But we must leave poor Smallbones to lament his hard fate in the fore
peak of the vessel, and Mr Vanslyperken and his dog to walk the
quarter-deck, while we make our readers a little better acquainted with
the times in which the scenes passed which we are now describing, as
well as with the history of Mr Vanslyperken.
The date in our first chapter, that of the year 1699, will, if the refer
back to history, show them that William of Nassau had been a few years
on the English throne, and that peace had just been concluded between
England with its allies and France. The king occasionally passed his
time in Holland, among his Dutch countrymen, and the English and Dutch
fleets, which but a few years before were engaging with such an
obstinacy of courage, had lately sailed together, and turned their guns
against the French. William, like all those continental princes who
have been called to the English throne, showed much favour to his own
countrymen, and England was overrun with Dutch favourites, Dutch
courtiers, and peers of Dutch extraction. He would not even part with
his Dutch guards, and was at issue with the Commons of England on that
very account. But the war was now over, and most of the English and
Dutch navy lay dismantled in port, a few small vessels only being in
commission to intercept the smuggling from France that was carrying on,
much to the detriment of English manufacture, of certain articles then
denominated alamodes and lutestrings. The cutter we have described was
on this service, and was named the Yungfrau, although built in England,
and forming a part of the English naval force.
It may really be supposed that Dutch interest, during this period, was
in the ascendant. Such was the case; and the Dutch officers and seamen
who could not be employed in their own marine were appointed in the
English vessels, to the prejudice of our own countrymen, Mr
Vanslyperken was of Dutch extraction, but born in England long before
the Prince of Orange had ever dreamt of being called to the English
throne. He was a near relation of King William's own nurse, and even in
these days that would cause powerful interest. Previous to the
revolution he had been laid on the shelf for cowardice in one of the
engagements between the Dutch and the English, he being then a
lieutenant on board of a two-decked ship, and of long, standing in the
service; but before he had been appointed to this vessel, he had served
invariably in small craft, and his want of this necessary qualification
had never been discovered. The interest used for him on the accession
of the Dutch king was sufficient for his again obtaining the command of
a small vessel. In those days, the service was very different from what
it is now. The commanders of vessels were also the pursers, and could
save a great deal of money by defrauding the crew: and further, the
discipline of the service was such as would astonish the modern
philanthropist; there was no appeal for subordinates and tyranny and
oppression, even amounting to the destruction of life, were practised
with impunity. Smollett has given his readers some idea of the state of
the service a few years after the time of which we are now writing, when
it was infinitely worse, for the system of the Dutch, notorious for
their cruelty, had been grafted upon that of the English. The
consequence was, a combination of all that was revolting to humanity was
practised, without any notice being taken of it by the superior powers,
provided that the commanders of the vessels did their duty when called
upon, and showed the necessary talent and courage.
Lieutenant Vanslyperken's character may be summed up in the three vices
of avarice, cowardice, and cruelty. A miser in the extreme, he had
saved up much money by his having had the command of a vessel for so
many years, during which he had defrauded and pilfered both from the men
and the government. Friends and connections he had none on this side of
the water, and, when on shore, he had lived in a state of abject misery,
although he had the means of comfortable support. He was now fifty-five
years of age. Since he had been appointed to the Yungfrau, he had been
employed in carrying despatches to the States-General from King William,
and had, during his repeated visits to the Hague, made acquaintance with
the widow Vandersloosh, who kept a Lust Haus, [_Pleasure house_] a place
of resort for sailors, where they drank and danced. Discovering that
the comfortably fat lady was also very comfortably rich, Mr
Vanslyperken had made advances, with the hope of obtaining her hand and
handling her money. The widow had, however, no idea of accepting the
offer, but was too wise to give him a decided refusal, as she knew it
would be attended with his preventing the crew of the cutter from
frequenting her house, and thereby losing much custom. Thus did she, at
every return, receive him kindly and give him hopes, but nothing more.
Since the peace, as we before observed, the cutter had been ordered for
the prevention of smuggling.
When and how Mr Vanslyperken had picked up his favourite Snarleyyow
cannot be discovered, and must remain a secret. The men said that the
dog had appeared on the deck of the cutter in a supernatural way, and
most of them looked upon him with as much awe as ill-will.
This is certain, that the cutter had been a little while before in a
state of mutiny, and a forcible entry attempted at night into the
lieutenant's cabin. It is therefore not unreasonable to suppose that
Vanslyperken felt that a good watch-dog might be a very useful appendage
to his establishment, and had procured one accordingly. All the
affection he ever showed to anything living was certainly concentrated
on this one animal, and, next to his money, Snarleyyow had possession of
his master's heart.
