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3BB5s&-, ' — -^--tjs**i^ ' -■
J UK YOUNG MAN-OF-WAR 8 MAN.
THE
TOUNG MAN-OF-WAE'S MAM:
33osfs iJogage 2ftountr tfje SEorttr.
CHARLES NORDHOFF.
EDINBURGH : WILLIAM P. NIMMO,
6rS^f N'L
'H.
-/••at. • • • • •« *•• • <
• • VI .*5 "•••
EDfNBUKGtM • * *
• • • * • e • «
PRINTED BY SCHENCK AND M'FARLANE, ST JAMES* SQUARE.
THE
YOUNG MAN-OF-WAR'S MAN.
CHAPTER I.
I JOIN THE SERVICE.
I went to school until I was thirteen years of age. While there I was very attentive to my lessons, and picked up the rudiments of a good useful education, which proved of immense value to me in after life; and I acquired a very strong love of reading. I was then apprenticed to a printer, when I had many opportunities of in- dulging in my favourite study, and took great pleasure in reading books of travel and adventure. At this time my constitution was not strong, and I began to be afraid that I would not be able to continue successfully at the printing; in fact, the books I read put erroneous notions into my head, and I conceived a great desire to go to sea. I applied to several ships in the harbour for a boy's place, but unsuccessfully. The first question put to me by the master invariably was, M Has your
6 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
parents sent you to sea1?" I had no parents, and I said so at once ; on which I was told to be begone, for a good-for-nothing little scoundrel !
At length I learned that the United States
ship C was about to sail on a long voyage,
and that several boys were wanted on board. Here was an opportunity too good to be missed, and I at once applied; but, alas! the consent of my parents was again wanted. What could I do 1 I haa none, indeed I had not a friend in the world tc whem I could refer.
A-; length it occurred to me that my master could assist me: so lo him "I went and stated my case as effectively as I could. My request evi- dently surprised him, but at last he consented to give me a note to Commodore Elliott.
I got it next day, and lost no time in presenting it at the commodore's office.
After deliberately reading it over, he turned to me and said —
" You young scoundrel, you want to ruin your- self, do you 1 You want to go to sea. Haven't you a father or mother V9
u No, sir."
" No guardian 1 "
" No, sir."
" What do you do here?"
" I am errand-boy, sir."
" Why do you want to go to sea?"
" I want to see the world."
" You want to what! You ought to be sent to the house of correction. Look here, my lad ; take my advice; get this crazy notion out of your
Enlistment. 7
head; learn your trade; study your books; con- tinue a good boy, and you will grow up to be a useful man. If you go to sea, you will be nothing all your life but a vagabond, drunken sailor — a dog for every one to kick at." Then getting up to leave, he added : " Stay in your place, and be contented to let those who are bigger fools go to sea. Look at me ; I have been in the navy all my life, and an officer, which is more than you would ever get to be ; but see what a miserable old hulks I am. Boy, if I had a dozen sons, I would gladly see them all in their graves, sooner than at sea."
With these words he went out of the room, leaving me disappointed, despairing almost, of accomplishing my object ; but I was too thoroughly determined, to be put off by one denial. Waiting two or three days, I waylaid the commodore, and told him, that after considering upon all he had said to me, I was still as strongly inclined for sea as ever; and beseeched him to write for me the few necessary wrords to the recruiting officer.
"Confound the boy," said he; "I suppose I shall have to do what he wants."
He wrote: " Officer of the naval rendezvous will ship the bearer — a boy. — Com. C. Elliott," and threw it to me. I thanked hitn, and took the nearest way to the rendezvous. The shipping- officer was standing at the office-door as I came up, and at the sight of my rather too -well-known face, he said pettishly —
" Boy, I've told you a dozen times that we can't ship you. Go away, and don't let me see you any more."
8 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
In reply to this, I quietly handed to him the note from the commodore. He looked at it, then at me; then at that again. Then his whole manner changed — he politely asked me to take a seat. I did so.
" This note alters the case, my lad," said he, in the tone of a gentleman — a tone I had not known him to assume before. " So your father is ac- quainted with Commodore Elliott V "I mechani- cally said, " Yes."
He did not hear me. There was no explana- tion needed. I possessed the magic signet before which all doors flew open — all difficulties vanished. The articles of agreement were read over to me, and I was asked if I, of my own free will, did propose to sign them — a question which, in my ignorance, I considered highly superfluous, seeing that I had been at so much pains to obtain the chance so to do. I was requested to walk into an adjoining room, where a naval doctor examined into the stoutness of my frame and lungs, and the general soundness of my constitution. A report of the result was placed in my hands, which I rendered up to the officer, who expressed his satisfaction thereat; and, in conclusion, I was asked if I was fully aware of all the responsibilities I wras about to take upon myself, and wrould swear to submit to the rules and regulations laid down for the government of the seamen in the United States Navy — questions which I did not presume to answer — told me to " touch the pen," while he very ingeniously wrote my name for me — a matter that I could have performed much
The "Experiment" 9
more satisfactorily and legibly myself — and then said to me, with an expression of intense relief depicted in his countenance —
"There, my boy; now you belong to Uncle Sam."
" Uncle Sam " is a familiar name for the United States, just the same as John Bull is for Great Britain. I procured an outfit, and in a few days afterwards was drafted to the U. S. Receiving Ship Experiment then lying in the navy-yard at Philadelphia. ^
This was in March 18 — . Arrived on board the Experiment I was first presented to the officer of the deck, to whom I made a polite bow; then taken below by the master-at-arms, who turned the contents of my clothes-bag out on deck, kicked them over with his foot, pronounced them " all right," and bade me put them in again; showed me where to put the bag, where to put away my bedding, and finally explained to me the limits within which I was expected to confine myself.
I was shipped as first-class boy, at a wage of thirty shillings per month. My first quarter's pay, four pound ten shillings, was taken in advance to pay for my outfit, which was as fol- lows : — One blue cloth jacket, one pair blue cloth trousers, two white duck shirts with blue collars, two pair white duck trousers, two blue flannel shirts, one pea-jacket, two pair cotton socks, two pair woollen socks, one pair pumps, one pair shoes, one black tarpaulin hat, one mattress and mattress-cover, two blankets, one pot, pan, spoon, and knife, and one clothes-bag.
io The Young Man-of-War s Man.
When I first arrived on board, I was shown the way " forward," where I found assembled about two dozen regular old tars, some standing, some sitting, some lying down, one reading, several sewing, and the balance either spinning yarns or asleep. They all, but one or two, bore about them the marks of recent excesses, and smelt strongly of liquor. Leaving out this, they were fine, bronzed, weather-beaten looking fellows, with, broad shoulders and well-knit massive frames. My diffidence did not permit me to intrude my- self upon their august presence, and I therefore took a seat on a shot-box, at a little distance from the group. Presently one of the most sober of them approached me, saying —
" Well, boy, so you've turned sailor, have you?"
" Yes, sir," I answered.
" You'd better have gone and hung yourself first," growled out one of the others.
" Leave the boy alone, will you," retorted the one who had spoken first ; a don't frighten him to death. Don't you see he's as green as grass ? Who got you to ship, my lad I "
" Nobody; I wanted to be a sailor."
" Oh!" said he, with a look of great enlighten- ment; " well, you've come to rather an out-of-the- way place to learn sailorship, to be sure."
After some further conversation, in which my personal appearance, as well as my desire to be- come a sailor, were pretty freely criticised and commented upon, my friend, the master-at-arms, placed in my hands an oblong strip of stout can-
The Hammock, 1 1
vas, having a number of strings tied to each end, and informed me that this was my hammock, in which I was to sleep. I had read of sailors sleeping in hammocks, but had before this no proper or definite idea of what might be the shape of that most necessary article. As I was holding it in my hands, with rather a puzzled air, the sailor who had first spoken to me took me in charge, to enlighten me as to the manner of its use. We proceeded to the lower deck, where I was shown a number of hooks overhead. The little strings before mentioned — clews they are called — I now found, were used to suspend the hammocks between two of these hooks, thus mak- ing a swinging bedstead, at an altitude of about four feet from the deck or floor. Into this bed- stead were now placed my mattress and blankets, and the affair was pronounced ready for occu- pancy by my guide.
"But," said I, "it swings." I was ashamed to confess that I was afraid to fall out of so un- steady a resting-place.
14 Now let us see if you can jump in," was his only reply. A match-tub wTas brought for me to stand upon, in order that I might be able to reach my hands to the hooks overhead ; then I was told to catch hold with my hands of two of the hooks, give my body a swing, and alight in the ham- mock. One of the sailors went through the per- formance, in order, as he said, to satisfy me that it was " as easy as eating soft tack and butter;" and then all stood clear for me. I made all duo preparation, held my breath tightly, gave my
1 2 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
lower extremities a hoist, but touching the side of the hammock slightly as I rose in the air, it slipped from under me, and I launched clear over, and landed on deck, on the other side of it, with a thump that made all hands grin.
" Try again " was the word; and the next time, with the help of a lift from one of the men, I suc- ceeded in placing myself fairly in my bed. Here I soon found that it was not a difficult matter to keep from falling out. I was next shown how to tie or " lash " it up, and where to put it.
It was now supper-time, and the cook called out, " Come and get your tea." I got my pot, pan, and spoon, as the rest did, and proceeded to the u galley," or cooking-range, where each indi- vidual was served with a quart of tea, ready sweetened, with which we betook ourselves to the "mess," a place on the lower deck, where, in a " mess chest," are kept the bread and meat, and whatever else may constitute the daily allow- ance of food. Here the individual who was the acting "cook of the mess" had set our supper out on a " mess cloth " on deck. It con- sisted of sea-bread, raw salt pork, cold boiled potatoes, and vinegar. We gathered around the cloth, each one bringing his tea and a seat, although some squatted right down on deck. When all was arranged, an old tar said, " Well, boys, here's every one for himself, and Jemmy Squarefoot for us all — Jack, pass the pork." And this was grace to the first meal I ate in " the service."
I was not a forward boy, and therefore waited
The Receiving-Ship. 1 3
patiently for my share until the rest were helped. One of the sailors seeing this, cut me a large slice of fat salt pork, gave it a dip in the vinegar-pan, and, layiwg it on a cake of bread, handed it to me, saying, " Eat hearty, my lad, and give the ship a good name." I was quite willing to do so, but at sight of the raw meat which was being con- sumed on all sides of me, my appetite failed me, and I was content to eat a little bread and tea, and look on at the performance of the rest. I soon learned, however, to like sailors* food, espe- cially as I was given to understand that this was necessary in order to become a thorough sailor myself.
Beceiving-ships, such as the one on board which I now was, are old vessels, dismantled of their guns, and laid up in the larger seaports, to be used as temporary places of deposit for sailors whose ultimate destination is some vessel just being fitted for sea, and not yet ready to receive her crew. When a vessel-of-war returns home from a complete cruise, her crew is discharged, and the vessel placed under the hands of navy- yard men, and by them dismantled, and laid up in ordinary in the navy-yard. When she is again ordered for service, she is fitted out at the navy- yard ; and not until ready to receive her stores of ammunition, provisions, etc., does her own future crew go on board. Thus it becomes necessary to have " receiving-vessels," on board which the newly shipped hands may be kept until the vessel for which they are intended is ready for their reception.
1 4 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
The discipline on these receiving-vessels is very lax, nothing being required of the men but to keep themselves and the vessel moderately clean. None of the rigours of man-of-war discipline are enforced, and the strong arm of authority is not shown or felt, except in a total restriction of liberty to leave the vessel. Being only a sort of transition state, there is much confusion, to which liquor, plentifully smuggled on board, adds no inconsiderable share. Most of the old tars make it a point to keep constantly about half drunk, and many of the beginners eagerly follow and even exceed them in this pet vice.
Life on board a receiving-ship is very mono- tonous. All hands are called up at daybreak, the decks washed, and then breakfast is had. At eight o'clock all hands are mustered, and the roll called to see that all are present; and this finishes the day's labour. The balance of the time is de- voted to talking, reading, singing, sewing, or gazing at the shore, and casting retrospective glances at the pleasures there enjoyed. When once on board the receiving-vessel, a return on shore is almost impossible; and a " guardo," as one of these vessels is called by the sailors, is therefore much like a prison.
Our number on board the Experiment was gra- dually increased by additions from shore, until at the end of four weeks it reached seventy. Of these, several effected their escape. One, I recol- lect, had a suit of citizen's clothing provided for him by the kindness of friends on shore, dressed in which he took advantage of a day when the
New York. 15
vessel was open to visitors, and walked past the sentry and officer of the watch entirely unsus- pected, making good his escape without difficulty. Two others, one dark, stormy night, lowered themselves over the bows into the water, and, although it was freezing, succeeded in swimming ashore, where one of them was caught within two days after, and returned on board, to be the laughing-stock of the rest.
On the last day of April, it was found there was a sufficient number of men gathered together to make up a draft for New York. We were accordingly mustered and counted off, to get ready for leaving. Bags and hammocks were securely tied and lashed ; we dressed ourselves in our best, and then went aboard of the steamer, which had come alongside to take us off. Special care had been taken to prevent smuggling of liquor ; and we started off in very tolerable style, an old fifer playing, as we left the town, " The girl I left behind me." *-*
Arrived at New York, we were transferred at once on board the vessel for which we were
destined, the C , a seventy-four gun-ship,
which was then lying off the navy -yard, taking in stores, and preparing for sea. Here a new scene of wonder was opened to me. I had often, while at Philadelphia, boarded the large merchant vessels lying at the wharves, and had cause for surprise at the massive strength and solidity of all things about them ; but here I found every- thing on so much greater a scale as to make all I had seen before dwindle down to liliputian
1 6 The Yotmg Man-of- Wars Man.
dimensions. The height from the water's edge to the top of the railing or bulwark, a distance of about thirty-five feet, gave me at once an idea of the vastness of the entire structure, which an examination of the details confirmed, and which my mind had never conceived of. Used to the sight of nothing larger or more solid than the steamboats which plough the waters of the rivers, I had roamed with surprised astonishment over the larger class of vessels which came to Phila- delphia. But here was a vessel which eclipsed those in vastness of structure as far as they were beyond the little schooner boats which dot the Delaware. I stood on deck and looked about me. Fore and aft stretched a long line of guns; amidship were placed two launches, boats capable each of carrying the loading of a moderate sized schooner, and containing at sea four other boats, laid one within the other. Looking down the hatchway, I saw a long line of ladders, communi- cating with tier after tier of deck, until the lowest was lost in a darkness never illumined by the light of day. And overhead, the tapering masts seemed to lose themselves in the clouds, and the wilderness of rigging which supported them, to be an endless and undistinguishably confused mass of ropes.
But there was no time for surprise. " Come, look alive there; don't go to sleep!" shouted in my ear by a coarse voice, startled me out of my propriety nearly, and interrupted the train of wonderment in which I had become lost.
"Were you speaking to me, sir?" said I,
Confusion on Deck. 1 7
politely and timidly, making a respectful bow at the same time, to a burly, double-fisted sailor, from whom the coarse voice seemed to have issued. A shout of laughter from all within hearing greeted this question of mine, amidst which I hastily made my descent to a lower deck. Here new scenes awaited my ready eyes and ears. But there was no time to be astonished. Every- body was busy. Men running hither and thither with loads of rigging; officers, in uniforms of blue and gold, shouting orders through tin speaking- trumpets ; the cheering sound of the boatswain's mate's pipe, and the regular tramp of the hun- dreds strung along, on deck, at the tackle falls, hoisting in provisions; all united, made a scene of noise and confusion in which it was impossible to stand still or to think, and I soon found it necessary to get some employment myself, in order to avoid being knocked down and run over, in the rush of the many conflicting crowds. I therefore joined a division of about a hundred, who were hoisting in barrels of beef and pork on deck, from a lighter alongside. We had hold of one end of a rope, the other end of which being made fast to a dozen barrels of provisions, the boatswain's shrill whistle piped "go ahead," and we walked off with the weight to the merry notes of a fife. Landing the beef on deck, the barrels were there coopered, and then consigned by another set of men to their resting-place in the hold.
A man-of-war is supposed to have on board, when ready for sea, six months' supply of pro-
1 8 The Yottng Man-of- Wars Man.
visions and water, together with a sufficient quantity of powder and shot, spare clothing, sails, and rigging, to last the cruise of three years. To take in these supplies, and complete the fitting of various portions of the rigging for sea, was the work now on hand, and at this we were kept early and late, rain or sunshine. All hands were called up at four o'clock a.m., and the work continued from that hour until six p.m., with intermission only for breakfast and dinner. Not used to this kind of a life, the first wet weather completed what previous exposure had laid the foundation for, and I woke up one morn- ing gasping for breath, and scarcely able to stir. I managed to tumble out of my hammock on to the deck, but could not lash it up. The " hurry up, hurry up, there," of the cross old boatswain's mate, although filling me with terror, was left unheeded, while I crawled between two guns, and laid myself down, crying and moaning with pain. Nearly all the hammocks were on deck, and mine not yet lashed up, when a kind old sailor, passing that way, heard me crying, and approached. He quickly saw what was the matter, and taking me up in his arms, like one would a baby, carried me into the " sick-bay," the place set apart on ship- board for the sick. Returning directly with my hammock, he hung that up, lifted me into it, and bidding me not cry, but be of good cheer, hurried off to his work. I lay there quite unnoticed until nine o'clock, when the doctor made his regular round ; after an examination of the symptoms, my disease was pronounced to be a violent pleurisy.
"Sick- Bay." 19
Here I lay sick for many days. My sickness, or else the paregoric which was given me for medi- cine, stupified me. My existence seemed to me as a dream; objects and events passing about me, I was merely conscious of, without receiving from them any impression. The doctor ordered a mustard plaster to be applied to my breast. Two days after I was cupped, and then blistered. I stood it all, not with fortitude, but with apathy. There seemed scarcely sufficient life left in my body to suffer. I said nothing, ate nothing, and drank nothing but water for nine days.
In the meantime the sick-bay was filled with sick men. While I was yet lying very low, the occupant of the hammock adjoining mine died. He was an Englishman, a strong man, in the prime of life, and he parted from existence re- luctantly. The chaplain was with him in his last moments; and as he and the sick-bay steward closed the dead man's eyes, I heard the latter whisper, pointing to me —
" That little boy will be the next, sir."
But, somehow, I did not believe it. I had determined to go to sea; I had longed for it, striven for it, and suffered for it, so much — and I could not believe that I was going to die now, when just upon the point of attaining the one strong wish of my heart.
One morning when I was at the worst, a man came to my hammock, and after taking a good look at me, said coolly, " Boy, the doctor says you are going to die." I made no answer to this remark, and he continued : " The sick-bay steward
20 The Young Man-of-Wars Man.
says you are to be sent on shore to-morrow, be- cause the ship is to sail next week, and the doctor don't want to have you die on board the vessel." I was too weak to make any reply to this, but was much excited at the thought of being sent ashore. I lay and thought the matter over. If I was put ashore, I felt convinced the disaj3pointment would kill me; and if I died at sea, I should at any rate have had the satisfaction of dying on salt water, and should be no worse off. So I deter- mined, when next I saw the doctor, to represent my case to him, and beg to be kept on board.
While revolving in my mind the manner in which I should prefer my request, the doctor came to my bedside. It happened, fortunately for my wishes, that the one who that day made the rounds was a noble-minded man, whose cheer- ful and sympathising countenance and kind words had really done more for me than all the medicine. To him I related my story, and succeeded in en- listing him in my favour ; and before he left me he promised me faithfully to intercede in my be- half. From that day I mended. The ship did not go to sea before two weeks, and by that time I was able to walk about a little, and to look out once more on the bright sun, whose rays never penetrated into our dingy " sick-bay." As soon as I was once able to walk on deck, the doctor's steward saw my face no more.
A n A nchor L ost. 2 1
CHAPTEE II.
AT SEA AT LAST — THE " EXPERIMENT' ' AND ITS PEOPLE.
On the 4th of June, 18 — , we finally hoisted sail and steered through the Narrows, seaward-bound. But we were still destined to delay. Owing to our heavy draught, we were obliged to take advantage of the highest or spring tides, to make our way out. While going along with a steam- boat ahead, it was found necessary to hold her with the anchor a few moments, and the order was accordingly given —
"Let go the starboard anchor."
In the general confusion, no one being yet stationed, the chain stoppers were not sufficiently manned, and the tide carrying the ship along with great force, the starboard chain ran out end for end, and was, with its anchor, lost overboard. The other anchor was immediately let go, and safely held her. This made an all-night's job of work for all hands, to pick up the lost chain and anchor. Besides this, the untoward accident was regarded by many of the old tars as an evil omen, and prophecies of future disasters, inaugurated by this, were not wanting on all sides. But we weie too busied with the present to care much about the future. By daylight we had recovered our anchor and chain, and shortly after, the tide serving, we stood out to sea. As soon as the ship was fairly under weigh, the decks cleared,
2 2 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
and the hurry and bustle over, I ventured on deck. My limbs were yet weak, and the dancing motion of the vessel, as she bounded along under a stiff topgallant breeze, made it hard work for me to get along. But by dint of clinging to the guns, the stanchions, and ladders, I at length succeeded in reaching the upper deck.
As I saw the land gradually receding from view, and felt the fresh sea-breeze fanning my wasted cheek, I first began to realise that I was attaining the great desire of my heart. We were at last at sea. Already imagination placed me in the varied scenes which my fancy had pictured out as attending upon the life of a sailor. The realities of life were too present and pressing, however, to leave room for dreaming. On account of my sickness, I had not yet been mustered in my station, either at quarters, or general duty, or mess. Now, in a vessel-of-war, where everything goes on by the strictest rule, where there is a place assigned to every one, and every one is expected to be in his place, an individual who can lay claim to no particular station is likely to find himself without friends, without help, without anything to do, or to eat even — re- garded by every one with suspicion or dislike. This I soon experienced; for shortly it was twelve o'clock, and the crew were piped to dinner. Although not hungry, I felt a desire to find out my mess, and have a look at those who were to be my messmates ; I did not know to what mess I had been assigned, and inquired from the one to the other along deck, but without success.
N limbered. 23
Wherever I presented myself, the " mess-list " was produced, and after a careful scrutiny my name was declared not to be there. I was getting tired of running such a gauntlet, and weighing in my mind the propriety of going down to my cot in the sick-bay, and waiting for my mess and stations to come to me, when a kind-hearted old fellow, who had seen me wandering about, called mo to him and offered me some dinner. I thank- fully accepted the invitation, and, in answer to his inquiries, told him of my great desire to become a sailor, of having left home for that purpose, of my past sickness, and of being as yet without mess or station. My appearance after so severe an illness was not at all prepossessing, as I had already learned from various criticisms passed upon me while walking about decks. Something about me, however, pleased the old tars, and it was suggested by one that, as they had not yet any boy in the mess, and I looked tolerably civil, they should take me. After a little canvassing, pro and con, this proposition was unanimously adopted, and I was duly entered on the mess-list, after dinner, by the commander's clerk. Repairing to this gentleman's desk, and giving in my name, I was furnished with an abstract from the books, by which could be seen at one glance my ship's number, by which each individual is known on the purser's account- books; my hammock number, by finding which among the tinned numbers nailed above the Books, in the beams and carlings of the two lower decks, I secured my sleeping-place; my
24 The Young Man-of-War s Man.
general station in the ship, as well as a specifica- tion of particular duties in certain emergencies; my station at the gun, and finally, but not by any means least important, the number of my mess. Paper in hand, I now spent the remainder of the afternoon in hunting up the various places in the ship, which were to be the particular scenes of my future labours. It appeared from the list that I was appointed one of the "mes- senger boys," whose general duty it is to "strike the bell " every half hour, and to act as errand- boy for the officers, in addition to which, when the vessel is in port, they stand at the side, to do honour to officers going away or coming on board, and have also to keep clean the side-ladder, which leads from the water's edge to the deck. My station at quarters, or in time of battle, was as powder-boy at gun No. 36, on the main gun-deck; my hammock number was 639, my ship's number 574, and the number of my mess 26. Thus was the whole routine of my life on board this vessel laid out for me.
Here is, perhaps, as good a place as further on, to explain, as well as can be to the landsman- reader, the manner in which the crew of a vessel- of-war is divided and subdivided, so as to give to each individual in the company some special duties, for the due and proper performance of which he is held strictly accountable. First, however, it will be necessary to give a short description of the vessel.
The decks may be regarded as so many floors. On the upper or spar-deck, as it is called, the
The Decks. 25
space between the bows and foremast is called the forecastle; those between the foremast and mainmast, on each side of the boats (which are stowed amidships), are the gangways. These portions are free to the sailors — more particularly to the "watch on deck." Abaft the mainmast is the quarter-deck, where only the officers are allowed to congregate, the starboard-side of it being forbidden even to the midshipmen, and on entering which every one, even the captain, is required to touch his hat or cap. Abaft the mizzenmast is the poop, a raised deck, beneath which is the commodore's cabin. On top of the bulwarks, which run all around the upper deck, are the square casings, by a figure of speech called hammock-nettings, in which are deposited the seamen's and midshipmen's hammocks. Next below the spar-deck, is the main-deck. This and the one below, called the lower gun-deck, or berth- deck, have full tiers of guns — thirty-two and sixty-eight pounders. Commencing aft on the main-deck, we have first the captain's cabin and pantry; next comes what is called the "half deck," extending to the mainmast, the larboard side of which is always kept clear — as much so as the quarter-deck. Over the door of the cap- tain's cabin hangs the clock, which regulates the ship's time; before the door paces a sentinel, who, besides barring entrance to the cabin to all intruders, and announcing visitors to the captain, keeps note of the time, and calls out the half hours to the officer of the deck, who thereupon tells the messenger-boy on duty to "strike the
0
26 The Young Man-of-War s Man.
bell." Time, on shipboard, is divided into watches and reckoned by bells. The twenty-four hours are arranged in five watches of four hours each, and two shorter ones of two hours each, called the dog-watches. At the end of the first half hour of a watch, the ship's bell is struck one; at the end of the second half hour, two, and so on, until it is eight bells, which marks the expiration of four hours, or a watch, when the series is recommenced. Therefore, on board ship, we do not ask "what's o'clock?" or "what time is it?" but "how many bells is it?" Near the foremast, on the main-deck, is the galley, or cooking-range, for the commodore and captain, and forward, on the starboard side, is the "brig," an open space guarded by a sentinel, where offenders against the laws or rules of the ship are placed in confinement until the time comes for their final punishment. On this deck, as on the one below, hooks are driven into the beams, with numbers attached, and to these hooks the sailors hang their hammocks at night. The port-holes, on the main-deck, are furnished with moveable ports, stout pieces of plank, made to fit tightly into the port-holes, to keep out water in bad weather. When the weather is fine, these are entirely taken out, and thus this deck is tho- roughly ventilated and lighted up.
The next deck is the lower gun-deck. Farthest aft, reaching forward to the mizzenmast, is the wardroom, the living-room of the lieutenants, the surgeons, the purser, master, chaplain, and com- modore's secretary. The^ space between the guns
Or lop-Deck. 27
on this deck is occupied by the " mess-chests' ' and the mess-lockers, in which the pots, pans, and spoons used by the sailors, as well as the victuals, are kept. Immediately before the foremast is the ship's galley, where the cooks reign supreme. Here the food for the ship's company, as well as that of the lieutenants and midshipmen, is pre- pared. Forward of the galley, taking up all the forward part of this deck, is the " sick-bay," the surgeon's realm, of the horrors of wThich I have already attempted a faint description.
We now descend to a floor beneath, called the orlop-deck. On the after-part of this deck, and reaching quite into the bottom of the vessel, is an enormously large space, tightly tinned through- out, which is used as a brtadroom. Forward of this, at the sides, or "in the wings," to speak in nautical language, are the private rooms of the wardroom officers. In amidships is an open space used for a cock-pit, or surgeon's room, in time of action. Then comes the steerages, larboard and starboard, where the midshipmen, purser's and ship's clerks mess. Next, the boat- swain's, gunner's, sailmaker's, and carpenter's rooms ; and then, immediately under the sick- bay, the storerooms, where are deposited the boat- swain's, carpenter's, and sailmaker's stores.
Below the orlop-deck is the hold. Forward and aft in the hold are the powder magazines, accessible from the deck by small magazine- hatches. Aft of the forward magazine is the forehold, where are stored all the wet provisions, such as beef and pork, and also a portion of the
28 The Young Man-of-War s Man.
shot. Abaft this come the chain-lockers and cable-tiers, with the principal shot-locker. Beyond this is the afterhold, for flour and other dry pro- visions; then the spirit-room, which is guarded by a sentinel; next, a large vacant space, the ante-room to the largest powder magazine, and then the magazine itself. Below the beams which support the tiers of the hold, are the water-tanks, large variously-shaped vessels of iron, made to fit nicely to the shape of the ship, throughout, and from which the water for daily consumption is pumped by means of a suction-hose, which can be screwed into a hole left for that purpose in the lids or coverings of the tanks, thus enabling the master, who has that matter in charge, to take water from any tank he thinks proper.
The ground tackle of the vessel is her anchors and cables. Of these, our ship had four for immediate use, namely, two very heavy anchors, suspended in the waist, called sheet anchors, and only used in emergencies; to one of these was bent an extraordinarily heavy rope-cable, to the other, an extra heavy chain. So seldom are these anchors used, that to " go ashore with the sheet anchor" is an expression used to denote a deter- mination to stay on board the whole cruise. Two others are suspended to the bows, and are called respectively, the larboard, or best bower, and the starboard, or second bower. The latter is com- monly the first one let go. Besides these, our ship had two large spare anchors, and a number of lighter stream anchors and kedges, of various sizes and weights. I will now give a list of the
The Officers. 29
officers and petty officers of a ship-of-the-line. The following classification of officers and duties relates to a ship-of-war of the United States Navy ten years ago. They are —
One captain, one commander, eight lieutenants, one sailing-master, one chaplain, one surgeon, three assistants, one purser, four master's mates, sixteen midshipmen, one boatswain, one gunner, one carpenter, one sailmaker, one captain's clerk, one commander's clerk, one purser's clerk, one schoolmaster, one master-at-arms, two ship-cor- porals, one purser's steward, nine quarter-masters, six boatswain's mates, three gunner's mates, eight quarter gunners, two carpenter's mates, two sail- maker's mates, two captains of forecastle (receiving pay), two captains of foretop, two of maintop, two of mizzentop, and two of after-guard, one armourer, one yeoman, one yeoman's assistant, one ship's cook, one captain of marines, two lieu- tenants of marines, three sergeants, four corporals, two drummers, two fifers.
Our ship being the flag-ship, we carried the commodore. This officer, however, cannot be said to belong to any one ship, his authority ex- tending equally over all the fleet of vessels placed under his charge.
It will be well here to give the reader an in- sight into the duties of the various officers above enumerated. The commodore is, of course, the supreme head, from whose decision there is, for the time being, no appeal. But his command or authority being general over the whole fleet, he interferes very little, if any, with the minor affairs
30 The Young Man-of- Wars Mct7t.
of the vessel on board which his pennant flies. Our commodore was, however, as the crew of the
C had reason to know, an exception to this
rule. He often interfered in the general manage- ment of our ship, and always in favour of the crew. For this he was much beloved by all hands, and it was a common saying among the old tars, when the commodore was about to leave the vessel for a time, as he frequently did, " Now the old fellow has gone away, we'll see some hard times," — a prophecy which was generally fulfilled. The commodore directs and controls the motions of the fleet under his command, and has charge of all business of a public nature, to be transacted with foreign powers. In time of war, of course, his duties are much more important and respon- sible than in peace.
At the head of the officers properly belonging to the ship stands the captain. He has a general superintendence over the affairs of the vessel, and all orders of a general nature are supposed to emanate from him. He is responsible for the safety of the vessel while he has charge of her, in port as well as at sea. He exercises also a general oversight over the conduct of the officers, and has the power of punishing such as are guilty of im- proprieties.
