HOME WITH MAHOGANY.
My new ship—Sail for Belize—Native and alligator—Sail for England
with convoy of ships—Hear of peace being signed between Spain and
England—Arrive in England—Paid off at Sheerness—Return home—Tired
of country life—Apply for ship—Appointed to H.M.S. _Apelles_.
The sloop of war I now commanded was a fine sixteen-gun brig carrying
twenty-four-pound-carronades, with a crew of one hundred and twenty as
fine men as any in the fleet. They had been some time together, and only
wished for an opportunity of making the splinters fly out of a Frenchman’s
side, and hauling down his tricoloured piece of bunting. I found on my
reaching Port Royal that Admiral Rowley had arrived to supersede Admiral
Dacres. In the afternoon I dined with both Admirals, and met the Duke of
Manchester, who was a fine-looking man, but unfortunately had a nervous
affection of the head. He asked me several questions respecting the
different islands, and appeared amused by my description of them. After we
had refitted we sailed for Honduras, the Admiral first taking from me the
master, without appointing another, for which I did not thank him. We made
the Swan Islands, which are small, uninhabited, and surrounded by a reef
of coral, and on the morning of the third day anchored off the town at the
mouth of the Belize river. Colonel Drummond, who was the commanding
officer, received us very civilly, and requested I would dine with him as
often as I could. A deputation of the merchants waited on me to say the
convoy would be ready in a fortnight. I dined frequently at the military
mess, and found the officers generally gentlemanly. I gave two parties on
board, but as I had no music there was no dancing. We revelled in
Calepache and Calapee, and I think some of the city aldermen would have
envied us the mouthfuls of green fat we swallowed. I made an excursion up
the river with Colonel Drummond in a scow, a flat boat so called, or
rather float, and slept at a pavilion he had on the bank of it. I shall
never forget my nocturnal visitors, the bull-frogs, who, _sans façon_,
jumped about the room as if dancing a quadrille, not to my amusement but
their own, making a most unmusical noise to the tune of something like,
“Pay your debts, pay your debts, pay your debts.” After the third croak
they paused, probably to give time for everybody to become honest. I made
daily excursions to the neighbouring quays, and picked up a quantity of
beautiful shells.
Dining one day with Colonel Drummond, I remarked that the black servant
who stood near me had a piebald neck, and mentioned it as something
singular. “Why,” said the Colonel, “thereby hangs a very curious tale, and
not a pleasant one to him, poor fellow. He is a native of Panama, and
formerly was employed to float rafts of mahogany down the Belize river. He
is an expert canoe-man and something of a carpenter, and as he was a free
man I took him into my household. At my request he related to me the cause
of those white marks on his neck. It was thus. As he and another black man
were floating down the river on a large raft of mahogany, it being Sunday
he wished to bathe, and jumped into the river for that purpose. As he was
swimming after the raft, which was close to the mangroves, and had nearly
reached it, a large alligator seized him by the neck. He roared most
piteously; the animal, either alarmed at the noise he made, or wishing to
have a more convenient grip, threw him up, and in so doing he fortunately
fell on the raft. His companion bound up his wounds, which were deep, and
soon after he arrived at Belize he was sent to the hospital, when, on his
recovery, he became my servant.” “It was a most providential escape,”
exclaimed I. “Indeed it was,” replied the Colonel, “and so he thinks
himself.” On reaching the ship in the evening I found a beautiful mahogany
canoe alongside, and on entering my cabin the steward brought me a glass
globe containing two Panama tortoises, which, when full-grown, are richly
marked and not larger than a crown piece. The native name of these pretty
animals is _chinqua_. They were a present from Captain Bromley. At the
time appointed, seven vessels, deeply laden with mahogany, were ready for
sea. I spent the last day on shore, dined at the military mess, bade adieu
to all my red-coat friends, and the following morning got under weigh with
my haystack convoy for England.
