"Come aboard with it, then," answered the admiral, roaring with laughter, for he richly enjoyed a joke.
I heard a merry giggle in the stern gallery. Captain b.u.mpus turned pale with rage and mortified vanity. I delivered my despatch, to which he said he would send an answer. The next day it was reported that he had resigned his commission and gone on sh.o.r.e. He could not bear the idea that the whole fleet should have discovered he wore a wig.
CHAPTER TWO.
Blue Peter had been for some hours flying aloft when Jonathan Johnson"s pipe, sounding along the decks with a shrillness which surpa.s.sed the keenest of north-easterly gales, gave the expected order, which his mates, in gruffest of gruff tones, bawled out, of "All hands up anchor!"
In an instant the whole ship was in an uproar, and seemed to me to be in the most dire confusion. Boatswain"s mates were shouting and bawling, the officers hurrying to their stations, the men flying here and there, some aloft to loose sails, and others to halyards, sheets, and braces. I must own that I did not feel myself of any great service in a.s.sisting at the operation going forward, but I ran and shouted with the rest, and as the men pa.s.sed me I told them to look sharp and to be smart, and to hurry along; but what they were about to do I was utterly unable to discover. I met Toby Bluff hurrying along, looking very much scared and half inclined to blubber. I asked him what was the matter.
"It"s the big man with the rattan," (he alluded to the ship"s corporal) "told me to go aft to the p.o.o.p and stand by the mizen-topsail halyards,"
he exclaimed. "But, oh, Master Marmaduke, where they be it"s more than my seven senses can tell. What shall I do? what shall I do?"
I saw some other boys running aft, so I advised him to go where they went, and to do whatever they did. I soon afterwards saw him hauling away st.u.r.dily at a rope, and though he tumbled down very often, he was quickly again on his feet. The fife and fiddle were meantime sounding merrily, and, as with cheerful tramp the men pa.s.sed round the capstan-bars, the anchor was speedily run up to the bows. What the lieutenant on the forecastle could mean when he shouted out "Man the cat-fall," I could not divine, till I saw that some of the crew were securing the stock of the anchor by means of a tackle to a stout beam, which projected over the bows of the ship. "Over to the fish," next shouted out the officer, an order at first equally inexplicable to me, till I saw the flukes of the anchor hauled up close to the bows--fished, as it is called.
The sails were let fall and sheeted home, braces hauled taut, and the Doris, with a rattling breeze, under all sail, stood through the Needles Pa.s.sage and down Channel. Those were stirring times. The cruisers of the various nations then at war with old England swarmed in all directions; and it was the ardent wish of every one on board the frigate, from the captain down to my small self, and to the youngest powder-monkey, that we should before long meet an enemy worthy of our prowess. A sharp look-out was kept aloft night and day, and it would have been difficult for anything under sail pa.s.sing within the circle seen from our main-truck to have escaped notice. Captain Collyer also did his best to prepare his crew for an encounter whenever it might come, and the men were kept constantly exercising at the great guns and small-arms, and, for a change, at shortening and making sail, till they had all learned to work well together. I was all this time rapidly picking up a fair amount of miscellaneous nautical knowledge, partly by observation, but chiefly from my messmates, and from Sam Edkins, the captain"s c.o.xswain, who had, as he said, taken a liking to me.
Mr Johnson, the boatswain, at times condescended to give me instruction. "At present, Mr Merry, you"ll observe, and I say it with perfect respect," remarked my friend, "you"re like a sucking babe, an unfledged sparrow, a squid on dry ground--you"re of no use to n.o.body, and rather want somebody to look after you, and keep you out of harm.
When you"ve been to sea as many years as I have, if you keep your eyes open, you"ll begin to find out what"s what."
I confess that these observations of the boatswain were calculated to make me feel rather small. However, I was not offended, and I often managed to pay Mr Jonathan back in his own coin, which made him like me all the more. A great contrast to him in character was the captain"s steward, Billy Wise. Billy had been to sea all his life, but no training could make a sailor of him. He was devoted to the captain, whom he had followed from ship to ship, and who took him, I truly believe, from pure compa.s.sion, because no one else would have had him.
He was, however, a faithful fellow, and I am certain would have done anything to serve his captain.
Captain Collyer used to have some of the youngsters into his cabin to learn navigation. I liked this very much, and studied hard; for, as I had come to sea to be a sailor, I wished to be a good one. Several of us were seated round the table one day, when the steward made his appearance.
"How is the wind, Wise?" asked the captain.
"Some says it"s east, and some says it"s west, Captain Collyer," was the satisfactory answer.
"And which way do you say it is?" inquired his master.
"Whichever way you please, sir," replied the steward, pulling a lock of his hair.
Even the presence of our captain could scarcely prevent us youngsters from bursting into a roar of laughter. This was surpa.s.sed, however, by an Irish midshipman, an old shipmate of mine, who, when undergoing his examination for navigation, being asked, whether the sun went round the earth, or the earth round the sun, looked up with perfect confidence, and unhesitatingly replied--
"Faith, gentlemen, it"s sometimes one and sometimes the other."
