WITH
COCHRANE THE DAUNTLESS
A TALE OF
THE EXPLOITS OF LORD COCHRANE IN
SOUTH AMERICAN WATERS
BY
G. A. HENTY
Author of ”Under Drake’s Flag”, “The Dash for Khartoum”, “In Greek
Waters”,
“The Lion of St. Mark”, “Through Russian Snows”, &c.
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_WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS BY W. H. MARGETSON_
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LONDON
BLACKIE & SON, LIMITED, 50 OLD BAILEY, E.C.
GLASGOW AND DUBLIN
1897
PREFACE.
In the annals of British sailors there is no name that should stand higher
than that of Lord Cochrane. In some respects he resembled that daring
leader and great military genius, the Earl of Peterborough. Both performed
feats that most men would have regarded as impossible, both possessed
extraordinary personal bravery and exceptional genius for war, and a love
for adventure. Both accomplished marvels, and neither was appreciated at
his full value by his countrymen, both having a touch of originality that
amounted in the case of Peterborough to absolute eccentricity. In other
respects they had little in common. Cochrane’s life was passed in one long
struggle on behalf of the oppressed. He ruined his career in our navy, and
created for himself a host of bitter enemies by his crusade against the
enormous abuses of our naval administration, and by the ardour with which
he championed the cause of reform at home. Finding the English navy closed
to him he threw himself into the cause of oppressed nationalities. His
valour and genius saved Chili from being reconquered by the Spanish,
rescued Peru from their grasp, and utterly broke their power in South
America. Similarly he crushed the Portuguese power in Brazil and ensured
its independence, and then took up the cause of Greece. In all four
enterprises his efforts were hampered by the utter corruption of the
governments of these countries, just as his efforts on behalf of British
sailors and of the British people at large had brought upon him the hatred
and persecution of a government as corrupt as those of Chili, Brazil, and
Greece. He was rewarded only with the basest ingratitude, and returned
home after having expended a large part of his fortune and permanently
injured his health in the inestimable services he had rendered. In other
respects besides those exploits connected with the sea, his genius was
remarkable. After retiring from active service he devoted himself to
inventions, and some of these paved the way to later scientific
achievements, giving him a place alongside the Marquis of Worcester.
Of Lord Cochrane it can be said that he was the victim of his generous
enthusiasm for the oppressed. During the greater portion of his life he
rested under a heavy cloud, and it was only in extreme old age that he had
the satisfaction of having his name rehabilitated, and of regaining the
honours and rank of which he had been so unjustly deprived.
G. A. HENTY.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
I. OFF TO SEA 11
II. IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO 30
III. A CYCLONE 50
IV. A RESCUE 69
V. AGAIN ON THE ISLAND 90
VI. HOME 109
VII. COCHRANE’S CAREER 128
VIII. THE BASQUE ROADS 146
IX. IN CHILI 158
X. WRECKED 176
XI. A DANGEROUS COMPANION 194
XII. DEATH OF THE CAPTAIN 214
XIII. PRIZE-MONEY 231
XIV. A PRISONER 249
XV. FRIENDS IN NEED 269
XVI. AN INDIAN GUIDE 287
XVII. DOWN THE RIVER 305
XVIII. CAPTURED BY INDIANS 323
XIX. IN BRAZIL 342
XX. FRESH TRIUMPHS 363
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page
THE LIEUTENANT TALKS TO STEVE ABOUT GOING TO SEA, _Frontis._ 11
“WE WENT AT THE TREACHEROUS MALAYS WITH A WILL, AND DROVE 36
THEM BACK,”
STEPHEN CRAWLS TO THE RESCUE OF HIS CHUM, JOYCE, 88
COCHRANE SCATTERS THE FRENCH FLEET IN THE BASQUE ROADS BY 156
HIS TERRIBLE EXPLOSION-SHIP,
“THE SHIP FELL WITH A CRASH THAT THREW STEVE AND THE CAPTAIN 186
OFF THEIR FEET,”
“WITH A SHOUT, STEPHEN SNATCHED UP HIS SWORD AND RUSHED AT 218
THE ASSASSIN,”
STEPHEN BEATS OFF THE GREAT WAR-CANOE SINGLE-HANDED, 228
STEPHEN IS BOUND AND BROUGHT BEFORE THE GOVERNOR OF SAN 265
CARLOS,
STEPHEN MAKES A DASH FOR LIBERTY, AND GRAPPLES WITH THE 278
GUARD,
“THE ANIMAL WAS ON THE POINT OF SPRINGING WHEN STEPHEN 306
FIRED,”
PITA TRIES STEPHEN’S PLAN IN ORDER TO ESCAPE FROM THE 323
WHIRLPOOL,
“MY DEAR BOY,” EXCLAIMED LORD COCHRANE, “THANK GOD INDEED 365
THAT I SEE YOU ALIVE,”
[Illustration: THE LIEUTENANT TALKS TO STEVE ABOUT GOING TO SEA.]