The first lieutenant is next in power to the captain. He has not the responsibilities of the latter, but his duties are much more laborious, it being his part to carry into execution the measures devised by the captain. He keeps no watch, but is on duty all day. He thoroughly inspects the
The Officers. 3 1
vessel at least once every day, to see that every- thing about her rigging, hull, and crew is kept in good order and clean, reporting again to the captain. All reports of the minor officers, con- cerning expenditures of stores and provisions, are made to him. All communications to the captain pass through his hands. On occasions when " all hands" are called, as in getting under weigh, or coming to, reefing topsails, etc., he has charge of the deck. He superintends the watering and victualling of the vessel, in which duty he is assisted by the master. At quarters he has charge of the quarter-deck division, and in action he manoeuvres the ship. But the most arduous of all his multifarious duties is the stationing of the crew when the ship is put in commission. This is a matter for which is needed a thorough know- ledge of the requirements of the ship, a judgment quick and sure, to decide upon the capabilities of the various individuals composing the crew, and great patience and foresight. The first lieutenant is a terror to all evil-doers and slovenly idle fellows, as his eagle-eye is busied at all times ferreting out such. The comfort of all on board, officers as well as men, greatly depends upon him. On board our vessel, the duties of the first lieutenant were discharged by the commander.
The other lieutenants, by turns, have charge of the deck, relieving one another every four hours, in port as well as at sea. At sea, the officer of the watch, or officer of the deck as he is called, attends to sailing the vessel, seeing that the sails are trimmed as necessary, that the ship is kept
32 The Young Man-of -War s Man.
in her course, and putting in execution the orders for his watch, found in the order booh, which hangs near the wheel. He is responsible for all that occurs during his watch, and reports to the captain any extraordinary occurrence, changes in the wind or weather, the discovery of sails or land, etc. The speaking-trumpet is the insignia of his authority. He keeps a sharp eye on the compass, the sails, and the weather; at night, has the captain waked at stated periods, and sees that the look-outs are kept awake; and finally, at the end of his watch, has an account of the weather, the course and distance made good, and other matters, entered upon the log- slate. In harbour, the officer of the deck receives any stores or provisions that may be sent on board, super- intends the sending away of the boats, keeps a look-out for what is occurring in the harbour, and reports the arrival of vessels, with other important occurrences, to the captain. Besides this, the lieutenants are placed in charge of divisions, and they exercise the men at the guns and small arms and cutlasses, and superintend the issue of clothing to them by the purser.
Next in rank to the lieutenants is the sailing- master. He keeps the ship's reckoning, and re- ports this to the captain daily, together with the bearings and distance of the nearest land, or the port whither the vessel is bound. He also exer- cises a supervision over nearly all the stores of the vessel, having charge more particularly over the water and spirits, the anchors and cables. He has the management of the storage of the hold,
The Idlers, 33
and sees that the vessel is put and kept in good sailing trim. He seconds the first lieutenant in many of his duties. In the British Navy, the grade of master is an independent one, for which peculiar qualifications are required, and above which an incumbent does not rise. In the American Navy, it is a grade between the passed midshipman and the lieutenant.
Next come the idlers, so called because they do not keep watch, in which designation are included r i. the purser, the surgeon and his assistants, and the chaplain, with the captain and lieutenants of marines. The purser has under his especial charge all the moneys, the provisions, and cloth- ing in the ship. The accounts of the ship and crew are kept by him. In former times, the salary of the purser was very small, and he was allowed to sell the clothing and small stores to the crew on his own account to make up the defi- ciency. Under this system, the crews were often outrageously swindled, and to fall into the pur- ser's hands became equivalent to being unmerci- fully fleeced. This matter is now differently arranged, stores of all kinds being provided by the Government, and placed in charge of the pursers, who are strictly prohibited from driving a trade of their own. Their responsibilities are very great, and they are obliged to give heavy bonds for their correct behaviour before assuming their office.
A surgeon and three assistant-surgeons form the medical staff of a seventy-four or ship-of-the- line. They keep a regular journal, in which are
34 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
noted down the names, rank, diseases, etc., of all the sick on board, as well as the course of treat- ment adopted towards each. An abstract report, containing the names, rank, and diseases of the sick, and showing the increase or decrease in number, if any, is signed by a surgeon every morning, and handed to the captain. Beside this, a sick list, containing simply the name and station of every sick man, is placed in the bin- nacle each morning, for the use of the officer of the deck. No one is excused from duty on ac- count of illness, whose name is not to be found on this list. Besides attending upon the sick, the surgeons enforce such precautionary measures as will tend to the prevention of sickness on board.
The chaplain performs divine service on Sun- days, administers consolation to the dying, and reads the funeral service on occasions of burials.
The officers of marines enjoy almost a sinecure in time of peace. To review the corps once a week, and receive and transmit to the captain the reports of the sergeant, is about the sum total of their labours — to perform which a ship-of-the line carries one captain and two lieutenants of marines. Thus there has arisen a sailor's saying, that " the mizzenroyal and the captain of marines are the two most useless things on board ship."
The midshipmen occupy rather a subordinate position among the officers, being placed on board for the purpose of preparing themselves for the duties of a higher station. They keep watch, and, when on deck, carry into effect the orders of
Warrant-Officers. 35
the officer on deck. When "all hands" are called, they are stationed in the tops and at different points about the decks, to see that orders from the quarter-deck are promptly exe- cuted. At sea, one of the passed midshipmen, or master's mates, has charge of the forecastle, where he carries on the work. They muster the watch at night, and take the sun's altitude at noon, working out by it the ship's reckoning. They are required to keep a journal of the cruise, which is examined at stated intervals by the captain. In port, one goes in charge of every boat that leaves the vessel. At quarters, they muster the guns' crews, and report to the lieutenants.
Next come the warrant-officers — the boatswain, the gunner, the sailmaker, and carpenter. The boatswain is the chief sailor. He has charge of the rigging of the vessel, and is responsible to the first lieutenant that all aloft is kept in good order. He is easily distinguished by the silver whistle stuck in his vest pocket, his rattan cane, the terror of all little boys, his stentorian voice, and the Bardolphian hue of his features. His station at quarters, and when all hands are called, is on the forecastle.
The gunner has charge of all the military stores. At quarters, his station is in the maga- zine. His principal occupation, in time of peace, seems to be to keep up an incessant growl about his guns.
The sailmaker has charge of all the canvas in the ship, including the hammocks, sick-bay cots, etc. The carpenter is responsible for the stores
36 The Young Ma7i-of-Wars Man.
belonging to his department, and superintends all work in his line. The boatswain, sailmaker, and carpenter go aloft every morning before breakfast, at sea, and examine the condition of the rigging, sails, and masts, making their reports to the first lieutenant, who generally gives the top-hammer a personal inspection twice a week.
The original division of the crew is into petty- officers, able seamen, ordinary seamen, landsmen, and first and second class boys. The petty- officers are appointed by the captain, and hold office at his will, or during good behaviour. They are ^selected from the most experienced and reliable of the seamen.
First among the petty-officers ranks the master- at-arms. He stands at the head of the police- force of the ship. He has charge of all prisoners, a list of whose names, misdemeanours, and the dates of their confinement, he submits every ' morning to the captain. He is lord over the berth-deck, and the terror of slovenly or dilatory cooks. It is his business, also, to take charge of all articles of clothing, or other property, left lying about decks, on the guns, or anywhere ex- cept in their proper places. Such things are placed in a lucky-bag, which is opened, when full, in the presence of the first lieutenant, when all who come forward to claim property have it returned, and are placed on the black list, while articles for which there is found no owner are sold to the highest bidder. The master-at-arms is assisted in his labours by two ship's corporals. To these three, also, falls the duty of searching returning
The Boatswains Mates. 37
boats' crews, in port, for liquor, which these frequently smuggle on board on their persons.
The quartermasters hold an office of consider- able trust. They and the captains of the fore- castle are supposed to be the very best among the seamen. At sea, one of their number cons the ship, that is, watches the helmsman, and, standing in an elevated position, aids him in meeting with the helm the motions of the vessel. At quarters, and in time of action, they steer the vessel, as also on occasions when all hands are called. Those not steering or conning keep a look-out. In port, two of them are always on look-out, with telescopes, and report to the offi- cer of the deck any boats coming alongside, or signals made, or other movements in the har- bour. The colours and signals are under their general charge, but one of their number is chosen, who has them under his especial care, and repairs them and makes new ones when necessary. He is called the signal quartermaster.
The boatswain's mates, as their names denote, assist the boatswain in the duties of his office. They carry a silver whistle, or call, with which they pipe, either to call attention to what is about to be ordered, or to give the order itself. There are two stationed on the forecastle, one in each gangway, one on the quarter-deck, and one on the main-deck. Orders for trimming sails, or other watch-duty, are communicated to the crew through them. Thus, should the captain, coming on deck, wish a pull on the main- brace, naval etiquette requires that he inform the officer of
38 The Young Man-of -War s Man.
the deck, who in turn tells the midshipman of the watch, who passes the word to the boatswain's mate, who bawls out to the watch—
" Come this way, and get a small pull on the weather main-brace."
The gunner's mates and the quarter gunners have the guns and their accoutrements under their especial charge. There is a gunner's mate to each gun-deck, and a quarter gunner to each division. They assist their chief in his self-im- posed task of growling at everybody and every- thing.
These are the most important of the petty officers. \v e now come to the crew proper. For general purposes of working ship and daily routine, our crew, consisting of seven hundred and fifteen men and boys, was divided, primarily, into two watches, called the starboard and larboard, one half being in each watch; and secondarily, into six great portions or divisions, called, from the parts of the vessel to which they were respectively attached, the forecastlemen, foretopmen, maintop- men, mizzentopmen, afterguard, and waisters. Be- sides these, there are the petty officers, the mes- senger boys, the marines, the cooks and cooks' mates or assistants, and the sick-bay and officers' stewards and servants. Every individual on board is in one or other of the two watches, except a JV) small band, called the jo^erv consisting chiefly j of cooks and servants, who7 being busied all day,
Kare not required to keep watch at night. We now come to another subdivision of each of the six principal divisions. In order to make
The Watches. 39
this matter plainer, we will take the foretopmen to illustrate the whole. There were stationed in our foretop just sixty-four men, making thirty- two in each watch. Each watch is again split in half, making sixteen in each of these new divi- sions, which are called " quarter watches." Over each of these quarter watches there is placed a captain, who carries out the orders given to his department, exercises a general oversight, and is to some extent responsible for the good order of everything in his particular portion of the vessel. Thus, there are four captains, two first captains and two second, in each of the principal divisions of the ship's company, except the waisters, who have only two. Only one watch, or half of the crew, is on duty at any time, day or night, at sea. They take regular turns, " a watch " being four hours in length. To prevent the constant re- currence of the same watch to the same portion of the crew, as before mentioned, the time from four to eight p.m. is divided into two shorter watches of only two hours each, called "dog watches." By this arrangement, the men who are on watch from eight to twelve one night, and consequently sleep from twelve to four, and are again on duty from four to eight, sleep during the same time the succeeding night, watching only from twelve to four.
In addition to this, of the topmen, one half of a watch, or a "quarter watch," as above de- scribed, is required at all times to be in the top, in readiness to jump aloft and make or take in sail. In this duty the quarter watches take turns.
40 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
In evolutions requiring " all hands," every man, idlers, marines, and all, has his particular station assigned him, where, and nowhere else, he is ex- pected to act. Eepeated musterings and drill- ings serve to make even the most stupid under- stand thoroughly the duties required of them, and produce that perfection of discipline by which so large a body of men, having such various duties to perform, are moved with a celerity and pre- cision as of one man.
Next comes the division into gun's crews. Our vessel, although rated only as a seventy-four, had one hundred guns mounted, making a broadside of fifty guns. These guns are numbered, begin- ning at the foremost one on the lower deck, and counting the two opposite as only one. Thus, with us they ranged from gun number one, on the lower gun-deck, to gun number fifty, in the commodore's cabin. A certain number of guns are included in a " division," which is under the command of a lieutenant, assisted by midship- men. We had eight divisions; three on the lower gun-deck, three on the main gun-deck, and two on the spar-deck. To each of the guns is assigned a "crew," sufficient, if necessary, to work or serve both the guns included under one number, but with their labour so divided as to very much assist one another, while serving only one side. To one of our heavy thirty-two or sixty-eight pounders were allotted one captain, one second captain, two loaders (first and second), two rammers and spongers, four side-tackle men, five train-tackle men, and a powder-boy — in all,
The Guns. 41
sixteen. The carronades on the upper deck, being much lighter guns, had a much smaller crew — only ten. The captains have the general management of the gun, the first captain taking precedence, and, if both sides are engaged, re- maining with the first part, on the starboard side. The duties of the loaders, rammers, and spongers, are sufficiently declared by their titles. The side- tackle men manage the tackles by which the gun is run out (after it is loaded), and slewed, or turned either forward or aft of the beam; and the train-tackle men work the tackles by which the gun is run in, and also assist with handspikes in elevating or depressing the muzzle, to alter the range. The powder-boy is furnished with a leathern bucket, having a tight-fitting lid ; in this bucket he carries cartridges from the magazine-hatch to his gun. A portion of the topmen and forecastle- men are stationed as sail-trimmers; and, aided by the crews of the spar-deck guns, make, take in, and trim sails during action. In addition to the duties above specified, each individual of the gun's crew is attached to one of three divisions of boarders, or is a pikeman or a fireman; and when in time of battle a signal is made, by a peculiar roll of the drum, or by a rattle, or by ringing the bell, promptly moves to the point where his services are just then required.
The place of the crew at the guns is called their quarters. The ceremony of assembling at the guns, and there calling the roll, which takes place twice a day, morning and evening, is called mustering at quarters. The crew is thoroughly
42 The Young Man-of -War s Man.
exercised at the guns by divisions, once or twice every week, in order to be well drilled in all the movements necessary in time of action. And in addition to this, there was on board our ship a weekly exercise, continued during the whole cruise, lasting from nine till half-past twelve A.M., called "general quarters," in which the whole ship was cleared for action, the powder magazine opened, and all preparations made for a real fight, and then the entire range of manoeuvres gone through with which are needed in action.
Besides their general stations, as fore, main, and mizzentopmen, etc., the crew have especial duties assigned them on occasions when all hands are called, as in getting under weigh, coming to, reefing topsails, tacking ship, etc. Every indi- vidual has, on these occasions, a specific duty to perform, beyond which he does not concern him- self. But, on the other hand, a failure on the part of one individual to perform the duty assigned him is liable to disconcert the whole operation. There is, therefore, a responsibility on every one. And thus, in place of the confusion to be ex- pected, the greatest possible order, efficiency, and harmony of action prevail.
The marines act as a body of soldiers. They do duty as sentries in different parts of the vessel, and in action are the principal marksmen, being stationed for that purpose in various parts of the vessel, below and aloft. At sea, they are divided into watches, and do duty with the afterguard. Being used as a sort of armed police over the sailors, the latter cordially hate them, and often
The Ships Number. ' 43
wreak vengeance npon them for some real or sup- posed offence. The fact is, a marine's place is not at all an enviable one. Compelled to live with and labour among the crew, it is yet made their principal duty to spy out and bring to punish- ment all offenders against the laws of the vessel. Thus it is that they have become a bye-word and a reproach. The name of soldier, or sojer, as it is pronounced by your real tar, is the most sting- ing epithet of contempt at the command of a sailor. There is an old saying — " A messmate before a shipmate, a shipmate before a stranger, a stranger before a dog, but a dog before a soldier," which expresses fully the contempt in which they are held.
The ship's number is that by which each indi- vidual is designated on the purser's books, by which his accounts are made out, and to which his final discharge refers. The crew keep all their clothing in painted canvas bags, and the ship's number of the owner is placed upon each one of these, to enable him to identify it. So also the ship's number is placed upon all articles of cloth- ing for a similar purpose. Ship's numbers are arranged in the order in which the men were originally drafted on board j while hammock num- bers are arranged in regard to the different parts of a ship; number one being the captain of the forecastle's, then progressing regularly aft, the last numbers being those of the quarter-masters and messenger boys.
With this somewhat tedious, but nevertheless, to the landsman reader, necessary setting forth of
44 The Yoztng Man-of- Wars Ma7i.
the general arrangement and internal economy of our ship, which will apply, with some few modi- fications, to all vessels of war, we will now pro- ceed on our " cruise," as the voyage of a man-of- war is called.
CHAPTER III.
INCIDENTS IN MY FIRST VOYAGE.
By " six bells in the afternoon watch," land was fairly out of sight, and the ship was making a nearly south-east course, to cross the Gulf Stream. Next day we were in the gulf, as it is familiarly called, which we knew by the warmer temperature of the water, the clouded sky, and the vast quan- tities of gulf-weed with which the water was covered as far as the eye could reach.
Our first night at sea passed very pleasantly. I was still on the sick list, and exempt from special duty, but determined to turn out with my watch. Belonging to the starboard watch, our turn on deck was from twelve to four. At eight, the first watch was set, and I remained upon deck long enough to hear the men answer to their names, in order that I might know what to do myself at twelve. I was sleeping soundly in my swinging bed when a most horrid din assailed my ears, causing me to start up affrighted, bringing
Calling the Watch. 45
my head by the motion in violent contact with the beam above.
"Starboard watch, ahoy!" was being roared and re-roared to an indefinite extent from half-a- dozen hoarse throats, on different parts of the main-deck, and followed up by emphatic adju- rations to " turn out, there," " rouse a bit," " show a leg — or a purser's stocking," all which meant, I found, not as I had at first supposed, that the ship was on fire, or sinking, or that some other dire calamity had overtaken us, but simply that it was twelve o'clock, and our immediate presence was required.
I jumped out, took my trousers and shoes out of the head of my hammock, where they had served as a pillow while sleeping, and put them on, and staggered upon deck. It was a fine star- light night, with a good topgallant breeze blowing. There was a tolerably heavy sea on, and the roar- ing of the wind through the rigging, and the pitching of the vessel, made me think that there must be a storm — an impression from which I was soon relieved, however. I found the watch about to go below crowding up under the lee of the weather-bulwarks, and wrapped u]) in their pea-jackets, talking and singing quite cheerfully in anticipation of the rest they were about to enjoy for the next four hours. Walking forward, I heard sounds, however, which convinced me that all were not inspired by agreeable feelings. A closer inspection revealed to me at least twenty poor fellows leaning over the bows, groaning dole- fully as they cast up their accounts. The midship-
46 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
man who mustered our watch found that sea-sick ness was making sad inroads upon the waisters and afterguards (who are mostly landsmen), scarcely a third of them being present to answer to their names.
" They are looking over the bows, trying to see the bottom," said one of the non-seasick ones.
I did not experience any discomfort from the motion of the vessel, and was able to hold up my head among the proudest. This gained me great credit among my new messmates, some of whom had hunted me up to take care of me, expecting to find me " on my beam ends." I felt quite elated at my fortunate exemption, and took it as an evidence that I was cut out for a sailor. The true reason, however, most likely was, that I had taken so much medicine, and so very little of any- thing else for the preceding month, that there was nothing in me to be affected by the jolting — or, as the captain of the forecastle gruffly said —
" It would be no use to turn that fellow's stomach, for one side is as bad as the other."
As the ship was going along finely, with a steady breeze, there was nothing to do, and the watch soon settled down in cosy groups about deck, some to doze off, and others talking and singing. I walked, or rather stumbled about, for I had not yet gained my sea legs, until at last I joined a group of foretopmen assembled around the topsail halyard-rack, who were comparing opinions on the ship, her officers and crew. They were all old tars, and I approached them very re-
On the Foretop. 47
spectfully, and listened with due deference to the words of wisdom to which they gave utterance. I had not stood long, however, before a rough old fellow of the crowd, grasping me by the arm, said, in what I took to be a terribly cross tone —
" Here, boy, what are you doing here among the foretopmen? Go aft, you young scoundrel, where you belong."
As I looked at him, to see if he was in earnest, another said —
" Leave him alone, Jack ; it's a poor little fel- low that's been sick. We took him into our mess to-day. He's a civil boy. Let him stay."
" Well," returned Jack, " if he ain't saucy, he may stay."
I made a solemn promise never to interrupt any of them when they were yarning, and always to answer them civilly, and was, on these conditions, admitted to the circle.
After canvassing the merits of the ship and officers, they fell to yarning in good style, and I became a delighted listener to various tough ex- periences of " last cruise." Eight bells (four o'clock) came round in a wonderfully short time, and we broke up and retired to our hammocks — I with an inward conviction that " keeping watch" was rather an agreeable occupation. I slept soundly until seven bells (half-past seven o'clock), when all hands were called, the hammocks lashed up and carried on deck ; and at eight bells the crew were piped to breakfast. As I came up, I heard various not over-complimentary remarks passed upon my rather slim looks. I listened in
48 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
prudent silence, until the tears started into my eyes, at the rather rough jests of my new mess- mates. To these brawny, stout fellows, a puny little boy as I was then, reduced to the last de- gree by a severe sickness, seemed almost an object of curiosity — and, sailor-like, they did not hesi- tate to give expression to just what happened to come into their minds. I had been told that boys were treated very roughly on board ship, and that the only way to get along comfortably was to say nothing, but bear all teasing good- naturedly — a piece of advice which I took care to follow to the letter, and not without due reward for my trials, for I soon got the name of being a " quiet civil boy, willing, and not saucy" and those who had at first " teased" me unmercifully, were soon my best friends, and ready to do me any service.
After breakfast was over, I volunteered to assist the cook in getting his mess things in order — a duty which I had been given to under- stand, while yet on board the guardo, generally devolved upon the boys. This elevated me won- derfully in the esteem of all, and I heard one fel- low remark, in a very complimentary tone —
" If he does look like a skeleton, he seems to act like a live boy ;" at which speech, I need not say, I felt duly encouraged.
Boys are not treated with much kindness on board ship, and particularly on board a man-of- war. There they are very generally disliked by the seamen because of their sauciness, and their unwillingness to perform such minor services as
Otct at Sea 49
are judged properly to belong to them, such as sweeping, helping the mess cooks in their labours, and doing little trifling errands aloft, which do not really require the strength or knowledge of a man. Few of the officers trouble themselves to see that the boys are made to perform such duties, and the boys themselves are commonly ready enough to refuse, or skulk out of them. The seamen feel this keenly, and will not permit such as act in this manner to come into their company. And so it comes, that in the beginning of a cruise, all boys are looked down upon, and the really willing lad must bear patiently many slights, and labour hard to establish his character, and work his way into the good graces of crusty old tars. I had heard somewhat of this matter while on board the old guardo in Philadelphia, and had made up my mind that if willingness and polite- ness would do anything, I would stand well with all on board.
On the second day out, we unbent the chain- cables and stowed the anchors — a sign that we were fairly at sea. Our first port was to be Rio de Janeiro, and our course accordingly soon brought us into fine weather. And now commenced the regular routine of sea life: breakfast at eight, quarters at nine, dinner at twelve, supper at five, quarters at six — these were the landmarks which announced the passing of the day.
The first two or three weeks out were devoted to mustering the crew in their various stations, in order to familiarise each individual with the special duty assigned him on special occasions.
E
50 The Young Man-of-War s Man.
Station bills were placed in various parts of the vessel, on which, opposite to every hammock number, was set forth the station of the indivi- dual who was represented by that number. Any one found out of his place, or ignorant of it, was punished by being put on the black list: thus, by dint of continued drilling, even the most persist- ently stupid were taught their places and duties. Next came the exercising at the great guns. Taking first one gun's crew at a time, the lieu- tenants of divisions, aided by such of the crew as were old hands, soon succeeded in making all familiar with their duties. At quarters, the names were called by the midshipmen, each indi- vidual, as called, repeating his various duties or stations, in order to insure a knowledge of them. These exercises occupied a good deal of time. In addition to them, all hands were kept busy clean- ing up and ornamenting the vessel. The decks, which during the labours of fitting out had be- come full of stains of tar, grease, and paint, were now carefully scraped. The guns, which were rough and rusty, were thoroughly cleaned and rubbed bright with brick and canvas, and then covered with a mixture of lampblack, beeswax, and turpentine, which keeps out the rust, and makes the surface smooth and bright as a look- ing-glass. The various accoutrements of the guns, as rammers, sponges, priming-wires, monkey-tails, caps, and cutlasses, were cleaned and brightened. Different fancy contrivances for adding to the neat and trim appearance of the top-hamper in port were prepared. And, finally, there was a
gra:
Boys on Board Ship. 5 1
•and overhaul or examination of clothing, taking up nine or ten days.
But it is time that I say something concerning the manner of life of the boys. On board our vessel there were about forty. Of these, eight were stationed in each top (two in each quarter watch), four on the forecastle, and twelve were messenger boys. To the latter I belonged during the first part of the cruise. The boys are under the especial charge of the master-at-arms, who is responsible to the first lieutenant for their cleanly appearance and orderly behaviour. They hang their hammocks on the starboard side of the half- deck, where they are within convenient distance of the master-at-arms, a part of whose duty it is, in port, to see them all in their hammocks at eight o'clock, and to make them quit talking at nine. They are mustered every morning at seven o'clock, for the purpose of seeing that they are clean and neat. At the sound of a bugle-call, they gather to the larboard side of the half-deck, where they form in line, each one having his trousers rolled up above his knees, his sleeves tucked up to his armpits, his feet and head bare, the collar of his frock turned back as far as possible, and his hair combed back off his ears. Having formed in line, " Jemmy Legs," as the master-at- arms is familiarly called, reads over the muster-roll, to detect any absentees, and next proceeds to a particular inspection, walking, for that purpose, first down the front of the line, returning on the other side, rattan in hand, ready for immediate use. " Hold out your hands, sir."
5 2 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
" You did not wash the soap off the back of your neck."
" That frock is scarcely fit to muster in."
" Your feet are not over clean ; and here — hold up your arm — now take that, and that, and that," hitting a poor fellow several thwacks ; " now, do you take soap and sand, and scour your elbows ; and don't show yourself here, all covered up with dirt."
With such critical observations and remarks upon the general appearance of his squad, Jemmy Legs reviews them, and after having them arranged to his satisfaction, reports them to the commander, as ready for inspection.
We messenger boys had a disagreeable time of it during the first passage. Where there are so many boys together there will be much quarrel- ling and fighting; and while we were yet com- paratively strangers to one another, the larger boys held an uninterrupted and most tyrannical sway over the smaller ones. There were twelve messenger boys, as before said, six in each watch. It was not necessary, however, that more than one should be on look-out at a time, and the remainder of the watch on deck were allowed to roam about the decks, or do whatever they pleased. We had arranged that each one should stand an hour of special watch, thus taking turns all round; but some of the boys would not keep their hour, and when " messenger boys !" was called, and none on hand, the boatswain's mate was generally sent round with a rope's end to hunt us all up. When all assembled, we would receive a lecture, and a
Boyish Tyranny. 53
threat of a severe thrashing, if we were not on hand when called. For our regulations were only among ourselves. Then one or two of the larger boys delighted to bully the others into standing their watch for them, by threatening them with a private thrashing if they did not. One of our number, whose watch it happened to be, would coolly walk off and leave the rest of the boys to answer for him, at the risk of getting all into trouble if they did not. It must be mentioned here that, in no case, however great the injustice perpetrated or suffered, is any appeal to the autho- rities admitted. The boy (or man) who is so un- fortunate as to have threatened to " report " an- other, is handled without mercy; and he who does report even his worst enemy is considered on a par with a thief, and looked down upon with contempt, even by those who were before his best friends. On account of my long sick- ness and consequent weakness, I was for some time overlooked by our bullies, as too contempt- ible an object for them to exercise their overbear- ing propensities on. But I soon began to feel the burden of their tyranny, in common with the rest of the little boys, and we set about devising means for relief. We found that the only way would be to unite, and unitedly oppose their in- fractions on our rights, and, by presenting a firm front, intimidate them into doing us justice. And by following this plan we soon established peace and order.
But the messenger-boys had peaceable and pleasant times compared to the experiences of two
54 The Young Man-of-War s Man.
messes which were formed entirely of boys. A mess is composed of from twelve to sixteen indi- viduals. The crew is divided into messes to faci- litate the serving out of provisions, and the keep- ing clean mess-things, as pots, pans, and spoons. To each mess there is a mess-cook, who has charge of all the mess property, and receives the rations from the purser's steward, takes them to the ship's cook, and again gets the victuals when they are cooked. Every member of the mess takes his turn for a week at this duty, which is on many accounts a very disagreeable one. It is one of the few privileges left to the crew of a man-of-war, that messes shall be composed of indi- viduals voluntarily associating themselves together. No one is forced on a mess not willing to receive him, and changing messes is allowed every three months. Thus it came that, in the beginning, the men being unwilling to take the boys among them (with a few exceptions, among whom, as before mentioned, I fortunately found myself), the boys were necessarily formed into two sepa- rate messes. But here they had a most miserable time of it. Disputes and quarrels, which were commenced on deck, were settled here. Quarrel- ling and fighting took up the time allotted to meals. The strongest or most cunning secured the eatables for themselves, and the constant in- terference of Jemmy Legs was necessary to keep the little fellows from being actually starved out by the larger ones. They practised all kinds of tricks upon one another, and the poor fellow who was detained on deck while the others ate, gene-
Capstan Muster. 55
rally found nothing on his descent to the mess place but " a beggarly account of empty" dishes, and was obliged to rely upon the kindness of neighbouring cooks for his dinner or breakfast. Then their mess things were always dirty, be- cause no boy would be cook more than a day at a time ; and indeed, as a rule, they all ran away as soon as they got their meals eaten up, leaving the last one to take care of the dishes. But the grand climax of their ill-behaviour, the circum- stance which led to their being disbanded, to the great relief of all hands concerned, was a general set-to between the two messes one day. Being bean-soup day, one of the boys, hard pressed in the melee, dexterously turned a small tub full of hot soup over his assailant's head, scalding him severely, and nearly blinding him. This affair was reported to the commander, who had both of the messes thoroughly rope's-ended, and then divided the boys among the men's messes, where they did not dare to kick up any shindies. I had abundant cause to congratulate myself on having been from the first taken into a mess of men ; for a quiet and weakly boy, like myself, would have fared but poorly in a crowd, where every bite of victuals was obtained by force of arms — and fists — and the stronger united to bully the weaker, and thrash them into the bargain if they com- plained.
The first Sunday out was the occasion of a general muster round the capstan, which is the most disagreeable incident in a man-of-war life. At breakfast that morning, the word was given
56 The Young Man-of -War s Man.
out by the boatswain's mates and master-at- arms —
" Do you hear there, fore and aft ! clean your- selves ! in white frocks ! blue jackets and trousers ! black hats and shoes ! — to muster ! "
A general groan succeeded this announcement, and all those who were familiar with musterings looked blank enough. There was no help for it, however ; and forthwith commenced a general ran- sacking of clothes-bags, for mustering clothes, great anxiety being displayed to make a good appearance.
At nine the drum beat to quarters, where we passed a preliminary muster. At ten, preluded by a deafening blast from all the " calls " of all the boatswain's mates, came the summons of —
" All hands to muster ! " followed up with, 11 String along aft, there — hurry up, hurry up — lay aft on the quarter-deck, everybody ! "
There was a manifest disposition on the part of the older hands to keep in the background, which called forth from the commander an order for —
" Seamen and ordinary seamen, in front."
Being anxious to see the entire performance, which was looked to with so much dread by all who knew anything of it, I secured a place in the crowd where I could see, without at the same time exposing myself to the scrutiny of the officers. In about fifteen minutes, every one in the ship, except those sick persons who were not able to walk, was gathered on deck. And now I per- ceived the reason why " general muster " is con- sidered so disagreeable an affair. The officers of
Articles of War. 5 7
the vessel were ranged in two rows along the weather side of the quarterdeck, the captain and commander standing, one on each side of the cap- stan, with pencil and paper in hand, ready to note down any unlucky deficiencies in the personal appearance of the crew. The boatswain brought up the rear of the officers, and after him stood the petty officers, also ranged in order. Every individual of the crew was obliged to walk through this lane of scrutinising faces. Said an old tar, who certainly had nothing to fear on the score of his personal appearance —
" I would rather take a dozen with the cat at any time, than to walk round that capstan."
