CHAPTER II
We left the forecastle group of the _Gloucester_ disappointed by theabrupt departure of their story-teller, Old Jack, at so critical athread of his yarn. As old Jacobs went aft on the quarter-deck, wherethe binnacle-lamp before her wheel was newly-lighted, he looked in witha seaman's instinct upon the compass-boxes, to see how the ship headed;ere ascending to the poop, he bestowed an approving nod upon his friendthe steersman, hitched up his trousers, wiped his mouth with the back ofhis hand in a proper deference to female society, and then proceeded toanswer the captain's summons. The passengers, in a body, had left thegrand cabin to the bustling steward and his boys, previously toassembling there again for tea--not even excepting the little coterie ofinveterate whist-players, and the pairs of inseparable chess-men, towhom an Indian voyage is so appropriately the school for future nicepractice in etiquette, war, and commerce. Everybody had at last got ridof sea-sickness, and mustered for a promenade; so that the lofty poop ofthe Indiaman, dusky as it was, and exposed to the breeze, fluttered withgay dresses like the midway battlement of a castle by the waves, uponwhich its inmates have stolen out from some hot festivity. But the longheave from below, raising her stern-end slowly against the western spaceof clear-obscure, in the manner characteristic of a sea abaft the beam,and rolling her to either hand, exhibited to the eyes on the forecastlea sort of _alto relievo_ of figures, amongst whom the male, in theirblank attempts to appear nautical before the ladies, were distinguishedfrom every other object by their variety of ridiculous postures. Undercare of one or two bluff, good-humoured young mates--officers polishedby previous opportunities of a kind unknown either to Navy-men or mere"cargo-fenders," along with several roguish little quasi-midshipmen--theladies were supported against the poop-rail, or seated on theafter-gratings, where their contented dependence not only saved themfrom the ludicrous failures of their fellow-passengers, but gained them,especially the young ones, the credit of being better sailors. Anaccompaniment was contributed to this lively exercise on the part of thegentlemen promenaders, which otherwise in the glimmering sea-twilight,would have been striking in a different sense; by the efforts, namely,of a little band of amateur musicians under the break of the poop, who,with flute, clarionet, bugles, trombone, and violin, after sundrypractisings by stealth, had for the first time assembled to play "RuleBritannia." What, indeed, with the occasional abrupt checks, wildflourishes, and fantastic variations caused by the ship's roll; and whatwith the attitudes overhead, of holding on refractory hats and caps, ofintensely resisting and staggering legs, or of sudden pausing above theslope which one moment before was an ascent, there was additional forcein the designation quaintly given to such an aspect of things by theforemast Jacks--that of a "cuddy jig." As the still increasing motion,however, shook into side-places this central group of cadets, civilians,and planters adrift, the grander features of the scene predominated: thebroad mass of the ship's hull--looming now across and now athwart thestreak of sinking light behind--drawn out by the weltering outline ofthe waters; the entire length of her white decks ever and anon exposedto view, with their parallel lines, their nautical appurtenances, thecluster of hardy men about the windlass, the two or three "old salts"rolling to and fro along the gangway, and the variety of forms blendinginto both railings of the poop. High out of, and over all, rose thelofty upper outline of the noble ship, statelier and statelier as thedusk closed in about her--the expanse of canvas whitening with sharperedge upon the gloom; the hauled-up clues of the main-course, with theirhuge blocks, swelling and lifting to the fair wind--and the breasts ofthe topsails divided by their tightened buntlines, like the shape ofsome full-bosomed maiden, on which the reef-points heaved like silkenfringes, as if three sisters, shadowy and goddess-like, trod in eachother's steps towards the deeper solitude of the ocean; while the tallspars, the interlacing complicated tracery, and the dark top-hampershowing between gave graceful unity to her figure; and her three whitetrucks, far overhead, kept describing a small clear arc upon the deepblue zenith as she rolled: the man at the wheel midway before the doorsof the poop-cabin, with the light of the binnacle upon his broad throatand bearded chin, was looking aloft at a single star that had come outbeyond the clue of the main-topsail.