WITH COCHRANE THE DAUNTLESS.
CHAPTER I.
OFF TO SEA.
“I am sure I do not know what to do with you, Steve,” Lieutenant Embleton
said one afternoon as he and his son were sitting upon a bench on the
cliff at Ramsgate, looking over the sea. “Upon my word I don’t see my way
at all; this peace has stranded most of us, and at any rate, so far as I
am concerned, there is not a ghost of a chance of my obtaining
employment—not that I am fit for it if I could get it. I have been nearly
ten years ashore. Every one of us who sailed under Cochrane have been
marked men ever since. However, that is an old story, and it is no use
grumbling over what cannot be helped; besides, that wound in my hip has
been troubling me a good deal of late, and I know I am not fit for sea. I
don’t think I should have minded so much if I had got post rank before
being laid on the shelf. The difference of pension, too, would have been a
help, for goodness knows it is hard work making ends meet on a
lieutenant’s half-pay. However, that is not the question now. The thing
that I have got to consider is what is the best thing to do with you.
“Yes, I know you are ready to do anything, lad, and it is not your fault
that you are not in harness; but, in the first place, I found it hard to
spare you, and in the next, I wanted you to stick to your books as long as
you could. I grant there are many officers even in His Majesty’s service
who are as rough as if they had come in through the hawse-hole, but it
tells against them. However, as you are past fifteen, I think now that you
will do; and as you have been working steadily with me for the past four
years, you have got a lot into your head that will give you an advantage
over boys sent to sea two years younger.
“You are well up in navigation, and can take an observation as well as any
old sailor, either by sun, moon, or stars. You can steer a boat in heavy
weather, and knot and splice; you know the sails and ropes, and can go
aloft as quickly as a monkey, and do anything that your strength permits.
There have been plenty of opportunities for teaching you all this on short
coasting voyages and on board ships driven in here by stress of weather. I
suppose, Steve, however much we may talk of other professions, it comes to
the sea at last. I know that you have always wanted it, but if I could
have seen any opening for you on land I would rather that you had taken to
it than have gone afloat. You see what it has done for me, lad. It is a
poor trade, though as long as it’s war-time there is excitement enough to
make up for the shortness of the pay. However, as I have told you many a
time, there is no chance whatever of my getting you a midshipman’s berth.
“I have not the slightest influence at the admiralty, and the navy has
been so reduced since the war ended that they must have fifty applications
for every vacancy; besides, now that there is no fighting to be done, I
don’t know that the merchant service isn’t the best, for it is dull work
indeed being years on a station when there is no chance of a brush with an
enemy or the capture of a prize. In the merchant service you can have at
least a change, and a smart young fellow who knows his business and has
gentlemanly manners, has much better chances of coming to the front than
he would have in the royal navy. So I think the time has come when I must
bring myself to make a move in the matter.”
“Thank you, father; I know very well that in studying with you I have
learned a lot more than I should have done if I had gone to sea two years
ago; but I do want to be working and earning something, instead of being
an expense to you, and, as you know, I would prefer the sea to anything
else.”
“It is Hobson’s choice, lad; it is the sea or nothing. And after all, I
think the mercantile navy is as good a profession as a lad can take to,
that is if he has no influence to back him on shore. I wrote a fortnight
ago to a friend in London. He is the owner of four or five vessels, and it
happened, a good many years ago now, that I recaptured one of them with a
valuable cargo that had been taken by a French privateer. I was sent home
in her, and when he came down to Plymouth, where I took her in, we became
great friends. We were about the same age, and the loss at that time would
have been a very serious one to him. I stayed with him once or twice when
I was in town. I have not seen him for some years now—one cannot afford to
run about on a lieutenant’s half-pay—but I remembered him the other day
when I was thinking things over in every light, and wrote to him. I told
him how we were situated, and asked him if he would put you on board one
of his ships, and this morning I had an answer from him saying that he
would gladly do so. He said that he would take you as an apprentice
without fees, and that at any time, should anything better turn up, or you
see your way to getting into a firm with a larger fleet and better chance
of advancement, he would cancel your indentures. No kinder offer could be
made, and if you are willing I will write this evening to accept the
offer, and tell him that I will go up with you in the hoy directly I hear
from him that you are wanted.”