When all was quiet, the captain's clerk stepped to the capstan, and, in a loud tone of voice, read the " Articles of War," the rules and regulations by which the ship's company, officers as well as men, is supposed to be governed, and is governed to a certain extent. After this was over, came a silence of a few moments, during which one might really have heard a pin drop. Then the purser's clerk stepped up to the capstan, and slowly called the roll. As each individual's name was called, he answered, " Here, sir," and, hat in hand, walked round and down the long lane or gangway, for- ward, narrowly scrutinised by every one as he passed. If anything will try nerves, it is such a task as this. I never knew one, even to the old- est man-of-war's man, who had mustered round the capstan hundreds of times, that could hear all hands called to muster without a perceptible shudder. To feel that hundreds of eyes are look-
58 The Young Man-of -War s Man.
ing at yon, noting every peculiarity of form and feature, dress, walk, and carriage; to be con- scious that the least impropriety of action or dress will elicit a grin from hundreds of faces ; to know, in addition, that any real shortcoming is noted down by the captain and commander, to be made the subject of after-reproof, and that a speck of dirt, a badly arranged collar, an ill fit- ting jacket or trousers, or an improper walk, may call forth instant and public rebuke, is sufficient to try the stoutest nerves. It was curious to see the actions of different individuals as they moved around j some, mostly the old hands, walked with head erect, knowingly glancing about out of the corners of their eyes, and with an easy, rolling gate, which we greenhorns had as yet failed to acquire. They had grown callous. Some, again — these were merchant-sailors, who were making their first cruise in the navy — made an awkward shuffle of getting round. The down look on their honest, weather-beaten countenances told plainly of their keen sense of the degradation involved in such an exhibition of themselves. Others there were, raw, meanly-clad fellows, who trotted around, with heads down and eyes straight ahead, and no particular expression, except that of a strong desire to get out of sight. These were the landsmen, who carried about them still the manners and looks of the shore, and the clothing of the thieving slop-sellers — as the boatswain said, " They had yet the hay-seed sticking to their collars." There is a distinct manner, an easy, graceful carriage of the body, a rakish set of the hat, a knowing look
Washing Day, 59
out of the corner of the eye, peculiar to the sailor, but more especially to the man-of-war's man, which cannot be counterfeited, and is not to be acquired, without long experience, except by the boys, whose greatest delight is to get the air, walk, and slang-talk of the old tar.
At this muster, most of the outfitter's clothing was condemned, and orders given to such as mus- tered therein to furnish themselves with better from the purser's stores. I was included in the list, and found that of the supply for which four pounds ten shillings had been charged in Phila- delphia, I could not use a single article. In com- mon with nearly all our draft, I received an entire new outfit, which made away with about six months' pay, thus finding myself, when not yet three months in the navy, indebted to the amount of nine months' salary.
The same evening, at supper-time, word was passed that the starboard watch would wasli clothes next morning. It had not occurred to me before to inquire as to who were to act the part of washerwomen to the crew of our vessel. This office, I now found, every one was expected to per- form for himself.
" But," said I, to one of my messmates, " I don't know how to wash."
u Oh ! well, you'll learn how by the time you've been on the black-list a couple of times, for not getting your white frocks or trousers sufficiently clean."
Soap (a peculiar kind, made for the navy, and very strongly impregnated with lime, to overcome
60 The Yotmg Man-of- Wars Man.
the hardness of the salt water), had been served out before this, to all that wanted it. I took out of my bag a lump of soap, and a white frock, a pair of trousers, and a blue shirt, which I found needed washing. Eolling all up together, I placed them carefully under a gun until the mor- row. During our first watch, I noticed a good many of the older sailors busily employed wash- ing, and got one of them to show me how the process was to be conducted. I carefully watched the whole process of washing, rinsing, wringing out, and turning inside-out, and came to the con- clusion that it was hard work enough.
After my friend had got through with his half- dozen pieces, he said —
"Now, my boy, have you got any dirty clothes !w
I answered in the affirmative, when he said —
" Well, there will be great crowd washing to- morrow morning, and you'll not get a bucket, nor a place on the lines for your clothes, if you wait till then. Go and bring here your pieces, and I will see that you wash them properly, and you may use this bucket."
I was loath to put my hands and arms into the cold water, on rather a cool night, but thought best to profit by his advice. I rubbed at my two pieces the remainder of our watch, about two hours, and then they were declared to be not over clean, which the next day proved. After turning them, to keep any possible specks of dirt from the outside, I was instructed to roll up the two pieces together, and place them in the head of
Washing Day. 61
ray hammock until next morning. At four o'clock it was again our watch upon deck, and as soon as the watch was mustered, began the grand work of washing. The whole deck was speedily crowded with people, some rubbing, some scrubbing their clothes with small scrubbing-brushes, a process which much facilitates the getting them clean, but also wears them out very fast. I found my friend's prophecy fulfilled to the letter. Not half of those desiring to wash were able to obtain buckets, and of course many were obliged to wait, while many others had to do without altogether. And when the lines were lowered, we who had washed the night before were able to pick out the best places, and those who came last had to hang their clothes on the rigging, where they were pretty well daubed over with tar before they got dry, for which misfortune their owners were likely to be black-listed on the first occasion. There are no special conveniences provided by the ship for washing. The buckets used are those kept for washing decks, and the water is drawn up from alongside, by the aid of small lines. The clothes-lines furnished are about sufficient for half the clothes commonly washed. Notwith- standing this, however, everybody is expected to appear perfectly clean, and no excuses whatever are taken for a soiled frock or trousers. I saw clearly, therefore, that it would not do to be late or slow; and, profiting by the experience of others on the first morning, made up my mind never to wait, but to wash always among the first. But, it will be said, somebody must be last: true enough,
62 The Young Man-of-War s Man,
some there are who, either through indolence or carelessness, are always late, at this and every- thing else. Such lead a miserable life on board a man-of-war. They are despised by their smarter shipmates, and " worked up" by the officers. These are perpetual members of the black-list. Being dirty themselves, they are obliged to do all the dirty work; and then even are expected to make a respectable appearance.
The clothes were allowed to hang out until four o'clock in the afternoon, when they were " piped down ;" that is, all the watch being assembled at the call of the boatswain's mates, the lines were lowered, at a given word, and every one caught his clothes as they came down, thus keeping them off the deck. But now came the tug. Some had forgotten where their pieces hung, and others had never been able to iden- tify them upon the lines. Such were seeking about, first on one line, then on another, in a " peck of trouble." Those who had simply laid their pieces upon the lines without fastening, found, to their surprise, that they had been pay- ing an unwilling tribute to Neptune. Some, who had not their names upon their clothes, were un- able to identify their property. And others, again, taking advantage of the crowd, had, doubtless, made the property of strangers their own; for several pieces, which were seen on the lines be- fore they were lowered, became invisible to their owners when they once reached the deck.
We had been taught to wash our own clothes. We wrere next inducted into the process of mak-
Making Clothes. 6
o
ing new ones, and neatly mending the old. While the weather was cool, blue flannel shirts and blue cloth trousers were not found too warm for com- fort; but the warmth of a southern latitude made lighter clothing a necessity; and as it was not judged proper by the commander that white frocks and trousers should be worn at this time, an order was sent to the purser to issue to the crew, or such of them as needed it. a quantity of blue cotton drilling (called dungaree by sailors) suf- ficient for two or three suits each. And then began the labour of making up this stuff into frocks and trousers. Every forehanded sailor expects to make his own light clothing, as well as sometimes a por- tion of the heavier flannels. For this purpose each one has a " ditty-bag," the contents of which vary but little from those of the sewing-baskets of thrifty housewives ashore. The ditty-bag generally contains a pair of scissors, a thimble, some linen thread, a paper or two of needles, a lump of wax, and various little trimmings used in making up seamen's clothing, such as tape, buttons, strips of binding, etc. Every true man- of-war's man knows how to cut out clothing with as much ease, and producing as correct a fit, as the best tailor. This is a necessity on board ship, for the ready-made clothing procured of the purser is never known to fit, being generally manufactured several sizes larger than necessary, in order that it may be re-cut and made in good style. I furnished my ditty-bag from the pur- ser's stores, and then, having drawn my share of dungaree, one of my messmates, a maintopman,
64 The Young Man-of- Wars Ma7t.
cut me out a frock, or "jumper " (a short skirt worn over all, not unlike the French blouse), and a pair of trousers. A sailor wears no braces, and trousers are therefore made sufficiently tight at the waist to sustain themselves there. They con- tinue tight nearly down to the knees, the legs being cut exactly straight, and consequently quite loose at the bottoms. I sat me down amid a number of old hands, and began the task of mak- ing up the garments, getting one to show me where I found myself at a loss. By dint of being shown, and studying out portions myself, with plentiful ripping out and re-sewing, I at last suc- ceeded, to my no small gratification, in putting together a jDair of trousers, " shipshape and Bristol fashion/' On trying them on, they proved a pretty good fit, which caused me no little pride as I wore them. In two weeks I succeeded, by exercising all the patience and ingenuity at my command, in making up two jumpers and three pairs of trousers, and these clothes I soon found more useful to me than any others I had. Another two weeks sufficed to get my wardrobe in toler- ably good order, to have every piece marked with my name and ship's number, and stops put on all, and then I was prepared for the muster of cloth- ing and bedding which was shortly to take place. As will be gathered from the remarks heretofore made on the article of clothing, great attention is paid by the officers to the general appearance of the men. All the dirty work, such as re-fitting, rigging, tarring, and slushing, are done at sea, in order that no one need be dirty in port. And
Sailing On. 65
beyond the necessary exercises, and working ship, it is made the chief and all-important duty of every individual to keep himself perfectly clean, and to dress neatly and with taste. In fact, to take care of the vessel and of themselves, keeping both in as good trim as possible, is the sum-total of duty required of the crew of a man-of-war in the " piping times of peace."
In the meantime, while all these matters were being arranged, and the vessel and crew got into order, the good ship herself was ploughing the waters with favouring breeze, each day increasing the distance between us and home, and approach- ing nearer to her destined port. We had con- tinual fair breezes and beautiful weather after crossing the Gulf, until we began to near the equinoctial line, when we were, for two weeks, detained by calms and light winds. Up to that time, while going along with a steady breeze, we were but little bothered about making, taking in, or trimming sails. An occasional furling of the royal and mizzen topgallant sail at night, to en- able our slower consort, a little sloop-of-war, to keep up in sight, with a daily tightening up of the halyards, sheets, and braces, was all we had to do with the sails ; and we boys had made up our minds, from this specimen, that going to sea was a most delightful occupation. To me, the new life seemed peculiarly grateful, inasmuch as, from the very first breath of salt air I had in- haled, I Lad felt myself gaining health and strength. The pure and refreshing breeze, the clear sky, and mild but bracing atmosphere which
66 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
we experienced while running down the north-east trades, infused new vigour into my system, and with the exercise I got in running up and down the rigging, and climbing about various parts of the ship, entirely changed my constitution, and made " a new boy" of me.
"We had been going along finely for a number of days, rattling eight and sometimes ten knots off the log, although latterly the breeze had seemed to be getting flawy, and an occasional flap of our immense topsails told that it was also losing its strength, when one morning, on " turning out " at four o'clock, we found the breeze gone, studding-sails hauled down on deck, the yards braced sharp up, and the ship rolling uneasily from side to side on the swell, at every roll the topsails flapping violently against the mast, or filling with a jerk, as though deter- mined to carry away the masts. We were in the Doldrums — we had lost the trade-winds. The older sailors, who, many of them, in their fashion and for their own gratification, kept the run of the ship, had been for some days talking about the approaching change, and had found some agreeable excitement in hazarding little bets as to what watch would " lose the trades." At every change of wratch the tars of one side would duly give the weather in charge of those of the other, with instructions to return it in as good order as given. There was, therefore, consider- able merriment between the two watches when we came upon deck, and saw the change made in the last four hours.
The Sailor s Creed. 67
" Well, Jack, what have you done with the wind 1 " asked a foretopman.
" It's gone down to Davy Jones, and you fel- lows that are so anxious about it, had better go down after it," was the answer.
CHAPTER IY.
CROSSING THE LINE A YARN — RIO DE JANEIRO.
Crossing the line was quite an event in the lives of those who were now making their first voyage. The ceremonies of shaving, ducking, and tribute- exacting, which we read of as being so much in vogue in former days, on occasions of this kind, have gone out of use in this practical age; and I, who had looked forward with delighted terror to the advent of Neptune, and the initiation of the youngsters into the mysteries of the sea-god, was obliged to content myself with reminiscences of the older tars, most of whom had undergone the ordeal of Father Neptune's razor and bathing- tub, and taken the required obligations, " never to eat brown bread, when you can get white ; never to kiss the maid, when you can kiss the mistress ; to eschew water, and drink grog ; hate a sojer, and love a pretty girl."
"Ah, boy," said one old fellow to me, when I had been coaxing him into telling me a yarn
68 The Young Man-of-War s Man.
about crossing the line, " those were what your books would have called the halcyon days of the sea. There was some romance about a ship when I first went to sea, and the tars of those days made as familiar with old Father Neptune and the Flying Dutchman, as a half- starved sojer would with a bread-barge."
"Well," said I, "Jack, that's sorry news for us boys, who came mostly for the romance of the thing. But, come, as we are not to see anything of Father Neptune, you be good-natured and tell us all about him — that's the next best thing to seeing him."
" Well," said he, at last, when some of the top- men had seconded my wish for a " real good yarn of the old times," " my own first crossing the line and introduction to the old fellow with the grains, would not be interesting at all, shipmates, for it was just like all others, and there was too much slush and dirty water about it, for any romance, which is what this boy is after " — turning to me ; " but if you'll all listen, and not interrupt, as the breeze seems to be steady, and old ; Dyce no higher,' has quit hallooing at us, I'll try to spin you a yarn that I was told once, by an old tar that was in the same ship in which it took place, and, by consequence, knew all about it."
At this point, Jack stopped to take in a couple of ounces of the purser's cavendish, while we took advantage of the interruption to gather round a little closer, and make ourselves as comfortable under our pea-jackets as we could.
" Well," said Jack, " you must know, top-
A Yarn. 69
mates, that what I'm going to tell you happened when I was quite a boy. It was my third voyage at sea, and my first into the South Atlantic. Our vessel belonged to Hull. She was a brig, and we were bound from London to Eio, with a cargo of assorted wares — a general cargo, as they call it. Our whole ship's company, with the exception of the mate and myself, were Jordies;* and such of you as have sailed in the north-country ships will know that, among a rough set of colliermen, a poor west-country boy stood a small chance. But then I had had civility beaten into me on the first two voyages, and learnt by experience that it was better to make friends than enemies of the crew. We had shipped our crew in Hull, and they stayed by the brig in London, because the skipper and they agreed very well, and he gave them good wages. They were all good men, but, like all Jordies, awful growls. However, the old man didn't care for their growling, so long as it was groivl and go. He used to say they would growl if they were fed on chicken sea-pie and soft tack and butter every day, and had nothing to do but smoke their pipes and spin yarns ; and while we were in Rio, the steward tried them on the grub, and, by the hook-block, shipmates, they called the skipper a stingy old fool, and threat- ened to sue him for cheating them out of their regular allowance of mahogany and salt pork, and giving them nothing to eat but a lot of trashy
* The sailors belonging to the ports on the north-eastern coast of England are called Jordies. They are a peculiar set, known as great growlers and excellent sailors.
70 The Young Man-cf- Wars Man.
chickens. Howsomever, this ain't the yarn that I was to tell you. They were a lot of old growls, as I said, and would talk and swear in their north- country Jordie jargon by the hour.
" As I was saying, they were a great set to talk and swear, all except one, a quiet, sober-looking old man, whose hair was beginning to turn grey, and whose wrinkled, weather-beaten face told of many storms and dangers. He was a very kind- hearted old fellow, as I had occasion to know, for he often helped me out when I was bothered in making a pair of canvas trousers or a frock. He said very little — nothing more than was barely necessary — never was heard laughing or singing over his can of grog on Saturday evenings, like the rest, and held little communication with any one on board. Nevertheless, he was every inch a seaman, one who knew his duty, and was always first aloft, at reefing or handing, and was the mate's trusty man. When the men would gather together in the dog watches, after we got into fine weather, and smoke their pipes and spin long yarns, he would sit apart on the topgallant fore- castle, and smoke and think and say nothing, until somehow we boys got it in our heads that the old fellow, for all his good looks, was a wizard, and got half afraid of him. We had a fair passage out, taking the north-east trades shortly after we got out of the Bay of Biscay, and carrying them nearly to the line. As we neared the line, there was much talk over the ceremony of receiving Neptune on board ; and we found that besides us boys (there were four of us), there was one old
The Swearing " Jordie." 71
Jordie, who, having been all his life running be- tween Sunderland and Shields and London, with an occasional trip up the Baltic, was now in his old age to be initiated into Neptune's mysteries. Jordie Christie, as he was called, had said nothing about never having crossed the line, thinking probably that the rest of the crew would not dare to take any liberties with him. When he found that he too was expected to undergo the ordeal, he sat on his chest, and swore at a terrible rate, threatening to use a heaver on the first man's head that dared touch him. Old Jemmy, our quiet man, looked black at him, to hear him swear so, and at last, when at supper, the day before we were to cross the line, Christie and some of the rest got into a hot dispute, and the swearing grew stronger and louder, Jemmy all at once came amongst them (he used to take his pot of tea and bread and mahogany apart, to eat), and said —
"'Shipmates, if you had all my experience of the consequences of such swearing talk, you would know that no good comes of it/
'"Well, old foulweather Jack, let's hear your yarn about what comes of those that swear,' said one of the most profane.
" ' It may be a warning to you, shipmates ; and as there's nothing to do after supper, and the barky is going along steady, when the boys clear away the things, I'll tell you what happened in the barque Sunderland when I was in her, on a voyage from Hull to Buenos Ayres."
u ' Were you in the barque Sunderland V asked a Hull sailor, with much excitement.
72 The Young Man-of-Wars Man.
u6 Yes, shipmate.'
" 4 Well, by the holy man of the mast, I don't wonder you carry such a long figure-head, and look as solemn as a pig with his head cut off. Why, boys, aboard that barque old Jemmy Square- foot took a fellow away off his chest, and kept him a week out of the ship, and then brought him back V
il Of course this aroused every one's curiosity, and the pots and pans were wiped out, and pipes lit, and everybody gathered about old Jemmy, eager to hear about the devil carrying off a man.
" ' Well, lads,' he began, when everything was settled, and the pipes were all going, 'we were in the barque Sunderland, bound from Hull to Buenos Ayres, after a cargo of hides and horns. She was a lively barque, a trim boat, sailed well, worked easy, and steered like a top. We had twelve men before the mast. The fore- castle had leaked a little on first coming out, and the skipper allowed us to move our chests into a large steerage she had, where we lived as comfortably as dukes. We had a good crew, all except the sailmaker, who was a horrid wicked wretch, whose mouth never opened but to let out a lot of blackguarding, that was enough to sink the ship. Now Sails had never made a southern voyage before' (here everybody looked at Jordie Christie, but Jemmy took no notice), ' and when we came to near the line, he declared his intention never to see Neptune, nor submit himself to the usual ceremonies. The nearer we approached the equator, as the skipper calls the line, the louder
Swearing Rewarded. 73
Sails swore, until one Sunday morning, when we were all sitting on our chests in the steerage, smoking and yarning, he all at once broke out in a long string of oaths, and ended by declaring that he wished Jemmy Squarefoot might take him off to perdition that minute, if he ever meant to submit to any of their gammon. Shipmates, he hadn't the words out of his mouth before the poor fool began to wriggle, and struggle, and bel- low, as though somebody had hold of him, drag- ging him off. And while we all sat astounded, he was lifted bodily off his chest, and carried on his back, struggling and catching at everything that he passed, right up the steerage-ladder — tearing down a stancheon on the way, so tightly did he cling — and then forward, across to the lee side, and over the fore-sheet, catching and unreef- ing the lee fore-tack as he went overboard ; and that was the last we saw of him, although we heard a shouting and groaning for more than ten minutes afterward. We had followed Sails up the hatchway, and had seen him dragged forward by some invisible power. He went along head-fore- most, and on his back, only his heels touching the deck, he catching at every rope as he went past, and struggling to hold on, but all in vain.
" ' You may fancy, shipmates, how we all felt. The boys cried for fright, and we men shut our lips together, and thought our time was come. The captain came down into the steerage by-and- by, and asked how the whole thing had com- menced. (He and the mates had seen all that occurred on deck.) After we had told him all
a
74 The Young Man-of Wars Man,
about SaiVs swearing, he pulled a Bible out of his pocket, and said he would read some chapters to us, and then go on deck, where there was a prayer- book, and have prayers. And so we did, although the skipper made a poor fist at reading prayers, having to stop and spell out the longest words, and calling them by such ugly names that no one could more than half understand him. Howsom- ever, be that as it may, we were glad to hear the prayer, and there was no more swearing on that day in the steerage. We talked the matter over ; but it was as plain as the cook's face, that Jemmy Squarefoot had been listening, and, hearing Sail 9s impious wish, had taken him at his word.
" ' That night we all gathered on the steerage- hatch, for somehowr no one cared to stay on the forecastle ; and the mate once said, indeed, that while looking to leeward, under the foot of the mainsail, he heard a groan, and then a peal of Satanic laughter ; but none of us heard it, and perhaps it was only his imagination. Next day was Monday ; and all that week we were kept tight to work, so that we should not have time to think over poor Sails. And so, what with not caring to talk over the matter, and scarcely having time to think of it, by the time Saturday night came along we had apparently forgotten that such a fellow as he was ever in the ship. But, ship- mates, somehow / thought of hinv all the time, and I guess the rest did so too, although they said nothing. There was one evidence of our yet bearing in memory the fate of the unfortunate, and that was, that there had not been an oath
A Doomed Vessel, 75
heard on board since his mysterious disappearance. Saturday night passed off more quietly than usual. We sipped our grog in silence/ or spoke a few- words about the probable distance to port, which we were anxious to reach, as it was a general understanding among all hands forward that we would there leave, and not try to return to Eng- land in what we felt to be a doomed vessel.
" ' We had passed the line and taken a fair slant, wrhich had set us well on our way. Sunday morn- ing came. There was a good breeze, and we wTere bowling off eight knots, with foretopmast and main topgallant stud'n-sails set. At eight bells we went to breakfast, both watches, as it was fair weather, eating together in the steerage. After breakfast was cleared off, we sat on our chests smoking, when old Bill Thomas all at once spoke up—
" ' Well, shipmates, what's the use of trying to hide it % We're all thinking of the same thing — how last Sunday, at this time, we had one more in the mess.'
" ' Just then, before any one could answer, there was a sound as of a heavy body falling on deck, forward, and a loud cry from the man at the wheel, who was the only one on deck at the time, the cook being down in the cabin getting the cabin breakfast. We started up, looking at one another in alarm. Bill saic[ —
" ' Lads, let us all go on deck together, for hang my toplights if I don't believe the ship is haunted.'
" ' I led the way, being nearest the ladder. On deck we found the officers just running forward,
j6 The Young Man-of-Wars Man.
and we all proceeded toward the forecastle in a body. Arrived there, we heard a groan, and look- ing to leeward of the foremast, on the rigging we found — ■ Shipmates/ said old Jemmy, earnestly, 'we found the body of the sailmaker V He was barely breathing, and just able to open his eyes and mouth, and let out an occasional groan. After standing a few minutes in utter consternation, we mustered our senses together and took him down below, some of the men swearing roundly, in their terror, that not only wouldn't they touch any one who had passed a week with old Jemmy Square- foot, but even refusing to sleep in the steerage while he was there. However, their counsel did not prevail. We took him down and laid him in his bunk, which had never been touched since his disappearance. He was overhauled by the skip- per, who said that no bones were broken, but he was somewhat bruised. We fed him and tended on him carefully for two or three days, when he was able to go to his duty. But he was a changed man. From being a noisy, violent fellow, always ready to quarrel, he had become quiet and silent, never speaking unless previously spoken to, and making as short answers as possible. You may imagine that we were eager enough to know what he had been doing, or where he had been during his week's absence. But on this subject he pre- served a most studious silence, and the only bit of information that we ever pumped out of him was this, that he was awake and conscious all the time that he was away. We got to Buenos Ayres in due time, and there found our cargo waiting for
Crossing the Line. 7 7
us. We were rather a dull set on the passage home, and I never was so glad to get out of a vessel as I was to get rid of the barque Sunder- land. When we got to Hull, the sailmaker, who had got very pious ever since his return to the vessel, and read his Bible daily, consulted with a parson, and concluded to live on shore, and go to sea no more. He told us, his shipmates, that he had related his adventures to the chaplain at the Sailors' Bethel in Hull, that they were to be printed, but not till after his death."'
Eight bells was struck just as Jack Haley finished his yarn, to which we had all listened with great interest.
" Get a pull of the weather main-brace," was the word passed along for the watch ; and we hastily broke up, gathered up oar jackets, tight- ened the brace, and went below to our hammocks, I with my head filled with ghosts, and imps, and drunken swearing sailors, which three classes of personages formed the staple subjects of my dreams the next four hours.
We crossed the line without anything remark- able happening.
" Why, we didn't even see it," said a waister, with a look of disappointment, that elicited a burst of laughter at his expense.
A few days longer of light variable winds and heavy showers, and we were blessed with a fine breeze from the eastward, which, gradually haul- ing to the south-east, there set, and continued with us until we made the land. We now bowled along right merrily. Everything on board had
78 The Young Man-of-Wars Man.
been reduced to the required order ; the crew were pretty well acquainted, sufficiently so to make things agreeable; and the mild air and beautiful weather put everybody, even to our crusty old captain, in a good humour. Beside pre- paring our ship for her entrance into port, we had general quarters every Friday morning.
A few weeks of fair winds brought us into the latitude of Eio, and we stood in toward the land, from which our distance was inconsiderable. Three days longer, and we would be in, it was said. Oh ! what a long three days they were, to be sure ! In them, too, a great deal was to be done. The chafing gear was taken off, holidays (white spots) on the rigging carefully touched up with tar, boats' gripes loosened, topgallant and royal yards prepared for being sent down when we got in, the anchors got off the bows, and chains bent to them, brass railings around the poop got on deck and secured, and on the last two mornings preceding our entry into Eio, clean hammocks bent, and the dirty ones scrubbed. At last, when I had got tired out with waiting, we were electri- fied by the eager cry of " Land-ho !" from the topmast head. It was four o'clock in the afternoon of the 25th of July. Before sunset we could plainly discern the land from deck, rising from the ocean, in little blue hills surrounding an im- mense peak, which at dark loomed up against the sky as though suspended immediately above our heads. This was Cape Frio, the first land made by vessels approaching Bio de Janeiro from the north. It would be useless for me to attempt to
Cape Frio. 79
describe the interest and delight with which I, for the first time, viewed a foreign shore. I remained on deck nearly all the first watch, although it was my time to sleep, and was content to watch the great peak looming up against the sky, looking like an enormous black cloud ready to precipitate itself upon us, in thunder, lightning, and rain. We lay hove-to nearly all night, and at early dawn filled away, and stood in with a light but fair breeze. We rapidly neared the land, and at noon were inside of Cape Frio, becalmed at the entrance of the bay of Kio de Janeiro. The view which was now spread before us seemed to me delightful beyond conception. The abrupt grandeur of the scenery, so unlike anything I had ever before beheld, mountains piled upon mountains, peak rising above peak, until, in the far distance, the highest seemed lost in the clouds ; immediately before us the immense mount, called, on account of its peculiar shape, the Sugar-loaf, rearing its barren side up against the sky; the two white forts, posted like sentinels on either side of the entrance of the harbour ; the curiously rigged shallops and polaccas, sweeping lazily past on the limpid tide ; the little fishing boats, scattered here and there about the bay, with their immense lug- sails fluttering languidly in the breeze ; the white houses, dotted all along the shore, surrounded by and peeping out of umbrageous groves of oranges and limes. As I gazed, I almost fancied myself transported into fairyland. When the breeze rose again, we glided along smoothly over the rippling waters of the bay, all hands, dressed in snowy white, crowding the upper deck.
80 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
We dipped our colours on passing the forts, Sancta Gloria and Sanct Antonio by name, the guardians of the harbour, and with a freshening breeze ran quickly up to our anchorage. All hands were at their stations for taking in sail. Every stitch of canvas was set, studding sails alow and aloft on both sides. It had been determined to take in all sail, and moor the ship at once, an evo- lution which, if well performed, would gain us credit as a smart set ; but, on the other hand, if botched, certain to involve us in inextricable con- fusion and disgrace. But here we are ; the com- mander comes quickly aft to take charge, the officers report to him everything clear in their dif- ferent departments ; he gives a scrutinising glance aloft, and then stands silently awaiting the signal from the captain, who, with finger on chart, is waiting for the vessel to run up to the berth he has chosen for her. We are now at the anchoring ground. Before us is spread a gay panorama of ships of all nations, their colours fluttering in the breeze ; beyond them "lies the city, arrayed in snowy dazzling white.
A nod from the captain, and —
"Stand by to take in sail," gently roars the commander through his speaking-trumpet. " Stand by your tacks, sheets, halyards, and braces." The crew suddenly start into lively activity.
" Haul in all your studding-sails — down royals — topgallant-sails — up courses — settle away your topsail halyards — braces there, quartermasters — sheets — clew him up lively, men."
In but little longer time than it takes to give
Dropping A nchor. 8 1
the orders, every sail is hauled to the yard, ready to be furled at the word.
" Let go the starboard anchor."
Plash goes the anchor, one hundred and fifty fathoms of chain cable thundering through the hawsehole. The chain is out ; the other anchor is dropped under foot, half of the first one hun- dred and fifty fathoms hove in, and the ship lies moored midway between her anchors.
" All hands furl sail," pipes the boatswain.
"Lay aloft, topmen — lower and topgallant yardmen aloft."
Five hundred men spring eagerly up the rigging, and cluster together on the yards, and close in to the masts.
We took in and furled all sails, and moored the ship in eight minutes, and in fifteen minutes the decks were cleared up and swept down, the yards squared, the rigging flemished down on deck, and everything as quiet and orderly as though we had been lying at the anchorage a month.
A shrill blast of the boatswain's call, followed by a shout of —
" Where are you, side boys 1" admonished me that I was one, and I hurried to the starboard gangway, just in time to swing the man-ropes to a Brazilian officer, captain of the port, who had come alongside in a shore boat, rowed by six men, whom I guessed, at first glance, from their long, lank, sinewy figures, and the deep ebony hue of their skin, to be real Africans. The officer was received at the gangway by the commander, and on the poop by the captain. He came oil
82 The Young Man-of -War s Man.
beard to receive any report the captain had to make, and to offer the hospitalities of the port to our ship, and finally to make arrangements about saluting next day. His business was trans- acted in a few minutes, and he returned to his boat and to the shore.
No sooner was the anchor down, than the ser- geant of marines was busy placing sentries at the gangways, larboard and starboard, and on the bows. The office of these sentries is to keep off shore boats, unless they have special business, of which notice is given to the officer of the deck, to prevent the smuggling on board of liquor and other contraband articles, and also to act as checks on any attempts on the part of the sailors to make their escape from the vessel. They are on guard night and day, and have a laborious and thankless task of it. Of course, the marines per- form this duty.
