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CYPKIAN AKTIIIR GEOKGK BRIOGE
A«HD 3.
Front a .Viiiiaiiite,
SOME
RECOLLECTIONS
BY
ADMIRAL SIR CYPRIAN BRIDGE
G.C.B.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
1918
• e
• J « • •
• » • 3 ' o
• • • •/ «
•*• •••-•• • •
I DO NOT PRESUME
TO DEDICATE THIS UNIMPORTANT BOOK TO THEM ;
BUT 1 RESPECTFULLY WISH TO EXPRESS
MY INTENSE AND GRATEFUL ADMIRATION
OF THE
SPLENDID COURAGE, UNFLINCHING ENDURANCE, AND
EMINENT SKILL
SHOWN BY THE OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE ROYAL NAVY
AND ITS AUXILIARIES
AND OF THE MERCANTILE MARINE
AND INDEED BY ALL BRITISH SEAMEN AND FISHERMEN
DURING THIS TREMENDOUS WAR
IN DEFENCE OF CIVILISATION AND THE
FREEDOM OF THE WORLD
AGAINST COVETOUS AND TREACHEROUS BARBARISM
"TStfc.^
PREFACE
In this book it has been my endeavour to recall the
circumstances of life in the Navy in the middle of
the nineteenth century, and also to tell the reader
something about the islands of the Western Pacific
as they were before they attracted the attention of
distinguished men of letters. In both cases the
conditions dealt with in the following pages have
more or less completely passed away. They have,
as far as I am aware, been rarely recorded in detail
by those who could speak from personal knowledge
of them ; and it is hoped that this book will supple-
ment such accounts as are already in existence.
An early portion of the work is devoted to
what is purely family history, which, it is believed,
will be considered suitable and becoming in a book
that is meant to be an autobiographical narrative.
C. B.
February 191 8.
▼H
CONTENTS
CHAP.
Preface ....••
I. Introductory . . . • •
II. Interesting to Relations only .
III. Early Days before Entering the Navy
IV. Entering the Navy . . . •
V. Bluejackets and their Kits
VI. "Hoisting the Pendant" in Olden Time
VII. My First Ship. ....
VIII. My First Foreign Service— The West Indies
IX. Shaking Down in a Newly Commissioned Ship
X. In the Flag-ship ....
XI. The West Indies again
XII. Some War Service ....
XI I I. Refitting in Preparation for Service in the
Pacific .....
XIV. In the Pacific— Valparaiso— Santiago de Chile
XV. Sandwich Islands and Kamchatka — Van
couver's Island ....
XVI. Early San Francisco — Coast of Mexico —
Treasure Shipping
XVII. Panama to Peru and Valparaiso
XVIII. Central America— A Long Pacific Voyage-
An Episode in the Early History of San
Francisco ......
XIX. Another Long Voyage . . . .
XX. From the Pacific to England— Paying Off .
PAOB
vii
I
2
25
38
45
49
57
62
69
74
80
87
104
III
117
124
«34
138
148
156
CONTENTS
CHAP.
XXI. Service in the East Indies
XXII. Burma — Passing for Lieutenant — Madras
AND Trincomalee— The Red Sea— Australia
Promotion— Return to England
English Channel and Mediterranean
Coast of Ireland — The West Indies and
North America again .
Portsmouth— The Channel
Mediterranean— Devonport — China
Australian Station again
The South Sea Islands .
Cruising in the Western Pacific
Missionaries in the South Sea Islands
Incidents on different Islands
XXI 1 1.
XXIV.
XXV.
XXVI.
XXVII.
XXVIII.
XXIX.
XXX.
XXXI.
XXXII.
XXXIII.
New Zealand, Tasmania, and Australia-
Relations WITH South Sea Islands
XXXIV. Some Excursions ....
XXXV. Polynesians .....
XXXVI. Ancient Remains— War and Peace in Oceania
— Peace-making ....
XXXVII. A Postscript ....
PAOB
i6i
i68
i8i
189
200
209
214
225
231
243
249
258
266
273
281
290
304
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Cyprian Arthur George Bridge (aged 3) . Frontispiece
Cyprian Arthur George Bridge, Naval Cadet, R.N.
(aged 14) . . . • . • -38
Cyprian Arthur George Bridge, Admiral, G.C.B. . 304
As this Book is in grca^.dpm^^^
is respectfully requested that Tf^Way l>e'
returned to the Library as soon as read
m order to faeilitatc other Subscribers
(Tctthis it without undue delay.
wv I II.I^
SOME RECOLLECTIONS
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
On many occasions it has been suggested to me
that I should put my recollections on paper, in order
that they might be published. The suggestions
were made usually by relations and intimate friends,
but more than once they came from publishers, a
fact which gave some slight foundation to the sup-
position that an account of my experiences during
more than fifty years in the Navy might perhaps
interest the general public. When I have expressed
reluctance to comply with requests to prepare my
reminiscences for issue as a book, it has been rejoined
that many of my relations would be interested by
a record of my long and rather varied experience.
It is therefore to no small extent for the entertain-
ment of members of my own family that I now begin
to write — not a connected story so much as a record
of a series of different occurrences in my life, usually
afloat, but sometimes ashore.
• •• • • ••*...
.•••.•.•♦•••« ••.«..
CHAPTER II
INTERESTING TO RELATIONS ONLY
I . Spelling of Names.
Our name, according- to the earliest records of it
that we can find, was originally spelled Bruges ; and
as French was still much spoken in England at the
time, it was pronounced — and, indeed, sometimes
written — Bruge without the final s. In the English
pronunciation it became Brudges or Brudge, it being
common in English speech to put a d sound before
the g~ of words borrowed from the French ; for
example, age^ page, rage, loge, which we pronounce
aidge, paidge, raidge, lodge. I n some parts of E ngland
a partridge is called a rudge, showing how easily i
and u sounds were confused. In the latter part of
the fifteenth century, and often in the sixteenth, the
name was spelled Bridge, but Bridges sometimes
occurred in documents. As a learned Herald has
observed, the spelling of surnames in former times
was "accidental." No one minded very much how
he spelt somebody else's name, varying the spelling
even in the same document. The owner of a
particular surname usually, but not invariably,
adhered to one way of spelling it ; but his brothers
and near relations varied it at their pleasure, and
indeed seemed purposely to write it differently one
from another.
In the case of our name. Bridge and Bridges
were often written Brydge and Brydges. I have had
BRUGES AND BRIDGES 3
letters addressed to me in both of these last two
spellings, and many people who are good enough
to write to me believe that my surname is Bridges.
The great variety in which a name, apparently so
simple, can be written is extraordinary. I once
made a collection of these varieties and was aston-
ished at the number of them. It has lately been
found that all were not included in my collection,
as one member of the family, several generations
back, beat all records by spelling his name Bredge.
There is reason to believe that the name, as
formerly spelled, viz., Bruges, came from the well-
known city in Flanders, and was applied by English-
men to the Flemings who migrated to this country a
great many years ago. Corroborative of this belief
is the fact that the name was sometimes spelled
Brugge, the Flemish name of the city above-
mentioned. The early Flemish settlements here
were by no means confined to one part of the country,
which accounts for the occurrence of the surname
Bridge or Bridges in more than one county, and
does not betoken any blood relationship. In some
instances, as seems to be the case in Kent, the name
came from a place in the county and was borne, when
surnames had been generally assumed, by families
which lived in, or owned property in, a parish or
district so named.
Flemings came to England in fairly considerable
numbers before the end of the twelfth century ; some
of them — men of Bruges — followed the English into
what is now Pembrokeshire and first settled in that
locality. The Flemings and other immigrants from
the Low Countries, who settled in considerable
numbers in Norfolk and other eastern counties,
came much later, largely owing to the religious
troubles in the sixteenth century. The surname,
Bruges, in its many varieties of Bridge, Bridges,
etc., is almost or entirely unknown amongst them
and their descendants, perhaps because by the date
4 INTERESTING TO RELATIONS ONLY
of their coming the practice of bearing family names
was common in all classes, so that each brought his
surname with him, and was not designated by the
name of the place from which he was supposed to
come.
The Pembrokeshire settlers engaged in manu-
facture, chiefly weaving, and in general business.
Trade naturally developed to the eastward of their
settlement, Bristol being already a commercial town
of importance ; and so men of Bruges who, as the
use of surnames was becoming common in all ranks
of society, were called by that name, migrated to
the counties of Gloucester and Hereford, and settled
for a considerable period in the former. They
evidently prospered, as by the middle of the
fourteenth century they owned landed property in
Gloucestershire.
2. Genealogical.
A member of the family, who afterwards, amidst
many different spellings of his name, became Sir
John Bridge, was Sheriff of London in the latter
part of Henry VH.'s reign and was Lord Mayor
in Henry VHL's reign (in 1520). He settled at
West Ham in Essex and, according to the great
county historian, Morant, is the ancestor of all the
Essex Bridges. A member of Sir John's family
was created Lord Chandos by Queen Mary in
1554, the earlier peerage held by a family whose
surname was Chandos having become extinct.
William Bridge, Captain of the royal yacht Mary,
who was buried at Harwich in Essex in 1743, where
so many of our family lie, bore the Chandos arms,
that coat being carved on his tombstone. It is
"differenced" with a crescent, showing that he
claimed descent through the second son of the first
Lord Chandos of the 1554 creation.
- The Bridge family was prolific. My great-grand-
CYPRIAN WARNER AND THOMAS BRIDGE 5
father had eight sons, besides daughters. My grand-
father had seven children and my father had nine,
thus keeping up what had long been recognised as
a characteristic of the family. With its large
numbers it soon spread widely over the county of
Essex. In 1610, according to a local historian,
Cyprian Warner and Thomas Bridge were owners
of adjoining manors near Great Baddow, and
Thomas' son married Cyprian Warner's daughter. It
may be mentioned that there was a Cyprian Bridge
in Essex in 1585. The Warners were a great
eastern counties family, and had been prominent
since the middle of the fourteenth century. One
branch had its seat in the neighbourhood of Baddow
at Warner Hall, usually called "Warner's" by the
people living near.
In 1648 Cyprian Warner — whose Christian name
was written Ciprian — sailed for Virginia in the ship
Paul of London. The Rev, Laurence Washington,
of the Northamptonshire family, was incumbent of
Purleigh, less than five miles from Warner Hall.
In 1658 two of his sons sailed for Virginia; one of
them became the ancestor of the great President
George Washington, whose grandmother was a
Miss Warner, daughter of Colonel Augustine
Warner, of Warner Hall, Virginia.
When the war between King Charles I. and the
Parliament had been in progress for some time, the
country was divided by the Parliament into Classes,
and certain residents were appointed to direct each
Classis, which was an ecclesiastical unit similar
to a Presbytery in the Church of Scotland. In the
printed list of these laid before the Parliament in
1648, the name of Cyprian Bridge — spelled Ciprian,
like that of his Warner relative — appears as in one
of the Essex Classes. He lived at Tendring or
Great Oakley, our branch of the family having
gravitated towards Dovercourt and Harwich.
The grandson of the person just mentioned, also
B
6 INTERESTING TO RELATIONS ONLY
named Cyprian, who was born in 1690, lived and
died at Dovercourt. His portrait, painted in 1707,
is in my possession. His son was also called
Cyprian ; and his son, with the same Christian
name, was my great-grandfather. He was born in
1737 and died in 1814. I have his portrait by Sir
Joshua Reynolds, painted in 1759. He married
the elder of the two daughters of Lieut. Baker
Phillips, of the Royal Navy (d. 1745). The lady
inherited from her uncle, Captain Phillips of the
Army, a moderate-sized landed estate at Washbrook,
near Ipswich. My great-grandfather had another
property in the neighbourhood called Betterens.
The two properties amounted to several hundred
acres. I have a printed advertisement of the sale
of one part of the estate. I have also a letter from
a lawyer to my great-grandfather, asking to be
allowed to carry out the letting of a farm of his.
My great-grandfather sold his property in parcels
between 1780 and 1790. He had, as already
mentioned, a large family. His eldest son, Cyprian,
was a midshipman in the Navy, served in Lord
Rodney's great battle of the 12th April 1782, and
was lost at sea in the great storm of the following
year in one of the prizes — I think the Ville de Paris
— captured in that battle, he being one of the prize
crew. He was about seventeen and a half years old.
We still have a miniature of him in his uniform.
A brother of his. Baker Phillips Bridge, also a
midshipman in the Navy, was drowned when on
leave, having been knocked overboard by the boom
of a little yacht in which he was sailing. I have
a curious steel box which was found in his pocket
on the recovery of the body. He was between
seventeen and eighteen years of age. A third
brother, Walter Sickelprice Bridge, also served in
the Navy. He left the Service during the rather
long peace — 1783-93 — became a merchant, and
settled on the Continent.
ADMIRAI.TY PACKET SERVICE 7
My grandfather, Thomas, entered the service of
the Honourable East India Company as a midship-
man, afterwards joining- 'the Admiralty Packet
Service, of which he eventually became the Com-
modore on the Harwich Station. I have in my
possession two gold medals with their ribands,
presented to him in 1798 for special war services.
The organisation of the packet service of those
days was peculiar. The vessels which had to cross
the ocean, chiefly to Am.erica and the West Indies,
belonged to the Admiralty, but were officered and
manned by a specially engaged body of men. The
packets that plied across the North Sea were the
property of private owners who leased them to the
Government, and, for a certain sum of money
annually awarded, provided officers, crews, and
stores. In days in which opportunities for investing-
money savings were very few, gentlemen in the
coast counties and the Channel Islands, who had
saved a little money, found fairly profitable invest-
ment in the purchase of vessels to be used as
privateers, or leased to the Government as packets.
In the case of the latter, the terms of the contract
often gave the owner of the vessel the right of
appointing the commander, thus opening a career
for one of his younger sons. My great-grandfather
followed this course and became a shipowner.
Amongst my papers 1 have a letter of marque
granted to him during the War of American Inde-
pendence, and authorising him to fit out a vessel
of his as a privateer. There is no record of his
having done so ; but, no doubt, like other people
of respectable means, he regarded a letter author-
ising him to equip a vessel for privateering as a
useful thing to have about him. He did, however,
lease vessels to the Government for employment as
packets.
Of my great-grandfather's sons, no less than
three served in the Royal Army, and one in the
8 INTERESTING TO RELATIONS ONLY
Indian Army. Samuel became a Captain in the
82nd Regiment (now the Prince of Wales' Lanca-
shire Regiment). When the old 95th Regiment was
converted into the Rifle Brigade, he was lent to
it from his own regiment and served with it for some
time. I have an admirably drawn black profile
miniature of him in the Rifle Brigade uniform of
the day. He retired from the Army whilst still
a captain and then lived in France, occupying a
small chateau or country-house — called, if I re-
member rightly, Chateau-Belle-Mar^e — in the
neighbourhood of Calais. He died there in 1848.
I have a portrait of him in oils, given to me by
his son, my father's first cousin, Baker Phillips
Bridge (2nd). In the Franco-German War of
1870-71 the chateau was occupied by Prussian
soldiers, one of whom put his foot through the
portrait. When it came into my possession there
was an L-shaped gash in it, and plain marks of the
nails of the Prussian's boot. It has, however, been
so cleverly mended that it is not easy to find where
the injury was.
Another son of my great-grandfather, John, had
a rather unusual experience. He was in the 45th
Regiment (now the Sherwood Foresters), and
became Major in the 63rd (now the Manchester
Regiment). He was quartered in Dublin, and,
when riding in the Phoenix Park, his horse put
its foot into a hole and threw him badly, so that his
leg was seriously injured. He was obliged to go
on sick-leave for a long time, during which he lived
at Colchester, in Essex. He must have become
popular with his neighbours, because — in, I think,
181 2 — they elected him mayor. This was probably
a unique case of a military officer on the active list
being elected a mayor of a town. A few years
ago the then mayor was kind enough to invite
me to the celebrated Colchester oyster feast. In
thanking him for his hospitality, I told him of
A SOLDIER MAYOR 9
my great-uncle, who was a predecessor of his in
office. He was so greatly interested that he had
the Corporation records examined. He found that,
presumably owing- to doubts as to the legality of
an officer still on the active list of the Army serving
as mayor, some of the citizens of Colchester protested
against the election. A commission came down
from London to investigate the case and gave its
decision in favour of my great-uncle. Nevertheless,
as he did not wish to be a cause of dissension
amongst the burgesses, he resigned the mayoralty,
after holding it for two or three months. He
afterwards returned to his military duties and
became a major.
The two other sons of my great-grandfather who
entered the military profession were George, and
Cyprian, the second son who bore that name. George
became a Captain in the Bengal Infantry, took part
in the expedition to Java, where he was wounded
in action, and died of the effect of his wounds at
Calcutta in the early part of 1 812.
Cyprian, whose eldest brother and namesake,
it will be remembered, was in the Navy and was
lost at sea in 1783 (that is to say, before this
Cyprian's birth) when on a voyage to England
in one of the prize-ships taken ' in Lord Rodney's
victory, went into the Royal Artillery. He was for
the then usual period at the Woolwich Academy,
which, when he entered it (1798), was inside the
gates of the Royal Arsenal. Amongst our family
papers there is a receipted bill for his sword, dated
in 1799, and sent in by a sword-maker at Charing
Cross. He commanded the artillery in some of
the battles of the American War of 181 2-1 5, and
was mentioned with approbation in the despatches
printed in London. In the expedition to Portugal in
1827, he was in the Royal Horse Artillery attached
to the Expeditionary Force. His last service was
in command of the Horse Artillery quartered at
10 INTERESTING TO RELATIONS ONLY
BallincolUg, in the South of Ireland. When I
was serving- on the coast of Ireland in 1863 in
H.M.S. Haii)ke, and in command of the gunbodt
Griper, I met several of my great-uncle's old friends
who remembered him at Ballincollig". He died at
Cheltenham in 1843, leaving- one son, Colonel
Cyprian Bridge, who commanded the 58th Regiment
(now the Northamptonshire Regiment), and for a
short time was in command of a brigade at
Aldershot.
I remember one of my great-grandfather's married
daughters, Joanna. She was a widow before I saw
her, having- married William Cowper, son of the Rev.
Dr Cowper, Rector of Dovercourt. Her husband
had served in the Peninsular War as a captain in one
of the specially raised cavalry regiments, composed
of foreign troopers with British officers, of which
there were several in the British Service. My great-
aunt lived to a great age and, in fact, was very old
when I first saw her. She was very active, had a
neat and graceful figure, and was remarkably good-
looking, thus confirming the stories of her beauty as
a young woman. Her activity was quite youthful.
One evening in the drawing-room after dining with
her, when she was about ninety, I happened to say
that I had not heard a particular waltz tune which
was then much talked of. She promptly said,
"Then I will play it for you"; and going to the
piano she played it as a duet with one of her
daughters. She had a particularly sweet voice and
a charming way of speaking, whilst her manner was
remarkably dignified and gracious, so it was no
wonder that she was a great favourite with all who
knew her.
She told me of an interesting experience of hers.
She, when a girl, and some of the family had gone
to Yarmouth for the sea-bathing. During their
stay there Admiral (afterwards Lord) Duncan's
fleet anchored in the Roads. My great-aunt, Joanna,
THE "OLD " WARS 11
was one of a party of young ladies who, with some of
their elders, were invited to attend Divine Service
on board one of the ships of the line. After the
church service was over, some of the ward-room
officers urged the visitors to remain for the early
Sunday dinner. Fortunately for those visitors their
chaperons insisted on their return to the shore. In
the afternoon the wind shifted, bad weather came
on, communication with the shore was stopped, and
the fleet had to put to sea in a hurry. Shortly after-
wards the great mutiny in the North Sea fleet
occurred.
3. Experiences of a Large Family.
My grandfather, Thomas Bridge, had some
exciting experiences in the great wars from 1793 to
the fall of Napoleon. I have already mentioned the
two fine gold medals given to him for distinguished
service in 1 798. One was presented by the Senate
of Hamburg and the other by the Admiralty of
Hamburg, which, as a free city or almost independent
republic, was strongly on the side of Great Britain in
the war then raging. At a later period my grand-
father was employed on particular service, which
nearly ended in his captivity, or even execution.
He was asked if he could take despatches into
Germany, which meant making his way through
the hostile lines. He consented to make an attempt
and landed in Holland. As he could speak Dutch
fluently, he tried to pass himself off as a Dutchman.
He had to wait for some little time at the place where
he landed, and one day, when walking in the street,
was dismayed at being unexpectedly accosted by a
stranger, who addressed him in English, saying, " I
know that you are an Englishman." The stranger
was an English doctor who was one of the dcte^ius
in France, unable to get back to England after the
rupture of the Peace of Amiens. He had managed
12 INTERESTING TO RELATIONS ONLY
to escape so far as to reach Holland, where of course
he was not very safe. He declared that he would
never go back into captivity alive, and was prepared
to take almost any daring course in order to gfet to
England again. He and my grandfather managed
to get hold of two passports, and, with the aid of
some chemical material procured by the doctor,
erased the entries already made in them and inserted
others. They professed to be going to buy horses
for the French army. Either the amended passports
were regarded as satisfactory, or the various
authorities and guards whom they had to pass
were negligent, for they succeeded in getting to
Hamburg.
Here their troubles increased. They were
arrested and taken before a French general, who,
they expected, would have them promptly shot.
From this fate they were saved by the extraordinary
address and audacity of my grandfather's companion,
who was a perfect master of the French language. He
vigorously scolded the general for interfering with
the duty of people employed to make purchases
on behalf of the French army. The general was
sufficiently impressed by his tirade to say that he
would see them again. They must appear before
him on the next morning. In the meantime they
were under supervision. On leaving the building
in which they had been interrogated, they agreed
to separate. Evening was approaching, and a thick
fog coming on helped them to get away from
unfriendly observers.
My grandfather was able to reach unimpeded the
bank of the river, along which he walked down-
stream. The fog was so thick that his progress was
necessarily slow. After several hours he heard a
boat rowing down the river. It came so close to
the bank that he was able to make its occupants
aware of his presence. They stopped and took him
on board. The rowers were fishermen taking a
WATERLOO 13
pilot to Cuxhaven. My grandfather soon found
that his new acquaintances were friendly to the
English, and he arranged with them to take him on
to Heligoland. He remembered that they found
their way in the fog by frequent sounding. At
Heligoland he was put on board a British man-of-
war and was soon back in England, and later on he
heard that his companion, the doctor, had also
reached home.
After he married, my grandfather lived at Harwich,
where my father was born ; but he ceased to reside
there continuously before 1814. In that year an
elder sister of my father, Mariana (afterwards Mrs
William Browning), who was born in 1800, went to
school at Brussels. She once told me that she had
driven in a carriage, one year before the battle of
Waterloo, across what was afterwards the battlefield.
My aunt Mariana, just mentioned, lived to an
advanced age. She always treated me with the
greatest kindness and affection. Everybody who
knew her came to like her. She was learned without
show, highly talented, with the sweetest and most
dignified manners, besides being remarkably hand-
some. She had travelled a good deal and had had
much interesting experience. She said that she
remembered that when she was at school in Norfolk
in January 181 3, some friends called for her one
Sunday to take her out for a walk. She complained
of the cold and was told to remember what frightful
sufferings from cold weather the " poor French
soldiers in Russia " had been undergoing.
My grandfather and his family lived in Brussels
for a considerable time. They were there when
Waterloo was fought. My father, then in his eighth
year — he was born in 1807 — was taken out to the
battlefield on the 21st June, or three days after the
battle had been fought. His principal recollection
of his visit to the scene was that there were very
many Belgians selling mementos of the great fight —
14 INTERESTING TO RELATIONS ONLY
buckles, badges, scabbards, etc. — to the crowds of
visitors that came chiefly from Brussels and the
neighbouring country.
In i8i7or 1818 my grandfather was back again
in England, as my father then went to Charterhouse
School, at the time under its great headmaster,
Dr Russell. Steam navigation was coming more
and more into notice and my grandfather was
greatly interested in it. He took part in starting
a line of steam-vessels, which unfortunately did not
prove successful, and in which he lost the greater
part of his fortune. He nearly had the honour of
helping to introduce the system of screw-propulsion.
He was visited by a Mr Smith of Walthamstow,
who urged him to adopt the system in the steam-
vessels of his company. This gentleman was the
celebrated Sir Francis Pettit Smith, inventor of the
screw-propeller. He did not succeed in inducing
my grandfather to adopt his system, which we, his
grandchildren, have several reasons for regretting.
The first ocean-going vessel propelled by Sir F.
Pettit Smith's propeller was the Archimedes, which,
when I was a midshipman, I more than once saw at
Valparaiso, when, her engines having been removed,
she was trading as a sailing-vessel between Chile
and Australia.
As I have already said, my great-grandfather,
Cyprian Bridge (b. 1737, d. 181 4), married Miss
Baker Phillips. Her mother, some years after she
lost her first husband, married again, this time
Mr Gibson. By the second marriage she had two
sons. One was an officer in the 63rd Regiment.
He served under Lord Cornwallis in America, and
was killed in action at Tyger River in South
Carolina on the 30th November 1780. I have a
copy of a still extant miniature of him in his scarlet
uniform. In addition to the connection by marriage,
there was some earlier blood-relationship between
our family and the Gibsons. My father inherited
THE "DAUPHIN" 15
a gold-headed cane and snuff-box which had belonged
to Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London (1720-40).
The gold-headed cane — which I remember well — has
been lost ; the snuff-box is still in my possession.
Bishop Gibson's uncle, Dr Thomas Gibson,
Physician-General of the Army in 17 18, married
a daughter of Richard Cromwell, for a short time
Protector, and eldest son of Oliver Cromwell. In
this way we can claim an indirect connection with
the Cromwell family.
At the death of Major Gibson between 1830
and 1840 my grandfather, his two then surviving
brothers, and his then surviving sister, inherited as
next-of-kin a large sum of money. The landed
property — which, being in the neighbourhood of
London, has of late years had a great many houses
built on it and must now be very valuable — went
to the heir-at-law, my father's relation and old
schoolfellow, the Rt. Hon. Milner Gibson, President
of the Board of Trade in Lord Palmerston's last
government.
When I first remember my grandfather, he was
living in Connaught Terrace, near the Marble Arch.
He was then nearly eighty years of age, but was
still vigorous both in mind and in body. He must
have had a large circle of friends and acquaintances,
for he had many visitors, especially on Sunday
afternoons. Even as a boy less than twelve years
old, I found some of them very interesting. Several
had travelled much, and it was pleasant to listen
to accounts of their wanderings. One of the gentle-
men, of whom I have a still vivid recollection, was
named, I think, Thorburn. He had the degree of
Doctor, but apparently did not practise. According
to him, the unhappy Dauphin, who ought to have
become Louis XVH., was still alive — if he were,
he would, at the time I speak of, have been about
sixty-seven years of age — and occasionally came to
England. The gentleman promised to take me to
16 INTERESTING TO RELATIONS ONLY
see him, which I greatly desired because I knew the
poor prince's story.
My grandfather, who was careful not to offend
the visitor by appearing in his presence to disbelieve
in the prince's existence, was quite convinced that
the latter had really died as usually related. He
therefore discouraged my wish to be taken to see the
person who professed to be the son of Louis XVL
I am sure that my grandfather was right. It would
be wrong to let a young boy start with a false view
of an often quoted historical episode.
4. Parents.
My father, in 18 18, when he was a little more
than eleven years old, was sent to school at Charter-
house, then at the summit of its fame under the
headmastership of the celebrated Dr Russell. At
Charterhouse my father spent eight years, leaving it,
to go to Oxford, as top boy but one of the school,
and winning the silver medal which is now in my
possession.
The treatment, in those days, of the younger boys
by the elder was very rough, but seems to have been
borne with good temper. Anyhow, my father never
regretted any of the time he spent at Charterhouse,
and always retained a deep affection for it. He was
not on the foundation, which I think he would have
liked to be, as he more than once referred to the
respect in which the other boys held the scholars.
He was in Mr Lloyd's house in the Square.
Amongst many of his contemporaries who after-
wards became famous, I may mention the great
writer, Thackeray, who was at school with him for
several years but was by quite two his junior. I
remember my father's attending an annual Charter-
house dinner and telling us on the next day of the
amusing speech which Thackeray, who was amongst
the diners, had made.
MY FATHER 17
In 1825 he went to Christ Church, where he
remained until he took his degree in honours in 1829.
His mother had wished him to take Holy Orders. He
himself had wanted to go to sea ; but his nearsighted-
ness made it impossible for him to enter the Navy.
It was my grandfather's hope that he would go to
the Bar. Accordingly, he entered Lincoln's Inn and
kept terms there for some time ; but he was never
"called." He had always been of a religious turn,
which was not of the kind that prevented him from
taking his share of the innocent pleasures and enjoy-
ments of life. He was very fond of horses, and in his
day was a bold rider to hounds. He was a good
oarsman, and was much in advance of his age as
a practiser of athletics, his high-jump performance
being exceptionally good.
His mother's death about the time at which he
left Oxford made him think seriously of her wish
that he should become a clergyman, and the result
of his thinking was that he desired to abandon the
prospect of a career at the Bar and enter the Church.
He was ordained in 1831 and was appointed to a
curacy in Norfolk. This greatly displeased his
father, who had looked forward to seeing him do
well as a barrister, and it was a long time before my
father was fully forgiven.
Though his inability to pass the eyesight test
had prevented him from entering the Navy, he
never lost his fondness for the sea. He travelled
rather oftener and rather more widely than was
common when he was a young man. He frequently
crossed to the Continent, and knew the Dutch
Netherlands and what is now the kingdom of
Belgium well. He also visited Sweden and Russia.
In 1834 he was offered an appointment on the staff
of Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane, Governor of
Newfoundland. Sir Thomas, who in official positions
lived in great state, found his household incomplete
without a chaplain ; and this post, combined with
18 INTERESTING TO RELATIONS ONLY
that of tutor to the Governor's son, afterwards Lord
Lamington, my father yladly accepted. It promised
him at once what he was especially fond of, viz., a
rather long- sea-voyage. His services on Sir Thomas
Cochrane's staff were highly appreciated, and the
Admiral remained his kind friend till the last. It
was Sir Thomas who gave me my nomination as a
Naval Cadet.
My father had a great affection for the people of
Newfoundland, an affection which was abundantly
returned by them. He married and decided to
devote himself to Church work in Newfoundland.
Bishop Aubrey George Spencer, a g^randson of the
Duke of Marlborough, who had been a clergyman
in Newfoundland for many years, made him rector
of the mother parish of St John's, the capital. Here
my father, except for visits to England, remained
till his death in 1856. More than once he had been
offered Church preferment elsewhere, but the earnestly
expressed desire of his parishioners that he should
remain with them, and his own love for them, made
him decline all invitations to leave.
Judge D. W. Prowse, Q.C., in his History of
Newfoundland, published in 1895, speaks of him
as : —
"Archdeacon Bridge, the idol of his congrega-
tion, almost equally adored by rich and poor
of all creeds."
The historian goes on as follows : —
" No one who has ever seen his beautiful
countenance, or heard his magnificent tones
in the sublime service for the dead, will
ever forget Thomas Finch Hobday Bridge,
the most beloved Anglican minister that
ever set foot on our soil ; his place has never
been filled. Generous, warm-hearted, and
deeply religious, Nature had endowed him
A DEVOTED CLERGYMAN 19
with every gift and grace, even the divine
gift of humour ; religion had purged away-
all the earthly dross of selfishness and
ambition from a truly noble character, and
made him one of the most lovable of men."
The affection of the people for my father was
long-lasting. Nearly fifty years after his death I
received a letter from a clergyman in Newfoundland,
to whom I was not personally known, and in it he
told me that my father's grave was still visited by
large numbers of people out of respect to his memory.
We who are his children have every right to feel
proud of his record.
His appearance was prepossessing. He was
above the middle height and his figure generally
was imposing. Though it is a very long time to
look back to, I thoroughly remember his progress
up the aisle of the church at the Sunday services.
To me, even child as I was, it was most impressive,
and the scene often comes before my mind's eye.
One of his old schoolfellows, who met my father
after he had become a clergyman, said of him : —
" He was the most perfect figure of an ecclesiastic
I had seen in this country. Even in France,
or in Italy, he would have commanded
admiration."
His portrait, painted in 1829, just as he left Oxford,
shows how handsome a man he was. He worked
hard in his parish. Indeed, no slave could have
worked harder. He caught an infectious fever
when visiting some of his poor parishioners, and
died in 1856 at the early age of forty-nine.
He married Sarah Christiana, youngest daughter
of Mr John Dunscomb, Honorary Lieut.-Colonel
and A.D.C. to the Governor. My maternal grand-
father and his family were then residing at St
John's, Newfoundland. He had been the owner
20 INTERESTING TO RELATIONS ONLY
of considerable estates in Bermuda and the West
Indies. The latter, I think, he never saw, as none
of his family seem to have visited the West Indies;
but in his younger days he had spent some time
at Bermuda. The owners of West Indian planta-
tions, which, in the eighteenth century and in the
early part of the nineteenth, were usually
managed by resident agents called "attorneys,"
imported food for their slaves, and staves for the
casks of sugar and rum produced on their estates.
These imported commodities came from North
America, both from the United States and from
the British Colonies. It was worth the while of
owners of the larger plantations to keep in their
own hands the business of procuring and sending
supplies from North America. Consequently, they
had business establishments at various ports in
the United States and in the British American
dominions. My mother's father had one such at
St John's, and also, I believe, in New York and
in Prince Edward's Island. He and my grand-
mother took up their residence definitely in England
about 1847 or 1848, and both died there.
The family, though called Dunscomb, was of
French origin. The members of it were Protestants
who were driven out of France, and came to England
in Queen Elizabeth's reign. I have sometimes
heard relations say that the family came to England
on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.
This is a mistake, as it had then been in England
more than a hundred years. The family was of very
ancient nobility, seated near Sedan. The heads
of it were Seigneurs of Hault-bois, an old feudal
lordship. It was common to speak of them as
Marquis de Hault-bois, but they never had the
official title of Marquis. In France, I find, "the
head of a noble family often assumed, at his own
hand, the title of Marquis," and his acquaintances
usually so designated him, much as people called
THE DUNSCOMB FAMILY 21
an ecclesiastic Abbe, though he may not have been
an abbot or have ever been near an abbey.
The title of Seigneur was of itself evidence of
the antiquity of the Hault-bois. They belonged
to the old feudal noblesse de Fepde. They inter-
married at least twice with the ducal house of
Choiseul. The Hault-bois claimed descent from the
family of the famous Godfrey de Bouillon. Godfrey
was a recognised Christian name amongst them. A
nephew of my mother's, my first cousin, bears it at
this moment. They also kept, for many generations,
some portions of a gold chain, said to have belonged
to Godfrey de Bouillon himself; and two of my
mother's sisters had each a finger-ring made out of
these fragments.
Some years ago, a nephew of mine was staying
at a country house in northern France, when a niece
of the lady of the house showed him an old MS.
report, presented to the King (Louis XIV., I think)
by an ancestor of the lady, in which the Hault-bois
family was declared to be fioble et maintenue noble.
A commission had been ordered to inquire into the
right of certain persons and families to be included
amongst the noblesse. Many could not prove the
right ; but the Hault-bois were shown to have
proved theirs.
Those who came to England in the second half
of the sixteenth century settled first at Dunscomb in
Devonshire. They did not hold the freehold ; but
I cannot say under whom they held the land. The
house disappeared long since; but I have a photo-
graph of the ruins of the gateway, taken fifteen or
sixteen years ago (1900), which shows that it must,
when perfect, have had an imposing appearance.
Like the oldest noble families of France in general,
the Hault-bois had no family name, but were called
after the estates on which they resided. The
members of the family who migrated to England
followed this custom and called themselves Duns-
22 INTERESTING TO RELATIONS ONLY
comb, which thus became their family name. They
did not entirely lose connection with friends of their
family in France till a comparatively recent date.
My mother, who was for some time at school in
Paris, which she left in June 1830, only a few days
before the " Revolution of Three Days," was twice
visited by the celebrated Lafayette, then an old man.
She told me that after the revolution just mentioned,
she frequently met refugee French nobles at her
father's house in England. As I am recording some
of her recollections, I may mention that she remem-
bered having- been taken to see Charles X. at dinner,
it having been an old custom of the kings of France
to dine occasionally in public.
The Dunscombs, as the family was now called,
went into business as American and West Indian
merchants and prospered exceedingly, acquiring the
considerable West Indian properties already referred
to. Their business connected them with Bristol, and
also with Poole. Besides being at school in Paris,
my mother was also at school at Clifton, in a house
still standing. In her schooldays it was in a pleasant
residential neighbourhood. The Lawrence family
lived in the same row of houses, and there the
celebrated Sir Henry Lawrence and his brother.
Lord Lawrence, were born.
My maternal grandfather had a large family, my
mother being the youngest of four daughters. The
youngest son, George, whom I remember, was one
of my godfathers. I have always thought him the
handsomest man I ever saw. He was over six feet
in height and of a well-proportioned and upright
figure. He was an extraordinarily enthusiastic
fisherman, for many years of his life spending most
of his time with a fishing-rod in his hand. There
was no distance which he thought too great, if
covering it would give him a prospect of good
fishing. He once told me that he had walked in
North - western America five hundred miles in
MY MOTHER 23
company with some Indians, and five hundred miles
back, all for the sake of fishing at a particular place,
where, however, the sport proved disappointing.
He was probably one of the first Englishmen to go
regularly to Norway to fish, as he went there over
seventy years ago.
As my godfather, he was always very nice to
me ; but the only thing he ever gave me was a
fishing rod of very excellent quality, which I used
for years. The gift was handed to me shortly after
his return from a fishing expedition to Norway,
just as we were on the point of leaving Paddington
terminus for a journey by the Great Western
Railway. The difficulties of keeping it without
injury in a railway carriage of those days were great
enough to make me remember the circumstances.
My mother had three married sisters, all of
whom I remember. The eldest, my aunt Eliza,
Mrs Camman, whom I knew only as a widow ;
my aunt Margaret, Mrs Vallance ; and my aunt
Caroline, Mrs Crowdy, wife of Mr James Crowdy,
sometime Administrator or Acting Governor of
Newfoundland. Like my mother, both Mrs
Vallance and Mrs Crowdy were beautiful women.
I last saw the latter at Southsea, some years
after I entered the Navy, when she was in delicate
health, not long before her death. Even then,
her beauty was striking. A miniature of my mother
which we have shows how great was her share of
good looks. These were the least of her merits.
There never could have been a more perfect parent.
She was left a widow, with only a moderate income,
and a young and very large family — nine children,
of whom seven were dependent on her. The position
and welfare of those still living, as well as of those
whom we have lost, bear convincing testimony to the
admirable manner in which she brought up her
children.
It is my sincere belief that she was one of the
24 INTERESTING TO RELATIONS ONLY
most accomplished women of her day. She had
an exceedingly sweet and engaging manner, which
was especially attractive to children. She had very
unusual powers of conversation, and was as good
a listener as talker. She had a marked talent
for drawing, and some of her water-colours of human
figures were admirable. She was quite up to the
average as a performer on the piano ; and I re-
member her voluntarily giving some lessons on
the harp to a young friend of hers who had been
presented with one. She spoke French fluently.
She had complete mastery of all branches of
domestic economy ; could tell cooks how to do their
work ; could prescribe for and treat children's
ailments ; and could also direct their games and
amusements. In my early days, many things, now
bought in shops, were produced at home — jams,
jellies, sauces, butter, cream-cheeses, and bottled
fruits. My mother was a skilful superintendent
of the manufacture of all such articles. Her hands
were rarely idle, as they usually plied sewing, crochet,
or knitting needles.
It is difficult, even now, to understand how she
found time to read ; for she was a great reader.
I remember being allowed to look at the illustrations
of an English translation of Thiers' History of the
French Revolution which she was reading. I can
also remember the name of Macaulay's History
of England, which was being read by my father
and mother as a new book. Fiction was by no
means excluded, and I think that I can see now
the paper covers and the drawings in the successive
monthly parts of Thackeray's Vanity Fair and
Dickens' Dombey & Son. I believe that I inherited
from both my parents my strong liking for reading.
During the latter years of my mother's life, she
suffered much from rheumatism and visited many
spas to undergo the "cure." She lived long enough
to see me reach the rank of Captain in the Navy.
CHAPTER III
EARLY DAYS BEFORE ENTERING THE NAVY
My earliest recollection in life is of Tunbridge Wells.
I remember seeing a woman standing by a table
covered with tumblers and handing tumblerfuls of
water to people to drink. I remember even more
distinctly having my fingers squeezed in a garden
gate. I was, however, born at St John's, Newfound-
land, being taken to England whilst still an infant
in arms. According to the positive statements of
both my parents, I was born on the 13th March
1839. When I entered the service, a Naval Cadet,
as proof of his age, had to produce a copy of his
baptismal certificate. The old rector by whom I
was baptised, in noting the date of birth either put
"15th" in the register in mistake for "13th," or
made his 3 so like a 5 that the Admiralty insisted
on the 15th March being officially counted as my
birthday.
My family remained in England some time before
returning to Newfoundland. I can recall one incident
of the outward voyage. A man who was at work
on the main-gaff was, by a sudden flapping of the
sail, thrown into the sea, and, though efforts were
made to save him, was drowned. This happened
before my eyes.
I left Newfoundland finally in January 185 1, and
my recollections of it are mostly faint and in any
case not worth recording. There is, however, one
thing still in my remembrance which may, perhaps,
2&
26 EART.Y DAYS BEFORE ENTERING NAVY
interest a reader. It was a series of curious
ceremonies or festivals which took place in the
winter. About Christmas, usually the day after,
large numbers of men in masques and dressed in
a great variety of fantastic disguises traversed the
streets in groups, making pretended assaults on
bystanders. Each of the maskers, or "Fools" as
they were called, had either a blown-up bladder at
the end of the thong of a rough hunting-whip, or
the skin of a cow's tail fastened to a cudgel, with
which he pretended to belabour any man who came
within reach. No rank or official position secured
anyone against attack, and it was invariably put up
with passively and with good humour. Prominent
people were let off with a single stroke. The streets
were always crowded and children filled all the
windows, from which a sight of the proceedings
could be obtained.
At the season — midwinter — there was not much
work going on, and many people had leisure enough
to be able to amuse themselves. The " Fools "
continued their pranks for several days ; when, about
New Year's Day, the Mummers appeared. These
men wore no masks, and — except for a dragon and a
hobby-horse — were all dressed alike. They wore
dark trousers, a white shirt, confined at the waist,
over their other clothes, an ordinary "top" or tall
black hat adorned with rosettes and brightly coloured
ribbons. Each man carried a naked sword. The
Mummers visited the larger houses in their neighbour-
hood, always in the daytime, and acted a sort of
play in which one who was called "St George"
killed the dragon.
There were many single combats with swords,
and at least one Mummer was supposed to be killed.
A surgeon was at once called to his help and restored
him to life by the administration of some medicine
which he had brought with him. The only words
of the play which I remember were some uttered by
AN EARLY CUNARD STEAMER 27
the surgeon when treating his patient. These
were : —
" 1 have a little bottle of ellicampaine.
If the man is dead let him rise and fight again."
When I left St John's, which I did in a branch
steamer of the Cunard Line, connecting with the
Main Line steamer at Halifax, it was very cold.
The harbour was frozen over, and the steamer
forced her way out by repeatedly ramming the ice
and pushing through the cracks thus made. At
Halifax, where, as I remember with gratitude, the
Governor, General Sir John Harvey, and Lady
Harvey each presented me with a half-sovereign, I
took passage in the Cunard steamer Europa and
made the voyage to Liverpool in about nine days.
The internal arrangements of the Europa,
designed nearly if not quite seventy years ago,
were, in my opinion, much more favourable to the
comfort of the passengers than the arrangements of
more modern ocean liners. There was not as much
luxury as there is now ; but I am persuaded that
there was a great deal more comfort. The saloon in
which the first-class passengers had their meals and
spent much of their time when reading or writing,
was a long "deck house" on the upper deck, with
large windows of plate glass which could slide up
and down. There was a smoking-room, into which
I was allowed to peep, amidships, and the sleeping
cabins were below, with only the deck above them,
a good deal of open space outside their doors, and
at least sufficient ventilation to prevent complaints.
We sighted some icebergs on the voyage ; and
one afternoon a bird, which the sailors called a
snow-owl — it was white with a few brown feathers
— perched on the main-truck. One of the sailors
went aloft, "shinned up" the back -stays, and
caught it, selling it when he got down to one of the
passengers.
28 EARLY DAYS BEFORE ENTERING NAVY
We arrived at Liverpool on Sunday evening when
the church bells were ringing. I had never heard
the sound of chiming- bells across the water, and it
seemed to me very beautiful. My maternal grand-
mother, Mrs Dunscomb, then a widow, and one of
her daughters, my aunt Eliza, were living near
Liverpool, and I stayed with them until I went to
Cheltenham, where I was to meet my father. I had
travelled by railway before, but always in charge of
someone. I was now to travel by myself. As I was
to be met at Birmingham Station by a gentleman
who had never seen me and who was to put me into
a train for Cheltenham, I had a piece of red ribbon
tied in the buttonhole of my overcoat. This led to
my being promptly recognised on the Birmingham
platform ; and, after a good dinner at a hotel close
to the station, I was duly sent on my way to
Cheltenham.
After a few days there, my father and I went on
to London. When I look back upon the aspect of
London as it was when I first remember it, and
compare it with what it is now, the transformation
seems really marvellous. I used to go to school by
coach from the Four Swans Inn in Bishopsgate Street.
The Inn was a beautiful old house, built round an
inn-yard, with four tiers of galleries one above
another. It was pulled down several years ago.
My route to the Four Swans ran along Oxford
Street from a point near the Marble Arch, through
Holborn, past the Royal Exchange into Bishopsgate
Street. Nearly every house then existing on both
sides of that route has been replaced by a newer
building. Indeed, within my personal recollection,
Central London has been all but entirely rebuilt.
At the time to which I am referring, there was a
very steep declivity at Holborn Hill^ — since abolished
by the Holborn Viaduct. Before going down the
hill^ every four-wheeled vehicle had to stop and put
on an iron drag-shoe. This caused great obstruction
^ LONDON IN 1851 29
in the traffic, and in the cases of full omnibuses must
have often been dangerous. The drag-shoe had to
be removed at the bottom of the hill.
The Thames embankment had not been begun ;
and, however picturesque the river banks were
made to appear in works of art, to me they always
looked very untidy. I was taken to see the sights
usually shown to children, amongst them the Tower
and the docks. We went to the docks by train
from Fenchurch Street, and there, at least, tickets
had not been introduced. Instead of them, each
traveller was given, in return for the payment made,
a large piece of coloured paper, a part of which was
torn off by a railway official before the train was
entered.
One day the street in which we were living —
George Street, Bryanston Square — presented a
remarkable spectacle. It was the chimney-sweeps
celebrating in May the anniversary of the recovery
of a child whose parents, I think, had lived in
Montague House, near which an odd kind of dance
was being performed. A leading figure amongst the
performers was " Jack-in-the-Green," who was dressed
so as to look like a tall extinguisher covered with
green leaves.
I was taken to see the opening of the Great
Exhibition of 185 1 ; but when we reached the
entrance, my father, fearing that there would be
a dangerous crush amongst the crowd when the
ceremony was over, decided that I had better not
go inside the building. Accordingly, I was left
outside with the lady in whose carriage we had
driven to the place, and was allowed to sit on the
box between the coachman and the footman. From
this position I could see a good deal that was
interesting. I saw the arrival of Queen Victoria
and Prince Albert ; and also that of the great Duke
of Wellington. I can recall his appearance as he
stood up in his carriage, bare-headed, in acknowledg-
30 EARLY DAYS BEFORE ENTERING NAVY
ment of the cheers of the crowd, which were loud and
hearty.
Very early in 185 1 I paid my first visit to a
theatre. My eldest sister and I were taken to the
Princess* Theatre, where we saw " Love in a Maze"
and "The Alhambra, or Legends of Spain." The
latter was a burlesque founded on a book by
Washington Irving-, which I had just been reading.
The cast was, I believe, a remarkably strong one —
Mr and Mrs Charles Kean, Mr and Mrs Keeley,
Alfred Wigan, and Harley whom my father remem-
bered playing many years before.
The theatrical amusement beloved beyond all
others by children was then, as I believe it is now,
the Drury Lane Pantomime. In view of my wish
to enter the Navy, a scene in one of these interested
me greatly. The clown investigated the contents of
a huge tin labelled " Preserved Meat for the Navy,"
and drew out of it a dead cat. At this most of the
audience fairly yelled with indignation. When I
joined the service, not long after seeing this, I found
that the Admiralty had considered it wise to stop
the issue to the Fleet of preserved meat in tins — an
innovation of recent introduction — because of the
shockingly disgusting quality of the articles supplied
by one contractor.
Another contractor's firm — the name of which
I will mention — was Hogarth & Co. Everything
supplied by this firm was of absolutely first-rate
quality, whether it was for issue by the Government
or was purchased as private sea-stock by the different
officers' messes. When the official issue of preserved
meat to the Navy was resumed, Hogarth & Co.'s
goods were gladly received. I do not know if the
firm still exists.
Another place to which young people were taken
to see a pantomime was the Surrey Theatre, where,
though not quite equal to that of Drury Lane, the
display was particularly good. Astley's was another
"ASTLEY'S"; COLISEUM; POLYTECHNIC 31
place of juvenile amusement. It was a sort of
combination of theatre and circus. It stood some-
where near the site of the present St Thomas's
Hospital, which latter at that time was close to
London Bridge Station. I remember seeing- the
celebrated equestrian drama, " Mazeppa," at Astley's.
People sometimes talk as if there were but few
places of amusement in London in the middle of the
nineteenth century. As a matter of fact there were
many, and I could give a respectably long list of
those to which I was taken.
The Coliseum, on the edge of Regent's Park, may
be specially mentioned. It contained what was prob-
ably the first passenger lift in existence, though it was
called the "ascending room" and only took people
up the height of one storey. A payment of sixpence
was made by each passenger for the trip. I bought
at the Coliseum an early form of the stylographic
pen. It was made of glass and was, in fact, a hollow
tube, something Hke the tube of a thermometer, but
sharpened to a point at one end. Ink was sucked
up into this from an ink-bottle, practice rendering
the user perfect in avoiding an overflow of ink into
his mouth. I used one of these simple pens for
several years and found it of great service in making
out official lists, etc.
My earliest knowledge of the marine steam-engine
was due to seeing excellent sectional models of steam
machinery and listening to explanations at the
Polytechnic. Many of my visits to places of amuse-
ment were made while I was at school, in the holidays,
or on the rare occasions when a couple of days'
outing were granted, permitting a visit to London.
On one of these occasions I was taken to the opera
and heard Grisi and Mario in " Favorita" ; but that
was rather later than the visits to the Coliseum or
Polytechnic.
32 EARLY DAYS BEFORE ENTERING NAVY
5. Schooldays.
Not long- after my arrival in London I went to
school. The choice of a school called for prolonged
consideration. My father in no way opposed, but,
on the contrary, fully approved my earnest wish
to go into the Navy. The difficulty was that of
g-etting there. At the time only sixty cadetships
were given to candidates in each year ; and, as every
admiral who hoisted his flag had the right of giving
two, and every captain appointed to a command
the right of giving one — each being a definite cadet-
ship conditional on passing a simple examination
test, and not a mere chance in competing with
others, as at present — the number of nominations
left to the Board of Admiralty was very small.
I did not know any of the captains who obtained
commands, and only one admiral who was likely
to hoist his flag. I had the good fortune of having
my name put down on the First Lord's list, but
there were many names on it before mine.
In these circumstances, my father at first thought
that he could carry out his intention of sending me
to his old school. Charterhouse. As he had a large
family, it would be a matter of material importance
to get me into the school on the Foundation. There
were, however, no vacancies for Foundation scholars
just then, and it might be necessary to wait a long
time for one. Dr Russell, who had been headmaster
in my father's time, took an interest in my case.
He invited my father to an early dinner one Sunday
and asked him to bring me with him. The Doctor
was then Rector of Bishopsgate, and lived in a
beautiful old house in St Helen's Place, which was
then full of fine residences. I remember that dinner
well, chiefly because a relative of Dr Russell who
dined there came in his full uniform as an officer
in -the Foot-guards, and made me put on his "bear
skin" to see how I looked in it. It became evident
CHOICE OF A SCHOOL 33
that Dr Russell approved of me, as he urged my
father to send me to Charterhouse as an oppidan,
without waiting for a scholarship, and promised,
after I was once in the school, to use his influence
to gfet me on the Foundation.
Just as I was being" prepared to go there. Admiral
Sir Thomas Cochrane told my father that he expected
to hoist his flag shortly and that he would give me
one of the cadetship nominations to which he would
be entitled. We went to call upon Sir Thomas, who
was living in Belgrave Square. He had not seen
me since I was an infant, so that I was really making
his acquaintance. He was most kind and asked me
if I could undertake to be ready to go to sea at short
notice ; as to which I was able to give a satisfactory
assurance.
It was now decided that I was not to go to
Charterhouse, because I might have to leave it to
go to sea almost immediately after entering, which
would be unfair to the friends who had promised
to help me in obtaining a scholarship. In the end,
I was sent to Walthamstow House School, kept by
Dr Greig, whom my father had known when he had
been assistant at a school the headmaster of which
was an old Oxford friend of my father. Dr Greig
was a rather irascible, but most generous and kind-
hearted Scotsman. He made it a rule, as far as the
younger boys were concerned, never to spare the
rod. I had a taste of it every day except Sunday,
and some boys got it oftener than I did. All the
same, the Doctor was much liked by the boys ;
indeed, so were all the masters except one. He was
a married man who lived at home and was never
seen by us except during school hours ; whilst the
other masters, who all lived at the school, took part
in our games and were always friendly.
The Doctor, as we always called the headmaster,
told me that my father had once been very kind to
him ; and he was certainly very kind to me. I did
34 EARLY DAYS BEFORE ENTERING NAVY
not resent the frequent thrashings which he
administered to me. Indeed, none of the small
boys who suffered from the rod bore the headmaster
any ill-will. The French master was a very fine
fellow, who had on his upper lip a scar imperfectly
concealed by a moustache. This we believed to
have been due to a wound received in a duel ; and
Monsieur was looked upon as a hero by most of
us. One of the masters afterwards entered the
Navy as a chaplain. I was his messmate when I
was a lieutenant. He was as popular with the
officers in the ward-room as he had been with the
boys at the school.
The drill-master was an old sergeant of the 14th
Light Dragoons (now Hussars). He had been in the
Peninsula under the Duke of Wellington, and was
present at the battle of Talavera besides other
combats. He must, when at the school, have been
over sixty-five years of age, but was remarkably
vigorous and almost juvenile in appearance. He
was not tall, but had a sturdy, well-knit figure.
He held himself upright, and; as he — always when
we boys saw him — wore a buttoned-up, blue frock-
coat edged with black braid, it was seen at once that
he had been a soldier.
For the few days intervening between the death
of the great Duke of Wellington and his funeral,
his remains lay in state at Chelsea Hospital.
Enormous crowds visited the place, and, to preserve
some sort of order, the police erected barriers which
had to be passed in turn before the entrance to the
hospital was reached. Our drill-master gave us
an account of his experiences the day after he had
been to witness the lying-in-state and pay his last
tribute of respect to his great commander. He
found his progress so slow, and the pressure of the
crowd so overwhelming, that he had almost decided
to. give up his attempt to enter the hospital.
As he was being crushed against one of the
SOME SCHOOLFELLOWS 35
barriers, he was noticed by two military officers
who were on the other side of the barrier. One of
them asked him if he had ever served with the Duke,
and, on his saying- that he had and givingf the name
of his regiment, this officer called out to his
companion : " I say, Gough, here's one of the old
Fourteenth." They were Lord Hardinge and Lord
Gough, and through their kind offices the police got
him past the barrier and he moved into the hospital
without further discomfort.
He had a high admiration of the French soldiers
as fighters. I remember his once telling us that
during- a battle his regiment was drawn up awaiting-
orders, on a slope where they were exposed to
the fire of the French field artillery ; and that a
round shot had cut in two the long- plume in his
head-dress, such as the men of many of our cavalry
regiments then wore.
Several of the boys who were at the school when
I was there became disting-uished in after life.
General Sir Edward Thackeray, K.C.B., V.C.,
was a good deal senior to me in the school and I saw
him only occasionally. The eminent surgeon and
specialist. Sir Morell Mackenzie, was in the same
class and same dormitory with me. He was a great
favourite with the boys. Another schoolfellow of
mine was General Sir William Grossman, whom
I met years afterwards at Hong-- Kong-, and later
at Adelaide, in South Australia. There were at
the school two brothers whose father lived only a
few miles off and showed me much kindness. The
elder of the two and I were in the same class. He
entered the Army and was killed in one of our Indian
frontier campaigns.
His brother was more than a year my junior.
He also entered the Army and had a disting-uished
career. As General Sir Edward Chapman, K.C.B.,
he was Director of Military Intelligence when I
was Director of Naval Intelligence, so that we
36 EARLY DAYS BEFORE ENTERING NAVY
were virtually colleagues. I have already spoken
of his father's kindness to me. When the Duke
of Wellington's funeral was about to take place
at St Paul's Cathedral, leave of absence was gfiven
to any boy who was going to attend it. Both
the Chapman brothers went to the funeral. I
remember hearing one of them describe it after-
wards. Mr Chapman most kindly obtained for me
a ticket of admission to St Paul's ; but unfortunately
— owing, I suppose, to the not very excellent postal
arrangements of those days — It did not reach me till
the day after the funeral.
Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane did not hoist
his flag as soon as had been expected. One result
was that I remained at school for the better part of
two years. On the whole, this was good for me,
as I learnt a great deal that was useful. I disliked
school excessively, not the particular school where
I was more than another, but any school, as I
believed that I was kept from going to sea by being
at school. I am now satisfied that Walthamstow
House was a school of exceptionally high character.
The boys were well taught and, in many ways, well
looked after. The rod, it Is true, was freely used ;
but the boys did not complain of that, they took
it as a matter of course.
The food was abundant in quantity and first-
rate in quality. I think that I can see now the
splendid roast sirloins of beef and legs of mutton
that used to appear at our dinners. We were
allowed, at that meal, a reasonable quantity of light
table beer, which would now be called "lager," but
which we always called "swipes." Most of us
younger boys, however, drank water. At breakfast
we had tea or coffee and bread and butter. The
amount was unlimited. Any boy, if he would only
take the trouble to go to the place near the door
where the jugs stood, might have as much milk as he
liked. It was rich in cream and always quite fresh.
/
SCHOOL EXPERIENCES 37
Any jam or marmalade had to be provided by each
boy himself.
It must be admitted that the regular breakfast
and tea meals generally were monotonous ; but there
was no stinting. Nevertheless, with most of the
younger boys, it was the fashion to assert that
we were starved. Some of this was, perhaps, due to
a belief that repetition of the assertion was the most
effective means of getting supplies of jam or
marmalade sent from home. I dwell on the subject
because directly I went to sea I was struck by the
great contrast between the excellence and abundance
of the food at school and the scanty and often
indifferent fare of the midshipmen's berth.
There are probably not many people now left
whose recollections of conditions in the Navy go
back more than sixty years. As it may interest
the present generation to have an account of those
conditions, I propose to relate my early reminiscences
of service afloat in fuller detail than those of later
date.
D
CHAPTER IV
ENTERING THE NAVY
We had just begun the examinations at the close of
the " half" immediately before the Christmas holidays,
1852, when I received an official letter from the
Admiralty stating that I had been nominated to a
naval cadetship by Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane,
who had just hoisted his flag as commander-in-chief
at Portsmouth, and that I was to present myself for
examination, either on a day close at hand in
December, or on the 12th January 1853. It was
decided that I should choose the latter day, and on
reporting- this to the Admiralty I was directed to
present myself at Portsmouth Royal Naval College
on the morning of the 12th January 1853.
In those days there were two ways of going from
London to Portsmouth by rail : one from Waterloo
Station through Winchester, and the other from
London Bridge through Brighton. The length of
the journey in each case was about the same —
beiween three and four hours. There was no harbour
station at Portsmouth, and the trains did not go
further than the station at Landport.
The detached forts at Portsmouth and at Spithead
had not then been thought of, or at any rate had
not been begun. The train ran through the old
Portsmouth lines, a continuous fortification a mile
or more from Landport Station ; and Portsmouth
town and Portsea had each its own fortified enceinte
with wet ditches, bastions, ravelins, etc. I was met
88'
, . ' ' ' > 5 5 ' I ' , ' ' "
' ' 5 3 3 3 3 3 ' 3 ' 3 S 3 ' 3 , 3 ' ,
[/''/•om ((. Daguerreotype.
1853.
CYPRIAN ARTHUR GEORGE BRIDGE
Naval Cadet, R.N.
