"Dick Burton, you're a daddy! Polly's been and got a baby for you, old
boy!" exclaimed several voices, as the said Dick mounted the side of the
old "Boreas," on the books of which ship he was rated as a
quarter-master, he having just then returned from a pleasant little
cutting-out expedition, where he had obtained, besides honour and glory,
a gash on the cheek, a bullet through the shoulder, and a prong from a
pike in the side.
"Me a what?" he inquired, bending his head forward with a look of
incredulity, and mechanically hitching up his trousers. "Me a daddy?
On course it's a boy? Polly wouldn't go for to get a girl, a poor
little helpless girl, out in these outlandish parts."
"On course, Dick, it's a boy, a fine big, walloping younker, too. Why
bless ye, Quacko ain't no way to be compared to him, especially when he
sings out, which he can do already, loud enough to drown the bo'sun's
whistle, let me tell you," was the reply to Dick Burton's last question.
That baby was me. Quacko was the monkey of the ship. I might not have
been flattered at being compared to him, though it must be owned that I
stood very much in the light of his rival. I soon, however, cut him out
completely. My mother was one of two women on board. The other was
Susan King, wife of another quarter-master. The two men enjoyed a
privilege denied to their captain, for they could take their wives to
sea, which he could not. To be sure, Polly and Susan made themselves
more generally useful than the captain's wife would probably have done
had she lived on board, for they washed and mended the men's shirts,
nursed them when sick or wounded, prepared lint and bandages for the
surgeons, and performed many other offices such as generally fall to the
lot of female hands. They had both endeared themselves to the men, by a
thousand kind and gentle acts, but my mother was decidedly the
favourite. This might have been because she was young and remarkably
handsome, and at the same time as good and modest as a woman could be;
and so discreet that she was never known to cause a quarrel among her
shipmates, or a pang of jealousy to her husband; and that, under the
circumstances of the case, is saying a great deal in her favour. Fancy
two women among nearly four hundred men, and not one of the latter even
thinking of infringing the last commandment of the Decalogue. What an
amount of good sense, good-temper, and self-command must have been
exercised on the part of the former.
Susan's qualifications for the position she held were very different to
those of my mother. In appearance she was a very Gorgon, a veritable
strong-minded, double-fisted female, tall, gaunt, and coarse-featured.
A hoarse laugh, and a voice which vied with the boatswain's in
stentorian powers, and yet withal she was a true woman, with a gentle,
loving, tender heart. Bill King, her husband, knew her good qualities,
and vowed that he would not swap her for Queen Charlotte, or any other
lady in the land, not if the offer was made to him with a thousand gold
guineas into the bargain.
I ought to be grateful to her, and do cherish her memory with affection,
for she assisted to bring me into the world; attended my mother in her
time of trial and trouble, and nursed me with the gentlest care. Yet
Sue had a tongue, and could use it too when occasion, in her judgment,
required its employment. But she always took the side of right and
virtue against wrong and vice, and woe betided the luckless wight who
fell under the ban of her just displeasure. She would belabour him, not
with her hands, but by word, look, and gesture, till he shrieked out for
mercy and promised never again to offend, or took to ignominious flight
like a thief with a _posse_ of constables at his heels. Bill King was a
quiet-mannered little man with a huge pair of whiskers, like
studden-sails rigged out on either side of his cheeks, and a mild
expression of countenance which did not belie his calm good-temper and
amiability of disposition. But though gentle in peace, he was as brave
and daring a seaman as ever sprang, cutlass in hand, on an enemy's deck,
or flew aloft to loose topsails when a prize had been cut out, amid
showers of bullets and round-shot.
Of my father, I will only say that he was in no way behind his friend
Bill King in bravery, and though he spoke the sailor's lingo like his
shipmates, he was vastly his superior in manners and appearance.
Indeed, he and my mother were a very handsome couple. They were also, I
may say, deservedly looked upon with great respect by the officers, from
the captain downwards, and regarded with affection by all the crew.
To go back to that insignificant little individual, myself, as I
certainly was on the day I have mentioned, when I made my first
appearance on board the HMS "Boreas". I came in for a large share of
the regard entertained by the ship's company for my parents. My father
was the first person introduced by Susan King into my presence.