The yards being squared and all things made snug and clear, alow and aloft, we were piped to supper. During supper, the commodore, accom- panied by his secretary, went ashore in a shore boat. After supper, a few men were despatched aloft, to see to getting the topgallant and royal yards ready for coming down on deck. Below, the immense yard-ropes were carefully coiled down, ready for slacking down, tripping-lines and down- hauls were manned, and soon all was in readiness for sunset, which is the time chosen for such evo- lutions as this. The band gathered on the lar- board side of the poop, the ship's drummers and fifers assembled on the quarter-deck ; the men, all
Portuguese Joe. 83
but one on each mast, came down from aloft; and the whole ship again for a few minutes resumed her air of quiet and lifelessness, regarded from without.
" All hands down topgallant and royal yards," from the boatswain and his mates, called every- body on deck.
Everything is ready, the captain raises his fin- ger, the drums and fifes play several lively airs, and after the last, the bass drum taps — one, two, three — and at the third tap, and accompanying roll of the smaller drums, the ship's colours are hauled down, the topgallant and royal yards swing from horizontal to perpendicular, as by magic, and are swiftly lowered to the deck, amid a long-drawn trill on the boatswain's call. The band plays ; the men unbend the sails from the yards just sent down, make them up, mark them, and deposit them in the sail-locker ; the yards are triced up in the lower rigging j the yard-ropes brought into the mast, so as not to show conspicuously ; the rigging is coiled down, and all is finished.
At quarters, word was passed that the crews of the two market-boats were to be in readiness at four o'clock next morning, to go ashore with the the stewards. At dusk the hammocks were piped down, and then all hands congregated about decks and talked over the pleasant day, discussed the probability of our getting "liberty" (leave to spend a day or two on shore) in this place, and those of them who had been here before spun yarns of past adventures. Among others, I heard much mention of Portuguese Joe, a bum-boatman,
84 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
who had the name of being a most dangerous fellow to have dealings with. Bum-boatmen are persons who bring alongside, daily, supplies of fruits and various shore delicacies, for the use of such of the crew as care to indulge in luxuries of that kind, and labour under no pecuniary disa- bilities to prevent the fulfilment of their desires. Of Portuguese Joe it was said that he had taken the lives of several men-of-war's men who had either cheated or insulted him, and that he made free use of poison in dealing with such of his ac- quaintances as became obnoxious to him. These allegations were in all likelihood true enough, for the lower classes of Brazilians are notoriously re- vengeful and treacherous, and the stiletto and the poisoned cup are in common use among them. But, true or false, I found that these allegations secured for Mr Portuguese Joe (the only name I ever heard for him) most unbounded respect, and a perfect immunity from the depredations not un- frequently committed on bum-boatmen — thus proving that there may be advantages in having a bad name.
At nine o'clock (two bells), came tattoo, which closes the waking day of a vessel-of-war in port. The drums and fifes were again put in requisition, and after playing a number of tunes, precisely at nine commenced the grand roulade, at the third roll a cannon being fired off, while the bell is at the same time struck two. A perfect silence suc- ceeds the din of the kettle-drums, interrupted after a while by the voice of the master-at-arms ordering some one to go to his hammock. After
Hammock Inspection, 85
gun-fire no one is allowed out of his hammock, except such few persons as are on duty. Neither is any loud talking or other disturbance permitted. All the lights in the ship are extinguished by the master-at-arms, and the fact reported to the officer of the deck ; and the stillness of slumber rests upon the ship.
CHAPTER V.
HARBOUR LIFE ON BOARD SHIP.
At four o'clock next morning we were awakened by the firing of a gun on deck, seconded by a din on the drums, similar to that of the evening pre- vious. Shortly after, the bugler called away the crews of the market-boats; at five, " all hands" were called, and the boatswain's mates went round admonishing every man to lash his hammock neatly. Coming up the mizzen-hatch with my hammock, I found the commander there, examin- ing each one as it was carried past, sending some back. Now the last man on deck with his ham- mock is black listed, so that there is usually a punishment consequent upon a neglect or care- lessness. As soon as the hammocks were stowed, the crew commenced holystoning the decks, the chief boatswain's mate meantime calling over the names of all on the black-list, and apportioning
H
86 The Young Man-of-War s Man.
to them the dirty work of the morning. While the rest of the crew were washing the decks, we side-boys were busied scraping and scouring the side-ladder, reaching from a large grating at the water's edge to the upper deck.
In harbour, the starboard is considered the side of honour. Thus that side of the quarter-deck is sacred from intrusion even of the officers, when not on duty. Officers come on board, or leave the ship from the starboard side. That side is furnished with a convenient ladder, while on the other there are only a few cleats, as supports to the feet in the labour of climbing up. Ship's stores, drunken sailors, and provisions of all sorts, are taken on board from the larboard side, and bum-boats and other unofficial shore boats are re- ceived there.
When the decks were dried, and the bright- work cleaned, awnings were spread fore and aft : at eight o'clock, the crew were piped to breakfast, and ordered to u clean themselves, in white frocks and trousers, and white hats." At nine the colours were hoisted to the sound of drums and fifes, and the crew inspected at quarters, and then the regular day's work was begun. The boats were sent ashore in charge of officers, and on various errands. The boatswain took a good look at the outside of the vessel, his point of view being a boat, in which he was pulled around.
For some time before breakfast was piped, I had noticed a number of large boats crowding around the larboard gangway, but not permitted by the sentry to touch the vessel. As soon as it
" Johnny Racka." 87
was breakfast-time these boats hauled alongside. After having their contents inspected by one of the assistant-surgeons, to see that they contained nothing deleterious to health, and by the master- at-arms, to prevent the importation of anything obnoxious to sobriety, the word was passed that the bum-boats were alongside, and immediately a crowd besieged the narrow gangway, anxious to examine their contents, and purchase an addition to the meagre ship's allowance. I was the lucky possessor of a silver dollar, sent on board to me in Philadelphia by a considerate friend, and deter- mined to invest a portion of my capital in fruit. Getting into the boats, I found there for sale, oranges, bananas, cocoa-nuts, fried fish, boiled eggs, soft tack (the ship's name for soft bread), and a sticky preparation of guavas, wrapped up in plantain leaves, and tasting not unlike a mixture of three parts coarse sugar, and one part clean sand. This was known by the euphonious title of Johnny Kackd, and was in great demand among the boys. The boats themselves were the scenes of most dire confusion. The articles kept for sale were piled away in bow and stern, the middle of the boat being left as a gangway, or passage for customers. There was a terrible din, every one speaking, or rather hallooing at the top of his voice. The boats were continually rolling from side to side, as those on board changed places, and not unfrequently one would go gun- wale under, and ship water, to the dismay of the owner, and the delight of mischievous sailors. In the stern of the boat nearest the vessel sat the
88 The Young Man-of -War's Man.
notorious Portuguese Joe, presiding with the air of a Jew king over " the delicacies of the season." After waiting a reasonable length of time, with the idea that the crowd would either disperse or grow more orderly, but seeing no symptoms of either, I mustered up all my courage, and rushed into the crowd, determined to be as reckless as any one. Falling over a waister with a bosom full of oranges, and a bunch of bananas in each hand, and leaving him on his back in the bottom of Portuguese Joe's boat, I rushed headlong into the farther skiff of the row, taking advantage of the swinging or rolling of the boats to give addi- tional impetus to my jumps. I succeeded at length in reaching the desired place; not, how- ever, without having been instrumental in the downfall of more than one sturdy tar. Bat " every one for himself" was the ruling motto; and I thought, not unreasonably, that if they could stand it I could. Taking fast hold of a thwart, to prevent being pushed overboard in the general confusion, I now priced the articles exposed for sale. Dumps are the prevailing currency of Brazilian bum-boats. What may be the legal ten- ders of the empire in general, thanks to the care with which we were preserved from the deleterious influences of the shore, I am unable to this day to say ; but the dump, a piece of copper, of the value of one penny, was the coin by which the worth of everything in the boats was estimated. For five of these I received about two dozen oranges, a bunch of bananas, and a small loaf of soft tack, and an additional dump procured me a
A Feast. 89
piece of the much-prized Johnny Kackd. On presenting my dollar for payment, I received in exchange no less than forty-four dumps.
Tying the money into a little handkerchief, and putting that with my purchases into my bosom (the place where the man-of-war sailor deposits everything which a " landsman " would carry in a basket or in his pockets), I followed pell-mell in the wake of a great broad-shouldered fellow, who was just making his way back, and succeeded in gaining the deck without an accident, except that, on looking for my Johnny Kackd, I found the greater portion of it smeared on my under-flannel. I found, on inquiry, that breakfast-time was over, and was obliged to defer enjoying my purchases until after quarters. Hurriedly depositing every- thing— oranges, bananas, money, and all — in the mess-chest, I slipped on my clean white frock and trousers, and stowed my bag in the locker just as the drum beat.
After quarters, I called a chum of mine, and we two went to our mess-chest, and there, in company with the cook, took " a regular blow out," not leaving a vestige of my purchase in view. I en- joyed the fruits amazingly. Oranges, such as are sold at home, are but as dirt compared to the golden ripe sweet fruit which was here brought us. The banana I had never seen before, but it needed only the experience gained by allowing one to melt away in my mouth, to assure me of the fact that its equal is scarcely to be found among all the luscious fruits of the tropics.
But enough of bum-boats and gormandizing.
90 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
At eleven o'clock we saluted the Brazilian flag, the salute being returned from the fort in the inner harbour. The market-boats, in the morning, had brought on board a day's allowance of fresh meat and vegetables for the crew (the fore and hind quarters of two large bullocks, and several hampers of sweet potatoes and other vegetables), and of this the ship's cook was now preparing a fragrant soup, the delicious odour of which per- vaded the whole ship, causing us to long for the arrival of the dinner hour.
For several successive days the larger boats were now employed in bringing off water and some few provisions. The water was brought aboard in large casks, which were towed ashore empty, but tightly bunged, then rolled up to the watering place, filled, rolled down to the water's edge, and fastened together in the form of a raft, for convenience in towing. The watering parties, which consisted of the crews of the launch and the first cutter, were the only ones of the ship's company who got their feet on dry land here. The watering place was situated in a portion of the harbour opposite to the city. The little rivulet where the casks were filled ran down to the bay through an orange grove ; and our fellows used to bring off their bosoms full of the golden fruit, as trophies of the shore.
That no one was allowed to go ashore here was a bitter disappointment to me, who had come to see foreign lands — not bargaining, however, for so distant & view of them as I was now getting. Had there been the least opportunity for such a
Saints Days at Rio. 91
feat, I should have run away from the ship, so outrageous did it seem to me to be cooped up within the wooden walls of a vessel, within sight and reach of so much that was grand, and beauti- ful, and strange.
The month of July being for Brazil the dead of winter, it must not be supposed that the weather was continually as fine as on the day of our entrance into the harbour. Indeed, we were fav- oured with but two or three more of such days during our stay. It being the rainy season, which answers to our winter, there was more or less rain every day or night — not, as with us, preceded and attended by dark, lowering clouds, and a gloomy, leaden sky, but coming up suddenly, lasting two, three, or four hours, and then clearing off, and succeeded by a scorching sun, which quickly dried up all superabundant moisture.
Rio seems to be a place of continual Sundays. In point of fact, from three to four days in every week are saints' days, on which occasions vessels- of-war of all nations are expected to dress up with all the colours and holiday gear obtainable, and salute the Brazilian ensign waving over the palace, near the water side. The remaining days are generally devoted to the interchange of visits and other civilities among the dignitaries of the dif- ferent fleets which always crowd this noble bay; and of course, on such occasions, there is again a din of saluting ; so that not a day passes when the harbour does not resound with salvos in honour of some live commodore or dead saint — their value, estimated in gunpowder, being about the same.
92 The Young Man-of-Wars Man.
The bum-boats, "which had been so terribly besieged on our first arrival, were shortly almost deserted. Jack's money was gone. It takes but a marvellously short time to get to the bottom of an outward-bound tar's purse ; and we were fain to content ourselves with casting wishful eyes at luxuries which, like the apples of Tantalus, were placed just within our reach.
After three weeks' sojourn in Eio — or, rather, in the harbour — preparations were commenced for going to sea once more. Large supplies of fruit, poultry, and pigs came on board, for the use of the officers (poor Jack is only allowed to look at such delicacies), and, finally, the boats were hoisted in and lashed, and we were " ready for sea." The sailing-day, although perhaps settled on for weeks beforehand, is carefully concealed from all on board, even the lieutenants and other minor officers not being permitted to know it. Neither is the crew supposed to know (although it gener- ally leaks out somehow) whither the vessel is to proceed next. The reason of this secresy I do not know, except it is simply this, that the crew have no business to know, and therefore are not informed. At last, aall hands" were called one evening to " unmoor ship," the commodore came on board late at night, and next morning we got under weigh, and bade good-bye to Eio.
We proceeded to sea with a light but fair breeze, which kept by us until we met the south- east trade winds, at the end of the second week out. Once fairly at sea, the old routine of sea life recommenced. White clothes, which we had worn
Rations on Board Ship. 93
daily in harbour, were laid aside, and blue dun- garee resumed, and with it the every-day exis- tence of which that species of cotton cloth seems to be a peculiar and universal type. Through the kind foresight of the commodore, we had carried out with us a supply of fresh beef and vegetables, sufficient to last the crew for two days, after which sea rations were again served out.
As I have not before given any account of these sea rations, it will be well enough to do so here. Each individual on board ship, from the commo- dore to the messenger-boy, is allowed one ration per day, valued at twenty-four shillings per month. In this matter no difference is made by rank, the only distinction being that the officers are allowed to stop their rations, and take the value in money instead, with which, and funds contributed from their private purses, they supply their larder, while Jack is obliged to take the provision fur- nished by government. A ration consists of one pound and a half of biscuit per day, one pint of beans three times per week, three-fourths of a pound of flour and two ounces of raisins twice a week, half a pint of rice twice a week, one-fourth of a pound each of butter and cheese, a gill each of molasses and vinegar twice a week, a daily allowance of either tea, coffee, or cocoa (these are alternated), one and a half pounds of beef four times per week, one and a quarter pounds of pork thrice a week, and half a gill of grog twice a day, at breakfast and dinner. The boys are consider- ately deprived of their grog, receiving, in lieu thereof, the sum of half-a-crown per month. The
94 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
existence of mess cooks has been before alluded to. The berth-deck is the chief scene of their labours. There the mess-chests are ranged be- tween the guns, two messes occupying the space between every two guns. There are between twelve and sixteen men in each mess, who have their rations served out in common ; and it is for the purpose of receiving the provisions from the pursers steward, preparing them for the ship's cook, and taking them of him again when cooked, that a mess cook is found necessary. These, how- ever, are not by any means his only duties. He is required to keep the place about his mess on the berth-deck in an extraordinary state of clean- liness; to keep in good order the pots, pans, spoons, and other utensils belonging to the mess ; and to have every article under his charge ready for a daily inspection by the first lieutenant. This inspection is extremely rigid. The preparations for it commence daily at eleven o'clock ; the lids of the mess -chests are taken off, exposing the inside to a thorough examination ; the various tin pots and pans, brightly scoured, are set in rows on the inverted chest lid, and locker doors are thrown widely open — every kind of concealment being strictly forbidden. At seven bells the cooks stand by their mess-chests, and the first lieutenant, accompanied by the master-at-arms, passes around. The former has on his hands, for the occasion, white cotton gloves ; and should he, in rubbing these on the inside of any tins, or on any portion of the gear, get them soiled with grease or dirt, woe betide the unfortunate cook whose organ of
The Ship's Coppers, 95
tidiness has lacked development ! He is sure to be paid with a flogging for the lieutenant's soiled gloves. The boilers in which the provisions are cooked are subject to a similar daily inspection — made, however, by the doctor, instead of the first lietenant. The coppers, or kettles, in which the victuals for seven hundred men are prepared, are, as may be readily imagined, of no small size. On our ship there were three — one for tea or coffee, one for meat, and another for rice or beans, or "duff." Each of these divisions was six feet deep by four feet wide, and between five and six feet long. In scouring them out, the cook's assistants get into them bodily, using sand and canvas to scrub them clean. When ready for inspection, the doctor is called, and, standing on a ladder put down into each copper for the pur- pose, rubs his white-gloved hand along the surface and in every nook and corner. As in the case of the mess cooks, every mark on the gloves is scored upon the back of the delinquent scullion. The office of ship's cook is generally held by coloured men, they having been proved by experience to be the handiest or best suited for the place. The office was in olden times one of some dignity, and our old black cook used to relate with great glee that, when he was a boy in the navy, the ship's cook was privileged to wear a sword.
" All same as Capen," said Cuffy, with a grin.
At seven bells, daily, the cook brings a sample of the crew's dinner to the officer of the deck, who tastes it to see that it is properly cooked, after which it is served out to the
g6 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
mess cooks, who set the table preparatory to dinner.
The first Saturday at sea the brig was unmoored, that is, the prisoners were punished, and set at liberty. Coming up the main hatchway, after quarters, I noticed a heavy grating lashed down to two eyebolts, at the weather gangway, and two light lines hanging down over the hammock rail above. Looking aft, I saw the marines under arms, on the lee side of the quarter deck, and officers coming on deck with their side arms on. Walking forward to inquire what all this prepara- tion meant, I remarked an unusual stillness, all laughing and singing hushed, and even talking going on only in subdued tones. But here comes the boatswain. Winding loud his pipe, he calls —
"All hands witness punishment, ahoy !" The dread reality burst upon my mind. They were going to flog the poor fellows in the brig. Going down on the main deck, I found the master- at-arms taking off their irons, which done, he marched them, under convoy of a sentry, up to the gangway. Meantime the officers gathered on the quarter deck, swords in hand, the marines stood to their arms, and the boatswain was en- gaged in driving the men on deck, no one being allowed to absent himself from the barbarous display. Everybody being on deck, the captain descends from the poop and walks slowly to the gangway, where the master-at-arms hands him a list of the prisoners. The doctor stands behind the captain, to notify to him when, in his opinion,
Punishment. 97
the body that is being flogged threatens to suc- cumb under the brutal infliction.
" Thomas Brown," calls the captain, gruffly.
The man steps forward in silence.
" You were drunk, sir. Master-at-arms, strip him."
Meantime, while the work of stripping is going on, the precise portion of the articles of war which Thomas Brown had transgressed by getting drunk, is read aloud, and the master-at-arms having helped the poor fellow off with his shirt, and laid it loosely over his shoulders again, the quarter- masters are ordered to " seize him up."
He is walked forward on to the grating, to which his feet are securely fastened by lashings, his wrists being in like manner lashed to the hammock-rail above his head. A few moments of dread silence now intervene, during which the chief boatswain's mate is seen nervously running his fingers through the cats.
" Boatswain's mate, do your duty."
He advances, and, poised on his right foot, swinging the cat over his back, takes deliberate aim at the human back spread before him. Thug, sounds the cat. " One" solemnly announces the master-at-arms. The victim does not move. Thug — two. Now the flesh on his back quivers and creeps, the injured muscles contract, and the stripes assume a bright red tinge. Thug — three. The stripes turn a dark purple, and the grating shakes convulsively with the reluctant start wrung from the strong man in agony. Thug — four. Blood — Oh ! I could look no more, but burying
I
98 The Young Man-of -War s Man.
my face in my hands, turned from the sickening scene. But still the dull thug resounded in my ears, followed toward the last by a low moan, until twelve was reached, when the boatswain's mate was stopped, the poor fellow taken down, his shirt flung over his bleeding back, and another victim called forth.
About twenty were flogged that morning. Many more times was I compelled to hear the sharp whistle of the cat as it swung through the air, and the dull sound of the blow as it met the quivering flesh ; but never more did I see a man flogged.
Those who talk wisely about the necessity of flogging for sailors need only once to witness the infliction of the punishment they think so need- ful, and experience, within their own breasts, the feeling of dark humiliation which falls upon the soul at seeing the manhood thus being scourged out of a fellow creature, to alter their convictions as to the expediency of flogging. Let them see once the down look of the poor victim of a bar- barous tyranny, and they will not say, " it does not injure a sailor.' '
It may be asked here, what was the effect upon the rest of the ship's company? Of visible effect there was little. A man-of-war is not the place for too free an expression of opinion. The regu- lations of the service do not admit of freedom of speech. They contain such a word as mutiny, for which they provide " death, or such other punish- ment as a court-martial shall provide." And, as there can be no half-way talk concerning so brutal
At Sea Again. 99
a practice as flogging a human being — a creature created in the image of God — the consequence is an ominous silence. " A still tongue makes a wise head" — nowhere more so than in the service, where it is truly said : —
"You are allowed to think what you please; but you must not think aloud."
CHAPTER VI.
A GALE AT SEA.
When we were once fairly in the south-east trades, then began one of the most delightful portions of our voyage.
Of course, the ocean itself differs but little in these latitudes from anywhere else. It is the same vast expanse of undulating blue, heaving in long rollers, as far as eye can reach, and out of which the sun glides silently but swiftly, in the morning, returning again in golden splen- dour at night. But the accessories are what make the sailing here so pleasant. Nowhere else, at sea, is the wind so entirely soft and devoid of all harshness. Even in strong breezes, it fans one's cheek like the soft zephyrs which, at home, an- nounce to us the advent of spring. Then the glorious constellations of the southern hemisphere, which we now first began to bring plainly above
ioo The Young Man-of-Wars Man.
the horizon, viewed through the slight haze which prevails in these latitudes, assumed an intense and vivid brightness, which was as beautiful as strange. The vast masses of snow-white clouds which con- tinually roll up from the south-east, add grandeur to the scene. The waters, which at night sparkle as though reflecting the stars above, marking the ship's wake in a long band of glistening gold — these waters are alive with fish. All day long, the voracious dolphin pursues the little flying-fish, running him out of the water here, only to await him with open maw at the spot where, his strength failing, he falls back into the waves. Schools of porpoises leap high above the swell, exulting in a power which neither wind nor tide can overcome.
Day after day this view continues the same. The ocean, the clouds, the breeze, the very fish even that gambol about the bows, seem to be the same, and one could easily fancy the vessel to be set here in mid-ocean, like one of those little miniature ships which we see on old-fashioned clocks, rolling and pitching all day, but making no headway.
Standing on, we were soon in the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope, although many degrees to the westward of it. The weather now began to undergo a very sensible change. The nights, before mild, grew cool. The breeze, soft even in its strength, became harsh, and howled strangely through the rigging — foreboding a storm, the old tars said. The clouds, which rolled over in vast snow-white masses, not dense enough to conceal the bright constellations of the south, grew darker
A*Stiff,Gale.. ior
and more lowering. The • Atlantic 'assumed a longer and more powerful roll, as though gather- ing strength for the approaching conflict with the vast waves of the Indian Ocean. The flying-fish, the albicore and bonita, and the white tropic bird, have left us, and in their places we have the cape pigeon, screaming in our wake all day. At last, a solitary albatross appears — lonely harbinger of a land of ice and snow.
The wind, which had been growing stronger for some days, now freshened into a gale, and the second evening after changing our course found us under close-reefed fore and main topsails, reefed foresail, and storm staysail. The night was ex- ceedingly wild ; the mountain billows roared as they dashed past us on their resistless path ; the mad storm- wind seemed to tear spitefully through the rigging, shrieking as though angered that our good ship withstood all his powers. Once in a while, a solitary cape pigeon would rise from a wave, only to be dashed with a shrill scream into the water again. It blew great guns. Our vessel wallowed through the seas, rolling the mouths of the main-deck guns under at every lurch.
This was the first real gale of wind we had yet seen. Now, for the first time, was our spar-deck wet with spray. Even now, however, the vessel shipped no regular seas, washing everything fore and aft, as would be the case with a smaller vessel under such circumstances ; but once in a while a great monster wave would lift its head against our side, and, bursting when just reaching our upper ports, send a little deluge across the deck,
\oi The Young. Man-of-War s Man.
to' run out to 'the leeward. Life ropes had been rigged towards night, to prevent any one from being carried forcibly to leeward in the heavy lurches. The ports were closed as tightly as pos- sible, and hammocks were piped down early, to give the watch below a chance to turn in out of the wet and cold.
A vessel-of-war is an uncomfortable place in a gale of wind. To be sure the large crew makes the labour of taking in sail and making all snug comparatively light. But while the merchant sailor, his work done, turns into his warm bunk, and keeps himself dry and comfortable — comfort- able, comparatively speaking only, reader — (but all comfort is comparative) — the man-of-war's man, on going below, finds a wet and sloppy deck, up and down which he must puddle, the weary hours of his watch below. Hammocks are not allowed below during the day ; seats there are none, or almost none ; to sit or lie down on the wet deck is impossible ; and there is nothing for it but to walk, a proceeding that has the additional ad- vantage of keeping up the temperature of one's body, which is apt to get low in the absence of all fire, when the thermometer ranges only about ten degrees above the freezing point.
The captain was on deck nearly all night, watching attentively the behaviour of the ship and the action of the gale. All night great masses of scud swept wildly over the sky, the wind, in its f ary, tearing, twisting, and spinning it about, like cotton in a cotton-gin. At twelve o'clock, the gale had so much freshened as to make it
A Sail Destroyed. 103
necessary to take in the foretop-sail. On board a little merchant craft, this would now have been a piece of work to employ all hands for the better part of a watch. Here, a few maintop men were sent over to aid the foretop men, and, without disturbing the watch below, the rag was taken off her.
The strain which is brought upon a sail when it is filled or distended by the wind, does not, by any means, fall upon all parts alike. The extremi- ties receive the greater share ; and to enable them to withstand this, the edges of the sail are lined with strong rope, to which the sailcloth is secured in a peculiar manner. The perfect soundness and stability of this rope being of great importance to the sail, pains are taken to secure for that purpose a superior quality of rigging. A kind called bolt- rope, the yarns or minute strands of which are prepared with especial care, is exclusively used. Our foresail was a nearly new sail ; but, unfor- tunately, the foot-rope proved defective, having probably become chafed or worn, and, parting in a gust of more than usual violence, the whole sail blew away.
On board a merchant ship, an accident of this kind would not be repaired until the gale moder- ated ; but a different spirit prevails in government vessels.
" Let them send the reef down on deck, Mr Johnson," said our captain ; " and let the waisters of the watch go down into the sail-locker and bring up the other foresail. We'll bend it imme- diately."
104 The Young Manrof -War s Man.
The remnants of the torn sail were soon hauled down on deck ; and the new one being stretched across the forecastle, the rigging was bent, the sail reefed, then securely furled, and, taking ad- vantage of a temporary lull, triced aloft, hauled out, and bent.
The gale lasted all day and night, but died away towards the next morning. Sail was made as the wind decreased, to keep her as steady as possible ; but by noon it was nearly calm, with the sea running mountains high. This is the kind of weather which is most trying to spars and rigging. With no wind to steady the vessel, by bearing her down upon and against the water, the ship lies like an unwieldy monster at the mercy of the billows. We lay at the mercy of the sea, rolling gunwales down, for twenty-four hours, topsails lowered on the cap, courses hauled up to keep them from slatting to pieces, tumbling about like a wreck upon the waters. To walk about the decks was nearly impossible. If actually neces- sary to move, one watches the roll, and, sitting down on the deck, slides down to the spot it is desired to reach. Shot-boxes, shot-racks, match- tubs, all the minor appurtenances of war, which are commonly allowed to stand loose in their places, were sliding about, to the evident danger of the limbs of passers-by. The cook threatened to suspend operations in the galley, but finally made out to cook half allowance, the soup actually rolling out of the coppers while cooking. At dinner, each man having secured his pan of soup, hastened to secure himself, for the purpose of con-
Calm Weather Again. 105
suming it. Some lashed themselves to guns and stanchions, and there swallowed their dinner at their ease. Others were perched in coils of rig- ging, where, being suspended clear of the deck, they had the advantage of retaining their perpen- dicular position, let the ship roll how she would.
On deck, the creaking, and slatting, and jerk- ing, the gradual sinking over on one side, and the sudden recoil, continued to make it nearly impos- sible to move about. It was as much as one could do to hold on ; and when a pull was to be got on any rope, it was first necessary for the men to fasten themselves to the rail in its immediate vicinity, or to pull with one hand and hold on with the other. The noise made by rigging swinging about, blocks flying violently against masts and rigging, and the groaning of the vessel, put all conversation, in ordinary tones, out of the question. It was a scene of indescribable, almost inconceivable confusion. The captain and com- mander, ever and anon, cast anxious glances aloft, fearful that the continual jerking would carry away some of the top-hamper. Luckily, every- thing held fast.
On the third day after the gale broke up, the sea was once more moderately quiet, nothing remaining now as evidence of the late gale, except the long rolling swell which prevails in this lati- tude, as well as perhaps to a greater degree off Cape Horn. The calm which succeeded the gale had, in its turn, been followed by a light and fair breeze, with the aid of which we were now shap- ing our course to the eastward, with all sail set.
1 06 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
The sailing-master desired to sight the islands of St Paul's and New Amsterdam, and by them prove his reckoning, or " get a new departure," as it is called, before laying the ship on her course for Java Head, which was to be, it was now pretty generally understood, the first point at which we would touch.
Aided by a fair and freshening breeze, a few days sufficed to overcome the distance between us and the islands of which we were next to get a sight ; and on the eighth day after the gale, the cry of " Land-ho ! " from the maintop mast-head gave us to understand that the object of our search was attained. The land was right ahead, and a few hours' sailing brought us within a couple of miles of it.
The isles of St Paul's and Amsterdam are bare and sterile, unproductive of aught of ornament or use. Their sole tenants are the sea-birds,4 which congregate there to hatch their young, and a few goats, descendants of a pair left there some years ago by a benevolent whaling skipper, who thus made provision for some future shipwreck. A French vessel was cast away upon St Paul's some fifteen years ago, and the crew lived there in lone- some suspense nearly two years, before they were taken off by an accidentally passing American whale ship. It was this whaling captain who, passing that way again on his next voyage, landed upon St Paul's a pair of goats, whose descendants have stocked the island.
Getting the bearing and distance of the land, and having thus a fresh point of departure, we
Cleaning the Ship. 107
now packed on all sail, and steered towards the north. Day by day we emerged out of the cold mist of the southern latitudes into the bright, warm sunshine of a more temperate zone. It seemed as though a thick curtain was being drawn away from before the sun. What a privilege the sailor enjoys in being able to bring before him thus, in the course of a few short weeks, all the seasons of the year, from rugged autumn and frosty winter, to genial spring and torrid summer!
As soon as we got again into warm weather, all hands were set to work scrubbing the ship, inside and out, masts and all. Our paint-work had long been an eyesore to the commander, who, in fact, had the never-failing black listers going around with hand-swabs or mops, and buckets, daily washing off the previous night's accumula- tions of mildew ; but their efforts were not suffi- cient to keep it looking neat. Taking advantage, therefore, of one of the first fine days we were favoured with on our return to the north, soap, sand, canvas, and small quantities of fresh water were served out ; and, commencing early in the morning, by eight bells in the afternoon we had the old ship looking as bright as a new pin. And from henceforth, scrubbing off the paint-work was added to the morning duty of washing decks ; and a very disagreeable addition it was, as I experi- enced, it becoming my diurnal duty to scrub off one side of the poop deck.
Having got our paint-work thoroughly cleansed, we now hauled up from their tiers the massive chain cables, which were stretched along deck, in
io8 The Young Man-of-War s Man,
order to have the rust beaten and rubbed off the links. All day long, for a week, all hands sat over these cables, pounding and clinking away- like an army of blacksmiths, then carefully scour- ing and dusting each link, and, after having its soundness tested by the armourer, daubing it over with a mixture of coal-tar and lacquer.
JSTor is all this scrubbing and scouring altogether unnecessary. It is singular how fast at sea, far away from the dust and smoke of the shore, the decks and sides of the vessel will become soiled.
After crossing the southern tropic, we met with frequent calms. The farther north we got, the more unsettled became the weather, the more fre- quent the rains and light baffling breezes, giving occasion for much working ship, without setting us in a corresponding degree forward on our way. It was in such weather as this, and when yet over a week's sail from Java Head, that I saw for the first time a water-spout. One day, when the clouds hung particularly low, and looked a dull black, as though surcharged with water, a light breeze sprang up, and blew down towards us several spouts. One approached quite near, com- paratively speaking, — say within an eighth of a mile, — and, on looking at it through a telescope, I beheld the singular spectacle of water from the sea apparently being drawn up into the clouds, through the inside of the double funnel which formed the spout.