We doubled Cape Antonio on the third day, and when off the Havannah we
perceived a frigate standing out of the harbour. We concluded she was
Spanish. I consulted the officers respecting the probability of taking her
by laying her alongside and boarding her. They thought it might be
effected. I turned the hands up and acquainted them of my intention. Three
hearty cheers was the response. We prepared for action, and stood towards
her. We were three gunshots from her when it fell calm, as well as dusk,
and about an hour afterwards a large boat came near us. We presumed she
was a Spanish gunboat, and had taken us for a merchant vessel. I let her
come alongside, having the marines ready to give them a reception when
they boarded, and to quietly disarm and hand them down the hatchway. The
first man who came up was a lieutenant of our service. “Hulloa, sir, how
is this, and where have you come from?” said I. “From the _Melpomene_,”
replied he, “the frigate you see off the Havannah.” “This is a terrible
disappointment,” resumed I. “We had made up our minds to board and, if
possible, carry that frigate, supposing her Spanish.” “Why, sir,” said he,
“we yesterday carried the disagreeable news to the Governor of Cuba of a
Spanish peace, and seeing you with a convoy, Captain Parker despatched me
with some letters for England, if you will have the goodness to take
charge of them.” “Willingly,” replied I, “and pray acquaint him with our
mortification.”
He shortly after left us, and we proceeded through the Gulf with the
convoy. Nothing of any importance transpired during our passage of nine
long, tedious weeks, when we anchored in the Downs, where I got rid of all
our snail-sailing mahogany haystacks. The three days we lay in the Downs I
took up my quarters at the “Hoop and Griffin.” Bread and butter, with
delicious oysters, were my orders of the day, but, alas, my former pretty
maid was no longer there. She was married, had children, and I sincerely
hope was happy. On the same floor, the father-in-law to the First Lord of
the Admiralty, with his daughter and niece, had taken up their abode for a
few days on their return journey to London from a tour in Wales. Before I
was acquainted with this information, seeing a carriage at the door and an
old gentleman with two ladies alight from it, I asked the waiter who they
were. He answered he did not know, but that they had arrived yesterday and
that the gentleman appeared much out of spirits, and one of the ladies
very much out of health. The purser had been dining with me, and we were
enjoying our wine, when I said to the waiter, in a half-joking manner,
“Give my compliments to the old gentleman, and request him to hand himself
in, that we may have a look at him.” He fulfilled his commission, although
I did not intend he should do so, to the letter, and in walked a stately,
gentlemanly-looking man, about seventy. He gave us a look that appeared to
say, “Surely this is some mistake, I know you not.” On perceiving his
embarrassment I advanced towards him, and begged, although there was some
little mistake, that if he were not engaged, he would do me the favour to
take a glass of wine. “I see,” said he, “you are officers of the navy,”
and without further hesitation, sat down and became quite cheerful. In the
course of conversation he informed me that he had tried the air of Wales
for the benefit of his daughter, who was married to a captain in the navy,
and that his other daughter was married to Lord Mulgrave, First Lord of
the Admiralty. I told him we had come from the West Indies and were going
to sail for Sheerness in the morning; that if he thought his daughter
would like to go so far on her journey by sea, instead of by land, my
cabin was entirely at his service. He thanked me cordially, but declined
it. After finishing a brace of decanters of wine he took his leave, first
giving me his address in London. A month afterwards I heard of his death.
The following morning we sailed, and arrived at Sheerness next day, when I
received orders to pay off the ship, in consequence of her being
iron-fastened and wanting so much repair. She was afterwards sold out of
the Service. I need not say I was much disappointed, and thought the
builder at Port Royal something of an old woman, and only fit for
superannuation. I found one of my old captains commissioner at this place,
to whom I gave a turtle, a pig, and a bag of bread dust, for he thought
one without the other useless, and for which he did not even invite me to
his house. “Oh, what is friendship but a name that lulls the fool to
sleep,” etc. On the sixth day the ship was put out of commission and
myself out of full pay. I took a postchaise with my light luggage, and I
arrived in the evening at my dear home, kissed my wife and all the women I
could meet with that were worth the trouble, sat myself down in a snug
elbow-chair near a comfortable English fire, told a long, tough yarn about
mountains of sugar and rivers of rum, bottle-nosed porpoises, sharks,
grampuses, and flying-fish, until I fell sound asleep, but, however, not
so sound to prevent my hearing my best end of the ship whispering to
someone to put more coals on the fire, and roast a chicken for my supper,
and then she added, with her dear, musical, soft voice, “Dear fellow! How
sound he sleeps. I hope he will awake quite refreshed, and eat his supper
with a good appetite. How rejoiced I am he is once more at home.” I could
have jumped up and hugged her, but I thought it better to enjoy my sleep.