Aged 14.
c c c c c c
ENTRANCE EXAMINATIONS 39
by my father's first cousin, Lieutenant W. Henry
Bridge, R.N., then serving- in H.M.S. Vengeance.
We put up at the "Ship and Castle" close to the
dockyard gates, an inn then much patronised by
naval officers of the higher ranks.
On the next morning, 12th January 1853, my
cousin took me to the Royal Naval College in the
dockyard, and there I found about a dozen other
boys who were to be examined for cadetships like
myself The regulations allowed only one trial ;
failure at the examination involved forfeiture of the
nomination and practical frustration of the candidate's
hopes of a naval career. I never heard of any excep-
tions being permitted, though sometimes a boy who
had failed to pass the cadet's examination entered
the Navy in another branch of the service. Of the
boys who were examined when I was, one was
extraordinarily tall. He looked over twenty years
of age instead of under fourteen. He and I were
messmates afterwards as lieutenants. Another boy,
who was accompanied by his father, a clergyman,
was as remarkably small as the boy before-mentioned
was tall. All the rest of us were of average height.
The medical examination was fairly strict ; but
not so rigidly governed by rules as it is now. The
schoolroom examination was not exacting. We had
to write from dictation a passage which in print
would probably have taken up some twenty or thirty
lines. We then had to answer about a dozen
questions in arithmetic, handed to each of us on a
printed paper. They were not difficult. I remember
one question. We were asked to "write in figures
seven millions." The whole examination, medical
and the rest, took up rather lesr than three hours,
and we all passed it and were able to leave Ports-
mouth for our homes early in the afternoon. There
was time enough for some of us to be taken to see
the Victory, which, I remember, interested me
greatly.
40 ENTERING THE NAVY
About two days after the examination, I received
from the Admiralty an official notification that I was
a naval cadet in the Royal Navy, and that I was
appointed to H.M.S. Amphion, frig-ate, fitting out
in the Medway. Almost immediately after the
receipt of this appointment it was cancelled. The
captain of the Amphion had been so seriously injured
by accident that he had to give up command of the
ship. A new captain (afterwards Admiral Sir Astley
Cooper Key) had been appointed to succeed him,
and had availed himself of his right to nominate a
cadet. This filled up the only vacancy in the
Aiiiphions complement, and I was appointed to
H.M.S. Medea, fitting out at Portsmouth.
I was granted fourteen days' leave from the date
of my examination, the 12th of January. As there
was some likelihood that my outfit, which it would
have been unwise to order until I had passed the
examination, would not be ready in time, I applied
for an extension of leave. To this application the
Secretary of the Admiralty replied that their lordships
had been pleased to grant me an extension of one
day. So — my father not being in England — I was
taken by my grandfather to Portsmouth on the
26th, and put on board the Medea on the 27th
January 1853, thus beginning my service afloat.
It was the coldest month of the year, though,
fortunately for me, the winter was not very severe.
Except a very small stove in the captain's cabin
and another like it in the gunroom, as the lieutenant's
mess-room in all ships but line-of-battle ships was
then called, there was absolutely no internal heating
of any kind in the ship. Even the galley or cooking-
place, which, in the smaller vessels, was usually on
the lower deck, was in the Medea on the upper deck,
adjoining one of the paddle-boxes, and thus in no
way helped to warm the ship.
Naturally, we all felt very chilly, but nobody
seemed to mind it much, and very soon I found out
MY FIRST SPIIP 41
that it was bearable. I was the only youngster.
There were two mates (as sub-lieutenants were then
called), an assistant surgeon, and a passed clerk (now
called assistant paymaster); and — though not until
some days after I had — a master-assistant joined the
ship. He had been two years in the Merchant
Service and was three or four years older than I was.
Our mess-room was then officially known as the
midshipmen's berth. It was supposed to be an
exceptionally good one, as the steward's berth or
pantry was separated from it by a bulkhead, a
luxurious arrangement not universal in small vessels.
The midshipmen's berth was about twelve feet long
and about five broad. Here we lived entirely.'taking
all our meals in it, and in it doing such reading,
writing, etc., as we could find time for. Cards on
board men-of-war were rarely seen in the early days
of my naval service. I was several years in the Navy
before I saw cards in a midshipmen's mess. They
were not prohibited, but few people afloat seemed to
wish to play them.
At the time of which I am speaking, and for years
afterwards, the officers of a man-of-war provided
practically the whole of their mess equipment, called
"mess-traps," themselves. The Government allowed
an unpolished table and one blue-and-red chequered
tablecloth of some stout cotton fabric. In the
midshipmen's berth nothing else was supplied. In
ward-rooms and gun-rooms enough chairs to go
round the table were supplied by the Government.
In the midshipmen's berth the only seats were lockers,
fixed benches with boxes beneath them for the recep-
tion of wine, mess stores, etc. Where there was a
door there was necessarily a gap in the row of lockers,
and a chair was usually obtained to fill it ; but the
chair had to be purchased by the members of the
mess, who also — if they decided to have them — had
to purchase cushions for the locker seats. The latter
arrangement was not common, being thought unduly
42 ENTERING THE NAVY
luxurious. All articles of crockery and glass — includ-
ing their washing-stand utensils — had to be purchased
by the officers. Bad weather at sea and gun practice
made dreadful havoc with these articles, and the
expense of keeping up the necessary minimum
number of them was heavy.
Every officer, on joining a ship, had to pay a sum
of money as mess entrance. I n a newly commissioned
ship, in ward-rooms and gun-rooms, this varied from
^20 to ^30 — even more in some line-of-battle ships.
It varied from £\2 to ^18 in the midshipmen's messes.
A reduction was made for each month, so that an
officer joining late in the Commission would have to
pay less than the sums just mentioned. The money
was used to purchase the necessary table utensils.
Before putting to sea in a ship just commissioned,
mess-money, usually for three months, had to be paid
in advance for the purchase of sea-stock — flour, sugar,
tea, coffee, bacon, etc.
Spoons and forks and tablecloths were provided
by a curious arrangement. Each officer had to
provide about a dozen pieces of plate. All had to
be of silver, as even after electro-plate became known
it was long prohibited in naval messes. Every
member of a mess in turn had to find a tablecloth.
It was returned to him after it had been used, and
he had to see that it was washed and kept ready
when the turn came round again.
The only internal lighting then known afloat was
that by candles, usually in tubes with coiled springs
inside them. The tubes were made to swing or
oscillate in metal frames, which, being heavily
weighted at the bottom, could stand on the table
during moderate rolling or be fixed in a socket
screwed to a bulkhead. I had been some years at
sea before I saw oil-lamps used on board ship, and
even longer before moderator lamps were introduced.
Matches were unknown on board men-of-war and
would have been prohibited.
LIFE ON BOARD SIXTY-FIVE YEARS AGO 43
Clocks were almost unknown on board H.M.
ships for several years after I went to sea. The
official time on board was kept entirely by half-hour
sand-glasses. Officers had their watches ; but I do
not remember seeing a clock, even in the captain's
cabin, during- most of my midshipman's time.
For purposes of navigation, each ship was allowed
one chronometer ; and, if the captain — as he usually
did — chose to provide another at his own expense, a
second government chronometer was allowed. This
arrangement was based on the understanding that
two chronometers were less useful than one ; because
if their indications of time differed they could not
both be right, whilst they might well be both wrong,
so that reliance on them would be dangerous. A
third chronometer offered the possibility of taking a
mean of the times shown by all three, and thus gave
a better chance of immunity from serious error.
With the exception of the chronometer and the
compasses for steering, every instrument used in the
ship was provided by the officers out of their own
pockets. The Government did not even supply a
spyglass, or an artificial horizon. Nearly every
officer, even the midshipmen, had two spyglasses,
one of which was at the disposal of the signalmen.
The surgeons had themselves to find all the medical
instruments. Even the carpenter's crew and ship-
wrights had to bring their own tools with them ; but
they were paid id. a day as "tool money."
The meal-hours in the midshipmen's mess were
practically the same in every ship, viz., 8 a.m.,
breakfast ; noon, dinner ; 5 p.m., tea. Supper, or a
meal after tea, was unusual, and those who took it
had to pay extra for it. The supper bill-of-fare was
simple — biscuits and sardines ; or, much more rarely,
biscuits and potted meat, which last was not to be
found in any great abundance on board ship.
Late dinners were not usual in the Navy, except
in the ward-rooms of line-of-battle ships in harbour.
44 ENTERING THE NAVY
At sea they were quite unknown. The ward-room
dinner hour was usually 2 o'clock, as also was that
of most captains, at any rate when their ships were
at sea. The first admiral in whose flag"ship I served
dined at 4 p.m. at sea, and at 6 p.m. in harbour.
At first I found dining- at 1 2 o'clock disagreeable.
It certainly was only one hour in advance of the
usual school dinner-time ; but it seemed to come
rather too soon after breakfast. It did not take long-,
however, to grow quite accustomed to it. The worst
thing about it was the long spell, twenty hours,
between it and the next substantial meal, viz., the
following morning's breakfast ; for the evening tea
was as a rule, only a cup or two of tea, at sea, without
milk, and biscuit and salt butter, when salt butter
was available, which was not always.
During my first ten or a dozen years in the Navy
there was no such thing as dressing for dinner, except
in flagships and other big ships when in harbour,
and even then not for midshipmen. We did change
our clothes between 5 and 6 p.m., when the ship's
company "shifted into night clothing." The officers
usually put on flannel shirts and serge suits, and were
thus ready to run on deck at any sudden call to shorten
sail or take in reefs. In hot climates, white uniform,
worn during the daytime, was changed for blue —
cloth or serge — by the ship's company when the
boatswain and his mates piped " Hands shift into
night clothing." This was intended largely as a
sanitary precaution. The white uniform was made
of cotton, and remaining in it near or after sunset was
likely to lead to the wearer getting chills which some-
times had serious results.
CHAPTER V
BLUEJACKETS AND THEIR KITS
All members of the ship's company except the
marines, who received g'ratis several articles of
uniform, had to pay out of their own pockets for the
whole of their clothes and for their bedding-. It was
not till a good many years after I went to sea that
the men received the moderate grant of £2, 9s.
towards the purchase of their clothes and bedding-.
In steamers, certain men who had been employed
in coaling- were given a small quantity of "duck"
to make coaling--suits, and a few yards of "fear-
nought " were allowed for the benefit of stokers
attending- to the furnaces in the stokeholds. With
those trifling exceptions, every article worn on
board by the seamen had to be bought by them.
The "victualling" stores in charge of the pay-
master of a ship were supplied by the Admiralty
Victualling Department, and, in addition to real
victuals or articles of food known to the seamen
as "provisions," comprised bales of cloth, serge,
cotton duck, cotton drill, blue jean (called afloat
"dungaree"), and flannel; also needles, thread, tape,
and buttons, called by the seamen "materials."
Except shirts, caps, and shoes, there were no ready-
made articles. The cloth, serge, etc., were, and I
believe are still, officially termed "slops." A certain
traditional quantity of each fabric was required to
make up what the seamen called a "piece" of
clothing, viz., a yard and a quarter of cloth for
45
\
46 BLUEJACKETS AND THEIR KITS
a pair of trousers, four yards of serge for a blue
frock, thirty inches of dungaree for the collar and
cuffs of a white frock. The quantity of slops issued
to each man was recorded and the cost deducted
from his pay.
Nearly every man could make his clothes him-
self. Indeed, great expertness in the use of the
needle was common. The only garment that called
for any special skill in the cutting out was the
pair of trousers ; but nearly every mess contained
one or two men who were reasonably efficient as
cutters. The measure was taken with a knife-
lanyard, and the outline of the trousers was drawn
with a piece of white chalk on the cloth, and, in
cutting, this outline was closely followed with the
scissors.
Most of the bluejackets made their own hats ;
nearly all plaited the sennit of which the hats were
made, the actual fashioning of the hat being left
to an expert. When a ship visited a place at which
the proper grass grew — usually within the tropics —
the men cut it themselves, dried it on board ship,
split it into strips of the proper width, and then
plaited it. Amongst bluejackets the art of making
hats has long been quite extinct. When I was
commander-in-chief on the Australian station
(1895-98) I twice offered prizes for hatmaking, but
amongst some thousands there was not a single
man who could do the work.
Each man used to have two hats — one called
"white," the other "black," the latter being covered
with calico and thickly coated with black paint.
The black hat was very heavy and so stout in texture
that it could serve nearly the same purpose as the
helmets worn in modern trench warfare. Once,
during the war of 1854-56, when we were under
a sharp musketry fire, I saw Lord Alcester's — then
Commander Beauchamp Seymour — coxwain, William
Thomas by name, hit by a bullet fair in the front
"UNIFORMS" IN 1853 47
of his hat v/hich was not perforated. The coxwain
was not wounded but he had a severe headache
for two days. We had just landed from our boats
and were advancing against a wood, and I think
that, before reaching the man's hat, the bullet may-
have glanced from a tree. A well-made hat was
imperishable, and if it was not blown overboard —
the fate of many hats — lasted throughout its owner's
service. It was worth while to pick a hat to pieces
and make up the sennit afresh to fit a different
head.
There was no general uniform for anyone in the
Navy under the rank of officer until some four years
after I joined the service. As a matter of fact, the
great majority of the bluejackets dressed very much
as they do now, except that there were no jumpers,
either blue or white, but only frocks ; that is to say,
long-sleeved and rather long-skirted garments that
had to be tucked inside the waistband of the trousers.
The jacket, as regards the seamen, had nearly
disappeared, but was still worn as part of the
Sunday dress or "mustering rig" in a few ships.
It was worn by stewards, ship's corporals, and a
few others, with the so-called "check," really striped,
shirt. Made-up blue cloth caps were common but
not universal. A sort of woven tam-o'-shanter, which
was included in the paymaster's slops, was frequently
used, and so were red comforters.
Each captain laid down what his crew would have
to wear. In my first ship a blue cloth frock — a
costly and useless garment — took the place of the
jacket. The old custom, in accordance with which
captains dressed their gigs' crews at their own
expense, was not entirely extinct. When I went
out to the West Indies, my first foreign station,
the gig's crew of H.M.S. Daring; a 14-gun brig,
wore blue-and-white striped jerseys and red caps
like a "cap of liberty," and the gig's crew of H.M.S.
Espiegle, also a brig, wore a sort of kilt made of
48 BLUEJACKETS AND THEIR KITS
duck and reaching nearly to the knee like that worn
by a stage pirate.^
When men rarely changed from ship to ship, but
remained in one during a whole commission, seldom
less than three years and a half in length and often
more, there was no hardship in having to get a new
set of clothes on joining a new ship. When, how-
ever, moving men and officers frequently from ship to
ship became rather the rule than the exception, the
expense of providing in greater part a new kit
became intolerable. So that, for this and other
reasons, a general uniform dress for the whole
service was recognised as a necessity.
1 Some captains provided their 6-oared gigs at their own expense.
In ships in which I served there were three so provided. No fir
oars were issued from the Government stores, but— as they were
frequently used in gigs and fast boats — they were, until several years
after I first went to sea, always purchased by the captain or the
officers. Sometimes the wood was bought and the oars made by
the ship's carpenters, but more commonly they were obtained in
the finished state.
CHAPTER VI
"hoisting the pendant" in olden time
The method of putting a ship into commission —
or hoisting the pendant, as it was called — in the days
of which I am speaking, would now be regarded as
primitive to the verge of absurdity. The word
"commission" had a meaning then which it has
no longer. Every commissioned officer, from the
captain downwards, received a fresh commission and
had to pay a fresh stamp fee every time he joined a
ship. Before I joined the ship in which I first served
as a lieutenant I had received three commissions and
had paid for three stamps. The fee for the stamp on
each naval commission was much less than that on
a military commission, but — owing to the frequency
with which the former was levied — the fees paid by
the naval officer were in effect considerably higher
than those paid by the military officer.
When I was promoted to the rank of lieutenant,
I received, in accordance with the then existing rule,
a commission to H.M.S. VictoriotiSy a hulk "in
ordinary" in Portsmouth Harbour; that is to say,
to a ship which, though she had a material, had no
legal, existence. This enabled the authorities to keep
me on half pay, notwithstanding the issue of a com-
mission. Within a few days I was selected for
appointment to a ship which happened to be absent
from England on a cruise. I was accordingly given
a commission to H.M.S. Victory, flagship of the
commander-in-chief at Portsmouth. As I could
40
50 "HOISTING THE PENDANT" IN OLDEN TIME
not be accommodated on board her, I had to find
quarters in Portsmouth, or rather Portsea, until my
own ship came home, on which I was gfiven a third
commission to her. The authorities were thus able
to collect three stamp fees instead of one.
An account of the process of commissioning a
rhip in the first twenty years of Queen Victoria's
reign may be of interest. An officer selected for
command was given a commission to the ship,
accompanied with orders to proceed to the port at
which she was lying and take command of her.
Usually he lost little time in making his way to the
place. On arrival there he reported himself to the
admiral, bought or begged a ship's pendant ; and,
if he could get a companion, went on board his new
ship, which was most likely lying in the stream.
To get on board he had to depend on the friendly
offices of some brother officer for the use of a boat
and crew, or, failing these, to hire a waterman's boat.
Arrived on board the ship, his first step was to
order the pendant to be hoisted. As the ship was
almost certainly without masts, and nearly certainly
without even an ensign-staff, the pendant had to be
displayed at the end of any pole that could be found,
usually a boat-hook staff ; but I have known a deal
batten used. This ceremony having been performed,
the captain had to read his commission on the
quarter-deck. The audience was generally small,
being often limited to a couple of shipkeepers and
perhaps a stray dockyard matey or two, or possibly
to the watermen who had sculled the captain on
board.
The latter was now responsible for the security of
the ship, and the shipkeepers, who belonged to the
Guardship of Ordinary, came temporarily under
his orders. He had been given an empty hull with
the right of "drawing for stores" of many different
kinds up to the amount allowed by the "establish-
ment " of the ship. The standing rigging, that is to
MANNING H.M. SHIPS 51
say, the shrouds and stays, had been prepared in
the dockyard riggine-loft ; but everything- — masts,
spars of all kinds, rigging, cordage, water-tanks,
sails, gfuns, ammunition, spare stores, etc., had to
be put on board by the ship's crew. Occasionally a
ship was rigged and stored before being put into
commission, but this arrangement was a very rare
exception. The powder and shell were embarked at
an outer anchorage, not in the harbour.
It was the captain's business to get his ship's
company by his own exertions, the officers being
appointed by the Admiralty — the first lieutenant
always on the captain's nomination. Almost the
first men to join were the marines, who were sent
on board from the neighbouring headquarter barracks
up to the number allowed as a detachment for a ship
of the class. Some of the marines were sure to have
been afloat before and to prove very handy and
useful. They at once relieved the shipkeepers and
acted as sentries on one or two posts, besides being
able to man a boat when required.
The ship was not habitable, and a hulk was told
off for the new crew to live in. The officers' accom-
modation in some of these hulks was often of a very
modest kind. When I was in a ship fitting out at
Devonport, between four and five years after my
first joining the Navy, the crew of another ship, the
Buzzard, fitting out at the same time, were living on
board a hulk near ours. I believe that her name
was the Egeria ; she was an old 28-gun frigate.
The midshipmen's berth, as in all ships of that class,
was on the lower deck, that is, below both the upper
and the main decks. The berth was very small and,
as there were no scuttles, it was in perpetual dark-
ness unless candles were lighted. In addition to
this, it was so low that three of the midshipmen and
the master-assistant could not stand upright in it.
The captain had to rely on his own efforts to get
together all his crew except the marines, the second-
52 "HOISTING THE PENDANT" IN OLDEN TIME
class boys, and a very small party of seamen-gunners
from H.M.S. Excellent, His first step was to order
the printing, at his own expense, of a number of
placards to be displayed in suitable places by bill-
stickers. The placards were something like this : —
WANTED
PETTY OFFICERS AND SEAMEN
FOR
H.M.S. LILY,
Captain JOHN BROWNSMITH, R.N.
Come, my lads, don't be silly,
Pick up your bags and join the Lily.
The next thing to be done was to choose a public-
house in a convenient situation — at Portsmouth
usually, on or near The Hard, Portsea — and make
it the rendezvous (when used in this sense always
pronounced randeevoo) for men wishing to join his
ship. This involved the prominent exhibition at or
near the door of the house of a Union Jack, and one
or more of the placards just mentioned. Here an
officer, usually a lieutenant accompanied by a mid-
shipman or a petty officer, attended daily to select
men from those who offered themselves. The word
"recruiting," though used in the Royal Marine
Corps, was unknown in the Navy, where its place
was taken by "raising" or "entering."
It was often more difficult to get men than to pick
and choose. The Admiralty, without making any
formal rule on the subject, usually ordered ships to
be commissioned just after others had been paid off,
so that there would probably be many men looking
for employment. The continuous service system
had not been introduced into the Navy when I joined
my first ship. When a ship was paid off everyone
belonging to her under the rank of warrant officer,
BLUEJACKETS IN 1853 63
that is to say, the midshipmen and naval cadets and
members of other branches who ranked with them and
all seamen-ratings, were paid off out of the service.
The midshipmen, etc., were termed "Officers by
Order," as they did not receive either commission
or warrant but an "order" which a commander-in-
chief was entitled to give. Their discharge from the
service on the paying-off of their ship was avoided
by appointing them to the guardship, the flagship
of the commander-in-chief, at one of the ports.
If a seaman entered a ship, either a newly-com-
missioned ship or one in which there was a vacancy
for his rating, within six weeks after he had been
paid off, he was allowed to count the intervening
time in the twenty-one years which it was then
necessary to serve as qualification for a pension.
If he waited longer than the six weeks the inter-
vening time was lost. A result of this was that
a considerable proportion, though by no means
the whole, of the bluejackets served only on board
men-of-war. Some occasionally made voyages in
merchant ships. Others took up employment on
shore — I had a shipmate who took a rather long
turn at cab-driving — afterwards returning to the
Navy.
Some men, but not very many, entered from
the Merchant Service after they had become able
seamen. The number of fishermen who came into
the Navy was small ; and, of those who did come,
the majority joined "west country" ships, that
is to say, ships which were put in commission,
and got their crews, at Devonport. A small but
not unimportant minority of a man-of-war's ship's
company was composed of the sons of bluejackets
whose fathers, in their turn, had also served in
the fleet. My old messmate and friend, the late
Sir John Laughton, once told me that there were
families living at and near Portsmouth, members
of which, from father to son, had served in the
£
54 "HOISTING THE PENDANT^' IN OLDEN TIME
Royal Navy certainly since the time of Charles II.,
and he believed that it would be possible to prove
that some families could show a similar record of
service from the reign of Henry VIII. down to
that of Queen Victoria. It is highly probable that
the same conditions existed at the Thames and
Medway ports.
The men who appeared at the rendezvous did
not, as a rule, enter the new ship's company without
a certain amount of bargaining. They were expected
to produce their papers. One man would say that,
as his certificate proved, he had been at sea such-
and-such a time as an ordinary seaman, and that he
would join if he were promised the rating of A. B.,
on passing satisfactorily the examination that the
captain might prescribe. Examinations in those
days were not very formidable ordeals ; yet, such as
they were, they let in just as few incapables as
the much more elaborate examinations of recent
times. Another man would state that he had been
captain of the fore- top in his last ship, and that
he would like to have the same rating again. If
that particular position had been already filled up, he
might be promised an equivalent rating and would
probably join.
If the ship was fitting out in the stream, which
was most likely, the men who entered would be
sent off in watermen's boats to the hulk at the
captain's expense, until enough men had joined
to man boats belonging to the hulk. It may be
mentioned that refunding of the expenses incurred by
the captain and officers on behalf of the service
in fitting out a ship was never claimed. Travelling
expenses, even from Ireland or the North of Scotland,
were invariably borne in full by the officers, except
when they were directly ordered on some special
service. Officers invalided or sent home on pro-
motion from distant stations usually sailed in one of
H.M. ships. If they took passage in a packet
FITTING OUT 55
they had to pay one-third of the passage-money —
a considerable sum when the station was China or
Australia — and a daily contribution as well. These
financial arrangements remained in force till at least
the "seventies" of the nineteenth century.
Fitting out a ship more than sixty years ago
meant putting all necessary equipment and stores
aboard an empty hull. In most cases, even the
water tanks had to be brought alongside and
hoisted in. The ship's masts had to be brought to
her and put in place. This was done at our naval
ports by means of sheers. At Portsmouth these
were on a wharf or jetty in the dockyard ; at
Devonport they were erected in a hulk lying in
the stream and always spoken of as "the sheer
hulk." This recalls a ridiculous mistake in the song
which says —
"... a sheer hulk lies poor Tom Bowling."
What is meant is, of course, a mere hulk ; for a
sheer hulk was a much used and very useful vessel.
The mistake is only one of several which landsmen
are likely to make when they put sailors' expressions
into print. The " Spanish Main " is often referred to
in books as if it were part of the sea ; whereas
it is simply the sailors' translation of tierra firme,
and means the Spanish mainland in Mexico and in
Central and South America, as distinguished from
the Spanish Islands in the West Indies.
Even in the most favourable circumstances a ship
very seldom got her ship's company completed in less
than four or five days. As soon as enough hands
had joined, the heavy work of fitting out was carried
on industriously, and the hours were long. The
great object was to get the crew out of the hulk
in which they had been living and into their own
ship, so that she might be sent to sea as soon
as possible, or at any rate out of the harbour to
Spithead, Plymouth Sound, or the Nore. After
56 " HOISTING THE PENDANT " IN OLDEN TIME
a short stay at one or other of these outer anchor-
ages, she was inspected, the men were paid "three
months' advance," and on receipt of sailing orders
she proceeded to the station on which she was to be
employed.
CHAPTER VII
MY FIRST SHIP
The Medea was a commander's command. She had
a complement of 135 officers and men. She was a
paddle-wheel steamer classed as a steam-sloop, and,
according" to the measurement of the time, she was
of 850 tons. She was the first and the smallest
member of her class. Her armament consisted of six
guns, all cast-iron smooth bores. Of these two were
8-inch pieces of the same calibre as the much more
powerful 68-pounder. The latter fired a solid shot
of the weight indicated. The 8-inch gun fired mostly
shell, and also a hollow shot which weighed 56 lbs.
There was one other "hollow shot" gun in the
service, viz., the lo-inch. The rule was to designate
solid shot guns by the weight of the shot in pounds
and the other guns by the number of inches in the
diameter of the bore. One 8-inch gun was mounted
on the Medea s forecastle and the other abaft the
mizzen-mast. Both were on revolving carriages,
and could be fired on either side or, in the one case,
right ahead, and in the other case right astern.
The remaining four guns were so mounted that there
were two on each broadside. They were 34 cwt.
32-pounders.
There were some dozens of boarding pikes kept
in racks surrounding the main and mizzen masts,
a number of tomahawks, and about as many cutlasses
as would provide armament for about two-thirds of
the bluejackets. There were, if I remember right,
67
58 MY FIRST SHIP
forty smooth-bore muzzle-loadingf muskets, which
was also the arm carried by the marines. Of pistols
there were, I think, a dozen. They were muzzle-
loading smooth-bores, and so heavy that it was often
said that it would be better to throw one of these
pistols at an enemy than to fire it at him.
The Medea was a full-rigged barque, and had a
great and well-deserved reputation as a fast sailer
and as a very handy ship under sail. The result
of the ship being credited with these good qualities
was that she almost always made voyages and
cruised under sail, steam being seldom used. The
funnel was hinged and was lowered on to the thwarts
of the pinnace which, when hoisted inboard, was
stowed just abaft the funnel casing. When paddle-
steamers proceeded under sail it was customary to
disconnect the wheels from the engines so that the
former might rotate as the ship moved through the
water. This somewhat reduced the ship's speed.
Our captain devised a better plan. He took off
three of the floats or wide slabs of stout plank which
gave the wheels a grip on the water when steam was
used. We steamed so seldom and for such short
distances that the floats were not missed ; and when
we moved about under sail there was, even when the
ship was rolling moderately, nothing to check her
way through the water.
Like nearly all paddle-wheel men-of-war of her
time, the Medea carried two large paddle-box boats,
so called because, when not in the water, they were
stowed bottom upwards on top of the paddle-boxes.
They were very useful in embarking and disembark-
ing troops, and bringing off stores to the ship. Each
boat when on service carried a 24-pounder brass
howitzer.
Two or three days after I joined her, the Medea
went out to Spithead. Lying there we found the
ships of the then so-called Western Squadron,
which later became the Channel Squadron. There
H.M.S. SI DON AND CRUISER 59.
were several ships of the line, one of them a steam-
ship. She was the Agamemnon, I think the first
regular steam line-of-battle ship in the fleet ; older
vessels of a similar kind having" been converted from
sailing-ships, had the number of their guns reduced,
and their poops removed. They were called "block
ships." There were also some frigates, one of them
with steam and screw propulsion, the first of her type.
In addition to these ships there were at Spithead
two paddle-wheel frigates and several sloops of the
same class as our ship, but of more tonnage. One
of the paddle-wheel frigates was named the Sidon.
She was nicknamed the " Side On" because she was
said to be so crank that she was generally heeling
over to one side.
A day or two after we reached Spithead, a smart-
looking, full-rigged ship called the Cruiser, a steam
screw sloop, arrived. I went on board in the boat
which took the officer of the guard to her. Many
years afterwards, when visiting the great Australian
mining centre, Broken Hill, I made the acquaint-
ance of a respected resident, Mr Robert Sayers, who
had belonged to the Cruiser when I went aboard
her. He retained the greatest affection for his old
service, and took the lead in every patriotic move-
ment in his neighbourhood, as he has continued to
do since his return to the Old Country.
Lying at Spithead in January and February was
not pleasant. All communication between the ship
and the shore had to take place in sailing or rowing
boats. In those days, not only the orders given by
the commander-in-chief of the station, but also many
Admiralty orders, and even the then numerous
Notices to Mariners, were issued in manuscript, and
had to be copied by an officer — almost always a
midshipman or naval cadet — sent for the purpose
from each ship. Sometimes the signal, "Send an
officer to copy orders," would be hoisted more
than once in a day, and I was always the one sent
60 MY FIRST SHIP
from our ship to comply with it. Consequently
I spent much of my time in boats, often getting wet
through, which was doubly unpleasant because it was
very cold. From this there were no ill effects. On
the contrary, I was never better in my life, and had
an appetite to which I was quite unaccustomed, and
which made the rough and not too abundant fare
of the midshipmen's berth appear almost scanty.
Ships lying for more than a very short time at
Spithead have to moor with two anchors. I suppose
that there were no mooring-swivels or clear-hawse
shackles in those days, as we had to clear the hawse
frequently. This was done by lashing the lee cable
to the riding cable with a piece of rope just above
the water, unshackling the former inboard, taking
the unshackled end out through the hawse-hole, and
passing it round the riding cable till the "elbow"
or "turn" was taken out, and then shackling the
parts of the lee cable together again.
After lying a few days at Spithead the ship was
inspected, the admiral coming out for the purpose
in a sailing-yacht. I believe that the commanders-
in-chief at the home ports were already allowed
steam-yachts, but they were little used. Steam-tugs
were already in existence. One of the tugs at
Portsmouth, the Echo, had been a lo-gun brig,
and was converted into a paddle-wheel steamer.
Another, called the Comet, was usually believed to
be the first steamer belonging to the Navy. The
dockyard lighters, which brought stores out to
Spithead, and to and from various naval ports, were
all sailing-vessels ; so were the craft which carried
shot and general ordnance stores, and also the
powder hoys. In the days here referred to, and for
a good many years afterwards, every man-of-war had
to be cleared of her gunpowder before entering one
of the great naval ports.
The pay-clerks who came on board to pay the
men the recognised three months' advance of wages
PAY-CLERKS 61
before the ship sailed from England, also came out
in a sailing-- vessel, the Pay-yacht. It was a very
rough day, and the boat passage between the ship
and the Pay-yacht must have been exceedingly
unpleasant. Getting in or out of a boat alongside
the ship was difficult, and, in attempting it, one of
the pay-clerks, a quiet-looking, middle-aged gentle-
man, fell overboard. He was rescued by one of our
bluejackets. It is a wonder that he was not drowned,
as he courageously kept hold of his cash-box, and
brought it up to the surface of the water so that it
was saved.
CHAPTER VIII
MY FIRST FOREIGN SERVICE — THE WEST IN'DIES
We had received orders to proceed to the North
America and West Indies station, and now were
ordered to take an English judge and his family to
Havana. By an arrangement with Spain a Mixed
Commission Court was set up at Havana for
deciding the cases of vessels suspected of being
engaged in the slave trade. The Spanish Govern-
ment appointed a judge and the British Government
appointed another.
We embarked the judge and his wife and infant
child and the latter's nurse, and put to sea early in
February. The weather had become very wintry,
and as we ran past the Isle of Wight, after leaving
Spithead by the St Helen's route, I noticed that the
island was covered with snow. We soon got into
much milder weather, and after a fairly comfortable
passage arrived at Madeira. Here I had my first
sight of a foreign country and was greatly interested.
The distinguished American naval officer. Commo-
dore Perry, had rather recently touched at Madeira
with a squadron of United States men-of-war on his
way to Japan, which he was to open to the rest of
the world. He must have made a great impression
on the people of Madeira, as they could talk of
little else.
I was taken on shore by two of the officers. We
hired horses and had a most enjoyable ride up the
mountain-side, stopping, of course, at the convent
02
I
MADEIRA 63
to purchase lace and feather-flowers. There was
a fascinating" novelty about the bullock sledges
and the smaller sledg"es, on which it was common
to do a sort of tobogganing- down the steep and
narrow pebble-paved streets, with their many sharp
turns.
At the time of my first visit to Madeira the
natives wore the most curious headdress I ever saw.
It was a very small blue cloth skull-cap, lined with
red, which was kept in place on the hinder part of
the crown by what sailors call a chin-stay. At the
top of the cap narrow strips of blue cloth were
gathered together and made into a sort of spike ten
or twelve inches long" and about as thick- as a pen-
holder, which stood out so that the wearer looked
as if he had a skewer stuck into his head. On
subsequent visits to Madeira I found that this
singular headdress had gone out of fashion.
Most of the officers took advantage of our stay
here to buy the white shoes for the manufacture of
which the island was then famous. They were made
of very light and soft leather, rough on the outside,
so that they looked like the white suet/e boots much
worn by ladies at the present day. They were
comfortable in a hot climate.
Many officers had come ashore and we dined at
a hotel in the evening-, the captain and the judge
and his wife being of the party. It was dark when
we got aboard the ship again. Early next morning-
we sailed for Havana.
We soon got into the Trades. Running- down
the North-east Trade was as pleasant sailing- as
can be imagined. The wind, of course, was fair, and
just of the force which allowed us to carry all sail,
including studding-sails, sometimes on both sides.
We generally made seven or eight knots. The sea,
though not quite smooth, could hardly be called
rough, and the motion of the ship was not often
considerable. The evenings were very fine, and it
64 MY FIRST FOREIGN SERVICE
was delightful to listen to the men singing on the
forecastle those "fore-bitters" — the traditional
sailors' songs never reduced to writing — which are
now lost.
The voyage was uneventful. The only thing of
note that I remember was that on the day before we
reached Havana we passed a derelict vessel on a
shoal. She must have been recently abandoned, as
all her spars were intact and all her sails were still bent
to the yards, etc. Immediately after our arrival at
Havana the judge and his family left the ship. Both
he and his wife had made themselves very agreeable
throughout the voyage and we were sorry to lose
them. At our subsequent visits to Havana they
were always glad to see us at their house outside
the city and near the seashore. The judge had a
tragical end some years afterwards. According to
the story which I heard, when at dinner one evening
he was summoned to the front door of his house
by an urgent message stating that a visitor wished
to speak to him. On reaching the door he was
instantly killed by the visitor, supposed to be a
disappointed suitor in the judge's court. The
murderer escaped.
We did not stay long at Havana, but put to sea
on a cruise in search of slavers. We never saw one.
I had the same experience several years afterwards
when on the same station. The fact is that our
cruisers, on the west coast of Africa, off the east
coast of South America, and in the West Indies,
were so active and vigilant that transatlantic slave-
trading no longer paid. As there was no money in
it, the slave trade came to an end.
The last case of a "slaver" being captured in
western waters by a British cruiser occurred off the
south coast of Cuba. A proprietor had sold an
estate and bought another, and was transporting
the whole of his property, including his slaves, to
his new purchase. Whilst on the way to the latter
THE WEST INDIES 65
the vessel in which his goods and chattels, material
and human, had been shipped was seized by one
of our cruisers. The case was taken into court
and, I believe, given in favour of the owner. The
slave trade in the Indian Ocean continued till much
later.
Most of the heavy work at Havana was done by
African slaves, some of whom, at the wharves un-
loading ships, went about very scantily clad. It
used to be said that no Spanish gentleman ever
refused to anyone, no matter how humble, a light
for his cigar ; and I have seen a half-naked African
slave, with a heavy load on his shoulder, go up to
a well-dressed Spaniard and ask for and be readily
given a light.
When watching slaves carrying off cargoes from
the wharves, I saw ice being unloaded from an
American ship. It was in huge blocks which were
hoisted up from the hold, lowered on to some slop-
ing planks from the ship's rail to the wharf, and then
put on to carts and carried away. There was no
cover of any kind over the ice ; which, in the hot
climate of the West Indies, greatly surprised me.
Years afterwards I saw exactly the same thing at
Calcutta.
That the only ice obtainable in the days of
which I speak in the West Indies had to be brought
from the Northern States of America will indicate
that it was very scarce. As a matter of fact, during
my earlier visits to the West Indies I never saw ice,
except the cargo just alluded to, either on board
ship or ashore. There were in use various devices
for cooling liquids ; but while they may have made
them less tepid, they never made them cold nor
anything like it. The absence of anything really
cool aggravated the discom.fort of service in tropical
seas. Though the thermometer rarely rose above
90 degrees, the warm, moist atmosphere, varying
little throughout the twenty-four hours, became
66 MY FIRST FOREIGN SERVICE
very distressing after the first few weeks spent
in it.
As there were no means of cold storage, fresh
meat, fish, and many kinds of vegetables would
not keep eatable for more than a day, and often
not even that. Yams and sweet potatoes kept
longest, but even they became uneatable in a rather
short time. It was the same with many fruits, of
which there was a great variety in the West Indies.
Within forty-eight hours of putting to sea we were
practically reduced to salt meat. In the officers'
messes there were to be found sardines, and a few
kinds of preserved and potted meats ; but these
things were not abundant in the market.
There was in existence a kind of preserved milk.
It was in the form of a white powder, which had
to be mixed with water before use. It was not
liked, and in most messes was soon erased from
the list of mess stores ; so that within a few hours
after leaving port we had no milk, and, as tinned
butter had not made its appearance, we were also
without butter. In the Navy, "bread" always
meant biscuit. What shore-going people call bread,
we always called "soft bread." By partial rebaking,
soft bread could be made to continue palatable
for perhaps a couple of days but not longer ; so that
it was useless to take to sea more than a small stock
of it. It was regarded as an indispensable qualifica-
tion of an officers' cook, even of a midshipmen's
cook, that he should be able to bake soft bread.
In my experience, the qualification' — as far as the
midshipmen's cook was concerned — scarcely ever
covered more than ability to turn out breakfast
rolls, which only too often were not much
liked.
At our breakfasts at sea we almost always had
tea or coffee without milk, and biscuit without
butter. We had ham or bacon as long as it would
keep, and bananas, which we managed to keep
TURTLES 67
eatable for a time. By smearing egfgfs with grease,
or burying them in salt, they were made to seem
fairly good for a surprisingly long time. At a
later period of my service, when on the East Indies
station, I ate part of an omelette made six weeks
after the ship had left port ; and there was no fault
to be found with it.
Our first stay at Havana was not long, and
we started on our cruise. The cruising ground
assigned to our ship was off the northern coast
of Cuba, a little beyond the most frequented track.
We saw and boarded very few vessels, all of them
small and mostly under British colours. They
were generally from the Bahamas — turtle-fishers,
traders between the islands, or "wreckers," that
is, vessels which moved about to see what could
be picked up from the many wrecks that met
their fate on the numerous shoals and unlighted
islets between the Bahamas and the Cuban coast.
There were several small, uninhabited islands,
such as Cay Sal and Anguilla Cay, close to which
we anchored from time to time. This rendered
it possible to carry out some important exercises,
and to give the men a run on shore or a bathe
in the surf, where they would be fairly safe from
sharks, which abounded in the neighbouring waters
and could be often seen. The officers sometimes
landed after dark on one or the other of these islands
to turn turtle, that is, turn a turtle over on its back,
when it could be easily captured.
These expeditions were successful only once.
The surgeon, who was decidedly corpulent, got
separated from his party ; its members, becoming
alarmed, searched for him along the beach, at
length finding him sitting, exhausted and dripping
with perspiration, on the under shell of a fine turtle
which he had managed to turn. We lived on it
and its eggs for nearly two days. When in harbour
at Port Royal in Jamaica, turtle was issued to ships
68 MY FIRST FOREIGN SERVICE
instead of fresh meat on two days in each week, and
was very unpopular amongst the men. This was
not surprising-, as turtle soup when prepared by
a ship's cook was not quite the same as turtle soup
served at a city banquet.
CHAPTER IX
SHAKING DOWN IN A NEWLY COMMISSIONED SHIP
In my early days at sea a new ship's company
required a good deal of "shaking- down." Some
of the men had not been in the Navy before, and,
like many of those who had been, came aboard in
shore-going- clothes. As every article had to be
made in the ship, some weeks passed before all were
in uniform, the old men-of-war's men having- made
away with most of their former kit, intending- to
have a new outfit. The continuous service system
was not introduced into the Navy until a few months
after I joined it, and at first made its way rather
slowly. This accounted for the long time which it
took some ships to g-et manned. I remember a
line-of-battle ship, the Powerful (84 g-uns), which
had been lying- at Portsmouth and Spithead for
seven months before her complement was full. I
once met another ship of the line, the Calcutta, at
Falmouth, where she had called during- a cruise
along- the coast with the object of picking up hands,
who came in very slowly.
Notwithstanding this, it was the fact that when
a fleet was urgently wanted its ships were manned
without much delay. It was noticed at the time
that, though the squadrons on most other stations
had also been considerably increased, the large fleet
sent to the Baltic in 1854 at the beginning of the
Russian War was able to sail fully manned before
69 F
70 SHAKING DOWN IN A NEW SHIP
the French fleet, which had the compulsory inscrip-
tion maritime to fall back upon. The fact that every
one, except the marines, the boys, and the few sea-
men gunners, entered the service independently and
without any necessary previous connection, obliged
the officers of each ship to start their own system
of training the men under their orders. Throughout
the service there was similarity of training, but in
no two ships was there identity. Every ship had
its independent watch-bill, quarter-bill, and station-
bill, and, even in squadrons kept together at sea and
in harbour, its own routine, conforming in only a
few particulars to the routine of the flagship.
There was also much independence in the system
of discipline adopted in different ships, a regulation
list of punishments, for example, being unknown.
Though centralisation had begun at the date to
which I am referring, it had as yet made little
progress in the Navy. It may be said to have
originated in H.M.S. Excelleftt, where uniformity
in the gun-drill of the whole service was declared
to be absolutely necessary, as indeed it was. Never-
theless, complete uniformity was not established for
a considerable time.
Discipline afloat in those days was very strict,
but in the immense majority of ships it was not
harsh or even particularly severe. In my first ship,
our captain, who was strict enough and undoubtedly
sometimes harsh especially to the officers, never
ordered a man to be flogged, an immunity which,
as regards the cane, he did not extend to the second
class, that is, the younger boys. These he ordered
to be caned every morning, usually finding something
that may have seemed to him a reason in each case.
Once I was present at the following scene : — All
the boys but one had, on some pretext, been caned.
When the captain came to the last boy he evidently
-could not concoct a reason for having him caned,
and he began to explain why, for once, the boy
MY FIRST CAPTAIN 71
was to gfo free. Unhappily for himself, this boy,
not quite understanding" the situation, began as
usual to make excuse, saying, " Please, sir ."
Before he could get any further the captain found
what he wanted. He interrupted promptly, saying,
"If you hadn't said 'Please, sir,' I shouldn't have
ordered you to be caned. Ship's corporal, give him
six!" And six he received, being sent away
blubbering.
My first captain was a very extraordinary man.
His character seemed to be made up of contradic-
tions. He never flogged, as I have said. He never
uttered an oath or a vulgar expression, yet he abused
the men when he was dissatisfied with them till they
were goaded almost into madness, and nearly every
punishment short of flogging he inflicted with a
lavish hand. To the officers he could sometimes
be really cruel. He had commanded, as lieutenant,
a small vessel on the east coast of South America,
and had done such good service that he was
promoted ; so he must have been thought well of
at the Admiralty. I was repeatedly punished,
usually by being made to stay on deck after a
tiring turn of duty. As sitting down or even
leaning against anything was rigorously prohibited,
the punishment, in the depressing temperature of
the West Indies, was severe. My punishment was
almost invariably undeserved, and was inflicted for
what was due merely to youthful inexperience and
ignorance of naval ways.
The captain was a man of large private fortune
and belonged to one of the wealthiest families in the
kingdom. He lived simply and entertained but
little ; but he would send to the sick dishes of
expensively prepared food. His kindness to sick
officers and men, myself among them, was un-
bounded. His dress was remarkable. Even at sea,
and in rough weather, he generally wore a well-
made frock-coat with a velvet collar! As often as
72 SHAKING DOWN IN A NEW SHIP
not, at sea, he had on an old pair of coloured plain
clothes trousers. His watch had a large and heavy
gfold chain which went round his neck, and to
which the watch-key was attached by a piece of
white tape which got dirtier and dirtier as time
went on.
For some reason or other he took an extreme
dislike to the first lieutenant, whom, in the exercise
of the privilege given to officers in command, he had
himself selected. This unfortunate officer, against
whose character nothing could be said, and who,
I believe, was considered nearly or quite up to the
average in zeal and ability, he nearly killed. He
certainly injured his health seriously. He kept the
first lieutenant and the chief engineer, a most
popular officer to whom also he took a dislike,
under close arrest for weeks in the hottest West
Indian season.
They were confined to their cabins, not being
allowed at first even to go to the gun-room table
for meals, during the hottest and most enervating
months of the tropical year, with only one hour's
exercise on deck in the forenoon and one in the
afternoon. Just think of it ! Confinement in a
cabin about four feet wide and six and a half feet
long, in a temperature which scarcely ever fell below
86 degrees Fahrenheit, and in an atmosphere so
laden with moisture that you could almost pour the
salt out of the salt-cellars as if it were liquid.
What his complaint against the first lieutenant
was, except that he was generally dissatisfied with him,
was not clear. General dissatisfaction with a sub-
ordinate could not justify treatment that threatened
to prove fatal to the sufferer. I heard the captain
himself say publicly on the quarter-deck why he
treated the chief engineer as he did. It was because
that officer, in speaking to him, kept his hands on
his hips ! Having gone as far as he had, the
captain realised before long that he must prefer
TO HALIFAX 73
charges against the two officers and address the
commander-in-chief. That officer was in the north-
ern part of the station with his headquarters at
Halifax, and thither our ship was called to join his
flag.
CHAPTER X
IN THE FLAGSHIP
I WAS appointed to the flag-ship, H.M.S. Cumberland,
directly after we arrived at Halifax. The admiral,
Sir George Seymour, had known my father. He
wrote to him most kindly about me, saying- he meant
to take me into the ship carrying his flag. I was
very glad to get away from the West Indies, but I
was sorry to leave the Medea. Rough as the life
on board was, I liked it, and, except that the injustice
of it rankled in my mind, I was not much aggrieved
by my frequent punishment. The duty on board
was hard ; but as I had no means of comparison I
thought that it was in accordance with the rule and
practice of the service, so I did not feel that I was
being overworked.
If any young officers of a later day should read
this they may think that I am exaggerating, but
I assure them that I am not. I kept the morning
watch at sea and in harbour every day from
4 A.M. till 7.30 A.M. I was then relieved for an hour
to wash and dress and have breakfast, going on
deck again at 8.30 and keeping the forenoon watch
till 12.30 P.M. At sea I had to attend with the
master when he took sights about 9 a.m. and
noon. I had first to learn how to work a day's
work, and then to work it. At sea and in harbour
I also kept on one day the first dog-watch, 4 to
6 P.M., and on the next day the second, 6 to 8 p.m.
In harbour I was also told off for boat duty every
74
THE CUMBERLAND 75
other day. How, when I was so much on duty, the
captain of the Medea found any of my time available
for the punishment of being- kept on deck may seem
a mystery. The fact is that he had what I regarded
as the diabolical ingenuity of managing to inflict
punishment on me in the afternoon, when I had an
hour or two free. It maybe said here that my former
captain was tried by court-martial for tyranny and
was removed by the Admiralty from his command.
Almost as soon as I received my appointment to
the flagship, the commander-in-chief very kindly told
me that I might have leave to go to St John's to
see my parents. I went there in the summer of 1853
and saw it for the last time. I never saw my father
again as he died in 1856, when I was serving in the
Pacific.
The Cumberland was a sailing line-of-battle ship
of 70 guns, a two-decker with a complement of
640 officers and men. Being the flagship of the
station she generally had a dozen or two super-
numeraries on board, mostly men discharged from
hospital and waiting to rejoin their ships. She was
armed with old pattern 56 cwt. 32-pounders on the
lower deck ; 45 cwt., new pattern, 32-pounders on the
main deck ; and old pattern 32-pounders of 34 cwt.
on the quarter-deck and forecastle. All these guns
were cast-iron smooth-bores. The old pattern guns
on the lower deck dated back to the eighteenth
century. Uniformity of calibre in the guns allowed
of uniformity in the round shot and shell, but not in
the powder charges. Of these the lower deck guns
had three, viz., the distant, the full, and the reduced.
The main deck and quarter-deck and forecastle guns
had two charges — the full and reduced. The charges
for each nature of gun differed from those for the
others. The carriages were all of wood, worked by
tackles and hand-spikes.
The Cu7nberland was not a fast sailer, but was a
very handy ship. She had only one sister ship and
76 IN THE FLAGSHIP
was shorter than other two-deckers. A consequence
of this was that our gun-room — by which name the
midshipmen's mess in the ships of the line was called
— was small and had no guns in it. It had, however,
two large stern-ports, and, after the small midshipmen's
berth of the Medea, appeared to me to be spacious
and even palatial. The tiller worked in it overhead ;
and it was necessary to be careful when the ship was
at sea to avoid being caught in the " bight " or slack
loop of the wheel-ropes. Once when sitting at the
mess-table I was caught under the ear and jerked
off my seat. There were two doors in the bulkhead
separating the gun-room from the rest of the lower
deck, and both of these opened directly into the
marines' messes, which were always placed abaft
those of the bluejackets.
There were over twenty of us in the gun-room,
and all our hammocks were hung at night in the
after-cockpit beneath the lower deck. My hammock-
billet was on the starboard side, close to the amputa-
tion table. The allowance for a hammock-billet was
fourteen inches between every two hooks, so that a
sleeper had seven clear inches on each side. In the
Cumberlajid s cockpit we had rather more space,
perhaps as much as nine inches. For the seamen
and marines the arrangement was that a man of the
starboard watch and a man of the port watch hung
their hammocks side by side ; and as, at sea, one
watch was always on duty, a sleeper had an empty
hammock on each side of him. When once you
have got expert in getting into it, no bed-place is so
comfortable as a hammock, at any rate in cold
weather.
Our chests almost covered the deck space of the
after cockpit. In those days members of the mid-
shipmen's mess had nothing but their chests to
contain their clothing and washing apparatus. To
have asked permission to bring an extra portmanteau
or trunk on board would have driven a first lieutenant
AWAY ALOFT! 77
almost wild, and would most likely have led to the
applicant's leave being- stopped. Lord Alcester once
told me that, when he was serving- in a small craft,
the name of which I forget, the first lieutenant said
that the midshipmen's chests took up too much room.
So he had them "shaken," that is, taken to pieces so
that they could be put together again, and made the
midshipmen keep their clothes in painted canvas
bags like those issued on loan to the 'foremast hands.
I was still a naval cadet when I joined the
Cumberland. There was only one other youngster
of that rank on board, and he was by a few months
my senior. He was promoted from the mizzen-top
to some other station, and I was put into that top in
his place. It was not then customary, as it after-
wards became when work had to be done aloft, to
give the top-midshipmen a start, by the order
"Officers of tops, aloft!" preceding the general
order to the top-men, "Away aloft!" Therefore a
midshipman had to race with his men, and, it may be
said, often reached the top first.
I have a very vivid recollection of my experiences
when I had to go aloft for the first time with bare
feet. Whilst the decks were being washed the mid-
shipmen were expected to take their shoes and
stockings off One morning watch, while the deck
was still wet, the commander happened to come up
the companion ladder just as, in fun, I was pushing
a messmate's cap over his eyes. This took place
right under the commander's nose and had to be
noticed. He addressed me with, I thought, assumed
sternness and said : "Mr Bridge, go up to the mast-
head and see if there is anything in sight on the star-
board beam." Up I had to go ; and the sensation of
stepping from rattlin to rattlin with bare feet, especially
when coming down after the feet had been made
tender by the ascent, was decidedly painful. Before
very long my feet got hardened to the work and I
could go aloft barefooted without discomfort.
78 IN THE FLAGSHIP
The old punishment of mastheadingf, or sending a
midshipman to the masthead and keeping- him there
for hours, did not survive to my time. There were
others not much less effective. Standing on the bitts
was common. The bitts in question were the stout,
uprig-ht pieces of wood near the mainmast through
which ropes passed. The tops of these bitts were
flat and about five or six inches square, and standing-
on them for any considerable time, even if you clutched
the ropes, was far from pleasant. The knowledg-e
that this punishment would be inflicted on delinquents
was believed to act as a deterrent. A day or two
after I joined the Cumbe7'land I was one of a party
of midshipmen being instructed in gun-drill at a gun
near the main bitts. One of the party beg-an playing
tricks, or, in naval language, "sky-larking." The
instructor noticed him, and said to him in a warning
voice : " Do you want to grace them bitts, Mr B.?"
Another punishment for midshipmen was making
them stand on the spanker-boom, which could only
be done by getting between the topping-lifts and
holding on by them. Punishments of this kind
were made more severe if inflicted just before the
time for a meal, as you would have to go without
it as well as stand in an unpleasant position. One
of my messmates, one day when the ship was at sea,
was punished by being sent into his boat just before
dinner-time. The boat was hoisted at the stern.
The weather was fine and the gun-room stern-ports
were open. We were at dinner and the fare was
pea-soup and boiled salt pork. Not long after taking
our places at table we saw a boat's baler or "piggin "
dangled at the end of a line outside one of the port-
holes. It was at once understood that our messmate
under punishment had lowered the baler in the hope
that some food would be sent up to him. With the
help of a worm, a sort of double corkscrew at the end
of a pole used for drawing the charges of guns which
were not to be fired, we managed to get the baler into
PUNISHMENTS 79
the gfun-room, put some pea-soup and a spoon into it,
and let it swing out from the port. It was then
hauled up. After a few minutes it reappeared, this
time being- lowered into the sea to be washed out.
When this was finished we put some pork and biscuit
into it, and up it went again. Our messmate at least
had got his dinner, though he had to eat it rather in
picnic style.
The punishments which we disliked most were
" watch-and- watch " and stoppage of leave. In
the Cumberland the midshipmen were in four
watches, which, after the long hours of duty in
the Medea, seemed to me to make the work very
light. Watch-and-watch meant that you had to
keep one watch out of every two, and a fortnight
or so of it was unpleasant. Stoppage of leave
in those days meant a great deal, because leave
to go ashore was only sparingly granted. One
day I asked the commander for leave. He asked
in turn when I was on shore last. It happened
to have been five or six days previously. So he
said, " Midshipmen may go on shore once a week,
naval cadets once a fortnight " ; and with that decision
I had to be content.
When we were lying at Halifax in the Cumberland
I had an opportunity of seeing a man-of-war hove
down for repairs — probably the last so treated. She
was the 26-gun frigate. Vestal. The ship had been
ashore on the coast of Newfoundland. She was
cleared and stripped of everything but her lower
masts. As she lay alongside the dockyard great
tackles were secured to her masts, the "fall" or
hauling part of the rope was attached to capstans
on the wharf, and she was inclined till her keel
showed.
CHAPTER XI
THE WEST INDIES AGAIN
The routine of the station was that the commander-
in-chief and the flagship remained in northern
latitudes, the headquarters being at Halifax, for
six months in each year. At the end of the summer
the headquarters were transferred to Bermuda for
about three months, after which the admiral cruised
in the West Indies, visiting several of the islands
before returning to Bermuda, and going on from that
place to Halifax. The year 1853 was the last of the
admiral's command, and his stay at Halifax was
prolonged till near the beginning of the winter.
The day on which we sailed from Halifax was
very cold. There had been some wet days, followed
by a hard frost. Most of the ropes froze until they
were like rods of iron. Some of the slighter ropes
actually snapped and it became very difficult to work
the sails. In a sudden gust of wind the ship nearly
ran on to a shoal not far from a corner of the
dockyard. By coolness and good management this
was avoided, and we got out of harbour without
further trouble. Within twenty-four hours we had
got into fine sunny and mild weather.
Owing to a report of a serious epidemic at
Bermuda, the admiral had to give up his intention
of going there. The governor, who particularly
wished to communicate with him, asked him to
call off the islands on his way to the West Indies.
Accordingly, we stood in close to the entrance
80
A LIVELY CANNONADE 81
to Bermuda and cruised about until the ship with the
governor on board came out. The weather was fine
and the sea rather smooth, so the g-overnor came on
board the flagship in a boat. Preparations were
made to fire a salute in his honour on his leaving the
ship. Fearing that the sea might become rough and
that water might splash into the mouths of the
guns, the gunner had the tampions, or wooden plugs,
put into them. The order to fire the salute was
given sooner than was expected, and the governor
and his party were for a few seconds exposed to an
unpleasantly lively cannonade. I remember watching
the gubernatorial party crouching down in the stern-
sheets of the boat, and seeing the tampions flying
over them. A small alteration of the ship's helm
turned her head in another direction and the
tampions flew wide of the governor's boat.
We continued the voyage to Barbados, where we
anchored in Carlisle Bay, near Bridgetown. There
was quite a fleet of ships, which had come for sugar,
lying in the bay at a considerable distance from the
shore. In those days a cargo-ship's voyage was in
effect greatly prolonged by the fact that at many
places ships had to be unloaded and loaded in the
stream, and often in their own boats. Six or seven
hundred tons then represented a fairly large ship.
Such a ship did not carry more than one boat,
the long-boat, that could be used for transport
of cargo. Many trips between the ship and the
shore were necessary before a ship could be emptied
or reloaded, and the time necessary for the double
operation often, or indeed usually, amounted to
weeks, and equalled in length the duration of an
extensive voyage. This ought to be borne in mind
when the performances of modern steam-vessels are
compared with those of old sailing-ships.
On board the Cumberland, by the admiral's
order, no officer was allowed to smoke. One wonders
what would be thought in these days of such a
82 THE WEST INDIES AGAIN
prohibition. I have only heard of one other ship
in which it was enforced, and she was in commission
at the same time as the Cumberland. The admiral
had two sons in the ship, one the captain, who
afterwards became an admiral and a Lord of
the Admiralty ; the other, one of the junior midship-
men. The captain was a great smoker. He
religiously obeyed the admiral's order and never
smoked on board the ship ; but on leaving at
any time in his gig, he used to have a cigar ready
and light it as soon as the boat had shoved off.
Smoking in a man-of-war's boat, except when on
prolonged service, would — at a much later period
and perhaps even now — have been thought very
irregular.
When ships made voyages under sail, mostly at
a speed not exceeding seven or eight knots, fish
could often be caught by trailing a line with a
brightly baited hook on it, either from the jib-
boom end or astern. The flag captain, just spoken
of, usually kept a line trailing astern from his cabin
window. I never saw him catch anything but once.
I have said that there was one other naval cadet
on board besides myself. He waij full of mischief
and most amusing. One day he managed, by some
means, to get hold of the captain's fishing-line and
drag it into one of the gun-room ports. He then
fixed firmly to the hook a red-herring from our mess
stock and let the line out again. Immediately there
was a great splashing and plumping, and we watched
impatiently to see the result. We had not long to
wait. To our delight we saw the line hauled in
by the captain, who at once divined who the author
of the trick was, and sent him a good-humoured
message, that he was obliged to him for the fish
and intended to have it for breakfast the next
morning.