The last stroke of "six bells," or seven o'clock, which had begun to bestruck on the ship's bell when Old Jack broke off his story, stilllingered on the ear as he brought up close to the starboardquarter-gallery, where a little green shed or pent-house affordedsupport and shelter to the ladies with the captain. The erect figure ofthe latter, as he lightly held one of his fair guests by the arm, whilepointing out to her some object astern, still retained the attitudewhich had last caught the eyes of the forecastle group. The musicalcadets had just begun to pass from "Rule Britannia" to "Shades ofEvening"; and the old sailor, with his glazed hat in his hand, stoodwaiting respectfully for the captain's notice. The ladies, however, weregazing intently down upon the vessel's wake, where the vast shapes ofthe waves now sank down into a hollow, now rose seething up into therudder-trunk, but all marked throughout with one broad winding track,where the huge body of the ship had swiftly passed. From foamingwhiteness it melted into yesty green, that became in the hollow a pathof soft light, where the sparks mingled like golden seed; the wave-topsglimmered beyond; star-like figures floated up or sank in their longundulations; and the broad swell that heaped itself on a sudden underthe mounting stern bore its bells, and bubbles, and flashes upwards tothe eye. When the ship rose high and steady upon it, and one saw downher massy taffrail, it looked to a terrestrial eye rather like somemystic current issuing from the archway under a tall tower, whosefoundations rocked and heaved; and so said the romantic girl beside thecaptain, shuddering at the vividness of an image which so incongruouslybrought together the fathomless deep and the distant shores of solid oldEngland. The eye of the seaman, however, suggested to him an image moreakin to the profession, as he directed his fair companion's attention tothe trough of the ship's furrow, where, against the last low gleam oftwilight, and by the luminous wake, could be seen a little flock ofblack petrels, apparently running along it to catch what the mightyploughshare had turned up; while a grey gull or two hovered aslant overthem in the blue haze. As he looked round, too, to aloft, he exchangedglances with the old sailor who had listened--an expression which eventhe ladies understood. "Ah! Jacobs," said the captain, "get the lamplighted in my cabin, and the tea-kettle aft. With the roll she has onher, 'twill be more ship-shape there than in the cuddy." "Ay, ay, sir,"said the old seaman. "How does she head just now, Jacobs?""Sou'-west-and-by-south, sir." "She'd lie easier for the ladies though,"said the captain, knowing his steward was a favourite with them, "werethe wind a point or two less fair. Our old acquaintance, CaptainWilliamson of the _Seringapatam_ now, Jacobs, old-fashioned as he was,would have braced in his lee-yard only to steady a lady's tea-cup." "Ay,your honour," replied Jacobs, and his weather-eye twinkled, "and washedthe foc'sle under, too! But ye know, sir, he'd got a reg'lar-builtnaboob aboard, and a beauty besides!" "Ah, Mr Jacobs!" exclaimed theromantic young lady, "what was that? Is it one of your stories?" "Well,your ladyship, 'tis a bit of a yarn, no doubt, and some'at of a cur'ousone." "Oh!" said another of the captain's fair _protegees_, "I _do_ lovethese 'yarns,' as you call them; they are so expressive, so--and allthat sort of thing." "Nonsense, my love," said her mother; "you don'tunderstand them, and 'tis better you should not--they are low, andcontain a great many bad words, I fear." "But think of the imaginativefeeling, aunt," rejoined the other girl, "and the adventures! Oh, theocean of all places for that! Were it not for sea-sickness, I shoulddote upon it! As for the _storm_ just now, look how safe we are, and seehow the dear old ship rises up from the billows, with all her sails sodelightfully mysterious one over another!" "Bless your heart, marm,yes," responded Old Jack, chuckling; "you talks just like a seaman,beggin' your pardon. As consarns the tea, sir, I make bold to expectthe'll be a shift o' wind directly, and a slant deck, as soon as we getfair into the stream, rid o' this bit of a
bubble the tail of it kicksup hereabouts." "Bear a hand then, Jacobs," said the captain, "and seeall right below for the party in the cabin--we shall be down in a fewminutes." The captain stood up on the quarter-gallery, to peer roundinto the dusk and watch the lifting of the main-royal; but the nextminute he called to the ladies, and their next neighbours, to looktowards the larboard bow, and see the moon rise. A long edge of grayhaze lay around the eastern horizon, on which the dark rim of the seawas defined beyond the roll of the waves, as with the sweep of a softbrush dipped in indigo; while to westward it heaved up, weltering in itsown watery light against the gloom. From behind this low fringe ofvapour was silently diffusing, as it were, a pool of faint radiance,like a brook bubbling from under ice; a thread of silver ran along theline of haze, growing keener at one point, until the arch of the moonshot slowly up, broad and fair: the wave-heads rising between werecrested here and there with light; the bow of the ship, the bellies ofher fore-canvas, her bowsprit with the jibs hanging idly over it, andthe figure-head beneath, were tinged by a gentle lustre, while thehollow shadows stole out behind. The distant horizon, meanwhile, stilllay in an obscure streak, which blended into the dark side of the lowfog-bank, so as to give sea and cloud united the momentary appearance ofone of those long rollers that turn over on a beach, with theirglittering crest: you would expect to see next instant what actuallyseemed to take place--the whole outline plashing over in foam, andspreading itself clearly forward, as soon as the moon was free. With theairy space that flowed from her came out the whole eastern seaboardliquid and distinct, as if beyond either bow of the lifting Indiaman onesharp finger of a pair of compasses had flashed round, drawing asemi-circle upon the dull background, still cloudy, glimmering, andobscure. From the waves that undulated towards her stern, the ship wasapparently entering upon a smoother zone, where the small surges leaptup and danced in moonshine, resembling more the current of some estuaryin a full tide. To north-westward, just on the skirts of the dark, onewing of a large, soft-grey vapour was newly smitten by the moon-gleam;and over against it on the south-east, where the long fog-bank sankaway, there stretched an expanse of ocean which, on its farthest verge,gave out a tint of the most delicate opal blue. The ship, to thesouth-westward of the Azores, and going large before the trade-wind, wasnow passing into the great Gulf Stream, which there runs to thesouth-east; even the passengers on deck were sensible of the rapidtransition with which the lately cold breeze became warmer and fitful,and the motion of the vessel easier. They were surprised, on lookinginto the waves alongside, to perceive them struggling, as it were, undera trailing network of seaweed; which, as far as one could distinctlysee, appeared to keep down the masses of water, like so muchoil--flattening their crests, neutralising the force of the wind, andcommunicating a strangely sombre green to the heaving element. In thewinding track of the ship's wake the eddies now absolutely blazed; theweeds she had crushed down rose to the surface again in gurgling circlesof flames, and the showers of sparks came up seething on either sideamongst the stalks and leaves; but as the moonlight grew more equallydiffused, it was evident that she was only piercing an arm of that localweed-bed here formed, like an island, in the _bight_ of the stream.Farther ahead were scattered patches and bunches of the true FloridaGulf-weed, white and moss-like; which, shining crisp in the levelmoonlight, and tipping the surges as it floated past, gave them theaspect of hoary-bearded waves, or the garlanded horses of Neptune. Thesight still detained the captain's party on deck, and some of the ladiesinnocently thought these phenomena indicative of the proximity of land.