If this narrative meets the eye of a bachelor sailor I could wish him to
splice himself to such another clean-looking frigate as my wife, but mind,
not without he has a purse well filled with the right sort, and as long at
least as the maintop bowline, or two cables spliced on end. Love is very
pretty, very sentimental, and sometimes very romantic, but love without
rhino is bewildering misery.
When I awoke next morning I scarcely could believe my senses, it appeared
too much happiness. The _élite_ of the village favoured me with calls and
congratulations, as well as invitations to tea and _petit soupers_, with a
seasoning of scandal. I in return entertained them occasionally with a few
King’s yarns, which, my gentle reader, are not tarred, and are what the
seamen vulgarly call rogue’s yarns, so called because one or more are
twisted in large ropes and cables made in the King’s dockyards, to
distinguish them from those made in the merchants’ yards, and should they
be embezzled or clandestinely sold, the rogue’s or white yarn is evidence
against the possessor. I had been some months on shore when I began to get
tired of looking at green fields and grass combers, and longed to be once
more on the salt seas. My family had increased to seven boys and girls,
and I thought it criminal to be longer idle, and, after many applications,
Mr. Yorke, the First Lord of the Admiralty, favoured me with an
appointment to command a sloop of war on the Downs station.
I joined her in the cold, uncomfortable month of December. The weather was
remarkably severe, and it was five days before I could get a launch to put
me on board her. At length I made my footing on the quarter-deck. The
first lieutenant received me and informed me the captain was unwell in the
cabin, but that he wished to see me. I descended into a complete den,
filled with smoke and dirt. The first object I perceived looming through
the dense vapour was the captain’s nose, which was a dingy red. His linen
was the colour of chocolate, his beard had, I presumed, a month’s growth.
I informed him of my errand, to which he answered with something like a
growl. As it was impossible to remain in the cabin without a chance of
being suffocated, I begged him, if he possibly could, to accompany me to
the quarter-deck. He followed me with a slow step. I expressed my wish to
have my commission read. He then gave orders to the first lieutenant to
turn the hands up. After this ceremony I took the command, made a short
speech to the crew, in which I assured them they should have every
indulgence the Service afforded. I then turned to my predecessor, and
asked him when he wished to leave the ship. He informed me that to-morrow
would suit him. I gave the necessary orders and went on shore. The
admiral, Sir G. Campbell, received me very kindly, and invited me to
dinner, where I met Lady C., the admiral’s wife, a ladylike, pleasant
person. The dinner party consisted of brother officers. The admiral was a
quiet, gentlemanly, pleasing man, and a distinguished and good officer. As
I sat next him he was kind enough to inform me that the captain of the
sloop I superseded was considered out of his mind, that the officers had
represented to him that the discipline on board her was worse than on a
privateer, and that he would neither punish for insubordination nor have
the decks washed. “In consequence of which,” continued the Admiral, “I was
obliged to order a Court of Inquiry. The report was to his disadvantage;
he was advised to go on shore, to which, after some hesitation, he
consented, and another captain was applied for. You have superseded him,
and I make no doubt you will soon make her once more a man-of-war.” I
thanked him for his kind communication, and assured him that zeal on my
part should not be wanting to make her equal to one of his best cruisers.
On rejoining the ship, as I had been the first lieutenant for five years
in former ships, I told the officers I wished to make my own observation
on the men’s conduct, and I would endeavour to effect a reform when I
found it necessary. The officers, with the exception of the master, who
was a rough, practical seaman, were gentlemanly, well-informed men, and I
was not surprised at their wishing to get rid of their insane chief,
although, in any other case, it might have proved to them a difficult and
probably a dangerous experiment. A few days afterwards I called on him. I
found him in small lodgings in an obscure part of the town. I was
accompanied by Captain J., an old messmate of his in former times. He
neither knew us nor asked us to take a seat. He had a large loaf under his
left arm, and in his right hand a dinner knife. He appeared to wear the
same chocolate-coloured chemise and beard, his stockings were down over
his shoes, and his clothes all over flue. We wished him health and
happiness, to which he returned no answer, but began cutting his loaf. The
people of the house told us he would neither wash himself nor take his
clothes off when going to bed, but that he was perfectly quiet. I
understood, before I sailed, that his sister had come from the north of
England to stay with him, and that she had been of great use to him.