I hail from Deal, where my father was highly respected, not on account
of his worldly wealth, for of that he had but small store, but because
he was an honest, upright, God-fearing man, who did his duty to his
neighbour, and ruled his family with discretion.
And my mother--she was a mother!--so loving and gentle and considerate;
she kept us, her children, of whom there were nine, I being the third,
in excellent order, and yet we scarcely discovered the means she
employed. We trusted her implicitly; we knew that she entered into all
our sorrows as well as into our joys and amusements. How carefully she
bound up a cut finger or bathed a bruised knee; or if we were trying to
manufacture any toy, how ready she was to show us the best way to do the
work; how warmly she admired it when finished, and how proudly she
showed it to father when he came in. I was accustomed from my earliest
days to the sight of ships coming into or going out of the Downs, or
brought up before our town, and I used to listen with deep interest to
the account of his adventures in all parts of the world with which our
neighbour, Captain Bland, was wont to entertain us when he came to our
house, or when we went in to take tea with him and Mrs Bland and their
daughter Mary. I can, therefore, scarcely remember the time when I did
not wish to become a sailor, though as my eldest brother Bill was
intended for the sea, and indeed went away when I was still a little
fellow, my father had thoughts of bringing me up to some trade or other.
I should have been content to follow my father's wishes, or rather to
have done what he believed best for me, had I been sent away inland,
where I could not have heard nautical matters talked about, and where
the sea and shipping would have been out of my sight. While I remained
at home the desire grew stronger and stronger to become like the
seafaring men I was constantly meeting--pilots, masters and mates, and
boatmen--and I may venture to say that a finer race of sailors are
nowhere to be found than those belonging to Deal.
Captain Bland was a thorough sailor. He dearly loved the sea, and the
ship he commanded, and his crew--at least he took a warm interest in
their welfare--but he loved his wife and daughter more, and for their
sakes he remained on shore longer than he would otherwise have done.
Still, he made three or four voyages while I was a youngster, and he
always spoke as if he had no intention of abandoning the sea until he
had laid by a competency for old age. How many a master says the same,
and goes on ploughing the ocean in the delusive hope of reaping a
harvest till the great reaper gathers him into his garner.
Notwithstanding my predilections in favour of a sea life, I was still
undecided as to my future career, when one winter's day, after school
hours, as I was taking a run out on the London Road, I saw coming along
towards me a fine broad, well-built lad, with a sun-burnt countenance,
and a stick having a bundle at the end of it over his shoulder. His
dress, and the jaunty way he walked, with a slight roll, as if trying to
steady himself on a tossing deck, showed me that he was a sailor. We
were going to pass each other, when he looked hard at me, and I looked
hard at him. Suddenly it struck me that I knew his features; so I
stopped, and he stopped, and we gazed into one another's faces.
"Can you be brother Bill?" I exclaimed.
"Bill's my name, my hearty. And you!--are you brother Jack? Yes, I'm
sure you are!" And grasping my hand he wrung it till I thought he would
have wrung it off, while, half-laughing, half-crying for pleasure, he
asked, "How's father and mother, and Susan and Jane, and Mary and Dick,
and the rest of them; and little Tommy?"
He was the youngest of us, and could just toddle when Bill went away.
Thus he ran on, asking question after question, which I answered as well
as I could, while we went towards home at a pretty round trot--he eager
to get there and see them all again, and I almost as eager to have the
satisfaction of rushing in and shouting out, "Here's Bill come back
again!"
I need not describe the way Bill was received. No one seemed to think
that they could make enough of him. Mary, a small girl, sat on his knee
at supper, with one arm round his neck, and ever and anon gave him a
kiss and a hug, exclaiming, "Dear Bill, we are so glad you're come
back;" and Susan and Jane placed themselves one on each side that they
might the better help him to what was on the table; and we bigger boys
listened eagerly to all he said; and father watched him with pride, and
the light shone brighter than ever from mother's eyes as she gazed at
him; and little Tommy came toddling into the room in his night-gown
(having scrambled out of his crib) saying, "Tommy want see dat brodder
Bill really come home--all right--dere he is--hurrah!" and off he ran
again with Susan at his heels, but he had nimbly climbed into his nest
before she caught him.
