L I E> RAHY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UN IVLRSITY 
 
 Of ILLI NOIS 
 
 R9lsa,
 
 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART.
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/sailorssweethear01russ
 
 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF 
 
 THE WRECK OF THE SAILING SHIP, 
 " WALDERSHARE," 
 
 FROM THE NARRATIVE OF MR. WILLIAM LEE, 
 SECOND MATE. 
 
 BY 
 
 W. CLARK RUSSELL, 
 
 AUTHOK OF "THE WRECK OF THE GBOSVEKOE," ETC. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE & RIVINGTON, 
 
 CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET. 
 
 1880. 
 
 (All rights reserved.)
 
 i.oxnox : 
 
 PRINTED r.T AVJI.UAM CLOWES AND SONS, LI3MTED, 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHAE1KG CROSS.
 
 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 When, four years ago, I wrote " The Wreck 
 of the Grosvenor,'' the very last misgiving 
 that entered vaj mind was that it would be 
 questioned on the score of its accuracy. I 
 had passe:! eight years at sea in the Mer- 
 chant Service ; much of my leisure had been 
 
 ^ spent in the forecastle among the men, and 
 their arguments and stories were impressed 
 on my memory. Nevertheless, several 
 
 verities, whose knowledge of the sea I have 
 the best possible reasons for suspecting, 
 determined that various incidents narrated 
 in the " Grosvenor " were impossible. What 
 those incidents were I need not weary the 
 reader by saying here ; but it is certain that 
 the incidents which my critics voted im-
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 possible were all of them facts, perfectly 
 familiar to seamen, and within the experi- 
 ence of twenty out of every hundred sea- 
 faring men. 
 
 Fortunately for my veracity, however, 
 confirmation of my accuracy reached me 
 many months after the book was published, 
 in the form of a narrative quoted in the 
 Atlantic Monthly Magazine, a serial of high 
 standing in the United States, and written 
 by many able American authors. The 
 narrative was entitled " The Wreck of the 
 Grosvenor in Eeal Life." I offer no apology 
 for quoting it. 
 
 " Those of the readers of ' The Wreck of 
 the Grosvenor ' who, like myself, first read 
 it at the sea-shore, with the accessories of 
 an occasional wild storm and intercourse 
 with some of the finest specimens of sailor 
 character on the Atlantic coast, must have 
 felt in a peculiar manner the photographic 
 reality of the whole story. Striking testi- 
 mony to the correctness of what sometimes 
 seemed exaggerated has fallen in ray way 
 more than once. A broad-breasted manly 
 skipper, in whose company I was thrown
 
 PREFACE. Vll 
 
 last summer, and whose face has caught 
 much of its bronze while rescuing human 
 lives, had an experience identical with that 
 of the heroine and her father on the rolling 
 deserted hull. A passing ship had taken 
 one boatful from the wreck in a frightful 
 sea ; the officer refused to return for the 
 three sailors, of whom one was my narrator, 
 and their lives were saved only by an act 
 of heroism such as is described in the 
 1 Grosvenor.' 
 
 "And now, in a remote corner of the 
 shipping news in my morning paper, among 
 the sadly numerous disasters of the past 
 month, is a story curiously resembling the 
 circumstances of the crisis which came 
 to the Grosvenor when off the Bermudas. 
 The reader will remember the mutiny of the 
 crew, led by the ship's carpenter; the death 
 of the captain ; the placing of the hero, the 
 second mate, in command; the false reckon- 
 ing which the latter kept ; the supposed 
 nearness to Florida, but real proximity to 
 the Bermudas ; and the intention of the 
 mutineers to leave the mate and Miss 
 Robertson on board, after having scuttled
 
 Till PREFACE. 
 
 the vessel. Then came the suspense of the 
 counter-plotters— the boatswain being hid- 
 den below, instead of dead, as the mutineers 
 supposed — when the carpenter came up 
 from below, after boring auger-holes in the 
 ship's bottom, and deserted the vessel with 
 the mutineers. I copy the coincidence 
 from the report, word for word : — 
 
 "'Brig L'Avvehire, from Messina for 
 New York (before reported), arrived in Five 
 Fathom Hole, Bermuda, March 29, in 
 charge of Captain Page, late first officer 
 of barque 'Black Prince, of St. John, N.B. 
 The latter fell in with the brig March 23, 
 lat. 28° 40',.long. 67°. She was drifting about 
 in a crippled condition, with foremast, main- 
 topmast, jibboom with all attached, carried 
 away, and had to all appearances been 
 abandoned. Captain Tyrrell, of the Black 
 Prince, took the brig in tow, and towed her 
 for some time, when he found it would be 
 more judicious to adopt another course. 
 He accordingly cut the hawser, and put his 
 first officer with four seamen on board the 
 brig, and ordered them to bring her to Ber- 
 muda. With some spare spars from the
 
 PREFACE, ix 
 
 Blade Prince jury-masts were rigged, and 
 the ship reached port as already mentioned. 
 Captain Page reports that, when he went on 
 board the brig, he found eight feet of water 
 in the hold. He and his crew set to work 
 at the pumps and soon gained on the water. 
 After the water had been lowered, he over- 
 hauled the vessel, and found three auger- 
 holes in the hull, and *two three-quarter- 
 inch augers lying near by. One hole was 
 forward quite low down ; a second one was 
 opposite the mainmast ; and a third one 
 was near the stern-post. After these had 
 been stopped up, the vessel was perfectly 
 tight, and proved herself an excellent sea- 
 boat. The U Avvenire is built of white oak, 
 is a new vessel apparently, and was well 
 fitted. She is loaded with a cargo of 
 oranges, lemons, and wine, and the fruit 
 appears to be in an excellent condition. 
 The vice-marshal in the Court of Admiralty 
 took charge of the ship and cargo, pending 
 the action of the parties interested in them. 
 The vessel had commenced to discharge 
 cargo, April 4, by order of the Court of 
 Admiralty.'
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 " When it is remembered that soon after 
 the date of picking np the brig there fol- 
 lowed one of the severest storms (March 
 30th) known in many years, the parallel is 
 almost perfect. Could there be even the re- 
 motest connection between the wreck of the 
 Grosvenor and the wreck of the L'Avvenire $ 
 Had the book been known on board, or had 
 another ill-treated crew evolved from their 
 inner consciousness just such a liberation as 
 had occurred to the author of the Gros- 
 venor f "—No. 262, August, 1879. 
 
 My reason for referring to a former novel 
 by me and quoting the narrative I have 
 given is merely to obtain from the reader 
 of " A Sailor's Sweetheart " some credit for 
 good faith. The sense of numerous short- 
 comings makes me anxious to emphasize 
 the one virtue which I honestly know my 
 sea stories possess — I mean their truth. 
 Whatever may be the degree of importance 
 attached to credibility in novel- writing, it is 
 to guard against the charges brought against 
 " The Wreck of the Grosvenor," that I say 
 there is not an incident in "A Sailor's 
 Sweetheart" that is not true. The mad-
 
 PEEFACE. XI 
 
 ness of Captain Flanders, the devotion of 
 Helen Williams, the foundering of the 
 Waldershare, the incident of the water- 
 logged brig, the final escape from the island, 
 are all so many facts, based upon two nar- 
 ratives and one personal experience. 
 
 W. CLAEK EUSSELL. 
 
 1880.
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. BURMARSH ... ... ... ... 1 
 
 II. Down the Kiver ... ... 27 
 
 III. A Fog in the English Channel ... 54 
 
 IV. To the Isle of Wight ... ... 100 
 
 Y. At Sea ... ... ... ... 123 
 
 VI. The Fag End of a Cyclone ... 15G 
 
 VII. Lanyon's Burial ... ... ... 207 
 
 VIII. The " Jessie Jackson " ... ... 228
 
 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BURMARSH. 
 
 I have spent some tolerably dismal and 
 sorrowful clays in my life, as this story will 
 explain, though I wish I could say that they 
 were all contained in it ; but the saddest 
 day that ever my eyes opened upon was a 
 Wednesday in June, in 1858. It was not 
 that my shore-going holiday was about to 
 end ; though it is true that for more than 
 three whole months I had not clapt eyes on 
 a ship, and that in a day I was to exchange 
 the fine summer country, the. lying in bed 
 all night, the milk and fresh butter, the 
 going and coming as I pleased, with no man 
 
 VOL. I. b
 
 2 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 to say " sir " to and no master but my own 
 sweet will, for a week's hard work in the 
 West India Docks, and then a voyage that 
 was likely to last above a year. 
 
 But this was not the worst part. Going 
 to sea is nothing to a man who has only the 
 shore to leave and no clinging hands to tear 
 himself away from. Since the death of my 
 poor old mother, who survived my father 
 five years, and died when I was fourteen 
 years old, my hat had covered my family 
 and estate ; I went to sea as naturally as a 
 boy goes home, and only loved the land as 
 holiday ground for a frolic that was always 
 merry enough whilst the money lasted. But 
 now had come something else ; and on this 
 June morning, when I awoke, my heart lay 
 in me as heavy as a deep-sea lead, and mortal 
 man never shaved a gloomier face than the 
 one that glowered upon me from the looking- 
 glass as I turned to and lathered myself. 
 For the truth was that I, William Lee, cetat 
 twenty-three, was not only in love, but 
 engaged to be married. I reckoned the 
 engagement was to be a regular Jack's be- 
 trothal, all waiting ; but that would not
 
 BUKMARSH. 3 
 
 make it the less real. The engaged ring- 
 was on her finger, and we had both of ns 
 enough love and faith to keep our hearts 
 green and patient until the time came for 
 the parson to give her my name, whenever 
 that should be. 
 
 She was an orphan, just as I was. Her 
 father, who had been a naval officer and a 
 cousin of my mother, had died and left her 
 three thousand pounds, and her guardian 
 was Mr.' Paul Johnson, once a lawyer, but 
 at this time a common-councilman of the 
 borough of Burmarsh, a town in which he 
 had dwelt upwards of fifty years. He was a 
 good-hearted man at bottom, but had a bad 
 opinion of his fellows, and liked to be 
 thought cynical. I believe he was hated by 
 the people he sat amongst at the Town 
 Council meetings, partly because of his 
 mulish trick of voting out of spite, and 
 partly because nearly every week he wrote 
 letters to the local papers, criticizing and 
 sneering at the Corporation. But I took 
 no interest in these doings, and hard as he 
 tried, Councillor Johnson never could suc- 
 ceed in exciting my curiosity as to them ;
 
 4 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 indeed, I scarcely knew what a councillor 
 meant, and what work he was intended to 
 do. I was only sure that he had nothing 
 to do with the sea. 
 
 The old councillor had heen at school 
 with my father, and they had been good 
 friends in after life. They came together 
 through a lawsuit, and I have heard my 
 mother say that Mr. Johnson acted nobly 
 to my father on some occasions. Indeed, I 
 have a notion that the old councillor was a 
 sort of connection of mine on my father's 
 side ; but I never knew what, and never 
 took the trouble to ask. 
 
 When I had come home from a voyage 
 to China, and found my mother dead and the 
 old house let, Mr. Johnson came to look for 
 me, and bade me make his house my home, 
 which I did whenever it suited me to do so ; 
 and here it was that I found Helen Wil- 
 liams — whom I shall call Nelly in this narra- 
 tive, as that is the familiar name to me — 
 when I landed after the voyage immediately 
 preceding the disastrous one of which this 
 book is the record. 
 
 I fell in love with her the moment I saw
 
 BURMARSH. 5 
 
 her, for men are always in a hurry in these 
 matters, and sailors especially, who pass 
 mouths without seeiug a womau. It took 
 her some time to hud out what she thought 
 about me, aud she wouldn't have done it 
 then if I had not given her a hand, as I may 
 say, and helped her in every way I knew. 
 Her father had only been dead six months, 
 and her grief still hung like a kind of dark- 
 ness over her; but after a while her love 
 met mine, as the tide of a calm sea comes 
 up the shore with little runnings and a kind 
 of purr, and a glancing backwards and for- 
 wards, as you shall have seen it, though the 
 forward movement is the steady one and the 
 stronger. 
 
 Until just a week before I w T ent away to 
 sea on my seventh voyage, I think it was — 
 that being my first trip as second mate, 
 which I ought to feel ashamed to own, 
 though even in those days berths in the 
 merchant service were as hard to find as 
 whales in the English Channel — I took her 
 for a walk down the river, and there — for 
 it was in the summer-time — as she stood 
 watching the trout jump and the swallows
 
 6 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 skimming the water, and the lazy cows 
 beyond chaw, chaw, chawing like a lot of 
 old sailors mumbling their quids, I took 
 her hand in mine and we just told our love 
 to each other in plain words. We then 
 arranged — for she was my master and did 
 what she liked with me, though I never 
 seemed to feel her hand at the helm, so 
 firm and delicate was her control — that she 
 would become downright engaged to me 
 when I came home next time ; for, said she, 
 " that will give you time to think, and see 
 other faces, and be sure of yourself; " and 
 then, if I came home still loving her and 
 wanting her, why, I might slip on a ring, 
 and so she would wait until I could marry 
 her. I asked if she was as likely as I to 
 remain true ? But this was a man's question 
 that wanted no answer in words, for her 
 smile made me wiser than any amount of 
 language could have done. 
 
 I went away loving her ; and whenever I 
 had a chance to send a letter home it was 
 to her ; and I came back loving her. On the 
 very evening of the day of my arrival — no 
 chance having offered before, and she and
 
 BURMABSH. 7 
 
 I being alone — I drew forth a ring and put 
 it on her finger. She kissed me as I did so, 
 as though this was a ceremony that needed 
 a consecration of that kind ; and God knows 
 she was right. Her kiss made me feel how 
 greatly she loved me. It was the leaping 
 up of her heart that was overjoyed I had 
 returned safe, after the long separation and 
 the daily prayers and fears. For the whole 
 of this time that I was ashore we were 
 throughout the days scarcely longer than 
 an hour for a spell apart. Our devotion 
 made the people of the place talk about us, 
 for in Burmarsh you could not cross a road 
 without some one seeing you and making 
 news of it ; and that is the case still, I hear, 
 though the population has nearly doubled 
 since those times. 
 
 But now had come the last day. To- 
 morrow I was to go to London to join my 
 ship as second mate still, though I held a 
 chief-mate's certificate, and on that day 
 week the Waldershare was to sail. 
 
 Councillor Johnson's house was in the 
 High Street, a little way above the town, 
 and about a stone's throw from the Wesleyan
 
 8 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 Chapel which was then newly built. It 
 was above a hundred and fifty years old, 
 with a great garden behind stuffed full of 
 fruit trees — his pears were the finest in the 
 county — and another garden in front stuffed 
 full of flowers. It was like a perfumer's 
 shop, with its smells of lavender, rose, violet, 
 and such things ; and I have often stood 
 at the open window and made a regular job 
 of sniffing, thinking to myself I had best 
 make the most of these smells whilst I had 
 them, for I should be going back to bilge 
 water and the aromas of boiled salt pork 
 presently. This morning I was slow in 
 shaving and dressing myself, for I was 
 constantly dropping into thought, and start- 
 ing out of it to find my hands idle and my 
 eyes fixed, with a sort of mist over them, 
 on the beaming garden below, where the 
 flowers stood so thickly that the place was 
 like a huge nosegay, and where the butter- 
 flies were cruising about like bits of paper 
 blown here and there, and where the bees 
 were booming with the sound of deep-toned 
 men humming the responses in church. 
 My window was wide open, and the whole
 
 BURMARSH. 9 
 
 beauty of this glorious morning came into 
 it. "Oh, Nelly," thought I, "this is the 
 last clay we may ever spend together ! Oh, 
 Lord ! to leave yon, my sweet one, and 
 these flowers, and to go and do a week's 
 stowing in the black and rankly smelling 
 hold of a ship, and then to sail away and 
 perhaps be drowned — to be set wrestling 
 and choking in the dark hollow of a big sea, 
 and to sink down into the silence beneath, 
 leaving of all my life nothing but a few 
 bubbles on the surface of the water, to be 
 probed at as a monster by the cold snouts 
 of fish, the like of which mortal eye may 
 never have beheld ; whilst you, my darling, 
 having prayed God to watch over and pro- 
 tect me, creep into jouy white bed, where 
 you lie for a long hour in the quiet night 
 thinking of me, wondering what I am doing 
 and if my th oughts are with you, and trying 
 to image the ship standing upright in the 
 calm — for if it is calm with you, how, my 
 innocent one, shall you imagine the tempest 
 raging elsewhere ? — and the pale sails 
 motionless as clouds, with the stars gleam- 
 ing among them, until your eyes close, and
 
 10 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 your dear lips murmur my name, aud your 
 soft breast heaves gently and regularly in 
 sleep ! " 
 
 Bah ! thought I, Master Will, enough of 
 this : and I was about to quit the window, 
 and the room too, when, very greatly to my 
 surprise, I heard Nelly singing in the garden ; 
 and, screwing my head round the looking- 
 glass to get a sight of her, sure enough 
 there she was, with a big pair of scissors in 
 her hand, cutting flowers, her head hidden 
 in a wide straw hat. 
 
 Singing! thought I; on this day of all 
 days ! cutting flowers with a holiday air ! 
 
 " Oh, a jolly sailor's life is a merry, merry life, 
 And a very merry man ought he to be." 
 
 Here she paused, whilst she looked around 
 her for a suitable flower. 
 
 " When he's tired of the shore, he need only kiss 
 his wife, 
 Pick his bundle up and run away to sea. 
 
 Tol de rol." 
 
 Here she made another pause, and I 
 could almost have persuaded myself that 
 she knew I was listening, and wanted to
 
 BUBMABSH. 11 
 
 give ine time to digest the meaning of her 
 words. 
 
 " But it's O heigho for the merry sailor's wife, 
 For a very merry, faithless man is he : 
 To be married to a very merry sailor all my life 
 Is a merry life that wouldn't quite suit me. 
 
 Tol de rol." 
 
 She had scarcely finished this choice 
 song, as old Izaak Walton might say, when 
 I heard the councillor's daughter, Phoebe, 
 call out to her, " Is Will down yet, Helen ? 
 Breakfast will be ready in a few moments." 
 On which Nelly made a movement ; but 
 before she could look up at my window, I 
 had got sternway on me, for I had no mind 
 just then to let her know that I had been 
 watching and listening to her. 
 
 "Will, are you in your room?" she 
 called out ; but I gave her no answer. 
 
 I could not understand her singing and 
 picking flowers and going about with her 
 happy airs that morning. Though it might 
 be all forced, it was still no good ; for I 
 was miserable enough myself, and felt that 
 she ought to be more miserable than I. 
 She struck up again in a minute, but this
 
 12 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 time more faintly ; and, being now dressed, 
 I went downstairs. 
 
 Phoebe Johnson was in the breakfast- 
 room, playing with a kitten in the sunshine 
 that lay upon the carpet, and that streamed 
 in through the open glass door or French 
 window which led into the garden where 
 Nelly was picking flowers. The councillor 
 had not yet made his appearance. Phoebe 
 w^as a broad-backed, deep-bosomed woman 
 about thirty years old, with a pretty face 
 and red hair. She did as much for her 
 father as three generations of women could 
 have done ; she was not only his daughter, 
 but she quarrelled with him as viciously 
 as if she had been his wdfe, and molly- 
 coddled him as if she had been his mother, 
 and corrected him to his face and boasted 
 about him behind his back as if she had 
 been his grandmother. I used to be rather 
 fond of kissing this girl when I first knew r 
 her, and I think she liked it, and there 
 was a time when I believed I was in love 
 with her ; but I ceased to have any non- 
 sense with her after I met Nelly, and she 
 let me go with as little concern as she
 
 BUEMAKSH. 13 
 
 would a cat that sprung £1*0111 her lap after 
 she had been nursing it a bit. 
 
 " Good morning, Phib," said I, for that 
 was my name for her. " I'm glad to think 
 that Nelly can sing this morning. For my 
 part, I feel as sorrowful as a bear floating 
 out to sea on a piece of ice." As I said 
 this, I glanced in the direction of my 
 sweetheart, who had gone some little dis- 
 tance away, and was at work with her 
 scissors over a bed of mignonette. 
 
 " And why shouldn't she sing, my sweetest 
 William ? " replied Phoebe, with an air of 
 exasperating indifference. " The longer 
 she can carry her cheerfulness the shorter 
 time she will have to fret oyer your absence, 
 my dear." 
 
 "True," said I; "but still, this is my 
 last morning but one. Half an hour later 
 to-morrow morning I shall be saying good- 
 bye, outward bound, my darling, a whole 
 year and more away ; and though I am 
 glad to hear her singing," said I, scowling 
 in my effort to keep to windward of my 
 vexation and wonder, " yet I can't help 
 thinking it would be more natural — I am
 
 34 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 speaking of her as my sweetheart, ducky — 
 if she showed the same sort of colours I'm 
 flying. I don't want her to cry — to pipe 
 
 her eye, Phib, but Not a word more, 
 
 if you please. Here she comes." 
 
 Phib laughed, and pitched the kitten 
 on to a sofa and went to the other end of 
 the room as Nelly came in. Her hat, 
 which was as big as a plantation-overseer's, 
 kept me clear of her face when I stepped 
 up to her, though I never made any scruple 
 of kissing her morning and night before 
 Phib and her father. She put the flowers 
 upon the table and took off her hat, looking 
 at me wistfully, as though she guessed 
 some of my thoughts. 
 
 She was a woman, I think, every man 
 would have admired ; of the right height, 
 her figure a graceful and beautiful one, and 
 so active, strong, and lovely in its move- 
 ments that, I used to tell her, with a little 
 training, she would be a match for the most 
 expert of the theatrical flying women — the 
 people who walk on ropes and hang by 
 their eyelids to ceilings. She had magni- 
 ficent hair, " an excellent thing in woman,"
 
 BURMARSH. 15 
 
 a sort of bronzed-brown (to give you some 
 notion of it) ; and I never knew how much 
 she had of it before one morning when I 
 accidentally plumped up against her as she 
 was crossing from her own to Phib's bed- 
 room, with her hair all loose and covering 
 her like a sea-wave. She plunged away 
 from me under it with a glorious free move- 
 ment, but shut Phib's door so quickly upon 
 herself that- the hind part of her hair, 
 streaming out as she ran, got jammed, and 
 I had to open the door to free her. Many 
 people thought Phib's face prettier than 
 Nelly's, but they were all women who 
 thought so, and women are never honest 
 in opinions of this kind ; any way, I liked 
 my own taste best. Her grey eyes and low 
 forehead and little ears, with a lovely curve 
 clown the cheek to a throat as soft and 
 white as the breast of a rabbit, were things 
 I have never yet seen matched; and though 
 her mouth might have been a wee bit large, 
 it was full of little white teeth, and every 
 
 kiss But this is parish talk. 
 
 " Will doesn't like to hear you singing, 
 my dear," sung out Phib, quietly. " Men
 
 16 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 never know w T hat they ought to like, do 
 they, Nelly ? " 
 
 Well, thought I, that's the truth, any- 
 how. But neither Nelly nor I appeared to 
 take notice of the remark ; she smiled a 
 little, and looked at me quickly — indeed, 
 her manner was altogether puzzling. 
 
 The old councillor now came in, and we 
 sat down to breakfast. He was a dried-up 
 old man, with a dusty face, and he wore a 
 white hat all the year round, as well as 
 coloured linen ; so he had other pretensions 
 to local fame than those which grew out of 
 his town- councillor ship and his acidulated 
 letters to the papers. He was generally 
 garrulous at meal-times, and between him 
 and his daughter the stiflest arguments 
 would rage ; for I have noticed that your 
 people who are pretty well agreed are 
 always the fiercest argufiers. This morn- 
 ing, however, the councillor was unusually 
 silent ; I believe my going had something 
 to do with it. Phib asked me what made 
 me so dull — a mere excuse to tell her father 
 that I had been annoyed to hear Nell sing- 
 ing in the garden.
 
 BUEMAKSH. 17 
 
 " Look here, my dear," said I, " enough's 
 as good as a feast. Don't you overtalk 
 yourself sometimes ? Perhaps I am fretting 
 because I have to leave you." 
 
 " You were once sweethearts, weren't 
 you ? " said Nelly, demurely. 
 
 " Would you like to take me with you, 
 Will ? " asked Phib. " What would you do 
 with me on board a ship ? " 
 
 " Perhaps make a figure-head of you," I 
 answered : " and very fine you'd look." 
 
 " You have made up your mind not to 
 ran down and see us before you sail, 
 Will ? " said the councillor. 
 
 " Why, Mr. Johnson, I think it's best to 
 make one good-bye do for all. Handshaking 
 and G-od-bless-you-ing is no joke to a fellow 
 when he's leaving what he loves — perhaps 
 for ever," said I, feeling a lump in my throat. 
 Here Nelly put a spoon into her cup and 
 peered into it close. 
 
 " I hope we shall meet again, my boy," 
 said the old man, gloomily ; " though a year 
 is a longer time for me to look ahead than 
 it is for you, who have nearly forty years to 
 serve to come to my age. And though you 
 
 vol. i. c
 
 18 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 are going to sea, which is reckoned by ns 
 people ashore but a perilous life at the best, 
 I don't suppose there's a man living who 
 would not bet heavily on the chances of 
 your corning back to look at the old place 
 once more, as against the chances of my 
 being alive to welcome you." 
 
 He seemed really affected, and Phib was 
 now looking as grave as a nun at her 
 prayers. Nell, with her cheek in her hand 
 — like a peach in the cup of a lily — gazed 
 at the old councillor wistfully : there ivas 
 a tear in her eye, but it was as puzzling to 
 me as all the rest of her conduct, for she 
 seemed to be thinking more of Mr. Johnson 
 than of me — if, indeed, she was thinking of 
 me at all. 
 
 But my story does not lie at this break- 
 fast-table, nor in Councillor Johnson's house. 
 So let me clap on a bit of extra canvas and 
 claw off this shore, for I am afraid I'm too 
 much of a sailor to feel happy in land-togs, 
 and the sooner I can get you to sea the 
 more comfortable I shall feel. 
 
 Nelly did not sing again that day — at 
 least, I didn't catch her singing ; but neither
 
 BUEMAESH. 19 
 
 during the morning nor in the afternoon 
 did she give me half as much of her com- 
 pany as I wanted. She seemed to have 
 made a lover of old Johnson, for she kept 
 on making excnses to be with him, and her 
 manner to him was so gentle and loving and 
 sad, that I never saw the like of it before 
 in her. It was too hot all that day to leave 
 the house, but when the sun was low, and 
 the hush and softness of the early evening 
 had fallen, I asked Nelly to come with me 
 for a row on the river, " for the last time," 
 and without a word she went for her hat, 
 passed her hand through my arm, and we 
 walked slowly down the lanes to the old 
 boat-house. 
 
 The last impression a man takes of his 
 home before he goes on a long journey is 
 nearly always the one that lives, and that 
 comes to him in intervals of silence and 
 thought when he is far away. Many a time 
 since, in the lonely night-watches at sea, 
 has this town of Burmarsh and the country 
 around it, as they appeared that evening under 
 the long crimson lines flowing from the west, 
 whilst in the east loomed a bank of slate-
 
 20 A SAILOE'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 coloured clouds with golden outlines, against 
 which the delicate rose-tinted hills stood 
 out, arisen before my eyes with something 
 more than the vividness of memory. I have 
 been ashore in many lands and seen nature 
 in many shapes of beauty, but I have never 
 beheld anything comparable to an English 
 country scene on a summer evening, just 
 when the sun has waxed low enough to let 
 one or two large stars shine forth, and when 
 the green of the trees grows dark against 
 the deepening blue of the sky, and when the 
 pelting day-chorus of the birds is over and 
 only a few melodious notes speak here and 
 there, and when the brown frog comes out 
 from under the hedge and leaps athwart 
 the dust of the road, and when little shrill 
 twitterings arise from the grass around, 
 whilst the arms of the windmill are at rest, 
 and only the top windows of the higher 
 houses are aflame with the sunset, and the 
 gathering of the peace of the night is beheld 
 like a presence in the east and can almost 
 be watched, so to say, coming along with 
 the shadows. 
 
 There were a couple of boats lying along-
 
 BURMAESH. 21 
 
 side the banks of the river. We got into one 
 of them, and the man that owned her cast 
 us adrift, and I rowed for about half a mile, 
 until we were well in the country away from 
 the town, when I threw one oar inboard, 
 and took the other aft with which I steered 
 the boat, through the aftermost rowlock, 
 with a light movement of my wrist almost 
 unnoticed by myself. By this means I kept 
 the boat in mid-stream, and we drifted down 
 with the current, which ran here at about 
 half a mile an horn-, whilst I sat close 
 against my sweetheart in the stern-sheets. 
 
 It was a calm and beautiful evening ; the 
 sun was gone now, but all the sky was ablaze 
 in the west, and the moon was in the south 
 ready to throw its light down when the 
 crimson had faded ; the cows were lowing 
 impatiently in the meadows, but otherwise 
 there was a great silence abroad, and only 
 now and again would we catch sight of a 
 man, some village labourer, his head and 
 shoulders visible over the tops of the corn- 
 fields, or trudging along the road that 
 skirted the river at a distance of a couple 
 of hundred feet. All about here the river
 
 22 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 lay quite open to the sky, the fields flat and 
 the country treeless, though half an hour's 
 steady rowing would have brought us to 
 some lovely scenes : but the river twisted 
 like a corkscrew, and every turn found the 
 water of a new complexion — now a kind of 
 lustrous ash-colour ; now dark and gleaming, 
 with the faint moon languishing in it ; again, 
 as it veered to the west, catching the blood- 
 red light of the sky in that quarter, and 
 then a dark blue, in imitation of the northern 
 heaven. 
 
 We sat as sweethearts should, both to- 
 gether ; my right arm was around her waist, 
 and with the other hand I held the oar. She, 
 the better to sit close to me, removed her 
 hat, and as she often laid her head upon my 
 shoulder, and had her ear close to my mouth, 
 we conversed in such low voices that we 
 should have been inaudible to any person 
 sitting forward in the boat. The wonder 
 that had troubled me that morning when I 
 heard her singing, and watched her gaily 
 picking the flowers, was gone now. She 
 smiled when I recurred to it, and drew 
 away from me to let me look into her eyes,
 
 BURMARSH. 23 
 
 as if she preferred that I should find out the 
 truth for myself in that mirror which she 
 held up to me, sooner than that she should 
 speak about it. I felt that I had made too 
 much of her singing, though still, and even 
 in this time, I seemed to miss in her manner 
 something that I cannot define, but that I 
 felt ought to be there. 
 
 Perhaps if ever I had a right to be jealous 
 of her at all, it was then ; for in a very few 
 hours now I should be parting from her 
 for a long year, and such was my love, that 
 I felt the only thing that would make our 
 separation bearable would be the power of 
 thinking that she was as true as a compass 
 to me, and that I might be sure her heart 
 and prayers were with me wherever I might 
 be, and that, though thousands of miles di- 
 vided us, she could not be more truly mine 
 than were she my wife and by my side. 
 Hence, if I thought of her and watched her 
 critically on this eve of my departure, you 
 will think me excused; besides, who can 
 truly love without jealousy? what sun- 
 beam but has its shadow ? I believe she 
 felt that her manner was wanting, and she
 
 24 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 tried to mend it by caresses ; but, though 
 her sadness at times equalled mine, I felt, 
 as I had been made to feel throughout the 
 day, that its inspiration was not altogether 
 owing to me. I noticed tears in her eyes 
 when we were speaking of Phoebe and the 
 councillor, and she owned that it made her 
 cry to think of them. 
 
 " But why, Nelly, do you cry for them ? " 
 I asked. " Is anything going to happen? 
 One would think that they were going away 
 to sea." 
 
 "Iain a silly girl, Will," she answered, 
 drying her eyes ; and she took my hand in 
 both hers and pressed it passionately to her 
 breast, and immediately buried her face and 
 sobbed bitterly for some moments. I kissed 
 her once or twice, but let her have her cry 
 out without offering to speak. This sorrow 
 I felt I could claim for myself; for the way 
 she seized my hand made me feel that I 
 was the object of it ; so I began to cheer 
 her as well as I could. 
 
 "A } r ear is a long time to look forward 
 to, Nelly, but a short time to look back 
 upon. It seems but yesterday that I said
 
 BUEMAESH. 25 
 
 good-bye to you when I went away on my 
 last voyage." 
 
 " Yes, it will pass, Will; and I hope God 
 will spare "us both, darling, to witness the 
 end of it, and be together safe." 
 
 " Ay, we must hope that indeed, and 
 pray for it too. But I shall leave you full 
 of brave hopes. I am pretty sure of getting 
 a chief-mate's berth next voyage, and we 
 shall marry upon it, Nelly, and make an 
 end of this waiting." And I talked again 
 of the schemes we had repeated to each 
 other, and got her to smile ; but this cheer- 
 ing her up was desperate hard work to me, 
 who was the more miserable of the two, as 
 I now know. It was like sailing two knots 
 against a three-knot tide ; it was making 
 headway through the water, but sternway 
 over the ground, and I gave it up at last 
 for fear of breaking down altogether, and 
 chucked the oars into the rowlocks, and 
 rowed away back to the boat-house. 
 
 "We had the moon with us now, and in 
 bends of the river the water lay in sheets of 
 silver. The sky was full of yellow stars, and 
 in this light the face of Nelly looked phan-
 
 26 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 tom-like. I could scarcely remove my eyes 
 from it ; it seemed unreal, like a memory, as 
 if she had been here but was now gone, and 
 her face there was only my imagination.- 
 On either hand the land loomed away in a 
 white mist; the dip of the oars was the 
 only sound, unless now and again the cheep 
 of the stream as it met and half-circled the 
 trunk of some tree whose roots were beneath 
 the water line. We exchanged but few 
 words : my heart was too full for speech ; 
 it gave me pain to articulate ; and Nelly 
 sat quite still, with her gaze fixed on the 
 water, and sometimes, when the bend of the 
 river brought the moon broad upon her, I 
 could see the tears sparkling in her eyes. 
 Anon we reached the landing-stage ; I lifted 
 her out of the boat, and we walked slowly 
 in the direction of home.
 
 ( 27 ) 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 DOWN THE RIVER. 
 
 The Walder share was a full-rigged ship of 
 eight hundred and. fifty tons, but looked 
 smaller than this figure of her tonnage 
 suggests. She had. been built and origi- 
 nally owned, in Aberdeen, but her owner 
 having joined the firm to which the Wal- 
 dershare now belonged, he had brought 
 his ship with him, and the word u Lon- 
 don " was painted on her stern. The 
 Scotch are the best shipbuilders in the 
 world, and the Walder share was always 
 admired as a beautiful specimen of the 
 skill of their yards. When I first saw her 
 she was in dock, lying close against the 
 wall, her decks forward covered with raffle, 
 and a litter of dirt and goods amidships. 
 The ships ahead and astern of her also
 
 28 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 helped to muddle her lines ; and yet she 
 looked, with only the run of her bulwarks 
 visible, and her beautifully rounded stern, 
 and her top-gallant forecastle narrowing like 
 the bows of a yacht, with the same clever 
 curve and gradual sweep which talks of 
 speed to the eye, the handsomest vessel of 
 her kind then in the docks, and a ship for 
 a sailor to love as he would a sweetheart. 
 She was coppered to the bends, and painted 
 green fore and aft with a narrow white 
 streak ; her stern was elliptical, and in the 
 graceful bend of it was a broad gilt scroll, 
 in the midst of which was written her name 
 and that of her port in small white letters. 
 Her figure-head was a gilt dolphin, the tail 
 flemish-coiled, and it overhung a stem as 
 sharp as a knife, sweeping out and around 
 in real racing lines. She was heavily 
 sparred — too heavily, I always thought ; 
 her lower masts were as bright as mahogany, 
 and the sun streaked them with fire ; her 
 fore and main yards were huge spars, and 
 promised an immense spread of canvas ; she 
 carried single topsails, and reefs in the fore 
 and main top-gallant sails, and short royal-
 
 DOWN THE RIVER. 29 
 
 mast heads, which, with her heavy tops, 
 gave her a man-of-war look. Her decks 
 were full of brass-work — brass rail across 
 the break of the poop, brass handrails to 
 the poop ladders, brass stanchions for the 
 life-ropes, brass gratings over the skylights, 
 brass binnacles, brass belaying-pins for the 
 mizzen rigging, and even the pump just 
 abaft the mizzen-mast, that was used for 
 washing the poop down, was crowned with 
 brass, so that I reckoned, when I saw all 
 this, the youngsters would have their hands 
 full. 
 
 The tide serving at half-past two, we got 
 clear of the docks at that hour on Thursday, 
 the 26th of June, 1858. The day w^as a bright 
 one and hot enough, with a fresh breeze blow- 
 ing straight up the river. The ship was now 
 in very different trim from that she had been 
 in when I boarded her a week before. Her 
 decks were as white as holystoning could 
 bring them ; the brass-work just made them 
 a broad glare of light in the brilliant sun- 
 shine ; aloft every bunt was as smooth as a 
 pillow, all the running gear hauled taut, the 
 standing rigging like wire, and the whole
 
 30 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 ship a beautiful picture. A crowd of idlers 
 cheered us as we went out, and in a few 
 minutes the tug had got us into mid-stream, 
 and the noble ship was gliding down the 
 river, one of the stateliest fabrics which ever 
 swam upon it. 
 
 Now that we were out of the docks there 
 was little to be done ; there were two hands 
 at the wheel, and most of the men forward 
 on the forecastle watching the shore as it 
 slipped past us. This going down the river 
 is the most melancholy part of the voyaga 
 out to men who make any trouble of leaving 
 home. The scenes which one passes are so 
 familiar, that, as one by one they drop astern 
 or vanish round the bends of the river, a 
 new wrench is given to the heart. Yoti look 
 at the clustered houses, and at the wharves 
 with the black old billyboys squattering 
 alongside ; the cranes slowly rising, or drop < 
 ping ponderous burdens at the end of massive 
 chains ; at the people stopping their work to 
 gaze at your ship as she passes by ; at the 
 wherry bobbing in the swell left by the 
 paddles of the tug, with its solitary occu- 
 pant who drops his breast upon his oars to
 
 DOWN THE EIYER. 31 
 
 remove his hat and wave it ; at the green 
 fields away over the slimy river-banks and 
 the dim country beyond them ; and if sorrow 
 is to be felt by you at all, it will be felt now, 
 as one by one these scenes die out in the 
 distance, and every yard of the soil that 
 goes past deepens the sense that good-bye 
 has been said indeed, and that England — 
 the old beloved home — will soon be behind 
 the great ocean towards which your brave 
 ship is steering. 
 
 And yet, on such a day as this was and 
 amid such a scene, the most despondent 
 mind must have found something in the 
 general freshness and beauty to lift it up. 
 The river was unusually full of all sorts and 
 descriptions of vessels. Now a huge screw, 
 with her bows as tall as a hill and her pro- 
 peller half out of the water, churning up a 
 little mountain of foam, would pass us ; 
 then it would be a ship in tow, going up the 
 river, deep in the water, her sides worn with 
 the struggles of a long voyage, her sails 
 clumsily furled, her anchors rusty, and her 
 crew with their heads over the bulwarks 
 pointing out the places ashore ; or a crazy
 
 32 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 old collier squelching along under squared 
 yards, with her greasy sails fitting her as 
 prettily as a boy's clothes would a man — a 
 red nightcap at the galley door, a grinning 
 boy, with his face as black as a nigger's, 
 astride of the jibboom, and a man at the 
 crazy little wheel, looking first up and then 
 down, and up and down again, and so on, 
 up and down, as though he were a machine 
 with all the works in his neck. Or a fast 
 steamer, bound for some French, or Irish, 
 or north-country port would pass us, the 
 skipper on the bridge, a crowd of passengers 
 aft, who would stare at us through glasses 
 and sometimes wave a hat or a handker- 
 chief. When we were abreast of Greenwich, 
 a Gravesend pleasure-boat came up with us 
 hand over fist, densely crowded with pas- 
 sengers, and a band of music on a sort of 
 midship platform. The captain of her 
 wishing, I suppose, to give his patrons the 
 benefit of all the sights which came in his 
 way, sheered his vessel to port, which brought 
 her rather alarmingly close to us ; so much 
 so that I thought he would have been into 
 us, and sprang aft to tell him to mind his
 
 DOWN THE RIVER. 33 
 
 helm; but he steadied in time, and went 
 seething past, the band striking up " Hearts 
 of Oak " — a strain which our men seemed 
 very much to relish, for they cheered the 
 steamer and yelled out answers to her pas- 
 sengers ; and so the gay little vessel rushed 
 ahead, every creature on board, even the 
 little children, waving hat or hand or hand- 
 kerchief: but for some moments we were 
 nearly suffocated with the smoke from her 
 funnels. 
 
