"What!" I exclaimed, in much amazement. "Is it really you, Jorrocks?
I can hardly believe my eyes!"
"Aye, aye, it's me sure enough," replied my old ally of the _Saucy
Sall_, shaking hands with great heartiness, as if he were really glad to
see me again under such altered circumstances. "It's me sure enough,
Master Leigh--that is, unless I've got some double of a twin brother, as
like me as two peas, a-sailing round in these latitudes!"
There could be no question of his identity after I had once heard the
tones of his well-remembered voice; but the beard which he had allowed
to grow since I had last seen him had so completely altered the
expression of his face, or rather indeed its entire appearance, that
there was some excuse for my not recognising him at the moment.
Jorrocks, however, he was without doubt; and, I need hardly say that I
was quite as much pleased at this unexpected meeting as he seemed to
be--albeit the sight of him, when I realised the fact that it was really
himself and heard his cheery familiar accents, brought back in an
instant to my mind the scene on board the coal brig that eventful day
when the _Saucy Sall's_ surly skipper discovered that Tom and I had
stolen a march on him, and treated us each to a dose of his sovereign
specific for stowaways!
"How is it, though, Jorrocks, that you've abandoned the brig?" I asked
him presently, when we had got over our mutual surprise at thus meeting
in such an unlooked-for fashion. "I thought you were a fixture there,
and didn't know you were a regular sailor--I mean one accustomed to sea-
going ships like this?"
I said this with much dignity, being greatly impressed with the
responsibility of my new position; and I'm sure I must have spoken as if
I were a post captain at least, addressing some subordinate officer!
Jorrocks, however, took my patronage in good part, although I could
detect a faint cock of his eye, denoting sly amusement at my ridiculous
assumption of superiority. This he now proceeded to "take down a peg"
in his roundabout way.
"Why, bless you, Master Leigh, I sailed as able seaman in a China
clipper afore you were born, and when I were that high!" he replied,
laughing, putting his hand about a foot above the deck to illustrate his
approximate stature at the period referred to, and representing himself
to be at that time certainly a very diminutive son of Neptune.
"You must have been very young, then," said I, a little bit nettled at
his remark--thinking it a slur on my nautical experience, so bran-new as
that was!
But Jorrocks went on as coolly as if I had not cast a doubt on the
veracity of his statement concerning his early commencement of sailor
life.
"Aye, aye," he answered, quite collectedly, "I grant I were young, but
then you must rec'lect, my lad, I got the flavour o' the sea early in a
lighthouse tower, where I was born and brought up, my father having the
lantern to mind; and, since then, I've v'y'ged a'most to every part you
could mention, and shipped in a'most every kind of craft, from an East
Indyman down to a Yarmouth hoy. Bless you! I only took to the coasting
line two or three years ago, when you and I first ran foul of each
other; and the reason for my doing that was in cons'quence of my getting
spliced, and the missus wanting me to take a 'longshore berth.
Howsomedevers, I couldn't stand it long, being once used to a decent
fo'c's'le in a proper sort of vessel v'y'ging o'er the seas in true
shipshape fashion; and so, I parted company with the brig and came
aboard the _Esmeralda_ eighteen months ago come next July--a long spell
for a sailor to stick to one ship without changing, but then Cap'en
Billings 's a good sort, and he made me boatswain o' the craft last
v'y'ge but one, so I hopes to remain with him longer still."
"You like him, then?" I said, tentatively, looking him straight in the
face.
"Oh, aye--first-class," replied Jorrocks to my implied question, with
much seriousness, "He's not only a good skipper--as good as they make
'em, treating the hands as if they were men, and not dogs--but he's a
prime seaman, and knows what's what in a gale, better nor most I've ever
sailed with. Howsomedevers, he'll stand no nonsense; and when he puts
his foot down, you may as well give up, as you might sooner soft-sawder
a trenail into a two-inch plank as get over him and shirk your duty!
The old man, easy-going when you take him right, is as stiff as a
porkypine when you runs foul of his hawse; so, you'd better not try on
any o' them pranks o' yours you told me you and your messmate played off
on your old schoolmaster, for Cap'en Billings has cut his eye teeth, my
hearty."
