We left the forecastle group of the _Gloucester_ disappointed by the
abrupt departure of their story-teller, Old Jack, at so critical a
thread of his yarn. As old Jacobs went aft on the quarter-deck, where
the binnacle-lamp before her wheel was newly-lighted, he looked in with
a seaman's instinct upon the compass-boxes, to see how the ship headed;
ere ascending to the poop, he bestowed an approving nod upon his friend
the steersman, hitched up his trousers, wiped his mouth with the back of
his hand in a proper deference to female society, and then proceeded to
answer the captain's summons. The passengers, in a body, had left the
grand cabin to the bustling steward and his boys, previously to
assembling there again for tea--not even excepting the little coterie of
inveterate whist-players, and the pairs of inseparable chess-men, to
whom an Indian voyage is so appropriately the school for future nice
practice in etiquette, war, and commerce. Everybody had at last got rid
of sea-sickness, and mustered for a promenade; so that the lofty poop of
the Indiaman, dusky as it was, and exposed to the breeze, fluttered with
gay dresses like the midway battlement of a castle by the waves, upon
which its inmates have stolen out from some hot festivity. But the long
heave from below, raising her stern-end slowly against the western space
of clear-obscure, in the manner characteristic of a sea abaft the beam,
and rolling her to either hand, exhibited to the eyes on the forecastle
a sort of _alto relievo_ of figures, amongst whom the male, in their
blank attempts to appear nautical before the ladies, were distinguished
from every other object by their variety of ridiculous postures. Under
care of one or two bluff, good-humoured young mates--officers polished
by previous opportunities of a kind unknown either to Navy-men or mere
"cargo-fenders," along with several roguish little quasi-midshipmen--the
ladies were supported against the poop-rail, or seated on the
after-gratings, where their contented dependence not only saved them
from the ludicrous failures of their fellow-passengers, but gained them,
especially the young ones, the credit of being better sailors. An
accompaniment was contributed to this lively exercise on the part of the
gentlemen promenaders, which otherwise in the glimmering sea-twilight,
would have been striking in a different sense; by the efforts, namely,
of a little band of amateur musicians under the break of the poop, who,
with flute, clarionet, bugles, trombone, and violin, after sundry
practisings by stealth, had for the first time assembled to play "Rule
Britannia." What, indeed, with the occasional abrupt checks, wild
flourishes, and fantastic variations caused by the ship's roll; and what
with the attitudes overhead, of holding on refractory hats and caps, of
intensely resisting and staggering legs, or of sudden pausing above the
slope which one moment before was an ascent, there was additional force
in the designation quaintly given to such an aspect of things by the
foremast Jacks--that of a "cuddy jig." As the still increasing motion,
however, shook into side-places this central group of cadets, civilians,
and planters adrift, the grander features of the scene predominated: the
broad mass of the ship's hull--looming now across and now athwart the
streak of sinking light behind--drawn out by the weltering outline of
the waters; the entire length of her white decks ever and anon exposed
to view, with their parallel lines, their nautical appurtenances, the
cluster of hardy men about the windlass, the two or three "old salts"
rolling to and fro along the gangway, and the variety of forms blending
into both railings of the poop. High out of, and over all, rose the
lofty upper outline of the noble ship, statelier and statelier as the
dusk closed in about her--the expanse of canvas whitening with sharper
edge upon the gloom; the hauled-up clues of the main-course, with their
huge blocks, swelling and lifting to the fair wind--and the breasts of
the topsails divided by their tightened buntlines, like the shape of
some full-bosomed maiden, on which the reef-points heaved like silken
fringes, as if three sisters, shadowy and goddess-like, trod in each
other's steps towards the deeper solitude of the ocean; while the tall
spars, the interlacing complicated tracery, and the dark top-hamper
showing between gave graceful unity to her figure; and her three white
trucks, far overhead, kept describing a small clear arc upon the deep
blue zenith as she rolled: the man at the wheel midway before the doors
of the poop-cabin, with the light of the binnacle upon his broad throat
and bearded chin, was looking aloft at a single star that had come out
beyond the clue of the main-topsail.
The last stroke of "six bells," or seven o'clock, which had begun to be
struck on the ship's bell when Old Jack broke off his story, still
lingered on the ear as he brought up close to the starboard
quarter-gallery, where a little green shed or pent-house afforded
support and shelter to the ladies with the captain. The erect figure of
the latter, as he lightly held one of his fair guests by the arm, while
pointing out to her some object astern, still retained the attitude
which had last caught the eyes of the forecastle group. The musical
cadets had just begun to pass from "Rule Britannia" to "Shades of
Evening"; and the old sailor, with his glazed hat in his hand, stood
waiting respectfully for the captain's notice. The ladies, however, were
gazing intently down upon the vessel's wake, where the vast shapes of
the waves now sank down into a hollow, now rose seething up into the
rudder-trunk, but all marked throughout with one broad winding track,
where the huge body of the ship had swiftly passed. From foaming
whiteness it melted into yesty green, that became in the hollow a path
of soft light, where the sparks mingled like golden seed; the wave-tops
glimmered beyond; star-like figures floated up or sank in their long
undulations; and the broad swell that heaped itself on a sudden under
the mounting stern bore its bells, and bubbles, and flashes upwards to
the eye. When the ship rose high and steady upon it, and one saw down
her massy taffrail, it looked to a terrestrial eye rather like some
mystic current issuing from the archway under a tall tower, whose
foundations rocked and heaved; and so said the romantic girl beside the
captain, shuddering at the vividness of an image which so incongruously
brought together the fathomless deep and the distant shores of solid old
England. The eye of the seaman, however, suggested to him an image more
akin to the profession, as he directed his fair companion's attention to
the trough of the ship's furrow, where, against the last low gleam of
twilight, and by the luminous wake, could be seen a little flock of
black petrels, apparently running along it to catch what the mighty
ploughshare had turned up; while a grey gull or two hovered aslant over
them in the blue haze. As he looked round, too, to aloft, he exchanged
glances with the old sailor who had listened--an expression which even
the ladies understood. "Ah! Jacobs," said the captain, "get the lamp
lighted in my cabin, and the tea-kettle aft. With the roll she has on
her, 'twill be more ship-shape there than in the cuddy." "Ay, ay, sir,"
said the old seaman. "How does she head just now, Jacobs?"