 The grandeur of the Thames lies in its 
 wealth of human interests ; yet as a river 
 it is one of the noblest, and if it flowed 
 anywhere but in England, Englishmen 
 would never be weary of praising it. I had 
 passed up and down it many times before, 
 but though there was much to cloud my 
 mind and dull the edge of enjoyment, it had 
 never more impressed me nor filled me with 
 greater pride than on this day. The sun- 
 shine was broad and searching, and all the 
 various colours of the scene were extremely 
 vivid and the contrasts very sharp. Off 
 Woolwich seemed to me the finest part of 
 this gay show, for just at this point a great 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 number of passing vessels came by chance 
 together, and the river was covered by a 
 whole fleet of ships big and little, amid 
 which some steamers plied cautiously, some- 
 times backing and then forging ahead, 
 whilst from one vessel to another shouts 
 were re-echoed, and yards were boxed about 
 and the men went springing here and there 
 like kangaroos. The breeze was very fresh 
 and the water rough with it, and the dance 
 of the sun in the river was almost blinding ; 
 the little vessels upward bound had it all 
 their own way, and pushed along with a 
 heap of snow at their fore feet ; but there 
 was a number of colliers, hoys, barges, and 
 vessels of that kind beating down, and as 
 they ratched from shore to shore, slueing on 
 their heels to run athwart the wind on 
 another tack, it looked like a quadrille or 
 country-dance of ships, and there was quite 
 as much dignity and stateliness and bowing 
 as the vessels filled and bent over as was 
 wanted to furnish out the image. Shortly 
 after we had passed Greenhithe, a crazy old 
 brig, with a boom foresail and stump top- 
 gallant masts, and sails as full of holes as
 
 DOWN THE RIVER. 35 
 
 a beggar's professional suit, came swirling 
 around and plumped into a taut little barque 
 that was beating cautiously down under 
 topsails. The collision hove the barque up 
 into the wind, the brig came round, and in 
 a minute there they lay locked, as if they 
 had got grappling-irons on board one another, 
 grinding against each other's side, resem- 
 bling two alley wenches grabbing at each 
 other's hair and pounding with their fists. 
 The brig's jibboom snapped off as though it 
 had been a carrot ; then after some wild 
 buckling down came the slender fore top- 
 gallant mast of the barque with all its 
 hamper of sails and gear ; immediately after 
 the two old-fashioned starboard channels of 
 the brig were ground off as neatly as the top 
 of an egg sliced by a knife, and there the 
 vessels lay, a couple of wrecks. By this 
 time we had come abreast of them, and the 
 confusion on their decks was something to 
 remember. Some of the men were rolling 
 about like casks over the raffle ; others had 
 shrunk right aft to be clear of the spars 
 which were tumbling forward ; the swearing 
 and fist-shaking were triumphs of maritime
 
 36 A SAILOK'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 art in this particular branch of the profession. 
 However, the damage done was nearly all 
 aloft, the barque being the worst sufferer, 
 and already there was a small fleet of boats 
 putting off, whilst a tug steered straight for 
 the unfortunate vessels, so that what we 
 had seen was evidently the worst of a bad 
 job. 
 
 It was generally understood that we were 
 to bring up off Gravesend in order to ship 
 a few passengers. When Gravesend hove 
 in sight orders were given to see the chain 
 cable all clear for running, and when we 
 were abreast of the town the tug let fall 
 our tow-rope, and after we had swum a few 
 minutes the anchor was let go, the cable 
 roared through the hawse-hole, and the ship 
 swung with her stern down the river. So 
 here we were holding on tight again to 
 English ground. 
 
 The captain went ashore, the river pilot 
 and the custom-house officers going along 
 with him, and the ship was left in the 
 charge of the chief officer. The decks were 
 soon cleared, everything made snug and 
 ready, an anchor watch set, and the hands
 
 DOWN THE RIVER. 37 
 
 went below. My share of the work being 
 done, I came aft, where I found the chief 
 mate — a little red-haired Welshman, 
 Thomas by name, the smallest man I was 
 ever shipmates with. When I had first 
 seen him I could scarcely keep from laugh- 
 ing, for his dress was as odd as his body 
 was little : consisting of very wide blue 
 cloth trousers, which held the wind as the 
 skin of a sausage holds its meat, and made 
 his legs look like bolsters ; brown velvet 
 waistcoat with gilt buttons, over which lay 
 the bight of a stout gold chain ; a red silk 
 handkerchief with fly-away ends, which were 
 always over his shoulders ; blue linen, and 
 a cloth cap with a broad peak, along the 
 scuppers of whicji was rove half a foot of 
 gold lace. He had little quick blue eyes, 
 which played in their sockets like a ball on 
 the top of a jet of water, a bush of red hair 
 under his chin, and long red eyebrows 
 which he could have soaped into points, 
 had he chosen, as a Frenchman does his 
 moustache. He was a regular little nautical 
 dandy, but by this time I had got used to 
 his rig and appearance and was well dis-
 
 38 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 posed to like him, for I could see that he 
 had immediately taken a fancy to me, and 
 though I had not as yet had any oppor- 
 tunity of judging him as a seaman, I had 
 found him very smart and sensible in dock. 
 He told me he had a captain's certificate, 
 but could not get a berth; this was his 
 second voyage as chief mate of the Walder- 
 share, but his first with Captain Flanders, 
 the man who now commanded her. 
 
 I found him gazing gloomily at the shore, 
 in which occupation I was quite ready to 
 join him. Now that the bustle of bringing 
 up was over, and the ship at rest, and the 
 shifting interests of the river gone, my 
 heart fell heavy in me again, and my 
 thoughts went away to Burmarsh, and 
 Nelly, and the happy, loving hours I had 
 spent and which were now over. Mr. 
 Thomas was sitting on the aftermost sky- 
 light, his little feet well above the deck, 
 and was rubbing his nose down with a sad 
 look on his little face. 
 
 "Well, Mr. Lee, here we are, sir," he 
 said; "old England broad on both beams, 
 though the old hooker ought to be going
 
 DOWN THE RIVER. 39 
 
 the road she's pointing to to please me. 
 I hope it may be well with us all, Mr. Lee ; 
 though, damme, sir, no man could have the 
 cheek to pray for a better ship under him 
 than the W alder shar e ; I never heard of 
 such a run as she has. Follow the curve 
 of her to the eyes, sir : she's like a dream, 
 something too fine for mortal hands." He 
 pointed forward with his chin, like a negro, 
 still rubbing his nose. 
 
 "Ay, she's a beauty, Mr. Thomas; but, 
 as you say, she's bound the wrong way, and 
 lovely as she is, I'd rather be aboard of that 
 old Geordie there who's making a fair wind 
 of it home." 
 
 "And so would I, Mr. Lee — more than 
 you, perhaps ; for I dare say your hankering 
 is only after a few knockabout pleasures. 
 But I'm leaving a wife, and a wife is a 
 solemn thing to leave for a spell, long or 
 short." 
 
 "I am with you there, sir," said I, with 
 a warmth that made him lift his eyes to my 
 face. 
 
 " Why, are you married ? " he inquired. 
 
 I told him I was not, but that I was as
 
 40 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 good as married, for that my sweetheart 
 and I were pledged to each other, and that 
 if she was not yet my wife in the law, she 
 was so in my love, and that parting from 
 her this time was the cruellest necessity 
 that had ever been forced upon me since I 
 was old enough to recollect. 
 
 He listened attentively, rubbing his nose 
 all the time, and then exclaimed, " Well, 
 I suppose I'm not the only man who has 
 to leave his wife. I dare say, now, there 
 are a dozen fellows forward who are leaving 
 wives, and children too. I've only been 
 married a month, and marriage when it's 
 fresh is like a new cement, that makes the 
 pieces united pretty hard to come apart, 
 though in time, faith, they'll fall of them- 
 selves." He coughed dryly, and burying his 
 hands in his pockets, said, " But I've left 
 her snug enough, in three good rooms with 
 brand-new furniture, and all my savings ever 
 since I went to sea, in her name at the bank. 
 She has her sister to keep her company, 
 and as time flies more quickly than people 
 reckon who count forrards, I don't know 
 that there is much to blubber over."
 
 DOWN THE KIYER. 41 
 
 So saying, lie jerked himself on to the 
 deck as though he had done with that 
 subject. I spoke to him about Captain 
 Flanders, and asked if he knew anything 
 about him. 
 
 " Not very much," he answered. " Only 
 I can tell you what an old shipmate of 
 mine told me when he heard that Captain 
 Flanders was appointed to the Walder share 
 — though, mind, I don't believe it — that 
 there's madness in his family on his father's 
 side ; that his father hung himself ; and one 
 of his brothers, who was in the Church, used 
 to make nothing of changing his clothes 
 with a beggar in the public street in broad 
 daylight, shifting himself down to his very 
 breeks, and that he dropped preaching at last 
 because he thought the devil always got 
 into the pulpit with him : but what became 
 of him my friend didn't tell me. I can't say 
 whether there's much religion in the skipper 
 or not. He has a rather monkish eye. I 
 hear he got command of this ship through 
 the influence of the gentleman to whom she 
 originally belonged. It should have been 
 my post by rights," he said, bitterly, 
 beginning to pace the deck.
 
 42 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 We stumped the length of the poop 
 together for a half-hour, talking on the 
 prospects of the voyage, the time it would 
 take us, our several experiences of doubling 
 the Horn, Callao (to which port we were 
 bound direct), and so forth. By this time 
 most of the men had come on deck again, 
 and were clustered on the forecastle. I 
 believe the size of the chief mate amused 
 them, for I caught them looking our way 
 pretty often, with a broad grin ; but Mr. 
 Thomas took no notice — indeed, in all the 
 time I was thrown with him I never dis- 
 covered that he had the least sense of his 
 smallness, or fancied himself other than of 
 a stout and prepossessing figure. My own 
 height was not above five feet nine, yet I 
 felt myself a giant alongside of him ; and 
 for every stride of mine he had to take four, 
 so that his little feet, cased in varnished 
 leather boots, regularly twinkled as we 
 walked. However, in this half-hour we 
 greatly improved our good opinion of one 
 another ; I found him an honest, simple, 
 manly little fellow, with clear, sharp views 
 and a brisk capacity of words, candid to
 
 DOWN THE RIVER. 43 
 
 excess, and a man who had been to sea a 
 long while and sailed in many kinds of 
 ships. This was a very good beginning. 
 To be associated with a mate I could like, 
 and who was evidently willing to leave it 
 to me to distinguish and appreciate the 
 difference between our relative posts, was 
 a great gain to me ; and if the skipper was 
 only half as good a fellow as his chief mate, 
 the voyage would be a comfortable one, so 
 far as the work aft was concerned. 
 
 Our crew was a large one for a ship of 
 the size of the W alder share, even in those 
 days when a ship's complement was as- 
 sessed on a very different scale from that 
 we now hear of. We had thirty-three able 
 and ordinary seamen, including a boatswain 
 and two mates; and six idlers, consisting 
 of a steward, cook, cook's mate, carpenter, 
 carpenter's mate, and butcher : so that a 
 cry of " all hands " would fill the decks with 
 thirty-nine hands, whereof five only were 
 boys, and this without counting the mates. 
 However, it afterwards turned out that no 
 less than nine of the hands were what are 
 called " shilling a mouthers ; " that is, men
 
 44 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 who had shipped merely for the voyage out 
 for the nominal pay of a shilling a month ; 
 so, unless we took in more hands at Callao, 
 our working strength on the homeward 
 voyage would not equal what it was now. 
 As it was, we had a very tolerable ship's 
 'company, and I might hope that even in a 
 sudden gale a great deal was to be done 
 with the watch on deck. 
 
 Such of the crew as were visible looked 
 promising enough, as they sat smoking on 
 the forecastle or leant upon the rail, gazing 
 at the shore or the ships which lay at 
 anchor near us. They were, of course, a 
 mixed body, and the negro, conspicuous with 
 his red shirt, broad grin, and bland eyes, 
 was not wanting among them, you may be 
 sure ; there were also several Danes, Nor- 
 wegians, and Americans — these latter very 
 active rascals — and two or three south- 
 countrymen, Italianos, and a sprinkling of 
 black-browed scowbanks from Mediter- 
 ranean ports ; but the English prepon- 
 derated, and on the whole we had a good 
 and plentiful crew. 
 
 Our cargo consisted chiefly of hardware,
 
 DOWN THE KIVEK. 45 
 
 railway metals, brass, iron, and other metal 
 goods ; a heavy cargo, which might give 
 the ship a little too much stability by 
 making her too deep. The W alder shire was 
 not a passenger ship, that is, a liner; but 
 she had accommodation for a dozen cuddy 
 passengers, and three of her cabins were ' 
 let and the luggage of the people in them, 
 and the people were to be on board next 
 day. I did not know who the passengers 
 were, nor their names, but Mr. Thomas said 
 that two of them were women. I told him 
 I regretted that there were any passengers 
 at all, as they generally gave a good deal 
 of trouble, were always about, and were a 
 kind of hindrance to the freedom of the 
 cuddy. Mr. Thomas agreed with me, though, 
 as a sea dandy, I dare say he was not sorry 
 in his heart that there were to be women 
 among us to admire his little feet and 
 pretty clothes. 
 
 The weather still held beautifully fine, 
 with as rich a coloured sky overhead as 
 ever I had seen in the tropics or in the 
 Pacific. The chief mate and I dined alone; 
 the captain was still ashore, and there was
 
 46 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 some doubt whether he would come aboard 
 again that night. The W alder share's cuddy 
 was a short one, and extended but a few 
 feet before the mizzen-mast; but what there 
 was of it was very handsome : all the 
 panelling painted white, with gold lines ; 
 the mizzen-mast that pierced it, and to 
 which one end of the table was affixed, 
 wreathed about with carved oak foliage, and 
 the whole place looking more like a little 
 drawing-room than a ship's cabin. My 
 berth was on the starboard side, just under 
 the poop ladder, and the window of it 
 looked on to the quarter-deck; Mr. Thomas's 
 was the corresponding cabin on the port 
 side ; the captain's berth was right aft, 
 under the wheel ; and between, on either 
 hand, were the passenger's cabins and the 
 steward's pantry. 
 
 After dinner I went on deck again, carry- 
 ing my pipe with me, and left Mr. Thomas 
 below. I was not sorry to be quit of him 
 for a spell ; he had more to say about 
 his wife and home arrangements than 
 interested me, and I wanted to think over 
 what I was leaving, and to be alone for a
 
 DOWN THE RIVER. 47 
 
 bit. I perched myself on a hencoop, and 
 lighted my pipe and looked around me. 
 
 The wind had dropped, and the current 
 had swung the ship with her head up the 
 river. The sun was setting over the port 
 bow, and Gravesend lay red in its light, 
 the windows burning, and the whole town 
 looked massive and heavy in the glow which 
 magnified it. This red light was on the 
 river too, veining the masts of the vessels 
 at anchor with lances of fire, and filling the 
 air with a purple haze, amid which every 
 rope glanced with the glint of a spider's 
 web, while the canvas lay upon the black 
 yards as though a storm of snow had fallen 
 and lined them ; and the brass-work was 
 filled with ruby-coloured stars ; and the 
 glass in the port-holes notched cones of 
 quivering light in the running water, that 
 grew dark as it swept broadening down the 
 river, and gradually glassing its surface as 
 the wind grew fainter with the sinking of 
 the sun, until there was not a breath of air 
 perceptible even to the moistened finger ; 
 and the sounds from the shore came float- 
 ing through the motionless atmosphere with
 
 48 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 a muffled tone, with the rattle of a winch 
 on board a near ship, or the wail of a con- 
 certina, and the gurgling of the tide as it 
 chattered round the rudder just under me, 
 and went twisting in little holes away, 
 giving to the eye the idea that we were 
 moving 
 
 There was a large American ship at 
 anchor about three cables' length abreast 
 of us ; a big, black, soft-wood built ship, 
 with skysail yards crossed, and long, slender 
 whips of masts stayed aft. When the 
 moon threw down her light, this vessel 
 grew into a very solemn object — looming, 
 dark, soundless, with her mastheads search- 
 ing the stars. I was looking at her, and 
 wondering where her crew was stowed 
 away, as I had never once noticed a human 
 being aboard of her, when I suddenly saw 
 a pale object fall from her forecastle, whiz 
 down her huge black bow, and strike the 
 water with a loud splash. There is a kind 
 of softness in the splash of a human body 
 upon the water which never deceives the 
 ear that has once heard it, and I sprang 
 to my feet to give the alarm : but before
 
 DOWN THE RIVER. 49 
 
 I could sing out, a powerful voice on board 
 the American shouted, " Man overboard ! " 
 And then might have been witnessed a 
 sample of Yankee smartness. In an instant 
 half a dozen lights flashed about her, a 
 swarm of men bounded aft, the port quarter- 
 boat with four hands in her dropped from 
 the davits, the blocks squealed as the falls 
 were overhauled, and then followed the 
 regular grind of oars in thole pins ; in a 
 few seconds the boat was some distance 
 astern of the ship. The whole business 
 had not occupied three minutes, and no job 
 was ever more smartly rushed on board 
 a man-of-war. I awaited the result with 
 breathless expectation. Brilliant as the 
 moonlight was, it only enabled me to discern 
 the outline of the boat on the dark water ; 
 I could see her dodging here and there, 
 sometimes stationary, but gradually re- 
 ceding further and further, until she must 
 have wandered out of ear-shot, for twice a 
 strong nasal voice hailed her, but no answer 
 came back. After twenty minutes, I made 
 out the boat pulling up the river : she carne 
 sweeping along, the moonlight glittering in 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 the foam under her, and some one on board 
 the American sang out — 
 
 " Have you got him ? " 
 
 " No, sir: we can't see him anywhere! 
 He has sunk, for we followed dead in his 
 wake, and we must have seen him had he 
 been afloat." 
 
 They got the boat alongside, hooked on 
 the falls, in a few seconds the boat hung at 
 the davits again, and the great ship loomed 
 black and silent. Such is the life of a 
 sailor ! He drops into a nameless grave, 
 and no one knows whose child he is, or if 
 there is ever a heart that will ache over his 
 long absence. 
 
 This little incident depressed me greatly, 
 and to rally myself I took several turns 
 along the poop. Our own ship lay like a 
 vision on the breathless surface of the noble 
 river. The moon was now asserting her 
 full power, and had flung a haze on the air, 
 and everything looked unreal and unsub- 
 stantial in it. Occasionally a steamer 
 would pass ; but long before she hove in 
 sight, you might hear the throb of her 
 engines like the pulse of a running giant.
 
 DOWN THE RIVER. 51 
 
 Her coloured lights brightening upon the 
 dark water, the smoke pouring along the 
 stars, the water crackling under her stern 
 like rotten brushwood under the foot, her 
 illuminated port-holes giving her the look 
 of a marine monster full of eyes, the dusky 
 figures upon her bridge, the scoop, scoop 
 of the screw, or the rhythmic beat of the 
 paddles, were all incidents of one of those 
 spectacles of which no familiarity can 
 moderate the beauty. Or presently oozing 
 out of the further darkness would drift a 
 barge with sails as motionless as carven 
 wood, her skipper resolute to " hold on all" 
 with the tide and take as much headway 
 as he could get out of that sort of naviga- 
 tion ; she w T ould float through the gloom 
 like a phantom until she reached the belt 
 of moonlight on the water, when what was 
 black of her would turn a deep indigo, and 
 what w r as white silver, and so she would 
 pass away. Gravesend was a galaxy of 
 lights, but the shores on either side of it 
 and across the river stretched away silent 
 and pale, and the moan and fret of the 
 current under the counter made the imagina-
 
 52 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 tion find the flat and ashen land very 
 desolate and sad-looking. There were 
 voices singing in some of the ships around 
 us, and here a fiddle was scraping and 
 there a concertina tuning up : our own 
 ship and the big black Yankee next us 
 were the only silent ones, but our being 
 outward bound would account for the quiet- 
 ness of the men. Many of them still hung 
 about the forecastle, and some few talked 
 in low voices in the waist ; a light in the 
 boatswain's berth on the port side of the 
 forecastle streamed across the deck, and 
 illuminated the lower part of the foremast, 
 and threw into relief the huge spare booms 
 piled atop of the long boat and the range 
 of chain cable and coils of running rigging ; 
 but on either side this light the darkness 
 was profound, for the high bulwark inter- 
 cepted the moonlight and threw a deep 
 shadow. 
 
 All this while, though my eye noticed the 
 matters I have here set down, my mind 
 was running on my sweetheart, and at one 
 time so heavy a fit of depression came over 
 me that I could scarcely contain myself,
 
 DOWN THE RIVER. 53 
 
 and was almost thankful when Mr. Thomas 
 came on deck and joined me, as his presence 
 obliged me to act a part, and so I gradually 
 rallied. We lingered on deck until the 
 steward came to say that the grog was on 
 the cuddy table, after which I went the 
 rounds of the ship to see that all was right, 
 and then turned in.
 
 54 A SATLOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 
 
 Next morning was fine, with a strong north- 
 westerly wind, which, however, did not 
 promise to last. The captain was on deck 
 when I turned out, and I heard that he had 
 come on hoard late the preceding night. 
 There was nothing to be done until we had 
 shipped our passengers and the tug was 
 alongside. All the ships which had been 
 anchored near us last night were gone, and 
 the river was full of vessels making the 
 most of this stout breeze, and sweeping past 
 us in processions. I breakfasted with the 
 captain and Mr. Thomas at half-past eight, 
 and this was the first time I had sat 
 at table with Captain Flanders. After 
 what the chief mate had told me, I took 
 some interest in watching him, the better
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 55 
 
 to form an opinion for myself, and learn, if 
 I could, from his face and talk something 
 of his character, that I might have my cue. 
 He was certainly a very odd-looking man, 
 with a long face and peaked forehead, his 
 head, indeed, as nearly resembling an egg 
 as anything could well be ; large, dark, 
 gloomy eyes, sunk deep in their sockets, 
 and overhung with coarse iron-grey eye- 
 brows ; his nose was a handsome one, an 
 aquiline, and it made him look like a lord, 
 it gave him a fine patrician air ; he had 
 no hair on his face ; his lips were thin and 
 pale ; he was taller than I, but without 
 breadth, and by the fling of his trousers 
 as he walked and the cut of his wrists, I 
 guessed he was little more than a skeleton. 
 Nature had exhausted herself in producing 
 his nose. He had been to sea all his life, 
 but never was there a man who looked 
 less like a sailor than he. Indeed, he had 
 the air of a lawyer ; I say a lawyer, but 
 any calling would do that kept a man out 
 of the sun, and shut him up with papers 
 and cobwebs and smoke for twelve hours in 
 every day.
 
 56 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 He was civil enough to us both, talked of 
 the voyage, the trim of the ship, asked ques- 
 tions of Mr. Thomas about her qualities, 
 and told us about the passengers ; that one 
 was an invalid lady bent on doubling the 
 Horn, to see what that would do for her ; 
 that the others were a Spanish merchant 
 and his wife, who was an Englishwoman ; 
 and the fourth a Scotch engineer, who had 
 got some railway job to carry out at Lima. 
 On this occasion I cannot say that I noticed 
 anything odd in his manner ; he talked like 
 a gentleman — I mean he used good words, 
 and delivered them with that clean, easy 
 articulation which the best education — so 
 I have noticed — will not qualify a man of 
 inferior birth to arrive at. His dress was 
 strictly a landsman's : cutaway coat, old- 
 fashioned stock and pin, and tall hat. So 
 far all seemed well with him ; and as he 
 came from a religious stock, and gave him- 
 self no sea-airs, I might suppose he would 
 give the crew only good words. 
 
 A little before one the tug came along- 
 side, and the news went along that the 
 passengers were coming off the shore with
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 57 
 
 the pilot. The order was now given to 
 man the windlass. All hands tailed on, 
 and the clank of the windlass was like the 
 sound of a giant's hammer on a forge ; and 
 this was the only sound, until suddenly a 
 hoarse voice broke into a song, and there 
 sprang out of thirty throats a hurricane- 
 chorus that might have awakened the 
 echoes of the distant hills. Then followed 
 a number of orders in rapid succession : 
 " Get the outer jib loosed ready for hoist- 
 ing ! " " A hand aft here to the wheel ! " 
 "Look out there for that line from the 
 tug!" "Bring the gangway steps along 
 here and bear a hand ! " The end of a line 
 cleverly flung from the tug pitched on to 
 the forecastle ; the ponderous tow-rope was 
 bent on to it and paid out overboard. There 
 was a little crowd of persons round the 
 gangway to receive the passengers, and 
 hand up what odds and ends of parcels 
 and luggage they had brought off with 
 them ; but having gone forward just then, 
 and happening to stand in the very eyes 
 of the ship, I could see but little of what 
 was doing on the quarter-deck, and scarcely
 
 58 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 caught a glimpse of Captain Flanders lead- 
 ing a thickly veiled lady into the cuddy, 
 followed by another lady leaning on the 
 arm of a gentleman, behind whom stalked 
 the fourth and last passenger. 
 
 The pilot was now on the forecastle — a 
 short, thick-set man, in a rough coat that 
 reached below his knees, a fur cap, and a 
 white wool shawl round his throat. 
 
 " Are you all ready ? " he bawled through 
 his hands to the tug. 
 
 "Ay, ay!" 
 
 " Man the windlass. Get your anchor up 
 smartly, my lads ! " 
 
 Once more the windlass clanked heavily 
 and quickly, and a loud chorus broke forth. 
 
 " The anchor's off the ground, sir ! " 
 
 " Starboard your helm ! " 
 
 The paddles of the tug revolved, and ran 
 a sluice of white water against the bows of 
 the ship ; the bight of the tow-rope lifted, 
 and the huge warp stiffened ; and with the 
 windless clanking, and the men raising 
 their echoing chorus, and the Union Jack 
 at the peak and the house-flag at the main 
 standing out like boards, the W alder si tare 
 glided through the water.
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 59 
 
 The fresh hreeze was something to make 
 the most of. All the fore and aft canvas 
 was set, the yards braced up, and we went 
 racing after the tug, catching the broad 
 surface of foam she threw off full on our 
 bows, and spreading it far out on either side 
 of us. If the breeze only held, and the 
 W alder share had the sailing qualities she 
 looked to have, we might hope to have 
 given the English Channel our heels by 
 Saturday morning ; but already the blue 
 of the sky was growing weak, losing its 
 rich tone, and something of the bite was 
 taken out of the sunshine. This looked 
 as if the breeze was to slacken. 
 
 Everything was now snug forward, the 
 anchor catted and fished, and the decks 
 clear. I went to the forecastle to give the 
 pilot a message, and when I returned I 
 found three of the passengers on deck 
 talking to the captain, who, the pilot hav- 
 ing charge, had nothing to do but walk, 
 eat, and sleep as it pleased him. 
 
 The Spanish merchant, whose name was 
 Espinosa, was a complete scarecrow of a 
 man, with a hollow, gaunt, and sallow face,
 
 60 A SAILOK'S SWEETHEAKT. 
 
 out of which stuck an immense hooked 
 nose. His hair hung in ringlets about his 
 ears, but all the lower part of his face, 
 together with his mouth, were bushed up 
 with a beard and moustache as black as 
 ebony. His fingers were covered with 
 rings, and every ring had a brilliant, and 
 every time he moved his hands in the sun- 
 shine they flashed like the blade of a 
 sword. His wife was a fat blonde, with a 
 very pale, docile face ; not pretty, and yet 
 not unpleasing. I supposed she was forty 
 by the cut of her hull, but she was dressed 
 like a girl of eighteen, in a smart hat and 
 long feather, and a tight-fitting jacket that 
 developed her run with alarming accuracy. 
 She, too, was richly figged out with jewel- 
 lery, and the gold chain round her neck was 
 thick enough to have served as ground 
 tackle for a thirty-ton cutter. The Scotch 
 engineer, Mr. Black, was a broad-faced, 
 freckled man with pale-blue eyes, but no 
 other facial distinguishments that I can 
 remember. You could smell the snuff on 
 him six fathoms off when he was to wind- 
 ward.
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 61 
 
 They all stood together aft, Madam 
 Espinosa (as I called her) apparently very 
 much delighted with the scene, and her 
 husband gesticulating like a windmill. 
 
 We were now clear of the Lower Hope 
 Eeach, and heading a good east, with 
 Thames Haven sloping past us gaily, and 
 all to starboard the flat, desolate stretches 
 of mud, called marshes, to which no sun- 
 shine could furnish any sort of attraction. 
 I know what South African river mud is, and 
 I know what' Irish mud is, and I have also 
 seen some pretty mud up the Peiho river ; 
 but for its consistence, colour, adhesiveness, 
 and unmitigated offensiveness in all and 
 every respect, there is nothing that ever I 
 have seen to equal Thames mud, and par- 
 ticularly the mud that lines the south side 
 of the river, off the reaches through which 
 the W alder share was now towing. 
 
 As I had expected, the breeze dropped as 
 the sun declined, and before we were abreast 
 of Sheerness, all the air I could feel was 
 caused by the motion of the ship. The 
 water became a speckless, burnished sur- 
 face, and the motionless sailing vessels 
 
 /
 
 62 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 which we passed were reflected in it line 
 for line. Calm it was indeed, for now we 
 were literally breasting the waters of the 
 German Ocean ; yet the swell that seems 
 to haunt every sea in its repose — the placid 
 breathing, so to speak, of the sleeping 
 rnonster — was wanting here ; and our 
 flying jibboom end never lifted nor sank 
 an inch above or below the point of the 
 horizon towards which it curved. But 
 already the horizon was as thick as mud, 
 and before Sheppey was astern of us we 
 were raising on the port bow, a long, low, 
 defined white line, with sinuous arms, like 
 twisted columns, forking out of it into the 
 unwholesome blue. 
 
 Where the air came from to move this 
 curtain of vapour I could not guess ; but 
 it was unrolling itself — just as you might 
 run a roll of carpet along the floor — clown 
 away to the south, and it left all behind 
 it, as it went, as thick as a feather bed. 
 It was curious to see it swallow up the 
 vessels it met as it pushed its way for- 
 wards. Up to the very moment of con- 
 tact there would be some craft — say a little
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 63 
 
 fore and aft schooner — as clean to the eye 
 as a black and white drawing, with her 
 white sails gleaming in the water like the 
 wings of an albatross, and the sunshine 
 broad upon her ; then pouff ! she would 
 vanish as you extinguish an image in a 
 soap-bubble by touching it ; and meanwhile 
 the horizon grew narrower and narrower as 
 the tug went on towing us towards this 
 moving continent of vapour. 
 
 The pilot kept a look-out ahead from the 
 forecastle. 
 
 " I suppose he'll bring up when he gets 
 into that business," I said to Mr. Thomas. 
 
 " Well, he's got a clear enough course 
 round the North Foreland," he answered. 
 " He may hold on until he nears the Good- 
 win unless it clears." 
 
 The sun was still shining on us, and the 
 contrast of the fog ahead and the clear 
 weather around us and astern was striking 
 enough. We had long before let go the 
 staysail halliards, and were now towing 
 with square yards. All of a sudden I 
 noticed the water darkening in the west- 
 ward, and in about ten minutes a light
 
 64 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 breeze was blowing along the decks over 
 our stern. The fog which stood awaiting 
 ns like a wall began to travel under this 
 pressure, and something resembling the 
 phenomenon of a ship advancing upon a 
 fog, and a fog receding before a ship, was 
 now exhibited. 
 
 " We shall get it all the same," said Mr. 
 Thomas ; " sooner or later, and sooner than 
 later, hang it ! " 
 
 The truth is, the English Channel is one 
 of those places every sailor is glad to get 
 quit of ; nothing sets sailors growling more 
 than having to handle their ground tackle 
 when once the anchor is at the cathead. A 
 fog makes a regular hornet's nest of a ship ; 
 it is all groping and blind staring, and you 
 are never sure that the next moment will 
 not bring the iron bow of a steamer grind- 
 ing into you. However, for the present the 
 fog was journeying our way and making a 
 stern chase of it, and so we might hope to 
 round the Foreland in the sunshine, though 
 we should find the fog waiting for us be- 
 hind it. 
 
 A night-glass belonging to me was in my
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 65 
 
 cabin, and I went below to fetch it, think- 
 ing I might put it to some account pre- 
 sently. Everybody belonging aft was on 
 deck, as I believed ; and being thirsty, I 
 went along the cuddy to the steward's pan- 
 try, which was a small cabin abreast of the 
 companion steps, for a glass of sherry and 
 water. The steward was on deck. I en- 
 tered the pantry, found what I wanted, and 
 was in the act of returning, when the door 
 of the cabin immediately opposite was 
 opened, and there stood Helen Williams. 
 
 I stared at her, doubting my senses ; my 
 heart seemed to stop beating ; I turned pale 
 and stood as one thunderstruck ; I clutched 
 hold of the cuddy table, for the sudden 
 great surprise made me feel sick ; my head 
 swam ; I stood transfixed ; I could not be- 
 lieve, I say, that what I saw was real. Only 
 a moment before I had been thinking of her 
 and our farewell to each other that day, a 
 week gone ; and now there she stood, she 
 whom but a moment before I believed was 
 still at Burmarsh, and from whom only that 
 morning I had received a letter, posted at 
 Burmarsh, and written by her. 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 " My God, Nelly ! " I cried : "is it you ? 
 How came you here ? Great God, what a 
 surprise ! " 
 
 She ran round the table and threw her 
 arms about me, and burst into tears. 
 
 " Oh, Will ! " she cried, " I could not bear 
 to be separated from you ! A whole long year 
 was too much to bear. Do not be angry with 
 me, Will. Oh, Will, kiss me, dear, and tell 
 me you are glad that I am with you." 
 
 " Glad ! — angry! — why, this is a dream, 
 surely ! " I cried. " Did Mr. Johnson know 
 of this ? and Phoebe ? And why did not you 
 tell me ? What has your love made you 
 do, dear ? Why, we shall be a whole year 
 away, and how can you stand so long a 
 voyage ? Why, this is enough to drive me 
 mad ! You — alone — daring all this for me ! 
 Why have you done it, Nelly ? " 
 
 Scarcely knowing what I said, and still 
 doubting that it was all real, I drew away 
 and grasped her hands and looked at her, 
 until the sight of her face, and the thought 
 of the love that had made her do this thing, 
 overmastered me, and for some moments T 
 durst not venture to speak.
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 67 
 
 Meanwhile she stood watching every 
 change in my face, not daring to address 
 me, and growing red and then white, and 
 her hands trembled in mine. I have often 
 thought since that my great surprise was 
 cruel, as serving as a kind of rebuke to her 
 for this unparalleled action ; and yet when 
 I consider that, when she broke upon me 
 thus, I really and truly believed her to 
 be some hundreds of miles distant, and 
 imagined her at Burmarsh in the old house 
 in which I had left her, and that I had then 
 a letter in my pocket written by her but 
 the day before, in which, it is true, she said 
 that she trusted God would permit us to 
 meet sooner than I had any hope of, though 
 it would have been impossible for me to 
 discover the least hint of her intention to 
 follow me in that letter — I say, when I 
 reflect upon all this, I am not surprised 
 that her sudden apparition should have 
 terrified me and drawn me away for a while 
 from all sense of her courage and love which 
 had impelled her to act in this manner. 
 
 Presently, hardly knowing what I did, I 
 folded her to my heart, though immediately
 
 68 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 after a fright seized me, to think of her as 
 being alone with only me as her protector, 
 and a terrible long sea- voyage, with all its 
 perils, before her. 
 
 " Nelly," I exclaimed, "I must not let 
 yon take this journey. The captain can 
 put you ashore at Deal. It is not too late, 
 though it will be soon. It is better that 
 you should forfeit any money you have paid 
 than go this long voyage. I will tell the 
 captain the truth, and ask him to land you 
 at Deal. Why, how came you to do this, 
 Nelly?" 
 
 " Now that I am with you I shall stop 
 with you, Will. If you set me ashore you 
 will break my heart," she answered, in a 
 firm voice, though her eyes swam with 
 tears. "I do not fear the voyage; it will 
 be a great change. And could I be more 
 comfortable in Mr. Johnson's house than 
 I am here ? " says she, looking around her ; 
 " and oh, Will ! could you bear to part 
 with me now ? ' ' 
 
 And saying this, she laid my hand against 
 her cheek — an old sweet caress of hers — 
 and kissed my hand. At this moment the
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 69 
 
 cuddy grew dark, by which I knew we had 
 overtaken the fog, and were in it; at the 
 same time I heard the pilot's hoarse voice 
 hailing the tug from the forecastle. 
 
 "I shall have to leave you," said I, " to 
 go on deck, for it would not do to be missed 
 and found here with you," I exclaimed, the 
 perception of a new embarrassment flashing 
 upon me. And, indeed, already suspecting 
 that we might have been observed through 
 the skylight, under which we were almost 
 directly standing, I led her to her cabin and 
 quitted her with a kiss, but without another 
 word. 
 
 So many different feelings distracted me, 
 that it was fortunate there was no work for 
 me to do when I gained the deck, or 
 certainly it must have been thought I had 
 taken leave of my senses. The fog had 
 closed densely around us ; there was still a 
 little wind, but it only blew the fog athwart 
 us, which was so thick that the tug ahead 
 was barely visible, a mere looming shadow. 
 She had slackened her speed, and we were 
 now moving slowly through the water. 
 I found Mr. Thomas at the break of the
 
 70 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 poop, and asked if he knew whether we 
 were going to bring up ? 
 
 "Not yet," he answered. "The pilot 
 doesn't want that trouble, and who does? 
 He has just sent aft to say that he believes 
 this fog will lift presently, and that if we 
 tow slowly there'll be no risk." 
 
 I crossed over to the starboard side of the 
 poop, where, with one hand on a backstay, 
 I stood buried in thought, my eyes fixed on 
 the water, which went by quietly, and was 
 as white as bright steel in the fog that had 
 brought the horizon to within a biscuit's 
 throw. I ought not to weary you with rny 
 reflections here ; but I should say that my 
 sweetheart's being in the ship made clear 
 everything that had puzzled me, especially 
 her seeming want of sorrow when we parted, 
 and her tears when we spoke, that last 
 evening when we were on the river, of Mr. 
 Johnson and Phoebe. 
 
 I looked about me to judge whether, if I 
 should go below again for a few minutes to 
 talk to her, I should be missed. There was 
 nothing to do ; the captain, with the Spaniard 
 and his wife, were walking up and down the
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 71 
 
 poop, and Mr. Black had joined the chief 
 mate. I was bound to hear the first call, 
 and so I went below and made my way 
 into the cuddy, taking first a squint at the 
 pantry to make sure the steward was not 
 about. 
 
 The cuddy was now as dark as if the 
 evening had closed around. I tapped on 
 Nelly's door, and she asked who that was ? 
 On my replying, she instantly came out. 
 
 " I cannot rest until I have heard more 
 of your story," said I; " although I ought 
 to remain on deck. Even now your being 
 here seems a dream, and were you to vanish 
 as I stand talking to you I should not be 
 half so surprised as I am at holding your 
 dear hand and looking into your eyes." 
 
 The blood rose to her face as she 
 answered : "I did not intend that you 
 should know I was on board until we were 
 out of sight of land. Phoebe told me you 
 would be more angry than glad to see me, 
 and so you were, dear ; but I don't think 
 you are angry now r ," says she, smiling. 
 " You will not tell the captain to land me 
 at Deal?"
 
 72 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 " Have you really the courage to face 
 this long voyage — and alone ? " 
 
 " Not alone, Will ; and whilst you are 
 with me I shall have plenty of courage." 
 
 I could have taken her in my arms, for 
 my very heart was fired hy the look that 
 accompanied her words. 
 