The practice of watering ships in casks had
not been entirely given up, though, I think, the
ALLOWANCE OF WATER 83
Cumberland must have been almost the last ship
in which it was resorted to. The casks were sent
to the watering-place in the launch, filled, and
brought off to the ship in the boat. They were
then hoisted on board by means of a tackle with
very large blocks, called the "quarter tackle,"
attached to the mainyard so as to be just clear
of the ship's side. A "starting hose," made of
canvas with a very wide mouth, was led from the
main hatchway, at the corners of which the mouth
of the hose was securely tied, down to the tanks
in the hold. Each cask as it was hoisted on board
was "started," that is, emptied into the hose and
the water ran directly down to the tank. The
process was a very slow one.
It was a defect of the Cumberland ih^t she could
not carry a large quantity of fresh water. The
usual allowance was a gallon a man a day, officers,
and foremast hands being on the same footing.
Half a gallon was for drinking and cooking, and
half a gallon for washing both one's person and
one's clothes. In each of the lower deck messes
the water for washing clothes was, as it were, pooled
and put into a common tub, so that it went farther
than if each man had kept his individual share. It
was expected that a ship would carry enough water
to last about one hundred days. At sea showers
of rain were welcomed, and when one fell there was
a general scurry of officers' servants with baths and
water-cans, and of the ship's company with tubs and
buckets to catch the falling drops. There was,
especially during long voyages, a strict adherence
to the allowance. When a midshipman accepted
an invitation to dine with the captain when the
ship was at sea, the captain's steward carried off
at least part of the guest's allowance of water for
use at the meal.
Whilst at Barbados, our not very luxurious
breakfast often received an acceptable addition in
84 THE WEST INDIES AGAIN
the shape of the fiying-fish, which the negro fisher-
men used to catch at night in boats in which flares
were burning to attract the fish so that they might
fall into a net spread for their reception. The
fishermen used to bring off in the morning the
flying-fish already cooked and prepared for the
table.
We left Barbados after a stay of a week or so and
ran through the West Indies to Jamaica, from which
island we went on to Bermuda. The period of the
admiral's command had nearly expired, and his
early return to England in his flagship was expected.
With his usual kind consideration for me, he sent
for me and told me that he thought it would be
better for me to remain longer on the station, and
that he was g"oing to appoint me to H.M.S. Brisk,
commanded by his nephew. Commander Beauchamp
Seymour, well known in later years as Lord Alcester.
At the same time he wrote to my father, telling him
that he had purposely chosen the Brisk for me,
as her commander was a good officer for youngsters
to serve under, a statement as to the truth of which,
after serving in two ships under his command, I can
confidently testify.
The Brisk was a new ship. She was a screw-
propelled steam corvette ; she was armed with a
68-pounder solid shot gun, on a traversing carriage
and mounted in the bow, and with fourteen 32-
pounders of 34 cwt. on the broadside, seven a side.
At a later period the captain got a 45 cwt. 32-
pounder on a wooden carriage added to the
armament. Its place was abaft the mizzenmast, and
it could be fired on either quarter or right astern as
desired. The ship's complement was 160 officers
and men, afterwards increased to 190. She was
a full-rigged ship with very small coal capacity, so
she nearly always moved about under sail. Her
screw-propeller, when not in use, could be dis-
connected and hoisted up to the level of the upper
THE BRISK 85
deck by stout tackles. She was not a particularly
handy ship and not very fast, and some of her
voyages were very long. The midshipmen's berth
was small but fairly comfortable, and in the ample
steerage outside it our chests found their place and
our hammocks could be slung. There were eight of
us in the berth. We were badly off for space to
stow our sea stock, though we had the usual lockers
under the seats and the usual box or "well" under
the mess table. We generally were obliged to stow
a cask of flour in the berth itself, putting it on one
of the seats, where it unpleasantly reduced our sitting
space.
At the beginning of the year 1854 it became
nearly certain that we should be involved in war
with Russia. Several ships were either brought home
from distant stations or kept in readiness to proceed
to England. The Brisk, accordingly, was ordered to
Halifax. Though the coldest part of the winter was
over when we got there, and the harbour, which had
been frozen over, was again open, the cold was still
bitter. A few days before we entered the harbour
we were caught in a heavy gale of wind which lasted
nearly forty-eight hours. During this gale we
approached the Nova Scotia coast near enough to
see that it was covered with snow as far as the
eye could reach. The wind was so strong that we
had to shorten sail to a close-reefed main topsail
and a reefed foresail.
There was a very high sea, and the waves breaking
over the ship drenched the greater part of the fore-
sail. As the wind increased that sail had to be
furled, and we then carried only the close-reefed main
topsail and the fore staysail. Furling the foresail
was a long job. The wet canvas froze and became
like sheet-iron which required immense labour to
gather up. I was on the foreyard all the time and
was nearly frozen. The length of the work and the
great cold told heavily on the men on the foreyard,
G
86 THE WEST INDIES AGAIN
and one or two had to be lowered to the deck by
ropes. We midshipmen were on deck or aloft all
the time ; and as seas came over the ship we got very
wet and had some of our clothes stiff with ice. When
we got into Halifax harbour the ship's bows were
encrusted with ice and the anchor had to be cut
away with axes before it could be let go. Much as
we all felt the cold, it did not cause us so much
discomfort as the chilly, damp weather which we
encountered in the English Channel, where the
thermometer was many degrees higher than it had
been on the Nova Scotia coast.
CHAPTER XII
SOME WAR SERVICE
War had been declared before we reached Ports-
mouth, to which port we had been ordered. It was
believed that the Brisk was to be sent to join the
Baltic fleet ; and, as it also seemed likely that a
small squadron would be despatched to the White
Sea, where more active work was expected, our
captain succeeded in getting the ship chosen to join
this squadron. It consisted of three ships — the
Eurydice, a sailingf 26-gfun frigate ; the Miranda, a
screw corvette like our ship, but commanded by a
captain ; and the Brisk, still a commander's command.
Each ship sailed from England independently. We
embarked a White Sea pilot, or so he was officially
termed. He had been captain of a small vessel
trading between Archangel and England. In his
earlier days he had been one of the ship's company
of H.M.S. hnpdrieuse, commanded by the celebrated
Lord Cochrane, and he had many stories to tell of
the operations of the Impdrieuse on the coast of
Catalonia against Napoleon's armies.
Some time after we had entered the White Sea
we were joined by a French frigate, and a man-of-
war brig. The frigate, a powerfully armed ship, was
called Psyche, usually pronounced "Sitch" by our
bluejackets.
On our way north we called first at Lerwick, in
the Shetlands, and then at Hammerfest in Norway,
where we filled our tanks with water that came from
87
88 SOME WAR SERVICE
the melting snows on the neighbouring- mountains.
The water turned bad and stank. We were obliged
to pump it out of the tanks into the sea and replace
it with purer water. We did not at once see the
Midnight Sun ; but the days were already very long.
The Hammerfest people used to stop work and amuse
themselves about lo p.m., when it was still quite
light. The recreation of many of both sexes took
the form of visits to the British men-of-war, after we
midshipmen had turned into our hammocks. It was
strange to look down from one's hammock on a crowd
of visitors, moving with some difficulty and much
stooping about our steerage.
When we rounded the North Cape and got into
the White Sea we found the weather cold, but the
thermometer did not go down to freezing-point.
Fogs and damp, which had a very chilling effect,
were common at first ; but later we had much fine
and sometimes even hot weather. We frequently
anchored between an island called Cross Island,
almost on the Arctic Circle, and the mainland of
Lapland. Sometimes our men were landed opposite
the island for exercise, where we suffered greatly
from mosquitoes. One petty officer's face was so
swollen from bites that his eyes were closed and he
became for a time so blind that a boy was told off
to lead him about.
One remarkable thing occurred whilst we had the
Midnight Sun. The sick-bay man — one of the ship's
recognised jokers — when smoking a long "church-
warden " pipe, began a sort of mock combat with one
of the seamen, in which his pipe was accidentally
broken and part of it stuck in his throat. This
happened rather late in the evening. All attempts
to withdraw the broken pipe-stem having failed, the
surgeon decided to make an opening in the man's
throat and get the pipe-stem out that way. The
operation took place on the gun-room table, right
under the skylight, a few minutes after midnight.
LAPLANDERS 89
I had the middle watch — 12 to 4 a.m. — and watched
the proceeding's until the actual operation was about
to begin. There were no candles or any other
artificial lights. Probably a surgical operation at
midnight without lights is very rare.
On the mainland, opposite Cross Island, there
were some collections of huts — villages they could not
be called— inhabited by Laplanders. They were
always very friendly to us and seemed glad to see us,
though we had little or nothing to give them. They
were short, sturdy folk, and, whenever we met them,
very good-humoured. Their huts were extraordinary
buildings. They were low, only about five feet from
the ground to the highest part, and were largely built
of poles and twigs. On one side there was a sort of
miniature verandah with a sloping roof and closed
sides. In the roof there was an aperture closed by
a hinged lid, the whole thing reminding one of a
corn-bin in a stable, except that it was made of twigs.
To enter the house the Laplander lifted the lid, got
in through the aperture, and let the lid fall into place
after him.
The ground was almost covered with the little
shrubs of the whortleberry or blueberry. On our
later visits to the place the berries were very abundant.
The Laplanders had a most ingenious and expeditious
mode of picking them. They had a sort of scoop
made out of a single piece of wood, and rather like
the shovel for taking coals out of a scuttle. This
had a handle like the handle of a jug. The front end
of the scoop was cut into teeth like those of a coarse
comb. The Laplander ran along with this instrument
in his hand, just brushing the ground. The shrubs
inserted themselves between the teeth, and slipped
away as the scoop was moved onward, leaving the
berries behind. In a few minutes a large quantity
of these could be collected.
There were several herds of reindeer browsing in
the neighbourhood. Of these, some were quite tame.
90 SOME WAR SERVICE
and being branded, or having wooden tallies hung-
round their necks, were evidently private property.
Others were wild, quite as wild as or wilder than the
deer in an English park. We several times tried to
get a shot at some of these, but did not often succeed.
I was lucky enough to shoot one of the few which
we did get, and my performance was greeted with
enthusiastic applause, as fresh meat was then rather
a rarity.
Our main occupation in the White Sea was
blockading Archangel. We never saw that city, as
it lies up a river, and an imperfectly surveyed bar
prevented our ships from getting into the river. We
spent much time in surveying the bar and searching
for a channel deep enough to let our ships through.
The enemy did his best to hamper us when doing
this work. He had a flotilla of rowing gunboats,
and on shore some batteries of mounted artillery.
Owing to the shallowness of the water the boats had
to go beyond the distance at which the fire of ships'
guns could cover them. Consequently, as far as the
offensive power of the ships was concerned, the
enemy had practically no opposition to look for.
The three pinnaces of our ships, each armed with
a brass smooth-bore muzzle-loading 12-pounder
howitzer, gave us in the other boats all the cover
that we could get, and, as a boat is a very unsteady
platform, that did not amount to much. In fact,
our i2-pounders rarely fired a shot. The enemy's
gunboats, which were much larger and much more
heavily armed, as well as more numerous, than our
pinnaces, did not trouble us as seriously as the
artillery on shore. The land artillery guns were,
I think, i2-pounders, or near that class. They
seemed to me to be manoeuvred with great skill.
The teams trotted or galloped about from point to
point behind a screen of pine-woods, so that we
seldom saw them. The first we knew of their
whereabouts was when we noticed a puff of smoke,
LOOKING FOR A CHANNEL UNDER FIRE 91
and then the fall of shot near us. The next puff
would be seen a good distance from the place at
which we noticed the former puff.
We used to be in the boats sounding for hours,
day after day. Generally the artillery kept blazing
at us the whole time. The number of shot fired was
very large. They fell all round us. Sometimes over,
sometimes short, sometimes ahead of our boat, some-
times astern. Yet although there were some close
shaves, not one of our men was hit. Now and again,
when the number of shot falling very near us was
getting too large to be pleasant, the boats would
move to another spot, where, before long, we had
a repetition of our former experience. We were
greatly hampered in our work, and it took some
weeks before we had definitely ascertained that there
was practically no channel which we could use.
Our blockading work, till near the end of the
campaign, was confined to keeping vessels from
getting into the ports. We allowed any that wished
to come out to do so. They were, of course, all
neutrals. The number of these was very great.
There were few three-masted vessels ; most were
brigs and brigantines, with, occasionally, a topsail
schooner-rigged galliot.
Germany, at the time, was made up of many
almost independent states, several of which had their
own flag. We saw craft which flew the flags of
Prussia, Mecklenburg, Lubeck, Bremen, Hamburg,
Oldenburg, and Hanover. The last-named had a
flag which very closely resembled the British red
ensign. One day we saw a vessel coming out from
the river flying what appeared to be the British
colours. Here at last, we thought, is a good prize.
The vessel seemed to intend to slip past us under
false colours. We brought her to and sent an officer
on board to overhaul her. He returned with the
report that she was Hanoverian, and that her colours
were all right, as in the centre of the Union Jack
92 SOME WAR SERVICE
there was the figure of a white horse, which
distinguished the flag" from the British. The papers
of some vessels were in Latin, and, as being last
from school, I generally was told to translate them.
Several vessels were armed, as the practice of
putting an armament into merchantmen had by no
means died out. Few which sailed to the East
Indies were without one. We detained an Oldenburg
vessel because she had several guns mounted on
board, an arm-rack fitted with muskets, and a
number of pistols. The boarding officer thought she
was intended for a privateer. The captain went on
board to examine the vessel himself, and took me
with him. He was satisfied that the vessel was
what she professed to be, viz., a peaceful trader, and
let her go on her way. The last fully armed merchant
vessel which I remember seeing was a very handsome
French full-rigged ship called the Mar^chal Turenne.
She was "pierced" for eighteen guns, but carried
a smaller number. I saw her more than once in the
Pacific in 1856-57. Mail steamers in the days I
speak of carried a couple of guns ; but these were
primarily for signalling.
Our work of blockading was varied by expeditions
in search of fresh provisions. For this purpose the
ship visited several coast villages. We always asked
that we might have such fresh meat and vegetables
as were available, promising to pay down a reasonable
sum for the quantities furnished. Usually our wants
were supplied without hesitation, and the people were
evidently glad to have met with such good customers
as we were. The bargain being completed, we
departed as good friends. We occasionally bought
sheep. They had very broad, fat tails ; and their
wool was long and straggling, like hair.
On the few occasions when our request was
refused, we informed the people that — if we were
not furnished on a fair payment with what we
wanted and which they did not deny that they could
OBTAINING SUPPLIES 93
supply — we should take it without payment and
would use force if we were resisted. This happened
sometimes, the inhabitants relying- on the presence of
troops, said to be org-anised militia, in the neighbour-
hood. In all except one or two instances a show of
force was sufficient to bring- about readiness to
neg-otiate, and we got and paid for what we required.
At one place, at which the inhabitants were
particularly friendly, we were told that there was a
large stock of ardent spirits belonging to the Govern-
ment. On saying- that we must destroy this we were
readily shown the place where this stock was. We
found two moderate- sized storehouses filled with
hug-e casks. We knocked in the heads of these and
the spirits gushed out till the floors of the storehouses
and the ground in front of them were like a pond.
We then set fire to the spirits and raised a great
blaze, which made me think that I was looking at an
enormous snap-dragon. So far from resenting our
action, the people professed to be, and seemed to be,
really grateful to us. Several women were quite
effusive in their thanks, and clustered round the inter-
preter to make sure that he understood what they
were saying.
On one occasion we were told that if we approached
we should be fired on. Accordingly, preparations
were made for a landing in force. The Eurydice had
remained at Cross Island and we had embarked her
marines. The senior officer came on board our ship
and we were accompanied by the Miranda. The
place was approached by a river ; and the plan was
that we should land some two hundred bluejackets
and sixty marines just inside the river's mouth, push
them on towards the village, and send two pinnaces,
each mounting a smooth-bore 12 -pounder brass
howitzer up the river to protect our right flank.
We had not advanced far before the enemy opened
fire on us from guns which we who were in the land-
ing party could not see. We soon heard the shot,
94 SOME WAR SERVICE
which appeared to me to go far over our heads ; we
also heard our boats firing: their guns in reply. I was
acting as A. D.C. to our captain, who had command
of the bluejackets and marines on shore.
He ordered the bluejackets to move forward on
the left through the woods, and the marines to keep
to the more open ground near the river. While
arrangements were being made to carry out these
orders, the enemy opened upon us a heavy rifle fire
from a wood near at hand and from the neighbour-
hood of the village. The rifle shots, which I thought
came in great numbers, also seemed to pass a long
way above our heads. Some came close enough ;
and it was here that, as before mentioned. Captain
Beauchamp Seymour's coxswain, v/hen near me, was
hit by a bullet in the front of his hat without being
wounded.
I kept with the captain, who marched with the
marines across clear ground near the river. The
enemy continued firing from his guns and small arms,
and must have expended an immense quantity of
ammunition ; but still, as far as I could make out,
every shot went far over our heads. How he
managed to miss us is inexplicable as we must have
offered to him a splendid target. The marines were
in line shoulder to shoulder, the officers being just in
front of them ; and the weather was perfectly clear.
We moved at ordinary marching pace for about
half a mile, when we found right in front of us a
grassy slope which looked like a battery. From
behind this the fire, from both guns and small arms,
went on with no greater effect than before. The
captain halted the marines, told them that they were
to move forward again till we reached the foot of the
grassy slope, when they were to fix bayonets and
rush up it. In the meantime, we heard the blue-
jackets on our left, though the trees prevented us
-from seeing them. Whether it was due to their
approach or not was not clear, but the enemy's guns
CAFFAIN J. LYONS, R N. 95
became silent. The small arms fire continued till we
were actually running- up the slope. The great object
seemed to be to see who could get to the top of the
slope first. The captain of H.M.S. Miranda, J.
Lyons, son of Lord Lyons, then admiral in our
Black Sea Fleet, was in command of the whole
expedition.
He was in front of all of us, my captain being on
his right and perhaps a couple of steps less advanced.
I was immediately behind and very close to Captain
Lyons. When we had got a little over half way up
the slope and were not yet out of breath, a perfect
burst of fire was opened on us. Captain Lyons
fell full length on the ground and I nearly fell over
him. He looked at me with a smile on his face,
which showed that he was not killed. Indeed, he
was not touched. His foot had slipped and that
caused his fall. His coxswain and another man of
his gig-'s crew were soon by his side and helped him
to his feet, while the rest of us went on. At the top
the slope ended in a kind of wide trench between
three and four feet deep, with a perpendicular fall
beyond the slope. In this was a wooden building'
from which small arms were still being- fired. We
tried to send two rockets into it. One rocket literally
fizzled out and fell harmless on the ground just clear
of the muzzle of the rocket tube. The other took a
very erratic course ; flew in amongst our men, caus-
ing considerable confusion ; and — what was not dis-
couraging — shouts of laughter. It then stuck into
the ground in front of us and its smoke nearly
stifled us.
However, we passed it all right, and several of us
dashed into the building where we found nobody.
The short delay caused by our own ineffective rockets
had given the occupants time to get away. The
building was a cowshed which, apparently, had
not been cleaned out for a very long time. The
state in which we were before we came out of the
96 SOME WAR SERVICE
shed may be imagined. The river was near at
hand and we walked into it and in it until we were
cleaned. The firing- from the village and from a
point beyond it was still kept up. To it the brass
howitzers in our boats made the only reply. The
village now caught fire and, all the houses being of
wood, was entirely burned down.
I was ordered to take two bluejackets and scout
on the far side of the village. We ascended a low
hill, part of a line of heights a quarter of a mile
or more beyond the village. We could not see a
soul. So we went on, with the intention of going
to the top of another line of heights a few hundred
yards farther on. Descending the first hill was
difficult, as the ground was very slippery, being
covered with smooth pebbles. When, after much
slipping, we had got about three-quarters of the
way down, I suddenly caught sight of a body of
troops marching very quickly along a road or track
between our hill and the hill we were going to. I
managed to signal to my two companions and we
each got behind a bush, the ground being sparsely
studded with bushes. The number of the enemy
sighted we estimated at about two hundred. We
heard afterwards that they were most likely militia.
They were certainly all in uniform and armed with
muskets or rifles, and marched in perfect order at
a very smart pace. They came from the direction of
the river, where it approached the village, and were
moving away from the latter.
Having watched them till they were out of sight,
we returned to our friends and reported what we
had seen. Preparations were at once made to meet
an attack. After waiting an hour or two, as none
came, we returned on board. One of our men, an
ordinary seaman, somehow or other m.anaged to
get hold of some liquor and had to be sent back
to the ship drunk, for which he got four dozen the
next morning. The captain read out his crime
EXPERT RIFLEMEN 97
before punishing him. It was : " Drunkenness in the
presence of the enemy."
It may be mentioned here that, in those days,
drunkenness in itself — as far as the foremast hands
were concerned — was not regarded as a serious
offence ; but drunkenness on duty, and everyone
whilst on board was deemed to be on duty, was
always held to be a crime and was severely punished.
Returning" from leave drunk was rarely followed by
punishment, and was too common amongst our
bluejackets to be thought even an eccentricity.
The change that has taken place in the Navy in
this respect has been wonderful, and it did not begin
yesterday. For years past there has been no more
sober class in the community than our bluejackets
and marines.
Though, as has been said already, we were
generally received at villages at which we called
in a friendly manner, and, on full payment, obtained
the articles of food of which we were in need, we
occasionally met with at least a show of resistance.
As a rule this was not persisted in. Sometimes we
got on very friendly terms with the villagers. At
one place where nearly all the men had rifles we got
them to show their skill as marksmen. It was
great. Their rifle was a curious weapon. It had a
long and extraordinarily thick barrel and was im-
mensely heavy. The bore was hexagonal and of
small diameter. The bullet was spherical and —
in loading — was forced by blows on the ramrod with
a hammer to take the form of the bore. The first
operation in loading one of these rifles was to rub
the inside of the bore with a greased rag attached
to the ramroad. The powder was then taken from
the powder-horn in one of several measures made
of bone which the rifleman had hanging on his coat.
Then the hammering home of the bullet was effected.
The marksmen lay down on their backs with their
legs stretched out and their heels together, the feet
98 SOME WAR SERVICE
being used as a rest for the rifle. The butt of the
rifle was curiously shaped, as the heel of it was
a sharp angle and it was held rather on the shoulder
than against it.
We overhauled one day a Dutch vessel at anchor
near a sandy beach, near which no sign of human
habitation could be made out. I had to board
the vessel. The Dutch captain was very polite and
presented me with two long "churchwarden" clay
pipes. I was still only a naval cadet and less than
fifteen and a half years of age ; and naval cadets,
or midshipmen either, were not allowed to smoke.
When I got back to my ship I found that the first
lieutenant had been so attracted by the appearance
of the beach that he was determined to get sand
from it for the purpose of holy-stoning decks. He
therefore ordered me to go ashore in the 8-oared
cutter and bring off a load of sand. After the shovels
and buckets had been put into the boat, I was told
to go in under a flag of truce. One of my white
tablecloths attached to a boathook- staff served
the purpose and was set up in the bows of the
cutter.
We had got in our load of sand and were shoving
off from the beach into deep water. The coxswain
and I were helping with a long boathook, using it
as a punting -pole. Our two heads were close
together when a bullet whistled right between them
and was followed by a report of a musket or rifle
shot. I shall never forget the look of utter astonish-
ment on the coxswain's face. It was really comical.
One of the boat's crew, who was again a shipmate
of mine some years afterwards, and who died when
we were serving together in the East Indies, picked
up a musket that we had in the boat and prepared
to shoot at the man who had fired the shot, and
whom I could see running away along the beach.
He had on a long, dark-coloured frock-coat which
looked like military uniform. I told our man to
TABLECLOTH AS FLAG OF TRUCE 99
put the musket down at once, on which he said,
** Let me have a shot at him, sir ; I can pick his
eye out." I refused to allow any firing" as longf as
the flag of truce was flying. Our friend on shore
had gained the shelter of a low bluff, behind a corner
of which he disappeared. The boat was now in
deep water, and I had the flag of truce taken down
and prepared to return any fire that might be directed
at us. However, we saw and heard nothing further
and rowed back to the ship. As soon as I got on
board I reported the matter to the first lieutenant
who merely said "Oh!" but the affair caused much
discussion in our berth and also on the lower deck.
It is not surprising that I was greatly interested in
it, because at our landings I was usually — if I
remember rightly, always — chosen to carry the
flag of truce.
The next time this happened we had to reach a
village about a mile from the landing-place. This
time the captain's steward sent me one of the
captain's tablecloths, and I had to carry it on a
pole and keep a hundred yards in front of the party.
Our road led through a forest. Owing to my recent
experience I certainly did not like the job, and was
glad when the flag caught, as it did several times,
in the trees by the roadside, which allowed the
landing party to get near me. Each time I was
sent on ahead as at first.
When we reached the village we had a friendly
reception and got the supplies we wanted. Probably
none of the villages from which we got supplies ever
had so much hard cash before. This probably
accounted for our being generally welcomed by the
inhabitants. At this place some of the inhabitants
remarked to the interpreter that our men looked
very clean ; probably they washed themselves every
day. The interpreter replied that they did wash
themselves every day with soap. This called forth
a chorus of incredulity. Washing every day was
100 SOME WAR SERVICE
conceivable, but washing- every day with soap was
a thing that nobody could be expected to believe.
At one or two places, though we were not resisted
and were sold what we wanted, we were threatened
with trouble, and had to engage in rather long and
sometimes noisy negotiations. The people of one
village evacuated it and collected in a crowd on
the farther hill of an open space, evidently arguing
amongst themselves whether they should comply
with our demands or refuse them. The captain
told me to go out and observe their proceedings. I
took up a suitable position, when one of the villagers
levelled his rifle at me — the people were mostly
carrying military muskets or rifles, not the heavy
weapons spoken of before — and plainly meant to
shoot. As there was only about sixty or seventy
yards between us he would almost certainly have
hit his mark. Fortunately for me, one of his
companions felled him to the earth with the butt
of his rifle. The man was not killed or, as far
as could be seen, much hurt. After a short interval
he rose to his feet looking little the worse for his
experience. His friends, however, would not let
him have his rifle again. The incident ended
pleasantly, for very friendly relations between the
villagers and ourselves were soon established.
Having learned that the enemy had constructed
fortifications on an island on which the Monastery
of Solovetski stands, the Miranda and our ship
proceeded there to investigate. The story g-ot about
some years afterwards that we had attacked the
monastery. The story was false. The monastery,
which was near the water's edge, looked like a
fortress of mediaeval type. It had a high wall of
stout masonry, with towers at intervals. Near the
monastery was an earthwork close to the narrow
beach. As far as could be seen from the sea it was
a battery of several guns in embrasures.
We arrived late in the afternoon and caught sight
ENGAGING A BATTERY 101
of movable guns and horses. The latter were feeding-
some distance from the guns, and the captain of the
Miranda asked permission to land his men and cut
them off. This was refused, as an amicable settle-
ment, enabling us to destroy the battery, was hoped
for. We remained at anchor throughout the night.
Next morning our captain went on shore to make
a final effort to come to an arrangement. He was
not successful, and after the time allowed for an
answer from the enemy had expired without any
having been received we began operations. I
remember my servant remonstrating with me for
putting on a clean shirt. He thought it would be
a waste.
Our station, by good luck, was such that the guns
in the battery embrasures could rarely be trained on
us. Several shots fell very close to us, but every one
that I saw struck the water near our bows. Several
ropes and stays between the foremast and the jib-
boom were cut, but no round shot hit the ship. The
Mira7ida was more under the fire of the battery than
we were.
A fair number of rifie shot did reach us. Orders
had been given that no part of the monastery was
to be fired at. After some time, as the rifle shots
came in increased numbers, it was found that they
were being fired from one of the monastery towers,
and orders were given to reply to them, but not to
fire at any part of the monastery except the particular
part from which the shots came. For this purpose
some marines were sent up to the mizzen-top and
I joined them and remained in the top half an hour
or more. The marines were armed with the muzzle-
loading Minie rifle. We had only six rifles on board
for the bluejackets ; the other small arms were
smooth-bore muskets and smooth-bore pistols.
On coming down from the mizzen-top I went to
see how things were going on forward. Here the
boatswain asked me to help him in working the brass
H
i c ' ■• ;'
iK>2 ' ' ""SOMIE WAR SERVICE
6-pounder field-gun, which he had managed to drag
to the spare port on the starboard bow. It was the
foremost port of all and near the bowsprit. The
arrangement was that we should observe and fire
the gun in turns, loading it ourselves. The best
observation post was on the roof of a round-house
close to the knight-heads. I had just finished my
observation turn and was lowering myself down to
the deck when a rifle bullet struck the leaden sheeting
on the roof just where I had been standing. The
mark remained for a long time.
After we had been hammering at the battery off
and on for an hour or more without silencing it, we
decided to try the effect of red-hot shot. This was
perhaps the last occasion on which red-hot shot were
used afloat. We heated them in the stokehold, from
which we hoisted them up with a peculiarly made
pair of tongs. On reaching the upper deck they
were dropped into a bucket nearly filled with sand,
picked up in a special kind of bearer with leather
guards to protect the men's hands, and taken to
the guns.
In order to load them the guns were run in and
given the requisite elevation, which allowed the shot,
when entered, to roll down the bore. The powder
charge was first rammed home, then a grummet wad,
and next to it a junk wad, shaped like a bun and
made of tarred spun yarn. This wad was wetted
before being put in the gun. The red-hot shot was
then lifted to the muzzle in its bearer, tipped into
the bore, and allowed to roll home. The gun was
then run out and fired as soon as possible.
The use of red-hot shot proved very effective.
Most of them lodged in the parapet and set the dry
herbage on fire. The smoke from this drove the
enemy out of the battery, which was now not only
silenced but also abandoned. Not long before this
happened orders were given to fire one round shot,
not red-hot, at a tower in the monastery from which
BLOCKADING 103
sigfnalling- had been gfoing on to the battery nearly
all the morning, and also rifle fire. It ought to have
been fired sooner, but the intention was that the
monastery should not be injured. As a battery
had been built close to it, this, to most of us, seemed
to be carrying consideration too far. However, the
shot — which hit the roof — did the business, and we
saw no more signalling.
The complete silencing of the battery and the
damage done to it by our fire were considered
sufficient, and we brought the action to a close.
We had one man killed and one severely wounded,
both in the Miranda.
We remained in the neighbourhood till the next
day and then returned to our work of blockading.
This was becoming more and more unpleasant as
the season advanced. The weather became very
unfavourable. Gales were frequent, and, as we were
in an open roadstead, the boat-work was very trying.
It should be remembered that our boats had only
oars and sails. Most of the work was done with
oars. We stayed at this work until the close of the
season. Very few vessels tried to enter or leave
Archangel, and ice would before long establish an
even more effective blockade than ours. We were
glad to start for England, which we did in company
with the senior officer in H.M.S. Etirydice.
CHAPTER XIII
REFITTING IN PREPARATION FOR SERVICE IN
THE PACIFIC
As we were coming down the North Sea, the senior
officer communicated with a passing vessel and made
to us this signal: — "A glorious victory has been
won by the allied troops. Issue double allowance
of spirits!" Interpreted into lower deck language
this meant, "Splice the Main brace!" The glorious
victory was the Battle of the Alma ; and this was
the first that we heard of British and French troops
being in the Crimea ; for in the White Sea we
got no letters from home and only rarely a foreign
newspaper.
On our arrival at Spithead I was sent into Ports-
mouth in one of our boats for letters, which were
awaiting us at the commander-in-chief's office in the
dockyard. One of these, in an Admiralty official
envelope, was addressed to our captain as: **F.
Beauchamp P. Seymour, Esquire." We knew from
this address that he had been "posted," that is to
say, promoted from the rank of commander to that
of captain, officers of the latter rank being still
addressed formally as "Esquire," as admirals used
to be in the eighteenth century. How long the
Admiralty continued to address letters to captains
as above, I cannot say ; but the practice had already
become nearly obsolete. The Brisk was, in her first
commission, a commander's command, and our
104
A NEW CAPTAIN 105
captain was relieved by another officer of the
same rank.
He was a big" man, considerably above the average
in height. It was not uncommon in those days for
officers, instead of the uniform cap with crown and
gold band, to wear a tall black or white hat. For
commissioned officers this had a stripe of g"old lace
up the side ; for midshipmen this stripe was replaced
by a twist of g'old cord. Our new captain with his
hat on towered above everyone in the ship.
The British and French squadrons on the Pacific
station had been defeated with considerable loss in
an attack on Petropanlovski in Kamchatka. They
had silenced the shore batteries ; but the landing-
party, on the second day of the attack, had been
oblig-ed to re-embark with a heavy list of casualties.
It was considered necessary to reinforce our squadron ;
and we were ordered to refit, and proceed to the
Pacific station. We completed our refit at Ports-
mouth, and sailed for Rio Janeiro, calling- in Plymouth
Sound on the way. On the afternoon of the Sunday
which we spent in the Sound, I landed at Devon-
port Dockyard and walked to the Hoe. This was
in the winter of 1854-55. The streets through which
I walked with two other officers were crowded, and
the number of drunken people, a few of them women,
might have been counted by dozens. This is
mentioned because it gives me an opportunity of
saying that the improvement in the sobriety of the
"three towns" within my experience has been
enormous. In later years, when stationed at Devon-
port, I repeatedly walked in the afternoon without
seeing a single drunken person of either sex. The
same thing, or something very like it, might be
said of the streets of Devonport, Stonehouse, and
Plymouth, at any hour within the last thirty years
or more.
In January 1855, on our voyage out to the Pacific,
I passed the regulation examinations, and was rated
106 REFITTING FOR SERVICE IN THE PACIFIC
a midshipman. I was still under sixteen years of
age ; but I had been in three ships ; had been in blue
water most of the time ; had served on foreign
stations ; and seen something of war. I felt all
the pride that a youngster feels when he becomes
entitled to wear the midshipman's patch.
We made a quick passage to a point off the
entrance to Rio Janeiro, but were there caught in a
gale which kept us outside the harbour for four
days. This kind of thing, and having to wait for
a fair wind several days before starting, were
common occurrences in the days of sails. They
added largely to the practical length of voyages in
which you could not count on an average run through
the water of more than a thousand miles a week, not
always straight for the ship's destination.
Like everyone who visits it, I was greatly
impressed by the magnitude and convenience of
Rio Harbour, and the splendour of the surrounding
scenery. We called there when the heat was very
great, and there was much yellow fever in the city.
Great sanitary improvements have been made at
Rio Janeiro since the date of my first visit ; but
conditions were but little altered when I called there
nearly three years afterwards. The stench at the
landing-place was horrible, and it was nearly as bad
in other parts of the city. We stayed several days
and the officers went on shore freely, sometimes
dining at a restaurant and going to the opera ; yet
we had no cases of sickness.
The Brazilian Government had given our
Admiralty the use of a small island in the harbour,
called Cobras, as a naval yard. On it were boat-
sheds, boat-^slips, forges, carpenters' shops, and
storehouses. It was very conveniently situated,
being not far from the principal landing-place, and
the best parts of the city. We also had an old
frigate moored near Cobras Island, which served as
a receiving ship. At the time of which I am writing.
RIO JANEIRO— MONTEVIDEO 107
the south-east coast of America was one of our
regular naval stations under an admiral. We kept
a squadron on the station originally, to help the
Brazilian Government to defend its country, and
then in order to co-operate with that government in
putting down the slave trade. The maintenance of
our squadron involved us in a considerable expendi-
ture from which our own country derived little
benefit, or, more likely, no benefit at all. It ought
to be remembered in our favour that our money was
spent for the good of others, and for reasons of
humanity.
We next called at Montevideo, in Uruguay, near
the entrance of the River Plate, where we met the
admiral. His flagship, a 50-gun frigate, drew so
much water that she had to lie at anchor rather far
out in the river. We were able to get into the inner
anchorage near the city. The admiral was a great
stickler for correctness in officers' uniform. The
first time that I went on board the flagship it was
as midshipman in charge of boat. At the top of the
accommodation ladder I was met by one of the ship's
midshipmen, whose duty it was to see that the collar
of my jacket was properly turned up. All midship-
men from other ships were received in the same way.
The admiral himself was walking the deck dressed in
a tail-coat with epaulettes, in which, I was told, he
always appeared when the ship was in harbour.
Epaulettes were much more worn then than they
have been of late years. In harbour, and in fine
weather at sea, they were always worn on Sundays
at divisions and until divine service was over.
Montevideo was not a very orderly place. With
three or four other officers I went on shore one
afternoon. Having managed to hire horses, we rode
to the old fort on the top of the mountain from which
Montevideo probably takes its name. On our return
we dined at a hotel kept by a Frenchman. Soon
after dinner we left the hotel and walked towards the
108 REFITTING FOR SERVICE IN THE PACIFIC
pier, or mole, where we expected to find one of our
ship's boats in which we might return on board. It
was already quite dark. The distance was not great
and our way led through some of the principal streets.
All shops, except here and there a grog-shop, were
closed, and there were very few lamps. We had to
walk slowly, and had not gone far when we heard
several musket shots.
We could not tell where these came from, or at
whom they were fired. We very quickly came to the
conclusion, either that they must have been fired at
us or that we were in the line of fire while someone
else was being shot at ; for the shots were repeated,
and the bullets whistled unpleasantly close to us.
We hurried on at the risk of stumbling in the
darkness, and reached the pier untouched. Here
there were some lamps, and as we stood in their
light the firing became hotter and the bullets came
in such numbers that we slipped over the end of the
pier, and hung on to the edge of it with our hands,
finding such resting-place for our feet as the in-
equalities of the masonry offered. Our boat had not
come, and we remained in our uncomfortable posi-
tion for a good many minutes, until the firing
ceased.
Soon after getting up on the mole again, some
officers of a French man-of-war arrived and a boat
from their ship came to fetch them. We explained
matters to them and they readily offered to take us
off to our own ship. We gladly accepted the offer.
Why we had been fired upon it is impossible to
say. W^e had received nothing but civility from
the people whom we came across up to the time
of our going into the hotel, which we never left
again until we started to go to the mole. It is
probable that our party was mistaken for another.
Shooting at people in the street would not have
been regarded as a very unusual proceeding at
Montevideo, or some other Latin-American towns,
MAGELLAN'S STRAITS 109
sixty years ago. Our ship sailed on the following
day, so that no inquiry was made.
Our captain decided to g"0 to the Pacific through
the Straits of Magellan. The Straits had been
surveyed and we had charts of them. The charts,
though correct as far as they went, were not complete
as to detail, and there was not a lighthouse, a beacon,
or any aid to navigation throughout the whole length
of the Straits. We anchored every evening before
dark, and did not get underway in the morning until
it was light. Accordingly, our passage through the
Straits lasted several days. The weather was almost
continuously bad ; it blew hard and rained nearly
the whole time. We used to take three reefs in the
topsails before furling them when we came to an
anchor. We occasionally saw small parties of
Patagonians with horses on the northern shore,
and once sighted a canoe with some Fuegians in
it. They made off as soon as they saw us and
disappeared up a creek.
We stopped for a day at the Chilian Settlement
called Sandy Point. It was then a very small place,
but had a few soldiers in garrison. The Govern-
ment Medical Officer, a fine-looking Dane, gave
me an illustrated American history of the then
rather recent American War with Mexico. I could
remember that conflict to the extent of seeing
pictures of it in the Illustrated London News. At
Sandy Point we were able to buy furs. Several
of the officers bought guanaco-skin rugs. I bought,
at about fourpence a-piece, some beautiful chinchilla
skins, which were sold in packets of a dozen.
We left Sandy Point some hours sooner than had
been intended, as the captain had been asked to
search for a Chilian man-of-war's boat and crew
which had gone to the help of a reported wrecked
vessel and the return of which to Sandy Point was
overdue. We found the boat at anchor near the
northern shore the day after we started. The
110 REFITTING FOR SERVICE IN THE PACIFIC
weather was very bad and the crew were short of
provisions, but they had a good rain-awning and
they had made themselves tolerably comfortable.
We got their boat alongside and kept the officer
and his men on board for a day or two until there
was sufficient improvement in the weather for them
to proceed on their way back to their port. Whilst
we were waiting for this, I was sent on shore with
a party of men to cut firewood, and was delighted
with the beauty of the wild fuchsias, which, at that
season, were in full bloom.
We saw something of the magnificent scenery of
the western end of Magellan's Straits as we went
to see if an American ship, which had got ashore
when making for Smyth's Channel, wanted help.
We found her in safety and in no need of help, so
we continued our voyage, sighting a splendid glacier
on the way.
CHAPTER XV
IN THE PACIFIC — VALPARAISO — SANTIAGO DE CHILE
No sooner had we emerged from the Straits than we
encountered a very violent gale, which lasted some
days and drove us rather far south. My experience
of the Pacific Ocean is that on the whole it deserves
its name, as you may sail about it for weeks together
in beautiful weather. Besides typhoons and hurri-
canes in the lower latitudes, very heavy gales of wind
are not uncommon in the northern and southern
portions of the ocean. After the gale above
mentioned left us we made a tolerably good
passage to Valparaiso. The Brisk was not a fast
ship, but she occasionally, having had good luck,
made a fairly rapid passage.
Valparaiso was rather a midshipman's paradise.
The climate was pleasant and horses for riding could
always be hired. There was even a pack of fox-
hounds kept by an English gentleman named
Garland, but I was never at Valparaiso in the
hunting season. There was a considerable and
very hospitable English community, and some of
the Chilian families showed us much hospitality.
Many of the young ladies were very pretty and
very fond of dancing. A favourite amusement of
theirs was to teach Spanish to the English midship-
men, whose mispronunciation of some Spanish words
used to cause great amusement.
Nothing is more remarkable than the material
development of South America since the days to
111
112 SANTIAGO DE CHILE
which I am referring. Except a short line between
Lima in Peru and its seaport Callao, and one or
two short ones from the coast in Chile there were
no railways. The great seaport of Valparaiso was
not connected by rail with the capital Santiago,
though the construction of a line had been begun.
There was a rather fine theatre at Valparaiso, and
occasionally good opera companies visited it. Indeed,
the opera was a recognised institution in most of
the larger South American cities. In other matters
conditions were decidedly primitive, and lawlessness
was common. The cattlemen and teamsters of
Chile^ — called guassos — who corresponded to the
gauchos of the River Plate countries, usually
celebrated a visit to Valparaiso by drinking more
wine or agtia ardiente than was good for them, and
were not nice people for any peaceful equestrian
to meet on the outskirts of the city. An assistant
surgeon belonging to one of our ships had to kill
one in self-defence, his weapon being a heavy wooden
stirrup which he swung round and round to keep
his assailant at a distance. The assailant came too
near and got his skull smashed for his pains.
The teamsters carried a long goad with a sharp
iron point ; and it was a playful way of theirs to
prod a saddle-horse with it as it was passing them.
One of these teamsters did this to my horse once
when I was riding alone, with the result that both
horse and I myself nearly went over something
almost amounting to a precipice. I had a hunting-
whip, and I dashed at the fellow to let him feel it. I
managed to give him only one cut. He was evidently
an old hand. The road ran along the side of a
steep mountain with an almost perpendicular wall
of rock on one edge of it and a very abrupt and
almost precipitous slope on the other. The teamster
placed his back to the latter so that he could shorten
in his goad to prevent me from getting inside its
point. He did this so quickly that he must have
A VISIT TO SANTIAGO 113
been well practised in it. There were many other
teamsters on the road, and I was not sorry to get
clear of them and ride on.
Our paymaster very kindly asked for ten days'
leave for me during- one of our visits to Valparaiso,
and took me and a nephew of his, who was a
midshipman in another ship, as his guests to the
capital, Santiago. As I have said, there was no
railway, and we had to travel in what was called
the "diligence." It was really an American stage-
coach with seats for nine inside.
As the coach was to start at four in the morning,
we slept on shore the night before at one of the
then rather primitive hotels of Valparaiso. I heard
in the night a great deal of rattling and falling
of plaster, and supposed that the noise was caused
by rats scampering about the house. However,
next morning I was told that there had been an
earthquake. This was the first time that I had had
experience of earthquakes. I experienced them
more than once in after years ; but on every occasion
I was not aware that there had been one until
told of it after it was all over. It is said that as soon
as they realise that there is an earthquake, people
become very sensitive to the symptoms.
Rains in the district of Chile, near Valparaiso,
came on at a particular season with great regularity.
On the occasion of our trip to Santiago they began
unexpectedly soon. The start of the coach was
delayed about an hour ; and as the rain fell in
torrents all the passengers got inside and fastened
the leather curtains as securely as possible. There
were inside seats for nine ; but a tenth passenger
begged to be taken in. He was a most amusing
Frenchman, and, on his request being put to the
vote, he was unanimously admitted. He kept us
cheerful with his jokes ; and we certainly wanted
someone to cheer us up. The journey lasted
about fifteen hours, during which the rain fell
114 SANTIAGO DE CHILE
without ceasing. Every aperture in the coach was
closed as far as we could close it. The tenth
passenger had to sit on the lap of each of the other
passengers in turn. We stopped twice on the way
for meals, and more than once for a change of
horses. The food obtained was plentiful, but roughly
served.
We enjoyed a very delicious Chilian dish or
soup called casuelas, which was like chicken broth
thickened with maize and containing other ingredi-
ents. We had to cross two rivers at fords in which,
in ordinary times, the water was very shallow.
Owing to the rains, the rivers were much swollen
and resembled rushing torrents. The water was
so deep that the floor of the coach was covered,
and we had to lift our feet to keep them out of
the water. At each river the coach and its team
were nearly washed away ; and it was a great relief
to get to the farther bank.
On arrival at Santiago we put up at what was
the principal hotel, kept by a Frenchman, a scantily
furnished establishment but clean and airy. The
cooking was excellent, or at least it seemed so to one
fresh from a midshipmen's berth. Owing to the rains
a great part of the city was inundated ; and after
dinner I went out to see the inundations.
It was dark, but the rain was not so heavy as it
had been in the daytime. Santiago, like most Spanish-
American towns, was laid out with streets at equal
distances apart and crossing each other at right
angles. The houses were thus built in blocks,
similar in size, and you had to make a right-angled
turn to go round any corner. At the beginning
of the inundation I turned a corner so as to keep
out of the water. I almost ran against a man with
a long open knife or dagger in his hand, in an
attitude as if prepared to strike. There were a
few lights in the street and the blade gleamed
brightly. He seemed to recognise that I was not
A CELEBRATED BRIDGE 115
the person for whom he was waiting, as he quickly
put the hand holding- the dagger under his poncho,
the almost universally worn Chilian cloak, and stood
up straight, letting me pass behind him, I was so
anxious to see if anything had happened in connection
with this man that I walked right round the block
on the edge of the water, giving each corner a wide
berth as I turned it ; but when I reached the place
where he had been standing there was no one there,
and I went back to the hotel.
There were no baths in the hotel, and not even a
tub, so we had to go to public baths, which were
clean and well kept, and the prices were moderate.
We made one excursion to a place called Apoquinto,
where there were medicinal springs. From it we
had a splendid view of the snowy cordillera of the
Andes by moonlight. One of the lions of the neigh-
bourhood of Santiago was the celebrated lasso bridge,
a primitive suspension bridge formed of lassos and
short transverse planks. We engaged a carriage
to take us to this place, and had a long drive to a spot
at which, instead of the lasso bridge we had purposely
gone to see, we found a commonplace new iron
bridge of no very great size. Our driver was quite
astonished when we expostulated with him for taking
us to this place. We wanted to see the great bridge,
he said, and there it was. There was no other
bridge like it in the country. This was quite true ;
and the driver was evidently proud of the bridge,
which he regarded as one of the engineering wonders
of the world.
Our minister at Santiago when we were there was
Admiral the Hon. J. Harris ; and he showed us much
kindness and hospitality. I remember meeting at
the Legation two young ladies, one a Miss Smith
and the other a Miss Brown, neither of whom could
speak a word of English. Their fathers were
Englishmen and had married Chilian ladies. As a
set-off against this, I met at Caldera a Mr Burns,
116 SANTIAGO DE CHILE
whose mother was a Chilian and who had never
been out of Chile in his life ; and yet he spoke
English with a strong Scotch accent.
We returned to Valparaiso in a carriage called
a veloche, often used as a street cab in Chile. It was
drawn by three horses — one in the shafts, one as a
leader, and the third with a trace fastened to the
off-side shaft. We had six other horses led behind
the carriage. At the end of the first stage we got
rid of the three horses which had been in harness ;
at the end of the second stage we dropped another
three ; the remaining three were then harnessed to
the carriage and took us to the end of our journey.
CHAPTER XV
sandwich islands and kamchatka
Vancouver's island
It was not until after the war was over, and on later
visits to Valparaiso, that I was able to see Santiago,
or that any of us saw much of society on shore.
After our first arrival we had to hurry on our refit
and replenishing with stores so as to take part in
the active operations which were in contemplation.
We had an old frigate, called the Nereus, permanently
stationed at Valparaiso as a store-ship, and from her
we could complete our stocks. The next place to
which we went was Honolulu, in the Sandwich or
Hawaian Islands. We made the voyage in forty-
seven days. The Sandwich Islands were then an
independent native kingdom, under the protection of
Great Britain and the United States. We did not
stay there long, and saw but little of the place or the
people. I recollect that the commandant of the
King's Artillery, and in that capacity called "Colonel
French," in his civil capacity washed my clothes and
was called Kuanoa.
The commander-in-chief was assembling a squad-
ron off the coast of Kamchatka and we had got
away as soon as we could to join it. I may mention
that our consul at Honolulu was General Miller,
the former companion-in-arms of the celebrated
Bolivar. General Miller was a tall, thin, delicate-
looking old man, with refined features and a specially
gracious manner. His name was famous throughout
South America.
117 T
118 SANDWICH ISLANDS AND KAMCHATKA
When we g-ot near the Kamchatkan coast the
weather became very unsettled and rather cold. We
met two or three of our ships off the coast and finally
the admiral in his flagship, the President, of fifty
guns. As several ships of the squadron had now
joined his flag", the admiral took us to Awatchka
Bay with the intention of making a second attack
on Petropavlovski, which forms an inner harbour of
that bay. We found that the place had been evacu-
ated and the little town deserted. New and formid-
able batteries had been built, and, though their guns
had been removed, were otherwise left intact. They
were well built and judiciously placed, and an attack
on them would have been a serious affair. Owing to
the evacuation we did not encounter any enemy.
We were joined in Awatchka Bay by the French
admiral in his flagship, a big 6o-gun frigate, and
another ship, a "main-decked" corvette; that is to
say, she carried all her twenty-two guns but four
on the main deck. In the long voyages under sail in
the Pacific Ocean, lasting generally several weeks
and often months, we lived, as far as meat was con-
cerned, entirely on salt provisions — salt beef on one
day and salt pork on the next. To prevent the
occurrence of scurvy, an allowance of lime juice was
issued to each officer and man. By regulation the
lime juice had to be issued at the fourteenth day
after beginning the salt meat diet ; but it might, if
the captain so decided, be issued earlier — usually on
the tenth day. That it was efficacious in preventing
scurvy was, I think, proved by the result. It was
introduced into the Royal Navy before the end of the
eighteenth century and its beneficial effect was soon
felt. Even in my early days in the service there
were not many naval officers who had ever seen a
case of scurvy ; and yet, for most of the year, no small
part of our men lived on salt meat, owing to the great
length of many of the voyages. 1 have frequently
been fifty, sixty, seventy days and more out of sight
SCURVY 119
of land. My two longest voyag"es were one of eig"hty
and one of eighty-five days.
In my whole service I have only seen two cases
of scurvy, both occurring" in the Pacific. One was
that of a commissioned officer who died of it. He
had been in a bad state of health for some time.
The other was that of a first-class petty officer who
soon recovered. In the French ships then employed
at the Pacific station, lime juice was not issued and
the French flagship had many cases of scurvy,
some so bad that the men had to be kept in their
hammocks. On going on board her I noticed that
her main deck hammock berths were nearly all
occupied. The other French ship which joined us
in Awatchka Bay also had many cases. None, in
either ship, were fatal ; at any rate there were no
funerals whilst the ships were in the Bay.
We were joined by two ships sent from the China
station. These ships had gone to their station round
the Cape of Good Hope, whilst all those of our
squadron had come out round Cape Horn or through
the Straits of Magellan. Accordingly, the ships from
China had a different calendar from ours. As it was
not known how long they would be with us, our
commander-in-chief allowed them to retain their
calendar, so that at one anchorage we had two
Sundays in a week.
One painful event occurred while we were in
Awatchka Bay. A marine of H.M.S, Dido, i8 guns,
several months before, had stabbed and killed the
first lieutenant of the ship. After we arrived in the
Bay he was tried by court-martial and was found
guilty and sentenced to death.
He was hanged from the port foreyard arm of his
ship ; and I was on duty in an armed boat, one having
been sent from each ship to impress the condemned
man's shipmates. The men pulling the four foremost
oars in each boat were called on board the Dido to
assist in tricing the man up to the foreyard arm.
120 NET-FISHING
The body hung for half an hour and was then lowered
into one of the ship's boats, where it was examined
by the surgeon and assistant surgeon, who pronounced
life extinct ; on which the armed boats were ordered
to return to their own ships.
The officers of the French flagship, not knowing
that there was an execution in prospect, had invited
our officers to an entertainment, fixed for the same
day. This invitation, the reason being given, our
officers begged leave to decline ; and the French
courteously postponed their entertainment.
No food of any kind could be obtained from the
shore, so we decided to try what we could do in the
way of fishing with our service nets, one of which was
supplied to every ship. We had astonishing success.
We caught a fair number of enormous salmon, none
much, if at all, under sixty pounds' weight, and some
exceeding eighty. Our best luck was with herrings.
These were nearly as big as our mackerel and were
abundant.
On our weekly half-holiday — Thursday, "make-
and-mend-clothes " day, or "rope-yarn Sunday," as it
was generally called — I went on shore in charge of a
seining party. We made several casts which gave us
a few big salmon but no herrings. At length we
struck a school of herrings, and in cast after cast we
got the net full. The beach was covered with
herrings a foot or more deep. I loaded a six-oared
jolly-boat up to the thwarts, so that only two men
could be taken in to pull the oars, and sent her off to
the French admiral's ship, and then another load to
the other French ship. There still seemed to be no
end to the fish and we returned to our own ship with
the pinnace, our largest boat, deeply laden.
The Bi'isk was a "West Country" ship, and
amongst her ship's company we had some Cornish
fishermen. At their suggestion several empty salt-
meat casks were cut in half and made into tubs.
The men very expertly took off the heads of the
VANCOUVER'S ISLAND 121
herrings, split and cleaned them, and packed them
with salt in these tubs. We went to sea about two
days afterwards, and we had a lightly salted stock of
herring's which lasted the whole crew for more than a
fortnight, thus making a very acceptable addition to
our ordinary victualling.
In the first night after leaving Awatchka Bay the
sky was lighted up by an eruption of a great volcano
which we called Kosolskoi, but the real name of which
was Kluchelskaya. The remarkable illumination
was visible for several nights. We were bound to
Esquimalt in Vancouver's Island.
When we reached the entrance to the Straits of
Juan de Fuca, a couple of canoes came off from the
southern shore. In each canoe there were several
Indians, all stark naked, except where mud was
caked on their skins. They brought off fish to barter
for tobacco. We anchored for part of a day and a
night at San Juan, where two or three Englishmen
had established a sawmill. There were trees of
great size in the neighbourhood ; some lying on the
beach had trunks of vast diameter. There was a
curious Indian cemetery here. The remains of the
dead were put into rough wooden boxes and fixed
rather high up in trees.
On entering the snug harbour of Esquimalt we
could see only one house, the residence of the magis-
trate or judge, on our port hand as we came in, and
three neatly-built wooden huts on the opposite shore.
These had just been put up to serve as hospitals for
casualties occurring at Vladlvostock.
Vancouver's Island was then under the Hudson
Bay Company, whose governor lived near Fort
Victoria, the site of what is now the capital.
Esquimalt as a settlement did not exist. W^hat
afterwards became the dockyard was an island which
at low water one could reach by wading. There were
three or four farms but not one of these was visible
from the anchorage.
122 VANCOUVER'S ISLAND
There was a road from the harbour to Fort
Victoria, on nearing which a river had to be crossed
by a substantial wooden bridg"e. Close to the bridge,
on the side farthest from the fort, was an Indian town,
known as King Freezy's town, which consisted of
several long wooden sheds or lodges. Near the
other end of the bridge there were four or five
pleasant-looking cottages. These, the governor's
house some distance off, and the fort were the only
buildings of any kind in the place. The people who
lived in them, probably less than fifty, formed the
whole population. One or two of us went to the
fort. It was a strong and rather extensive stockade
of logs. Within it two or three Hudson Bay
Company's officers lived ; and there were also the
Company's storehouses, containing the goods to be
bartered with the Indians for furs and the furs
themselves.
The fort stood on ground rather like an English
common, a nearly level area studded with bushes.
As we walked towards it we were joined by a troop
of young Indians, all of whose faces were daubed
with bright red paint. They each had on a striped
cotton shirt but no other clothes. They were made
to stop at a respectful distance from the gateway of
the fort, as no Indian was allowed inside except
under strict precautions. The officers in the fort
were very hospitable, and showed us much civility.
I visited Vancouver's Island again in 1901. The
change in the place was very great. At the time of
my first visit in 1855, British Columbia, as a province,
did not exist even in name. Esquimalt and Victoria
were still unfounded. We could, and usually did, cut
down trees for ship's spars within a few yards of the
spot at which we landed from our boats.
When I visited the island in 1901, Esquimalt
had become a town, connected by electric tramway
with the capital. There was now a dockyard with
a considerable dry dock, and workshops of respectable
VICTORIA 123
size. Fort Victoria had grown into Victoria, a
beautiful capital city, with its park, great public
building's, library, museum, hospital, banks, and
hotels. The memory of the fort was preserved only
by the name of Fort Street, which ran near its site.
Close to the spot on which the fort had stood there
was now a cathedral, in which I attended divine
service.
Outside the city, near where King Freezy's town
had been, there were handsome private houses.
Victoria harbour was provided with great wharves,
and the place was full of shipping. At my first
visit, two steamers only entered it, the Otter and
the Beaver, both belonging to the Hudson Bay
Company, and both carrying guns. They took
stores for barter and supplies to the Company's
posts near the coast, picked up the furs bought from
the Indians, and took them to San Francisco.
We were all sorry to leave Esquimalt, where the
few settlers' families, well-bred and pleasant people,
had been most kind and hospitable.
CHAPTER XVI
EARLY SAN FRANCISCO COAST OF MEXICO
TREASURE SHIPPING.
We went to San Francisco, which, though founded
only six years before our visit and burned down as
recently as 185 1, was already a handsome city of
60,000 inhabitants. (3ur ship lay on the opposite
side of the bay at a place called Saucelito, com-
prising seven houses, three of which were hotels of
no great size. It has become a considerable city
since. Some very kind friends, Mr and Mrs Maclay,
received me very hospitably. At the time, most
families lived in hotels ; but the Maclays had a
house of their own, built on a small hill, which is
now the centre of the fashionable quarter of San
Francisco. Even then, the place was threatened
with earthquakes, and I remember Mr Maclay
jokingly telling me that his house was built like a
box, so that if an earthquake did come the house
would hold together, and would merely roll down the
hill. Perhaps it was well that it was not subjected
to the test.
There was a fine theatre at San Francisco, and
I was taken there one evening to see the celebrated
Lola Montes. She still continued to dance, and had
recently taken to acting. She both acted and danced
on the evening that I saw her, and made a speech as
well. She seemed to me to be a better speaker than
actress or dancer. She spoke without hesitation in
a pleasant voice.
124
MAINLY FINANCIAL 125
The prices of all articles at San Francisco in 1856
were very high. Washing was three and a half
dollars (about 14s. 6d.) a dozen, without distinction
of article. Indeed in all the Pacific ports, on those
days, high prices of labour and of all imported
articles were the invariable rule.
The great cost of getting clothes washed, rarely
less— elsewhere than at San Francisco — than 8s. 6d.
per dozen, made serious inroads into a midshipman's
means. It was not uncommon, also, for a ship to
sail at such short notice that the officers' clothes at
the wash were left behind and— if the port was not
again visited — lost altogether. This happened to
me more than once on different stations. The
loss was serious. Clothes were usually sent on shore
to be washed on the ship's arrival after a voyage,
often a long voyage, so that the number of articles
was large, and replacing them at the then current
prices a costly business. Losses owing to a ship's
hurried departure had to be allowed for, and we used
to provide ourselves with a great number of washable
articles of clothing. We were able to meet the
heavy demands on our inconsiderable incomes,
because ships were so much at sea, where no money
could be spent. Even when at anchor, we were often
enough at places where there were no facilities for
spending money.
For several years after I went to sea, officers were
not paid in cash but by bills. These had to be
disposed of at some port of call for as much as they
would fetch in the currency of the place. I have
heard of officers making a profit on their paybills,
but no such case ever came within my experience.
Sometimes the bills were cashed at par. Just as
often there was a loss on them.