"Sou'-west-and-by-south, sir." "She'd lie easier for the ladies though,"
said the captain, knowing his steward was a favourite with them, "were
the wind a point or two less fair. Our old acquaintance, Captain
Williamson of the _Seringapatam_ now, Jacobs, old-fashioned as he was,
would have braced in his lee-yard only to steady a lady's tea-cup." "Ay,
your honour," replied Jacobs, and his weather-eye twinkled, "and washed
the foc'sle under, too! But ye know, sir, he'd got a reg'lar-built
naboob aboard, and a beauty besides!" "Ah, Mr Jacobs!" exclaimed the
romantic young lady, "what was that? Is it one of your stories?" "Well,
your ladyship, 'tis a bit of a yarn, no doubt, and some'at of a cur'ous
one." "Oh!" said another of the captain's fair _protégées_, "I _do_ love
these 'yarns,' as you call them; they are so expressive, so--and all
that sort of thing." "Nonsense, my love," said her mother; "you don't
understand them, and 'tis better you should not--they are low, and
contain a great many bad words, I fear." "But think of the imaginative
feeling, aunt," rejoined the other girl, "and the adventures! Oh, the
ocean of all places for that! Were it not for sea-sickness, I should
dote upon it! As for the _storm_ just now, look how safe we are, and see
how the dear old ship rises up from the billows, with all her sails so
delightfully mysterious one over another!" "Bless your heart, marm,
yes," responded Old Jack, chuckling; "you talks just like a seaman,
beggin' your pardon. As consarns the tea, sir, I make bold to expect
the'll be a shift o' wind directly, and a slant deck, as soon as we get
fair into the stream, rid o' this bit of a bubble the tail of it kicks
up hereabouts." "Bear a hand then, Jacobs," said the captain, "and see
all right below for the party in the cabin--we shall be down in a few
minutes." The captain stood up on the quarter-gallery, to peer round
into the dusk and watch the lifting of the main-royal; but the next
minute he called to the ladies, and their next neighbours, to look
towards the larboard bow, and see the moon rise. A long edge of gray
haze lay around the eastern horizon, on which the dark rim of the sea
was defined beyond the roll of the waves, as with the sweep of a soft
brush dipped in indigo; while to westward it heaved up, weltering in its
own watery light against the gloom. From behind this low fringe of
vapour was silently diffusing, as it were, a pool of faint radiance,
like a brook bubbling from under ice; a thread of silver ran along the
line of haze, growing keener at one point, until the arch of the moon
shot slowly up, broad and fair: the wave-heads rising between were
crested here and there with light; the bow of the ship, the bellies of
her fore-canvas, her bowsprit with the jibs hanging idly over it, and
the figure-head beneath, were tinged by a gentle lustre, while the
hollow shadows stole out behind. The distant horizon, meanwhile, still
lay in an obscure streak, which blended into the dark side of the low
fog-bank, so as to give sea and cloud united the momentary appearance of
one of those long rollers that turn over on a beach, with their
glittering crest: you would expect to see next instant what actually
seemed to take place--the whole outline plashing over in foam, and
spreading itself clearly forward, as soon as the moon was free. With the
airy space that flowed from her came out the whole eastern seaboard
liquid and distinct, as if beyond either bow of the lifting Indiaman one
sharp finger of a pair of compasses had flashed round, drawing a
semi-circle upon the dull background, still cloudy, glimmering, and
obscure. From the waves that undulated towards her stern, the ship was
apparently entering upon a smoother zone, where the small surges leapt
up and danced in moonshine, resembling more the current of some estuary
in a full tide. To north-westward, just on the skirts of the dark, one
wing of a large, soft-grey vapour was newly smitten by the moon-gleam;
and over against it on the south-east, where the long fog-bank sank
away, there stretched an expanse of ocean which, on its farthest verge,
gave out a tint of the most delicate opal blue. The ship, to the
south-westward of the Azores, and going large before the trade-wind, was
now passing into the great Gulf Stream, which there runs to the
south-east; even the passengers on deck were sensible of the rapid
transition with which the lately cold breeze became warmer and fitful,
and the motion of the vessel easier. They were surprised, on looking
into the waves alongside, to perceive them struggling, as it were, under
a trailing network of seaweed; which, as far as one could distinctly
see, appeared to keep down the masses of water, like so much
oil--flattening their crests, neutralising the force of the wind, and
communicating a strangely sombre green to the heaving element. In the
winding track of the ship's wake the eddies now absolutely blazed; the
weeds she had crushed down rose to the surface again in gurgling circles
of flames, and the showers of sparks came up seething on either side
amongst the stalks and leaves; but as the moonlight grew more equally
diffused, it was evident that she was only piercing an arm of that local
weed-bed here formed, like an island, in the _bight_ of the stream.