"I have seldom seen the Stream so distinct hereabouts," said CaptainCollins to his first officer, who stood near, having charge of thewatch. "Nor I, sir," replied the chief mate; "but it no doubt narrowswith different seasons. There goes a flap of the fore-topsail, though!The wind fails, sir." "'Tis only drawing ahead, I think," said thecaptain; "the stream _sucks_ the wind with its heat, and we shall haveit pretty near from due nor'-west immediately." "Shall we round in onthe starboard hand, then, sir, and keep both wind and current _aft_?" "Ithink not, Mr Wood," said the captain. "'Twould give us a good threeknots more every hour of the next twenty-four, sir," persisted theofficer eagerly--and chief mates generally confine their theories tomere immediate progress. "Yes," rejoined the captain, "but we shouldlose hold of the 'trade' on getting out of the stream again. I intenddriving her across, with the nor'-wester on her starboard beam, so as tolie well up afterwards. Get the yards braced to larboard as you catchthe breeze, Mr Wood, and make her course south-west by west." "Verywell, sir." "Ladies," said the captain, "will you allow me to hand youbelow, where I fear Jacobs will be impatient with the tea?"
"What a pity, Captain Collins," remarked the romantic Miss Alicia,looking up as they descended the companion--"what a pity that you cannothave that delicious moonlight to shine in at your cabin windows justnow; the sailors yonder have it all to themselves." "There is no favourin these things at sea, Miss Alicia," said the captain, smiling. "Jackshares the chance there, at least, with his betters; but I can promisethose who honour my poor suite of apartments this evening both finemoonshine and a steadier floor." On reaching the snug littleafter-cabin, with its swinging lamp and barometer, its side"state-room," seven feet long, and its two stern-windows showing a darkglimpse of the rolling waters, they found the tea-things set, nauticalstyle, on the hard-a-weather, boxed-up table--the surgeon and one or twoelderly gentlemen waiting, and old Jacobs still trimming up thesperm-oil lights. Mrs St Clair, presiding in virtue of relationship totheir host, was still cautiously pouring out the requisite half-cups,when, above all the bustle and clatter in the cuddy, could be heard thesounds of ropes thrown down on deck, of the trampling watch, and thestentorian voice of the first officer. "Jacobs!" said the captain, aminute or two afterwards; and that worthy factotum instantly appearedfrom his pantry alongside of the door--from whence, by-the-way, the oldseaman might be privy to the whole conversation--"stand by to _dowse_the lamp when she heels," an order purposely mysterious to all else butthe doctor. Everyone soon felt a change in the movement of theirwave-born habitation; the rolling lift of her stern ceased; those whowere looking into their cups saw the tea apparently take a decidedinclination to larboard--as the facetious doctor observed, a "tendencyto _port_." The floor gradually sloped down to the same hand, and along, wild, gurgling wash was suddenly heard to run careering past thetimbers of the starboard side.
"Dear me!" fervently exclaimed every lady at once; when the very nextmoment the lamps went out, and all was darkness. Captain Collins felt alittle hand clutch his arm in nervous terror, but the fair owner of itsaid nothing; until, with still more startling effect than before, in afew seconds there shot through both stern windows the full rays of themoon, pouring their radiance into the cabin, shining on the backs of thebooks in the hanging shelves by the bulkhead, on the faces of the party,and the bald forehead of old Jacobs "standing by" the lamp--lastly, too,revealing the pretty little Alicia with her hand on the captain's arm,and her pale, terrified face. "Don't be alarmed, ladies!" said thesurgeon, "she's only hauled on the starboard tack!" "And her counter tothe east," said the captain.