Poor Smallbones, cast on the world without father or mother, had become
starved before he was on board the cutter, and had been starved ever
since. As the reader will perceive, his allowance was mostly eaten up
by the dog, and he was left to beg a precarious support from the
good-will and charity of his shipmates, all of whom were equally
disgusted with the commander's cruelty and the ungain temper of his
brute companion.
Having entered into this retrospect for the benefit of the reader, we
will now proceed.
Mr Vanslyperken walked the deck for nearly a quarter of an hour without
speaking: the men had finished their breakfasts, and were lounging about
the deck, for there was nothing for them to do, except to look out for
the return of the two boats which had been sent away the night before.
The lieutenant's thoughts were at one minute, upon Mrs Vandersloosh
thinking how he could persuade her, and, at another, upon Smallbones,
thinking how he could render the punishment adequate, in his opinion, to
the magnitude of the offence. While discussing these two important
matters, one of the men reported the boats ahead, and broke up the
commander's reverie.
"How far off?" demanded Mr Vanslyperken.
"About two miles."
"Pulling or sailing?"
"Pulling, sir; we stand right for them."
But Mr Vanslyperken was in no pleasant humour, and ordered the cutter
to be hove-to.
"I tink de men have pull enough all night," said Jansen, who had just
been relieved at the wheel, to Obadiah Coble, who was standing by him on
the forecastle.
"I think so too: but there'll be a breeze, depend upon it--never mind,
the devil will have his own all in good time."
"Got for dam," said Jansen, looking at Beachy Head, and shaking his own.
"Why, what's the matter now, old Schnapps?" said Coble.
"Schnapps--yes--the tyfel--Schnapps, I think how the French schnapped us
Dutchmen here when you Englishment wouldn't fight."
"Mind what you say, old twenty breeches--wouldn't fight--when wouldn't
we fight?"
"Here, where we were now, by Got, you leave us all in the lurch, and not
come down."
"Why, we couldn't come down."
"Bah!" replied Jansen, who referred to the defeat of the combined Dutch
and English fleet by the French off Beachy Head in 1690.
"We wouldn't fight, eh?" exclaimed Obadiah in scorn--"what do you say to
the Hogue?"
"Yes, den you fought well--dat was good."
"And shall I tell you why we fought well at the Hogue, you Dutch
porpoise--just because we had no Dutchmen to help us."
"And shall I tell you why the Dutch were beat off this Head?--because
the English wouldn't come down to help us."
Here Obadiah put his tongue into his right cheek. Jansen in return
threw his into his left, and thus the argument was finished. These
disputes were constant at the time, but seldom proceeded further than
words--certainly not between Coble and Jansen, who were great friends.
The boats were soon on board; from the time that the cutter had been
hove-to, every stroke of their oars having been accompanied with a
nautical anathema from the crews upon the head of their commander. The
steersman and first officer, who had charge of the boats, came over the
gangway and went up to Vanslyperken. He was a thick-set, stout man,
about five feet four inches high, and, wrapped up in Flushing garments,
looked very much like a bear in shape as well as in skin. His name was
Dick Short, and in every respect he answered to his name, for he was
short in stature, short in speech, and short in decision and action.
Now when Short came up to the lieutenant, he did not consider it at all
necessary to say as usual, "Come on board, sir," for it was self-evident
that he had come on board. He therefore said nothing. So abrupt was he
in his speech, that he never even said "Sir" when he spoke to his
superior, which it may be imagined was very offensive to Mr
Vanslyperken; so it was, but Mr Vanslyperken was afraid of Short, and
Short was not the least afraid of Vanslyperken.
"Well, what have you done, Short?"
"Nothing."
"Did you see anything of the boat?"
"No."
"Did you gain any information?"
"No."
"What have you been doing all night?"
"Pulling."
"Did you land to obtain information?"
"Yes."
"And you got none?"
"No."
Here Short hitched up the waistband of his second pair of trousers,
turned short round, and was going below, when Snarleyyow smelt at his
heels. The man gave him a back kick with the heel of his heavy boot,
which sent the dog off yelping and barking, and put Mr Vanslyperken in
a great rage. Not venturing to resent this affront upon his first
officer, he was reminded of Smallbones, and immediately sent for
Corporal Van Spitter to appear on deck.