The capstern went round with a merry tune--the boatswain's whistle
sounded shrilly along the decks with a magic effect--the anchor was hove
up--the sails were let fall and but a few minutes had passed, after the
captain gave the word of command, before the ship, under a wide spread
of snowy canvas, was standing down the Solent towards the Needle
passage. It was a lovely summer's day, the sky was blue and so was the
water, and the land looked green and bright, and the paint was so fresh,
and the deck so white, and the officers in their glittering uniform had
so polished an appearance, and the men in their white trousers and
shirts with worked collars and natty hats, looked so neat and active as
they sprang nimbly aloft, or flew about the decks, that I felt very
proud of the frigate and everything about her, and very glad that I had
come to sea. To be sure matters below were not quite in the same order
just then. Still prouder was I when we saluted the Queen, who was at
Osborne--firing away first on one side and then on the other, with a
flash and a roar, and a huge puff of smoke. We passed out at the
Needles with the cheese-like castle of Hurst and its red ninepin-looking
lighthouses on our right, and a little further to the west on our right
with the high cliffs of Alum Bay striped curiously with coloured sand
and three high-pointed rocks, wading out into the sea, as if wanting to
get across to the north shore. These are the Needle rocks. We had run
the high white cliff at the west end of the island out of sight before
dark, and that, except a thin blue tint of land away to the north-east,
was the last I saw of the shores of dear old happy England. I daresay
others felt as I did, but we all had so much to do that we hadn't time
to talk about it. Dickey Snookes had been to sea already for a few
months, and of course knew a great deal more than I could--at least he
said that he did, and on the strength of it offered to tell me all about
everything. I thought I saw a twinkle in his eye, but his eyes always
are twinkling, so I did not suspect him of intending mischief. We had
some vegetables for dinner--some carrots and turnips--and he asked me if
I knew where they grew? I said in some garden, I supposed. "Of course,
young 'un," he answered. But you wouldn't suppose we had a garden up in
our foretop, where we grow all sorts of greens and other things. You
have not found your way there, I suspect. I told him that I had not,
and he said that I must go up there that very afternoon with him, and
that he would introduce me to the head-gardener, who was always up there
looking after the gooseberry bushes. I knew that this was a joke, but
still I wanted to see what he meant. I said that I was ready at once,
but he kept putting me off; and whenever he saw me going up the rigging
he always got some one to send for me or to call me, so that it was
quite late in the day before I succeeded in getting into the shrouds.
The sun had now gone down, the sky was overcast, and the sea had a
leaden gloomy look--there was a swell also, and the ship rolled so much
from side to side, that, as I looked up and saw the mastheads forming
arches in the sky, I could not help fancying that I should be sent off
when I got up there like a stone from a sling, or an ancient catapult,
right into the water. The idea made me hold on very tight, let me tell
you; yet, as it would never do to give it up, on I went with my teeth
pretty closely clenched, and my eyes fixed on the top, which seemed to
grow farther and farther away from me, like Jack's bean-stalk. At last
I got up just under the top. There are two ways of getting on to it.
One is by going along some ropes, called the futtock shrouds, when one
hangs very much as a fly does crawling along the ceiling. I didn't like
it, being up there all alone in the gloom, for it was very different to
climbing an apple-tree or the oak-tree at the bottom of the lawn, with
our nest on the top of it, where you and I used to sit and smoke cane
cigars, and fancy ourselves Istelson and Collingwood. It wasn't
pleasant going along the futtock shrouds, and still less getting round
them outside into the top, for as the ship rolled it felt as if the mast
was coming right down on the top of me. I waited, however, holding on
as a cat does to a bough when you shake it, till the ship rolled over
the other way, and then up I sprang easily enough, and there I saw
Dickey Snookes and Polly and My Lord all standing by the side of the
captain of the top, and grinning from ear to ear, as if they had some
very good joke in hand. At first I thought that the captain of the top
was a very important person, but I soon found that he was only one of
the seamen who is more active and smarter than the rest, and takes
command of those aloft. "Here comes Midshipman Green," they all
exclaimed, as they saw my head appearing between the topmast shrouds.
When I stood in the top they all insisted on shaking hands with me,
pinching my fingers terribly. "And so you want to see our garden up
here," said Snookes; "you're the greenest thing we've got in it just
now, let me tell you--ha! ha! ha!"
I didn't see anything to laugh at; but I laughed just to keep them
company, thinking the joke was over. However, before I knew what they
were about they caught hold of me, and while one blinded my eyes with a
handkerchief, I found myself lashed up to the rigging with my arms and
legs spread out just like the eagle on a Russian flag. Presently all
was silent. The ship kept rolling backwards and forwards as before, and
I began to feel somewhat queer in the region of my waistband and right
up to my throat, still I wouldn't cry out. Suddenly I found the bandage
whisked off my eyes, and then I could see only one top man standing on
the other side of the top, but my messmates had disappeared. I called
to the man. He touched his hat with the greatest respect. I told him
to cast me loose. "My orders were, sir, not to touch you," he answered.