"But who put out the lamp?" rejoined the doctor. "Ah, I see, sir!--'Butwhen the moon, refulgent lamp of night.'" "Such a surprise!" exclaimedthe ladies, laughing, although as much frightened for a moment by themagical illumination as by the previous circumstances. "You see," saidthe captain, "we are not like a house--we can bring round our scenery toany window we choose." "Very prettily imagined it was, too, I declare!"observed a stout old Bombay officer, "and a fine compliment to theladies, by Jingo, sir!" "If we had any of your pompous Bengal '_Quyhies_' here though, colonel," said the doctor, "they wouldn't standbeing choused so unceremoniously out of the weather side, I suspect.""As to the agreeable little surprise I meant for the ladies," saidCaptain Collins, "I fear it was done awkwardly, never having commandedan Indiaman before, and laid up ashore these half-a-dozen years. Butone's old feelings get freshened up, and without knowi
ng the old_Gloucester's_ points, I can't help reckoning her as a lady too--a veryparticular old 'Begum,' that won't let anyone else be humoured beforeherself--especially as I took charge of her to oblige a friend." "Howeasily she goes now!" said the doctor, "and a gallant sight at thismoment, I assure you, to anyone who chooses to put his head up thecompanion." "Ah, mamma!" said one of the girls, "couldn't you almostthink this was our own little parlour at home with the moonlight comingthrough the window on both sides of the old elm, where we were sitting amonth ago hearing about India and papa?"
"Ah!" responded her cousin, standing up, "but there was no track ofmoonshine dancing beyond the track of the ship yonder! How blue thewater is, and how much warmer it has grown of a sudden!"
"We are crossing the great Gulf Stream," said the captain--"Jacobs! openone of the stern-ports." "'Tis the very place and time, this is,"remarked a good-humoured cotton-grower from the Deccan, "for one of thecolonel's tiger-hunts, now!" "Sir!" answered the old officer, rathertestily, "I am not accustomed to thrust my _tiger-hunts_, as you chooseto call my humble experiences, under people's noses!" "Certainly not, mydear sir," said the planter--"but what do you say, ladies, to one ofthe captain's sea-yarns, then? Nothing better, I'm sure, here now,sir--eh?" Captain Collins smiled, and said he had never spun a yarn inhis life, except when a boy, out of matter-of-fact old junk and tar."Here is my steward, however," continued he, "who is the best hand at itI know, and I daresay he'll give you one." "Charming!" exclaimed theyoung ladies; and "What was that adventure, Mr Jacobs," said MissAlicia, "with a beauty and a nabob in it, that you alluded to a shorttime ago?" "I didn't to say disactly include upon it, your ladyship,"replied old Jacobs, with a tug of his hair, and a bow not just _a lamaitre_; "but the captain can give you it better nor I can, seeing ashis honour were the Nero on it, as one may say." "Oh!" said the surgeon,rubbing his hands, "a lady and a rupee-eater in the case!" "There seemssomething curious about this said adventure of yours, my dear captain,"said Mrs St Clair, archly, "and a beauty too! It makes me positivelyinquisitive, but I hope your own fair lady has heard the story?" "Why,not exactly, ma'am," replied Captain Collins, laughing as he caught thedoctor looking preternaturally solemn, after a sly lee-wink to thecolonel, who, having his back to the moonlight, stretched out his legsand indulged in a grim, silent chuckle, until his royal-tigercountenance was unhappily brought so far _flush_[2] in the rays as tobetray a singular daguerreotype, resembling one of those cut-paperphantasmagoria thrown on a drawing-room wall, unmistakably black andwhite, and in the character of Malicious Watchfulness. The rubicund,fidgety little cotton-grower twiddled his thumbs, and looked modestlydown on the deck, with half-shut eyes, as if expecting some boldrevelation of nautical depravity; while the romantic Miss Aliciacoloured and was silent. "However," said the captain, coolly, "it is nomatrimonial secret, at any rate! We both talk of it sometimes when weread the Church Service of a Sunday night at home, with Jacobs for theclerk." "Do, Mr Jacobs, oblige us!" requested the younger of the girls."Well, miss," said he, smoothing down his hair in the doorway, andhemming, "'tain't neither for the likes o' me to refuse a lady, noraccordin' to rules for to give such a yarn in presence of a supperiorofficer, much less the captain; with a midship helm, ye know, marm, yecarn't haul upon one tack nor the other. Not to say but next forenoonwatch----" "I see, Jacobs, my man," interrupted Captain Collins,"there's nothing for it but to fore-reach upon you, or else you'll be'Green-Handing' me aft as well as forward; so I must just make the bestof it, and take the _winch_ in my own fashion at once!" "Ay, ay,sir--ay, ay, your honour!" said Old Jack demurely, and concealing hisgratification as he turned off into the pantry, with the idea of for thefirst time hearing the captain relate the incidents in question. "My oldshipmate," said the latter, "is so fond of having trained his futurecaptain, that it is his utmost delight to spin out everything we evermet with together into one endless yarn, which would go on from ourfirst acquaintance to the present day, although no ship's company everheard the last of it. Without falling knowingly to leeward of the truth,he makes out every lucky coincidence almost to have been a feat of mine,and puts in little fancies of his own, so as to give the whole thingmore and more of a marvellous air the farther it goes. The most amusingthing is, that he almost always begins each time, I believe, at the verybeginning, like a capstan without a paul--sticking in one thing he hadforgot before, and forgetting another; sometimes dwelling longer on onepart--a good deal like a ship making the same voyages over again. Iknew, now, this evening, when I heard the men laughing, and saw Old Jackon the forecastle, what must be in the wind. However, we have shared somany chances, and I respect the old man so much, not to speak of hishaving dandled my little girls on his knee, and being butler, steward,and flower-gardener at home, that I can't really be angry at him, inspite of the sort of every man's rope he makes of me!" "How very amusinga character he is!" said one young lady. "A thought too tarry, perhaps?"suggested the surgeon. "So very original and like a--a seaman!" remarkedMiss Alicia, quietly, but as if some other word that crossed her mindhad been rejected, as descriptive of a different variety, probablyhigher. "_Original_, by Jove!" exclaimed the colonel; "if my_Khansa-man_, or my _Abdar_,[3] were to make such a dancing dervish and_tumasha_[4] of me behind back, by the holy Vishnu, sir, I'd rattan himmyself within an inch of his life!"