“Thank you very much, father; I am awfully glad that it can be managed
without expense, though I should be quite willing to go before the mast
and work my way up.”
“I know you would, Steve, but it is much better to start fair, for
ship-owners prefer to take a young mate who has regularly served as an
apprentice than a man who has only been trained before the mast; for
although the latter may have picked up enough to scrape through his
examination, he is rarely a good navigator, and works out his reckoning by
rule of thumb, which is all very well as long as the weather is fine and
he can get his observation at noon, but breaks down directly it comes to
having to depend upon a glimpse of the moon through the clouds, or the
chance of getting a star.”
Lieutenant Embleton had been a dashing and gallant officer, but his career
in the service had been ruined by the fact that he had served under Lord
Cochrane, both in the _Pallas_, the _Impérieuse_, and the _Speedy_. The
latter was a little sloop mounting fourteen four-pounder guns, in which
not only did Lord Cochrane capture many gun-boats and merchantmen, but on
the 6th of May, 1801, he took the _Gamo_, a Spanish frigate, carrying six
times as many men as the _Speedy_ and seven times her weight of shot, an
exploit that so aroused the jealousy of Earl St. Vincent that for a long
time Lord Cochrane could not obtain employment. Three years later, when
Lord Melville succeeded St. Vincent as first lord of the admiralty, Lord
Cochrane was appointed to the _Pallas_, in which he again did excellent
service; and distinguished himself still more when, in the _Impérieuse_,
he attacked the whole French fleet in the Basque Roads, driving three or
four of their battle-ships ashore, capturing three others, and compelling
the rest to take to flight.
But the honour and popular applause gained by Lord Cochrane was, in the
opinion of the authorities, more than neutralized by his fearless
exposure, from his place in Parliament, where he sat as one of the members
for Westminster, of the scandalous abuses then prevailing in the navy. All
attempts to silence him by the offers of valuable appointments being in
vain, Lord Cochrane was subjected to a persecution altogether without
precedent in parliamentary history. In the court-marshal which was held
upon Lord Gambier for his failure to assist Cochrane in the action in the
Basque Roads, the admiralty went so far as to forge charts, and so to show
that the admiral could not come to Cochrane’s assistance, and Gambier was
not only acquitted, but received a vote of thanks from the House of
Commons for the victory in which he had taken no part. For four years Lord
Cochrane received no appointment, but at the close of 1813 his uncle, Sir
Alexander Cochrane, was selected for the command of the fleet on the North
American station, and nominated Cochrane his flag captain, an appointment
resting entirely with him, and with which government could not interfere.
He did not, however, sail, for just as he was about to embark, a relation,
who was engaged in stock exchange operations in conjunction with a foreign
adventurer, carried out some dishonest transactions, those who were his
dupes believing that he was acting under information obtained from Lord
Cochrane. As soon as the latter heard a report of the affair he left his
ship, came up to London, and demanded an investigation. Then followed one
of the most disgraceful parodies of justice ever performed in this
country. Lord Cochrane was arrested, tried, and by means of a partisan
judge, false evidence, and measures more unscrupulous even than those of
Judge Jeffreys, convicted and sentenced to imprisonment. A servile House
of Commons obeyed the orders of ministers to expel him from their body.
His name was struck off the order of the Bath, and his insignia torn down
from St. George’s Chapel with every mark of indignity.
Public indignation at the disgraceful means that had been taken to secure
his conviction rose to such a height, that it was only by the persuasions
of Lord Cochrane’s friends that a riot was prevented. The citizens of
Westminster at once re-elected him as their member, no one venturing to
oppose him. After remaining in prison for some months he effected his
escape and presented himself in the House of Commons. He was seized and
carried back to prison, where he was thrown into a dungeon, and there kept
until his health so suffered that his persecutors, fearing that fatal
consequences would ensue, were obliged to place him in more wholesome
quarters. Here he remained until the conclusion of his year’s sentence. He
then paid the fine of a thousand pounds, to which he had also been
sentenced, and on the very day of his release from prison took his place
in the House of Commons, and resumed his work as one of the leaders of the
reform party.