Midshipmen were paid once a quarter ; naval
cadets once every six months. As a naval cadet
had 3d. deducted from his pay of iid. a day for
tuition, he received a net sum of 8d., or about £6
126 EARLY SAN FRANCISCO
every half year. A bill for that amount was not
an easily marketable commodity at many of the
ports visited by his ship, and he was glad to take
whatever cash he could get for it. In Jamaica,
during- my first visit, there was practically no copper
coinage in circulation, the smallest coin being a
three-halfpenny silver piece. Once one of the ward-
room officers kindly took a paybill of mine on shore
to be cashed for me. He brought off the proceeds
wrapped up in a towel. They were entirely composed
of three-halfpenny pieces. The private allowance
that each naval cadet and midshipman had to be
guaranteed by his parents was always paid in bills,
drawn quarterly upon an agent in London, and
endorsed by the captain. These, being for larger
amounts than the Government paybills, were as a
rule more easily negotiable, and I, personally, was
always able to cash mine at par.
We sailed from San Francisco for the coast of
Mexico. We visited several Mexican ports — Cape
San Lucas, San Bias, Mazatlan, Guaymas, and,
just as we were leaving the coast, Acapulco.
When we were on the point of sailing from San
Francisco, an American asked the captain to give him
a passage to Mexico. He was a well-dressed, well-
educated man ; but there was much mystery about
him. We never found out who or what he really
was. It was suspected, and I think with reason,
that he was connected with one of the filibustering
expeditions which then occasionally made incursions
into one or other of the Spanish-American republics.
Some of us thought that he was the redoubted
General Walker himself, who at that time was
beginning to be much talked about. In my opinion
this was not the case. When we reached a Mexican
port he was in no hurry to leave the ship and only
did so when he received a hint that he had been
atoard long enough. He left us at Guaymas,
The ship had been sent to the coast of Mexico
SMUGGLING 127
for the purpose of embarking- gold and silver
exported, as a rule, by British merchants doing
business in 'the country. There was no other safe
way of exporting it on the Pacific side. Many of
the republics were in a continually disturbed con-
dition, and ordinary trading vessels with treasure on
board would have offered to the lawless adventurers
produced by the numerous revolutions a prey easy to
seize and too tempting to be neglected. The con-
sequence was that the precious metals were shipped
in British men-of-war, as had been done for centuries
in other by no means orderly parts of the world.
The establishment of regular and well-appointed
lines of steamers offered a safe and convenient means
of transporting treasure ; and the use of ships of
war for the purpose had practically come to an end
on the Atlantic coast of Latin America. Even on
the Pacific coast the treasure, as a rule, was sent
only to Panama, unshipped there, and carried across
the isthmus by the railway to Colon, and there
put on board mail steamers for conveyance to
Europe.
The export of gold and silver from Mexico was
discouraged by the Mexican government, if not
absolutely prohibited. A heavy export duty was
levied on all shipments going out of the country,
and it was fixed at an amount which was meant
to take all profit out of the trade. The exporters
had recourse to smuggling, a proceeding known
to everybody and rarely interfered with. At any
rate there was seldom, if ever, sufficient interference
to stop it, or even to check it seriously. This
exposed officials to temptation and gave them
opportunities of gain.
It was generally understood that concealment or
pretence of concealment was necessary. Boats with
treasure on board were picked up at sea a few
miles from the shore ; and others were sent to
unfrequented beaches where a train of pack-mules.
128 COAST OF MEXICO— TREASURE SHIPPING
richly laden, met them. Our captain was opposed to
the smug"gling system and, though his vigfilance was
sometimes eluded, resisted it consistently. We were
a long- time without getting- much treasure, and it
looked as if we should have to go away nearly
empty. The exporters at Guaymas, the principal
place of shipment, hit upon a plan which proved
eminently successful.
At the outer end of the mole there was a small
building used as an office by the custom house
authorities. We were requested to send in two
boats to bring- off treasure — one was to be small
and was to g-o to the steps at the outer end of
the mole, just under the custom house office ;
the other was to be our larg-est boat, the pinnace,
and was to go to the beach, close to some houses
at the inner end of the mole. The intention was
to pay export duty on the small boat's lading, and
send off the larger boat's cargo free.
It was hinted to the customs authorities that
it would be well for the whole of them to be present
in the office on the pier when douceurs were being
distributed, so that no one in a clandestine manner
might get more than his proper share. The hint
was readily taken, and all the staff assembled in
the office. Somehow or other the business in the
office occupied a good deal of time, which was
utilised in loading the large boat and getting her
away. The small amount of treasure on which the
export duty had been duly paid was then put into
the smaller boat quite openly, and off she went to
the ship. It was said afterwards that, when they
heard the full story, the customs officials took it
in very good ,part, even expressing admiration of
it as a smart job. They could not complain, as
they had rendered themselves culpable by receiving
douceurs in the little office at the mole head.
The sight on board the ship after the treasure
had been taken out of the boats was extraordinary.
TREASURE AND "FREIGHT" 129
Most of it was silver, the gfold being inconsiderable
in amount and in small packets. The silver was
in ingots and bars, and in dollars filling coarse
bags. The bars were stacked in the ship's steerage,
where our midshipmen's berth was, so as to form a
sort of wall between thirty and forty feet long, and
between two and three feet high. It was as wide
as the length of the bars. The bars and the ingots
were uncovered, so that their being made of precious
metal was at once perceptible.
It should be noted that at the time referred to
an ounce of silver was worth more than four shillings
of English money. It gave one an idea of what
happened when a galleon was captured in the
old days. In the end, the total value of the
treasure which we took on board amounted to
two million and seven hundred thousand dollars,
or rather more than ^540,000.
The "freight," as it was called, on this was
about ^5500; of which one half was paid to the
captain, one quarter to Greenwich Hospital, and
one quarter to the admiral, commander-in-chief of
the station. The three years' command of the
Pacific station must at one time have brought in the
comfortable sum of ^10,000, over and above all
ordinary official emoluments. Even in my time
a third of the sum just named was probably forth-
coming for the admiral.
More money than that paid for " freight " came
into the ship. The dollars had to be put into boxes,
each holding two thousand. These boxes were made
on board by the carpenter and his crew, working in
their leisure time. In readiness for this making of
boxes, deal plank had been bought cheaply in
Vancouver's Island and had been paid for by the
captain out of his own pocket. The plank was
eventually made over to the carpenter, who refunded
its cost price — about /iso. A specified sum was paid
for every box. The carpenter received rather more
130 COAST OF MEXICO— TREASURE SHIPPING
than ^200, each of the two carpenter's mates about
;^30, and the remaining three men of the carpenter's
crew £10 each.
Two dollars were paid for every thousand counted.
This was done entirely by the officers, in the captain's
cabin. The midshipman of the forenoon watch and
the midshipman of the afternoon watch had to go down
for two hours out of their watch to count, the fee
being handed over to the ship's " paint fund," out
of which was provided for the painting of the ship
the material which the Admiralty did not supply.
This saved the pocket of the first lieutenant, who
otherwise would have to find the money himself.
Our mess had been badly managed and was in debt.
The captain ordered one of us to count dollars until
we had earned enough to pay off the debt — rather
more than ;^30.
The paymaster had undertaken to make out the
necessary bills of lading. They were numerous and
all had to be in triplicate, so that the work was not
light. A handsome fee was paid on each set of bills.
The total fee was something like ;^i 50. The officers
and ship's company in general received no payment
and had no material interest in the "freight." It
says a good deal for the discipline of the ship and
the honesty of her crew that there was not even an
attempt at theft during the three or four months
that the ship was on the coast of Mexico. The
gold was put into a place of security directly it was
brought on board, but the silver sometimes lay about
the deck for hours. Yet not a single dollar was
missing.
When we were at La Paz we found ourselves in
the midst of a flotilla of boats carrying pearl fishers.
These men, when diving, simply jumped overboard,
just as a bather does when taking a header. They
had no machinery of any kind. They seemed to
stay down a long time, and when they emerged they
usually had an oyster in one hand, sometimes one
MEXICAN LAWLESSNESS 131
in each hand. One or two of the gfun-room officers
bought oysters. No one of us in the midshipmen's
berth had any spare money at the time. It was
quite a lottery. You had to pay a fixed sum for
each oyster, and you might or might not get a
pearl. The second lieutenant was lucky enough to
get several rather handsome, but I think not very
valuable, pearls. None of them were quite spherical ;
indeed, nearly all were pear-shaped.
The Mexican ports were lawless places. One
evening a party of us at Mazatlan were walking to
the mole where our boat was to meet us, when we
heard shots fired. The sound of musketry in the
street was now fairly familiar to us and we took
no notice until some of the bullets whistled
unpleasantly close to us. So we took refuge in a
grog shop close at hand, and persuaded the
proprietor to shut the door. Whether this annoyed
the shooters or not is uncertain, but they promptly
fired at the door, which was, fortunately, a very
thick one. Though the wood was splintered, no
bullet came through it. We thought it well to stay
where we were for an hour or so before again making
for our boat.
Whilst we were lying at Guaymas, I had, for
about fourteen or fifteen successive days, to start
at four o'clock every morning in my boat, the
pinnace, for a place about seven miles from the
ship to get firewood, which was brought down to
us by the people employed on the estate of a
Mexican gentleman who sold us the wood.
We landed on a sandy beach on the edge of a
considerable stretch of flat ground studded with
bushes. Scorpions abounded, and the Mexican
gentleman mentioned above was stung by one in
the hand, which swelled rapidly. One of his men
picked some leaves, half chewed them, and put them
on the swollen hand. This gave some relief; and
on the next day I noticed that the swelling, though
132 RATTLESNAKE AND SHARK
still far from slight, had gone down a good deal.
There were also rattlesnakes. Some of my boat's
crew fearlessly attacked one, killed it, and cut off
the rattle, giving it to me. It had nine joints. I
kept it for years and then handed it over to an officer
who was making a collection of various specimens.
The Mexicans who brought down the wood,
which was carried on pack animals, were all mounted,
and occasionally gave us a display of what they could
do on horseback. A popular performance was pick-
ing up a silver quarter-dollar from the ground when
riding past it at a fast pace.
The water was shallow, and it was necessary to
moor the pinnace some fifty or sixty yards from the
beach and take off loads of wood to her, either in
the men's arms or in a small canoe which we found
at the place. A man waded by the side of the
canoe and pushed her along. The weather was
hot. The men had nothing on but their flannel
vests and white trousers turned up to the middle
of the thigh. I went off in the canoe to see how
the loading was going on. I was pushing the canoe
forward with a boathook-stafif; an ordinary seaman
was wading on the other side of the canoe with his
hands on the gunwale. Suddenly the boathook-
staff was dashed out of my hands and I caught a
glimpse of a shark darting under the canoe. I
tried to pull the ordinary seaman into it, and he,
not knowing what had happened, resisted vigorously.
I tried to catch hold of the seat of his trousers,
but the duck trousers, saturated with water, sat so
closely on his body that I could get no hold.
Eventually I put my arms round him and got him
in. His struggles and my efforts between them
nearly capsized the canoe. No sooner was he in
than I was able to point out to him the fin of the
shark appearing above water not many yards distant.
This fully explained my action to him.
Mexican coast towns more than sixty years ago
PANAMA 133
were not very amusing places. Our men when on
shore on leave had themselves to make such amuse-
ment as there was. It was the custom of the inhabi-
tants of Guaymas in the hot season to sleep out of
doors. Just before dusk one could see people coming
out of every house with their bedsteads, which they
placed by the side of the street. On lying- down to
rest they put their shoes on the ground near their
bedsteads. It occurred to some of our bluejackets
on leave that there would probably be some fun if
they changed the position of the shoes. They
accordingly did so ; and those who remained on
shore till the morning were amused by witnessing
a tremendous row amongst the inhabitants, who
seemed to be all at once accusing each other of
stealing their shoes.
From the coast of Mexico we went to Panama,
where we landed the treasure for transport by railway
across the isthmus to be shipped in the steamers of
the Royal Mail Company for England. We did not
lie at Panama more than a day or two, as it was
unhealthy. We went to a little island called Taboga,
where the British Pacific Steam Navigation Company
had a small repairing yard. There we refitted. It
was at this place, either during our first visit or at a
later one — for I forget which — that the ship was
struck by lightning. Each mast had a lightning
conductor, a strip of copper on the after side which
terminated in a copper rod, with a ball and spike at the
end of it, screwed into the head of the mast above
which it stood about eighteen inches or two feet.
The rod on the foremast took the lightning. There
was a flaw in the ball from which the spike protruded,
and this offered an obstacle to the current. The
result was a most brilliant display of natural fire-
works. It was my middle watch, from midnight till
4 A.M., and as the flash happened about i o'clock I
had a good view of it.
K
CHAPTER XVII
PANAMA TO PERU AND VALPARAISO
I SERVED in H.M.S. Brisk for more than three years.
During- nearly the whole of that time my watch duty
was arranged on what was called the " forenoon and
first ; afternoon and middle" system. That is, I and
the other midshipmen had to be on duty for the fore-
noon, 8 A.M. to noon, and for the first watch, 8 p.m.
to midnight, on one day; and on the next day from
noon to 4 p.m. and from midnight to 4 a.m. This,
which was in addition to all drills, exercises, and
other duties, was the rule both at sea and in harbour.
At Panama the captain complied with the request
of a Peruvian general to give him and his son a
passage to Valparaiso. This general, who was a
distinguished-looking man, rather English in appear-
ance, had, when president, been driven out by a
revolution. He had gone to Europe and had been
living for a year in Paris, where his son became a
student. His return to South America sugg-ested
that he was likely to make an attempt to reg^ain the
presidency of Peru ; and it is difficult to understand
why our captain allowed him to take a passage in a
British man-of-war, especially as there was a likeli-
hood of our calling at a Peruvian port on our way to
Valparaiso.
As a matter of fact, we called at two Peruvian
ports, first at Payta and then at Callao, only a few
miles from the capital, Lima. Very shortly after we
arrived at Payta, the Peruvian authorities learnt who
184
A ROMANTIC PASSENGER 135
our passenger was, and immediately took steps to
prevent his landing. When we got to Callao they
did the same, but in a more marked manner. They
surrounded our ship with guard boats, and every
person going on shore or coming on board was
closely scrutinised. They did not interfere with
our own boats ; but the position, even without that,
was a sufficiently humiliating one for a British
man-of-war.
The Peruvian authorities showed some considera-
tion for our passenger. They permitted ladies to
visit him on board. The first of these was a very
pretty young woman, most attractively dressed.
The general made it quite plain that he was ex-
tremely fond of her. The gun-room officers, wishing
to give every possible facility for an interview to
these two intimate friends, absented themselves with
one consent from the gun-room, and the general and
his charming visitor had it all to themselves. Their
interview had lasted about an hour when another lady
was seen approaching the ship. A description of her
was communicated to our passenger, who knew at
once that the new visitor was his wife. He became
very excited, left the young lady alone in the gun-
room, and ran about the ship calling out "Pio!
Pio!" his son's name. His notion, which seemed
prudent, was that someone should receive and detain
his wife in conversation until he himself had taken
farewell of the first lady and got her safely smuggled
out of the ship. The wife seemed a very worthy and
well-bred woman, but she was not young and she was
not pretty ; and there was onboard the ship sympathy
enough for the general to bring about the first lady's
departure without the second lady seeing her.
At Callao at the time spoken of we had, as at
Valparaiso, an old frigate serving as a stationary
store-ship. She even had on board a small stock of
coal, from which we took in a supply. On the coast
of Peru the rainfall is very scanty ; there is, however,
136 PANAMA TO PERU AND VALPARAISO
an extremely heavy dew on most nights. This the
sailors used to call "the Callao painter," because of
the way in which it discoloured paintwork. White
paint on the store-ship's boats, and even on her lower
deck, was turned by "the Callao painter" to a sort
of French g"ray. Good water was a luxury at Lima ;
and the store-ship, though she had left England two
years before, had still in her tanks some of the
Thames water taken in at Woolwich. A quart or
two of this used to be regarded as a welcome present
by Peruvian friends of the store-ship's officers.
There was a short line of railway between Callao
and Lima ; and I was able to visit the latter place
several times. The distance between the two places
was only about half a dozen miles, and some people
still preferred travelling between them on horseback to
going by train. Late one afternoon when we were at
Callao, a party of young Englishmen engaged in
business at the seaport rode towards the capital.
On the way they were attacked by men whom in
England we should call highwaymen ; that is, people
who demand money with menaces and try to take it
from travellers by force. This time the would-be
robbers were disappointed. The Englishmen were
armed, as an encounter of the kind was known to be
always quite likely ; and showed fight, on which the
rogues, who were also mounted, decamped.
The occurrence, and others which were heard of
almost daily, shows the lawless condition of the
Pacific coast between sixty and seventy years ago.
During a subsequent visit to Valparaiso, the most
orderly seaport on the west coast of Spanish America,
an officer who had joined our ship for passage to
England, as he had been promoted to the rank of
lieutenant, dined on shore one evening with some
English friends who lived high up on one of the steep
hills overhanging Valparaiso. On his way down to
the boat, it being then between 9 and 10 p.m., he came
upon a man lying face downwards across the narrow
GAMBLING 137
street. He called out to him: "Get up, old fellow,
or you'll be run over." As the man made no move-
ment, he tried to lift him up and found that he was
dead, his throat having- been cut. He hurried on to
the lower town to notify the police ; and was con-
sidered lucky because he was not detained by them
on suspicion of having- murdered the dead man.
Our Peruvian g-eneral and his son left us at
Valparaiso. We were rather sorry to lose them, as
they had made themselves very agreeable while on
board. They taught us, I remember, how to play
a rather amusing- Spanish round game of cards. It
was not a gambling game and would not have been
popular in Mexico. We did not play it after they
left us. As I have said, we rarely played cards on
board.
In Mexico g-ambling- was nearly as common as
cigarette-smoking. There were innumerable fiestas,
or local feasts, which usually became fairs, or some-
thing like them. In any convenient vacant space
among the stalls of the fruit vendors, etc., a Mexican
would spread his serape on the ground, place on it a
pack of cards and a handful of silver, and be ready to
play all comers at monte.
Small change at that time throughout the Spanish-
American Pacific ports was "cut" money. To get
half dollars they cut a dollar in halves. The halves
were cut into quarters, and the quarters into reales,
called by us "ryals." A real was cut again into two
ynedios. This cut money, never precise in weight,
grew very thin by the abrasion due to ordinary cir-
culation ; and before I left the Pacific several republics
were replacing it by properly minted coins.
CHAPTER XVIII
CENTRAL AMERICA A LONG PACIFIC VOYAGE AN
EPISODE IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO
We once more went to Panama, running- down the
coast from Valparaiso and calling at different seaports
on the way. Again we stopped only a few hours at
Panama itself and then moved to Taboga. We saw
a little more of Central America. Filibustering-
expeditions were causing great anxiety to some of
the small republics ; and our Government promised
the Government of Costa Rica that it would send a
man-of-war to Punta Arenas, the principal port of
the republic, in the hope, which was fulfilled, that
the presence of the ship would keep the filibusters
away. It was the rainy season when we were there,
and for weeks together it rained heavily throughout
several days at a time. Then came a period called
the tiemporal, when there were only showers.
There was little to be seen and nothing to be done
in the small town of Punta Arenas ; and, if there
had been, a visit to the town would not have been
worth the wetting which one was always sure to get,
either on the way there or on the way back.
Some of us midshipmen got leave to take a boat,
which we were to row ourselves, to an island in the
bay a few miles from our anchorage. We took our
guns with us, and it was arranged to take the oars in
turn. I had finished my turn at the oar when we
reached the island and was the first to land. I forced
my way through the thick tropical vegetation to the
188
COSTA RICA 139
top of a little height, which was nearly covered by a
huge banyan-tree with numerous trunks. No sooner
had I reached the top than there dropped down from
different parts of the tree a number of immense lizards,
with a spiteful-looking comb of spines at the back of
their necks. These^ugly creatures dropped down one
after another into the thick undergrowth and dis-
appeared. I returned hastily to the boat, and
reported that the island was full of crocodiles. We
did not see them again.
There was an Englishman settled at Punta
Arenas. He had been a ship's carpenter. He
purchased out of a wrecked ship's cargo a quantity
of drugs and set up in the town a druggist's shop.
He managed to get some medical books and these
he studied industriously. He must have been an
exceptionally intelligent man. The inhabitants con-
ferred on him the title of " Doctor," by which he was
always known ; and we were told that he had an
extensive practice and was regarded as an excellent
medical adviser. Curiously enough, I met at Guaymas
another Englishman, also a ship's carpenter, whose
story was almost exactly the same. He, too, had
purchased a lot of drugs and opened a druggist's
shop. He was successful in business, but I think
did not attempt to practise as a doctor. He had in
his shop a very large volume of prescriptions and
medical recipes which he seemed to know by
heart.
As our captain wished to do honour to the
republic of Costa Rica, he decided to salute the
national flag, although there was no battery which
could return it. We had no Costa Rica flag on
board, and none could be obtained at Punta Arenas ;
consequently the salute was not fired, or at least was
postponed. At last a vessel flying Costa Rica colours
arrived at the anchorage. We observed that she was
also flying a pendant, being, in fact, a man-of-war,
the only one that the republic possessed, I was sent
140 A LONG PACIFIC VOYAGE
on board to borrow an ensign so that we might hoist
it at the main when firing the salute.
I found that she was a very small brig of only
seventy tons. She had one gun, a cast-iron smooth-
bore 1 2-pounder, mounted on an ingenious traversing
arrangement amidships, so that it could be fired on
either side. The captain was an Englishman, a
smart young fellow. He told me that the only ensign
he had was the one that the ship was actually flying.
Knowing what it was wanted for, he offered to lend
it, begging that it might be returned as soon as the
salute was over, so that he might hoist it again.
We fired the salute, and I was sent back with the
flag and a request that — -as no ship carrying less
than ten guns was bound to salute — -ours would not
be returned. The captain of the brig, however,
insisted on returning it ; and as soon as he got the
colours rehoisted did so, with his one gun, in a
thoroughly satisfactory manner.
At our last visit to Panama we received orders to
go to Vancouver's Island. We were all delighted at
the prospect of seeing again that place where we had
such pleasant friends and where the weather and the
climate were so agreeable. We had an unexpectedly
prolonged voyage. After having been seventy days
at sea we were only as far north as San Francisco
and the captain decided to put into that place. Here
we received orders countermanding those directing
us to go to Vancouver's Island. This was a great
disappointment to everyone on board.
The weather which we had experienced during
our voyage was quite extraordinary. Until we had
got well clear of the Bay of Panama we had an
uninterrupted succession of calms and short violent
squalls. In one of these squalls, just before midnight,
we carried away both our mainstays. I was mid-
shipman of the watch at the time. The ship was
promptly put before the wind and the main topsail
lowered on to the main cap ; and we got a hawser
ROGUERY AND CORRUPTION 141
up as a temporary stay, and then the main runners
and tackles, until we could splice the stays. It took
us six weeks, exactly forty-two days, to make one
thousand miles towards our destination.
It was his knowledge of the weather conditions of
the gulf that led Admiral Maury, the great American
writer on the physical geography of the sea, to say,
more than half a century ago, that if a canal were
made through the isthmus of Panama sailing ships
would make quicker voyages between the Atlantic
and Pacific Oceans by going round Cape Horn than
by going through the canal.
When we reached San Francisco we learnt that
very interesting events had happened there since our
last visit. The state of California and the city of
San Francisco had fallen into the hands of a gang
of corrupt and audacious rogues. One of these, a
certain Casey, who in these days, I suppose, would
have been styled a "boss," though I never heard the
term used at the time of which I speak, had become
so powerful that he was able not only to fill his
pockets out of the public treasury but also to put
his friends and accomplices into important public
offices. The overwhelming majority of the popula-
tion was thoroughly honest and law-abiding, but
engrossed in the exacting work of developing the
resources of a naturally rich and very newly settled
country. The newspapers, as a rule, tried to bring
about an improvement ; but, as roguery was strongly
entrenched, most of them gave it up as a bad job.
One gentleman, a Mr James King — always called
James King of William to distinguish him from two
or three namesakes — would not give up the fight for
right. He was editor and proprietor of a newspaper
in which he exposed and attacked the scoundrels who
were tarnishing the good name of California and
doing their utmost to injure its prospects. His life
was threatened ; but, as he was almost universally
respected for his uprightness and amiable character,
142 EARLY HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO
it was thought that no one would offer violence
to him.
People who thought so reckoned without Mr
Casey. He sighted Mr King one day in one of the
principal streets of San Francisco, and pulling out
a revolver shouted to Mr King, " Look out, James,
I am going to shoot." Even the most truculent
desperadoes of the then turbulent mining regions
were expected, by the only public opinion which they
respected, to give warning before shooting, and not
to shoot an unarmed man. Casey was not going to
allow himself to be checked in his murderous intention
by any conventions, however slightly tinged with
chivalry. Mr King, who was wearing a cloak,
hearing what had been shouted to him, threw up his
arms to show that he had no weapon. In doing so
he uncovered his left side, and Casey, losing no time,
fired at and killed him.
The population of the city became intensely
excited. All its best elements determined there and
then that the iniquities of Casey and his accomplices
should be stopped at once. Many people of a highly
respectable class formed themselves into a body and
tried to get hold of Casey and lynch him. To prevent
this the police arrested him, and without being
discovered conveyed him to the jail. I was shown
the jail by some friends of mine who had taken part
in the proceedings. It was a small, whitewashed
masonry building, with a stout iron door, standing in
a rough and unpaved open space near what was then
the outskirts of the city.
The crowd, finding out where Casey had been
taken, went to the jail and demanded his person.
The authorities refused to comply with the demand.
The crowd thereupon attacked the jail and tried,
without success, to beat in the door. As soon as it
became apparent that the door was too strong to
be forced by a crowd unprovided with suitable
appliances, some men went off and returned with two
LYNCH LAW 143
field guns, which they placed opposite the door of the
jail and about forty or fifty yards from it. I was
invited to stand on the spot where the guns were
placed. The authorities saw that further resistance
would be useless. The door was opened and Casey
and another scoundrel were taken out and hanged.
Two other known criminals, whose detention in the
prison was widely believed to be merely a contrivance
for securing them against popular indignation, were
also taken out of the jail and placed in trustworthy
custody for subsequent trial.
It was generally felt that the lynching of a couple of
scoundrels and the detention of two others were not
sufficient to purify the state and city administration.
It soon appeared that the rogues who had been
plundering their fellow-citizens and defiling public
life formed only an insignificant minority of the
population. The very first people in the city came
forward to support, and indeed head, the movement
for purifying public life. A Vigilance Committee —
the celebrated second Vigilance Committee — was
formed, and its work was thorough and compre-
hensive. Some members of the committee acted as
ministers in a sort of cabinet with the supreme
direction of affairs. Others formed a court for the
trial of persons charged with serious crimes. This
court tried the two men who had been taken out of
the jail when Casey was lynched, and sentenced both
of them to be hanged. I was taken to the room from
the windows of which the sentences were carried into
execution, the ingenious method of doing it being
explained to me on the spot. I was also shown the
room in which the directing committee deliberated,
and the room in which the court held its sittings.
The latter room was expressly fitted up and furnished
for the purpose to which it was devoted.
The Vigilance Committee raised an army of
6000 men. It was admirably organised and well
armed. It comprised all arms. There was even a
144 EARLY HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO
4-gun battery of horse artillery, commanded by my
kind and hospitable friend, Captain Harrison, the
harbour master, who, like many other sailors, was
very fond of horses and a good horseman. The
officers had regfular commissions. I was shown some
of these documents. They were as perfect in form
as if they had been issued by an old-established War
Office. No formality of government was neglected
by the Vigilance Committee. It had its Great Seal,
showing an open and vigilant eye, and this was
engraved on the commissions given to officers.
The army that had been so quickly raised and so
carefully organised was well armed. Some of the
equipment came from the stores belonging to the
state. Some, I believe, was taken from the arsenal
belonging to the United States. The United States
Government kept a very small garrison of regular
troops at San Francisco, about 140 men. The chief
command on the Pacific coast was vested in Major-
General Wool, who afterwards served in the Secession
War. His headquarters were at San Francisco.
Some of the Casey gang were still holding state
government appointments, and they tried to induce
the general to act against the Vigilance Committee.
It was held that as an officer of the United States,
he had no legal right to interfere in what was
unquestionably an internal matter of a particular
state. It would have been ridiculous for the United
States Government to have aided a gang of murderers
and plunderers to tyrannise over the great majority
of a law-abiding and industrious population. Any-
how, the United States' forces on the spot were far
too small in number to be able to act effectively
against the Vigilance Committee, even if it had been
proper for them to do so.
I was taken through the Vigilance Committee's
armoury, in which the army's small arms were stored.
There were several spacious rooms fitted with racks
which were full of muskets and rifles. The officers
THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE 145
and men of the horse artillery battery managed to
provide themselves with uniform. The rest of the
army was expected to appear in the ranks in dark
clothing, and to have on peaked caps.
An idea of the kind of man who had succeeded in
getting into high office may be formed when it is
known that the chief justice of the state was tried by
the Vigilance Committee for stabbing a man in the
street. The committee had made a regulation that
no citizen not enrolled in its army should go armed.
The chief justice, whose name was Terry, dis-
regarded this regulation, and the committee's police
arrested him in a public street. Before he could be
secured he had stabbed and seriously wounded one
of the policemen. The judicial branch of the com-
mittee, after a regular trial, sentenced him to be
hanged if the man whom he had stabbed should die.
The latter however recovered, and the chief justice
was expelled from his office ; and when the Vigilance
Committee was dissolved on the completion of its
work, he was released. I accidentally saw in an
English newspaper, at a much later date, probably
about 1906, that Terry had been shot in the dining-
room of a hotel by the marshal of a judge on circuit,
who had objected to Terry's behaviour in court,
and whom it was supposed by the marshal that he
intended to fire at.
The expenses of the Vigilance Committee were
large and were met by a public subscription. The
wealth of San Francisco sixty years ago was a mere
trifle compared with its present amount. Yet I
know of one gentleman who subscribed $10,000 to
the committee's funds. Another offered to give
an even larger sum ; but suggested that the com-
mittee might find more useful than money a large
block of buildings constructed for offices and store-
houses which he had just completed. The committee
readily accepted this offer. It was in these buildings
that were situated the rooms where the committee
146 EARLY HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO
deliberated, where the criminal court sat, and where
the arms were stored.
When they had purged the state and city adminis-
tration of the noxious elements by which both had
been so long corrupted and had put decent men
into office, the Vigilance Committee held a review of
its army and then disbanded it, and declared itself
dissolved. It had done its work well, and the people
of California had every reason to be grateful to it.
It was one of the many recorded demonstrations,
and not the least impressive, of the capacity of
Americans for meeting promptly, and successfully
dealing with, serious and even menacing con-
tingencies. I have frequently had opportunities
of seeing the thoroughness with which Americans
carry out a job when they have undertaken to
do it.
Our ship arrived at San Francisco a day or two
after the Vigilance Committee had disbanded its
army ; and not only were all the events still recent
and fresh in man's memory, but also the visible signs
of its activity were still many. It is probable that
the organisation of its army was helped by the
readiness with which the people formed volunteer
corps. There were several of these in San Fran-
cisco, all provided with uniform clothing and small
arms and accustomed to be drilled and exercised
together.
Another thing that must have helped were the
Volunteer Fire Engine Companies. I think that
there were then no firemen in the city except those
belonging to these volunteer bodies. Membership
of one of them was like membership of a club ; and
there were some which had an aristocratic tinge and
were decidedly exclusive. All the engine-houses, in
which members took it in turn to sleep and often
have meals, were well furnished ; some of them were
handsomely decorated and had tasteful furniture.
It was understood that in a certain number of
VOLUNTARY EFFORT 147
cases the insurance companies contributed to the
funds of these volunteer establishments, but in all
of them most of the expense, and in several the
whole of it, must have been borne by the volunteers
themselves.
CHAPTER XIX
ANOTHER LONG VOYAGE
Not being able to reach Vancouver's Island In time,
we were ordered from San Francisco to Valparaiso.
The voyage was a long" one^ — -eighty days. We had,
after crossing- the line, to stand well to the westward
and go a long way south of Valparaiso, after which
we got a generally fair wind, which took us into port.
There was so much to be done with the sails, owing
to shifts of wind and changes of weather, that these
long voyages did not seem so wearisome as people
may think them. There was a good deal of time for
reading, and most of the officers and men read a
great deal, especially when we were in the "Trades,"
where wind and weather changed but little. In
the whole of my service I knew only two blue-
jackets who could not read. The present very
general belief that sixty or seventy years ago the
poorer classes in England were illiterate is an absurd
exaggeration. The majority of the men in the Navy
came from the very places where education might
have been expected to have least extension, viz.,
small and ancient seaport towns. Yet practically
every one of them could read and write. This
is the more remarkable because reading was not
always viewed with favour aboard ship. I once
heard a boatswain's mate, who had been trying
for some time to find a man who was next on turn
for a look out say, when he found him with a book
in his hand: "What! reading again! You're
148
VARIETY OF HANDIWORK 149
always reading. That's what makes you such a
sanguinary fool!"
A great variety of work was done on board ; and
it was interesting to watch its progress. Carpenters
and sailmakers were continuously at work. Rope-
making to the extent of making spun yarn, "nettle-
stuff," "six-thread stuff," and other small cordage
went on nearly every day. Mat-making was a
common operation, there being always a want of
paunch mats, sword mats, thrummed mats, and
sennit mats — the last being used like door mats
on shore.
Nearly every midshipman whom I knew could
make all the knots and splices; could "point,"
"graft," and make mats; could strop a block, put
on all the different "seizings," and use the "palm
and needle " of the sailmakers. Most of us carried
a short piece of rope in our pockets and, when
at leisure, passed the time in practising knotting,
splicing, and other operations. Besides all this,
we had to be able to "pass an ear-ring" in reefing
topsails, tie the points, and furl the sails ; also
we had to take the helm and actually steer the ship,
and take soundings by heaving the lead. It was not
expected that we should have to do this manual work
when we ceased to be midshipmen ; but it was
expected that, in days when there was no continuous
service afloat and large sections of a ship's company
were "newly raised," we should, as sub-lieutenants
or lieutenants, be able to show with our own hands
untrained men how to do the necessary work con-
nected with ropes and sails.
Nothing that by any possibility would prove
useful was thrown away. Everything was saved
with a rigorous economy. Water was the most
precious object on board. Everybody was careful
to pour out just the amount that he wanted to drink
and no more. When an extra allowance of drinking
water was granted on a long voyage — which was
L
150 ANOTHER LONG VOYAGE
not often — each of us secured his half pint, put it
in a bottle, and locked it up. The habit of being
economical of drinking water has become a second
nature to many of us. To this day I often find
myself carefully putting into a glass the exact
quantity of water that I am going to drink.
Tins of preserved meat were not common in the
Navy in those days, but we did have some. H.M.S.
Rattlesnake had been sent with provisions and stores
to go through Behring's Straits, in the hope that
she might find and relieve some survivors of Sir John
Franklin's expedition. In this she was not successful,
and on her way home she was ordered to supply the
ships of our squadron with some of her store of
preserved meat. Personally, I liked it better than
salt beef or salt pork. It was attractive enough in
cold weather, when it could be turned solid out of
a tin, but in hot weather it was not very appetising.
The men in general put up with it rather than liked
it. They did not mind taking it instead of salt beef
once in four days, but they strongly objected to
its being substituted for salt pork. The official name
was "soup and bouilli." The sailors called it "soup
and bully." This is the origin of the term "bully
beef."
Except during the time that the preserved meat
obtained from the Rattlesnake lasted, our food was
almost exclusively salt beef, flour, salted suet, and
raisins on one day, and salt pork and peas on the
next. The flour, suet, and raisins were to make
plum-duff; the peas were whole and not easily
digestible, split peas not being introduced into the
Navy till later. We had cocoa and sugar for
breakfast. For many months we had the raw cocoa-
bean which was roasted on board, and hammered
with a shot slung to each end of a short piece of
rope, which passed through a block hanging to a
hammock-hook in a beam overhead. The roasted
beans were wrapped in a piece of bread-bag and
FOOD AND THINGS 151
laid on the deck. The two shot were moved up and
down alternately, each hammeringf the beans in turn.
There was no milk and no butter. The ship's
company never received soft bread at sea, and did
not often receive it in harbour. We midshipmen
sometimes had for breakfast the nearest approach
to rolls that our cook was capable of baking, but
generally for every meal we had biscuit, or, as it
was always called in the Navy, bread. Ship's bread
was, until many years afterwards, kept in bag's of
rough sacking. They offered no protection against
damp or insects, consequently the bread was often
mildewed and nearly always full of weevils. In
those days no naval officer ever ate a piece of
biscuit without first knocking it on the table to
expel the weevils.
What was officially called "supper" was really
tea, a meal eaten between 5 and 6 p.m. For the
ship's company and the midshipmen it consisted
almost invariably, when at sea, of tea without milk
and dry biscuit. In the long voyages in the Pacific
Ocean — and afterwards, as I was to find out, in the
East Indies — the provisions, such as they were,
would not have lasted out had each man's allowance
not been reduced. It was not only the protracted
periods spent actually at sea that kept us short.
Many places at which we called could, in those days,
supply us with little in the way of food. We did
not always get fresh beef at them, or even fresh
vegetables. When we did manage to purchase
the latter they were nearly always pumpkins, which
would not keep for more than a day or two. Some-
times we could get yams and sweet potatoes, but not
very often.
We frequently had to be put on a reduced allow-
ance of two-thirds. This was called " six-upon-four " ;
that means that four men's allowance had to suffice for
six men. As far as I could see, this was not regarded
as a great hardship. Each man received a money
152 ANOTHER LONG VOYAGE
payment for the amount of food that he did not get
in kind. At all times it was usual for the men to
"leave behind," as it was called, part of their
provisions, being given for that part a money
substitute called "savings."
This may be taken as strong evidence that the
naval dietary was sufficient in quantity. It may
also be said that each article was good of its kind,
the best or nearly the best that could be obtained.
It was, of course, oppressively monotonous, and
neither appetising nor easily digestible, and some
articles did not always keep good in hot climates.
Sometimes, even after we had been put "six-
upon-four," we ran out of some kinds of food
altogether. On one voyage we ran out of bread
and spirits. Rum had long disappeared from our
stock and had been replaced by so-called "brandy,"
purchased at a Spanish-American port. We still
had plenty of flour, and this was cheerfully received
as a substitute for the bread. The loss of the spirit
allowance was felt as a great privation.
Many efforts were made to supplement our scanty
and monotonous fare. Sea-birds were caught and
eaten with relish. I could never manage to swallow
a mouthful. The bluejackets, before cooking them,
put them through a process which they called
"purging." The birds' flesh was cut into small
pieces and soaked for several hours in a bucket of
salt water, which was supposed to remove the strong
fishy and oily flavour. To me it seemed that the
process was ineffectual.
Some men used to sit on the back ropes near the
dolphin-striker for hours with a harpoon or a sort
of trident called "the grains," watching for a porpoise,
or the fish which changes colour when dying, and
was known to sailors as a dolphin. A fair number
of these were caught and both of them proved
eatable.
As a ship with a nice breeze usually went about
NO WASTE 153
six or seven knots through the water, line-nshing of
a particular kind was possible. Every man-of-war
was supplied by the Admiralty, as part of the regula-
tion stores, with fishing lines and hooks. A line was
secured to the jib-boom end, and was just long
enough to reach within a foot or two of the ship's
stem. It had attached to it a hook carrying a piece
of bright tin, or scraps of red-and-white calico. As
the ship moved, this played on and in the water
something like an angler's fly. The fish caught
were usually bonito, and sometimes the so-called
"dolphin." In some latitudes immense numbers
of flying-fish were passed, and not infrequently some
flew on board. They were highly prized.
It will be easily understood that on board ship
there was no waste of food. How the seamen of the
fleet in later days became, as undoubtedly they did
become, so wasteful of soft bread is almost a mystery.
It is perhaps to be explained by the greatly reduced
time they spend at sea, their long and frequent spells
in harbour, and the example of extravagant people
on shore. There was, indeed, no waste of anything
aboard ship in the days to which I am referring.
The way in which bullock-hides and sheepskins were
made use of has been mentioned already. Parts of
the hoofs of bullocks slaughtered for food, together
with strips of hide, were boiled over a slow fire and
converted into glue. The tips of the horns were used
for renewing the "browning" of the barrels of the
ship's muskets. Every bit of rope-yarn was carefully
picked up and put into a bag called the "shakings"
bag, kept for oakum when the decks were caulked,
and for thrums for mats. No rag, however small,
was thrown overboard. All rags were kept for the
use of the gun's crews in cleaning their guns. Paper,
if fairly thick, was carefully preserved to be smeared
with glue, have sand strewed on it, and thus be
useful as sand-paper. The bones of sea-birds were
converted into pipe-stems and the skin of their
154 ANOTHER LONG VOYAGE
webbed feet into tobacco-pouches. If a shark was
caught, his liver was made into oil for scouring the
copper near the water-line, and his skin was made
into fine "sand-paper."
Many or most of the articles used in keeping the
ship clean and making her look smart had to be
provided by the officers, usually the first lieutenant
or the captain. The only paints allowed were white,
black, and yellow ; and the quantity of these was
quite insufficient. Till many years after I joined
the Navy the deficiency had to be made good, as a
rule, by the first lieutenant. Every bit of finery was
provided in a similar way. Stain and polish for
woodwork and polish for guns, as well as chamois
leather, bathbrick, and rottenstone were all privately
provided. The Government gave no prizes for good
shooting with either guns or small arms. Officers
of quarters generally found these, and the captain
added a supplement.
As regards even necessary articles, or articles
which were nearly if not quite indispensable, it is
remarkable how many of them had to be found, not
by the State but by the officers, usually the captain.
The light grass hawsers which often prove highly
useful were, in my earlier years of service, paid for
by the captains of ships in which they were used.
When a ship was put in commission she was
allowed a certain number of birch brooms. After
the first supply the people on board were expected
to find what was wanted. Men were landed at
suitable places to cut brushwood. It was taken on
board, hung to the whiskers of each side of the bow-
sprit to dry, and then made into brooms. All hair
brooms and brushes and all scrubbing-brushes were
paid for by the officers, almost always by the first
lieutenant. As far as possible, scrubbing-brushes
were made on board. Coir fibre was bought ; and
pieces of the heads of old casks, cut to the proper
size, had holes bored in them with a red-hot marling
DRAIN UPON OFFICERS' PURSES 155
spike. Into these holes the fibre, which had been
well wetted, was drawn with twine and cut to even
lengths in a roughly made wooden gauge. The drain
upon officers' pockets was very large, and could only
have been met because the ships were then so much
at sea that expenditure on pleasure and luxuries was
relatively inconsiderable.
CHAPTER XX
FROM THE PACIFIC TO ENGLAND PAYING OFF
My longest voyage lasted altogether a hundred and
thirteen days. It was from Valparaiso to England,
but it was broken by a call at the Falkland Islands.
From that place to Plymouth Sound our voyage was
eighty-five days ; eighty-four out of sight of land.
The ship was paid off at Devonport, in the old-time
fashion. Before the men were paid, everything, even
to the masts and bowsprit, was taken out of the ship.
It had been the custom to give no leave to the
ship's companies about to be paid off This
ridiculous and even cruel custom might have had
some justification in the war-time at the beginning
of the nineteenth century ; but there was absolutely
no justification for it in Queen Victoria's reign. Men
who had been away for years were brought to places
within a few hundred yards of their homes and were
not allowed to visit them. There was much specula-
tion amongst our men when we were nearing
Plymouth as to the continuance of the custom
mentioned, and the news that it was not being
enforced naturally rejoiced them greatly.
I had been more than three years in the Brisk
and I was not sorry to leave her. I might have left
her in the Pacific, as the admiral, who had known
my mother's family, offered to take me into his
flagship. I had been a long time away from home
and had not seen my mother and family for
several years. My father had died in the mean-
150
RARITY OF MAILS 157
time. As joining- the flagship would have meant
nearly two years longer stay in the Pacific, I asked
permission to decline the offer to be appointed to her.
The admiral was particularly kind, and told me that
he quite understood my reasons for desiring to remain
in the Brisk, then expecting orders for England.
One of the great discomforts of service on a
distant station in my early days was the uncertainty
and scantiness of the postal arrangements. This
was especially felt on the Pacific station. I was once
nine months without receiving a letter. In the
meantime my father had died, and it was long before
the news of his death reached me. The Navy agents
with whom my allowance was deposited, through no
fault of their own but through the failure of a bank
with which they were connected, had become
bankrupt, and I drew bills for two quarters before I
heard of the failure.
When we could send letters the postage was
high — never less than sixpence a letter, and often
enough a shilling. The seamen and marines had the
right of sending- letters at a penny rate, if franked by
the commanding officer. Therefore there were on
board ship always two letter-bags — one for the
officers' letters and one for the ship's company's.
In spite of all its drawbacks I did not dislike the
Pacific station, and, I believe, it was not unpopular
amongst the officers and men generally. Notwith-
standing the high price of everything that we
required, our long voyages, during which we could
not spend anything beyond what was necessary for
our messing and a few extras, and also for the small
amount of wine allowed, enforced economy on us ;
and when we reached a port at which there was
anything worth buying, we — both officers and men —
generally had our pockets fairly full of money.
There was certainly much that was interesting in
the places that we visited. To have seen California
only six years after the "forty-niners" had made
158 FROM THE PACIFIC TO ENGLAND
their way to It, and to see San Francisco in the days
of the historic second Vigilance Committee, were
worth much prolonged voyaging. To have seen
Victoria when it contained only a stockaded "fort"
and half a dozen houses surrounded by Indians ; and
also Esquimalt, when the only building in sight from
the anchorage was a log-hut put up by a man-of-war's
crew for use as a blacksmith's forge, and when naked
savages lighted fires on the beach within a hundred
yards of the ship — helped to make intelligible and
doubly interesting many a book of adventure, and
tales about early colonisation. The Latin-American
republics, at their then stage of development,
contained abundance of things worthy of being
observed.
The Brisk was not a particularly uncomfortable
ship. The officers got on well together. There
were no doubt occasional tiffs — as there always have
been and always will be where a few persons are
crowded together for long periods, in contracted
quarters in an exacting climate, and with scanty and
monotonous food ; but these were soon made up
again. I believe that the captain honestly tried to
make his officers and men happy ; but his success
was not great. He was not exactly disliked, but he
was not popular. He was a generous man. He
gave each of us midshipmen an excellent spyglass.
He avoided, as far as possible, inflicting punishments
that caused physical pain. He did order men to be
flogged, but very seldom. He never, when correcting
us midshipmen, so arranged our punishment that
we should have to miss a meal.
He was, however, most ingenious in inventing
punishments that must have been highly mortifying,
and even the cause of great mental pain, to the
delinquents. He had two officers put in irons — one
an engineer and one a midshipman. He ordered
me — as in each case I happened to be on watch —
to report to him when his orders had been carried
INGENIOUS PUNISHMENTS 159
out. In neither case was there the slightest necessity
for the step he took. The engineer certainly refused
to obey an order ; but he offered an explanation, and
the captain would not listen to it. The midshipman
had been making a noise, and went on after he knew
that he was disturbing- the captain ; but there was
no direct disobedience of orders.
Putting- anyone in irons as a punishment was not
long afterwards stopped by Admiralty order, and was
limited to cases in v/hich it was necessary to secure
the person of a prisoner likely to run away. The
precisely described punishments of modern days did
not exist in the Navy during my early years of
service.
Our captain invented several, the like of which
I never saw either before or since. Troublesome
men had to stand in the middle of the quarter-deck
at the morning inspection called "divisions," and at
"evening quarters," dressed in a jacket made of
patches of black and bright yellow cloth with red
buttons. At inspections a model of a gallows was
placed amidships on the quarter-deck, and a delinquent
often had to stand under it with a rope round his neck,
the noose being formed with a properly made "hang-
man's knot." There was one troublesome lad on board,
who seemed to me to be rather an incorrigible joker
than naturally vicious. The punishment which the
captain devised for him was to be imprisoned in a
sort of cage, made of hatchway gratings, set up just
outside our mess-berth. The prisoner's dinner was
poked in to him through the holes in the grating.
In January 1857 I completed four years' service,
and passed the so-called "four-yearly examination."
This gave no rise in rank or pay, but distinctly
added to a midshipman's importance. A "four-
yearly midshipman " was no longer considered a
"youngster," and would have been justified if he
resented being addressed by that term.
Whilst In the Brisk, as already mentioned, I was
160 FROM THE PACIFIC TO ENGLAND
for some time a shipmate of a pilot who had been
with Lord Cochrane in the Impdrieusem 1808; on
our voyag"e to England, I was shipmate of a man
who had been with Nelson at Copenhagen in 1801.
His name was Benjamin Bee. He was a bandsman
in H.M.S. Monarch, 84, and came from that ship
to us for passage home on "expiration of his service."
He had been in the coastguard, and was called out
when war was declared. Peace having been pro-
claimed his service ended.
There were still on the active list of the Navy
many officers who had served under Nelson —
Admiral Sir William Parker, commander-in-chief
at Plymouth when I was there in the Brisk, was one
of them ; but I think that Bee was almost the only
foremast hand whose service connected the Nelson
era with the era of the Crimean War. The admiral
superintendent at Devonport also had served in the
Napoleonic War. He always wore a cocked hat,
never a cap, and a white neckcloth.
The Brisk, as already said, was paid off in the
old style. The ship was emptied of all her guns and
stores, was hauled alongside the sheer -hulk in
Hamoaze, and then put out of commission. I was
granted four weeks' leave. I may say that I never
had more than twenty-eight days' leave, and seldom
as much, at a time until I had been more than thirty
years in the service. All the leave added together
granted me during that time would not have amounted
to twelve months ! On the ship being paid off, the
midshipmen were appointed to the port admiral's
flagship at Devonport.
CHAPTER XXI
SERVICE IN THE EAST INDIES
On the expiration of my leave I reported myself
on board the flag-ship, or guardship as she was
generally called, and found that there were several
other midshipmen in the gun-room mess. We had
no duty to do, and generally spent the greater part
of each day on shore, aimlessly roaming about the
town. It was a relief to me when I received an
appointment to H.M.S. Pelorus, about to be com-
missioned by my old commanding officer. Captain
Beauchamp Seymour. The orders to me were to
join her on the day after her pendant was hoisted.
Her captain was a popular officer ; and, even before
his printed placards inviting men to join his ship had
been posted up, men crowded to the dockyard gate
asking to be entered. When the ship's rendezvous
was opened — at a public house in Fore Street,
Devonport, near the dockyard gate — eighty men
offered to join in the first hour. On the third or
fourth day she got her ship's company complete.
She had 270 officers and men. We were accommo-
dated on board an old hulk, the Lively, frigate, in
Hamoaze, till the Pelorus was in a state to
receive us.
The ship was a bare hull, and we had to get
her masted and put all her stores on board. We
were one of the first ships to have what was then
considered an epoch-making improvement in naval
gunnery. Every gun — the ship had one 68-pounder
161
162 SERVICE IN THE EAST INDIES
in the bows and twenty 42-cwt. 32-pounders on
the broadside — was fitted with a hexagonal sight,
that is to say, a six-sided brass rod, working up
and down in a socket affixed to the cascable. One
side was marked in degrees ; on three other sides
distances were marked in yards for the three
different charges, viz., the battering, the full, and
the reduced. A fifth side was marked in yards
for the ranges of shell. The sixth side was blank.
This was no doubt a considerable advance ; but
it must not be supposed that target practice in the
Navy at that date was contemptible. It was never
that ; and, considering what the weapons were,
it was, in most ships, highly creditable. The stories
concocted of late years as to the want of attention to
gunnery in the older Navy were unworthy fabrica-
tions. I never saw anything but the keenest interest in
it in every ship that I served in or knew anything of.
Officers of quarters willingly paid the prizes for good
shooting out of their own pockets, convincing proof
of the interest that they took in it.
All the guns in the Pelorus were cast-iron
smooth-bores. Those on the broadside were
mounted on wooden gun-carriages of a pattern
practically identical with that of the gun-carriages in
Queen Elizabeth's ships. This pattern survived in
the Navy for another twenty years.
It would be very unfair to infer from this that
the Admiralty was backward in introducing im-
provements in ship's armament or material. In
many highly important improvements it preceded
every other naval administration and every mercan-
tile marine. It introduced lime-juice as an anti-
scorbutic before the end of the eighteenth century ;
or more than half a century before it was introduced
into other great navies. Except the American,
no bluejacket was so well fed as the British. It
is true that the latter's food at sea was monotonous ;
but each article was originally of good quality.
IRON SHIPS 163
First of all navies, ours adopted preserved meat
as part of the regulation victualling- ; and only gave
it up temporarily until proper methods of preserva-
tion had been devised.
The British Admiralty had ships built of iron
long before they were in existence in other navies
or in the Merchant Service. Four iron frigates were
built and got rid of some years before I went to sea.
They had been tested and found unsuitable.
Metallurgical science had not advanced far enough
to provide proper material for warship construction.
Our Admiralty early adopted steam propulsion.
When I joined the Navy there was still in use at
Portsmouth as a tug, a vessel, which I have
mentioned before, called the Comet, one of the
earliest sea-going steamers ever built. Our Navy
preceded all other navies, and every mercantile
marine in the possession of ships of great size built
of steel. It was the same with the "compound"
steam engine ; though the French had tried it at an
early period and had given it up. It was the same,
also, with the double screw. Certainly Queen
Victoria's Admiralty was not behindhand in the
adoption of improvements.
While we were fitting out at Devonport, two
important events occurred. The first half of the
great Saltash railway suspension bridge was put
in place. H.M.S. Agamemnon, one of our earliest
steam line-of-battle ships, and the United States
frigate, Niag-ara, came into Hamoaze, and after
a short stay there started on their way to lay the
first Atlantic telegraph cable. They spliced in mid-
Atlantic the length of cable carried by each, and
then turned, the Agamemnon to Valentia in Ireland,
and the Niagara to Newfoundland, and landed the
shore ends. A message or two passed ; but the
cable soon broke down and was not replaced till
1865. I sent a telegram by this last to New York
in 1867, asking a friend to telegraph by land to
164 SERVICE IN THE EAST INDIES
Halifax to my old commander, to tell him that he
had been promoted. Promotions were not officially
telegraphed to foreign stations until long afterwards.
The rate to the other side of the Atlantic was £i
a word.
The Pelorus was commissioned to form one of a
squadron of five vessels under a commodore in
a so-gun frigate to proceed to the East Indies, In
those days China and the East Indies formed one
station. The Sepoy Mutiny had broken out in
India, and we were at war with China. The
squadron did not go out as a unit. The Mohawk,
gun-vessel, started in company with us ; but we never
saw anything of the other ships until after our arrival
in the Bay of Bengal. The Mohaivk was with us
until we reached Madeira, and then each of us went
on independently.
^ We called at Rio de Janeiro, where we met my |
' old ship, the Cumberland, then the flagship of the
commander - in - chief on the south - east coast of
America station. From Rio we went direct to
Point de Galle, in Ceylon, a voyage of sixty-seven
days. We had very rough weather south of the
Cape of Good Hope and were nearly lost, having
broached to in a violent westerly gale. The Pelorus
was a remarkably fast sailer, both "by and large" —
sailing close to or by the wind and running with the
wind free. As the Government was hurrying out
troops to India, the Admiralty took up as transports
all the fast clipper-ships that could be got.
The celebrated clippers of those days were the
Red-Jacket, the Blue-Jacket, the James Baines, the
Champion of the Seas, and others usually running
between the United Kingdom and Australia. In
1856 the Red-Jacket, on her passage from Liverpool
to Melbourne, for eight days averaged 334 sea-miles a
day. In June 1854, the James Baines ran 420 miles
in twenty-four hours, and at 8.30 p.m. on the 17th
was logged as "going 21 knots with the main skysail
CALCUTTA 165
set." These records are not contemptible, even by
the side of the records of modern trans-Atlantic
mail steamers. In the Pelorus we never made 21
knots but we sometimes ran over 300 miles a day.
We made a better passage than most of the
clippers bound to the Bay of Bengal. One of them
we sighted at sea and beat her handsomely between
daylight and sunset. The Pelorus, however, was a
very wet ship. When going fast she took in a great
deal of water. She had an unpleasant trick of shipping
seas over the lee hammock netting and flooding the
lee gangway and the lee side of the quarter-deck.
As midshipmen of the watch were almost confined
to the latter, it was no uncommon experience of ours
to be wet nearly to the waist.
From Point de Galle we pushed on to Calcutta ;
and, meeting heavy weather in the Bay, were rather
knocked about. The East India Company main-
tained a highly efficient pilot-service at the mouth of
the Hooghly, called the Bengal Marine. The pilot
was an ofificer of corresponding rank to a lieutenant,
and he went on board the ship, which he was to take
up the river accompanied by a younger officer corre-
sponding to a midshipman. This youth hove the
lead and called the soundings, a bluejacket being
assigned to him to haul in his lead-line.
We stopped for the night at Diamond Harbour,
some miles below Calcutta. It was at the end of
December. I had the middle watch — midnight to
4 A.M. — and in the thin clothing which we had been
wearing for several weeks I found the cold bitter,
which was very different from what we had expected
to find in India. We went on to Calcutta the next
day and moored off Prinsep's Ghat. H.M.S. Pearl
was lying there ; most of her officers and men were
serving in a naval brigade up-country. H.M.S.
Shannon had just been sent off to South Africa for
horses for the Army. Her captain, Sir William Peel,
and the greater part of her officers and men did not
M
166 SERVICE IN THE EAST INDIES
g-o in her, as they were in the Shannons naval brigade
at the front.
We lay nearly abreast of Fort William. In the
fort there was a garrison of the Queen's troops, as
they were always called, to distinguish them from
the Company's. There was also in it a regiment of
native infantry. The men were splendid-looking
fellows ; but, though they still wore their uniform,
they had been disarmed. Railways then scarcely
existed in India, and troops were sent to the front
in steamers and barges by the Ganges, as long as
that route served.
The cold season climate of Calcutta was not
unpleasant ; though we were much troubled by
mosquitoes in the evenings. The sun was not
always intensely hot ; and, though men as a rule
wore pith helmets, or solar topees, I noticed occasion-
ally Englishmen in tall hats, both black and white.
As has been said before, naval officers in uniform
wore tall hats with a stripe of gold lace up the side.
I had, when in the East Indies, a white crush or
opera hat, with a midshipman's gold cord twisted up
the side instead of lace. It was light and cool, but
on shore we generally wore pith helmets or the,
ordinary naval cap covered with a muslin pugaree.
The Pelorus was the first ship in which I served
after the introduction of the rule of paying officers in
hard cash. In India we received lo rupees for £\y
the rupee being then worth two shillings or a little
more. Imported articles in India were dear, but
almost everything of native manufacture was very
cheap compared with the price of similar things in
England. I bought at Madras a newly made pair
of Wellington boots for five shillings (two rupees and
a half). These boots would have been useless in wet
weather, but in dry weather they lasted for a con-
siderable time, and were an admirable protection
against mosquitoes, which were especially fond of
attacking one's ankles.
THE LUCKNOW GARRISON 167
At Calcutta there was not much to be done except
to drive about in a buggy, a sort of one-horsed gig
with a hood to it. There were street vehicles called
gharries. They were a kind of four-wheeled cab,
reduced in size and even more shabby in appearance
than the London four-wheelers of the middle of the
nineteenth century. There was another means of
conveyance. There were many palanquins, or
palkies as they were called. The palki was an
oblong box with a sliding door on each side. A
stout pole protruded from each end, and this rested
on the shoulders of the bearers, usually four in
number. When you had succeeded in inserting
yourself into the box and were lying at full length
on the cushion covering the bottom you were com-
fortable enough ; but you felt very helpless inside
the box and could not see much outside it.
A memorable event occurred whilst we were at
Calcutta. That was the arrival of the relieved
Lucknow garrison after its siege by the mutineers.
The garrison came down the river in a steamer
and landed at Prinsep's Ghat near our ship. We
could see every individual as each went ashore.
There were several ladies on board the steamer and
many wounded officers and men. The arrival at
Calcutta of the heroic defenders of Lucknow was
made the occasion of an official ceremonial. The
Peloriis "dressed ship" with flags and fired a salute,
and all the officers and men were assembled on deck
to see the people in the steamer disembark.
We were much struck when at Calcutta on seeing
the adjutants, great birds with huge bills. They
stalked about the streets and performed the office
of scavengers.