Land, Ho ! 109
CHAPTEE VII.
FROM RIO TO JAVA — HARDSHIPS ON BOARD.
One rainy morning, the joyful cry of " Land, ho !" from an old quartermaster who had for some hours been perched aloft, glass in hand, announced that we were not far distant from our haven. By the aid of a favouring breeze, eight bells in the after- noon found us just at the entrance to the harbour. But slight mention has heretofore been made of the little sloop-of-war that accompanied us on our voyage. The sailing qualities of our ship were so far superior to hers, that it was found impossible to keep her in sight, astern, without our going constantly under short sail, or lying to several hours out of the twenty-four. Her captain had therefore received his sailing directions shortly after leaving Bio, and we soon after lost sight of her astern, and left her to make the best of her way to Java alone. "We were now eager to know if she had got in before us, and every eye was strained as we slowly rounded the point behind which lies the anchorage, to see if there was any vessel in harbour resembling her. A man upon the mainroyal yard, who was able at that height to look over a portion of the land, reported a vessel at anchor within.
" Can you make her out 1" asked the captain.
" She's a large ship, with black yards and painted ports, sir."
X
1 10 The Young Man-of-War s Man.
" Do you think she looks like our consort ves- sel % " sung out the commodore.
After a good look, " I can't tell, sir," was the answer.
And we did not ascertain that it was she until, having fairly rounded the point and opened out the anchoring ground, we were able to exchange signals with her. As soon as we brought to, her captain came on board, and we learned from the boat's crew that they had been lying here three days already, waiting for us. Verily, the battle is not to the strong, nor the race to the swift.
We found that she also had been in the gale off the Cape, having lost there a flying jib-boom, and had her larboard head stove in by a sea. They had not, however, experienced the succeeding calm and heavy sea, which had tossed us about so unmercifully.
Scarcely was the anchor down and the sails furled, before a number of bum-boats put off from shore, for the ship. As it was nearly supper- time, they were permitted to come alongside, and were immediately filled by a crowd — some to buy, but most to look at the articles displayed.
There was but very little money at this time among the crew ; and many a poor fellow was obliged to content himself with casting longing, lingering looks at the delicious fruits which were here brought off. I had spent my last dump at Bio, and should have been moneyless myself, had not the purser fortunately served out three months' grog money to the boys a few days before we made the land. On my share of this, amounting
A Malay Bum-Boatman. in
to the sum of seven shillings and sixpence, I de- pended for bum-boat money during all the time we should pass in these seas. I therefore hoarded it pretty closely, and devoted the first evening to a preliminary observation of the contents of the boats, determined not to invest until I had made sure of the best.
It may be supposed that, among all the wonders exposed to my eager eyes in the bum-boats, not least was the old Malay bum-boatman himself. I had read at home wonderful stories of the treach- erous and murderous dispositions of the natives of these islands, and looked upon the straight- haired, high-cheekboned old fellow, who was seated before me, cross-legged, in a very easy style of undress (he had only a rag round his middle), with a kind of secret awe, not know- ing but the hand which was now holding out to me a delicious mangosteen, had ere now reached forth the poisoned cup ; not certain that the voice which was now mildly entreating me to " buy cocoa-nut, master — only two pice," had not rung out fiercely in the murderous fray.
"No buy, eh?" repeated the old fellow, for the third or fourth time, as he turned from me to some better customer.
But somebody else presently claimed my atten- tion. In moving about, I had inadvertently stepped upon the toes of a good-sized monkey, who was brought along for sale. He set up a most horrible screech, and leaped upon me, wind- ing his long arms about my neck, trying to scratch me. Fortunately he had been muzzled, else I
H2 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
should have fared but poorly in his clutches. Getting rid of the ferocious animal, I took a look around me.
What a profusion and variety of fruits ! Oranges, bananas, and cocoa-nuts formed the staple, to which must be added the soft guava, the cooling pomegranate, the shaddock, looking and tasting somewhat like a large orange, the mountain apple, and a dozen other varieties, concluding with that most incomparably delicious of all fruits, the mangosteen. Glorious mangosteen ! whose sugary pulp melts in your mouth, and leaves you only to regret the too-quickly fading aroma which has filled your senses. It is, in shape and colour, somewhat like a large walnut, before the outside green rind is taken off it. Not unlike this rind or shell, too, is the peel of the mangosteen, which is stripped off in sections, exposing to view a soft, faint-reddish, and violet- coloured pulp, having a taste half sweet, half acid, and an aroma as though all the spices of all the spice islands were here combined.
Add to all these fruits an almost inexhaustible variety of birds, from that diminutive twitterer, the Java sparrow, to the parrot, and monkeys of all sorts, sizes, colours and prices, from one shil- ling to ten shillings, and the reader has before him a Javanese bum-boat. Fancy the feelings of the poor fellows who, finding themselves for the first time in their lives among these luxuries, are debarred the enjoyment of them, by the lack of means to purchase. Yet this was the situation of the greater part of our ship's crew.
East Indian Life. 113
Our- crew received but forty shillings per man of their wages, in the course of a cruise lasting three years ; and that was given to them in Val- paraiso, where almost every penny of it was spent in a three days' drunken frolic on shore.
From Java Head, the commodore proceeded overland to Batavia ; and in a few days a Dutch steamer was sent around to tow our ship into Batavia Bay. Here we lay for four weeks, just out of sight of the city, which is nine miles dis- tant from the outer anchorage. Here our real East Indian life began.
The heat of the sun and the prevalence of malaria make this one of the most fatal places to Europeans or Americans, in all the east. Strict orders were therefore given by the surgeon, that no one was to be exposed to these influences ; and a course was adopted .which in great measure preserved health on board ship.
All hands were called at four o'clock a.m. From that till six, the decks were scrubbed, the bright-work cleaned, and everything cleared up. At six, which is in these tropical regions the hour of sunrise, the awnings were spread fore and aft, curtains drawn down from the awnings to the top t>f the rail, excluding all the sun j and the remain- der of the day was devoted to sewing, reading, or talking.
The awnings produce an agreeable current of air along the upper deck of the vessel, making it pleasantly cool. The open ports afforded us de- lightful views of the low shore, with its thick jungle of dark, cool-looking green. The only
1 14 The Young Man-of-Wars Man.
drawback to our enjoyment (and to me it was a most material one) was that we were debarred from all contact with the shore, which, looking so quietly beautiful, was yet said to contain within it3 umbrageous shades the germ of every fatal fever.
Even our boats' crews remained on board, three boats' crews of Malays performing all the boating duty. These boatmen were objects of much curio- sity to me. They were brought on board one day by a Malay gentleman, a swarthy, ferocious-look- ing fellow, with a fierce moustache and keen eye, and a snake-like gliding in his walk, which put one somehow in mind of the long, curved, glis- tening kryss he carried by his side, of which weapon these people know how to make such fearful use. Far different from him in appearance, however, were the poor fellows who were hired to do our drudgery of boating. These are stolid- faced men, with a look of bloated brutality, and a treacherous, thieving twinkle in their little eyes, which makes one involuntarily shrink from them.
They all chew the betel nut, with lime, and their teeth and lips are in consequence as black as ink. They slept upon deck, and were under the direction of an old man, who was their serang or boatswain, and whom they implicitly obeyed. They spoke but little English ; but the gift of an occasional biscuit made the old serang my friend, and he used to entertain me with wonderful stories of serpents, and of the far-famed Upas tree of Java, the last of his yarns always exceeding in incredibility all former samples, until one day I
Borneo in Sight. 1 1 5
took him to account for lying so. His black mouth opened wide, and with an easy grin he replied —
M Oh ! massa, me tink you b'lieve all. But neber mind, I stuff somebody else. Green-horns swallow um so ;" and he took down half a biscuit to exemplify the way in which his wonders were hoisted in.
Having taken in our due supply of water, the necessity for which was the principal cause of our stoppage here, we once more got under weigh, and proceeded to sea, this time bound direct to China.
It had been determined that on leaving Batavia we should stand over towards Borneo, and enter the China Sea by way of the Straits of Macassar and the Sooloo Archipelago, a rather dangerous path for a large ship, or for any ship in fact, but chosen on this occasion because the lateness of the season, in regard to the monsoons, would allow us better slants by this way, than going by the usual and more open passage of the Straits of Gaspar, and past the entrance of the Gulf of Siam.
Gliding slowly along the smooth water, we were scarcely out of sight of the higher points of Java before the tall points of Borneo hove in sight. By the aid of several little cats1 paws, or light flaws of wind, succeeded, in a week from the date of leaving Batavia, in entering the Straits of Macassar, having then Borneo on our left, and on our right Celebes, the largest of the group denom- inated the Spice Islands.
Getting under the tall peaks of Borneo, we lay for some days becalmed, and at the mercy of the
n6 The Young Man-of-War s Man.
currents, which are very capricious and irregular in these narrow seas. On the third day we had drifted close in shore, under an immense mountain, which had once been a volcano. Toward after- noon it became apparent that the current was setting the vessel directly toward the land, now not above two miles off, and that, unless there came a breeze, evening would find us in closer proximity to the shore than was desirable with a ship of such heavy draught as ours.
There were indications of a coming breeze all day, but we waited in vain for its arrival. Our sails hung listlessly against the masts, and not a ripple disturbed the mirror-like surface of the ocean. We had tried in vain to get soundings, finding no bottom with a hundred fathoms of line out; and our hopes of being able to anchor, should we be carried in too close, were but faint, as these islands not unfrequently rise straight up from the bottom of the sea, and a ship-of-the-line might run her jib-boom ashore, and then not find bottom with her longest chain cable.
This being the situation of affairs, and sun-down coming on without the expected breeze, the boats were got out and sent ahead to tow her head off shore, and endeavour to stem the current. The natives had been watching our motions, or rather lack of motions, all day, and as soon as it was dark made a huge fire on the spot on which they evidently expected the ship to go ashore. It was for some time a question whether our boats did much good, although the crews were urged to the
Sickness on Board Ship. 1 1 7
most strenuous exertions by the captain and first lieutenant.
But about ten o'clock a vast cloud, which had gathered over our heads, emptied its contents on us, and the rain soon started up a little breeze, by the aid of which we were enabled in a short time to increase our distance from the beach, to the manifest disappointment of the natives, whose shouts had for some time come to us faintly over the still waters.
Dysentery had made its appearance on board shortly after our arrival at Batavia, attacking most severely several of the stoutest and heartiest of the crew. The chief surgeon was of opinion that the water obtained there, which was rain-water collected during the rainy season in vast tanks, on which the entire city depends for its supply of drinking water, was the fruitful source of sickness, on account of its impurity.
In order to lessen the evil, therefore, as much as possible, we were placed upon an allowance of three quarts of water per day per man, three pints of which were used for cooking purposes; thus leaving, to quench our thirst, only the pittance of three pints for twenty-four hours. When it is taken into consideration that this was under an Indian sky, where the slightest exertion in work- ing ship, or other labour, makes one pant with thirst, it may be supposed that our allowance was small enough for the most economical. There was a good deal of grumbling, especially among the old tars, who swore great oaths at " Old Chew- Your-Beans," as the surgeon was nicknamed, from
1 1 8 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
a way he had of tracing nearly all the ills that sailor flesh is heir to, to the lack of properly masticating their food.
Nevertheless, the old doctor was right; and many a hearty, hale tar doubtless owed his con- tinued life and health to the wise forethought of the very man whom he was condemning as an old humbug. Some of the foretopmen took the matter more to heart than any of the rest, and a party of them conceived the brilliant idea of making an appeal to the humanity of the com- modore, by causing him to be informed that certain of their number had been reduced to such extremity by thirst, as to be compelled to satisfy their longings with salt water. The commodore's private servant was bribed to state this yarn to his master, on his own responsibility, which he duly did.
Their plan did not appear to work, as for some days they heard of no results. Finally, one morn- ing after quarters, the boatswain's mates were sent all over decks, to call aft on the half-deck all who had at any time been induced, through extreme thirst, to drink salt water. This was a windfall to our party of conspiring tars, who now marched quickly aft, congratulating themselves on the success of their labours. Their names were taken down by the first lieutenant, " at the commodore's desire," he informed them, and a half-dozen of the afterguard and waisters also gave in theirs, happy in the hope of thereby get- ting an increased allowance of water.
I felt sorry myself that I had not yet laved
Who Drank Sea- Water ? 119
my thirst from old ocean, that I too might come in for the expected extra allowance. Curiosity- was aroused as to what were to be the conse- quences of this taking down names, and various speculations were hazarded as to who were to have the additional portion of the water- — whether the entire crew, or only those who " had sent up their cards to the old man," as one of the number facetiously remarked.
Precisely at seven bells, all hands were called up "to witness punishment;" and the master-at- arms and chief boatswain's mate were heard call- ing loudly for those whose names were on the list of salt-water drinkers. They were mustered up to the gangway, where the grating and the cats gave them a tolerable guess at the fate that awaited them.
Directly the commodore came out of the cabin, and walked to the gangway, looking as fierce as a trooper. Surveying the crowd ranged before him, for a moment, he said —
" H — m, so you fellows drank salt water, did you 1" looking at a paper. " Here, John Jones."
u Here, sir," answered that worthy.
" Did you drink salt water, my man 9 "
" Yes, sir, a little," answered John Jones, wil- ling to crawl out of the scrape, but unable to see the slightest crevice.
"How much]"
" Only about a pint, sir."
" Master-at-arms, strip John Jones."
And John Jones was seized up and received six with cats. And so the whole list of seamen who
120 The Young Man-of -War s Man.
had "sent up their cards" in the morning was gone through with, each one receiving half a dozen. The landsmen were omitted, to their very evident gratification.
After the flogging was finished, the commodore said —
" Now, I suppose, you fellows want to know why you have been punished. I'll tell you. It's for drinking salt water. I want to let you know that aboard my ship no one is allowed to drink anything but fresh water, or whatever may be in the regular ship's allowance. I am here to judge of what amount of water you need. I use only the regular allowance of three quarts myself ; and if any man is really suffering, I'll divide my allow- ance with him — but you shan't drink salt water ! I didn't punish you waisters, because you are poor ignorant fellows — you knew no better; but the seamen should set a better example. Let me hear of no more salt-water drinking. Boatswain, pipe down."
It is scarcely necessary to add, that no more reports of that kind were sent up to head-quarters.
From the time of our leaving Batavia, it had been foretold, by some of the old men who were familiar with those seas, that we should have a long and tedious passage. And so it proved. The little breeze which had carried us into the entrance of the Maccassar Strait was succeeded by a per- sistent head-wind, which kept us beating about, now hindered, now forwarded, by the currents which here abound, for several weeks.
Meantime, the long spell of hot weather was
Bad Provisions. 121
beginning to tell upon the crew, many of whom, notwithstanding the utmost carefulness of the surgeons, were taken with the dysentery. The heat began also to affect the provisions, and more particularly the bread. It has been before men- tioned that this was stowed in a bread-room, taking up a large portion of the stern of the vessel. Not- withstanding this was kept as tightly closed as possible, the bread had for some time been full of weevils, little grey insects, looking, on a minute inspection, somewhat like a miniature elephant. They have a proboscis, or trunk, just like that animal, are about the size of a small ant, and hop about like a flea. It was necessary to split a biscuit in halves before eating it, to shake these little fellows out — although this trouble was not always taken.
Now, however, a more serious evil infected our bread. The biscuit suddenly became infested with white maggots, and these disgusting animals eat out all the inside of the biscuits, leaving nothing for us who got it at second-hand but a thin and tasteless crust. Yet this bread we were compelled to eat, for there was none other. At first it went pretty hard with us ; but what will not custom and hunger do I
I had always fancied that the stories of worm- eaten bread, and water, the smell of which would cause violent nausea, were a little more than apocryphal; but here we experienced both. I have seen drinking water pumped out of our tanks into a butt on deck, which smelt so abomin- ably as to make any approach to it utterly im-
L
1 2 2 The Young Man-of- Wars Man,
possible, ere it had stood in the open air an hour or two.
The gases arising from it, as it issued from the pump, would cover the paint all over the vessel with a copper-coloured sediment, which it was almost impossible to get off. And I have seen a biscuit literally crawl off the mess -cloth on which stood the mess-dinner.
But let us leave this subject. It was only mentioned as one of the incidents of the voyage — incident to every India voyage — and to show how sailors do fare sometimes, and not unfrequently either.
CHAPTER VIII.
A FUNERAL AT SEA CHINA.
Shortly after we left Batavia, one of our lieuten- ants died very suddenly, and was buried at sea. This was not the first death on board ; but as this was the first and only occasion during our whole cruise on which the entire ceremonies provided for funeral occasions at sea were gone through with, it is a proper place in which to make some mention of them.
The body of the deceased officer was laid out on trestles, on the half-deck, and covered over with the Union Jack, until the time came for com- mitting it to the deep.
An Officers Funeral. 123
When a sailor dies at sea, his corpse is sewed tip in the hammock which has been until that time his bed, and now becomes his shroud. A couple of thirty-two-pound shot are enclosed, next to his feet, to bear the body down to the depths of the ocean.
For our deceased officer the carpenters con- structed a plain deal coffin, the upper end of which was bored full of auger holes — a very necessary precaution, as, had it been made tight, it would have swam upon the surface in place of sinking. In this the corpse, dressed in full uniform, was placed, the lid screwed down, and the whole wrapped about with the Union Jack.
At seven bells, the mournful call of " All hands to bury the dead ! " was heard, and the crew were gathered upon the upper deck, the marines paraded on the quarter-deck, with arms reversed ; the ensign was lowered ; the officers mustered aft, with crape on their left arms.
The band, ranged upon the poop-deck, played "The Dead March in Saul," while, the officers acting as pall-bearers, a chosen band of seamen brought up to the gangway the bier upon which rested the remains of the poor lieutenant.
The coffin was placed upon a broad plank, one end of which pointed overboard, and, the ship having been brought to, the chaplain advanced, accompanied by the officers, and read the solemn and impressive funeral service of the Episcopal Church, provided for burials at sea.
All was still, almost as death itself, and his low voice sounded clear and distinct fore and aft the
124 The Young Man-of-War s Man.
decks. As he came to the close of the service, eight bells were struck, and, at the words, " We now commit this body to the deep," two grey- haired quarter-masters reverently raised the inner end of the plank aloft — there was a momentary grating noise, a dull splash in the water — and all that was mortal of our deceased shipmate was gone to its long home.
The marines now advanced to the gangway, and fired a treble salute over the grave of the departed, and all was over. The boatswain " piped down," the maintopsail was filled, and we stood on our course.
The burial of a foremast hand is conducted with much less ceremony. The ship is not brought to, unless there is a very strong breeze, which makes it necessary, in order to steady her.
Poor Jack, sewed up in his hammock, is borne to the gangway by his messmates, and, a portion only of the funeral service being read, the corpse is launched into the ocean, while many a long and lingering look is cast after it by those to whom daily intercourse has endeared the departed.
Many a bronzed and furrowed cheek have I seen wet by tears when committing to the deep the remains of some loved shipmate, whose cheer- ful "Ay, ay!" would never more be heard by us — whose strong arm and sure hand had stood by us in many a gale and tempest.
Making our way slowly through the Straits, and between the numerous isles of the Sooloo Archipelago, now favoured by a little summer breeze, now becalmed, and drifting at the mercy
Chinese Waters. 125
of the manifold currents, we at length entered the China Sea, and, by the aid of a favouring breeze, drew to the northward.
On December twenty-fifth, Christmas day, we made land, being the bleak and desolate-looking rock called Pedro Blanco.
Much to my surprise, as we neared the coast of China it had been growing bitterly cold, and on Christmas morning the weather was quite frosty. I had thought the southern portion of China to be a land of eternal summer, but now found that the Celestial year was seasoned with quite a fair allowance of cold.
On December twenty-seventh, in the morning, we were hailed by a small Chinese junk, from which we received a pilot.
The first thing the pilot did, after showing his credentials to the captain, and explained to him that if he got the vessel into difficulty his head would pay the forfeit, was to go aft and alter the course very slightly. The next thing was to mo- tion to the steward, whom he instinctively picked out of a crowd that curiosity to see a live speci- men of the Celestial Empire had drawn aft, to get him a light for his cigar.
It was in vain that the captain protested against the unheard-of enormity of smoking on the quarter- deck. In vain he represented to him, by the most lively pantomime — for the pilot, very judiciously, "no understand Inglee," — that tobacco was a filthy weed, and the quarter-deck of a man-of-war a most unsuitable place in which to indulge in its use. The more energetically the captain motioned,
126 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
the more obstinately John Chinaman hung on to his cigar ; and when at last the captain forbade any one from getting " the littee fire" which was asked for, Johnny very sensibly walked down to the galley and helped himself, and soon re-ap- peared by the side of the quarter-master, puffing a cheroot.
Favoured by a strong tide and fair wind, at ten o'clock that night we dropped anchor in Lintin Bay. We had been sailing all day at too great distance from land to be able to distinguish any- thing except the mere flat shore rising in blue and black ridges above the surface of the waves.
The night was too dark to see much of the now not distant shores, except the dim outline and the occasional faint glimmer of a light from a poor fisherman's hut on the beach. We boys were all excitement at the thought of at last being in China ; and after the sails were furled and all was quiet, a little party of us climbed into the maintop and lay down there, covering tarpaulins and pea- jackets over us to keep out the cold, while we looked at the distant shore, so full of romance to us, and laid out plans for future adventures, talked over the Chinese wall, the grand canal, and the great city of Pekin, where no one was per- mitted to go, and imagined a hundred wonderful and romantic scenes, in which, of course, we de- sired to be the chief actors.
I scarcely slept that night, so eager was I to behold, with my own eyes, some of the wonders wherewith I had long been regaled at second and third hand, from books of travel, geographies,
Chinese Pilot. 127
and China plates, cups, and saucers, and which I fondly hoped would find their commencement here, upon the borders of the Celestial Empire.
What was my disappointment, on going on deck in the morning, to find, in place of the din- ner-plate scene my fancy had pictured out, nothing but a rather bleak and sparsely-wooded shore, with a few common-looking huts ranged along the beach.
So very " chiney" like had the little pilot looked when he came on board the preceding day, with his diminutive, pig-like eyes, his high cheek bones, his loose petticoat trousers, and the tas- selled cap — whereby hung a tail or queue of hair, descending to his middle — that I expected at least to wake up with a pagoda on either side of the ship, and a tea-garden, fully manned, imme- diately ahead.
Shortly after breakfast, wind and tide serving, we got under weigh and proceeded up the river, coming to anchor, however, as soon as the tide turned, as the breeze was not strong enough to carry us up against the current.
At this anchorage we remained two days, scrubbing and cleaning the ship, making her pre- sentable to visitors. Here the commodore left us for Canton, purchasing on his way up, and send- ing on board, a large quantity of potatoes, and some Chinese beef, which last was not by any means tender or palatable.
Having refitted, we once more got under weigh, this time with a head-wind, to work up to our intended anchorage at the Bocca Tigris, just
128 The Young Man-of- War s Man.
below the famous Bogue Forts, on which the Chi- nese placed so much dependence, in their war with England, to keep the British barbarians from Canton, and in which it was afterward found that the soldiers had been chained to their posts, to prevent them from running away, and the guns were imbedded in solid masonry, which, to be sure, kept them from recoiling, but also rendered them entirely useless for firing at any object not directly in point-blank range. We reached the Bogue by four days' hard labour, beating to wind- ward every inch of the way, most of the time in a very narrow channel.
As we got up the river, the prospect began to look more Chinese-like. An occasional pagoda, along shore, peeping out from amid surrounding trees, the curious little sanpans, or row-boats, which dot the surface of the river, and once in a while a vast junk, with great awkward mat sails, and her bow and stern towering like mountains over the water, the waist being low enough to jump aboard — all these things served to keep alive our curiosity, and make us eager to see what was to come. Getting higher up, we were boarded by a mandarin.
These fellows, with their singular boats, are a sort of river police, for the prevention of piracies and opium smuggling. The boats are very long and narrow, and are propelled at a tremendous rate through the water, by the power of oars alone, of which they carry from forty to sixty on a side. Their crews, ranging from eighty to one hundred and twenty men, are well armed, and each boat
The Bocca Tigris. 129
generally carries a three or four-pound swivel-gun in the bows.
They often have desperate fights with the pirates on the river coast. From the opium smugglers they receive no mercy, as they give none; the punishment attached to this offence being the highest known to the Chinese law — that of squeezing to death, in a frame of wood which surrounds the victim, and is pulled together by some peculiar machinery attached to it.
Once at the Bogue, preparations were made for a long stay.
Our life during the three months we remained here was a very dull, monotonous one.
The Bocca Tigris, or Bogue, is simply an anchor- ing place for large vessels. It lies about mid- way between Macao and Whampoa, and there is no town, or even considerable village, in its im- mediate vicinity. The shores of the river here are plain, and there is ' nothing to attract the attention of the stranger, except the now dis- mantled forts before spoken of, and some pagodas of joss-houses, where the piously-inclined Chinese mariner leaves his farewell propitiatory offering, on going to sea.
The river was the most lively portion of the altogether dull scene. Here the Tartar boats, the inhabitants of which, by a decree of the Celestial Emperors, are not allowed to remain on shore at night, and thus live entirely upon the waters, were sailing about all day long. The daily pas- sage of the regular Canton and Macao packets, called fast boats — probably because they are not
1 30 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
fast at all — relieved somewhat the tedium of passing time, and the occasional passing of some great hulk of a Chinese junk, with her vermilion- streaked side, her many-storeyed poop, enormous rudder, and great goggle eyes painted on her bluff bows, was a grand event with us.
I inquired of our Chinese compradore (the indi- vidual who furnishes the ship with all the provi- sions, etc., needed) the object of these eyes.
He answered me, with a shrug of contempt at my ignorance —
"Ayah! John, no hab eyes, how can see!" a proposition so extremely logical as to be unanswer- able. Certainly, if Chinese sailors are no smarter than they look, their junks have need of all the eyes they can obtain to get along safely.
The queer little Chinese children in the bum- boats were my great delight. A little Chinaman is like a little pig, or rather like a little elephant. He is born with the same face, the same sedate look, and has (in their incipiency, of course) the identical tail and the old-fashioned ways which he will have when he arrives at old age. He is virtually and literally what he is called — a little China-mtm.
To prevent the diminutive little creature from drowning, should he accidentally crawl overboard, a light buoy, made of a large calabash, is carefully fastened uno^er his arms, and this he drags with him, in his perambulations about deck, which is his play-ground. But he does not play. He is already an observer, a silent one (I never heard a Chinese baby cry), evidently storing his little
Chinese Children. 131
mind with useful knowledge, initiating himself into the mysteries of trade, and learning the weak points of the sailors, whom, following in the footsteps of his illustrious parents, he is in turn, in days to come, to cheat.
After lying at our moorings eighty days, we once more lifted our anchors and set sail for Manilla.
A twelve days' passage brought us to this place, the capital of Luzon, the largest of the Philippine group. Here, on the day after our arrival, the Asiatic cholera made its appearance among our crew, making of the ship a regular charnel-house. We remained in the port only six days, during which time twenty of our crew died of this disease.
We left Manilla as soon as possible, after com- pleting the business which had taken us there. It is a splendid harbour, surrounded on all sides by high volcanic peaks and ridges ; and the city is very beautifully situated. But it was a fatal port for us. Some of our best men here fell victims to the pestilence. As soon as we got once more to sea, the cholera ceased, nor were we troubled with it again.
Returning to Macao Roads, we took on board the commodore (who had not gone with us on our Manilla trip), and proceeded to Amoy, one of the north-eastern ports of China, and one of the five places at which ships then traded. Here was pre- sented to our view the first really Chinese scene we had yet met with.
The somewhat steep hill-sides, at the entrance of the harbour ; the dingy-looking town, with its
132 The Young Man-of-Wars Ma7t.
high wall ; the peaked and pagoda-shaped roofs of the houses ; the many joss-temples, lifting their queer little turrets above the surrounding dwell- ings, and the Chinese shipping lying in the inner harbour, all united to make just such a scene as one might behold on almost any of the old- fashioned waiters or plates ; and I really fancied, so familiar did the old place look, I should be quite at home within its walls, could I only get there.
This being a quiet place, and the vessel lying close to the town, the crew, who had all been for some time extremely anxious for a taste of " liberty " on shore, resolved to send the petty officers aft, with a petition to that effect.
Accordingly, amid a most intense excitement on the part of all hands, a deputation of the oldest quarter-masters' and boatswains' mates made their appearance at the railing of the mainmast — the place of appeal or petition for the crew — and asked to see the captain. He came out to them, heard them somewhat impatiently, and curtly refused their request. And so, as this was to be our last port in China, our hopes of seeing any- thing of a Chinese town were dashed. We all, and with justice, felt deeply indignant at this apparently wanton severity.
While lying here, the Chinese authorities of the town paid the ship a visit. They were a queer-looking set, resembling in but one thing the city dignitaries of a more Christian country — that is, in fat : they were, to a man, of truly aldermanic proportions.
Buffalo s Nose. 1 3 3
They all carried pictures upon their backs and breasts, large embroidered representations of birds or flowers ; and the governor, as being the highest in rank, was distinguished by an enormous pair of boots, the soles of which were at least three inches thick. As he waddled along, with the bottoms of his loose trousers just making a connection with the tops of these boots, I, who with several other boys stood at the side to help his Highness on board, could not help thinking that he looked much more like some street per- former than like a sober, sedate Brother of the Sun and Moon, and distant relation of all the Stars.
We left Amoy with a fair breeze, and in a few days passed through the Straits of Formosa, and entered Chusan Bay, a lonely harbour, where our ship was to remain, while the commodore proceeded to Shanghae on board our smallest consort, the shallow waters of the Yellow Sea not permitting of our approach to that port.
The portion of Chusan Bay in which we were anchored was called Buffalo's Nose, from a singu- larly-shaped promontory, behind which we were sheltered. It ran out some distance into and across the waters of the bay, and its broadside being thus exposed to the action of the whole body of water driven in from sea when the wind blew on shore, the waves had gradually washed a large hollow through the ridge, at a place about a quarter of a mile from its outer extremity. It was in this hollow or hole that was supposed to consist the resemblance to the nose of one of the
M
I
34 The Young Man-of- Wars Alan.
tame buffaloes of China, these animals being guided by means of ropes placed in a hole pierced through the nasal cartilage.
While lying here, a party of us boys were one day permitted to take a ramble on shore, in com- pany with the first lieutenant, who was going on a gunning expedition. There was a solitary little farm-hut about a mile and a half from our anchorage, and to this our party took its way, determined to " see what we could see."
On beholding us approaching, the inhabitants, consisting of an old man and woman, and several little children, incontinently took to their heels, hurriedly catching up their most valuable articles of wearing apparel, and leaving us in undisputed possession of the premises. Some of us ran after them, to persuade them to return ; but the more we called them, the faster they ran, and we were obliged to give them up and explore the premises alone.
The hut was built entirely — sides, roof, and all — of rice straw; but on entering we found it (com- paratively speaking) very comfortably arranged within. It was divided into two apartments, the outer and larger serving evidently for kitchen, dining-room, and living room, the inner containing some mats and pillows for sleeping, and a few articles of wearing apparel.
It was plain that the people lived a good deal out of doors, there being several seats arranged under the shade of some little trees in the yard, or rather garden. This garden surrounded the house, and was planted with several kinds of
A Chinese House. 135
flowers arid little shrubs, which latter probably also bore flowers in proper season. The whole was carefully fenced in, the entrance being by a little gate. We found a dog on the premises, who followed us in our peregrinations about the place, evidently viewing us with a good deal of suspicion.