Eighteen months later he was subjected to fresh persecution, and was tried
for his escape from prison and fined a hundred pounds. A penny
subscription was at once started, and eleven hundred pounds collected in
this way, afforded a signal proof of the intensity of the feeling in his
favour. This sum was used to pay the fine, and to reimburse him for the
former fine to which he had been subjected. All Lord Cochrane’s efforts to
obtain a new trial, or an expression of an opinion from the House as to
the illegality of the proceedings of his judge, Lord Ellenborough, were
ineffective, the House, on each occasion when he brought the matter
forward, obeying the orders of ministers and voting against his motions by
an overwhelming majority. He had, however, the satisfaction of knowing
that the nation at large was heartily with him, and recognized the gross
injustice from which he had been a sufferer.
The hostility upon the part of the admiralty and government extended to
those who had borne part in his glorious exploits at sea, and Lieutenant
Embleton was put on half-pay after the action of the _Impérieuse_ against
the French fleet, and found himself without any prospect of future
employment, and without even a chance of obtaining a nomination for his
son to a midshipman’s berth. The blow was at first a very keen one, but it
was less bitterly felt after the conclusion of peace and the great
reduction of the navy, as his fate was only that of thousands of other
officers; and he had now come to feel that the effects of his wound, for
which he received a small addition to his half-pay, rendered him unfit for
further service, even could he have obtained an appointment. He had, since
leaving the navy, lived in a little cottage at Ramsgate, where from his
garden he could obtain a view of the sea and the passing ships. The
education of his son afforded him employment for some hours a day. His
favourite position was on a bench in the garden, from which he could watch
through a telescope mounted on a tripod the passing ships, criticise the
state of their rigging and sails, and form conjectures as to their
destination.
It was a great pang to him to part with Stephen, but he felt that he could
no longer keep him by his side; and he was sure that the careful training
he had given him in all nautical matters would enable the lad to make his
way in the mercantile navy. A fortnight after his conversation with Steve,
the lieutenant received a letter from his friend in London, saying that
one of his ships that had returned a fortnight before was now unloaded,
and would at once begin to fit out for a fresh voyage, and it would be
therefore as well for him to bring Stephen up, so that he might have the
advantage of seeing the whole process of preparing a ship for sea. He gave
a warm invitation to Lieutenant Embleton to stay with him for a week or
two, and on the following day father and son went on board a Ramsgate hoy,
and thirty-six hours later arrived in the port of London. They were warmly
received by Mr. Hewson.
“I think your boy is fortunate that the _Tiger_ should be the first ship
he will sail in,” he said that evening. “I regard the captain as my best
officer. He is a good seaman and a capital navigator, and he is of a most
kindly disposition; therefore, I can put the boy under him with the
certainty that he will be well treated and cared for. In the next place,
the _Tiger_ does not, like my other ships, make regular voyages to and
from a foreign port, but carries on the business of a trader among the
East Indian islands. It is not every one to whom such a business could be
safely intrusted; but I have great confidence in Captain Pinder. He is a
good man of business, thoroughly conscientious, and accustomed to the ways
of the treacherous natives of those islands. The _Tiger_ is more heavily
armed than usual, and has more than once beaten off the attacks of their
piratical craft, and there is no fear of Pinder’s being caught napping.
“She will in the first place take a cargo to Calcutta, reserving a portion
of her hold for my goods for trading among the islands. When she has
landed her freight at Calcutta she will cruise in the Archipelago for some
months, as long, in fact, as Pinder finds that he can carry on a really
good business with the natives. Then she will return to Calcutta and fill
up with freight for her return voyage. Thus, you see, your boy will gain a
good deal of varied experience, and will see, perhaps, as much adventure
and excitement as he would meet with in a score of ordinary voyages, and
will have the advantage of being under a kind commander, who will instruct
him in the rudiments of navigation.”
“Nothing could be better,” Mr. Embleton said warmly. “It is the voyage of
all others that would be to the boy’s taste, and I shall be satisfied
indeed at his being in such good hands. As to navigation, it is practice
only that he wants. I have taught him all that I know myself, and he can
take a lunar, or work his reckoning out from a star observation, as
accurately as I could do it myself.”