As to myself, I looked at Bill with unbounded admiration, and eagerly
listened to every word which dropped from his lips. He had plenty to
talk about, and wonders of all sorts to describe, for he had been in the
Indian Sea, and visited China, and the west coast of America, and
several islands in the Pacific, and gone round the world. How he
rattled on! I thought Drake, Cavendish, and Dampier, Lord Anson and
Captain Cook were nothing to him--at all events, that I would far rather
hear the narrative of his adventures than read theirs.
I was almost vexed with Captain Bland for coming in one evening, even
though Mary accompanied him, because Bill became suddenly far more
reticent than usual in his presence, if not altogether dumb, and when he
did speak, merely described in a modest tone some very commonplace
occurrences. I could not make it out. After some time, when Bill was
out of ear-shot, I heard Captain Bland remark to father that he liked
lads who did not speak about themselves. It was a pretty sure sign that
they were better doers than talkers. "He'll succeed, will that lad of
yours; he's kept his eyes open wherever he's been; he'll make a smart
officer one of these days," he added.
I was much pleased when Captain Bland thus spoke of Bill, and I thought
to myself, what would he have said if he had heard him describe some of
the wonderful adventures he had narrated to us. When I afterwards told
Bill what the old captain had said, and my ideas on the subject, he
laughed heartily.
"Why, Jack, he would have shut me up pretty smartly," he answered. "Old
cocks don't allow young ones to crow in their presence."
Bill made ample amends for his previous silence when we were together,
knowing that I was never tired of listening to him. I could think about
nothing else but what he had told me, and I made up my mind that I would
far rather become a sailor than follow any other calling. I told him
so.
"Well, Jack, I think you're right," he said; "I wouldn't change if I had
the offer--no, not to become Prime Minister of England or the first
merchant in the land. Remember, though, it isn't all smooth sailing.
You must expect rough weather as well as fine; but if you're determined
to go I'll speak to father, and I don't think that he'll refuse you."
Bill fulfilled his promise, and father, after consulting Captain Bland,
agreed to let me go, provided I was of the same mind when I was old
enough to be apprenticed. Neither our mother nor our sisters had a word
to say against my wishes; nor had Mary Bland.
"I wish that I was a boy, Jack, that I might go also," she exclaimed.
"We shall be very, very sorry to lose you," she added after a short
silence; "but then, you know, you will come back, and how glad we all
shall be to see you again."
Bill told me how well pleased he was that father had given me leave to
go to sea. "But I want you to study navigation at once, so that you may
become an officer as soon as possible. You'll never get on without
that," he said, and producing an old, well-thumbed edition of Hamilton
Moore's "Epitome of Navigation," he added, "I'll give you this, Jack.
It has served me, and will serve you well if you master it as I've
done." How I did prize that book! I doubt if I ever valued anything
more in my life. My brother, I should have said, had been at an
excellent nautical school in Deal, established a few years before by
several officers of the Royal Navy, where he gained much credit by his
intelligence and attention to his studies. As soon as it was finally
settled that I was to go to sea I was sent to the same school on the day
my brother left home to go on his next voyage. I easily passed in, as I
knew all the simple rules of arithmetic thoroughly, and was pretty well
up in decimals. Having learned from my brother that the use of
logarithms and the first principles of geometry would soon be taught me
at school, with his help I had at once set to work on them, and after he
went away I continued my studies in the evenings when other boys were at
play, so that I quickly mastered all those necessary preliminaries. I
consequently got over them at school with a rapidity which astonished
the master, and with no little pride I heard the inspector, a naval
captain, remark, "First-rate boy--beats his brother--be a master in a
jiffy."