"Why, I wouldn't dream of such a thing," I exclaimed, indignantly, "what
Tom and I did to Dr Hellyer was quite different, and served him right
for his cruelty."
"Aye, aye, that may be accordin' to your notion," said Jorrocks,
sententiously; "but that schoolmaster were the skipper of his own ship,
the same as Cap'en Billings is here aboard this here craft, and it ain't
right to trifle with them as is set in authority over us!"
I can't tell what I might have replied to this appropriate little sermon
that Jorrocks delivered about the mischievous and dangerous trick that
Tom and I conspired together to commit, and which I have often
subsequently reflected might have led to the most disastrous
consequences, and perhaps injured the Doctor for life; but, at that
moment, Captain Billings, seeing my old friend and I chatting together,
came over to leeward, where we were standing.
"Hullo, boatswain!" he shouted out, "making friends with the youngster,
eh?"
"Why, bless you, Cap'en Billings," answered Jorrocks, touching his cap,
"he and I are old shipmates."
"Indeed! I had no idea of his having been at sea before," said the
skipper, apparently very much astonished at this news.
"Oh, aye, sir, he has," returned my old friend, glad to be able to put
in a good word for me, as he thought, after the little lecture he had
just given me. "He was on board a coal brig with me two years ago, a
coasting craft that plied up along shore to Noocastle and back; and
you'll find him no green hand, Cap', but a smart able chap, one that'll
get out to the weather earing when there's a call to reef topsails
sooner than many a full-grown seaman, for he knows his way up the
rigging."
"I'm very glad to hear that," said the skipper, turning to me, with an
affable smile that lighted up his twinkling blue eyes. "When Sam
Pengelly told me you were a capable lad, of course, I naturally took his
opinion to proceed more from personal bias than practical comment on
your seamanship; but, now that I learn from Jorrocks here, on more
independent testimony, that you're no novice on board ship and have
already mastered the rough rudiments of your profession in the best way
possible--that of having been before the mast as a regular hand--why,
you'll be able to get on all the faster, and be able to command the deck
by-and-by on your own hook. How are you up in navigation, eh?"
"I can take the sun, sir," said I, modestly, not wishing to blow my own
trumpet.
"Anything else?"
"Yes, sir, I can work out a reckoning, I believe," I answered.
"Ha, humph, pretty good! I'll try you by-and-by, Leigh," said Captain
Billings, turning aside for the moment to order the port watch to give
one extra pull to the weather braces--"mind and bring out your sextant
when you see me on deck at eight bells. I suppose you've got one in
your chest, eh?"
"Oh yes, sir, Sam Pengelly gave me one," I replied, and the skipper then
went into the cabin while Jorrocks and I resumed our interrupted
conversation.
My old friend took advantage of the opportunity to put me up to a good
many wrinkles concerning my fellow-shipmates.
The mate, Mr Macdougall, who was a tall, hatchet-faced Scotsman, with
high cheek-bones and a very prominent nose--Jorrocks told me, in
confidence--was a tight-handed, close-fisted, cross-tempered man, ever
fond of displaying his authority and working the hands to death, under
the plea of preventing their idling or "hazing," as he called it.
"I advise you not to get into a row with him, Mister Leigh, if so as you
can help it; 'cause, once a chap falls foul of him in any way, he
neversomedevers by no chance forgets or forgives it, nohow."
"I shan't give him the chance," I answered to this, with a laugh. "I
suppose he doesn't think himself greater than the captain!"
"Ah, you just wait a bit 'fore you decide that p'int. The first mate
aboard a marchint ship is a sight more powerful than a judge on the
bench, as you'll find out! The skipper allers tells him what he wishes,
and the mate sees to its being done, an' it depends what sorter fellow
_he_ is, and not on the cap'en, as to how matters go on when a vessel's
at sea; for, it's in his power for to make things pleasant like and all
plain sailing, or else to cause the crew for to smell brimstone afore
their time, I tell you! That Macdougall, now, though you laugh in that
light-hearted way, ain't to be trifled with, Mister Leigh, I warn you;
and if you go for to raise his dander ag'in you, why, you won't find it
worth grinning at, that's sartin, for he's as nasty as he's spiteful,
and every man Jack of us hates him like pizen, and wishes he were out of
the ship. The skipper, I knows, wouldn't have him aboard if he could
have his own way, but he's some connection of the owners, and he can't
help himself."