“Is that so, Mr. Embleton? I am glad indeed to hear it. Then there is no
doubt about the future of your boy, if he is steady and industrious. I am
pleased to hear it for my own sake, if for nothing else; for although
Pinder’s mates are capital sailors, and in all other respects able
officers, they are not men of Pinder’s type. They can take, of course, a
rough observation at noon, and work it out by rule of thumb and the aid of
tables, but beyond that they can do nothing. They have not received the
education to enable them to grapple with mathematical problems, even of
the simplest kind; and although, in case of Pinder falling sick, they
might manage under favourable circumstances to bring the ship home, they
would fare very badly if they had a long spell of bad weather and could
not get an observation at noon for days or even weeks together. It will be
a satisfaction to me to know that in case of anything happening to the
captain there is someone on board who could, in such a case, take a lunar
or shoot a star. Well, to-morrow morning we will go down to the docks, and
I will hand your boy over to Pinder. I should, of course, be very glad to
have him here, but I think it is of great advantage to a boy to see
everything done from the first step. She is going to have an entirely new
fit-out both of standing and running rigging, so she has been stripped
entirely, and has nothing but her three lower masts above the deck.”
Accordingly, after breakfast next day Mr. Hewson sent for a hackney-coach
and they drove down to the docks.
“That is the _Tiger_,” Mr. Hewson said as he stopped at the side of a fine
craft. “She is six hundred tons, three years old, and a fast sailer. She
is not much to look at at present, but when she is in full dress she is a
handsome vessel.”
“She looks fast,” Mr. Embleton said. “And for myself, I would rather
command a craft of that size than one of greater tonnage.”
The _Tiger_ at present certainly did not show to advantage. Her deck was
begrimed with dirt. A body of riggers were at work in parcelling and
serving with spun yarn the eyes of the shrouds. An officer in a rough
canvas suit was superintending the work.
“That is Mr. Staines, the first mate,” Mr. Hewson said. “He would not be
happy if he was not on board from the very first hour that the riggers
were beginning their work. Good morning, Mr. Staines!” he went on, raising
his voice. “Is Captain Pinder on board?”
“Yes, sir,” the mate said, touching his cap, and then went aft to the
poop-cabin, from which the captain came out as his visitor stepped on
board. He also was in a working suit.
“Good morning, Mr. Hewson!” he said. “We are all in the rough, you see.
One hardly expects visitors on her first day of fitting out.”
“We all know that, captain. This is Lieutenant Embleton of the royal navy,
and this is his son, of whom I was speaking to you two days ago.”
“I am glad to meet you, sir,” the captain said, shaking hands with Mr.
Embleton. “Every sailor knows you by reputation as being one of Lord
Cochrane’s officers. It will be a pleasure to me to do all I can for your
son.”
“You will find him very different to most of your apprentices, Pinder. He
has had the advantage of his father’s teaching, and, theoretically at any
rate, he is already well up in his work. When I tell you that he can take
a lunar, or an observation from a star, you may imagine that he will not
require much teaching in navigation.”
“I am glad indeed to hear it, Mr. Hewson—heartily glad; there ought to be
two men on board a ship who can do that, for there is never any saying
what might happen if there is only one. It has made me anxious many a
time, when we had a bad spell of weather, as to how the _Tiger_ would get
on if I happened to be washed overboard by a sea or killed by a falling
spar. Well, Master Embleton, I can see that I shall have no difficulty in
making a first-rate sailor of you. Have you come to stay?”
“Yes, sir. My father thought it would be good for me to be on board from
the time the fitting-out began.”
“Quite right, lad. You will then learn as much in a fortnight as you would
in a year at sea. I always make a point of being here myself, and my first
officer wouldn’t allow anything to prevent his seeing that everything was
right from first to last. But I don’t think that you will be able to sleep
on board for the next fortnight.”
“Of course not,” Mr. Embleton said. “I intend to take a lodging for him as
close to the dock-gate as I can. Perhaps you may know of a tidy place.”
“He can’t do better than lodge with us,” the captain said. “Mr. Staines
and I always put up at the same place. We give them notice when we are
going to begin to fit out, and they keep the rooms for us. We both slept
there last night. The house is kept by a nice clean woman, the widow of a
skipper who was lost with his craft about ten years ago. I have no doubt
she can put the lad up too, and he can mess with us. I will go round with
him myself; till we get the shrouds up, one is quite enough to look after
the riggers.”
“I thank you very much, captain. That will be in all respects more
pleasant for the boy than lodging by himself.”
