THE "ADDER" FRIGATE.
We were to form part of an armament which consisted of three
line-of-battle ships, six frigates, and several transports, under the
command of Admiral Sir John Jervis, having on board a body of troops
of the line and artillery, under General Sir Charles Grey, K.B.,
afterwards created Viscount Howick, Earl Grey, and who was father of
the great political reformer and statesman. Our express orders were
to attack and capture the French West Indian Islands, considerable
information regarding the military details of which had been
furnished to our government by Madame de Rouvigny, a fugitive
Royalist, who resided under the protection of the British flag at
Barbadoes.
The head-quarters of the fusiliers were on board the _Adder_, a large
double-banked frigate, and when stepping on her deck, the first
person who met me face to face was my former terror and _bête noir_,
Mr. Cranky, who was now promoted to this command, in reward for the
vigour with which he had exerted himself when on board the _Tartar_.
He was superintending the embarkation of the troops, whom he surveyed
with no very pleasant expression of face, and at whom he swore
roundly as they arrived in boat-loads; for to a sublime contempt for
landsmen in general, Captain Cranky united a species of indescribable
disgust for soldiers in particular; thus he would as soon have
received any number of obnoxious vermin on board his frigate as the
head-quarter division of his Majesty's Scots Fusiliers.
On board this fleet were the 8th, or King's Regiment; the 9th, 33rd,
38th, 43rd Light Infantry; 44th, 70th, or Surrey; and other corps,
led by officers, many of whom were to attain titles and distinctions
in the following wars of the Peninsula and Flanders. As we were
proceeding on service in time of war, we had all our full allowance
of ammunition; but each man was restricted to ten rounds, the reserve
being lodged in the ship's magazine.
As we were bound for a warm climate, large tubs were fixed in the
forecastle for our men to bathe in, and when these could not be used,
they drenched each other by buckets of salt water. This, if it
promoted health and cleanliness, often produced quarrels and rough
practical joking, and was, at times, particularly unpleasant; but
such compulsory ablutions are enjoined by the rules of the service.
At eight every morning the hammocks were brought on deck and triced
in the nettings.
We sailed about the latter end of January, the admiral having sent a
frigate ahead to bring off some transports and storeships that waited
for us at Plymouth. We encountered adverse winds, and nearly a
fortnight elapsed ere the frigate appeared, with St. George's cross
flying at her maintopmasthead, upon which, the ships destined for the
expedition weighed and stood under canvas, out of the sound. On this
day the _Spitfire_, sloop-of-war, joined us, with her colours
half-hoisted. Her commander, James Cooke, son of the celebrated
navigator, had been drowned, with his coxswain and seven seamen, by
the oversetting of his boat. It is remarkable that his second
brother perished in the _Thunderer_, 74, when she foundered in a
storm, and that his two sisters were married to naval officers, both
of whom were drowned.
I well remember the horrors of sea-sickness in the Bay of Biscay,
when we encountered an adverse gale.
The whole squadron were signalled as being in sight when we reached
latitude 49.40; and then we bore away for Barbadoes. The ships kept
as near each other as was consistent with safety; thus scarcely a day
elapsed without a friendly cheer being exchanged between the _Adder_
and other vessels of the fleet; and twice we were within a
pistol-shot of the _Spitfire_, which bore the left wing of our
regiment.
As we got into warmer latitudes, the sentinels, who at sea mount
guard with their bayonets only, were strictly enjoined to prevent men
from sleeping on deck, as it is productive of fever, moon-blindness
and other ailments; and twice in each week we had fumigations of
common salt, oxide of manganese, sulphuric acid, and water, placed in
basins or pipkins of hot sand between decks. I have to apologize for
troubling the reader with details, perhaps, so trivial; but such were
new to me then, and served to lighten the tedium of a long voyage in
a crowded frigate.
One night the wind blew hard, while torrents of rain fell. In the
obscurity we could neither see the lantern of the admiral's ship, nor
hear the guns she fired. Once I thought a faint gleam lighted the
darkness far away to leeward; but my observation was treated as
valueless by the sailors, because it came from a red coat. On this
night I was sentinel before the poop, and the disastrous incident
that occurred impressed the memory of it upon me.
The atmosphere was so thick that Captain Cranky, who, with all his
coarseness and tyranny, was an able and skilful seaman, ordered the
watches to be doubled, a light to be shown at the foremast truck, and
one at each end of the spritsail yard, while a constant look-out was
kept ahead, lest we might run foul of some of our own transports.
