Page "H.M.S. Pinafore" Paragraph 24

Little Buttercup, a Portsmouth " bumboat woman " ( dockside vendor ) – who is the " rosiest, roundest, and reddest beauty in all Spithead " – comes on board to sell her wares to the crew.

She hints that she may be hiding a dark secret under her " gay and frivolous exterior ".

Ralph Rackstraw, " the smartest lad in all the fleet ", enters, declaring his love for the Captain's daughter, Josephine.

His fellow sailors ( excepting Dick Deadeye, the grim and ugly realist of the crew ) offer their sympathies, but they can give Ralph little hope that his love will ever be returned.