Thanks Dave, I was thinking on similar lines re Hatchet Fan, but sent myself up a blind ally by thinking of Dory in the sense of a boat. No doubt you have it in both cases.
Spapes, though, I continue to wonder at - googling the word comes up with nothing sensible. They cannot be family names as they were bestowed by Vandeleur and his fellow officers, yet he evidently expects his mother to understand the references now that she has met the girls herself. It could be a typo or transcription error - it wouldn't be the first in the book if it was - but I cannot even think of a similar word that would make sense. Most puzzling.