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Purchased with the income
of the Midshipman
Julian B, Bishop Fund.
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MEMORIES OF THE SEA

The HhRcui-F.s towing the Agincourt off the Peari, Rock.
From a sketch by the Author.

.^.^

[Set' fia-ge 301.

MEMORIES OF
THE SEA

BY
Admiral PENROSE FITZGERALD

WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON
EDWARD ARNOLD
i9!3

PREFACE
WHEN I was asked to write " a volume of
autobiographical recollections" I felt some
what staggered at the mere look of such a request,
and even after taking time to consider it, and to
suggest a more modest title, I felt considerable
doubt as to whether anything I could write con
cerning my reminiscences of naval service during
the latter half of the nineteenth century could
be of sufficient interest to justify its publication,
particularly as several superannuated old sailors,
with far more distinguished careers than I have
had, have lately been giving their " autobio
graphical recollections" to the public. But yet,
on further consideration, and feeling that I was
an unhappy victim of that universal — yes, uni
versal — vanity of loving to hear the sound of
my own voice and of seeing myself in print, I
have succumbed to this temptation — as to many
others, perhaps less innocent. C. C. P. FITZGERALD.
January, 1913.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
PAGE
I join H.M.S. Victory at Portsmouth — Am transferred to the
Colossus — Some reflections on corporal punishment and sea
sickness — A bully and bow he was cowed — "Brig officers" and
other quaint characters — The typical Jack Tar .... 1
CHAPTER II
A cruise in the West Indies and home again — We sail for the Baltic
in 1855 — Sir Charles Napier — The Baltic campaign — Antiquated
methods of naval signalling — Some philosophical reflections on
Peace and War  25
CHAPTER III
The Colossus runs ashore — I join the Royal George — Kinglake on
Universal Peace — Some nautical chestnuts — Spithead Review
of 1856 — Voyage to the Crimea via Gibraltar and Malta — Visit
battlefields and return home with troops  43
CHAPTER IV
On board the Retribution — The ship's band — Gunnery training-
Cobbing the cook — Start round the world — Tenerifie — Flying-
fish, sea-songs, and fisticuffs — Rio Janeiro — The Falkland
Islands — The Straits of Magellan — Valparaiso — Guano and
blubber  55
CHAPTER V
The Retribution sails to China — The Sandwich Islands — Duck-
hunting — The Gulf of Pechili — A cloud of dragon-flies —
Shanghai — Japan's foreign policy — A brief historical digression —
Commodore Perry  .94
CHAPTER VI
Lord Elgin's mission — Reception at Nagasaki — Dealing with the
Cholera Devil — Yeddo — The ambassador lands — The ship's band
plays appropriate music — Politeness of Japanese officials — A
Samurai plot  113
CHAPTER VII
We escort Lord Elgin to Hankow — Shelling the forts — The Taiping
code of Christianity — Pheasant-shooting — Christmas Day at
Woohoo — Hongkong — We lose our captain and first lieutenant —
Singapore and an American mutiny  125

CONTENTS vii
CHAPTER VIII
PAGE
Trincomalee— Elephant-hunting in Ceylon— Madras— The Admiral
of the Catamarans — Calcutta — On the Hoogli — The Indian Navy
— Laying the first submarine cable to India — Bombay — Cotton
fire — Smuggling — Home again  140
CHAPTER IX
The hard winter of 1860-1 — My only shipwreck — I join the Ariadne
at Plymouth — I am promoted to be a lieutenant — Cod-fish for
the Prince of Wales — Examples of Captain Vansittart's fine
seamanship  166
CHAPTER X
The Ariadne sails for the West Indies — The Bittern in Chinese
waters — A visit to New York — Trouble in the Gulf of Mexico —
Maximilian's end — Admiral Milne — Relic-hunting — A cricket
match  175
CHAPTER XI
In North American waters — Sail versus steam — Snipe and alligators
in Jamaica — Pot-hunting — "Man overboard!" — Home again —
Sheerness — Some reflections on naval discipline —The Ariadne
is paid off  197
CHAPTER XII
H.M.S. Cordelia — Spearing, playing, and hunting turtle in the Gulf
of Mexico — Fishing at night — Chasing a pirate schooner — Devil
fish — Hayti and H.M.S. Bulldog — The Jamaica rebellion of 1865
— Duck-shooting  225
CHAPTER XIII
In Canadian waters — The Fenian scare — A wedding and an accident
— Catching a sturgeon — Canadian hospitality — Prince Edward's
Island — Trout-fishing at Gaspe — Winter sports at Halifax — Back
in the West Indies — The mongoose ...... 251
CHAPTER XIV
H.M.S. Hercules — Gambling at " Para Grande " — Lisbon — Snipe-
shooting — Hunting at Gibraltar — An expedition to Ronda — The
foundering of the Captain — "Broadside versus turrets" —
Searching for survivors — The sinking of the Vanguard . . 265
CHAPTER XV
" Jap " — Spanish treasure and a salvage company — Torpedoes and
" ramming tactics " — Grounding of the Agincourt — Towed off
by the Hercules — I join the Agincourt — The art of enforcing
discipline — In the Mediterranean — Appointed to the Asia — On
half-pay  . . . 289
INDEX  323

ILLUSTRATIONS

THE BEBOULES TOWING THE AGINCOUBT OFF THE PEAEL
BOCK, NEAR GIBRALTAR . . . Frontispiece

H.M.S. COLOSSUS

FACING PAGE

H.M.S. BOTAL GEOBGE

MALTA

44
52

H.M.S. BETBIBUTION

DAHABIEH OFF ALEXANDRIA

H.M.S. ABIADNE

H.M.S. OOBDELIA

. 58
. 154
. 170
. 226

MEMORIES OF THE SEA

CHAPTEK I
I join H.M.S. Victory at Portsmouth — Am transferred to the
Colossus — Some reflections on corporal punishment and sea
sickness — A bully and how he was cowed — " Brig officers "
and other quaint characters — The typical Jack Tar.
I DO not imagine that the childhood of any
one, except very distinguished people, can be of
much general interest. So I shall only begin with
actual naval service ; though, indeed, I ought per
haps to have said " early childhood " or "infancy,"
for I was only a child (just thirteen) when I joined
H.M.S. Victory in 1854.
At that time all naval cadets were appointed to
the Victory as " supernumeraries for disposal," and
joined her at Portsmouth, until they were drafted
to sea-going ships ; and it is a proud day in the
life of the boy when he first dons the uniform of
England's navy and puts his foot on the quarter
deck of Nelson's flagship. At any rate, I know I
felt very proud, and, being of an inquiring turn of
mind, I asked a friend, who had been nearly two
months in the navy and knew all about it, what
I ought to do on joining the Victory, and he told
me, without a moment's hesitation, that directly
2 i

2 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
I put my foot on the Victory's quarter-deck I was
to call out in a loud voice, " I have come to avenge
the death of Nelson." I thought this sounded
very fine, but when the inspiring moment arrived
I felt that I was scarcely big enough to avenge
anybody's death, so I said nothing, and crawled
up very meekly to the first person I saw in
uniform, who, I think, was the bos'n, and
reported myself as "come on board to join."
In 1854 we were in the midst of the Kussian
War, which found us, as usual, not ready for
war, the country having been taught to believe
that the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Palace of
Peace in Hyde Park, had inaugurated an era of
universal peace amongst the nations, and as there
were never going to be any more wars, it was, of
course, useless to spend money on armaments.
As it happened, however, the Palace of Peace
ushered in to Europe and America half a century
of as gigantic and sanguinary wars as the world
has ever seen ; and yet our amiable pacificists have
already forgotten all this, and are once more
making a bid for a still bigger series of wars, by
crying out for disarmament by the richest and
most envied empire which has ever excited the
jealousy and cupidity of its commercial rivals.
The year 1854 also found our navy in a transi
tion stage, both with regard to personnel and
maUriel. With regard to the personnel, the continuous-
service system had been lately introduced, by
which the seamen entered the navy for ten years,
with the option, at the end of that time, of serving
on for another eleven years in order to complete

MEM0E1ES OF THE SEA 3
the twenty-one years which entitled them to a
pension for life. Before this system was intro
duced the men joined their ships for the com
mission only, and when the ship was paid off
they were free, and could go on shore for the
rest of their lives if they liked, or they could join
another ship on commissioning — if they could
get one — as soon as their money was spent ; and
this most of them did, as very few of them
were fit for any trade but sailoring.
By the old system, if the ship wanting a crew
was going to an unpopular station, and if the
captain was known to be unpopular and particu
larly addicted to flogging for small offences, she
took two or three months, or even longer, to man ;
whereas, if the captain was popular and promised
good times and plenty of prize-money, he could get
his ship manned with the pick of the market in
two or three days. Seamen had their fancies, like
other people, and it is on record that on one occa
sion a nice, smart, well-painted brig, with a very
popular and well-known commander, hoisted the
pennant at nine o'clock one morning in Ports
mouth harbour and was fully manned with a
picked crew before noon. There were boatloads
of men laying off, waiting for the pennant to be
hoisted, and directly it went up there was a rush
of three times as many seamen as the brig was
allowed for her complement, so that the captain
was able to pick and choose and get the very best ;
men who had served as petty officers giving up
ratings they might have been entitled to in order
to enter as A.B.'s. The brig's name was the
Daring, so perhaps this had something to do with

4 MEMOBIES OF THE SEA
it, as seamen have their fancies ; and yet these
brigs were rather given to capsizing. The
Camilla, Nerbudda, Heron, Sappho, and, others,
whose names I do not remember, all turned
turtle during my time, and in most cases
drowned all hands. Some were saved from the
Heron, and I was afterwards shipmate with
one of them, who used to give a graphic account
of how he spent many hours in the water, hanging
on to the spare topsail yard, which he tried to
get on top of, for fear of sharks (it was off the
West African coast), but the spar kept on turning
round with him, so that it was just like the tread
mill, as he remarked.
The year 1854 also found us in a transition
stage with regards to maUriel. Vulcan had
challenged Neptune for the sovereignty of the
seas. The mechanic had said to the sailor, "This
is my element, and you must give way to me.
Furl your sails, unreeve your ropes, land all that
timber lumber you call spars, and I will move
your ship for you far quicker and more certainly
than ever you have been able to do." And the
mechanic was right.
There had been a number of small paddle-
wheel steamers and a few small screws in the
navy before 1854; but that year found us busily
engaged in putting engines and screws into all
our best sailing battleships and frigates, and
also building all our new ships as steamers or
altering those on the stocks ; so we were in a
transition stage ; but our engineering firms —
Penn, Maudesley, Bolton and Watt, and others
— were equal to the occasion, and kept us

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 5
well ahead of all other nations with our steam
navy. My first sea-going ship was the Colossus, a fine
80-gun two-decker, which had just had engines
and a screw put into her, and was fitting out
in the steam basin at Portsmouth. She had
only her lower masts in, and in those days
ships' companies had to fit out and rig their own
ships, with the assistance of a few dockyard
riggers; but the initial difficulty was that we
had not got a ship's company, and men were
very hard to get — that is to say, men of the right
sort. So captains had to ship any hungry,
longshore loafers they could pick up and then
try to make seamen of them as soon as the
ship went to sea. We were a long time getting
a crew for the Colossus. A great many ships
were fitting out at the same time, in consequence
of the Bussian War, and there was some talk
of resorting to the press-gang ; but public feeling
was opposed to this crude method, and it was
not adopted. The summer of 1854 was well
advanced, and we were too late for the Baltic
campaign of that year, so it was decided that
as soon as the ship was ready she should take
a cruise to the West Indies, in order to get our
motley crew into something like order; but as
we still failed to get even a motley crew, a happy
thought seems to have struck some one, and
two hundred seamen from the Ajax, guard-ship
at Queenstown, were drafted to the Colossus
and joined her at Portsmouth. These men were
bitterly discontented. The Admiralty had broken
faith with them. They had been promised leave ;

6 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
but instead of getting leave, they were ordered
to join a ship for which they had not volunteered,
and naturally considered this a hardship. They
were physically a fine body of men, most of them
being Irishmen ; but they were sullen and sulky,
and as soon as the ship went to sea and sailed
for the West Indies they became actively
mutinous. One night, when the commander was
" going the rounds," as it was called, the grand
rounds at 9 p.m., with the master-at-arms,
mates of decks and other attendants, some of
these men jumped out of their hammocks, picked
up shot from the shot-racks, and rolled them
at the legs of the grand rounds, who found
themselves in the undignified position of having
to drop their lanterns and hang on to the
hammock hooks with their hands, to save their
legs from being broken. There was a big flogging
performance next day, and there was no more
shot-rolling. One of my earliest recollections of the Colossus
was being sent one night, at about nine o'clock,
with a message to the first lieutenant, who had gone
home to his lodgings for the night. I had some
difficulty in finding him, but at last I did so,
in a small house in Queen Street, Portsea, and
was shown by a slatternly looking maid into
a small back room on the second floor, where
I found this worthy old salt drinking hot gin
and water with his wife, a lady who appeared,
to my unsophisticated judgment, to be of about
the same social class as the bumboat woman
that attended on the Colossus, and from whom
I used to buy jam tarts and oranges. Lieutenant

?.:...-;

¦xv-;

v'"T '

H.M.S. Colossus.
From a water-colonr drawing by the Autlw
MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 7
F  was an old man with a grey head. He
was a typical specimen of many of the old
fossils who had been long on shore on half pay
and were dug out (there was no automatic age
retirement at this time) to man our ships for
the Eussian War. His service in the Colossus
was very short — about a month of the three
months we took to fit out. He was, in fact,
quite impossible as a modern officer, and the
captain managed to get him superseded before
the ship went to sea. His place was taken by
another old gentleman with a grey head, who
was considerably more active and not quite so
old. Lieutenant E  was known to his mess
mates as "Daisy," and to the ship's company as
" Chaw-finger Jack." He acquired this remarkable
sobriquet from a peculiar habit he had of biting
the first finger of his right hand, in order to keep
himself from swearing. He admitted to his friends
that he had been strongly addicted to the use of
bad language ; but having come to the conclusion
that he did not get any more work out of the
men by swearing at them, he made up his mind
to break himself of the habit, and found that
the only way he could do so was by doubling
up the first finger of his right hand, putting
it into his mouth, and biting it hard across the
knuckle. After some years of this treatment
the finger had a deep and permanent score,
showing the mark of his teeth upon it.
As I was the captain's A.D.C. in the Colossus,
one of my duties — and a not infrequent one — was
to go forward during evolutions with messages to
the first lieutenant, either to say, "Please, sir,

8 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
the captain wants you," or else some technical
message which I did not in the least understand
myself, but which generally seemed to make the
first lieutenant extremely angry ; and as he had
a menacing way of flourishing a long wooden spy
glass, which he usually carried on these occasions,
I thought it best to keep out of range and shout
my message from a little distance ; but this
really only made matters worse, as more people
could then hear the message, which was not always
of a complimentary nature. When the message was,
" Please, sir, the captain wants you," old Daisy
came aft to the break of the poop and stood there
resignedly while he received an allowance of " cold
tongue " from the captain ; and then, as ho turned
round to go forward again, in went his finger into
his mouth, and you could see by his contortions
that he was biting it hard. It was said by some
that the finger came out when he got about half
way along the gangway, and that before he got
to the forecastle there was an explosion ; but I
did not hear this, and he certainly never swore at
me, though he often looked savage.
I have already alluded to the fact that some of
the contingent of seamen drafted from the Ajax
to the Colossus broke out into something very like
open mutiny during our passage out to the West
Indies, and that there was a big flogging perform
ance next day, which effectually put a stop to
all further regrettable incidents of this nature.
Possibly some of my readers may be amongst
those who consider corporal punishment under
any form to be a cruel, barbarous, and degrading
method of maintaining discipline in the navy ; and

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 9
although it has been found that due discipline can
now be maintained without the use of the cat-o'-
nine-tails, it is not fair to call it either barbarous
or degrading when judged by the standard of what
is called custom and public opinion of sixty years
ago. Our forefathers had to work with a much
rougher and less sensitive and refined human
material than we have to do in the present day,
and they were no more hard-hearted and cruel than
we are. Barbarity can only be considered as a
comparative term, according to the age to which it
is applied. Nobody wants to see the cat pulled
out of the bag again nowadays. It is, of course,
out of the question with our generally well-behaved
and self-respecting seamen and marines; but one
who has served during both the flogging and
imprisonment eras in the navy may be allowed
to express the opinion that flogging was appropriate
to the age in which it was used, and it was
certainly not considered degrading by the men
themselves. On the contrary, the man who took
his four dozen like a man, without so much as a
groan, was a hero afterwards, and was thought
better of by all his shipmates, both officers and
men. It was certainly a severe test of a manly
endurance of pain without flinching. But woe
betide the man who howled, for tradition says
that in most ships, and more especially if he was a
marine, he got another flogging next day from his
own messmates, just to make him keep his mouth
shut — as they called it — in case he should happen
to earn another four dozen, as many wild and
unruly characters did, three and four times
over, during a ship's commission. The modern

10 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
punishments of ten days' cells or six weeks' im
prisonment afford no test of a man's courage or
endurance. Oh, how ill all we youngsters were that first day
at sea in the old Colossus, as she struggled to beat
down channel against a double-reefed topsail breeze !
And how she did pitch and roll and wallow in
the trough of the sea, and creak and groan and
complain !
Those who have only been to sea in iron or
steel ships can have no idea of the strange voices
of a wooden ship, as she strained and lurched
under a press of sail against a head-sea. For how
ever strongly and solidly built a wooden ship
might be — and our old line-of-battle ships had
massive beams and timbers — there must always
have been some play at the joints, as the weight
of the guns and the leverage of the lofty spars set
up complex and various strains upon the structure ;
and so they gave us plenty of harsh music, to
remind us that we were not in harbour.
The misery of that beat down channel, against
a strong breeze and a head-sea, is deeply impressed
on my memory, and we youngsters were not the
only ones that were seasick, though we were
probably the worst. We were mercifully not
asked to do any duty, and we all lay about the
decks like dead fish ; thinking, no doubt, that the
honour and glory of being a naval officer had
some qualifications. My old messmate, Lord
Ellenborough, who was one of the seven young
sters that received their salt-water baptism in the
Colossus, was heard to offer five pounds for a
lighthouse, or any place that would remain steady,

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 11
though why he specially selected a lighthouse
is not known, except that he probably saw several
lighthouses as we tacked off and on from the
English coast, and observed that they were quite
steady and neither rolling nor pitching; and I
would gladly have added another five pounds —
if I had had it — and joined him on his lighthouse,
thinking it cheap at the price. But alas ! there
was to be no peace, and nothing steady, except
a hard-hearted head-wind, until we got down
to Falmouth Eoads and anchored to set up
rigging and take breath before starting finally on
our voyage across the Atlantic.
It may be asked by some modern seaman
why we did not steam down channel, seeing
that the Colossus was a steamer. Well, the
Colossus certainly carried engines and boilers,
though it would scarcely be correct to call her
a steamer, according to the present acceptation
of the word ; for the engines of these early steam
line-of-battle ships were really only intended to
be used in a calm. They were not wanted when
the wind was fair, and they had not power enough
to drive the ship when the wind was foul, and
in fact everybody hated them and called them by
all the names which the copious vocabulary of
the sea supplies for the condemnation of hateful
objects, and indeed the sailors had to invent some
new ones more technically appropriate for describ
ing this dirty invasion of Neptune's domain ; but
these names I need not repeat, as they were
technical. We seven youngsters, who commenced our naval
career in the Colossus in 1854, were not altogether

12 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
fortunate with regard to our other messmates,
who — to put the matter bluntly — were a bad
lot ; or at any rate the majority of them were.
Few of them ever rose beyond the rank which
they then held, and several of them " came to
grief " in that rank. They bullied us youngsters
most unmercifully, which perhaps was good for
us, but was not pleasant. Amongst them there
were two hoary old mates (now called sub
lieutenant) and a passed clerk ' (now called assis
tant paymaster) who had been long in their
respective ranks and never rose beyond them,
and who drank hard and swore fluently ; but the
most consistent and relentless of all the bullies
was a bumptious midshipman, who had only
quite lately himself emerged from the status of
" youngster," and who, for the first six months
of the commission, lorded it over us with an
undisputed tyranny which we at first bore with
meekness and even with respect, believing it to
be a legitimate branch of that almost sacred
naval discipline which a study of Marryat's novels
had taught us to reverence with fear and trem
bling. But our friend overdid it. Like most tyrants,
he got worse and worse, and presuming too much
upon our ignorance and humility, he finally drove
us into open revolt, and we flogged him. Yes,
we flogged our senior officer, and gave him three
dozen with a thief's cat !
Our tyrant was absolutely ignorant of the
criminal conspiracy which had been brewing for
a week or more, until one fine morning he came
into the gunroom at breakfast-time, and was in
the act of delivering a bombastic oration to the

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 13
" youngsters," setting forth their numerous delin
quencies and gross ignorance of their duties, and
telling them how he intended to teach them their
duty and keep them under the strictest discipline
and obedience to his will, and finally telling
them that it would be good for them in the end.
But the hour had come. The cup was full, and
his autocratic rule was to be a thing of the past.
The spokesman of the conspirators rose and told
him very quietly that the youngsters had had
enough of his bullying, and that before he had
his breakfast they intended to give him something
that would be good for him in the end, without
specifying which end. The plot had been care
fully laid. Everything was in readiness, and,
like wild cats, the seven youngsters sprang upon
him and lashed him up securely to the breech
of the 32-pounder in the gunroom. His surprise
and consternation were complete. He struggled
violently; but seven to one was too much for
him. Then he yelled wildly for his brother
" oldsters " to come and rescue him ; but they
looked on and laughed heartily, greatly enjoying
the performance. Arcades ambo.
The thief's cat had been very carefully made,
under the direction of one of the bos'n's mates,
out of an old and very hard set of hammock clews,
and it had three knots on each of the nine tails,
as we were told that this was the proper construc
tion of a thief's cat, and we conceived that our
victim was worthy of at least a thief's punishment.
We did not divest him of any of his clothing, but
we had reason to believe — from his language and
his contortions — that the punishment was likely