Farther ahead were scattered patches and bunches of the true Florida
Gulf-weed, white and moss-like; which, shining crisp in the level
moonlight, and tipping the surges as it floated past, gave them the
aspect of hoary-bearded waves, or the garlanded horses of Neptune. The
sight still detained the captain's party on deck, and some of the ladies
innocently thought these phenomena indicative of the proximity of land.
"I have seldom seen the Stream so distinct hereabouts," said Captain
Collins to his first officer, who stood near, having charge of the
watch. "Nor I, sir," replied the chief mate; "but it no doubt narrows
with different seasons. There goes a flap of the fore-topsail, though!
The wind fails, sir." "'Tis only drawing ahead, I think," said the
captain; "the stream _sucks_ the wind with its heat, and we shall have
it pretty near from due nor'-west immediately." "Shall we round in on
the starboard hand, then, sir, and keep both wind and current _aft_?" "I
think not, Mr Wood," said the captain. "'Twould give us a good three
knots more every hour of the next twenty-four, sir," persisted the
officer eagerly--and chief mates generally confine their theories to
mere immediate progress. "Yes," rejoined the captain, "but we should
lose hold of the 'trade' on getting out of the stream again. I intend
driving her across, with the nor'-wester on her starboard beam, so as to
lie well up afterwards. Get the yards braced to larboard as you catch
the breeze, Mr Wood, and make her course south-west by west." "Very
well, sir." "Ladies," said the captain, "will you allow me to hand you
below, where I fear Jacobs will be impatient with the tea?"
"What a pity, Captain Collins," remarked the romantic Miss Alicia,
looking up as they descended the companion--"what a pity that you cannot
have that delicious moonlight to shine in at your cabin windows just
now; the sailors yonder have it all to themselves." "There is no favour
in these things at sea, Miss Alicia," said the captain, smiling. "Jack
shares the chance there, at least, with his betters; but I can promise
those who honour my poor suite of apartments this evening both fine
moonshine and a steadier floor." On reaching the snug little
after-cabin, with its swinging lamp and barometer, its side
"state-room," seven feet long, and its two stern-windows showing a dark
glimpse of the rolling waters, they found the tea-things set, nautical
style, on the hard-a-weather, boxed-up table--the surgeon and one or two
elderly gentlemen waiting, and old Jacobs still trimming up the
sperm-oil lights. Mrs St Clair, presiding in virtue of relationship to
their host, was still cautiously pouring out the requisite half-cups,
when, above all the bustle and clatter in the cuddy, could be heard the
sounds of ropes thrown down on deck, of the trampling watch, and the
stentorian voice of the first officer. "Jacobs!" said the captain, a
minute or two afterwards; and that worthy factotum instantly appeared
from his pantry alongside of the door--from whence, by-the-way, the old
seaman might be privy to the whole conversation--"stand by to _dowse_
the lamp when she heels," an order purposely mysterious to all else but
the doctor. Everyone soon felt a change in the movement of their
wave-born habitation; the rolling lift of her stern ceased; those who
were looking into their cups saw the tea apparently take a decided
inclination to larboard--as the facetious doctor observed, a "tendency
to _port_." The floor gradually sloped down to the same hand, and a
long, wild, gurgling wash was suddenly heard to run careering past the
timbers of the starboard side.
"Dear me!" fervently exclaimed every lady at once; when the very next
moment the lamps went out, and all was darkness. Captain Collins felt a
little hand clutch his arm in nervous terror, but the fair owner of it
said nothing; until, with still more startling effect than before, in a
few seconds there shot through both stern windows the full rays of the
moon, pouring their radiance into the cabin, shining on the backs of the
books in the hanging shelves by the bulkhead, on the faces of the party,
and the bald forehead of old Jacobs "standing by" the lamp--lastly, too,
revealing the pretty little Alicia with her hand on the captain's arm,
and her pale, terrified face. "Don't be alarmed, ladies!" said the
surgeon, "she's only hauled on the starboard tack!" "And her counter to
the east," said the captain.
"But who put out the lamp?" rejoined the doctor. "Ah, I see, sir!--'But
when the moon, refulgent lamp of night.'" "Such a surprise!" exclaimed
the ladies, laughing, although as much frightened for a moment by the
magical illumination as by the previous circumstances. "You see," said
the captain, "we are not like a house--we can bring round our scenery to
any window we choose." "Very prettily imagined it was, too, I declare!"
observed a stout old Bombay officer, "and a fine compliment to the
ladies, by Jingo, sir!" "If we had any of your pompous Bengal '_Quy
hies_' here though, colonel," said the doctor, "they wouldn't stand
being choused so unceremoniously out of the weather side, I suspect."