[2] _Flush_--_i.e._ level.
[3] Steward and butler.
[4] Sport.
"Not an unlikely thing, colonel," put in the planter; "I've caught thescoundrels at that trick before now." "What did you do?" inquired thecolonel, speculatively. "Couldn't help laughing, for my soul, sir; the_puckree-bund_[5] rascals did it so well, and so funnily!" The irascibleEast-Indian almost started up in his imaginative fury, to call for hispalkee, and chastise his whole verandah, when the doctor reminded himthat it was a long way there. "Glorious East!" exclaimed the medico,looking out astern, "where we may cane our footmen, and whence,meanwhile, we can derive such Sanscrit-sounding adjurations, with suchfine moonlight!"
[5] Turban-wearing.
The presence of the first officer was now added to the party, who camedown for a cup of tea, fresh from duty, and flavouring strongly of apilot cheroot. "How does she head, Mr Wood?" asked the captain."Sou'-west-by-west, sir--a splendid night, under everything that willdraw--spray up to the starboard cathead!"
"But as to this story, again, Captain Collins?" said Mrs St Clair, assoon as she had poured out the chief mate's cup. "Well," said thecaptain, "if you choose to listen till bedtime to a plain draught of theaffair, why I suppose I must tell it you; and what remains then maystand over till next fine night. It _may_ look a little romantic, beingin the days when most people are such themselves, but, at any rate, wesailors--or else we should never have been at sea, you know; so you'llallow for that, and a spice to boot of what we used to call at sea'lovemaking'; happily there were no soft speeches in it, like those inbooks, for then I shouldn't tell it at all.
* * * * *
"By the time I was twenty-four, I had been nine years at sea, and at theend of the war, was third lieutenant of a crack twenty-eight, the saucy_Iris_--as perfect a sloop-model, though over-sparred certainly, as everwas eased off the ways of Chatham, or careened to a north-easter. TheAdmiralty had almost learned to build by that day, and a glorious shipshe was, _made_ for going after the small fry of privateers, pirates,and slavers, that swarmed about the time. Though I had roughed it in allsorts of craft, from a first-rate to a dirty French lugger prize, andbeen eastward, so as to see the sea in its pride at the Pacific, yet thefeeling you have depends on the kind of ship you are in. I never knewso well what it was to be fond of a ship and the sea; and when I heardof the poor _Iris_, that had never been used to anything but blue wateron three parts of the horizon at least, laying her bones not long afternear Wicklow Head, I couldn't help a gulp in the throat. I once dreamt Ihad gone down in her, and risen again to the surface with the loss of mybrains, such as I had had; while at the same moment,
there I was, stillsitting below on a locker in the wardroom, with the arms of herbeautiful figure-head around me, and her mermaid's tail like thebest-bower cable, with an anchor at the end of it far away out ofsoundings, over which I bobbed and dipped for years and years, in allweathers, like a buoy. We had no Mediterranean time of it, though, inthe _Iris_, off the Guinea coast, from Cape Palmas to Cape Negro;looking out to windward for white squalls, and to leeward for blackones, and in-shore for Spanish cattle-dealers, as we called them, hadmade us all as sharp as so many marling-spikes; and our captain was aman that taught us seamanship, with a trick or two beyond. The slavershad not got to be so clever then, either, with their schooners andclippers: they built for stowage, and took the chance, so that we sentin _bale_ after bale to the West India admiral, made money, and enjoyedourselves now and then at the Cape de Verdes. However, this kind ofthing was so popular at home, as pickings after the great haul was over,that the _Iris_ had to give up her station to a post-frigate, and bepaid-off. The war was over, and nobody could expect to be promotedwithout a friend near the blue table-cloth, although a quiet hint to asecretary's palm would work wonders, if strong enough. But most of suchlucky fellows as ourselves dissipated their funds in blazing away atballs and parties, where the gold band was everything, and the ladieswore blue ribbons and anchor brooches in honour of the navy. The menspent everything in a fortnight, even to their clothes, and had littlefurther chance of eating the king's biscuit with hopes of prize-money; Iused to see knots of them, in red shirts and dirty slops, amongst theforemast Jacks in outward-bound ships, dropping past Greenwich, andwaving their hats to the Hospital. You knew them at once by one of themgiving the song for the topsail-halliards, instead of the merchantmen'sbull's chorus; indeed, I could always pick off the dashingmen-o'-war's-men, by face and eye alone, out from among the others, wholooked as sober and solitary, with their serious faces and way of goingabout a thing, as if everyone of them was the whole crew. I once read abit of poetry called the 'Ancient Mariner,' to old Jacobs, who by-the-byis something of a breed betwixt the two kinds, and his remark was: 'Thatold chap warn't used to hoisting altogether with a run, your honour! Byhis looks I'd say he was bred where there was few in a watch, and thewatch-tackle laid out pretty often for an eke to drag down thefore-tack.'
