug 21 at 12:18










  • @JohnRennie nice job!
    – Organic Marble
    Aug 21 at 13:02










  • Amazing! Thanks for the effort. I am grateful and impressed.
    – Michael
    Aug 25 at 5:01












  • 1




    I had a copy of that book in my hands several months ago so that I could confirm some other stories, but it was an Inter-Library Loan, I'm pretty sure, so it would take time for me to acquire this again.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Aug 21 at 11:40










  • @FuzzyBoots: presumably related to this answer?
    – John Rennie
    Aug 21 at 11:46










  • Also scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/175036 and scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/6741
    – FuzzyBoots
    Aug 21 at 12:18










  • @JohnRennie nice job!
    – Organic Marble
    Aug 21 at 13:02










  • Amazing! Thanks for the effort. I am grateful and impressed.
    – Michael
    Aug 25 at 5:01







1




1




I had a copy of that book in my hands several months ago so that I could confirm some other stories, but it was an Inter-Library Loan, I'm pretty sure, so it would take time for me to acquire this again.
– FuzzyBoots
Aug 21 at 11:40




I had a copy of that book in my hands several months ago so that I could confirm some other stories, but it was an Inter-Library Loan, I'm pretty sure, so it would take time for me to acquire this again.
– FuzzyBoots
Aug 21 at 11:40












@FuzzyBoots: presumably related to this answer?
– John Rennie
Aug 21 at 11:46




@FuzzyBoots: presumably related to this answer?
– John Rennie
Aug 21 at 11:46












Also scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/175036 and scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/6741
– FuzzyBoots
Aug 21 at 12:18




Also scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/175036 and scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/6741
– FuzzyBoots
Aug 21 at 12:18












@JohnRennie nice job!
– Organic Marble
Aug 21 at 13:02




@JohnRennie nice job!
– Organic Marble
Aug 21 at 13:02












Amazing! Thanks for the effort. I am grateful and impressed.
– Michael
Aug 25 at 5:01




Amazing! Thanks for the effort. I am grateful and impressed.
– Michael
Aug 25 at 5:01












 

draft saved


draft discarded


























 


draft saved


draft discarded














StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fscifi.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f193251%2fshort-story-about-a-mutiny-on-a-spaceship-and-a-polite-captain%23new-answer', 'question_page');

);

Post as a guest













































































這個網誌中的熱門文章

How to combine Bézier curves to a surface?

Mutual Information Always Non-negative

Why am i infinitely getting the same tweet with the Twitter Search API?