14 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
to be effective, and indeed it proved to be so, for
he was completely cowed, and never gave us
any further trouble. Some years afterwards he
acquired an unenviable notoriety through the
exhibition of an abnormal zeal for hanging niggers
at the time of the Jamaica disturbances ; and
after that he was not much heard of.
It is often said that truth is stranger than fiction,
and there certainly were three actual characters in
the gunroom mess of the Colossus who were at
least as strange — if not stranger — than any of
those nautical celebrities drawn with such humour
and prolific imagination in Marryat's immortal
tales of the British Navy.
I will not give their real names ; for although
they all "went aloft," after Tom Bowling, many
years ago, some of their relations might possibly
read these lines, and be annoyed. I will therefore
call them by their nicknames.
"Paddy" was a mate, and a very old mate. I
see by a navy list of that date that there were 315
mates on the active list, and Paddy was very
nearly at the top of them. What his age was I
do not know, but he certainly looked to be well over
thirty. He was a big, powerfully built Irishman
with sandy-red whiskers and enormous fists, and
he was a notable " bruiser " ; in fact, it was
popularly believed in the gunroom mess of the
Colossus that he had for some years been a
professional prizefighter. At any rate he used
often to go on shore in the evening after working
hours and come on board next morning with a
cut face and one, or two, black eyes ; and it would
have gone hard with any of his messmates who

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 15
had been so injudicious as to ask him how he
got them ; for he was an irascible and disappointed
man, who had obviously mistaken his profession
when he joined the navy.
The second of this remarkable trio was nick
named " Duffy," a sobriquet which was supposed
to indicate his likeness to plum-pudding. He was
enormously fat, and it was said that he weighed
18 stone; but I never saw him weighed, and cannot
vouch for this. At any rate he was not allowed
to go aloft, for fear of breaking the ratlines.
He was a midshipman ; or rather he said
he was, though tradition said that he was really
only a naval cadet, as he had never passed the
necessary examination for midshipman ; but he
wore the white patch on the collar of his jacket
and was popularly supposed to be the senior
midshipman. He could not have been less than
two or three and twenty; but whatever his rank
was at the time he joined the Colossus, he
never got beyond that rank, and his naval career
came speedily to an end. In short, he was " got
rid of," by the quiet and unobtrusive method (not
possible in the present day) of telling him that
he was no longer wanted, and he took the hint
and left.
The third of the trio was perhaps the greatest
curiosity of all. He also must remain nameless.
I even hesitate to give his nickname; but if the
reader will remember that both language and
manners were somewhat coarser and less refined
half a century ago (at any rate in the navy)
than they are to-day, I may be forgiven for
recording the fact that my messmate was known

16 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
as " Lousy Dick," and, like most nicknames,
it was not inappropriate. Dick had long greasy
hair, almost amounting to ringlets. His face
and hands were nearly always dirty. His linen —
whenever you caught a glimpse of it — was a sort
of french grey, many shades removed from white.
I once looked into his chest — his sea-chest —
as I was passing by, and it appeared to be
nearly empty. Dick claimed relationship with
a noble family; but whether his noble relations
kept him short of money or he spent what he
got on other things than clothes, or whether
he pawned or sold his clothes, it is a fact that
he possessed only one garment in which he
was permitted to appear on the quarter-deck
to keep his watch, and that was his tail-coat.
We all had tail-coats in those days, both cadets
and midshipmen — yes, and swords too, instead
of trumpery little dirks ; and the tail-coat was
an imposing and dignified-looking garment, with
notched and corded button-holes and a white
kersey lining to the tails. Thank goodness !
I had moved up a step before midshipmen were
deprived of their tail-coats and swords. And
now goodbye to Dick ! Poor Dick ! Perhaps it
was not altogether his fault; but he certainly
did look uncomfortable as he paced the lee-side
of the quarter for his four hours' watch in his
full dress-coat, the butt of cruel ridicule. He
too disappeared at an early stage of the Colossus' 's
commission, and has long since gone aloft, where
he will no longer want the tail-coat, which
probably found its place in the window of a
pawnshop.

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 17
It must not be assumed that the Colossus was
in any sense a typical ship of the British Navy
of 1854. On the contrary, I have no doubt she
was a very exceptional ship of that date, more
particularly with regard to her gunroom officers ;
for I well remember that in the following year,
when we joined the Baltic fleet and got amongst
other ships, we became a byword for a rowdy
and disreputable gunroom mess ; and it all ended
in the fiasco of the discovery of a big swindle
by the caterer, who had been lent for a few
weeks to our tender (the gunboat Dapper), and on
his return on board the Colossus was immediately
placed under close arrest, it having been discovered
during his absence that he had pocketed the
greater part of the mess subscriptions, paid no
bills, and involved the mess in a debt of about
£400 to various tradesmen. He, of course, left
the Colossus, and the navy ; but we who remained
suffered for his sins for many months afterwards,
as we had to continue paying our mess money
in order to pay off the debt, and got nothing
for it, but had to live on ship's provisions, which
in those days were a good deal less luxurious —
to put it mildly — than they are to-day; and
moreover this lack of luxury was considerably
accentuated by the fact that we were in an
enemy's country and could get no supplies from
the shore ; so that although we spent most of
our time at anchor in the Baltic we were little
better off than were our hardy forefathers when
they were blockading Brest during the old French
War. There was, however, an exception to the
usual fare of salt beef and salt pork on alternate
3

18 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
days, for occasionally there arrived a shipload
of live bullocks for the fleet, and they were, of
course, immediately killed and eaten ; and very
tough they were, I remember, even for young
teeth. We also had visits from Danish bumboats,
laden with eggs and Dutch cheeses ; but as
these were small, slow-sailing coasting vessels
of Dutch build, they took a long time on the
voyage, and as the eggs were not all laid the
day before the vessel left port, they could not
be described as "fresh" eggs by the time they
reached us. Indeed, I have a very vivid recollection
of those eggs and of how we had to hold our
noses while we ate them ; but we were very
hungry. The Dutch cheeses were about the
size and shape of a 32-pounder shot, and
nearly as hard; but still they were distinctly
a luxury, as compared with the monotonous salt
beef and pork, and even as compared with the eggs.
But I am anticipating ; for this was in 1855,
and I have not yet got the Colossus to the
West Indies, where we spent our first Christmas
Day, in Port Eoyal harbour, and our young eyes
saw, for the first time, a ship's company "happy,"
which in those days meant drunk, in the language
of the British tar. The new Jamaica rum
seemed to have a maddening effect upon them,
and the ship presented a queer scene of riot,
drunkenness, and disorder. One marine was
found dead next morning from an overdose of
the poison. A sad death for a gallant soldier.
There were several of the before-mentioned
brigs on the West Indian station in 1854; and

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 19
I remember the admiration with which we
youngsters used to watch these beautiful little
vessels sailing into Port Eoyal harbour, and the
smartness with which they clewed up and furled
their sails, dropped anchor and squared yards,
all in a few minutes.
I wanted very much to go to one of these brigs ;
they looked so beautiful, and I was told that they
were the best possible school for learning practical
seamanship ; and to become a thorough seaman
was considered to be, if not the one thing needful,
at least the principal item in the education of a
naval officer sixty years ago. But my captain
would not allow me to go to a brig, and he was
wise ; for these brigs, although they may have
been a good school for seamanship, had not the
best of reputations for discipline, sobriety, good
order, or attention to the many minor though
more or less important matters involved in the
general organization of a man-of-war which are
desirable in the education of a youngster just
starting upon his naval career. In fact, I can well
remember hearing — at a later period — the expres
sion " brig officer " used as a term of contempt
or reproach with reference to those who had served
for several consecutive commissions in brigs ; with
perhaps the additional remark that Mr.  would
make a very good boatswain, but that having
served most of his time in a brig, slave-hunting
on the West Coast of Africa, he would never
become a good all-round officer, fit to maintain
the discipline of a frigate or line-of-battle ship
in accordance with the best traditions of
the navy.

20 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
Lord Dundonald, in his autobiography, draws a
graphic and humorous picture of one of these
" bo'sn " officers, who was first lieutenant of a
ship he commissioned during the early part of last
century. Lieutenant Larmor (" Jack Larmor,"
as he was called) was discovered with his coat off,
a fid of grease in his hat, a marline-spike slung
round his neck, and his shirt-sleeves tucked up,
showing some of his newly entered sailors how to
"turn in" one of the deadeyes of the lower
rigging. This, no doubt, was a generation earlier
than the date of which I am speaking, and it could
scarcely have happened in 1854 ; yet this " type "
of officer lingered on in the navy almost to the
time when sails were finally abolished in all ships
of war ; and when we remember that all our great
naval victories were won under sail, and mainly by
the exhibition of a practical seamanship superior to
that of our enemies, it is not surprising that the
art of the sailor died hard.
The typical Jack Tar will live for ever in English
history. I have seen him in the flesh ; every
hair of his head a rope-yarn, and his blood " Stock
hollum " tar — the successors of those men who,
under the guidance of hardy and skilful leaders,
broke the tyranny of Napoleon and wrote, with
other blood than " Stock hollum" tar, the names
of Trafalgar, the Nile, St. Vincent, and scores
of others on the roll of England's naval victories.
Jack Tar has gone for ever; but we may con
fidently hope that his spirit and devotion to duty
still live in his sober, respectable, educated, and
scientific successor, who, however, sadly wants
some practice at fighting, whatever our snivelling

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 21
pacificists may say to the contrary, grossly ignorant
as they are of history and consequently of the
causes which lead to the rise and fall of nations,
for it is the warlike races that inherit the earth,
and the whole record of history points out most
emphatically that all those nations which in their
turn became the " Great Powers " of the world — in
other words, those nations which became domi
nant, opulent, which possessed themselves of the
fairest and most fertile portions of the earth, and
finally took the lead in art, in commerce, and
in the graces and refinements of civilization — rose
to their power during their warlike period, and
invariably declined and fell when they neglected
and despised "militarism" and proceeded to
devote the best brains and most virile energies
of the nation to money -making, games, amuse
ments, and that fatal and enervating craving for
luxury which wealth invariably fosters.
Sea power, backed by a small but efficient army,
has raised these little islands to the position of
a great and rich, if not the greatest and richest,
Power on earth. The critical hour of our destiny
has now most undoubtedly arrived, and if com
mercialism, with its attendant selfishness and
luxury, gets the upper hand of militarism, with
its attendant self-sacrifice and patriotism, we shall
inevitably fall, as aU our great predecessors have
fallen before us, from precisely the same cause ;
and all our wealth and our great possessions will
pass into the hands of a more warlike race, in
accordance with that inexorable law of nature
we call the " survival of the fittest " ; which
in plain language means the strongest, the

22 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
strongest in war, and not the cleverest in a com
mercial bargain, nor the people who can cheer
loudest at a gladiatorial show of professional foot
ballers. Bacon tells us: "In the youth of a State
arms do flourish. In the middle age of a State,
learning : and then both together for a time. In
the declining age of a State, the mechanical arts
and merchandise."
Sir William Napier, the historian of the
Peninsular War, says : " War is the normal con
dition of this world ; from man to the lowest
insect all are at strife; and the glory of arms,
which cannot be obtained without the exercise
of honour, fortitude, courage, obedience, modesty,
and temperance, excites the brave man's patriot
ism, and is a chastening corrective to the rich
man's pride." But Sir William Napier, though
a brilliant writer, was also a soldier, and it is
therefore probable that his views on the subject
will not be accepted without question by a nation
of shopkeepers who seem to be coming more and
more under the influence of the gospel according
to Carnegie and his disciples, those amiable but
somewhat audacious dreamers who think they can
suddenly alter the whole course of the world's
history by preaching peace, just at a time when
all nations are arming to the teeth in preparation
for the next war. I will therefore give one
more quotation from a man of peace, a man who
cannot be accused of a taste for militarism or
of any desire to glorify war, one who, whatever
else he may have been, was at any rate a deep
student of history, and was too honest to misread
or misrepresent its plain lessons, no matter how

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 23
repugnant and unacceptable these might be to
his own peace-loving soul. Euskin wrote : "All
the pure and noble arts of peace are founded on
war. When I tell you that war is the foundation
of all the arts, I mean also that it is the founda
tion of all the high virtues and faculties of men.
It was very strange for me to discover this, and
very dreadful, but I saw it to be quite an un
deniable fact. The common notion that peace
and the higher virtues of civil life flourished
together, I found to be wholly untenable. Peace
and the vices of civil life only flourish together.
We talk of peace and learning, peace and plenty,
and of peace and civilization ; but I found that
those were not the words that the muse of history
coupled together ; that on her lips the words were
peace and sensuality, peace and selfishness, peace
and death. I found, in brief, that all great
nations learnt their truth of word and strength
of thought in war; that they were nourished in
war and wasted by peace ; taught by war and
betrayed by peace ; in a word, that they were
born in war and expired in peace."
Buskin's conclusions seem to me to be un
deniable, and the fact that the great majority
of men in all countries love peace does not prove
that it is good for them nor good for their
country. Indeed, it would almost appear that the
fighting instinct which is a part of our nature
must find a safety-valve somewhere, and that if
we do not have a foreign war we shall probably
soon have a civil war between capital and labour.
Men who ought to know better have of late been
talking a prodigious amount of nonsense about the

24 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
abolition of all war and the disarmament of the
Great Powers of the world. Women, as a rule, are
not such fools, and a section of them have lately
been showing a considerable capacity for fighting
and for the necessary courage and self-sacrifice
which war involves.
If the cocks won't fight, the hens will peck
them !
Nor can war be said to be unchristianlike, for
it calls forth the noblest qualities in man —
courage, devotion to duty, and self-sacrifice for
the good of others. Our very hymns appeal to our
warlike instincts — " Onward, Christian Soldiers,"
and many others of the same nature, which derive
their most striking metaphors from war. War is
undoubtedly a stern remedy for those selfish,
insidious, cankerous vices which sap the manhood
of a nation, and lead directly to its decline, and
finally to its subjection by a more virile and war
like race. No one who reads history can doubt
these facts.
But I must now go on with my yarn, and pass
to another chapter.

CHAPTEE II
A cruise in the West Indies and home again — We sail for the
Baltic in 1855 — Sir Charles Napier — The Baltic campaign —
Antiquated methods of naval signalling — Some philosophical
reflections on Peace and War.
IPEOPOSE to follow roughly, but not too
rigidly, a chronological order in relating my
memories of the sea, as I think this will be the
best way of illustrating the great changes that
have taken place in the navy during the last
sixty years — changes not only in the type
of the ships, but in the type of officers and
seamen who man them. When one looks back
upon the disgraceful scenes of drunken riot which
took place in broad daylight outside the dockyard
gates at Portsmouth, when a ship was paid off
alongside the yard, it is difficult to realize that
these took place only half a century ago and even
later. On such occasions it was scarcely safe
for an officer in uniform to walk along Common
Hard, as he stood a very good chance of being
dragged forcibly into one of the very numerous
public-houses and invited to drink vile spirits
by one of his old shipmates, who had probably
had many a glass of grog from him, and
now wanted to return the hospitality. This is
not a pleasant subject to dwell upon, but I once
25

26 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
saw rather an amusing incident between a noble
captain and a half-seas-over tar, just inside the
dockyard gates at Portsmouth. It was not
paying-off time, but the sailor was returning from
leave and had managed to pull himself together
sufficiently to pass the police guard at the
dockyard gate. The noble captain, Lord  , was
about nine or ten yards in front of the sailor,
who seemed to have stowed the front of his
blue frock with a full cargo of oranges, and with
these he was taking shots at the captain ; not
throwing them at his head, but trying most
ingeniously to bowl them between his legs with
out hitting him. The noble captain had decidedly
bandy legs, and the sailor made some extremely
good shots for a man who was not strictly sober.
At the first orange the captain looked round,
but evidently took in at a glance how matters
stood ; and, no doubt having had some consider
able experience of half-seas-over sailors, he took
no further notice of the oranges, even when they
gently grazed his legs, but walked majestically
along with his head in the air. After five or
six oranges had been bowled, some one came
and interfered with the sailor and stopped the
fun. It is to be hoped that the jovial tar
did not belong to the noble captain's ship, for
if he did he probably heard more of the subject
in another place.
I have already said that the Colossus was by
no means a typical ship of her date. She was,
I am sure, quite exceptional ; certainly with
regard to her officers, if not with the crew.
Of all the officers, from captain to naval cadet,

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 27
who commissioned in tho ship in the summer
of 18/vl, not one, with tho exception of tho
captain and myself, over attained thig rank; and
this must ho considered a vory small proportion
of tho officers of a line-of-battle ship. Captain
Robinson was a good officer and a, strict dis
ciplinarian ; ho was not nearly so archaic as somo
othor captains under whom I have served at a
later date. Tie had the honour of commanding
the first steam frigate (Arrogant) that ever
crossed the Atlantic, and also the first steam
line-of-hatt.le ship ^CWo.ws\v.<\ and he afterwards
became Sir R. Spencer Eobinson, and was
Controller of the Navy for many years.
During the winter cruise of the cWo«>wm.< to
the West Indies there was nothing of special
interest to relate. We called at Madeira, feasted
on oranges and bananas, rode up to tho convent
on tho mount on ponies, with their owners holding
on to their tails, and came down the slippery,
paved wad in basket sleighs. Then the ship
put to sea again, and we sailed larily down " the
trades," watching the flying-fish rising singly,
or sometimes in shoals, with their many enemies
— the dolphin, tho albaeoro. and the bouito —
chasing them and eating them when they caught
them, which was not always. And I may here
remark that the fish which sailors call the dolphin
is really the coryphee, and the proper dolphin is
the mammal usually called the porpoise. The
coryphee is credited with heing the fastest swim
ming fish in the sea. and certainly has a most
business-like tail, and gets along at an astonishing
rate. This is the fish that assumes such a

28 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
beautiful variety of colours as it lies upon the
deck gasping its life away. I have seen it myself
on many occasions. I do not know if Byron ever
saw a dying dolphin ; but poets are allowed to
describe many things which they have never
seen : — " Parting day
Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbues
With a new colour as it gasps away,
The last still loveliest, till — 'tis gone and all is grey."
Childe Harold.

The Colossus came home from the West Indies
in the early spring, and after a refit at Devonport,
sailed for the Baltic with the great fleet that
left the Downs on April 9, 1855.
This was the second great naval demonstration
in the Baltic during the Eussian War. Neither
the expeditions of 1854 nor 1855 can be con
sidered as more than demonstrations. The whole
of the Baltic Sea was, of course, blockaded by the
British fleet, and all maritime trade stopped ; but
this made very little difference to Eussia, and
probably had no effect on the termination of the
war. The issue was really decided in the Black
Sea, and both Baltic expeditions were, practically
speaking, failures. The admirals were told by the
Government that they were not to attack stone
forts with their wooden ships, and were then
censured by the same Government for doing
nothing, when there was really nothing else to do.
Sir Charles Napier, who commanded the British
Baltic fleet in the summer of 1854, was shamefully
treated by the politicians, and, being a hot-

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 29
tempered old gentleman, he wouldn't stand it. He
got into Parliament as member for South wark, and
gave them back as good as they gave. A very
interesting Life of Sir Charles was written by his
stepson, General Elers Napier, and published in
1862. All the correspondence between the
Admiralty and Sir Charles bearing upon the
subject of what he was and was not to do with
his ships in the Baltic is given in this book,
and he is most emphatically told, over and
over again, on no account to risk his ships
against stone forts ; and yet at the conclusion
of the campaign in the autumn, when the ships
had to leave the Baltic to avoid being frozen in,
and the fleet returned to England, the Admiralty,
backed by the Government of the day, severely
censured Sir Charles Napier for not disobeying
their own orders.
It may he asked why a British Government
— assumably composed of honourable men — should
act so ungenerously and inconsistently towards a
gallant and distinguished pubhc servant. The
answer, I think, is not far to seek,- and may be
given in the words of Saul — " Because I feared the
people, and obeyed their voice."
It was the old story — the politicians shunting
the blame on to the soldiers or the sailors when
they fail to achieve such success as is expected of
them, but quite ready to take the credit to them
selves for their magnificent strategy and foresight
when it turns out the other way. The fact of the
matter was, that the country was disappointed at
the small results obtained by the great fleet which
was reviewed by Her Majesty Queen Victoria in

30 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
person, and sailed from Spithead in the early
spring of 1854 amidst high hopes and great ex
pectations of a glorious victory over the proud and
audacious Czar, who dared to challenge the two
great Western Powers, France and England
combined. It is unnecessary here to enter into the causes
which led to the conflict known as the Crimean
War, as I am not writing a history of the nine
teenth century, but merely my personal recollec
tions of some events which occurred during that
period. Lord Beaconsfield declared at a later date
that we backed the wrong horse on that occasion.
This, however, must always remain a matter of
opinion, as no one can say what might have
happened if France and England had not opposed
the ambitious pretensions of Eussia when her
armies crossed the Pruth and invaded the princi
palities of Moldavia and Wallachia, as that district
was then called. But if one may be permitted for
once to be wise after the event, it now seems clear
that a much smaller section of the British fleet
would have been sufficient to blockade the Baltic,
as the Eussians had not in that sea one single steam
line-of-battle ship or frigate, and the bulk of the
British fleet might have been sent to the Black
Sea, where there was some real fighting to be
done, and where they did eventually pit wooden
ships against stone forts and got a good hammering
for their trouble. And then, as a consequence of
this experience, all the nations started off on their
wild career of building armoured ships, which were
to be impervious to all shot and shell and capable
of knocking down any stone forts ; and yet after

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 31
nearly sixty years of "applied science " to the
subject, the balance between ships and forts
remains pretty much the same as it was in
1854. My narrative is only concerned with the Baltio
fleet of 1855, in which I served ; but I have
thought it permissible to hark hack to the expedi
tion of the previous year, as it is interesting and
instructive to note the relations which arise
between politicians and admirals when the latter
fail to achieve all that is expected of them by the
people who stay at home and shout. And thus it
turned out that when the Baltio fleet, under Sir
Charles Napier, returned to England in the autumn
of 1854, without having done anything beyond the
capture of a third-class fortress in the Aland
Islands (Bomersund), the British people were
disappointed and angry, and the politicians — to
save their own skins — shamelessly turned upon
the admiral, censured him for not attacking stone
forts with his wooden ships, and peremptorily
ordered him to haul down his flag and come on
shore. As another instance of this kind of treatment, it
is interesting to note what happened to Sir
Edward Codrington after his gallant action at
Navarino. This distinguished officer, who had
commanded a line-of-battle ship at Trafalgar,
was in command of an allied squadron in the
Levant, in 1827 ; he had received order's from
his Government that he was to watch the Turko-
Egyptian fleet, under Ibraham Pasha, to prevent
them from playing certain tricks which it was
assumed they wanted to play ; and he was ordered