CHAPTER XXII
BURMA PASSING FOR LIEUTENANT MADRAS AND
TRINCOMALEE — -THE RED SEA AUSTRALIA
We did not stay long- in the Hooghly as we were
ordered to Rangoon, in Burma, which — owing to
the demand for troops elsewhere — was almost
denuded of its European garrison. Only one
Queen's regiment — the 29th foot- — ^was in the
country, and one half of the regiment was at
Rangoon, and the other half at Thayet-Myo, near
the frontier. The country was disturbed, and there
were threats that a force of the mutinous Sepoys
would come round the Bay of Bengal by land. As
soon as we reached Rangoon preparations were
made for sending to the frontier as many of our
officers and men as could be spared. With the
marines, they formed a naval brigade. All of us
midshipmen went with it.
At that time the East India Company maintained
an Irrawaddy Flotilla Service, the officers of which
were all Europeans ; the seamen were Mahommedan
lascars, or, as our bluejackets called them, calashes.
The vessels were small masted paddle-steamers, and
flats, or commodious house-boats. One of the latter
was lashed alongside each steamer. Our naval
brigade embarked in a steamer and a flat, and went
up the Irrawaddy to a fort called Me-aday, very close
to our then frontier. We stopped at several places
on the way up, amongst them Prome, an interest-
ing place with many pagodas, temples, and monas-
168
A "SEVEN-BELLS MATE" 169
teries, or, as they were generally called, poonghy
houses.
The fort at Me-aday, which was in a very
dilapidated condition, was already accommodating
one Indian regiment, the 4th Madras Native
Infantry, which bore "Assaye" on its colours, and
two companies of another Madras regiment, the
44th. We were attached to the brigade which had
its headquarters at Thayet-Myo five miles in our
rear, that is, lower down the river. We had many
alarms, and made many excursions during the couple
of months that we were on shore.
Whilst we were at Me-aday I went up for the
examination, officially termed "for the rank of
lieutenant," really for that of mate, or, as would be
now said, sub-lieutenant. I could only pass
"provisionally," as three captains or commanders
were necessary for the regular examination in
seamanship. The gunnery and navigation examina-
tion I passed without further postponement. I
returned to Rangoon, where it was expected that
the three captains would be found, but the number
could not be got together until some weeks later
at Maulmain. As soon as this happened I became
an "acting mate," or, as it was generally called in
the service, a "seven-bells mate."
Our brigade became very sickly at Me-aday and
we had several deaths. I was not long back at
Rangoon before the rest of the officers and men
returned. Two regiments, the 68th and 69th, had
come out from England, and one of them had gone
up to Thayet-Myo, so that there was no reason
for keeping our men ashore any longer. The
Admiralty, naturally and properly, had a great
objection to the landing of men-of-war's men if
they were to go any considerable distance from
their ships. It held, and I venture to think held
wisely, that the proper place for a man-of-war's
crew was on board the ship to which it belonged,
170 BURMA
and which might be wanted to go away on urgent
service at short notice. The Admiralty was ready
to make, and did make, exceptions in really great
emergencies like the Indian Mutiny or the Boxer
Rebellion. It was only in crises such as those that
the Board viewed with approval the landing of naval
brigades from ships on distant stations.
Burma sixty years ago was not a pleasant
country to serve in. The chief lines of communi-
cation were the rivers, and as steamers, except
those belonging to the Government, were not
many, people wishing to move about had generally
to go in native boats. The heat was sometimes
very great. The insect pests were extraordinarily
numerous. At meals it was necessary to keep the
tumblers covered. Once on our way up to Me-aday,
when at dinner in the deck house of the flat, such
clouds of insects came in that our whole party had
to leave the table.
From Rangoon we went to Amherst, at the
mouth of the Maulmain Estuary. At Amherst
there were several bungalows used on occasional
visits to the seaside by European residents at
Maulmain. When we were at Amherst it was
the rainy season and they were unoccupied. Our
principal, indeed our only amusement, was to take
chairs on shore with us and sit in the verandahs
of the vacant houses, reading or watching the nearly
incessant rain. In the surrounding country great
quantities of pineapples were grown, and were
extremely cheap. One afternoon some of us
lounging in one of the verandahs gave a young
Burmese a rupee (then about two shillings) to buy
pineapples. He came back with as large a bagful
as he could carry, and followed by two boys, each
with a load of the fruit.
Maulmain was the chief port of the teak trade.
Ships were built there — amongst others H.M.S.
Malacca, a corvette, which ship, after being employed
MADRAS 171
for some time in our Navy, was sold to Japan and
became the well-known Japanese sea-going- training
ship for officers, the Tsukuba-kan.
Our ship could not go up to Maulmain, owing to
her draught of water ; but other ships could, and
at Maulmain, as already mentioned, I passed my
final examination in seamanship and became no
longer a provisional but now a recognised acting
mate. While I was at Maulmain the commissioner
gave a ball, to which I was invited. At the time
of which I am speaking, mates wore one epaulette,
and I appeared for the first time with mine at the
ball. The company was not large. There were
about thirty men, mostly officers of the garrison
and the ships, and exactly twelve ladies.
Our cruises in the Bay of Bengal brought us
occasionally to Madras, where we used to have a
disagreeable time at anchor in the roads. The swell
caused the ship to roll continuously. The only way
in which we could land was in a masula boat, a large
boat with sixteen or eighteen native rowers, and
covered with a stout awning, having at the side
canvas curtains. When the boat got into the surf,
close to the beach, these curtains were drawn and
secured, so that the passengers could see nothing of
what was going on. They could, however, hear the
extraordinary din made by the coxswain and some
of his crew, who uttered loud shouts, apparently
without any meaning. As soon as the boat was
beached the curtains were quickly thrown back,
and, before the passengers could realise what was
happening, they were seized by natives on the watch
for them and were lugged out of the boat and carried
beyond the reach of the surf The stranger often
struggled violently, thinking that he was carried
off by robbers. He was, indeed, robbed to the
extent of having to pay more than was legally due
to the people who had lugged him out of the boat.
Letters were carried between the ships and the
172 MADRAS AND TRINCOMALEE
shore by natives in, or rather on, catamarans. These
were composed of three or four logs. The boatman,
who was quite naked, except for a conical straw hat
without a brim, knelt on the logfs and propelled his
catamaran with a paddle having a blade at each
end. The letter entrusted to him he carried in his
straw hat.
A well-known character at Madras in those days
was a native, supposed to be the chief of the cata-
maran men. He was called by the sailors "Admiral
Cockle," and used to come off in great state in a
masula boat to a newly arrived man-of-war. On
these occasions he wore an admiral's uniform, and
presented for inspection a commission given him by
the midshipmen of one of H.M. ships. His object
in coming on board was to get rupees. We followed
the usual custom and gave him some, and also
decorated him with a medal made out of the tinfoil
capsule of a pickle bottle.
The place of all others which we liked was
Trincomalee. In its snug and beautiful harbour
there was an island called Sober Island, which was
reserved as a sort of recreation ground for the crews
of H.M. ships. There were a couple of bungalows
on the island, in which we could lounge about, read,
and smoke. There was a bay, or lagoon, in which
it was safe to bathe, as sharks were believed not to
visit it. There was also some shooting to be got
on the island, as jungle-fowl were fairly plentiful,
and there were some pea-fowl. Our mess dietary
occasionally included peacock, which was not greatly
relished. It was rather like inferior turkey. We did,
however, highly appreciate the delicious Trincomalee
curries, which — though greatly superior to the Indian
curries — are almost or quite unknown in England.
F'rom Trincomalee we were unexpectedly sent to
the Red Sea and had a long voyag'e to Aden. From
Aden we went on to Jeddah. This place, which is
only forty or fifty miles from Mecca, was prohibited
THE TOMB OF EVE 173
as a place of residence to Christians. After the
Crimean War the British and French Governments
induced the Sultan of Turkey to allow consuls to be
stationed at jeddah. This was resented by the
population and caused a sanguinary riot, in which
the French consul and his wife and the British
consul were murdered. We were sent there, as also
was a French frigate, the Duchayla, which arrived
after us, to support the demands of a mixed British
and French commission. The British commissioner
lived on board our ship.
We remained at Jeddah five months, and a dreary
time it was. We rarely went on shore. There was
not much to attract us in the town. One visit to
the slave market was quite enough to satisfy our
curiosity. One of the gates of the town was called
the Mecca gate, and we were the first Christians who
had ever been allowed to pass through it. A rather
interesting object outside the town was the so-called
Tomb of Eve, who, the inhabitants believe, was
buried here. There were scarcely any native curiosi-
ties to be bought, except black coral beads, the
manufacture of which with a primitive turning lathe
could be watched in several streets. We could buy
moss-agates and cambay stones, well polished ; but
these were brought here and were not local products.
One day the Shereef of Mecca, the grandfather,
I suppose, of the present king of the Hedjaz, came
on board. He was a particularly dignified man,
apparently between forty and fifty years old. Whilst
we were lying at, or rather off, Jeddah, we sighted
the two steamers, Imperador and Imperatriz, which
came out to lay the first telegraph cable in the
Red Sea.
Sometimes we were given forty-eight hours' leave,
and one or two of us, hiring a small native craft or
dhow, used to sail to one of the neighbouring islets
to shoot. We had little sport, though we never
came back with an altogether empty bag. There
174 THE RED SEA
was an Arab at Jeddah whom we knew as "Jack."
He was quite black, though his features were not in
the least negro. He spoke English perfectly. How
he learnt it I never knew. He had been an
interpreter attached to our army in the Crimea. He
was employed by us partly as an interpreter and
partly as an assistant in procuring supplies. He
promised me and one of my messmates that he would
get us into Mecca. His intention was to disguise us
as women and conceal us in the panniers, carried on
each side of a camel, in which women travelled in the
country. If we had gone we should not have seen
much ; but we could have claimed to have visited
Mecca. The captain heard of it and strictly forbade
our going. He said that if anything happened to us
there might arise serious international complications.
After a long investigation, the two men principally
implicated in the murder of the French consul and
his wife and the British consul were condemned and
executed, and we sailed for Suez.
Jeddah had been a dreary place, but Suez was
more so. It was then a shabby little Oriental town.
It boasted what was called a hotel. I had to sleep
in it one night, and in the morning I was covered
from neck to wrists and ankles with flea-bites. This
bore out the Arab saying, that the sultan of the
fleas lives at Jaffa and his grand vizier at Suez.
At Jeddah we were often short of food ; at Suez
we were a little, but not much, better off It should
be noted that the Suez Canal had not been begun,
and that the railway across the isthmus was still
unfinished, small omnibuses drawn by mules con-
necting Suez with the rail-head. A P. & O. steamer
from Bombay came in every fortnight ; beyond that
a steamer in the Red Sea was a rarity.
We met one or two vessels of the Indian Navy —
one of them a fine steam frigate called the Assaye.
She was in admirable order. All that I saw of the old
Indian Navy caused me to form a very high opinion
SHEPHEARD'S HOTEL 175
of it. I thought it a great mistake when, a few years
afterwards, it was abolished. It might, with great
advantage, have been incorporated into the Royal
Navy, as the Bengal, Bombay, and Madras Artillery
and Engineers were incorporated into the Royal
Artillery and Royal Engineers.
Whilst the ship was at Suez, I got leave to go to
Cairo and Alexandria. Cairo was then a thoroughly
Oriental city, with no outward signs of Europeanisa-
tion. There was only one hotel at which a Frank
could put up. This was Shepheard's Hotel, in its
original building a private house rented by Mr
Shepheard from an old princess of the Pasha's
family — the title Khedive not having been invented.
When I stayed at the hotel, Mr Shepheard himself
was there and was particularly kind and obliging.
Each visitor had to have his own servant to wait
upon him at table, or he would have got little to eat.
There were no bells, and to call a servant you had
to clap your hands, which reminded me of the
Arabian Nights. There were at the time no
telegraphs, and, as regards the upper country, no
post office. Travellers who had gone up the Nile —
which they then had to do entirely in dahabiyahs,
as there were no steamboats — depended on the good
offices of other travellers who followed them and
would bring on their letters. To facilitate this, each
dahabiyah was provided by the traveller hiring her
with a flag. A description or a water-colour repre-
sentation of this flag was entered in a book kept
at Shepheard's Hotel, and each entry contained the
name and sometimes the signature of the owner of
the flag. Travellers starting later, on a trip up the
Nile, looked at the book, noted the name and flag,
and — if there were any letters to be forwarded — took
them with them, and, when they met the people for
whom they were intended, handed the letters over.
Many years afterwards I again stayed at Shepheard's,
but at the fine modern hotel which had replaced the
176 THE RED SEA
buildingf of earlier times. I asked for and was shown
the flagf-book. Pieces were cut out of several pages.
This, I was told, was the work of visitors staying in
the hotel, who had a craze for collecting- autographs,
as the book contained the signatures of nearly all the
distinguished personages who had ascended the Nile
in the second and third quarters of the nineteenth
century.
Naturally, Cairo greatly interested us. We went
to the Pyramids on donkeys which at Old Cairo
were carried with ourselves across the Nile in native
boats. My donkey, which was rather fractious, fell
overboard, and was recovered with some difficulty.
He had his saddle on, and it was of course saturated
with water. As it was impossible to replace it, I
hired from a sheikh his blue cotton robe, and put it
on the saddle, so as to have a fairly dry seat. At the
end of the day there was a violent squabble with the
sheikh about the rent of his robe, and, although our
dragoman gave him a thrashing for being an exception-
ally dishonest scoundrel, he and his friends continued
to make such a noise that I ended by buying the
robe outright. It became the donkey-boy's perquisite
when we arrived at our hotel.
Alexandria, when I first saw it, showed a curious
mixture of PVank and Oriental arrangements and
methods. There was a handsome Frank quarter
with fine houses and a large public square, and close
to it was a purely Eastern city. Anyone out after
dark had still, at Alexandria as at Cairo, to carry
a lantern. There were several rather good hotels,
and many restaurants where European meals were
served. Of course it was a far less interesting place
for a hurried visitor than Cairo ; but there were some
things at Alexandria worth seeing. We went to
look at Pompey's Pillar and at Cleopatra's Needle,
then prostrate on the ground. There was much talk
as to the prospect of ever getting it to England.
The railway between Cairo and Alexandria had
BAD FOR THE COW 177
been open for traffic for some time, and already-
carried many passengers. On our way to Alexandria
we called at a place called Tanta, which was holding-
a horse fair. The ordinary road ran parallel and
very near to the railway. After leaving Tanta,
we saw many people on horseback moving along
the road in the same direction as our train. One
horse took fright and bolted with its rider, keeping
up for some minutes with the train, which was going
rather fast. A cow crossing the road got right in
the way of the bolting horse. The latter came into
collision with the cow, knocked it down, and threw
it on its back with its hoofs in the air. The rider
was shot right over the horse's head and landed in a
sitting posture on the cow's belly. I still recollect
perfectly the look of astonishment on his face as we
passed him.
After a stay of nearly nine months in the Red
Sea, we were ordered to Aden. The place was still
in its undeveloped state, but we looked upon it
as a sort of paradise after the Red Sea. I met there
two old schoolfellows of mine, one of them a son
of my old headmaster. Both were officers in the
garrison, and both showed me much hospitality and
kindness. They were amongst the seniors of the
school when I was there, but they both remem-
bered me.
From Aden we went to Trincomalee and had
a very long voyage, part of the time on short
commons, so that we were "six-upon-four."
On arrival at Trincomalee we found orders to
proceed to the Australian station. The ship had
now (May 1859) been nearly two years in com-
mission, and all but a month of that time away
from England. The married officers and men did
not regard with satisfaction the prospect of at
least two years' more absence from home. In
the end, it turned out that the Pelorus remained
in commission five years and four months, and
178 AUSTRALIA
was absent from England five years and three
months. This did not fall very far short of the six
and seven years' commissions of the old war. These
long commissions were a great hardship for officers
and men, especially in days like those of the middle
of the nineteenth century, when communication
between home and our foreign stations was in-
frequent and slow. I have never changed my belief
that these long commissions were unnecessary and
not good for the service.
We had another long voyage to Australia, as we
went without touching anywhere to Sydney. The
change was delightful. The perfection of the harbour
as an anchorage and the beauty of its surroundings
deeply impressed all of us, as was natural at the end
of a sea-voyage of more than sixty days. We had
heard much of the hospitality of the Australians ; but
all that we heard did not prepare us for the warm
and hearty reception given us. Nothing seemed
to be thought too good for us, and no trouble too
great to be taken on our behalf.
Australia in 1859 had not yet completely got over
the effects of the "gold fever." Prices were still
astonishingly high, reminding me of Californian
rates. In the East Indies our washed clothes had
been paid for by the hundred, at prices which in
England would have seemed ridiculously low. I
overheard our boatswain, a veteran who had gone to
sea in George III.'s reign, say at Sydney: "What!
tenpence apiece for washing shirts ! I'd shift 'em end-
for-end first." A rope worn at one end is shifted so as
to bring the less worn end into use. The boatswain
was rather noted amongst us for his quaint remarks.
One day I was standing near him when an African
negro belonging to the ship's company came along
carrying a tub of soapy water. In passing he
unintentionally let some of the water splash against
the boatswain, who shouted to him : " You black
scoundrel! I wish I had you in New Orleans."
AT SYDNEY 179
Slavery still existed in the Southern States.
Addressing" me he said, pointing to the negro :
"There's a thousand dollars, sir, if you had him in
the right place."
The colonial governments made a special
addition to our pay. At Melbourne, where prices
were much higher than at Sydney, the "colonial
allowance," as it was called, given by the government
of Victoria was the largest paid. In the midshipmen's
berth we never saw our colonial allowance. It was
paid directly into our mess fund to cover the cost of
living.
We found, on arrival at Sydney, the commodore
commanding the station in his ship, the Iris, a 26-
gun frigate. He would not allow any officer to wear
plain clothes on shore. This order was not very
exactly obeyed. We were made honorary members
of the best clubs. The celebrated Australian Club
of Sydney, probably the oldest club in the British
overseas dominions, with a list of members including
a multitude of distinguished names, was frequented
chiefly by senior officers. I called there one afternoon
to wait for a friend. I was sitting in the morning-
room and was dressed in plain clothes.
To my dismay, who should come in but the
commodore. I seized a newspaper — it happened to
be the London Times — and held it open in front
of me, so as to afford an effective screen. The
commodore took a chair near me and showed signs
of a determination to make an afternoon of it there.
How long he stayed I cannot say. It seemed to me
a very long time, and never were my arms so tired
as they were by holding up the newspaper until he
left the room and gave me a chance of slipping
away.
The club to which I more often went was the
Union — now one of the best clubs in the world. It
was then in its early days, and occupied a house in
Wynnyard Square. There was another club at
180 AUSTRALIA
which I was always kindly received. This was
the Victoria, situated near the Colonial Houses
of Parliament and frequented by the younger
members. Here I made the acquaintance of one
of the most attractive men I ever met — William
Bede Dalley, afterwards the first Australian Privy
Councillor.
Although it was fifty-six years ago, Sydney was,
even then, a fine city. Several of its clubs have
been mentioned. It had many handsome and well-
filled shops, and many beautiful private houses.
There was an opera house, which was open when I
was there, and at which I heard Lucia di La7nmer-
^nuir^. I used sometimes to go on my friend, Mr
Dalley's, introduction to hear the debates in the
House of Assembly, where I saw the election as
Speaker of the first Sir Daniel Cooper, famous
for his munificent donations in aid of deserving
movements.
The beautiful hall of Sydney University had just
been completed ; and a portrait of its Chancellor
had been hung in it a few days before we arrived.
At this time news was received that Queensland was
to be separated from New South Wales and made
into a self-dependent colony. On my first visit to
Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, many years
after this, I found the city en fete celebrating
Separation Day.
CHAPTER XXIII
PROMOTION RETURN TO ENGLAND
After we had been at Sydney several weeks I was
one day officer of the forenoon watch when the
captain's gfigf, which had taken him on board the
commodore's ship, returned without him ; and
Thomas Shaw, the captain's coxswain, an old
shipmate of mine, and, as I learnt later on, a native
of Newfoundland, came up to me with a report and
added: "Mr Bridge, you are promoted." I had not
expected it and could not at first believe it. Never-
theless it turned out to be true, the date of my
commission, 28th June 1859, making me a lieutenant
when I was just over twenty years and three months
old.
To my regret, for, like most young officers, I found
Australia a very attractive place, I had to return to
England to pass the final examinations in gunnery
on board H.M.S. Excellent, and in navigation and
rather simple mathematics at the Naval College at
Portsmouth. My commission had been chasing me
about the world, having first gone to the Red Sea,
then to the East Indies, and finally to Sydney, where
it reached me in about three months' time. I had a
long voyage before me and some weeks in addition
to complete the examinations which were now held
on fixed days. So that I was likely to be, and in the
end was, more than half a year a lieutenant before I
could be appointed as one to a ship.
The P. & O. Company was then running its first
181 N
182 PROMOTION— RETURN TO ENGLAND
regular line of steamers between England and
Australia ; or rather — as the Suez Canal had not
yet been made — between England and Alexandria
and between Suez and Australia. It was still "The
Overland Route," and was always so called. I was
ordered a passage in the first steamer bound for
Suez. She was the Bojnbay. I forget her tonnage,
but I should say that it was less than two thousand.
We called at Melbourne, anchoring in Port Phillip
Bay, and stayed there two days. Even at that early
period Melbourne was a grand city, finer, it seemed
to me, than San Francisco when I knew it three and
four years before.
I dined one evening at a restaurant, and walked
from the handsomely appointed dining-room through
a door which opened direct on to the dress circle of
a theatre, where I saw an admirably acted play.
Perhaps one of the things of which the Australians
have a right to be proud is their great daily news-
papers. We had all been much impressed by the
ability and tone of the Sydney Morning Herald, and
now I found an equally excellent newspaper at
Melbourne, the Argus, Though the home news
was not very recent, it was a great comfort to us,
after a long absence from England, to get any, and
in these newspapers we got it full and accurate.
After leaving Melbourne we called at King
George's Sound, or Albany, in Western Australia.
There were not then a dozen houses there ; but there
were, in the immediate neighbourhood of the settle-
ment, a good many native savages. Some of these
had picked up a few words of English, evidently
taught them by white men as a joke, and repeated
them with perfect accuracy. As soon as our steamer
had anchored, the second officer was sent on shore
with a mail-bag. There was no wharf so he landed
on the beach, near a little crowd of natives. In
stepping ashore he stumbled and nearly fell on his
face, and ejaculated " Damn it ! " One of the natives
A CORROBOREE 183
immediately remarked, in perfect English, "It's wrong
to swear." This astonished the officer, who, however,
soon found out that the native could not speak another
word of English.
Most of the passengers dined at one of the houses
in the settlement, which was a clean and comfortable
inn. Before dinner we induced some of the natives
to give us a display of spear and boomerang throw-
ing. The spears were stuck into a short bone tube
fixed at one end of a thin oval-shaped piece of wood
and then hurled. The range and accuracy were
remarkable. I have since seen white men throw
boomerangs, but none did so just as those natives
did. The latter made them almost skim along the
ground for some distance, then rise sharply in the
air and come back nearly to the spot from which they
had been thrown.
The steamer's purser arranged with the chief that
the natives should entertain us after dinner with a
corroboree, something between a ballet and a panto-
mime. While we were at dinner the chief came into
the dining-room and surprised us all by remarking
in well-pronounced English : "Can't corroboree naked,
because ladies present." When we recovered from
the effect of this, we found that the words were all
the English that our savage friend knew. Who had
taught them to him I never discovered, but I suspect
that it was one of the passengers. I n itself the remark
was uncalled for, because the natives had not on a
single article of clothing except a kangaroo skin
thrown over the shoulders and reaching but little
below the waist. It was fastened at the throat by
a bit of bone stuck like a pin through two corners of
the skin brought close together.
When dinner was over it was getting dark and
we adjourned to an open space amongst the bushes
not far from our inn. Here the savages had lighted
a fire, which served as the footlights for their perform-
ance. They had marked their bodies with a sort of
184 PROMOTION— RETURN TO ENGLAND
whiteningf, in most cases outlining- the ribs, which
grave them the appearance of skeletons, the whole
scene by the fitful light of the fire being weird. The
performance represented a kangaroo hunt and was
highly realistic. The savage who acted the kangaroo
performed his part so well that in the dim light one
occasionally almost fancied that he really was a
kangaroo. The chief hunter gave the quarry the
cottp de grace so realistically with his spear that for
a moment it looked as if he had actually pierced him.
We went on from King George's Sound to
Mauritius, then to Aden, and from Aden to Suez,
where we landed and crossed the isthmus by railway,
stopping a day or two at Cairo en route, until the
day on which our steamer for Southampton was to
sail. We called at Malta, and I saw that island for
the first time. It was very familiar to me in after
years. We arrived at Southampton on a raw and
chilly November day, fifty-four days after leaving
Sydney. Our steamer from Alexandria to England
was a new and well-appointed paddle-wheel vessel
called the Delta, a great contrast to the Bombay, in
which we had travelled between Sydney and Suez.
The Bombay was a full-rigged barque, and frequently
had her sails set. After we left Mauritius we had
seventy-three passengers on board ; and, as the ship
was of no great size, she was rather uncomfortably
crowded. The Bombay had a long life. She was
enlarged by the addition of an upper deck and ran
on the China and Japan route for many years. At
the end of her career she must have been nearly, if
not quite, the oldest sea-going vessel in the P. & O.
Company's list.
Since the days just referred to, I have made
several voyages in P. &: O. steamers and could
compare conditions on board them with those of
former times. In my first acquaintance with the
P. & O. Company's vessels, smoking, as on board
our men-of-war, was permitted only at certain times
ABOARD THE DELTA 185
and in certain rather restricted places ; and there were
sepoys in uniform, like marines, to see that the rules
were not infringed. The Delta had a smokingf-room ;
the Bombay had not. In the latter vessel, whatever
the kind of weather, if you wanted to smoke at the
appointed times you had to do it on the upper deck
before the mainmast.
Passengers at luncheon and dinner were given
wine, spirits, or bottled beer free. There were other
times, rigidly fixed, when drinks could be obtained,
but they had to be paid for as extras. Champagne
was allowed at dinner twice a week ; but, oddly
enough, not when there was ice on board. Perhaps
it was believed that if champagne were iced more of
it would be drunk. Ice did not last more than
forty-eight hours after leaving port.
The meals in the saloon left nothing to be desired
as far as quantity was concerned ; but, even to
myself, fresh from a midshipmen's berth, they
seemed roughly served. Breakfast was at 8 a.m.
Noon was the hour for luncheon. The table was
not regularly laid for this ; down the middle of the
dining-tables plates of biscuit and small cubes of
cheese were placed alternately. Between the plates
were water-bottles and decanters of sherry, brandy,
and gin. Whisky may have appeared occasionally
but it was uncommon. Tumblers and wine-glasses
were in racks overhead. There was no attendance,
and passengers who wanted luncheon helped them-
selves. At 4 p.isi. we had dinner, a plentiful meal, at
which, after we had been a few days at sea, salt meat
held an important place. We occasionally had good
Indian curries.
The price of a passage from Sydney to South-
ampton had just been reduced from ^125 to ;i^ii5,
a sum, it should be remembered, that covered the
passenger's wine bill. Naval officers returning to
England on promotion, or even when invalided,
unless it was to save their lives, had to pay one-third
186 PROMOTION— RETURN TO ENGLAND
of the passage money. This amounted to a heavy
pecuniary fine in the case of officers making- the
voyage from a distant station ; and no station was
so distant as the Australian. In addition to that,
every officer of the rank of lieutenant had to pay
3s. 6d. a day whilst on passage.
A mate's (or sub-lieutenant's) pay was then 2s. 8d.
a day. The half-pay of a lieutenant on promotion
was 4s. a day. Officers, until arrival in England,
were allowed to choose whether they would take
the full pay of their former rank or the half-pay of
the rank to which they had just been promoted.
Naturally — especially in view of the 3s. 6d. deduction
— I chose the 4s.
I soon found that I had "reckoned without my
host," or rather, without the Accountant-General.
Having elected to take 4s. rather than 2s. 8d., I was
given the former but was informed that, as I had
chosen half-pay, I could only be granted half-pay
time instead of sea-time, which I could have claimed
if I had been content with the smaller sum. The
effect of this decision was serious.
I have already said that my lieutenant's commis-
sion, owing to the movements of my ship as to which
I had no influence, had been chasing me about the
world for nearly three months. It caught me at the
Antipodes and I had to make a nearly two months'
voyage to comply with the order to return to England.
The final examinations were now being held at fixed
dates ; and though I presented myself at the first
which were held after I got to Portsmouth, waiting
for them added another month to the "half-pay"
time, although I was under naval discipline as
attached to H.M.S. Excellent throughout the
examination period. The matter did not end here.
When in January i860 I was at last appointed
to a ship, my appointment was to one which was not
in England, and I had to wait for her return before I
could take up the appointment. Thus the Accountant-
THE FINAL 187
General "got to windward" of me by about seven
months. This might have made a considerable
difference in the retiring allowance, in the event of
a failure of health compelling an early retirement
from the active service. Cases of the same kind
were common enough sixty years ago, so common,
indeed, that they were accepted, not without murmurs,
but without formal protest.
There was a rather large batch of officers at
Portsmouth waiting to go through the final examina-
tions ; some of them were acting lieutenants like
myself. We were attached to the Excellent, but
we lived at the college in the dockyard. We went
up for the gunnery examination and we all passed
it. The other, or so-called "college examination,"
was in navigation and nautical astronomy. The
most difficult part of this examination was finding
the longitude by lunar observation. Solving this
problem correctly was rewarded with a handsome
number of marks, or, as we used to call them,
"numbers." Failure to solve it, combined with
incorrect answers to other questions, would be
likely to result in a candidate's not passing the
examination. We all felt that much depended on
the lunar. Each of us noted our answers to the
questions in the examination papers, and when the
examiners released us we lost no time in comparing
them. My answer to the lunar question differed from
that of every one else ; so did some of the other
answers, but the lunar outdid all in importance. It
was so unlikely that one candidate should be right
and all the others wrong, that it was believed that
I had failed to pass. Much against my will, I was
induced to believe it myself.
We had a farewell dinner at the Keppel's Head
the day before the result of the examination was
made known. As being the only candidate who
had not passed, I was given the most distinguished
place on the right of the president and a toast was
188 PROMOTION— RETURN TO ENGLAND
drunk in my honour, having been proposed In a
speech full of sympathetic references to my dis-
appointment and of hopes that I should do better
next time.
On the following day we were summoned to the
examination room at the Naval College, where the
commander-in-chief would see us and announce the
result of the examination. I was called up by the
admiral before anyone else, and expected a lecture
for not having passed. So far was this from being
the case that it turned out that I had passed first
of all and had obtained marks only ten short of
full numbers. Of course I was warmly congratulated
by my companions. Happily, all had passed. It
was near Christmas and we all went off to our
friends. I was now a "confirmed" lieutenant and
received a commission, not to be acted upon, to
H.M.S. Victorious, an old hulk in Portsmouth
Harbour.
CHAPTER XXIV
ENGLISH CHANNEL AND MEDITERRANEAN
The Algiers was a 91 -gun screw line-of-battle
ship, a two-decker. She had one 68-pounder
mounted as a traversing- gun forward, two 8-inch
guns on each broadside on the lower deck, and
eighty-six 32-pounders distributed between the
lower deck, the main deck, the quarter-deck, and
the forecastle. She had a complement of 870 officers
and men. Her steam-engine was seldom used ;
indeed, except occasionally when entering or leaving
a harbour, all our cruises were made under sail
Like all ships of her class, she was heavily sparred
and rigged.
I had been accustomed to ships in which great
attention was paid to their cleanliness, neatness,
and even decoration. This did not in the least
involve indifference to discipline or neglect of drills
and exercises. My experience of service afloat
has taught me that the smarter in appearance a
ship was the more efficient she was. In the whole
course of my service I came across only one ship
in which decoration seemed to be regarded as of more
importance than drills and exercises. She was not
in reality an exception, because in her case decoration
was only partial and confined to spots which a visitor
would be sure to see. Condemnation of so-called
"spit and polish" was not really sincere, and usually
came from critics who had no feeling of aversion
from slovenliness.
189
190 ENGLISH CHANNEL AND MEDITERRANEAN
No one could have attributed to the Algiers, as
I first saw her, indication of "spit and polish."
Frigates and ships of the line had broad bands of
white along their sides where the g"un-ports were.
This was the origin of the term "chequer-sided."
In the Algiers these bands were not painted, but
whitewashed. On a dry, sunny day they looked well
enough at a distance, but in wet weather they were
soon discoloured and unsightly. In those days
every ship's yards were black, but the lower masts
were usually painted yellow or brown. In the Algiers
they were whitewashed. One could not say that the
ship was dirty, but she certainly was not over-clean.
At a later period of the commission we got a new
captain, and then there was a great change in
her ; she became, in fact, a creditable ship in every
respect.
She had a fine ship's company. She had hoisted
the pendant a few months before a considerable
increase of the fleet and got the pick of the men
unemployed at Portsmouth. The Shannon, the
distinguished Sir William Peel's ship, had only
recently been paid off, and a large portion of her
crew joined the Algiers. The ships afterwards
added to the Channel and Mediterranean fleets
came off very badly as regards manning, and
completed their ships' companies only by entering
" bounty men," generally very poor creatures induced
to enter the Navy by the award of several pounds
in money as bounty. The Algiers had hardly any
of them.
With such a fine ship's company, coming largely
from ships with a high reputation, it is not surprising
that the Algiers, defective in neatness as she was,
could be considered a well-disciplined ship. In
gunnery she was especially efficient. All the officers
of quarters took a keen interest in target practice,
and gave prizes for good shooting. I had, at the
foremost lower deck quarters, the best shot in the
PORTSMOUTH 191
ship. He was a captain of the forecastle, named
Kennedy, and, considering the means at his
disposal, his performances when firing at a target
were remarkable.
Not many days after I joined her, the ship ^yas
ordered into Portsmouth Harbour to have the leading
corners of her screw-propeller cut off. It was
supposed that this would increase her speed. It
apparently did so, but by a trifling amount. Every
ship before entering the harbour at any of our home
ports had to land her explosives ; and every ship
of the line, before going into Portsmouth, had to
hoist out her lower-deck guns. The latter proceed-
ing was rendered necessary by the fact that the
channel was not deep enough to take the ship
unless she were lightened.
Our stay at Portsmouth was not a long one.
The forts on Portsdown Hill were then being
erected, and my cousin — my mother's nephew —
Henry Crowdy, an officer of the Royal Engineers,
was supervising the work on one of them. He and
a brother officer occupied a charming little country
house which had been taken over by the Government,
as it stood close to the site on which the fort was
to be constructed. I, more than once, paid a
pleasant visit to my cousin. The house was to be,
and probably was, pulled down when the fort had been
completed. The old Portsmouth theatre, the theatre
of Mr Vincent Crummies, still existed. It was near
the head of the High Street. I went to it once and
remember seeing bluejackets drinking beer out of
pewter pots in the gallery. A place which proved
more attractive to us was the Blue Bell, the first
one of the name. It was the first music hall of the
modern type which I ever saw. The performances
in it may not have been artistically so good as those
of the present day, but they were in some respects
distinctly better. There was never any indelicacy
about them.
192 ENGLISH CHANNEL AND MEDITERRANEAN
Our ship was attached to the Channel Fleet for
about a year, and was then for about two years
in the Mediterranean. In one of our cruises with
the Channel Fleet we visited St Margaret's Hope,
and anchored about the site of the present great
railway bridge and opposite that of Rosyth Dockyard
which then had not even been thought of. Rosyth
was a tiny place with the remains of an old castle
or tower visible from the anchorage. We could
also see, from on board ship, Dunfermline and its
great church with Robert Bruce's name forming
a sort of balustrade to the church tower. It was
an easy and pleasant walk from the landing-place
to Dunfermline, the people of which always gave
us the kindest reception, almost literally thrusting
their hospitality upon us.
I had already been a good deal about the world
and had seen many places, some celebrated for the
beauty of their aspect, yet I thought I had never
seen any city so beautiful as Edinburgh. I have
visited it several times since, and am prepared to
agree with its citizens when they assert that
Edinburgh is the most beautiful city in the world.
Stockholm and Sydney run it hard, no doubt, but
both of them, to be seen at their best, should be
seen in sunshine. Edinburgh looks beautiful in any
weather.
Whilst lying in St Margaret's Hope we got up a
Channel Fleet Regatta, then a novelty. The ships
were visited by crowds of sightseers. Steamers full
of them came alongside every day. In the Algiers
we thought that, to show our appreciation of the
abundant hospitality extended to us by the people
of Edinburgh and the surrounding country, we
ward-room officers might invite a party of them
on board to luncheon and to see the regatta. Some
sixty or seventy ladies and gentlemen accepted our
invitation. We asked the commander if he would
give an order that the steamers loaded with sight-
AN APPRECIATED LUNCHEON 193
seers should not come alongside until the luncheon
was over. Somehow or other this order was not
given, or, if given, was misunderstood. We took
our guests on to the poop to see one of the best
races in the programme, and when it was over led
them down to the ward-room for the luncheon. The
table had been laid with what I think is called a
cold collation. While we were on the poop, a couple
of steamers, each with hundreds of people on board,
had come alongside. About a thousand of them
came on board the Algiers and spread themselves
about the main deck. Our mess servants, who were
just as desirous of seeing the race as we were, had
gone off to points from which they could get a good
view of it ; the ward-room doors were wide open ;
the sightseers, as their predecessors had always
been allowed to do, streamed in to have a look
at our mess place. Catching sight of the luncheon
on the table, they fell upon it and devoured the whole
of it. When our guests came down from the poop
there was nothing for them to eat but scraps, and
not many of these. However, all took it very good-
humouredly, and there was much laughing and
joking about our unbidden company.
When not cruising, the ships of the Channel Fleet
were kept a good deal at Spithead or in Plymouth
Sound. The Alg-iers used to anchor at the former,
as she was a Portsmouth ship. In bad weather the
anchorage was neither pleasant nor convenient.
Nearly all communication with the shore and with
other ships was impracticable, except by boats under
sail or oars. It was sometimes impossible for a boat
to come alongside a ship. In that case the boat
went under the ship's stern, and to get on board you
had to climb up a Jacob's ladder hanging from the
spanker-boom. The sight of a portly, middle-aged
officer of the civil branch, clambering up a long Jacob's
ladder swung to and fro by gusts of wind, till he
reached the poop of a line-of-battle ship, was enough
194 ENGLISH CHANNEL AND MEDITERRANEAN
to remind the observer that there were snugger
places than Spithead.
One evening after dark a boat came to us from
the flagship of the admiral second in command, with
directions for our commander to go on board at once.
When he went we found that there had been trouble
on board, and that he was to bring back with him to
our ship several men to be confined as prisoners.
The case was one in which means of rapid communica-
tion between the flagship and our ship was urgently-
needed ; but in those days there was no method of
night signalling except by a display of lanterns
directing a very restricted number of evolutions.
The flashing system — not invented by Vice-Admiral
Colomb, but made by him available for naval use —
has now, for many years, rendered it possible to send
at night any message from ship to ship. Of course
it has been greatly developed since its first adoption
in our Navy.
During one of our visits to Spithead, an order
from the Admiralty directed each ship of the line to
send two lieutenants at a time to H.M.S. Excellent,
to be instructed in the new Armstrong gun drill.
The instruction I found deeply interesting and
important. There had been eminent authorities on
gunnery before Sir William Armstrong ; but the
country owed to him, and perhaps even more to his
eminent coadjutor Sir Andrew Noble, an immense
debt for all that they did in advancing gun construc-
tion and gunnery. I saw much of Sir Andrew Noble,
and was a colleague of his on the Government Com-
mittee on Explosives, and learnt to respect his talents,
admire his character, and value his friendship. An
Armstrong 8o-pounder breech-loading gun replaced
our 68-pounder on the forecastle of the Algiers.
The ordinary cruising ground of the Channel
Fleet included Lisbon. There was much to interest
us at Lisbon, and an excellent company was giving
representations at the opera house. There were
WILLIAM FANSHAWE MARTIN 195
frequent masked balls which we thought very
diverting". Going to one of these with several of
my messmates, I found the stairs leading to the
ballroom so crowded that we had to wait in the hall.
Every now and then the barrier at the top of the
stairs was removed and the company ran up with a
rush. Then there came a block, and a fresh crowd
on the stairs. One of the maskers was dressed like
the devil : his tail hung down between the banisters
while we were below in the hall. One of our marine
officers, a merry companion, fond of practical jokes,
quietly tied the tail to one of the banisters. At the
next rush his satanic majesty dashed forward ; his
tail held securely to the banister, and kept with it
the seat of his lower garment. He could not turn
back — or even hold back — but was swept by the
crowd of maskers, tailless, and more than tailless,
into the ballroom.
After the Algiers had been (since I joined her)
about a year in the Channel Fleet, she was un-
expectedly ordered from Lisbon to the Mediterranean,
and remained on that station nearly two years. The
Mediterranean command was held by Admiral Sir
William Fanshawe Martin, the greatest flag officer
of the nineteenth century after the close of the
Napoleonic War. The Navy of the present day is
to a great extent the offspring of the reforms which
he introduced into its organisation, its interior
economy, and its methods of discipline. In his
lifetime he was frequently compared with Lord St
Vincent, but he was an abler man than St Vincent.
He did not, it is true, have so large a stage on which
to show his powers, and he did not win a great
victory at sea : still, within the range of his influence,
he made his views supreme. His appointment to
the command preceded and was immediately followed
by the advent of the armoured sea-going ship. The
Warrior joined the Channel Fleet just as our ship
was on the point of leaving it.
196 ENGLISH CHANNEL AND MEDITERRANEAN
We were stationed for some months in the Bay
of Naples, anchoring- usually off Santa Lucia. We
were at Naples when King- Victor Emmanuel — il Re
Galantuomo — paid his first official visit to it after
the formal incorporation of the two Sicilies into the
kingdom of united Italy. His Majesty had been
there before, as he drove into Naples in a carriage
with Garibaldi : but that was in the early days, and
before annexation had been definitely effected. He
came this time by sea, escorted by a small Italian
squadron and a large French fleet. The French
flagship had a steam-launch, the first man-of-war's
steamboat that any of us had ever seen.
When the king passed our ship we manned yards.
A captain of the main-top climbed up to the top of
the main topgallant mast, and stood on the truck
with the spindle of the lightning conductor between
his feet. He was one of the tallest and biggest
bluejackets in the ship, and one of the oldest, though
he was still under forty. King Victor Emmanuel was
delighted with this performance, and at an entertain-
ment in his honour in the evening, specially spoke to
our captain about it, and sent a gracious message
to the captain of the main-top.
Whilst at Naples we had much sickness on board.
Seven men died, our ward-room second steward
among them. He was an excellent young man, and
we regretted him very much. The sickness was
a fever. Only two officers caught it — one of the
assistant surgeons and myself — and we both had
it very badly. Though I was doing duty again
in a few weeks, I felt the effects of the disease for
many months afterwards. Every patient who
recovered had jaundice or acute rheumatism ; I had
the bad luck to have both. The pain of the acute
rheumatism was very severe.
Orders had been given that we were to land
our smooth-bore muskets and receive muzzle-loading
rifles in exchange. When we were in the Medi-
IMPROVED MUSKETRY 197
terranean, an officer of marines with a staff of
specially qualified sergeants was sent out to train
the seamen in the use of the rifle. Two of these
sergeants were embarked in each ship as instructors,
and proved themselves highly efficient. This was
the way in which " musketry " was introduced into
the Navy.
We were for about five months on the coast of
Syria, usually anchoring" at Beyrout. There had
been disturbances in the Lebanon, and a massacre of
Christians, and the French had sent an army to Syria
to see that justice was done and order maintained.
The late Lord Dufferin, afterwards the eminent
diplomatist, was staying at Beyrout as a private
visitor. He did admirable work in sheltering refugees
and rescuing survivors of the massacre. He was
afterwards appointed a commissioner, thus beginning
his long and distinguished public service.
Russian, French, and British men-of-war were
frequently at Beyrout. A Turkish man-of-war came
occasionally. The whole French Levant Fleet under
Vice-Admiral Barbier de Tinan was at Beyrout for a
long time. It was a powerful fleet of line-of-battle
ships, and was in first-rate order. Efficiency of the
masted wooden ships of the line had, in this fleet,
reached its highest point. This was just as fleets of
the kind were about to be superseded for ever by the
iron or steel armoured navies. One of the French
junior flag officers was the celebrated Rear-Admiral
Paris, an early advocate of the substitution of steam
propulsion for sails in ships of war. He took great
interest in the engineer branch, and did his best to
get its position in the French Navy improved. He
asked our captain what the status of our chief
engineer was. When the captain told him that he
had the relative rank of commander in the Navy
and lieutenant-colonel in the Army, Admiral Paris
exclaimed, " Position superbe ! "
While we were in the Levant an opportunity was
o
198 ENGLISH CHANNEL AND MEDITERRANEAN
given us to see something of the Holy Land. The
ship called at Jaffa, and with several other officers
I went for a tour of ten days. We visited Jerusalem,
the Jordan, the Dead Sea, and Bethlehem. In those
days, except the beginning of one which the French
were making from Beyrout to Damascus, there were
no roads in the whole country, only tracks. All
travelling had to be done on horseback. The
weather was intensely hot, the power of the sun
in the middle of the day being almost intolerable.
After our tour was over we suffered much from boils,
usually of great size, and extremely painful. We
took tents with us, and at night we slept either
in the camp which we pitched or in the monasteries,
of which there were several, Latin and Greek, in the
country. One of these, Mar Saba, was a remarkable
place. It was situated in a dreary wilderness and
was like a great fortress. As the Bedouins had
recently been very troublesome, we were accompanied
by a guard of Kurds, mounted on very fine horses.
My eldest sister was married to an officer in the
Royal Engineers, and was with her husband at Corfu
where we then kept a large garrison. I had a few
days' leave granted to me so that I went and visited
my sister. It gave me my first sight of the
fascinating island of Corfu, where I often was
afterwards. When my leave was nearly up I was
allowed to take a passage in H.M.S. Megcera, a
troopship, to Malta, where I had left my own ship.
When we reached Malta it turned out that all the
ships had been ordered to Gibraltar, and I had to
go on to that place to rejoin the Algiers. The
concentration of ships at Gibraltar was ordered in
consequence of the so-called "Trent affair," and the
probability of complications with the United States.
Gibraltar would have been a convenient place from
which to make a further move. Fortunately the
apprehended complications did not ensue.
When towards the end of 1862 the Algiers\iz.6i
PAID-OFF 199
been nearly four years in commission, she was
ordered home to be paid off. I had belonged to
her for very nearly three years. We were paid off at
Portsmouth and, as the rule then was, I, in common
with all the other commissioned officers, was put on
half-pay.
CHAPTER XXV
COAST OF IRELAND THE WEST INDIES AND NORTH
AMERICA AGAIN
In the early part of 1863 I was appointed to H.M.S.
Hawke, district ship of the coastguard at Queens-
town. I did not serve all the time in her, as I was
in command of a gunboat ; first the Griper, and then
of the Blazer, usually employed on the west coast
of Ireland. The position of the Hawke was strange ;
there was an admiral at Queenstown and he flew his
flag in a stationary line-of-battle ship. When I was
there he was a Rear- Admiral of the White. Conse-
quently his flagship, and all other ships calling at
Queenstown, hoisted the white ensign. The Hawke
was directly under the orders of the Admiralty, repre-
sented by the controller of the coastguard, and always
hoisted the red ensign. In my gunboat I had to do
the same. The Hawke was what was called a block-
ship. She was an old sailing 74-gun ship of the line,
which had had her poop removed and the number of
her guns reduced to sixty. She took coastguard men
to sea for their yearly practice course, and also received
on board for drill, 200 at a time, the local Royal
Naval Coast Volunteers, a sort of militia composed
of coast fishermen. They were a fine lot of men, but
almost incredibly dirty.
When I joined the Hawke I had been just ten
years in the service ; and in those ten years many
and great changes had taken place in the Navy. As
far as regards more than three-fourths of it the
200
IRELAND 201
personnel had become a continuous service body.
When a captain now commissioned a ship he had
not to hunt for his sailors where he could pick them
up. They were sent to him in drafts from the depot
ships and training- ships. The stokers were still
mostly "non-continuous service" men: but their
numbers were not yet large. The effect of the
institution of boys' training ships was beginning- to
make itself felt ; and the seamen part of a ship's
company was in a fair way towards being composed
entirely of bluejackets who had entered the Navy in
their teens. This transformation of the pe^'sonnel,
both in itself and in its more or less direct effects,
was the g-reatest change made in the Navy since
I first knew it. Great as have been the changes in
viateriel, the changes connected with the personnel
and organisation have been fully as great. About
the same time the master's branch of the Navy
was renamed, masters being now styled navigating
lieutenants.
I enjoyed my service on the coast of Ireland
immensely ; I liked the people of all classes. In many
country houses I was received with the utmost kind-
ness. Being the namesake of a great uncle, who had
in former years commanded the Horse Artillery at
Ballincollig, and who was still remembered in some
very agreeable families, I had a most hearty recep-
tion. Some naval and military officers at Queens-
town and a few civilian friends got together a
pack of beagles, which we used to follow on foot on
Saturdays during the season. Nearly all the lads
in the neighbourhood and the boys old enough to
run joined us. They were very amusing and
delightful companions. I will mention two of the
things that I learnt in Ireland. Nobody knows how
to cook a salmon as well as an Irish cook. If you
want to know how good an Irish stew can be, you
must taste it in Ireland ; out of that country you get
only poor imitations of the real thing.
202 COAST OF IRELAND
After I had been several months on the Irish
station I was offered the appointment of first
lieutenant of H.M.S. Fawn just commissioned at
Sheerness. I went off at once to join her. She
had her complement full ; the men having been sent
on board from the Sheerness barracks and other
depots. The ship herself had been rigged and had
received her armament and principal stores before
the pennant was hoisted. The Faivn was a com-
mander's command. She was a 17-gun corvette of
750 tons, and had 175 officers and men. The seven-
teenth gun was an Armstrong 40-pounder breech
loader. On each broadside were mounted two
Armstrong B.L. 20-pounders and six 34-cwt. (old
pattern) 32-pounder smooth-bores. The marines
and the bluejackets of the "small arms" company-
all had muzzle-loading rifles. The old smooth-bore
pistols were replaced by revolvers ; but the boarding
pikes and tomahawks remained. The ship had
engines of 150 horse-power and could carry 100
tons of coal. She was a full-rigged ship, a fairly-
good but not very fast sailer, and was rather but
not especially handy under sail.
We towed out to Bermuda — always under sail —
a gunboat. We called at Madeira on the way.
When we arrived at Bermuda we received official
information that the red - and - blue ensigns were
abolished in the Navy, which, in future, was to fly
only the white. From Bermuda we were ordered to
Jamaica, and I had a repetition of my former experi-
ence in the Medea in looking for slavers in the West
Indies. We never saw one. Before we had been
long on the station our captain was invalided and
succeeded by another who was a member of the
House of Commons. This was probably the last,
or at any rate nearly the last, case of a Member
of Parliament commanding a sea-going ship on a
foreign station.
We had some fairly exciting times. When cruising
REVOLUTION IN HAYTI 203
we were met at sea by a vessel from Jamaica, which
brought orders for us to return with all speed to Port
Royal as there was an insurrection in the island.
When we arrived the troubles were nearly over.
We saw enough of the condition of Jamaica to feel
sure that the virulent persecution of Governor Eyre
in England was monstrously unjust. Like nearly
everyone who had been on the spot, we were
convinced that Governor Eyre had saved Jamaica
from a terrible catastrophe.
One of the many revolutions for which the republic
is or was noted having broken out in Hayti, we were
sent to Cap Haytien to protect the foreign residents.
The revolution had begun there, but had not spread
very far. The government sent a considerable army
to besiege the town, and the siege operations were in
full progress when we arrived, and continued until we
were relieved by another ship. The revolutionists
had fortified Cap Haytien with great skill. There
were long lines of trenches on the hillsides, and on
a stretch of even ground between the town and
the besiegers' position. Thousands of empty flour
barrels were used as gabions.
The besiegers cannonaded the town almost daily,
and there was much excitement to be got out of a
walk in the streets. You could see the shot in the
air coming towards you. One day I was walking in
one of the principal streets of Cap Haytien when the
place was being cannonaded. One shot that I saw
plainly pitched on a house less than a hundred yards
behind me. It fell on a poor woman lying ill in bed
and killed her instantly. I saw another woman, also
an occupant of the house, rush out of the door, pick
up a small barrel that was standing near, and dash
it to the ground in a burst of rage, but she was not
in the least frightened. It was remarkable how little
the inhabitants minded the almost daily cannonade
to which they were subjected. A well-dressed woman,
at an open window which I passed, said to me in a
204 WEST INDIES AND NORTH AMERICA AGAIN
mournful voice, "Ah! capitaine ; on a tue une
femme," but she showed no sign of fear, and did
not seem to think of taking- shelter.
I tried to find out what had become of another
shot which I saw fall near the street in which I was.
It had gone in through one side of a small house,
and had come out through the other. The owner
of the house was sitting in a chair with its back
against the wall just where the shot came out :
fortunately for him he had his feet resting on the
rung between the two front legs of the chair, rather
more than a foot above the ground. The shot passed
under his feet and lodged in a little mound near. He
continued to sit as if nothing had happened. A
friend of his quietly walked to the shot, picked it up,
and took it into the house, where he wrapped it up
in a blanket, and put it in a hammock to keep it, as
he explained to me, as a souvenir.
On the level ground outside the town there rose
a curious conical mound on which there was an
old bastioned fort. The besiegers occupied this at
the beginning of the operations, and by their fire
from it had greatly annoyed the revolutionists. The
latter determined to get possession of it. We
witnessed the assault. It was most gallantly con-
ducted, and was completely successful.
One of my messmates had made the acquaintance
of a personage who held the rank of general in the
revolutionary army. We went together to call on
this officer to ask him for a pass to go through the
lines and inspect the captured fort. He was a
German tailor and very stupid, and had not the
smallest military authority. In fact he appeared to
have nothing to do with the Army, and we suspected
that his title of "general" was given as payment of
a bill. We were directed to the house of a certain
colonel who was holding an important position on
the staff. We found him at home having a nap, as
he had been up all the previous night. He was a
A RECORD SHARK 205
pure negro, very intelligent and very polite. He
explained that the grant of a pass was impossible ;
but insisted on our remaining in his house and
having some refreshment. We sat in a narrow room
with a table running its whole length, our host on
one side, my messmate and I on the other. Presently
there was a terrific din next door. A shot had hit
the house. This was not pleasant. Not long after-
wards there was a louder noise ; a shot had penetrated
the roof of the house in which we were. Then came
a third shot, this time into the house on the floor
just above our heads. It was becoming most un-
pleasant. Our host never moved a muscle. We
tried our best to look as if we did not mind it, and
I hope we succeeded. I felt a great desire to rush
from the house; my companion said to me in
English — our host spoke only French — that he
wished to do the same. However, we decided that
it would not do for us to let what we wished to do
be known : so we remained until we had consumed
the refreshment hospitably offered us by the colonel.
No more shot came near the house while we were in
it ; and we were a little more comfortable when we
left it.
Once when we were cruising between Jamaica
and Hayti, between noon and i p.m., we sighted an
enormous shark. It came near enough to the ship
to allow us to make a rough measurement of its length.
Marking on the bulwarks a spot opposite the point
of its head or nose, and another spot opposite its
tail, we measured the distance between them and
found it forty-eight feet. I had never seen or heard
of a shark of anything like this length. I have
seen a shark caught and measured on board, because
it was a very large one ; but it was only thirteen feet
long. The great fish we saw was undoubtedly a
shark. About two days afterwards I boarded an
American vessel at sea. I asked the captain if he
had any news ; he said, " No, but we've seen a terrible
206 WEST INDIES ASB NORTH AMERICA AGAIN
big fish," We did not wish to be looked upon as
spreaders of one more astounding fish story, so we
agreed not to say much about it. Not long after-
wards our new captain took command of the ship ;
we anchored at Port-au-Prince, and the captain
landed to see the British Minister. One of the first
things that the captain said after he returned was :
"You can tell your fish story as much as you like.
Several vessels that have arrived lately at Port-au-
Prince report having sighted a great shark."
Occasionally several ships of our squadron were
at Port Royal at the same time, and their first
lieutenants naturally met each other often. Amongst
them was Lieut. Penrose Fitz-Gerald, well known
afterwards as an admiral. As a seaman he had no
superior. As an authority on the rig of ships' boats
and on the cut of boats' sails he had few equals.
His capacity for telling one where to put the masts
in a boat and what the size and cut of the sails might
be was extraordinary. He helped me, amongst many
others, when I was a captain, and I had every reason
to be grateful to him for his excellent advice. Our
squadron was almost a school of boat -sailing.
Admiral Sir Algernon de Horsey was commodore
in command at Port Royal. To him we owe the
celebrated de Horsey rig for "boom" boats, that is
launches and pinnaces, which was a very great im-
provement on the older rig. Our captain gave me
leave to rig our pinnace de Horsey fashion.
We spent a good deal of time in and near the
Bahama Islands. The American War of Secession
was going on during about two years of my second
period of service on the North America and West
Indies station, Nassau, capital of the Bahamas,
was a point of departure and return of the many
blockade-runners which tried, often successfully, to
carry goods to the confederate ports. One day I
counted thirty -six blockade - runners in Nassau
harbour. They were all steamers, nearly all with
RUNNING THE BLOCKADE 207
paddle-wheels. There were not many screw-steamers
amongst them. Most of them were what in those
days were considered fast, but some, even for that
time, were slow. Success in running- the blockade
did not depend entirely on speed. At Nassau I went
on board the last vessel that succeeded in running
into Wilmington in North Carolina, and in coming
out again when the blockade was very close. She
was a screw-steamer of no great size ; she was usually
spoken of as a "pig boat" because she had traded
between Ireland and Bristol ; her extreme speed was
only seven knots. Our business was to see that the
United States' cruisers did not attempt to make
captures in British territorial waters. The American
naval officers behaved with great discretion ; and,
though they were very stiff in enforcing their belli-
gerent rights, they had perfect respect for our
rights as neutrals. We respected their attitude, and
there was much friendliness between our Navy and
theirs.
The Fenians in the part of the United States
near the Canadian border had become very trouble-
some. They actually made an armed raid into
Canada. They had been extending their efforts, and
had established a camp and exercise ground close to
the border of New Brunswick. We were ordered to
St John and then to St Andrews on the Sainte
Croix river. The Fenian camp was plainly visible
from the anchorage, and it was generally possible to
see the armed men at exercise. The only shots that
were exchanged were at boats suspected by one side
or the other of belligerent activity, so that the shot
fell into the water. We took a battery of the Royal
Field Artillery from St John to St Andrews, and on
a subsequent trip a battalion of volunteer infantry,
specially raised at St John. The men were splendid
fellows, and the battalion, though it had only just
been raised, was in admirable order.
We spent several weeks cruising on the coasts of
208 WEST INDIES AND NORTH AMERICA AGAIN
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, anchoring" from
time to time off various villages. In nearly every one
there was a vessel being- built. The men were farmers
or fishermen in the suitable season, and shipwrights
during the rest of the year. The rapidity with which
they built ships and the number of them was extra-
ordinary. I have seen several launched in one day
at St John. The vessels were usually from about
four hundred to one thousand tons, and three-masted
barques or full-rigged ships. As soon as they were
launched they were loaded with timber, mostly with
three-inch plank known as "deals," and sent off to
Europe, where they were often sold with their cargo.
Many of them had what was called a "full" deck
cargo : that is to say, the deck was loaded with
timber, mostly deals, to a height of several feet above
the bulwarks. The vessels thus loaded had a heavy
list to one side or the other ; but those who were
experienced in their navigation held that there was
nothing dangerous in this.
CHAPTER XXVI
PORTSMOUTH THE CHANNEL
In the early part of 1867 I received an appointment
to H.M.S. Excellent, to study for the post of gunnery
lieutenant. We had been wintering at St John, New
Brunswick, and there was no steamer communication
between that place and the United Kingdom. Conse-
quently I had to take my passage in a sailing-vessel.
She was a Nova Scotia barque of 450 tons ; she
carried a half-deck load of timber : in other words,
she was loaded on the upper deck up to the top of the
bulwarks. She had a half poop, the deck of which was
some three and a half or four feet above the level of the
upper deck, so that there was a small space on which
walking- was possible. The main cabin under the
poop was light and airy, and I had an excellent sleep-
ing cabin. In addition to her cargo of timber, the
barque carried five hundred boxes of the Nova Scotia
red -herrings known as " Digby chickens." My
luggage was stowed near these, and my things smelt
of red-herrings for weeks after I reached England.