At the back of the house was an arrangement looking somewhat like an oven, although, as the poorer classes of Chinese live almost entirely upon boiled rice, I supposed it was used for something else than baking bread; whilst outside of the garden, in another little inclosure, were two stalks of rice straw for the " stock," put up precisely like hay-stalks at home.
Beyond this was the rice-field, already stripped of its crop. The whole place looked rather deso- late, there being no trees worthy of that name within sight — nothing but a dreary extent of bare fields. We saw no implements of husbandry, except a wooden rake. Iron was evidently a scarce article, as the door was hung on wooden pegs.
The house had no window. Having satisfied oar curiosity, and picked a few flowers as memen- toes, we departed, leaving on the ground (there was neither table, chair, nor floor) a mace, or string of cash, the copper money of China, as an evidence of our peaceful intentions.
The cash, the only coined circulating medium of the Celestial Empire, is a thin circular coin of copper, of the value of one-fifth of a farthing. They are strung together by means of a small
136 The Young Man-of -War s Man.
cord put through a square hole in each coin, a string of one hundred, called a mace, being of the value of fivepence.
On the 5th of July, our consort-vessel returned from Shanghae with the commodore, who brought with him an official report of the declaration of war between the United States and Mexico, news which we had been for some time expecting. We immediately proceeded to sea, bound for Japan, our commodore having been intrusted by government with the delivery of a letter from the President of the United States to the Emperor of Japan, expressing a desire to open negotiations for a treaty of trade.
CHAPTER IX.
JAPAN.
Fourteen days' sail, attended with no incidents of an unusual nature, brought us to the entrance of Jeddo Bay, situated on the Island of Mphon, the largest of the group composing the Japanese empire. On our way, we passed through the group called the Loo Choo Islands, the inhabi- tants of which are equally as uncommunicative as the Japanese. We did not visit any of them, the commodore having orders to lose no time in getting to the Pacific coast of North America.
Japanese Visitors. 137
On the day before entering Jeddo Bay, we met two Japanese junks, who gave us, however, a wide berth, and were evidently anxious to avoid us. On the first of August, we sailed into the Bay of Jeddo, sounding as we went, and keeping a bright look-out for shoals, as the depth of water was not very well laid down in the charts. It is a large, noble-looking harbour, almost entirely land-locked, and surrounded by thickly-wooded, beautiful-looking hills.
No sooner were we fairly inside the Bay than we saw a number of boats coming toward us from several parts of the shore. They pulled alongside find boarded us without ceremony, scrambling into the open ports, climbing up by the channels, and crawling in over the bows by the head-rigging, apparently choosing any mode of getting on board except the right one.
We were yet under weigh when this crowd of Japanese suddenly boarded us ; and as more boats were leaving the shore ail the time, and all who boarded us made their boats fast to the ship, it became evident that they would soon materially impede our progress to the anchorage, as the numbers on board already hindered all movements about decks. /
Accordingly the commodore, who had at once been addressed by the principal noble in the company, communicated to him his desire to have the ship cleared of the greater portion of the strangers, until we should come to anchor. This was instantly done, some of the over-curious boats' crews being severely beaten by the nobles
138 The Young Man-of- War s Man.
and chiefs, in their haste to get them out of the ship. Cleared of the boats, we quickly ran up to the spot laid down as the anchorage, about one and a half miles from the entrance of the Bay, and quite at the head of its lower portion.
Before coming to, the commodore had been earnestly requested by the leading man of the party to take the ship around a bend in the land into the upper bay, where, he was told, there was every facility for landing our guns and ammuni- tion, which proceeding was alluded to as one very natural under the circumstances, and every way expected. This proposal was, as may be supposed, respectfully delined.
It is necessary here to say, that our officers held communication with the Japanese officers by means of a Hollandish sailor we had on board. Several of the Japanese understood a little Dutch, and could thus inform us of their desires, and receive in turn the communications of our officers.
When the anchor was down and the sails furled, the strangers were again allowed to come on board, and our decks were soon filled by a crowd of as curious mortals as ever lived. They walked about, drinking in with their eyes greedily all the wonders of our ship, many of them carrying little note-books in their hands, in which they made memorandums of what struck their atten- tion most forcibly.
They were very communicative, as far as the language of pantomime would permit, which was
Natives of Japan. 139
the only available mode of intercourse between them and the crew. They were evidently greatly surprised at the vastness and solidity of every- thing on board, and opened their eyes with astonishment at the size of our chain cables, and the dimensions of our rigging. After securing the sails, the rest of the day was given over to us to do as we pleased, and we, who were in turn as much astonished and delighted with all we saw as the Japanese could be, devoted our- selves to our visitors, groups of sailors taking parties of Japanese round the ship, exhibiting to them the wonders of the lower decks, the store- rooms, etc. ; while they, in turn, good-naturedly allowed the tars to examine their dresses, orna- ments, and accoutrements. ^
During our stay in Jeddo Bay, great numbers visited the ship, our decks being crowded each day with men of all ranks ; but no ladies made their appearance. Judging the people generally, ' from the specimens which came under our obser- vation, we were forced to admit that they were a far better developed race, both mentally and physically, than we had met with since leaving the United States.
The boatmen, the only members of the lower classes with whom we came in contact, had not, it must be acknowledged, very intelligent counte- nances. They looked like slaves, and their cringing and servile obedience to their rather haughty masters told at once their condition to be that of serfs.
But it would be difficult to conceive a mora
140 The Young Man-of- War 's Man.
noble or intellectual looking set of men than those of the better classes which we saw. There was not one, old or young, whose appearance would not command respect in any society. There was, in particular, nowhere to be seen, high or low, that sly look of mean cunning, or constant deceit, which disfigures the Chinaman, and gives to his countenance a mixed appearance of knavery and idiocy.
Their frank, open countenances, their marked politeness toward each other and toward strangers, as well as the degree of intelligence evinced in their observations on all they saw on board, prepossessed all hands greatly in their favour, contrasting, as they did strongly, with the dull, inanimate appearance and boorish manners of the Chinese.
Their colour is a very clear nut-brown ; features tolerably regular ; eyes bright, moderately large ; nose straight ; forehead broad and prominent ; and hair black and coarse. The entire front and crown of the head is smoothly shaven, and the hair of the back and sides of the head drawn upward and forward, and gathered into a tuft on the top.
They wore no hats, but many carried with them straight broad-brimmed heavily japanned head-coverings, doubtless as protections against the sun, should its rays prove too powerful. The chief articles of their dress appeared to be several large loose gowns, worn one over the other, the outer one being of silk or fine cloth, and having embroidered upon its back and breast various
Japanese Costume. 141
fanciful devices in striking colours, proclaiming, probably, the wearer's rank.
A belt confines their dress at the middle, and serves, beside, to suspend the sword or swords, all the higher grades of the nobles carrying two of these weapons. Both swords, one short the other long, have straight blades, which, we noticed, were invariably keen-edged, as though prepared for instant use. They are worn both on the same side, one above the other.
In their broad sleeves, or the bosoms of their gowns, they carried, with a variety of other matter, the square sheets of white paper which served them in lieu of pocket-handkerchiefs. When one of these sheets was used, it was care- fully deposited in an empty sleeve, to be thrown overboard at the first opportunity.
The hats, which, as detailed above, are rather carried than worn, are very awkward contrivances, the Japanese seeming to stand as much in need of a reform in the matter of head-covering as do the Europeans and Americans.
Fancy a perfectly flat plate or disc of papier- mache about two feet in diameter, over a quarter of an inch thick, and highly japanned. This has a little projection in the centre, on top, looking not unlike a small . bell-pull, which serves as a handle by which the unwieldy instrument is car- ried. A narrow receptacle of wicker-work be- neath receives the top of the head. No wonder, thought I, when I examined this novel contriv- ance to keep out the rain, that they prefer to go bareheaded.
142 The Young Man-of -War s Man.
Their shoes are very rudely constructed, being simply sandals of plaited straw, held on by a thong or latch, which fits between the two larger toes. Their feet are encased in a kind of stock- ing made of white cotton cloth, room being left between the toes for the thong of the shoe to catch readily.
On entering any of the. cabins, or private apart- ments of the officers, the sandals were left at the door, their owner walking in his stocking-feet. Thus there were often fifty or sixty pairs of san- dals in the little ante-chamber of the commodore's cabin.
The fan seemed to be universally in use with them. From the highest to the lowest, all, walk- ing or sitting, talking, eating, or saluting, had a fan in their hands. It is applied to the most various and different uses. Did the sun shine, the fan performed the office of a parasol; were they eating, morsels of food were presented to friends upon a fan ; did one desire to make a memorandum of some object striking his atten- tion, the fan serves as an extempore writing-desk, on which to lay the note-book ; was it necessary to drive overboard some over-curious boatman, the fan, now transformed into an instrument of punishment, showers blows upon the back of the offending serf. In short, the fan is evidently used anywhere and everywhere, on and for all occasions.
With it the learned men carried a little basket of fine wicker-work, containing — at least one, the contents of which I had the curiosity to examine,
yapanese A rmour. 143
did — a small compass, divided off in an entirely different manner from that used with us, the prin- cipal point being, according to Chinese usage, the south instead of the north, some small slips of white paper used for memorandums, some Indian ink, two or three pieces of different-coloured silk, a little sack, which I took to be an amulet, as it much resembled articles of that kind worn by the Chinese, and a scent-bag containing musk, with the smell of which everything in China and Japan is impregnated.
The warriors wore under their outside gown, or even over that and under a species of cloak, a vest of beautifully-made chain or link armour, formed of bright steel. Though only weighing a trifle, the meshes or links of this coat of mail were woven so closely as to be not only spear but bullet proof. It was altogether a highly-finished piece of workmanship, and spoke well for the advancement of this particular art among them.
We found them to be most expert swordsmen, many of the officers and crew trying their skill with foils and single-sticks, in which they proved themselves not far behind the most skilful of our crew. The hilts of their swords were beautifully ornamented with gold and silver, and inlaid with pearls and precious stones. The scabbards were generally lacquered or japanned. We saw no fire-arms ; but I was shown a sample of their powder, which was quite coarse, like common blasting-powder.
Our visitors generally brought their dinners with them, which consisted of boiled rice put up
144 The Young Man-of- War s Man.
in little baskets. Of this they partook very spar- ingly, handing round morsels on fans to their friends.
Their manner of partaking of food, and their moderation, seemed to me to betoken a people who eat to live, rather than live to eat.> They seemed desirous merely to satisfy the necessities of the body; and in their abstemiousness in this respect they certainly showed themselves far re- moved from the condition of savages, who desire only to satisfy the dull wants of the body.
Their ceremonies of politeness were very tedious, and although evidently matters of much conse- quence to them, seemed to us singularly absurd. Two friends would meet upon our quarter-deck ; straightway assuming as earnest looks as though intent upon a matter involving life and death, they approach one another, and, one standing straight up, the other makes a low bow, nearly touching his head to the deck ; rising, his vis-a- vis does the same ; a few words are muttered on each side, the bows are repeated, some singular motions are made with the hands, and the cere- mony is over. Now the cloud disappears from their countenances, and, turning off, they enter into cheerful and lively conversation. This was between equals.
Between superior and inferior the case was a little different. The latter, on meeting the person with whom he desired to communicate, would assume a countenance of abject humility, and, standing before him, wait for him to notice his presence. Should the superior, after perhaps a
Japanese Espionage. 145
minute's consideration, deign to do so, the in- ferior proceeds to the various manipulations, pro- strations on the ground, etc., in such cases made and provided, the superior standing still and looking contemptuously down at the poor fellow before him.
When all is finished, the inferior stands respect- fully before the object of his late semi- adoration, humbly looking down on the ground, waiting for his serene highness's permission to speak. And perhaps, after all this bowing and scraping, he only desires to address a sentence or two to him.
I had read of a universal system of espionage practised among the Japanese, and we perceived evidences of it even in their social intercourse with us. Where two or three were together, there seemed to be much restraint, no one of them being willing to exhibit to us any of his articles of ap- parel, or to allow any one to handle his swords, or to receive any of the little memorials, such as small coins or other articles of little value, which they were eager to obtain of us.
But if we could get a single individual off in some corner where he thought himself unobserved by his companions, he would eagerly accept of anything we had to give away, and displayed no hesitation in allowing us to examine any article" of his that we desired to scrutinise more closely.
But the most singular instance of this general espionage remains to be related. The commodore had despatched as soon as possible, to the Em- peror, the letter from the President of the United States, which we were charged to deliver, and had
*
146 The Young Man-of-Wars Man.
received an answer to the effect that no trade or intercourse could be allowed, and that our speedy departure was judged highly desirable. Accord- ingly, a day was appointed when we would sail.
On the evening before this day, a deputation of nobles visited the commodore, and returned to him many of the articles which had been pre- sented to various of the Japanese by members of our crew, articles, many of them, which could have been retained easily, had there not been a general search instituted among all who visited the ship. The authorities evidently desired to wipe out every trace of the visit of the barbarians.
With the Emperor's answer had come instruc- tions to the chief men of the Japanese to furnish the vessel with all that we needed in the way of supplies; and accordingly, the commodore having intimated that water was a chief necessary, water- boats of tolerable size were crowded alongside for three days, by which time we had taken in a large supply of most excellent drinking-water, the best we had met with during the whole cruise.
An intimation having been given that some fresh provisions would be highly desirable, two large junks made their appearance from the upper harbour, bringing to us a supply of vegetables of various kinds, and several hundred chickens. Among the vegetables were sweet potatoes, egg plants, carrots, and pumpkins. There was also a quantity of small green apples, the first we had seen since leaving home. A bullock or two would have been most welcome, but the Japanese do not
Japanese Guard. 147
kill or eat their cattle — using them only for draught and to milk.
During the entire period of our stay in Jeddo Bay, our ship was guarded by an immense number of boats, which were constantly, night and day, on the alert, with the intention of preventing us from holding any communication with the shore.
These boats were anchored at various distances from the vessel, but forming a cordon about us, through which it would have been impossible to pass with any of our boats. Their boats are large and strongly built, and manned with from six to ten oars on each side. They do not use their oars as do the boatmen of most other nations, sitting with their back to the stern, and pulling the blade through the water, but stand up, facing to the side of the boat, and scull ; and by this means they propel their little craft with great velocity through the water.
At every motion of the oars, the whole crew give vent to a sharp hissing noise, at the same time putting out their whole strength. The con- tinual hsh, Ash, has a singular effect, sounding at a little distance not unlike the hissing of an im- mense serpent.
At nightfall our guards hung lanterns upon masts in the stern of each boat, and the broad surface of the bay, dotted with numberless lights, looked like a vast city. This illumination had a beautiful effect on dark nights, and lent an addi- tional touch of romance to the strange situation in which we were placed.
Having received all the commodore had asked
148 The Young Man-of -War s Man.
for in the way of stores, another and more earnest request was made for our immediate departure, and, consequently, our sailing day was appointed. We had been given to understand that no recom- pense could be accepted for the supplies of water and provisions we had received from the shore, these things being furnished by the Emperor. The only service asked in return was to go away.
On the morning of our sailing day, there hap- pened to be but little wind where we lay, under the shelter of the land. But lack of wind was not to be any excuse for our longer stay. At early dawn, between fifteen hundred and two thousand boats gathered under our bows, and the commodore was informed that, if we would now lift the anchor, these boats would tow us out.
Accordingly the anchor was weighed, the sails set, and two long hawsers passed over the bows to the waiting boatmen, who, fastening to these, and to each other's craft when the hawsers would no longer reach them, soon towed us to the entrance of the bay, when, taking the breeze, the boats cast off, and, amid waving of fans and hats, we bade good-bye to Japan.
We left Japan behind us without any regrets. Although sickness on board had not positively increased during our stay there, we were anxious to get to sea, where there was hope that some of the emaciated sufferers, whose cots now more than half filled the main deck, might recover health and strength. Our visit had been a source of great pleasure to all on board \ yet the many strange things we had seen had only raised in us
Japanese Fishi?ig-Boats. 149
an intense desire to see more in detail their every- day life — to visit them ashore.
So strongly was this excited in many of the old tars, that they blamed the commodore for not at once sailing up to the city, which we under- stood lay in the upper portion of the bay, con- cealed from our sight by an intervening promon- tory, and there going ashore under cover of the guns, and at once forcing them to hold communi- cations.
Two days after leaving the harbour, we met two Japanese fishing-boats, which sailed boldly up alongside, and held up some fish for sale. They made fast alongside, and, on receiving a quantity of empty bottles, handed up in return a number of fine fish.
They did not appear at all shy, and evidently were much rejoiced at the excellent bargain they had made. Glass is a scarce article in Japan, as we are informed in the descriptions of the country given by the Dutch agents who have resided there.
Glass bottles are in special demand, and no doubt it was the anxiety to possess themselves of some treasures of this kind which induced the fishermen to come alongside. They manifested no hesitation or fear whatever, but appeared on the contrary very anxious to communicate. It struck us that, if the discipline was so strict everywhere else through the island as we found it at Jeddo Bay, they would experience some difficulty in smuggling their bottles on shore.
The fishing-boats were the last we saw of Japan,
150 The Young Man-of-War s Man.
and we were soon after bowling along under a stiff breeze, every hour increasing the distance between ourselves and those East Indies, of which we had seen so little, and that little the worst side.
There was not a man on board that was not heartily glad to find the old ship once more bound America-ward. It seemed almost like homeward- bound; and we congratulated ourselves already upon the fact that we were no longer outward- bound — a species of negative comfort, of which we were glad enough to avail ourselves.
But, although in a few days far enough from the Chinese coast, so long the scene of our dis- content, we were carrying with us saddening memorials of it, in the pale cheeks and emaciated forms, the lustrous eyes and trembling hands of many of our poor shipmates, who would scarce return home the stalwart, light-hearted fellows they left it.
Our main-deck was still crowded with the cots of the sick, and although happily, now that we had exchanged the sultry and unwholesome air of China for the free and inspiriting breezes of the wide Pacific, there were no new cases of dysentery, yet the disease hung obstinately upon those un- fortunates who had become its victims in days past; and every few days some of the sufferers would drop off on the very road to recovery, but so weakened, so, as it were, dragged down, as to have no longer in their systems the power to give it new tone. Like the scurvy-patient, whose weakened powers succumb to the health-giving
Promotion. 1 5 1
breezes of the shore, these poor fellows sank under the efforts of their debilitated systems at recovery. Peace be with them ! they rest quietly in their ocean-graves, unheeding the storms that blow and the billows that roll above their heads.
CHAPTER X.
THE SANDWICH ISLANDS — HONOLULU — A DAY'S LIBERTY.
Shortly after leaving Japan, I was made happy by attaining a long-cherished desire of mine, to be stationed in one of the tops. I had grown too large (in my own estimation) for a mere errand- boy, and I had a great desire to learn something of sailor-craft before we got back to the United States.
That " I had come to a poor place to learn to be a sailor," I found true to the letter. Of all the ships that sail, a man-of-war is the very worst wherein to learn sailorship. So well is this known, that the officers of merchant vessels never ship man-of-war sailors, if they know it.
There are on one of these ships so many men, that the necessity for exertion, for learning, does not exist ; and there were many boys and men on board of our vessel who positively knew no more about a ship, and the various duties of a sailor,
152 The Young Mcwi-of- Wars Man.
when they left her after a three years' cruise, than they did when they came on board.
This would have been my case, had I not been fortunate enough to be now stationed in the mizzen-top, where I applied myself diligently to learn somewhat of the duties which are required of the sailor-boy.
In addition to this, I practised industriously at making the various knots and splices, in the neat performance of which the true sailor takes so much pride, and was soon master of long and short splices, manrope knots, turks-heads, and Matthew Walkers, and the fifty other artistical twists and ties which decorate a fancy ship's rigging.
My life in the top was a very happy one. I was relieved of the drudgery of running errands, striking the bell, and lounging about the quarter deck, at the momentary call of the officers. I was top-man ; and what more flattering to a boy than to be ranked among men, even if he is at the "tail of the heap?"
I was no longer obliged to stand outside of the social circle, when, in the pleasant dog-watches, the song was sung, or the adventures of other days talked over. I had a rightful place among the sailors, and forthwith, in my pride of heart at the glorious eminence to which I had arrived, I patched my trousers, and rubbed tar on my frocks, that he that ran might read me a sailor. In short, I made a laughing-stock of myself.
Our passage to the Sandwich Islands, where we were next to touch, was made with fine and
A School of WJmles. 153
fair breezes, and over a smooth sea, and as many of our invalids were now recovering, the ship assumed once more an appearance of life and gaiety, to which we had for some time been strangers. The consciousness that, if we were not yet on our direct path for home, we were yet gradually nearing that point in our cruise, and had already passed through the severest scenes in it, no doubt aided materially in inspiring the crew with pleasant feelings.
There was, besides, a prospect that all hands would get a run on shore in one of the two or three ports at which we would touch within the next six months; and when "liberty" is ahead, Jack is always full of joyous anticipations.
It was on this passage, and some days before we reached the Sandwich Islands, that we saw the first large school of whales we had met during the cruise. We had occasionally seen a spout, or the gleam of black skin, but always at too great a distance from the vessel to enable us to distin- guish aught of the form or actions of Leviathan.
There was nothing, I think, that most of the boys desired to see so much as a whale. For my part, I was continually on the look-out for a spout, when in the top, and had a standing arrangement with a member of the other watch, that, in case one should make his appearance close to the ship while I was below, I was instantly to be called.
Great was our pleasure, therefore, when one afternoon, while I was in the top, a school of tolerably large whales made their appearance
154 The Young Man-of -War s Man.
ahead, and came right down toward the vessel. The bows and the lower and topsail yards were soon crowded with gazers; and as the school slowly approached the ship, the utmost silence was kept, that they might not be frightened, and disappear before we had time to inspect them.
I stood in the mizzentop watching their regular spou tings, and wondering at the vast shapes which seemed so easily propelled through the water. A friend and top-mate, who was an old whaler, ex- plained to me the names given to the various portions of the whale which we were able to see — as his hump, a triangular projection on his back, looking to a green hand not unlike a dorsal fin, but consisting altogether of blubber, displaying no affinity to a fin ; his broad back and square head, the latter giving to the whole animal a singular appearance of incompleteness, as it is indeed merely a great shapeless mass of blubber.
As the school got a little distance astern, they went down, the leader making a beginning by turning flukes in grand style. " Turning flukes," that evolution of the whale is called, in which, on being about to descend to the depths of the sea in search of his food, he first gives his head a slight toss up, then launches himself headfore- most into the deep, his broad flukes or tail being the last point visible of him in his perpendicular descent. It is a grand sight, and one too in which whalers greatly delight, inasmuch as it shows them that they have not frightened their whale, as, in the latter case, his whaleship would
Bay of Honolulu. 155
not wait to tarn his flukes, but would drop down horizontally out of sight.
In due time we arrived at Honolulu, the capital and principal city of the Sandwich Island group, situated on the Island of Oahu. We sighted the island early one morning, and standing in, were boarded about three o'clock in the afternoon by a pilot, who brought the ship safely to anchor in the outer harbour, or Bay of Waititi, at five o'clock in the evening.
Before the ship came to anchor, she was boarded by several of the American residents, merchants, and missionaries.
On the next morning after our arrival, we saluted the Hawaian flag, the salute being returned from a fort which has been erected on the shore, fronting the harbour.
There is little striking or beautiful about the Bay of Honolulu. The scenery on shore, although agreeably diversified by hill and dale, has not the abrupt grandeur of many of the islands of the Pacific, and the country was not at that time in a sufficiently high state of cultivation to lend to it the charm which the labours of man effect in beautifying a natural scene.
The Bay is commodious and tolerably safe. Besides the outer harbour, where our ship was anchored, there is an inner harbour, formed by a coral reef, which extends directly across the Bay, and protects the ships in this smaller cove from any gale which would render the outer bay un- safe. Merchant vessels and whaleships intending to make any considerable stay here, always go
156 The Young Man-of -War s Man.
over the reef, and lie in safety inside, either at wharves or to their anchors, at but inconsiderable distances from the shore.
Although the ship's company were not allowed to go on shore here, the boys were granted a day's run, at which we were no little elated.
On going on shore, a party of us first made the round of the town, taking a look at the fort, the king's palace, situated in a large pleasure ground, the houses of the missionaries, their chapels and school-houses, as well as examining as far as we could the dwellings of the natives.
Honolulu was at that time (just before the dis- covery of the gold in California) a straggling, rather poorly-constructed or laid out town. It contained a number of very respectable-looking houses, but the great body of the town was made up of small huts, and on the outskirts a few tents were to be seen.
The whole place had a listless, impassive look, as though the inhabitants were only taking a rest, preparatory to a start on a journey. Except down by the waterside, where the sailors by their un- couth gambols along the shore gave some life to the scene, a Sabbath stillness reigned throughout. There were few persons in the streets, not many shops, and but little signs of business ; neverthe- less, there was at this time a great deal of busi- ness done and money made upon the islands, mostly by the American and English residents, and by some few Chinese, who were trading here in a small way, and cheating, as usual, to the full extent of their ability.
A Day on Shore. 157
Of the natives, a fair proportion were clothed, although rather lightly, wearing in many instances nothing but a poncho — a square piece of cloth with a hole cut in the centre, through which the head is put, the corners of the garment reaching about down to one's middle ; and, in addition to this, the tappa or loin-cloth. But very many stalked about in nothing but the tappa. The women were universally dressed in long loose gowns, fitting tightly around the neck, and hang- ing loose down to the feet, leaving no idea to be formed of the shape.
In the houses, we found the ground or floor covered with mats, many woven very skilfully and in fine colours. On these mats the natives were often seen rolling about in perfect idleness. In one corner of the room there was generally a raised structure of boards, covered also with mats, and which served as beds. Of furniture, there was little, everything seeming to be conducted on the most primitive scale.
In the afternoon we rode out into the country, hiring horses for that purpose of some natives. We enjoyed the ride — a sailor is always delighted to get on horseback, a horse being something he knows nothing at all about — but saw nothing very attractive. Biding out for some eight or nine miles, we saw nothing to disturb the dreary monotony but a few miserable native huts, each surrounded by its little taro patch, and a few of the natives, much more ill-favoured individuals than those we had seen in town.
Altogether, I was inclined to think that the
o
158 The Young Man-of-Wars Man.
islands and their inhabitants, judging from the samples we saw, were susceptible of great im- provement.
During our stay here we enjoyed greatly the fine fruits which are brought off in bum-boats to the ship. Besides the banana, the cocoa-nut, and the lime, we found here fine water-melons, a fruit we had not before seen since leaving home.
Here I for the first time tasted bread-fruit. The fruit is about as large as a man's head. It has a rough thick rind, which grows hard with baking. The inside is a soft pulp, in which are hid a number of pips or seeds. I did not like its taste, which seemed to me a mixture of acid and sweet, but with a sickening flavour that makes it unpalatable. I think the taste for it must be acquired, as, although I have since known many who were very fond of it, cooked or raw, I never knew of one who liked it at first.
There is, however, here another fruit, the taro, which serves the natives in lieu of the potato, and which is one of the most delicious of vegetables. It grows to about the size of a large cocoa-nut, and is round and hard, cutting precisely like a firm potato. They are boiled and eaten as potatoes, or with milk. In the latter way, I can vouch for their being a delicacy.
I have before mentioned the existence of a coral reef forming the inner harbour. Within the bounds of this reef, and among the surf which is constantly breaking upon it, the natives were amusing themselves from morning till night, showing their dexterity in meeting and overcom-
The King on Board. 159
ing the heavy rollers of the surf, and bidding de- fiance to sharks, and shark rock. Unfortunate the shark who, tempted by the smell of some savoury morsel within the fatal harbour, pokes his nose over the reef. He is set upon as a great prize by the native amphibii, and, despite the most strenu- ous struggles, is generally overcome, dragged out on shore, and roasted.
On seeing a shark about the reef, a native pro- vides himself with a flat-shaped piece of wood, tolerably sharp at one end. With this in hand, he goes to meet the fish, and taking opportunity when he opens his mouth, pushes the pointed end down his throat. The entire mouth is filled up, and kept distended. The shark struggles for a while, but is unable to get rid of the encum- brance, and is fairly drowned.
The natives are, like all the South Sea Islanders, very expert divers. In fact, they seemed quite as much at home in the water as out. There was one day a canoe full of Kanakas alongside desir- ing to sell some fruit. I noticed one of them in the stern looking for a minute intensely into the water. Suddenly he raised his hands, gave a leap, and darted into the water. He was below the surface nearly a minute, and came up with a small fish held between his teeth. It was this fish he had before been watching.
While lying here, the king, Kamehameha III., paid a visit to the ship. He was received on board with the appropriate ceremonies, the crew manning the yards, and a salute being fired when he came on board, and again as he left the vessel.
1 60 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
He was a portly man, of fine presence, and looked very intelligent.
He had at that time a very beautiful little schooner, built for him in the United States, in which he spent a great portion of his time, sailing from island to island, visiting the different parts of his dominions. If report spoke true, he interfered but little with the affairs of government at this period of his reign, allowing his ministers to con- duct these as far as could be without his aid.
Oahu is the port of most frequent resort for whaling vessels cruising in the North Pacific. Here they spend a portion of their time every year, after the expiration of the regular whaling season on the north-west coast, refitting their vessels and frolicking on shore. The crews, by their ill conduct, have greatly impeded the suc- cess of missionary labours upon the islands ; and it is not too much to say that they are justly blameable for most of the vices which, at the time we touched there, infected the natives, and under the deleterious effects of which their entire race is gradually dwindling away.
CHAPTER XT.
VALPARAISO — "VALE OP PARADISE" — JACK ASHORE.
Sailing along pleasantly, with fresh breezes and beautiful weather, we arrived, in seventy days, at
Two Sundays in a Week. 1 6 1
Valparaiso, Chili, from which place we were bound either to the coast of California, or if not wanted there, home.
" Vale of Paradise," — never was there such a misnomer. Surely some man-of-war's man had the naming of it. By them indeed this port is re- garded as a species of elysium, for here they enjoy the most unbounded liberty and license — when they get ashore. Many were the yarns I had listened to during the voyage, of " last cruise, when we went ashore at Valparaiso."
All those who had been there before, looked forward to our going there with the most lively pleasure, and we, who had yet to make our first experience of it, of course felt no little curiosity to view a scene of so much happiness.
We got in on a Saturday, according to our reckoning, but found that ashore they called it Friday. And accordingly, next day was our Sunday, and the next day after was Sunday ashore — we keeping both days, in order to straighten our reckoning.
This happened by our having gone round the world, sailing east all the while, and thus gaining an entire twenty-four hours by the circumnaviga- tion.
It was laughable to see the puzzled astonish- ment with which many of the crew regarded this curious conjunction of two Sundays. They could not understand what is a simple matter to the merest tyro in astronomy at school, that sailing east we gain time, at the rate of one hour for every fifteen degrees of longitude, and that of
1 62 The Young Man-of-War s Man.
course by cutting through the entire three hun- dred and sixty degrees into which our globe has been partitioned off by geographers, there would be a necessary gain of twenty-four hours.
" Well," said one of my topmates to me, " I shan't tell of this when I get home, for they would be sure to think I was fibbing."
Which brings to mind a little yarn often alluded to at sea, when witnessing something so strange that one would scarce believe it without actually seeing it.
There was, once upon a time, so the yarn goes, a lad named Jack, who, returning home to his mother, after an absence of some years at sea, was desired by the old lady to relate to her some of the wonders he had witnessed in his journeying up and down the earth.
Jack commenced by telling her that, as his ship was one day sailing up the Eed Sea, they had oc- casion to cast anchor, and, on weighing again next morning, there came up on the anchor a large chariot-wheel, undoubtedly one of those be- longing to Pharaoh's host.
" Well," said the old lady, " Jack, that's very fine indeed, but tell us something more."
Said Jack : " When I made a voyage to Jamaica, in the West Indies, we saw a great mountain of brown sugar, and a river of the best rum running around the foot of it."