 "Will," says she, smoothing the back of 
 my hand and keeping her face down, " as 
 I told you, a whole year seemed such a 
 terrible long while to be separated, that as 
 the weeks rolled on with us at Burmarsh I 
 felt my heart would break when the time 
 arrived to say good-bye, and one day I 
 made up my mind that I would go out in 
 your ship as a passenger, so that we might 
 be together. I told Phoebe, but she would 
 not hear of it for some time, and threatened 
 to tell you and her father ; but at last she 
 thought it was very natural I should wish 
 to be with you, and she owned a year was a 
 long time to wait, and that a sea-voyage 
 might do me good. Besides, she felt I 
 should be as safe with you as with her at 
 Burmarsh. Indeed, she owned to me that 
 if she had been alone in the world she would
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 73 
 
 have joined me, for she thought a sea-voyage 
 a delightful thing. So, Will, I wrote in the 
 name of Helen Maitland to the owners of 
 the Walder share in Leadenhall Street, and 
 represented myself as an invalid, and that 
 I had been ordered to take a sea-voyage, 
 and asked their charge for the journey to 
 Callao and back in the same ship, the 
 Walder share. They replied that the charge 
 would be one hundred and fifty pounds for 
 the double journey. I had a hundred pounds 
 by me, and asked Mr. Johnson to advance 
 me a hundred, which he did without any 
 questions — I believe he thought it was for 
 you, and I did not mind that he did, dear," 
 says she, interrupting herself, but without 
 a smile. "I sent the money to the ship- 
 owners, and they wrote back to tell me that 
 a cabin was secured for me, and that I might 
 join the ship either in London or Graves- 
 end. I chose Gravesend, and I dare say you 
 can guess why." 
 
 11 Then the captain knows you by the 
 name of Miss Maitland ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And does Mr. Johnson know where you 
 are ? "
 
 74 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 "By tliis time he does," she answered; 
 " for Phoebe was to tell hirn when he asked 
 for me." 
 
 " He will be very much frightened and 
 pained, I fear." 
 
 She made no answer. 
 
 " And all this for me ! " I cried, realizing 
 the greatness of her love as I thought of 
 her resolution, her courageous deception, 
 her lonely journey from Burmarsh, her 
 lonely arrival at Gravesend. 
 
 " You are no longer angry, Will ? " 
 
 " No, darling; but I am deeply moved. 
 It is an incredible act. No one would 
 believe such a story." 
 
 " No girl would doubt it who loves her 
 sweetheart truly," she answered in a low 
 voice. 
 
 "Do you remember the song you sung 
 under my window about the merry sailor's 
 life?" 
 
 She blushed and smiled. "It was bad 
 judgment, Will, and I am a bad actress. 
 There was no reason why I should have tried 
 to make you think I was light-hearted on 
 the clay before we were supposed to part."
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 75 
 
 My astonishment was past now, and other 
 emotions had taken its place. The sense 
 that she was with me filled me with glad- 
 ness, and I was wondering now that ever I 
 could have spoken of her landing at Deal. 
 Besides, when I considered how many girls 
 had undertaken sea-voyages alone, coming 
 or going to join their parents or friends or 
 lovers in India or Australia and other dis- 
 tant places, in charge only of the captains 
 of the ships in which they sailed, I found 
 that, outside the real reason of Nelly's 
 voyage, there was nothing very strange in 
 her being alone in the vessel ; and so far as 
 I knew myself, I was at least assured that 
 she could have no better protector in this 
 world than the man who loved her and 
 waited only to marry her. I was now as 
 light-hearted as I had before been per- 
 plexed and worried, and she was very quick 
 to notice the change in me. 
 
 "And now as to our behaviour to each 
 other," said I. " We had best keep our 
 secret for the present, though I think I 
 shall make a confidant of the chief mate 
 later on, who is a good-hearted little fellow,
 
 76 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 as I believe, and will take a particular 
 interest in you when lie hears that you are 
 to be my wife ; though I shall tell him that 
 your joining as a passenger was planned 
 between us, as that will ' give the whole 
 thing a ship-shape look. As to the cap- 
 tain, I shall require to see more of his 
 character before I open my mouth ; and 
 therefore, for the present, it will be safest 
 to keep apart as much as possible." And 
 I went on to explain to her that my position 
 was a subordinate one, and that the skipper 
 might take it into his head to resent any 
 intimacy on my part with her on board his 
 ship, and make my berth a hot one. She 
 grasped my whole meaning with the quick- 
 ness of a woman's wit, and promised to do 
 exactly as I bid her. I advised her for the 
 present to play the part of an invalid, and 
 was going on, when a footstep on the com- 
 panion ladder warned me to break off, and 
 she had just time to enter her cabin, and I 
 to fetch the foremost end of the cuddy, 
 when the captain made his appearance. 
 
 " Is that you, Mr. Lee ? " he sung out. 
 
 "Yes, sir."
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 77 
 
 " Where's the steward? Send him aft, 
 will yon, and tell hirn to light the cnddy 
 lamps." 
 
 He then stepped np to Nelly's cabin, as 
 she afterwards told me, and asked her if 
 she wonld join Madam Espinosa on deck; 
 and was extremely polite, waiting until she 
 had pnt on her hat, and then giving her his 
 arm, thongh there was little enongh for her 
 to see when she got npon deck. 
 
 I passed the word forward for the steward, 
 and waited till he came out of the cook's 
 galley, and then I went on to the poop 
 again just as Nelly came through the com- 
 panion with Captain Flanders. It did 
 appear to me extraordinary that she and I 
 should be together in the same ship, and it 
 seemed a mere fancy to think that we 
 should not be separated, but that the whole 
 voyage, which I had looked forward to with 
 so much dread because it was going to keep 
 me away from my sweetheart for more than 
 a year, was to be taken with her, and that 
 I should see more of her and be more with 
 her than if I had stayed in Burmarsh for 
 the year. She immediately engaged Ma-
 
 78 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 dam Espinosa in conversation, whilst the 
 gentlemen stood round. I, of course, held 
 to the foremost end of the poop. 
 
 The fog had somewhat thinned, to the 
 extent that the tug, and perhaps a quarter 
 of a mile of water beyond her, were visible. 
 It was evident it hung low, for it was white 
 and luminous with the sunshine that was 
 pouring in the blue sky over it. There was 
 not a breath of air now. The pilot had sung 
 out to the tug to fire away again, and we 
 were running swiftly over the water, as I 
 might judge by the lines of green weed and 
 the great yellow blobs of jelly-fish that 
 went past. It was now a little before six, 
 and we were somewhere abreast of Heme 
 Bay, heading sharp for the Foreland, which 
 ought to be well on the starboard quarter 
 by eight. 
 
 At six o'clock the first dinner bell rang, 
 and Captain Flanders and the passengers 
 went below, Mr. Black handing Nelly to 
 the companion with a fine elaborate flourish. 
 Mr. Thomas likewise vanished to adorn 
 himself, and the pilot forward and I aft 
 kept the deck, an arrangement that answered
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 79 
 
 my purpose, as for the present the less I was 
 thrown with Nelly in the society of the 
 captain the better. I took a furtive squint 
 through the skylight at the dinner-table when 
 they were seated at it, and saw that Nelly 
 was placed between Mr. Black and Madam 
 Espinosa. The lamplight filled her hair 
 with spangles, and her eyes, when she threw 
 a glance up, though she could not have seen 
 me, flashed like the jewels on the Spaniard's 
 fingers. The skipper sat, with his egg- 
 shaped head, at the head of the table as 
 grave as a ghost, the eyes in his gaunt 
 cheeks looking like smouldering cinders ; 
 and little beau Thomas was at the other 
 end, though all that I could see of him was 
 his hair, that shone as though he had been 
 dipped into an oil-cask. Madam Espinosa's 
 laugh sounded gay, and Mr. Black's guffaw 
 was brave ; but I believed we should hear 
 different sounds when we began to feel the 
 swell. 
 
 The only vessel we sighted hereabouts 
 was a smack at anchor, into which the tug 
 was heading as neatly as you aim the end 
 of a thread into the eye of a needle. She
 
 80 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 oozed out of the fog, her red mainsail set, 
 and her foresail hanging in a bight over her 
 bows, and they raised a yell on board of her 
 when they saw us which the tug answered 
 by a prolonged whistle. There was, how- 
 ever, plenty of time and plenty of room, and 
 we gave her as wide a berth as she could 
 want. She made a pretty picture, with her 
 shadow full of colour hanging in the 
 burnished water, and her men, in boots up 
 to their thighs and cased in blue jerseys, 
 staring at us ; she was a west-country smack, 
 with her decks full of nets, and she faded 
 astern of us just as the reflection of your 
 face fades on a looking-glass on which you 
 breathe. 
 
 The pilot's dinner was sent forward to 
 him, and he ate it on the forecastle, making 
 the capstan a table, and coming up to his 
 plate and taking a mouthful, and then lean- 
 ing over the rail and staring ahead, and so 
 on. I went below at half-past seven, when 
 the cuddy table was deserted, and got some- 
 thing to eat. Nelly had gone into Madam 
 Espinosa's cabin, and so I saw nothing of 
 her. As I came on deck I heard the pilot
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 81 
 
 roar out to the tug, " Keep a sharp look-out 
 for the Elbow buoy," which was answered 
 by a faint " Ay, ay." 
 
 " 1 shall bring up to the east'ards of the 
 Gull buoy, abreast of the Nor' Sands Head 
 Lightship ! " he shouted. 
 
 "Eight you are ! " came back from the 
 tug, and so all hands had their cue. 
 
 The tug was now towing at half-speed,. 
 for the fog had settled down very thick. A 
 hand was in the starboard main chains with 
 the lead which he hove at intervals, his 
 wild cry sounding strangely as it followed 
 the splash of the lead. Fore and aft the 
 decks were wet with the fog, that had now 
 taken the character of a very fine rain, and 
 rolled among the yards in volumes, like 
 clouds of steam. The outline of the tug 
 was just visible ahead, and the flapping of 
 her paddles resembled the run of heavy 
 naked feet upon a deck. 
 
 Scarcely any experience that a sailor 
 can pass through is more irritating and 
 bewildering than a fog in the English 
 Channel. Every faculty in him, sight, 
 smell, hearing, all his instincts, his memory,, 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 his judgment, are taxed to the utmost, and 
 all together. We knew we should have to 
 bring up, and could not tell but that the 
 fog would lift the moment we had our 
 anchor down, and then we should have to 
 get under weigh again. All hands were as 
 surly as scalded monkeys, and forwards the 
 air rumbled with sea-blessings. The pilot 
 had held on, hoping the fog would clear ; 
 and now that it had come down as thick as 
 an Antarctic snowfall, he had still to hold 
 on to fetch the anchorage he wanted, that 
 would put us somewhat out of the road of 
 passing steamers. 
 
 However, a few minutes after eight bells 
 there came a hail from the tug. The pilot 
 sung back an answer ; the tow-rope was let 
 go ; a shout was raised, " Stand clear of the 
 chain-cable ! " the ring of the carpenter's 
 hammer rose clear and shrill, and souse ! 
 down dropped the anchor with a vast splash, 
 and in a few moments the ship was riding 
 placidly, with the tug at anchor about two 
 cables' lengths away. 
 
 The evening had gathered now, and this, 
 with the fog, made it desperately black all
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 83 
 
 round. We slung a powerful lamp on the 
 forestay, and a couple of hands were 
 stationed forward, with orders to keep their 
 ears straining and report any sound they 
 heard ; for, as it turned out, we had brought 
 up slap in the fairway of vessels requiring 
 to head an easterly course : a little to the 
 eastward of the Gull buoy, with the light- 
 ship stationed at the north end of the Good- 
 win Sands, bearing east by south ; and this 
 was the devil's own weather for a running- 
 down job. 
 
 The tide had swung the ship with her 
 head pointing down Channel. How near we 
 were to the Sands I could not imagine, as 
 the fog had settled down so thick now that 
 the tug had vanished, although she was 
 near enough for us to hear the voices of the 
 men aboard of her ; and, beheld from the 
 poop, our riding-light merely glimmered like 
 a glow-worm, with threads of lustre sticking 
 into the fog like spikes of gold : but the 
 moment the ship was silent, the creaming 
 and seething of the tide on the Sands was 
 as distinct as the gurgle of the water along- 
 side.
 
 84 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 It was to be watcli and watch with me 
 and Mr. Thomas, and I stood the first 
 watch, while he went below to lay down in 
 his clothes ready for the cry of " All hands ! " 
 which would certainly come the instant the 
 weather cleared. 
 
 In the cuddy, as I might see by casting 
 my eyes on the skylight, the captain was 
 talking with Mr. Black, and the Spaniard 
 and his wife were playing at backgammon or 
 draughts, whilst Nelly watched them with 
 her elbows on the table and her cheeks in 
 her hands. I stood looking at her for a 
 long while, my heart very full, and then 
 joined the pilot and took a few turns up and 
 down the deck with him. The fog was 
 choking work, and he sputtered and swore 
 over it with the true salt's trick of grum- 
 bling, from time to time thrusting his nose 
 into the binnacle, where his mahogany face 
 sparkled in the lamplight like a wet tarpau- 
 lin. He went below when the grog was on 
 the table, and I watched him raise a screecher 
 of rum to his lips, nodding politely around 
 before he drank, and drying his mouth on 
 the sleeve of his coat.
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 85 
 
 So I was now alone on deck. There was 
 a deep stillness on the water ; the only 
 sound that penetrated the fog was the con- 
 tinuous delicate hissing of the tide running 
 by the Sands ; but this, as I say, being con- 
 tinuous, seemed to form a part of the silence 
 — at all events, it appeared to heighten it. 
 The men were below, glad to get out of the 
 damp air, which was not rendered more 
 tolerable by its tepid temperature. The two 
 hands on the look-out paced the forecastle 
 noiselessly. 
 
 Presently I sung out : " Forward there ! 
 Can you see anything of the tug? " 
 
 " No, sir." 
 
 " Keep your ears wide open, my lads." 
 
 "Ay, ay, sir." 
 
 Four bells were struck, — ten o'clock. 
 The captain came on deck, followed by the 
 pilot, and they walked down to the break of 
 the poop and had a few words together. 
 
 "It's thick enough to hang your hat 
 on," said the pilot. " I reckon a southerly 
 wind '11 follow r this, and I wish it 'ud 
 come." 
 
 " We have not the ordering of the winds,
 
 86 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 sir, arid we must be patient," returned Cap- 
 tain Flanders in a deep voice. His hollow 
 tone sounded odd, and the pilot gave a 
 grunt. Perhaps he was as puzzled as I by 
 the philosophy of a sea captain under cir- 
 cumstances which might set an angel grum- 
 bling. 
 
 On a sudden one of the men forward 
 sung out — 
 
 " Is that a ship on the starboard beam 
 there, sir ? I thought I see a lumping big 
 shadow out there just now, but it's gone." 
 
 I ran to the rail and strained my eyes, 
 but it was like looking into smoke. At this 
 moment I heard a sound remarkably like 
 the creak of a block-sheaf on a rusty pin, 
 followed by a dull thud, as though a coil of 
 rope had been flung down on a deck. 
 
 "Did you hear that, sir ? " hailed one of 
 the look-out men. 
 
 " Ay, ay ! There is evidently a vessel 
 somewhere near us, sir," said I, addressing 
 the captain. 
 
 The pilot hollowed his claws and roared 
 out, " Ship ahoy ! " 
 
 "We listened, and in a few moments a
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 87 
 
 sound came back to us out of the fog which 
 sounded uncommonly like " Well, well ! " 
 
 " Have you got your anchor down?" 
 bawled the pilot. 
 
 To this there was no reply. 
 
 " Ship ahoy ! " he shouted again. 
 
 The same dull-toned answer, resembling 
 " Well, well ! " came back, this time a little 
 fainter. 
 
 "If you haven't brought up, let go your 
 anchor ! " roared the pilot, in a voice that 
 should have been audible at Margate, "or 
 you'll be ashore ! " 
 
 "There she is, sir!" was shouted from 
 our forecastle ; and for an instant only, as 
 the folds of the fog opened like the mouth 
 of a purse, I caught a glimpse of a large 
 vessel under top-gallant sails, and away 
 beyond her twinkled the triangular lanterns 
 of the lightship.* The fog closed, and 
 she and the further lights disappeared. 
 
 " Why, that fellow's a madman ! " ex- 
 claimed the pilot, spitting on the deck with 
 great excitement. " Some blasted furriner, 
 I expects, who's too mean to ship a pilot ; 
 
 * This vessel burns only one light now.
 
 88 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 and there lie is bound for the Nor' Sands 
 Head as cleverly as if he was booked for 
 lialf the insurance money ! " 
 
 The captain turned suddenly and walked 
 away, as if offended by the pilot's language ; 
 indeed, his movement was too suggestive 
 for the meaning of it to be missed. The 
 pilot looked round after him, laughed in his 
 throat with a gargling sound, and then, 
 asking me to " obleege " him with a pipe 
 of tobacco, filled a black bowl from my 
 pouch and went down on the quarter-deck, 
 where he stood blowing large clouds under 
 the break of the poop. 
 
 " Mr. Lee ! " hailed the skipper. 
 
 I immediately went aft. 
 
 " The habit of swearing is very offensive 
 to me," said he, in his sepulchral voice. 
 u I hope, sir, you are never guilty of it ? " 
 
 " Why, sir, I don't think I am." 
 
 "A man who has a soul to be saved," 
 he continued, in a voice that seemed to 
 tremble, " should talk as if he believed that 
 the words he is speaking are the last God 
 wall permit him to pronounce in this life." 
 
 I had nothing to say.
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 89 
 
 " I may as well tell you, Mr. Lee, while 
 I am on the subject," he continued, " that 
 I intend that this ship shall be a pious 
 ship — after the primitive fashion, sir ; the 
 fashion of the first Christians. To you, as 
 one of my officers, I shall look for all the 
 assistance you can render me ; and my 
 order to you is, that you will report every 
 man to me whom you may hear using an 
 oath." 
 
 I touched my cap, and he walked away, 
 going to a part of the rail that stood in the 
 light of the cuddy lamps shining through 
 the skylight, where he remained for some 
 moments, with his face upturned as though 
 he were praying. 
 
 I thought his manner extraordinary, 
 though I own it impressed me. I mean 
 to say that, whilst I heartily concurred in 
 his views of profane swearing, of which I 
 always had as great a horror as any man, 
 and the religious discipline of the ship 
 (though here a limit would be wanted, for 
 two much religion repels sailors as it does 
 shore-folks — as the south pole of a magnet 
 repels the needle), the tone of voice in
 
 90 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 which he addressed me, and his talk of the 
 first Christians, and then his going away 
 and fixing his eyes on the sky, struck me 
 as very singular, and something to hear 
 thinking oyer and watching. He came 
 away from the rail, and taking a look at the 
 binnacle, walked up and down the poop 
 with his arms folded. 
 
 Meanwhile, the pilot sucked his pipe on 
 the quarter-deck, and the tobacco smoke 
 came up through the fog in straight lines 
 out of his mouth, so great was the calm. 
 
 The silence all around remained un- 
 broken, and nothing more was to be seen 
 of the ship that had drifted past us. 
 
 It was now five bells. We carried our 
 bell on the forecastle, and whilst one of the 
 men was striking it, the fog thinned over- 
 head and astern, and glistened with the 
 radiance of the moon. Just at that moment 
 I fancied I beheld a flash of lightning down 
 in the south-east, a little abaft the port 
 beam ; but immediately afterwards came 
 the report of a gun, and, just as a hand 
 might divide a pair of curtains, the fog in 
 that direction disparted and rolled away on
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 91 
 
 either side, leaving a broad space of clear 
 water with the moonlight lying bright upon 
 it, beyond the frosty line of which was a 
 big ship with her sails hanging in pale 
 spaces. 
 
 " She's got what she wants ! " shouted 
 the pilot, springing on to the poop. " She's 
 ashore, as sure as my head's on my neck ! " 
 
 A spout of flame whizzed from her side, 
 and down came the thunder of another 
 gun. 
 
 " See ! the lightship is taking up the 
 chorus ! " I cried, as a broad glare of light 
 streamed in the fog to the eastwards of the 
 ship, and was immediately followed by a 
 loud concussion. 
 
 The fog was now rapidly thinning all 
 down in the south, but wreaths of it had 
 floated in over the space that had opened, 
 though in the watery moonshine — for her 
 disc was now visible, hanging wan and 
 sickly over the vapour that was drifting 
 landwards and thinning as it went — the 
 ship could just be made out. 
 
 They now sent up a rocket and burned 
 a blue light, and another gun flashed on
 
 92 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 board the lightship. The haze all around 
 the vessel was illuminated by the blue fire 
 in a semi-circle, the outer edge of which 
 was as defined as the blue in a rainbow ; 
 and the water, catching the ghastly lustre, 
 doubled it and filled the eye with a com- 
 plete circle of phosphorescent radiance, in 
 the midst of which was the ship, with her 
 sails looking as green as leaves, whilst her 
 spars and rigging, and the slender, withe- 
 like shoot of her bowsprit, and her tall 
 black hull, and the white quarter-boats at 
 her davits, twinkled as if gemmed with 
 emeralds, until the light suddenly went out, 
 amid the slinging crash of another gun, 
 and left the ship a pale phantom in the 
 moonlight, that was now fast mastering the 
 remains of the fog. 
 
 "Mr. Lee!" sung out Captain Flanders 
 in his deep voice from the after end of the 
 poop. "Call some of the hands aft; man 
 one of the boats and row over to that ship, 
 and tell them to keep up their courage, and 
 that the life boat and hovellers will be 
 alongside them before long." 
 
 To hear was to obey.
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 93 
 
 "Forward there! tell the boatswain to 
 send some hands along to man the starboard 
 quarter-boat." 
 
 "I say, captain!" shouted the pilot. " The 
 fog's cleared, and we ought to get under 
 way. Mr. Lee can do no good, sir. They've 
 got a tug at Kamsgate Harbour, and she'll 
 have the life-boat alongside in three-quarters 
 of an hour ! ' ' 
 
 " Let Mr. Lee execute my orders !" roared 
 the captain, the thunder of his voice — it was 
 like a neigh ; I never heard the like of it — 
 mingling with the boom of another gun from 
 the lightship. " The windlass shall not be 
 touched aboard this ship until our fellow- 
 creatures yonder have been reassured ! " 
 
 I was quite disposed to agree with the pilot 
 that the errand was an idle one, as all the 
 help the ship required would speedily reach 
 her from the shore ; but the captain's excite- 
 ment had already set him handling the falls 
 of the quarter-boat, and the boatswain's 
 pipe having sounded, a dozen men came 
 tumbling aft. Four men jumped into the 
 boat. I tumbled into the stern-sheets and 
 we were lowered into the water. The boat-
 
 94 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 falls were unhooked. I shouted, " Give 
 way, my lads ! " and we headed for the ship, 
 that was now evidently in a terrible fright, 
 for she was firing her guns as fast as she- 
 could load them, and sending up rockets as 
 though she wanted to give us an exhibition 
 of fireworks. The fog still hung in low, long- 
 white lines here and there upon the water, 
 but the body of it had fetched away to the 
 northwards, and the moonlight sparkled 
 brightly on the sea. The men squared their 
 arms and their oars cheeped furiously : they 
 were under the impression that life was to 
 be saved, and as they were fresh from their 
 bunks, they had only got a smattering into 
 their skulls of the real state of things. 
 
 As we approached the ship, I noticed that 
 she had all her boats fast; but from the 
 confusion that evidently reigned on board, 
 her yards boxed about any *way, her sails 
 hanging loose, her running gear all slack, 
 I easily guessed that she was a foreigner. 
 They let drive another gun when we were 
 about a couple of hundred yards distant, and 
 fired another blue light, the glare of which, 
 helping the moonlight, enabled me to see
 
 A FOa IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 95 
 
 that her high poop was crowded with human 
 beings, many of them women. She had 
 gone ashore bow on, and hung firmly : all 
 to starboard of her and ahead were the dry 
 sands glistening like silver in the moonlight, 
 stretching away into the gloom with a thin 
 edging of froth. Whether she had seen us 
 before I could not say : but they raised a 
 wild screech when we were within hail, and 
 in the blue light the gesticulating mob 
 looked like the inhabitants of an infernal 
 world. 
 
 " 'Vast rowing!" I sung out; and then 
 standing up, I bawled, " Can any one speak 
 English aboard of you ? " 
 
 My question fell unheeded, as it was 
 reasonable it should, seeing that all hands 
 were jabbering and yelling to me ; the women 
 tossing their hands and pointing to the sands, 
 and the men dancing upon the poop railing 
 and capering at the backstays like daft folks. 
 What their lingo was I could not then tell, 
 and I don't think one of their own country- 
 men would have understood them. 
 
 I hailed them again in English, and the 
 hubbub ceasing, I repeated my question.
 
 96 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 "Me speakee leeclel Anglisli ! " skreeked 
 a wavering voice. 
 
 " What are you ? " I shouted. " French ? " 
 
 " Yash, yash, Franch." 
 
 Unhappily, my knowledge of French was 
 very small ; however, I thought I would talk 
 to them after the fashion of most Britons, 
 who, when they find a foreigner ignorant of 
 the English language, shout to hhn at the 
 top of their voices in a dialect which is 
 neither English nor anything else. 
 
 " Me English I " I roared. " You ashore 
 — hut no danger — you savey that ! — no 
 danger — you wait — hy-and-by boatee come 
 — you all right, ah ? You makee plenty of 
 flare ! plenty boatee come quick and takee 
 ashore ! " 
 
 "Confound it!" I exclaimed, sinking 
 back, for the only good I had done was to 
 set them all roaring at me again ; and there 
 they were, asking questions with one voice, 
 in the midst of which they fired another 
 gun. 
 
 " I don't think you can do anything more, 
 sir," said the fellow who pulled stroke in my 
 boat, grinning in the moonlight. " They'll
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 97 
 
 screech themselves quiet presently, and then 
 maybe they'll hear the Eamsgate tug coming 
 to 'em." 
 
 " Ay," said a second man, " and there'll be 
 a whole fleet of hovellers around 'em before 
 another hour's gone. I've been hovelling 
 myself off this coast, and if I was on board 
 that ere ship I lay I'd see the lights of a 
 shoal of luggers under way now." 
 
 I was very sorry not to be able to explain 
 this to them, though I question if a know- 
 ledge of their language would have been of 
 much use to me, for nothing short of a voice 
 as loud as one of their guns could have made 
 itself heard above the hullabaloo aboard. It 
 was a painful sight to see the women in the 
 moonlight tossing their hands, falling down 
 upon their knees, crossing themselves and 
 dragging at their hair, for all the world as 
 though the ship was about to founder ; whilst 
 the men, instead of keeping silence and ex- 
 plaining to the women that, so far as their 
 lives were concerned, they were as safe as if 
 they had been in harbour, went dancing 
 about the deck, pointing here and there, 
 shouting to one another, yelling questions 
 
 VOL. I. h
 
 98 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 to me, toppling down upon their noses, and 
 executing a mass of absurd antics. I took 
 her to be an emigrant ship, but could not 
 iind any name upon her stern, nor could 1 
 imagine where she was bound to, to be hum- 
 bugging about these sands. Nobody at all 
 who looked like a captain or a mate was 
 distinguishable among the crowd. The 
 wonder to me was that, their fright being 
 so great, they had not lowered their boats ; 
 but there they all hung secure at the davits, 
 very good, white, handsome boats, too, and 
 plenty of them. 
 
 My attention was now directed by one 
 of the men to the Walder share, who was 
 trying to signal us by means of a lantern 
 made fast to the peak signal halliards and 
 run up and down. Having not the least 
 doubt that help was fast coming to the 
 distracted Frenchmen, from some of the 
 places abreast of us, I gave the order to 
 the men to out oars, and we headed for 
 our own ship. I expected that our departure 
 would be followed by a broadside of yells 
 and screams ; instead of which, and almost 
 before we had got way upon the boat, the
 
 A FOG IN THE ENGLISH CHAXXEL. 99 
 
 hubbub dropped into a sort of hum, the 
 character of which is indescribable, though 
 the effect it produced upon the ear was 
 startling ; and then, while a hundred throats 
 split the night with cheers, up went a 
 couple of rockets, and once more a blue 
 light shed its ghastly radiance upon the 
 water. 
 
 " They have caught sight of the tug, 
 Ear," said one of the men, quietly; and 
 this was undoubtedly the case, for by the 
 time we had got aboard of the Walcler share 
 and hoisted the boat, the steamer's lights 
 were visible, with the sparks flying along 
 the smoke she left behind her, and she 
 passed close astern of us with a big white 
 life-boat in tow, whilst our windlass was 
 clanking and our own tug was backing up 
 to us to get hold of our tow-rope.
 
 100 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 TO THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 
 
 It was now a bright moonlight night, with 
 a light wind from the southward, not a 
 vestige of the fog visible, the North Fore- 
 land light burning like a yellow star upon 
 a sky full of white stars, and the coast 
 sloping pale and distant down into the 
 west. By three bells — half-past one — our 
 tow-rope was singing under the pull of the 
 tug, and the big French ship, with the 
 steamer lying near her, and two or three 
 luggers hovering around, was dropping 
 rapidly astern. 
 
 I had found Mr. Thomas on deck when 
 I came aboard, and he expressed his amaze- 
 ment that the captain should have thought 
 fit to send me on such a fool's errand. 
 However, w r e had had no time for talk, and
 
 TO THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 101 
 
 now that we were under way again, he, 
 having had three hours' rest, advised me 
 to go and lie down, as the tug would 
 leave us after we were clear of the Downs, 
 and all hands would be called to make 
 sail. 
 
 I scrambled into my bunk without even 
 pulling off my boots, and scarcely was my 
 head down when I was fast asleep. 
 
 I was called by Mr. Thomas, and instantly 
 hopped out and went on deck. The breeze 
 had freshened, the tug had left us, and the 
 hands were busy making sail. Down in 
 the east the dawn was faintly streaking the 
 sky, but the moon was still bright in the 
 west, and over the dark line of land the stars 
 were shining clearly. We were now to 
 shift for ourselves, and our voyage had at 
 last fairly begun. Already the fore and 
 main topsails were sheeted home, and the 
 yards mast-headed with a chorus that went 
 echoing far into the darkness. Making sail 
 is a noisy business on board a merchant- 
 man. The hands stamped along freely with 
 sheets and halliards in their hands, every, 
 gang of workers had their own song and
 
 102 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 chorus, and every one on deck and, for 
 the matter of that, every one aloft too, 
 seemed bent on rivalling by his own hoarse 
 shouts the shouts of every other man. 
 
 "Now then, my lads, aft here and sheet 
 home this mizz en- torp sail ! " 
 
 " Get that foretack down smartly ! " 
 
 11 Are you all ready there with that inner 
 jib ? " 
 
 "Ay, ay, sir." 
 
 " Then hoist away ! " 
 
 " Main-top there ! jump aloft and loose 
 the top-gallants'l ! " 
 
 " Hoist away the main topmast stay- 
 sail ! " 
 
 "A hand aloft and loose the fere top- 
 gallants'l ! " 
 
 " Sheet home, my lads, sheet home ! 
 overhaul your clewlines there ! well the lee 
 sheet ! another pull to wind'ard 1 belay ! 
 tally on to the halliards— up with her 
 smartly ! Hurrah! " 
 
 And not by degrees only, but with smart- 
 ness that would not have discredited a man- 
 of-war, sail was piled upon the W alder share; 
 and whilst the dawn was slowly changing
 
 TO THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 103 
 
 into ash-colour the surface of the eastern 
 sky, against which the rim of the sea stood 
 black as ink, and whilst the moon was 
 sailing down the western heaven, whose 
 bright stars gemmed the brows of the tall 
 English cliffs, and the riding-lights of the 
 wind-bound ships in the Downs were twink- 
 ling like fire-flies upon the bosom of the 
 dark waters, the Walder share, leaning under 
 her pale spaces of canvas which the wind 
 had moulded into shapes of beauty, with 
 every sail set that would draw, shredded 
 the water with her keen lip and glided like 
 a cloud down the calm English Channel. 
 
 There were many little jobs to be done 
 before the men were divided into watches, 
 and before I went below the sun had risen. 
 I stayed a moment or two to watch that 
 sight, and take my first glance at the noble 
 ship under canvas by daylight. First the 
 sky was like frosted silver, but then it grew 
 rosy, and whilst the sea lay blushing, a 
 brilliant fragment of silver stood ,upon the 
 horizon for an instant ; it grew quickly, 
 turning- golden as it enlarged, until with a 
 bound the glorious orb soared into a sky
 
 ]04 A SAILOITS SWEETHEART. 
 
 of pearl and rose ; the giant white cliffs of 
 Dover, with the sullen and beetling South 
 Foreland, flashed back the light quickly, and 
 the sea became a luminous green ; the 
 town of Deal lay in a glare of sunshine, 
 the windows of the houses sparkling among 
 the haze that overhung the place, beyond 
 which the country extended as pink as a 
 morning cloud, while close under the land 
 a dozen smacks were creeping with their 
 sails as red as blood, and all ahead the green 
 sea ran in sparkles, dashed here and there 
 with foam, and the coast of France hung 
 like a shadow upon the horizon. 
 
 But my eyes were heavy ; the chief mate 
 was wondering to see me linger when I 
 was at liberty to go below ; so down I went, 
 and down I lay, and I never stirred until 
 I was called to go on deck at eight o'clock. 
 
 The breeze freshened as the sun mounted 
 the sky, and it was now blowing fresh and 
 steady from the south and west, forward 
 enough to put us on a bowline, and the 
 WaldersJiare was smoking through the 
 water like a steamer. However, as I had 
 suspected, the ship was too deep, and con-
 
 TO THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 105 
 
 sequently too stiff. With her heavy spars 
 and vast spread of canvas, she should have 
 buried her lee chain plates under such a 
 breeze ; as it was, the slope of her deck 
 was scarcely worth speaking of, and but 
 very little of her copper was exposed to 
 windward, though what could be seen of it 
 flashed brightly along the tumbling green 
 waters and shone like a new brass kettle. 
 Still, her trim did not fret the glorious old 
 hooker. She was stretching a wake astern 
 that ran away into the horizon, and all to 
 leeward the water under the foot of the 
 mainsail, the sheet of which was well aft, 
 swept past in a hum and dazzle of froth, 
 and we could guess our speed by watching 
 the nearer shore slipping by the land beyond 
 it, and the number of vessels we took up and 
 quietly set astern of us. 
 
 Nelly came on deck soon after I had 
 relieved Mr. Thomas, and seeing her head 
 at the companion, I had a good excuse to 
 join her, under the pretence of finding 
 her a chair or leading her to a sheltered 
 part of the poop. There was a hand at the 
 wheel, and nobody else aft, but the captain
 
 106 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 had only just gone below, and might be up 
 again in a minute. 
 
 " I w T as hoping that you would be on 
 deck," she whispered eagerly, as she gave 
 me her hand. " What a glorious morning ! 
 How lovely the land looks ! How Phoebe 
 would enjoy this! " 
 
 She looked up at the towering canvas 
 with flashing eyes, and at the water seeth- 
 ing past, and her breath came and went 
 quickly, for the whole spirit of the windy, 
 green, and foamy scene, with the steady 
 blue sky overhead, and the leaning tower 
 of canvas, and the sparkling shore, came 
 upon her full and strong in an instant. 
 
 "You were born to be a sailor's wife," 
 said I, delighted by the kindling happiness 
 in her face ; " but this is a noble ship, and 
 just such a home on the rolling deep as I 
 could wish for you." 
 
 "How could you have been angry with 
 me, Will, for joining you ? " she exclaimed. 
 
 " Never reproach me with that again, 
 Nelly. I was too surprised to understand 
 my own mind ; and besides, you are so 
 precious to me that I was frightened to
 
 TO THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 107 
 
 think of your being exposed to the risks 
 of a sea- voyage." 
 
 "What is good for you is good for me. 
 I am quite happy. I would not change 
 places with the queen. What have I left ? 
 Two kind Mends, indeed : but, then, I have 
 left them that I may be with you, Will ; 
 and you cannot tell me, although I am not 
 yet your wife, that where you are I should 
 not be." 
 
 Her dear face glowed as she spoke thus, 
 but she kept her eyes fixed on me bravely 
 and trustfully; indeed, we knew each other's 
 hearts, and thoughts were in us which we 
 could tell each other without the help of 
 words. 
 
 She asked me the cause of the guns 
 being fired last night ; and whilst I was 
 giving her the story of the French ship, 
 and the part I played in the little drama, 
 the captain's long head emerged through 
 the companion. 
 
 "I have been thinking," I whispered to 
 her, " you had better tell him I am an old 
 friend of your guardian. That will save 
 us all bother for the future when he sees
 
 108 A SAILOK'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 ns talking together, which will be pretty 
 often." 
 
 Saying which, I placed a chair for her, 
 raised my hat, and left her as Captain 
 Flanders came to her side. Some excuse 
 was wanted to account for my conversing 
 with her, who was simply a young lady 
 passenger in the captain's eyes, whilst I was 
 officer of the watch, and had no business 
 to open my lips except in the way of my 
 duty. Indeed, I have sailed with captains 
 who have strongly objected to their officers 
 holding any sort of converse with passen- 
 gers. What Captain Flanders' views were 
 on this subject I had not yet had any 
 chance of finding out, but as it was not to 
 be supposed that I could be thrown with 
 Nelly day after day and not speak to her, 
 I imagined, if she told the captain I was 
 a friend, he might relax any discipline he 
 might have in this matter, merely to please 
 her. 
 
 I may as well say here that her explana- 
 tion had the effect I desired, and that 
 Captain Flanders never took any notice of 
 my talking to her ; though I was careful
 
 TO THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 109 
 
 never to engage her in his presence during 
 my watch on deck, or, at any rate, to pro- 
 long my conversation for any such length 
 of time as would give him an excuse to 
 order me away to my duty. 
 
 I was a little surprised to find that, al- 
 though in a sense we might fairly consider 
 ourselves at sea, he still stuck to his quaint 
 land-togs. In his high hat, big satin stock, 
 and tall collars which shored up his long, 
 cadaverous, hollow face, he carried a most 
 scriptural air, and was certainly the very last 
 man aboard that would have been taken for 
 captain. 
 
 Soon after he had joined Nelly, I dis- 
 covered that we had one more hand aboard 
 than was included in the muster-roll ; for a 
 fat spaniel dog came floundering on to the 
 poop, and walloped along the deck, mak- 
 ing as he went mischievous snaps at the 
 heads of the poultry in the hencoops, and 
 setting them all cackling. He belonged to 
 the skipper, who called to him in his deep, 
 tragic voice to come and "lie down, sir! " 
 which the brute declined to do before he 
 had made various ineffectual efforts to climb
 
 110 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 into Nelly's lap. The dear girl endured 
 these onslaughts with, a sweet smile, pat- 
 ting the dog after every wobbling jump, 
 and glancing at me as much as to say, " I 
 mean to make friends with Captain Flan- 
 ders for your sake, Will." 
 
 The pilot, who was known by the name 
 of Mr. Bolt, now came on to the poop off 
 the quarter-deck, and after taking a long 
 squint at the skipper and casting a glance 
 aloft and to windward wdth a very sour face, 
 complained in a husky voice that the cap- 
 tain had forced " a track " against swearing 
 upon him. 
 
 "A what?" I shouted. 
 
 " Why, a track — a book — a little printed 
 book," he growled, with his face glowing 
 like copper. " I've been to sea, man and 
 boy, eight an' forty year," he continued, 
 " and in all my life I've never been insulted 
 like this before." 
 
 I said I did not think the captain meant 
 to insult him ; but nothing that I could say 
 would do. He had his own opinion of the 
 matter, and declared that no sea-captain 
 had a right to sarmonize him either by
 
 TO THE ISLE OF WIGHT. Ill 
 
 books or anything else, " When I've cast 
 Lis ship away it'll be time enough for him 
 to begin to sarmonize." He considered the 
 tract an insult, and gave me to know that 
 he felfc it deeply, and never could have be- 
 lieved that any man calling himself a sailor 
 would have dared to put such an affront 
 upon him. He afterwards eased his mind 
 by jamming himself against the weather 
 backstays, and scowling at the skipper, 
 who, however, took no notice of him. 
 
 I thought this action very odd on the part 
 of the captain, however well-intentioned. 
 The result proved it wanting in tact, and a 
 few errors in judgment of this description 
 might soon lead to a strong prejudice against 
 him fore and aft. Ashore the giving of 
 tracts would not challenge a thought : for 
 my part I always take them, and read them 
 too, and have got ideas from them which I 
 am none the worse for having ; but aboard 
 of a ship a tract-giving skipper would be 
 thought, in Jack's lingo, "a rum shake;" 
 and it is natural that the very monotony 
 of the sea-life, coupled with the sort of passive 
 antagonism that grows up among people
 
 112 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 who are thrown constantly together, and 
 that makes every one a keen critic of his 
 fellow, should furnish particular weight to 
 any incident in the least degree unusual or 
 uncommon. 
 