"As to the agreeable little surprise I meant for the ladies," said
Captain Collins, "I fear it was done awkwardly, never having commanded
an Indiaman before, and laid up ashore these half-a-dozen years. But
one's old feelings get freshened up, and without knowing the old
_Gloucester's_ points, I can't help reckoning her as a lady too--a very
particular old 'Begum,' that won't let anyone else be humoured before
herself--especially as I took charge of her to oblige a friend." "How
easily she goes now!" said the doctor, "and a gallant sight at this
moment, I assure you, to anyone who chooses to put his head up the
companion." "Ah, mamma!" said one of the girls, "couldn't you almost
think this was our own little parlour at home with the moonlight coming
through the window on both sides of the old elm, where we were sitting a
month ago hearing about India and papa?"
"Ah!" responded her cousin, standing up, "but there was no track of
moonshine dancing beyond the track of the ship yonder! How blue the
water is, and how much warmer it has grown of a sudden!"
"We are crossing the great Gulf Stream," said the captain--"Jacobs! open
one of the stern-ports." "'Tis the very place and time, this is,"
remarked a good-humoured cotton-grower from the Deccan, "for one of the
colonel's tiger-hunts, now!" "Sir!" answered the old officer, rather
testily, "I am not accustomed to thrust my _tiger-hunts_, as you choose
to call my humble experiences, under people's noses!" "Certainly not, my
dear sir," said the planter--"but what do you say, ladies, to one of
the captain's sea-yarns, then? Nothing better, I'm sure, here now,
sir--eh?" Captain Collins smiled, and said he had never spun a yarn in
his life, except when a boy, out of matter-of-fact old junk and tar.
"Here is my steward, however," continued he, "who is the best hand at it
I know, and I daresay he'll give you one." "Charming!" exclaimed the
young ladies; and "What was that adventure, Mr Jacobs," said Miss
Alicia, "with a beauty and a nabob in it, that you alluded to a short
time ago?" "I didn't to say disactly include upon it, your ladyship,"
replied old Jacobs, with a tug of his hair, and a bow not just _à la
maître_; "but the captain can give you it better nor I can, seeing as
his honour were the Nero on it, as one may say." "Oh!" said the surgeon,
rubbing his hands, "a lady and a rupee-eater in the case!" "There seems
something curious about this said adventure of yours, my dear captain,"
said Mrs St Clair, archly, "and a beauty too! It makes me positively
inquisitive, but I hope your own fair lady has heard the story?" "Why,
not exactly, ma'am," replied Captain Collins, laughing as he caught the
doctor looking preternaturally solemn, after a sly lee-wink to the
colonel, who, having his back to the moonlight, stretched out his legs
and indulged in a grim, silent chuckle, until his royal-tiger
countenance was unhappily brought so far _flush_[2] in the rays as to
betray a singular daguerreotype, resembling one of those cut-paper
phantasmagoria thrown on a drawing-room wall, unmistakably black and
white, and in the character of Malicious Watchfulness. The rubicund,
fidgety little cotton-grower twiddled his thumbs, and looked modestly
down on the deck, with half-shut eyes, as if expecting some bold
revelation of nautical depravity; while the romantic Miss Alicia
coloured and was silent. "However," said the captain, coolly, "it is no
matrimonial secret, at any rate! We both talk of it sometimes when we
read the Church Service of a Sunday night at home, with Jacobs for the
clerk." "Do, Mr Jacobs, oblige us!" requested the younger of the girls.
"Well, miss," said he, smoothing down his hair in the doorway, and
hemming, "'tain't neither for the likes o' me to refuse a lady, nor
accordin' to rules for to give such a yarn in presence of a supperior
officer, much less the captain; with a midship helm, ye know, marm, ye
carn't haul upon one tack nor the other. Not to say but next forenoon
watch----" "I see, Jacobs, my man," interrupted Captain Collins,
"there's nothing for it but to fore-reach upon you, or else you'll be
'Green-Handing' me aft as well as forward; so I must just make the best
of it, and take the _winch_ in my own fashion at once!" "Ay, ay,
sir--ay, ay, your honour!" said Old Jack demurely, and concealing his
gratification as he turned off into the pantry, with the idea of for the
first time hearing the captain relate the incidents in question. "My old
shipmate," said the latter, "is so fond of having trained his future
captain, that it is his utmost delight to spin out everything we ever
met with together into one endless yarn, which would go on from our
first acquaintance to the present day, although no ship's company ever
heard the last of it. Without falling knowingly to leeward of the truth,
he makes out every lucky coincidence almost to have been a feat of mine,
and puts in little fancies of his own, so as to give the whole thing
more and more of a marvellous air the farther it goes. The most amusing
thing is, that he almost always begins each time, I believe, at the very
beginning, like a capstan without a paul--sticking in one thing he had
forgot before, and forgetting another; sometimes dwelling longer on one
part--a good deal like a ship making the same voyages over again. I
knew, now, this evening, when I heard the men laughing, and saw Old Jack
on the forecastle, what must be in the wind. However, we have shared so
many chances, and I respect the old man so much, not to speak of his
having dandled my little girls on his knee, and being butler, steward,
and flower-gardener at home, that I can't really be angry at him, in
spite of the sort of every man's rope he makes of me!" "How very amusing
a character he is!" said one young lady. "A thought too tarry, perhaps?"
suggested the surgeon. "So very original and like a--a seaman!" remarked
Miss Alicia, quietly, but as if some other word that crossed her mind
had been rejected, as descriptive of a different variety, probably
higher. "_Original_, by Jove!" exclaimed the colonel; "if my
_Khansa-man_, or my _Abdar_,[3] were to make such a dancing dervish and
_tumasha_[4] of me behind back, by the holy Vishnu, sir, I'd rattan him
myself within an inch of his life!"