He was very much surprised at being turned back. He, however, afterwards managed to pa.s.s, but whether it was because the examining officers were not quite confident as to the exact state of the case themselves, and therefore did not push the question, or that he had in the meantime gained the required information, I do not now remember.
Captain Collyer was accustomed to Billy"s eccentricities. They were sometimes inconvenient. One day, we fell in with a line-of-battle ship, and our captain had to go on board to pay his respects to his superior officer.
As he was hurriedly leaving his cabin he called for his c.o.c.ked hat.
"Your hat. Captain Collyer--your hat, sir," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Billy Wise, in a state of great trepidation,--"it"s all safe, sir. It druve ash.o.r.e at Hurst, as we was coming through the Needles Pa.s.sage, and some of the sodgers at the castle picked it up."
Poor Billy had been brushing the hat at a port with too great vehemence, and sent it flying overboard. He might possibly have seen something dark floating towards Hurst, and his shipmates, who were always practising on his credulity, probably persuaded him that it was the captain"s hat. Many captains, in those days, would have given him a couple of dozen, or put him on nine-water grog for a month. Captain Collyer very soon forgot all about the matter, except when he told the story as a good joke. On the present occasion he had to borrow a c.o.c.ked hat; and it was not till we had been in action, and one of the officers was killed, that he could get fitted with one of his own.
The captain had a goat, which was a source of much amus.e.m.e.nt to us youngsters, and of annoyance to Mr Lukyn, the first-lieutenant; for, as if aware that she did belong to the captain, she made no scruple of invading the quarter-deck, and soiling its purity. One day, my first acquaintance on board--the tall, gaunt midshipman with red hair, who, by the bye, went by the name of Miss Susan--with two or three other youngsters and me, was standing on our side of the deck, when Nancy, the goat, released from her pen, came prancing up to us. We, as usual, made grabs at her horns and tail, and somewhat excited her temper. Now, she began to b.u.t.t at us, and made us fly, right and left. Miss Susan was capsized, and sent sprawling on the deck; and Nancy, highly delighted at her victory, frisked off to the starboard side, where Mr Lukyn, with all the dignity of a first-lieutenant, was walking the deck with his gla.s.s under his arm. Nancy, either mistaking his long legs for the stems of the trees and shrubs of her native hills, or wishing to repeat the experiment which had succeeded so well with regard to Miss Susan, made a furious b.u.t.t at his calves while he was walking aft, unconscious of her approach. The effect must have been beyond Nancy"s utmost expectations, as it was beyond ours. Our gallant first never appeared very firm on his pins, and, the blow doubling his knees, down he came, stern first, on the deck with his heels in the air, while the goat, highly delighted at her performance, and totally unconscious of her gross infraction of naval discipline, frolicked off forward in search of fresh adventures.
Just at that moment up came Billy Wise with a message from the captain.
Now Mr Lukyn rarely gave way to anger, but this was an occasion to try his temper. Picking himself up from his undignified posture, "Hang the goat," he exclaimed in a loud tone; "who let the creature loose?" Billy did not know, but having delivered his message, away he went forward; while we endeavoured to conceal, as far as we could, the fits of laughter in which we were indulging. Miss Susan"s real name was Jacob Spellman. Some short time after this, I was going along the main-deck with him, when we found the captain"s steward very busy splicing an eye in a rope, close to the cattle-pen, where Nancy had her abode. We walked on a little way, and then turned round to watch him. Having formed a running noose, he put it round the goat"s neck, and dragged her out of the pen. He then got a tub and made her stand upon it while he pa.s.sed the rope over a hook in the beam above. Hauling away as hard as he could, he gave the tub a kick, and there hung poor Nancy, in a most uncomfortable position, very nearly with her neck dislocated; but as he had not calculated on her power of standing on her hind legs, the result he expected was unaccomplished, and she was not altogether deprived of life. She struggled, however, so violently that she would very soon have been strangled had not old Perigal, who was mate of the main-deck, come up and seen what was going forward. "Why, man, what are you about?" he exclaimed. "Please, sir, I be hanging the goat," was Billy"s reply.
"Hanging the goat! who told you to do that?" inquired Perigal.
"It was the first-lieutenant, sir. She knocked him over right flat on the deck, and so he told me to go and hang her."
"Well, you are a precious--," exclaimed the old mate. "Let free the beast, and thank your stars that you didn"t hang her. The captain is a wonderfully good-natured man, there can be no doubt of it; but even he wouldn"t have stood having his goat hung."