"All right, Jorrocks, I'll try and steer clear of him," I said, trying
to look grave, for I saw the old sailor was in earnest, and only
speaking for my good. "I will endeavour to do my duty, and then he
won't have any occasion to find fault with me."
"Ah, but you'll have to do more than that; for, like most of them uppish
chaps, if you don't truckle under to him and purtend as how he's the
Lord Mayor, he's safe to be down on you."
"I'm not going to crawl under any man's feet, first mate or no first
mate!" I said, proudly. "Why, I'm a first-class apprentice, and the
captain has rated me as third officer in the ship's books."
"Now, Mister Leigh, don't you go on for being bumptious, now, my lad!"
replied Jorrocks, laughing heartily at my drawing myself up on my
dignity. "A third officer or `third mate,' as we calls him, has a dog's
berth aboard a ship if he doesn't lend his hand to anything and button
to the first mate! You needn't go for to really humble yourself afore
that Macdougall; I only meant you to purtend like as how you thinks him
a regular top-sawyer, and then you'll sail along without a chance of a
squall--Mr Ohlsen, the second mate, in charge o' your watch, is an
easy-going chap, and you'll get on well enough with him."
"All right," I said in response, as if agreeing with his advice; but I
formed my own resolution as to how I would treat the Scotsman should he
try to bully me unjustly.
He would find no cringe in me, I vowed!
The rest of my shipmates, Jorrocks then went on to tell me, were a very
jolly set of fellows, forming as good a crew as he'd ever sailed with--
fit for anything, and all able seamen "of the proper sort."
Haxell, the carpenter, he said, was a quiet, steady-going, solemn sort
of man, with no nonsense about him, who kept himself to himself; while
Sails, the sail-maker, whom I have omitted mentioning in his proper
place as one of the officers ranking after the boatswain, was a cheery
chap, who could sing a good song on Saturday night in the fo'c's'le;
but, the life of the crew, Jorrocks said, was Pat Doolan, the cook, an
Irishman, as his name would imply. He was always ready to crack a joke
and "carry on" when there was any skylarking about, besides willing to
lend a hand at any time on a pinch. Jorrocks told me "to mind and be
good friends with Pat," if it were only for the sake of the pannikin of
hot coffee which it was in his power to dispense in the early morning
when turning out on watch in the cold.
"Ah, you were not born yesterday, Jorrocks!" I said, when he imparted
this valuable bit of information to me, as one of the state secrets of
the fo'c's'le.
"No, Mister Leigh," he answered, with a meaning wink; "I've not been to
sea, twenty year more or less, for nothing, I tell you."
The steward--to complete the list of those on board--was a flabby half-
and-half sort of Welshman, hailing from Cardiff but brought up in
London; and, as he was a close ally of the first mate, I need hardly say
he was no favourite either of my friend Jorrocks, or with the crew
generally--all the hands thinking that he skimped the provisions when
serving them out, in deference to Mr Macdougall's prejudices in the way
of stinginess!
The _Esmeralda_, therefore, carried twenty-seven souls in all of living
freight, including the skipper and my valuable self, besides her
thousand tons of coal or so of cargo; we on board representing a little
world within ourselves, with our interests identical so long as the
voyage lasted.
While Jorrocks and I were talking in the waist of the ship to leeward, I
observed the first mate, Mr Macdougall--who had the forenoon watch, and
was in charge of the vessel for the time--approach close to the break of
the poop, and stop in his walk up and down the deck once or twice, as if
he were on the point of hailing us to know what we were palavering
about; but something seemed to change his intention, so he refrained
from calling out, as I expected, although he glowered down on Jorrocks
and I, with a frown on his freckly sandy-haired face, "as if he could
eat us both up without salt," as the boatswain said, on my pointing out
the mate's proximity.
I believe Mr Macdougall took a dislike to me from the first; and the
skipper's apparent favour did not subsequently tend to make him
appreciate me any the better, I could see later on.