The crew was composed of a captain, two mates,
seven sailors, and a cook, who also did duty as
steward — eleven hands all told. There was a small
boy on board but he was not really a member of the
crew or a passenger. He had been found wandering
about Charleston in South Carolina, having lost both
his father and mother, by a former captain of the
barque, and taken on board out of kindness ; he was
too young to do any work, and received no pay, but
200
210 PORTSMOUTH— THE CHANNEL
was fed. I was the only passenger, and while the
captain, the mate not on watch, and I were at meals,
the small boy used to sit on the deck in the cabin
resting against the bulkhead. He was a very nice
intelligent boy, but at first was dreadfully dirty. I
asked him when he had washed himself all over last,
and he replied, " Last summer, at Miramichi." I
induced him to begin by washing his face and hands,
and gradually managed to get him to wash the whole
of his body. As a reward I used to give him lessons
in reading, writing, and simple arithmetic, which he
specially asked for.
The cook had been an admiral's cook for several
years, and was an artist. As long as the fresh pro-
visions lasted, we lived like "fighting cocks." The
weather was intensely cold, and our fresh meat held
out for three or four days. We all fared alike —
officers, crew, and passenger. The passage money
was small, but passengers were expected to provide
their own food. I put mine into the common stock
at the beginning, and had no cause to regret it. Our
passage to Greenock lasted twenty-one days. It
might have been shorter, but the captain considered
it better to keep the ship lying-to for three days in a
heavy westerly gale, which caught us soon after we
had put to sea. The captain, seeing that I had my
sextant on board, asked me to do the navigating work,
which I did until the day before we arrived at Greenock.
I remember that as we passed Lamlash the Arran
hills were covered with snow.
I completed the gunnery course in the Excellent.
It may be mentioned that I was the first officer in
the Navy to be examined in submarine mining,
counter-mining, and torpedo work ; and just before
I had completed the college course I was offered the
appointment of flag-lieutenant to Admiral Sir Alfred
Ryder. The then First Sea Lord of the Admiralty
told me that I ought to take it. So I did. I confess
that I was sorry to discontinue my connection with
OLD AND NEW 211
the Excellent, as I was greatly interested in gunnery
and the other matters connected with it. Great
changes were being made. Electricity was being
brought into naval use ; submarine warfare was
beginning to be regarded as a practical possibility
of the future ; protection of ships with armour and
means of attacking the armour were matters of daily
experiment. We still adhered to the same old appli-
ances and methods. Ships still carried boarding-
pikes and tomahawks. The cutlass-drill, though less
elaborate than it had been, still took a long time to
learn. The fencing master of the Excellent had
introduced great improvements. He was highly
thought of by the officers, and was a general
favourite. He seemed to take his troubles with
equanimity. One day when he was giving a fencing
lesson he said to an officer, " I had a misfortune on
Tuesday night — I lost my wife, but I've got my eye
on another."
My new chief first hoisted his flag in H.M.S.
Bellerophon as second-in-command of the Channel
Fleet. We went for a long sea cruise of several
weeks off the mouth of the Channel, not touching
anywhere till we returned to our respective home
ports. A despatch vessel occasionally came out with
mails, and once or twice brought us fresh beef and
vegetables. The ships were all "iron-clads," as they
were then called, and cruised nearly all the time under
sail. They were very slow, and most of them were
very unhandy. After the cruise my chief shifted his
flag to H.M.S. Penelope, the first double-screw
armoured man-of-war of any considerable size. She
had two stern-posts and two rudders, or practically
two complete sterns under water, each with its own
screw.
Our cruising now took us much to Lisbon. We
left the Tagus occasionally for more or less prolonged
cruises off the coasts of Spain and Portugal. Cruis-
ing in a squadron of armoured ships under sail, in
212 PORTSMOUTH— THE CHANNEL
frequent fogfs and even more frequent gales of wind,
usually on a lee shore, was not a pleasant occupation.
In one gale the waves rose to a height which I have
never seen equalled in the Atlantic, though they were
perhaps surpassed by those encountered off the Horn
and between Tasmania and New Zealand. Admiral
Colomb's system of flashing signals was now being
generally used in the Navy. One night in the height
of a gale of wind we thought the Mmotaur flagship
was flashing to us. It turned out to be the alternative
hiding and exposure caused by the waves of the light
carried in her main top as the mark of an admiral's
ship.
In February 1869 I received at Lisbon my
promotion to the rank of commander. I was not
quite thirty years of age, and had just completed
sixteen years of service, nearly all of it at sea and
most of it on distant stations. I have now arrived
at a date at which the old Navy "of hemp and
canvas," of rude and primitive methods of manning
ships of war, of putting ships in commission and
of paying them off, had passed away for ever.
The sailless man-of-war had already appeared in
squadrons. The breech-loading ship's gun had
not, indeed, established itself in the Navy, but its
eventual and not far distant adoption was certain ;
the cast-iron gun was being displaced by the built-
up gun. The continuous service system had now
been all but universally accepted by the seamen.
In very many ways the Navy was being turned
into the highly centralised institution which it
became by the end of the nineteenth century.
One of the most striking changes was the
diminishing amount of service in blue water, and
the increase in the amount of service in harbour
or on shore. In the third quarter of the nineteenth
century, most officers and men were at sea from two
hundred and fifty to three hundred days out of every
three hundred and sixty-five. In the last quarter the
THE PERIOD OF CHANGE 213
proportions were reversed, and there were not many
officers and men who had been in blue water ninety
days in a year.
There are considerable numbers of officers and
men still in the vigour of life who can remember the
Navy as it had now become, and I should be perform-
ing an unnecessary and useless task if I were to go
on describing" life afloat with the same detail as I
ventured to use in recording my recollections of the
sea service of earlier days.
CHAPTER XXVII
MEDITERRANEAN DEVONPORT CHINA
In the early autumn of 187 1 I had an opportunity
of visiting- the scenes of the then recent battles in
France. My brother Dunscomb was already in
Germany, and another brother, Jack, and I went
to join him. He could not, however, remain with
us, as his leave was about to expire. We two,
therefore, after excursions in the Rhine country and
Switzerland went to Alsace and Lorraine. We
visited the battlefield of Worth, where the traces
of military operations were still fresh. The scene
of the extraordinary gallant but ruinous charge of
the French cavalry had evidently not been touched.
Even pages from the music-books of the bandsmen
were still lying on the ground in large numbers.
At the hotel at Strassburg at which we stayed, the
great window on the first staircase landing had been
smashed by a shell and was still unrepaired. The
battlefields round Metz looked much as they must
have looked very soon after the fighting. Between
Ste. Marie -aux-Chenes and St. Privat the fallen
officers of the Prussian Guard had been collected
and interred in a little walled enclosure by the
roadside. Almost everywhere else the killed had
been buried where they fell, and the ground was
studded with little wooden crosses marking the spot
where each soldier had met his death. A visit to
these scenes enabled one to understand the course
of the fighting.
COAL-ENDURANCE 215
My service as commander took me to the
Mediterranean, to Devonport, and to China. The
last station was quite new to me, though I had
served on it when it was combined with the East
Indies station. My experience then was confined
to the East Indies. I was now commander of my
old chief, Sir Alfred Ryder's flagship, H.M.S.
Audacious, a double screw armoured ship fully
rigged as a barque. We had a muzzle-loading
armament of 7-inch and 9-inch wrought-iron rifled
guns behind armour, and four old 8-inch smooth-
bore cast-iron guns converted into 64-pounder
muzzle-loading rifles on Sir William Palliser's
system. These last four pieces were mounted on
old -pattern wooden carriages with trucks almost
exactly like those on board the ships of Sir Francis
Drake and Lord Howard of Effingham. No one
can say that the Navy, at any rate the Navy of
forty years ago, discouraged conservatism. We had
also on board two 20-pounder Armstrong breech-
loaders, specially supplied to the ship as a defence
against torpedo attack, which was then beginning
to demand attention.
We went to China by the Mediterranean and the
Suez Canal. From Aden we made direct for Point
de Galle in Ceylon. It was in the early part of the
year in the north-east monsoon, and we encountered
a light wind on the port bow and a smooth sea.
The question of "coal-endurance," or the distance
which a ship could steam without assistance from
sails, had not been brought into the prominence
which it afterwards reached owing to the able and
public-spirited efforts of Vice- Admiral Philip Colomb
and his brother. Sir John Colomb. It became very
acute when lumbering armour-clads, which could do
but little under sail, had to run long distances from
port to port. Steamers were sometimes reduced to
strange devices. Just before I joined the service,
a small steam-vessel belonging to the Mediterranean
216 MEDITERRANEAN— DEVONPORT— CHINA
squadron — I used to meet her captain in after years
— ran out of coal on a voyage to Malta. She put
all her spare spars into the furnace, then some of
her boats, and ended up with burning the midship-
men's chests.
We had to take in an extra supply of coal at
Aden. The largest compartment in the ship, called
the "bag-flat," was cleared out and then filled with
three hundred tons. This quantity and the stock in
our bunkers just enabled us to steam to Point de
Galle. We called at Singapore and Saigon, and then
had another struggle against the still fresh north-east
monsoon to reach Hong-Kong, which our restricted
coal supply just and only just enabled us to do.
We arrived at Hong-Kong in February 1875.
It had not entirely recovered from the effects of a very
severe typhoon in the previous November. The
popular belief in the Far East was that the typhoon
season ended in October ; just like the popular belief
in the West Indies about hurricanes —
"July, stand by !
August, you must,
September, remember !
October, all over."
I came across a similar belief in the South Seas,
though, of course, south of the Line the months
named were different. The truth is now known. It
is that, though typhoons and hurricanes are more
common in the "season," they occasionally occur at
other times. Traces of the damage done by the
typhoon mentioned, which were still to be seen at
Hong-Kong, showed how violent it had been. In a
ravine-like valley near the public gardens, a small
Roman Catholic church had been finished shortly
before the storm. With the exception of the wall at
one end it was absolutely levelled with the ground.
A large house built for a European resident and
very solidly constructed of the granite found in large
HONG-KONG 217
quantities on the island of Hong-- Kong, had one
corner cut off from top to bottom, almost as if
it had been done with a gigantic knife, so that
you could look right into the rooms.
In 1875 Hong-Kong-, or rather Victoria, was
already a fine populous city. The Peak, which
at a later visit I found covered with hotels, barracks,
and private houses, then contained only two
bungalows — one, the g-overnor's summer residence,
a very modest dwelling, and the other, a small house
for the government officials, who occupied it in turn.
The great reclamation, which has now left the club
house and the recreation g-round well inland, had
not been begun. What is now a nice place or square
lined with hotels and other fine buildings was then
the water's edg-e at which stood the main landing-
place — Pedder's Wharf. The jinricksha had not
then reached Hong-Kong. The only mode of con-
veyance for people who would not walk was the chair
carried on Chinamen's shoulders. The chair coolies
were perfect adepts in getting- a stranger into a chair
whether he wished to use it or not. In stepping-
ashore at Pedder's Wharf you had to be careful that
you didn't step into a chair deftly placed to catch
you. I once saw an unwary visitor, landing- at
Pedder's Wharf from a steamer, step into a chair
quickly pushed under his feet at the upper step of
the landing-place. Before he had time to look round
he was hoisted in the chair on to the coolies'
shoulders, being obliged to sit down on the seat
for fear of falling- out. The coolies at once hurried
off at a smart pace, their involuntary fare loudly
shouting at them all the abuse that his astonishment
allowed him to remember. He dared not move
or he would have come to the g-round with a crash.
He couldn't reach the coolies with his stick as the
chair poles were too long-. The' coolies paid no
attention to his abuse ; in fact, neither of them
moved a muscle of his countenance.
218 MEDITERRANEAN— DEVONPORT—CHINA
Altogether I spent more than two years and
a half on the China station. I had an opportunity,
in company with several other officers, of visiting-
Peking- and going to the Nankow Pass to see the
Great Wall of China. We went to Tientsin in one
of the small vessels belonging to the squadron, and
made that place the starting-point of our excursion.
There were then two ways of getting to Peking —
either by the river, which against the stream was a
slow mode of travelling, or by cart drawn by mules.
We chose the latter, and were two nights and part of
two days on the way. There were no roads, but
only tracks. The country, however, was level. The
mule cart was an uncomfortable conveyance to travel
in. It had no springs and the passenger suffered
much from jolting, especially on rough ground.
I took with me a small horsehair mattress which
I doubled up and laid on the bottom of the cart,
so that I could sit on it. This saved me from some,
but by no means from all, bruises. We stopped for
the night at Chinese inns — huge courtyards with
bedrooms like cells in a monastery on three sides.
Meals could be obtained in a restaurant attached to
the inn, which could be entered from the roadway.
As, like most Europeans, we found the Chinese food
generally unpalatable, we took our food with us, and
it was prepared by our servants in the inn kitchen.
The fleas in the inns were innumerable. I had
provided myself with a sheet sown up at the sides so
that it made a bag. Into this I got when retiring to
rest. This kept most of the fleas out, but not quite
all of them. I gave up trying to sleep in Chinese
inns and slept in my cart in the courtyard, where
the fleas were less but the smells more numerous.
Peking, at my first visit in 1876, had no
perceptible sign of Europeanisation, unless it were
that a few houses in it had been built for some
of the foreign legations. I found the city in-
tensely interesting, and greatly enjoyed our stay
THE GREAT BELL 219
there. There had been a severe and prolong-ed
drought in Northern China, and the country round
Peking- had suffered from it much. It was still
unbroken when we were on our excursion. Outside
the gate on the northern side of the city, by which
we left it on our way to Nankow, there was a
temple with a huge bell. This was said to be
the heaviest suspended bell in the world, the great
bell of Moscow — which I have also seen — being
on the ground. It was certainly suspended, as it
hung from an arrangement of short wooden beams,
supported by a massive framework of timber. The
lower edge of the bell was on a level with the
ground, and the earth had been dug away from
beneath it so that it did not touch the ground.
It was struck by a beam of wood suspended
horizontally, and capable of being swung to and
fro like a battering ram against the side of the bell.
We had been told before we saw it that the Chinese,
who rarely allowed the bell to be struck, believed
that if it were sounded rain would fall. The guardian
would not give us leave to strike it ; but one of our
party who did not know this swung the beam till it
struck the bell and produced a quite musical sound.
The guardian was greatly distressed, and only
regained cheerfulness after receiving a handsome
donation. Even then he did not seem very happy,
so I said to him through the interpreter, "We shall
now have rain." We had hardly left the temple
when one of our party called out, " It is raining," and,
sure enough, some drops fell, but there was no heavy
shower. We went back and showed the spots of the
raindrops on our clothes to the guardian of the bell,
who now appeared to be perfectly happy.
On the way to Nankow we occasionally came
across stretches of what must have once been a
magnificent road laid with blocks of white marble.
As it was out of repair, and a block of marble was
missing here and there, we followed the fashion of
220 MEDITERRANEAN— DEVONPORT— CHINA
all the other travellers whom we saw and kept off the
road, preferring to move through the fields on each
side of it. At one point there was an imposing white
marble bridge. This also was so much out of repair
that we did not attempt to make use of it, but crossed
the river near it at a ford. The bank on the far side
was rather steep, so I got out of my cart to ease the
mules, which repaid my consideration by running
away and upsetting the cart. I had changed my
money into Chinese cash before leaving Peking, and
carried the cash with me in a bread-bag. This was
turned out of the cart, and the cash was strewed all
about the ground, necessitating a rather long halt
before we could pick it all up.
We spent the night at Nankow. Amongst the
provisions which we had brought with us was a ham,
and after we had cut some slices from it, we proposed
to give it to the people who were standing about
looking at us. One of our servants, who spoke
pidgin-English, told us that they would not accept
it. " No can eat him," he said ; "man here all same
Mohammed." The Chinese population of this
district were Mussulmans.
In the morning, leaving our carts at the inn, we
started for the Great Wall, going up the pass on
foot. We returned also on foot. Both going up
and coming down we passed long strings of camels on
the way to Manchuria and Siberia. We estimated
the number seen at three thousand. This number
will give a notion of the greatness of the land export
trade at this exit from China proper. Nearly all the
camels which we saw going up the pass were loaded
with brick tea.
We slept a second night at Nankow. It was
arranged that on our way back to Peking we should
visit the northern Ming Tombs and sleep one night
at an uninhabited country palace, or summer villa of
the emperor's, where there were natural hot baths.
The road passable by carts from Nankow to the
FRIENDLY CHINESE PEASANTS 221
Mingf Tombs ran at the foot of the mountains and
round the extremity of a spur which jutted out like
a promontory into the lower ground. This made
the cart journey a long one, and rendered it necessary
for the carts to start at an early hour. I learnt that
there was a short cut across the spur, which was
probably passable by donkeys. I had had little sleep,
and decided to send my cart off with the others and
rest for two or three hours more at Nankow.
About eight o'clock in the morning I got up and
succeeded in engaging the services of a very intelligent
boy and a donkey. The boy was to guide me across
country to the Ming Tombs and then return with
the donkey to Nankow. As soon as we began to
ascend the spur we found that the road, or rather
bridle-path, was very bad. It was steep, and in spots
interrupted by long stretches of mud. It might have
met the description of an early road across the
Alleghanies posted up as a warning to travellers : —
" This road is not passable,
Not even jack-assable,
If this may you travel
You must bring your own gravel."
It seemed at first that I had made a mistake in
not accompanying my companions in the carts. It
turned out, however, that the bad part of the road
soon came to an end, and on the upper part of the
spur, where the ground was nearly level, it was pretty
good. Except for the donkey boy I was quite alone.
I am much inclined to believe that no European had
travelled by this road before. We passed through
several villages. The whole population turned out
en 'masse in each village to have a look at me. There
was not the slightest sign of incivility ; and even the
curiosity, which was intense, was not in any way
annoying. What seemed to interest them most was
my clothes. Here and there an old man would come
courteously forward and feel the stuff of my coat
222 MEDITERRANEAN— DEVONPORT— CHINA
between his fingers and thumb, and would then turn
round to the crowd and give them an explanation.
At one village an old gentleman delivered what must
have been a regular lecture on my costume. The
seams in a garment called for special remark, and
without actually touching me he traced them with
his forefinger, addressing explanatory remarks to the
audience at the same time.
Though the sheet made into a bag in which I had
been sleeping at night had been a fairly efficient
protection against the fleas, it was not quite perfect.
At least one of these disagreeable insects had not
only got inside, but had also accompanied me on my
journey. Its persistent attentions at length became
intolerable, and I had to take measures to get rid
of it. I stopped in what looked like a fairly
secluded place outside a village, where I believed I
could take off most of my clothes unobserved. The
expectation was not verified. One of the people had
espied me ; and whilst I was still searching for my
tormentor, the whole population of the village hurried
to the scene, and watched with evident and deep
interest a performance which they had never before
had the privilege of seeing, and which, it was quite
plain, gave them great pleasure. I was sorry to leave
these friendly rustics. Indeed, always when I have
been in China, especially in the country districts,
I have found the inhabitants perfectly civil ; and
I naturally came to have a real liking for the Chinese
people.
I overtook my friends and regained my cart just
as they were approaching the Ming Tombs. I do not
stop to describe these or the other remarkable monu-
ments which I saw in China, because they have been
described many times by other and more competent
observers. I may mention that I saw the other
Ming Tombs near Nanking at a later date. We
slept that night at the country palace or summer villa
before mentioned, having had a delicious bath in the
VISIT TO THE TSUNG-LI-YAMEN 223
warm pools, and continued our journey to Peking,
where we again stayed two or three days. I was
asked to accompany our Minister and the staff of
the Legation to the Tsung-li-yamen on a visit to
Prince Kung, uncle of the then reigning emperor,
and during the emperor's minority, regent of the
empire. We were specially directed to go in our
ordinary travelling clothes, which by this time were
shabby enough. We went to the Yamen on horse-
back. The prince and several other Manchu and
Chinese notables received us very courteously, and
asked us to sit down to a sort of late luncheon. The
repast was a simple one, and the few dishes were all
Chinese. To me, Chinese food— with few exceptions,
birds' nest soup and, oddly enough, shark's fin
amongst them — was so unpalatable that I found it
difficult to make even a pretence of eating. Our
Minister thoughtfully suggested that I should try
some dumplings which, though real Chinese, were,
he said, very nice. As we could not use chopsticks
we had been supplied with steel forks of the ordinary
kitchen pattern ; and with one of these I attacked a
dumpling and found it excellent. At this repast we
had some Chinese "wine," really made out of rice,
and drunk hot. It was poured out of tea-kettles.
We left Peking in carts and went in them as far
as Tungchow, from which point the river was
navigable to Tientsin. From Tungchow we travelled
very comfortably in native boats, and spent one night
on the way. At Tientsin we embarked in the com-
mander-in-chief's despatch vessel, and went on to
Chefoo where we rejoined the flagship.
We paid more than one visit to Japan, the first in
the early summer of 1875. So many travellers have
visited it since, that that wonderfully attractive
country is now well known. I found it extraordin-
arily fascinating, and was greatly delighted with its
charming and courteous people. In later years I
was brought into frequent contact with the highest
224 MEDITERRANEAN— DEVONPORT— CHINA
authorities in Japan, and my recollections of my
intercourse with them are especially pleasant. I
found these great officials not merely consistently
courteous and dignified in bearing, but also
thoroughly upright and honourable.
I can never forget my first voyage in the Audaciotis
through the island sea of Japan. It was at the best
time of the year, and the scenery was enchanting.
It has not been improved of late years by the
introduction of mining works and factory chimneys
on its shores. In the course of that first voyage we
anchored one night in a picturesque bay. Rich
perfume of flowers came off from the shore. We
discovered that the beautiful Japanese lily — the
Lilium auratum — abounded in the village gardens.
Our travelling ashore at the time was carried out
almost entirely in jinrickshas ; and it was astonishing
at what a rapid pace and for what great distances we
were carried. There was a short railway between
Yokohama and Tokio, and one between Kobe and
the great commercial city of Osaka. These were the
only two railways in the empire.
We still usually spoke of Tokio as Yedo. I was
one of a party of officers who had the honour of being
presented to the emperor in his palace at Tokio,
I also had an opportunity of visiting Kiyoto and
seeing the imperial palace there to which up to that
time foreigners had been rarely admitted. I think
we were all sorry to leave Japan. I know that I was.
We usually anchored at Yokohama, and there I
received much kindness from Mr Arthur Brent, a
brother of my old friend and brother officer, Vice-
Admiral H. W. Brent.
CHAPTER XXVIII
AUSTRALIAN STATION AGAIN
As the present time is approached in the record of
these Recollections, they will become more disjointed.
In September 1877 I was promoted to the rank of
captain. I was just thirty-eight and a half years
old ; and, as it was estimated that about fifteen years
would be required for a captain, just promoted, to
become a rear-admiral — to "get his flag" as the
saying is — there was a good prospect before me of
reaching flag-rank on the active list. As a fact, it
turned out that it took me fourteen years and a half
to become a rear-admiral. Appointment to com-
mands of the junior captains then came very slowly.
The time that one had to wait fluctuated, but it
usually amounted to five years, and in some cases to
nearly six.
When the immense innovation in gun construc-
tion and gunnery in general, due to Sir William
Armstrong, began to be generally understood, the
Government established a body called the Ordnance
Committee, to examine and report on artillery matters
and suggest experiments. The innovation just
mentioned was almost coeval with the adoption
of armour protection for ships of war. There was
consequently great activity in the sphere of the
Ordnance Committee's influence. After having done
much work during several years, the committee was
abolished. Before long it was found impossible to
go on without a body of the sort. A Heavy Gun
235
226 AUSTRALIAN STATION AGAIN
Committee was instituted, and I was appointed the
representative of the Navy on this body. Part of
the old Ordnance Committee still survived, viz., the
sub-committee on armour plates and projectiles.
Though it was still officially termed a sub-committee,
it was in fact an independent committee ; and I was
appointed also to it as the naval representative.
Somewhat later, when the old propelling- powders
were giving place to newer explosives, the Govern-
ment formed a committee on explosives, and on this also
I was given a seat to represent the Navy. After a
year or two the various committees were combined
into a new Ordnance Committee. Of this there
were three naval members and I was one of them,
sitting on the committee until I went to sea again.
My half-pay time was by no means an idle period ;
and a seat on the various committees just spoken of
brought me into close contact with several of the
most eminent civil engineers and metallurgists in the
world. The experience which I gained I greatly
valued. Naval architecture was undergoing a
momentous transformation. The instruments and
some of the methods of navigation were being
modernised. Sails were more and more disappearing
from ships of war. Marine steam-engines and boilers
were being developed to an extent and with a
rapidity which were almost marvellous. Above all,
new navies were coming into existence.
One Saturday in October 1881 I was about to
leave London on a short visit to friends in the
country. My portmanteau had been packed and
I was waiting for a cab to take me to Liverpool
Street terminus, when an Admiralty messenger called
with a note. It was from the First Lord's private
secretary. It was brief and contained these words :
" Come and see me on Monday about an appoint-
ment." I had to give up my proposed visit to the
country. On Monday when I called at the
Admiralty the private secretary tuld me that the
MY NEW COMMAND 227
First Lord had directed him to offer me the
command of H.M.S. Espiegle, fitting out for the
Australian station. He said that the First Lord
wished me to know that he would not disapprove
if I refused the appointment. The private secretary
added on his own account : "If you accept this
appointment you will have a command about a
year sooner than if you prefer to wait for a larger
ship." That decided me, and I accepted at once.
This, as I have said, was on Monday. I had little
time to get my outfit together. I left London on
the Thursday, and, except for some five or six hours
a few days later, when I was ordered to London to
receive special instructions at the Admiralty, I did
not see London again for three years and ten
months.
The Espiegie was a commander's command. She
had, however, exceptionally spacious cabin accommo-
dation, far superior to that of many captains'
commands. She had already been put in commis-
sion by a captain senior to me. He had been offered
and had accepted the command of a larger ship,
and that was how it came about that the Espies^le
was offered to me. She was a full-rigged barque,
only a moderately fast sailer, and a fairly handy ship
under sail. We beat into Havannah Harbour, on
Vate Island, in the New Hebrides, which took us
nearly the whole day. We also beat into Sydney
Harbour, the work of nearly seven hours, being the
last man-of-war and also the last three-masted vessel
to beat up as far as Garden Island. She had
compound engines and a " feathering" screw, which
I found a convenient arrangement, but it was not
considered successful generally and was not again
adopted in the Navy.
We left Plymouth Sound in November, in not
very promising weather. It soon became very bad,
and indeed got worse and worse. When we had
gone as far as the mouth of the English Channel
228 AUSTRALIAN STATION AGAIN
we found ourselves exposed to a gale of wind of
extreme violence which lasted several days. We
had been for some time under a close-reefed main-
topsail and a reefed foresail. One night the wind
blew so hard that I took in the foresail and kept
the ship under the close-reefed main-topsail and the
fore-staysail. I watched the topsail from midnight
to 4 A.M. without leaving the weather side of the
poop, not feeling quite sure that the ropes and canvas
could stand the force of the wind. Fortunately,
everything in the way of sails and ropes was brand-
new and held out well. Towards four in the morning
the wind went down slightly, but there was still
a heavy gale. After another day of it, as we were
making no progress, I put into Queenstown. I
found that there the gale of wind which we had been
fighting against was believed to have beaten all
records for violence. The Calf Lighthouse had
been washed away, and, for the first time, Cunard
steamers had been prevented by the bad weather
from starting according to their time-table.
From Queenstown we went on to Madeira and
the Canary Islands. At the Island of Lanzarote,
which had not been visited by a British man-of-war
for a great many years, I was asked by an English
resident if I would christen a child. Captains of
British men-of-war, during a very long period, were
believed to have authority to celebrate marriages,
and many hundreds of people were married by them.
At last — and not many years ago — doubts as to the
validity of these marriages were raised by certain
lawyers, and an Act of Parliament was passed to
make them all valid. At Lanzarote I held that,
as captain of one of H.M. ships, I was not especially
empowered to baptize anyone ; but I added that
I believed that, if there was no minister of religion
available, any respectable layman — even if not in
the Navy — might do it.
We called at Cape Juby in Southern Morocco,
THE OURO RIVER— SIMON'S BAY 229
and the Ouro River. We anchored outside a bar
across the entrance to the estuary of the river,
which formed an extensive lagoon. On the shore
near the entrance enormous numbers of migratory
birds of difterent species had assembled, presenting
an extraordinary spectacle. One of our officers
was an accomplished naturalist and drew up a
report on these birds which I made official and
forwarded to the Admiralty. Amongst other birds
he found there the knot, which in its migrations goes
farther north than almost any other bird. We
landed a seining party on a beach abreast of the
bar. The party had extraordinary luck. It caught
in the seine-net seventeen hundred and eight grey
mullet, besides a few other fish. The grey mullet
is no great delicacy, but in this case it was an
acceptable addition to our ship's bill of fare.
We proceeded on our way to Australia, calling
at Simon's Bay. Two days before we sighted the
Cape of Good Hope we came upon an almost
overpowering stench. We were within its influence
for several hours. After some time we saw great
flocks of birds hovering over something in the water.
When we got near to this we saw that it was the
decaying carcase of a whale and the origin of the
disgusting odour which had annoyed us. Multitudes
of seabirds were having an abundant meal.
We did not stay long in Simon's Bay. I went up
to Cape Town to call on the governor. At the time
of my visit the journey from Simon's Town to Cape
Town had to be made by road, usually in a carriage,
as far as Kalk Bay and thence by rail to Cape Town.
Fishing from a man-of-war in harbour used to be
regarded as a rather serious offence. In Simon's
Bay it was not only permitted, it was also encouraged.
Our men caught large quantities of fish, mostly
snook, with a long body and shining sides, so that
each fish looked like a strip of silver. In clearing
a boat which had brought stores from the dockyard
Q
230 AUSTRALIAN STATION AGAIN
to the ship a coil of rope was dropped overboard.
I ordered the ship's diver to search for it. He found
it, and also an envelope with my name on it and a
sovereign inside it which I must have dropped out
of one of my cabin portholes.
Our destination was Sydney. After leaving- the
Cape of Good Hope we went first to Fremantle in
Western Australia ; then to Albany, the scene of
the corroboree mentioned on an earlier page ; next
to Adelaide in South Australia. This was my
first view of this handsome city. I was specially
impressed by the beauty of the Botanical Gardens,
laid out with great taste on a not by any means
naturally promising site. We arrived at Sydney
shortly after an extraordinarily heavy rainstorm,
which for a time had made some streets impassable
and had washed away part of the seawall of the
charming Botanical Gardens. We anchored in the
loveliest of all anchorages — Farm Cove.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS
In the course of my service on the Australian station
— once as a captain in command of the Espiegle and
a second time as rear-admiral and commander-in-chief
of the station — I saw a great deal of the South Sea
Islands. I landed on more than a hundred of them.
Once when I was at Apia in Samoa I was asked if I
would like to be introduced to a German merchant-
service captain, a very intelligent, pleasant-mannered
man, who was believed to have landed on more South
Sea Islands than anyone else. I was glad to be intro-
duced to him. We compared notes ; and it turned
out that I beat him by four islands. It may be
inferred from this that I had opportunities of seeing
many interesting races and scenes.
Sailors divide the Western Pacific Islands into
two classes — high islands and low islands. The
former always rise to a good height above the level
of the sea, are sometimes truly mountainous, and
occasionally highly picturesque. The low islands
are mostly atolls, or what on shore we generally
speak of as coral islands. They are often not more
than a dozen feet above the surface of the sea, though
the trees on them make them look much higher.
Some, the true atolls, are a mere coral reef surround-
ing a lagoon or sheet of enclosed water. One or two
at which I called had no visible outlet to the open sea
from the impounded water. Most had a channel,
or several channels, between the inner waters and
231
232 THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS
the ocean, and thus formed accessible, land-locked,
and secure harbours.
The question of the races inhabiting the islands
of Oceania, as it is named, has been much discussed
by learned men. To the unscientific eye of people
like myself it seemed that there were three distinct
races and many mixtures. The three races were : —
The so-called Polynesian, with rich brown skins,
straight black hair, and large and finely formed
bodies. As regards size and beauty of feature, they
are the first people in the world. Many of the men
have tall and well-shaped figures and handsome faces,
whilst the beauty of the women is very great. A set
of Samoan girls with their bodies glistening with oil,
in preparation for a Shivoo or native dance, looks
like a group of beautiful bronze statues. Another
race, which is probably akin to the Polynesian, inhabits
Rotuma and many of the small islands on each side of
the Equator, known amongst sailors as the " Line
Islands." The members of this race have straight
hair and brown skins, the tint being less rich than
that of the Polynesian. They are not very tall, and
beauty of feature is less common amongst them than
it is amongst their Polynesian neighbours. Sailors
usually speak of them as Line Islanders ; but I think
their scientific name is Micronesians. The third race
is composed of woolly-haired negroes. Where of pure
blood their skin is quite black, but their features,
especially the nose and mouth, are not exactly like
those of the African negro. Except where they have
been brought into close and long contact with white
men, especially missionaries, they are all cannibals.
Cannibalism was common in one of the finest
branches of the Polynesian race, viz., the Maoris of
New Zealand. In the other branches of the Poly-
nesian race cannibalism was known but was by no
means an habitual practice, and indeed seems to have
been resorted to only occasionally and ceremonially.
The people of the EUice Islands declare that their
CANNIBALISM 233
ancestors never were cannibals. Perhaps also the
more warlike Line Islanders of the Gilbert and
Marshall Islands have not been cannibals for many
generations. Contact with white men has made
most natives of the Pacific Islands ashamed of
cannibalism. Even amongst undoubted eaters of
human flesh, every native whom I was able to
question declared that neither he nor his fellow
villagers were cannibals, but that his not very
distant neighbours were. "That fellow boy over
there : he ky-ky man." A planter at Matupi, on
the island of New Britain, told me that a native of
the Solomon Islands in his employment having died,
he was making preparations to bury him, when a
deputation of a neighbouring tribe waited on him with
a request that the remains of the deceased might be
handed over to them ; for it would be a pity to waste
so much good food. My own belief about cannibal-
ism — which must be taken for what it is worth and
for no more — is, that it is not and never was
very common, even amongst undoubted cannibals.
Amongst them human flesh, I should say, was not
eaten oftener than venison is eaten by people of small
income in the United Kingdom. It was generally
advisable when you landed on a cannibal island not
to let a native get behind you. As long as they were
kept in front, where their movements could be seen,
I often found them pleasant and even merry fellows.
When we landed on an island the disposition of
the inhabitants of which was not well known, we
always approached the shore with two boats. From
one we disembarked on the beach. The other
remained about seventy or eighty yards off as a
covering boat, the crew keeping their loaded rifles
ready. If, when we landed on an island, there were
no women and children about, it was necessary to be
extremely cautious. The savages rarely attacked
strangers until the women and children of the
neighbourhood had been sent or had stayed away.
234 THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS
I landed on Guadalcanar Island in the Solomon
group, and was received by a crowd of warriors
armed with bows and arrows as well as spears.
They looked very fierce, and their leader was the
most truculent-looking savage that I had ever seen.
There were six or seven women and nearly a dozen
children collected in a little knot about thirty or forty
yards from the point at which the warriors had
received me and my companions. Before long we
noticed that the number of women and children was
diminishing. We could see them stealing away by
twos and threes. This was known throughout the
South Seas as a bad sign ; so I beckoned to the crew
of the covering boat to cpme closer in. The men in
the boat knew exactly what to do. They brought
their boat nearer the beach, laid in their oars, and
taking up their rifles placed them so that the muzzles
could be seen above the gunwale. The savages took
the hint, and we suffered no inconvenience from
them ; but they were not friendly. As we were going
back to the ship a trader, who had come with us in
case we wanted a guide, said to me : "I have been
in many unpleasant situations in the South Sea
Islands, but that was the worst I have ever known."
We had other experiences of the same sort.
The natives — even the cannibals — especially if
they are of chiefly rank, have wonderfully good
manners. Many of the chiefs, amongst whom those
of Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji are conspicuous, could
not have been more courteous and dignified if they
had been bred in a European court. On many
islands the natives had learned from white men the
practice of shaking hands ; and were visibly mortified
or made really hostile if we omitted to take their
proffered hands. Not a few of them were covered by
a curious skin disease, called by sailors "Tokelau
ringworm," because it was supposed by them to have
spread to other places from the Tokelau Islands.
There was one chief in the Solomon group with
A FORM OF SALUTATION— ORNAMENTS 235
whom I particularly wished to enter into friendly-
relations. He was as completely covered with
Tokelau ringworm as it was possible to be ; and
it must be confessed that I had some difficulty in
screwing up my courage sufficiently to shake hands
with him.
Many tribes have their own forms of salutation,
some of which are quaint. On two islands, Basilaki
and Woodlark — between which there was no visible
communication — the mode of saluting an acquaint-
ance was the same. The navel was gripped with the
finger and thumb of the left hand and the nose with
those of the right hand. White men, if only because
they wore clothes, could not and, as far as could
be seen, were not expected to perform this act of
salutation.
In nearly all the islands, according to what I read
is the general custom among savages, it was the men
and not the women who wore ornaments. The
native jewellery was often of elaborate workmanship
and sometimes almost entitled to be called beautiful.
As the men became less savage, so the wearing
of jewellery was transferred more and more to the
women by whom the custom of aboriginal barbarism
was preserved. Some of the ornaments were
unsightly. In parts of New Guinea the men wore
a long rod, like a lady's ivory knitting-needle, thrust
through the cartilage of the nose and looking some-
thing like the whiskers of a cat. In parts of the New
Hebrides the men had a piece of white coral or
shell, looking rather like a white haricot bean,
inserted in a hole made for it in the cartilage of
the nose. It was most unsightly, and indeed
repulsive. One's first notion on meeting the people
with this ornament was that all the adult male
members of the tribe had lost their pocket-hand-
kerchiefs. It recalled what sailors used to say of a
man who ought to have blown his nose and didn't :
"That chap's pocket-handkerchief is in the scran-
236 THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS
bag." Some islanders had enormous holes In the
lobe of the ear, into which large ear-ornaments were
sometimes thrust. When not wearing their jewellery,
the hole was a convenient place in which to carry
articles of moderate size. I have seen some natives
whose ears have been bored to such an extent that
the lobe became a mere loop hanging down nearly to
the shoulder, and — for comfort's sake — often taken
up and put over the top of the ear.
Betel or areca nut chewing made the saliva deep
red and the teeth nearly black, and had a really
hideous effect. On one of the Louisiade Islands
we met a good many natives with the very peculiar
formation to which the Russian savant and traveller,
Micklucho-Maclay, gave the name of Macrodontism.
Sir William Macgregor told me at Samarai, or Dinner
Island, that the same peculiarity was found in parts
of his government of New Guinea. There was
practically only a single front tooth in the upper jaw.
In some men the continuous tooth was longer than
in others. In extreme cases it ran from eye-tooth to
eye-tooth. It was much less perceptible in the lower
jaw ; and I, personally, never saw a woman with it.
Tattooing was very common but by no means
universal. It differed greatly in different places.
The chiefs in the Marshall Islands tattooed the
whole body, commoners not being allowed to tattoo
a wide patch below the armpit reaching nearly half-
way to the hip. The women in these islands had the
backs of their hands and the wrist and part of
the forearm tattooed in rather graceful patterns,
so that they appeared to have on openwork lace
mittens, which — as it happened — ladies in England
were wearing about the time that I first saw the
Marshall Islands. At Yap in the Western Carolines,
a long way from the Marshall group, women were
tattooed in almost exactly the same manner. In
the Palaos, or Pelew Islands, and also at Yap the
men had their thighs and legs tattooed down to the
NATIVE COSTUME 237
ankle. In the Palaos a narrow strip of skin down the
back of the thigh and of the calf of the leg was
left untattooed. The reddish-brown skin showing-
between the two parts of the dark blue tattooing
looked like the scarlet piping on the outer seam of a
British infantry soldier's trousers.
In New Britain, in the Duke of York's Island,
and in some of the Solomon Islands, both sexes went
completely naked. They belonged to the black-
skinned, not to the brown, straight-haired race.
Here, as amongst other very undeveloped savage
tribes, it was the men and not the women who wore
jewellery — jewellery of native manufacture — but
ornaments were not worn below the shoulders. A
curious collar of the native beads made, and obviously
with immense labour and patience, out of shell and
standing up like a great ruff of Queen Elizabeth's
time, was worn by many men at Matupi, in New
Britain. In every other island which I visited,
whether inhabited by the brown or only the black
race, the women wore clothes of native fashion,
which was decent and not inelegant. Their dress
was usually a petticoat of dried grass, reaching very
nearly to the knee and rather like a ballet-dancer's
skirt. In the Marshall Islands the women's dress
was distinctly becoming. They wore two grass
mats, each about three and a half feet long and
about two and a half feet wide, woven in a pretty
pattern of black and very pale yellow, almost white,
with a wide border on which was a black " Greek key "
on a pale ground. One mat was put on in front in such
a way that the top edge was just above the breasts
and the lower edge reached rather more than half-way
between the knee and the ankle. The second mat
was put on behind at the same height as the one
in front, the sides of the latter overlapping those
of the mat behind. The two mats were then girdled
at the waist with many turns of a stout cord made of
grass, in black and pale yellow patterns. The
238 THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS
shoulders, throat, collar-bones, and arms were bare.
Compared with the men, the Marshall Island women
were short and their dress seemed to suit them
admirably.
Generally speaking-, it may be reported of both
the brown race and the Line Islanders that the
costume of the men was neither indecent nor un-
graceful. There were, however, some exceptions.
At and near Port Moresby, and at other points on
the southern coast of Eastern New Guinea, the brown
race is found in considerable numbers. They must
have come as invaders from overseas. They were,
at my first visit to New Guinea, at a relatively
advanced stage of culture. They built houses, some-
times wholly in the water, sometimes half in the
water and half on the shore, thus reminding- one of
the remains of the lake-villages of prehistoric Europe.
They made pottery ; built canoes and manoeuvred
them under sail ; and possessed dogs and pigs. Yet
the only clothing of the men was a strip of bark, not
more than an inch wide, passed round the waist
and between the legs. The great missionary,
Mr Chalmers — whose splendid qualities won the
admiration and affection of all who knew him — once
told me that he wished to present me with a curiosity,
adding: "It is a native pair of breeches." He
handed me a long, narrow strip of bark, looking
rather like a measuring tape of unusual thickness.
The people of Aoba in the New Hebrides are brown.
Their first representatives on the island must have
found it either uninhabited or must have expelled
earlier inhabitants, because in the generation that I
knew there was no sign of a Melanesian strain. Yet
their clothing was extremely scanty. There was one
habit of theirs by which I was especially struck.
Mixed bathing was common. The men, before
engaging in it, retired into the bush near the beach,
where they divested themselves of their almost
imperceptible garment, and put on a kind of native
A MELANESIAN LADY'S TOILETTE 239
bathing drawers — a bunch of twigs and leaves.
Those who have only recently left school may be
reminded by this of the remark of Ulysses when
bathing in the island of the Phseacians.
Male costume amongst the Melanesians of the
New Hebrides was of infinite variety and usually
neither tasteful nor comprehensive. The women —
as already mentioned — wore the short and rather
becoming dried grass skirt or petticoat.
On some of the New Hebrides Islands the
Melanesian women had the head partially shaved,
a broad ridge of woolly hair being left on the middle
of the skull from the forehead to the nape of the neck.
On Espiritu Santo Island the women's heads were
completely shaved. I was once walking through
a village on Espiritu Santo in the early morning
when the ladies were making their toilette. A lady
would sit on the ground outside the door of her hut,
and put herself in the hands of a barber of her own
sex, who would proceed to shave the sitting lady's
head with a razor made of bamboo. There was no
lather, and yet the shaving was so perfect that the
shaved head shone like a china bowl. After every
stroke of the bamboo razor a fresh edge was given
to it with the thumb-nail. Steel and iron had largely
though not entirely superseded wood and shell as
material for tools when I first visited South Sea
Islands ; but I met there white men who had witnessed
the astonishing skill with which a Tongan could carve
a roast pig with a bamboo carving-knife.
In Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, and other islands, in
which the natives had become Christians or had
been long accustomed to the presence of missionaries,
materials of European or American manufacture
either displaced the native garments or were combined
with them, usually in a very attractive fashion.
Amongst the so-called Polynesians, tappa or native
cloth made of bark was very largely used for clothing.
A Samoan woman frequently put a brightly coloured
240 THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS
European shawl round her waist and let it hang"
down like a shirt combined with a piece of lappa.
In Samoa and in Tonga etiquette required that if
you expressed admiration of an article the owner of
it would have to give it to you as a present. This
sometimes led to embarrassing situations. I once
happened to remark to our vice-consul that a young
Tongan girl standing near us, and half draped with
a European shawl, had on a very pretty dress. She
asked the vice-consul to interpret what I had said.
He made some reply in Tongan, and then observed
to me : " I dare not tell her what you did say or she
would have to take off her dress and give it to you."
At Pango-pango, in the island of Tu-tuila, a very
influential female chief came on board to pay me a
visit. This lady was a giantess in size. Her husband,
who was greatly her inferior in rank and kept always
in the background, accompanied her and several of
her followers of both sexes. She was wearing, in
accordance with the chiefly fashion, a long skirt of
dark-coloured lappa. As she spoke some English,
I — not apprehending what would happen— made her
a complimentary remark about her costume. She
promptly asked me, " Will you have it ? " and was on
the point of taking off" her skirt and presenting me
with it. Fortunately I was just in time to prevent
this unnecessary generosity.
At the place just mentioned, Pango-pango, now
attached to the overseas dominions of the United
States, there is a very fine land-locked harbour, the
only one in the Samoan group. Many of the South
Sea Island women are expert swimmers ; and,
especially in Fiji, swim almost incredibly long
distances. Whilst my ship was in Pango-pango
harbour — the only defect of which is the great depth
of water in a large part of it — we were anchored not
very near the village. The girls, however, used
frequently to swim off to the ship in groups during
the forenoon, and would paddle about some few yards
BODY ARMOUR— DUELS 241
off, watching- the crew at drill or at work. Now and
then one or two of them would come close to the
ship's side, put a hand in through the scuttle of an
officer's cabin, and withdraw it grasping a hairbrush
or some small article which they would hold up for
us to see, and with peals of laughter would carefully-
put it back again.
The natives of Taputewea in the Gilbert group
had defensive body armour as effective against the
weapons of insular manufacture as was the armour
of the Middle Ages against the mediaeval weapons.
The Taputewea armour consisted of a sort of hauberk
or body-piece covering both the front and the back
of the wearer, and having a sort of turned-up collar
rising to a good height, which protected the back of
the neck. It was made of coarse and very stiffly
woven cocoanut fibre, and was nearly as rigid as if
made of steel. There were cuisses or leg-pieces of
the same material but flexible ; in fact, like very
thick drawers. The helmet was the dried skin of
a fish furnished by nature with many spikes.
Duelling was customary amongst these islanders.
Duels were fought in armour with native swords
made of wood and studded with sharks' teeth. A
stroke of this weapon rarely killed a man ; but it gave
him a ghastly wound. The duels — as just stated —
were fought in armour. The leg-pieces left the calf
of the leg bare, and the object of a fighter was to
gash his antagonist's calves without being struck
himself A large proportion of the men had hideous
scars on their calves.
The men of Jaluit in the Marshall archipelago
wore the most picturesque dress that I ever saw in
the South Seas. As has been mentioned already,
their bodies were covered with tattooing. They wore
two huge tassels of dried grass, generally brown in
colour, connected by a band of plaited straw long
enough to allow one tassel to hang in front and the
other behind. The band was taken over a hip, and
242 THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS
turn after turn of variegfated grass cord was passed
round the waist so that the tassels hungf securely in
place. The grass of the tassels was distributed so as
to form a complete skirt or kilt, reminding one of the
Albanian fustanella ; though usually of a rich brown
tint, not white. The young warriors, when walking,
adopted a slightly swaggering gait, and the "kilt"
was made to swing to and fro with each step.
CHAPTER XXX
CRUISING IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC
Cruising amongst the islands of the Western Pacific
five and thirty years ago was not without its anxieties.
The waters had been only partially surveyed ; charts
were far from complete ; an island was sometimes
as much as twenty miles out of its proper place ; at
least one island which I sighted was put down in two
places, the result of observations and reports by two
different navigators. The low islands, as the sailors
called them, rose generally so little above the surface
of the sea that they were often not sighted until you
were close to them. A feature of the navigation was
the rather frequent occurrence of reefs in the ocean
far from any land. Sometimes these were indicated
by breaking waves, but not always.
About I P.M. on a day on which we had left
Nukualofa in Tonga-tabu, the ship was sailing
nearly close-hauled, with a pleasant trade wind before
the starboard beam. I was looking out of the star-
board quarter port of my after cabin, when I was
startled by actually seeing the bottom. When under
way, leadsmen were always kept in the chains with
lead-lines specially lengthened so as to give soundings
up to twenty-five fathoms. I ordered the leadsman
to get a long cast, and he reported twenty-three
fathoms. The ship was making about six knots ;
and we kept on picking up the line of reefs at depths
of twenty to twenty-five fathoms, and sometimes
seeing the bottom, during a run of five or six hours.
248
244 CRUISING IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC
This particular shoal was not marked on any chart.
There were no lig-hthouses and no beacons in by far
the greater part of the area in which we cruised.
Some of the isolated reefs which rose nearly to the
surface of the water were marked by the wrecks of
the small vessels which had run on them unawares.
When actually amongst coral reefs, as in approach-
ing or leaving an island, ships were navigated by
sight. The guide was the colour of the water. Blue
indicated sufficient and even great depth ; green,
shoal water, which a vessel of considerable size could
not always pass ; and brown, water so shallow that
even a light draught craft would be nearly sure to
run aground. Navigating in coral seas by sight was
possible only within certain hours. It depended
upon the position of the sun, which must be behind
the navigator or very high above his head. If you
were going east you had to wait till nearly noon
before you could start, and had to stop before 5 p.m.,
because when the sun was low the colours of the
reefs did not show up clearly. If you were going
west you had to start about an hour after sunrise and
had to stop soon after i p.m. As the water between
the reefs was generally of great depth you could not
count on being able to move during the whole of the
hours above mentioned. You would have to anchor
where anchorage was possible. The ship was navi-
gated from the fore-topmast head. In clear weather,
when you were pretty certain of finding an anchorage,
navigation was not difficult. Unfortunately, dull,
overcast days were not very uncommon, whilst
anchoring grounds were.
The senior captains of H.M. ships on the
Australian station were generally appointed Deputy-
Commissioners for the South-Western Pacific under
the High Commissioner. The title was not precisely
correct, because a Deputy-Commissioner's jurisdiction
extended to many islands north of the Line. I held
office as Deputy-Commissioner for three years. It
CAPTAINS AS DEPUTY-COMMISSIONERS 245
may be mentioned that, as one of my brother Deputy-
Commissioners pointed out, the naval officers in the
commission — whose own duties were already heavy
enough and anxious enough — did not receive a
farthing of remuneration for the extra work per-
formed, nor even have their expenses refunded to
them ; having, indeed, to provide at their own cost
the necessary stationery. When honorary distinc-
tions were given for Pacific Ocean services the naval
Deputy-Commissioners were pointedly omitted from
the list of recipients.
A Deputy - Commissioner had judicial powers
about equal to those of a Justice of the Peace at
Petty Sessions, of course only over British subjects
and in islands which were neither possessions nor
protectorates of recognised civilised powers. There
were British consular officials in Samoa and Tonga,
who were also Deputy-Commissioners — in fact almost
their whole work was under the commission.
The white men residing and trading in the islands
subject to the jurisdiction of the Deputy-Commis-
sioners were mostly British subjects ; but there were
also Frenchmen, Germans, Americans, Scandinavians,
Spanish-Americans, and Chinese. The nomination
of captains of H.M. ships as Deputy-Commissioners
was not a wise measure. It diminished rather than
added to the captains influence on the white
residents. Most of the islands visited never saw
any man-of-war but British. White men of all
nationalities, when the man-of-war arrived, came
off to pay their respects to the commanding officer,
to lay their troubles before him and to request him
to settle disputes between them and the natives, or
between members of their own body. In time they
ascertained that the captain was now a Deputy-
Commissioner, with jurisdiction over his fellow-
subjects, and obliged in all his decisions to comply
exactly with legal rules ; instead, as used to be the
case, of settling questions in accordance with custom
R
246 CRUISING IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC
and the straightforward notions of justice v/hich for
generations won for the procedure of quarter-deck
tribunals the respect and confidence of men who
follow the sea.
It used to be thought of the white traders who
settled on the beaches of secluded Pacific Islands
that they were a lawless, turbulent, and dissipated
set. To give a man the name of "beach-comber"
was enough to stigmatise him as a tipsy ruffian.
This was a cruel injustice. The island traders, with
few exceptions, were honest, hard-working, and well-
conducted men. It is to be admitted that I made
their acquaintance in days when the captain of a
British man-of-war in out-of-the-way places was still
an authority to be dreaded ; and all white men trading
or sailing amongst the islands were on their best
behaviour when he appeared. Allowance can be
made for this ; and a belief in the good conduct of
the traders be still maintained. I met one personage
in the Marshall Islands who was pointed out to me
as an irreclaimable scoundrel. He went by the name
of "Rocky Mountain Jack," and, perhaps as a
precaution to avoid collision with the captain of
a British man-of-war, he asserted that he was
an American citizen. From what I saw of him I
thought that he was really an Englishman. I am
bound to say that^ — at any rate as long as the ship
was in the neighbourhood — his conduct can be fitly
described as exemplary.
As far as I was concerned, I had to bring into
operation my judicial powers on two occasions only.
Two men were brought up for some offence, and in
each case, the culprit having been convicted on the
evidence, was punished with a short term of imprison-
ment. There were clear and minutely detailed direc-
tions as to the way in which a Deputy-Commissioner
should proceed in such cases. They were rigorously
followed. I first had to apply to the senior naval
officer (myself) to appoint a place at which the court
COMPLICATED PROCEDURE 247
could be held. As senior naval officer I replied to
myself as Deputy-Commissioner that I had appointed
H.M.S. Espicgle as the place at which the court could
sit. I then, as senior naval officer, ordered myself, as
captain of H.M. ship named, to make the necessary
arrangements for the accommodation of the court.
It will not be necessary to enumerate the whole of
the correspondence which I carried on with myself
in order to comply with the rules. It was all in
writing, and the whole of it had to be sent with the
proceedings of the court to the High Commissioner
for review, if necessary, by the Judicial Commissioner.
The correspondence closed with a letter from myself
as Deputy-Commissioner to myself as senior naval
officer, stating that sentence had been pronounced
and requesting that a place might be assigned at
which the imprisonment could be carried out, and
with my answer as senior naval officer to myself as
Deputy-Commissioner, and informing myself in the
latter capacity that I had appointed H.M.S. Espiegle
as the place of imprisonment. It was not added
that the ship was sure to be at sea until after the
expiration of the sentence in the case of each of the
prisoners. This would render impossible the inter-
vention on behalf of either of them of any legal
gentleman at the Australian port at which we might
call.
Having, in later years, read R. L. Stevenson's
South Sea books, I have been astonished at the
accuracy with which he has reproduced a condition
of things which had ended years before he visited the
islands. He could, indeed, have found scarcely any
survivors with whom he could converse about those
far-off times. Though I had seen something of the
Pacific Islands before "Bully" Hayes' proceedings
became notorious, that remarkable personage was
dead before the series of my many cruises in the
South- Western Pacific under notice here began.
Several of " Bully " Hayes' contemporaries were still
248 CRUISING IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC
living"; and I had full accounts of him from that
eminent missionary and great man — the Rev. James
Chalmers of New Guinea — ^who had made a long"
voyage in Hayes' own vessel. To my lasting regret,
R. L. Stevenson died a few months before, as com-
mander-in-chief of the station, I made a second series
of cruises amongst the South Sea Islands and again
visited Apia in Samoa.
*^
\
CHAPTER XXXI
MISSIONARIES IN THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS
On many of the islands at which I called in my first
series of cruises there were no resident missionaries
and some they had not visited at all. In others they
were relatively new-comers ; and in others again they
had been long- settled. In Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa
the resident Christian ministers, though it might be
technically correct to call them missionaries, were
really parochial clergy, the inhabitants of the neigh-
bourhood being, almost or quite without exception,
Christians. In the New Hebrides this condition of
things seemed to be approaching, but had in fact
been reached only on the island of Aneiteum, or, as
the sailors called it, Annatom. In the other islands,
even in some of those in which missionaries had been
working for a considerable time, this condition seemed
far off. There was a certain delimitation of territory
between the various Protestant Missions, and it was
most sensibly arranged that the territory of one should
not be invaded by the members of another.
Even if he is not an enthusiastic supporter of
missions to the heathen, I do not see how any fair-
minded man acquainted with the circumstances can
refuse to admit that the missionaries of the various
denominations in the Western Pacific have conferred
great benefits on their converts, and not on their
converts alone. When nearing an island on which
it was known that there were missionaries, there was
no reason for any misgiving as to the reception await-
249
250 MISSIONARIES IN SOUTH SEA ISLANDS
ing- us at the hands of the natives. When we made
out a missionary's house near the beach, it was at
once known that we could land without the need of
any covering- boat. This of itself took a load of
anxiety off the mind of a captain of one of H.M.
ships.
The presence of a missionary encourag^ed decently
disposed white men to continue to behave decently.
Observation and experience led me to the conclusion
that the best of the white traders looked upon the
presence of a missionary on their island as an advan-
tag-e. I heard many complaints against missionaries
— none of them, it should be said, formally preferred
— which, after the closest investigation, turned out
to be unjustifiable. The usual, indeed the nearly
invariable, complaint was that the missionary com-
peted unfairly with the traders by dealing- on his own
account with the natives, over whom he exercised
great influence. As far as this kind of complaint
had any foundation it was based on a mistake.
From what I could learn, after deliberate and some-
times prolonged investigation, no missionary traded
on his own account. The Christian natives in many
cases voluntarily and indeed eagerly offered to con-
tribute as far as their means allowed to the expenses
of the mission from which they had derived undoubted
benefit. Where they had obtained coined money,
which was in only a few places, they subscribed in
cash just as people do in every part of the British
Empire ; where they had no money, they handed in
their subscriptions in kind. The articles subscribed
were, as a rule, sent by the missionary to the most
convenient Australian or New Zealand port, and there
sold at the proper market price, the money received
in payment being- added to the funds of the mission.
This was a perfectly legitimate proceeding-, and
several traders frankly admitted to me that they so
considered it.
As a sailor I am very reluctant even to appear to
PRESBYTERIAN AND ANGLICAN MISSIONS 251
be sailing under false colours, so that I feel bound
to say that — for reasons which at any rate satisfy
myself — I am not an enthusiastic supporter of
missionary effort amongst savages. All the same,
I cannot refrain from saying- in favour of the South
Sea Island missions what I know, from observation
with my own eyes, they truly deserve to have put
to their credit.
Without wishing to speak over-much in the first
person, I may say that, whatever my attitude
towards missions in general may be, I yield to no
man in admiration for some of the missionaries whom
I watched actually at work. All of them could be
credited with a spirit of devotion to their work.
Several of them were men conspicuous for personal
courage and nobility of character.
The first missionary whom I met on the actual
scene of his work was the Rev. Mr Robertson of
Erromanga, belonging to the Presbyterian mission.
He had voluntarily chosen Erromanga for his
station, though his two predecessors had been
murdered there. He had most unpromising material
to deal with, yet his success was great, even astonish-
ing. Though not of robust frame, he was a man
of extraordinary courage and of immense force of
character. I hold it to be an honour to have
known him.
The Church of England Melanesian Mission
worked in the Northern New Hebrides, the Banks
Islands, and the Solomon Islands. When I first
cruised amongst these islands, Bishop John Selwyn
was at the head of the mission. He was a man
of truly noble character. He was in close sympathy
with sailors, and, in fact, was no mean seaman him-
self He could and did go to a ship's masthead
and pilot her through reefs with which he was
acquainted. When I was in the South Seas several
years later, Bishop Wilson, now Bishop of Bunbury
in Australia, was at the head of the Melanesian
252 MISSIONARIES IN SOUTH SEA ISLANDS
Mission. He won the hearts of all our officers and
men. Their respect and regard for him were
undiminished when they saw his performances in
the cricket field and learned that he had played
cricket for his county. He went with me to Norfolk
Island, and I paid him a visit at the missionary
establishment there. The members of the mission —
there being several ladies amongst them — were
persons of great refinement, having all the charm of
manner which distinguishes the best class of English
people. Their unselfish devotion to the mission
cause was proved by their being where they were.
At Nukualofa in Tonga-tabu, the Rev. Dr
Moulton was in charge of the Wesleyan Mission
working in that part of the Tongan group. He
was a most courteous and agreeable companion,
and a highly accomplished scholar. He had trans-
lated a great part of the Bible out of the ancient
languages direct into Tongan. All previous trans-
lations had been from an English version. He
executed the remarkable achievement of translating
Milton's Paradise Lost into Tongan blank verse.