The matter was speedily arranged. Mr. Embleton then took Stephen to a
clothing shop and bought him two suits of rough canvas.
“You will find it dirty work, Steve. There is no keeping free of the tar.
By the way, Captain Pinder, I have not ordered Steve’s outfit yet, for I
know that on some lines the apprentices dress like midshipmen, on others
they don’t; so I put it off until I saw you.”
“I always like the apprentices on board my ship to be dressed as
midshipmen,” the captain replied. “There will only be three on board as
far as I know. I make a point of messing with my officers, and if there
are only two or three apprentices on board they take their meals with us,
it does them good; and I don’t at all approve of their mixing with the men
forward. I should say, Mr. Embleton, get him one good suit for going
ashore, another rougher suit for duty on board, half-a-dozen duck suits
for the tropics, and two or three suits of dungaree for slipping on over
the others when there is dirty work to be done. The cap is sufficient to
indicate the officer. As for the rest of his outfit, your own experience
will tell you what is needed. Railton in Leadenhall Street is a man I can
recommend. He keeps the house badges for the caps, and turns out his work
well. I generally get my togs there, and find him as cheap as anyone.”
“Thank you! I will take Steve with me as far as that in the hackney-coach,
and get him measured. Then he can be back here again by the time you knock
off for dinner, and will then put on his slops and get to work.”
Steve returned to the lodgings just as the captain and first mate came in
to dinner. Then he carried one of his canvas suits down to the ship, put
it on, and was soon at work having his first lesson in seizing ropes. For
a fortnight the work continued, and Stephen greatly pleased the captain
and first mate by his attention and willingness, working all the time as a
rigger’s boy, and paying the greatest attention to all the minutiae of the
work. Saturday afternoons and Sundays he spent at Mr. Hewson’s, where his
father was still staying, his host refusing to listen to any talk of his
leaving until the _Tiger_ sailed. Another four days were spent in planing
decks and painting inside and out. The work was scarcely finished when the
cargo began to come on board. As soon as this was the case, the second and
third mates and the other two apprentices joined. Like Mr. Staines, Towel
and Pasley, the second and third mates, had both made their way up from
the forecastle; both were active young men and good sailors, who had
laboriously mastered the very small amount of bookwork that was needed, in
addition to practical seamanship, to pass their examinations, but who,
like the majority of their class of that time, knew nothing of navigation
beyond taking a rough observation at mid-day and working it out by rule of
thumb on the tables. Mr. Staines presented Stephen to them.
“This is our new apprentice,” he said; “his father is a lieutenant in the
royal navy, one of Lord Cochrane’s men, and a great friend of the owner.
Stephen Embleton is the lad’s name, and some day he will make a fine
officer. He has been at work here since the morning the riggers came on
board, and is not afraid to put his hands into the tar-pot, as you can see
from his appearance. He has learned a lot from his father, so we won’t
have the trouble with him we generally do have with Johnny-raws.”
“That is right, youngster,” the second mate said heartily; “if you will
learn anywhere, you will learn here, for a better captain never commanded
a ship. No passengers, I hope, Staines?”
“No; I believe that the skipper has had two or three applications, but
although the owner has no objection to his taking them, he considers the
trouble is more than they are worth. Of course, he would make something
out of their passage, but there would, almost certainly, be some
cantankerous beggars among them, and of course the table costs a good deal
more when there are passengers, especially as he will have the apprentices
to mess with him. I am sure I am glad indeed that we sha’n’t be bothered
with them.”
The other two apprentices were about Stephen’s age. Both had made one trip
in the _Tiger_, and were at first a little inclined to patronize the
new-comer. The day before the _Tiger_ hauled out into the river, the owner
and Mr. Embleton came down to look over her. Great was the change that
three weeks had made in her appearance. Her deck was beautifully white,
the lofty spars well scraped and freshly varnished, and the network of new
rigging set her off to the greatest advantage. The new suit of sails were
all bent, and lay loose in their gaskets ready for dropping. Four guns
were ranged along either side.
“She is a handsome craft indeed,” Mr. Embleton said as he stood on the
wharf alongside, taking in every detail of her outfit with the eye of a
seaman. “What are the guns—twelve-pounders?”