32 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
to do this "even by the use of cannon shot."
They did play these tricks, and Sir Edward
Codrington fought the battle of Navarino and
destroyed the Turko-Egyptian fleet ; thus strictly
obeying the orders he had received. But lo and
behold, what happened then ? The Government
thought they had gone too far; they gave no
credit to Sir Edward for his skilfully planned and
gallant action, and described it as " an untoward
event." The Baltic fleet of 1855 was composed entirely
of steamships. There were no sailing ships to
hamper and delay the movements of the admiral
in command, and he was also provided, with
a large number of gunboats of shallow draught,
for operations in shoal water ; and yet this great
fleet did no more — in fact, rather less — than
Sir Charles Napier's fleet of the previous year.
When Sir Charles was peremptorily ordered
to haul down his flag, as a punishment for not
disobeying orders, he was superseded in command
by Admiral Dundas, who had been a Lord of
the Admiralty in 1854, and had warmly approved
of everything that had been done by his prede
cessor in the Baltic during the summer of that
year, and yet failed entirely to support or defend
him when he found him in trouble, but appears,
by the correspondence published in General Elers
Napier's "Life of Sir Charles," to have quietly
stepped into his shoes without a qualm.
That Sir Charles Napier (or " Charley Napeer,"
as the men always called him) was a gallant
and skilful seaman and a born leader of men
is amply proved in the book above alluded to ;

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 33
but when he came to wield the pen instead of
the sword, it must be admitted that he was
somewhat injudicious, and thus gave his wary
enemies a chance of accusing him of disrespect
towards those in authority. One specimen of
his rash style of writing will perhaps suffice.
While smarting under a keen sense of the gross
injustice with which he had been treated by
the Admiralty, and having previously requested
Lord Palmerston (then Prime Minister) to grant
an inquiry into his case, he thus addressed his
Lordship : —
" I sent your Lordship my case, which I
requested you to lay before the Cabinet, but
you have not favoured me with a reply. I am
aware of the various occupations of your Lordship,
but still there ought to be some consideration
for an old officer who has served his country faith
fully, and who has held an important command.
Had my papers been examined by your Cabinet,
and justice done, instead of dismissing me, and
appointing one of the Lords of the Admiralty my
successor, you would have dismissed Sir James
Graham and his Admiralty, for treachery to me."
A method of stating his case which was not likely
to obtain redress, as it reflected on the action
and impartiality of the man he was addressing.
But I must now say goodbye to old " Charley
Napeer." He gave me my nomination as naval
cadet, so I trust I may be forgiven this slight
digression, in a humble effort to vindicate the
character and reputation of a gallant seaman who
could handle the sword far better than the pen.
As member for Southwark, Sir Charles was able
4

34 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
to tackle his enemy, Sir James Graham, in the
House of Commons, though neither of the com
batants added much to his reputation in the
war of words and recriminations which ensued ;
and I have a vivid recollection of a picture in
Punch, entitled " Charley Pot and Jemmy
Kettle." The pot is surmounted with Sir
Charles Napier's head, the kettle with that of
Sir James Graham, and they are exchanging
the usual courtesies of political opponents.
The Baltic fleet of 1855 sailed from the
Downs quietly on the 9th of April. There was
no great review and " send-off" by the Sovereign,
like that of the previous year. Perhaps less was
expected of it, or public ardour had been damped
by disappointment ; at any rate, there was very
little excitement and no demonstration about
our departure. The fleet " sailed " from the
Downs in the technical as well as in the usual
sense of the word ; for although all the ships
composing it had steam power, they very seldom
used it, as the steamers of that date carried
very little coal, and the early types of engines —
either screw or paddle — consumed a large amount
for a very small development of horse-power ;
so that our coal was reserved for emergencies,
such as getting caught by a fog in narrow
waters or for the day of battle. It would have
been useless for getting a ship off a lee shore
in a gale of wind, as these early steamers had
not power enough for that purpose ; and there
were also two other reasons why steam was so
little used at this time, reasons which prevailed
in the navy for many years after the date

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 35
I am writing about. One was that there was a
very strong and universal feeling that it was
unseamanhke to use steam, except perhaps in a
flat calm, and that a captain who could not
take his ship in or out of harbour, under sail,
with a commanding breeze, was " no seaman " ;
than which it was scarcely possible to make
against a captain of fifty years ago a more
scathing and derogatory remark. It would have
been scarcely worse for his professional reputation
to say that "he drinks." And another reason was
the remarkable parsimony on the part of the
Admiralty in the use of coal. Captains were over
and over again hauled over the coals (no pun) for
failing to exercise economy in the use of coal.
They were enjoined to burn their ashes, and never
on any account to use steam when they could
make a passage or perform an evolution under sail.
This short-sighted economy was responsible for the
loss of many a valuable ship ; notably that of the
fine 101-gun two-decker Conqueror, on the Eum
Quay, in the West Indies, in the " sixties."
Gradually, though very slowly, the Board of
Admiralty discovered that a few tons of coal were
of less value to the country than a line-of-battle
ship, and the instructions were revised, even before
masts and sails were finally abolished from all
ships of war.
I do not know how I shall ever get on with my
story if I keep on making these frequent digres
sions. And yet it is possible that allusions to these
fluctuations in naval opinion may be of as much
interest to the general reader as the record of the
personal experiences of an undistinguished officer.

36 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
We took eight days to cross the North Sea, and
then we got into fogs off the Skaw (the north cape
of Denmark) and tried to get pilots. It was very
cold, and having lately been basking in a West
Indian sun, we felt the cold acutely. We steamed
through the Great Belt and finally anchored in
the spacious and beautiful harbour of Kiel, which
had not yet been stolen from the Danes, and
which the British fleet used as a base for supplies
of all sorts during its campaign in the Baltic. We
had a flying squadron of frigates and paddle-wheel
steamers in advance of the main fleet, feeling its
way northward as the ice melted, and then in
May the heavy ships moved up and anchored off
Nargen Island, in sight of the great fortress of
Eevel, and there we lay at our anchors and looked
at it, and then on up the Gulf of Finland and
anchored off Cronstadt and looked at that.
I do not propose to dwell at any length upon
my memories of the Baltic campaign. They are
rather vague and hazy after a lapse of nearly sixty
years, but I do remember being very hungry. I
have told in the last chapter how the fleet
obtained some supplies of provisions beyond its
sea stores, and also how we were specially pinched
in the Colossus's gunroom mess, through our
caterer having swindled us out of three or four
hundred pounds and left us in the lurch and
heavily in debt, so that we had to go on paying
our monthly mess money to pay off the debt
instead of buying food, and thus we were reduced
to " ship's provisions," with the occasional
variation of a few stale eggs and some Dutch
cheeses.

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 37
It got to be very hot in the Baltic in the months
of June, July, and August — hotter than England ;
and it was daylight all night. Indeed, the night
was the best time for viewing the Cronstadt
forts, as there was then much less haze. They
looked very formidable with their double and
triple tiers of guns, and they were never attacked.
One cannot help thinking that Nelson would have
attacked them. It would, no doubt, have been very
hazardous, though not more so than his attack
on Copenhagen in 1801, and rashness not un
commonly succeeds in war. Moreover, it was said,
and popularly believed afterwards, that a great
many of the apparent guns were not real ones,
but quakers, i.e., wooden muzzles stuck on to
boards placed in the embrasures of the truculent-
looking three-decker forts. It was also known
afterwards that this very old-fashioned ruse de
guerre was adopted by the Eussians at Petro-
paulovski, and by this means a British squadron
was successfully bluffed and prevented from
attacking that place.
Those who are only acquainted with the method
of signalling in the navy since the adoption of
the semaphore and the Morse code with a flashing
light — to say nothing of "wireless" — can have
little idea of the difficulties of handling a fleet
before these inventions were introduced. By day
we had nothing but the flags and a rather cumber
some code of vocabulary signals, in addition to the
code of general executive signals, not differing
much from the present ones ; but as the fleet was
nearly always under sail, the flags were frequently
obscured from some of the ships, so that it was

38 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
often necessary for the flagship and her repeating
ships to yaw or to lower one or two of the upper
sails, in order to get a signal through. But at
night it was still worse, for wo had nothing but
horn lanterns with candles in them, whioh often
blew out when there was any wind ; these
lanterns were hoisted just above the bulwarks on
light yards, which admitted of their display in
various forms, such as four in a row horizontal,
three vertical, a triangle of three, a diamond, and
so on ; and this crude method, supplemented by
guns fired at varying time intervals (if they didn't
miss fire and if the candles didn't blow out), somo-
times got a signal through correctly at night.
I have had the privilege of inspecting some old
signal logs, and I really do not think there was
much, if any, improvement in signalling in the
navy between 1805 and 1855. The navy seems
to have gone to sleep for fifty years after Trafalgar,
the evil effect of being without a serious rival.
The Baltic campaign of 1855 was vory dull for
everybody. There was a bombardment of Sweaborg
with gunboats and mortar boats, but no real
fighting for the big ships, no leave for oithor
officers or men, no larks ashore for the midship
men, no carousing for the men. Just six months'
imprisonment, gaping at the enemy's forts. Wo
had one little bit of excitement in the Colossus,
though no fight. It was in September, and the
main body of the fleet had withdrawn from
the immediate vicinity of Cronstadt, leaving the
Colossus and the 50-gun frigate Itiipiriensc to
keep watch. These two ships were anchored in
a bay on the south shore of tho Gulf of St.

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 39
Petersburg, about twelve miles from Cronstadt.
It was Sunday afternoon, and we were enveloped
in a fog, when suddenly the fog lifted and dis
covered a steam line-of-battle ship, a steam frigate,
a paddle-wheel steamer, and six gunboats, about
two miles from us, steaming to the westward. The
Colossus and Impirieuse were lying at single
anchor with banked fires, steam ready at ten
minutes' notice. Then there was great stoking-
up of the fires, and the moment there was steam
enough to move the engines we slipped our cables
and gave chase, with the Impirieuse in company.
The strange squadron showed no colours, but as
we knew from their appearance that they were not
any of our own ships, it was clear that they must
be Eussians, and the general idea was that having
ascertained there were no British ships in the
Gulf of St. Petersburg except the Colossus and
Impdrieuse, this squadron had been sent out for
the express purpose of fighting us, and our excite
ment and expectation can be better imagined than
described, for no sooner were we fairly under weigh
and steaming full speed in the direction of the
strange squadron than down came the fog again
thicker than ever, and we could not see more
than two or three ships' lengths in any direction.
We were, of course, cleared for action, every one
at his station, lower deck guns double shotted, and
as we steamed along through the fog we expected
every minute to come upon our enemies at close
quarters, which put a considerable strain upon
everybody's nerves. Captain Eobinson walked
briskly up and down the break of the poop, peering
through the fog, with his now useless spyglass

40 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
tucked under his arm, and he had a grim smile
on his face, which seemed to say, "Now at last
I am going to have a chance." But it was not
to be, for again the fog lifted and we saw our
enemies, still at least two miles off and steaming
as hard as they could go for Cronstadt. We
followed close up to the entrance of the channel
and just out of range of the forts, and then we
stopped. This channel was said to be mined, for
although torpedoes of all sorts were then in their
infancy and the "Whitehead" had not been in
vented, the Eussians did use a crude sort of
ground mine, and Admiral Seymour, whose flag
was flying in the Exmouth, lost an eye whilst
examining one of these " infernal machines " — as
they were then called — that had been dragged up
by one of our own ships. But to return to our
chase. Directly we stopped, a boat was lowered
from the Impdrieuse, and Captain Watson came
on board to consult with our captain. I was
A.D.C. to Captain Eobinson, and consequently
close to his heels on such occasions and heard
all the conversation. Eager as our two gallant
captains were for a fight, they came to the con
clusion that they would not be justified in
following the Eussian squadron 'into port and
coming within range of the forts, even if the
channel were not mined, seeing that the whole
British fleet had declined to do so all the summer ;
but they thought that the Eussians had suspected
a trap and believed that there were more British
ships close at hand ready to join in the fight as
soon as they heard the guns ; and the two captains
came to the conclusion. that as soon as the Eussian

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 41
commander had had time to look round and see
(for it was now quite clear) that there were no
other ships in sight, he would eome out again
and try conclusions with us: so it was decided
to wait off the port and fire guns of defiance to
try and bring them out. This we did. but without
effect, until darkness descended upon us and we
returned to our old anchorage and recovered our
anchors which we had slipped.
Now why did we all want to fight ? What
could we gain by it "? What had the Eussians
done to us. that we were so anxious to kill a
lot of Them and knock their ships to pieces ?
The captain might get honours, and the com
mander and first lieutenant might get promotion :
but what could the midshipmen get. or the
seamen and marines, except wounds or death.
which some of them were sure to get ? And
yet we all wanted to fight !
I do not feel sure that I can answer the
above questions satisfactorily. No doubt Mr.
Norman Angell and Mr. Carnegie would tell us
that it was the foolish and wicked instinct of
our unregenerate natures which produced these
bellicose feelings, and they would explain to
ns that if the various nations would only agree
to disarm there would be no more war, and
all international disputes having been settled by
arbitration, the world would be a much happier
and better place to live in. Would it?
In the last chapter I quoted Buskin, who tells
ns that "all the pure and noble arts of peace
are founded on war," and also that war •• is the
foundation of all the high virtues and faculties

42 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
of men," and that " all great nations learnt their
truth of word and strength of thought in war."
Are we therefore quite certain that the world
really would be a happier and better place to
live in if war could be finally abolished ?
Surely not only the pure and noble arts of
peace are founded on war, but all romance, most
of the best poetry, everything that stirs men's
blood to noble actions, all that lifts us out of
the ruts of humdrum peace employments or
frivolous amusements, and fires our imaginations
and ambitions with the divine spark of self-sacrifice
for the good of our country and those whom we
love. Has any one really ever tried to imagine what
sort of a drab-coloured world this would be to
live in if the romance of war could be abolished ?
the Cid, the Bayard, and our own Nelson
replaced by the Carnegie hero, who flops into
a horsepond and hauls out a squalling urchin ?
I did it myself once off Eyde pier. The urchin
was just out of reach of the crook of my umbrella,
and I had to go into the cold salt water and
get wet and spoil a good suit of clothes and lose
my hat that drifted away on the tide, and I
was not given a Carnegie medal or a new hat,
and I had to go down into the dirty stokehold
of the Eyde steamer to keep my teeth from
chattering all the way back to Portsmouth, yet
it was scarcely a subject to inspire a Homer to
sing or a Salvator Eosa to paint.

CHAPTEE III
The Colossus runs ashore — I join the Royal Geoi'ge — Kinglake
on Universal Peace — Some nautical chestnuts — Spithead
Beview of 1856 — Voyage to the Crimea via Gibraltar and
Malta — Visit battlefields and return home with troops.
THE Baltic fleet came home to England in
the autumn of 1855, without having accom
plished anything that materially influenced the
issues of peace or war, and as peace was signed
in the following spring, there was no Baltic
expedition in 1856.
During the passage home to England the
Colossus — which had got separated from the fleet
in a fog — ran on to the Gabbard Shoal in the
North Sea and narrowly escaped shipwreck. It
was about midnight on November 30th. I was
asleep in my hammock, and was awakened by
a crashing sound, as if all the crockery in the
ship was being broken. I jumped up quickly,
and began to put on my clothes ; but was rather
appalled at seeing an old quartermaster — who
ought to have known better — flinging his arms
about and moaning and groaning, declaring that
the ship would go to pieces and we should all
be drowned ; so that I hesitated for a moment as
to whether it would be wiser not to put my clothes
on and thus have a better chance of swimming
43

44 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
without them. On second thoughts, however,
I dressed and went on deck to my station as
captain's A.D.C., and there I found the captain
and the master "having some words." Nobody
knew where we were ; but the bumping had
ceased, the ship was afloat in five-and-a-half
fathoms, and the anchor was let go, sails were
furled, and we fired guns for a pilot, but no pilot
came. At daylight we saw the buoy of the outer
Gabbard Shoal close under the starboard quarter.
We had bumped over the northern tail of the
bank, and a few hundred yards farther to the
southward would have finished my career, and
a good many others' besides, as there was a heavy
swell from a northern gale, which, however, had
almost gone down and it was nearly calm when
we struck.
In February, 1856, there was a re-shuffling of
commands. Captain Codrington went from the
Boyal George to the Algiers, Captain Keppel
took command of the Colossus, and Captain
Eobinson of the Boyal George, and took me
with him. The Boyal George was a three-decker,
launched in 1827, and, like a good many others
of these antique craft, had been rejuvenated
with a screw in her stern and boilers and engines
where her water tanks used to be ; and as room
below also had to be found for some coal, it is
not surprising that she was rather crowded. At
a later date many of our wooden ships were
lengthened fifty or sixty feet amidships, to make
room for the boilers and engines ; but even this
was not very satisfactory, as the lengthening of

1

¦

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 45
a ship at the point of her extreme beam increased
her tonnage considerably, and whereas the scant
ling of the ship — i.e., the size of the frames,
beams, and planking — were originally calculated for
a ship of the smaller tonnage, they proved to be
much too weak for a ship of the increased tonnage.
There was, however, about a decade of wooden
steamship-building in the navy, of ships de
signed and built as steamers — of course as a
supplement to their sail power ; and during this
period our naval architects produced some beauti
ful specimens of line-of-battle ships and frigates,
such as the Renown, 91 ; Conqueror, 101 ; Glasgow,
51 ; Ariadne, 26 ; and many others. But then
came Vulcan with his iron and steel, and all
these " things of beauty " — which they really
were — had to be turned into firewood.
In March, 1856, the Peace of Paris was signed,
and by that time the British Navy was just ready
for war. It is, however, possible that when the
next naval war breaks out we shall not be given
two years to develop our resources ; and if the
"little navy" party get the upper hand in the
councils of the State these resources will certainly
remain undeveloped until it is too late for them
to be of any use, and the consequences may
be more serious for the nation than were
those of our unreadiness in 1854. Yet in justice
to Lord John Eussell's Government it must not
be forgotten that when war became imminent
towards the close of 1853 scarcely two years had
elapsed since the closing of the Great Exhibition
in Hyde Park — the Palace of Peace, where all
the nations met together and swore by all their

46 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
gods that they were never going to fight any more
— until next time.
Kinglake, in his "Invasion of the Crimea,"
gives a delightful description of the peace mania
which had taken possession of the minds of some
Englishmen at this period of our history : —
"All England had been brought to the opinion
that it was a wickedness to incur war without
necessity or justice ; but when the leading spirits
of the peace party had the happiness of beholding
this result, they were far from stopping short.
They went on to make light of the very principles
by which peace is best maintained, and although
they were conscientious men, meaning to say and
do that which was right, yet, being unacquainted
with the causes which bring about the fall of
empires, they deliberately inculcated that habit of
setting comfort against honour which historians
call 'corruption.' They made it plain, as they
imagined, that no war which was not engaged in
for the actual defence of the country could ever
be right ; but even then they took no rest, for
they went on and on, and still on, until their
foremost thinker reached the conclusion that in
the event of an attack upon our shores the
invaders ought to be received with such an effusion
of hospitality and brotherly love as could not fail
to disarm them of their enmity, and convert the
once dangerous invader into the valued friend
of the family."
Kinglake goes on to say that the supporters of
of this doctrine further argued that the invaders
(naming the French) " would be so shamed by
the kindness shown to their troops that they

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 47
would never rest until they had paid us a large
pecuniary indemnity for any losses or inconveni
ences which the invasion might have caused."
To the best of my recollection the indemnity
went the other way when the German armies
invaded France.
Amongst other preparations which had been
made for a continuance of the war was the
building of a large number of shallow-draught steam
gunboats, for service in the Baltic, and when peace
was concluded it was difficult to know what to do
with these little vessels, as they were not of much
use for anything else. A good many of them were
hauled up on ships, so as to be in readiness for
'• the next war." But unfortunately they had all
been built very hurriedly of green timber, and were
rotten long before the next war came. A few of
them were sent to China, and did good service there
in the China rivers as long as they lasted. They
were originally rigged with three short pole masts
and fore-and-aft sails : but those which were
selected ior service in China were specially rigged
for the voyage with square sails, their gun was
taken out. and other preparations were made for
the voyage round the Cape, as this was before the
days of the Suez Canal. They started under
convoy of a big ship, but soon go: separated, and
had to make their way alone as best they could.
I do not think any of them were lost ; but of this
I am not certain. At any rate they took a long
time getting to Hongkong, putting into port for
refreshment whenever there was a chance of doing
so. Their radius of action under steain was very
small, so that the vova^e was made almost entirelv

48 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
under sail. They did not carry a doctor, but the
lieutenant in command was supplied with a medi
cine chest and a small book of medical and simple
surgical instructions, telling him how to act in
case any of his men were taken ill or met with
an accident. The story was told afterwards that
one of these young officers, after reading his book
of instructions from cover to cover, got so puzzled
with its contents that he gave it up as a bad job ;
so he called all hands aft on the quarter-deck, and
having ordered the medical chest to be brought up
from below, he thus addressed his crew : " Here
are your medical stores for the voyage. I cannot
make head or tail of the instructions for their use,
so I am going to serve them all out to the messes
in equal parts, to^do what you like with them ; and
don't use them all at once, as they have got to
last you until the ship arrives at Hongkong."
The ship did arrive at Hongkong, with all hands
in the best of health, but it is not stated what
became of the medical stores.
And now I should like to make a remark which
I hope will cover this and all other stories of the
same sort which I may have to relate. I can well
imagine one of my old shipmates — should any of
them happen to read these lines — giving a grunt,
and a shrug to his shoulders, with, " There goes
old Fitz again with his stale chestnuts." My
friend, please remember that naval stories which
may be chestnuts for you, with your vast nautical
experience, may be quite new to your less fortunate
shore-going brother ; and if you don't like my yarn
you are not obliged to read any more of it.
One chestnut suggests another, and I need

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 49
not apologize for repeating the following story:
When the great fleet sailed for the Baltic in 1854,
to fight the Eussians, it was naturally expected
that there would be some wounded men; so it
was decided to give the officers brief medical
instruction in rendering first aid, until one of the
doctors could attend to the case. Amongst these
instructions was the use of the tourniquet, to
arrest dangerous haemorrhage. So one fine night,
in the middle watch, the sentry at the admiral's
cabin door on board the Neptune cut his own
throat, which gave the officer of the watch (Lieu
tenant  ) an opportunity of putting in practice
the first-aid instructions he had so lately received.
He therefore whipped out his pocket-handkerchief,
knotted it round the sentry's throat below the
wound, and hove it up taut, with a bayonet
scabbard for a lever. He then sent for the doctor,
but before that officer arrived the gallant marine
had breathed his last. In fact, he had not
breathed at all since the tourniquet was applied.
On April 23, 1856, there was a grand review
of the fleet by Queen Victoria. The ships assem
bled at Spithead, and they were all steamers with
the exception of the two 90-gun ships Bodney
and London. These were moored off the Nab
lightship as pivot-ships, and the fleet got under
way under steam, proceeding in two lines,
wheeled round the pivot-ships and returned to
their anchorage at Spithead. Her Majesty, in the
royal yacht, took station between the two pivot-
ships, and was heartily cheered by each ship as
she passed. Admiral Sir George Seymour hoisted
his flag on board the Boyal George, and took
5

50 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
command of the fleet for the day. He was a
veteran of the old French War, and had the mark
of a deep sword-cut across his face. I often saw
hhn afterwards riding in Eotten Bow, where he
was a well-known figure. I think he became
Marquis of Hertford; but of this I am not sure,
and in any case it has no bearing on my story.
After the review, many of the ships which
had taken part in it were sent out to the Black
Sea to bring home our army from the Crimea,
and the Boyal George was one of these ; but as
Portsmouth harbour was full, we were sent round
to Sheerness to prepare for this service and get
the ship ready for the embarkation of 1,000
troops, which was done by hoisting out the lower-
deck guns, reducing the crew and providing
mess-tables, hammocks, etc., for the accom
modation of the soldiers.
We made a rapid passage as far as Gibraltar —
five days from Plymouth ! — which was really
very good for an old three-decker, even with a
fair wind ; but after that a stop was put to our
wild career, for we met a strong Levanter, and
after bobbing up and down, under steam, for some
time, burning coal and making no headway, the
engines were stopped, and it was decided to try
and work to windward under sail ; but the delicate
question then arose as to what sail she could
carry ; for the old ship — originally a crank ship —
had been made still more crank by the removal
of her lower-deck guns, whilst those on the main
and middle decks had been retained, so that it
really became a question of whether she would
capsize or not if we made sail in the ordinary way.

