An aside: this made me remember a Keith episode on a small boat on a rough sea. By the end he was a bit rough too (as usual). Boat swayed one way, he swayed the other and feeling sea sick on the sofa was a distinct possibility.
You are right about 9ac. “Queeney’s husband” was Admiral Lord Keith. She was Queeney Thrale, 19th literary figure.
“Gary” is from 3dn, “fishy, perhaps”, a gar being a pike-like fish