[2] _Flush_--_i.e._ level.
[3] Steward and butler.
[4] Sport.
"Not an unlikely thing, colonel," put in the planter; "I've caught the
scoundrels at that trick before now." "What did you do?" inquired the
colonel, speculatively. "Couldn't help laughing, for my soul, sir; the
_puckree-bund_[5] rascals did it so well, and so funnily!" The irascible
East-Indian almost started up in his imaginative fury, to call for his
palkee, and chastise his whole verandah, when the doctor reminded him
that it was a long way there. "Glorious East!" exclaimed the medico,
looking out astern, "where we may cane our footmen, and whence,
meanwhile, we can derive such Sanscrit-sounding adjurations, with such
fine moonlight!"
[5] Turban-wearing.
The presence of the first officer was now added to the party, who came
down for a cup of tea, fresh from duty, and flavouring strongly of a
pilot cheroot. "How does she head, Mr Wood?" asked the captain.
"Sou'-west-by-west, sir--a splendid night, under everything that will
draw--spray up to the starboard cathead!"
"But as to this story, again, Captain Collins?" said Mrs St Clair, as
soon as she had poured out the chief mate's cup. "Well," said the
captain, "if you choose to listen till bedtime to a plain draught of the
affair, why I suppose I must tell it you; and what remains then may
stand over till next fine night. It _may_ look a little romantic, being
in the days when most people are such themselves, but, at any rate, we
sailors--or else we should never have been at sea, you know; so you'll
allow for that, and a spice to boot of what we used to call at sea
'lovemaking'; happily there were no soft speeches in it, like those in
books, for then I shouldn't tell it at all.
* * * * *
"By the time I was twenty-four, I had been nine years at sea, and at the
end of the war, was third lieutenant of a crack twenty-eight, the saucy
_Iris_--as perfect a sloop-model, though over-sparred certainly, as ever
was eased off the ways of Chatham, or careened to a north-easter. The
Admiralty had almost learned to build by that day, and a glorious ship
she was, _made_ for going after the small fry of privateers, pirates,
and slavers, that swarmed about the time. Though I had roughed it in all
sorts of craft, from a first-rate to a dirty French lugger prize, and
been eastward, so as to see the sea in its pride at the Pacific, yet the
feeling you have depends on the kind of ship you are in. I never knew
so well what it was to be fond of a ship and the sea; and when I heard
of the poor _Iris_, that had never been used to anything but blue water
on three parts of the horizon at least, laying her bones not long after
near Wicklow Head, I couldn't help a gulp in the throat. I once dreamt I
had gone down in her, and risen again to the surface with the loss of my
brains, such as I had had; while at the same moment, there I was, still
sitting below on a locker in the wardroom, with the arms of her
beautiful figure-head around me, and her mermaid's tail like the
best-bower cable, with an anchor at the end of it far away out of
soundings, over which I bobbed and dipped for years and years, in all
weathers, like a buoy. We had no Mediterranean time of it, though, in
the _Iris_, off the Guinea coast, from Cape Palmas to Cape Negro;
looking out to windward for white squalls, and to leeward for black
ones, and in-shore for Spanish cattle-dealers, as we called them, had
made us all as sharp as so many marling-spikes; and our captain was a
man that taught us seamanship, with a trick or two beyond. The slavers
had not got to be so clever then, either, with their schooners and
clippers: they built for stowage, and took the chance, so that we sent
in _bale_ after bale to the West India admiral, made money, and enjoyed
ourselves now and then at the Cape de Verdes. However, this kind of
thing was so popular at home, as pickings after the great haul was over,
that the _Iris_ had to give up her station to a post-frigate, and be
paid-off. The war was over, and nobody could expect to be promoted
without a friend near the blue table-cloth, although a quiet hint to a
secretary's palm would work wonders, if strong enough. But most of such
lucky fellows as ourselves dissipated their funds in blazing away at
balls and parties, where the gold band was everything, and the ladies
wore blue ribbons and anchor brooches in honour of the navy. The men
spent everything in a fortnight, even to their clothes, and had little
further chance of eating the king's biscuit with hopes of prize-money; I
used to see knots of them, in red shirts and dirty slops, amongst the
foremast Jacks in outward-bound ships, dropping past Greenwich, and
waving their hats to the Hospital. You knew them at once by one of them
giving the song for the topsail-halliards, instead of the merchantmen's
bull's chorus; indeed, I could always pick off the dashing
men-o'-war's-men, by face and eye alone, out from among the others, who
looked as sober and solitary, with their serious faces and way of going
about a thing, as if everyone of them was the whole crew. I once read a
bit of poetry called the 'Ancient Mariner,' to old Jacobs, who by-the-by
is something of a breed betwixt the two kinds, and his remark was: 'That
old chap warn't used to hoisting altogether with a run, your honour! By
his looks I'd say he was bred where there was few in a watch, and the
watch-tackle laid out pretty often for an eke to drag down the
fore-tack.'