“Yes, but there is a long eighteen down in the hold, which will be mounted
as a pivot as soon as she gets among the islands. The others are well
enough when you come to close quarters, but the long gun generally keeps
the pirates from getting there; they don’t like being peppered before they
come within fighting distance. I believe the captain would rather part
with all the other guns than sail without Long Tom.”
“That I would,” Captain Pinder, who had just joined, remarked. “Five times
has the pivot-gun made them sheer off without venturing to come to close
quarters; and indeed I have never had to loose the broadside guns but
three times, in each of which they came suddenly round the corner into a
bay where we were lying at anchor.”
As they had had notice of the owner’s intention to come down, the officers
were all in their new uniforms, and after Captain Pinder had shown his
guests round the ship, they sat down together to dinner in the cabin.
“You have plenty of freeboard, I see,” Mr. Embleton said, as, after
returning on deck, he looked over the side.
“Yes, I never will load down my ships,” Mr. Hewson said, “and will never
take cargo within twenty per cent of their full carrying power. I have as
little as possible stowed either quite forward or quite aft, so that they
have not only plenty of freeboard, but are buoyant in a heavy sea. I am
sure it pays. I don’t insure my ships, and I have not lost one in the last
sixteen years. The insurance money saved makes up for the loss of freight,
and I have the satisfaction of knowing that I have done all in my power to
ensure the safety of my officers and men.”
“And very good policy, Hewson,” Mr. Embleton said warmly. “I see scores of
ships passing inside the Goodwins so loaded down that I would not be on
board in a heavy gale for all the money in the bank, and the state of
their sails often shows that they are badly cared for in all other
respects. The system of insurance is no doubt a good one, but it has been
so scandalously abused that it may safely be said that it has largely
increased the annual number of wrecks and loss of life. Were it not for
insurance, owners would, in their own interest, be driven to see that
their ships were made in every respect seaworthy, well provided with gear
of all kinds, well manned, and above all, not overloaded. Insurances are
responsible for a large proportion of our marine disasters.”
As, if the wind continued favourable, the _Tiger_ would drop down the
river as soon as she got out of dock, which would be at a very early hour
the next morning, it was necessary that Stephen should be on board that
evening. He, however, went back with his father to Mr. Hewson’s, spent the
afternoon at Exeter ’Change seeing the wild beasts, and returned by eight
o’clock to the ship.
The _Tiger_ made a quick voyage to Calcutta. She rounded the Cape without
encountering bad weather, and was only twice obliged to shorten sail
during the whole passage. Stephen enjoyed his life exceedingly. He was in
the first officer’s watch, and became a great favourite with Mr. Staines.
He astonished his fellow-apprentices, as soon as they were fairly on their
way, by producing his quadrant and taking observations at the same time as
did the captain and mates; still more so when he took lunar and star
observations, working them all out by figures instead of from the tables
in the nautical almanac. He found at first some little difficulty in
obtaining accuracy when the vessel was rolling, but he was not long in
overcoming this, and the captain found that he was able to place the
ship’s position on the chart quite as correctly as he did himself.
“I would give a lot, Steve,” the first mate said, when they had been out a
fortnight, “if I could work things out as you do. I have gone over and
over again to fellows who advertise that they teach navigation, but it is
of no use, I can’t make head or tail of all the letters and zigzigs and
things. I have tried and I have tried till my head ached, but the more I
study it the more fogged I get about it. There does not seem to me to be
any sense in the thing, and when I see you sit down and figure away with
all those letters and things, it beats me altogether.”
“It is not difficult when you have begun from the beginning,” Stephen
said. “Of course, as my father wanted to teach me navigation, he taught me
just the things that led up to the problems that you are talking about, so
that it really was not hard, but if I had to do any other sort of
mathematical questions I should be just as much puzzled as you are. Then
you see, my father explained every step as it came, and as one led to
another, I learnt them without meeting with any one special difficulty;
but I can quite see that it would be very hard for anyone to learn to work
it out without having been coached from the start.”
“I shall never try again. I think I could find a port by reckoning and the
sun, but as for the moon and stars I give them up altogether. There are
hundreds of skippers, nay thousands of them, who don’t know more than I
do.”
This was indeed the case, and the skilful navigators had less advantage
over experienced men who worked by rule of thumb than is now the case, as
the instruments were comparatively rough and the chronometers far less
accurate than at present, and even those most skilful in their use were
well satisfied if at the end of a long voyage they found that they were
within twenty miles of their reckoning.