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 51
Captain Eobinson, however, was an experienced
and practical seaman, and although he afterwards
became Controller of the Navy, and no doubt
found out all about centres of gravity, meta-
centres, curves of stabihty and other useful
adjuncts of modern naval architecture, it is
probable that on the occasion in question he
merely acted on his instinct as a sailor. At any
rate he began cautiously by first setting the
trysails and other fore-and-aft sails, and then the
courses ; but this was enough, for without either
topsails or topgallant sails the old ship lay over
on her side quite far enough to be comfortable.
I remember seeing the stewards struggling along
the middle deck, bringing aft the wardroom dinner
from the galley. The deck was at an angle about
the same as the roof of an ordinary house, and
having their hands full, they had wisely taken off
their shoes and stockings, thus enabling them
to hold on and avoid depositing the wardroom
dinner in the lee scuppers, where many a dinner
has found a resting-place ere now.
All things come to an end, even a hard-hearted
Levanter, and we got to Malta at last. It was my
first visit there, though not my last by many, and
I remember that the water in the Grand Harbour
was then so clear that we used to indulge in the
sport of " heave for a dive." This meant that
the Maltese boys, in their birthday suits, used to
come under the stern in small boats and call out,
" Heave for a dive, sar " ; and then if you had a
sixpenny or threepenny bit, you threw it over
board, and the urchins, after giving it a fair start,
dived, and almost invariably brought it up, as you

52 MEMOEIE OF THE SEA
could see it sinking for a long way down. They
would not get many now, as the water in the
Grand Harbour is almost as opaque as that of
the Clyde below Glasgow.
We had not many sixpences or threepennies to
spare in the gunroom, so we tried marine's buttons
flattened out with a hammer, but the young
rascals soon learnt to distinguish the difference,
and declined to dive for anything but sterling
coin. After coaling at Malta we steamed in a calm
through "the isles of Greece, where burning Sappho
loved and sang," and finally got to the Crimea
and anchored in Kazatch Bay, where there was a
great crowd of shipping of all sorts and sizes;
and I also remember that there was a great
crowd of flies, a perfect plague of them — bred, no
doubt, in all the dead horses. I managed, how
ever, to borrow a live horse from my old friend
Sam Townsend, who then commanded the gunboat
Boxer, and I had a most interesting ride over
the battlefields, through the trenches, both French
and English, and Eussian too — Malikoff, Eedan,
and all the other places memorable in the annals
of the great siege. One of our party was lucky
enough to meet an old friend in the army,
who came with us as guide, which added
immensely to the interest of our ride. Some of
the smells were remarkably pungent, and of great
variety ; but the soldier said he did not notice
them. Then came the embarkation of the troops ; we
took twelve hundred of them — the whole of the
82nd and half of the 50th ; and glad indeed they

Malta.
From a water-colour drawing by the A itthor

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 53
were to get afloat, even though packed tight in an
old three-decker; for they had had a very slow
time on shore in their camps since the fighting
was finished. It was the month of July, very
hot and dusty on shore, and the said camps were
none too clean. It was not their fault, poor
fellows ! Water had evidently been scarce for a
long time, and when the soldiers came on board
they brought with them some attendant satellites
which were less welcome than they were them
selves. It is not necessary to enter into
particulars, but I know a good many of us had
to get our heads shaved before we got home to
England. But what a glorious time we had
during the passage home ! No school for the
midshipmen ; no drills or monotonous man-of-war
routine for the ship's company. We were told to
try and make our guests happy, and we did so by
initiating them into the mysteries of sling the
monkey, hi-cock-alorum, baste the bear, and other
rough games of the sea; and right heartily they
entered into the fun. In fact, we were all like a
pack of schoolboys home for the holidays. But
we met with foul winds and calms ; we were a
long time getting home, and had to put into Brest
for coal, where we were received with great
hospitality by our allies. Then on to Portsmouth,
where we landed the troops, and the soldiers gave
us a dinner at the Portland Hotel, which was
then the leading hotel at Southsea. We had a
great jollification that night, with songs after
dinner instead of cigarettes. The colonel of the
82nd — Colonel Hale — a stalwart old warrior who
looked his name, led off with " The Pope he leads

54 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
a happy life " ; others followed. Port was then
the usual after-dinner drink, and it was early
morning before we took final leave of our jolly
hosts. After this the Boyal George went round to
Sheerness, and we paid off there on the 29th of
August, 1856. But this was not the end of the
old craft. We did not send our old horses to the
knacker's yard quite so hastily in those days as we
do now. The terms " obsolete " and " obsolescent "
had not then been introduced into the navy. I
am not defending the practice of keeping obsolete
ships on the active list, but merely relating what
occurred ; and the Boyal George was now razeed ;
that is to say, she had a deck cut off, and was thus
turned into a two-decker. Her last commission
was served as coastguard ship at Kingstown, and
it was here that her brave captain, John McNiel
Boyd, lost his life in a gallant attempt to rescue
the crew of a merchant-ship which was wrecked
during a heavy gale on the east pier, where a
handsome monument was erected to his memory.

CHAPTEE IV
On board the Retribution — The ship's band — Gunnery training
— Cobbing the cook — Start round the world — Teneriffe —
Flying-fish, sea-songs and fisticuffs — Bio Janeiro — The Falk
land Islands— The Straits of Magellan — Valparaiso— Guano
and blubber.
MY next ship was the Betribution, a 28-gun,
paddle-wheel steam frigate. We had a long
commission of more than four years' duration ;
and if I had been given carte blanche in the way
of choice and asked to select a cruise which would
enable me to see as much of the world as possible,
to visit as many strange lands and strange people,
to experience as many changes of climate, or to
have as good opportunities of learning the various
duties of a seaman, I could not possibly have
selected a cruise which would have better fulfilled
these conditions than did the long commission
of the Betribution. We first went " up the
straits," as far as Malta, then home to England,
then out to Eio Janeiro, then through the Straits
of Magellan to the Pacific, then across to China
and Japan, then on to India and Ceylon, and then
home round the Cape of Good Hope. But I am
not going to let the reader off with this brief
sketch of the Betribution1 s commission. He has
got to accompany me across many a stormy sea
55

56 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
and many a calm one too ; through many
changes of climate, to prepare to mop his
moist brow in a crowded midshipmen's berth
close to the after boiler-room in latitude
0° 0' 0", and to blow his fingers in the foretop
in a gale of wind off Cape Horn, while Bob
Crump, astride the weather yardarm, is shouting
to his gallant foretop men to " light out to
windward" for the fourth reef, and the mid
shipman of the foretop is adding his shrill pipe
to the chorus.
Captain Charles Barker commissioned the
Betribution at Sheerness in September, 1856. He
had never been in a steamer before, and had been
a long time on shore, I think twelve years, but of
this I am not quite certain. Such long periods
of unemployment were not uncommon when once
a man had reached the captain's list and was
without, powerful interest. This, of course, was
before the Childers age-retirement reform, and
would be impossible now, as the average time for
a captain to become a rear-admiral is ten years ;
but in 1856 it was twenty -five years. Thus
we had no very young admirals at that date,
as twenty-five years makes a big hole in a
man's life.
We all liked old Barker; he was naturally rather
old-fashioned, but he was a fine seaman and a
kindly old gentleman off duty.
But I must now say a word or two about the
old ship that was to carry us round the world
and weather many a storm, for she was rather a
curiosity in her way. She was originally fitted
with engines of 800 horse-power; but these

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 57
engines made her so deep in the water and so
deeply immersed the paddle-wheels that she was
considered a failure, so they took out half her
boilers, gave her engines of 400 horse-power,
and rigged her as a full-rigged frigate ; and thus
she became a really useful ship and a remark
ably good sailer. She carried ten 8-inch guns on
the upper deck and eighteen 32-pounders on the
main deck ; but these latter were rather near
the water, and could only be worked in fine
weather. She was 1,600 tons, the biggest paddle-
wheel steamer ever built for the navy, with the
exception of the Terrible, which was 1,800 tons,
but did not carry so many guns.
In line-of-battle ships the lieutenants' mess was
always called the wardroom, and the midship
men's mess the gunroom ; but in frigates the
lieutenants' mess was the gunroom, and the
midshipmen's was known as the " midshipmen's
berth," and that was certainly a more appropriate
name for it than gunroom, as it was a dark little
place on the lower deck, in which the scuttles
could only be kept open in harbour, or in very
fine weather at sea. That of the Betribution
was about 16 feet long by 8 feet wide, and
it was only separated from the after boiler-room
by a bulkhead, so that it was rather warm
when we were under steam in the tropics.
The table occupied almost the whole space ;
there was no room for chairs, and we sat round
the table on lockers, in which were stowed
some of our sea stores. There were two 6-inch
scuttles, and as these passed through the thick
side of a wooden ship they let in very little

58 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
light, so that we almost always had to burn
candles, and as I have already said, the scuttles
could only be taken out for ventilation in very fine
weather. In this snug abode, on frugal fare,
a dozen of us spent four years of our young
lives : yet we were not a bit sorry for ourselves,
though some of our friends who came to visit
us were kind enough to pity us ; and I have
a very vivid recollection of a visit from my
uncle — the late Sir James Ingham, who after
wards became the " Beak " of Bow Street — who
came down to meet me on the return of the
ship from her long cruise. He naturally
wanted to see my mess-place, and I showed it
to him; but it was a long time before I could
convince him that I was not hoaxing him, for
he was firmly convinced that the place I showed
him was the dark cell where prisoners were
confined. As, however, his eyes got accustomed
to the darkness his scepticism departed, though
not his horror at the terrible hardship I had
suffered in having to spend four years of my life in
such a "den," as he called it; and I must
admit that our berth was not just then looking its
best. There was a cask of Canary wine which
we picked up at Teneriffe on our way home, and
this was slung in rope slings over the table,
and was " on tap " free, as we had a surplus in
the wine fund which we wanted to work off;
there was a shark's jaws which had not been
very carefully scraped ; the brush part of the
tail of an elephant, that I shot in Ceylon ; some
ostrich's eggs from the Cape which had not been
properly blown ; and some rare and beautiful

1 1. M.S. RiiTRIHUTlOiX,
From a water-colour drawing by the Author.

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 59
birds' skins which had not been scientifically
cured : so it is quite possible that my uncle
— without being over - fastidious — may have
detected odours with which he was unfamiliar,
and supposed this to be the normal atmosphere
in which we lived. This same uncle of mine was
quite the most charming man I ever met. One
might have supposed that his experiences as a
police magistrate, and his consequent familiarities
with some of the most degraded aspects of human
nature, would have hardened his heart and
caused him to take a gloomy and cynical view
of his fellow-creatures, but such was not the
case ; in fact, exactly the contrary seemed to be
the result of his experiences. He was a con
firmed optimist, and could talk wisely and
cheerfully with men of his own age on current
topics, or joke and chaff with boys and enter
joyously into all their sports and amusements
with equal ease and heartiness. Towards ladies
he always showed that genuine unaffected courtesy
and deference which the present generation calls
" old-fashioned," and by so doing accentuates
the fact that it is now somewhat rare. My
father died when I was sixteen years of age,
and my " Uncle James " was a father to me for
many years of my life. I think he was the
kindliest, most tender-hearted and absolutely
unselfish man it has ever been my fortune
to meet. He guided, advised, sympathized,
and forgave much.
One of the first acts of the officers of the
Betribution, when she commissioned, was to
get up a band. We were not allowed any bands-

60 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
men in our complement — no provision for music,
save the fiddle of the ship's musician and the
drum of the marine drummer for beating to
quarters ; so the captain and officers put their
hands in their pockets and bought a set of
instruments, and then set to work to organize
an amateur band. To the best of my recollec
tion, the leading spirit in this work was our
indefatigable paymaster, E. H. Bullen, who was
foremost in all good works, including the organiza
tion of an amateur dramatic company, which he
ran with great success during the whole commis
sion. The first thing was to get a bandmaster,
and, as luck would have it, the master-at-arms
(head of the ship's police) was found to be a very
fair performer on the cornet, and was forthwith
selected as bandmaster. The blacksmith played
a big brass instrument which he called the
orphan-child, the proper name of which, I believe,
is the ophicleide. The marine drummer beat the
little drum with some vigour, and a stalwart stoker
struck the big drum with even greater violence ;
but there were other instruments beside these — nine
altogether, I think ; and after a little practice we
had a very respectable band, which did good service
during the whole commission in cheering us up
during dull times, and on certain State occasions
of ceremony proved itself to be a great acquisition.
One of these was when we landed the end of the
first Indian submarine telegraph-cable at Kurrachee
in 1859, and another when Lord Elgin landed at
Yeddo (now Tokio) to conclude the first treaty
with Japan. On this occasion the band was
accommodated on a platform in the bows of the

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 61
starboard paddle-box boat, of which I was in
proud command, and as we headed the procession
and discoursed martial music with plenty of big
drum, we awakened the echoes of mediaeval Japan
and considerably startled the worthy inhabitants
of Yeddo. Our bandsmen were, of course, all
volunteers, and played for love, and not for
filthy lucre ; though, in order to keep them
in good humour, there was, undoubtedly, some
arrangement between the first lieutenant and
the master-at-arms by which they were excused
from performing some of their more irksome and
unpleasant duties. Anyhow, they never went on
strike, and were always ready at a moment's
notice to hurry up and play a tune. And now,
while I am talking about bands and music, I must
mention one extraordinary character who became
an important member of the band. This was the
ship's fiddler, Fentum by name. He was about
as dirty and disreputable-looking an object as ever
found its way on board a man-of-war; but he
was a musical genius. I don't think he could read
or write, not even music ; but he could play any tune
he had once heard, and he had heard a good many.
He could play on his fiddle airs out of most of the
principal operas, and play them with a delicacy
of touch and a depth of feeling which seemed
quite marvellous in a man of his appearance.
Whenever we gave entertainments, Fentum was
called upon to play solos on the violin, and he
was always enthusiastically encored. He could
make sweet music upon one string of his fiddle,
and this was a performance which was usually
called for and received with great applause. But

62 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
he was a most disreputable character, and although
some of the officers did all in their power to reform
him, their efforts were fruitless. He skulked from
his work, got drunk on every possible opportunity,
was always in trouble and generally on the black
list, and was finally flogged as incorrigible. It was
always a puzzle to us why a man with his musical
talent should come to sea as fiddler on board a
man-of-war, when he ought to have been able
to earn good money on shore. Possibly he found
the shore too hot for him ; but if so, he certainly
did not find a ship much cooler. And although
some of my readers may lament and condemn the
harsh treatment meted out to our naval Paganini,
they should remember that he was given every
possible opportunity of reforming and becoming
a respectable member of the crew before strong
measures were taken.
Another important question — only second to
that of the band — which had to be settled before
the ship left England was that of the gunnery
training of the crew. The ship was not allowed
a gunnery lieutenant, and in the ordinary course
of events either the gunner (a warrant officer)
would have to undertake the duties or else the
training would have been only sectional and
carried out intermittently by the lieutenants at
their own quarters, and we midshipmen would
have got no adequate instruction at all, and would
have finally got third-class certificates or been
plucked outright when we got home and had
to face the ordeal of the gunnery examination
on board the Excellent. What happened then
was probably unique in the annals of the gunnery

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 63
department of the navy. The marine officer came
forward and volunteered to undertake the whole
of the gunnery training of the ship ; not only of
his own detachment of marines, but of all the
seamen as well. He was fully qualified to do so,
as he belonged to the artillery branch of the
marines, the E.M.A.. and he had lately been
through the complete gunnery course on board
the Excellent, the Mecca of all gunnery ; but the
position which he assumed was one of extreme
delicacy, as he had to meet and overcome a deeply
ingrained prejudice of the British tar against
being •• ordered about " (though he sometimes
uses another verb) by a marine. Yet such was
his tact, good humour, courtesy, steady perse
verance and devotion to duty, that this young
marine was able to conduct the gunnery duties
of the Betribution for four years with less friction
and more marked success than I have ever
seen attained before or since. One happy result
of the training was that all the midshipmen got
first-class certificates when they went up for then
final examination on board the Excellent. So we,
at any rate, had reason to be thankful ; but I
t.hinfc I am correct in saving that this indefatigable
marine never got a penny of extra pay for all the
extra work he undertook. He did it for the
honour of the ship : and he certainly could not
have foreseen that his name was to appear in the
reniiniscences of one of the midshipmen, who no
doubt gave him a lot of trouble, but yet who
became warmly attached to him. and formed a
friendship which has lasted unbroken for fifty-
five years. And as Byron says, "Bright names

64 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
will hallow song." I can find no brighter
name to adorn my tale with than that of Eobert
Woollcombe, E.M.A., the best and truest friend
I ever made in the navy, and who taught me
many things besides gunnery.
The first duty the Betribution was sent upon
after commissioning at Sheerness was to take a
a batch of supernumeraries to Malta, and amongst
them were twenty gunroom officers. We had no
room for them in our mess-place, but we were not
asked. We were simply told to take them and
provide for them in the midshipmen's berth, which
just held our own complement of eleven at a tight
fit. So we had to arrange for three breakfasts,
three dinners, and three suppers, and also lay in
extra stores. Fortunately we had bad weather
nearly all the way to Malta, and most of our
passengers were seasick and never appeared at
meals at all ; so it was not so bad nor so un
comfortable (for us) as if the weather had been
fine. There is nothing of special interest to relate
with regard to our trip to Malta and back to
Plymouth, with the exception of a slight domestic
disturbance which occurred in our mess. We
had a great deal of trouble with our cook ; he
was a thoroughly bad cook. He spoilt our viotuals,
he quarrelled with the steward ; he was generally
late with all meals, and was, in fact, entirely
unsatisfactory. We had tried reporting him for
neglect of duty and getting him put on the black
list, and also making stoppages from his pay; but
as these were of no use, we decided to take
matters into our own hands, and cob him. The

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 65
leading spirit in this attempt to improve cookery
was our senior member and caterer, the Honour
able G. F  (mate), but he chivalrously remarked
that as he was as big as the cook it would not
be fair for him to take any active part in the
actual cobbing; so it was arranged that we
youngsters were to do the cobbing, and the
Honourable G. F  was to take the whole of the
responsibility in case there was a row about it,
which there was and which he did. Our arrange
ments having been made, the cook was sent for
by the caterer, and duly appeared at the door
of the berth ; but something in the general aspect
of the situation excited his suspicions, and before
we youngsters could seize him he made a bolt
across the steerage for the captain's steward's
berth, and on his way managed to grab one of
the seamen's rifles out of the rack, with which
he gallantly defended himself amongst the cap
tain's plates and dishes, some of which he (or we)
broke. Numbers only can annihilate — as Nelson
said — and after some of us had received some
nasty knocks, we finally overpowered the cook,
brought him back to our berth, hauled him over
the table, and cobbed him with a leather bayonet
scabbard. " But half of our heavy task was
done " when that troublesome functionary, the
master-at-arms, appeared on the scene and put
a stop to the other half. Then when the ship
returned to Plymouth the cook went ashore and
engaged a lawyer, and we were threatened with
an action for assault ; but our dear old skipper,
Charlie Barker, elected to treat it as a midship
men's lark, forgave us for breaking his crockery,
6

66 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
and in conjunction with our caterer, who honour
ably fulfilled his promise to take the responsi
bility, a compromise was arranged privately : the
cook got ,£5, and we heard no more about it.
Some years afterwards I heard that the midship
men in a ship serving in the West Indies tried
the same expedient for the improvement of
cookery ; but unfortunately for them they did
not have a Charlie Barker for a captain; there was
a court-martial, and two of them were turned out
of the service.
I am afraid we were not a bit ashamed of our
selves for our assault on the cook. On the
contrary, we were rather proud of it, and we cut
" C.C.C.C." in the beam over the berth-table,
which stood for " Cobbed Charles Cambridge
Cook," with the date. This was the recognized
method in those days of commemorating great
events. I don't know what they do now with iron
beams. We had no difficult in engaging the services
of a new cook at Plymouth. The Honourable
G. F  was promoted to the rank of lieutenant —
presumably for his diplomatic action in the cook
affair — and as we already had our full complement
of lieutenants, he left the ship, and we never had
another mate until I passed provisionally for that
rank some years afterwards. Then on March 15,
1857, the Betribution sailed on her long cruise round
the world, though when we left England we had no
idea that there was anything in store for us save
a three years' commission on the Pacific Station,
and then home again the way we went. But
when all is said and done, one of the principal