 The captain addressed himself with great 
 earnestness to Nelly, and she listened to him 
 with her eyes fixed on the deck. They were 
 presently joined by Madam Espinosa, and 
 shortly afterwards her husband emerged, 
 followed by Mr. Black. I was a good deal 
 amused by the rapt postures into which the 
 Spaniard flung himself as he looked around 
 him, starting tragically as he ran his eyes 
 aloft, then squeezing his hands together at 
 his knees as he cocked his nose at the shore, 
 and waving his flashing hands around him, 
 as he talked to his wife with wonderful volu- 
 bility in his native tongue. His wife's 
 yellow hair lay all down her back, and her 
 figure seemed bursting out of her tight 
 clothes. Mr. Black looked gravely about 
 him, clearly resolved not to be cheated into 
 any appreciation of the bright and windy 
 scene until he was sure it was worth ad- 
 miring.
 
 TO THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 113- 
 
 There was just the touch of a light swell 
 on here, but right abeam, aud scarcely 
 noticeable ; but I reckoned, if this breeze 
 lasted, the Spanish merchant, if I might 
 judge by the colour of his face, would be on 
 his back before we had made the Isle of 
 Wight, for as the Channel broadened we 
 should be finding more sea. 
 
 He came capering over to where I stood 
 presently, first looking at the pilot, then at 
 me, as meditating whom he should address, 
 and no doubt finding the expression on my 
 face the pleasanter one ; for old Bolt stood 
 up against the main backstays as ugly and 
 sour as a defaced figure-head. 
 
 "Ale you officer?" says he, nodding 
 quickly, and grinning behind his great nose 
 with every desire to be polite. 
 
 " Yes, I am, sir," I answered. 
 
 "Leeftenant, eh?" 
 
 "Why, a kind of lieutenant," said I, 
 holding there was no use in calling myself 
 mate, as he wouldn't understand what I 
 meant. 
 
 u You speak Spanish ? " 
 
 " Not a word, sir." 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 "Why not you learn? it is reech lan- 
 guage — beautifuller more san English. W T hy 
 not you learn?" 
 
 " I'll try and get at it some of these days," 
 I replied. 
 
 " What you tink of dis ship, eh ? Is she 
 fine ship ? " 
 
 " Why, yes, a very fine ship." 
 
 "No danger, eh, you tink? Quite safe 
 ship, eh ? and fast ? De wataire beautiful 
 to look at, but, rabo de lechon de San An- 
 tonio ! ogley to feel here ! " says he, taking 
 his throat in his jewelled hands. 
 
 I thought that the most sensible thing he 
 had said yet. 
 
 "What zail you call dat ? " he asked, 
 pointing to the main-royal. 
 
 I told him. 
 
 "And dat?" 
 
 I gave him the name of that too. 
 
 " Marie ! " he shouted, " comb here." 
 
 His wife waddled over to us, and laid hold 
 of her husband's arm to steady herself. I 
 caught Nelly looking our way, as though 
 she would rather have joined us than stay 
 with the captain, who seemed to be lecturing 
 her.
 
 TO THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 115 
 
 M. Espinosa explained. I was " leef- 
 tenant," he said, and I considered the ship a 
 fine ship, and that there was no chance of hei 
 drowning ; likewise, I exactly knew all the 
 sails, ropes, and spars, and as Marie had been 
 anxious to learn all about the ship, he was 
 sure the " leeftenant " would tell her every- 
 thing she wished to know. He took about 
 five minutes to say all this, and, as you may 
 guess, expressed himself in very different 
 words from those I have conveyed his mean- 
 ing by; and so having introduced his wife, 
 he pulled off his hat and pranced over to 
 Mr. Black. 
 
 As Madam Espinosa stood to windward 
 of me her yellow hah blew my way, and with 
 half an eye I saw that she was pleased I 
 looked at it. However, in spite of her 
 yellow hah, I was not particularly anxious 
 for her society ; for if she was good-natured, 
 she was also very gushing and insipid, as I 
 speedily discovered from her conversation. 
 She plied me very handsomely with ques- 
 tions about the sails and other parts of the 
 ship, and then told me she was an intense 
 lover of the sea, and that she thought all
 
 116 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 sailors real darlings. (Murder ! thought I, 
 and looked at poor old Bolt, standing as stiff 
 as a wooden Scotchman at a snuff- seller's 
 shop door.) This was her first long voyage, 
 and she was most anxious to see a gale of 
 wind, although she was naughty to say so, 
 as her husband was a fearful coward and 
 dreaded tempestuous weather at sea. How- 
 ever, Byron's poetry and various novels she 
 had read had filled her with curiosity to see 
 the ocean lashed and the waves boiling, and 
 she asked me with simpering earnestness if 
 I thought there was any chance of our 
 meeting with a real gale of wind before we 
 arrived at Callao ? I believed she was 
 joking at first, but seeing that she really 
 meant what she said, I answered that it was 
 very probable we should meet with a real 
 gale of wind between this and that port. 
 
 " My poor husband," said she, " is sure to 
 be dreadfully alarmed ; but I shall enjoy it. 
 I wish he was not so afraid of the water. 
 I wanted him to hire a yacht during our 
 stay in England; but no, he would not hear 
 of it." 
 
 I expressed my wonder that he should
 
 TO THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 117 
 
 not have chosen a steamer, and a shorter 
 cut to the west coast of South America than 
 the Horn. 
 
 " Oh," said she, "it was my fault. He 
 would have crossed to the United States 
 and gone by land as far as he could ; but/' 
 she added, tossing her head, " I told him 
 that I should choose a sailing-ship and a 
 long sea-voyage, and if that didn't please 
 him, he might go in a balloon for all I 
 cared, but I would go by water." 
 
 I asked her if she had ever been round 
 the Horn, for I didn't know which end of 
 the world she hailed from. 
 
 Xo, she had never been round the Horn ; 
 she had never yet been to Lima. 
 
 " It is not like yachting," said I. 
 
 " Do yachts never go round the Horn ? " 
 she wanted to know. 
 
 "If I may judge from the way in 
 which some yachting men brag, I should 
 say that yachts have been round the Horn, 
 and further than the North Pole, to boot." 
 
 " I am very fond of yachting," said she. 
 
 "Why, yes, it is a pleasant amusement, 
 and quite fit for ladies. Gilt buttons are
 
 118 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 always becoming, and smooth water makes 
 sailing very easy ; and with a high baro- 
 meter and a harbour always under your 
 lee, sailorizing can't fail to be enjoyable, 
 especially when mixed up with plenty of 
 champagne and the newest yachting modes. 
 But I'm afraid, if the Solent were like the 
 Horn, the yacht-builders would soon be 
 starving." 
 
 The breakfast bell ringing at this moment 
 obliged her to release me, and she waddled 
 over to her husband. 
 
 We were now off Be achy Head, heading 
 about W. S.W. with the Sussex coast 
 melting into a blue film as it ran away 
 into Newhaven and Brighton. We had all 
 the offing we wanted, 'with the wind holding 
 in the quarter from which it had first come 
 on to blow, and we could now let go the 
 bowlines and ease off the lee braces. All 
 to windward the water, as it ran in short 
 seas and quick tumbles of foam, was ablaze 
 under the brilliant sunshine ; the breeze was 
 very fresh, and a light white-painted ship 
 on the port bow, that we were overhauling 
 as though she had been a buoy, found a
 
 TO THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 119 
 
 main top-gallant sail as much as she could 
 carry ; and when we passed her, her decks 
 sloped towards us like the side of a hill. 
 But the W alder share was now under all 
 the canvas that would draw, and standing 
 alongside the pilot to windward, and look- 
 ing aloft at the vast spaces of white cloths 
 stretching in slender points to the yard- 
 arms, with their hollows full of delicate 
 shadows, the taut weather-leeches of the 
 royals and top-gallant sails with a little 
 shiver in them, like the sharp ripple of a 
 flag steadily blowing, and the staysails 
 ballooning in superb curves, and the shrouds 
 and backstays standing like harp-strings, 
 through which the wind was singing a 
 merry chorus, whilst the big black tops 
 threw shadows over the heads of the bright 
 masts in which the light was glancing, and 
 every now and again a little sea would 
 strike the weather-bow and flash in smoke 
 over the forecastle, I thought our ship made 
 a noble show, and was an object to fire the 
 pride in every sailor's heart aboard of her. 
 
 By eight o'clock that evening we had 
 backed the main-topsail, and lay waiting
 
 120 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 for a boat to take the pilot ashore. The 
 Isle of Wight stood broad on the starboard 
 beam, and I went to Nelly and whispered in 
 her ear to take a good look at those cliffs, as 
 they were probably the last piece of English 
 land she was likely to see for many a long- 
 day. The sun was within a quarter of an 
 hour of his setting, and the sky all around 
 him, and the high summer clouds which 
 swept athwart him, were as red as blood, 
 whilst the water was a dark green surface 
 that to leeward went pouring away to the 
 looming and terrace-like cliffs, and the 
 towering southern downs of the island that 
 stood in a pink haze, though even at that 
 distance the greens and greys and whites 
 were visible. Fore and aft every eye aboard 
 the ship was fixed on the land, and the 
 feeling that the night would soon shut out 
 every sign of the English coast, and that 
 some among us might never behold the old 
 home again, was strong in the minds of the 
 Englishmen in the ship's company. The 
 only sail in sight was the small powerful 
 cutter that was heading for us close hauled, 
 and that came driving down in a smother of
 
 TO THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 121 
 
 foam. Even after the sun had sunk, the 
 whole of the heavens down to the uttermost 
 east held for a while the delicate crimson of 
 its farewell light, and the stars were glitter- 
 ing windily even before this crimson melted 
 out of the east, and died overhead, and 
 faded into a long, narrow, but extremely 
 vivid flush over the spot where the sun had 
 sunk. As this flush vanished the coast hue 
 died out, and nothing was visible to the eye 
 but the long stretch of dark waters. The 
 moon was in the south, throwing a pale- 
 greenish light upon the sea, but the breeze 
 had freshened after the sunset, and before 
 the cutter came alongside we had hands 
 aloft furling the royals and the mizzen top- 
 gallant sail. 
 
 The pilot, with a bundle of letters in his 
 pocket, among which was one from Nelly to 
 Phoebe Johnson, after shaking hands with 
 Mr. Thomas and me, and touching his hat 
 with very surly civility to the skipper, 
 dropped into the cutter cleverly. 
 
 "Man the starboard main-braces," shouted 
 Mr. Thomas, and the great yards swung 
 round. " Haul taut to wiud'ard ! Xow get
 
 122 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 your main-sheet aft." The main-tack was 
 boarded, a watch-tackle clapped on to it, 
 and bowsed down to the tune of " Pull, my 
 bully boys." The helm was put down and 
 the ship brought to her course, and whilst 
 the songs of the sailors were still echoing 
 along her decks, and the wind among the 
 sails was aw r aking a little thunder overhead, 
 the Walcler share, leaning her nose down as a 
 dog sides his head to make a better lever of 
 his jaws, shattered the first sea she struck 
 into an acre of foam, and started with a 
 rush for the open waters of the English 
 Channel and the great Atlantic deep beyond.
 
 ( 123 ) 
 
 CHAPTEE Y. 
 
 AT SEA. 
 
 It blew fresh, all that night, accompanied 
 during the first watch with two or three 
 squalls of rain ; also veering westerly, which 
 obliged us to brace sharp up in order to 
 lay our course. But even with the leech 
 of the top-gallant sail lifting, and a single 
 reef in the two topsails, the ship smoked 
 through the water at a speed beyond any- 
 thing I could have imagined ; and by noon 
 on the following day we were clear of the 
 Channel, breasting the long Atlantic rollers,, 
 with the wind dead at south, and our yards 
 hard against the lee rigging. 
 
 At breakfast that morning no passengers 
 were to be seen. We did not carry a 
 stewardess — indeed, very few passenger 
 sailing-ships in the South American and
 
 124 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 Australian trade did in those days — and I 
 had to get what news I could of Nelly from 
 the steward, who told rne that he had 
 accosted her through her cabin door, and 
 that her answer was — she did not want any 
 breakfast, and preferred to remain where 
 she was. So I made rip my mind to lose 
 sight of her for two or three days, during 
 which time it should be my business to see 
 that she was well looked after ; but within 
 half an hour of my coming on deck at 
 noon, I heard voices on the quarter-deck, 
 and looking over the poop-rail, to my very 
 great astonishment and pleasure, I saw 
 Nelly holding the hand of Mr. Thomas, who 
 was in the act of conducting her up the 
 poop-ladder. She was pale enough, poor 
 girl ; but she gave me a smile that, I think, 
 rather astonished Mr. Thomas, and her 
 fine eyes flashed as she glanced at the sea 
 and watched the brilliant dance of the ship 
 over the foaming water. 
 
 " I was afraid you were going to have 
 a spell of sea-sickness," said I. "I am 
 heartily glad to see you on deck." 
 
 " I ivas a little ill this morning," she
 
 AT SEA. 125 
 
 answered; "but I am all right now, — and 
 this is all I want to make me quite well ! " 
 she exclaimed, her nostrils dilating as she- 
 breathed in the sweet and sweeping wind, 
 and grasping a backstay with her hand. 
 
 Mr. Thomas slued his little head on one 
 side and squinted up at me, as much as to 
 say, " How the deuce have you made her 
 so familiar with you in this time ? " after 
 which he eyed her with an admiration that 
 I dare say would have gotten him a cuff 
 over the ear from his month-old wife, had 
 she been there to see it. He was not so 
 smartly dressed as usual, guessing, I sup- 
 pose, that the ladies would not turn out* 
 He seemed to think of this now, for pre- 
 sently, looking at his boots and waistcoat, 
 he ran on to the quarter-deck, and we saw 
 no more of him. 
 
 I fixed a chair for Nelly to leeward of the 
 mizzen-mast, and fetched a big overcoat 
 in which I wrapped her legs ; and now she 
 said she was quite happy, and not in the 
 least sick, — and, indeed, I could see, by the 
 dawning roses in her cheeks, what the wind 
 was doing for her. The Espinosas' cabin
 
 126 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 was next hers, and from her account T 
 guessed the Spaniard was undergoing a 
 martyrdom. 
 
 " His groans are dreadful," she told me ; 
 "and I suppose his poor wife is too ill to 
 help him, for I heard him shrieking out her 
 name, but he got no answ T er. Afterwards 
 he rolled out of his berth — for there was 
 a noise in his cabin that gave me that 
 idea. I imagine he is more alarmed than 
 sick." 
 
 "Both, no doubt," said I, laughing. 
 
 I flatter myself that my being with her 
 increased her happiness, but I never should 
 have believed she would prove so good a 
 sailor, nor so greatly enjoy the scene around 
 her. There was not, indeed, much sea on, 
 though the wind was what sailors call a 
 top-gallant breeze ; but there was a long 
 Atlantic swell right astern which made the 
 deep ship roll rather heavily, and being 
 close-hauled, each time she rolled to wind- 
 ward, she doubled the power of the wind, 
 so that it tore through the rigging in 
 screams like railway whistles, and boomed 
 out from the bellies of the sails under the
 
 AT SEA. 127 
 
 feet of theni with a sound of thunder. The 
 sky was a pale green over the horizon, and 
 a steel blue overhead, and across it huge, 
 wool-like clouds were stretching. The fore- 
 castle, wet with the spray that laced it, 
 flashed in the sun, and now and again a 
 head of froth would blow over the bulwarks 
 into the waist, and scatter along the decks 
 in big soapy blobs of yellow bubble. The 
 watch on deck were at work on jobs in 
 various parts of the ship, and their costumes 
 of coloured shirts, canvas or serge breeches, 
 caps of every description, and every man 
 with a belt round his waist and a sheath- 
 knife at his hip, increased the picturesque 
 effect of the whole scene. To leeward was 
 a large barque bound for the English Chan- 
 nel, with stun' sails aloft and alow, frothing 
 the swell that sent her pitching and bowing 
 onwards, with the Dutch flag blowing over 
 her stern, and her copper glancing against 
 the boiling water every time she tossed her 
 heels. 
 
 "Who would not be a sailor, Will!" 
 exclaimed my sweetheart, casting her beau- 
 tiful grey eyes aloft and watching the
 
 128 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 royal-mastheads waving with stately motion 
 to and fro under the flying clouds. 
 
 "Perhaps, after all, it's a gayer life than 
 I sometimes think it, Nell. Yet no voyage 
 that ever I have taken or am likely to go 
 on will equal this one, and I am not going 
 to tell you why." 
 
 "It will be one long enjoyment for me," 
 said she. " Madam Espinosa is not a very 
 brilliant lady, but she is good-natured, and 
 I shall get on very well with her. I only 
 wish Phcebe were with us. I like your 
 chief mate, too — Mr. Thomas ; he is a nice 
 little man, extremely polite, but how very, 
 very tiny ! But I do not quite understand 
 Captain Flanders. Is he quite right, Will, 
 do you think?" 
 
 "Hush, my dear girl!" I exclaimed, 
 glancing aft and then down the skylight, 
 to make sure no one was within hearing. 
 " That is a dangerous question to ask. 
 Considering that he is captain of this ship 
 and lord paramount, I should be sorry to 
 believe he is not quite right." 
 
 She looked somewhat abashed and 
 frightened.
 
 AT SEA. 129 
 
 14 1 dare say you judge him," I continued, 
 44 as the pilot who left us last night, I know, 
 did, by his religious talk." 
 
 44 No," she interrupted, 44 not by that, 
 although he seems to care for no other 
 topic. His manner is curious, and his con- 
 versation is very often curious too ; and his 
 manner and his conversation put together 
 are quite enough to make one think that he 
 is not altogether rational." 
 
 "What was he talking about to you 
 yesterday so earnestly ? " 
 
 "About spirits." 
 
 44 About what? " I exclaimed. 
 
 44 About spectres and apparitions, Will. 
 He believes in spirits, and spoke of one 
 that visited him last week, and that 
 told him what sort of a voyage we are to 
 have." 
 
 44 Good Lord ! " I ejaculated, as the image 
 of his egg-shaped head rose in my mind. 
 
 44 He was so earnest at times as really 
 to be alarming," she said, lowering her 
 voice (with a little smile twisting about the 
 corners of her mouth as if she should say, 
 44 You see I am right, my dear, and although 
 
 vol. r. k
 
 130 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 you frightened me by the way you said 
 hush ! you're beginning to find out that I'm 
 the wiser of the two.") " He said that he 
 was a Christian, but not a modern one. 
 He was a primitive Christian ; he disbelieved 
 in clergymen, churches, archbishops, and 
 everything like that, and assured me that 
 several spirits had told him no prayers 
 were listened to that were not offered in 
 the way the early Christians prayed, namely, 
 in caves and woods and in the open air. 
 Now, Will, would not you think anybody 
 cracked to talk so ? " 
 
 u Cracked ! I should think so, indeed ! " 
 said I, after a low whistle. "But for all 
 that he may be a very good sailor and 
 understand his business, and if so, his 
 believing in supernatural spirits need not 
 trouble us ; for it is better for a sailor to 
 believe in ghosts than in Jamaica rum, the 
 spirit that has too many believers already 
 among us. How do you feel now ? " 
 
 "As if I should like to walk," she 
 answered, with her face finely tinted by 
 the strong wind, and bronze threads of hair 
 blowing about her cheeks. However, it
 
 AT SEA. 131 
 
 would not do for me to be seen walking 
 
 with her, and I was quite sure that, 
 audacious as her triumph over the demon 
 nausea had made her, she would never he 
 able to keep her feet ; so I advised her to 
 sit still and wait for lunch, which would 
 be on the table at one ; " and mind, Nelly," 
 said I, " to ask the steward for a slice of 
 real salt junk and a sea-biscuit, and a glass 
 of bitter beer, as I don't suppose you would 
 like to drink cold grog, though that is 
 the correct brew for shipboard ; and, depend 
 upon it, old Neptune will appreciate the 
 compliment you pay him in calling for his 
 time-honoured victuals, and will immedi- 
 ately hail you as a first-class seaman, proof 
 against the most monstrous seas and the 
 wildest weather." 
 
 The crew went to dinner at half-past 
 twelve. The cook was a cockney, a fat 
 fellow in tight dungaree trousers, and 
 arms and face like veal after it is " blown" 
 by the butchers to hang in their shops. 
 Like most sea-cooks, and indeed like most 
 men who get their livers swollen by stand- 
 ing before ovens all their lives, he was a
 
 132 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART 
 
 very irritable man, and on this, the very 
 first day of our being at sea, his temper 
 led to something very nearly resembling a 
 riot. 
 
 One of the boys was in the act of quitting 
 the galley, holding in his arms a mess kid 
 full of smoking meat, when, as I assumed, 
 he gave the cook some saucy words ; any- 
 how, I saw the cook's leg fly out of the 
 galley and deal the boy a kick at the 
 moment when the ship rolled heavily to 
 leeward. The boy flew head over heels 
 into the lee scuppers, and the meat bolted 
 out of the kid as he flopped down ; but the 
 same roll of the ship likewise propelled the 
 cook (who had got more way on him than 
 he could manage, through the jerk he had 
 given his leg) clean through the galley 
 door; he tumbled over the boy, and there 
 they lay wallopping and floundering upon 
 the deck, in the midst of the steam from the 
 pieces of meat, which jumped all about them 
 as they flung their arms and legs about. 
 The boy roared murder ! and I sprang off 
 the poop and ran forward; at the same 
 moment the hands came tumbling out of
 
 AT SEA. 133 
 
 the forecastle, where they were waiting 
 hungrily for their dinner, to see what the 
 matter was. 
 
 The cook, gathering himself up out of 
 the scuppers, exclaimed that the boy had 
 " sarsed him." This the boy, who stood 
 blubbering, being indeed badly scalded about 
 the right ear, admitted, but said that the 
 cook had brought it on himself by calling 
 him a bad name. The men in the port 
 watch, however, to whom the kid of beef 
 belonged, casting their eyes upon the pieces 
 of meat which washed about in the scuppers, 
 or lay jammed among the rusty links of 
 the chain-cable, began to understand that 
 they stood to get no beef for dinner that 
 day, and called upon me to know what was 
 to be done. I said I would speak to the 
 captain, who would no doubt order a fresh 
 supply of meat to be served out; but the 
 cooking of it would keep them waiting two 
 hours, so that the best thing they could 
 do was to get the starboard watch to share 
 their meat with them, and they must share 
 their ' ' duff ' ' by way of return : enough for 
 all hands might be made out in that way,
 
 134 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 and the fresh rations would be ready for 
 them by supper- time. 
 
 This proposal led to an argument as noisy 
 as an Irish parliament. All hands were now 
 assembled to leeward of the galley, some 
 of them kicking the meat about with their 
 feet, and they looked a very formidable 
 body of men. There are two periods when 
 sailors are proverbially ill-tempered : when 
 they are hungry, and when they are newly 
 aroused from sleep. In this case the men 
 were hungry, and as each man in my watch 
 honestly believed he could eat up all that the 
 appetites of his mates were likely to leave 
 him, there was a great deal of grumbling 
 over my suggestion. However, there was 
 common sense in it, and it prevailed at 
 last ; and I went aft to get the skipper's 
 leave to order the steward to serve out 
 another dinner of meat to the port watch. 
 
 But the men only waited until my back 
 was turned to fasten upon the cook ; they 
 drove him out of the galley and got him 
 under the port forecastle ladder, and here 
 they pelted him with the pieces of capsized 
 meat, their temper rising with the progress
 
 AT SEA. 135 
 
 of their revenge, until, conceiving that they 
 would end in pitching him overboard, he 
 started out of his corner with a loud yell, 
 burst through the men like smoke, and 
 came pelting into the cuddy, streaming with 
 grease and sweat, followed by all hands, 
 who, however, stopped short at the quarter- 
 deck capstan. 
 
 It happened that Mr. Thomas, hearing 
 the row going on forward, and not a little 
 alarmed by the shout uttered by the cook 
 before he fled, threw open his cabin door, 
 and ran out just in time to meet the cook, 
 who, coming up tilt against him, sent him 
 floundering on his back; the cook pitched 
 over him, striking the Espinosas' cabin 
 door with a crash that produced a loud cry 
 from the terrified Spanish merchant, who 
 was evidently under the impression that 
 some dangerous accident had befallen the 
 ship. 
 
 I saw all this as I was making my way to 
 the captain's cabin, and nearly suffocated 
 with laughter at the expression on the little 
 mate's face as he got up and wiped the 
 grease off his cheek and clothes. He was
 
 136 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 blue with rage, for he valued his clothes 
 more than his dignity. 
 
 " What is all this uproar about ? " ex- 
 claimed the captain in his deep tragedy 
 voice, throwing open his door. 
 
 " They want to murder me, sir ! " gasped 
 the cook. " They've threatened to slit my 
 throat, sir ! they're a-waitin' to dash open 
 my 'ed, sir, and scatter my hintellects ! " he 
 cried, making his case, with the cunning of 
 cowardice, a desperate one, that he might 
 be sure of the captain's support. 
 
 He certainly looked a dreadful object, with 
 great lumps of fat sticking in his hah", and 
 his face beautifully lined with the grease of 
 the meat, that, having been rolled about by 
 the feet of the men, had gathered from the 
 deck and cable-range, as you may believe, a 
 very pretty variety of dirt, and his fat body 
 quivering in his blue shirt like a jelly in a 
 napkin. 
 
 " What's dat? Murder? Coot troats ! 
 Split open haids — eh ! eh ! " shouted a voice, 
 and the Espinosas' cabin door flew open 
 and out bolted the Spanish merchant. He 
 plumped up against the cuddy table with
 
 AT SEA. 137 
 
 the roll of the ship, and gazing around him 
 with an eye bright with terror, stood for 
 some seconds staring at the cook and then 
 rushed up to the captain, leaving the door 
 of the cabin, in which his wife lay, wide 
 open. He had nothing on but a day-shirt 
 and a pair of silk drawers, and it was 
 perhaps fortunate for me that my aston- 
 ishment at the magnitude of the results 
 following the trifling accident of a capsized 
 mess kid overpowered my sense of the 
 ridiculous. 
 
 " What is dat I hear, captain ? " he sput- 
 tered. " Murder! cut troat ! Valga ne 
 Dios! what do he do here?" pointing to 
 the cook. " que es eso, que es eso, peu ! " 
 and grabbing at his stomach he tumbled 
 upon the deck, too sick to stand. 
 
 " Antonio ! Antonio ! " shrieked his wife; 
 " where are you, Antonio ? Do you know 
 you have left the door open, you cruel crea- 
 ture, and everybody can see me ? " 
 
 Hereupon, to cut this matter short — for 
 really my heart ached for the poor lady who 
 lay exposed in her bunk — I sprang round 
 the table, collared the Spaniard, bundled
 
 138 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 him neck and crop into his cabin, and shut 
 the door upon him. 
 
 " What is the meaning of all this?" 
 exclaimed Captain Flanders, addressing me 
 with a great sternness of manner, though all 
 the same I do not think any one could have 
 failed to notice the look of indecision and 
 even alarm in his face ; " and what are all 
 the men waiting for yonder ? ' ' 
 
 I told him what I knew of the incident of 
 the mess kid. 
 
 " They're a-waitin' to murder me, sir!" 
 quavered the cook. 
 
 " Nonsense ! " shouted little Thomas, 
 whose Welsh blood was glowing in every 
 fibre, and whose face was as red as a powder- 
 flag. " That fat ruffian knocked me down 
 in his terror, Captain Flanders — sent me 
 sprawling, sir, covered with his infernal 
 dripping — and if the men boil him in his 
 own coppers, by the Lord ! he'll get no more 
 than he deserves." 
 
 " Mr. Thomas, I am surprised to hear 
 such language from you, sir. I won't allow 
 it, sir ! It shows a spiritual neglect that's 
 intolerable to me to witness in a man of
 
 AT SEA. 139 
 
 education and an officer in the mercantile 
 marine," exclaimed the captain, waving his 
 arm with a most impressive gesture, and 
 scowling down upon the little man. 
 
 Here the Espinosas' door was opened a 
 couple of inches, and the Spaniard thrust 
 out his long nose. 
 
 " Captain, captain ! " he quavered. " Has 
 he gone yet ? que demonio ! que demonio ! " 
 
 " Do, Captain Flanders, lock this door, 
 please ; he'll be exposing me again, cap- 
 tain ! " called out Madam Espinosa. 
 
 However, Antonio had twisted his nose 
 round to command the cuddy, and en- 
 countering the eyes of the cook fixed upon 
 him, he slammed the door instantly, and I 
 heard him rattling away in his native lingo 
 to his wife, who gave it him back pretty 
 hot, as I am bound to confess. 
 
 Mr. Thomas made no reply to the skip- 
 per's very offensive and unnecessary rebuke, 
 but repeatedly glanced at him with bitter 
 indignation, whilst he endeavoured to get 
 rid of some of the grease upon his waistcoat 
 by rubbing it with a pocket-handkerchief. 
 
 "What are you doing aft here?" I
 
 140 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 shouted to the cook, longing to kick him 
 for the bother he had brought upon all 
 hands. " Leave the cuddy this moment, 
 sir ! Away with you forward ! ' ' 
 
 " Look there, captain!" he answered, 
 pointing to the quarter-deck; " they're all 
 a-waitin' for me ; it's more than my life's 
 worth to go forward, sir." 
 
 Captain Flanders paid no attention to 
 what he said, but addressing Mr. Thomas 
 with a burst of irritability, exclaimed, "I 
 desire that you will not stare at me in 
 that way, sir. Give me leave to tell you, 
 Mr. Thomas, that it is ungentlemanly and 
 offensive, and a sign of low breeding, sir, 
 to stare at any one as you are staring 
 at me ! " 
 
 At this speech Mr. Thomas's wrath seemed 
 to desert him, and cocking his eyebrows 
 at me in such a way that it twisted his 
 little face into a complete note of interro- 
 gation, he slued himself round and dis- 
 appeared in his cabin. 
 
 The captain walked aft. 
 
 " Pray, sir," I shouted, " what am I to 
 do with the men ? The port watch haven't
 
 AT SEA. 141 
 
 had any dinner. Shall the steward serve 
 out some more beef to them, sir ? " 
 
 "Act as yon think best, Mr. Lee," he 
 replied with great blandness. " Your judg- 
 ment will direct you." And to my very 
 great astonishment, he entered his cabin 
 and shut the door. 
 
 I went on to the poop and sung out to 
 the men, several of whom had gone forward, 
 that the captain had ordered a fresh supply 
 of meat to be given them, and that in con- 
 sideration of the starboard watch sharing 
 their beef with the men in the port watch, 
 I would take it on myself to order grog to 
 be served to all hands ; but on condition 
 that they gave me their word not to further 
 molest the cook. This proposal raised a 
 cheer among them, and whilst they all lay 
 aft to drink the grog that the steward 
 handed to them from the quarter-deck cap- 
 stan, the cook went forward and not a word 
 was said to him. 
 
 I made Nelly laugh with my description 
 of Espinosa's fright and the scene in the 
 cuddy, but the significant part of the inci- 
 dent I kept to myself — I mean the extra-
 
 142 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 ordinary conduct of Captain Flanders. 
 Presently the tiffin-bell rang and she went 
 down to lunch, promising to ask for a piece 
 of salt beef as I had advised, and to whiten 
 her teeth upon a sea-biscuit. 
 
 The breeze had somewhat moderated, and 
 was now blowing dead from the west ; the 
 ship was laying her course, and could well 
 carry all the sail I chose to give her. The 
 reefs were shaken out of the fore and mizzen 
 topsails, the royals set, and the fore-top- 
 mast stun'sail run up. The extra pressure 
 sent the old hooker swirling through it 
 nobly. On either bow the foam stood up like 
 snow-hills, and rushed glittering and cream- 
 ing aft, as though churned up by paddle- 
 wheels. The swell was broad on the star- 
 board quarter, and when the ship's head 
 sank to the rise of it aft, the green sea was 
 frothed a dozen fathoms away beyond her 
 bows ; and as her stern came down again, 
 you could see the stun'sail boom buckle, 
 and every sail swell out as though a gale 
 had taken it, whilst all along the poop the 
 brasswork quivered with fitful flashes, bright 
 as the sunlight in a mirror, and the tiller
 
 AT SEA. 143 
 
 chains clanked harshly as the green seas 
 poured away in a roar under her counter. 
 
 I did not see Mr. Thomas again until he 
 came on deck to relieve me, and then I 
 stayed a few minutes to exchange some 
 words with him. His Welsh spirit still 
 fretted angrily over the treatment he had 
 received in the cuddy, and he complained 
 bitterly of what he spoke of as the " un- 
 warrantable insult " that had been offered 
 him. 
 
 " Bolt, the pilot, also complained of his 
 having insulted him," said I. " Did I tell 
 you, Mr. Thomas, that the captain gave 
 him a tract to read upon profane swearing ? 
 That is his hobby, and I don't say it isn't a 
 good one, only he has no right to affront 
 people with it." 
 
 " I'll tell you what it is, Lee ; I'm begin- 
 ning to believe my friend was right when he 
 told me that the skipper's father hanged 
 himself." 
 
 " There's no doubt that Captain Flanders 
 is eccentric," said I. 
 
 "Ay, damned eccentric!" he exclaimed 
 with a scowl, looking aloft.
 
 144 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 " He believes in spirits and primitive 
 Christianity, sir, and says that people 
 ought to pray only out-of-doors. But I 
 don't think, Mr. Thomas, that we should 
 consider a man cranky for holding views we 
 can't understand or decline to accept. He 
 may be right, and if so, then it is w r e who 
 must be cranky for not agreeing with him." 
 
 " For the matter of that, he's welcome to 
 believe in anything he likes," growled the 
 little man ; " but any belief that makes 
 him think himself entitled to insult me 
 before a greasy lubber of a cockney sea- 
 cook won't suit my book, and whether he's 
 right or not in his ideas, I shall never 
 believe that his head-timbers are sound." 
 
 " Still, do you know, sir," said I, " that I 
 do believe he is a good man at bottom, 
 and means the right thing. His sending 
 me away in the boat the other night to the 
 French ship might have been unseaman- 
 like, but it proves him a humane man, and 
 we ought to let that score heavily in his 
 favour, sir, seeing the stuff that a good 
 many sea-captains are made of nowadays. 
 His notions of swearing may be a little too
 
 AT SEA. 145 
 
 strict for shipboard, but it's better to be 
 out of your reckoning too far to windward 
 than too far to leeward — that's iny way of 
 thinking." 
 
 "But what on earth did he mean by 
 telling me not to stare at him ? " the little 
 man shouted, as red as fire over the thought 
 of it. " Did you hear him call me un- 
 gentlemanly and low-bred, and wanting in 
 manners and the Lord knows what besides 
 for so doing ? I, who can trace my descent 
 to Ap-Thomas the bard, a real chieftain, 
 Mr. Lee, who lived three hundred years 
 ago, and one of whose forefathers was a 
 prince, by jingo ! " 
 
 I had thought this the worst part of the 
 whole business, and it was the only part 
 that had given me real uneasiness. How- 
 ever, I made him no answer, for, in truth, 
 neither of us had as yet had any time to 
 form a solid judgment, and I believed 
 no good would come of alarming each 
 other. 
 
 At this point we were interrupted by the 
 captain coming on deck, on which, with an 
 expression of uneasiness, Mr. Thomas told 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 me I had better go below; and down I 
 went. 
 
 During the afternoon a large schooner 
 had been made out, with nothing but her 
 topsails visible above the horizon on the 
 weather quarter. She was heading S.E., 
 and we were heading S.S.W., and conse- 
 quently before I quitted the deck we had 
 risen her hull. At four bells she was about 
 a couple of miles away to windward, and 
 she was then seen to be a long, large, ex- 
 ceedingly beautiful schooner yacht, of cer- 
 tainly not less than two hundred and fifty 
 tons burden, the very handsomest vessel of 
 her class I had ever set eyes on. I thought 
 she had meant to cross our stern, and was 
 watching her with great interest as she 
 swept like a swan over the long rollers, her 
 copper bottom gleaming like dark gold 
 under the .green surges, which fell hissing 
 and boiling away from her bows, whilst her 
 sails, as white as milk, swayed with the 
 airy grace of a gull's wings against the 
 Indian blue of the western evening sky, 
 and the sun flashed in her streaming ebony- 
 black sides as she yawed to the great ocean
 
 AT SEA. 147 
 
 swell that chased her, when she suddenly 
 hauled her wind and headed on a course 
 directly parallel with ours. 
 
 " Hillo ! " thought I, " she wants to try 
 her speed with us." 
 
 Through the glass I could see some ladies 
 aft, watching us, with a number of gentle- 
 men, and forward was her crew, a whole 
 mob of smartly dressed sailors. All the 
 canvas she could show was packed on her. 
 She had got the wind as we had, abeam — 
 not her best sailing point, perhaps, but it 
 laid her port bulwarks almost flush with the 
 water ; and through it she tore, the spray 
 flashing in smoke over her nose, and her 
 decks and hull all in a quiver with the play 
 of the sunshine on them. 
 
 She was fore-reaching on us fast. I could 
 easily imagine that this effort to pass us 
 was the result of an after-dinner wager, and 
 certainly the gestures and movements of 
 the gentlemen were full of excitement. I 
 stood with Nelly, and Mr. Thomas looking 
 at her over the weather poop-rail. 
 
 " Why, Mr. Thomas," said I, " we mustn't 
 let her beat us 1 "
 
 148 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 "But suppose we can't help it? " quoth 
 Mr. Thomas. 
 
 "Lord, how she smokes through it!" I 
 ejaculated, and I ran my eye aloft at our 
 own canvas ; every sail was drawing, and as 
 round as the side of an apple. 
 
 Captain Flanders stood near the wheel, 
 now and again turning his head to glance at 
 the yacht, but evidently taking very little 
 interest in the race. I could see the hands 
 forward gazing aft at us eagerly, as though 
 wondering that no orders came to them, for 
 we could have set at least three more stun'- 
 sails, if no more ; and what they would 
 have done for the W alder share we could 
 only have waited and seen. But the skip- 
 per made no sign, and so we had to watch 
 ourselves being beaten. 
 
 Our own speed was not less than ten 
 knots, and the yacht I calculated could not 
 be doing less than thirteen. Presently she 
 ran up her distinguishing flag — a square 
 with yellow ground, and a horizontal arrow. 
 However, we could make nothing of this, 
 not having a reference book. 
 
 " Hoist the answering pennant," sung out
 
 AT SEA. 149 
 
 Captain Flanders ; and as I went aft to 
 bend the flag on to the signal halliards, he 
 said, " She'll be hailing us in a minute, and 
 she can read our name." 
 
 It was a wonderful and beautiful sight to 
 see her flying along the water, with her 
 white decks bare to our gaze as they seemed 
 to lean almost up and down to us ; some- 
 times lifted high on a green swell, which 
 she dashed into foam where it took her, 
 then sinking behind a long, high, emerald- 
 bright ridge that hid the whole of her hull, 
 whilst her slender wake trailed away into 
 the toppling seas astern, like a long thread 
 of silver ; though I dare say she found us 
 a noble sight too, with our vast spread of 
 symmetrical canvas soaring into the sky, 
 and the whole beautiful hull exposed as it 
 leaned away from her, laying bare a broad 
 length of shining copper, and dashing off 
 the seas in tall fountains of foam which 
 were as full of colour as a prism. 
 
 AYhen she was almost abeam of us they 
 gave her a wide sheer ; this brought her so 
 close that the faces of the people aboard 
 were distinctly visible. The ladies consisted
 
 150 A SAILOE'S SWEETHEAET. 
 
 of two very pretty young women and a ma- 
 tronly looking old dowager. There were no 
 less than five gentlemen, one of whom, a 
 tall, handsome yonng man in a bine jacket, 
 thrown carelessly over a white flannel shirt, 
 hailed us. 
 
 " We've read your name on your stern. 
 Your hull is a beautiful one, and you ought 
 to be a fast ship ; but the Violet can show 
 you any road you want to take." 
 
 " Answer him, Mr. Lee," called out the 
 skipper, possibly afraid of being " chaffed " 
 before the crew, who were crowding the 
 forecastle, and giving my voice the prefer- 
 ence over Mr. Thomas's, which certainly 
 had not much carrying power. 
 