"As I was riding down to Croydon in Surrey, where my mother and sister
had gone to live, I fell in with a sample of the hard shifts the
men-o'-war's-men were put to in getting across from harbour to some
merchant port, when all their money was chucked away. It was at a little
town called Bromley, where I brought to by the door of a tavern and had
a pail for the horse, with a bottle of cider for myself at the open
window, the afternoon being hot. There was a crowd of townspeople at the
other end of the street, country bumpkins and boys--women looking out at
the windows, dogs barking, and children shouting--the whole concern
bearing down upon us.
"'What's all this?' said I to the ostler.
"'Don't know, sir,' said he, scratching his head; ''tis very hodd, sir!
That corner _is_ rather a sharp turn for the coach, sir, and she do
sometimes run over a child there, or somethink. But 'tain't her time
yet! Nothink else hever 'appens 'ere, sir.'
"As soon as I could hear or see distinctly for the confusion, I observed
the magnet of it to be a party of five or six regular blue-jackets, a
good deal battered in their rig, who were roaring out sea-songs in grand
style as they came along, leading what I thought at first was a bear.
The chief words I heard were what I knew well. 'We'll disregard their
tommy-hawks, likewise their scalping-knives--and fight alongside of our
mates to save our precious lives--like British tars and sowldiers in the
North Americay!'
"On getting abreast of the inn door, and finding an offing with good
holding-ground, I suppose, they hove to and struck up the 'Buffalo,'
that finest of chants for the weather forecastle with a spanking
breeze, outward bound, and the pilot lately dropped:
"Come, all you young men and maidens, that _wishes_ for to sail,
And I will let you hear of where you must a-roam;
We'll embark into a ship which her taups'ls is let fall,
And all unto an ileyand where we never will go home;
Especiallye you _ladies_ that's anxious for to rove--
There's _fishes_ in the sea, my love, likewise the buck an'
doe,
We'll lie down--on the _banks_--of yon pleasant shadye gro-ove,
Through the wild woods we'll wander and we'll chase the
buffalo--ho--ho--
We'll chase the buffalO!
"I really couldn't help laughing to see the slapping, big-bearded
fellows, like so many foretopmen, showing off in this manner--one
mahogany-faced thoroughbred leading, the rest thundering in at the
chorus, with a tremendous stress on the 'Lo--ho--ho,' that made the good
Bromley folks gape. As to singing for money, however, I knew no true tar
with his members whole would do it; and I supposed it to be merely some
'spree ashore,' until the curious-looking object from behind was lugged
forward by a couple of ropes, proving to be a human figure above six
feet high, with a rough canvas cover as far as the knees. What with
three holes at the face, and the strange colour of the legs, which were
bare--with a pair of turned-up India shoes, and the whole shape like a
walking smoke-funnel over a ship's caboose--I was puzzled what they
would be at. The leading tar immediately took off his hat, waved it
round for a clear space, and gave a hem! while he pointed to the
mysterious creature. 'Now my lads!' said he, 'this here wonderful bein'
is a savitch we brought aboard of us from the Andyman Isles, where he
was caught one mornin' paddling round the ship in a canoe made out of
the bark of a sartain tree. Bein' the ownly spice of the sort brought to
this country as yet is, and we havin' run short of the needful to take
us to the next port, we expects every lady and gemman as has the
wherewithal will give us a lift by consideration of this same cur'ous
sight, and doesn't----' 'Heave ahead, Tom, lad!' said another
encouragingly, as the sailor brought up fairly out of breath. 'Doesn't
want no man's money for nou't d' ye see, but all fair an' above board.
We're not agoin' to show this ere sight excep' you makes up
half-a-guinea amongst ye--arter that all hands may see shotfree--them's
the articles!' 'Ay, ay, Tom, well said, old ship!' observed the rest;
and, after a considerable clinking of coin amongst the crowd, the
required sum was poured, in pence and sixpences, into Tom's hat. 'All
right!' said he, as soon as he had counted it--'hoist away the
tarpaulin, mates!' For my part, I was rather surprised at the rare
appearance of this said savage, when his cover was off--his legs and
arms naked, his face streaked with yellow, and both parts the colour of
red boom-varnish; his red hair done up in a tuft, with feathers all
round it, and a bright feather tippet over his shoulders, as he stood,
six feet in his yellow slippers, and looking sulkily enough at the
people. 'Bobbery puckalow!' said the nautical head-showman, and all at
once up jumped the Andaman islander, dancing furiously, holding a
little Indian _punkah_ over his head, and flourishing with the other
hand what reminded me strongly of a ship's top-maul--shouting
'Goor--goor--gooree!' while two of the sailors held on by the ropes. The
crowd made plenty of room, and Tom proceeded to explain to them very
civilly, that 'in them parts 'twas so hot the natives wouldn't fight,
save under a portiable awning.' Having exhibited the points of their
extraordinary savage, he was calmed again by another uncouth word of
command, when the man-o'-war's-man attempted a further _traverse_ on the
good Bromley folks, for which I gave him great credit. 'Now, my lads and
lasses,' said he, taking off his hat again, 'I s'pose you're all British
subjects and Englishmen!' at which there was a murmur of applause. 'Very
good, mates all!' continued the foretopman, approvingly. 'Then, in
course, ye knows as how whatsomever touches British ground is _free_!'