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 67
charms of a sea life is its many surprises and
totally unexpected happenings. Our first call was
at Teneriffe, and I remember we sighted the
famous peak 130 miles off, glistening in the sun
above the clouds, and a beautiful sight it was. I
have seen it many times since, under varying con
ditions of weather. So various, indeed, are the
different aspects it assumes that one never gets
tired of looking at it. There is always something
new and beautiful to compel one's admiration.
" Age cannot wither, nor custom stale, her infinite
variety." At Teneriffe we midshipmen all went " 'orse
ridin'," as the bluejackets call it. This was the
first thing we always did on getting into harbour
if we could scrape up money enough to hire an
animal, though it was not always a horse, but any
animal with four legs that could kick up its heels
and gallop — horse, mule, or ass. Of course we
raced, and generally managed to get plenty of
exercise and full value for our money, though not
uncommonly we were sorry for ourselves for some
days afterwards ; and on this particular occasion
I remember that one of my messmates who had
won most of the races was unable to sit down with
any comfort for more than a week afterwards.
We all went bathing next day, and it was obvious
that his racing victories had not left him un
scathed. It was at Teneriffe that Nelson met with his
first defeat and lost his arm ; and in the principal
church in the town of Santa Cruz several British
flags are displayed in a glass case high up on
the wall. They are the ensigns of the boats that

68 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
were sunk or captured on that occasion ; and the
story goes that these flags were once "cut out"
by a party of British bluejackets who were on
shore on leave from a ship lying in the roadstead;
but the Admiralty did not approve of this mis
taken act of patriotism, and ordered the flags to
be returned and the sailors to be severely
punished ; and now the flags are high up on the
wall and well out of reach.
Shortly after leaving Teneriffe we got into the
north-east trade wind, and went bowling along
gaily enough, with stunsails alow and aloft.
The present generation of men-of-war's men, with
their fast steamers and their hurry-scurry to get
to their next port, know nothing of the placid joy
of sailing down a trade wind with every stitch of
canvas set and drawing, and the ship gliding
peacefully along at six or seven knots an hour,
with nothing for the watch to do save occasionally
to shift over the stunsails from starboard to port,
or vice versa. But on the other hand, they are
saved all the anxieties and rough work of a gale
of wind, which now means very little to them ;
but to us a gale, or, in short, any bad weather,
meant not only discomfort, but also called forth
the exercise of the best seamanship on the
part of the officers and severe manual labour
and also good seamanship on the part of the
crew ; for it took real seamen — and not merely
men in blue frocks — to take in the fourth reef of
a topsail in a gale of wind, or to furl a top-gallant
sail or a royal that had been carried as long as
possible in a rising breeze. So I think we were
justly entitled to indulge in a little dolce far niente,

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 69
and make the most of the fine weather when we
got into the balmy Trades.
One day while we were sailing down the Trades
and getting near the line, we seemed to get into
the home of the flying-fish. It was not merely
that an occasional one rose and flitted away
aslant the wind, lightly touching the crests of
the waves ; but the sea appeared to be alive with
them. They rose in shoals all round the ship, and
under the bows there was a continuous stream of
them rising, pursued by their relentless enemies the
dolphin, the bonito, and the albacore. The former
of these fish I have already described in another
chapter ; he is the dolphin of the sailor, but the
coryphee or coryphaena of the naturalist. The
bonito is like a big, stout mackerel, and the
albacore like a still bigger one : he is, in fact, the
largest of the mackerel family, and is well known
in the Mediterranean as the " Tunny." Cotgrave
describes him as " a certain fish of the Indian sea
which is very good meat " : but on the present
occasion he was making very good meat of the
flying-fish ; and although we tried with both bait
and fish spear to make him meat for ourselves, we
could not get one that day. I sat for several hours
on the end of the jib-boom, dangling a bait and
watching the chase, and I think it was one of the
most fascinating dramas I ever saw — these big fish
gobbling up the little ones. " All nature red with
ravening tooth and claw," or — " that Thou mayest
give them their meat in due season " — whichever
way you like to look at it. And as we had been for
many days on salt grub and wanted very much to
eat the albacore ourselves, we could not help

70 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
admiring them for eating the flying-fish and
catching them so cleverly. From my commanding
position at the end of the jib-boom I could look
straight down on the strange scene and see what
happened. There was a shoal of some dozen
albacore which kept swimming along just ahead of
the ship. Sometimes one or two of them would
dart off on either bow or right ahead for thirty or
forty yards, and then drop back again until they
were straight under where I was sitting. The
ship — which was going about seven knots — seemed
to make the flying-fish rise out of the water and
spread their wings and soar away to the right or
left or right ahead. In the latter case I could see
exactly what happened. As the flying-fish rose, one
of the albacore darted off in pursuit and kept
almost underneath him until he dropped into the
water again : then there was a splash like the rise
of a salmon and the flying-fish flew no more. But
the albacore did not always wait until the flying-
fish touched the water, for on several occasions
I saw them actually take their prey in the air, by
making a huge jump out of the water; and I
remember once reading a book called "Hall's
Fragments," wherein the writer describes a
somewhat similar scene and records that he
had seen the albacore " almost" catch the flying-
fish in the air ; but I saw him actually doing it ;
and on more than one occasion I saw, within a few
yards of me, the great fish leap high out of the
water, catch his prey in the air, and descend again
with a plunge and with the two wings of the flying-
fish sticking out, one each side of his mouth.
There was a man down on the dolphin-striker

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 71
(a spar under the bowsprit) with the five-pronged
fish grains, trying to spear one of the albacore,
but he never succeeded on this occasion in making
a good shot ; he did not even appear to frighten
them ; they seemed to regard his efforts as rather a
lark ; just a little extra splash and nothing more.
On other occasions I have seen albacore speared
and dolphin caught with a bait ; but on this day
we had no luck, save the luck of watching a series
of most exciting hunts.
Whilst sailing down the Trades the monotony
of the night watches was greatly relieved by the
men of the watch singing on the forecastle. There
was little danger of waking the watch below.
They slept sound enough, and beyond occasionally
shifting over a stunsail, heaving the log, and
calling "All's well," or rather the nautical
equivalent of their look-out station, there was
very little for the men of the watch to do ; so
they sang, and sang lustily, and as my watch-
station was on the forecastle I got the benefit of
the music. There was a certain pleasing
variety in the songs ; some topical, some senti
mental, some comic, and some dismal and
lugubrious. Some of the comic and topical ones
were not quite proper or fit for publication;
though I am bound to say some of the sentimental
and mournful songs were quite as popular as the
naughty ones. Amongst the dismal ditties was
" The wreck of the Bamillies." The Bamillies
was a line-of-battle ship and she was lying at
anchor in Cawsand Bay (before Plymouth break
water was built) when a gale came on from the
south-east and she dragged her anchors and

72 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
went ashore, broke up, and nearly all hands
were drowned. I can only remember two verses
of the song. The first verse was : —
"Now it happened upon a certain day
That the Ramillies at her anchors lay
When a gale came on from east-south-east
And the stormy billows frothed like yeast."
Then she drags her anchors and goes ashore and
" The bos'n cried out ' My merry men all
Now listen unto me when I pipe my call,
Launch out your boats your lives to save,
Or else you will find a watery grave.' "
I have heard many a bos'n pipe his call, but I
never heard one pipe a call like that, or talk about
watery graves ; but then I have never been ship
wrecked, save once, and that was on the Cam at
Cambridge ; but that is another story.
Most of the songs had choruses, in which all the
watch joined, and awoke an echo out of the foresail
and the lower stunsail.
There was one sentimental song that was often
called for. It was the song of the betrayed
maiden, and very doleful. I only remember one
complete verse of it, which ran thus : —
" I wish my baby it was born,
Sat smiling on its daddy's knee,
And I was under the cold, cold ground
With the green grass waving over me."
Besides the songs there were recitations of various
sorts, some comic and some tragic, and these were

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 73
usually accompanied by a good deal of action.
There was a stoker named Slade who was the life
and soul of the whole business : he could not only
sing an immense variety of songs — mostly topical
— but he could recite by the hour, and without
becoming tedious. He had a wonderful memory
and could repeat the whole of " Marmion " and
the "Lady of the Lake" from beginning to end;
but he was not satisfied with merely repeating,
he acted as well, and one of his favourite pieces,
and also one of the most popular on the forecastle,
was the combat between Fitz James and Eoderick
Dhu. There was no doubt a good deal of rant
about it, but the audience did not object to this,
and with a broomstick for a claymore and a
marine's shako for a plumed bonnet he could
bring the house down as often as he liked. This
was what he called "giving 'em a bit of Sir
Walter." These peaceful idylls we exchanged one night
for a real fight, and a grand fight it was, between
Bob Crump, the captain of the foretop, and Joe
Smith, the big marine artilleryman. Joe Smith
was reputed to be the strongest man in the ship ;
he could pick up the pinnace's twelve-pounder brass
gun and chuck it up on his shoulder as easily as
most men could shoulder their hammocks, but
he had not much science, nor was he nearly so
active as Bob Crump, who, being a first-class petty
officer, might very properly have declined to meet
a private of the marines on the field of honour,
for it was like a knight jousting with a squire;
but Bob was not the man to stand upon his
dignity in such a case, or to appeal to points of

74 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
etiquette or punctilio when the credit of his cloth
was concerned ; so the fight was duly arranged
by their respective backers. I have no idea what
the fight was about, nor does it matter in the
least, for when two schoolboys, two men, or two
nations want to fight, there is never any difficulty
in finding a reason, notwithstanding that the one
given is rarely, if ever, the true one. So the fight
came off on the forecastle, about three bells in the
first watch, and I sat on the breech of the sixty-
eight-pounder gun and watched it. Strictly speak
ing, I ought to have tried to stop it, or at least
given information to the master-at-arms and ship's
police, as fighting is not allowed in our fighting
service ; but I could not find it in my heart to
play the sneak and spoil sport ; besides which,
Bob Crump was my special chum amongst the
sailors. I was midshipman of the foretop and
Crump was captain of the top, and a fine seaman
too, and I wanted to see him lick the marine,
which I think he would have done if the fight had
not been stopped. But it was a grand fight as
far as it went. Science and activity versus stolid
strength and dogged endurance. Bob walked
round the big joey like a cooper round a cask,
getting in some* lightning-like blows on his figure
head ; but he did not get them in for nothing, for
he was twice knocked clean off his legs by the
sledge-hammer blows of his huge adversary ; but
you might as well have knocked down an india-
rubber man, for he was up again smiling and at
'em again almost before you could see he was
down, and just as if nothing had happened.
I verily believe Bob would have won if the fight

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 75
could have been finished. They both had their
shoes and stockings off, of course, and " the ring "
only spoke in whispers. No cheering, not even by
the marines when Bob was knocked down : but
alas ! the master-at-arms and his myrmidons got
wind of it somehow and came up and stopped the
best fight I ever saw.
I do not think there was anything like a deep
or permanent ill-feeling between the bluejackets
and the marines in consequence of this fight, or
for any other reason. There never has been in
any ship I have ever served in. There is naturally
a certain amount of rivalry between the two
branches of the Service, where their respective
duties appear to clash or to interlace : such as the
rivalry in shooting between a marine-manned gun
and a bluejacket-manned gun, or in rifle shooting,
or even in boat-work ; for I have frequently seen
a marine boat's crew beat a good crew of blue
jackets. But this rivalry — so far as my experience
goes — does not produce anything in the shape
of unworthy jealousy or ill-feeling. Jack and Joe
are usually the best of friends. Each recognizes
and admires the other's special qualifications, and
they agree to pull together for the honour of their
ship and of the Service. The instance which I gave
above of Lieutenant Woollcombe, E.M.A., under
taking voluntarily and without pay the whole of
the gunnery duties of the Betribution, although it
was a special case of zeal for the honour of his
ship, yet is fairly typical of the spirit in which the
marine comes on board, to be ready for anything
" per mare per terram."
There is an old story (a chestnut, no doubt, for

76 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
my well-informed brother officers) about a dialogue
between a bluejacket and a marine. The sailor
says to the marine, "What are you  turkeys
doin' aboard 'ere ? " To which the marine replies
"What are we doin' aboard here? Why, we's
come 'ere to keep you  flatfoots from eating
one another." And there can be no doubt what
ever that the answer is founded on fact, for the
marines have invariably — and often under the
most trying circumstances — stood loyal and true
and supported the officers, when the seamen have
been in a state of active or nascent mutiny. It
may be, and probably it is, the case that with
our present educated and highly trained seamen
there is no danger of mutiny; but whatever the
original object of embarking soldiers in our ships
may have been, the present corps of Marine Light
Infantry and artillery have proved to be of such
inestimable value to the navy, that the proposal
to disband them, or to use them as garrison
troops for our coaling-stations, has been regarded
with little short of consternation by the vast
majority of those naval officers whose long sea-
service has taught them to value our amphibious
soldiers at their true worth.
Unfortunately we have some cranks in the
navy. People possessed of an inflated opinion of
their own wisdom and powers of organization
and reform, and who imagine that every fad they
choose to label "reform" immediately becomes
so. The scheme which was launched in 1902 by
the Admiralty on the nominal responsibility of
the misguided Lord Selborne was a case in point,
as it was calculated — if not intended — to prepare

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 77
the way for the abolition of the marines by
undermining their efficiency, through depriving
them of their own officers and giving them the
job-services of naval officers. It was regarded as
a most undeserved insult by the whole corps of
marines, and was indeed a farcical proposal
which must have totally destroyed all esprit de
corps, and consequently all efficiency. Happily
this " reform " has been reversed, in time to
save the situation, and marine officers are again
being entered direct, so that we may hope the
long-suffering and loyal corps will be subjected
to no more indignities, and that the country may
look forward to a continuance of the ubiquitous
and invaluable services of our amphibious soldiers.
After this digression I must now return to the
Betribution, which sailed leisurely down the
Trades until she came to the calm belt in the
region of the equator, where she got up steam,
connected her paddle-wheels, paddled through
the calms and the torrential rains until she
got into the south-east Trades, and then sped
along merrily for Eio Janeiro, once more under
sail. The ceremony of crossing the line has been so
often described by abler pens than mine, that I
will not trouble the reader with a detailed de
scription of it in this case. All I know is
that I was very carefully shaved, notwithstanding
that I had not yet grown a beard, and then
ducked in the pond by the bears, one of whom
was my chum Bob Crump, so I got off very
cheaply from this part of the ceremony.
When I use the word " chum " I do not intend

78 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
it to be understood that the friendship between a
midshipman and a seaman was quite on the
same familiar footing as that between two mess
mates ; but Crump and I used often to sit up in
the foretop together after the evening evolution
of reef topsails, and spin yarns to each other ;
and although I was generally the listener I am
afraid I became rather more familiar writh Bob
than I ought to have done. But no harm came
of it, for he was a fine character as well as a tip
top seaman, and never presumed in the smallest
degree on my familiarity.
I remember that one day while we were steam
ing through the calms in the region of the line we
had a very heavy hail shower, with hailstones as
big as peas. Ice on the equator, descending from
the clouds, was like manna in the wilderness.
Where did it come from ? That we did not
know ; but we collected a good deal of it to cool
our luke-warm condensed water, which always
had a strong flavour of the boilers.
The entrance to Eio Janeiro harbour is one
of the most beautiful views I have ever seen, and
the harbour itself is, I think, the finest in the
world, with perhaps one exception, and that is the
little-known harbour of Mesampho on the south
coast of Korea. I know Sydney harbour, and
Brest, and a good many other ; but I would
unhesitatingly give the palm to Mesampho as
being the most perfect natural harbour in the
world ; and now that our enterprising friends the
Japs have got it they will no doubt make the
most of it. But for the beauty of its surrounding
scenery it cannot compare with Eio ; which latter,

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 79
however, is often very unhealthy, and when we
arrived there on May 4, 1857, the yellow fever
was so bad on shore that we could give no leave
to the men, and we did not stay there a day longer
than we could help, but started off again for
our next port of call, which was to be Stanley
harbour in the Falkland Islands.
A few days after leaving Eio, when we were
abreast of the Eiver Plate, the ship was struck by
a violent storm in the middle of the night, and
the hands were turned up to shorten sail. I
spent about two hours in the foretop, where
our first orders were to close reef the foretop-sail,
and then a message (for we could hear no orders
from the deck) to furl it ; which we did eventually,
but it was a tough job. I have never — before or
since — seen an electric storm of such violence or
so long continued as that one was. It was not
only that the wind and the rain beat upon us as
if all the furies of the sky had been let loose, but
the lightning was almost continuous and wonder
fully vivid. We seemed to be enveloped in a
great thunder-cloud, for each clap succeeded the
flash instantaneously, and we could smell the
lightning. Yes, we could smell it quite distinctly.
The ship was struck more than once, but the
electric current passed innocuously down the
Snow-Harris lightning-conductors and did no
harm. I have often wondered what would have
happened to a ship in the old days, before the
Snow-Harris conductor was invented. She would
certainly have had some of her spars shattered
and probably have been set on fire. The smell
that we all smelt was most likely caused by the

80 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
heating of the lightning-conductors, which had
not time to get cool between the flashes. It was
a sight to see, was that electric storm. We were
of course all wet to the skin, and the foretop
sail yard had not been properly laid for furling
the sail, so that the footrope of the sail — a great
four-inch rope — came swinging back over the
yard, beating the men on their backs with such
violence that I thought it would knock all the
wind out of them and finally knock them off the
yard; but they stuck to their work and furled
the sail, like the fine seamen they were. I over
heard a remark of one of them as he struggled in
off the yard and got down into the top — " A
small smell of hell about that Bill, wasn't there ? "
During the height of this storm we were quite
blinded by the lightning. Between the flashes all
was black darkness and we could see nothing of
ropes, sails, or rigging, until they were illuminated
by the next flash. The lightning appeared to be
all round us and in amongst us. I have seen
many thunderstorms in many parts of the world,
but I never saw another like this one.
We had a stormy passage all the way to the
Falkland Islands, almost continuous gales, and I
see by my log — -which is a copy of the ship's log —
that on several occasions the force of the wind
is recorded as 10 and 11 by the Beaufort scale,
and this means very heavy weather. Nevertheless,
we arrived safely at Stanley harbour in the East
Falkland Island, and a snug little harbour it is,
small but perfectly land-locked.
The Falkland Islands are said to be one of the
stormiest places on the face of the globe. No

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 81
trees will grow there — they are all blown down
"before they are up"; and to the best of my
recollection we did not see a bush more than six
or eight feet high. This was in the eastern island.
I have heard that the western island is more
fertile, or at any rate less barren, but we did not
go there, so I cannot speak from personal
experience. The old ship had badly strained her rudder in
the recent gales, so we unshipped it, hauled it
up on shore, and set the carpenters to work to
patch it up, which they did so effectually that it
lasted for nearly two years, but finally gave out
altogether when we were in the East Indies,
and we had to build a new one for ourselves at
Trincomalee dockyard. The repairs to the rudder
delayed us for eight days in Stanley harbour,
and we all went shooting. Everybody has heard
of the Falkland Island geese, and they may be
seen to-day in St. James's Park. The upland
geese — as they are generally called — are excellent
eating ; but there are also immense numbers
and different varieties of other geese and
these are known as "kelp geese." Alas! our
ornithological education had been so sadly neg
lected that we did not know the difference with
the feathers on, though we soon found it out,
when we came to cook and eat them. All
the birds we shot were kelp geese, about as fishy
as cormorants ; but they were not wasted, for we
gave them to our marine sevants, who ate them
all and declared them to be excellent. " Some
flavour about them," as they said. One day one
of my messmates and I borrowed a small boat
7

82 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
and started off very early in the morning to go
and shoot wild geese. Nobody in the midship
men's berth owned a gun at this time, though I
got one later, so my messmate and I took a couple
of ship's rifles, and we spent several hours the
night before cutting up bullets into slugs. We got
plenty of powder from the gunner, and with loose
paper for wads, we started off in our little boat
to make a bag, and we did. The geese were very
tame ; they were not at all accustomed to be shot
at, so that we had no difficulty in getting a boat
load of them, and there were so many different
varieties of them that we felt sure some at least
must be uplanders ; but they were not, and they
all had to go to the marines. They must have
been very strong, for a hungry midshipman is not
over-fastidious, and I have several times eaten
shark myself. Penguins were numerous, but we
did not shoot them, as we knew they were fishy
and only fit for Antarctic explorers.
From Stanley harbour we made a rapid passage
to the Straits of Magellan, before an easterly gale,
and the old ship made twelve knots for several
hours ; the highest speed she ever made.
The scenery in the Straits of Magellan is the
wildest and grandest I have ever seen. Towering
mountains with great shining glaciers coming
right down to the water's edge. But the worst
of this route, and the reason why it was generally
avoided by sailing ships, is the fact that the water
is so deep and the shores so precipitous that there
are great stretches in which no anchorage is to
be found ; and as the prevailing weather in the
Straits is a succession of violent squalls and flat

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 83
calms, it is rather tickhsh work trying to get a
sailing ship through them. Still, it has been done,
and Magellan did it. Anson did not. He went
round the Horn and suffered badly.
It was the month of June, and thus the depth
of winter when we passed through the Straits of
Magellan; yet, in spite of the cold, the natives,
who came off to us in their canoes, were nearly
naked. We anchored several times, and at one
place we stayed for two days to cut wood for the
fires to try and spin out our coal supply. Every
axe, hatchet, and saw in the ship was requisitioned
for the work, and a great pile of wood was brought
on board. I remember that the engineers were
rather sceptical about the value of wood for firing
the boilers : and as the proceeds of two days'
wood-cutting was all burnt in half-an-hour (so
they said), the experiment was not repeated.
The natives on the two sides of the Straits
are distinct races, and it is said they do not mix
or have any communication with each other. The
Patagonians on the north side are big men and
not at all bad-looking, whilst the Fuegans on the
south side are dwarfs and a very low type of
savages. They are said to be cannibals, and I
believe they have occasionally eaten missionaries ;
but their usual diet is roots, seaweed, and fish,
which latter they are very clever at spearing. Some
of them came off in their canoes while we were
lying at anchor. They came to beg, and seemed
to appreciate almost anything that was thrown
to them, particularly food ; but they were very
suspicious of treachery, and nothing would induce
them to come on board. I expect there must