"Well, he is a rum little youngster!" he exclaimed, taking me up in his
open palms. "He is like Polly--that he is!" he added, as he gazed at me
affectionately, the feelings of a father for the first time welling up
in his bosom. "Yes, he is a sweet little cherub! Shouldn't wonder but
he is like them as lives up aloft there to watch over us poor chaps at
sea. Ay, that he must be. They can't beat him. Lord love ye, Sue, I
am grateful to you for this here day's work."
I here interrupted my father's remarks by a loud cry, and other
infantine operations, on which Sue insisted on having me back again to
her safe keeping, while outside the screen several voices were heard
entreating my father to bring me out for inspection, a request with
which Mrs King had before steadily refused to comply.
"I say, Dick, just let's have a look at him. One squint, Burton, just
to see what sort of a younker he may be. Come now, he ain't a chap to
be ashamed of, I'm sure. There ain't none like him here aboard, I'll
swear. He don't come up to Quacko anyhow. Come, Dick, show us him now,
do, there's a good chap."
These and similar exclamations were sung out by various voices in
different tones, to which my mother, as she lay in her cot, listened not
unpleased, till at length my father having given her a kiss, and uttered
a few words of congratulation and thanks to Heaven--sailors are not
addicted to long prayers--again took me in his outstretched palms, and
thus brought me forth to the admiring gaze of his shipmates. So eager
were they to see me, that I ran no little risk of being knocked out of
my father's hands, as they were shoving each other aside in their
endeavours to get to the front rank. Then one and all wanted to have me
to handle for a moment; but to this Susan King, who had followed my
father from behind the screen, would on no account consent.
"Why, bless you, my lads, you would be wringing the little chap's neck
off, if you were to attempt to take hold of him," said Susan.
"Oh! No, don't fear, we will handle him just as if he was made of
sugar," was the reply.
"Oh! You don't know what delicate, weak little creatures these babies
are when they are first born," observed Susan. "Just like jellyfish,
they will not stand any rough handling."
Still in spite of my kind nurse's remarks, the bystanders continued to
urge my father to let them have me.
"It is as much as my place is worth, mates," he answered at length; "I
would not let him out of my hands on no account."
My new shipmates were, therefore, compelled to admire me at a respectful
distance. I believe the remarks they made were generally complimentary,
only they seemed to have arrived at the opinion that I was not at that
time so fat or so fair as the cherubs they had heard of who live up
aloft.
"And now, mates, I will just hand him back to Susan, and go and get the
doctor to look at me, for I begin to feel pretty stiffish with the holes
I got made in me just now," said my father.
And I was forthwith reconsigned to the charge of my mother and her
attendant, while he went to the surgeon to get his wounds dressed.
There were none of them, fortunately very serious, for the bullet had
gone through the fleshy part of the arm, and the pike had missed the
bone; the cut in the cheek, which at first appeared the most trifling,
giving in the end more trouble and annoyance than either of the other
hurts. The expedition in which he had been engaged was something out of
the common way, though when I come to note down the numerous ones he has
described to me, it is somewhat difficult not to mix them all up
together.
The frigate, on board which I thus suddenly found myself, formed one of
the East India Squadron, of which Admiral Peter Rainier was
Commander-in-Chief.
The "Boreas" had a short time before this been despatched to Macao for
the protection of the China trade. I speak of course from hearsay, as
what I am about to relate occurred just before I came into existence;
indeed, of many other subsequent events which I shall venture to
describe I cannot be said to have any very vivid recollection, although
present at the time. The frigate was standing to the eastward, some
three or four leagues from the coast, when one of the topmen, Pat Brady,
on the look-out at the mast-head, discovered a sail in shore to the
northward. Pat was a relation of my mother--she was an Irishwoman, and,
as Pat never failed to assert, a credit to her country. He would at all
times have been ready to fight any man who ventured to hold a different
opinion.
Our Captain, Christopher Cobb, was a brave man, but somewhat peppery,
and very easily put out.
The wind had previously been light. It fell a dead calm soon after the
stranger had been sighted. Our First-Lieutenant, Mr Schank, who, in
spite of having a wooden leg, was as active as any man on board, having
gone aloft himself to take a look at her, came to the opinion that she
was a brig of war. From the way in which she increased her distance
from the frigate after she was seen, it was very evident that she had
her sweeps out, and there was every probability of her escaping.