The result of my working so hard out of hours was that at our annual
examination I took the first prize, and was shortly afterwards
pronounced fit to be sent to sea. As I still held to my wish to go, my
father at once wrote to the owners of several first-class South Sea
whalers, who immediately agreed to send me as an apprentice on board one
of their ships, the "Eagle," Captain Hake, just about to sail for the
Pacific.
On the night before my departure I slept but little for thinking of the
novel and wonderful scenes I expected to go through, and I am pretty
sure that my kind mother did not close her eyes, but from a different
cause. She was thinking of parting from me, and of the dangers to which
I was to be exposed. She was praying that I might be preserved from
them I know, for she told me so. At three o'clock in the morning she
called me up, that I might be ready to start with my father by the mail
coach for Margate, whence we were to go up the river to London by
steamer. How earnestly did my pious father at family prayers, which he
never omitted, commend me to the care of Him who watches over all the
creatures of His hands! I felt that there was a reality in that prayer,
such as I had never before comprehended.
Breakfast over, and parting embraces given, we started, and rattling
away to Margate, were soon on board the "Royal Adelaide" on our way up
the Thames. Bitter as was the cold, I was too much occupied in running
about and examining everything connected with the steamer to mind it.
The helm, the machinery, the masts and rigging, the huge paddle-wheels,
the lead and lead-line, all came under my notice. As I was in no ways
bashful I made the acquaintance of several persons on board, and among
others I spoke to a lad considerably my senior, whose dress and
well-bronzed face and hands showed me that he was a sailor.
"Are you going to sea, youngster?" he asked, looking me over from head
to foot, as if to judge how far I was cut out for a nautical life.
"Yes, in a few days, I hope, on board the `Eagle,'" I answered.
"That is curious; she is the ship I belong to," he remarked. "You're in
luck, for she's a smart craft, and, as things go, we are tolerably
comfortable on board; but you must be prepared to take the rough with
the smooth, mind you; there are a good many things to rub against afloat
as well as ashore, you'll find."
"And what sort of man is the captain?" I asked somewhat eagerly,
anxious to know the character of my future commander.
"The captain is the captain, and while you are on board his ship you'd
better not rub against him, but listen to what he tells you to do, and
do it; sharp's the word with him." I was not much the wiser from this
information, but I gathered from it that Captain Hake was a man who
would stand no nonsense. I determined at all events to learn my duty,
and to try and perform it to the best of my power. I next asked my new
friend his name, supposing that, though he looked young, he might be one
of the mates.
"Andrew Medley," he answered. "I am still an apprentice, as you are
about to become, so we shall be messmates; and if you are wise, I hope
that we shall get on well together."
"I hope so," I replied, with confidence, liking his looks. Just then my
father came up, and hearing that Medley was to be my messmate, shook
hands with him. Presently he sent me off on some excuse or other, and
drawing Medley aside, had a short, earnest talk with him. What it was
about I did not at the time know.
"I am thankful that you have got so right-minded a young man for a
messmate," observed my father shortly afterwards. "He will, I hope,
prove a true friend to you."
I must not stop to describe my astonishment at the crowded thoroughfares
we passed along on our way to the inn where we lodged for the night.
The next morning we went to the office of the owners in Old Broad
Street, where I was, by the signing of certain papers, bound apprentice
for four years on board the good ship "Eagle," South Sea whaler, Captain
Hake commander. This done, we made our way to the river, and getting
into a wherry proceeded in her to the dock, in which my ship lay getting
ready for sea. On going on board I looked round for Medley, but could
nowhere see him, and presently my father took me up to Captain Hake, who
was standing aft, giving his orders in a sharp, ringing voice, which
showed that he was accustomed to be obeyed.