84 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
have been some tradition of kidnapping, though
I don't know what use they could be to anybody,
if he bagged a dozen of them.
Directly we passed out of the western end of
the Straits we encountered a heavy nor'west gale,
which blew us away to the south, until we got
nearly into the latitude of Cape Horn.
One day it was discovered that the foretop-mast
was badly sprung, and we were ordered to shift it.
This was not by any means an easy job, as
the ship was labouring heavily, and we took four
hours to shift it and set up the rigging again.
I have never been so cold in all my life as I was
on that occasion, and when the work was finished
and it was time to come down from aloft I had
no feeling in my hands, they were quite dead.
The men offered to lower me down with a rope's
end, but I managed to get down by myself, by
reeving my arms round the shrouds and holding
on by the insides of my elbows, so to speak.
The morning of the day we arrived at Valparaiso
(the Vale of Paradise) I had the morning watch,
and saw an extraordinary sight ; that is to say,
I saw land a hundred and sixty miles off. We
sighted the land at daylight, and what we saw
was the great mountain of Aconcagua, 22,000 feet.
It is a hundred miles from the shore, and the
nearest land to us at the time was sixty miles.
The sun rose immediately behind the mountain,
and the outline of the latter was perfectly clear
and distinct ; but the moment the sun was up
we lost sight of the land and did not see any
again for many hours, though we were sailing
straight at it, ten knots an hour. The captain

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 85
was called, and came up, but could see nothing,
and said we must have been mistaken, as it was
impossible to see land at that distance ; but he
was wrong, with all his nautical experience, for the
silhouette of that great mountain between us and
the rising sun was a sight never to be forgotten.
Valparaiso certainly was a paradise for us mid
shipmen, for we could hire horses for one dollar
for an afternoon ride, and some good gallops we
had. There was also a pack of English fox
hounds, kept by a Mr. Garland, an English
merchant, and I went out twice with them ;
but we had to pay three dollars for a mount
with the hounds. This was my first foxhunt,
though not my last, and I was given the brush,
although I was certainly not the first in at the
death; but I suppose the sight of a little mid
shipman in uniform, galloping for all he was
worth on a hired "screw," softened the master's
heart, and I kept that brush for many years
afterwards. The foxes were little yellow creatures,
not nearly so big as English foxes, and there
was no jumping ; just hard galloping over a very
rough country.
When we arrived at Valparaiso the admiral
on the station was being relieved, and both
flagships were lying in Valparaiso Bay. The
Monarch (84) was the homeward-bound ship, and
the Ganges (84), with the new admiral, was her
relief. Both these were sailing line-of-battle ships,
and the morning the Monarch was to leave
there was a flat calm, so all the boats of the
squadron were sent to tow her out clear of the
land, and I spent about three hours in the

86 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
Betribution' 's pinnace tugging away at her, until
a light breeze off the land filled her sails, and
away she went, with the band playing the well-
known air of " Homeward Bound " and the crew
cheering. Valparaiso was also a paradise for the men,
who got their first leave on shore here since the
ship left England, and Bob Crump spun me some
amusing yarns afterwards about his doings on
shore ; but I am afraid they are not fit for
publication. After leaving Valparaiso we went up the coast
as far as Callao, which is the seaport of Lima, and
we then spent a year cruising up and down this
coast between Callao and Valparaiso, never going
to the northward of the former ; so that we did not
see Vancouver or the northern part of the station
at all. Most of this year was spent in dogging the
footsteps of a rebel Peruvian steam frigate which
had the audacity to stop and search the English
mail steamers that ran between Panama and
Valparaiso ; and of course that could not be
allowed. There was a revolution going on in
Peru (as there generally is), and one party had the
best of it on shore, but the other party had
command of the sea ; that is to say, the whole of
the navy was on their side, and the whole effective
navy consisted of this one frigate. She was called
the Apurimac, and was built and armed on the
Thames. She was a powerful vessel of her day,
and being a screw, she was, of course, a better
fighting vessel than the Betribution, though their
armaments were about equal.
To the best of my recollection the names of the

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 87
two Presidents of the Eepublic were Castilla and
Blevanco ; but it really does not matter, as I am
not writing history. The party which we will call
the Castilla party had Lima (the capital), Callao
(the seaport of Lima), and all the other seaports
with the exception of Islay, to which the Blevanco
party held tenaciously, for if they had lost it the
Apurimac would have had no status as a fighting
ship, and would have been to all intents and
purposes a pirate.
The Apurimac was commanded by Signor
Montaro, said to be a desperate man who would
stick at nothing, and he and his officers and crew
were certainly in rather a tight corner, with their
one small seaport town and that with nothing but
an open anchorage in which to replenish coal and
stores and refit. They were regarded by the
Castilla party as rebels and pirates, and if they had
been captured the leaders would certainly have
been shot.
The object of Montaro in searching the English
mail steamers was to intercept supplies of arms
and ammunition to the opposite party ; but
as we did not acknowledge the right of search
upon the high seas for a vessel in that
ambiguous position, we followed her like her
shadow, with the intention of preventing her — by
force, if necessary. Our action must have been
extremely irritating to Montaro, for whenever
he got under way we got under way and followed
him, and when he anchored we anchored near
him, so that we could watch him ; and if he
put out his lights and eluded us at night, we
soon picked him up again by information from

88 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
passing vessels. At last he lost all patience, and
sent an officer on board to say that he would
stand it no longer, and that if we continued to
shadow him in the way we were doing he
would fire into us and sink us. " Blaze away,"
says old Barker, " whenever you like," or words
to that effect. So the next time we followed him
into one of the anchorages and anchored close
alongside him we did so with our men at
quarters and guns loaded; but he did not shoot.
He probably thought he had enemies enough
already, and instead of shooting, he invited the
captain and officers to a champagne lunch, and
promised he would not stop any more English
ships. He kept his word, and we ceased to
shadow him.
One night, while we were lying at Islay and
the Apurimac was not there, the Castilla faction
made an attack upon the town, which continued
nearly all night, with a vast expenditure of ammu
nition and much cheering. The little town had
been fortified with bales of cotton, and at daylight
in the morning it was obvious that the attack had
been repulsed, as the standards of Blevanco still
floated above the cotton bales ; but as the assault
on the town had evidently been a very determined
and vigorous one, and as it was known that the
Blevanco army was not very well off for doctors,
Captain Barker sent both our doctors with their
sick-bay staff and all appliances to render assist
ance to the wounded ; but as they found that
nobody had been hurt, they came on board again ;
so it was assumed that only blank cartridges had
been used during the attack, by both sides,

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 89
by arrangement : which, indeed, would be a
very sensible plan in all cases of civil war, as
there is not much profit in shooting one's own
countrymen. During the year we spent on the coasts of
Chili and Peru we had such fine weather that
it became absolutely monotonous, and one almost
wished for a gale of wind to stir things up a
bit. It is truly a pacific ocean from Valparaiso
to Panama, and as this was the part of it first
known to Europeans, there can be no doubt that
it hence received its name, which, however, is
not applicable to the whole ocean, the western
part of it being anything but pacific. It is now
known that all the great cyclonic storms which
visit China, known as typhoons (high winds)
start on their devastating journeys from the
Philippine Islands, swing round in a curve through
the China seas, and finally expend themselves in
the sea of Japan. Some few erratic ones pass
right through the central provinces of China and
blow themselves out in the Gulf of Pechili.
In 1857, the guano industry at the Chincha
Islands was in full swing, and a large fleet of
merchant-ships of all nations used to lie in the
roadstead loading guano. These little islets off
the coast of Peru, with their valuable deposit of
guano, were rented from the Peruvian Government
(or one of the Governments) by the English firm
of Antony Gibbs & Co. at a very big rent ;
I have heard the figure stated as £1,000,000 a
year, and I think it probable that this is no
exaggeration, as the great nitrate deposits in Chili
had only just been discovered and were not yet

90 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
working, so that guano enjoyed a monopoly in
the market.
We paid several visits to the Chincha Islands
in the Betribution ; but it was not a pleasant
place. The ships had to lie to leeward of
the islets for the sake of shelter, and the air
was full of a fine, pungent, yellow dust, which
soon coated the ship from truck to water-line,
just as if she had been painted yellow. We did
not often land, but it was a curious sight to see
this great and valuable guano deposit being
worked. It was as much as 20 feet thick in
some places, and had become so hard that it
had to be quarried like rock. These islands had
been the home and the nesting-place of the
myriads of sea birds, principally gannets, which
swarm all along this coast, and as this district
is, practically speaking, rainless, there was nothing
to wash away their droppings, so the accumula
tion of many centuries resulted in this immense
deposit of valuable manure.
At the time of our visit it was said that it
would all be worked out in about fourteen years
at the rate it was then being removed ; but I
believe it lasted a good deal longer than was
expected. At any rate, I always heard that
it made the fortunes of Antony Gibbs & Co.,
the senior partner of which firm afterwards
became Lord Aldenham.
Another place on this rainless, pacific coast
at which we spent a good deal of our time was
Arica, the seaport of the city of Tacna. Arica
was afterwards completely destroyed by an earth
quake and the great tidal wave which usually

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 91
accompanies earthquakes. At the time of this
visitation there was an American steamer lying
in the roadstead, and the wave took her two
miles inland and left her there. The distance
from the sea was too great to make it worth
while bringing her back again, so her owners,
being strictly practical people, cut windows and
doors in her and turned her into a family hotel.
Fifty years ago there was a considerable
whaling industry still going on in this part of
the Pacific, by English and American whalers,
and beautiful little vessels the whalers were, of
about 600 tons, just like men-of-war, neat and
trim, yards squared, sails neatly furled, well
painted, and with six whaleboats, three of a
side, hoisted at the davits. Whaling was still a
profitable business ; but I have not visited this
coast since 1857, so I do not know what goes
on now.
One afternoon, when we were lying in Arica
Bay, we counted sixteen whales blowing and dis
porting themselves within sight of the ship, some
of them being quite close in to the shore. The
theory was that they came in to shallow water
to scrape the barnacles and other parasites off
their bodies against the shingle and the rocks ;
but I do not know if this is correct. Anyhow,
there they were, and one day when the cutter
was going ashore with officers she "grounded" on
the back of one of the whales which had at that
moment come up to blow. It was an exciting
moment for those in the boat, for had he cocked
his fluke — i.e., lifted his huge tail — he would
have given them all an aerial voyage and a

92 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
swim ; but as it was nothing happened. All
these whales that we saw on this occasion were
rorquals or finbacks. Not the so-called right
whale nor the cachalot, which are the really
valuable whales and the only ones which the
English whalers hunted, though it was said that
the American whalers took the rorqual, which is
much less rich in blubber than either the right
whale or the cachalot, and has much shorter
and less valuable whalebone, and no spermaceti.
I read lately in an encyclopaedia, under the
heading " Whale," that " The mother displayed
great affection for her offspring, of which whale-
fishers sometimes take undue advantage, har
pooning the young one — itself of little value —
in order to secure the mother."
Had the writer of the above read Frank Bullen's
" Cruise of the Cachalot,'" he would have known
something of the penalty for infanticide.
The year which we spent on the South-west
Coast of South America was, on the whole, a dull
and uninteresting one. The towns were like all
Spanish-American towns, white, glaring, and
insanitary, and the country was arid, treeless,
and unlovely; and as very few of us could speak
the language, even indifferently, we did not mix
much with the natives.
One of the recreations indulged in by some of
our officers who were gifted with a taste for
archaeology was searching for Incas' remains.
There is some chemical constituent in the soil
of this coast which, coupled with the extreme
dryness of the climate, seems to preserve almost
indefinitely any animal remains that are buried

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 93
in it ; and thus some of our industrious diggers
were rewarded with valuable prizes in the shape
of an Inca's eye, a jawbone, a tooth, a shinbone,
and even in some rare cases a piece of a garment
or a trinket which had been buried with one of
Pizarro's quarry when he Christianized this land
some centuries ago. One day one of our zealous
explorers appears to have got out of the regular
track of the Incas, and to have been caught in
the act of hauling out by the hair of her head a
lady who had only been buried quite a short
time and was probably not an Inca at all ! He
had to put her back and apologize, and was known
hereafter as the body-snatcher.
It has always been a puzzle to me to know
how long a person ought to have been buried
before it becomes proper to dig him up and
examine his bones for the furtherance of
anthropological research. Anyhow the body-
snatcher was a long way out in his date.
One afternoon, while we were lying at anchor
in Callao harbour, the news came on board that
the British Minister at Lima had been murdered ;
but as it was proved that the cause of the murder
was absolutely unpolitical, and merely some
domestic affair connected with a lady, we did not
bombard Callao nor land the marines to occupy
Lima.

CHAPTEE V
The Retribution sails to China — The Sandwich Islands — Duck-
hunting — The Gulf of Pechili — A cloud of dragon-flies —
Shanghai — Japan's foreign policy — A brief historical digression
— Commodore Perry.
IN the month of March, 1858, the Betribution
to our great delight, received orders to go to
China, where one of our many differences of
opinion with the Celestials was being settled by
the last argument of diplomacy ; and as the
Shannon and several other ships on their way
to China had been diverted to Calcutta on account
of the Indian Mutiny, we were ordered across the
Pacific to augment the China Squadron ; and
joyful news it was, as we were quite tired of
pottering up and down the coast of Peru and Chili.
For our long voyage of 10,000 miles to
Hongkong we tried a new plan with our paddle-
wheels, to improve our sailing, as we only
carried coal enough for a very small fraction of
the distance. Instead of disconnecting the wheels
and letting them revolve, we took off half the floats
from each wheel and then lashed the wheel,
so that there was no resistance save that of the
thin iron framework. This rendered the ship to
all intents and purposes a sailing ship, as she
could not use steam even in an emergency; and
94

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 95
the plan was not considered a success. It did not
appear to improve our sailing appreciably. The
frames got bent, without the support of the floats,
and we had a very troublesome and tedious job in
getting the latter in their places again to steam
into Honolulu harbour in the Sandwich Islands, at
which half-way house we called on our way to
Hongkong. These islands have been so often described
by travellers that it is unnecessary here to say
much more than that they struck us as being
very beautiful, with their great mountains and
cliffs rising sheer out of the deep blue sea, the
slopes and lowlands covered with rich green
tropical verdure. They are entirely volcanic,
and the island of Hawaii contains the largest
active volcano in the world. Mauna Loa rises
to a height of 14,000 feet, within 1,800 feet of
the loftiest of the Swiss Alps, and its crater is
nine miles in circumference, perpetually filled
with a sea of incandescent lava, which in times
of its most active eruptions sends great rivers
of lava down to the sea. Our visit coincided
with one of these great eruptions, which lasted
for three years, from 1856 to 1859; and at
night, even from a long distance, the sight was
magnificent. In 1858 the Sandwich Islands were a nominally
independent kingdom, and Kamehameha III sat
upon the throne of his ancestors, though it was
said that in reality the English and American
missionaries ruled the docile natives ; but they
could not rule the visitors, nor arrest the terrible
scourge of a loathsome disease which had been

96 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
introduced, it was said, by the whalers, and
which was playing havoc with the unfortunate
islanders. I visited these beautiful islands once again,
in 1900, when great changes had taken place :
they had been partly Japanned and partly
Americanized, and now they are wholly the
latter. Although one of the islands of this group
had been seen by Gaetano in 1542, Captain
Cook was their real discoverer, in 1778, and
it was here that the renowned navigator was
murdered by the natives on the beach at Hawaii
during his third and last voyage.
We only spent three days at Honolulu, and
of course we all went riding. We also had a
duck-hunt. By this time I had become the
proud possessor of a double-barrelled gun — a
muzzle-loader, of course — sent out to me as a
birthday present by my eldest brother, and as
this gun was the only one in the midshipmen's
berth during the whole commission, I had plenty
of friends. "Pat, lend me your gun." And
although I very seldom lent it, that gun on
many occasions was the source of an acceptable
change of diet in our mess, especially when
we were up the Yangzte amongst the Chinese
pheasants. The duck-hunt I have alluded to was rather
an exciting kind of sport. There were two lakes
about three miles apart, and between them there
was a long narrow ridge of elevated ground.
We all had ponies, and stationed ourselves on
the ridge with our guns. Some natives were

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 97
then sent down to disturb the ducks alternately
and send them flying across the ridge from
one lake to the other. The ridge was more
than a mile long, so that it was impossible to
foretell where the ducks would cross and where
to station the four guns. The ducks, however,
when once they had started, flew very straight,
so that we had time to jump on to our ponies,
gallop along the ridge, cut them off and get
a shot at them. We did not fire from the
saddle ; at least I know I did not ; but the
ponies had been at this game before, and were
very clever about it, much cleverer than we
were in bringing down the ducks, though we
got a few.
After our three days' stay at Honolulu we
started off again, on May 3rd, for Hongkong,
sailing all the way until we got in amongst
the islands and got into calms ; and then we
got up steam and paddled away full speed —
about 8£ knots — for the anchorage, which we
reached on June 12th, a very creditable passage
for the old ship.
The war was not over. Operations were still
going on in North China, though we were at
peace with Canton and South China. Lord
Elgin, our Minister Extraordinary and Pleni
potentiary, had gone to Tien-tsin with full
powers to make treaties, and as it was desir
able that he should be well backed by a show
of force, and as it was impossible to foresee
what tricks, subterfuges, and evasions might be
adopted by the mandarins to bamboozle the bar
barian ambassador, the Betribution embarked at
8

98 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
Hongkong a field battery of artillery, B.M.A.,
with guns, stores, and ammunition, and paddled
away for the Gulf of Pechili. It was a tight
fit, I remember; for in addition to the six
officers and 104 men of the battery and all
the stores, we also embarked 70 Chinese coolies
belonging to the so-called military train, to go
and fight against their own countrymen, which
John Chinaman is always ready to do if well
paid for it. These coolies were never allowed
to go below; there was simply no room for them,
and they had to live on the upper deck during
this 1,500-mile voyage. We rigged up tents
for them and made them as comfortable as we
could, but as it was the rainy season, they
were generally wet, both day and night ; yet
they were always cheerful and laughing, and
ready to do anything they were told to do.
Money and good food have a wonderful effect
upon the patriotism of some people.
Fifty odd years ago the captain of a man-of-war
was never asked whether he had room in his
ship to carry the Grand Lama and all his suite
from Lhassa to Timbuctoo. He was simply told
to do it, and he did.
On one occasion I was first lieutenant of a
little steam sloop of 570 tons, 11 guns, and a crew
of 120 — a vessel which sailors described as a
" bug-trap," in which there was not room to swing
a cat — and we had to carry a company of 100
black troops with two white sergeants and their
wives from Jamaica to Belize. How they did
smell ! I mean the niggers.
When the Betribution arrived in the Gulf of

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 99
Pechili and anchored off the mouth of the Peiho
Eiver in four fathoms, seven miles from the land,
we found that there was to be no fighting. Lord
Elgin was on shore at Tien-tsin signing treaties,
and the mandarins had come to terms. Perhaps
they heard the Betribution was coming.
I have already declared that I am not writing
history, and it would therefore be foreign to my
intentions if I were to enter into any discussion
on the merits or otherwise of the various wars —
or perhaps we should rather say " hostilities " —
which have occurred between Great Britain and
China since 1842, when a squadron sailed up
the Yangtze and bombarded Nanking, and the
"Boxer" rising and occupation of Peking in
1900. The latter date will ever remain memorable
for the siege of the foreign legations and the
splendid defence made by a handful of Europeans
and Japanese against not only the so-called
Boxers but the regular Chinese troops, who
closely invested and besieged the very limited
area of the British Legation for eight weeks,
where the staffs of the various other foreign
legations had taken refuge, and defended them
selves successfully, though with heavy loss, until
relieved by an international army composed of
British, French, Germans, Italians, Austrians,
Eussians, and Japanese, who occupied Pekin, sent
the old Empress and her Court scuttling up
country, and took terrible vengeance on the
Chinese for their treachery. Nor must Admiral
Sir Edward Seymour's attempt to relieve Peking
be forgotten — an attempt which, although it
failed in its purpose, through the Chinese regulars

100 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
making common cause with the Boxers, was yet
more glorious in its failure than many a much-
extolled victory.
In July, 1858, there was a large international
fleet lying off the mouth of the Peiho Eiver, all
making treaties at the point of the bayonet, and
as Lord Elgin had made his treaty for England
— soon to be broken — there was nothing further
to delay us, so we discharged our artillerymen
and coolies to other ships better able to accom
modate them, and started off for Shanghai, towing
two gunboats, the Woodcock and Kestrel. We
had burnt a good deal of our coal in hurrying
north from Hongkong, and it was doubtful if we
had enough to take us to Shanghai, even without
towing the gunboats. No sooner, however, had
we put to sea, than the chief engineer reported
(I see by my midshipman's log) that he had thirty
tons less coal on board than he was supposed to
have ; so we had to make sail ; but the winds
were very light and baffling, with a great deal of
calm and we made very little headway. Occa
sionally we anchored in this shallow sea, to avoid
being drifted to the northward again ; and one
afternoon, when we were lying at anchor out of
sight of land, the weather being very close and
sultry, we saw a great dark cloud approaching the
ship from the direction of the shore, which was
about fifty miles off. The cloud came slowly
nearer and nearer. It did not look like rain, and
presently, as it enveloped the ship, we found it
was composed of dragon-flies. No, they were not
locusts ; I have seen plenty of locusts ; they were
the insects known in England as dragon-flies, and

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 101
very big ones. Were they sent to reproach us,
as emblems of the Dragon throne which we had
defied and humiliated ? It was an extraordinary
sight. They evidently made for the ship to get
a resting-place for the soles of their feet, but
many missed and fell exhausted in the calm sea.
The masts, the yards, the rigging, and every rope
in the ship were literally encrusted with them
and the sea was peppered with them. It was a
very sultry evening, and about six o'clock we all
bathed. I remember the strange experience of
diving into a sea of dragon-flies, which stuck to
our arms and shoulders, got into our hair, and
quite spoilt our swim. A light air then came off
from the land, so we weighed the anchor and
made sail to the southward with our two gun
boats in tow ; and at midnight, just as the watch
was changing, we were struck by a terrific squall,
which laid the old ship nearly on her beam ends,
and we had to let fly and clew up everything.
We wondered whether the visitation of the
dragon-flies was connected in any way with the
squall. But if they were blown fifty miles off the
land— where they certainly did not want to go —
why did we not get the wind for six hours after
wards ?
We got to Wusung at last and anchored below
the bar. But alas ! we had not kept enough coal
to take us up the river to Shanghai, and not
even the Betribution with all her sailors could
sail up that tortuous and rapid stream ; so I see
by my midshipman's log that we "received five
tons of coal from the French frigate Audacieuse."
And then we took a pilot and steamed up to