"That must not be! That must not be!" muttered the Captain, as he paced
the quarter-deck, fretting and fuming under the hot sun of the tropics.
"Mr Schank, we must not let her go."
"No, sir," said the First-Lieutenant, "that would never do."
"We must take her with the boats if we cannot overtake her with the
ship," said the Captain, with one of his quiet laughs.
"The very thing I was thinking of, sir," answered Mr Schank, who, I may
observe, presented a great contrast to his excellent superior, the one
being short and rotund, while in figure the Lieutenant was tall and
gaunt.
"Then we will have the boats out and see what we can do," said the
Captain.
"With all my heart, sir," answered the First-Lieutenant. "I will, if
you please, take the command."
"Out boats!" was the order. The object was quickly known. In an
instant the men who had till then been listlessly hanging about the
decks in the few shady places they could find, for the sun was pretty
nigh overhead, were instantly aroused into activity.
In a short time six boats were in the water manned and armed. In them
went three lieutenants and the master, two master's mates, fifty seamen,
and twenty marines. One of the gigs, the fastest boat, led the way,
each boat taking the one next to her in tow. As they shoved off their
shipmates cheered, and heartily wished them success. That they were
determined to obtain, though they well knew that they had a pull before
them of a good many hours under a burning sun, and probably some pretty
sharp fighting at the end of it. After following her for an hour or
more, Mr Schank perceived that they gained nothing on the brig. He
therefore ordered the boats to cast off from each other, and to make the
best of their way, provided no boat rowed ahead of the barge under his
command. It was just two o'clock when the expedition left the frigate.
My father was in the launch commanded by a master's mate, Mr Harry
Oliver, a slight delicate youth who appeared utterly unfit for such
work, but he had the heart of a lion, and daring unsurpassed by any
officer in the service. For four long hours the chase continued, when,
at about six in the evening, she was still four leagues ahead. Mr
Schank now ordered the master to proceed in the gig as fast as he could
pull, and by all means to keep sight of the brig, while in the event of
darkness coming on he was to hoist a light to show her position. It had
been arranged that the attack was to be made in two lines. The barge,
pinnace, and gig were to board on the starboard quarter; and the other
line, consisting of the three other boats, on the larboard quarter. For
upwards of two hours longer the boats pulled on, the gloom of evening
gradually closing over them. Still they could distinguish the dim
outline of the brig ahead. The First-Lieutenant having got within
musket-shot of the chase with Mr Oliver's boat, he directed his men to
lie on to their oars that they might arm, and allow the sternmost boats
to come up. Just then the master in the gig rejoined them.
"What is she?" asked Mr Schank.
"A French man-of-war brig of sixteen guns," was the answer. "She is
under all sail with her sweeps out, and we shall find it pretty brisk
work getting on board." The crews had of course been ordered to keep
silence, or I rather think that they would have uttered a hearty shout
at this announcement. In a few minutes more the sternmost boats got up,
and their crews also armed and prepared for the attack. They were
directed to steer one on each side of the brig, and to get in under the
sweeps and close to her sides. In ten minutes they were within
pistol-shot of the enemy, who was slipping along through the water, her
sweeps being aided by the light wind off the land, at about two knots an
hour.
And now the silence which had hitherto been kept was broken by the voice
of their gallant leader shouting, "What vessel is that?"
There was no answer. Again he asked the same question in French. It
was very bad French, and perhaps was not better understood than the
previous question. At all events no reply was made.
"Then at her, lads!" cried Mr Schank; and the crews of the boats,
uttering three hearty cheers, dashed up towards the brig's stern. As
they got close up, however, a tremendous fire of heavy guns and musketry
was opened on them, the bullets whizzing round them and wounding many,
though fortunately none of the boats were struck by the round-shot,
while, as they got up, pikes were thrust down at them and pistols fired
in their faces. The bowmen in the leading boats which had got hold of
the ship's sides were killed or wounded, and the boats dropped astern.
Among those hit was their brave leader, but undaunted he shouted to his
men to pull up again. Again as they did so they met with the same
reception.