'Britons never, never shall be slaves!' sung out a boy, and the
screaming and hurrahing was universal. Tom stuck his tongue in his cheek
to his messmates, and went on: 'Though we was all pressed ourselves, and
has knocked about in sarvice of our king and country, an' bein' poor
men, we honours the flag, my lads!' 'Hoorah! hoorah! hoor-r-ray!' 'So
you see, gemmen, my shipmates an' me has come to the resolve of lettin'
this here wild savidge go free into the woods--though bein' poor men, d'
ye see, we hopes ye'll make it up to us a bit first! What d' ye say, all
hands?--slump together for the other guinea, will ye, and off he goes
this minute, and--Eh? what d' ye say, shipmates?' 'Ay, ay, Tom, sink
the damage, too!' said his comrades; 'we'll always get a berth at
Blackwall, again!'
"'Stand by to ease off his tow-lines, then,' said Tom--'now look sharp
with the shiners there, my lads--ownly a guinea!' 'No, no!' murmured the
townspeople, 'send for the constable--we'll all be scalped and murdered
in our beds!--no, no, for God's sake, mister sailors!' A grocer ran out
of his door to beg the tars wouldn't think of such a thing, and the
village constable came shoving himself in with the beadle. 'Come, come,'
said the constable, in a soothing style, while the beadle tried to look
big and blustering, 'you mustn't do it, my good men--not on no
desideration, _here_--in his majesty's name. Take un on to the next
parish--I horder all good subjects to resist me!' '_What!_' growled the
foretopman, with an air of supreme disgust, 'han't ye no feelin's for
liberty hereaway? Parish be blowed! Bill, my lad, let go his moorings,
and give the poor wretch his nat'ral freedom!' 'I'm right down ashamed
on my country,' said Bill. 'Hullo, shipmates, cast off at once, an'
never mind the loss--I hasn't slept easy myself sin' he wor cotched!'
'Nor me either,' said another; 'but I'm feared he'll play old Harry when
he's loose, mate.'
"I had been watching the affair all this time from inside, a good deal
amused, in those days, at the trick--especially so well carried out as
it was by the sailors. 'Here, my fine fellows,' said I at last, 'bring
him in, if you please, and let me have a look at him.' Next minute in
came the whole party, and supposing from my plain clothes I was merely
some longshore traveller, they put their savage through his dance with
great vigour. 'Wonderfully tame he's got, your honour!' said the topman;
'it's nothing to what he does if you freshens his nip.' 'What does he
eat? 'I asked, pretending not to understand the hint. 'Why, nought to
speak on, sir,' said he; 'but we wonst lost a boy doorin' the cruise,
nobody know'd how--though 'twas thought he went o'board, some on us had
our doubts.' 'Curiously tatooed, too,' I said; 'I should like to examine
his arm.' 'A bit obstropolous he is, your honour, if you handles him.'
'Never mind,' said I, getting up and seizing the wrist of the Andaman
islander, in spite of his grins; and my suspicions were immediately
fulfilled by seeing a whole range of familiar devices marked in blue on
the fellow's arm--amongst them an anchor with a heart transfixed by a
harpoon, on one side the word 'Sal,' and on the other 'M. O., 1811.'
'Where did you steal this top-maul, you rascal?' said I, coolly looking
in his face; while I noticed one of the men overhauling me suspiciously
out of his weather-eye, and sliding to the door. 'I didn't stale it at
all,' exclaimed the savage, giving his red head a scratch, ''twas Bill
Green there--by japers! whack pillalew, mates, I'm done!' 'Lor! oh lor!'
said Bill himself, quite crestfallen, 'if I didn't think 'twas him.
We're all pressed again, mate, it's _the_ leftenant.' 'Pressed, bo'?'
