INTRODUCES A REAL HERO.
My orders were to rejoin at Pembroke on the 10th of June, where the
Alcestis lay refitting, and taking in stores for an ocean-cruise. Of
course I was punctual to the day, and carried with me a fine recruit,
Master Rodney Bluett. I received not only minute directions from his
lady-mother, but also a tidy little salary, to enable me to look after
him. This was a lady of noble spirit, and ready to devote her son for
the benefit of his country; because there was no fighting now, nor any
war in prospect. Also Colonel Lougher came as far as the gate, where the
griffins are, and patted his nephew's curly head; and said that although
it was not quite as he himself could have wished it, he could trust the
boy to be an honour to a loyal family, and to write home every now and
then, for the sake of his poor mother. For his own sake also, I think
the Colonel might have very truly said; because while he was talking so,
and trying to insist on duty, as the one thing needful, I could not for
a moment trust my own eyes to examine him. So we all tried to say
"good-bye," as if there was nothing in it.
It was a very long "good-bye," even longer than we could by any stretch
have dreamed of. Two or three years was the utmost that we then looked
forward to: but I tell you simple truth, in saying that not one of us
had the chance of seeing England, much less any part of Wales, for a
shorter period than seven years and two months added. You may doubt me,
and say, "Pooh, pooh! that was your fault;" and so on. But you would be
wholly wrong; and from the Admiralty records our Captain could prove it
thoroughly. And what is much clearer than all, do you think that Captain
Drake Bampfylde would have been seven years, or even seven days, away,
without sight of his beautiful lady, Isabel Carey, if it could have been
managed otherwise?
It was a mixture of bad luck. I can explain a good deal of it, but not
all the ins and outs. We were ordered here, and ordered there, and then
sometimes receiving three contradictions of everything. Until we should
scarcely have been surprised at receiving signal, "H.M.S. Alcestis to
the moon; to wait for orders."
And if we had received that signal, I believe we should have tried it,
being by this time the best-trained and finest ship's company in the
world. We had ceased to be a receiving-ship, as soon as the war was
over, and now were what they begin to call--though it sounds against the
grain to me--an "Experimental Ship." And the Lord knows that we made
experiments enough to drown, or blow up, or blow arms off, every man
borne on our blessed books. They placed me at the head of it all, until
the others were up to it; and a more uneasy or ticklish time I never
have known, before or since. Over and over again I expected to go up to
the sky almost; and you may pretty well conceive how frequent was my
uneasiness. Nevertheless I still held on; and Government had to pay for
it.
In four years' time the old frigate began to be knocked almost to
pieces; and we made up our minds to be ordered home, and set our
memories at work upon all who were likely to meet us, if still in the
land of the living. While at Halifax thinking thus, and looking forward
to Christmas-time among our own families, a spick and span new frigate
came, of the loveliest lines we had ever seen, and standing-gear the
most elegant. She took our eyes so much at once, and she sat the water
so, that there was not a man of us able to think of anything else till
all hands piped down. This was the Thetis, if you please, taken from the
Crappos in the very last action of the war, a 46-gun frigate, but larger
than an English 60-gun ship. The French shipbuilders are better than
ours, but their riggers not to be compared; which is the reason perhaps
why they always shoot at our rigging instead of our hulls. At any rate,
having been well overhauled, and thoroughly refitted at Chatham, and
rigged anew from step to truck, she presented an appearance of most
tempting character.
It was a trick of the Naval Board to keep us together, and it succeeded.
Those gentlemen knew what we were by this time, the very best ship's
company to be found in all the service; and as there were signs already
of some mischief brewing, their desire was still to keep together such a
piece of discipline. My humble name had been brought forward many times
with approval, but without any effect so far upon wages or position.
Now, however, my Lords had found it expedient to remember me, and David
Llewellyn was appointed master's mate to the Thetis, if he should think
fit to join her; for the whole after our long service was a matter of
volunteering.
There was not a man of us dared to leave Captain Drake Bampfylde
shabbily. We turned over to the Thetis, in a body, with him; and the
crew that had manned her from England took the old Alcestis home again.
And junior Lieutenant Bluett, now a fine young fellow, walked the
quarter-deck of the Thetis, so that you should have seen him. But first
and foremost was to see our great Captain Drake; as ready as if he were
always looking out for an enemy's ship from the foretop. He walked a
little lame, on account of the piece the shark took out of him;
nevertheless we had not a man to equal him for activity. I remember once
when a violent gale caught us on the banks of Newfoundland, and the sky
came down upon us black as any thunder-cloud. The wind grew on us so
towards nightfall, that after taking in reef after reef, the orders were
to make all snug, send down the topgallant-masts, and lie-to under
close-reefed main-topsail and fore-topmast staysail. Captain Drake was
himself on deck, as he always was in time of danger, and through the
roar of the gale his orders came as clear as a bell almost, from the
mouth of his speaking-trumpet. "Main-top men, to station! Close reef the
main-topsail. Mr Bluett, clew up, clew up. There is not a moment to
lose, my men. Spit to your hands and stick like pitch. What! are you
afraid then, all of you?"