" That must have been a grand sight, indeed I" said the old lady; "but go on, my child, with your stories."
Now, Jack began to feel some conscientious
A True Yarn. 163
scruples about telling his mother any more lies ; and, thinking to rectify all mistakes by topping off with a good truth, said —
" And when we were on the voyage home, mother, we saw great troops of fish flying through the air, some of which lit upon the vessel."
The old lady heaved a deep sigh as she said —
" Oh ! Jack, Jack, you wicked boy, that you should stay away so long, and then come home to your olol mother with a lie in your mouth.' '
" Why, it's truth, mother," began Jack, fear- ing that he had got himself into a scrape.
" Don't say any more, boy," rejoined she angrily, " you'll only make it worse. About the chariot-wheel being fast to your anchor, I can believe ; because the Bible tells us that Pharaoh and his host were drowned in the Red Sea. As for mountains of sugar and rivers of rum, that we know to be true, for it's all brought from there. But flying fishes — oh, Jack, Jack ! that you should try to make fun of your old mother."
Before we got to Valparaiso, we had been given to understand that this was to be our liberty port, and accordingly, on the third day after we got in, one quarter of the crew were sent ashore, with three days' leave and forty shillings in their pockets.
I was of the second party that went, which was fortunate, as my verdancy on the subject of " liberty " was somewhat enlightened before our party went ashore, by the appearance of those of the first party who came off in regular time. Of
1 64 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
these, some few had black eyes and otherwise contused faces, evidences of the clearing up of some little matters which had been in abeyance the whole cruise; many were intoxicated, and nearly all looked as though, to use a significant phrase, " they had been boarding in the market and sleeping on the benches there." Nothing was said, however, by the officers, on their appear- ance, forty-eight hours more being allowed them for the sick to get well, the drunk sober, and the blind and lame to recover their organs of vision and locomotion.
Well, I went ashore, and, taking the advice of an old and steady tar, a good friend of mine, at once separated myself from the great crowd, who went on their way rejoicing — shouting, singing, and kicking up their heels like a parcel of school- boys. I spent the forenoon in company with another lad of about my age, in walking through the town, examining the churches, the plaza, and taking a shore-look of the harbour. Getting our dinner at a hotel, we again sallied out, to look up our shipmates, hoping to find them a little quieted — the first wild burst over.
It is not a difficult matter to find a sailor in Valparaiso. He has here his peculiar haunts, where the genus hold out, and into which a lands- man thrusts himself at the imminent risk of his neck. So completely have the tars taken posses- sion of the quarters of the town at which they most do congregate, that they have named them — of course, after various parts of the ship. Thus there is the Foretop, the Maintop, the Mizzentop,
" Jolly Jack Brown." 165
the Mainroyal, the Cat-Harpings, and several other places of less note.
Valparaiso is divided into two portions — a lower town, lying upon a level with the harbour, in the bottom of the hollow formed by the sur- rounding hills, and an upper town, built on ter- races upon the sides of those hills. The Tops are three distinct suburbs, lying on the sides of three different hills, and separated from each other and from the town by deep ravines.
These are the strongholds of Jack Tar. Here he reigns supreme, lord of all he surveys, for the short time he is ashore. Here he has full scope to work out all the various eccentricities which go to make up a " glorious frolic," unmolested by troublesome vigilante, or treacherous captain of the port's man.
On our way up to the Mizzentop we met "Jolly- Jack Brown," as he called himself, a sedate quarter-master on board ship, picking his drunken way down the steep hill, with a little donkey held in his arms, as though it were a child.
He was " nursing it," he said, " but the beast wouldn't keep quiet."
And no wonder — it hadn't been used to being carried about, lying on its back, with its thin legs vainly pawing the air, its tail keeping the flies from Jack's shining face.
He was hunting the commodore, he told us, to make him a present of the donkey as a curiosity, having, as we afterwards ascertained, given a crown for it to a thieving Chileno, who was now following him up, waiting for him to drop the
1 66 The Young Man-of-War s Man.
animal, when he would again take possession of it.
Getting farther along, we came upon our shipmates sitting in the pulperias (grog-shops), smoking their cigars and having " glasses round;" some playing cards, others spinning tough yarns of the events of the cruise to some British sailors whom they had invited to participate with them.
There is no greater gentleman than your true man-of-war's man, when he is ashore. His hand is open — as his mouth, His last shilling goes as easy as his first. Purse strings ! bless yon, they are a useless encumbrance. If he drinks, he treats the crowd. Does he light a cigar : every mouth in the company must puff. Has a " cook- shop " hove in sight : " Walk up, boys, and let's take in some ballast ; stow your ground tier well, so you'll keep right side up in the squalls;" as though any possible amount of "ballast" would keep upright so crank a boat as he ! And so the money goes; and Jack, who was a gentleman for a day, is a beggar for the next six months.
Presently a party on horseback hove in sight. Horse-riding is one of the standard amusements of Valparaiso, and a large plain, lying above the town and harbour, affords grand scope for all the manoeuvres incident to sailor-horsemanship. When our presence was discovered, we were at once invited to join the party, and in obedience to the command of one of the number, a Chilian hostler brought horses for us.
Accordingly we rode up on the plain ; and such riding, such steering of hard-mouthed beasts,
The Boys A shore. 1 6 7
such urging on of obstinate ones and holding in of refractory ones, such tumbling off and tumbling on again, was never seen, except in just such a crowd.
" Starboard !"
" Port your helm !"
" Stern, all !"
" Hard up, or I'll cut you down to the water's edge!"
Such exclamations resounded constantly, as a shying horse would dart into the midst of the party, threatening to capsize the half of them. And with such shouting, galloping, and racing, we at length reached the top of the plain.
Here, indeed, was a grand view spread out before us. The town and harbour lay imme- diately at our feet. Beyond was the bay, in the distance Reef-top-sail Point, so called because, owing to its peculiar situation, there is at almost all times an eddy wind just off this point, before which vessels are obliged to shorten sail on coming into the harbour.
We boys had been ordered to return on board at sunset, which we gladly did, well satisfied to have a good night's rest after our day's amuse- ment.
The next morning, at eight o'clock, we were off for another day's jaunt ashore. My yesterday's companion and myself determined this day to see all of Valparaiso that had escaped us on the pre- vious day. We first directed our steps toward the Almendralj a large pleasure ground lying at the lower end of the town and harbour.
1 68 The Young Man-of-War s Man.
The way leads down along a beautiful hard sand beach, a grand spot for horse-riding. But riding a horse through the streets of the city of Valparaiso at a faster pace than a very moderate walk, is a fineable or imprisonable offence, and this particular piece of beach is under the juris- diction of the city. Vigilantes (the mounted police of Chili), are stationed at every corner, in readiness to seize upon all offenders.
These vigilantes are armed with a sword big enough for William Wallace the hero of Scot- land, and a lasso, which they manage dexterously to throw around the body of a galloping horseman, dismounting him rather unceremoniously from the back of his Bucephalus.
As we were walking slowly along, looking up at the queer old-fashioned houses, tiled with what looked to us like long crocks split down the middle, a loud voice at a distance shouted —
" Is the coast clear, Tom % "
" Yes," was the answer from one a little in advance.
" Stand clear there, boys," was shouted to us, " we'll show the vigilantes a clean pair of heels ;" and plunging their spurs into their horses' sides, a party of madcap sailors came tearing down the beach at a tremendous pace.
But they had not been altogether unobserved ; and as they passed the first corner, at a flying gallop, a slender little line flew in among the crowd, and catching one unfortunate about the body, landed him upon the sand as nimbly as one lands a fish ; and then, with many carraillos and
The A Imendral. 169
malditos, a whiskered vigilante rode up to the prostrate tar, drawn sword in hand, and demanded, in most guttural Spanish, what business he had that required such haste.
The sight of a Spanish dollar, however, seemed to have a marvellously quieting effect upon his Spanish rage; and upon a proper apology and a promise being rendered, in a mixture of Spanish and English, by our lassoed friend, that he would make haste slowly in future, and the transfer of the afore-mentioned dollar to the pockets of his Excellency, as Tom persisted in calling him, he was released, and allowed to depart in peace.
The A Imendral is a great resort for " liberty men," as here they can sit down or walk about among the trees and take a little quiet comfort, and as, moreover, at the lower end of the pleasure ground there are a number of public-houses, with skittle and bowling-alleys, card-tables, and every- thing fitted for " a real day's sport."
After seeing all that was to be seen, we two hired a carriage and took a long drive into the country, finding, however, nothing remarkable in the way of scenery, and returned in time to take a late dinner, with a bowl of good chocolate, at the " Golden Lion," paid another visit to the cathedral and the plaza, peeped into the calaboose, and returned on board, fully satisfied with our so long-desired " liberty," — satisfied (at least I was, and I believe every reasoning being of the crew thought with me) that Valparaiso was a humbug, that " liberty" was a humbug, and that a man-of- war, considered as a stand point whence to see
P
1 70 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
somewhat of the world, was the most egregious humbug of all.
Let us take a sober look at the matter. Here was a ship which had gone quite round the world (for Valparaiso is in very nearly the same longi- tude as New York), had visited various ports in the Brazils, the East Indies, China, and the Sand- wich Islands ; and now, when nearly two years from home, the crew was for the first time allowed to set foot on shore. Having passed by, with a distant view, the places which we were most anxious to examine closely, all hands were at last permitted to set foot on a foreign shore, and saw — what J Speaking from my own experience : First, I saw a lot of drunken sailors. Next, a number of very fierce-looking fellows, with long swords and villainous countenances, whose prin- cipal duty (so far as I could discover) wTas to keep the said sailors within proper bounds. Thirdly, I had seen a few trees, a little grass, a number of grog-shops and ten-pin alleys, the cathedral, the calaboose, and the plaza. And fourthly, I had seen — aye, and felt too — an innumerable host of fleas. Were not these sights rather dearly paid for by a two years' cruise at sea, deprived of every comfort, outside of the pale of all civilised society, living on stinking beef and pork, and worse than stinking water % Truly, I had " paid too dear for my whistle."
But it is always so. The sailor sees nothing of the world really worth seeing. Seaports, devoted entirely to the shipping interest, as the vast majority of such places are, generally contain but
The Guano Islands, 171
little that is of real interest to the traveller. And the sailor who comes ashore on a two or three days' spree has neither time nor money, nor even inclination, to hunt up the lions. What did Tom Starboard or Jack Halyard learn, pray, of the general customs and manners of the people of Chili, during their three days' visit to the shore ] They experienced the presence of a mounted police; they had informed themselves of the localities of the various grog-shops ; and the sum- total of their real information concerning the country consisted in this, that the people spoke a barbarous species of Spanish, and that their houses are infested with unaccountable quantities of very larere fleas.
CHAPTER XII.
C ALLAO CALIFORNIA MONTEREY — SAN PEDRO —
SAN FRANCISCO A PRIZE THE MORMONS.
When all the crew were once more on board and sober, we got under weigh, and in twelve days ran down the coast to Callao. This is the seaport of Lima, which latter city is situated nine miles from the sea.
Here I would dearly like to have gone on shore, as Lima is really a place worth seeing, and quite accessible from the seaport. Its splendid churches and palaces, its many reminiscences of the
172 The Young Man-of -War s Man.
days of Pizarro and the Incas, and the various an- cient customs still in vogue among some classes of the Peruvians, make it a place of absorbing interest.
But the business of the ship did not admit of our taking a jaunt ashore here, and so Bolla's Bridge was not crossed by me, nor was I per- mitted to see the beautiful Peruvian ladies, in their queer head-dresses, concealing all of the face except one eye.
Peru is a country where it never rains ; but the nightly dew is equally powerful with the most violent rain, so far as moistening the earth is concerned. It is a dense mist, lasting all night, and wetting through everything that is exposed to it. The night-watches, passed amid such weather, are of course very unpleasant. The cus- tomary naps on watch must be foregone, as the decks are drenched, and on such nights I always found the top to be the most comfortable place. Here, snugly ensconced under lee of a stout tar- paulin, we sang songs and spun yarns, and kept up a running fire of jokes, amid which the outside discomforts were forgotten.
While in Callao, we witnessed some prepara- tions for a ceremony which takes place annually on Good Friday, called "Hanging Judas." On this day all the Peruvian shipping, as well as the castle, and I believe all the public buildings in the town, are dressed in mourning. The vessels hang their yards as nearly perpendicular as may be, but in different directions, thus by the inten- tional disarray expressing their sorrow.
Early in the morning an effigy, representing
California. 1 73
the traitor who sold his Master, is hung upon one of the battlements of the castle amid considerable ceremony, and in view of a large concourse of people gathered together for the occasion. Flags are at half-mast all day, and everything betokens an occasion of mourning. At sunset, amid firing of cannon, the effigy is taken down and consigned to the tender mercies of an expectant mob, who kick it about and abuse it in every imaginable way, not leaving it until the poor man of straw is pretty effectually used up; all of which, evinc- ing as it does a high state of moral sentiment among the rabble, is considered very edifying by the authorities of Church and State.
We remained but a few days in Callao ; just long enough to allow time for the officers to pay a visit to Lima, and were then off for the coast of California. The fine, pure breezes of the Pacific had by this time done their work upon our crew, in restoring all, with a very few exceptions, to health, and once more the main-deck was clear of sick-cots, and all was gay and pleasant, where for so long there had reigned sober faces, and perhaps sober feelings.
After a pleasant but rather tedious passage, we reached Monterey, then the principal port in all California, San Francisco being as yet a rather unimportant village of some sixty or seventy houses, but which bade fair — so said th6 only paper then printed in the whole country — to have, in ten or twelve years, quite a population, 'perhaps — this was hazarded as an extreme guess — per- haps as high as nine or ten thousand.
1 74 The Young Man-of- Wars Man,
The California of those days was a most unpro- ductive country — a great fertile waste, in which everything would grow but nothing was made to grow, except, indeed, beef. We spent a long and tedious nine months, principally in Monterey, paying only one visit during the time to San Francisco.
A bullock could be bought for six shillings ; and if one made a purchase of a saddle and bridle, a horse was given into the bargain. The country, at least the portion adjoining the sea-coast, which t^j^wsis all I was so fortunate as to visit, had a bleak, forlorn aspect, somewhat like a long-neglected garden. There was not a vegetable on the whole coast, nothing eatable but beef, beef, beef — a never-ceasing round of boiled beef, of which we grew so tired that to this day the sight of a beef-bone takes away my appetite. All imported provisions were exorbitantly high ; in fact, no- thing but beef was at all accessible to any one of a moderate income. Flour sold at five guineas per barrel at Monterey, and even at that price an enterprising Yankee skipper bought up all that was in the market — one little ship-load — to take to the Sandwich Islands, expecting to make a handsome profit on his investment.
The natives of the Rancheros lived as nearly as ever I could find out on jerked beef, tortillias, — little cakes of very coarse meal baked on ashes by dirty-looking Indian hags — and monte, a Spanish game at cards. The few American residents fared but little better, except perhaps in the matter of cleanliness.
Soda Onions, 175
In fact, the whole country was so desolate that we (the crew of our ship, that is) were permitted to go ashore on several occasions, to ramble over the lonely hills and sterile beach, gathering Cali- fornia shells and soda onions. This last produc- tion of California is quite a curiosity. It grew at that time in wild profusion all over the hills about San Francisco Bay, and was used very generally by sailors in the place of soap. It is in shape and general appearance a perfect onion, but on being rubbed in water produces a lather — equal in white- ness and cleansing properties to the best of soap. Our crew gathered great quantities of this veget- able, and it was for a long time almost exclusively used on board for washing clothes.
On our arrival at Monterey, we found that the different vessels composing the United States squadron on that coast had been doing no insigni- ficant business in the way of capturing prizes, and the crews of several vessels had an amount of prize-money due them fully equal to their regular wages.
The war was pretty much over when we arrived, and we therefore had but little chance to dis- tinguish ourselves in that line. Nevertheless, we had the satisfaction of taking a prize under the very noses of the entire squadron, which was at this time gathered in the Bay of Monterey.
A little schooner, called The William, and dis- playing American colours and papers, had been for some weeks lying quietly in the bay. She pretended to be waiting for a cargo of hides, and little attention was paid to her by the officers
176 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
of the men-of-war. Our commodore took it into his head to have her hold thoroughly searched, when lo and behold ! snugly stowed away beneath a superincumbent mass of casks and other lumber were found several cases of arms, the remnants of a full cargo which her captain had succeeded in disposing of to the Mexicans at various points along the coast. She of course became our prize, and nearly three thousand pounds in silver, the proceeds of her voyage, were transferred from her cabin to our treasure-box.
Most of the vessels taken as prizes by the United States naval vessels on this coast during the war, for selling ammunition and warlike stores of all kinds to the Mexicans, were Americans, fitted out for this purpose in American ports, and sent out here by their owners to furnish arms to those who were fighting their countrymen — a nefarious speculation, to say the least of it.
The Mexicans themselves had but one or two small vessels on the coast, and the English and French seem to have entered into that business to but very small extent. It was left for our money-loving countrymen to follow the example set in times past by the Dutch, of selling to the enemy the arms wherewith to defend them- selves.
Among the vessels belonging to the Mexican fleet on this coast at the time was one to which, from the strange vicissitudes of her career, a good deal of romance attached. This was the Malek Adhel, a fleet little brig. She had been, first, smuggler on the coast of China, then pirate, next
The "MaM Adhcl." 177
slaver, and finally was bought by the Mexicans, taken into the Mexican navy, and captured while lying under the guns of the fort at Acapulco by the boats of the United States sloop -of -war Warren. She was a beautiful-looking vessel, and it was reported would sail like the wind. Certainly, if sharp bows and square yards, breadth of beam and tautness of rigg, indicate a clipper, she was one.
Her story was a strange one. As it was told to me by one who had been in her when she was a slaver, it ran as follows : —
She was built in Baltimore, and had been originally fitted out for an opium -smuggler. After running in that trade two years, proving herself the while the fleetest of the fleet, her crew, on a return-passage from China, mutinied, and, killing the officers, hoisted the black flag and boldly steered for the Atlantic, laying under con- tributions all vessels they met with on their way.
As the vessel, while in the smuggling trade, was well provided with arms, the piratical crew found her ready fitted to their hands. After robbing several Indiamen, and one or two country ships, they got round the Cape of Good Hope and steered for the coast of Brazil, where they com- mitted various depredations, until, ere long, their actions came to the ears of the authorities, and they found the American and English men-of-war hot in chase.
As those seas were no longer safe for them, the mutineers resolved to take a flying trip through
178 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
the West India groups, and here the vessel was captured after a hard fight, and those of the crew left alive were gibbeted in Havana.
The vessel now came into the possession of a slaving captain, who refitted her, thoroughly armed her, and, shipping a crew of thirty of the most desperate characters he could pick up in the pulperias of Havana, sailed for the coast of Africa. Here, in too much haste to proceed in the usual manner to procure his cargo of slaves, and for- getting the old proverb of " honour among thieves," he lay in wait for and intercepted two homeward-bound slavers, and robbed them of their ill-gotten freight.
Having in this way made up his cargo, he set sail on his return. Several days after meeting with and robbing the slavers, the vessel was chased by a British brig-of-war. With a roaring breeze, the Malek Adhel held her own for two days, but found it impossible to shake off her pursuer. All manner of devices were tried, but without success. Even the horrible expedient of throwing a portion of his slave-cargo overboard was re- sorted to, thinking by thus lightening the ship she would sail faster, — but all in vain.
Now the monster who commanded her grew desperate, and, double shotting his guns and arming his crew, he put the brig about, and steered down for the British cruiser, determined to decide the fate of the day in the speediest manner. The two brigs fought for three hours, not coming, however, during all the time to a hand-to-hand conflict, as, in such case, the slaver's
Capture of a Slaver. 179
captain was aware that the advantage of superior numbers was with the cruiser.
Each tried by skilful gunnery to cripple the other; and finally the captain of the slaver, by a lucky shot, succeeded in destroying the foremast of the British brig. Hauling his wind immediately, he now quickly ran down athwart the bows of his almost helpless enemy, and discharging two raking broadsides at her, which swept her decks fore and aft, he set all sail, and in a few days had his slaves landed on the island of Cuba.
The vessel made two more trips under the command of the wretch who was her captain on the first voyage, and then fell into the hands of Brazilians, who still, however, kept her in the slave trade, although procuring their cargoes in the more legitimate manner of paying for them on the coast.
On the last of these voyages she had been closely pursued by an American vessel-of-war, but had succeeded in throwing her off the scent. She ran into one of the smaller bays not far to the northward of Rio de Janeiro, and there succeeded in landing her slaves.
Scarcely had they been landed, when an American schooner-of-war made her appearance at the mouth of the harbour. At sight of her, the entire crew, officers and men, of the Maleh Adhel, seeing escape hopeless to the vessel, put off hastily for the shore, leaving her an empty prize in the hands of the American schooner.
By them she was condemned as a prize, stripped of her armament, and sold to an American
1 80 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
firm, who resold her to the Mexican government, and she had been for some time already doing duty on the California coast when she once more fell into the hands of the Americans. Of her after-history I know nothing, except that some of our oldest tars prophesied no good for her. There had been too much blood spilt upon her decks to make her a lucky craft, they said.
By a fortunate accident I was transferred to the United States sloop-of-war Warren while our ship lay idly at Monterey, and in her made a trip to San Pedro, a bay some two hundred miles farther down the coast. I thus saw more of California than most of our crew. San Pedro Bay is a rather poor harbour, formed by a slight indentation in the land, fronted and partly pro- tected from the sea by two small islands.
It was, at the time of which I write, notable simply as a hide-station, and as the port of a good- sized town, lying some thirty-seven miles in the interior, called the Puebla de los Angeles, or City of Angels. Several of the angels, in enormous hide-boots and spurs, and fierce-looking mous- taches, came down to the vessel to transact busi- ness with the captain. To say the best of them, they were rather dirty-looking fellows, with a good deal " of the earth, earthy " about them.
The town, which, by an effort of the imagina- tion, was generally supposed to be situated at San Pedro, I found to consist of one hide-house, and a man to take care of it.
The most interesting spot in the entire neigh- bourhood, to me, was the island fronting the
San Pedro Bay. iSr
harbour, to seaward. This was the abode of numberless sea-fowl which had here their nests, thickly studding the ground, and which some- times, when suddenly disturbed, rose up in vast crowds, almost hiding the light of the sun, and filling the air with their discordant cries.
A boat's crew of us paid a visit to the island, where we found the entire shore covered with nests, nearly all containing eggs or young birds, and so thickly were they clustered together that one could hardly walk between them without treading upon them. The birds were quite tame, and sat still upon their nests, or screamed dis- cordantly above our heads, while we walked through their settlement.
We procured a quantity of eggs, taking of course only the freshest looking. The eggs are quite palatable, but the birds, mostly sea-gulls, have a strong fishy taste, arising, probably, from their living almost constantly on fish, which makes them suitable only for strong stomachs.
We remained at San Pedro but a few days, as the harbour is not a safe one, and as soon as our business was finished returned to Monterey. Here, everything was as we left it — the same dull routine of nothing to do, the same everlasting beef.
While lying here this time, I was, at my ear- nest petition, returned to my old ship from the Warren.
At the time we were on the coast, the country about San Francisco and inland was being settled by Mormons, to whom this had been proclaimed
Q
1 82 The Young Man-of -War s Man.
a second promised land. Immigrant parties of them were arriving constantly, a few by ship, but most of them overland, crossing the Eocky Moun- tains. The poor people, intent only on reaching as speedily as possible their new Canaan, and possessed in general of but little practical infor- mation regarding the perils of the way, started not unfrecniently at the most unpropitious seasons of the year for crossing the mountains, and suffered dreadfully from exposure to the cold among the snow-drifts on the higher ranges, as well as from want of provisions.
While we were lying at Monterey, one of these caravans was caught in the snow in one of the passes, and the history of their sufferings scarcely finds a parallel in any account of shipwreck and suffering at sea.
The party, consisting, if I remember aright, of some sixty persons, men, women, and children, arrived at the highest point on the summit of the range, in the beginning of February. Here, already weakened by previous exposure and suffer- ing, they were overtaken by a severe snow-storm, in which to travel was impossible. They found it necessary, therefore, to pitch their tents in this place, and endeavour to make themselves as comfortable as possible until the weather should moderate.
Meantime the provisions, already short enough, began to fail, and ere long they were reduced to the necessity of eating their animals. Still the snow continued, and they were now embedded in an enormous snow-drift, out of which it seemed
The Poor Emigrants. 183
an almost hopeless attempt for them to make their way, encumbered as the party was with helpless women and children. It required their utmost exertions to keep the flickering torch of life from going entirely out, in the midst of this frozen snow-bank. Soon they found it expedient to build themselves snow-houses; and now it truly seemed as though they were never to get away. Already some of the weaker had died, and others were fast failing, when it was proposed that a party of six of the stoutest and most ex- perienced should try to make their way to Suter's Fort, then the most easterly settlement in that part of California, and there obtaining aid and provisions, return to the succour of their unfor- tunate companions.
This was speedily determined on, and six of the best woodsmen, taking with them a scanty supply of mule-meat, departed on their rather desperate mission for relief.
Four of these died on the way, and it was not until entirely exhausted, and upon the point of also giving up, that the two survivors were found by a friendly band of Indians, who brought them to the Fort. Here one of the two died of pure exhaustion. The other, named Foster, by kind attendance and proper care, was soon sufficiently recovered to accompany a band of hardy back- woodsmen, amply supplied with all the necessaries of life, to the place where he had left his distressed companions.
After a most difficult journey of ten or twelve days, they succeeded in reaching the snow-huts
1 84 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
in the mountains. Six long weeks had already elapsed since Foster and his five companions had started out for the settlements to procure help. They found, out of sixty, but two left alive.
It appeared that, not long after the party had started for Suter's Fort, the mule-flesh was all consumed, and those still alive saw utter starva- tion staring them in the face. In this extremity, tortured by the incessant gnawings of hunger, they exhumed out of the snow the frozen bodies of their dead companions, and one after another these were eaten.
But even this desperate resort failed to keep life going in the ice-cold fastness, and one after another, children, women, and strong men, ceased to struggle with their fate. A few of the women and children had refused to touch the loathsome meal set before them, and of course these were the first to go.
But a few days, and the survivors no longer buried the dead. They had not strength; nor was it necessary, as one after another the corpses were taken to provide sustenance for those who were still obstinately struggling for existence. Hoping against hope, the fast dwindling few still managed to retain their hold on life. They no longer moved about, except as it was necessary to hunt up a fresh corpse, from which to satisfy the cravings of hunger. They ceased to hold com- munication with one another, but eyed each other greedily, thinking of the time, perhaps not far off, when one would dine upon the other.
It was not until the number of the living had
The Relief of Death, 185
been reduced to two, that the succouring party reached them. And as Mr Foster anxiously rushed to the tent where he had left a wife and two children alive, when he departed on his mission for help, he saw one of the two survivors reclining between the corpses of his two children, of one of which he had devoured all that was available, while of the other only part of the body had been consumed. The soul sickens at the contemplation of such a scene of horror.
The party returned to the settlements, where, it was said, one of the two survivors soon died of horror at the remembrance of the scene through which he had passed. One cannot help thinking that death must have been a relief to one who had so horrible an experience in his memory.
CHAPTER XIII.
HOMEWARD-BOUND — VALPARAISO AGAIN — LIBERTY AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.
We were heartily tired of the dull monotony of our California life ere we were in Monterey three months. To be confined on board ship, in har- bour, is wearisome enough at any time, but more especially so in so lifeless a port as Monterey. Iu places of so great resort for men-of-war as are
1 86 The Young Man-of- War s Man.
Rio de Janeiro or Valparaiso, various little inci- dents keep the mind excited, and cause time to pass quickly, if not pleasantly. Now, some saluting takes place in the harbour, and the causes for it form a topic for conversation. Again, some great admiral or governor-general comes aboard to review the ship, and what with cleaning and polishing, mustering, being gazed at, and gazing at the strangers in return, a day is passed. And so, with occasionally exercising topgallant and royal yards, and loosing and furling sails, listening to the band, and once in a while an agreeable book, and an after-dinner game at backgammon or chequers, the time does not hang so heavily on one's hands.
During our long stay at Bocca Tigris, in China, although deprived of the pleasure of going ashore, the continual novelty of the objects on the river, and the daily ramble of several hours through the well-supplied bum-boats, inspecting the curiosities, etc., served to keep the mind in a state of health- ful activity.
But in Monterey Bay there were none of these things, no foreign people to look at, no strange vessels coming in or going out, nothing to see or to do, or to think about. And a more tedious life than ours could not therefore well be. I had read through already every accessible book in the ship, including a prayer-book, before we reached the port. I had matched myself at backgammon against every player of note on board, and had become tired of continually beating certain ones, and being beaten by others. I had spun a teeto-
Homeward-Bound. 187
turn until disgust at the infantile amusement took possession of me.
Every means of amusement had been tried and thrown aside; and, in despair, I was at last re- duced to the desperate expedient of having my arms covered with pictures, pricked in with needles dipped in India ink, after the long-approved fashion of old tars. This, between the novelty of the experiment, and the pain attending it, served to while away some tedious hours. But, alas, even this could not last for ever; and when there was no longer left any room on my arms for additional Neptunes, ships, and whales, I was compelled in despair to re-read some of my old acquaintances among the books.
My experience was only that of all the crew, not excepting even the officers, and heartily glad were we therefore when it began to be whispered about that our sailing-day was not far distant. Great was the rejoicing amid which we got the ship ready for sea, and more willing hands never bent sails or sent aloft topgallant yards.
The boatswain's hoarse summons to " All hands up anchor for the United States ! " was received with three deafening cheers, attesting the hearti- ness of our joy. The capstan-bars flew round; the anchors were quickly at the bows; the top- sails sheeted home and hoisted ; and as the ship's bead swung to the breeze, we manned the rigging, and gave three times three cheers, which were cordially returned by the crews of some half- dozen men-of-war then in port.
And so we left California behind us, each with
1 88 The Young Man-of-War s Man.
an inward vow never to return thither if we could help it.
For home — for home — this was what tingled in every ear, wreathed every face with smiles, warmed every heart, and changed the entire life on board. Homeward-bound is the magic word which causes the most obstinate to relent, the fiercest spirits to soften. Under its happy influ- ence old feuds are forgotten; and friends and shipmates who have been estranged, or, perhaps, at bitter enmity all the cruise, now edge toward each other, and, almost before they know it, are shaking hands and laying out plans for the future.
Discipline, before so strict, is now greatly re- laxed, and many little misdemeanours are over- looked, many little liberties granted, which make the rough life a comparative pleasure. The bonds of restraint, which have hitherto kept every man in his own part of the ship, and among his own class, are to a great extent broken down, and, in the dog-watches, topmen are seen clambering over the stays, from top to top, making social visits, while on fine nights half the watch below stay on deck to yarn it and sing songs and talk about home.
" Well, boys," said an old quarter-master, " it's plain the girls at home have got hold of the tow- rope now — and just see how they are dragging the old ship along !"
She was going along with as fine a breeze roar- ing through her rigging and distending the sails as the most eager of us all could have desired. We were blessed with favouring winds all the
A Little Liberty. 189
way, not being detained by the usual calm on crossing the line, and arrived at Valparaiso in forty-six days from Monterey.
Here all hands were given another run on shore — a privilege of which we were not sorry to avail ourselves.
As homeward-bounders, we were looked up to on shore, and among the crews of the other men- of-war in the harbour, as fortunate beings, as much to be envied as though we had come into posses- sion of great wealth. And, sooth to say, we looked down with infinite pity upon the poor fellows who were doomed to pass another year or two upon the station, and presumed not a little upon our superior fortune.