102 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
Shanghai ; but in coming up the river we fouled
and dismasted two Chinese junks, one of whose
huge masts fell right across our paddle-box,
nearly killing Corporal Spalding at the engine-
room telegraph. Corporal Spalding always took
the telegraph going in or out of harbour. Nobody
but a non-commissioned officer of the Eoyal
Marines could be trusted at this important post.
There were only two ways in which it could be
turned, and sailors generally turned it the wrong
one, just to show their contempt for steam engines
and everything connected with them.
The evening we anchored off Shanghai, after
being nearly two years in commission, we lost our
first shipmate, William Wilkenson, one of the
very smartest and cheeriest of my foretopmen ; a
splendid swimmer he was too, but he went down
like a stone and never rose again. No one who
falls overboard in the Shanghai Eiver has much
chance, however good a swimmer he may be, for
not only is there a very strong current, but the
water all seems to be in a state of whirlpools and
overfalls, known there as " chowchow water,"
which overcomes the strongest swimmer.
Not long after our arrival at Shanghai we heard,
to our great joy, that we were to escort Lord
Elgin on his mission to Japan, where he was to
go and endeavour to negotiate a treaty of friend
ship and commerce with that terra incognita of
the nineteenth century.
Once more I must remind the reader that I
am not writing history : yet in order that he may
understand the international status of Japan at
the time of Lord Elgin's mission in the autumn

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 103
of 18-58, it will be necessary to take a brief sketch
of Japanese foreign relations and policy up to
that date.
" Kublai Khan, founder of the Yuen dynasty
in China, had for some years back repeatedly
sent to demand submission from Japan, but this
being refused, about ten thousand of his troops
attacked Tsushima and Oki in 1274. This expe
dition was repulsed, and some envoys dispatched
to Japan in 1275, and also in 1279, were decapi
tated. Exasperated at this defiance, the Mongol
chief collected a mighty armament, which was
dispatched to Japan in 1281. The numbers of
this invading force are by Japanese writers esti
mated at one hundred thousand Chinese, Mongol.
and Korean troops. They descended upon the
coast of Kiusiu, where several engagements were
fought. Eventually a severe storm destroyed and
dispersed the fleet, and the Japanese, taking
advantage of this opportunity, vigorously attacked
and completely annihilated the invaders, of whom
but three are said to have escaped to tell the tale.
It is not surprising that no further attempt to
conquer Japan should have been made by the
Mongols." The above is taken from Brinkley's well-known
" Japan." Then we come to the sixteenth century, when
Portuguese trading vessels began to arrive in
Japan ; and in 1549 the famous Portuguese Jesuit.
Francis Xavier, landed and set to work to convert
the Japanese to Christianity. His success was
not great, and the general attitude of the Japanese
towards the Christian religion is thus described

104 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
in Murdoch and Yamagata's " History of Japan" :
" The simple fact was that in matters of religion
the average intelligent Japanese amongst the
upper class was an indifferentist — a Laodicean or
a Gallio, who cared for none of these things.
To him a new religion was of far less consequence
or interest than a new sauce would have been to
an Englishman at the time of Voltaire. His
attitude towards it, in fact, is exceedingly well
indicated by Nobunaga's reply to those who
questioned him about the advisability of admitting
Christianity into his dominions — that the estab
lishment of one more sect in a country counting
some thirty-odd sects already could not be a
matter of any real consequence."
This spirit of tolerant indifference towards
Christianity might have continued had the Jesuits
been satisfied with such spiritual successes as they
had been able to gain ; but they were not satisfied.
They strove for temporal power. They plotted and
intrigued against the civil Government of the
people whose hospitality they were enjoying, and
by their meddlesome and arrogant conduct they
raised a mighty storm of revolt, which swept them
and all their unhappy converts to destruction, and
sealed the Empire of Japan against all foreign
intrusion for more than two centuries.
But before the final catastrophe came, the
Dutch and the English had found their way to
Japan. The first of these to arrive was a Dutch
ship, which reached the harbour of Bungo in April,
1600, and she had on board an English pilot
named Adams, who has left some interesting
accounts of old Japan. He lived for some time at

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 105
Yeddo (now Tokio), and he was frequently at the
Court of Iyesasu. But the Portuguese were as
jealous of any competition in the East as the
Spaniards were of competition in the West, and
did all in their power to injure the English and
the Dutch. Adams says : " After wee had been
there five or sixe days came a Portugall Jesuite,
with other Portugalls, who reported of us that wee
were pirats, and were not in the way of merchan
dising. Which report caused the governours and
people to think evil of us : in such manner that
we thought always to have been set upon crosses ;
which is the execution in this land for theevery
and some other crimes. Thus daily more and
more the Portugalls increased the justices and the
people against us."
However, in spite of the machinations of the
"Portugalls," Adams throve and prospered and
spent the remainder of his life in Japan. He
built two ships for the Emperor, in return for which
he received a pension, and the Japanese ruler
tried to satisfy him by giving him " a living like
unto a lordship in England, with eighty or ninety
husbandmen that be as my servants or slaves."
Adams finally acquired a considerable influence
in the country, held the rank of a Japanese
Samurai, owned property, and received a salary
from the English East India Company. He died
in Japan without having once returned to England.
In consequence of the political intrigues of the
Portuguese Jesuits, the Japanese rose in their
wrath, expelled the Portuguese, and massacred
all the Christian converts.
At the entrance to Nagasaki harbour on the

106 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
left-hand side there is a hill called Papenberg, the
side nearest the sea being nearly perpendicular ;
and tradition says that from the heights of
Papenberg the last of the Christian converts were
hurled, to be dashed to pieces on the rocks
beneath, or drowned in the sea if they got down
alive. This was in 1639 ; and the edict of the
Japanese Government which reversed its policy of
toleration and practically closed Japan to all foreign
intercourse for more than two hundred years, is
thus given by Kampf er : ' ' No Japanese ship or
boat whatever, nor any native of Japan, shall
presume to go out of the country ; whoso acts
contrary to this shall die, and the ship with the
crew and goods aboard shall be sequestered till
further order.
"All Japanese who return from abroad shall be
put to death. Whosoever discovers a priest shall
have a reward of from 400 to 500 shuets of silver,
and for every Christian in proportion.
"All persons who propagate the doctrines of
the Catholics, or bear this scandalous name, shall
be imprisoned in the ombra or common jail of the
town. " The whole race of the Portuguese, with their
mothers, nurses, and whatever belongs to them,
shall be banished to Macao.
"Whosoever presumes to bring a letter from
abroad, or to return after he hath been banished,
shall die with all his family; also whoever
presumes to intercede for him shall be put to death.
No nobleman nor any soldier shall be suffered to
purchase anything of a foreigner."
The Portuguese ships which arrived in Japan in

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 107
1639 were sent back with a copy of this edict,
without being allowed to discharge their cargoes ;
and thus commenced Japan's two centuries of
exclusion; the only exception being that the
Dutch were allowed to retain a small settlement on
the island of Desima in Nagasaki harbour, but
they were not permitted to pass over the bridge on
to the mainland.
In 1804 the Eussians tried to gain a footing in
Japan. A Eussian vessel came to Nagasaki having
on board an ambassador from the Czar and a
number of shipwrecked Japanese. The ambassador
was treated with great courtesy, but was sent
back with the polite message that Japan wished
to have absolutely nothing to do with any foreigners
other than Dutch and Chinese.
Then in 1813 a Eussian ship was wrecked on the
coast of Japan and the crew were taken prisoners,
but not unkindly treated. The Eussian Govern
ment sent the frigate Diana to demand their
release ; but failing in all his efforts to get into
communication with any of the responsible
authorities on shore, " Captain Eikord took a
Japanese merchant, Kachi by name, back to
Eussia with him as a sort of hostage. He returned
again to Kunoshiri, and the Eussians were finally
released, after having been confined for over two
years. A paper was sent with them to their
Government explicitly stating Japanese policy
with regard to foreigners, the main substance of
which was as follows (" Historian's History of the
World ") :—
" When you return to Eussia communicate to
the commanders of the coasts of Kamchatka,

108 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
Okhotsk, and others, the declaration of our bungo,
which will aquaint them with the nature of the
Japanese laws with respect to the arrival of foreign
ships, and prevent a repetition of similar trans
gressions on your part.
"In our country the Christain religion is strictly
prohibited, and European vessels are not suffered
to enter any harbour except Nagasaki. This law
does not extend to Eussian vessels only. This
year it has not been enforced, because we wished
to communicate with your countrymen ; but all
that may henceforth present themselves will be
driven back by cannon-balls. Bear in mind this
declaration, and you cannot complain if at any
future period you should experience a misfortune
in consequence of your disregard of it.
" Among us there exists this law : ' If any
European residing in Japan shall attempt to teach
our people the Christian faith, he shall undergo a
severe punishment, and shall not be restored to his
own country.' As you, however, have not attempted
to do so, you will accordingly be permitted to
return home. Think well of this. . . . From the
repeated solicitations which you have hitherto
made to us, you evidently imagine that the
customs of our country resemble those of your
own ; but you are very wrong in thinking so.
In future, therefore, it will be better to say no
more about a commercial connection."
From all which it would appear that the
Japanese had no very pleasant recollection of
their intercourse with foreigners, and that they
were not captivated by the creed of Christianity —
as taught by the Jesuits.

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 109
Then came along Uncle Sam with his stars and
stripes, and a pushful ambition which would take
no denial.
The real opening of Japan must date from
the visit of Commodore Perry, of the United
States Navy, with a powerful squadron, in 1853.
His instructions were —
"1. To effect some permanent arrangement for
the protection of American seamen and property
wrecked on these islands or driven into their ports
by stress of weather.
" 2. The permission to American vessels to enter
one or more of their ports in order to obtain
supplies of provisions, water, fuel, etc., or in
case of disasters, to refit so as to enable them to
prosecute their voyage. It is very desirable to
have permission to establish a depot for coal, if not
on one of the principal islands, at least on some
small, uninhabited one, of which it is said there
are several in their vicinity.
"3. The permission to our vessels to enter one or
more of their ports for the purpose of disposing of
their cargoes by sale or barter."
This was a bold bid on the part of the United
States in view of the oft-repeated declarations of
the Japanese that they wished for no intrusion
into their country by foreigners of any nation ;
and as it was thought possible that the Ameri
cans might be received with " cannon-balls,"
Commodore Perry was furnished with a powerful
squadron, consisting of the steam frigates
Susquehana and Mississippi and the steam sloops
Plymouth and Saratoga, which arrived in Japan on
July 8, 1853. Many rumours had been current

110 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
on the coast of China of extensive warlike
preparations by the Japanese, assisted by the
Dutch, and the squadron was prepared for a hostile
reception. Perry appears to have been furnished
with the full powers of a United States ambassador,
and to have made up his mind to stand no
nonsense, to submit to no dilatory tactics or
evasions, and to demand as a right, instead of
soliciting as a favour, the courtesies due from one
civilized nation to another.
We are told by the chronicler of the expedition
that, "Furnished with these orders, and this letter
splendidly engrossed and enclosed in a gold box
of the value of a thousand dollars, and provided
also with a variety of presents, Commodore Perry
sailed upon his mission."
Perry was undoubtedly an American naval
officer of the best type, determined, resourceful,
energetic, and dignified. He pushed up the Bay
of Yeddo with his squadron, in spite of all
remonstrances. He declined to have any dealings
with officers of inferior rank, but just turned them
over to his flag-lieutenant and waited until the
Japanese Government sent off duly qualified
ministers to negotiate with him. He announced
that " the squadron would not submit to be
watched and guarded, after the Japanese fashion,
but that all the guard-boats must withdraw. The
officer, as usual, was very inquisitive. He wanted
to know whether the vessels came from Boston,
New York, or Washington, how many men they
had, etc., etc.; but these questions he was given to
understand were regarded as impertinent."
What a blow it must have been to the feelings

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 111
of the constitutionally pohte and courteous little
men to be told that they were " impertinent " !
After waiting some days — during which the
boats of the American squadron made a flying
survey of the bay, much to the consternation of
the Japanese — the official came on board again
and " brought information that the emperor would
send down a high officer to receive the letter. No
answer would be given immediately, but one
would be forwarded through the Dutch or
Chinese. This latter proposition the commodore
treated as an insult."
Finally the Prince of Iwami was sent to receive
the splendidly engrossed letter in the gold box,
which was duly handed to him by the commodore,
and for which he gave the following receipt : —
" The letter of the President of the United
States of North America, and copy, are hereby
received and dehvered to the emperor. Many
times it has been communicated that business
relating to foreign countries cannot be transacted
here in Urakawa, but in Nagasaki. Now it has
been observed that the admiral (commodore), in
his quality of ambassador of the President, would
be insulted by it ; the justice of this has been
acknowledged, consequently the above-mentioned
letter is hereby received, in opposition to the
Japanese law.
" Because the place is not designed to treat of
anything from foreigners, so neither can conference
nor entertainment take place. The letter being
received, you will leave here."
When this receipt was handed to the commo
dore he remarked that he should return again,

112 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
probably in April or May, for an answer. " With
all the ships ? " asked the interpreter. " Yes, and
probably with more," was the reply.
He did return, and with more ships — three
steam frigates, four sloops of war, and two store
ships — and on March 8, 1854, a treaty was signed
by which, amongst some other concessions, the
two ports of Shimoda and Hakodate were opened
to American shipping.
Whatever we may think of Commodore Perry's
high-handed methods as an ambassador, it is un
deniable that to him is due the credit of opening
the long-closed door, and that his firmness,
perseverance, and tenacity of purpose effected this
without bloodshed, and set an example which all
the Great Powers soon followed.
And now, after this brief historical sketch, I
think the reader will be able to understand with
out difficulty the situation in Japan at the time
of Lord Elgin's mission to that country in the
autumn of 1858.
England was undoubtedly somewhat late in the
field. The Eussian War and the Indian Mutiny
had distracted her attention to more important
matters.

CHAPTEE VI
Lord Elgin's mission — Beception at Nagasaki — Dealing with
the Cholera Devil — Yeddo — The Ambassador lands — The ship's
band plays appropriate music — Politeness of Japanese officials
— A Samurai plot.
ON July 31, 1858, Lord Elgin's mission sailed
from Shanghai and arrived in Nagasaki
harbour on August 3rd. The squadron was a very
modest one, compared with that of the American
ambassador. There were only the Betribution,
the Furious, and the Lee, a gunboat. The
Furious was a paddle-wheel steam frigate, rather
smaller than the Betribution, and in order to
afford accommodation for Lord Elgin and his staff
the greater part of her main-deck guns had been
landed at Hongkong and temporary cabins built
on the main deck, so that the Betribution repre
sented about five-sixths of the fighting power of
the squadron. But we did not expect to have
any fighting. Nearly four years had elapsed since
the signing of the American treaty which opened
to them the two ports of Shimodi and Hakodate.
The pushful Americans had forced the door, it
was now ajar, and the Japanese statesmen, having
had time to ponder the situation, had evidently
come to the conclusion that it was either im
possible or not in the interest of their country
9 113

114 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
to continue any longer the policy of isolation.
Be that as it may, we were certainly far more
cordially received than the Americans had been,
and much fewer difficulties and obstructions were
offered to the negotiations which preceded the
first British treaty with Japan. Possibly Lord
Elgin's methods were more conciliatory and cour
teous than had been those of Commodore Perry ;
though it would be ungenerous to criticize the
latter. The situation was quite different in 1854,
as will be seen by the historical scraps which I
gave in the last chapter, and it may well be
that a somewhat rough-and-ready, shirt-sleeve
diplomacy was absolutely necessary to force the
door. In opening an oyster, the first wrench is
everything. Lord Elgin did not take a splendidly engrossed
letter enclosed in a gold box worth a thousand
dollars, but he took a present which proved to
be far more useful to the awakening spirit of the
Japanese. This was a steam yacht, sent by
Queen Victoria as a present to the Mikado. The
yacht was not much use to the Mikado himself, as
this was before the great revolution and restora
tion. The Shogun (or Tycoon, as we called him),
was the real ruler of the nation, and the seat of
government was at Yeddo (Tokio), while the
Mikado was practically a prisoner in his palace
at Kyoto, so that he could not even see his
yacht. We were courteously received at Nagasaki, and
to the best of my recollection the Japanese com
missioners tried to persuade Lord Elgin to
negotiate at that port ; but the latter would not

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 115
consent to such an arrangement, and insisted upon
pushing on to Yeddo.
Maunder says: "During the summer of 1858
Lord Elgin, having obtained a satisfactory
treaty of peace from the Emperor of China, deter
mined to go to Japan and seek to obtain from
the Japanese a treaty which should give us the
same commercial advantages which the Dutch
had long enjoyed. Under the pretext of present
ing a steam yacht to the emperor, he sailed into
the harbour and anchored close to the walls of
Yeddo, the capital. If the attempt was some
what rash, its object was achieved, and he was
hospitably entertained on shore for more than a
week." This, however, is scarcely correct, for Lord
Elgin sought, and obtained, far more than the
commercial advantages which the Dutch had long
enjoyed. The commercial advantages of the latter
were confined to a small settlement on the island
of Desima, in Nagasaki harbour, where they were
watched and kept under very close restraint and
humiliating conditions. Lord Elgin opened three
ports, Hakodate in the northern island of Yezo,
Kanagawa (now Yokohama) in the central island
of Kondo, and Nagasaki in the south island of
Kiushiu ; he also arranged for a British diplomatic
agent to reside at Yeddo.
The steam yacht alluded to was a handsome
little vessel of about 400 tons ; she was also
thoroughly seaworthy, and had made her own
way out to China by the Cape, as this was before
the days of the Suez Canal. The Japanese took
kindly to her, and showed great anxiety to learn

116 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
how to work her themselves without any assist
ance from foreigners. The story was current
(though I do not vouch for the truth of it) that
at the end of a fortnight's instruction from the
English engineers, the Japs said they knew all
about it, and did not want any more assistance ;
so they got up steam, weighed the anchor, and
steamed round the Bay of Yeddo, but when they
wanted to stop, they were unable to do so. They
showed their resource, however, by putting the
helm hard over and steaming round and round
in circles until the fires burnt down, the steam
pressure dropped, and she stopped of herself !
And then they let go the anchor.
At Nagasaki, where the squadron arrived on
August 3rd, we were allowed to land on the little
island of Desima, but not to pass over the bridge
on to the main land, as the anti-foreign feeling
was still very strong amongst the populace, though
the governing classes were gradually coming round
and beginning to realize that the policy of national
isolation could no longer be maintained. We had
to change our dollars into Japanese paper-money,
and could then buy objects of Japanese art. I
have now (1912) some small pieces of the beauti
ful egg-shell china and a bit of lacquer- work which
I bought on that occasion, and it would be diffi
cult to get anything like it in Japan now. The
Japanese soon took to manufacturing for the
European market, and the degradation in art, finish
and lasting qualities was very great. I have
visited Japan twice since — in 1881 and 1898 — but
I could not find anything like that egg-shell china
or that piece of lacquer.

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 117
While we were at Nagasaki there was an
outbreak of cholera on shore, and though there
was none in any of the ships, we got the credit
of bringing it, and this did not tend to make
matters smoother. However, the Japanese, being
a practical people, took the matter in hand, set
a booby-trap for the cholera devil, caught him,
took him out to sea and drowned him in deep
water ; and then there was no more cholera.
We saw a part of the operation, though not the
actual catching. One evening after dark we saw
an immense procession of boats start from the
town and row (or rather scull) out of the harbour.
The procession must have been at least a mile
long, and all the boats were in tow of one another
and were illuminated with paper lanterns. In
the last boat there was a huge wooden box, in
which was the cholera devil that they had
caught that afternoon, though we never heard
what bait they used. There was a great beating
of gongs, shouting and yelling, and a tremendous
hullabaloo altogether. In about two hours the
boats returned, without lights and in silence, and
we heard afterwards that they had taken the
big box about two miles out to sea, weighted it
with stones, and thrown it overboard. A very
simple method of stopping an outbreak of cholera !
From Nagasaki Lord Elgin sent messages to
the Government at Yeddo to say he was coming,
and they sent back quite polite messages to say
that they hoped he would not give himself the
trouble of coming so far, as any business he had to
settle could be equally well conducted at Nagasaki
or Shimoda. They had, however, a hard-headed

118 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
Scotsman to deal with, who intended going to
Yeddo, and he went. We steamed slowly up
Yeddo Bay, feeling our way with the lead, for
our charts were very indifferent ; the Furious
leading and the Betribution following, with the
yacht in tow, and the Lee bringing up the rear.
Many boats put off to meet us, and the officials
waved us back frantically ; but we went steadily
on until we got into A\ fathoms of water, and
then we anchored, about three miles from the
town. We found some ships of the Japanese
Navy lying here, and they were curious craft,
not much like the ships with which these same
Japs defeated the Eussians in '94. They were
built and rigged upon Dutch models of the six
teenth century, and any one who knows Vander-
veld's sea-pieces will be able to picture to
himself exactly what they were like, with their
high sterns, round tops, and other characteristics
of that date.
When once we were anchored and they found
it was no use trying to stop us, all opposition
seemed to cease, and the Japanese assumed their
naturally polite and courteous manners. One day
the admiral of the fleet and his staff paid us a
visit, and were shown round the ship. They
were dressed in their best, in splendidly
embroidered garments, and the admiral's insignia
of office was a magnificent gold crab, which
extended right across his back from shoulder to
shoulder. I took the liberty of taking a sketch
of him, when his back was turned. They all
had their hair done in that peculiar manner well
known in the pictures of old Japan, with the

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 119
little queue, well stuck with gum, coming for
ward on the bald pate and ending abruptly
just over the forehead. They looked very
picturesque, but not very sailor-like, according
to our ideas.
On the fourth day after our arrival at Yeddo
Lord Elgin landed in state with his staff, and
remained on shore for ten days. He was received
and entertained with every courtesy, respect, and
polite hospitality ; and as the preparations made
by the Japanese commissioners for the reception
of the staff were considerably in excess of the re
quirement of his Lordship's very modest personal
suite, he most kindly and thoughtfully invited
several officers from each of the ships to join his
suite ; and as these batches of officers relieved
each other every two days, almost all the
wardroom officers of the squadron had the
opportunity of getting a glimpse of old Japan
in its feudal state, before it was Bowdlerized.
Alas ! this opportunity did not come down to the
midshipmen, and it was many years afterwards
that I first put my foot on shore at Yeddo.
Indeed, I am not quite sure that it would have
been wise to give the midshipmen a run on
shore in Japan at this early date, for we cer
tainly were rather fond of a lark, and not always
very discreet as to what particular form the lark
took, nor at whose expense we indulged in it.
The Samurai all wore two sharp swords and were
said to be very touchy upon points of etiquette,
concerning which we should have been ignorant.
The landing of Lord Elgin at Yeddo was quite
an imposing function. I have already alluded

120 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
in a former chapter to the part which the
Betribution'' s amateur brass band took on that
occasion, and how much it added to the general
effect of the arrival of the first British ambassador
at the capital of Japan. When all was ready on
shore for his reception, we formed an imposing
procession of boats — not quite so big a one as
that which interred the cholera devil at Nagasaki,
but still a very respectable one — and I had the
honour of leading it in one of our paddle-box
boats, in which a temporary platform had been
rigged up for the band to stand upon, and as the
sea was quite calm none of them rolled overboard.
I do not remember what airs they played, but I
do remember they played with great vigour and
there was plenty of big drum. We had a long
row (no steam launches) in a very hot sun, and
then we had to go up a narrow creek to the
landing-place ; but alas ! long before we got to the
latter, all our boats stuck in the mud. The
water was too shallow for any of our big sea-going
boats to get near the landing-place, and the
ambassador and all his staff had to be transferred
to the little flat-bottomed native boats and sculled
on shore in them, which rather spoilt the effect ;
and at the supreme moment of first putting his
foot on Japanese soil, his Lordship could only have
heard the band in the extreme distance, if indeed
he could hear it at all, though they blew for all
they were worth.
After the landing of the ambassador we who
were left on board the ships had rather a slow
time. It was most tantalizing to be in sight of
a beautiful-looking country and not allowed to

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 121
land and explore it, though no doubt the prohibi
tion was wise, as the popular feeling was still
very anti-foreign. The ruling classes were coming
round, but the populace were slower to move, and
it took some years to overcome their prejudice.
The authorities were very civil and polite, and
they used occasionally to send off presents of
fowls, eggs, fruit and sweatmeats to the officers ;
but we were not allowed to send our stewards on
shore marketing, so we could not get what we
wanted. We asked if we could be supplied with
water, and they said " Oh yes, certainly," and sent
off a boat with two tubs not so big as our own
grog-tub, and no pump. However, we got the
water out and then asked for more, and then
another boat of the same size came off, and then
two or three more ; but it really was not worth
while trying to water a ship in that fashion,
so we gave it up and asked if they could supply
us with coal.
" Oh yes, certainly," and next day a boat came
off with half a dozen straw bundles, neatly tied
up with grass cording, and on being opened they
were found to contain about half a hundred
weight of coal each. After coaling ship in this
remarkably clean manner for two days, so as not
to hurt the feelings of our hosts, we told them
we had enough ; which was not strictly true. One
day a little live pig came off as a present to the
officers, and he was tied up in straw and neatly
corded like the coal; but he did not seem to
like these cleanly methods at all — none of his
family do — and he made a great fuss about it,
until the cook got hold of him.