For the sail was lashing about like thunder, having broken from the
quarter-gasket, and when the men came to the topsail-yard they durst not
go upon it. Then a black squall struck them with blinding rain, and they
scarce could see one another's faces, till a cheery voice came from the
end of the yard, "Hold on, my lads--hold on there! You seem so skeery of
this job, I will do it for you." "'Tis the devil himself!" cried old Ben
Bower, captain of the main-top; "let him fly, let him fly, my lads!" "It
is our Captain," said I, who was coming slowly up to see to it, myself
prepared to do the job, and shame all those young fellows; "skulk below,
you jelly-pots, and leave it to me and the Captain." "A cheer for the
Captain, a cheer for the Captain!" they cried before I could follow
them, and a score of men stood against the sky, in the black pitch of
the hurricane, as if it were a review almost. For they guessed what the
Captain must have done, and it made a hero of each of them. While they
came slowly up the ratlins, he clomb the rigging like a cat, and before
they got to the lubber's hole he was at the topmasthead, whence he slid
down by the topping-lift to the very end of the mainyard. Such a thing
done in a furious gale, and the sea going mountains high almost, beat
even my experience of what British captains are up to. After that, if he
had cried, "Make sail to"--Heligoland, with no landing to it--there was
not a man of us but would have touched his hat, and said, "Ay, ay, sir!"
And now we first met Captain Nelson in command of the Boreas, a poor
little frigate; we could have sunk her as easily as we outsailed her.
But as senior to Captain Drake, he at once assumed command of us;
although it was not in our instructions to be at his disposal. The
Americans then were carrying on with the privileges of British subjects,
in trading with the Leeward Islands; although they had cast off our
authority in a most uncourteous, and I might say headstrong manner.
Captain Nelson could never put up with the presumptuous manners of this
race, and he felt bitterly how feeble had been our behaviour to them.
These are people who will always lead the whole world, if they can;
counting it honour to depart from and get over old ideas. And now they
were doing a snug bit of roguery with the Leeward Islands, pretending
to have British bottoms, while at bottom Yankees.
Nelson set his face against it; and whenever he set his face, his hand
came quickly afterwards. We soon cut up that bit of smuggling, although
the Governor of the Islands was himself against us. Captain Nelson's
orders were to enforce the Navigation Act; and we did it thoroughly.
Ever so many times I met him, as he now came to and fro; and he took the
barge-tiller out of my hand, at least a dozen times, I think. For he
never could bear that another man should seem to do his work for him,
any more than he could bear to see a thing done badly. Not that he found
fault with my steering (which was better than his own, no doubt), but
that he wanted to steer himself. And he never could sit a boat quietly,
from his perpetual ups and downs, and longing to do something. He knew
my name; he knew every one's name; he called me "old Dyo," continually,
because the men had caught it up; and in my position, I could not
perceive what right he had to do so. I had him on my lap, I won't say
fifty times, but at least fifteen: for he never had sea-legs at all when
a heavy sea was running: and I never thought it any honour, but
cherished some hopes of a shilling, or so. As for appearance, at first
sight he struck me as rather grotesque-looking than imposing, in spite
of his full-laced uniform, and the broad flaps of his waistcoat. His
hair, moreover, was drawn away from his forehead, and tied in a lanky
tail, leaving exposed, in all its force, rather a sad face, pale and
thin, and with the nose somewhat lop-sided. Also the shoulders badly
shaped, and the body set up anyhow; and the whole arrangement of his
frame nervous, more than muscular.
In spite of all this, any man who knows the faces of men, and their true
meaning, could not fail to perceive at once that here was no common
mortal. The vigour and spirit of his eyes were such that they not only
seemed to be looking through whatever lay before them, but to have
distinct perception of a larger distance, and eagerness to deal with it.
And the whole expression of his face told of powerful impatience, and a
longing for great deeds, dashed with melancholy. The entire crew of his
ship, I was told, were altogether wrapped up in him, and would give
their lives for him without thought; and there was not one of them but
was mad with our Government for being at peace, and barring Captain
Nelson from the exploits he was pining for. One of them struck at me
with an oar, when I said how puny Nelson was, compared with our Drake
Bampfylde, and only the strong sense of my position enabled me to put up
with it. And what I said was all the time the very truest of the true;
and that was why it hurt them so. We being now the finest and smartest
frigate in the service, looked down upon that tub of a Boreas, and her
waddle-footed crew, and her pale, pig-tailed commander, with a power of
ignominy which they were not pleased with. And all the time we were at
their orders, and they took care to let us know it! We would have fought
them with pleasure, if the rules of the service allowed it.