"As I was riding down to Croydon in Surrey, where my mother and sisterhad gone to live, I fell in with a sample of the hard shifts themen-o'-war's-men were put to in getting across from harbour to somemerchant port, when all their money was chucked away. It was at a littletown called Bromley, where I brought to by the door of a tavern and hada pail for the horse, with a bottle of cider for myself at the openwindow, the afternoon being hot. There was a crowd of townspeople at theother end of the street, country bumpkins and boys--women looking out atthe windows, dogs barking, and children shouting--the whole concernbearing down upon us.
"'What's all this?' said I to the ostler.
"'Don't know, sir,' said he, scratching his head; ''tis very hodd, sir!That corner _is_ rather a sharp turn for the coach, sir, and she dosometimes run over a child there, or somethink. But 'tain't her timeyet! Nothink else hever 'appens 'ere, sir.'
"As soon as I could hear or see distinctly for the confusion, I observedthe magnet of it to be a party of five or six regular blue-jackets, agood deal battered in their rig, who were roaring out sea-songs in grandstyle as they came along, leading what I thought at first was a bear.The chief words I heard were what I knew well. 'We'll disregard theirtommy-hawks, likewise their scalping-knives--and fight alongside of ourmates to save our precious lives--like British tars and sowldiers in theNorth Americay!'
"On getting abreast of the inn door, and finding an offing with goodholding-ground, I suppose, they hove to and struck up the 'Buffalo,'that finest of chants for the weather forecastle with a spankingbreeze, outward bound, and the pilot lately dropped:
"Come, all you young men and maidens, that _wishes_ for to sail, And I will let you hear of where you must a-roam; We'll embark into a ship which her taups'ls is let fall, And all unto an ileyand where we never will go home; Especiallye you _ladies_ that's anxious for to rove-- There's _fishes_ in the sea, my love, likewise the buck an' doe, We'll lie down--on the _banks_--of yon pleasant shadye gro-ove, Through the wild woods we'll wander and we'll chase the buffalo--ho--ho-- We'll chase the buffalO!
"I really couldn't help laughing to see the slapping, big-beardedfellows, like so many foretopmen, showing off in this manner--onemahogany-faced thoroughbred leading, the rest thundering in at thechorus, with a tremendous stress on the 'Lo--ho--ho,' that made the goodBromley folks gape. As to singing for money, however, I knew no true tarwith his members whole would do it; and I supposed it to be merely some'spree ashore,' until the curious-looking object from behind was luggedforward by a couple of ropes, proving to be a human figure above sixfeet high, with a rough canvas cover as far as the knees. What withthree holes at the face, and the strange colour of the legs, which werebare--with a pair of turned-up India shoes, and the whole shape like awalking smoke-funnel over a ship's caboose--I was puzzled what theywould be at. The leading tar immediately took off his hat, waved itround for a clear space, and gave a hem! while he pointed to themysterious creature. 'Now my lads!' said he, 'this here wonderful bein'is a savitch we brought aboard of us from the Andyman Isles, where hewas caught one mornin' paddling round the ship in a canoe made out ofthe bark of a sartain tree. Bein' the ownly spice of the sort brought tothis country as yet is, and we havin' run short of the needful to takeus to the next port, we expects every lady and gemman as has thewherewithal will give us a lift by consideration of this same cur'oussight, and doesn't----' 'Heave ahead, Tom, lad!' said anotherencouragingly, as the sailor brought up fairly out of breath. 'Doesn'twant no man's money for nou't d' ye see, but all fair an' above board.We're not agoin' to show this ere sight excep' you makes uphalf-a-guinea amongst ye--arter that all hands may see shotfree--them'sthe articles!' 'Ay, ay, Tom, well said, old ship!' observed the rest;and, after a considerable clinking of coin amongst the crowd, therequired sum was poured, in pence and sixpences, into Tom's hat. 'Allright!' said he, as soon as he had counted it--'hoist away thetarpaulin, mates!' For my part, I was rather surprised at the rareappearance of this said savage, when his cover was off--his legs andarms naked, his face streaked with yellow, and both parts the colour ofred boom-varnish; his red hair done up in a tuft, with feathers allround it, and a bright feather tippet over his shoulders, as he stood,six feet in his yellow slippers, and looking sulkily enough at thepeople. 'Bobbery puckalow!' said the nautical head-showman, and all atonce up jumped the Andaman islander, dancing furiously, holding alittle Indian _punkah_ over his head, and flourishing with the otherhand what reminded me strongly of a ship's top-maul--shouting'Goor--goor--gooree!' while two of the sailors held on by the ropes. Thecrowd made plenty of room, and Tom proceeded to explain to them verycivilly, that 'in them parts 'twas so hot the natives wouldn't fight,save under a portiable awning.' Having exhibited the points of theirextraordinary savage, he was calmed again by another uncouth word ofcommand, when the man-o'-war's-man attempted a further _traverse_ on thegood Bromley folks, for which I gave him great credit. 'Now, my lads andlasses,' said he, taking off his hat again, 'I s'pose you're all Britishsubjects and Englishmen!' at which there was a murmur of applause. 'Verygood, mates all!' continued the foretopman, approvingly. 'Then, incourse, ye knows as how whatsomever touches British ground is _free_!''Britons never, never shall be slaves!' sung out a boy, and thescreaming and hurrahing was universal. Tom stuck his tongue in his cheekto his messmates, and went on: 'Though we was all pressed ourselves, andhas knocked about in sarvice of our king and country, an' bein' poormen, we honours the flag, my lads!' 'Hoorah! hoorah! hoor-r-ray!' 'Soyou see, gemmen, my shipmates an' me has come to the resolve of lettin'this here wild savidge go free into the woods--though bein' poor men, d'ye see, we hopes ye'll make it up to us a b
it first! What d' ye say, allhands?--slump together for the other guinea, will ye, and off he goesthis minute, and--Eh? what d' ye say, shipmates?' 'Ay, ay, Tom, sinkthe damage, too!' said his comrades; 'we'll always get a berth atBlackwall, again!'