I was present at a meeting of students of a college
under his supervision at the end of one of the terms.
The students gave recitations of different kinds.
One of these consisted of extracts from Milton's
poem, spoken in character. In my scanty cabin
library I had a copy of Paradise Lost, and, as it
happened, had been reading the poem not long
before I arrived at Nukualofa, so that much of
it was fairly familiar to me. I fear that my opinion
on such a matter is not worth much, but it struck
me as an astonishing merit of Dr Moulton's ability
as a translator that, owing to his happy imitation
in Tongan of the rhythm of the English verses,
I fancied that I could trace in the recitation — as I
listened to it — some passages of the original. I
spoke to Dr Moulton on the subject after the
recitations were over, and alluded to the passages
JAMES CHALMERS 253
which I had noticed. I learned from him that my
inference was correct, and that the passages referred
to were in the translation and had been recited that
evening. I remember one of them still. At one
point in the recitation I was irresistibly reminded of —
" Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers,"
and on bringing- forward this amongst other passages,
Dr Moulton told me that the very words were
translated as they stood into Tongan, and occurred
at the place which I had noticed.
When in New Guinea in 1884, I had what I look
upon as the great privilege of making the acquaint-
ance of the Rev. James Chalmers of the London
Mission. Like most of those who knew him, I felt
that in him I had met a really great man. His
zeal as a missionary was manifest to all. It cost
him his life in the end. He was a man of singularly
cheerful, indeed merry, disposition, a delightful
companion on a journey, and endowed with such
courage and calmness in the face of difficulties that
what at first seemed impossibilities were made at
length to appear easy. He had abundance of
common sense, which, no doubt, explained the
ascendancy which he soon gained over natives. He
once told me that his notion of mission work was
to make his converts real Christians and not imita-
tion Europeans. He would retain all good native
customs and get rid of those only which were bad.
I landed with him on Rook Island, where no white
man had ever been seen before — at all events, none
had been there within the experience of the then
generation of inhabitants. We entered the town,
for it was a town of considerable size rather than
a village. The population was large, and in an
open space in the middle of the town several
hundreds of natives crowded round us, but all were
too polite to come unpleasantly near to us. The
hum of conversation amongst so many people was
254 MISSIONARIES IN SOUTH SEA ISLANDS
disconcertingly loud. Chalmers, who did not know
the language of the place, signed, in his commanding
but always thoroughly gracious manner, to the
people to be silent ; and at once there was silence.
He then signed to them to sit down, and down
everyone sat. He next indicated to them what
the object of ray visit was, viz., to declare a British
protectorate over the island. Gesture-language
goes for much in the South Seas, and Chalmers
was quite understood. Our Government subse-
quently gave up the protectorate over this island.
Roman Catholic missionaries were not numerous
in the South Seas, and the communities of native
Catholic Christians were small. I never visited
Wallis Island, where there was a cathedral, and of
which the whole population was Catholic. All the
missionaries of this church v/hom I met were
Frenchmen. Bishop La Maze, whose acquaintance
I made at Apia in Samoa, impressed me as being
a man of distinction. He invited me to accompany
him on a short expedition that he was making to
a small group of his converts living near Apia, but
rather high up on the mountain-side. The visit
to these people was interesting. The Polynesians
are great orators, and oratory is held in high esteem
amongst them. Every chief of importance had in
his retinue his orator, or ''talking man" as our
sailors called him. The duty of this official was to
make speeches for his chief, who sat by in silence
whilst they were being delivered. The rule was that,
when the orator was speaking he should lean on
a spear. Converts to Christianity gave up the
practice of carrying spears, and the orators sub-
stituted for them a walking-staff. On this occasion
the staff had been mislaid. The bishop and his
companions were received with ceremony. We all
— natives and ourselves— sat down, and the orator
stepped into the middle to deliver his oration. Not
a word could he utter. There was a most un-
FRENCH AND AMERICAN MISSIONS 255
comfortable silence. A lively and agreeable French
priest, who spoke English perfectly, whispered to
me: "He cannot utter a word unless he has a
staff in his hand. Has anyone got a walking--
stick?" No one had. The priest then passed
his umbrella to the orator, who immediately began
to speak, and the speech went off admirably. I was
reminded of the lawyer, mentioned in the Spectator,
who could not speak in court unless he were
twiddling- a piece of string between his fingers.
There were two French missionaries and a lay
brother at Matupi, in New Britain. Their house
had been burned down, as they believed, by native
incendiaries. The one or two resident white men,
and all the natives whom I examined on the subject,
unanimously declared that the fire had been caused
by the accidental oversetting of a lamp. The
missionaries, however, did not feel that their lives
were safe ; and at their request I took them to
Sydney. They had lost everything that they
possessed and we had to dress them in our clothes.
The leader of the mission afterwards became an
archbishop ; and, I think, was in New Guinea when
I visited it again many years afterwards.
I met two American missionaries in the Caroline
Islands. They were very superior men and exercised
a most beneficial influence over their native neigh-
bours. I believe that their converts were not
numerous. The Chief of Kusaie, whom they had
brought up, spoke English wonderfully well. He
wore white men's clothes. He lunched with me
in my cabin, and before beginning said to me : " May
I say a prayer ? I am accustomed to say one before
my meals." Of course I at once assented, and he
said grace before meat with a dignified simplicity
and sincerity which were very impressive.
The missionaries were not the only people whose
presence and work in the South-Western Pacific
benefited the natives and helped to establish order
256 MISSIONARIES IN SOUTH SEA ISLANDS
and decency in what had been a lawless area.
Officials of the British Government, by their
personal example and zealous performance of their
duties, gfreatly advanced the good work. When
Sir Arthur Gordon (afterwards Lord Stanmore)
came out as first governor of our then newly con-
stituted colony of Fiji, he brought with him a band
of officials, the merit of whose services it would
be difficult to exaggerate. Some of them rose to
high distinction as officials, and their names are
known throughout the British Empire. I need
mention only two — Sir William Macgregor and Sir
George Le Hunte. Of the latter I can speak with
something more than admiration. He took a cruise
with me and it lasted five months. A more delightful
shipmate it would be impossible to meet. He had a
great liking for the Navy. I used to think that he
would have rather been a naval officer than anything
else. I am sure that if he had joined our service he
would have made an excellent officer. The High
Commissioner thought it advisable to send a Judicial
Commissioner, with powers greater than those of
a Deputy-Commissioner, on a sort of circuit through
the islands. The Judicial Commissioner was also
chief justice of Fiji, and could not be absent for
a prolonged period from his court. The same
reason prevented the attorney-general from being
temporarily commissioned in his place. It was
then decided, with good results in every way, that
Sir George (then Mr) Le Hunte, who was a member
of the English Bar, should be appointed acting
Judicial Commissioner and should proceed with me
through the islands. It turned out that there was
not much judicial work to be done. There was
some, however, and it was done with dignity and
ability, and thereby greatly impressed both white
men and natives. Mr Le Hunte readily rendered
to me all the assistance that he could in matters
not specifically connected with the work of the
BRITISH NAVAL OFFICERS 257
high commission. I remember his support with
gratitude.
There is another set of men who may justly claim
a large share in the credit of improving conditions in
the Pacific Ocean. They are the officers of the
British Navy. Having cruised in its waters long
before our imperial officials appeared there, and in
many parts before the appearance of even the
missionaries, it is they who laid the foundations
of order and progress on which the others were able
to build.
CHAPTER XXXII
INCIDENTS ON DIFFERENT ISLANDS
It may be mentioned here that some of the native
tribes in the Pacific, even those a long- way from
being what we should call civilised, had money of
their own. In the Pelew Islands, or Palaos, the
so-called "money" was composed of beads of old
pattern and pieces of coloured glass. Mr Kubary,
the Polish savant, who knew the islands north of
the Line well, told me that he believed it to have
been received from the early Spanish navigators, the
first white men whom the natives of the Pelew
Islands had ever seen. It was regarded as a sort
of sacred treasure rather than as a circulating
medium. To the islanders it represented a palladium
of great sanctity, the retention of which was essential
to the prosperity of the country. As will be explained
later, I was able to restore this treasure to the king,
from whom it had been exacted by a British man-of-
war as a pledge of good behaviour.
In the island of Santa Cruz, south-east of the
Solomon group, the money is beautiful to look at.
It is composed of a strip of bark, sometimes several
yards long and about three inches wide, on which the
bright crimson feathers of a small bird are stuck with
some native glue. When new it has a brilliant
appearance. Though it cannot be said to have a
great circulation, it does occasionally change hands
and gets soiled, becoming, in truth, rather dingy in
appearance, just as a much-handled banknote does
258
NATIVE "MONEY" 259
in the United Kingdom. It is "coined" only by the
inland people, who live in the mountains, and who
are not always on friendly terms with the people of
the coast. If the former have a monopoly of "coin,"
the latter have a monopoly of salt. Consequently,
differences get themselves adjusted sometimes without
war. When I was at Santa Cruz money was very
short and the hill people were refusing- to send in
any more. I visited the leading coast chief. He
was counted a wealthy man and had considerable
quantities of the feather money in his house, which
he showed with as much satisfaction as a picture
collector might show his gallery. There was an
interesting arrangement in this chief's house. Like
nearly all the native houses of the South Seas its
sides were composed of mats or leaves ; but it had
an inside lining of stout, roughly adzed plank,
extending from about a foot and a half above the
ground to a height of about six or seven feet. It
seemed that the chief's enemies, who did not dare
to meet him in open fight, amused themselves when
opportunities offered by shooting arrows at the side
of his house on the chance of catching the chief
himself when the arrow, as it usually did, passed
through. The chief, becoming tired of this, hit upon
the plan of disconcerting the archers by armouring
the walls of his house.
The money of New Britain was called dawarra.
It had several of the characteristics of real money.
It was comprised of small white shells, like cowries,
perforated and strung on fibres or midribs of leaves.
The Chief of Matupi, who was a millionaire in his
way, had large coils of it in his house, each coil being
encased in matting. A characteristic which dawarra
shared with real money was that the material of
which it was made was precious because it was rare,
the small shells being seldom found in the neighbour-
hood. Another characteristic common to dawarra
and white men's money was that it was extremely
260 INCIDENTS ON DIFFERENT ISLANDS
divisible and could be easily converted into small
change. You might have a yard, a foot, an inch of
dawai^ra, or even a single shell, just as you might
have a sovereign, a shilling, a penny, or a farthing,
or a centime. On the other hand, you might have
fathoms of dawan^a, just as you might have scores
of sovereigns.
The most extraordinary "money" was that of
Yap in the Western Carolines. Each piece was like a
grindstone with a hole in the middle, and most pieces
weighed several hundredweight. A diameter of three
and a half or four feet was quite common. I heard
of, but did not see, a piece of six feet in diameter
weighing more than a ton. This "money" was not
generally in circulation. Houses in Yap, as in many
other Pacific Islands, were usually built on platforms
of earth revetted with unhewn stones. Against the
faces of these platforms the money rested, being
placed on edge. It was, in fact, displayed much in
the same way as plate is or used to be displayed on
a sideboard. When there was a marriage between
members of chiefly families there was always an
interchange of presents ; and this money was usually
included amongst them. When I have spoken of
it to friends at home, they have frequently said that
it could not be stolen because of its cumbrous size
and weight. I thought so myself at one time ; but
I was told at Yap of an actual theft of some rather
heavy money. One of the strangest things about
this money is that it is not produced at Yap. It
comes from a small islet in Korror Harbour in the
Pelews. It is made from rock, crystalline and white,
which, I believe, is called aragonite. When I was
in the Pelews the Chief of Korror allowed about one
hundred Yap men to work the quarry on the islet. In
these days the money is carried to Yap from Korror in
foreign sailing-vessels. How the transport across the
long interval of open sea was accomplished when only
canoes existed in those parts is not easy to explain.
EARLY SOUTH SEA PHOTOGRAPHS 261
When I was about to beg-in my Pacific Island
cruises I had my coxswain and one of my gig's crew
instructed in the art of photography by a leading
photographer of Sydney. The Kodak was then
unknown ; but the men managed to take by the
dry-plate process a number of photographs of scenes
and objects which no photographer had ever visited
or seen. They took a good photograph of some
natives of Yap standing beside the local money, the
size of which appeared by comparison with the height
of the natives ; and this photograph was afterwards
reproduced and published in London.
In the South Sea Islands there are a great many
different languages and a still greater number of
dialects. On some islands, Mallicolo in the New
Hebrides for example, one can almost see what
happened at Babel going on before one's eyes.
People who live in one village speak a language
different from that of another village in sight of them.
This is due to the constant state of war with their
neighbours in which some of the savages live. They
never exchange a word with each other. The isola-
tion leads to the perpetuation of different pronuncia-
tions of the same family name, which, though known
to two contiguous tribes, is pronounced by one so
differently from the way in which it is pronounced
by the other that it sometimes seems as if two totally
different persons were meant.
In these circumstances it might be supposed that
a captain of one of H.M. ships would find it impos-
sible to carry out investigations when nearly all the
witnesses whom he could examine must necessarily
be natives of the islands. As a fact, investigations
are greatly helped, indeed are rendered almost easy,
by the astonishing capacity of the natives for using
gesture-language. They have in reality been using
it all their lives, as it was only by means of it that
they could speak to anyone not belonging to their
own tribe or their own village. The finger alphabet
s
262 INCIDENTS ON DIFFERENT ISLANDS
of our own deaf and dumb is merely a form of gesture-
lang-uage, and long- practice in it produces something
astonishingly near perfection.
One or two special native gestures may be
mentioned. Shaking the head — our negative — indi-
cates with them the affirmative. They do not
exactly nod the head when they mean "No"; they
nod in the reverse way, so to speak — that is, they
toss it backwards. The thumb of the right hand
thrust into the mouth and pressed against the upper
teeth means, in many tribes, completeness or totality.
"They have all gone, every one of them," could not
be properly expressed unless the thumb were used as
above stated. I repeatedly carried out, in the New
Hebrides, the Solomons, and New Britain, long
inquiries in which it was always possible to get an
intelligible and connected story from a witness ; and
in which the testimony of some witnesses was
corroborated by that of others.
Here and there one used to come across natives
who had been in Queensland or Fiji, and who had
picked up a few words of English which helped to
make their gesture statements even clearer than
usual. These men and a few other islanders under-
stood the extraordinary pidgin- English, known
as Beche de mer lingo, or "sandal-wood English."
This was the invention of English sailors who visited
the islands. Here are a few specimens: — "That
fellow woman Mary long a me '' (That woman is my
wife) ; " That fellow white man he go bung two
Yam " (That white man has been dead two years,
or two yam harvests).; " That fellow boy he no good ;
he Mattee other fellow boy belong other fellow place "
(That young man is no good ; he killed a man
belonging to another island). In the Solomons, I
think it was on San Cristoval, I employed a native
to do a small job for me, and, in addition to the
stipulated payment, gave him a meal. To my
astonishment, when he had finished feeding, he said
" SANDAL-WOOD ENGLISH " 263
to me: "All same Christmas." I asked him what
he knew about Christmas, to which he replied : " Me
plenty Savvy Christmas ; me been three yam
Queensland ; plenty ky-ky (plenty to eat) Christmas."
I again asked what he did in Queensland. His
answer was: "Cow- chasing." He had been at a
cattle station. One morning I was walking near a
village on the island of Api in the New Hebrides,
when I passed close to a naked savage lying on his
back full length on the ground, smoking a pipe. He
surprised me by wishing me "Good morning." I
returned his greeting, and asked where he had learned
English. " Me been Bundaberg (a place in Queens-
land) six yam," he said. I then asked : " What boxis
you get ? " (What did you receive in payment ?) His
answer was startling: "Me get boxis two hundred
pounds." I repeated rather incredulously, "Two
hundred pounds!" He promptly rejoined: "Yes,
two hundred sovereign." I then asked what he had
done with the money, and was told : " Me put him
a long bank." This was not the only case of a
native having a banking account in Queensland that
came to my knowledge. My friend had remained
lying down all the time. He informed me that he
was now so well off that he was not going to do any
more work ; but intended to spend the rest of his life
lying on his back and smoking. There is one feature
of the decAe de nier lingo which I have not attempted
to reproduce here. Nearly every sentence is studded
with oaths, which the savages pick up with extra-
ordinary facility from white visitors addicted to
profanity.
The natives of the islands who had been to
Queensland had usually gone there to labour on
plantations in the tropical districts. Latterly no
Pacific islander could be legally employed in Queens-
land except in "tropical agriculture." Previously —
as shown by the case of my friend who had been
"cow-chasing" — employment of the islanders had
264 INCIDENTS ON DIFFERENT ISLANDS
not been so restricted. As development of the
country proceeded, and as settlement moved farther
north, the want of labour was much felt. This gave
rise to the labour trade. This much-abused occupa-
tion was a perfect godsend to people who were fond
of telling- and listening to ghastly stories. It was
declared by some to be no better than the slave
trade ; and, in fact, it was often called by that name.
My belief is that the stories against it were grossly
exaggerated. There may have been — there probably
were — abuses ; but nothing like so glaring as those
alleged. In days when Bully Hayes and men like
him were cruising freely about the Pacific, trading
was not always carried on in kid gloves. Still, I
think that even in those days very few islanders went
to Queensland, or even Fiji before it became a British
colony, except of their own free will.
Later, the labour trade was put under strict
regulation, and as far as I could see — and I had
specially good opportunities for observation — was
rarely, and never grossly, abused. The appoint-
ment of captains of H.M. ships as Deputy Commis-
sioners gave them legal powers over the crews of
labour vessels which they rarely had to exercise.
The opposition to the labour trade did not cease.
Some people who knew nothing about it advocated
its abolition because they believed the stories about
kidnapping and enslaving of the native islanders.
The missionaries of the different Protestant, sects
were unanimously opposed to it. This was natural.
They saw all the objections to it. It is not certain
that they saw that it had some advantages. Nearly
all the chiefs of tribes from which labourers were
recruited opposed it strenuously. Scarcely any
chief of a South Sea Island tribe had a large
following, and the migration of ten or a dozen of his
most energetic, able-bodied young men seriously
weakened his power and was likely to leave him
nearly defenceless against a rival whose young men
THE LABOUR TRADE 265
did not emigrate because geographical conditions
prevented them from reaching a labour vessel.
Married men in a tribe usually objected to the
trade. It offered special advantages for elopement
to ladies who had grown tired of their husbands
and who longed to seek happiness with another man
in a distant country. In my opinion, the islanders
as a whole were in favour of the trade. Queensland
was to most of them what Mexico or Peru had been
to the Spaniards of the sixteenth century — a land
in which wealth awaited the immigrant. Not a
few of them willingly went back there for a second
term. I met, on a sugar plantation in Northern
Queensland, a native woman who was almost broken-
hearted at being obliged, by the law, to go back to
her island. She was deeply attached to the family
with whom she was living, and, in return, was
regarded with affection. It would be a reasonable
inference, from the eagerness of many islanders to
go to Queensland, from the readiness of not a few
to engage for a second term there, and for the
disinclination of others to leave it and return to
their islands, that the life of a "kanaka" labourer
was not generally unpleasant.
Ever since Fiji had become a British possession
with Crown Colony government, both the labour
trade and the treatment of islanders on the Fijian
plantations or in other occupations called for little
criticism. As a rule, Fijians did not serve the
white residents. Nearly all domestic servants were
immigrants, often cannibals, from the other islands.
It was amusing to see black-skinned male cannibals
acting as nursemaids to white babies, and showing
great kindness and attention to the little ones under
their charge.
CHAPTER XXXIII
NEW ZEALAND, TASMANIA, AND AUSTRALIA
RELATIONS WITH SOUTH SEA ISLANDS
When I began the first series of cruises in the
Western Pacific of which I have been speaking,
the office of High Commissioner was held by the
Governor of New Zealand, Sir Arthur Gordon
having been transferred to that government from
Fiji — of which colony he had been governor — and
having been continued in the office of High Commis-
sioner. I met and conferred with him at Sydney.
I did not visit New Zealand till after he had returned
to England. After that the high commissioner-
ship and the governorship of Fiji were again
combined.
I took special interest in New Zealand. I was
born before white men permanently settled there,
and was more than a year old before it became a
British colony. My father's first cousin and my
namesake — Colonel Cyprian Bridge — commanded
one of the first British regiments ever stationed in
the country. An early recollection of mine was
that of seeing the large collection of water-colour
drawings of the scenery and natives painted by him.
I remember my father going to the meeting in
London held to receive the first report of the arrival
in New Zealand of the so-called "Canterbury
Pilgrims," the pioneer settlers in what became the
Canterbury province. I wished very much to see
the development of this important dependency, the
266
BEAUTIFUL NEW ZEALAND 267
whole political life of which was less than my own
personal life.
I first saw New Zealand in 1883, and was amazed
by the astounding rapidity and grandeur of its
development. I had been a boy at school when
the first white man settled at Christchurch. I had
little more than reached the commencement of middle
age when I found Christchurch a great city, with
a stately cathedral, a great college, a public school
faithfully reproducing the features of similar institu-
tions of historic name in England, a splendid museum,
fine public buildings, and long lines of handsome
and even sumptuous private houses. Christchurch
was not the only place at which marvellous progress
was disclosed. Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin
were all great and flourishing cities, and there were
many towns second only to those named in the
numbers of their inhabitants.
Columbus reported that Cuba was "the most
beautiful land that ever eyes beheld." I maintain
that it must yield the palm to New Zealand. The
originator of the proverb Vedi Napoli e poi mori
had never seen Auckland. The Bay of Auckland
is far more beautiful than the Bay of Naples.
Dunedin is one of the most picturesquely situated
cities in the world. If its beauties have not the
grandeur of those of the Scottish capital, the ancient
name of which it bears, it charms the eye in a way
that cannot be credited to many cities. All the
smaller towns which I saw I found very attractive.
Probably nowhere, certainly in no modern town of
moderate size, could you find street architecture more
tasteful than that of Omaru ; whilst for picturesque
situation, its neighbour, Timaru, has no reason to
envy the towns on the French or Italian Riviera.
New Zealand possesses a collection of beautiful
and impressive scenes, such as are nowhere to be
found together in the same country. I have
mentioned the surpassing beauty of the Bay of
268 NEW ZEALAND, TASMANIA, AUSTRALIA
Auckland. As you approach New Zealand on the
west, you see the snow-clad cone of Mount Egmont,
not unworthy to be mentioned in the same sentence
with Mount Etna. Milford Sound is finer than any
of the fiords of Norway. The Mount Cook glacier is
greater than any glacier in Switzerland ; and Mount
Cook itself might justly claim a distinguished place
amongst the Alps. The Southern Lakes — but for
the general absence of signs of human activity and
settlement — could vie as regards aspect with the
Italian Lakes. I had the good fortune to see the
Pink and the White Terraces, and had also the
melancholy satisfaction of visiting their desolated
site after their destruction. They have gone ; but
the beautiful Lake Rotorua and the geysers in its
neighbourhood still remain.
It is not its picturesque scenery alone that makes
New Zealand so attractive to the visitor from the
Old Country. It has the most delightful climate
in the world, rather like that of Great Britain but
without its defects. When passing between the
hedgerows and hop-gardens, say near Nelson, the
English visitor can hardly bring himself to think that
he is not in Kent or Sussex.
As regards climate, the summer climate of
Tasmania, freshened by breezes from the Antarctic
regions, perhaps surpasses that of New Zealand ;
but taken as it is throughout the year, the New
Zealand climate is unequalled. The beauties of
Tasmania are undoubtedly very great. One some-
times hears people talk enthusiastically of the view
from the seats of the ancient theatre of Syracuse
from which spectators could look across the stage
and catch sight of the sea. The view from the
grand stand of the Hobart racecourse is far finer.
How little we really know about the Australian
dominions, those great flourishing and opulent
states which men of British race have either created
from the beginning in a very short time, or have
AUSTRALIAN DEVELOPMENT 269
immensely advanced within the duration of a single
man's life! How many of us know that there are
only three cities in the United King-dom larger than
Sydney and Melbourne ; and only four cities in the
United States larger than Sydney? The Australian
cities are not merely abodes of great numbers of
inhabitants ; they are also the homes of a culture
abreast of the finest in the northern hemisphere.
Their universities are older than many in the United
Kingdom ; their technical schools stand in the first
rank; their hospitals are of splendid, almost
sumptuous, design and equipment, and, as the
saying goes, thoroughly up-to-date. When a new
Australian town is being laid out in the wilderness,
the first step is to set apart the best possible site for
a hospital, which accurately reflects the character
of the generous and kindly i\ustralian people. The
medical schools of Australia are justly held in high
repute. Those who can speak with authority on
literature and fine art will know what — in a time
almost incredibly short, if we compare it with the
time taken to reach the same height in other
countries — Australia and New Zealand have pro-
duced. The real state of things in these great
dominions must be borne in mind whenever we
discuss conditions in the South Sea Islands. Those
islands are of no more indifference to King George's
subjects in his great dominions at the Antipodes
than are the islands in the Caribbean Sea to the
citizens of the United States.
I have dwelt on the inevitable relations between
the dominions and the islands in order that anyone
who reads these pages may have a fairly correct
notion of the extreme delicacy of the position of
a captain of one of H.M. ships ordered to cruise
about the South Seas. There was a public opinion
in the dominions and a public opinion in the United
Kingdom, neither of which he could afford to
disregard ; and the two opinions were not always the
270 RELATIONS AVITH SOUTH SEA ISLANDS
same. There were two sets of authorities, to one of
which he owed obedience and to the other respect.
Absolute identity of view among-st these sets of
authorities was not always certain. Surely it may
be claimed for the naval officers, who for a long"
series of years managed to walk on a platform
strewn with extremely fragile eg'g's without smashing-
any, that they discharg-ed their duties with discretion
and public spirit. I hope that this will not be
looked upon as blowing- my own trumpet. I am
thinkingf far less of myself than of my many pre-
decessors and successors, some of whom were con-
fronted with problems more difficult than those
which I had to face.
The Hig-h Commission had nothing directly to do
with the natives of the islands. Dealing with them
was the exclusive province of the Navy. The latter
had the choice of only two methods, viz., persuasion
or hostilities. You could give a native chief "a
talking to," or you could convert him by "act
of war." The islanders, especially the Melanesians
of the New Hebrides and the Solomons, are singu-
larly astute diplomatists. As nearly every tribe
in several of the Melanesian islands is — or in my
time was — at war with its neighbours, it would
be highly important for a belligerent chief to secure
the help of allies ; and no ally could be more desirable
than a white man commanding a goodly number
of his countrymen equipped with efficient weapons.
The arrival of a man-of-war was occasionally
received by the savages with friendliness and the
appearance of delight. When the captain landed, he
was entertained with stories of the iniquitous conduct
of the neighbours of his new acquaintances ; and it
was delicately insinuated to him that he had a fine
opportunity of inflicting condign punishment on
the offenders. Much inquiry was necessary before it
could be ascertained that the captain's informants
were not only at war with their neighbours — which
SAVAGE DIPLOMATISTS 271
was almost a matter of course — but were also
contemplating' an attack on them, and were desirous
of securing the help of the newly arrived man-of-war.
Sometimes the native diplomatists tried the
method of inveiglement. Hostilities were never
alluded to. In every body of British naval officers
visiting- their shores the natives suspected that there
would be a sportsman who wanted to shoot pigeons ;
a collector who wanted to pick up curios ; a naturalist
who was "out for" specimens; or a pedestrian who,
after the long confinement of a voyage, was eag^er for
a walk on shore. So they would depict in g^lowing-
colours the advantages of an excursion in the hill
country. They knew that the inhabitants of that
country would regard their appearance in it, especially
when accompanied by white men, as an invasion in
force. An attack on a party of officers from a man-
of-war would certainly lead to reprisals and the
probable destruction of the assailants' tribe.
One had to be continuously on the alert to avoid
being led into some adventure which would almost
certainly result in bloodshed and would only benefit
a tribe of cunning cannibals not particularly deserving
of support.
For the savages, international law had no existence.
A treaty would be kept just as long as it would seem
more profitable to keep it than to break it. Amongst
some of the less savage islanders a flag of truce — or
what answered to it, viz., a palm branch or a bough —
had a certain sanctity ; amongst others it had none at
all. They knew that when officers of H.M. ships
displayed it they meant to be friendly ; but it did not
follow that they themselves either ought to or would
respect it. In several islands the sacred character of
a herald, even in war-time, was recognised ; but in
others, if he dared to execute his office he would
probably soon supply the principal dish at a
ceremonial repast.
The savage is covetous because he sees no reason
272 RELATIONS WITH SOUTH SEA ISLANDS
why he should not be ; unless it be the impossibility
of seizing what he covets. He will not only covet
his "neighbour's vineyard" ; he will also continue to
covet it until he gets it or is convinced that he is not
strong enough to take it by force — which is the only
legal process that he knows anything of In his
philosophy might is right. His whole policy is based
on the principle of being prepared to make an attack
on an unprepared neighbour. His art of war consists
in a determination never to fight a pitched battle
unless he is in overwhelmingly superior force or has
a much more efficient equipment. Some chiefs made
themselves a terror to their neighbours when — at
enormous cost in island produce— they had bought
a few magazine rifles, many years, indeed, before the
crews of H.M. ships had them. Savage tactics con-
sist of raids on unarmed men, women, and children.
They are undertaken with the object of destroying
their neighbours' houses and ravaging their fields,
besides slaughtering the defenceless. There are only
two ways in which they can be stopped — the raiding
tribe must be either exterminated or disarmed. It
is the well-founded conviction that there is nothing
besides extermination or disarmament to determine
his relations with his neighbours which makes war
and preparation for war the principal occupation of
the savage's life.
CHAPTER XXXIV
SOME EXCURSIONS
When I was at Espiritu Santo — usually called Santo
— in the New Hebrides, the captain of a vessel from
Fiji, who had been in the group several times, offered
to accompany me on an excursion to an inland village
on the west side of the adjoining' island of Mallicolo.
He protested that he was quite sure of the natives,
who — because their village was inland and hidden in
a fold of the mountains — were not to be coerced into
g'ood behaviour by the presence of a man-of-war.
We landed in Mallicolo and started in the direction
of the village early in the forenoon. We were not
met by the natives of the village, though they had
promised to meet us on landing. The weather was
very hot ; the road was uphill ; and the path — on
which we could travel only in Indian file — ran throug"h
long grass which almost prevented any circulation of
air. It promised to be anything but a pleasure
excursion. When we had been making slow and
really painful progress for the best part of an hour,
there suddenly arose, as if out of the ground — really
out of the long grass — a band of fully-armed and
naked savages. These were the people who had
promised to meet us at the beach. They probably
had their own reasons for not coming nearer to the
water and for concealing themselves. Their reception
of us was friendly, but we could not have failed to
notice the fact that we had been entirely at their
273
274 SOME EXCURSIONS
mercy when we dropped upon their hiding-place in
the long grass.
One of the natives had picked up a few words of
English and he was good enough to attach himself
to me. We continued our journey for two or three
hours, feeling the intense heat a good deal. At length
we arrived at the village. Just before entering it we
sat down to rest and get cool. The ship's gunner
was one of our party. He was a very good-looking
man, with an erect and well-knit figure. He was still
a young man ; but was very bald. When he took
off his hat his baldness was revealed to the by-
standers. The savages noticed it with shouts of
delight. One of them came forward and touched the
bald pate with his fingers ; as this was not resented,
others did the same until there was a small forest of
hands resting on the gunner's head. This was a
favourable sign as regards our friends' intentions ;
but other signs were not encouraging.
When we entered the village, which was compactly
built and neat, there was not a living thing to be seen.
The natives who had met and accompanied us could
not have numbered half the able-bodied men of a
village of the size of that which we had just reached.
We stayed in the village for more than an hour ; and
yet not a woman or a child appeared. The situation
was not pleasant ; but it was absolutely necessary to
avoid showing any sign of alarm.
In front of a house larger than most of the others
a great number of bones was suspended from the
eaves. I said to my companion : "Man bones?"
To which he replied in the negative. On closer
inspection they turned out to be principally pigs'
bones. There had been a banquet at the house and
— in accordance with a custom which I observed
also in other islands — the giver of the banquet,
instead of putting an account of it in the morning
papers, had the bones that had been gnawed by his
guests hung up for the information of the public and
REMAINS OF A CANNIBAL FEAST 275
as a memorial of his hospitality more durable than a
paragraph in the "Society" column of a newspaper.
In walking" about the practically deserted village
I went down a short lane, and in front of a house of
no great size saw another lot of bones hanging up.
As I was looking at them my savage companion
nudged me and said in a low tone : " Man bones."
Here was evidence of a cannibal feast ; but I inferred,
from the appearance of the bones, that it was not a
very recent one.
We now squatted down in what may be called
the public square of the village and handed over to
our friends the various presents which we had brought
with us. They were received with signs of gratitude,
and I was presented in turn with a small pig. It
was now well on in the afternoon, and I decided that
we ought not to stay any longer and that we must
get back to our ship's boat before dark. The natives,
who had accompanied us on the latter part of the
way up, came with us on the way down, kindly
carrying my pig for me. When we had reached a
spot near the place at which they met us earlier in
the day they suddenly decamped, disappearing all
at once in the long grass. We managed to get down
to the boat just before it became too dark to see
the way, very tired and generally very draggled in
appearance.
We afterwards ascertained why it was that the
village was deserted when we were in it. It had been
proposed to make an attack on us. There was a
division of opinion. It was carried by a majority
that we were not to be molested ; but the opposing
minority was large and — as one vote counts two on
a division — a few from our side going over to the
opposition later in the day would have turned the
scale. The uncertainty as to this rendered it desirable
for the women and children to keep out of the way.
In parts of Southern New Guinea and in many
of the Melanesian Islands there are signs of migra-
276 SOME EXCURSIONS
tions and invasions ; some perhaps of very remote
date, others much more recent. However it may
have come to the islands, it may be taken as certain
that the black-skinned race was in them before
the brown-skinned or so-called " Polynesian " race.
The Polynesians came from islands to windward of
Melanesia and Southern New Guinea, and some of
them may have drifted involuntarily before the trade-
wind ; while others may have engaged in deliberately
planned expedition. There is a Tongan tradition of
the latter on which Byron has based his poem of
"The Island." When I was at Ponape in the
Carolines in 1883, there were some Marshall Islanders
who had been driven there much against their will by
the wind. They had started in three native vessels
— the Marshall Island craft are far too large and
elaborately built to be properly called canoes — they
had broken up one on the voyage for firewood ; a
second had been wrecked ; and the survivors, much
reduced in number, had at last got safely to land.
They were waiting to get back to their homes, the
prospect of which was remote.
Many of the Polynesian migrations to Melanesia
must have been organised expeditions, as the new-
comers frequently secured a foothold on the shore
from which their predecessors could not dislodge
them, and not seldom conquered and ruled the
earlier inhabitants. In some cases the two races
had coalesced sufficiently to have become virtually
one. In other cases they still kept apart and were
usually hostile one to another. This division of races
on a single island had been long known to sailors
cruising in Oceania, who distinguished between the
"salt-water men" or more recent comers, and the
"men of bush" or earlier inhabitants who had been
driven inland, usually to the mountains.
In New Guinea the people about Port Moresby
were brown-skinned, straight-haired, rather tall, of
slight figures, grave and taciturn. Farther east, at
ASCENT OF A MOUNTAIN 277
South Cape for example, the inhabitants were nearly-
black, of middle height, thick-set, merry, laughing"
chatterers. Whilst my ship was lying at the South
Cape, during the proclamation of the New Guinea
Protectorate, Mr Chalmers — always full of energy —
persuaded me to accompany him in an ascent of
South Mountain. With five or six other officers
and eight or ten natives we started as soon as it was
light. By Mr Chalmers' advice we each took, and
handed over to a native to carry, a change of under-
clothing. We took very little food with us, merely
a few potted meat sandwiches, because we expected
to be back at our starting point before the afternoon
was out.
Immediately after leaving the beach we had to
cross an extensive mangrove swamp, composed of
soft mud covered with water. Our flannel trousers
soon became black nearly to the knee, whilst the mud
gave out an odour anything but pleasant. Having
gone through the swamp, we came to a river and —
as no one in such localities looks for bridges or fords
— went straight on, at any rate washing the black
mud off our trousers. After crossing this and other
rivers we began to ascend, through grassy country
sparsely studded with trees and shrubs. The
weather was hot and the slope, though not as yet
very steep, was still steep enough to make travelling
slow and fatiguing. In fact we had, by midday,
made disappointingly Httle progress. We halted for
a few minutes and ate our sandwiches. Mr Chalmers,
whose costume was a flannel shirt and trousers, canvas
shoes, and a sun helmet, had round his waist a
leathern strap passed through the handle of an
enamelled iron teacup. This we all used in turn to
get water from a little rivulet trickling down the
slope. We had no other meal and most of us had
had only a hurried breakfast at 5 a.m. As we pushed
on, the slope became steeper and steeper, and the
trees much closer together.
T
278 SOME EXCURSIONS
About four in the afternoon, when there was little
more than two hours' daylight left, our natives
stopped and declared that we had reached the
summit. We convinced them that we had not ; on
which they said that they could not act as guides any
farther, because they had never been beyond the
point at which we now stood.
After a short council of war, it was — under
Chalmers' enthusiastic advice — decided to go on
until we could reach the summit of the mountain.
Our real troubles now began — the ascent was nearly
precipitous. It was possible to ascend only by
grasping a branch or the slender trunk of a tree, and
pulling oneself up the successive stages. There were
many pandanus or screw-pipe trees with invitingly
slender trunks, usually covered with beautifully soft
moss. The temptation to clutch these and use them
in the pulling-up process was irresistible. We suffered
much by doing so, as beneath the moss the trunks
bristled with sharp thorns. My hands soon became
quite bloody.
After an extremely fatiguing climb, just as it was
growing dark, we at length got to the very top of the
mountain. We found a small, clear space, nearly
circular, and some twenty yards in diameter. Here
we threw ourselves on the ground. It had been
pouring with rain for the last hour or two, and the
ground was saturated with water. We managed to
light a fire, but it would not remain alight in the rain.
We ourselves were wet to the skin. By Chalmers'
advice we changed our underclothing, what we put
on being not quite so wet as what we took off We
stretched a line between two trees and hung our wet
underclothing on it in the hope that the rain might
cease — which it did not.
We had nothing to eat or drink, and were too tired
to do anything but lie down on the soaking wet
ground. We were so sleepy that we did not mind
the wet ; but we were kept awake all night by the
A BIVOUAC IN THE RAIN 279
sharp points of the rocks, which were numerous
amidst the soft ground. Every turn of the body
brought a sharp point in contact with a rib. The
natives, who never lost their jollity and seemed to
think that our mountain-climbing was the best joke
in the world — bivouacked on the edge of the clearing
just opposite where we lay. I felt something rather
slimy at the back of my neck. This turned out to
be a large slug trying to crawl down inside my shirt.
I got rid of this visitor, and later on had the pleasant
experience of finding another slug, equally large,
coiling himself round my right ear. I picked it off
and hurled it from me, hearing it go smack against
the naked body of one of our savage companions.
This caused great hilarity amongst them.
Not one of us could have slept a wink. Towards
the morning the rain became intermittent ; but we
were still wet through. Just as it began to dawn,
there was a greater than usual amount of giggling
amongst the natives, and one of our party — a
midshipman of H.M.S. Nelson, the commodore's
ship — rose to see what was up. He called out :
" The natives are wearing our clothes." Sure enough,
they had taken the vests and drawers from the line
on which we had hung them and had put them on.
Being discovered, they burst into shouts of laughter.
My own drawers had been appropriated by a gentle-
man who, unaccustomed to the use of such things,
had used the legs as sleeves. He was so proud of
his performance that he wore the garment in this
way for several days, and I presented him to the
commodore while he still had it on. As no one
would have cared to wear an article of clothing which
had been worn by one of the natives, we gave them
the clothes which they had taken from the line.
We did not lose much time before beginning our
descent. I was greatly fatigued. Except a couple
of sandwiches, I had had no food since 5 a.m. the
previous day, had been unable to sleep, and had had
280 SOME EXCURSIONS
an exhausting climb. On the way back, ahhough it
was all downhill, it was as much as I could do to
prevent myself from collapsing altogether. About
two in the afternoon, when we had left the more
difficult part of the descent behind us, we were met
by some men from the ships, sent out to look for us.
They had with them some cocoa. I swallowed a cup
of it, and was immediately so greatly refreshed by it
that I was able to do the rest of the return journey
without discomfort. As for that wonderful being,
Chalmers, he looked as if he had done nothing more
energetic than take a stroll in a garden. I was
delighted to get back to my own cabin, to a bath,
a meal, and some very necessary sleep. I never
cared to repeat my experience of mountaineering in
New Guinea.
CHAPTER XXXV
POLYNESIANS
Cruising among- the Melanesian groups was interest-
ing and sometimes exciting ; cruising amongst the
Tongan and Samoan Islands was delightful. The
Tongans and Samoans are nearly related, being
in fact but two branches of the same section of
the "Polynesian" race. They are the handsomest
people in the world. Their colour is a fine brown
bronze. They have — both men and women — large
and well-formed figures and finely shaped features.
The Tongans, who live in a cooler climate, are the
more sturdy. The beauty of the women, especially
the young Samoan women, is very remarkable.
The Tongans had overflowed into the Fijian
archipelago, and amongst the people a large in-
fusion of Tongan blood was easily perceptible.
It became more apparent the farther that one
went east. At Loma-Loma in Eastern Fiji, the
population was indistinguishable from the Tongans
and much Tongan was spoken. None of the
Polynesians whom I came across could be properly
called savages. Except the Maoris, for whose
indulgence in the practice there was a special
reason and whose recourse to it has been much
exaggerated, the Polynesians were not addicted to
cannibalism in the same way as many Melanesians
were. Some of them asserted, and I consider the
assertion worthy of belief, that they and their
ancestors never had been cannibals. With others
281
282 POLYNESIANS
the act of eating human flesh was of rare occurrence
and distinctly ceremonial.
When I first visited Samoa five-and-thirty years
ago, it was tending to become a bone of contention
between the English, the Americans, and the
Germans. The three powers agreed to set up a
king, so as to place the whole group of islands under
one sovereign chief. There was one chief, Malietoa,
who could trace his pedigree back for seven hundred
years. He had inherited more or less indirectly five
titles. If he could have legally obtained the two
other titles, he would have been universally accepted
by the other Samoans as legitimate paramount chief,
and his kingship would have been acknowledged
throughout the group. The two titles in question
were held, quite legitimately, by another chief; and
Malietoa, as king, was looked on as a usurper
by a large party.
The three powers insisted on his assuming the
kingship and establishing a parliament of two houses
and all the machinery of constitutional government.
There was always a party against the king, and
it was more in revolt than in mere opposition. The
poor king tried very hard to lay down his uneasy
crown. He gave me, in open audience, several
hints of his wish to do so ; and once, having arranged
that I should meet him in private conference, he told
me plainly that he wished to abdicate and go to
Fiji. He admitted, on being reminded of it, that the
existing arrangement was based on a treaty or
regular agreement between three great powers, and
that treaties could not be set aside by only one party
to them. This poor monarch — a king in spite of
himself — presented a melancholy spectacle. He said
to me on one occasion : " I have a parliament ; the
parliament passes many excellent laws ; but no
one in the country pays the smallest attention to
them."
The kingdom of Tonga had also a constitutional
KING AND CROWN PRINCE 283
gfovernment of the Western type. The kingf — George
Tubou — was a fine old man, nearly ninety years
of age. He was as straight as an arrow, in spite of
his years ; and amused himself as an amateur
carpenter with tools of Western make. I have seen
him plying an adze as vigorously as if he were a
young man. He usually went about it in a becoming
dress — a European shirt and a waistcloth or skirt
of native cloth, or tappa. Our Government had
some rather serious difficulties with King George
and I was sent to Tonga to try to settle them.
The old king received me ceremoniously — dressed,
and looking most uncomfortable, in a blue European
uniform, adorned with gold lace, and having on the
most clumsy-looking pair of lace-up boots that I
have ever seen.
The difficulties above referred to were satis-
factorily settled, and King George told me that
he was now too old to go on board ship, but that his
grandson, Prince Wellington, the Crown Prince,
would go to represent him. Prince Wellington did
not live to succeed the old king. He was a big
man, like all his race. He spoke English just like
an educated Englishman.
When he paid his formal visit to the ship, I
showed him a device in the engine-room, which,
though invented long before, had been only recently
adopted in the Navy. When it was explained to
him he exclaimed in perfect English: "How small
is the mind of man! How great are its works!"
I thought this remark of sufficient importance to
be reported officially to the commodore, so that
cantains of H.M. ships visiting the place subse-
quently might know what to expect. The prince
made himself very pleasant at a banquet in his
honour, and when he was leaving the ship I asked
him to accept a copy of Guillemin's book on
Astronomy, translated by the late Mrs Lockyer,
and profusely illustrated. He accepted it readily;
284 POLYNESIANS
and, as I afterwards learnt, he spent nearly the whole
night lying- face downwards on the floor of his
Tongan house, reading- the book by the light of
the fire.
The kingdom of Tonga consists of three groups
of islands — the Vavau group of high islands in the
north ; the Haapai group of low coral islands in the
middle ; and the Tonga-tabu group of islands of
moderate elevation in the south. At the time of my
visit the king was residing in the northern group.
On the island of Vavau one occasionally saw large
irregular blocks of stone as big as a good-sized
sheep. They differed in structure from the rocks
of the island, and the natives told us how they came
to be there.
A few miles north of Vavau there is a small
rather mountainous island called, if I remember
rightly, Amargura. A giant lived on it and another
giant lived on Vavau. They were not on good terms.
The first giant wished to have a hand-to-hand
combat with his neighbour, but could not cross the sea,
and the Vavau giant would not. There was nothing
for it but to throw large stones at the giant on
Vavau. The latter had only one way of defending
himself against his enemy's missiles, and that was
a peculiar one. The hinder part of his body, below
the waist, was of dazzling brightness. Whenever he
saw his neighbour poising a stone with intent to
throw it, he turned his back on him and bowed away
from him and not to him. He dazzled the eyes of
the stone-thrower : the stones fell wide of the mark ;
and there they are on Vavau till this day.
There is, opposite the entrance to the harbour at
Vavau, an island with a remarkable cave, which can
be entered only by diving. It is described in the
celebrated book on Tonga by W. Mariner, who was
wrecked there in a privateer, in the early part of the
nineteenth century, within the memory of the old
king. Mariner relates an incident, the account of
THE SUBMARINE CAVE 285
which Byron has followed in his poem, "The
Island." Prince Wellington told me the story as it
was still repeated in Tonga.
In the old days there were two tribes on Vavau
which were nearly always at war. The son of the
chief of one tribe met and fell in love with the
daughter of the opposing chief. The young man's
love was returned ; but the parents on both sides
absolutely refused to consent to a marriage. One
day, when the young man was importuning his
father to consent to it, the father, losing patience,
angrily exclaimed: "You had better go away
altogether." The young chief took him at his word,
collected his followers, stored a canoe for a voyage,
and put to sea. This may be a legendary survival
of an account of a real occurrence, for many over-
sea expeditions did in former years certainly start
from Tonga.
In secret the young lover managed to communicate
with his sweetheart. He had discovered the sub-
marine cave when diving one day, and it was known
only to him. He told the secret to his lady love.
Like the Samoan, the Tongan girls are expert
swimmers. So the young lady swam across to the
island, dived, and entered the cave ; and there
awaited developments.
The young chief and his companions, having
embarked, made for the West. He addressed them
and said that he would go with them where they
might enter into possession of a new country. Some
of them expressed regret that the young chief had no
wife, so that he might found a line of chiefs. On
this he remarked: "Perhaps the Queen of the Sea
will find me one," and without another word jumped
overboard and disappeared in the water. This was
just as they were passing the cave island.
His followers were greatly disconcerted by the
sudden disappearance of their leader. They stopped
paddling, and consulted as to what they had better
286 POLYNESIANS
do. They had not been long in consultation when
the young chief reappeared, accompanied by a
beautiful maiden. He said to his companions :
" You see that the goddess of the sea has found a
wife for me." All rejoiced, and the voyage was
continued.
Prince Wellington wished very much that I
should go and inspect the cave, promising to
accompany me. I reminded him that when, a year
or two before, the captain of one of H.M. ships had
dived on his way to it, he rose in the water too soon
and struck his head against the over-arching rock,
with the result that he was seriously injured. The
prince remembered the occurrence and promised
that this should not happen to me. " I will go with
you," he said, *'and I won't let you rise too soon."
On this assurance I arranged to go with him ; but
unfortunately I had to leave Vavau before the time
fixed for our excursion to the cave.
On my way from Vavau to Nukualofa, the capital
of the kingdom, on the island of Tonga-tabu, I called
at Haapai. From that place I took to Nukualofa
a very pleasant and courteous chief — Tui-Belehaki,
that is, Lord Belehaki, who took his title from a place
in Tonga- tabu. He was married to a sister of Prince
Wellington, the Princess Fusi Pala. The lady's
name had a musical sound in Tongan. It was a
disappointment to learn that when translated into
English it meant "rotten banana." Tui-Belehaki
held the highest rank among the Tongan chiefs.
Like King George Tubou, he was a descendant of
the sun ; but he belonged to an older branch of that
illustrious family. Consequently, the king — who had
fought his way to the throne — had to yield to him
precedence, and did not dispute it. Tui-Belehaki, at
a ceremonial banquet, would receive the Kava cup
before the king ; and if the two personages were to
meet when out walking, Tui-Belehaki could continue
on his way, while the king would have to squat by
KAVJ OR ANGONA 287
the roadside till he had passed. The king- contrived
never to go to the same Kava party as Tui-Belehaki,
and never to meet him out walking. Amongst the
Tongans, as also amongst some other Polynesians,
chiefs are entitled to be spoken to in a language
different from that used in the case of commoners.
Tui-Belehaki's rank was so exalted that he had a
language all to himself, which could not be used in
speaking to anyone else.
Amongst Polynesians precedence is settled in
accordance with the order in which the Kava cup is
handed to guests. This order is well known, and
though not reduced to writing, it holds in Tonga and
other places the same position as that held by the
table of precedence prefixed to a British peerage
volume. At a Kava party there is a particular
official whose duty it is to call out — each in his proper
turn — the names of the persons to v/hom the cup
when filled should be handed.
Kava, which in Fiji is called ang'ona, is made from
the root of a shrub which scientific people call the
Piper methysticum. In Samoa the root is chewed and
then mixed with a large quantity of water and drunk
at once. When I was in Samoa I fought shy of
Kava ; but I had to sip it once or twice. The chew-
ing there is done by young girls who sit in a row in
front of the assembled guests. Only the front teeth
are used in chewing, and during mastication the
mouth is washed out with clean water about every
minute. In Tonga the Kava root was not chewed,
but was pounded between two stones ; and there I
tasted it frequently. I did not find the taste pleasant ;
but it was not positively nauseous. My attitude
towards Kava would be the same as that of the
Rocky Mountains hunter towards carrion-crow : ** I
can eat carrion-crow, but I don't hanker after it."
Near the anchorage at Nukualofa there is a small
islet which Tui-Belehaki said was the first land
created ; or rather the first land fished up by the
288 POLYNESIANS
great god of the Tongans from the bottom of the
ocean. Tui-Belehaki was good enough to tell us all
about it. When the newly created land had become
sufficiently dry, the god put a man on it. This being
complained of being lonely ; and the god planted a
yam on the island to give him occupation in cultivat-
ing it. In the night the devil came and dug up the
yam. Thereupon the god planted a taro, which the
devil treated just as he had treated the yam. The
god now planted a cocoa-nut tree. This the devil
pulled up by the roots. The god now became really
angry and exclaimed : " This kind of thing has got to
stop." He said to the man, who had been much
troubled by the devil's malignant activities : " I will
put something on the island that will give the devil
so much trouble that he will not have time to bother
you." The god accordingly put a woman on the
island ; and since then she has given the devil so
much to do that the man has been but little disturbed
by him.
There are some interesting sights on Tonga-tabu.
To begin with, there are some very extensive caves,
of which I was reminded when, years afterwards, I
visited the caves of Adelsberg. There is a wonderful
prehistoric monument, composed of two upright mono-
liths of great size, and a third across the top, morticed
into the uprights. I was given by our consul a
photograph of this monument. I brought it to
England with me, it being the first that had reached
this country, and gave it to a scientific friend, whom
it interested greatly.
There are some curious terraced mounds called
langi, believed to have been sepulchres of ancient
chiefs. They are low pyramids, rising in successive
steps. Some of them are of great size, the base
covering something like an acre. Each step is faced
with large blocks of stone, accurately cut. The upper
surface of the terrace has a slight slope ; and the stone
at each of the four corners is so exactly placed that
SPEAKER OR PRESIDENT 289
it receives on its upper face a slope from each of two
sides of the pyramid. The junction of the two planes
forms a ridge cut with perfect accuracy and running
as a diagonal to the right-angled corner of the stone.
The work indicated an astonishing amount of dex-
terity amongst the ancient operatives, who could not
have known the use of metals.
Tonga was, like Samoa, a constitutional monarchy,
with a parliament. King George was a monarch of
strong character who, having won his crown by
knocking all competitors and malcontents on the
head, meant to and did administer the affairs of his
kingdom well. Dr Moulton showed me the old
king's club, given him by his majesty when he had
secured his position and there was no more knocking
on the head to be done.
The parliament consisted of one chamber, and a
powerful chief named Tungi — with whom I was on
very friendly terms — was offered and accepted the
post of Speaker. Before he had been very long in it
a malicious white man insinuated to him that the
Speakership was beneath the dignity of a great
chief, because all Speakers are commoners. Tungi
was very indignant and resigned the Speakership,
nor could he be induced to resume it, until his title
was changed from Speaker to President.
CHAPTER XXXVI
ANCIENT REMAINS- — WAR AND PEACE IN OCEANIA
PEACE-MAKING
As already indicated, my most extensive cruises
among-st Pacific Islands were made in the years
1882, 1883, 1884, and the early part of 1885, when
I was captain of H.M.S. Espiegle. I made others,
as admiral in command of the Australian station,
in 1895, 1896, and 1897, but more than once these
cruises took me to islands which I had already visited
in the earlier years. The longest cruise, which has
been alluded to before, was made in 1883. It took
me to, among-st other places, the Ellice, Gilbert,
Marshall, Caroline, and Pelew groups of islands.
I also visited one secluded and interesting little spot
called Greenwich Island, just north of the Line.
Its few inhabitants were of Samoan type. The
island was ruled by two queens. I paid them a
visit and found two enormously fat, good-natured-
looking ladies squatting side by side on a mat in
what seemed to be the palace.
As I proceeded north from Fiji, I first called at
Rotuma, which — though not inhabited by Fijians
but by Micronesians— had recently been made part
of our colony of Fiji, or at any rate had been put
under its government. There is an extraordinary
islet near the anchorage at Rotuma, which looks as
if it had been chopped with an axe, and in the gash
caused by the chopping a huge mass of rock had
fallen and stuck half-way down.
290
MICRONESIA 291
In some of the Caroline Islands the natives, five-
and-thirty years ago, were still quite savage ; but the
people of the Ellice, Gilbert, Marshall, and Pelew
Islands had long before emerged from the state of
mere savagery and had evolved by themselves
efficient, orderly, and highly interesting systems of
government. The Ellice Islanders were especially
quiet and peaceable, and were all Christians. They
had no weapons, and some of them assured me that
their ancestors had never had any. This was not
intended to deceive ; but, all the same, it was a
mistake. The truth was that the use of weapons
had been discontinued so long ago that the traditions
concerning them had died out.
As we went north we got beyond the reach of
missionary effort, at all events of resident missionary
effort. Where there were not white missionaries
enough, their places were taken by Rarotongans,
Samoans, and Tongans, usually in the capacity of
'* teachers." I saw several of these men and of most
of them I formed a high opinion. A few of them
had been regularly ordained as ministers of the
congregational denomination. An ordained Samoan,
the Rev. Mr Samuela, whom I met on Arorai in the
Southern Gilberts, seemed to me the pattern of what
a missionary should be. He ruled his flock firmly,
but with more common sense than is always found
in ecclesiastical autocrats. He was a worthy con-
temporary of Chalmers of New Guinea and Robertson
of Erromanga.
In the Northern Gilberts the kingship still existed.
In the Southern it had been abolished and had been
replaced by a republican form of government. On at
least one island, polity had been so far developed
that its people had established a federal republic.
In this I think they had anticipated Switzerland ;
and perhaps, though less likely, the United States
also. All the so-called republics were really oli-
garchies. The governing body was a true senate,
292 ANCIENT REMAINS
being an assembly composed of elders — • I think
fathers of families, the patres of a very early day.
The Kaupuli — sometimes pronounced Faipuli —
house or senate house was a conspicuous object in
the village. In the senate house of Vaitupu there
were several rather curious pieces of furniture. In
shape they were like European sofas, and were made,
leg's and all, out of a single piece of wood. I was told
that they were for the use of legislators who were
determined that they would not ^wq in to long-
winded orators trying to talk out a proposal. When
this form of obstruction was tried the members
favouring the proposal would take it in turns to lie
down on the sofas and go to sleep, letting the
obstructionists go on talking all night and thus
preventing an adjournment and the failure of the
proposed measure.
The Marshall Islands were all under chiefs, there
being sometimes more than one chief on a single
island. The inhabitants are classed as Micronesians ;
but I thought that, in some of them at any rate —
the people of Majuro, for example^ — -there must be a
Polynesian strain. Some of the Majuro warriors
were stalwart fellows. The Marshall Islanders are
great seamen and navigators, and build, not canoes,
but real ships. These are regularly built of pieces
of wood, which, for want of nails and bolts, are sewn
together with sennit, plaited of cocoanut fibre. A
canoe has a sloping platform rigged out on each
beam. The platform is several feet square, and
usually has on it a regularly constructed house, of
miniature dimensions it is true, and low in the roof,
but big enough to let a couple of men, if not more,
lie down inside it. The Marshall Islanders make
long voyages, and even understand the art of pre-
serving provisions for sea stock. The fruit of the
pandanus looks like a coarse pine-apple. It is pulled
to pieces. These are placed on a mat in the sun
until they exude juice. They are then rolled much
NATIVE CHARTS 293
as a cook rolls dough for pie-crust, until there appears
what looks like a piece of blanket soaked in treacle.
It has a rather sweet and not unpleasant taste.
The "blanket" is made into a roll, is "parcelled"
or covered with a dry leaf, and is then regularly
"served" over with cocoanut fibre sennit ; the whole
process being exactly like that by which bluejackets
in my time used to "make up" their ship's tobacco.
The rolled pandanus fruit, thus treated, will keep
for months, and in its wrappings is impervious to
salt water.
The Marshall Islanders even make charts. Four
narrow strips of wood tied together make a roughly
square frame. Lines of twisted fibre are stretched
across the frame at irregular intervals and roughly
at right angles to each other. On the intersections
of these lines shells or small pieces of coral are tied
to represent islands. I think that the relative
bearings are approximately correct. Sir John
Thurston, the distinguished Governor of Fiji, a
great part of whose life had been spent in the South
Seas, told me that most islanders could point cor-
rectly in the direction of islands far distant from their
own.
That the Marshall Islanders possessed a rather
highly developed art of shipbuilding, and had also
some perception of the scientific side of navigation,
may be accepted as proof of their natural capacity
and of their progressive tendencies. In several
islands one came across material evidence of bygone
civilisation, which was so completely prehistoric
that it lay far beyond the oldest traditions current
among the natives of the present day. The langis
of Tonga-tabu were of comparatively recent date,
and their construction was included in the range
of credible tradition ; but the great cromlech or
trilithon a few miles from Nukualofa must be much
older.
Some remains are so colossal in size, and cover
u
294 ANCIENT REMAINS
such extensive areas, that they would only have been
constructed by a very numerous population. On
many islands there is a tradition that in former
times they were much more densely populated than
they are now. Vaitupu, where there had been an
ancient custom — long given up when I was there —
of putting- up headstones at graves, was largely
a cemetery. That even the low and relatively
unproductive islands could support a very large
population was proved by the case of Taputawea,
which had thousands of inhabitants and presented
the appearance of an almost continuous village.
When I was there the people were expecting a
drought. They were not in the least alarmed by
the prospect, but were busily preparing for it by
preserving large quantities of pandanus fruit in the
manner already described.
The greatest architectural remains were on two of
the Caroline Islands. There is an islet called Lele,
in Chabrol Harbour, in the island of Kusaie or
Ualan. When I was landing there, I was at once
struck by the strong likeness of some ancient boat
harbours or cambers to structures of the same kind
at different points in the inland Sea of Japan. On
the islet were the ruins of what looked like a great
castle or fortress, built of rough blocks of stone of
different shapes and sizes, some of them being very
large. The "king," a chief, told me that these
places had been built by the ancestors of the present
inhabitants, but it was clear that they had not
even a traditional account of them. The buildings
could only have been constructed by a population
many times as numerous as that at present on the
island.