I argued the point. "Well, sir, if as how you pays your footing, I'll
do it," he replied; "but, sir, you'll take care that I'm not tied up and
get two dozen for disobeying orders." I was ready to promise anything,
for it was very unpleasant rolling about up there in the dark. After
some hesitation and further talk, Tom Hansard, that was the topman's
name, cut off the lashings. I gave him five shillings, all the money I
had in my pocket. "You'll keep it secret, sir," said he. "You'll say
nothing against a poor fellow like me, sir; that you won't, I know." I
promised him, and he then helped me down through the lubber's hole, for
as to going down outside, I couldn't just then have done it to save my
life. When I got back to the berth, there were all my three messmates
seated round the table, taking their tea, and pretending to be very much
astonished at hearing all which had happened to me. Of course, I said
nothing about Tom Hansard, and they pretended that they could not make
out how I had got loose. I found out, however, that the whole plan was
arranged beforehand by Dicky Snookes and my other messmates with the
captain of the top, just to see what I was made of, and what I would do,
it being understood that he was to keep whatever he could get out of me.
Had I cried or made a fuss about the matter, or said that I would
complain to my uncle, I should have been looked upon as a regular sneak.
The fellows hate telling of one another here just as much as we did at
school. From the way I took the trick I believe they liked me better
than they did before. Of course, all about the garden and the
vegetables was nonsense, and I should have been green to have believed
it, which I didn't. Away we went rolling along with a westerly swell
and a northerly wind, while many of the fellows in the berth were
singing: "There we lay, all the day, in the Bay of Biscay, O;" and
others "Rule Britannia," old Gregson not forgetting his standing joke of
"Bless the old girl; I wish, while she was about it, that she had ruled
them straighter." The very next morning the gale, of which the swell
was the forerunner, came down upon us with a sudden gust. "All hands
shorten sail," was shouted along the decks. The men flew aloft, that
is, they climbed up so nimbly that they looked as if they were flying,
and they lay out on the yards to reef the sail. Snookes had to go also,
as he was stationed in the foretop. "Any greens up there to-day?" I
asked as he passed me, not looking happy, for the ship was tumbling
about, the spray was flying over us, and the wind was howling
terrifically in the rigging. It was altogether very different to what
it had been on the previous evening. Still poor Snookes had to go up.
The boatswain's whistle and the voices of the officers sounded loud
above the gale, and so did the cries of the midshipmen. I contrived to
make myself heard, though, of course, I only sung out what I was told to
say, and wasn't always certain what would happen after I had said it,
any more than does a person in a fairy tale, who has got hold of some
magic words and doesn't know what effect they will produce. The
topgallantsails and royals were quickly furled--those are the sails
highest up, you know; and then the huge topsails came rattling down the
masts, and the men lay out on the yards and caught hold of them, as they
were bulging out and flapping fearfully about, to reef them. One of the
topmen, Tom Hansard, was at the weather yardarm, and had hold of the
earing, which isn't a bit like those gold things our sisters wear in
their ears, but is a long rope which helps to reef the sails. Suddenly
the ship gave a tremendous lurch, I heard a cry, I looked up, and there
was Tom Hansard hanging by one hand to the earing from the yard-arm,
right over the foaming ocean. I felt as if I had swallowed a bucket
full of snow. I thought the poor fellow must be dropped overboard, and
so did everybody else, and some were running to one of the boats to
lower her to pick him up. He swung fearfully about from side to side.
No human power could save him. I was watching to see him drop, when he
made a great effort, and springing up, he caught the rope with his other
hand. Still he was only a degree better off. Fancy dangling away at
the end of a thin rope, jerked backwards and forwards high up in the
air, with certain death were he to fall on board, and very small
prospect of escape if he fell into the foaming, tumbling sea, through
which the ship was flying at the rate of some ten knots an hour. I felt
inclined to shriek out in sympathy, for I am sure that I should have
shrieked out, and very loudly too, had I been up there in his place. I
felt sure that he would come down when I saw two of the topmen going out
to the end of the yard-arm and stretching out their arms towards him to
help him. He saw them, and began to climb up the thin rope till they
could catch hold of his jacket, then up they pulled him, though the
sails flapping about very nearly tore him out of their hands. They held
him on to the yard for a minute till he could recover himself, and then
he scrambled in on to the top. There was a general shout fore and aft
when he was safe. Another man went to the weather earing, and three
reefs were taken in the topsails. I heard the first lieutenant observe
to Uncle Tom that he was very glad to get the ship snug at last; but I
cannot say that I thought her snug, or anything snug about her, for
there we were among clouds of sleet and spray, tumbling and rolling
about in that undignified way in which I had not thought it possible so
fine a frigate could have been tumbled and rolled about. It brought
down the ship a peg or two in my estimation, and took the shine out of
many of us, let me tell you. That fellow Snookes was continually
offering me a lump of fat bacon, and at dinner he contrived to slip all
the most greasy bits into my plate. I held out manfully, and tried to
look very heroic, or, at all events, indifferent; but, oh Harry, I did
feel very wretched, and began to reflect that I might possibly have been
rather happier on shore. I suspect that the way my lips curled, and the
yellow look of my eyes, betrayed me. The gale lasted for three days. I
was very glad when it was over; so you understand it is not all sunshine
at sea.