"'Stand by to ease off his tow-lines, then,' said Tom--'now look sharpwith the shiners there, my lads--ownly a guinea!' 'No, no!' murmured thetownspeople, 'send for the constable--we'll all be scalped and murderedin our beds!--no, no, for God's sake, mister sailors!' A grocer ran outof his door to beg the tars wouldn't think of such a thing, and thevillage constable came shoving himself in with the beadle. 'Come, come,'said the constable, in a soothing style, while the beadle tried to lookbig and blustering, 'you mustn't do it, my good men--not on nodesideration, _here_--in his majesty's name. Take un on to the nextparish--I horder all good subjects to resist me!' '_What!_' growled theforetopman, with an air of supreme disgust, 'han't ye no feelin's forliberty hereaway? Parish be blowed! Bill, my lad, let go his moorings,and give the poor wretch his nat'ral freedom!' 'I'm right down ashamedon my country,' said Bill. 'Hullo, shipmates, cast off at once, an'never mind the loss--I hasn't slept easy myself sin' he wor cotched!''Nor me either,' said another; 'but I'm feared he'll play old Harry whenhe's loose, mate.'
"I had been watching the affair all this time from inside, a good dealamused, in those days, at the trick--especially so well carried out asit was by the sailors. 'Here, my fine fellows,' said I at last, 'bringhim in, if you please, and let me have a look at him.' Next minute incame the whole party, and supposing from my plain clothes I was merelysome longshore traveller, they put their savage through his dance withgreat vigour. 'Wonderfully tame he's got, your honour!' said the topman;'it's nothing to what he does if you freshens his nip.' 'What does heeat? 'I asked, pretending not to understand the hint. 'Why, nought tospeak on, sir,' said he; 'but we wonst lost a boy doorin' the cruise,nobody know'd how--though 'twas thought he went o'board, some on us hadour doubts.' 'Curiously tatooed, too,' I said; 'I should like to examinehis arm.' 'A bit obstropolous he is, your honour, if you handles him.''Never mind,' said I, getting up and seizing the wrist of the Andamanislander, in spite of his grins; and my suspicions were immediatelyfulfilled by seeing a whole range of familiar devices marked in blue onthe fellow's arm--amongst them an anchor with a heart transfixed by aharpoon, on one side the word 'Sal,' and on the other 'M. O., 1811.''Where did you steal this top-maul, you rascal?' said I, coolly lookingin his face; while I noticed one of the men overhauling me suspiciouslyout of his weather-eye, and sliding to the door. 'I didn't stale it atall,' exclaimed the savage, giving his red head a scratch, ''twas BillGreen there--by japers! whack pillalew, mates, I'm done!' 'Lor! oh lor!'said Bill himself, quite crestfallen, 'if I didn't think 'twas him.We're all pressed again, mate, it's _the_ leftenant.' 'Pressed, bo'?'said Tom; 'more luck, I wish we was--but they wouldn't take ye now for abounty, you know.' Here I was fain to slack down and give a heartylaugh, particularly at recognising Bill, who had been a shipmate ofJacobs and myself in the old _Pandora_, and was nicknamed 'Green'--Ibelieve from a small adventure of ours--so I gave the men half-a-guineaa piece to carry them on. 'Long life to your honour,' said they; andsaid Tom, 'If I might make so bould, sir, if your honour has got a shipyet, we all knows ye, sir, and we'd enter, if 'twas for the North Poleitself.' 'No, my lad,' said I, 'I'm sorry to say I have not got so faryet. Dykes, my man, can you tell me where your old messmate Jacobs hasgot to?' 'Why, sir,' replied Bill, 'I did hear he was livin' at Wappingwith his wife, where we means to give him a call too, sir.' 'Good day,your honour,' said all of them, as they put on their hats to go, andcovered their curiosity again with his tarpaulin. 'I'm blessed, Bill,'said Tom, 'but we'll knock off this here carrivanning now, and putbefore the wind for Blackwall,' 'Won't you give your savage his freedom,then?' I asked. 'Sartinly, your honour,' replied the roguish foretopman,his eye twinkling as he saw that I enjoyed the joke. 'Now, Mick, my lad,ye must run like the devil so soon as we casts ye off.' 'Oh, by thepowers, thry me!' said the Irishman; 'I'm sick tired o' this cannibleminnatchery. By the holy Moses, though, I must have a dhrop o' dew inme, or I'll fall!' Mick accordingly swigged off a noggin of gin, anddeclared himself ready to start. 'Head due nor'-east from the sun, Mick,and we'll pick you up in the woods, and rig you out all square again,'said the captain of the gang, before presenting himself to the moboutside. 'Now, gemmen and ladies all,' said the sailor coolly, 'ye seewe're bent on givin' this here poor unfort'nate his liberty--an' bein'tould we've got the law on our side, why, we means to do it. More bytoken, there's a leftenant in the Roy'l Navy aboard there, as has madeup the little salvage-money, bein' poor men, orderin' us for to doit--so look out. If ye only gives him a clear offing, he'll not do noharm. Steady, Bill--slack off the starboard sheet, Jack--let go--all!''Oh! oh!