said Tom; 'more luck, I wish we was--but they wouldn't take ye now for a
bounty, you know.' Here I was fain to slack down and give a hearty
laugh, particularly at recognising Bill, who had been a shipmate of
Jacobs and myself in the old _Pandora_, and was nicknamed 'Green'--I
believe from a small adventure of ours--so I gave the men half-a-guinea
a piece to carry them on. 'Long life to your honour,' said they; and
said Tom, 'If I might make so bould, sir, if your honour has got a ship
yet, we all knows ye, sir, and we'd enter, if 'twas for the North Pole
itself.' 'No, my lad,' said I, 'I'm sorry to say I have not got so far
yet. Dykes, my man, can you tell me where your old messmate Jacobs has
got to?' 'Why, sir,' replied Bill, 'I did hear he was livin' at Wapping
with his wife, where we means to give him a call too, sir.' 'Good day,
your honour,' said all of them, as they put on their hats to go, and
covered their curiosity again with his tarpaulin. 'I'm blessed, Bill,'
said Tom, 'but we'll knock off this here carrivanning now, and put
before the wind for Blackwall,' 'Won't you give your savage his freedom,
then?' I asked. 'Sartinly, your honour,' replied the roguish foretopman,
his eye twinkling as he saw that I enjoyed the joke. 'Now, Mick, my lad,
ye must run like the devil so soon as we casts ye off.' 'Oh, by the
powers, thry me!' said the Irishman; 'I'm sick tired o' this cannible
minnatchery. By the holy Moses, though, I must have a dhrop o' dew in
me, or I'll fall!' Mick accordingly swigged off a noggin of gin, and
declared himself ready to start. 'Head due nor'-east from the sun, Mick,
and we'll pick you up in the woods, and rig you out all square again,'
said the captain of the gang, before presenting himself to the mob
outside. 'Now, gemmen and ladies all,' said the sailor coolly, 'ye see
we're bent on givin' this here poor unfort'nate his liberty--an' bein'
tould we've got the law on our side, why, we means to do it. More by
token, there's a leftenant in the Roy'l Navy aboard there, as has made
up the little salvage-money, bein' poor men, orderin' us for to do
it--so look out. If ye only gives him a clear offing, he'll not do no
harm. Steady, Bill--slack off the starboard sheet, Jack--let go--all!'
'Oh! oh!--no! no!--for God's sake!' screamed the bystanders, as they
scuttled off to both hands--'shame, shame--knock un down, catch
un--tipstaff, beadle!' 'Hurrah!' roared the boys, and off went Mick
O'Hooney in fine style, flourishing his top-maul, with a wild
'hullaloo,' right away over a fence, into a garden, and across a field
towards the nearest wood. Everybody fell out of his way as he dashed on;
then some running after him, dogs barking, and the whole of the seamen
giving chase with their tarpaulins in their hands, as if to drive him
far enough into the country. The whole thing was extremely rich, seen
through the open air from the tavern window, where I sat laughing till
the tears came into my eyes, at Jack-tars' roguishness and the stupefied
Kent rustics, as they looked to each other; then at the sailors rolling
away full speed along the edge of the plantation where the outlandish
creature had disappeared; and, lastly, at the canvas cover which lay on
the spot where he had stood. They were actually consulting how to guard
against possible inroads from the savage at night, since he might be
lurking near, when I mounted and rode off; I daresay even their hearing
that I was a live and real lieutenant would cap the whole story.
"Croydon used to be a pretty, retired little town, you know, so quiet
and old-fashioned that I enjoyed the unusual rest of it, and the very
look of the canal, the market-place, the old English trees and
people--by comparison with even the _Iris's_ white decks, and her
circumference of a prospect, so different every morning or hour of the
day. My mother and my sister Jane were so kind--they petted me so, and
were so happy to have me down to breakfast and out walking, even to feel
the smell of my cigar--that I hardly knew where I was. I gave them an
account of the places I had seen, with a few tremendous storms and a
frigate-fight or two, instead of the horse-marine stories about mermaids
and flying Dutchmen I used to pass upon them when a conceited
youngster. Jane, the little gipsy, would listen with her ear to a large
shell, when we were upon sea matters, and shut her eyes, saying she
could fancy the things so well that way. Or was it about India, there
was a painted sandal-wood fan carved in open-work like the finest lace,
which she would spread over her face, because the seeing through it, and
its scent, made her feel as if she were in the tropics. As for my
mother, good simple woman, she was always between astonishment and
horror, never having believed that lieutenants would be so heartless as
to mast-head a midshipman for the drunkenness of a boat's crew, nor
being able to understand why, with a gale brewing to seaward, a captain
tried to get his ship as far as he could from land. The idea of my going
to sea again never entered her head, the terrible war being over, and
the rank I had gained being invariably explained to visitors as at least
equal to that of a captain amongst soldiers. To the present day, this is
the point with respect to seafaring matters on which my venerated and
worthy parent is clearest: she will take off her gold spectacles,
smoothing down her silver hair with the other hand, and lay down the law
as to reform in naval titles, showing that my captain's commission puts
me on a level with a military colonel. However, as usual, I got tired by
little and little of this sort of thing; I fancy there's some peculiar
disease gets into a sailor's brain that makes him uneasy with a firm
floor and no offing beyond; certainly the country about Croydon was to
my mind, at that time, the worst possible--all shut in, narrow lanes,
high hedges and orchards, no sky except overhead, and no horizon. If I
could only have got a hill, there would have been some relief in having
a look-out from it. Money I had no want of; and as for fame or rank, I
neither had the ambition, nor did I ever fancy myself intended for an
admiral or a Nelson; all my wish was to be up and driving about, on
account of something that was _in_ me. I always enjoyed a good breeze as
some do champagne; and the very perfection of glory, to my thinking, was
to be the soul of a gallant ship in a regular Atlantic howler: or to
play at long bowls with one's match to leeward, off the ridges of a sea,
with both weather and the enemy to manage. Accordingly, I wasn't at all
inclined to go jogging along in one of your easy merchantmen, where you
have nothing new to find out; and I only waited to hear, from some
friends who were bestirring themselves with the Board, of a ship where
there might be something to do. These were my notions in those days,
before getting sobered down, which I tell you for the sake of not
seeming such a fool in this said adventure.