 " We're bound round the Horn ; will you 
 pilot us ? " I bawled through my hands. 
 
 I could see them all laughing as he shook 
 his head. 
 
 " If you were bound to a warmer climate," 
 he answered, " we should be happy to call 
 in and tell them you're coming." 
 
 "We should like to know the name of 
 the owner of that yacht ? " 
 
 " Lord ," he shouted back.
 
 AT SEA. 151 
 
 " Is his lordship aboard ? " 
 
 He nodded and waved his hand, on which 
 I pulled off my hat, and he returned the 
 bow. 
 
 M If I could come near enough to you," 
 he cried, " I'd throw a case of champagne 
 on board ; but you must take the will for 
 the deed. Where are you bound to ? " 
 
 "Callao. And you?" 
 
 " Gibraltar. A prosperous voyage ! " 
 
 And as he said this, the yacht's helm was 
 put down. We instantly forged ahead. Then 
 she put her helm up, eased off her sheets, 
 and ran under our stern, the ladies waving 
 then handkerchiefs and the gentlemen their 
 hats, which salutations we returned with 
 hearty good will. 
 
 " Bound to Gibraltar, eh?" grumbled^ 
 little Thomas. " That's the sort of sailor- 
 ing I should like. Plenty of champagne 
 and cigars, eh, Mr. Lee ? and nothing to do 
 but to read novels and be blown along by 
 the wind." 
 
 "I am afraid Captain Flanders is going 
 to be polite," exclaimed Nelly, with a 
 glance over her shoulder, and looking
 
 152 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 down at the chief mate with a pout. 
 This was true enough, but then she had 
 seen him coming. He gave her his arm, 
 and as he led her away, I heard him con- 
 gratulate her on being so good a sailor. 
 
 "Lee," said Mr. Thomas, looking after 
 her, and then giving me an interrogative 
 squint, " what a very fine, frank, charming 
 woman Miss Maitland is ! " 
 
 I started at the name, but recollecting 
 myself, said, " Very." 
 
 " I tell you what it is," said he with a 
 grin; "you and she have met before. No 
 nonsense ! You're old friends." 
 
 " We are," I answered ; and I thereupon 
 told him as much of the story as I thought 
 it necessary he should know. I explained 
 that she and I were engaged to be married, 
 and that she had resolved to take this 
 voyage with me. 
 
 " Well, there's nothing odd in that," says 
 he, pulling his beard ; " but the idea isn't a 
 bad one, and if I had thought of it, and 
 could have mustered the money, dash my 
 wig if I wouldn't have shipped my wife in 
 the same way. Nobody could object. Any
 
 AT SEA. 153 
 
 woman may take a passage in a ship if she 
 pays for it. But you were groaning to me 
 the other night over the hardship of having 
 to leave your sweetheart, although now you 
 say you knew she was coming." 
 
 " Did I say that? Well, it was my 
 awkward way of expressing sympathy for 
 you. Your description of your feelings at 
 having to leave your wife affected me, sir. 
 I thought you would feel comforted if I 
 put myself with you in the same boat, 
 Mr. Thomas." 
 
 "Well, well," said he, looking mys- 
 tified, "when a man's in love, he's bound 
 to contradict himself. But it's no business 
 of mine. You've got a plucky girl for a 
 sweetheart, and I hope you'll treat her 
 well, Mr. Lee. Only take my advice, and 
 don't let the skipper get scent of your 
 romance, or you'll set him writing tracts 
 and neglecting the ship's reckoning, and 
 he'll be down on you tooth and nail for 
 being immoral enough to love anybody but 
 yourself." He cast a vindictive look in the 
 direction of the captain. 
 
 "All that the skipper knows about it,"
 
 154 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 said I, " is that Miss Maitland and I were 
 acquainted before we met on this ship, and 
 that she herself explained to hirn. ,, I 
 thought it best to speak of her as Miss 
 Maitland. It might have complicated the 
 romance too much for Mr. Thomas's sym- 
 pathy to have told him that she was sail- 
 ing under false colours. 
 
 "I suppose you know," said he, "that 
 the skipper's a widower ? " 
 
 "I did not know," I answered; " but I 
 should have been more surprised to hear 
 that he had got a wife living." 
 
 This sarcasm was too fine for Thomas. 
 
 " You must take care, Lee, that he don't 
 go and fall in love with your sweetheart," 
 he continued, with a grin so broad that it 
 was impossible to look at it without laugh- 
 ing. 
 
 " That won't make me uneasy/' I an- 
 swered. "Indeed, I rather wish it would 
 happen, for it would double his anxiety that 
 she should be comfortable." 
 
 "Ay, but suppose," said he, thrusting 
 his little hands into his waistcoat pockets 
 as though he strove to subdue the occa-
 
 AT SEA. 155 
 
 sional heave of internal mirth that con- 
 vulsed his minute frame — " suppose, Lee, 
 he should find out that you are her sweet- 
 heart, and turn to and grow jealous, eh ? 
 and sulk over you in his cabin, and plot 
 a diabolical scheme to get rid of you, eh, 
 Lee ? Ha ! ha ! Why, love stops at 
 nothing — let Miss Maitland witness to that 
 beautiful idea ! " 
 
 " She'll have to believe in spirits before 
 he falls in love with her," said I, looking 
 at Nelly as she paced alongside of the 
 skipper on the weather side of the poop, 
 holding on to his arm, whilst I could hear 
 his deep voice sounding in a rnuffled growl, 
 and his left arm working like a pump- 
 handle. It was not to be supposed that 
 the mate's suggestion could make me very 
 uneasy ; yet it did flash upon me that if 
 the skipper should fall in love with her — 
 and the amiable manner in which she 
 listened to his talk about spirits and primi- 
 tive Christianity was as likely to win him 
 as anything I could imagine — my sweet- 
 heart's position would be a rather embar- 
 rassing one.
 
 156 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 
 
 On Wednesday we were in latitude 40 and 
 longitude about 16° 5', — some two hundred 
 miles to the eastward of the Azores. The 
 fresh westerly breeze had given us frisky 
 heels, and we had rolled through the Bay 
 of Biscay into the broad bosom of the North 
 Atlantic, with our fore-topmast stun'sail set 
 day and night, and with no other meddling 
 with the running rigging than the occa- 
 sional hauling taut or slackening of the 
 weather-braces. 
 
 By this time both Madam Espinosa and 
 Mr. Black had got, or professed to have 
 got, over their sickness, and were often on 
 deck, and even occupied their places at the 
 cuddy table, though their appetites were 
 small ; but the poor Spaniard's stomach
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLOP. 157 
 
 was still anywhere but in its right place, 
 and when he came on deck shortly after 
 noon on this Wednesday, for the first time 
 since we had cleared the English Channel, 
 he presented one of the most ludicrously 
 pitiable figures mortal foreigner ever cut 
 at sea. 
 
 To begin with, his wife had pinned around 
 his head (at his own request, no doubt) an 
 immense blue silk handkerchief or shawl, 
 as big as a flag, rolled up into the shape 
 of a turban, the ends of which fell down 
 his back as far as the small of it. Under 
 this turban his huge hooked nose stuck out 
 like a signboard ; his face was as yellow as 
 a guinea, and the contrast of it with the 
 blue of his head-gear did not add to his 
 loveliness, as you may believe. He wore a 
 long flapping bright-green dressing-gown 
 that descended to his ankles, and below 
 sprawled his feet, thrust into a pair of long 
 yellow slippers with toes of highly varnished 
 red leather. As this extraordinary figure 
 came slowly up the companion, moving 
 upwards in fitful jerks, which were produced, 
 as I found, by his wife who followed behind,
 
 158 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 and was helping him with an occasional 
 shove, the man at the wheel, a grim, un- 
 shaven salt, gazed at him for some moments 
 with his mouth wide open, astounded and 
 even alarmed hy the extraordinary appari- 
 tion, until the truth dawning upon him, he 
 gave vent to his feelings in a loud yell of 
 laughter, and, as if to show how utterly 
 unable he was to control himself, spat his 
 quid clean overboard. 
 
 However, the fresh air did the poor 
 fellow some good, for after a bit he began 
 to look about him, and hold out his long 
 yellow claws to the sun, that was hot 
 enough to suit even a negro, though when 
 now and again the vessel gave an extra 
 pitch — like a capering colt startled into a 
 wilder frisk by a gad-fly — he would lay hold 
 of the arms of his chair and deliver himself 
 of a deep groan, I have seen old sailors, 
 as seasoned, you would have thought, to 
 every possible motion of a ship as their 
 stomachs were to salt junk, as sick as dogs 
 in short cross seas, or when lying roasting 
 and rolling upon a glassy tropical ocean ; 
 but I never suffered from sea- sickness in my
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 159 
 
 life, and so I do not pretend to know what 
 the feeling is like ; but no experience of it 
 in others ever brought rne so near to com- 
 prehending the horrors of it as did the face 
 of the Spaniard, as he sat to-day in his blue 
 turban, groaning and toasting himself in 
 the sunshine. 
 
 I went up to him out of civility and asked 
 him how he did. 
 
 " Bad," said he ; " varee bad ! " 
 
 "Oh, you'll get over it soon," said I, 
 cheerfully. " You must eat, my dear sir — 
 force yourself to eat : you never know 
 what's going to ease you." He held up 
 his hand, but not understanding the gesture, 
 I went on : " The captain of the last ship 
 I was in always endeavoured to get his 
 passengers who complained of sea-sickness 
 to eat. < Try forward, and then try back 
 again,' he would say. ' First taste this, 
 then that : if boiled mutton fails, pickled 
 pork may succeed; and if pickled pork 
 don't do '" 
 
 " Guidado I " yelled the Spaniard, and I 
 had just time to hop aside. 
 
 "Bo'sun ! " I shouted, "send a hand aft
 
 160 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 here with a swab and a bucket of water. " 
 And I quitted Mr. Espinosa with a very 
 sheepish face. Evidently I was not the 
 kind of physician he wanted. Indeed, he 
 called his wife and begged her to entreat 
 me not to approach him again until he was 
 quite well : a message she delivered with a 
 good deal of bluntness, though I believe she 
 did not mean to be offensive, but that she 
 thought I would be tickled by her girlish 
 candour. I know nothing more uncomfort- 
 able than a middle-aged woman who gives 
 herself the airs of a maiden and gushes on 
 trifles, just as if people were blind and could 
 not see that she was altogether too old for 
 enthusiasms. I could scarcely forbear 
 laughing in this poor lady's face when I 
 glanced over her hull, that was as motherly 
 as a chubby-sided South Seaman, and peeped 
 at the corner of her eyes, where the powder 
 lay snug in the crows'-feet, whilst she was 
 giggling away as if she was not yet turned 
 forty, and feigning a rapture over every- 
 thing, whether she thought it tiresome or 
 not. I did not notice that she gave her 
 husband much of her attention : but I am
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 161 
 
 not going to blame her for that ; she had 
 scarcely got over her own sea-sickness ; 
 and really, when I looked at the poor guinea- 
 coloured creature, with his nose that cast 
 a shadow upon the deck as big as a flying- 
 jib, and his long saffron-tinted fingers, which 
 the rings somehow made extraordinarily 
 ugly, and the skin of his throat like an old 
 piece of parchment covering a whipcord 
 frame, I could not but think that she 
 deserved some credit for not having drowned 
 him months before, or ridding herself of 
 him in some other way; for she, at all 
 events, was a presentable woman, whereas 
 he was the ugliest man that nature ever let 
 loose upon the world. 
 
 I had returned from giving some directions 
 to the ship's carpenter, and was standing 
 on the weather side of the poop close 
 against the ladder, glancing aloft at the 
 canvas and admiring the spread and set of 
 it, and then looking down at the ship's 
 side, the green of which gaily matched the 
 glorious blue of the sea, divided, as they 
 were by a broad line of foam through which 
 the copper shone with sudden glancings of 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 dull golden light as the ship lurched to 
 leeward, when Captain Flanders walked slap 
 up to me and stationed himself by my side. 
 
 u The barometer is falling, Mr. Lee," he 
 said, " yet the weather looks settled." 
 
 " Yes, sir, it looks steady enough all to 
 windward, though I don't know if that haze 
 to leeward means anything." 
 
 He stooped his head so as to see the lee 
 horizon under the foot of the mainsail. 
 " I forgot to ask you the other day," said 
 he, rearing his body slowly, and confronting 
 me with his long, gaunt face, and speaking 
 in his deepest tones — " but my memory is 
 not what it was — whether in the unhappy 
 quarrel that took place between the cook 
 and the crew there was any bad language 
 used ? " 
 
 " I didn't hear any, sir," I replied. 
 
 "I presume not," he exclaimed, fixing 
 his gloomy eyes full on my face ; " other- 
 wise you would have reported it to me, 
 as you have received my orders on that 
 subject." 
 
 " No, sir, I can't say I noticed that any 
 bad language was used."
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 163 
 
 " What sort of a disposition have you 
 observed among the crew ? " 
 
 " They seem a very steady, willing crew, 
 sir " 
 
 "I don't mean that," lie interrupted. 
 " Do they seem a thoughtful crew ? " 
 
 " Upon my word, sir," I replied, a good 
 deal puzzled, " I really can't say." 
 
 " I have been wishing to deliver them a 
 series of lectures on religious subjects, Mr. 
 Lee, but am willing to consult you before 
 I do so, because I am by nature a very 
 sensitive man; and if there are any blas- 
 phemers or impious men forward, I should 
 not like to subject myself to their jeers, 
 although," he muttered, striking his hands 
 together, " my misgiving shows a deplor- 
 ably weak heart — a heart for which the 
 noble apostolic example has done nothing, 
 nothing ! " and he stamped his foot heavily 
 on the deck. 
 
 " I am flattered that you should think fit 
 to consult me on this subject, sir," I 
 answered, " but I should prefer not to give 
 an opinion." 
 
 " Speak out ! " he exclaimed angrily. " I
 
 164 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 consult you as one of my officers, and I ex- 
 j)ect that you will give me an opinion." 
 
 " May I first ask," said I, pretty con- 
 siderably taken aback, "what are the sub- 
 jects you propose to lecture upon, sir ? " 
 
 His eyes lighted up, and he inclined his 
 head towards me with an eager gesture. 
 
 " On the existence of spirits," he ex- 
 claimed in a low, yery earnest voice. " I have 
 twelve lectures by me on that subject, written 
 by myself, in which I prove that the air we 
 breathe is full of spirits. But understand, 
 Mr. Lee, before the material eye is qualified 
 to behold and the ear to hear these spirits, 
 the heart must have faith ; and it is that 
 faith I wish to impart to the ship's crew, if 
 
 — if " He wandered, as if in search of a 
 
 word, and then stojmed dead. 
 
 I thought this strange talk for a sea- 
 captain to hold to his officer, more especially 
 with a falling barometer below. How the 
 dickens came this man to get command of a 
 ship ? thought I ; and as I ran my eye over 
 the noble fabric and thought of the number 
 of lives over which he had as much control 
 as any imperial desjoot, the signifiance of his 
 craziness smote me violently.
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 165 
 
 "You have demanded au opinion from 
 me, sir," said I, after waiting a few moments 
 to see if lie had anything more to say, and 
 observing the look of abstraction in his 
 eyes, " and I will give it : I don't think the 
 men would understand your lectures, and 
 indeed, considering the work they have to 
 get through, and the rough, hard life of a 
 forecastle, I don't think they would thank 
 you for any sort of lectures. When on deck 
 they ought to be at work, and when below 
 they want to turn in." 
 
 That's blunt enough for him, anyhow, 
 thought I, and the plain truth too. 
 
 U I was afraid so," he exclaimed, folding 
 his arms. "And, after all, can we expect 
 the vulgar and the uneducated to receive 
 the light, when those who are cultivated and 
 have minds to reason with refuse to heed 
 it?" 
 
 " Xo sir," said I, " and that's why I think 
 you would only be wasting time in trying to 
 put ideas into the heads of the men yonder." 
 
 " I am afraid you are right, Mr. Lee, and 
 I am obliged to you for your opinion." So 
 saying, he was about to walk aft, when he
 
 166 A SMLOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 stopped and said, " Miss Maitland tells me 
 you knew her before you joined this ship." 
 
 " I did, sir," I replied, colouring up a trifle 
 and stealing a glance at Nelly, who, whilst 
 pretending to listen to Mr. Black, was look- 
 ing our way and evidently thinking of us. 
 
 " She is a charming person — a most in- 
 tellectual woman," he exclaimed with great 
 energy. " She seems thoroughly to under- 
 stand my views, and one convert I am 
 certain of." 
 
 I stared after him as he walked away, not 
 taking any note ( as Mr. Thomas might have 
 sworn I did) of what he said about Nelly, 
 but thinking over what should be done if 
 his madness increased. Here we were only 
 seven days out, and in that time I myself 
 could see that his eccentric conduct and 
 language were a great deal more pro- 
 nounced than when in the Channel, though 
 even then they were apparent enough to 
 detain my attentioD. Whether the state of 
 his mind was known to the men I had as 
 yet had no means of ascertaining, and I was 
 not going to commit so rash an act as to 
 make inquiries among them ; but I am now
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 167 
 
 persuaded that they suspected nothing 
 neither at that nor at a much later time. 
 The passengers, with the exception of Nelly, 
 having he en sick and confined to their 
 cabins, would have had no opportunity of 
 judging him ; indeed, if even Mr. Black were 
 sharp enough to penetrate the truth, it 
 would he necessary for the captain to con- 
 verse with him about spirits and primitive 
 Christianity, as he had conversed with me 
 and Nelly on those subjects, before the 
 Scotchman could arrive at any conclusion, 
 and then would not he suppose that Captain 
 Flanders was eccentric merely on these two 
 points ? Madam Espinosa had not, in my 
 judgment, sense enough to know a madman 
 even when she saw one ; and the Spaniard 
 as a foreigner, would accept everything as 
 illustrative of the character of the British 
 seaman. Hence, so far as I could judge, the 
 secret was known to or suspected by myself 
 and Nelly only; for Mr. Thomas himself 
 had as good as told me that he looked upon 
 the skipper's talk as a mere trick to deceive 
 and make fools of some of us. As I have 
 said, I wondered over and over again how
 
 168 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 any firm of employers could have entrusted 
 command of a valuable ship to such a man. 
 But so many causes operate in such matters 
 that no conjecture can ever hit the exact 
 truth. He might have an interest in the 
 firm, or he was a connection of one of the 
 partners, or maybe no suspicion that his 
 mind was diseased was felt at the time 
 when he was appointed. I had never a 
 character for being curious, and in those 
 careless young days I took things as they 
 came, and never troubled myself to look into 
 them. Hence I am unable to say more 
 about Captain Flanders than what I can 
 find in my recollection of him. Difficult as 
 his character and manners are to convey by 
 the pen — indeed, I may say I have found it 
 impossible to approach in writing the im- 
 pression my mind carries of him — I have 
 thought proper to do my best with his story, 
 that the reader may understand that 
 travellers by sea are exposed to other perils 
 than those which are contained in the 
 stock hazards of tempest, fire, and mutiny. 
 
 Before I went below at four o'clock I 
 noticed that the set of the swell, which had
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 169 
 
 been running all day steady from the west- 
 ward, had veered right round to the north- 
 ward, and had become heavier. This was a 
 circumstance of such rare occurrence that 
 in all my life I have only met two seamen 
 who could recall a like experience. At the 
 same time the wind hauled forward, blowing 
 S.W. by S. This obliged me to brace the 
 yards sharp up, and even then we were some 
 points off our course. There was no appear- 
 ance of dirty weather. The haze to the 
 eastward had lifted and the sky was a bright 
 blue, with a few rainy-looking clouds stretch- 
 ing across it, their shadows sailing in slate- 
 coloured patches across the leaping waters. 
 The pitching of the ship, however, made 
 the decks extremely uncomfortable, and 
 proved altogether too violent for poor 
 Espinosa, whose chair capsized under him ; 
 he tumbled over in such a way that the tails 
 of his dressing-gown got foul of his head, 
 and away he rolled, like a man in a sack, 
 until he was brought up by a hencoop, which 
 he struck with a thump that set all the 
 hens cackling in a fright. His wife laughed 
 at him, but Nelly, with more humanity,
 
 170 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 sprang forward to his assistance, and whilst 
 she cleared his head of his gown, I got 
 him on to his feet and led him back to his 
 chair, which I fixed against the mizzen-mast,. 
 and secured by a turn with a rope's end. 
 
 I observed another fall in the mercury 
 when I went below at four bells. This was 
 the second dog-watch, and I was not dis- 
 posed to lie down ; so, freshening myself up 
 a bit with a hair-brush and a towel, I went 
 on deck again, to be with Nelly if possible, 
 that is, if the skipper left the poop, for, as I 
 have said, I made a rule of keeping away 
 from her when he was looking on. It was 
 very warm and the breeze dropping fast, 
 but there was quite enough wind to keep 
 the sails full, though you could have told 
 the decrease in the ship's speed by the 
 slopping sound of the water alongside. Our 
 decks looked as clean and smart as a man- 
 of-war's, and all aloft taut, and the sails set, 
 and the yards braced to a hair. No ship 
 ever put to sea with a better boatswain than 
 the one we had. With his silver whistle 
 slung round his neck, his bronzed face peer- 
 ing between an enormous pair of bushy
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 171 
 
 whiskers, his great hairy arms ringed with 
 bracelets and scored with crucifixes, stars, 
 and other devices of that kind, bared to the 
 elbows, his open shirt revealing his mossy 
 breast and his full, muscular throat, the 
 skin of which below the collar-rim was as 
 fair as a woman's hand, Mr. Sinnet, the 
 boatswain of the WaldersJiare, was a fine 
 specimen of the English merchant sailor, 
 with a voice like a hurricane, an eye for the 
 minutest stain on the ship's deck, full of 
 sympathy for sailors and their grievances, of 
 which his mind held a catalogue as long as 
 a mainyard, and a knack of keeping the 
 men under him perpetually at work without 
 " hazing " them, as the Yankees say. 
 
 In most ships all hands are employed on 
 deck during the afternoon : this was the 
 case in the Waldershare, and the crew 
 knocked off work in the second dog-watch. 
 All the men were now on deck, the boat- 
 swain leaning against his cabin door, smok- 
 ing and yarning to the carpenter, who 
 squatted on a bench in the doorway ; the 
 steward arranging with the cook about 
 the cuddy dinner, in the galley, from the
 
 172 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 chimney of which the smoke poured down- 
 wards, striking the water under the foot 
 of the main-topmast staysail and blowing 
 away on the top of the waves ; whilst on 
 the forecastle the men hung in groups — 
 here one of them putting a patch into an 
 old pair of trousers, there another greasing 
 his sea-hoots, some listening whilst one 
 read aloud from a fragment of an old 
 newspaper, others conversing with short 
 black pipes, the howls of which were in- 
 verted, in their mouths, as they leaned 
 over the forecastle rail watching the green 
 water coiling away from the ship's side, 
 hissing like a serpent as it ran aft. Now 
 and then from the interior of the fore- 
 castle came the sound of the scraping of 
 a fiddle. As I watched the man reading 
 froin the old bit of newspaper, I smiled 
 to think that here we were sailing away 
 from England and Europe, and that for 
 months, perhaps, we should hear no news 
 of what was going on there ; that in our 
 absence kings might die, new constitutions 
 be created, wars declared ; and that ashore 
 all the people would be thinking what
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 173 
 
 wonderful times they lived in, and boasting- 
 of the changes which must make their period 
 a famous one in history ; whereas we should 
 come home and see no change anywhere, 
 only a few more houses built, and some 
 remembered faces missing, whilst the people 
 still went about their work, and the sun 
 looked down upon the same old scenes and 
 interests. I suppose it is our vanity that 
 causes us always to think ours the great 
 age of change. But it makes the sailor 
 laugh when he comes home to hear how 
 much has happened and to see how little 
 things have altered. 
 
 When dinner was served in the cuddy 
 we all of us, including Espinosa, took our 
 seats at the table, Mr. Thomas remaining* 
 on deck. I invariably noticed that the 
 captain seemed easier in his manner when 
 the chief mate was away, and this evening 
 his talk — though, to be sure, he did not 
 talk very much, after all — was so sensible, 
 that I should have defied any one to suppose 
 he was not in full possession of his faculties. 
 He predicted that we should have a storm 
 before twelve hours had passed, and said
 
 174 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 that this heavy swell from the northwards 
 was full of meaning to him. And then he 
 related to Nelly his experience of a typhoon 
 in the Bay of Bengal ; how, about an hour 
 before sunset, the sky all away to the east- 
 ward was blood red, and the sea like an 
 ocean of cochineal, and how this dreadful 
 redness lasted till nearly midnight, during 
 which time every one on board looked as 
 if he had been painted over with vermilion, 
 while the whole sea was on fire with phos- 
 phorus, and spread out like a vast surface 
 of glass, licked underneath by long green 
 and blue and white flames. 
 
 I had witnessed a spectacle much re- 
 sembling this when becalmed off Antigua, 
 and therefore knew he had not exaggerated 
 in his description of it. Nelly, however, 
 sometimes glanced at me, with a faint in- 
 credulous smile, as much as to say, " Will, 
 another hallucination, poor fellow ! " yet for 
 all that she listened to him with a great 
 deal of interest. Indeed, he seemed to 
 have hit the topic that suited his hollow 
 face and glowing eyes when he talked of 
 red skies and blue and green fires, and as
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 175 
 
 lie went on in his deep voice, with Nelly 
 listening to him, I thought of the Ancient 
 Mariner and the Wedding Guest. 
 
 The cuddy being well aft, the pitch of 
 the ship was felt in its full force ; the bulk- 
 heads creaked furiously ; the crockery in the 
 steward's pantry rattled with an occasional 
 smash ; now and again might be heard the 
 grind of the rudder, and the dull thunder 
 of the swell as it struck the ship heavily 
 under the counter ; the swinging trays 
 would plunge out of reach ; plates slided 
 fore and aft ; knives and spoons tumbled 
 into one's lap or on to the deck with a 
 clatter, and I had to calculate the moment 
 when to lift a fork to my mouth, in order 
 that I might not drive it into my eye or 
 my ear. In short, everything that wasn't 
 lashed fetched away; and, among other 
 things, Mr. Black, against whose chair a 
 sudden lurch had propelled the steward, 
 and over they both toppled, dragging the 
 table-cloth half off with them. The Scotch- 
 man crawled on his hands and knees into 
 his cabin, and shutting the door upon him- 
 self with a loud slam, gave vent to his
 
 176 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 feelings in an uproar that instantly did for 
 poor Espinosa, who, though eating nothing, 
 had been manfully holding on to the table 
 and giving battle to his nausea, as we most 
 of us saw by his rolling eyes ; but the moment 
 he heard Mr. Black, then, as a war-horse 
 pricks his ears to the notes of a trumpet, 
 he started up with a convulsed face, slued 
 around with outstretched wandering hands, 
 and dashed, or rather fell, headlong into his 
 cabin, where he was presently followed by 
 his wife, who for some minutes had been 
 sitting with a handkerchief stuffed into her 
 mouth. 
 
 " I should like to go on deck," said Nelly, 
 looking very pale ; and really, the sounds 
 which now issued from the cabins, to right 
 and left, might have disordered the stomach 
 of a whaling captain. In a moment the skip- 
 per got up and offered her his arm, and 
 after lingering a few moments to swallow a 
 glass of sherry, I followed them. 
 
 The wind was fast dying away, and the 
 sun was going down into a bed of clouds 
 that had risen whilst we sat at dinner. The 
 captain had handed Nelly to a chair, and I
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 177 
 
 noticed him standing at the wheel, looking 
 steadily into the west, as a man might who 
 had reason to know that something was to 
 be expected from that quarter. " After all," 
 thought I, "if he has not his wits about 
 him, he has enough to relieve those under 
 him from much anxiety." Mr. Thomas had 
 vanished, and looking through the skylight, 
 I saw him eating away heartily with his 
 arms squared, deaf to the complaining 
 sounds in the cabins. I asked Nelly how 
 she felt. 
 
 " Quite well again. I am always well in 
 the air." 
 
 " The sun looks angry, doesn't he ? " 
 
 "And beautiful too. See those lovely 
 colours streaking the upper portion of the 
 clouds there." 
 
 " I am glad to find the captain looking 
 at the horizon with a rational eye. He 
 seemed as sound as an oyster-shell at 
 dinner." 
 
 "Yes, he did," she answered; "but he 
 is not sound, Will. As he led me on deck, 
 he said that a spirit had told him we were 
 going to have a storm." 
 
 VOL. I. n
 
 178 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 " God help him, then," said I. " I give 
 him up after that." I left her with some- 
 thing like a feeling of real disappointment. 
 I had quite hoped I had exaggerated his 
 craziness, hut this piece of information 
 threw me all ahack again, and maybe I 
 was now disposed to think him madder 
 than he was. 
 
 The clouds in the west were fast growing 
 into a magnificent spectacle as they rolled 
 slowly up to meet the sun, that was sinking 
 towards them. As yet they were detached, 
 though they stretched the whole length of 
 the western horizon ; but just below them 
 was a solid, motionless line, so exactly re- 
 sembling a coast, that it was impossible to 
 see it and not for the moment believe it 
 land. It was of a livid colour, as though 
 the great vaporous masses of front cloud 
 obstructed the light of the sun from it, and 
 against it the horizontal swell ran in out- 
 lines, like dark-green hills, whilst on the 
 hither side of these running liquid lines, the 
 sea caught the red light of the sun and 
 shattered it into fragments of lurid crimson, 
 which it seemed to hurl right and left upon
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLOXE. 179 
 
 its surface. All the edges of the upper 
 clouds directly looking up to the sun were 
 tinged with a deep crimson border, that 
 faded into amber as it crept towards the 
 centre ; and this rich colour was again fol- 
 lowed further down by a kind of yellow 
 brightness, like the sheen of pale gold, but 
 the centre and the skirts of the clouds were 
 dark, graduating from slate into a livid 
 gloom, corresponding with the motionless 
 range behind. I never witnessed a grander, 
 nor, indeed, a more awful sunset, nor be- 
 held at once so great a number of rich, 
 defined colours ; for it must be remembered 
 that on either hand of the sun the clouds, 
 as they stretched to the north and the 
 south, gathered a variety of lovely tints, 
 so that even the remotest clouds had a 
 pink effulgence in them, mixed with pearl 
 and delicate orange, whilst the sea all to- 
 starboard was equally full of colour, being, 
 a lively green near the ship, but as full of 
 shifting hues as the dolphin until it reached 
 the great stretch of dull reddish light thrown 
 down upon it by the sun, and which the 
 waves, as I have said, tore into fragments,
 
 180 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 and tossed on their summits as though 
 flames were running up through the sur- 
 face of the sea out of the depths of it. It 
 was strange that the captain should have 
 pictured much such a scene as this at the 
 dinner-table, though he could not know 
 that it might be seen by going on deck, as 
 all this splendour had gathered whilst we 
 sat in the cuddy. Did it portend a cyclone ? 
 We might hope that we were scarcely far 
 enough south for that kind of gale, the very 
 worst a ship can encounter. 
 
 The men forward seemed fascinated by 
 the sunset, and stood looking at it in a 
 crowd on the starboard side of the fore- 
 castle. We had all plain sail set, and the 
 starboard studding-sail booms rigged out. 
 Suddenly the wind utterly failed, and the 
 canvas pealed against the masts and rig- 
 ging with reports like the discharge of a 
 hundred small fire-arms. Mr. Thomas was 
 now on deck, looking at the sunset. 
 
 " There's a gale of wind there," said he, 
 "but we shan't have it yet; the rain must 
 come first." 
 
 " Get those stun'sail booms rigged in ! "
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 181 
 
 sung out the skipper, " and clew the royals 
 up and furl them." 
 
 The necessary orders were given, and the 
 light canvas melted in the calm blue over- 
 head, like summer clouds in the eye of the 
 morning sun. 
 
 " Haul down the flying jib, and send some 
 hands aft to stow the crossjack ! " 
 
 "Hillo!" thought I, "the spirits are 
 growing nervous." 
 
 " A sail on the starboard beam ! " shouted 
 a voice from the main-topmast cross-trees. 
 
 " What does she look like ? " bawled Mr. 
 Thomas. 
 
 " Why, like a glob o' blood, sir." 
 
 " Mr. Lee," exclaimed the captain, " take 
 the glass with you into the maintop and see 
 what you can make of her." 
 
 I fetched the glass, sprang into the main 
 rigging, and gained the top. I steadied the 
 glass in the top-gallant rigging, but the ship 
 was rolling so abominably, that it took me 
 some minutes to fix the vessel. I then 
 found that nothing below her topsail yards 
 was visible. So I clambered up to the 
 cross-trees, and from this elevation she was
 
 182 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 distinct enough. The swell on the horizon 
 sometimes hid her, but I soon had my re- 
 port ready. 
 
 " She's a small barque, sir, snugged right 
 away down to her topsails, which are close- 
 reefed ; and they're either reefing or furling 
 her foresail, and she's pitching as I never 
 before saw any vessel pitch ! " I bellowed, 
 making my voice reach the deck with ex- 
 treme difficulty, for the canvas was rattling 
 about me as if a lot of nine-pounders were 
 being discharged all around in the air. 
 
 " That'll do, Mr. Lee ! " shouted the 
 chief mate. " Lay down, sir ! " 
 
 However, I stayed a minute or two to 
 look around me. The view of the sunset 
 was not half so fine up here as from the 
 deck, owing to my being able to see from 
 my elevation a very tall breadth of the bank 
 of livid cloud below the illuminated masses ; 
 but the tumbling sea, along which the heavy 
 swell was rolling, the tops of which, bur- 
 nished by the sultry calm that had fallen, 
 were lucent with the red western glare, 
 whilst in their hollows the deep violet 
 shadows strongly defined the movements
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 183 
 
 of the sea to my eye, looking down from 
 my great altitude, presented a grand scene, 
 in the midst of which lay the long, narrow 
 hull of the Waldershare, plunging heavily, 
 shattering the water in foam all about her 
 stem as her counter came chopping down 
 into it, while her decks shone with the red 
 light that fell slanting from the west, and 
 red fires gleamed in the glass of the sky- 
 lights and in every piece of brass, and her 
 people looked like pigmies. 
 
 " Clew up the top-gallant sails," I heard 
 the skipper sing out as I dropped over the 
 futtock-shrouds into the main rigging ; and 
 as I alighted on the top of the bulwark, 
 Mr. Thomas called to the boatswain to pipe 
 all hands to shorten sail. I thought this 
 a sensible move on the part of the skipper. 
 All hands were on deck, it is true, but only 
 the watch were doing the work; by snugging 
 down whilst there was daylight, and putting- 
 all the men to work while they were on 
 deck, would save a deal of trouble later on, 
 and was an order sure to please the crew. 
 The clear notes of the boatswain's pipe 
 echoed high above the heavy flogging of
 
 184 A SAILOE'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 the canvas, and in a few minutes both 
 watches were hard at work, letting go 
 halliards, haiiling out reef-tackles and run- 
 ning out along the yards. We had enough 
 hands to reef all three topsails at once 
 when there was no wind, and soon the men 
 were on the yards passing the earrings and 
 knotting the reef-points. The usual con- 
 ditions of reefing were wanting in this 
 instance — the ship flying through the 
 water, the gale ringing through the rigging, 
 the water hissing and boiling around her, 
 the pealing canvas bending the spars like 
 withes, and wringing the very mast-coats off 
 the decks ; nevertheless, there was noise, 
 and even excitement enough, for on each 
 yard the spirit of rivalry ruled strong. Each 
 gang wanted to be the first done, and it 
 was a lively sight to see them come 
 tumbling off the yards into the tops, and 
 sliding down the backstays, or dropping 
 down the rigging to be first at the halliards, 
 and singing out before the others should be 
 down from aloft. 
 
 By the time the topsail halliards were 
 belayed the sun had gone, the advanced
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 185 
 
 clouds had lost their glory and, merged 
 into the solid wall behind, stood up to a 
 great height in the sky, which was of a sickly 
 red that extended far into the east, where 
 it became a sort of ash-colour. I never 
 remember beholding a more portentous 
 aspect of the heavens. The red haze had 
 faded out of the air, the sea was rapidly 
 growing dark, and the night was closing 
 in fast. There was not a breath of air, the 
 atmosphere was oppressively hot, and we 
 felt it the more now that there was no 
 canvas to fan the decks. With the ex- 
 ception of the three close-reefed topsails, 
 the foresail (that was hauled close up to 
 the yard), and the fore-topmast staysail, the 
 vessel had not a rag of canvas showing, and 
 she looked as forlorn as poor Espinosa in his 
 silk drawers, as she rolled her naked spars 
 to and fro, to and fro, under the lurid and 
 threatening sky. Having no steerage-way, 
 she had fallen off, and the swell was right 
 abeam, with the black cloud-bank astern ; 
 but luckily within the last hour the swell 
 had considerably moderated, and the ship 
 in consequence was a good deal more
 
 186 A SAILOE'S SWEETHEAKT. 
 
 habitable, though it was still difficult to 
 keep one's footing without holding on with 
 the hands. 
 
 " We're snug enough now, anyway," said 
 Mr. Thomas to me, pulling his hair over 
 his ears and smoothing down his waistcoat. 
 "But we shall be soaked first before the 
 wind comes to dry us. Hillo ! that was a 
 bright flash ! Gad ! that looked typhoonish, 
 Mr. Lee ! " He was gazing astern as he 
 spoke, and I forward ; but though I had 
 not seen the flash where it leapt, I judged 
 its ferocity by the brilliant greenish glare 
 that filled the whole of the sky. 
 
 " The skipper seems to know what he's 
 about," said I. 
 
 "Why, yes," he answered, shortly. 
 
 " I think he got an idea from that vessel 
 to windward." 
 
 " Very likely. I heartily wish the voyage 
 were over," he exclaimed, pettishly. "It's 
 the most uncomfortable berth I ever filled. 
 Neither as third, second, nor chief mate 
 have I ever before been thrown with a 
 skipper who eyes me when I speak to him 
 as if he would like to cut my throat."
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 187 
 
 "I confess I don't understand him," 
 said I. 
 
 " It's not good form for officers to discuss 
 their captain, I know," said he ; " but when 
 you've got a skipper like Captain Flanders 
 to deal with, what can a fellow do but 
 cruise round and round him. He never 
 consults me ; he never seems to like me to 
 speak to him. Does he think I don't know 
 my work ? Would he like to make out that 
 it's three turns round the long-boat and a 
 pull at the scuttle-butt with me ? If he 
 lets the men get that notion into their 
 heads, I may as well go below for the rest 
 of the voyage." 
 
 "I don't believe he's responsible for all 
 he does," I answered. " What do you 
 think of his telling Miss Maitland that a 
 spirit warned him a storm was coming ? " 
 
 " Ay, ay, he's a plaguey good hand at 
 spirits : but take care that he isn't tom- 
 fooling us with his damned ghosts. Long- 
 shore dodges to get officers into a hole are 
 pretty common nowadays, I've heard. 
 You'll never make me think he believes in 
 what he says."
 
 188 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 I could not help smiling at this notion ; 
 at the same time I felt sorry for my little 
 shipmate. There was no doubt he had good 
 reason to dislike the skipper, who made a 
 point of treating him with great rudeness, 
 never addressing him at meal-times, nor 
 conversing with him on deck, and barely 
 giving him civil words when spoken to by 
 him; but much of his resentment sprung 
 from disappointment. I believe he had 
 counted upon getting command of the 
 Waldershare this voyage, and it was un- 
 doubtedly mortifying to a man who had 
 been in the service of the owners of the 
 ship for some years, to find a stranger 
 chosen out of another employ and put over 
 him. However, he had let fall one hint 
 that I made up my mind should profit me, 
 when he said it was bad form for officers 
 to discuss their skipper. We had opened 
 ourselves too much as it was, and apart 
 from all instinct of discipline and respect, 
 I considered that I might criticize Captain 
 Flanders once too often, and so get pro- 
 fessionally ruined ; for, whether mad or not, 
 he was captain, and could do what he liked
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 189 
 
 aboard his own ship — break me and send 
 me forward to work with the men, or clap 
 me in irons in a cabin under lock and key. 
 