Of course I do not dress the language of my shipmates with the expletives in which many of them were apt to indulge, when the use of strange oaths and swearing of all descriptions was more common than even at present, when the practice would be more honoured in the breach than in the observance. One thing I must say, I never heard our gallant captain utter an oath or abuse a man during the whole time I had the happiness of serving under him, and a braver, more spirited, or more sensible man never trod the deck of a man-of-war as her chief. His memory is dear, not only to all those who served with him, but to all of high or low degree who knew him during his long and glorious naval career. His manners were mild and gentle--though he had an abundance of humour and spirit. He could, however, when he thought it necessary, speak with the gravest severity to a delinquent. I never saw any man more cool and calm and thoughtful in action. It may truly be said of him that in battle he was as brave as a lion, and in peace as gentle as a lamb. I could not resist uttering this panegyric on our well-loved captain.
To return to Billy Wise and the goat. The poor animal"s life was saved, though she had a strange way of stretching out her neck for some weeks afterwards, and always gave Billy a wide berth when she encountered him in her rambles about the decks.
When the captain heard the account, instead of being angry, he laughed heartily, and added the story to his batch of anecdotes.
"I must do something with that poor fellow," he remarked. "He is not fit to be made Lord Chief Justice, I fear."
It was not always plain sailing with me. Spellman and I were pretty good friends, but he was somewhat inclined to play the bully. He was called Miss Susan simply because he was as unlike a girl as a great awkward gawky fellow, with red hair and a freckled face, could well be.
One day, as I was going along the lower-deck, with a message to old Perigal, who was attending to some duty forward, I came suddenly on Toby Bluff, whose ear Spellman had seized, while with his heel he was bestowing sundry hard blows on the corpus of my st.u.r.dy follower, who already knew enough of naval discipline not to venture on retaliation.
Toby, though short, was as strong as a lion, and could have hurled him to the deck if he had dared. This made Miss Susan"s attack all the more cowardly. What Toby had done to give offence I did not stop to inquire.
My anger was up in a moment.
"Let go the boy, Spellman!" I exclaimed; "you shall not strike him again."
Toby gained little by this, for Miss Susan only kicked him the harder; whereon, up I rushed and hit my tall messmate a blow between the eyes, which made lightning flash from them, I suspect. Spellman instantly let go Toby and sprang at me. I stood prepared for the onslaught. Blinded by my first blow, my antagonist hit out at random, and though double my weight, was far from getting the best of it. While we were thus pleasantly occupied, Mr Lukyn, with the sergeant-at-arms, was going his rounds. We were so earnestly engaged in endeavouring to the utmost of our power to hurt each other, that we did not perceive their approach.
Toby knew too well the laws of British pugilism to interfere, though had my opponent been an enemy of a different nation, and had we been engaged in mortal combat, I have no doubt that I should have found my young follower an able supporter. An exclamation from Toby threw Spellman off his guard, when a full blow, which I had planted on his breast, sent him reeling back into the not very tender clutches of old Krause, the master-at-arms.
"What is this about, young gentlemen?" exclaimed Mr Lukyn, in a severe tone. "Fighting is against the articles of war."
"He hit me, sir;" "He kicked the boy Bluff," we both exclaimed in the same breath.
"I must have you both up before the captain, and ascertain who is the culprit," said Mr Lukyn. "Master-at-arms, take these young gentlemen into custody."
I, on this, represented that I had been sent on a message to Mr Perigal, and was allowed to go and deliver it. While I was absent, Spellman took care to put his case in the best light, and mine in the worst. In about an hour we were both taken before the captain, and Toby was summoned as a witness. For fear of committing me, he was only puzzled what to say.
"Speak the truth, and nothing but it," said I boldly. The captain cast a look of approbation on me. Toby frankly confessed that, not seeing Mr Spellman, he had run against him, when he had been seized by the ear, and that I, coming up, had taken his part. Toby was dismissed.
"Now, young gentlemen, you are both in the wrong," said the captain.
"You, Mr Spellman, should not have struck the boy for his heedlessness, and you, Mr Merry, should not have taken the law into your own hands.
You will both of you go to the mast-head, and remain there till Mr Lukyn calls you down; Mr Merry to the foremast, Mr Spellman to the mainmast."
We thought that we had got off very easily; and we should, had not the first-lieutenant gone below and forgotten all about us. Hour after hour pa.s.sed by: we had had no dinner: I was almost starved, and could scarcely have held on longer, when my eye fell on a sail to the southward. We were in the chops of the channel, with the wind from the northward. "Sail, O!" I shouted in a shrill tone. Fortunately Mr Lukyn was on deck, and when I had told him the direction in which I had seen the stranger, he called me down, it having probably occurred to him that I had been mast-headed rather longer than he intended.
When I got on deck I went up to him, and, touching my hat, said, "Please, sir, Spellman is still at the mast-head."
"Oh, is he? ah!" he answered, taking a turn.
I guessed from this that he did not think I was much to blame. Still I was anxious to get poor Miss Susan out of this unpleasant predicament, for I knew he was almost dead with hunger. I had resolved to go up to Mr Lukyn to tell him so, when he hailed my late antagonist, and ordered him on deck.