Still more remarkable ruins are to be found near
Metalanim on the larger island of Ponape. Here
there are traces of a veritable city, a sort of
Micronesian Venice, constructed in the water with
canal streets. The people who laid it out must have
A PREHISTORIC VENICE 295
been experts in town-planning. The platforms or
artificial sites for the buildings, and the buildings
themselves, were constructed of basaltic columns
like those of the Giant's Causeway in Ireland.
A resident American missionary told me that these
columns were found at only one spot on the north-
eastern coast of Ponape, some twenty miles by
nearest route from the ancient city. Some forty
years ago, the distinguished Polish man of science,
Mr Kubary, whose acquaintance I afterwards made
in the Pelew Islands, described these ruins and made
an admirable plan of them. They have also been
described by Mr F. W. Christian, together with
the remains at Lele, in his book, The Caroline
Islands, published in 1899.
Probably enough has been said in the foregoing
pages to make it clear that, as a rule, the natives
of the Pacific Islands are deserving of the sympathy
and the help of white men. To those who were
personally acquainted with the islanders, it was
certain that one of the greatest benefits which the
white man could confer upon them was to induce
them to keep the peace among themselves.
Those who can carry their recollection back for
some five-and-thirty years will be able to recall the
scramble of the great powers of the west for Pacific
archipelagos. Possibly signs that the scramble was
coming might have been discerned earlier, but
certainly in 1883, to those who sailed amongst
the Micronesian groups, if to no one else, its
approach seemed certain, A war between different
tribes of natives would not only help to precipitate
the action of the scramblers, it would also encourage
the least scrupulous amongst them.
Native wars, as far as they came under my
personal observation, were generally due to two
causes. They were due either to retaliation for
the abduction of a woman — the Tale of Troy
repeating itself — in which case they were usually
296 WAR AND PEACE IN OCEANIA
short ; or to the desire of a particular chief, supported
by the covetousness of his followers, to become sole
monarch in his island, in which case they were
likely to drag on for years and, indeed, to become
chronic.
I anchored one forenoon near a Southern New
Guinea village of a remarkable kind. It was in two
separate parts, perhaps thirty or forty yards from
each other. One part was much smaller than the
other, and both parts were built on piles right out
in the water and the best part of a hundred yards
from the shore. The villagers had cultivated ground
on the mainland near the beach, and houses were
here and there built high up in trees for the protec-
tion of watchers who remained all night near the
cultivated spot, and who, but for these refuges, would
have been exposed to attack by wild beasts or hostile
tribesmen.
The smaller part of the village had been burned,
and only charred remains of houses and of the piles
on which they had stood were to be seen. The
larger part of the village was intact, and the people
were in a state of great excitement. All the women
and children and many household goods had been
hurried into canoes, and several of the men had
climbed to the roofs of the houses and were keeping
a lookout. I went to the village as soon as the ship
had anchored.
An attack had been made on the place about six
or seven hours before our arrival by a neighbouring
tribe, which alleged that one of its young women
had been carried off by a young man of the village,
and that his friends refused to give compensation
to her family. In the attack the outlying part of
the village had been set on fire and burned. The
villagers declared that the girl had eloped with the
young man of her own free will, that she was, in fact,
"of a coming on disposition." Even if she had
not been forcibly carried off, some compensation
MARRIAGE SETTLEMENTS 297
would, among"st many tribes, notably those on
Sandwich or Vat6 Island in the New Hebrides, have
been due to her family. Anyhow, she was the cause
of a war.
Many white men, met with in the Melanesian
Islands, believed that amongst the natives wives
were bought. As far as I could find out, this
was a mistake. A present was always made to the
bride's parents, even when they raised no objection
to the marriage. The payment was a primitive form
of marriage settlement. One could understand a
prudent father refusing his consent to his daughter's
marriage with a bridegroom so destitute of property
that he could not "put up" the moderate amount at
which custom had fixed the pre-nuptial "settlement."
Such fathers are sometimes heard of in civilised
countries. Where the practical part of the settlement
came in was in the provision that it made for the
maintenance of the bride in the event of her becoming
a widow. If the proper payment had been made to
her parents before her marriage, they would — in case
of her husband's death — be bound to maintain her,
and she would not be a charge on the resources
of any of her late husband's relatives.
In no less than four islands which I visited during
a long cruise in 1883 there were rather important
wars — the islands were Milli, Arhno, Majaro, and
Pelew (Palao). In all these cases I had the good
fortune of being able to induce the belligerents to
make peace. In Majuro and in the Pelews, hostilities
had been going on for a long time, and were, circum-
stances considered, on a large scale. In the Milli
and Arhno cases matters were settled in a rather
short time. In the other cases the negotiations were
more compiler- -^d and more prolonged. I was very
glad to have I'r Le Hunte with me. Dealing with
native belligerents was outside his special duties ;
but he gladly helped in every way that he could.
His sympathy with all that was good in native
298 WAR AND PEACE IN OCEANIA
customs and institutions ; his long- experience in
Fiji ; and, as much perhaps as anything-, his
courteous and conciliatory manner, favourably
impressed the natives. When trying- to put a stop
to a war I never asked Mr Le Hunte to do any-
thing that he did not readily consent to do and do
well.
The war in Majuro, which had been g"oing on for
years, was due to the desire of a fine old chief to
reduce the whole island under his sovereignty. His
daug-hter, a very good-looking- little woman, with
a g-rown-up daughter, was the wife of the leadings
chief on the other side. Both sides had rifles,
even breech-loaders, and plenty of cartridges. There
was a rather large commercial establishment in
Majuro, where a New Zealand firm had an agency,
at the head of which there was a well educated and
agreeable English gentleman, who could speak the
native language, and made himself very useful in my
negotiations with the belligerent chiefs,
s The old chief was besieging his enemy, who had
constructed and was occupying a fortified camp,
rather more than twenty miles from our anchorage.
I went there and had an interview with him. I told
him that I wanted him to stop the war. He asked,
but in courteous phrases, what business it was
of mine. To this I replied that it was my business
to see that British interests did not suffer ; that
he had encouraged a British firm to extend its trade
on the island ; that he had derived great advantage
from this ; and that the war which I asked him
to stop was very injurious to the firm's trade.
He did not dispute this ; but asked what would
happen if he refused. I told him that he knew that
the man-of-war had big guns and n ny well-armed
men, and he could judge for himself in' what position
he would be if, because of his obstinacy in continuing
the war, he forced the captain of the man-of-war and
his crew to join his enemies. He saw the force
A KING OF MEN 299
of this, and after a little reflection agreed to treat
with his opponents if I could manage to persuade
them to come to an agreement. This I promised
to do, and went off to speak to the chiefs on the
other side, leaving Mr Le Hunte to look after the
old chief
The latter was a fine old man, taller than most
of his companions, and of notably courteous
manners. I had read, just before I left school, or
rather had driven into me with much application
of the rod, several books of the Iliad, so that I was
well up in the account of the Trojan War. I now had
its principal features displayed before my eyes. The
old chief, leaning on a long spear at the head
of his warriors, looked a veritable king of men,
and recalled one's schoolboy idea of Agamemnon.
The besiegers had drawn up their ships on the shore
and made a wall to protect them. The besiegers'
camp was composed of rows of booths on the open
space beyond the wall. On the far side of this space
was the fortress of the other side ; for the quite
scientifically fortified camp could be justly called
a fortress. It had been beleaguered for years.
In the end, the leaders on both sides were induced
to meet. There was a most affectionate renewal of
intimacy, with sobs and embracing on both sides.
The interview between the old chief and his daughter,
who came to present her husband, touched all of us
who saw it. The war was at an end and peace was
firmly established. The old chief, in whose eyes
tears were visible, addressed both sides in a short
speech, saying that it was discreditable to them
all that they had not settled their differences them-
selves, but had waited until white men had come to
do it for them.
In view of the coming events in Oceania, which
were already casting their shadows before them, and
the steadily growing rivalry of the western nations
in that part of the world, it was satisfactory to have
300 WAR AND PEACE IN OCEANIA
succeeded in inducing- the islanders to stop their
wars, which offered so many opportunities to
unscrupulous intruders. The action of British
naval officers in the South Seas had long been in
favour of peace in the islands, though it was rarely-
known to their countrymen in general. There, as
elsewhere, they had to work in the cold shade of
Foreign Office dulness, not of the Secretaries of
State themselves, but of their understrappers. Two
of our greatest Foreign Ministers — Lord Palmerston
long ago, and Lord Salisbury much more recently —
expressed cordial approval of the services of naval
officers, when obliged by circumstances to engage,
beyond their own special and sufficiently exacting
duties, in what was really diplomatic work. At
a still later date I have myself heard Sir Edward
(now Viscount) Grey express admiration of the
way in which naval officers had dealt with a deli-
cate and difficult diplomatic situation. In perform-
ing it they too often found themselves "up against"
the bureaucratic stolidity of Foreign Office clerks,
doubled with the smug self-satisfaction of second-rate
men.
Another opportunity of putting an end to a war
in an important group of islands occurred in the
Pelews, and here again I had the advantage of
Mr Le Hunte's help. In my early schooldays
most English boys were given to read a book
called The History of Prince Le Boo. He was the
son of a Pelew Island chief or "king." A man-of-
war belonging to the East India Company had
been wrecked in 1783 near Korror. Her crew had
been most hospitably treated by the then chief,
Abba Thoul, whom the English persuaded to allow
his son, Le Boo, to go to England with them.
Le Boo seems to have been a charming young
man of high character. He died young in England,
and his life was published for the guidance of English
boys.
PELEW OR PALAO ISLANDS 301
The Pelews were divided into two "kingdoms" —
Malegojok, which claimed to be the older and, by
right, the superior ; and Korror, the ruler of which
always bore the name or title of Abba Thoul. The
latter monarch, whenever a British man-of-war —
whether Royal or of the East India Company —
called at Korror, ingratiated himself with the
captain, and tried to get the support of the ship's
crew in the war which was being almost continuously
waged against Malegojok. Not very long before
my visit, some of the people subject to Malegojok
had plundered the wreck of a vessel belonging to a
British subject. They were not entirely without
excuse, but the act of plundering was undeniable.
A British man-of-war was sent — not from the
Australian but from the China station' — and the
captain, acting on the information furnished to
him, decided that Malegojok must either give
compensation or be punished. The Abba Thoul
of the day, the same chief that I met when I visited
the Pelews, did his best to paint the conduct of
Malegojok in the darkest colours. He urged that
strong measures should be taken against the
offenders. Strong measures were taken. The
principal village was burned ; a heavy fine was
imposed; and the "money," the sacred treasure
which I have already spoken of, was seized and
held as a pledge until the fine was paid.
Abba Thoul and the people of Korror saw a
splendid opportunity for a war of conquest now
that the other kingdom had been so weakened. I
went to Malegojok and induced Abba Thoul to go
there also, and succeeded in getting him and his
enemy "king," Aracklye, to meet on board the
Espiegle. Again Mr Le Hunte's assistance was
valuable, as also was that of the distinguished Polish
man of science, Mr Kubary.
I thought it desirable to reduce considerably the
fine on Malegojok, and to engage to restore the
302 PEACE-MAKING
"money" as soon as a moderate instalment of the
fine had been paid. I then urged the two kings to
make peace. After some discussion they agreed to
do so. A formal treaty was drawn up and signed
by both of them, and friendly relations — which had
been interrupted for many years — were firmly
established. The last I saw of the two kings was
when I left them sitting side by side at a banquet
in amicable conversation. I brought the original
treaty home with me and kept it for a long time
as a document of great interest.
The commodore in command of the Australian
station, having reported my proceedings to the
Lords of the Admiralty, received instructions to
send me the following communication : —
"Their Lordships highly appreciate, moreover,
the judicious and successful manner in which
Captain Bridge induced the native chiefs to
arrange their difficulties peacefully in several
instances where a state of war existed- They
consider that such influence, when used by
one of the captains of H.M. ships, brings
credit on the British nation, and greatly
induces to the spread of civilisation among
Pacific Islanders."
I made several more cruises among the South
Sea Islands. Although they were not without
incidents which, to me at least, seemed interesting,
I do not intend to inflict an account of them on the
people who may care to read these pages.
Here the record of my recollections may cease;
what I remember of the later years of my service
in the Navy, and in special positions which I had
been chosen to fill, would probably be much more
interesting to me than to anyone else.
Looking back on a long period of service — fifty-
one and a quarter years from the day on which
A SENTIMENT OF GRATITUDE 303
I joined my first sea-going- ship till the day on which,
ten thousand miles from England, I left my last —
one sentiment fills my mind. It is one of deep
gratitude to the officers and men whom I was so
fortunate as to have under my command, and to
whose loyal support I owe what I am.
CHAPTER XXXVII
A POSTSCRIPT
A POSTSCRIPT to the disjointed and fragmentary
record of my recollections is itself likely to be still
more disjointed and fragrmentary. It must neces-
sarily refer to times so much nearer the present that
most of the occurrences will have happened within the
memory of a large number of people who will have no
wish to be told what they already know.
On my way home from the Australian station in
H.M.S. Espiegle, I was stopped by Admiralty order
for several weeks at Singapore, in view of foreign
complications and the desirability of retaining our
squadrons in the Far East at full strength. This
delayed my arrival in England until the length of my
absence from it was not much short of four years.
My next appointment was to the command of
H.M.S. Colossus in the early part of 1886. She
was a sailless battleship. The change to a ship of
that kind from the Espiegle, which had cruised many
thousands of miles under canvas and beaten into
harbours, and in which making and shortening sail
and reefing topsails were operations of frequent
occurrence, was very great. The Colossus was in
several ways a rather remarkable craft. She was
the first ship in commission which was armed with
1 2-inch breech-loading guns ; she had a secondary
armament of 6-inch breech-loading guns of a new
type, on recently devised mountings. She was the
first ship in the Navy to be lighted throughout with
sot
1904.
CYPRIAN ARTHUR GEORGE BRIDGE
Admiral, G.C.B,
NOVEL APPLIANCES 305
the electric light : in other ships in which this light
had been installed, it was confined to particular parts.
The Colossus had also a peculiar arrangement for
reducing rolling in a sea-way, viz., the " fully extended
water balance chamber." This had been introduced
already into other ships, but only in partial form.
It was a compartment above the armour deck, ex-
tending right across the ship from one side to the
other, into which a large body of water was admitted.
As the ship rolled, this water rushed from side to side
later than the roll, which it thus reduced. The strain
brought from inside on the ship's side-plating was so
severe that, after a rather exciting trial in heavy
weather in the Bay of Biscay, it was found prudent
to give up using it.
Just as the ship was about to proceed to sea,
1 2-inch guns, similar to hers, were tried on board a
ship not yet in commission, and one of them burst.
I was on board her at the time, to witness the trial,
as the behaviour of the guns would naturally be of
great interest to me. Fortunately no one was hurt ;
but the authorities decided to replace the 12-inch
guns of the Colossus by others of a different ** mark "
or pattern.
Lord Jellicoe was the gunnery lieutenant of the
Colossus, and took a most energetic part in the work
of re-armament. We were delayed a long time until
this could be completed, and spent several weary
weeks at Spithead. Whilst we were lying there, an
incident occurred which is still fresh in my memory.
An unusually heavy gale was blowing and a very
strong tide was running, the weather at the same
time being rather cold. One of our bluejackets fell
overboard from a boat, and was being quickly swept
away by the tide, whilst the waves seemed big enough
to overwhelm him. Lieutenant Jellicoe promptly
jumped overboard and swam to his assistance. I
did not see the man fall overboard, as I was on the
other side of the deck ; but I ran across just in time
306 A POSTSCRIPT
to see Lieutenant Jellicoe jumping into the water.
He swam with extraordinary vigour, breasted the
waves continuously, and succeeded in reaching the
man before the latter sank, and in keeping him afloat
until a boat which I at once .despatched picked them
both up. The bluejacket was brought on board
insensible, but soon recovered. Lieutenant Jellicoe
smilingly received my congratulations and commen-
dation, and walked quickly to his cabin to put on
dry clothes.
The Colossus was sent to the Mediterranean
station, of which H.R. H. the Duke of Edinburgh
was the commander-in-chief. The duke was certainly
the ablest flag-officer whom I ever served under. He
had an extraordinarily retentive memory; and had
a remarkable knowledge of all the details of the
structure and armament of the ships under his
orders. A distinguished member of the Admiralty
Constructor's Department came out to Malta on
official business connected with the dockyard. He
told me that he had been fairly astonished by the
Duke of Edinburgh's intimate and accurate know-
ledge of the design and fittings of the different ships.
H.R. H. was exceptionally well-informed on many
subjects. In our cruises with the squadron we often
called at most interesting places ; and if we wanted
to know anything of their antiquities and history, we
usually decided to ask the commander-in-chief to tell
us about them, which he always did.
He had a special aptitude for handling ships in
a squadron, and was untiring in exercising his
command in what were called "Fleet Evolutions."
He held the office of Master of the Trinity House.
It is an honorary post; but H.R. H. took his con-
nection with it seriously, and greatly interested
himself in lighthouse illumination. A new system
had just been installed in the lighthouse of Europa
Point, at Gibraltar. The Duke of Edinburgh
took a party of us to see it. He explained the
DIRECTOR OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE 307
arrangement, and gave us what was really a short
lecture on the equipment of lighthouses, lightships,
and illuminated buoys. I think that we all found it
both interesting and instructive. I certainly did.
When I had been nearly two years in the Mediter-
ranean, and nearly three in command of the Colossus,
I was appointed by Lord George Hamilton, then
First Lord of the Admiralty, to the post of Director
of Naval Intelligence. The department then included
branches which of late years have been erected into
separate departments. When I had held the appoint-
ment for a little over three years, I went to sea for a
short time in command of H.M.S. Sans Pareil.
She carried two iio-ton guns of 164 inches calibre.
From her I returned to the Naval Intelligence
Department, of which I was Director for, altogether,
five years and a half. During this time I was
brought into communication with many prominent
officials of different ministries. I was greatly im-
pressed by, and have never lost my admiration of, the
zealous and public-spirited manner in which the
civilians in office at the Admiralty did their work.
They were remarkably keen in their interest in the
good name of the Navy ; and showed the most
kindly feelings for the officers and the seamen and
marines.
In the autumn of 1894, Lord Spencer, then First
Lord, told me that the commands of the Australian
station and that of the East Indies station were
about to become vacant, and that he intended to
submit my name to H.M. Queen Victoria for one of
them. He would allow me to express a preference.
I said that I did not wish to pick and choose, but
that I hoped that he would nominate me to the first
that would be vacant. That turned out to be
Australia, to which I was in due time appointed.
I went by P. & O. steamer to Sydney, and there
joined the flagship, H.M.S. Orlando, armoured
cruiser. She has been enormously surpassed in size.
308 A POSTSCRIPT
engine-power, and armament by recent ships ; but
in her day she and the ships of her class were
regarded as formidable craft. As indicated in an
earlier part of this record of recollections, I made
one or two cruises to the South Sea Islands in her.
At many of these no ship of anything like her size
had ever been seen. Some of the savage natives
were greatly interested in her. One morning, when
the ship was lying at Ugi, in the Solomon group,
several canoes filled with natives came close to the
ship's side. They collected in a little knot, and then
began tying their fishing-lines together. They next
started to measure the length of the ship ; but all
their fishing-lines together would not reach much
more than half way between the rudder and the bow.
The carpenter of the flagship happening to pass at
the moment, I told him that the natives were trying
to measure the length of the ship, on which he said :
" I think, sir, that they must have had an argument
about it in their village last night." This is probably
what really happened. One wonders if they had
reached the stage of betting.
After three years as commander-in-chief on the
Australian station I was relieved in 1898, and started
in the flagship on my way back to England. As had
happened to me thirteen years before, when I was
also on my way home from Australia, I was again
stopped at Singapore because of foreign complica-
tions. Just as I was entering Singapore Roads —
having come from Batavia — I sighted on her way
out the steamer which was carrying Sir Edward
Seymour to Hong-Kong to assume the post of
commander-in-chief of the China station. I had
just time to send him a signal of congratulation and
good wishes. Three years later I myself relieved
him in the post.
Singapore is a remarkably interesting place,
principally because of its varied population — Malays,
Hindoos, Chinese, Javanese. When I first knew it.
MALAY DIVERS 309
many of the Malays still lived in villages built on the
same system as that with which I afterwards became
familiar at Port Moresby in British New Guinea.
The houses stood on piles in the water close to the
beach, and were entered by sloping platforms between
the beach itself and the house floor. It is held, I
believe, by scientific investigators that the people of
Port Moresby and its neighbourhood are of Malay
origin. If so, they seem to have brought with them
to Papua their domestic architecture and their
scheme of town-planning.
Cruising, and still more lying at anchor, in tropical
waters lead to a rapid fouling of ships' bottoms,
which seriously diminishes their speed when under
way and increases steamers' consumption of coal.
There was no dock at Singapore large enough to
take in the Orlando, and yet her bottom had to be
cleaned somehow. Our diver reported that it was
covered with marine growths. A party of Malays
offered to clean it for a sum of money which, compared
with that which docking would have cost, had it been
possible to dock the ship, was almost ridiculously
small. I directed the captain to make a contract
with them to scrub the ship's bottom. All that they
asked for was that a plank should be suspended from
the ship's side, so as to be just above the surface of
the water, and that it might be shifted from place to
place as their work proceeded. This was done. The
Malays simply jumped into the water, dived under
the bottom, scrubbed vigorously at the fouling, and
came to the surface again for a short rest on the
plank. The party was not large, about nine or ten
men and lads. The jumping in and diving under
the ship was of course repeated many times by each
individual. The whole operation was completed in a
surprisingly short time, and was so thoroughly done
that on the voyage from Singapore to England the
ship was easily able to proceed at her best speed
without undue consumption of coal.
X
310 A POSTSCRIPT
I remained at home more than two years and a
half, when, in the beginning of igoi, I was nominated
by Lord Selborne commander-in-chief of the China
station. As it was most likely that the commander-
in-chief — my predecessor — would be in the northern
part of the station when I was timed to reach it, it
was decided that I should go there across America.
Accordingly I proceeded to New York, and thence
via Buffalo, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Moose-Jaw
to Vancouver. At Vancouver the commander-in-
chief on the Pacific station most considerately sent
a destroyer to meet me, and in her I proceeded to
Victoria in Vancouver Island, visiting that place
again after an interval of many years, as mentioned
in an earlier part of these recollections.
From Vancouver Island I went in one of the
Empress Line steamers to Yokohama in Japan,
where my new flagship, the Glory, met me. In
her I proceeded to Wei-Hai-Wei, and there relieved
Sir Edward Seymour. It is perhaps unnecessary to
say — but it is to me a pleasure to say it — that Sir
Edward turned over to me the fleet and the station
in splendid order. No one who knows that distin-
guished officer, and the services which he has rendered
to the country, would have expected anything else.
My old gunnery lieutenant in the Colossus — the
present Lord Jellicoe — was Sir Edward's flag-
captain. He had, I was glad to see, recovered from
a serious wound which he had received in the Boxer
Campaign.
The active part of that campaign was now over.
There was no more fighting ; but the country was
still in a disturbed state in places ; and the foreign
armies were in occupation of Peking, and of the
railway line between Tientsin and Peking on one
side, and between Tientsin and Shanhai-kwan on
the other. The railways had been temporarily
restored ; but all the stations which had been burned
down had not been replaced, and the many bridges
PEKING AGAIN 311
over the watercourses were hasty substitutes for the
permanent structures.
One of the first duties of a commander-in-chief
on a foreign station is to confer with the British
ambassadors and ministers at the capitals of the
countries adjoining" his station. It was desirable
that I should go to Peking as soon as possible.
Accordingly, I left Wei-Hai-Wei in the commander-
in-chiefs despatch vessel Alac7'ity for Ching-wang-
tao, and there took the train for Tientsin and Peking.
I was given one of the Imperial carriages, a gorgeous
construction with plate-glass sides. The weather
was very hot. The glare of the sun coming through
the glass was intense, and there was nothing to
keep out the rays but a thin silk curtain of the yellow
tint exclusively adopted by the Imperial House.
I would gladly have exchanged it for a good thick
curtain of a much lowlier hue. The members of my
staff and myself felt the high temperature so much
that we took off one article of clothing after another,
till we had very little on. Whilst we were in this
condition we ran into a station, and it was reported
to me that a military guard was drawn up on the
platform to receive me. Our stoppage at the station
was to be short, and I had to choose between receiving
the salute of the guard whilst I was nearly naked,
or huddling on my clothes and rushing on to the
platform only half dressed. How I managed I
cannot remember, but I received the comforting
assurance that everything had gone off all right.
I hoped that it did.
I found in Peking many changes since my visit
five-and-twenty years before. The springless carts
— the street cabs of the place — had largely given way
to jinrickshas ; the streets, as a result of the efforts
of the foreign armies, were cleaner ; and the French
had converted one of the widest streets into a very
respectable boulevard.
One of the most interesting features of Chinese
312 A POSTSCRIPT
geography is the river Yang-tze. It has its
picturesque parts — for instance, the Ichang Gorges,
which no one who has ever seen them can have
failed to admire. This great stream flows past
many populous and busy cities, and near, though
not in sight of, the ancient capital, Nanking. Ships
of the largest class can, in the proper season, go up
as far as Hankow — more than six hundred miles
from the sea. The river changes surprisingly,
according to the time of year. In some places during
the high river months there are sixty feet of water
in a channel across which men can wade in the
low river season. Shifting of channels is frequent.
For much of its course, charts of the river would be
useless to the navigator, who has to depend on the
knowledge and experience of the river pilots. Most
of these pilots were Englishmen ; and the efficient
manner in which they performed their work was
remarkable. Amongst them Mr Mobsby, C.M.G.,
held a prominent place, and was known to and
respected by many officers of H.M. ships, both as
a skilful pilot and as a highly patriotic British
subject.
My duties took me up the Yang-tze several times.
Once I went as far as Ichang, over nine hundred
and fifty miles from the sea, going on from Hankow
on one of the light draught stern-wheel river gun-
boats. In one of my Yang-tze cruises I stopped at
Ngan-king-fu, the capital of the province of Ngan-
hwei. I sent to inform the governor of the province
that I proposed to call upon him. He sent to meet
me at the landing-place, several chairs, with their
bearers, for myself and the officers who were going
with me, and an escort of about eighty or ninety
soldiers. These troops were well dressed in uniform,
but carried no arms. Nearly everyone, however,
had a fan. Eight of them marched two-and-two at
the head of the line of chairs and the others in
Indian file on each side of it.
AN OFFICIAL DINNER 313
When the g-overnor returned my visit, he was
good enough to invite me to dinner. The dinner
party was a large one. The dinner itself was served
partly in the Chinese and partly in the European
style. The menu was in English, having been
written by the Chinese instructor in English of the
local school. The translations were literal ; for
example, fillets of beef appeared on the menu as
"beef-pieces." We were given forks to convey the
food from the plates to our mouths. The governor,
next to whom I sat, almost overwhelmed me with
kind attention. He even — and I think it was a
great compliment — offered me the use of his own
toothpick. I felt obliged to decline ; and hope that
I did so in a manner that prevented my refusal from
being mortifying to His Excellency.
On the Yang-tze I made the acquaintance of
two eminent Viceroys — Liu-Kun-Yi and Chang-
Chi-Tung. I attended, later on, Liu-Kun-Yi's
funeral. He was greatly respected and liked by the
British officers who knew him. It is a mark of
politeness in China to ask the age of a person whose
acquaintance you have just made. At my first visit
to Liu-Kun-Yi, without any intention of paying him
a mere compliment, I asked — through the interpreter
— how old he was. He immediately exclaimed :
" How rude you will think me. I ought to have
asked you first." The custom of inquiring as to
a person's age was not very uncommon in Japan.
About the time to which I have been referring,
an English lady, no longer very young, came out to
deliver lectures on household management to the
Japanese. Her first lecture was attended by people
of both sexes. Before beginning, she told the
audience that when her lecture was finished she
would be glad to answer any questions. Amongst
the Japanese in the front seats was a young man
who had followed the lecture with close attention.
When it was over he said to the lecturer, "How old
X 2
314 A POSTSCRIPT
are you ? " This question she indignantly refused to
answer, and persisted in her refusal to disclose her
age, though the young Japanese said, "You told
us that you would be glad to answer any questions."
Different nations were casting longing eyes on
the trade of the Yang-tze basin. The British were the
first to open it, and naturally their share of it was large.
Other people thought that they would like to take
away some of it for their own advantage. In the Far
East, even in the case of commerce, much is supposed
to depend upon prestige. Something does depend on
it ; but, in my opinion, the effect of what we call
prestige has been enormously overestimated. What
do tell in our relations with Far Eastern officials and
in our commerce are honesty and good faith, qualities
with which Orientals justly credit British officials
and British merchants. Our prominence in the
commerce of the East is much more due to the
knowledge that, as a rule, British subjects are
honest dealers and keep their word, than to pres-
tige ; though, perhaps, the last cannot be entirely
ignored.
Anyhow, a British commander-in-chief has to see
that the prestige of his country is maintained. It
seemed desirable to give the officials and inhabitants
of the Yang-tze basin a clear notion of our sea-
power. Accordingly I went up to Hankow in the
Glory, which was thus the first battleship to ascend
the river so far, to reach a point more than six
hundred miles — nearly all of them in fresh, not salt,
water — 'from the river's mouth, and seventy feet
above the level of the sea. As far as one could make
out, the effect was great. As the various cities were
passed the crowds of people who turned out to look
at the battleship were enormous. At one place,
Wu-Hu, I was told that every male inhabitant
of the city able to walk had gone to the river front
to gaze at the spectacle. It was an astonishing
sight. There were tens of thousands of Chinese
OUR TREATY WITH JAPAN 315
standing" in close ranks along some two or three
miles of river frontage. From Hankow a telegram
was sent to the Admiralty, saying it had been
considered desirable that the first battleship to
ascend the Yang-tze to Hankow — the head of
navigation for sea-going ships — should be British.
Their lordships were pleased to approve the pro-
ceeding.
In 1902 the memorable treaty between this
country and Japan was made. It seemed to me
desirable to pay a special visit to Japan with a
considerable squadron. With this I started from
Hong-Kong, and after a voyage made very uncom-
fortable by almost continuous fogs, reached Yoko-
hama when the news of the signing of the treaty
was still quite recent. The Japanese people were
most enthusiastically in favour of it.
H.I.M. the late Emperor was specially gracious.
He received me in audience, and I was invited to a
banquet at which he was present. On several
occasions I had the honour of receiving invitations
to entertainments at which also H.I.M. appeared.
At one audience he was pleased to ask me
if I would like to see the game of Japanese polo.
To my great disappointment I had to leave Japan
before the day fixed for the game.
As some compensation for this, the Emperor
gave directions that I should be asked to a Japanese
duck hunt. I was able to take part in this, and I
found it most exciting sport. In the late autumn —
almost on the same day every year — great numbers
of wild duck come into a coast lagoon some dozen
miles from Tokio. By the side of this lagoon there
is a sort of hunting park belonging to the Emperor.
In this park there are many short canals, about
twenty feet broad, connected by narrow winding
channels with the lagoon. On each side of a canal
there is a low bank of earth, and at the inner end of
it a wooden screen with a peep-hole cut in it.
316 A POSTSCRIPT
The hunting party remain in the background,
each member of it being provided with a rather
stout butterfly net. A Japanese gamekeeper creeps
to the peep-hole, and, when the wild ducks have
entered the canal — as they usually do — in sufficient
numbers, he beckons to the hunters to approach.
This they do, crouching down behind the low banks
at the sides of the canal. It is impossible to keep
fully concealed from the wild ducks which soon rise
and endeavour to fly away. The sport then consists
in trying to catch the birds with the butterfly nets,
taking great care not to get entangled with a
neighbour's net, which is not always easy.
As a rule, the bags made at these hunts are not
big. The hunt immediately before the one in which
I took part had been arranged for the entertainment
of the foreign diplomatists at Tokio. The whole
corps diplomatique only succeeded in catching one
duck. It is satisfactory to know that this solitary
contribution to the bag was caught by the British
Minister. In our case we had what was considered
exceptionally good sport, the bag amounting to about
seventy birds. A young Japanese naval officer who
was of the party outdid all of us, having caught
twenty-three. I had the good luck to catch seven,
and twice over to get a "right and left," that is,
to catch one bird on my right and another on my
left before bringing my net down. The Emperor
was said to have been very fond of this sport when
a young man. At my farewell audience he was
pleased to express great satisfaction on my telling
him, in answer to his inquiry, that I had been lucky
enough to catch seven wild ducks.
I met many of the most prominent personages in
Japan — ministers, generals, admirals, and other high
officials. I look back with unalloyed pleasure to my
intercourse with them. I invariably found them
honourable and high-minded men, on whose word
I could implicitly rely. Some of the most
VOYAGE HOME 317
distinguished are now no longer living, and I
count it a privilege to have associated with such
men as the late Prince Katsura, Prime Minister ;
the late Count Komura, Minister for Foreign
Affairs ; and the late Count Kodama, whom I
look upon as the greatest strategist, not even
excepting the celebrated Moltke, of modern times.
When I was relieved in March 1904, I returned
to England across the United States, visiting San
Francisco again after an interval of forty-eight years.
Of course it had grown so greatly that I could not
recognise any point in it. The Russo-Japanese War
had broken out before I left the China station.
The steamer in which I crossed the Pacific from
Yokohama to San Francisco called at Honolulu
and remained there two days. The development
of this beautiful place, under the intelligent rule of
the United States, since I had seen it nearly fifty
years before, was astonishing.
I reached England in May 1905, after an absence
of three years. A few months after my arrival I
was appointed, with the eminent King's Counsel,
Mr Butler-Aspinall of the Admiralty Bar, to inquire
into what was known as "the North Sea incident."
We sat for some time in public, hearing oral
evidence ; but much longer, in association with
Mr E. S. Roscoe, the Admiralty Court Registrar,
in private, settling pecuniary claims. We had the
singular gratification of learning that our decisions
were accepted as satisfactory by both sides.
In 1 91 6 I received an invitation from H.M.
Government to sit on the Statutory Commission
established to inquire into the conduct of the
campaign in Mesopotamia. With great reluct-
ance I accepted this invitation, simply because I
believed that it would be wanting in public spirit
to decline it. The work was quite as unpleasant
as I expected that it would be, and — to say
the least — not less hard than seemed likely when
318 A POSTSCRIFl^
I received the invitation to take part in it. I was
very glad when it was over. Its cessation allowed
me to continue the writing- down of these recollec-
tions, which I had begun not long- before I was
asked to join the Mesopotamia Commission, and
which I then had to give up for the time.
INDEX
ACAPULCO, 126
Adelaide, 230
Adelsberg, caves of, 288
Aden, 172, 177, 216
Admiralty, adoption of improve-
ments, 162
Agamemnon, H.M.S., 59, 163
Alacrity, the, 311
Albany, 182, 230
Albert, H.R.H. Prince, at the
Exhibition of 185 1, 29
Alexandria, 176
Algiers, the, 189 ; attached to the
Channel Fleet, 192
Alma, Battle of the, 104
Amargura Island, 284
America, War of Secession, 206
Amherst, 170
Amphion, H.M.S., 40
Andes, the, 115
Aneiteum, Island of, 249
Anguilla Cay, 67
Apoquinto, 115
Archangel, blockade of, 90
Archimedes, the, 14
Armstrong, Sir William, gun con-
structure, 194, 225
Assay e, the, 174
Astley's circus, 31
Atlantic telegraph cable, the first,
163
Auckland, Bay of, 267
Audacious, H.M.S., 215
Australia, 178 ; medical schools,
269
Awatcha Bay, 118
819
Bahama Islands, 206
Ballincollig, 10, 201
Barbados, 81
Beaver, the, 123
Bee, Benjamin, 160
Bellerophon, H.M.S., 211
Bermuda, 80, 202
Betterens, 6
Beyrout, 197
Blazer, the, 200
Blue-Jacket, the, 164
Bluejackets, kits, 45 ; hats, 46 ;
dress, 47
Bombay, the, 182, 184
Boomerangs, throwing, 183
Bouillon, Godfrey de, 21
Brent, Arthur, 224
Brent, Vice-Admiral H. W., 224
Bridge, Baker Phillips, 6, 8
Bridge, Admiral Sir Cyprian,
various spelling-of surname, 2-4 ;
ancestors, 4-16 ; grandfather, 11-
16; father, 16-19; niother, 19,
23 ; godfather, 22 ; aunts, 23 ;
birth, 25 ; voyage from New-
foundland, 27 ; in London, 28 ;
at school, 33-37 ; naval cadet,
38 ; examination at Portsmouth
Royal Naval College, 39 ; ap-
pointed to H.M.S. Medea, 40,
58 ; voyages to the West Indies,
62-64, 80, 202 ; hours of work, 74 ;
appointed to H.M.S. Cumber-
land, 75-84 ; to H.M.S. Brisk,
84-160,; blockading work in the
White Sea, 90-103 ; expeditions
320
INDEX
to villages, 92, 97, 99 ; voyages
in the Pacific, 105-56 ; midship-
man, 106 ; trip to Santiago, 113-
16; at Awatcha Bay, 118-21 ;
fishing, 120 ; watch duty, 134 ;
death of his father, 157; ap-
pointed to H.M.S. Pelorus, 161 ;
voyage to the East Indies, 164-
yj ; acting mate, 169, 171 ; at
Jeddah, 173 ; Cairo, 175 ; voyages
to Australia, 178-81, 227-30, 307 ;
lieutenant, 181 ; voyage to Eng-
land, 181-84 ; witnesses a corro-
boree, 183 ; on half-pay, 186, 199 ;
gunnery examination, 187 ; joins
the Algiers, 189 ; attached to
Channel Fleet, 192 ; instruction
in Armstrong gun drill, 194 ;
stationed at Naples, 195 ; attack
of fever, 196 ; visit to Corfu, 198 ;
appointed to H.M.S. Hawke,
200 ; first lieutenant of H.M.S.
Fawn, 202 ; at the revolution in
Hayti, 203-5 ; on board a Nova
vScotia barque, 209 ; gunnery
course in H.M.S. Excellent, 210 ;
flag-lieutenant to Admiral Sir A.
Ryder, 210 ; promoted com-
mander, 212 ; in France, 214 ;
commanderof H.M.S. Audacious
215 ; on the China station, 215-
23, 310 ; at Japan, 223, 315 ; pro-
moted captain, 225 ; member of
the Ordnance Committee, 226 ;
in command of H.M.S. Espicgle,
227 ; cruises in the South Sea
Islands, 231, 302 ; cruises in the
Western Pacific, 243, 266, 281,
290 ; Deputy-Commissioner, 244,
246 ; on the work of missionaries,
249-55; native money, 258-60;
use of gesture language, 261 ;
methods of dealing with natives,
270, 297 ; ascent of South Moun-
tain, 277-80 ; induces the natives
to make peace, 297-99, 300-2 ;
appointed to H.M.S. Colossus,
304 ; Director of Naval Intelli-
gence, 307 ; appointed to H.M.S.
Sans Pareil, 307 ; commander-
in-chief on the Australian station,
307 ; appointed to H.M.S.
Orlando, 307 ; cruises up the
Yang-tse, 312 ; return to Eng-
land, 317; inquiry into the North
Sea incident, 317 ; member of
the Mesopotamia Commission,
317
Bridge, Cyprian, 5
Bridge, Cyprian, birth, 6 ; marriage,
6, 14 ; sons, 6-10
Bridge, Cyprian, midshipman, lost
at sea, 6, 9
Bridge, Cyprian, career, 9
Bridge, Colonel Cyprian, 10, 266
Bridge, Dunscomb, 214
Bridge, Captain George, 9
Bridge, Jack, 214
Bridge, Joanna, 10. See Cowper
Bridge, Major John, 8 ; elected
Mayor of Colchester, 8
Bridge, Sir John, Sheriff of London,
4
Bridge, Captain Samuel, 8 ;
portrait, 8
Bridge, Sarah Christiana, 19 ; at
school in Paris, 22 ; Clifton, 22 ;
sisters, 23 ; appearance, 23 ;
accomplishments, 24
Bridge, Thomas, midshipman, 5 ;
career, 7 ; experiences in Hol-
land, 1 1- 13; marriage, 13; at
Harwich, 13 ; Brussels, 13 ;
interest in steam navigation, 14 ;
friends, 15
Bridge, Archdeacon Thomas Finch
Hobday, at Charterhouse, 14,
16 ; Oxford, 17 ; ordination, 17 ;
Chaplain at Newfoundland, xj ;
marriage, 18, 19 ; rector of St
John's, 18 ; characteristics, 18 ;
death, 19, 157
INDEX
321
Bridge, Lieutenant W. Henry, 39
Bridge, Walter Sickelprice, 6
Bridge, Captain William, 4
Brisk, H.M.S., 84, 87 ; struck by
lightning, 133 ; variety of work,
149 ; allowance of water, 149 ;
food, 150-53 ; paid off, 156, 160 ;
punishments, 158
British Columbia, 122
Brown, Miss, 115
Browning, Mariana, 13
Brussels, 13
"Bully beef," origin of, 150
Burma, 170
Burns, Mr, 115
Butler-Aspinall, Mr, 317
Byron, Lord, poem "The Island,"
276, 285
Cairo, 175, 184; the Pyramids, 176
Calcutta, 165, 167
Calcutta, the, 69
California, 141, 157
Callao, 134
Camman, Eliza, 23
Canada, raid of Fenians, 207
Cannibalism, practice of, 232
Cape of Good Hope, 229
Cape Town, 229
Carlisle Bay, 81
Caroline Islands, American mis-
sionaries, 255 ; architectural
remains, 294
Casey, Mr, 141 ; commits murder,
142 ; lynched, 143
Cay Sal, 67
Chabrol Harbour, 294
Chalmers, Rev. James, missionary
work, 238, 248 ; characteristics,
253 ; ascent of South Mountain,
277
Champion of the\Seas, 164
Chandos, John, ist Baron, 4
Chang-Chi-Tung, Viceroy, 313
Channel Fleet, cruises, 192 ; re-
gatta, 192
Chapman, General Sir Edward, 35
Charles X., King of France, 22
Charterhouse School, 14, 16
Chefoo, 223
Chile, teamsters' or ^waw^jj, 112
China, 218; war with England,
164 ; Boxer Campaign, 310
Christchurch, 267
Christian, F. W., The Caroline
Islands, 295
Clifton, 22
Cobras Island, naval yard, 106
Cochrane, Admiral Sir Thomas,
Governor of Newfoundland, 17 ;
nominates Sir C. Bridge a naval
cadet, 33, 38
"Cockle, Admiral," 172
Colchester, 8
Coliseum, the, 31
Colomb, Sir John, 215
Colomb, Vice-Admiral Philip, 215 ;
system of flashing signals, 194,
212
Colossus, H.M.S., 304
Comet, the, 60, 163
Cook, Mount, 268
Cooper, Sir Daniel, 180
Corfu, Island of, 198
Corroboree, performance, 183
Costa Rica, 139
Cowper, Joanna, 10 ; appearance,
10
Cowper, William, 10
Cromwell, Oliver, 15
Cromwell, Richard, 15
Cross Island, 88
Crossman, Gen. Sir William, 35
Crowdy, Caroline, 23
Crowdy, Henry, 191
Crowdy, James, 23
Cruiser, H.M.S., 59
Cumberland, H.M.S., 74, 164;
allowance of water, 83
D ALLEY, William Bede, 180
Daring, H.M.S., 47
322
INDEX
Dawarra, or money, 259
Delta, the, 184
Devonport, 156 ; condition in 1854,
105
Diamond Harbour, 165
Dido, H.M.S., 119
Drunkenness, punishment, 97
Duchayla, the, 173
Dufiferin and Ava, Frederick, ist
Marquis of, at Beyrout, 197
Dunedin, 267
Dunfermline, 192
Dunscomb, George, 22
Dunscomb, John, 19 ; French
origin, 20
Dunscomb, Sarah Christiana,
marriage, 19. See Bridge
Dunscomb, Mrs, 28
Earthquake, at Valparaiso, 113
Echo, the, 60
Edinburgh, 192
Edinburgh, H.R.H. the Duke of,
306
Egeria, the, 5 1
Egmont, Mount, 268
EUice Islands, natives of, 291
Erromanga, mission, 251
Espiegle, H.M.S., 47, 227, 304
Espiritu Santo Island, 273 ; toilette
of native ladies, 239
Esquimau, 121, 122, 158
Europa Point lighthouse, system
of illumination, 306
Europa, the, 27
Eurydice, the, 87, 93
Excellent, H.M.S., 70, 181, 209
Exhibition of 185 1, 29
Eyre, Governor, 203
Falkland Islands, 156
Fawn, H.M.S., 202 ; voyage to the
West Indies, 202
Fiji, 240 ; labour trade, 265
Fitz-Gerald, Lieut. Penrose, 206
Fort Victoria, 122
Fort William, 166
France, " Revolution of Three
Days," 22
Franco-German War of 1870, 214
Fremantle, 230
Fusi Pala, Princess, 286
Gharris, 167
Gibraltar, 198
Gibson, Rt. Rev. Edmund, Bishop
of London, 15
Gibson, Rt. Hon. Milner, 15
Gibson, Dr Thomas, 15
Gibson, Mrs, 14 ; sons, 14
Gilbert Islands, 291
Glory, the, 310, 314
Gordon, Sir Arthur, Governor of
Fiji, 256 ; High Commissioner
of New Zealand, 266. See
Stanmore
Great Baddow, 5
Greenock, 210
Greenwich Island, 290
Greig, Dr, Headmaster of Wal-
thamstow House School, 33
Grey, Edward, ist Viscount, 300
Griper, the, 10, 200
Guadalcanar Island, 234
Guassos, or teamsters, of Chile, 112
Guaymas, 126, 133
Haapai Islands, 284, 286
Halifax, 27, 80, 85
Hamilton, Lord George, First
Lord of the Admiralty, 307
Hammerfest, 87
Hankow, 314
Harris, Admiral the Hon. J., at
Santiago, 115
Harrison, Captain, 144
Harvey, Gen. Sir John, Governor
of Halifax, 27
Harvey, Lady, 27
Harwich, 13
Hault-bois, Marquis de, 20
Havana, 64
INDEX
323
Havannah Harbour, 227
Hawke, H.M.S., 10, 200
Hayes, " Bully," 247
Hayti, revolution, 203-5
Heavy Gun Committee, 225
Herrings, fishing for, 120
Holland, 11
Holy Land, the, ig8
Hong-Kong, 216 ; result of a
typhoon, 216 ; the chair coolies,
217
Honolulu, 117, 317
Horsey, Admiral Sir Algernon
de, 206
ICHANG, 312
Imperador, the, 173
Imperatrix, the, 173
Imperteuse, H.M.S., 87, 160
India, Sepoy Mutiny,? 164 ; value
of the rupee, 166 ; the Navy,
174
Ireland, 201
Iris, the, 179
Iron frigates, 163
Irrawaddy Flotilla Service,' 168
Isle of Wight, 62
" Jack, Rocky Mountain," 246
Jaluit, dress of the natives, 241
Jamaica, 84, 202
James Baines, 164
Japan, 223 ; railways, 224 ; treaty
with England, 315 ; duck hunt,
315
Jeddah, 172 ; Tomb of Eve, 173
Jellicoe, Admiral Lord, saves
a man from drowning, 305 ;
wounded in the Boxer Cam-
paign, 310
Juan de Fuca, Straits of, 121
Juby, Cape, 228
Katsura, Prince, 317
Kava or angona, 287
Kean, Mr and Mrs Charles, 30
Keeley, Mr and Mrs, 30
Key, Admiral Sir Astley Cooper,
40
King Freezy's town, 122
King George's Sound, 182
King, James, 141 ; murdered, 142
Kluchelskaya volcano, 121
Kodama, Count, 317
Komura, Count, 317
Korror Harbour, 260
Kubary, Mr, 258, 295, 301
Kung, Prince, 223
Kusaie, Chief of, 255
Lafayette, Marquis de, 22
La Maze, Bishop, 254
Lamington, Lord, 18
Lanzarote, Island of, 228
La Paz, 130
Lapland, 88 ; reindeer, 89
Laplanders, huts, 89 ; method of
gathering the whortleberry, 89
Laughton, Sir John, 53
Lawrence, Sir Henry, 22
Le Boo, History of Prince, 300
Le Hunte, Sir George, 256, 300
Lele islet, ruins on, 294
Lerwick, 87
Lima, 136
Line Islanders, or Micronesians,
232
Lisbon, 194, 211
Liu-Kun-Yi, Viceroy, 313
Lively, the, 161
Liverpool, 28
Loma-Loma, 281
London in 185 1, 28
Louisiade Islands, formation of
Macro-dontism, 236
Lucknow garrison,'at Calcutta, 167
Lynching, cases of, 143
Lyons, Captain J., in command
of H. M.S. Miranda, 95
Macgregor, Sir William, 236
256
324
INDEX
Mackenzie, Sir Morell, 35
Maclay, Mr and Mrs, 124
Madeira, 62, 202
Madras, 171
Magellan, Straits of, 109
Majuro Island, war, 298 ; peace
concluded, 299
Malacca^ H.M.S., 170
Malays, the, 309
Malietoa, King of Samoa, 282
Mallicolo, Island of, 261, 273
Malta, 184
Maoris, the, 281
Mar Saba, 198
Marechal Turenne, the, 92
Mariner, W., book on Tonga, 284
Marshall Islands, natives of, tattoo-
ing, 236 ; dress of the women,
237 ; art of shipbuilding, 292 ;
charts, 293
Martin, Admiral Sir William
Fanshawe, in command in the
Mediterranean, 195 ; reforms in
the Navy, 195
Matupi, 237, 255
Maulmain, 170
Maury, Admiral, 141
Mazatlan, 126
Me-aday fort, 169
Medea, H.M.S., 40, 57 ; at Spit-
head, 58
Mediterranean, the, 195
Megcera, H.M.S., 198
Melanesian Mission, 251
Melbourne, 182 ; the Argus, 182
Mesopotamia Commission, 317
Metalanim, ruins on, 294
Metz, 214
Mexico, 126; export of gold and
silver, 127 ; smuggling, 127 ;
gambling, 137
Micronesians, the, 232, 292
Midshipmen, punishments, 70, 78 ;
pay, 125
Miller, General, Consul at Hono-
lulu, 117
Ming Tombs, 221, 222
Miranda, the, 87, 93, 100
Missionaries in the South Sea
Islands, 249-55
Mobsby, Mr, 312
Mohawk, the, 164
Monarch, H.M.S., 160
Montes, Lola, 124
Montevideo, 107
Moulton, Rev, Dr, Wesleyan
Mission at Nukualofa, 252 ;
translations into Tongan, 252
Musketry, introduction into the
Navy, 197
Nankow, 220
Naples, Bay of, 196
Nassau, 206 ; blockade-runners,
206
Navy, uniforms, 47 ; bread, 66,
151 ; continuous service system,
69, 212; system of discipline,
70 ; target practice, 162 ; system
of flashing signals, 194, 212 ;
reforms, 195, 211, 212, 226;
introduction of musketry, 197 ;
changes in th.Q personnel, 201
Negroes, 232
Nelson, H.M.S., 279
Nereus, the, 117
Newfoundland, 17, 25 ; maskers
or " Fools," 26 ; Mummers, 26
New Britain, natives of, 237 ;
French missionaries, 255 ; da-
warra or money, 259
New Brunswick, 208
New Guinea natives, 238, 276
New Hebrides, 227 ; mixed
bathing of the natives, 238
New South Wales, separated from
Queensland, 180
New Zealand, 266 ; development,
267 ; climate, 268
Ngan-king-fu, 312
Niagara, the, 163
Nile, the, 175
INDEX
325
Noble, Sir Andrew, gun con-
struction, 194
Norfolk Island, mission, 252
North Cape, 88
North Sea fleet, mutiny, 11 ; in-
cident, inquiry into, 317
Nova Scotia, 208
Nukualofa, 286 ; Wesleyan Mis-
sion, 252
Oceania, Islands of, 232 ; races,
232
Omaru, 267
Ordnance Committee, 225 ; the
new, 226
Orlando, H.M.S., 307 ; method of
cleaning her bottom, 309
Otter, the, 123
Ouro River, 229
P. & O. steamers, 184
Pacific Islands, 231 ; cruises in
the, 243, 266, 281, 290; naviga-
ting in coral seas, 244 ; Deputy-
Commissioners, 244, 264 ; mis-
sionaries, 249-55 ; nioney of the
natives, 258 - 60 ; causes of
native wars, 295-97 ; marriage
settlements, 297
Pacific Ocean, 11 1
Packet Service, organisation, 7
Paita, 134
Palaos or Pelew Islands, 236 ;
money of the natives, 258
Palkis, 167
Palmerston, Lord, 300
Panama, 133, 138
Pandanus, fruit of the, 292
Pango-Pango harbour, 240
Paris, Rear-Admiral, 197
Parker, Adm. Sir William, 160
Pay -yacht, the, 61
Pearl fishers, 130
Pearl, H.M.S., 165
Peel, Sir William, Captain of
H.M.S. Shannon, 165
Peking, 218, 311 j the great bell,
219
Pelew Islands, 236 ; money of the
natives, 258 ; war between
Malegojok and Korror, 301 ;
treaty signed, 302
Pelorus, H.M.S., 161 ; guns, 162 ;
voyage to the East Indies, 164 ;
to Australia, 177
Penelope, H.M.S., 211
Perry, Commodore, 62
Petropanlovski, attack on, 105 ;
evacuated, 118
Phillips, Lieut. Baker, 6
Phillips, Miss Baker, marriage, 6, 14
Piper methysticum, 287
Plate, River, 107
Plymouth, 105, 227
Point de Galle, 164, 216
Polynesians, the, cannibalism, 232 ;
use oi lappa cloth, 239 ; oratory,
254 ; migrations, 276 ; appear-
ance, 281
Polytechnic, the, 31
Ponape, island of, 294 ; ruins of a
city, 295
Port-au-Prince, 206
Port Moresby, natives of, 238, 276
Port Royal, insurrection, 203
Portsdown Hill, erection of forts,
191
Portsmouth, 191 ; Royal Naval
College, 38
Poiuerful, the, 69
President, the, 118
Princess' Theatre, 30
Prome, 168
Prowse, Judge D. W., History of
Newfoundland, extract from, 18
Psyche, the, 87
Punta Arenas, 138
Queensland, separated from New
South Wales, 180; employment
of natives, 263
Queenstown, 201, 228
326
INDEX
Rangoon, i68
Rattlesnake, H.M.S., 150
Red Jacket, the, 164
Red Sea, first telegraph cable, 173
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, portrait of
Cyprian Bridge, 6
Rio Janeiro, 106, 164
Robertson, Rev. Mr, mission at
Erromanga, 251
Rook Island, 253
Roscoe, E. S., Admiralty Court
Registrar, 317
Rosyth, 192
Rotorua, Lake, 268
Rotuma, 290
Russell, Dr, Headmaster of
Charterhouse, 14, 16, 32 ; Rector
of Bishopsgate, 32
Russia, war with England, 85, 87
Ryder, Adm. Sir Alfred, 210
St Margaret's Hope, 192
St Vincent, Lord, '195
Salisbury, Robert, ist Marquis of,
300
Saltash railway suspension bridge,
163
Samoa, natives of, 281 ; etiquette,
240
Samuela, Rev. Mr, 291
San Bias, 126
San Francisco, 124, 141, 317 ;
Vigilance Committee, 143-46,
158; Volunteer Fire Engine
Companies, 146
San Lucas, Cape, 126
Sandwich Islands, 117
Sandy Point, 109
Sans Pareil, H.M.S., 307
Santa Cruz, Island of, money of
the natives, 258
Santa Lucia, 196
Santiago, 114 ; lasso bridge, 115
Saucelito, 124
Sayers, Mr Robert, 59
Scurvy, prevention of, 118
Selborne, William, 2nd Earl of, 310
Selwyn, Bishop John, head of the
Melanesian Mission, 251
Sepoy Mutiny, 164
Seymour, Captain Beauchamp, in
command of H.M.S. Brisk, 84 ;
promoted Captain, 104 ; in com-
mand of H.M.S. Pelorus, 161
Seymour, Sir Edward, commander-
in-chief of the China Station,
308, 310
Seymour, Adm. Sir George, in
command of H . M.S.Cumberlatid,
74
Shannon, H.M.S., 165, 190
Shark, length of a, 205
Shaw, Thomas, 181
Sheerness, 202
Shepheard, Mr, of Hotel at Cairo,
175
Ships, "hoisting the pendant,"
49-51 ; crew, 51-54; fitting out,
55 ; practice of watering in
casks, 82 ; iron and steel, 163
Sidon, H.M.S., 59
Singapore, 304, 308
Simon's Bay, 229
Slavers, search for, 64, 202
Smith, Sir Francis Pettit, inventor
of the screw-propeller, 14
Smith, Miss, 115
Sober Island, 172
Solovetski, Monastery of, 100 ;
attack on battery near, 101-3
South Cape, natives of, 277
South Mountain, ascent of, 277-80
South Sea Islands, 231 ; races,
232 ; cannibalism, 232 ; manners
of the natives, 234 ; ornaments,
235 ; formation of Macro-
dontism, 236 ; tattooing, 236 ;
expert swimming of women, 240 ;
missionaries, 249-55 > number of
dialects, 261 ; gesture language,
261 ; Beche de mer lingo, or
"sandal-wood English," 262;
INDEX
327
labour trade, 264 ; native diplo-
macy, 270 ; covetousness, 272
Southampton, 184
Spencer, Rt. Rev. Aubrey George,
18
Spencer, John, 5thiEarl, 307
Spithead, 58, 104, 193
Stanmore, Arthur, ist Baron, 256.
See Gordon
Stevenson, R. L., books on the
South Sea Islands, 247 ; death,
248
Stonehouse, 105
Strassburg, 214
Suez, 174, 184
Surrey Theatre, 30
Sydney, 178, 230, 269 ; clubs, 179 ;
hall of the University, 180;
Morning Herald^ 182
Syria, 197
Taboga, 133, 138
Tanta, 177
TappUy or native cloth, 239
Taputewea,' armour, 241
Tasmania, climate, 268
Tattooing, practice of, 236
Thackeray, Gen. Sir Edward,
35
Thackeray, W. M., 16
Thayet-Myo,ii68
Thomas, William, 46, 94
Thorburn, Dr, 15
Thurston, Sir John, Governor of
Fiji, 293
Tientsin, 218, 223
Timaru, 267
Tinan, Vice-Admiral Barbier de,
197
Tokio, 224
Tonga, natives of, 281 ; etiquette,
240 ; three groups of islands,
284 ; Parliament, 289
Tonga-tabu islands, 284, 286 ;
caves, 288
Trincomalee, 172, 177
Tsukuba-kan, the, 171
Tubou, George, King of Tonga,
283, 289
Tui-Belehaki, the chief, 286 ;
account of the first land created,
288
Tunbridge Wells, 25
Tungchow, 223
Turtles, capture of, 67
Tyger River, 14
United States,i raid of Fenians
into Canada, 207
Vaitupu, senate house, 292 j
cemetery, 294
Vallance, Margaret, 23
Valparaiso, in ; earthquake, 113
Vancouver's Island, 121, 122, 310
Vatd Island, 227
Vavau Islands, 284 ; submarine
cave, 285 ; langis, 288, 293
Veloche, a, 116
Vengeance, H.M.S., 39
Vestal, the, 79
Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy, at
Naples, 196
Victoria, 123, 158
Victoria, Queen, at the Exhibition
of 1851, 29
Victorious, H.M.S., 49, 188
Victory, H.M.S., 39, 49
Wallis Island, 254
Walthamstow House School, 33,
36
Warner, Colonel Augustine, 5
Warner, Cyprian, 5
Warner Hall, 5
Warner, Miss, 5
Warrior, the, 195
Washbrook, 6
Washington, George, 5
Washington, Rev. Laurence, 5
Waterloo, battle of, 13
Wei-hai-wei, 310
328 INDEX
Wellington, Duke of, at the Wigan, Alfred, 30
Exhibition of 185 1, 29; lying- Wilson, Bishop, head of the
in-state, 34 ; funeral, 36 Melanesian Mission, 251
Wellington, Prince, 283 Wool, Major-General, 144
West Indies, 80, 202 Worth, battlefield of, 214
Western or Channel Squadron, at Wu-Hu, 314
Spithead, 58
White Sea, 87 Yang-Tze river, 312
Whortleberry, method of gather- Yap, tattooing, 236 ; money, 260
ing, 89 Yokohama, 224, 310, 315
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