--no! no!--for God's sake!' screamed the bystanders, as theyscuttled off to both hands--'shame, shame--knock un down, catchun--tipstaff, beadle!' 'Hurrah!' roared the boys, and off went MickO'Hooney in fine style, flourishing his top-maul, with a wild'hullaloo,' right away over a fence, into a garden, and across a fieldtowards the nearest wood. Everybody fell out of his way as he dashed on;then some running after him, dogs barking, and the whole of the seamengiving chase with their tarpaulins in their hands, as if to drive himfar enough into the country. The whole thing was extremely rich, seenthrough the open air from the tavern window, where I sat laughing tillthe tears came into my eyes, at Jack-tars' roguishness and the stupefiedKent rustics, as they looked to each other; then at the sailors rollingaway full speed along the edge of the plantation where the outlandishcreature had disappeared; and, lastly, at the canvas cover which lay onthe spot where he had stood. They were actually consulting how to guardagainst possible inroads from the savage at night, since he might belurking near, when I mounted and rode off; I daresay even their hearingthat I was a live and real lieutenant would cap the whole story.
"Croydon used to be a pretty, retired little town, you know, so quietand old-fashioned that I enjoyed the unusual rest of it, and the verylook of the canal, the market-place, the old English trees andpeople--by comparison with even the _Iris's_ white decks, and hercircumference of a prospect, so different every morning or hour of theday. My mother and my sister Jane were so kind--they petted me so, andwere so happy to have me down to breakfast and out walking, even to feelthe smell of my cigar--that I hardly knew where I was. I gave them anaccount of the places I had seen, with a few tremendous storms and afrigate-fight or two, instead of the horse-marine stories about mermaidsand flying Dutchmen I used to pass upon them when a conceitedyoungster. Jane, the little gipsy, would listen with her ear to a largeshell, when we were upon sea matters, and shut her eyes, saying shecould fancy the things so well that way. Or was it about India, therewas a painted sandal-wood fan carved in open-work like the finest lace,which she would spread over her face, because the seeing through it, andits scent, made her feel as if she were in the tropics. As for mymother, good simple woman, she was always between astonishment andhorror, never having believed that lieutenants would be so heartless asto mast-head a midshipman for the drunkenness of a boat's crew, norbeing able to understand why, with a gale brewing to seaward, a captaintried to get his ship as far as he could from land. The idea of my goingto sea again never entered her head, the terrible war being over, andthe rank I had gained being invariably explained to visitors as at leastequal to that of a captain amongst soldiers. To the present day, this isthe point with respect to seafaring matters on which my venerated andworthy parent is clearest: she will take off her gold spectacles,smoothing down her silver hair with the other hand, and lay down the lawas to reform in naval titles, showing that my captain's commission putsme on a level with a military colonel. However, as usual, I got tired bylittle and little of this sort of thing; I fancy there's some peculiardisease gets into a sailor's brain that makes him uneasy with a firmfloor and no offing beyond; certainly the country about Croydon was tomy mind, at that time, the worst possible--all shut in, narrow lanes,high hedges and
orchards, no sky except overhead, and no horizon. If Icould only have got a hill, there would have been some relief in havinga look-out from it. Money I had no want of; and as for fame or rank, Ineither had the ambition, nor did I ever fancy myself intended for anadmiral or a Nelson; all my wish was to be up and driving about, onaccount of something that was _in_ me. I always enjoyed a good breeze assome do champagne; and the very perfection of glory, to my thinking, wasto be the soul of a gallant ship in a regular Atlantic howler: or toplay at long bowls with one's match to leeward, off the ridges of a sea,with both weather and the enemy to manage. Accordingly, I wasn't at allinclined to go jogging along in one of your easy merchantmen, where youhave nothing new to find out; and I only waited to hear, from somefriends who were bestirring themselves with the Board, of a ship wherethere might be something to do. These were my notions in those days,before getting sobered down, which I tell you for the sake of notseeming such a fool in this said adventure.
The Green Hand: Adventures of a Naval Lieutenant Page 5