The wind increased so much, that the sails were reduced; but still
the _Adder_, a sharply-built frigate, was flying fast through the
water, which swept past her on each side like a millrace, curling in
white foam under her counter, and bubbling far away in the waste of
darkness and obscurity astern.
Still the gale increased, and now the spray flew in showers across
our deck. The huge lanterns swung madly to and fro at their perches,
casting many a wavering gleam on the tall and spectral outline of the
frigate's canvas, and on her wetted rigging. The ports were all
closed; more sail was taken off the ship, and then the deadlights
were battened in.
Suddenly a cry came from the watch forward.
"A sail--ho!"
"Where?" cried the officer in command of the deck.
"Right ahead, sir."
Ere another word could be said, there was a shock--a yell as if from
the bosom of the sea, and with a mighty crash we were upon her!
I sprang upon the poop, and saw ahead, two tottering masts sink like
phantoms under our lee bow, and in another instant, the wreck of a
brig we had cleft in two, was swept past me, and sank astern. I saw
a few miserable men, half naked, or just as they had sprung from bed,
clinging to the tophamper, while the crushed and shattered hull went
down into the trough of the midnight sea, and from its dark and
horrid valley, their cries of death and despair rose mournfully to
the lofty poop, from whence I surveyed them.
All this was but the vision of a moment, for the howling blast which
hurried us on, swept the wreck, and the poor wretches who floated
about it, alike out of sight and hearing.
"Lay the foreyard to the wind--officer of the watch! ''Sdeath where
is the officer of the watch?" bellowed Captain Cranky, through his
trumpet, as he rushed on deck; "pipe away the cutter--over with the
life-buoys--up with more lanterns!"
The _Adder_ was under such way, that some time elapsed before she
could be put about; but as boats could not be lowered in such a sea,
Cranky was obliged to content himself with firing guns, and burning
blue lights, amid the haze and gusty wind of that gloomy and mournful
night.
We hovered about the place for an hour: but all was silent, save the
voice of the wind, which howled through the rigging, and tore the
foamy crests off the billows as they rose above the line of the sea.
Of that doomed ship, we saw and heard no more.
The next day dawned clear and beautiful; but the sea was swept by
glasses in vain for a trace of the wreck. Indeed we were then far
from the scene of the catastrophe, which was the source of much
ill-feeling between Captain Cranky, and the Earl of Kildonan, the
former asserting that "but for the blundering stupidity of some of
his blubberly Scotsmen, who formed part of the forecastle watch, and
failed to keep a proper look-out, the collision would never have
occurred."
The Earl, who was proud, fiery, and high-spirited, resented the
overbearing manner, the coarseness and tyranny of Captain Cranky;
thus bitter words ensued between them--so bitter that we were certain
a duel would follow as soon as we came in sight of land anywhere.
Cranky ordered two of our men to be flogged, as he would have done
seamen, on his own authority. The Earl insisted that, as soldiers,
they should first be tried by a court martial. Upon this, the
captain stuck his old battered cocked hat (the hue of which had long
since become brick red by exposure to the brine) fiercely over his
solitary eye, and while it glared like that of a cobra capello, he
folded his arms, and spluttered out,--
"D--n my eyes and limbs, my lord, or whatever you call yourself, do
you or I command this ship?"
"Sir," replied the Earl loftily, and with a disdainful smile; "the
rules of the service say, that when troops are on board of ship, the
entire command will be vested in the senior officer; whatever branch
of the service he may belong to, he is equally bound to exercise that
command, and is responsible for any breach of discipline that may
occur."
"So, sir, a King's ship might come to be commanded by a puppy of a
hussar or lancer, eh?"
"It might be so," said Kildonan, laughing.
The very idea of this, made Cranky almost choke with spleen; he
thundered out a terrible oath, and swore he would lash every Fusileer
who was on deck that night; for when soldiers are on board ship, they
are divided into three watches, one of which, with a subaltern
officer, must be constantly on deck, to assist in keeping a look-out,
and to work the running rigging. This proposal to flog about one
hundred-and-fifty men made the Earl laugh aloud; but he added
gravely,--
"Beware, sir, for this language and bearing cannot be tolerated. If
you proceed thus, I shall be forced to take strong measures, and at
the point of the bayonet, make a signal to the nearest ship of the
fleet; beware, sir, I am Henry, Earl of Kildonan, and
Lieutenant-Colonel of the Scots Fusileers."
