"The sun, my boys," he said very impressively, "never sets on Her
Majesty's dominions!"
When school was over, and the bugle, that ever-sounding bugle, rang out
the call for `divisions' presently, we all bustled up, of course, to the
upper deck, and, whether it was from the schoolmaster's observation or
what, I'm sure I can't say, I was struck by the wonderful lot of fine
fellows we had on board the training-ship: all wearing the same smart
bluejacket uniform, men and boys alike, and all ready, I believe, even
us youngsters who had but just joined the service, to go anywhere and do
anything for the sake of the Queen--God bless her!--aye, and to battle
likewise for the old flag and the old country that has had the command
of the seas for a thousand years--so father says!
Why, there were over a hundred and eighty officers and men, besides some
seven hundred odd boys present at muster.
Just fancy!
Yes; and though the men serve all the time of the ordinary three years'
commission of the ship, the boys are ever coming and going, forty-five
or thereabouts, all fresh ones, being entered every month on the books;
while as many, probably, are drafted during the same interim to the
guardship, for service with the fleet in all parts of the world!
Bear in mind, too, that the _Saint Vincent_ is only one of some six or
seven regular training-ships stationed at the principal ports round the
kingdom, for the especial purpose of licking boys into shape for Her
Majesty's Service; and that these aspirants for naval fame and glory
number altogether ten thousand, such being really the quota of young
boy-sailors provided for in the Admiralty estimates and added to the
Navy every year.
Thinking thus, I rather lagged behind my comrades in going up the
hatchway, only just succeeding in the nick of time in getting into my
proper place forward on the starboard side of the ship as befitted my
station; and where, being ahead of the line, I had a good view, while
the inspection lasted, of the scene of my fight with `Ugly.'
The boys were all drawn up in two long double rows facing each other,
the ranks stretching away from where Mick and I stood near the knight-
heads, to right abaft the mainmast; the first and third divisions, which
together comprised the starboard watch, being on the right-hand side of
the deck looking towards the bows, while the port watch was on the left,
of equal strength and similarly stretched out--the watch stripes on the
right or left arm, as the case might be, telling any chap who might
chance to lose his latitude to which side he properly belonged.
I had already, of course, seen the imposing display which this muster of
the boys on the upper deck invariably presented; but never before had I
taken such stock of its various details.
However, before I could come to any conclusion in the matter, revolving,
as I did, more things than I have yet spoken of in my busy brain, which
seemed `all wool-gathered' this morning, as father would have said had
he been there and seen me star-gazing all round the compass, the boy-
bugler on the bridge, who "had a purty foine chake of his own," as Mick
observed to me on noticing his puffed-out mouth, blew a resonant blast.