MY MESSMATES SHOW ME THE FOLLY OF RUNNING IN DEBT--THE EPISODE OF SHOLTO
MCFOY.
Now that I have been on board about a month, I find that my life is not
disagreeable. I don't smell the pitch and tar, and I can get into my
hammock without tumbling out on the other side. My messmates are
good-tempered, although they laugh at me very much: but I must say that
they are not very nice in their ideas of honour. A few days after I
came onboard, I purchased some tarts of the bumboat woman, as she is
called; I wished to pay for them, but she had no change, and very
civilly told me she would trust me. She produced a narrow book, and
said that she would open an account with me, and I could pay her when I
thought proper. To this arrangement I had no objection, and I sent up
for different things until I thought that my account must have amounted
to eleven or twelve shillings. As I promised my father that I never
would run in debt, I considered that it was then time that it should be
settled. When I asked for it, what was my surprise to find that it
amounted to 2 pounds 14 shillings, 6 pence. I declared that it was
impossible, and requested that she would allow me to look at the items,
when I found that I was booked for at least three or four dozen tarts
every day, ordered by the young gentlemen "to be put down to Mr
Simple's account." I was very much shocked, not only at the sum of
money which I had to pay, but also at the want of honesty on the part of
my messmates; but when I complained of it in the berth, they all laughed
at me.
At last one of them said, "Peter, tell the truth; did not your father
caution you not to run in debt?"
"Yes, he did," replied I.
"I know that very well," replied he: "all fathers do the same when their
sons leave them; it's a matter of course. Now observe, Peter; it is out
of regard to you, that your messmates have been eating tarts at your
expense. You disobeyed your father's injunctions before you had been a
month from home; and it is to give you a lesson that may be useful in
after-life, that they have considered it their duty to order the tarts.
I trust that it will not be thrown away upon you. Go to the woman, pay
your bill, and never run up another."
"That I certainly shall not," replied I; but as I could not prove who
ordered the tarts, and did not think it fair that the woman should lose
her money, I went up and paid the bill, with a determination never to
open an account with anybody again.
But this left my pockets quite empty, so I wrote to my father, stating
the whole transaction, and the consequent state of my finances. My
father, in his answer, observed that whatever might have been their
motives, my messmates had done me a friendly act; and that as I had lost
my money by my own carelessness, I must not expect that he would allow
me any more pocket-money. But my mother, who added a postscript to his
letter, slipped in a five-pound note, and I do believe that it was with
my father's sanction, although he pretended to be very angry at my
forgetting his injunctions.
A few days before this, Mr Falcon, the first lieutenant, ordered me to
put on my side-arms to go away on duty. I replied that I had neither
dirk nor cocked hat, although I had applied for them. He laughed at my
story, and sent me on shore with the master, who bought them, and the
first lieutenant sent up the bill to my father, who paid it, and wrote
to thank him for his trouble. That morning, the first lieutenant said
to me, "Now, Mr Simple, we'll take the shine off that cocked hat and
dirk of yours. You will go in the boat with Mr O'Brien, and take care
that none of the men slip away from it and get drunk at the tap."
This was the first time that I had ever been sent away on duty, and I
was very proud of being an officer in charge. I put on my full uniform,
and was ready at the gangway a quarter of an hour before the men were
piped away. We were ordered to the dockyard to draw sea-stores. When
we arrived there, I was quite astonished at the piles of timber, the
ranges of storehouses, and the immense anchors which lay on the wharf.
There was such a bustle, everybody appeared to be so busy, that I wanted
to look every way at once. Close to where the boat landed, they were
hauling a large frigate out of what they called the basin; and I was so
interested with the sight, that I am sorry to say, I quite forgot all
about the boat's crew, and my orders to look after them. Two of the
men: belonging to the boat slipped away, and on my return they were not
to be seen, I was very much frightened, for I knew that I had neglected
my duty, and that on the first occasion on which I had been entrusted
with responsible service. What to do I did not know. I ran up and down
every part of the dock-yard until I was quite out of breath, asking
every body I met whether they had seen my two men. Many of them said
that they had seen plenty of men, but did not exactly know mine; some
laughed, and called me a greenhorn. At last I met a midshipman, who
told me that he had seen two men answering to my description on the roof
of the coach starting for London, and that I must be quick if I wished
to catch them; but he would not stop to answer any more questions.
I was proceeding on very disconsolately, when, as I turned a corner, to
my great delight, I met my two men, who touched their hats and said that
they had been looking for me. I did not believe that they told the
truth, but I was so glad to recover them, that I did not scold, but went
with them down to the boat, which had been waiting some time for us.
O'Brien, the master's mate, called me a young sculping, a word I had
never heard before. When we arrived on board, the first lieutenant
asked O'Brien why he had remained so long. He answered that two of the
men had left the boat, but that I had found them. The first lieutenant
appeared to be pleased with me, observing, as he had said before, that I
was no fool, and I went down below overjoyed at my good fortune, and
very much obliged to O'Brien for not telling the whole truth.