"If he is the man his appearance betokens, he is a very fine fellow
indeed," I thought to myself. He was of good height, with broad
shoulders, an open countenance, well-bronzed, large blue eyes, and a
thick bushy beard. I don't know if he formed as good an opinion of me
as I did of him, but he looked down good-naturedly as he said, "I'll do
my best to make a seaman of the lad, Mr Kemp, and I'll keep an eye on
him, as I do on all the youngsters under my charge."
He then invited us into the cabin and gave us some luncheon, after which
my father took his leave. I accompanied him to the side. Pressing my
hand, with a trembling voice he said, "We may never meet again, Jack.
You have chosen a perilous profession, and may at any moment be called
away; but, my dear boy, seek always so to live that you may be ready to
go when summoned."
I watched him as he pulled away till his wherry was lost to sight among
the shipping, and at first felt very sad; but I soon recovered my
spirits, and having got one of the few seamen who had joined to stow my
chest away for me on the half-deck, where he told me the apprentices
slept, I set out to make an exploring expedition round the ship. I
should have been wiser had I waited for Medley, or, at all events,
avoided touching anything with the use of which I was not acquainted.
Among other novelties which I examined was the windlass, which had the
handles shipped, but I did not observe that on the top of it was coiled
a large quantity of iron chain out of the way to allow of the deck being
scraped. I saw that the big thing was intended to go round, so I
thought that I would try if I could move it by myself. I pressed with
all my force against one of the handles, when, to my infinite
satisfaction, the windlass began to revolve, but as it did so, to my
still greater dismay, down came the chain rattling on to the deck. In
vain I tried to stop it. I then made a desperate effort to replace it,
but as it had taken probably two men some time to put it up I had not
the slightest chance of succeeding. My task was something like that of
Sisyphus, a man of ancient days, who had to roll a huge stone to the top
of a mountain, but which always came down again as soon as he got it
there.
I had not been long engaged in my hopeless undertaking when my ears were
assailed by such a volley of abuse as I had never before heard in my
life. As I turned round, letting go the chain, which came rattling down
again on deck, I discovered that it proceeded from a head that had
suddenly appeared above the combings of the fore hatch. It might have
been a picturesque head, but was not pleasant-looking to my eyes. On
the top was an old party-coloured nightcap, beneath which stuck out on
all sides a mass of reddish hair resembling oakum or shavings, as
untwisted rope is called at sea; a pair of ferrety eyes, a snub nose,
and a huge mouth half concealed by a bushy beard, completed the
countenance of the individual who was addressing me. I need not repeat
what he said, but if his remarks were true I was among the greatest
reprobates this evil world has ever produced. I stood with my hands by
my side mutely gazing at him, for I had nothing to say for myself. I
was conscious that I had done something wrong, though not meriting the
remarks to which I was listening.
"Arrah, now spake, youngster, if you've a tongue belonging to you,"
cried the head. Still I said nothing. Presently, below the head a pair
of broad shoulders covered with a red shirt emerged from the hatchway,
and I had an unpleasant vision of a bear-like hand grasping a short
piece of knotted rope. The next instant a short thick-set man in tarry
trousers springing on deck advanced towards me, ominously flourishing
the piece of rope. I did not think of running, for I had nowhere to run
to, so I stood stock still. Down came the rope on my shoulders. I
tried hard not to cry out. A second and a third blow followed. I had
on a pretty thick jacket on account of the cold, so that I was not so
much hurt as I might have been; still, as I did not like the treatment I
was receiving, I tried to get out of my tormentor's way, and in doing so
fell over the chain flat on the deck, striking my nose in a way which
made the blood flow pretty quickly. He not noticing this gave me
another whack, which hurt more than all the others, as it was on the
part most exposed, and was about to repeat it, when I heard a voice say
"Hold fast there, Dan; enough of that. The boy hasn't been on board an
hour and you must needs get foul of him."
"Who are you that's afther spakin' to me in that way? Sure, if, I'm not
mighty mistaken, you're only an apprentice yourself," exclaimed Dan, in
an angry tone.