 It was now eight bells, and my watch 
 on deck. There had been no more light- 
 ning, but it was very dark, with a most 
 curious red haze in the north, so deceptive 
 that one only saw it fitfully and by look- 
 ing at the sky to the east and west of 
 it. There came a few languid stars into 
 the south, but sea and sky were as black 
 as ink astern ; not a breath of air, the swell 
 greatly fallen, and the sea alongside like 
 ink, witli a few tremulous green fires shoot- 
 ing out into it when the vessel rolled. 
 
 All this time Nelly had remained on deck. 
 The captain being away, I went over to 
 her, not having had a chance to speak to 
 her before. 
 
 " I see we are going to have a storm, 
 Will. How fearfully dark it is ! Did you 
 see that great blaze of lightning about 
 half an hour ago ? The whole sky seemed 
 to open." 
 
 " Well, you are not frightened? " 
 
 11 A little — when it lightened; but I was
 
 190 A SAILOE'S SWEETHEAET. ' 
 
 more frightened to see you go up the rigging. 
 I held my breath, and my eyes swam in 
 watching you." 
 
 " If a sailor can't climb he's of no use, 
 Nelly. But see how heavily the dew falls. 
 Look at the lamplight glistening on the 
 arm of this chair. It is too damp for you 
 to remain on deck. Besides, the cuddy is 
 more cheerful than this sky and sea. Don't 
 let either lightning, thunder, or wind 
 frighten you. Things which are really 
 dangerous make very little noise as a 
 rule." 
 
 She rose; it was very dark. I pressed 
 her to my heart and kissed her ; it was the 
 first kiss between us for a long while. She 
 was very reluctant to leave me, but I led 
 her to the companion, and pressing my hand, 
 she went below. 
 
 I crossed over to see how the ship's head 
 lay; and as I raised my eyes from the 
 compass card the whole sky was torn from 
 horizon to horizon by a terrific flash of 
 lightning. It was as desperate a flash as 
 ever I remember seeing. It was like a 
 mighty lance of blue flame hurled sheer
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLOXE. 191 
 
 across the sky, vanishing into the eastern 
 heaven ; and the whole surface of the ocean 
 glanced in the horrid glare like a spectral 
 world issuing out of chaos. I closed my 
 eyes, but so frightfully vivid had been the 
 blaze, that when I opened them the dark- 
 ness was intense. I was temporarily blinded ; 
 I could not even see the card that lay illu- 
 minated by the binnacle lamp. There was 
 a solemn, hollow, distant peal of thunder ; 
 I was surprised by the smallness of it in 
 comparison with the magnitude of the flash. 
 "I never see the like of that before, sir," 
 exclaimed the man who stood at the wheel, 
 steadying the spokes with his elbow whilst 
 he rubbed his eyes. All was as still as the 
 grave again ; not a sound could be heard 
 but the sobbing gurgle of the water washing 
 under the counter, with the flap of the in- 
 visible canvas aloft. Captain Flanders came 
 up to where I stood. 
 
 "I don't like the look of this at all, ,, 
 said he, in a voice the deep notes of whicli 
 were amazingly in keeping with the pro- 
 found darkness. " Better get the mizzen- 
 topsail furled whilst it's calm."
 
 192 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 I gave the necessary orders in a low voice, 
 and the watch came aft, groping their way, 
 and after a bit clewed the sail up, but 
 without singing, and went aloft. Presently 
 they came down, all as quiet as possible, 
 and went forward, and the decks were silent 
 again. The galley was locked for the night, 
 and the only light forward, was the haze 
 thrown by the light in the boatswain's 
 berth ; aft, the cuddy lamps glimmered on 
 the skylights, and the binnacle diffused a 
 little circle of soft radiance, that fell in a 
 delicate haze upon the wheel and the motion- 
 less figure standing at it. The skipper 
 walked to and fro quietly; I went for- 
 ward to the break of the poop and hung 
 over the side, watching the strange shapes 
 of green and blue fire that flickered and 
 coiled through the water, sometimes re- 
 sembling serpents chasing invisible prey, 
 sometimes twisting into forms like trees. 
 All overhead was a ponderous darkness full 
 of dreadful silence ; the stars in the east 
 had vanished, and it was now impossible to 
 tell the point in the sky which the front 
 line of the great cloud-bank had reached.
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 193 
 
 Presently a few large drops of rain fell; 
 they struck the deck heavily and were as 
 hot as blood upon the hand ; they ceased, 
 but I thought I might as well take the hint 
 they gave, and slipped into my cabin as 
 fast as my legs would carry me for my 
 oilskins. 
 
 Phew ! the cabin was stifling hot and the 
 smell of the oilskins sickening. There was 
 no one in the cuddy, and I hoped Nelly had 
 gone to bed. Let her sleep now while she 
 could; for the barometer — a wiser spirit 
 than the captain's familiar, was prophesy- 
 ing weather that would waken the sleepers 
 presently. 
 
 Just as my foot touched the poop-ladder, 
 there was another flash of lightning, as 
 blinding as the one I have just described, 
 and it fell from right overhead ; the air -was 
 filled with a strong sulphureous smell ; the 
 electric fluid ran down the ties, chain sheets, 
 and along the jackstays, and they looked 
 as though they were on fire ; some one cried 
 out, but in what part of the ship I could 
 not tell. I believed that we had been 
 struck, and bounded on to the poop, and 
 
 vol. i. o
 
 194 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 then came a crash of thunder, after an in- 
 terval of not more than three seconds, 
 worthy of the terrific blaze that had pre- 
 ceded it. I thought it would never cease ; 
 it went booming along the glassy sea as 
 though it were some enduring sound rushing 
 from horizon to horizon. The captain was 
 standing at the head of the port poop-ladder, 
 and as I came up he shouted out, " Forward 
 there ! is any one hurt ? ' ' 
 
 There was a few moments *' silence, and 
 a man answered, " There's no one hurt here, 
 sir." 
 
 " This is frightful," said he, coming over 
 to where I stood, and in the reflection of 
 the cuddy lamplight I saw him remove his 
 hat and wipe his forehead. " Did you hear 
 a cry just now? " 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 11 Oh, you did! " he exclaimed in a tone 
 of relief. " I was afraid I might have been 
 the only one who heard it." 
 
 " Some one sung out in fright, I suppose, 
 sir." 
 
 " No doubt. I wish something would 
 happen to change this dreadful darkness
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 195 
 
 and silence. How's her head ? " he called 
 out. 
 
 No answer came from the wheel. 
 
 "Wheel there, I say!" he shouted; 
 " how's her head now ? " 
 
 " Has he fallen asleep ? " I exclaimed, 
 and went aft. " Why don't you answer?" 
 I said, addressing the man, who stood erect, 
 holding on to the spokes with both hands. 
 " Didn't you hear the captain hail you ? " 
 
 Finding him still silent, I lost my patience, 
 though I wondered that any man should 
 sleep in that erect posture, and I shook him 
 by the arm. He retained his grip of the 
 wheel, but neither moved nor spoke. 
 
 "Why, what's the matter with him?" 
 exclaimed the captain, who had followed 
 me. " Pull the lamp out of the binnacle 
 and look at his face." 
 
 The lamp thus exposed cast a brilliant 
 light, and I threw it full upon the man's 
 face. 
 
 " Merciful God ! " I cried. 
 
 The lips of the man were drawn tight 
 back into a dreadful smile, laying bare his 
 gums and teeth ; his eyeballs were turned
 
 196 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 right up into his head, and nothing was 
 visible but the whites of them. 
 
 "The last flash has killed him! " I ex- 
 claimed, recoiling with a shudder from the 
 terrible sight, and I replaced the lamp in 
 the binnacle. 
 
 Scarcely had I done this when down came 
 the rain. It fell just as if the whole ocean 
 had come aboard. It plumped upon us in 
 a sheet, beating me on to my knees with 
 the weight of it, and in an instant the poop 
 was awash, and I could hear the torrent 
 sluicing through the scupper holes, whilst 
 the sea lay white and hissing around. The 
 captain appeared helpless — he neither moved 
 nor spoke. The suddenness of this discovery 
 had made him quite vacant. 
 
 With a dead man at the wheel, whose grip 
 of the spokes was not to be shaken off, the 
 ship was doomed if the gale burst suddenly 
 upon us. I sprang forward and at the top of 
 my voice roared out, "Lay aft, here, men! 
 aft here for your lives ! " and then ran back 
 again to the wheel, where, seizing hold of the 
 dead man's fingers, I succeeded by sheer 
 force in opening them, whereupon the body
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 197 
 
 fell heavily on to the deck. It was wrestling 
 with a corpse ; bnt w r ith a corpse in which 
 one would have said the English spirit of 
 faithful duty lingered even after the spirit 
 had fled. Never shall I forget the touch of 
 those wiry, dead fingers, the grip as tough 
 as steel, the snap of the bones as I tore 
 open the fingers, and the body falling with 
 a thud that sounded above the thunder of 
 the rain upon the hollow deck. 
 
 The whole of the starboard watch came 
 splashiug aft, dashing the water from the 
 deck with their feet as they ran. 
 
 " Lanyon has been struck dead by the 
 lightning," I sang out. " Lay hold of the 
 wheel, one of you, and the rest carry his 
 body forward and lay him in the forehold, 
 with a tarpaulin over him." 
 
 They stood wondering and alarmed a 
 moment, then one of them laid hold of the 
 wheel, and others picked up the body and 
 away they went, whilst the rain fell in a 
 broad sheet and the sea all about us sobbed 
 under it. I saw by the binnacle light that 
 the captain was ploughed through with the 
 rain : his hat was sheer pulp, and fallen all
 
 198 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 on one side, and his feet squelched in his 
 boots as he moved. 
 
 All on a sudden the rain ceased, just as 
 you might stop a shower-bath. A little air 
 came blowing from the south. 
 
 " We're aback, sir ! " I shouted. 
 
 "Hard aport ! " he exclaimed. "Bound 
 with the after-yards." 
 
 But before I could sing out, the light air 
 died and the main-topsail flapped heavily. 
 
 "Hold on all, is it, sir?" 
 
 "Ay, but we shall have it in a minute. 
 Look astern ! " 
 
 I did so, and beheld once more the faint 
 reddish light in the sky, which gave me 
 almost a shock to behold, for the like of it 
 I had never witnessed amid such a darkness 
 as now surrounded us. But under this sky 
 was the sight the captain had bid me look 
 at ; it was a long luminous line of a colour, 
 or character rather, it would be useless for 
 me to attempt to express ; but what it most 
 resembled was a nebulous haze, or the tail 
 of a comet, the hue extremely ghastly, as 
 though it were a wall of spume illuminated 
 by blue-light, or a long high reach ot foam
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 199 
 
 filled with shooting phosphorescent fires. 
 It broadened and came rushing down upon 
 us with incredible swiftness. Some moments 
 before it reached us I heard the roar of it 
 sounding through the silence about us, 
 which nothing on this side disturbed but 
 the flapping of our canvas. 
 
 "Hands by the topsail sheets ! " shouted 
 the skipper, his voice rising almost into a 
 shriek ; but before the words were well out 
 of his mouth, the sea was all in foam on 
 either side of us, and the furious blast was 
 yelling in our ears. I toppled down before 
 it for all the world as if I had been skating 
 and my feet had slided away astern of me ; 
 and I suppose I was blown a dozen feet 
 along the slippery deck before I brought 
 myself up. The white water filled the air 
 with a kind of light, and I saw the skipper 
 flat on his buttocks. He did not attempt 
 to rise, but howled out, " Another hand aft 
 to the wheel!" and I delivered the com- 
 mand, though jammed by the wind so hard 
 against the brass rail of the poop that I 
 could scarcely muster breath enough to 
 echo him. The force of the wind was
 
 200 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 beyond all reach of words. I saw one of 
 the men come aft in response to the order, 
 and all was well with him until he got to 
 the top of the poop-ladder ; then the gale 
 took him, and blew him head over heels 
 on to the quarter-deck again, where he 
 alighted with a splash, for that deck was 
 still afloat with the rain. However, he was 
 not hurt, but tried again, and reached the 
 poop flat on his breast, and in this manner 
 crawled aft like a worm. 
 
 Looking astern it was not possible to 
 breathe. The wind blew one flat. It hit 
 me in the stomach like a strong fist and 
 stopped there, and there was no relief until 
 the back was turned to it. Its bellowing 
 was as if a thousand wild bulls were being 
 swept through the air and roaring in rage 
 as they went ; and this was a sound that 
 rose high above, and had no relation to the 
 sweeping shrieks in the rigging and among 
 the spars. The sky was full of this tre- 
 mendous bellowing, and it was one of the 
 most terrifying incidents of the storm. No 
 such sound is ever heard ashore : what one 
 hears there is the groaning of wind in
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 201 
 
 the chiinney-pots and amidst trees, or its 
 plaintive cries as it rushes down the moun- 
 tain sides and howls along the valley ; but 
 all these various sounds have no resemblance 
 to the roaring noise that such a wind as I 
 am describing makes at sea. The ocean 
 was a complete surface of foam ; under the 
 black sky it lay like a land covered with 
 snow ; the hurl of the gale had flattened the 
 very swell, and along the hissing surface 
 rushed the Walder share with half her bow- 
 sprit underwater, as though the wind would 
 drive her bow under, but as steady as a 
 sleigh speeding along a level Canadian 
 tract. 
 
 Could this be a cyclone ? It had all the 
 taste and fury of one. Neither the captain 
 nor the chief mate had expected the gale 
 for twelve hours, yet here it was full on us 
 and the first watch not over. I tried to crawl 
 aft to see how her head lay, but though I 
 was on my hands and feet it took me all 
 five minutes to get the length of the poop ; 
 for the wind was like the hands of a giant 
 on my shoulders, forcing me down and back, 
 and the foam was flying over the stern of
 
 202 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 the ship as thick as a fog, and laced my face 
 as though some one were slashing me with 
 a whip. 
 
 The ship's head was due south ; the skipper 
 still squatted under the lee of the grating 
 abaft the wheel, and I had to get hold of 
 the grating on the port side to prevent 
 myself from being blown forward. Indeed, 
 right aft where I now was the full fury of 
 the wind was felt ; it seemed strong enough 
 to blow the ship out of water, and yet, 
 whatever the wind's speed might have been, 
 the ship was rushing forward at not less 
 than fourteen knots ; and so I leave you to 
 guess what the force of the gale was at this 
 time when I say that, though our own pace 
 was taking fourteen knots out of its volume, 
 its power was great enough to lift a man off 
 his legs and blow him forward as though he 
 were a piece of paper. 
 
 If this were a circular storm — and there 
 was no reason to doubt it was — there were 
 two ways of dealing with it ; one was by 
 avoiding the dangerous centre, and the 
 other by heaving to on the right tack and 
 letting the wind blow itself away. If the
 
 THE FAG-END OF A CYCLONE. 203 
 
 rules laid down for this sort of gales were 
 correct, then the centre of the cyclone 
 should bear about E. ; and that this was a 
 cyclone was presently shown by the ship's 
 head gradually revolving as we ran, so that, 
 being dead before it, we were now steering 
 S. by E. half E. We were well within the 
 outer radius of it, and keeping our yards 
 square would sail us round and round in it 
 like a ship on the edge of a whirlpool. 
 
 The skipper got on to his feet and came 
 over to the compass ; he had been dismasted 
 of his hat, and his hair blew out in a straight 
 line. He thrust his head down to look at 
 the card, made an ineffectual attempt to 
 look astern, and then bawled, out, " We 
 must heave the ship to, sir. Call all 
 hands and get the foresail and fore-topsail 
 furled, and haul down the fore-topmast 
 staysail." 
 
 I let go the grating, and the wind ran me 
 forward like an arrow ; the sea was now 
 beginning to rise, and the heads of the 
 waves on either side blew sheer off and over 
 the bulwarks, and met in the air with 
 flashes ; they looked like darts of blue fire
 
 204 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 streaming through the darkness. I went 
 forward shouting out the orders, and pre- 
 sently the shriek of the boatswain's pipe 
 mingled with the bellowing overhead. I 
 stood on the forecastle while the men went 
 aloft. It took the whole strength of the 
 ship's company to furl each sail. The 
 canvas stood up above the yard like a stone 
 wall, but it must yield at last, and I heard 
 with a feeling of relief the chorus raised by 
 the men as they triced up the bunt of the 
 topsail. Whilst they were hauling down 
 the staysail I took a look aft, being well 
 under the lee of the foremast, that some- 
 what broke the fury of the wind. Though 
 it was as black as ink overhead, not a cloud- 
 break visible, yet, as I have said, the boiling 
 water made a light in the air, and the out- 
 line of the ship and her spars, as high as her 
 top-gallant yards, could be clearly made out. 
 To right and left of her, and sheer over her 
 stern, the water was flying like smoke, and 
 great lumps of foam as they fell on her deck 
 gleamed and winked like glow-worms. 
 The ship in the unearthly light looked 
 spectral, a wild, flying, and torn shape, her
 
 THE FAG-EXD OF A CYCLONE. 205 
 
 narrow band of close-reefed topsail — the 
 only fragment of canvas showing — glimmer- 
 ing overhead, and her dark outline plain 
 upon the pale spume. There was a storm 
 and thunder of foam under her bows, for 
 she was piling the water as high as her cat- 
 heads, and pitching heavily to the sea, that 
 was now waxing furious. 
 
 " Lay aft here and man the port main- 
 braces ! " pealed the voice of the captain; 
 and we all tumbled aft, wrestling with the 
 wind as we went, and catching hold of 
 whatever came in our way to haul ourselves 
 along. The helm was put down as the 
 mainyards were braced sharp up, and the 
 vessel came round, shipping one heavy sea 
 as she did so, which filled the decks with a 
 smother of froth, whilst it was up to the 
 men's knees in the lee scuppers. The fore 
 and mizzen yards were braced hard up 
 against the weather rigging, and the ship 
 was now hove to on the starboard tack, 
 plunging heavily over the seas, which came 
 rolling in small mountains down upon her, 
 and sometimes so burying herself to lee- 
 ward that the end of the fore-topmast stud-
 
 206 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 ding-sail boom now and again harpooned the 
 water. 
 
 " Go below the port watch ! " was now 
 the cry, for there was nothing more to be 
 done.
 
 ( 207 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 lanyon's burial, 
 
 We might have imagined that the gale had 
 reached its utmost fury almost as soon as it 
 fell upon us, but by midnight it was blowing 
 a dozen hurricanes in one, with a heavy 
 Atlantic sea running. It was no longer 
 pitch dark, though the sky looked all one 
 cloud, and there was no more lightning. 
 The fall of the barometer had been from 
 29-80 to 27-60, a total fall of 2-20 ! Shortly 
 after midnight there was a rise. 
 
 Meanwhile the Waldershare breasted the 
 sea nobly, considering that she was loaden 
 down to within a few inches of her chain- 
 plate bolts, and could we have lightened 
 her I believe that she would have danced 
 over the very spray in the air, and have 
 kept her decks dry through the gale. But
 
 208 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 how can any ship that is loaded flush with 
 the mainhold with hardware and metal rails 
 act well ? The seas poured over her before 
 she could rise to them ; forward she was 
 like a pier-head, so stiff and obstinate did 
 the dead weight in her make her ; and the 
 water swept over her forecastle in whole 
 seas, and ran up her sides in columns as 
 high as her main- top, where the wind over- 
 mastered them and blew them right across 
 the decks and a hundred fathoms beyond 
 in a veil of smoke. 
 
 I went below at midnight dead tired. I 
 stood a few moments under the break of the 
 poop to exchange a few words with Mr. 
 Thomas, for there was no chance of making 
 oneself heard anywhere else. He said he 
 w r as afraid that the cargo was straining the 
 ship severely, but that she was magnificently 
 built, with a wonderful deal of life in her, 
 and further, he believed that the gale would 
 soon blow itself out, for, from the sudden 
 rise in the barometer, he inferred that w r e 
 were only just inside the outermost line of 
 the storm-circle, and that our being hove to 
 would bring us out of it shortly.
 
 LANYON'S BURIAL. 209 
 
 I asked him if lie did not think the 
 captain had shown judgment in the manner 
 in which he had made ready for this storm, 
 and in which he had handled the ship since ? 
 He said, " Yes, he could not have done 
 more," and then went on to the poop. 
 
 A decanter of rum swung on one of the 
 trays, and I took a wine-glass and helped 
 myself to a dram before entering my cabin. 
 The motion of the ship was felt more in the 
 cuddy than on the poop. On deck the 
 excitement inspired by the bellowing of the 
 gale, the yelling of the rigging, the thunder 
 of the seas as they burst over the ship, took 
 one's thoughts away from her motion ; and 
 the violent uproar around was, so to speak, 
 independent of her pitching and rolling. 
 But in the cuddy it was different; here 
 every sound was caused by the motion, or 
 nearly so, and one's attention was directed 
 to it. The groaning and creaking of the 
 bulkheads, the shake and rattle of the cabin 
 doors, the long-drawn grating of the strain- 
 ing timbers, coupled with the hollow thunder 
 of the seas as they struck the ship outside 
 or fell in tons' weight on her decks, filled 
 
 VOL. i. p
 
 210 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 the ear with an uproar that I am not 
 ashamed to confess even disturbed my own 
 seasoned mind with a subdued sense of dis- 
 may, whilst the trays depending from the 
 upper deck swung to an angle of forty-five 
 degrees and sometimes more, and the planks 
 underfoot slided away from one's toes as 
 though they meant to leave one floating in 
 the air. 
 
 With my back firmly planted against the 
 table, I swigged off my dram of rum, and 
 had just replaced the glass when the door 
 of the cabin occupied by the Espinosas 
 flew open, and the Spaniard whisked through 
 it as if fired from a cannon. He struck the 
 table heavily, and vanished under it. I 
 was afraid that he had seriously hurt him- 
 self, for it was evident that he had only 
 intended to open the door with the inten- 
 tion of seeing if anybody was about, and 
 that he had been thrown headlong by the 
 lurch of the ship. He rolled under the 
 table against my legs. I lifted him up 
 groaning, and set him against Mr. Black's 
 door, where I " fixed " him by grasping his 
 shoulders with both hands, otherwise he
 
 LANYOX'S BURIAL. 211 
 
 would have fallen again. He was in his 
 dressing-gown, but his head and feet were 
 bare. 
 
 " I hope you are not hurt," said I. " Why 
 have you left your cabin ? You are much 
 better in it." 
 
 He rolled his eyes about and made some 
 answer in Spanish, which of course I did 
 not understand. 
 
 " Let me tell you," said I, shouting in his 
 ear, " that the ship is in no danger. A 
 heavy gale is blowing, but she is snug as 
 good seamanship can make her, and well 
 watched; and if that don't satisfy you, 
 Mister Espinosa, I'll be hanged if I know 
 what will. Here, let me put you into your 
 cabin again." 
 
 Just as I pronounced these words Mr. 
 Black turned the handle of his door; the 
 door opened inside. My whole weight was 
 against Espinosa in order to keep him in his 
 place, and his back was pressed against Mr. 
 Black's cabin door ; consequently, when the 
 door was opened, we both pitched into the 
 cabin, I on top of the Spaniard, who, to 
 save himself, caught hold of Mr. Black's
 
 212 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 legs, and down lie came ; and there we all 
 three of us floundered, grabbing at one 
 another in such a manner as to prevent 
 ourselves from rising, whilst my streaming 
 oilskins soaked my fellow-strngglers through 
 and through. 
 
 "What the deil's this/ 99 roared Mi\ 
 Black, in a voice deep with fright. "Let 
 go of my leg, for God's sake ! Dom it ! 
 the man's nipping me with a pair of 
 scissors ! " 
 
 This must have been Espinosa's finger- 
 nails, for the truth was (I hope my blushes 
 will be excused) Mr. Black had nothing on 
 him but a night-shirt and a pocket-handker- 
 chief tied around his head, the ends meeting 
 under his chin. Here the ship lurched 
 heavily to windward, and away the three 
 of us rolled, then down again to leeward, 
 until she seemed almost on her beam ends, 
 and off we started afresh. Eeleasing myself 
 from Mr. Black's embraces — for he had got 
 his arm most lovingly and tenaciously coiled 
 around my neck — I staggered on to my feet, 
 and catching hold of the Spaniard's claws, 
 unshackled them from Mr. Black's lee:. No
 
 LANYON'S BURIAL. 213 
 
 sooner was the Scotchman erect than he 
 sprang into his hunk, with the hack of his 
 shirt hanging in two rags from his shoulders, 
 and hauling the sheet over him began to 
 parley with me from his pillow. 
 
 " What is the meaning of this intrusion, 
 Mr. Lee?" he shouted. " What business 
 have you and that — that wretched foreigner 
 in my cabin, sir ? Here is my leg bleeding 
 like a pig with his cursed scratches!" and 
 he forked a stout peg out of bed, and pointed 
 to half a dozen long red lines along his 
 shin. 
 
 " We were talking against, yonr cabin 
 door, and you opened it and we tumbled 
 in," I answered, like to suffocate with 
 laughter over this silly business. "I hope 
 you are not hurt by this unfortunate accident, 
 Mr. Espinosa ? " 
 
 " Hurt ! " cried Mr. Black ; " I wish he 
 had broken his dom'd neck for tearing the 
 flesh off my bones ! Can't a passenger open 
 his door without a couple of boobies bursting 
 into his cabin and skeening him alive, eh ? 
 Answer me that for yoursel', you Meester 
 Spaniard ! " And wrapped up as his head
 
 214 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 was, lie glared on Mr. Espinosa like an in- 
 furiate old witch. 
 
 " What you call my neck, eh ? " suddenly 
 shrieked Espinosa, greatly to my surprise, 
 for I had thought him half-stunned. " Who 
 are you yours el ve, you beeg ogly rascal, 
 eh ? who are you yourselve — answer me 
 dat ! " and skipping up to Mr. Black, he 
 snapped his fingers under his nose in an 
 ecstasy of passion. 
 
 This was more than I could hear; so, 
 leaving the two passengers to settle their 
 own quarrel, I bolted out of the cabin, threw 
 off my boots and oilskins, and pitched myself 
 on to my mattress, where I lay laughing 
 until I fell asleep. 
 
 The gale proved but a short-lived one 
 after all, though, judging of its central force 
 by the taste we had of its outer limit, I 
 should imagine that had the ship been a 
 few leagues further to the eastward when 
 the storm burst upon her, she would have 
 foundered. That it was a rotatory storm 
 was proved by the sudden shifts of wind 
 veering from N. to E.N.E., but without any 
 regularity, blowing first great guns from
 
 LANYON'S BURIAL. 215 
 
 one point and then thundering down upon 
 the ship from another. When I went on 
 deck, at four o'clock in the morning, there 
 was a tremendous sea running, hut the gale 
 was fast hi owing itself out ; the clouds lay- 
 in fragments overhead and sailed slowly 
 across the sky, while among them the stars 
 flashed with a sharp, tremulous glittering, 
 showing that above the lower stratum of 
 cloud was a range of high, small, frost-white 
 cloud that was passing away to the west- 
 wards, right athwart the path of the gale. 
 
 The sickly dawn broke upon a dismal 
 scene. The ship had as strained and battered 
 a look as if she had been tumbling about 
 in a gale of wind for a month ; the foresail 
 and fore-topsail had been furled anyhow in 
 the dark, and lay on the yards in lumps of 
 canvas, kept in their places by the hastily 
 passed gaskets ; all the running rigging was 
 blowing away to leeward in semicircles ; 
 the main-deck was like a pond, and with 
 every roll of the ship the water rushed from 
 side to side, dashing against the bulwarks 
 and smothering everything in foam ; the 
 top-gallant forecastle was all awash, the
 
 216 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 green water toppling on to it and pouring 
 in cascades on to the deck below ; no sail 
 being set forward, the ship all that way 
 looked naked, and her long bowsprit and 
 jibbooms forking out, danced their black 
 outline up and dow T n the sky. 
 
 By six o'clock the gale, blowing right from 
 the east, had so far decreased that I was 
 able to set the close-reefed fore-topsail and 
 storm trysail; this extra canvas steadied 
 her amazingly, but though she was ratching 
 somewhat now, I kept her close to meet the 
 sea, albeit had we headed our course we 
 should have carried the gale on her port 
 quarter. 
 
 By seven o'clock it was blowing a moderate 
 gale and the sea had greatly fallen ; so we 
 squared away the yards and made sail, and 
 presently the ship was swirling through it 
 with a top-gallant sail set over a single-reefed 
 topsail, heaping the water ahead of her as 
 high as the hawser-holes, whilst the foam 
 poured over the spritsail yard. 
 
 The watch now turned to to clear up the 
 decks and wash down. This w r as a job the 
 ship wanted badly, for nothing makes a
 
 LAXTON'S BURIAL. 217 
 
 greater mess aboard a vessel than a gale of 
 wind. By breakfast-time the ship was" clean 
 and taut fore and aft, her decks drying fast 
 in the sun, the hens cackling cheerfully in 
 their coops, the pigs grunting under the 
 long-boat, the reefs shaken out, the main- 
 royal set, the sea fast going down, and a 
 piebald sky with a lacing of glorious blue 
 over the mastheads. 
 
 After breakfast I stood under the poop- 
 break smoking a pipe ; presently Mr. Black 
 came on to the quarter-deck, looking very 
 yellow, and asked me how I did after last 
 night's rough work. I thought this mighty 
 civil after the disturbance in his cabin — in- 
 deed, I had every moment been expecting a 
 summons from the captain, to whom I made 
 sure the Scotchman would complain. He 
 then said he thought an apology due to me 
 for the rude manner in which he had spoken 
 last night ; he had found out from Espinosa's 
 explanation that the fault was not mine ; he 
 had opened the door, having heard my voice 
 and wishing to ask some questions about the 
 storm, and we had tumbled in ; but he had 
 made peace with Espinosa, though he was
 
 218 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 still of opinion that the Spaniard had clawed 
 him out of malice. However, he had clapped 
 some plaster on his leg and lost the pain, 
 and as he believed it was an accident not 
 likely to happen again, he wanted no fuss 
 made over it. So there was an end of the 
 matter, and I was saved the trouble of ex- 
 plaining to the captain. Mr. Black did not 
 tell me how Espinosa and he had made up 
 their quarrel. I had run out when the 
 Spaniard had snapped his fingers under Mr. 
 Black's nose, and could only suppose that 
 the insult would have led to a pummelling 
 match. A set-to may, indeed, have taken 
 place ; though it is more likely they begged 
 each other's pardon when my back was 
 turned, for what with the gale and the 
 groaning of the ship, and being drenched 
 with my oilskins, and rolled upon the deck, 
 they were both nearly frightened out of their 
 wits. 
 
 I was still lingering in the sheltered part 
 of the deck I had chosen, my pipe in my 
 mouth, very often glancing into the cuddy, 
 on the look-out for Nelly, who had not left 
 her cabin, when I saw Mr. Thomas go for-
 
 LANYON'S BUEIAL. 219 
 
 ward. The watch had just been setting the 
 fore-topmast studding-sail, and the men who 
 had been rigging out the boom were coming- 
 leisurely down the rigging. It was at this 
 moment that I all on a sudden remembered 
 the death of the seaman last night by light- 
 ning, a circumstance of which the gale 
 appeared to have swept the memory clean 
 out of my head, so inveterate is the sailor's 
 heedlessness, and his knack of forgetting in 
 five minutes events which would score the 
 mind of the landsman with life-long impres- 
 sions. 
 
 I instinctively guessed the chief mate's 
 errand, and I was quite right, for as he came 
 back he stopped to tell me " that poor devil 
 Lanyon is to be buried at two bells " (mean- 
 ing nine o'clock). I looked at my watch, 
 and found it wanted only twenty minutes 
 of that time. "It is the captain's fancy, 
 though I think he might as well have waited 
 until eight bells, when all hands will be on 
 deck; " and so saying, he passed on. 
 
 A funeral is always a solemn thing at sea. 
 It is not that sailors think so much of the 
 death of a messmate, as that a familiar face
 
 220 A SAlLOli'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 is missing ; there will be one voice the less 
 to join in the chorus at the halliards ; 
 his gruff voice and laugh will be heard no 
 more ; his pipe lies broken on the deck, and 
 is extinguished ; his bunk is empty, though 
 there is his name carved on the massive 
 beam over it. Bill is gone, and the watch 
 he belonged to is weaker by a hand. Though 
 Lanyon had been in my watch I had never 
 noticed anything particular in him ; he was 
 a fair average seaman and no more ; but I 
 believe he was popular in the forecastle as 
 being a good-tempered man, always ready to 
 oblige a shipmate with a friendly draw of 
 his pipe, or a loan of any of the old rags 
 of breeches and shirts which make up poor 
 mercantile Jack's wardrobe, and his death 
 had impressed the men, though the moment 
 he was overboard he would be forgotten. 
 
 At nine o'clock the boatswain tuned up 
 his pipe, the captain came down on the 
 quarter-deck, the chief mate remained on 
 the poop to look after the ship, none of the 
 passengers were present, so Lanyon's funeral 
 was altogether among sailors. They had 
 laid the body, sewn up in canvas — for he
 
 LANYON'S BURIAL. 221 
 
 had had no hammock — on one of the fore- 
 hatch gratings, and covered it over with the 
 big ensign ; four of the dead man's watch- 
 mates brought him along, and the rest of 
 the ship's company came after; the upper 
 part of the lee gangway was unshipped and 
 the foot of the grating set upon it, and a 
 couple of hands stood by to haul off the 
 ensign and tip up the body into the sea 
 when the signal was given. All hands stood 
 bare-headed, and the scene was a solemn 
 one. I felt the pathos of the many rough 
 human countenances gathered around, some 
 looking down, some with their eyes fixed on 
 the grating, some with a sort of wonder on 
 them such as children's faces wear when 
 anything unusual is going forward. Joe, the 
 negro seaman, stood with a mournful grin 
 upon his flat, honest black face, and the 
 Southrons hung grim and sulky in the rear ; 
 they were Catholics, and did not like being 
 brought into this ceremony. 
 
 My attention, however, was speedily 
 diverted from the crew to the skipper. He 
 seemed extraordinarily agitated, and instead 
 of a Prayer-book held a roll of paper, that
 
 222 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 trembled in his grasp as lie ran his eyes over 
 the men. It is always customary aboard 
 English ships to bury the dead at sea with 
 the office as given in the Church Service, 
 but I saw that Captain Flanders was going 
 to have a service of his own, and I exchanged 
 glances with little Thomas, who stood at the 
 poop-rail without his hat, looking down, 
 with his eyebrows rounded like the new 
 moon. All the men were silent ; nothing 
 could be heard but the wobbling wash of 
 the water alongside, and the creak and 
 strain up aloft as the vessel rolled. The 
 sun shone bright, and the sails soared into a 
 heaven that was fast growing a cloudless 
 blue from horizon to horizon. 
 
 " Men," exclaimed the captain in his 
 deep bass, which his excitement made as 
 vibratory as a harp-string, " I am aw 7 are 
 that when a man dies at sea it is customary 
 to bury him according to the rites of the 
 religion in which the captain and crew 
 believe. But I do not believe in the 
 Church of England. I am a primitive 
 Christian. I believe, and all you who hear 
 me should likewise believe, that prayer is
 
 LAtfYON'S BURIAL. 223 
 
 only acceptable when offered in the edifice 
 constructed by the Almighty, whose roof," 
 he cried, pointing upwards with a wild, 
 dramatic gesture, " is yonder blue, and 
 whose floor is the green of the fields and 
 the billows of the ocean. I say, men, that 
 the primitive Christian, whose cathedral is 
 the universal world, wants neither arch- 
 bishop, bishop, priest, monk, curate, nor 
 clerk to pray with him or for him ! " By 
 this time his excitement was so great, that 
 his eyes glowed in his head like a cat's in 
 the dark ; he dashed his arm about, strik- 
 ing the paper in his hand such repeated 
 blows, that I conceived he would presently 
 demolish it. I saw the men staring round 
 at one another, evidently a great deal 
 puzzled to know what all this meant, 
 though I believe most of them thought it 
 was all ship-shape, and a regular part of 
 the usual ceremony. 
 
 " Instead, therefore," he continued, 
 almost shouting, " of reading a service 
 opposed to the examples of those fore- 
 fathers of yours and mine, men, whose 
 memory is more refreshing to the Christian
 
 224 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 heart than is the fountain of the desert to 
 the tongue of the parched Arab, I intend," 
 he cried, flourishing his manuscript, " to 
 read you an essay upon spirits, in which I 
 shall invite you not to mourn for our dead 
 shipmate, but to know and feel with me 
 that even as we stand here looking upon 
 the flag that covers his clay, his spirit — 
 himself, indeed ! — not an object that wo 
 can touch, but an object we may, by prayer^ 
 hear and behold, is among us — there, or 
 there, or there — ay, or there ! for there 
 he stands, erect among you, visible to me. 
 My God ! how visible ! " 
 
 With his long forefinger projected, his 
 head thrown back, his eyes glowing, the sun 
 reflected in the tight polished skin of his 
 long, narrow forehead, he pointed plump at 
 the negro. 
 
 Joe, who had been listening to this extra- 
 ordinary harangue, with his head gradually 
 falling back and his mouth slowly opening 
 wider and wider, terrified by the concluding- 
 shout of the skipper, and by all hands turn- 
 ing to look at him, and either believing that 
 he himself had become a spirit, or that
 
 LANYON'S BURIAL. 225 
 
 Lanyon's ghost was just behind, uttered 
 a peculiar yell, and jumped with all his 
 strength sideways, and striking a lightly 
 built Dane of the name of Andersen full 
 in the stomach, tumbled him clean over, 
 and they both rolled away to the foot of 
 the mainmast. This accident, which under 
 any other circumstance would have pro- 
 duced a general laugh, and probably some 
 horse-play, merely served to increase the 
 alarm of the sailors, who had been rendered 
 nervous enough already by the manner in 
 which the captain had pointed indis- 
 criminately among them, and they began 
 to huddle together, occasionally glancing 
 over their shoulders whilst they watched 
 the face of the skipper, whose fluency had 
 not been checked an instant by the capsizal 
 of the negro. 
 
 He was now growing incoherent, talking 
 the wildest stuff, and flinging about like a 
 Shaker. The more incomprehensible he 
 grew, the more emphatic he became, and 
 I was beginning to wonder how long he 
 was going to keep us listening to his 
 nonsense, when he pulled open the manu- 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 script, and elevating his hand, began to 
 read. 
 
 The lecture lasted half an hour. I should 
 be sorry to give even what my memory pre- 
 serves of it. It was crammed full of quota- 
 tions from all sorts of writers, and it was 
 all about ghosts and spirits, and what they 
 had said and how they had appeared, 
 and the use of them as tests of primitive 
 Christianity. Long before it was over the 
 men had grown impatient, and were shuf- 
 fling about with their feet as if they were 
 listening to a long sermon in church. It 
 was plain that not one of them understood 
 a word of it, any more than the captain 
 himself did, in my opinion. Before a third 
 of it had been read, little Thomas, with a 
 face of disgust, slued on his heel and walked 
 away aft, and I saw the captain lift his 
 eyes and notice the mate's action. 
 
 At last he came to an eud, pocketed the 
 manuscript, and exclaimed, in a deep voice, 
 " Let him depart in peace." This was his 
 signal for tilting the grating, but the men 
 who held it did not understand him, and 
 looked at me, and I had to make a sign ;
 
 LANYON'S BUKIAL. 227 
 
 on this they hove up the end of the grating, 
 whilst one of them snatched off the ensign, 
 and the body fell. The captain went into 
 the cuddy. 
 
 " That'll do, men," said I. " Carry that 
 grating forward, roll up the ensign, and stow 
 it away in the flag-locker." 
 
 Arid so terminated poor Lanyon's funeral.
 
 228 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 I was not much surprised that the men 
 took but little notice of Captain Flanders' 
 method of conducting a funeral service. It 
 was a thing that had nothing to do with 
 the ship's discipline ; they would hardly 
 guess that he was not in his right mind 
 until he had acted like a madman in matters 
 whose right ordering they understood. Had 
 he called all hands to close-reef the top- 
 sails with a pleasant breeze astern, or 
 attempted to heave the ship to in a gale 
 of wind under a flying jib, the men would 
 have believed him mad ; but when it came 
 to things out of their reckoning like a 
 funeral service, they could not swear that 
 he was not orthodox in all he did, and as 
 all the education aboard was aft, they were
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 229 
 
 bound to think that what came from aft 
 was right. The truth is, merchant sailors 
 are the most ignorant body of men in the 
 world. I say this with reluctance and 
 shame, but it is my experience. They are 
 mending a little, though a very little now, 
 I believe, but a few years ago there was 
 scarcely a ship's company afloat of whom 
 more than two or three could read. Jack 
 is used as a slave, is utterly neglected, 
 badly fed, clothed, and lodged, and leads 
 and lives the life of an animal. There is 
 not a nation of savages known to this 
 country but has more money expended on 
 its souls and brains than sailors. 
 