The ship's company was divided into four shore parties, each division being allowed three days' liberty. It is usual to make the division in such cases by watches, or quarter-watches, but in this case it was made from a good-behaviour book, kept by the captain and commander, those whose names stood highest on this being permitted to go first on shore, while those whose previous misconduct had placed them lowest, were reserved for the last party. Among this last party were, of course, included all the worst drunkards and wild fellows. But it so happened, as is too often the case at sea, that those whose characters for sobriety and general orderliness of behaviour | stood lowest on the captain's book, were at the same time the smartest men in the ship, the very best seamen. Among them were included nearly all the foretopmen, some forecastlemen, and a
1 90 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
number of maintopmen. These the commander called his hoo-hoo gang, and their turn on shore came last.
Having no liberty-men to follow them, these fellows determined upon having a long spree, and agreed not to come off to the ship until they were fairly driven on board. Accordingly when their allotted three days were out, but a very few came off, the rest now stowing themselves away in the Tops, their regular haunts, where, with plenty of everything which a sailor's heart desires, they awaited the turn of events.
Such action was scarcely provided for on board, and one day's grace was given them, in which to render themselves up. Scarcely a man availed himself of this, those who still remained having organised themselves into a band, deter- mined to resist any attempts at a forcible capture, and to return on board voluntarily when they had their spree out.
The second day after the expiration of their liberty, notice was given the vigilantes ashore, that twenty shillings reward would be paid for every man of the crew rendered on board.
Several who had carelessly strayed out of the Tops were brought aboard in the course of the day, the reward for their capture coming, of course, as it always does in such cases, out of their own pockets.
The third day came, and now the reward for each man taken was raised to forty shillings. This set the entire police force of Valparaiso agog, as it was known that there were still nearly one
Jack and the Police. 191
hundred men ashore, and if they could only cap- ture the entire party, they would clear a neat little sum.
By this time, our tars had had their spree out, and were willing to return on board — but not as captives, and, worse yet, with the prospect of paying for their own capture. But the vigilantes were unwilling to allow their prey to escape so easily, and refused to let them pass out of the Tops, except as prisoners.
" Well," said one of the party, when this news was brought into the Tops by a few of their number who had been holding a parley with the police, " if they want us, let them come and get us; and let us get ready for them, boys, for we must get aboard to-day somehow. "
All hands now armed, some having shovels, some hammers, others old chairs, billets of wood, table-legs, in short, anything that came first to hand, and the entire party moved in a solid body down to Mizzentop, that part of their stronghold nearest the Mole.
While consulting what was next to be done, they were near being surprised by a considerable party of dismounted vigilantes, who having skirted around the base of the hills, were now advancing upon their rear. At the same time, another force appeared in front, and the party seemed about to be surrounded.
" Stick together, boys, and we'll drive these fellows before us down to the Mole ; and if we reach that we are safe," said one of the leaders.
No sooner said than done. Without giving
192 The Young Man-of- War's Man.
the party approaching their rear time to catch up, the tars charged upon the company of vigilantes in front, and, throwing some down the steep side of the Mizzentop hill, knocking down others, and driving the remainder before them, they fought their way gallantly down through the narrow street leading to the Mole, and reached the plaza at its extremity, without serious injury being done to any one of them.
On reaching the plaza, they were stopped by a multitude of the people, who had congregated there to witness the capture of Jack. Forcing their way through these, and still keeping the vigil- antes at bay, they finally made their way to the water-stairs ; but here, alas ! there was no boat to receive them. This was an emergency which had not been foreseen by our tars, who now saw themselves caught in a trap — the water at their backs, the police in front and flank.
But they did not give up. They asserted their privilege to render themselves on board without the aid of vigilantes, while these latter demanded the right to deliver them to their officers.
" Come and take us," was again the cry, and the police and the multitude closed in upon the little band, charging upon them with swords and lances. Our fellows, who had entrenched them- selves behind some fences, defended themselves desperately with stones, of which there was a plentiful supply at hand, and not a few Chileno skulls bore witness to the accuracy of their aims.
All this passed in plain view of us, who were on board impatient and excited witnesses of our
The Victory and Escape. 193
shipmates' defence. As ever and anon a Chilian would fall victim to some well-aimed missile, a little subdued shout would go up from the crowd congregated upon the forecastle, while a low murmur attended a similar misfortune to one of our fellows.
But now the battle grew fiercer. The police, pressed on by the multitude behind, charged desperately, and succeeded in dislodging a part of the sailors, who were driven by main force off the wharf and into the water. Some few of these were fortunate enough to be picked up by several merchant-vessels' crews, which chanced to be there, but these rapidly pulled away from the scene of action, fearful of getting their boats stove in by some of the rocks which now begin to fly. Those still remaining in the water clung to spiles and floating timber, and were there helpless and at the mercy of the police, who stood above them, throwing pieces of rock upon their heads. The little band on shore still defended themselves as best they could, and maintained their position behind the timbers.
But a few minutes more, and our boats were at the stairs, and, making a last mad rush at their assailants, our tars, picking up their wounded, ran hastily down the stairs, the boats shoved off, and all was over. Those in the water had, of course, been picked up first. The boats arrived none too soon to save our men. Many of thern were wounded, and several were so badly hurt as to be confined to the sick-bay the greater portion of the passage to Rio de Janeiro.
194 Tlie Young Man-of -War s Man.
To what extent the police force of Valparaiso was injured in the melee, we never learned, as we sailed the succeeding morning for Kio, which port was to be our last this side of home.
Sailing once more past Eeeftopsail point, we made the best of our way with a strong and favouring breeze toward Cape Horn. Our cruise was now fast drawing to a close, and every one that knew how, was busied about some kind of fancy work, with which to make a show on shore, or perhaps for the next voyage or cruise. Some spent weeks in making a nice suit to go ashore in, and frocks with beautifully embroidered collars and bosoms of blue silk, blue jackets with velvet collars and cuffs, and two rows of pearl buttons on each side, threatened to become the fashion, while there were not wanting tars whose extravagant fancy was not satisfied with less than a complete row of pearl buttons down the outside seam of their mustering trousers.
Others — these were the utilitarians — giving little heed to fancy-embroidered clothes, were busied about braided hammock - lashings, and clews, and bag-lanyards ; while a few, remember- ing the young folks at home, were expending all their sailor-craft in fitting up skip -ropes, or ar- ranging the rigging for some miniature vessel destined to grace the parlour mantel-piece, and form a reminiscence of the days spent in the service.
All this work was however put a stop to by our approach to the cold weather of the southern latitudes. For ten or twelve days after leaving
Doubling the Cape. 195
Valparaiso, we held our course to the south-south- west, in order the more surely to strike the south- westerly winds, which would then, having made a good southing, be entirely fair for us. In two weeks after leaving the coast of Chili, we were in the long powerful swell of the South Pacific, and bearing along gallantly under a press of canvas for Cape Horn.
It being the latter part of November when we sailed from Valparaiso, we were off Cape Horn in December, the height of summer in those lati- tudes. We therefore confidently expected that we should have fine weather and fair winds, in neither of which expectations were we deceived.
The most important advantage gained by doubling Cape Horn in the summer season, is in the length of the days. When we were off the Cape, the sun rose at a little after two o'clock in the morning, and did not again disappear below the horizon until ten o'clock at night. Having at the same time a brilliant full moon, with the long twilights of the high latitudes, we were able to read on deck at any time of the night.
In stormy weather, this long continuance of daylight greatly facilitates the working of the ship, and eases the labours of the sailor. In the winter season the days are from four to six hours long, and for the remainder of the twenty -four hours the storm- wind is to be met and overcome in the dark.
It seemed very strange to us to turn into our hammocks at broad daylight, and for some days I persisted in remaining upon deck, until at least
1 96 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
the sun sank out of sight. These daylight night* watches were very pleasant. Although broad light, it was supposed to be night, and all the etiquette observed in daytime was dismissed. All work, of course, was suspended, and the watch on deck, with a goodly portion of the watch below, congregated on the quarter-deck and in the waist, and sitting close together to keep warm, played at various nautical games, such as the Priest of the Parish, and Doubling Cape Horn, the merry jest and song going the rounds in the meantime, until, in the pleasing excitement of the hour, we forgot cold feet and hands and other minor discomforts. When directly south of Cape Horn, although not in sight of land, being too far to the southward, our breeze died away, and we lay for three days becalmed, surrounded all this time by albatrosses and Cape pigeons, the only inhabitants of the lonely waste about the Horn.
In a calm, these birds approach very near to the vessel, eagerly picking up any scraps of meat or other eatables that may be thrown overboard. Taking advantage of their greediness, we caught several dozen albatrosses, by means of a hook baited, with a piece of pork, and allowed to float astern. The hook and bait are kept at the surface of the water by means of a broomstick or other light piece of wood, to which the line is made fast. The albatross no sooner gets his eye upon it than he gulps it down.
Then begins in general some exciting sport. They have great power of resistance in their
Albatross Catching. 197
feet and wings, and use it to the utmost, making it quite an undertaking to haul one in. To this purpose you watch the pitching of the vessel. As her bows go gown and her stern rises high in mid-air, the captive bird is dragged along by the resistless power of the wave. When the stern begins to settle, the slack line is quickly pulled in, and again belayed as she rises aft. And so by degrees he is dragged up under the stern, and pulled in on deck, amid a great fluttering of wings, and an ugly snapping of his heavy sharp bill, which tells plainly that his ire is roused by this treatment.
Once on deck and he is safe — so far as getting away is concerned. No real sea-bird can take wing off the flat deck of a vessel, and the alba- tross is a particularly awkward and heavy bird in rising on the wing ; often, when the sea is calm, being obliged to paddle along the surface for two or three ships' lengths, flapping his wings all the while, before getting a fair start. But when he once gets under weigh, there is not a grander sight than to watch him sailing along, for half an hour at a time, without the least exertion of his immense wings, now skimming along the glassy surface, now rising grandly skyward, and anon darting down like a flash into the wave, and bringing up in his beak an unfortunate fish, a piece of blubber, or refuse from the ship.
Standing on deck a captive, the albatross has a noble, proud look, which often makes him friends among his captors. He casts his eye around him with an air of lofty scorn, as though
198 The Young Man-of-Wars Mem.
disdaining to beg his life at the hands of man. He is not, either, above cherishing a desire for revenge for the indignities he has suffered, as the quick, sharp snap of his powerful beak, when anything is presented near it, sufficiently attests.
But, like his conqueror, man, his better quali- ties only come to light when adversity overtakes him. Place him in his element, and give him prosperity (plenty of unromantic fat pork), and he becomes at once selfish, and greedy, and mean, and uses the power of his beak and wings to oppress the weaker among his brethren, and rob them of the products of their skill or daring.
I have often watched a wary old albatross, wrho had felt the hook and learned to view a piece of pork with a certain degree of distrust, as he would lay off at ease, while a little inexperienced fellow would confidently swim up and get the prize. But, alas ! before he had time to swallow it, the large one is upon him, and wrrests it from his very throat.
We captured a gony on the last day of the calm who measured, from tip to tip of his wings, thirteen feet six inches. They are not unfre- quently found to spread fifteen feet.
Our calm was succeeded by a strong breeze from south- south-west, with which behind us we wallowed through the vast billows off the Horn at a rate which filled every heart with pleasure. A few weeks brought us again into pleasant weather, and once more we had exchanged cold for heat, the sombre albatross for the gay tropic
First Sabbath in Port. 1 99
bird, the bright and many-coloured dolphin for the lonely Cape pigeon.
Then came the scraping and scrubbing, the tarring, painting, and trimming up, which was to give to our ship an appearance in accordance with the gay harbour of Rio, which we were now fast nearing.
At length Cape Frio hove in sight, and the vast Sugar Loaf, looming up against the sky, was hailed as an old acquaintance whom we were glad once more to look upon.
And as the old craft bore nobly into the har- bour of Eio, there were few hearts on board, I opine, that did not send up a fervent and deep-felt thanksgiving to the Giver of all good, who in His mercy had brought us safely through so many dangers, so many trials and hardships, thus far on our way home. And when, on the first Sab- bath in port, the white Bethel-flag at the peak called all hands to church, an unusual stillness and respectful attention to the services of the occasion proclaimed the deep feeling of gratitude which reigned throughout the ship.
Sailors are rough fellows, and have their full share of the weaknesses incident to our common humanity ; but, careless and light-hearted, and often positively wicked, as is your real tar, no man has a warmer or more easily touched heart than he ; no one is more susceptible to the deeper and better feelings of our nature ; and, as his life is one of so constant vicissitude, as he is so unceasingly held as it were in the hollow of His hand who rules the storm-wind and the
200 The Young Man-of -War s Man.
billows, so are there, in the experiences of his soul, depths of gratitude and upheavings of the spirit towards its Creator and Preserver, to which the landsman, pursuing the more even tenor of his way, is perhaps a stranger. Bough and plain spoken as he is, there is no tenderer heart than Jack's. There is no kinder nurse in sickness, nor less selfish companion in the every-day pur- suits of life, nor more open-handed and free- hearted giver to the poor and needy, than he of tiie bronzed cheek and tarry frock
CHAPTER XIV.
EIO JACK MATTHEWS' YARN THE LAST PAS- SAGE— NORFOLK — HOME — PAID OFF.
While assisting the quarter-master in trimming the after-windsail one day during our stay at Rio, he pointed out to me a little heavily-sparred, black schooner, lying in the inner harbour among other shipping, which he declared to be a verit- able slaver. My curiosity was greatly excited, and I gave my friend no rest until he permitted me to take a long look through the spy-glass at the suspicious craft.
As may be supposed, I found her to differ but little from other vessels of her rig and build.
A Slave-Ship. 201
Her spars were disproportionately heavy and taut, and she was coppered high up above the water- line, both peculiarities likely to aid her in getting through the water; but otherwise she had, to my disappointment, nothing about her which might not be seen on the most commonplace coaster or pilot-boat.
While I was looking at her, a mizzentopman, one of my watchmates, came up and took a look at the object of my curiosity.
"Ain't she a beauty, Jack1?" said the quarter- master, admiringly.
" Yes, and many a beauty like her I've seen sawed in two on the beach in St Helena. That's the only thorough cure for a craft that's once got in the habit of going to the west coast."
" Do they saw them in two, then, when they catch them?" inquired I.
" Yes, and old Jemmy Squarefoot himself could not put them together again. I've seen some of the finest craft that ever sailed spoiled in that way, and rotting on Jamestown beach."
I had long been desirous to know what was done with slavers and their crews, when they fell into the hands of the English cruisers, and as Jack Matthews had been some years on the west coast of Africa in one of the British cruisers, and had assisted at the capture of many slavers, I did not let slip the occasion to get him to promise me a yarn on that subject, when we were once more at sea.
" The first quarter-watch we have aloft, Jack," said I.
202 The Young Man-of-War s Alan.
" Yes, if you put me in mind of it," answered lie, good-naturedly.
Our stay at Rio was short. To replenish our supply of water, and take in a few stores, was the work of but little more than a week, and then we were off for home indeed. The few days spent this time in Rio harbour passed very pleasantly. The one thought which seemed uppermost in every mind — that we were now homeward-bound — was in itself sufficient to lift us above the common every -day disagreeableness of man-of-war life. But, in addition to this rather imaginary lightener of labour, we experienced at this portion of the cruise many pleasures of which outward-bounders are left in ignorance.
Among these, not the least was the deference paid to us by the crews of the men-of-war in port, which had but lately arrived from the States. We were looked up to, not only as privileged mortals, in that we were now upon the eve of concluding happily a not unimportant episode in our lives, but also as the heroes of a somewhat eventful voyage round the world.
As there was but little to do on board, and these were the days of unusual privileges, little parties were permitted to spend a portion of each day on board one or other of the American men- of-war in harbour, a species of liberty of which we were glad to take advantage. Many of our men had shipmates on board of the other vessels, and those who had none soon made acquaintances, so that these visits formed a very pleasant variety in our life.
Visiting on Board Ship. 203
On going for the first time on board a strange ship, among several hundred men, with not one of whom I was acquainted, I felt somewhat ill at ease, fearing that I should not be so fortunate as to make some friends. But my uneasiness was needless. I was not five minutes on board, but was still standing in the gangway of the frigate, looking at the arrangement of the upper deck, somewhat different from ours, when I was ac- costed by a boy of about my own age, who said —
" To what part of the ship do you belong]"
" To the mizzentop," I answered.
" That's all right, come along with me," said he, slipping his arm through mine, and ere half an hour was past, I was sitting in the midst of a crowd of topmates, as much at home as though we had made a cruise together.
Of course, on such occasions numberless ques- tions were asked concerning the ports we had visited, to some of which they too were bound. Tough yarns were spun by our fellows of scrapes ashore, and of various events of the cruise, while we in turn got the latest news from the States, what changes had taken place afloat and ashore during our long absence, together with advice as to the best course to be pursued after we should be paid off and discharged.
Visitors are always entertained with the best on board. The stranger has the place of honour of the mess ; he is served first, and with the choicest portions of the rough fare, and no possible mark of attention is omitted. And if there is
204 The Young Man-of -War s Man.
anything he particularly fancies, yea, even to the half of Jack's possessions, it is his.
Thus, on the first visit I made, when of course I was thrown among entire strangers, I was shown some new books. I looked them over with great interest, and chanced to say that I would like to read a certain one. "No more was said at the time ; but when I was about to return on board in the evening, a package was put in my hand by a stranger, who vanished before I could ask him what it was. On opening it when I got on board our ship, I found the identical book I had desired to read. To refuse a gift of this kind, or even to express any sense of obligation in accepting it, would cause pain to the donor, and to offer to pay for it would be an unpardonable offence.
Having taken in our stores, bid good-bye to friends, and fired one last salute, we weighed anchor and stood out to sea, taking our last look at the Sugar Loaf and Cape Frio with feelings much more pleasurable than were entertained when we took leave of these objects somewhat over two years and a half before, a period when we were just launching out on the cruise which was now nearing its completion.
The passage home was a real pleasure-trip. ISTo more general quarters or exercising at the guns, no more black-listing or other punishment, no work of any kind except what was actually necessary; nothing to do but talk of home, and lay plans for the future, which now loomed out so brightly ahead.
I had not forgotten the yarn promised me by
Jack Matthews Yarn. 205
Jack Matthews; and after the first few days of bustle which succeeded the departure from port had passed, I took occasion of a quiet afternoon, when the quarter-watch were gathered together in the top, to call upon my friend for the fulfilment of his promise.
" Don't get that old fellow yarning again, he'll bring on a head-wind with his tough stories that nobody believes," said the captain of the top.
" Never mind, Harry ; more days more pay, you know," answered another.
" I've got more money coming to me now than I know what to do with. I'll have to hire some- body to take care of me when we are paid off. A light craft like myself would make but poor head- way with such a cargo in as I shall have to carry away from the purser."
" But this ain't the yarn," I ventured to say.
" Well, if you'll promise not to believe a word he says, Charley, I'll make him tell it," said Harry, who pretended to absolute authority in the top.
" You'd better believe me than look for proof," suggested Jack himself, as we gathered around him to hear the yarn.
" And now," asked he, " what shall I tell you V
" We want to hear what is done with the crews of slavers that are captured."
So, taking in as a preliminary a huge quid of tobacco, Jack began —
" You know, boys, I was two years in one of the little ten-gun brigs which John Bull keeps on the west coast to catch slavers. In that time we
206 The Young Man-of -War s Man.
took more than twenty prizes, and our prize- money, when we got home, a mounted to upward of one hundred pounds each.
" The vessels, if the slave-cargo is already on board, are generally taken to Sierra Leone ; while, if they are empty, they are sent to St Helena. Most of our prizes were taken to the latter place, as our cruising-ground was just between there and Ascension and the Coast. Many a hard chase we used to have after the slippery fellows, for they all sail like the wind, and don't spare the canvas when a cruiser is in their wake. A stern chase is a long chase, and mostly an un- successful one; and if once one of them got a fair start, it was but little use to follow him up.
" Our chief game was to lay in wait for a vessel that our captain knew would be at a certain point at an appointed time. Taking him then, just as he came out from under the land, they would have to heave-to for us in short order.
" Not unfrequently, too, we would come by chance, during the night or in a fog, and in light winds, upon one of them, and when daylight appeared, or the fog cleared off, the poor wretch would find himself under our guns, with no alter- native but to back his topsails and receive our boat. If it was calm and smooth, we would bring the two vessels close together and then transfer the crew to our brig, while a prize crew took possession of the capture and set sail for St Helena.
" The officers and crew of a captured slaver are
C ciphering a Slaver. 207
permitted to retain nothing but a change of clothing; all other property is forfeited to the captors, excepting, however, any provisions which the captain may desire to bring on board for him- self and crew. A thorough search is made as each man steps on board, to make sure that he has no money or other valuables concealed, as the most ingenious devices are sometimes practised by the old hands at the business, in their desire to retain their property.
" I remember one captain, whom we captured five times in the course of two years, and who had no end of expedients to smuggle his property on board. He got to be quite an old acquaint- ance of ours, and as he met his ill- fortune with unflinching good humour, he was quite a favourite fore and aft.
"He would come on board, cigar in his mouth, and shake the first lieutenant by the hand, de- claring, in his broken English —
" ' Ton honour, ver glad to see my friends again. '
" He always had a quantity of provisions to bring aboard with him, and as he divided with our fellows with no niggard hand, we were ready enough to help him to get them in, and find a place for them.
" For the first three times that we took him, we could find no money in his craft, which was somewhat strange, as, if the slave-cargo is not yet in, there is generally some specie in the lazerette. Our first lieutenant was puzzled how to account for the deficiency, but Captain Xavier declared
208 The Young Man-of- War s Man.
that he was such an unlucky bird that his owners would not trust him with specie.
" At last a bright idea struck the skipper. Said he —
" c If we catch that rascally Spaniard again, I'll find his money, or I'm mistaken.'
" It must have been his very next voyage when, a thick fog clearing away one forenoon, we found to our gratification an unmistakable clipper lying not half a quarter of a mile under lee. On run- ning down alongside, we were hailed by our nonchalant friend, Captain Xavier, who by this time considered it evidently rather a good joke to be caught by his friends in this way.
" After transferring his crew to our vessel, we gave the schooner a thorough overhauling, but found no specie.
" 'It's no use,' said her good-natured captain, 1 there's no money there — the bank was closed when I sailed.'
" Meantime, the usual bountiful supply of pro- visions had been passed on board, and among other things several crocks of butter. Upon these, Captain Xavier seemed to keep a particularly sharp eye, urging us to handle them tenderly, and not break the jars. They were set apart upon the deck, where he took the first opportunity to lash them, that they might not roll over with the motion of the vessel.
" This over carefulness aroused the suspicions of our skipper, who asked what was in the jars.
" * Butter/ said our friend; c I can't bear to eat
Found Out, 209
dry bread, and consider a supply of good butter indispensable.'
" ■ Well, we are just out; suppose you let the steward have a jar for the cabin V
" The captain protested that it was not fit for cabin use; that it was rancid; that — in fact, that he did not want to part with it.
" But, ' Steward, Captain Xavier says you may have a jar of butter for the cabin; so, come and take it away immediately,' was the unceremonious answer.
" The crock was no sooner in the cabin than its contents were emptied — and lo and behold ! in the bottom were found fifty Spanish doubloons. We had the captain's secret. Among his plenti- ful supply of provisions he had shrewdly managed to stow away all the cash, and until the present voyage had succeeded in retaining it. He was not half so pleasant a man after he had been deprived of all his butter crocks, in each of which was found a moiety of gold.
" Upon the arrival of the slaver's crew on board the cruiser, they are mustered, to ascertain if any of them are Britons. Of course no one is so foolish as to own to it if he is, as the law con- demns all Englishmen found in that pursuit to be hung. This is, however, not carried into effect ; but when, as sometimes occurs, the Englishman is detected notwithstanding his disguise, he is compelled to serve a period of two or three years in the cruisers on the coast, a punishment hard enough to bear, in all faith.
" The crew are now taken to St Helena, and
210 The Young Man-of- War s Man.
there set ashore. The British Government pays for nine days' board and lodging for each indivi- dual, and at the expiration of that period they are left to shift for themselves, to get a ship as best they may, or to remain upon the island — where, however, they are quite likely to starve, for provisions are at all times extravagantly high there, almost everything having to be imported from the Cape, or the neighbouring African coast.
" As St Helena is only a chance place of call for outward or homeward-bound Indiamen, but few vessels stopping there are in want of men, and often from fifty to one hundred of the slavers' men are gradually collected upon the island, un- able to get away. In such cases, as they are reckless characters and might make trouble, they are sent away to the South American coast in vessels chartered by the Government.
" ' But, Jack, what do they do with the vessels that are captured ] '
" They beach them, and saw them in two parts. If they were sold, as prizes usually are, their former owners would be sure by some means to get them back into their possession, and thus but little injury would be accomplished to the business of slaving, as it is calculated that one safe voyage in five will pay all expenses and yield a small profit, allowing for the entire loss of the other four vessels and their outfits.
"The vessels used for carrying slaves are, of course, the finest models in existence. No ex- pense is spared in their construction and fitting
Thoughts of Home. 2 1 1
out. It is, therefore, quite an object to prevent a vessel, once caught, from getting back into the same trade. The only sure means to effect this object is to so completely destroy her that she can never again be put together. They are there- fore dismasted and stripped of all removable rigging and iron work. Then the spars are sawed in two, and the vessel is divided in the middle, the remains being sold for firewood, or such other purposes as they may be required for on the island. In no case is a portion allowed to be removed from the land." So ended Jack's yarn.
I took great interest in listening to the plans of my many particular friends, my topmates, and those to whom congeniality of thought and feel- ings had drawn me with a closer bond. Many thought to go home — back to the homes of their early childhood, whence they had first launched their barque upon the great ocean of life ; back to father and mother, sisters and brothers, from whom they had been separated by long years of self-imposed exile. And as in the fulness of anticipated joy their hearts opened, and they spoke of the pleasures of the meeting with the loved ones, of the cheerful fireside, with the so long vacant seat now filled, of the walks among the trees where they played in childhood, of the renewing of old friendships, the living over again the old times, I could not help wondering how those who seemed capable of so keen enjoyment of home pleasures could have remained away so many years.
My plans, too, were laid. I had started out to
2 1 2 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
see the world — and had failed in accomplishing my desire ; and I would try again. I would sail in merchant - vessels, and having a choice of voyages, would visit such countries as seemed to me most desirable ; and when I had seen all I wanted, then would I settle on shore.
Ever since I had been stationed in the top, I had been fitting myself to be a merchant-sailor. By dint of inquiry among the old merchant- seamen on board, with whom I was always a great favourite, I had familiarised myself with all the details of life on board such vessels, as much as it was possible to do so from mere hearsay.
Never did days seem so long, as when, on being about to cross the equinoctial line for the sixth and last time during our cruise, we were for nearly a week becalmed.
At last the so much desired breeze came ; we left Rio in the middle of January, and of course expected to meet some cold weather on the coast of America. Great preparations were made, old flannels patched up, pea-jackets mended, and a general refit of woollen clothing obtained.
We had been so long in warm weather, had found so little of what might be called cold, that most of the crew looked forward with some con- cern to a possible encounter with one of the March gales on the coast. It was, therefore, with no little pleasure that we received the news that Norfolk, Virginia, was to be our port, for at that distance south the cold was not to be dreaded.
A few weeks of fair wind brought us into cooler weather ; and the daily increasing rarity of
jack Ashore Again. 2 1 3
the atmosphere, being an evidence of our gradual approach to port, was carefully marked.
At last we struck the gulf; and passing it, after two days' beating about with a head wind, made the low beach of Cape Henry. Lying off and on that night, we got a pilot next morning, and the succeeding evening found us anchored safely in Linnhaven Bay.
Now began a scene of utter confusion. All discipline was at an end. No more quarters or muster ; no more cleaning or dressing j no more scrubbing decks, and even no more cooking.
Our credit ashore was unlimited; and who was going to eat " ship grub," when boat-loads of delicacies from shore were brought off at every meal-time % Norfolk is celebrated among man- of-war's men solely on account of the abundance and cheapness of oysters. The coloured women, who bring off on board all kinds of victuals for the sailors, do not fail to have, among other matters, a plentiful supply of these shell-fish, prepared in all the known modes ; and on these the tars " bowse out their kites," as they call it, at a great rate.
I said our credit on shore was unlimited. And to the praise of our crew and of sailors in general, be it said, that in no case was this credit abused, although chances to do so were not wanting. I never saw our captain of the top more troubled, during a three years' cruise, than he was on the day he was paid off, at being unable to find an old black woman to whom he owed some money for provisions brought off while we were yet on
214 The Young Man-of -War s Man.
board. He hunted for her for more than an hour, and when at last he found her, it was hard to tell which was the happiest, the old woman at get- ting her money, or Harry at being enabled to pay her.
Two days after anchoring in the Bay, we were towed up through the shipping, at anchor in the upper harbour, to the Navy Yard, where, hauling to the wharf at but little distance from that monster man-of-war, the Pennsylvania, the work of stripping ship was begun.
It was while being towed through the fleet of small shipping, which at this time densely crowded the harbour of Norfolk, that I for the first time got a distinct idea of the vastness of the structure which had been my home for nearly three years. This was the only time in the entire cruise that we passed sufficiently near to a merchant-vessel to allow us to make an estimate of the size of our craft, by comparing her with others. Our enormous hull loomed up among the little craft, against whose sides we rubbed as we glided be- tween their narrow tiers, like a Leviathan among little fishes. A tolerably large schooner's main- topmast passed under our mainyard without touching, and the men on our foreyard, ready to bear off should we be like to come in contact, were on a level with the royal yards of a large barque which we passed. Custom had caused us to forget, in a short time after coming on board, this great difference in sizes, and it was thought no more to run to the royal masthead, on board our seventy-four, than it would be to go to the
Paid Off! 215
same place on board a diminutive merchant- barque.
Our ship's company being so large, it was judged expedient to pay us off in two parties. Accordingly, one half of the crew was sent ashore on the next day after we hauled to the Navy Yard wharf, while the remainder, among whom I found myself, were kept on board to strip ship — that is, to take down the lightest of the top- hamper, send down the topgallant-masts and top- masts, and topsail and lower yards. The rest of this labour is left to the dockyard men. Strip- ping ship is pleasant work, inasmuch as it pro- claims the conclusion of the cruise. Everything is sent down by the run, and "a sharp knife and a clear conscience " is the word.
At last — at last — the long-wished-for day came on which we were to leave the ship. When, on the evening previous, as I took a last walk about the now deserted decks, a final look up aloft, where now everything was dismantled, I felt — I must confess it — as though I were about to de- part from my home. The moment to which I had looked forward so long and with so much eagerness was come ; but the gladness which I had anticipated I would feel at this consumma- tion, so devoutly wished for, was not there.
All the pleasures of the voyage came rushing athwart my memory. The remembrance even of the many deprivations and positive sufferings of our long cruise seemed to loom up before me with a pleasant sort of indistinctness ; and I regarded the old craft, the scene of many to me
2 1 6 The Young Man-of- Wars Man.
eventful passages in my life, with a feeling of affection which I had never before experienced.
I was not alone. Old tars and young lads, all were walking about, taking their leave of the various familiar objects and places about decks. Here was a powder-boy, holding up to the light, for the last time, his bright priming- wires. There, a grey-bearded seaman was brushing the dust off his cutlass, and placing it carefully in the rack overhead. Some ascended to the tops, where so many pleasant hours had been spent during the past three years, and sat down sorrowfully in the old places, to have " another yarn;" while yet others fidgeted about decks, evidently feeling themselves sadly out of place, and more than half wishing the good old craft was yet at sea.
The next morning the final leave-taking came, and we gathered bags and hammocks and went ashore — -free at last. Then first came the full realisation of the fact that 1 was once more my own master, and with the feeling I half invo- luntarily straightened myself, and threw back my shoulders, as though to fling off the long-borne yoke. I felt as though no consideration in the world could induce me to ship in the Navy again, although the desire to enter a merchant-ship grew stronger. I was passionately fond of the sea, but I had had a surfeit of bondage.
Schenck &> Af'Far/ane, Printers, Edinbzirgh.
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