A day or two afterwards, we had a new messmate of the name of McFoy. I
was on the quarter-deck when he came on board and presented a letter to
the captain, inquiring first if his name was "Captain Sauvage." He was
a florid young man, nearly six feet high, with sandy hair, yet very
good-looking. As his career in the service was very short, I will tell
at once, what I did not find out till some time afterwards. The captain
had agreed to receive him to oblige a brother officer, who had retired
from the service, and lived in the Highlands of Scotland. The first
notice which the captain had of the arrival of Mr McFoy, was from a
letter written to him by the young man's uncle. This amused him so much
that he gave it to the first lieutenant to read: it ran as follows:--
"GLASGOW, April 25th, 1---.
"Sir,--Our much esteemed and mutual friend, Captain McAlpine, having
communicated by letter, dated the 14th inst., your kind intentions
relative to my nephew, Sholto McFoy (for which you will be pleased to
accept my best thanks), I write to acquaint you that he is now on his
way to join your ship, the _Diomede_, and will arrive, God willing,
twenty-six hours after the receipt of this letter.
"As I have been given to understand by those who have some
acquaintance with the service of the King, that his equipment as an
officer will be somewhat expensive, I have considered it but fair to
ease your mind as to any responsibility on that score, and have
therefore enclosed the half of a Bank of England note for ten pounds
sterling, Number 3742, the other half of which will be duly forwarded
in a frank promised to me the day after to-morrow. I beg you will
make the necessary purchases, and apply the balance, should there be
any, to his mess account, or any other expenses which you may consider
warrantable or justifiable.
"It is at the same time proper to inform you that Sholto had ten
shillings in his pocket at the time of his leaving Glasgow; the
satisfactory expenditure of which I have no doubt you will inquire
into, as it is a large sum to be placed at the discretion of a youth
only fourteen years and five months old. I mention his age, as Sholto
is so tall that you might be deceived by his appearance, and be
induced to trust to his prudence in affairs of this serious nature.
Should he at any time require further assistance beyond his pay, which
I am told is extremely handsome to all King's officers, I beg you to
consider that any draft of yours, at ten days' sight, to the amount of
five pounds sterling English, will be duly honoured by the firm of
Monteith, McKillop, and Company, of Glasgow. Sir, with many thanks
for your kindness and consideration,
"I remain, your most obedient,
"WALTER MONTEITH."
The letter brought on board by McFoy was to prove his identity. While
the captain read it, McFoy stared about him like a wild stag. The
captain welcomed him to the ship, asked him one or two questions,
introduced him to the first lieutenant, and then went on shore. The
first lieutenant had asked me to dine in the gun-room; I supposed that
he was pleased with me because I had found the men; and when the captain
pulled on shore, he also invited Mr McFoy, when the following
conversation took place.
"Well, Mr McFoy, you have had a long journey; I presume it is the first
that you have ever made."
"Indeed it is, sir," replied McFoy; "and sorely I've been pestered. Had
I minded all they whispered in my lug as I came along, I had need been
made of money--sax-pence here, sax-pence there, sax-pence everywhere.
Sich extortion I ne'er dreamt of."
"How did you come from Glasgow?"
"By the wheel-boat, or steam-boat, as they ca'd it, to Lunnon: where
they charged me sax-pence for taking my baggage on shore--a wee boxy nae
bigger than yon cocked-up hat. I would fain carry it mysel', but they
wudna let me."
"How much of your ten-shillings have you left?" inquired the first
lieutenant, smiling.
"Hoot; sir lieutenant, how came you for to ken that? Eh; it's my uncle
Monteith at Glasgow. Why, as I sit here, I've but three shillings and a
penny of it left. But there's a smell here that's no canny; so I'll
just go up again into the fresh air."
When Mr McFoy quitted the gun-room they all laughed very much. After
he had been a short time on deck he went down into the midshipman's
berth: but he made himself very unpleasant, quarrelling and wrangling
with everybody. It did not, however, last very long: for he would not
obey any orders that were given him. On the third day, he quitted the
ship without asking the permission of the first lieutenant; when he
returned on board the following day, the first lieutenant put him under
an arrest, and in charge of the sentry at the cabin door. During the
afternoon I was under the half-deck, and perceived that he was
sharpening a long clasp-knife upon the after-truck of the gun. I went
up to him and asked him why he was doing so, and he replied, as his eyes
flashed fire, that it was to avenge the insult offered to the bluid of
McFoy. His look told me that he was in earnest.
I was very much alarmed, and thought it my duty to state his murderous
intentions, or worse might happen; so I walked up on deck and told the
first lieutenant what McFoy was intending to do. Mr Falcon laughed,
and shortly afterwards went down on the main-deck. McFoy's eyes
glistened, and he walked forward to where the first lieutenant was
standing: but the sentry, who had been cautioned by me, kept him back
with his bayonet. The first lieutenant turned round, and perceiving
what was going on, desired the sentry to see if Mr McFoy had a knife in
his hands; and he had it sure enough, open and held behind his back. He
was disarmed, and the first lieutenant, perceiving that the lad meant
mischief, reported his conduct to the captain, on his arrival on board.
The captain sent for McFoy, who was very obstinate, and when taxed with
his intentions would not deny it, or even say that he would not again
attempt it; so he was sent on shore immediately, and returned to his
friends in the Highlands. We never saw any more of him; but I heard
that he obtained a commission in the army, and three months after he had
joined his regiment was killed in a duel, resenting some fancied affront
offered to the bluid of McFoy.