 The boatswain of the Waldersliare was an 
 intelligent seaman, far above the average, 
 yet, finding me forward of the galley that 
 afternoon watching some job, the nature of 
 which I forget, he came up to me and said, 
 "I beg pardon, sir, but me and Chips 
 have been having an argument over Lan- 
 yon's funeral, and perhaps you'll settle it. 
 Chips he says that there isn't but one 
 sarvice, and that's wrote down, and all that 
 you've got to do when you bury a man is
 
 230 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 to read it out. He says that sarvice wasn't 
 the one the skipper read : what it was that 
 he read, Chips he says he don't know ; but 
 he argues it wasn't regular. Now, what I 
 says is this," said he, laying a big, hairy 
 fist in the hollow of a palm as hard and 
 shiny as the sole of an old boot, " that 
 there isn't no regular sarvice at all. When 
 a shipmate dies, you may read a prayer over 
 him or deliver a speech. I say it's just a 
 matter of fancy. I was in a Liverpool brig, 
 bound to Halifax, Nova Scotia, when two 
 men died in a week. All that the skipper 
 said when the first body was brought to the 
 gangway was this : 'Men,' he says, ' Jim's 
 cable has parted, and he's gone. There 
 lies his body, but where the rest of him is, 
 mates,' he says, ' you must turn to and read 
 the Bible to find out.' This was all he said. 
 Two days afterwards, t'other man dies, and 
 Ms body was brought aft, and all that the 
 skipper says was, ' Men, this here corpus 
 was Tom Long's. You remember what I 
 told you about Jim ? well, I says the same 
 thing of Tom.' Chips says that was all 
 wrong; but what I says is, there isn't no
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 231 
 
 regular sarvice, but that you can say just 
 what you please over a dead shipmate, per- 
 widing, of course, you're respectful, and 
 don't use no bad language." 
 
 I gave him my notion of the matter, but 
 at the same time put it in such a way as 
 to make him believe it was merely a ques- 
 tion for a man's own judgment, and that 
 the skipper had done what no doubt he 
 believed to be the correct thing. Indeed, 
 I was extremely anxious to keep all sus- 
 picion of the captain's sanity out of the 
 forecastle. If once the men should take 
 it into their heads to believe him mad, 
 there was no foretelling the trouble that 
 might come upon the ship. 
 
 ^Ye had now r fine weather again ; the 
 afternoon was cloudless, with a soft cool 
 wind blowing from the east. When I 
 looked around upon the blue sea, with its 
 surface like shot silk, and at the stately 
 heights of white canvas silently doing their 
 work, and held as steady by the breeze as 
 though they had been carved out of marble, 
 and listened to the hum of the froth at the 
 stem, falling upon the ear like the note of
 
 232 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 a song, I found it difficult to realize the 
 furious gale of the preceding night, the 
 screaming of the* hurricane, the main-deck 
 full of water, the horrible straining and 
 groaning of the tossed and driven ship. 
 There was still a long swell following us 
 astern, but it was perceptible only so far 
 as it gave a new kind of grace to the 
 motion of the ship, heaving her forward 
 with stately sweeps, then leaving her to 
 sink with a bow, as though she paused in 
 her running to drop a curtsy out of very 
 wantonness. 
 
 I had had a long chat with Nelly, who re- 
 mained on deck when the other passengers 
 and the captain went below to lunch, and 
 told her all about the gale, and the death 
 of Lanyon, and the captain's curious notion 
 of a burial service. Then we talked of 
 Burmarsh and the Johnsons, how much 
 she would have to tell Phoebe when she 
 got home again, and we planned what she 
 should do when we arrived at Callao. She 
 was for remaining on board the ship, but I 
 considered that it would be best for her to 
 board with some English family, if such could
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 233 
 
 be found, whilst the ship remained in port ; 
 she would have more privileges in that 
 way, and companions to show her about 
 the place. However, we did not dwell 
 much upon this, for Callao was a long 
 way off yet, and we had a good nine or 
 ten weeks to settle our plans in. Indeed, 
 to speak the truth, I had as good as made 
 up my mind to marry her at Callao ; she 
 had gone out with me as a sweetheart, 
 but she should return my wife, and no 
 one aboard need know anything about it, 
 unless it were Mr. Thomas, whom I could 
 trust. But, as I have said, these were 
 early times, and I did not so much as 
 breathe my idea to her. 
 
 I had left her to go aft to look at the 
 compass, when I was hailed by a man in 
 the mizzen-topmast cross-trees, who was at 
 work on some chafing gear up there. 
 
 "Hillo! " I answered. 
 
 " There's something black right away 
 out to windward yonder," he cried ; " about 
 four points on the starboard bow." 
 
 "What does it look like ? " 
 
 " Why, it's only a speck, sir, and I can't
 
 234 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 say ; and there's no telling how far off 
 it is." 
 
 "Hold on!" I called; "I'll bring the 
 glass aloft." 
 
 I jumped into the mizzen-rigging and 
 gained the top. 
 
 " Aloft there!" said I, looking up at 
 man who was overhead; "where away is 
 your speck ? " 
 
 He pointed with his finger, and looking 
 in that direction, I clearly perceived a 
 small black spot, apparently close under 
 the horizon, that vanished and reappeared 
 as the swell rose and sank between us and 
 it. I had great difficulty in fixing it with 
 the glass, but all on a sudden it leapt into 
 the circle of the lens, and before it could 
 vanish again behind the tall blue swell, I 
 very plainly saw that it was a ship's boat, 
 painted black, and without a mast. I kept 
 the glass steadied to the point at which I 
 had directed it, and in a few moments 
 the boat again appeared. She was a long- 
 distance off, and the man who had first 
 seen her must have had a very powerful 
 sight.
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 235 
 
 " It's a ship's boat," I called out to him, 
 " but I don't see anybody in her." 
 
 I had another long look, and as the boat 
 rose high on the swell, which threw the 
 outline of her gunwale sharp against the 
 keen blue sky, I fancied I could discern 
 a black dot in her stern-sheets. 
 
 I gained the deck, and putting my head 
 into the skylight, called to the skipper, who 
 sat at lunch. 
 
 " There's a ship's boat in sight, sir, and 
 I believe there's a man in her, but I won't 
 be sure." 
 
 " How does she bear ? " 
 
 " Broad on the starboard bow, sir." 
 
 He left the table and came on deck, 
 and called to me to hand him the glass ; 
 but I told him she was not visible from 
 the deck. 
 
 " Let her go off a couple of points," he 
 exclaimed, motioning to the man at the 
 wheel, " and ease off the lee main-braces." 
 
 We held on in this way for about twenty 
 minutes, during which time I stood on the 
 hencoop keeping a bright look-out for the 
 object, which the shift of helm should bring
 
 236 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 well forward of the starboard bow. Being 
 nearly dead before the wind, that was but 
 a light breeze, our progress was slow. 
 Suddenly a hand on the forecastle called 
 out, "There's a boat ahead of us, sir! — 
 there she is ! " and at the same moment 
 she rose clear to my eye on the summit 
 of the swell. The captain levelled the 
 glass, and took a long squint. She rose 
 and vanished several times whilst he looked. 
 
 "I see a man in her holding up an oar 
 with something white fluttering at the end 
 of it — see what you can make out," said 
 he, handing me the glass. 
 
 The boat swung steadily into the field 
 the moment my eye was at the glass, and 
 I saw 7 not one, but two human figures in the 
 boat ; one forward in the bow, and the other 
 amidships, holding erect an oar (as I be- 
 lieved), to which was attached a pocket- 
 handkerchief. 
 
 The sighting of an open boat at sea with 
 people in her is an extremely unusual oc- 
 currence. The news spread through the 
 ship like wildfire, and the cook came running 
 out of the galley, the steward out of the
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 237 
 
 cuddy, and the watch below out of the 
 forecastle, to view an object that no sailor 
 can behold without a thrill. Even an empty 
 boat at sea, rolling here and there bottom 
 up, is a touching thing in the eye of a 
 sailor, as it almost invariably indicates a 
 disaster. He knows that she was once part 
 of a ship, and may be the only fragment 
 left of her ; and when you see her bottom 
 up, with the green water pouring along her 
 keel, and the sunshine flashing upon her 
 wet planking as she emerges for a moment, 
 to be overwhelmed again a few seconds 
 after, you cannot help imagining that ship- 
 wrecked people must have been in her once, 
 and then you think of the terrible hours 
 of suspense, the dark nights coming down, 
 the hunger and thirst, the bitter, protracted 
 anguish that was ended you know not when, 
 nor after how long a time, though yonder 
 lies all that remains of the story, and it is 
 already growing green and brown under the 
 restless sea and the unpitying sun. But 
 the interest grows deep beyond expression 
 when the boat that a ship encounters lives, 
 and human beings are seen in her. You
 
 238 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 seem at such a time to draw a long breath, 
 for you cannot guess what sight of horror 
 has been reserved for your eyes, and what 
 tales of suffering you may have to listen to. 
 
 I noticed that the nearer we drew to the 
 boat the more restless and disturbed in his 
 manner Captain Flanders became. He had 
 so far exhibited the same behaviour on 
 every occasion that had made a call upon 
 his feelings — when the French ship went 
 ashore on the Goodwins, when the cook 
 had run into the cuddy pursued by the men, 
 when Lanyon was struck dead at the wheel, 
 etc. He bade me give him the glass, but 
 his hand trembled so much he could not 
 use it, and returned it to me, telling me, 
 with a tremor in his voice, to see if 
 there were more than two men in the 
 boat, and particularly if there were any 
 women. 
 
 I again had a good look, for by this time 
 the boat was not more than a mile distant, 
 and her shape lay quite plain on the water, 
 though the swell was continually hiding 
 her; however, I could not make out more 
 than two men, one of whom was now
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 239 
 
 standing up in the bow, throwing his arms 
 up and down, whilst the other sat flourishing 
 the oar. 
 
 "He has dropped his oar now, sir!" I 
 exclaimed. " Ah, I see ! he has thrown it 
 over the stern and is trying to scull the 
 boat. That must mean they have only one 
 oar aboard." 
 
 " Get the courses hauled up," said the 
 captain, " and see that a hand is stationed 
 with a line ready to heave it in the boat as 
 we bring her alongside." 
 
 I ran forward to get these orders executed. 
 
 " Lower away your royal and top-gallant 
 yards and slacken off your jib-sheets," sung 
 out the skipper, in a voice the unmistakable 
 excitement of which made all hands stare 
 aft at him. This was done, and the W alder - 
 share, losing much of her way, floated 
 languidly towards the boat, that was now 
 within hailing distance. 
 
 "Look out for a line!" I shouted from 
 the forecastle, and the man who stood in 
 the bow waved his hand with a gesture 
 that made me see at once he was a sailor. 
 
 " They seem none the worse for being
 
 240 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 adrift," exclaimed tlie boatswain, who stood 
 near me. " Blowed if they could take it 
 easier if they was crossing from Gravesend 
 to Tilbury." 
 
 " Steady ! " I shouted. " Port your helm 
 a little." 
 
 The wheel was put over. 
 
 "Stand by!" cried the man who held 
 the line, and the coil fell cleverly into the 
 boat, that in a minute sheered alongside and 
 lay wobbling under the starboard gangway. 
 There was a rush to the quarter-deck to 
 see the men come aboard; all discipline 
 was forgotten in such a moment as this. 
 The gangway- was unshipped, and some steps 
 thrown over the side, and' the two men came 
 on deck. 
 
 The first man was the one who had stood 
 in the bow waving his arms. He was a 
 tall, thin, long-faced man, with a yellow 
 skin and a bunch of black hair under his 
 chin ; dressed in a blue alpaca coat and 
 blue serge trousers, and a soft felt white hat 
 with a very broad brim. From the very 
 crown of his hat to the square toes of his 
 long boots he was a Yankee, and when his
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 241 
 
 feet touched the deck, he took a cool, steady 
 stare around him just as he might have 
 done had he merely boarded us from his 
 own ship to make inquiries. 
 
 His companion was a short, thick, square- 
 built man, with long, immensely round arms, 
 at the end of each of which hung a fist fit 
 for a giant nine feet high. He was a half- 
 caste, as well as I could make out, though 
 his natural brown had been considerably 
 deepened by the sun ; he had small, fierce 
 black eyes, the African nose with the Euro- 
 pean mouth, and he wore a short, bristly 
 moustache, that served to heighten the 
 white of a row of long sharp teeth that 
 glistened between his red lips. His jaws and 
 neck were those of a bull-dog. His dress 
 consisted of a pair of flowing duck trousers 
 and a striped cotton shirt, and around his 
 waist was a broad leather belt with nozzles 
 for the reception of a knife or a pistol, or 
 any other weapon he might deem it ne- 
 cessary to carry about with him in the 
 exercise of his vocation. He looked as 
 complete a ruffian as ever went clothed in 
 human attire, and as he bounded over the 
 
 VOL. i. s
 
 242 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 ship's side lie gazed around liirn with a 
 scowl. 
 
 " May I ask if the cap'n of this vessel 
 is hereabouts?" exclaimed the first man, 
 with a strong nasal accent and speaking 
 with a drawl. He had been looking around 
 for some one resembling a shipmaster, and 
 small wonder that he had not discovered 
 Captain Flanders to be his man. 
 
 "I command this ship," answered the 
 skipper, " and I am glad to have been the 
 means of preserving you. Step aft into 
 the cuddy, where your wants shall be 
 attended to at once." 
 
 " Cap'n, let me shake your hand." The 
 Yankee gripped the skipper's fingers. " I've 
 no smartness at speech-making, but you've 
 saved me and my mate here from a tarna- 
 tion ugly death, and though neither him 
 nor me has tasted a blessed drop of drink 
 nor a mossul of food since supper-time last 
 night, I'd choke sooner than swaller a 
 mouthful aboard this ship before I had 
 thanked you for my life." These were his 
 very words as I remember them, and he 
 then wrung the captain's hand violently
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 243 
 
 and brushed his eyes over with the back 
 of his long yellow claws. The half-caste 
 muttered some words of thanks, but what 
 he said I did not hear. 
 
 They were both following the captain 
 into the cuddy, when the Yankee stopped. 
 
 "What about that 'ere boat?" he ex- 
 claimed. " Is she worth slinging aboard? 
 She was my port quarter-boat, and cost nigh 
 about one hundred dollars." The captain 
 shook his head. " Wal, then, let her go," 
 said the Yankee, and they all three entered 
 the cuddy. 
 
 I overheard the crew, who hung about the 
 quarter-deck, discussing these unexpected 
 visitors. 
 
 "Bill, the black 'un's a rascal. No 
 sogerin' with him, mate." 
 
 "Ay, a down-east knuckle-duster. He'd 
 have his teeth in your throat if you didn't 
 hear his first orders ! " 
 
 " He wants towing astern for a few days. 
 He'd be the better for a little cleanin". 
 mates." 
 
 " His face beats my time ! A shark must 
 ha' been his mother."
 
 244 A SAILOE'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 " One of you jump into the boat and cast 
 her adrift," I called out. " Hands aft to 
 the braces. Man the top-gallant halliards." 
 It was like a dream to see the boat, 
 that was just now ahead with men in her, 
 drop astern empty. She seemed almost 
 human in my eyes, as she rose and fell 
 in our long silvery wake, and I watched her 
 as I walked along the poop, until she 
 vanished out of sight. It is the immensity 
 of the ocean that gives the waifs one meets 
 upon it their pathetic interest. The scene 
 is so spacious, and the loneliness so great, 
 that one cannot behold even a broken spar 
 floating leagues out at sea without a kind of 
 compassion, as though it could not but feel 
 its desolateness. 
 
 Presently the captain came up the com- 
 panion on to the poop, followed by the two 
 rescued men. The Yankee had slung the 
 ship's glass over his shoulder, and around 
 the neck of the other was suspended a pair 
 of powerful binocular glasses, belonging to 
 Captain Flanders. They both looked the 
 better for the food and drink they had taken, 
 and as they all three came forward the
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 245 
 
 Yankee squinted round him with lively 
 curiosity, staring hard at Nelly, and con- 
 triving an ungainly and ludicrously con- 
 vulsed bow as he passed her. 
 
 " Now, Obed," said he, "you take the 
 fore-royal, and I'll perch myself on the main. 
 I guess the 'rizon's as clear as glass, and if 
 there's anything visible, you'll oblige me by 
 lettin' me hear what quality jof voice the 
 Creator has blessed you with." 
 
 As he said this he clawed hold of the 
 main-rigging, and floundered up the ratlines, 
 the joints of his long bony shanks sticking 
 out against his trousers like knuckles, and 
 his feet protruding through the rigging like 
 outriggers slewed inboard. Meanwhile 
 Obed, as the Yankee called him, always 
 preserving his villainous scowl, and seeming 
 to have no eyes for what was about him, 
 went with a walk like a fisherman's trot- 
 along the main-deck, slung himself with one 
 hand into the fore-rigging, and jogged aloft 
 with a regular beat of the feet and patting 
 of the hands, as though he kept time to a 
 tune. The men who were at work about 
 the deck followed him and the Yankee with
 
 246 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 their eyes, considerably puzzled that the 
 first thing a couple of mariners newly 
 rescued from the very jaws of death should 
 do was to masthead themselves. 
 
 On reaching the main-royal yard the 
 Yankee jammed himself between the back- 
 stay and the mast, and in that posture 
 slowly swept the horizon with his glass. 
 Obed, on the. other hand, anxious to astonish 
 the weak nerves of the Britishers, stood on 
 the fore -royal yard, and crossing his right 
 leg over his left, whilst he leant with his 
 elbow on the truck — for our short royal-mast 
 heads barely showed three feet above the 
 yards when hoisted — applied the binocu- 
 lars to his eyes, and surveyed the horizon 
 from that immense height with all the ease 
 of a young gentleman in a theatre-stall 
 studying a beauty in a distant box. 
 
 Whilst the two men went aloft, Captain 
 Flanders stood alongside of me watching 
 them, and suddenly exclaimed, " I hope 
 they'll see her ! I hope they'll see her ! I 
 have promised him all the assistance I can 
 render. The demons ! Never did I hear 
 of such inhuman conduct ! " His voice be-
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 247 
 
 trayed great agitation, and he appeared to 
 talk to himself more than to me. 
 
 Presently, fixing his eyes on my face, he 
 exclaimed, " Those two men, Mr. Lee, are 
 the master and first mate of an American 
 barque, called the Jessie Jackson. The men 
 mutinied, and sent them adrift this morning 
 in the midst of a heavy sea — you remember 
 what the sea was at eight o'clock, sir ? — 
 with only one oar, and without a drop of 
 water or an ounce of bread. My blood boils 
 to think of such fiendish cruelty. They 
 have run away with the vessel, and Captain 
 Taber — that's he aloft on the main-royal yard 
 there — believes that it is their intention to 
 put her ashore somewhere to the east'ards 
 of the Amazon, as the vessel is bound to 
 Pernambuco, and they can find an excuse 
 for being in that neighbourhood." 
 
 " I suppose the captain has gone aloft to 
 try to see if he can make her out anywhere, 
 sir?" 
 
 " Yes, and if we overhaul her, I have pro- 
 mised to chase her, if she don't lead me too 
 far out of my course." 
 
 This was as much as he condescended to
 
 248 a sailors sweetheart. 
 
 tell me, or rather, I think he was too much 
 agitated to sustain a conversation. He 
 walked as far as the port quarter-boat, and, 
 without addressing the ladies, stood looking 
 aloft, occasionally muttering to himself and 
 slightly motioning with his right hand. At 
 the mastheads the Yankee and his mate 
 occasionally exchanged a call, but what they 
 said I could not hear, owing to the flapping 
 of the mainsail, for the wind had fallen very 
 light, and every roll of the ship sent the 
 heavy courses beating against the masts and 
 rigging. 
 
 Presently Captain Taber came down, 
 leaving Obed aloft. The half-caste had 
 now seated himself on the yard, and his legs 
 hung before the sail, whilst he occasionally 
 lifted the glasses to his eyes. The Yankee 
 joined Captain Flanders, and they had a 
 long talk. I confess I found nothing in 
 our skipper promising to chase the pirates — 
 running away with a ship, the reader must 
 know, is an act of piracy — providing they 
 did not haul him out of his own course ; it 
 was not more than one capfain would do to 
 help another, and unless the barque carried
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 249 
 
 gims, and her men were well armed, there 
 was little doubt that our ship was strong- 
 handed enough to carry her easily, could 
 we lay her aboard. But it was not very 
 clear to me what would be done if we suc- 
 ceeded in capturing her. As to the cause 
 of the mutiny, I did not need to hear much 
 of that after looking at the half-caste chief 
 mate. Kuffianly officers always do make 
 ruffianly crews, and if Obed was not the 
 greatest ruffian that ever walked a deck, I 
 was willing to own that I was blind of both 
 eyes. 
 
 Anyhow, the barque was not in sight. It 
 w r as now hard upon four o'clock ; the two 
 men had been sent adrift at eight ; we had 
 no doubt sighted them pretty nearly in 
 the spot where they had been sent adrift, 
 and consequently the Jessie Jackson had 
 eight hours' start of us. I thought this 
 was heavy odds against our overhauling 
 her, for if she only shifted her course a 
 couple of points, she would be out of sight 
 behind the horizon when we were abeam 
 of her, and we should pass without seeing 
 her ; that is, if we sailed better than she,
 
 250 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 which was yet to be proved. I thought it 
 probable that she was the barque we had 
 sighted to windward on the previous evening, 
 when the sunset lay heavy upon the horizon, 
 and which the hands aloft at the time had 
 described as a glob of blood. If so, then she 
 must have run further to the southwards 
 by eight hours than we. 
 
 How the news got about, I don't know ; 
 but it was soon spread fore and aft that the 
 men we had rescued were the captain and 
 mate of an American vessel, the crew of 
 which had mutinied and run off with the 
 ship, after sending the skipper and first 
 officer adrift, and that the W alder share 
 was to chase them. All through the dog- 
 watches the hands talked together in groups 
 forward, peering over both bows and under 
 the jibs, and some going aloft to see if any- 
 thing like a sail was visible ahead. Such a 
 chase as Captain Flanders meditated was 
 altogether a novelty in the lives of these 
 merchant sailors, and filled them, as indeed 
 it filled me, with interest and excitement. 
 But nothing in all this adventure struck me 
 as more curious than the perfect coolness
 
 THE " JESSIE JACKSON." 251 
 
 with which the American captain accom- 
 modated himself to the situation in which 
 he found himself placed. Bescued but a 
 short time ago from a fate of which, as a 
 sailor, he would perfectly appreciate the 
 lingering horror and suffering, he now paced 
 the poop of the W alder share with as much 
 self-possession and nonchalance as he could 
 have shown had he been put aboard to take 
 a new command. 
 
 All this time Obed remained aloft, as 
 mute and wooden as a figure-head. 
 
 I was talking to Mr. Thomas about the 
 chances of the chase, and he was con- 
 demning Captain Flanders' resolution in 
 very unmeasured terms, saying that it was 
 a captain's duty to sail his ship to her 
 destination with all practicable speed, and 
 that it would be a bad look-out for ship- 
 owners and traders if masters of vessels were 
 at liberty to go out of their way and delay 
 their voyage to hunt after adventures of 
 this kind, when the Yankee came over to 
 us, Captain Flanders having left the deck. 
 
 "I presume, gentlemen," says he, thumb- 
 ing the fore part of his broad-brimmed hat
 
 252 A SAILOE'S SWEETHEAET. 
 
 as though, he would lift it, "that I am 
 speaking to the mates of this here ship ? " 
 
 Mr. Thomas replied that that was so. 
 
 " I beg, then," said he, "you'll excuse 
 the liberty if I ask one of you for a chew 
 of tobacco. I find your cap'n doesn't 
 smoke, and when my men cut me adrift 
 they forget to favour me with anything 
 that I could get a draw or a spit out of." 
 
 I had a piece of a stick of tobacco in my 
 pocket, which I gave him. He bit out a 
 mouthful, and said that with my leave he 
 would put the rest in his pocket. 
 
 " Are you the chief officer ? " he inquired 
 of Mr. Thomas. 
 
 "I am." 
 
 " The cap'n tells me you have sailed in 
 this ship before. I reckon you've got a 
 clipper here, sir. I was admiring her run 
 as she bore down to us. Baltimore never 
 turned out a superior article. I never saw 
 finer lines, though we've built some nautical 
 expresses in the States too, sir, even in my 
 my time. "What's her best pace, do you 
 guess ?" 
 
 " With the wind right abeam and all
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 253 
 
 three royals on her, the log has given 
 sixteen : but then she was homeward 
 bound, had worked herself easy, and was 
 not down to the chain-plate bolts with iron 
 and steel." 
 
 " How much have you got out of her this 
 voyage ? " 
 
 " At the very best, twelve — that was with 
 a smooth sea." 
 
 " That'll serve ! " exclaimed the Yankee, 
 going to the side to squirt the tobacco juice 
 out of his mouth : " the Jessie can't beat 
 that, or, if she can, I calculate the wind 
 that'll drive her twelve '11 drive you 
 thirteen." 
 
 " That's very likely," said I. 
 
 " I want to overhaul that vessel badly," 
 he continued, in his strong nasal accent, 
 and speaking with a tiresome drawl, that- 
 seemed a tremendous piece of affectation 
 alongside the active fire in his eyes. 
 " Every blessed dollar I own in the world 
 is in her. Half of her belongs to me, and 
 if those creatures put her ashore, which I 
 reckon is their lay, they'll strand me too, 
 gentlemen, and that's a fact."
 
 254 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 " Have you any notion what course they 
 mean to steer? " asked Mr. Thomas. 
 
 " Wal, if Obed's ears are good for a 
 caution, I calculate they mean to sail 
 straight on. He heard enough to guess 
 what they mean to be at ; and if they don't 
 change their minds, they'll try for the 
 south'ard of the Guy-hana coast, somewhere 
 betwixts the mouth of the Amazon Eiver 
 and Koque Cape. The second mate leads 
 the mutiny, and he has a pretty consider- 
 able acquaintance with that coast, havin' 
 been raised in Cayenne" (he pronounced it 
 Caym). "Wal, as I reckon, gentlemen, 
 they'll make your course until they catch 
 the trades, and if that be so," he exclaimed, 
 with a sudden slap of his thigh, "we'll 
 have 'em yet ! " 
 
 I asked what was the cause of the 
 mutiny. 
 
 He vouchsafed no further information 
 than by saying that it lay among four men, 
 and that the ringleader was the second 
 mate. The crew consisted of ten hands. 
 Three of the men were well-disposed, and 
 the mutineers, knowing this, had closed the
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 255 
 
 forescuttle before going aft ; they then over- 
 powered the mate, made his feet fast, and 
 stowed him away in one of the quarter- 
 boats. The skipper, hearing Obed's shouts, 
 rushed on deck, where he was immediately 
 knocked down and sat upon by a couple 
 of the men, whilst the others lowered away 
 the boat, unhooked the falls, and brought 
 her alongside ; they then dragged the 
 skipper to the gangway, waited until a 
 sea lifted the boat, and then dropped him 
 into it, after which they let her go adrift, 
 put the helm over, filled and stood on, 
 leaving the boat tossing in a heavy sea. 
 The two men thus abandoned had only one 
 oar, which they lashed to the end of the 
 painter and hove overboard, and this kept 
 the boat's head to the sea, otherwise she 
 w T ould have capsized ; as it was, they had 
 to keep bailing for their lives with a soup- 
 and-bouilli tin which they found in the 
 stern-sheets ; but the wind moderated fast, 
 and the sea went down with it, and all that 
 remained for them to do was to keep a look- 
 out for any passing ship. 
 
 The Yankee told his story without the
 
 256 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 least air of excitement, and with a slow, 
 long drawl. I asked if the men were 
 armed? He answered that the only fire- 
 arm aboard was his pistol, and added that 
 if our ship could only overhaul his vessel, 
 there would be no difficulty in regaining 
 her, as the mutineers were in a minority, 
 and half a dozen of the W alder share's crew, 
 headed by himself and Obed, would manage 
 the business. 
 
 Having said this, and squirting another 
 mouthful of tobacco juice overboard, he 
 went forward and hailed his mate from the 
 forecastle. 
 
 " Do you see anything up there ? " 
 
 " Nothing." 
 
 " Come down, then." 
 
 " There's a murdering face for you!" 
 said Mr. Thomas, indicating Obed, as the 
 two men came aft, inquisitively followed 
 by the eyes of the crew. " The very sight 
 of him is enough to breed a mutiny. See 
 how our men look at them and whisper ! 
 If he's not hanged soon there'll be some 
 broken skulls going yet among the poor 
 devils he may lord it over."
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 257 
 
 They entered the cuddy, into which they 
 had heen beckoned by the steward ; and 
 when the dinner was put upon the table, 
 they both took their places (as I saw through 
 the skylight, for my watch had come round 
 again), Obed right opposite to Nelly, who 
 eyed him with disgust and aversion, though 
 I never once saw him lift his eyes or look 
 around. Indeed, the man was out of his 
 element there, and would have enjoyed his 
 meal more in the forecastle, though I doubt 
 if the crew would have suffered him to come 
 among them, As to Captain Taber, his 
 drawling notes sounded incessantly. As 
 often as I looked down I saw him nodding, 
 with his glass to his lips, to one or the other 
 of the persons around him. It was impos- 
 sible not to feel respect for a man who could 
 endure with festive complacency such trouble 
 as had befallen our Yankee. 
 
 As the sun went down, the breeze 
 dropped; and by the time that the dark- 
 ness had closed round the ship, there was 
 not a breath of ah'. The sea was full of 
 stars, and it was like looking at the sky, 
 so perfectly were the small yellow orbs 
 
 vol. i. s
 
 258 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 reflected. I lingered half-way up the poop- 
 ladder, with my elbows on the bulwark, to 
 smoke a pipe before I turned in. Eight aft, 
 Captain Taber was talking to Madam Espi- 
 nosa, and her foolish laugh was incessant ; 
 Mr. Black, Espinosa, and Nelly conversed 
 near the skylight ; the captain walked the 
 deserted side of the poop alone; and near 
 me stood Mr. Thomas and Obed, the latter 
 answering the chief mate's questions in a 
 thick voice, that appeared to proceed from 
 his stomach. 
 
 It seemed hard not to be alone with my 
 sweetheart on such a night; but she was 
 near me, and I knew she was well, and I 
 made this reflection satisfy me. The at- 
 mosphere was sultry, but as the ship rose 
 and sank with the ebony swell (that filled 
 the eye with the illusion of the stars sweep- 
 ing through the sea as though the ocean 
 were full of shooting fires), the sails flapped 
 heavily, discharging at intervals a shower 
 of dew, and filling the decks with circling 
 draughts of sweet air. At times a meteor 
 would sail through the dark sky, leaving a 
 silvery trail as it went, and breaking and
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 259 
 
 vanishing in a cloud of luminous dust. 
 The phosphorescent blue fires swarmed, 
 kindling and fading fitfully, among the stars 
 reflected in the water ; and the flapping of 
 the sails against the masts, and the wash of 
 the water around the ship, and the metallic 
 clank of the tiller- chains, with now and 
 again the creaking of a block overhead or 
 the straining of a timber, were sounds which 
 mingled pleasantly with the voices and the 
 laughter upon the deck. 
 
 It remained calm all through the first 
 and middle watches. Nature appeared to 
 have exhausted herself over the previous 
 night's job ; the very ocean swell had grown 
 fainter, and the great Atlantic was fast be- 
 coming as breathless as an inland lake. 
 A cabin had been offered to the American 
 captain and his mate, but the only use they 
 had made of it was to trim themselves up 
 for dinner. They both slept on deck, and 
 kept watch and watch. When I relieved 
 Mr. Thomas at midnight, I found Captain 
 Taber routing out Obed, who lay on a hen- 
 coop over against the port quarter-boat with 
 his head on a coil of rope. The Yankee took
 
 260 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 the mate's place, turning up his coat-collars 
 and hoisting his knee-caps almost into his 
 mouth, and appeared to fall asleep in a 
 moment. iVbout half a dozen times in the 
 four hours I think Obed must have gone 
 aloft as high, probably, as the fore-royal 
 yard, though as we lay with square yards I 
 could not follow him with my eye. 
 
 When he came down the first time I 
 asked him what he hoped to see ? 
 
 "Why, the Jessie Jackson" says he, 
 speaking with a negro's voice. 
 
 "But we've made no progress worth 
 mentioning since you've been aboard, and 
 your ship can't be any nearer now than 
 she was when we sighted your boat." 
 
 " I hope my goin' aloft ain't contrairy to 
 the rules of this hooker ? " says he. 
 
 "Not a bit," I answered. "You may 
 stop aloft and take your meals aloft till 
 the Jessie Jackson heaves in sight, if you 
 please." 
 
 " I want to be the first man to sight her, 
 and I should like to be the first man to 
 board her," said he, with a little tremble in 
 his thick speech, and the whites of his eyes 
 gleaming as he rolled them about.
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 261 
 
 " You'd make the lee scuppers run red 
 if you could, wouldn't you, my beauty? " I 
 thought, as I left him and stood for some 
 time alongside the man at the wheel. 
 
 The fellow excited in me more aversion 
 than I knew how to control. I felt a sort 
 of debasement in talking to him, and when 
 he presently pulled out a tobacco-pipe that 
 the steward had procured for him, and 
 lighted it, he looked like the very devil 
 himself, as the flame of the match illu- 
 minated his dark face and glittered in his 
 gleaming eyes, and exposed the monkeyfied 
 protrusion of his lips as he wrapped them 
 round the pipe stem. However, he had not 
 yet clone with me, for presently he came to 
 where I stood, and peered over the stern to 
 look about him for a catspaw. He sucked 
 his pipe hard, and the muscular power of 
 his chest was curiously expressed in the 
 sound of his vigorous breathing, that ex- 
 actly resembled a whale blowing in the 
 distance. 
 
 "I reckon that yaller cuss, Nathan, guesses 
 we're at the bottom of the sea by this 
 time," said he, with a grin that laid bare
 
 262 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 his teeth. " There are three casks of rum 
 in the niainhold, slap under the hatches, 
 and they'll have broached one when they 
 cut us adrift, and I calculate there's been 
 no want of singin' aboard the Jessie this 
 day. They've cussed me and the old man 
 up to the eyes over and over agin ; — you see ; 
 and Nathan has jumped on to the cap'n's 
 chair and given out my name, an' if I had 
 been thar listenin' I couldn't know better 
 what he said than I dew here. Every 
 man'll have had a pannikin full o' black 
 rum, an' I know the words they gave me 
 as they drunk it down ! " 
 
 Beyond the tremble in his voice there 
 was no rage expressed in it ; but when he 
 had done speaking, he bit the shank of his 
 pipe off, and the bowl fell to the deck. He 
 did not appear to notice this for some 
 moments, and then suddenly spat the shank 
 from his mouth, picked up the bowl and 
 slung it overboard with a sweep of his arm 
 that made the air whistle, and sprang 
 forward ; and under the foot of the main- 
 sail I could see his dark body dancing up 
 the lower fore-riggmg, his furious gestures
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 263 
 
 shaking the shrouds as heavily as if half a 
 dozen men were climbing them. 
 
 About half an hour before I went below a 
 little breeze sprang up from the north-west. 
 Before I had time to sing out to the watch 
 to trim the yards, Captain Taber tumbled 
 off the hencoop and came sprawling up to 
 me like a disjointed scarecrow on the top of 
 his long toes. 
 
 " Now you have it ! " he cried, rubbing his 
 hands together until his knuckles cracked 
 under the friction. And he danced aft and 
 stood whistling over the stern as though he 
 were calling a dog ; and when the hands 
 came aft to man the main-braces, he tallied 
 on with them, shouting, " Hurrah ! here's 
 the Britisher as'll froth this puddle ! Hand- 
 somely over the bricks, my bully boys I 
 Blow up, blow up ! Hurrah ! Here's the A 1 
 copper bottom as'll lay plump little Jessie 
 aboard ! Now then, you nigger, up aloft 
 with yer," he shouted to Obed ; " and if ye 
 catch sight of anything on the 'rizon, though 
 it be but a grit o' dirt, screech out, you 
 monkey, as though the devil was flying 
 away with you ! Hurrah ! the Jessie has
 
 264 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 our tow-rope, and stand by, bullies, to haul 
 in the slack ! ' ' 
 
 I was as much amused as the men by the 
 fellow's excitement. He hung about for 
 some time looking over the ship's side and 
 up aloft, and peering into the binnacle, and 
 then betook himself to the hencoop again, 
 adjusting his knees to his throat precisely 
 as before, and falling asleep instantly. 
 
 By the time the watch were relieved, the 
 ship was carrying three studding-sails and 
 the breeze freshening. I hove the log and 
 found her doing seven knots. Hearing the 
 log-reel rattle, the Yankee came aft, and 
 when I gave him the speed he burst into a 
 loud laugh, as harsh and metallic as the 
 rasping of a hand-saw. He watched the 
 ship's wake, gloating and chuckling, with 
 his mouth full of tobacco, and was evidently 
 surprised at the speed of the ship under a 
 breeze that was almost astern and still light 
 enough for so deep a vessel. 
 
 The wind held steady for several hours, 
 and then veered to the westward and came 
 on to blow fresh in strong puffs. It had hit 
 the W alder share's best sailing point, and at
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 265 
 
 nine o'clock the ship was lying clown with 
 her lee scuppers all bubbling, under a 
 tremendous show of canvas ; for Captain 
 Flanders, infected by the Yankee's excite- 
 ment, had set the main-topmast studding- 
 sail, which was more than he would have 
 done under ordinary circumstances, and the 
 vessel was roaring through the sea as she 
 had only once done before, and that was 
 when the gale had struck her, peeling the 
 water on her weather bow into a high green 
 transparent wave that curled and broke into 
 foam before it was abreast of the gangway, 
 and fled aft, mingling with the boiling water 
 that swept astern to leeward, and making a 
 wake as yellow as cream, that danced and 
 broadened down into the quivering horizon. 
 I never remember a more splendid sight 
 than the ship offered me from the forecastle, 
 whither I went to give some orders to the 
 boatswain. Eight forward away as far as 
 the flying jibboom end is the proper place to 
 look at a ship under canvas, for there she 
 seems a separate thing ; from that point of 
 view you have the whole of her in your eye, 
 and can behold the beautiful sight of her
 
 266 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 bows ripping up and tearing the water, 
 leaping so as sometimes to expose her fore- 
 foot, with the metal sheathing laid bare, 
 and shining brightly as the long lines of 
 foam rush down it, then burying her nose 
 wuth a hugh souse until only her figure-head 
 shows over the vast surge which she sends 
 boiling and hissing right under where you 
 are seated, while her decks slope down to 
 you in a steep run, and the quarter-boat 
 hanging far aft seems suspended over your 
 head. Even where I stood in the eyes of 
 her, though I could not see her bows, I 
 could command the whole of the square 
 canvas, and mark the superb run of her lee 
 bulwark against the white^foam flying past, 
 and her iron-black shrouds and backstays 
 contrasted with the vast spaces of swollen 
 polished canvas, with the studding-sails 
 throwing their shadows clean and dark upon 
 the topsails, and the blue sky dancing be- 
 tween the tops and cross-trees and under 
 the foot of the sails, and the water leaping 
 in sparkling green seas as high as her 
 weather bulwarks, then falling back with a 
 hollow hissing splash, like serpents ex-
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 267 
 
 hausted with their vain endeavours to leap 
 inboard. 
 
 " The Jessie Jackson must be a clipper 
 with a vengeance if she can beat this ! " 
 thought I, the bright triumphant show 
 making the blood leap in my veins. If she 
 were ahead we were bound to overhaul her, 
 and I gazed aloft at the figure of Obed, 
 diminished to dwarfish proportions by the 
 great height he occupied, and longed for the 
 cry of " Sail ho ! " for already the excite- 
 ment of the chase — though, to be sure, 
 until we rose the barque we could not 
 pretend to call it a chase — was strong upon 
 me, and, as I believe,, on all hands. Every 
 Englishman belonging to the Walcler share 
 was eager to sight the vessel, if only to let 
 the Yankees see what a British merchant- 
 man could do in the way of sailing. 
 