"Signal--a signal from my ship and without _my_ orders?" exclaimed
Cranky, absolutely livid and dancing with rage; "I'll let you know,
sirrah, a lousy Scots lord, thof you be, that I value your title and
your laced coat at about as much as they are worth. Beat to
quarters," he added, with the voice of a stentor, while rushing into
his cabin, from whence he returned with a couple of swords; "beat to
quarters and man the main-deck guns!"
It was now the young Earl's turn to change colour, and he glanced
anxiously at Glendonwyn, Colepepper, Haystone, and several of his
officers, who drew near him. By this time the drum had beaten, the
whole of the fusileers were on deck, and seemed only to be waiting
for orders to rush below, and snatch their muskets from the cleats,
as a conflict seemed impending between them and the crew of the
_Adder_, who, though by no means devoted to their furious commander,
repaired to their stations with doubt, irresolution, and sullenness,
expressed in all their faces; for, although these men were ready to
oppose any foe, muzzle to muzzle, they were by no means inclined to
grapple with their own countrymen, to gratify the fury of a
half-tipsy tyrant.
Cranky now ordered every officer and man down to the guns on the main
deck, and requested the Earl to send the Fusileers below.
Lord Kildonan complied, and in a moment not a man was left on the
poop deck save two seamen at the wheel, and the sentinel. I had the
good fortune to be the latter.
"Choose one of these swords, sir," said Cranky, "and stand on your
defence. I'll teach you, lord and earl thof ye be, that I command
this ship."
Kildonan took one of the swords, on which Cranky instantly unsheathed
the other, crying,--
"On guard, on guard, or whiz? damme. I am through you."
"Captain Cranky," said the Earl, with stern dignity; "I would beg of
you to remember that I am, probably, a much better swordsman than
you, having had the misfortune to be some years a prisoner of war in
France, where, having a good _maître d'armes_, I had little else to
occupy my leisure hours, than the use of the small sword----"
"What the devil is all this to me?" asked Cranky.
"Simply this, sir; that if you are determined to fight, I will meet
you with pistols on shore, when we shall be on more equal terms."
"You Scotch swab of a lord; you--you are a lubberly coward and dare
not fight. 'Sblood, I'll have you carried to the main deck and
drenched with buckets of bilge water--I will; or towed over-board at
the end of a line; on guard--on guard," he added, making a vicious
thrust.
The Earl grew deadly pale.
"Fellow," said he, "you must be either mad or drunk to address in
such terms one who is a peer of the realm, and Colonel in his
Majesty's service."
He now stood on the defensive with his sword, which he evidently used
with great skill, though the manner in which Cranky lunged and hewed
away like a man flailing corn, was sufficiently perplexing.
Meanwhile, the faces of the fusileers were seen peeping above the
hatchway-coamings round which the shot lay, and the seamen at the
guns on the main deck stood like statues, surveying in wonder a scene
never before witnessed on the poop of a man-of-war.
Kildonan's coolness so bitterly exasperated the choleric captain,
that making one violent lunge he overthrust himself, and in falling
on the earl's sword, received a deep wound in the breast. He fell
heavily on the deck, while a terrible oath, and a deluge of blood
left his lips together.
Rendered more mad than ever by this catastrophe, and choking in blood
and rage, as the earl bent over him, Cranky snatched a pistol from
his belt, and would have shot him through the head; but I saw the
action, and quick as thought sprang forward and knocked aside the
weapon with my bayonet. The pistol exploded; the ball grazed Lord
Kildonan's left ear, and struck a splinter off the mainyard.
"Thanks, Ellis, my good lad," said he calmly; "I believe that I owe
my life to you, and I shall not forget the debt."
The report of the pistol brought all who were below, seamen,
soldiers, and marines, swarming up the hatches on deck, and the
captain was borne senseless to his cabin, and placed under the
doctor's care.
This was a singular scene to be enacted on the poop of one of His
Majesty's frigates; but I am writing of the year 1794, when there
were to be found occasionally in the service, such officers as
Smollet has portrayed, under the name of Captain Oakham and, indeed,
old Cranky was usually known in the fleet of Admiral Jervis by that
cognomen.