Enough of that uncomfortable discontent and soreness. The hardest point
is for a very great man to begin to set forth his greatness. We could
not, at the moment, see why Horatio Nelson should thus sweep off with
the lead so. But after he had once established what he was, and what he
meant, there was no more jealousy. To this I shall come in its proper
place; I am only now picking up crumbs, as it were, and chewing small
jobs honourably.
But against one thing I must guard. Our Captain Drake was never for a
moment jealous of Captain Nelson. It was one of the things that annoyed
us most, when we looked down on the Boreas, and would gladly have had a
good turn with those fellows who assumed such airs to us, to find that
our beloved Captain was as full of Nelson as the worst of the Boreasses.
And one of our men who went on strongly, took six dozen, and no mistake,
and acknowledged how well he deserved it. That is the way to do things,
and makes all of us one family.
It is time for me now to crowd all sail for Spithead, as we did at last.
Seven round years and two months were gone since I had seen old Cymru,
and I could fill seven thousand pages with our whole adventures. But
none of them bore much on my tale, and nobody cares for my adventures,
since I ceased to be young and handsome; and sometimes I almost thought
(in spite of all experience) that I had better have gone into matrimony
with a young woman of moderate substance. But (as is the case with those
things) when I had the chance I scorned it; not being touched in the
heart by any one, and so proud of freedom. Moreover, the competition for
a man amongst young women may become so lively as to make him bear away
large down wind. Exactly what had happened to me in the land of
Devonshire.
Three quarters of my pay had been assigned to Roger Berkrolles, under
my hand and signature, for the maintenance of our Bunny (so far as the
rent might not provide it), and for the general management of things,
and then to accumulate. So that, after all, I had not any amazing sum to
draw, remembering, too, that from time to time we had our little tastes
of it. Nevertheless, when added up, I really was surprised to find that
the good clerks thought it worth so much quill-chop over it. And now I
had been for several years on the pay of a petty officer (master's
mate), and looking forward to be master, if he were good enough to drop
off.
He was truly tough, and would never drop off; and I felt it the more
because he was ten years my junior, and unseasoned. He drew half again
as much as I did, though he knew that I had done all the work. He gave
me two fingers to say good-bye, which is a loathsome trick to me; so I
put out my thumb, which was difficult to him: and the next time I saw
him, he lay dead in the cockpit of the Goliath.
In a word, I got so little after all my long endeavours to secure the
British nation from its many enemies, that verily I must have fallen to
the old resource again, and been compelled to ask for alms to help me
home in 1790, as had happened to me in the year of grace 1759. We
sailors always seem to be going either up or down so much, without
seeming to know why. Perhaps it is a custom from our being on the waves
so much. However, I was saved from doing such disgrace to the uniform
and to my veteran aspect, and the hair by this time as white as snow,
simply through the liberality of our Captain Bampfylde. For he made me
an offer both kind and handsome, though not more perhaps than might be
expected, after our sailing together so long. This was to take me home
with him to Narnton Court, or the neighbourhood, according to how the
land might lie, and thence to secure me a passage (which is easy enough
in the summer-time) by one of the stone-boats to Newton Nottage. I felt
that I might have come home in grander style than this was like to be;
and yet it was better than begging my way; and scarcely any man should
hope to be landed twice in all his life, at his native village from a
man-of-war. Of course, if Master Rodney Bluett had still been with us,
he would have seen to my return, and been proud of it; but he had been
forced to leave us, having received his appointment as 3d lieutenant to
the Boadicea, 74.
Therefore I travelled with Captain Drake, and made myself useful upon
the road, finding his coxswain (who came with us in a miserably menial
manner) utterly useless, whenever a knowledge of life and the world was
demanded. And over and over again, my assistance paid my fare, I am sure
of it, whether it were by coach or post. Because the great mass of
seaman appear, whenever they come on shore, to enjoy a good cheating
more than anything. The reason is clear enough--to wit, that having seen
no rogues so long, they are happy to pay for that pleasure now.
It was said that even the Admiralty had been playing the rogue with us,
stopping our letters, and our news, to keep us altogether free from any
disturbances of home. At any rate, very few of us had heard a word of
England, except from such old papers as we picked up in the colonies.
And now, after seven years, how could we tell what to expect, or how
much to fear?