 However, three long hours went by and 
 nothing hove in sight. In all this time 
 Obed only came down once, and then merely 
 for a few minutes, whilst Captain Taber was 
 up in the mizzen-top every quarter of an 
 hour, working away with the glass to wind- 
 ward and to leeward, and floundering up
 
 268 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 and down the rigging with such a wild air 
 of excitement that all hands were on the 
 broad grin watching him. He had still his 
 long drawl and nasal accent, but the cool- 
 ness that had characterized his behaviour 
 on the preceding night was gone, and his 
 impatience w r as so great, that when he was 
 not up aloft he was running to and fro the 
 rail at the break of the poop, as you may 
 have seen a newly caught bird travelling 
 along the perch from side to side of his cage, 
 stopping a moment when he got to wind- 
 ward to shade his eyes and peer at the 
 weather horizon, then flopping down to lee- 
 ward and pausing again to bend his head 
 and squint under the mainsail afc the lee 
 horizon ; while now and then he would 
 run aft and jump on to the weather poop- 
 rail, clawing the vang with one hand, 
 whilst he leaned his long body sheer over 
 the water in order to see ahead, in which 
 attitude he would utter a variety of exclama- 
 tions, addressed to the ship at the top of his 
 voice, such as " Go it, jade ! hurrah, bully ! 
 spank along, spank along ! grease your old 
 heels and dance me a Yankee reel, for once !
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 269 
 
 well done, old ! drive into it, sweet- 
 heart ! " whilst he kept slapping his thigh 
 with his hand as if to encourage the ship by 
 the sound, and finally would spring on to 
 the deck again, making his long legs fly 
 out, and more than once coming plump on 
 his nose. 
 
 At ahout eleven o'clock, however, it 
 breezed up so smartly, that Captain 
 Flanders sung out to me to haul down the 
 main-topmast studding-sail. Indeed, he had 
 held on much longer than I should have 
 thought he would venture to do ; for the 
 foam was so close to leeward that a man 
 might almost have touched it by dropping 
 his arm over the bulwark, whilst to wind- 
 ward the ship looked as if her hull were out 
 of water, and as if nothing prevented you 
 from seeing her keel but the bends of her ; 
 the forecastle was in a smother of foam, and 
 the thunder of the seas under her bows was 
 audible right aft. In truth, the Walcler share 
 was never before so driven ; all astern of 
 her the water flashed up as if a gale of wind 
 had just passed; and when she met a sea 
 she seemed to jump clean over it, while the
 
 270 A SAILOE'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 wind poured out of her courses like the voice 
 of a hurricane, and the sweat ran down the 
 faces of the two men who steered her as if 
 a can of oil had been capsized over their 
 heads. 
 
 And yet, after the captain had given the 
 order to get in the studding-sail, the Yankee 
 skipper remonstrated with him with a most 
 beseeching air. However, it would not do ; 
 Captain Flanders was not yet mad enough 
 to lose his spars in order to please a man 
 who wanted to overhaul a runaway ship, 
 and before noon we had all the studding- 
 sails in, and the fore and mizzen royals fly- 
 ing, with hands aloft ; and even then the 
 ship was carrying a couple of top-gallant 
 sails more than she could bear. 
 
 Just, however, as the hands were on the 
 fore-royal clewlines and the sail was flap- 
 ping, Obed, who had dropped on to the top- 
 gallant yard, raised a shout. Captain Taber 
 was right aft against the wheel at the time, 
 but no sooner did the cry reach his ears, 
 than he made a plunge and shot forwards 
 and sprang on to the fore-rigging, where he 
 nearly danced an ordinary seaman, who was
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 271 
 
 going aloft to furl the royal, into the sea by 
 the convulsive jerking of his legs. 
 
 The captain, Mr. Thomas, and myself 
 were taking sights at the time, and we could 
 not give any attention to Obed's shouts, but 
 when we had made eight bells, I put clown 
 my sextant and went forward. I looked up ; 
 a couple of ordinary seamen were on the 
 fore-royal yard stowing the sail, and just 
 under them, on either side the mast, were 
 the Yankee skipper and Obed, with their 
 glasses levelled at a point on the port bow. 
 
 " Aloft there!" I shouted. " What do 
 you see ? " 
 
 " A sail ! " roared Obed, without removing 
 the glasses from his eyes. " We're waiting 
 to rise her to see her rig." 
 
 "Forecastle there!" hailed Captain 
 Flanders. " Is there anything in sight ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir, a sail," I answered. 
 
 11 Where away?" 
 
 " On the port bow." 
 
 He held up his hand in token that he 
 heard me, and then went below, followed by 
 Mr. Thomas, each man to work out the 
 sights in his own cabin, and I returned to
 
 272 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 the poop to wait until the chief mate came 
 on deck again. In ah out a quarter of an 
 hour Captain Taber came running aft, blow- 
 ing like a grampus. 
 
 "By the 'tarnal ! " he cried, "she's a 
 barque. She's riz high enough to see that. 
 She's under easy sail ! Lord ! if it was 
 only six hours earlier ! " 
 
 I took the glass from him, but she was 
 not yet visible from the deck. 
 
 " We mustn't be cock-sure that she's the 
 Jessie JacJcson, though," said I. "Barque- 
 rigged vessels are common enough here- 
 abouts." 
 
 " Wal, young man, we shall see," he an- 
 swered. " Whar's the cap'n ? " 
 
 " Below, working out the sights." 
 
 He instantly bolted down the companion. 
 Shortly afterwards Mr. Thomas came on 
 deck. 
 
 " Is the Yankee in sight yet ? " he asked. 
 
 " No, sir, not from the deck; nor, as I 
 have just told the skipper, does it follow that 
 because there's a barque ahead it's his." 
 
 " Can they make out what canvas she's 
 under?"
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 273 
 
 " Easy canvas." 
 
 11 Main top-gallant sail, eh? Why, then, 
 we're not going to overhaul her in an hour, 
 Mr. Lee, if she chooses to crack on. What 
 does the Yankee mean to do if she turns 
 out to he his ship ? ' ' 
 
 " Board her, I suppose, sir." 
 
 " But suppose they won't let him ? " 
 
 I shrugged my shoulders. " He's helow 
 with Captain Flanders now : I suppose 
 they'll arrange something." 
 
 " What did you make us doing just now 
 when you hove the log ? ' ' 
 
 " Ten and a half." 
 
 "If she's under easy canvas," said he r 
 " she must he a fast vessel ; for if they can 
 make out her rig from the fore top-gallant 
 yard, something ought to he visible from 
 deck by this time, if we're overhauling her 
 at all." 
 
 I pointed the glass, but nothing was in 
 sight. Mr. Espinosa now came up to me 
 with his wife, and wanted me to tell him 
 all about the American captain and his 
 ship ; but it was my watch below, and I 
 was not exactly in the humour for a cross- 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 A SAILOK'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 examination by Mr. Espinosa, so I referred 
 him to Mr. Thomas, and, after exchanging 
 a few words with Nelly, I left the deck. 
 
 I had a mouthful to eat before I went 
 to my cabin, and then I laid down and slept 
 soundly for about two hours ; when, awaking 
 and glancing through the port-hole, past 
 which the green water was sweeping at a 
 sj^eed that made me guess the breeze was 
 still very fresh, I bethought me of the 
 Yankee barque, and all the excitement of 
 the chase coming into my mind, I bundled 
 out of my bunk and went on deck, content 
 to sacrifice the remainder of the rest I could 
 have taken for the sake of an adventure, 
 the like of which I had never before been 
 shipmates with. 
 
 The moment I gained the deck I saw 
 the whole of my watch on the forecastle 
 staring ahead. The watch on deck were, 
 of course, at work, but every man who 
 could invent an excuse for being forward 
 where he could command the sea was 
 there, and the cause was not far to seek. 
 
 Broad on the port bow was a little clipper 
 barque, between four and five miles distant,
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 275 
 
 painted black, and looking like a toy, all 
 her sails and her hull brilliantly defined in 
 the clear air, and sailing like a witch. 
 Captain Flanders, Captain Taber, Mr. 
 Thomas, and Obed were all to leeward of 
 the poop watching her with glasses, and 
 it seems that she was the Yankee's barque, 
 and that I had hit my time for coming on 
 deck cleverly, for only three minutes before 
 we had run up a signal for her to heave to — 
 the flags were all streaming in bright colours 
 at the peak — and it appeared that they 
 had just discovered our meaning, for their 
 two royals and fore top-gallant sails were 
 flying loose, and they were setting the gaff- 
 topsail ; a good hint that they were short- 
 handed, for, after loosing the sails, they 
 only sheeted home one at a time. How- 
 ever, it was evident they had no intention 
 of heaving to, and now that they suspected 
 we knew what had happened aboard of her, 
 they were evidently all anxiety to get away 
 from us. One by one they hoisted the 
 yards and made sail, until the little vessel 
 was a complete cloud of canvas, and we, 
 who had been overhauling her fast, now
 
 276 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 found that she held her station ahead, 
 and was even beginning to widen the dis- 
 tance between us. 
 
 The Yankee's excitement had passed 
 again, and he watched her as coolly as a 
 man might who had no interest in the 
 chase. Obed kept his eyes fixed on her 
 with a diabolical scowl. But Captain 
 Flanders' agitation was singular to witness ; 
 his eyes glowed in their sockets ; every 
 muscle in his face worked ; he was re- 
 peatedly pulling off his hat to wipe his 
 forehead, and his legs and arms were all 
 of a quiver. The Yankee skipper glanced at 
 him often with real astonishment, and Mr. 
 Thomas drew away and stationed himself 
 on the weather side of the poop. 
 
 It was plain now that there was to be 
 a race for it, although, supposing we had 
 heels enough to range alongside, what could 
 we do if she refused to heave to ? We were 
 not a man-of-war ; we had no guns aboard ; 
 we could not bring her to with a shot. 
 We could, indeed, keep dodging after her 
 until we fell in with a Government vessel ; 
 but, then, they would see with half an
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 277 
 
 eye that we were a merchantman, and not 
 likely to do that ; and, indeed, I was sur- 
 prised, now she saw our signal to heave 
 to flying, that she did not put her helm 
 up and steer away to another course, for 
 they would very easily suspect it would 
 not answer our purpose to follow her. 
 However, she kept a steady helm, not alter- 
 ing her course by so much as half a point, 
 and she ran along the water like a bird, 
 skimming over the waves with wonderful 
 grace and speed. 
 
 Finding that she was slowly drawing 
 away from us, Captain Flanders ordered 
 the royals to be set. It still blew a 
 moderate gale, and the sea had grown 
 very lively ; the log was hove, and it was 
 found that the extra canvas had increased 
 the speed of the Waldershare by about 
 half a knot. This was not worth count- 
 ing, and I heard the Yankee skipper tell 
 Captain Flanders that she could easily bear 
 all her studding-sails, and that if he com- 
 manded her he would venture his spars 
 for the sake of the run. On this Captain 
 Flanders, whose excitement deepened as
 
 278 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 the time went on, sung out to Mr. Thomas 
 to get the fore and main topmast studding- 
 sails on her. With this extra canvas the 
 Waldershare appeared to he more pressed 
 than she had been before they were hauled 
 down. Every plunge she gave made her 
 tremble fore and aft ; the seas flew in sheets 
 over her weather bow, and the lee side of 
 the main-deck was all afloat, for she was 
 burying her scuppers and the water could 
 not escape. Every moment I expected to 
 see something go. The strain was terrific ; 
 the rigging yelled, and she peeled the water 
 out of the sea just like the rind of an apple 
 falls over your thumb under the action of 
 a knife. 
 
 Once Captain Taber forgot his coolness, 
 and, rushing to the side, yelled out, whilst 
 he slapped his thighs, " She's got the scent ! 
 Smoke and hum, sweetheart ! You have 
 her, old bucket ! " 
 
 Indeed, a general excitement was now 
 kindled fore and aft ; all the watch on deck 
 had left their work and joined their mates 
 on the forecastle, and no one thought of 
 calling them back to their duty ; and already
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 279 
 
 we were stealing up to the barque, from 
 under whose counter streamed a wake the 
 tail-end of which was almost abeam of us, 
 when we saw her hoist away her main top- 
 mast studding-sail. 
 
 " Damn 'em !" yelled the Yankee skipper, 
 running the joints of the telescope into 
 one another with a blow of the hand that 
 was like to snap them. 
 
 " Let me have that glass for a moment," 
 said I, and I levelled the tube. 
 
 She looked a vessel of about three hundred 
 tons, low in the water, and painted black, 
 with a narrow white streak. She had long* 
 skysail poles, though the yards were not 
 crossed, and these, with a very great hoist of 
 topsail, made her rig appear lofty almost out 
 of proportion with her size. A man stood 
 at the wheel, sometimes looking up and 
 sometimes around at us ; but with the ex- 
 ception of another hand on the foreyard 
 who was doing something to the studding- 
 sail boom, I saw no sign of her crew. In 
 the softening light of the gathering evening, 
 with her shapely hull flashing black on the 
 running green waters, and her canvas soaring
 
 280 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 above the water line and finding a back- 
 ground in the dark southerly sky, she looked 
 like a piece of ivory carving ; sometimes all 
 below her topsails vanished behind a sea, 
 and then she would emerge, hove high, so 
 that her black hull and the cloud of canvas 
 it supported would appear poised for an 
 instant on a green transparent point of water 
 that reared above the horizon, and leave 
 upon the mind the impression that what it 
 beheld was an exquisite bit of miniature 
 painting. 
 
 We had undoubtedly been overhauling 
 her, though not very fast, either, before she 
 set her studding-sails ; but though this extra 
 canvas almost laid her on her beam ends, 
 and so much of her copper was out of water 
 that the western sun flashing on it made her 
 look as though the w T hole of her hull were 
 of bright yellow metal, it enabled her to 
 keep her distance from us, and in the in- 
 tervals between some of the puffs she drew 
 slightly ahead. 
 
 " Gentlemen all!" shouted the Yankee 
 skipper, " look at her walking yonder ; is 
 she not a picter ? Let her hoist the Stars
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 281 
 
 and Stripes jest for the colour of the buntin', 
 and she's such a show as the first theayter 
 in Europe or America couldn't match. 
 Gentlemen all, she's half mine, and every 
 dollar I own in the world is in her, and 
 there's a hlind old mother, a wife an' five 
 children, holding on to the tow-rope of the 
 Jessie Jackson, and she's got to keep 'em 
 goin'. Captain Flanders is a British gentle- 
 man, and his heart has warmed up to a 
 feller- Christian an' a strugglin' brother- 
 sailor in trouble ; and he means to chase 
 that lovely barque into a calm, and then put 
 me aboard of her. That's the time of day, 
 gentlemen all; and if e'er an officer aboard 
 this noble ship should find himself in 
 Ejmraim . Taber's quandary, and Ephraim 
 is somewhar within the circumference of 
 the 'rizon to give him a hand, by God, 
 gentlemen, though it cost him half his 
 fortune, yet he'd sarve him day an' night, 
 tooth an' nail, fist an' finger, blow high 
 or blow low, and this is the hand of an 
 American citizen upon it ! " 
 
 He struck the brass rail a heavy blow, 
 as if he meant that that should answer the 
 purpose of shaking hands all round.
 
 282 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 I now began to see daylight ; indeed, the 
 'cuteness of the Yankee had hit upon the 
 only possible chance he had of recovering- 
 his ship, and that was by inducing Captain 
 Flanders to stick to her skirts until a calm 
 should enable ns to board her. But suppose 
 she should head out of our course ? Would 
 Captain Flanders follow her ? 
 
 I called Mr. Thomas's attention to the 
 captain's glowing eyes and pale and working- 
 face, and whispered that in my opinion the 
 Yankee was not only sharp enough to find 
 out that the captain of the Waldersliare was 
 not quite right in his mind, but to control 
 him to his wishes ; and that if we did not 
 mind our eye we should be finding ourselves 
 first and second mates of a kind of phantom 
 ship commanded by a lunatic, whose mission 
 was no longer to sail the ship to Callao, but 
 to pursue what he could not catch. 
 
 " I'm prepared for everything and for the 
 worst," said Mr. Thomas, with a comical 
 face of hopelessness. "I give you my 
 word, Lee, I would rather have broken my 
 leg than joined this ship under Captain 
 Flanders."
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 283 
 
 He had scarcely said this when Obed 
 raised a shout. It was just such a cry as 
 a negro utters when you kick him on the 
 shins. I looked at the barque to which 
 he was pointing frantically with his great 
 dark hand, and at once saw that something 
 was wrong aboard of her. 
 
 " See ! see ! " yelled Captain Taber, who 
 had steadied the glass on the rail, and was 
 peering into it with his back arched like an 
 enraged cat's ; '" the fellow's left the wheel 
 and boltin' forrards ! Thunder an' light- 
 ning ! look at the wheel ; it's flying round 
 like a locomotive's driver ! Christ ha' mercy ! 
 There she broaches to ! Oh, my blessed 
 spars ! " and dashing down the telescope he 
 danced about the deck like a madman. 
 
 I had my eye on the vessel whilst he 
 raved, and saw her come round into the 
 wind, her canvas shaking furiously. In a 
 second the studding-sail booms broke off 
 clean at the irons as you might snap the 
 stem of a clay pipe ; immediately after- 
 wards the fore top-gallant mast toppled over, 
 breaking just under the yard, the flying jib 
 drooped to the water's edge ; and there she
 
 284 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 lay almost on her beam ends, with her 
 jibboom pointing directly athwart our hawse, 
 everything in a wild flutter aloft ; the 
 wrecked mast with all its hamper lying 
 across the fore-topmast stay, the main-top- 
 sail yard down on the cap, the top-gallant 
 sail and royal all flying loose, and the whole 
 vessel looking like a wreck and driving bodily 
 to leeward. 
 
 Only an artist's pencil could depict the 
 Yankee captain's torture, as it was ex- 
 pressed almost entirely in dumb show, 
 though now and again he screamed out 
 some incoherent phrase. He walloped 
 about the deck as though he had been 
 burnt in both feet, shaking his fist at 
 the barque, tearing off his hat and dash- 
 ing it on to the quarter-deck, rushing at 
 Obed with outstretched hands as though 
 he would strangle him, then slapping his 
 legs and squirting tobacco juice right and 
 left, without the smallest regard to the 
 eyes of the people around him. 
 
 "Get in your stun'sails ! " shouted Cap- 
 tain Flanders, whose excitement, if not as 
 frenzied as the Yankee's, was more re-
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 285 
 
 raarkable. "Aft here, men, and bear a 
 hand ! Let go your royal and top-gallant 
 halliards fore and aft ! Haul up the main- 
 sail ! Starboard your helm — starboard . . . 
 starboard ... so ! Steady now ! keep her 
 at that. Smartly aloft, men, and furl those 
 royals. Stand by to back the foreyards ! " * 
 
 These orders flew out of his mouth in a 
 torrent, and with the ?ieigh-like roar that 
 had astonished me on that night when he 
 had silenced the pilot's objection to his 
 sending a boat to the Frenchman on the 
 Goodwins. In truth, the barque had come 
 to a dead stop, and we were sweeping down 
 to her at the rate of ten knots an hour. 
 
 As we approached, we could form a better 
 opinion of the confusion aboard. No one 
 was at the wheel, but three or four men 
 were hauling on the clewlines. Every rope 
 aboard of her had been let go, but most of 
 them were jammed in the blocks ; the sails, 
 blown hard round the masts, prevented the 
 
 * Captain Flanders was right. If you are the wind- 
 ward ship lay your fore-topsail to the mast, for your 
 forward sails are more readily filled than the main, in 
 the event of your needing to forge ahead. — W. C. R.
 
 286 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 yards from travelling ; the wind had twisted 
 the studding-sails around the standing rig- 
 ging, and, as the vessel gathered sternway, 
 with her starboard broadside hove high, the 
 seas glanced over her sides and fell in sheets 
 upon her decks. 
 
 "A pretty mess! " thought I; and had 
 she gone down bodily, I should not have 
 been at all surprised. We ran down to 
 within a quarter of a mile of her to wind- 
 ward, backed the fore-topsail, and lay hove 
 to. 
 
 Thinking to make his voice carry, the 
 Yankee skipper jumped on to the poop-rail, 
 and clasping a backstay, put his hand to 
 his mouth, and hailed his vessel with a 
 fury that turned his face black, and I 
 thought that such another effort must rup- 
 ture a blood-vessel. Nevertheless he hailed 
 again, and yet a third time, in the same 
 wild manner, and was joined by Obed, who 
 had sprung half-way up the lee main rig- 
 ging, and stood there yelling. Indeed, the 
 contortions of the Yankee and his chief 
 mate were irresistibly absurd, and when to 
 these were added the harsh, rasping shreeh
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 287 
 
 of the one, and the heavy African yowl of 
 the other, the effect was overwhelming, and 
 there was scarcely a man forward in our 
 ship who was not shaking with laughter. 
 
 No notice being taken of all this shout- 
 ing, Captain Flanders sung out to the 
 steward to bring him his speaking-trumpet. 
 " Barque ahoy ! " he roared. 
 We all waited for the responding " Hillo ! " 
 but no answer came back. All the glasses 
 were in hand, but the only thing resembling 
 a man that I could make out with the naked 
 eye stood at the wheel, keeping it pressed 
 hard over, in the hope, of course, of getting 
 the barque to pay off. 
 
 We were all growing rather bewildered, 
 and the Yankee skipper was evidently at 
 a loss, when suddenly Mr. Thomas, who 
 was working away with a glass, cried out, 
 " They're holding up a black board, sir, 
 and there's something written upon it ! " 
 
 I very plainly beheld the figures of two 
 men uprear themselves behind the high bul- 
 warks, holding between them a large black 
 board. The Yankee sprang off the rail, 
 tumbled on his knees, and levelled his glass.
 
 288 A SAILOK'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 "I can make it out," cried Mr. Thomas. 
 u 'NAT-DEA'~oh! ' NATHAN'S DEAD 
 —MUTINY'S OVER— COME ABOARD.' 
 That's it, sir." 
 
 "Ay, that's it!" sung out the Yankee. 
 " Now for a boat, cap'n ! By glory, the old 
 hooker's mine agin, arter all ! Hurrah, 
 bullies ! " 
 
 The half-caste had swung himself on to 
 the deck and was already fumbling at the 
 falls of the port quarter-boat. " Pretty cool 
 fish!" thought I. "At all events, he 
 might wait until he gets his orders." 
 
 " Lay aft some hands to board the 
 barque!" shouted Captain Flanders. In a 
 moment there was a rush of men. I think 
 every man in the ship, barring the cook 
 and the steward, floundered aft, and the 
 quarter-deck was thick with them. 
 
 " Gently! " I sung out, as they rushed,, 
 elbowing each other, up the poop-ladders; 
 for, in truth, four men were as much as we 
 needed, seeing that I or Mr. Thomas would 
 have to take charge of the boat, and that 
 we had the Yankee and Obed to carry 
 as well.
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 289 
 
 " Jump in there, Mr. Lee," called out the 
 captain ; " see that the plug's all right." 
 
 The men scrambled for a seat on the 
 thwarts, but as I was in command now, I 
 ordered them all out, and choosing four of 
 the strongest hands out of the crowd that 
 stood around, they got into the boat. I 
 followed; then came Obed, who squatted 
 himself in the bows ; and last entered the 
 Yankee, after warmly shaking Captain 
 Flanders' hand, and bowing to the pas- 
 sengers with a mighty flourish of his arm — 
 for his hat was on the quarter-deck, and he 
 was too excited to remember that he was 
 without one. 
 
 Though it was blowing a very strong 
 breeze of wind, and there was a middling 
 sea on, I had no anxiety in facing it, always 
 haying had a great knack at "handling a 
 boat ; the port boat's Jails were also pro- 
 vided with patent hooks, which sprang open 
 and released the boat the moment she 
 touched the water, and relieved the hooks 
 of her weight, and as to leeward of the hull 
 of the W alder share the water was tolerably 
 smooth, we got away from the ship very 
 
 vol. i. u
 
 290 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 cleverly, and rowed smartly towards the 
 barque. Still, the sea was heavy enough 
 to demand some very nice steering ; one 
 moment w T e w T ere hove on the summit of 
 a wave, with the foam of it boiling under 
 us and alongside as high as our gunwales, 
 whilst the hull of the heeling barque seemed 
 actually beneath us, as though we looked 
 at her from the top of a hill ; the next 
 moment we had sunk into the hollow of the 
 sea, with w-alls of roaring green water all 
 around us, and a calm all about, though the 
 wind was whistling over our heads and 
 soaking our hair and faces with the spray it 
 flung down upon us. 
 
 The barque w r as rolling heavily, and the 
 long lines of the setting sun sparkled in her 
 streaming sides as she rose and fell to the 
 seas, which shattered themselves against her 
 sides and flew in smoke over her, or curled 
 in big green combers right on to her decks, 
 whilst all aloft her loose canvas was flapping 
 heavily, wringing the delicate upper spars, 
 or clinging like wet paper round her rigging, 
 and hampering and choking her running 
 gear. Five or six men stood aft watching
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 291 
 
 us, one right on the taffrail holding a coil of 
 rope, which, as we passed under her stern, 
 he flung into the boat ; the end was caught 
 by Obed, and a turn taken round the fore- 
 most thwart. " In port oars ! " I shouted; 
 "pull to starboard, smartly!" and there 
 were we alongside, sheltered indeed from 
 the wind, but rising and falling heavily with 
 the sea. But, then, we were all sailors ; four 
 or five ropes' ends were flung over the side, 
 the gangway unshipped, and in a few 
 moments the whole of us had scrambled on 
 to the deck, Obed being the first, and I the 
 second. Plenty of line being given to the 
 boat, she veered away to leeward, and there 
 she lay dancing upon the sea, clear of the 
 vessel's side. 
 
 The first object that met my eyes was the 
 body of a man lying on his back, with his 
 arms stretched beyond his head — as dead as 
 a nail. He looked like a fallen giant ; he 
 was the biggest man I had ever seen. His 
 chest had fallen in, but the breadth of it, 
 with the immense thickness of the arms 
 and legs, the huge fleshy throat, and the 
 great hands, with the fingers almost as
 
 292 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 thick as carrots, curled up with the nails 
 pointing into the broad palms, was some- 
 thing to make a man hold his breath. His 
 eyes were v r ide open, but only the whites of 
 them w^ere visible ; the under jaw had fallen 
 and lay bare a row of ivory-white fangs 
 which a shark might not have disdained, his 
 long reddish locks lay all abroad upon the 
 deck around his head, and gradually creep- 
 ing away from amongst them was a little 
 river of thick black, treacly-looking blood. 
 
 Not very far from where he lay was 
 another man lashed to the mizzen-mast with 
 turn upon turn of rope around his waist and 
 chest, with both his hands made fast and 
 hitched down to his knees, which were also 
 tightly bound. He was as dark as Obed, 
 but his browm was not of the same charac- 
 ter, being more of the sun-blacked olive of 
 the South American Spaniard. He was a 
 thin, wiry man, with no other clothes on 
 him than a red shirt and a pair of white 
 trousers ; his naked feet were almost black 
 from the compression of the rope around his 
 legs. I had thought the half-caste about 
 the most ruffianly animal I had ever seen ;
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKS0X/' 293 
 
 but after beholding tins man bound like 
 a wild beast to the mizzen-mast, I was 
 obliged to confess that, so far as villainous 
 expressions went, Obed's face was more 
 than matched here. He glanced at us one 
 hj one as we scrambled over the side on to 
 the deck, and just looked at Obed — I shall 
 never forget the desperate ferocity, the 
 murderous wickedness of that look whilst I 
 live — then fixed his eyes on the deck, and 
 never again raised them, nor moved a muscle 
 of his face, though I believe that the stran- 
 gulation at- his chest, legs, and wrists was 
 causing him great pain. 
 
 " So," exclaimed Captain Taber, " you've 
 thought better than finish this job, have 
 you ? But a pretty cussed mess you've 
 brought the Jessie into with your blasted 
 mutineering ! Who did that ? " he cried, 
 pointing to the dead body. 
 
 " I did," answered a burly sailor, an Eng- 
 lishman evidently, and in no sense an ill- 
 looking man. " I wasn't going to be hanged 
 for piracy, and so when we sighted yonder 
 ship, and made out Obed aboard of her, I 
 told Bill here, and Jameson, and Yankee
 
 294 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 Joe what I guessed her arrant was, and as 
 we had no hand in this here bloody business 
 in the beginning, we detarmined to end it, 
 and so I struck him down, and the others 
 they seized Picador yonder, and these men 
 joined us." 
 
 He poured all this forth in a rapid torrent, 
 pointing as he ceased to two of the men who 
 hung back behind the others. 
 
 " I know you had no hand in this, Mat," 
 said the skipper, " an' I reckon you've done 
 me a sarvice that'll make us friends. Are 
 you willing to turn to ? " he shouted fiercely 
 to the skulking fellows behind, who were 
 two of the four who had planned and effected 
 the seizure of the barque. 
 
 "Ay," replied one of them in a dogged 
 voice, " we'll do our work an' sarve ye 
 honestly if ye'll gie us your word yell not 
 peach agin us when we gets to Pernam- 
 buco, and that ye'll gie us our discharge 
 there." 
 
 The Yankee hung in the wind a moment ; 
 he glanced at Obed and they exchanged 
 looks. 
 
 " Very well," he said, " let it be so.
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 295 
 
 Tally on now and get the barkey straight. 
 Mr. Lee, your rnen'll help us, I hope." 
 
 " Certainly," I answered, thinking I would 
 not give much for the chances of the two 
 men when the Jessie Jackson should be 
 once more en route. 
 
 "Here, carry this thing forward out of 
 the road," shouted Captain Taber, indicating 
 the dead body with a lift of his foot. A 
 couple of the men dragged the corpse out of 
 sight. The skipper never seemed to notice 
 the man who was lashed to the raizzen- 
 mast, but springing on to the weather 
 bulwarks and holding on to the rigging, he 
 began to sing out his orders, whilst Obed 
 took the wheel. 
 
 Now that he was aboard his own vessel 
 and could deliver his orders I at once saw 
 that the Yankee was a thorough sailor. 
 My four men, in addition to his own crew, 
 made eleven hands for him to control. As I 
 found that I should be only in the road by 
 seconding his orders, I let him have his own 
 way, whilst presently, not being able to 
 endure the sight of the sufferings of the 
 wretch at the foot of the mizzen-mast, I
 
 296 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 stepped up to him and eased away the 
 turns around his legs and body and wrists, 
 though without loosing him. He never gave 
 me a "thank you," nor so much as lifted 
 his eyes ; he probably believed that the 
 moment the Waldershare was out of sight 
 they would hang him, and I have no doubt 
 they were all lawless enough aboard that 
 vessel to do worse things than that. 
 
 By dint of squaring the mainyards, 
 flattening in the foresheets, hauling up the 
 mainsail and lowering the mizzen, the 
 Yankee got his barque to pay off ; and when 
 they had filled away forward and got way 
 on her, they backed the mainyard and hove 
 her to. The sun w T as now very near the 
 horizon, and I was anxious to regain the 
 Waldershare whilst there was still light, for 
 darkness follows sunset quickly in these 
 latitudes. Soon after we had boarded the 
 barque, the Waldershare swung her foreyards, 
 and then squaring away fore and aft, came 
 gracefully rolling and plunging past under 
 the barque's stern, when she put her helm 
 down and lay to abreast of us about three 
 hundred yards to leeward, where she re-
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 297 
 
 mained stationary, waiting for ns to rejoin 
 her, her bows rising and sinking like a race- 
 horse pawing the ground and arching his 
 neck eager to be gone, while her decks were 
 like a constellation with the flashing of the 
 sun in her brass and skylights, and the 
 water poured from her bows, as she lifted 
 them, in long white lines. 
 
 With the skipper at the wheel, and Obed 
 to make an eighth man aloft, the Yankee 
 would have hands enough to clear away 
 the wreck forward, the more especially as 
 the breeze was moderating, the clouds high, 
 and there was every sign of fair weather. 
 So, telling him I must begone, I sung out 
 to my men to lay aft and get the boat 
 alongside. However, before the Yankee 
 would part with us, he jumped below and 
 brought up a bottle of brandy, and gave 
 each of my men a large dram to drink his 
 health in. At the same time he presented 
 me with -a small, very elegantly chased gold 
 box for holding pipe-lights, and begged me 
 to keep it as a little token of his gratitude. 
 He then bade me repeat his thanks to 
 Captain Flanders, wringing my hand re-
 
 298 A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 peatedly. The poor fellow was really grate- 
 ful, and I was heartily glad he had got his 
 vessel again ; though, as I glanced at the 
 blood-stain on the deck, and at the man 
 bound to the mizzen-niast, and at the faces 
 of the crew, who, with the exception of two, 
 were foreigners in coloured shirts, black- 
 bearded and with large rings in their ears, 
 I should not have cared to bet a dollar that 
 the Yankee would be let live to see the port 
 he was bound to. To manage such a crew 
 as that a man should never go without a 
 revolver, and wear a steel shirt under his 
 waistcoat. 
 
 We gained the WaldersJiare as the upper 
 limb of the sun was hovering on the rugged 
 horizon and looking as though the hull of 
 some great ship was burning there, and her 
 timbers all of a deep scarlet glow; and so 
 quickly did the shadows come running out 
 of the east that, before we had the quarter- 
 boat hoisted, it was almost dark and the 
 stars shining. 
 
 Nelly was so overjoyed to see me come 
 over the side, that she forgot her customary 
 prudence and ran to meet me. However,
 
 THE "JESSIE JACKSON." 299 
 
 though Thomas looked up at me with a 
 grin, I doubt if the skipper saw the action. 
 Any way, I passed on to him and made my 
 report, and then came back to Nelly, and 
 stood with her and Thomas watching the 
 barque, telling them what I had seen on 
 board, and producing the Yankee's gift, 
 which I said I should value as a curiosity 
 and as the memorial of a singular ad- 
 venture. 
 
 The barque was astern of us, but had 
 braced her mainyards round and was lying 
 up so as to make a more westerly course 
 than we. She loomed under the stars like 
 a pale cloud, but even with the help of the 
 glass I could not make out how they were 
 managing with their wrecked top-gallant 
 mast, and the hamper of studding-sails and 
 canvas that lay all in a muddle forward. 
 In twenty minutes' time she was a faint 
 glimmering patch on our weather quarter, 
 and then she entirely vanished. 
 
 We never knew the origin of the mutiny : 
 the Yankee had told Captain Flanders how, 
 but not icliy, it happened, and I could not
 
 300 A SAILOE'S SWEETHEART. 
 
 discover that the crew had said a word 
 to the men who boarded her with rne. 
 But Obed's face had satisfied me that the 
 cause of it was bad treatment, and the 
 Yankee's very reserve made me the more 
 inclined to think so. And do not let the 
 reader flatter himself that incidents of this 
 nature are rare at sea. Fire, tempest, 
 collision, overloaded or leaky ships, by no 
 means make out the whole catalogue of the 
 causes of maritime disaster. Let any man 
 go and examine for himself the crews many 
 vessels ship, and he will agree with me that 
 mutiny and the wilful destruction of ships 
 ought to be included as a fertile factor 
 among the causes of those disasters which 
 are generalized in our ignorance under the 
 heading of " Missing." However, maritime 
 evils are things which landsmen refuse to 
 take any interest in and a writer only 
 proves tedious by endeavouring to point 
 them out. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
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 List of Publications. 1 5 
 
 History of a Crime {The) ; Deposition of an Eye-witness. By 
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 France. See Guizot. 
 
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 See " History of a Crime.' 
 
 Hundred Greatest Men {The). 8 vols., containing 15 to 20 
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 "Messrs. Sampson Low & Co. are about to issue an important 'International' 
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 Hymnal Companion to Book of Common Prayer. See 
 
 BlCKERSTETH.
 
 1 6 Sampson Lo70 1 Marston, 6° Co.'s 
 
 7 LLUSTRATEB Text- Books of Art-Education. A Scries 
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 List of Publications. 1 7 
 
 Khedive's Egypt ( The) ; or, The old House of Bondage under 
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 With Axe and Rifle. 
 
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 Heir of Kilfinnan. 
 
 Dick Cheveley. 
 
 L 
 
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 Life and Lette?'s of the Honourable Charles Sumner (The). 
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 Lindsay (W. S.) History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient 
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 Lion Jack: a Story of Perilous Adventures amongst Wild Men 
 
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 Little King; or, the Taming of a Young Russian Count. By 
 
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 Little Mercy ; or, For Better for Worse. By Maude Jeanne 
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 Long (Col. C. Chaille) Central Africa. Naked Truths of 
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 Lost Sir Massingberd. New Edition, crown 8vo } boards, coloured 
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 1 8 Sampson Loiu, Marston, 6° Co.\ 
 
 Low's German Series — 
 
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 2. The Lad and the North Wind, ditto. 
 
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 Low's Standard Library of Travel and Adventure. Crown 8vo, 
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 9. Cruise of the Challenger. By W. J. J. Spry, R.N. 
 
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 List of Publications. 1 9 
 
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 My Lady Greensleeves. By Helen Mathers, Authoress of 
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 Three Feathers. By William Black. 
 
 A Daughter of Keth. 13th Edition. By W. Black. With 
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 Kilmeny. A Novel. By W. Black. 
 
 In Silk Attire. By W. BLACK. 
 
 Lady Silverdale's Sweetheart. By W. Black. 
 
 History of a Crime : The Story of the Coup d'Etat. By Victor 
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 Alice Lorraine. By R. D. Blackmore. 
 
 Lorna Doone. By R. D. Blackmore. 8th Edition. 
 
 Cradock Nowell. By R. D. Blackmore. 
 
 Clara Vaughan. By R. D. Blackmore. 
 
 Cripps the Carrier. By R. D. Blackmore. 
 
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 "Work. A Story of Experience. By Louisa M. Alcott. Illustra- 
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 The Afghan Knife. By R. A. Sterndale, Author of " Seonee." 
 
 A French Heiress in her own Chateau. By the author of " One 
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 Wreck of the Grosvenor. By W. Clark Russell. 
 
 Elinor Lryden. By Mrs. Macquoid. 
 
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 Pcganuc People, Their Loves and Lives. By Mrs. Beecher 
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 A Golden Sorrow. By Mrs. Cashel Hoey. 
 
 Low's Handbook to the Charities of London. Edited and 
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 • A Thousand Miles in the u Rob Roy" Canoe, nth 
 
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 20 Sampson Law, Marston, c° Co.'s 
 
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 The Voyage Alone in the Yawl "Rob Roy." New 
 
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 Men of Mark : a Gallery of Contemporary Portraits of the most 
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 Michael Strogoff. 10s. 6d. and $s. See Verne. 
 
 Mitford (Miss). See " Our Village." 
 
 Montaigne's Essays. See " Gentle Life Series." 
 
 My Brother Jack ; or, The Story of Whatdyecallem. Written 
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 My Lady Greensleeves. By Helen Mathers, Authoress of 
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 List of Publications. 2 1 
 
 My Rambles in the New World. By Lucien Biart, Author of 
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 ATA RES (Sir G. S., K. C.B) Narrative of a Voyage to the 
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 New Ireland. By A. M. Sullivan, M.P. for Louth. 2 vols., 
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 Sarah de Beraug-er. By Jean INGELOW. 3 vols. 
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 Elaine's Story. By Maud Sheridan. 2 vols. 
 Prince Fortune and His Friends. 3 vols.
 
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 List of Publico, turns. 2 3 
 
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 Petitcs Lemons de Conversation et de Grammaire : Oral and 
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 Physical Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism. By J. E. H. 
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 Picture Gallery of British Art (TJie). 3S Permanent Photo- 
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 24 Sampson Low, Mars ton, & Co.'s 
 
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 Poganuc People: their Loves and Lives. By Mrs. Beecher 
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 Polar Expeditions. See Koldewey, Markham, MacGahan, 
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 Practical (A) Ha?idbook to the Principal Schools of England. 
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 Prejevalsky (N. M.) From Kulja, across the Tian Shan to Lob- 
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 Recollections of Writers. By Charles and Mary Cowden 
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 Reminiscences of the War in New Zealand. By Thomas W. 
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 Remusat (Madame de). See " Memoirs of." 
 
 Robinson (Phil). See " In my Indian Garden." 
 
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 List of Publications. 25 
 
 Rogers (S.) Pleasures of Memory. See " Choice Editions of 
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