That very day, shortly before noon, when Captain Billings came out of
his cabin with his sextant, and found me all ready for him with mine, in
obedience to his order, I heard Mr Macdougall utter a covert sneer
behind the skipper's back respecting me.
"Hoot, mon," he said aside to Ohlsen, the second mate--"Old son of a
gun" as the men used to call him, making a sort of pun on his name--"the
old man's setting up as dominie to teach that bairn how to tak' a sight,
you ken; did you ever see the like? These be braw times when gentlefolk
come to sea for schoolin', and ship cap'ens have to tak' to teachin'
'em!"
Ohlsen didn't reply to this save by a grunt, which might have meant
anything, but I was certain Macdougall was trying to turn me into
ridicule.
Captain Billings, however, did not overhear the remark; and proceeded to
test my accuracy with the sextant, making me take the angle of the sun
and that of the distant land on the port bow. He was delighted when,
afterwards, I had worked out my calculations, based on the sight taken
of the sun's altitude, and, deducting the difference of the ship's mean
time from that observed, found out that our true position on the chart
was very nearly 50 degrees 55 minutes 20 seconds North and 4 degrees 50
minutes 55 seconds West, or about ten miles to the south-west of
Hartland Point on the Devonshire coast. It was all a labour of love,
however, for the land was still within reach, and we had not long taken
our "point of departure;" while soundings could still be had, if we
wished, in thirty fathom water; so, there was no necessity for our
taking an observation so early in the voyage. The skipper only did it
to test my knowledge, and he was perfectly satisfied with the result
apparently.
"Why, Macdougall," he said to the Scotsman, who was waiting by with an
air of ill-concealed triumph on his face, hoping to hear of my failure
to work out the reckoning, "he's a better navigator than you are!"
This, you may be certain, did not please the mate, who muttered
something of it's "all being done by guess work."
But the skipper wouldn't have this at any price.
"No, no, Macdougall," he replied, quickly, "it's all fair and square
calculation, such as I couldn't have managed at his age;" then, turning
to me, he added, kindly, "you stick to it, my lad, and you'll beat us
all with the sextant before we get to Callao!"
The captain desired me, also, to work out the ship's reckoning each day
and to keep a log, the same as the first mate had to do, which that
individual resented as a sort of check exercised upon him, and hated me
accordingly. As I afterwards found out, he was an extremely bad
navigator, and ignorant of all the newest methods, such as Sumner's, for
shortening calculation, consequently, he was afraid of his errors being
discovered too easily if his log should be compared every day with mine.
Unaware of all these kindly feelings towards me, Captain Billings filled
up the measure of Mr Macdougall's wrath by inviting me to come into the
cabin to dine with him that day at six bells, instead of waiting until
the termination of Ohlsen's watch, and go in with him to the "second
table," as it was termed, after the skipper and first mate had finished
their repast--such being the etiquette in merchant ships.
Macdougall almost boiled over with anger when he heard the skipper ask
me. His freckled face looked just like a turkey's egg--boiled!
"Vara weel, vara weel, Cap'en Billings," said he, with a mock deference
that little disguised his rage: "but I'd ha'e you to know that I didn't
ship aboard here to mess wi' 'prentice lads."
The skipper fired up in an instant, a light darting from his blue eyes
which one would not have thought their liquid depths capable of.
"And I would have you to know, Mr Macdougall," he retorted, quickly,
uttering every word, however, with distinct emphasis, "that I'm captain
of my own ship, and shall ask whom I please to my table. Steward," he
added, calling out to that worthy, who was just sauntering by into the
cabin from the cook's galley with a covered dish in his hands, "lay a
plate and knife and fork for Mr Leigh; and bear in mind that he dines
with me every day when his duties allow!"
"Aye, aye, sir," replied Owen Williams, proceeding on into his pantry
with his dish, and I followed the skipper into the cabin shortly
afterwards.
This was undoubtedly a blow to the mate, as I thought, sniggering over
the little episode at the time; but, Mr Macdougall did not forget the
fact of my having been the occasion of his getting a "dressing down"
from the skipper, and he debited it carefully in his account against me,
determining to pay me out for it on the first convenient opportunity--a
resolution that was carried out quite soon enough for me, as you will
presently learn!