While he was speaking I crawled along the deck out of his way, and
looking up, I recognised my acquaintance on board the steamer, Andrew
Medley, who replied calmly, "Whether or not I am only an apprentice,
I'll not stand by and see a young boy ill-treated who hasn't strength to
defend himself."
The ruffian laughed hoarsely, but when he saw the blood streaming down
my face as Medley assisted me to get up, he looked somewhat alarmed, for
he remembered that we were not yet at sea, and that although he might
then treat me much worse with impunity it would be prudent to avoid the
risk of being summoned before a magistrate for an assault.
"Are you much hurt, Jack?" asked Medley, as he led me aft.
"Only my nose bleeds; though the last cuts that man gave me were not
pleasant," I replied.
"If that's all, come below and we'll soon get you set to rights with
some cold water," said Medley. "I am glad I came in time to save you
from tasting more of Dan Hogan's colt. Though a bully, he is a good
boat-steerer, so the captain keeps him on, but, for my part, I think the
ship would be better without him."
"I should have been so, at all events, just now," I remarked, and I went
down with Medley to the half-deck.
With the help of a sponge and some cold water I was soon put to rights,
and except that I felt an unpleasant sensation in the back I was not
much the worse for the beating I had received. The first mate, Mr
Renshaw, however, who had heard of my performance from Hogan, quickly
sent for me, and after scolding me for my carelessness, ordered me to
draw a bucket of water. "I'll find something for you to do, depend on
that, youngster," he observed, and he was as good as his word.
I was not over successful in carrying out this my first piece of duty,
for in attempting to secure a rope to the bucket that I might lower it
over the side, I made a slippery hitch. To my dismay when I hauled in
the rope the bucket was not at the end. It had gone to the bottom. I
fully expected to get another taste of Dan Hogan's colt, but Medley, who
at that moment came on deck, seeing what had happened, lowered a hook
and fished up the bucket. He then showed me how to make a proper hitch,
and the mate kept me drawing water till my arms ached.
I was feeling very hungry, and was wondering if I should get any dinner,
when Medley told me that no fires were allowed to be lighted on board,
and consequently that no cooking could be carried on while the ship was
in dock. I was thinking of petitioning the steward for some bread and
cheese, when the captain came out of his cabin and told me to accompany
him on shore. Before long we stopped close to the dock entrance, at the
well-known inn, "The Dog and Duck," and taking me to the landlady told
her to supply me with whatever I wanted to eat and drink. I thanked him
very much as he left me there, and the hostess asking me if I should
like something at once, to which I replied, "I should think so indeed,"
speedily placed a capital dinner before me. I did not fail after this,
whenever I felt hungry, to pay a visit to "The Dog and Duck," not being
particular as to hours, and mine hostess always looked glad to see me.
I had learned the names of the masts and yards and ropes, and a good
deal besides, thanks to Medley's assistance, by the time the ship was
ready for sea. Even Dan Hogan readily told me anything I wanted to
know, and seemed as pleased as his rough nature would allow that I did
not show any ill-feeling towards him on account of the drubbing he had
given me. In about a week after I went on board we hauled out of dock,
and a tug towed us down to Gravesend. Here the owner paid us a parting
visit, followed by the Jew slop-sellers, with whom the men spent most of
their advanced wages in the purchase of all sorts of articles, the more
prudent furnishing themselves with warm clothing, and also with knives
and trinkets to barter with the natives of the islands we were likely to
visit.
The following day we reached the Nore lightship, where, the weather
looking dirty, by the orders of the pilot who had charge of us we
brought up. Scarcely was the anchor at the bottom and the hands were
aloft furling sails than down came the gale upon us. The pilot, a jolly
old fellow, kept singing out, "More yet, more yet," meaning that we were
to veer away more cable, and he did not seem satisfied till the whole of
it was out. From this circumstance the men called him "Old More Yet."
I forget his real name. I was thus early in my sea life to learn what a
real gale of wind is like.