“It is different work now, lad, to what it used to be two years ago. Now
one walks up and down the deck, and though there may be twenty sail in
sight, one pays no more attention to them than one would to as many
sea-birds. Then every sail was watched, and one was up, in the tops with
one’s glass twenty times a day, for there was no saying whether it was a
friend or an enemy. One’s watch at night was a watch then, for there was
never any saying whether a French privateer might not come looming out of
the darkness at any moment; and if a vessel of about our size was made out
a mile off, it was all hands on deck, and cast the lashings off the guns,
and stand by till she was out of sight again. Now one jogs along, and all
that you have got to look out for, is to see that you don’t run foul of
another craft, or let one run foul of you. Yes, we had a rough time of it
in those days, and I ain’t sorry that they are over.”
“But you look out sharp for pirates when you are among the islands, don’t
you, Mr. Staines?”
“Ay, lad; but when one sees a Malay pirate, there is no mistaking her for
anything else. At night it is generally a stark calm, and whether one is
lying idle, with the sails hanging flat against the mast, or whether one
is at anchor, one knows that they can’t come upon us under sail, and on a
still night one can hear the beat of their oars miles away. There is never
any fear of being surprised as long as there is a hand wide awake and
watchful on deck. Calms are the greatest curse out there; the ship lies
sometimes for days, ay and for weeks, with the water as smooth as grease,
and everything that has been thrown overboard floating alongside, and the
sun coming down until your brain is on the boil.”
“You have storms sometimes, don’t you?”
“Sometimes, not very often; but when it does blow, it blows fit to take
your head off, and you have nothing to do but to cruise under bare poles,
and hope that nothing will get in your way. There is one thing, they are
not gales like we have here, but cyclones, and instead of getting blown
along for hundreds of miles, you go round and round, so that if there is
no land within fifty miles of you when the storm strikes, the chances are
that you are safe. If you can but lie to, you can manage at last to edge
out of it on the side that is furthest from land. A cyclone is no joke, I
can tell you; but if you get warning enough to get your canvas stowed and
to send down your light spars, and have got a ship like the _Tiger_ under
you in good trim,—not too light, not too heavy,—you ought to be able to
live through it. There is no better sailor nor one more familiar with the
islands than the skipper. He is not fond of carrying on, and perhaps at
times we think him a little too prudent, but he generally turns out right;
anyhow, it is a fault on the right side.
“I have sailed under him fifteen years now. I was third mate when I first
joined his ship; not this, you know, but the old _Gertrude_. I have never
had a cross word with him, nor have the other two mates. He expects every
man to do his duty, as is right enough; but if that is done well,
everything goes on smooth. I don’t think that there are ten of the crew
who have not been with the skipper for years. When we get back to port and
the crew are paid off, it is always, ‘When will you want us again,
captain?’ and no matter whether it is in a fortnight or in a couple of
months, pretty nearly every man will turn up.”
“That speaks for itself, both as to the owner and the skipper, and the
mates too, Mr. Staines.”
“Well, we have not much to do with it. Unless a man does his duty, and
does it pleasantly and without cursing and swearing, he won’t make two
voyages under the skipper; indeed he won’t make one. Three years ago Towel
was laid up with a hurt he got on the voyage before, and we had to get a
new second mate at the last moment, for Pasley had not got his certificate
then, and couldn’t take Towel’s place. The man was highly recommended, and
was a good sailor, but he was a bully, and a foul-mouthed one, and the
skipper put him on shore at the Cape, and paid his passage home out of his
own pocket—though I know the owner returned it to him afterwards, and said
that he had done quite right. I tell you, lad, you are lucky in making
your first voyage on board the _Tiger_, for, putting aside everything
else, I don’t know a single ship, except Hewson’s, where the apprentices
mess with the master and mates, and are treated as they are here.
“I daresay you wonder why some of us have not been apprentices, but it is
only the last two or three years that Hewson’s ships have carried them.
Before that there was always a fourth mate to each of his ships, so that
there were two officers in each watch; but the ships have such a good
name, and the owner had so many applications from friends with sons who
wanted to go to sea, that three years ago he made the change. But he is
mighty particular who he takes, and all his indentures contain a clause
that unless the reports by the captains they sail under are favourable,
the owner has the right of returning the premium he received and of
cancelling the indentures. I can tell you, lad, that if every owner took
as much pains for the comfort of his officers and crews as Mr. Hewson
does, Jack would have a deal better life than is now the case.”