122 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
The weather was very hot in the Gulf of Yeddo
in the month of August, and we used to bathe
twice a day and stay in a long time. We mid
shipmen were allowed to go away sailing and
rowing in the jollyboat, on condition that we
did not land. We tried to fish, but caught
nothing ; we were, however, able to buy fish from
the native boats ; and I see by my private journal
that on one occasion we got two big wash-deck
buckets full of fish for three empty beer-bottles,
and on another a basket of fish for one gilt navy
button ; but this was before the Japanese had
become a commercial people. The fishermen in
the boats were sometimes perfectly naked, and we
envied them.
We had to wait for nearly a fortnight while
the ambassador was on shore negotiating his
treaty, and during this time one of our men
died of heat apoplexy, but as we were not
allowed to bury him on shore we had to sew him
up in his hammock with a couple of shot (the
usual sea burial), take him out about a mile and
drop him overboard. The whole of the Gulf of
Yeddo is, however, very shoal, and two or three
days afterwards the fishermen pulled him up
in their nets and brought him on board ; so we
asked them to put him back again and leave him
alone, which they did. I suppose we ought to
have buoyed him with the usual " wreck " buoy;
and perhaps the fishermen did so afterwards, to
save themselves trouble.
On leaving Yeddo it was the ambassador's inten
tion to go to Hakodate, in the north island ; but
the wind was foul and we had not coal enough in

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 123
our bunkers, even with the additional supply that
we got in the straw bundles ; so we bore up and
sailed away for Nagasaki and Shanghai. But
before saying farewell to Japan, I must tell a good
story, though it is entirely out of chronological
order. When I was second in command of the British
China Squadron in 1897, a portion of the squadron
under my orders was lying at Yokoshika. We
had received a great deal of civility and hospi
tality from the Japanese officials, and one day I
gave a luncheon party on board my flagship —
the Grafton. Amongst my guests were Count
Saigo, the Minister of Marine, and Admiral Ito,
who had commanded the Japanese squadron which
defeated the Chinese at the battle of the Yalu, and
was hence known as "Yalu Ito," to distinguish
him from numerous other Itos. Captain (now
Admiral Sir Eeginald) Custance, who commanded
the Barfleur, was also one of the party, and during
lunch he told the following story : When he was
a midshipman on board the 50-gun frigate
Euryalus, flagship of Admiral Kuper, they were
lying off Kagoshima in August, 1863, and at this
time the relations between Great Britain and
Japan were extremely strained — so strained, in fact,
that they were just on the point of breaking. Under
these circumstances a party of forty of the younger
Samurai came on board the Euryalus one afternoon
to pay a friendly visit and ask to be allowed to walk
round the decks and see the ship. They had, how
ever, formed an ambitious and desperate plot, that
at a given signal from their leader they were to draw
their swords, cut down all the officers, and having

124 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
so done they were firmly convinced that they
would have no difficulty in capturing the ship,
as the men would all surrender in panic. But it
so happened that, at the time the party came on
board and appeared upon the quarter-deck of the
Euryalus, there was a squad of marines drilling,
with their arms, on the other side of the quarter
deck ; so the Samurai immediately came to the
conclusion that the plot had been discovered, or
at any rate suspected. They therefore bowed
politely, walked round the ship, and went on shore
again. While Captain Custance was telling this story
it was noticed that two of our guests were con
vulsed with laughter. The story was certainly an
amusing one, and everybody was more or less
laughing at the quaint idea ; but there did not
appear to be any particular reason why two of
our Japanese friends should be literally in fits
of laughter, until the story was finished, when
Count Saigo and Admiral Ito owned up to having
been members of the party of young patriots who
proposed to cut down the officers of the Euryalus
and capture the ship thirty-four years ago ; and
they further told us that there was a belief pre
valent in Japan at this time that no European
soldier could bend his knees, and that if he were
knocked down he could not get up again until
some one picked him up and stood him on his
feet once more — like the little wooden figures in
a child's Noah's ark.

CHAPTEE VII
We escort Lord Elgin to Hankow — Shelling the forts — The
Taipmg code of Christianity — Pheasant-shooting — Christmas
Day at Woohoo — Hongkong — We lose our captain and first
lieutenant — Singapore and an American mutiny.
OUE next cruise in the Betribution was up the
Yangtze-kiang, stiU as escort to Lord Elgin ;
who, having opened to British trade (by treaty) the
great city of Hankow, six hundred miles from the
sea, must needs go and prove it. But as Nanking
and a large tract of country between Hankow and
the sea was at this time in the hands of the Taiping
rebels, whose sentiments towards foreigners were
at least doubtful, our squadron was strengthened
by the addition of the 17 -gun corvette Cruiser
and another gunboat, the Dove ; so that it now
consisted of Betribution, Furious, Cruiser, Lee,
and Dove, and with this respectable force we
started on November 8, 1858, to make our way
up to Hankow. But it was not a very easy matter
to get to Hankow with ships of comparatively
heavy draught, for we had no reliable charts of
the river. There had been a rough survey of it
made by the British Squadron which accompanied
Sir Henry Pottinger to Nanking and bombarded
that city in 1842, but during the sixteen years
which had elapsed since this survey was made
125

126 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
the great tidal estuary of the river had completely
changed. The sand-banks had shifted, and in
places where five or six fathoms were marked on
our chart we found banks which dried at low tide ;
and there were of course no buoys or beacons ;
so that for the first ten days of our journey we
spent a good deal of our time aground on sand-banks
while the two gunboats and our own row-boats
were searching for the channel. I find on refer
ring to my log that either the Furious or the Betri
bution was aground every day, and sometimes twice
a day. We took ten days to cover one hundred
miles of the estuary and then we got to the gates
of the river, as it is called, where the river narrows
and the ocean tides cease ; but even then our
troubles were not over, for on the next day the
Furious ran on a rock at the narrow by Silver Island,
just below the great walled city of Chin-kiang-fu,
and remained aground for two days. We had to
take out a good deal of her coal, her chain cables,
and other weights, and then put them back again
as soon as she was afloat. She was none the
worse for it, although she was going nine knots under
sail and steam when she ran on the rock. The
bottoms of our ships of this date were not made
of biscuit-tins, and they could stand a fair amount
of bumping on rocks and sand-banks.
As soon as the Furious was ready again we
went on up the river, and next day, having arrived
just below Nanking, which was in possession of
the Taipings, who were in rebellion against the
Imperial Government, we were uncertain as to
whether they would allow us to pass peaceably on
our way or try to stop us ; so a council of war was

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 127
held on board the Betribution, and as a result the
Lee gunboat was sent ahead with a flag of truce
and with directions to say that we had no quarrel
with the Taipings and had no wish to interfere in
their family affairs, but that we intended to pass
up the river to Hankow and should not molest
them if they did not fire at us. The order of
sailing was changed, and the Betribution took the
lead, as being the most powerful ship, and Captain
Barker, being senior to Captain Osborn of the
Furious, of course had the right to lead if there
was any chance of a fight. The old boy was really
very ill, and had been unwell for some time ; but
he was not the man to be ill if there was any
fighting to be done, so he was helped up on to the
bridge and sat there in a chair. We then beat
to quarters and loaded the guns and watched
anxiously to see what would happen ; but we had not
long to wait, for the first fort fired on the Lee with
her flag of truce, so she turned about and came
back and the squadron proceeded. The forts, as
we came abreast of them, opened a hot fire, though
it was rather high, and riddled our funnels and
paddle-boxes and cut up the rigging a good deal.
We shelled the forts on both sides of the river
in passing, and then anchored above the town
for the night, as the light was failing. We only
had three casualties in the Betribution, one killed
and two wounded, and the other ships had none.
It was decided to finish the job next morning, as
the forts had not all been silenced and it was
necessary to give the Taipings a lesson ; so at the
first streak of dawn the squadron dropped down
and bombarded all the forts until they were com-

128 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
pletely silenced, and then we went on our way up
the river.
Although it is not strictly in chronological order,
I may perhaps give here a document which
contains an apology from the Taipings and also a
declaration of a sort of bastard Christianity which
they had manufactured for themselves out of
various elements, and which they evidently hoped
would commend them to our friendship as brother
Christians. The document was handed to Captain
Barker on our return down the river about a
month later, and Mr. Wade, our interpreter, made
the following translation of it : —
" Communication from Lieu, true and loyal
supporter of the Eoyal House and assistant con
troller adjutant-general of the household troops,
and supporter of the Celestial Institute, to Captain
Barker, senior naval officer of the English
Squadron. Communication.
" Jesus the great elder brother, being the first
born Son of God the Heavenly Father, our true
and only holy lord, the Celestial Prince, is the
second Son of God the Heavenly Father. The
great elder brother the Saviour having returned to
heaven, the true doctrine was disseminated for
more than eighteen centuries before it reached
China : hence our lord the Celestial Prince re
ceived anew in person the true commission of
God the Heavenly Father, and in accordance with
the will of Jesus the great elder brother he de
scended on earth to save the world, and by the
promulgation of the gospel to lead all nations to

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 129
unite in following the true doctrine that they may
together attain to paradise. Now you of the
English nation who are in the habit of worshipping
Jesus the great elder brother are the sons and
daughters of God the Heavenly Father, and the
brothers and sisters of Jesus the great elder
brother, and also the brothers and sisters of our
true and holy Lord of the same family with
ourselves. " Formerly when you passed the Celestial
capital (Nanking) the officers in command of
the Pass having entered the city on public busi
ness, the soldiers in charge of the forts, being
ignorant and uninformed, unadvisedly opened fire
and committed a breach of the family proprieties.
The true and holy Lord has already forwarded an
announcement to you, which I imagine has by
this time reached you. At our interview yesterday
at Woohoo I made a statement to the same effect.
I hope when you return you will stop at the
central Pass (Nanking), when the elder brother
will send officers to meet you, and I trust you will
not reject their advances.
" Further I entreat you in the future, when you
have occasion to pass, to forward a despatch
previously, or to send a boat in advance with
a letter, in order to avoid the occurrence of any
misunderstanding, which is what I earnestly desire.
" The Great Tranquillity, Taiping, Celestial
Dynasty, 8th year, 11th month, 16th day."
From which it appears that there is nothing
which makes people civil so effectively as giving
them a good hammering.
These Taiping rebels, who were finally subju-
10

130 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
gated by the heroic Gordon, were ruthlessly and
abominably cruel, even for Chinamen. They de
vastated wide tracts of country, murdering and
exterminating men, women, and children — every
body who would not join them in their rebellion
against the Government. Amongst numerous
other acts of vandalism, they utterly destroyed
the famous porcelain pagoda at Nanking, one of
the seven wonders of the world. The fertile
valley of the Yangtze for many miles above
Nanking was a depopulated waste. Burnt villages
and uncultivated paddy-fields on both banks of
the great river marked the track of this devas
tating horde of pseudo-Christian fanatics, who had
distorted the teaching of the Christian mission
aries into the blasphemous parody given above.
Our casualties at Nanking were very small,
considering the number of times the ship was
struck. I do not know if the Chinese thought
our funnels were a vital spot and aimed specially
at them ; but if they did they made excellent
practice, for the funnels were riddled, but of
course were easily patched so as to be as good
as ever. We had one marine killed. The
yeoman of the signals had his right leg shot
off; he was standing close to the captain, who
was sitting in a chair on the bridge. And my
little messmate, G. Birch, had his right arm shot
off. I used to take my turn to sit up with him
while he wanted nursing, and one of the things
he complained of was that the nails of his right
hand — which was then at the bottom of the
Yangtze — were digging into the flesh of the
palm of the hand and giving him great pain.

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 131
After we had passed Nanking and were pro
ceeding up the river we were fired at on two or
three occasions by isolated parties of Taipings
from small mud forts on the banks ; but one or
two well-placed shell from the upper-deck guns
always sent these warriors scuttling up-country.
We got aground again several times in the Betri
bution, and as it became evident that with our
heavy draught of water we should most probably
delay the other ships in getting to Hankow, and
as also the only real danger-point was passed, it
was decided to leave us behind at Woohoo, about
50 miles above Nanking, while the ambassador
went on with the smaller ships to Hankow, 300
miles farther up. So we let go our anchor and
gave them three hearty cheers as the Furious
and Cruiser with the two gunboats went on up
the river. After they had gone, however, we
moved cautiously up a little higher, to a better
anchorage off a small town called Keuhein, and
there we lay for twenty-six days ; but as we found
that the river was steadily falling, and not likely
to rise again before the spring, we dropped down
again to Woohoo, where we lay for another
week, when, to our surprise, one fine morning the
two gunboats appeared without the Furious and
Cruiser and with the ambassador's flag flying
from the mast-head of the Lee. It appeared that
the falling river had caught the two big ships in
a trap, and there was little prospect of their
being able to get down the river until the spring
freshets, and we were now only in December !
So as Lord Elgin had finished his business at
Hankow, and did not want to remain there for

132 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
another three or four months, he got into the
Lee and came down with the two gunboats, and
we immediately got under way in the Betribution
and saw him safely past Nanking ; though we
were very nearly nipped ourselves, but just
managed to bump the old ship over a sand-bar
with a foot less water on it than we were drawing.
The country around Keuhein — on both banks
of the river — had been laid waste and almost de
populated by the Taipings, so that it was nearly
impossible to get supplies of fresh provisions of
any sort at any price, and we might just as well
have been at sea in the middle of the Pacific
Ocean, for our fare was the regular sea allowance
of salt beef and salt pork on alternate days. On
one occasion the paymaster did manage to
purchase enough fresh pork for the ship's com
pany ; but a few days afterwards we saw four
men brought down to the bank of the river and
decapitated. Their heads were taken away, but
their bodies were left there, and presently a herd
of swine came down and fed upon them ; and
after that we did not eat any more fresh pork.
The officers were not quite so badly off as the
ship's company, as there were pheasants to be
shot, and we generally managed to get a few —
almost every day. We were ten in the midship
men's berth, and I was the only one who had a
gun, and that gun was very nearly worth its
weight in gold. Many a good supper it provided
for our mess, after we had dined at midday on
salt beef. I had taken the precaution to lay in
a fairly good stock of powder and shot, copper
caps and wads (how funny this will sound to the

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 133
modern shooter) at Shanghai, and lucky it was
I had done so. We midshipmen had school in
the forenoon; but a kind and considerate first
lieutenant let me go on shore almost every after
noon, and I was also pretty sure of two or three
of my messmates to act as beaters. It was
worth their while to do so, and to carry the birds
too and not drop any of them. The covers were
thick and the birds were hard to get up — we had
no dogs, and all runners were lost; but let no
one imagine that if I saw a runner which had
not been fired at I waited for him to get up.
Unsportsmanlike to shoot a pheasant on the
ground ? Gammon ! Wait, my dear reader, until
you are in the position of a hungry midshipman
shooting for his supper, and then perhaps you
will know the real meaning of the word " sport,"
the very essence of which is pot-hunting. Our
remote ancestors who went out with their bows
and arrows to kill game and bring home food for
their starving families have a far better claim to
the proud title of "sportsman" than one of us
who stands outside a cover and shows his skill
(or the other thing) while pheasants are being
driven over his head by an army of beaters. I
am not "crabbing" modern pheasant-shooting:
that would be inconsistent, as I do it myself
when I get the chance, and I think it is a very
entertaining amusement which demands con
siderable skill and coolness ; but I cannot admit
that it is entitled to be called "sport," whatever
else you like to call it.
When we left Shanghai to go up the Yangtze
we did not expect to be so long away from all

134 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
sources of supply, and we had not filled up with
stores and provisions. Thus we ran out of rum
and sugar. It was impossible to buy sugar at
either Kuihein or Woohoo. Tea without sugar
was not so bad, but the unsweetened cocoa was
very nasty. As to rum, the paymaster was able
to buy a Chinese spirit known as samshu, distilled
from rice. It smelt horribly, and I have seen the
men holding their noses while they drank it. I
cannot say that I ever tasted it ; the smell was
enough for me.
We spent our Christmas Day up the river
waiting for the ambassador, and the men had
to make merry on samshu instead of rum ; but
they were very good-humoured about it, as they
knew it was unavoidable. It is the custom of the
navy for the men to decorate their messes on
Christmas Day with paper flowers, figures,
models, inscriptions, poetry, and all sorts of
quaint devices ; and then when all is ready, at
about a quarter to twelve, there is a procession of
the captain and officers round the mess deck, the
band playing " The Eoast Beef of Old England."
There was none of the roast beef of old England
on this occasion, nor even the roast pork of
Woohoo, and as there was no sugar, the plum-
duffs must have been rather poor ; yet the men
all seemed happy, and a good many of them were
quite happy — i.e., drunk — before night. The
mystery of how and when enough liquor to make
most of the men drunk got on board a ship in
time for Christmas Day, and where it was
stowed in the meantime, was one which always
puzzled the most zealous and astute master-at-

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 135
arms and all his ship's corporals. I do not know
if it has been solved since I came ashore, or
whether the practice has been abandoned and
non-alcoholic beverages smuggled on board instead,
just to keep up appearances.
I remember amongst the decorations the follow
ing, as a transparency in various coloured letters,
illuminated from behind with tallow candles :
" Naval Obituary : Departed this life, of a galloping
consumption, Admiral Eaw Bum. Promotion :
Captain Sam Shaw [samshu] to be admiral, vice
Eaw Eum, deceased."
Directly Lord Elgin arrived at Woohoo with
the two gunboats, as I have before mentioned,
we started off down the river for Shanghai, and
made rapid progress. We were not fired at by
the Taipings at Nanking, and we were extremely
lucky in not getting aground once — though the
water had fallen considerably — until we were
within twenty miles of Shanghai, when up'we
went on a sand-bank on the last day of the old
year, and stuck there for two days. Lord Elgin
went on and arrived with the two gunboats, all
that was left of his squadron ; but he had carried
out his mission and done all that he intended to do,
and he also had the satisfaction of seeing all his
escort safe back at Shanghai before he left, for
there had been heavy rains up-country, which
caused a sudden and abnormal rise of the great
river and enabled the Furious and Cruiser to
extricate themselves from their trap and arrive
at Shanghai a few days after us, just as we were
on the point of dispatching the Lee and Dove
loaded up with stores and provisions for them.

136 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
I find in my journal that "on January 11th
Lord Elgin called on the Chinese Imperial
Commissioners ; we landed all our marines as
a guard of honour; we also sent the band, and
there was a grand procession of palanquins,
etc. Two of the guard of honour were carried
down to the boat dead drunk. The captain was
in a great rage about it, and flogged them both
next morning."
Then on the 19th we sailed for Hongkong, and
did not visit North China again; and on our
arrival our old captain, who had been ill for
some time, finally decided that he must give up
the command of the ship and go home to England
by the next mail steamer. He was a fine seaman,
quite one of the old school ; and although he
was hasty in temper and given to getting into
a tantrum about small things, he was generous
and forgiving and never bore malice, and we were
all very sorry to lose him.
Eef erring to my journal again, I find that "we
rowed him on board the mail steamer with a. boat's
crew of officers. I rowed the bow oar, and had
the honour of hoisting his pennant for the last
time. He tried to make a speech to the ship's
company on leaving the ship, but completely broke
down and cried like a child." The old boy was
quite worn out, and died soon after he got home.
Captain Peter Cracroft, of the Niger, took
temporary command of the Betribution, and
brought his wife with him. She was a good deal
older than him, and she lived on board all the
time we were in harbour. She tried to be very
kind and friendly to the officers, but was a great

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 137
nuisance — as women always are on board a ship
of war, except when they come off for an after
noon dance or entertainment.
We also lost our courteous and popular first
lieutenant at this time. He was made acting-
commander of the Camilla, a fine 16-gun brig,
and he took with him — as was the custom
at this time — his boat's crew, consisting of five
of the smartest young A.B.'s in the ship. He
had one cruise in the dun ilia and then returned
to Hongkong, where he found he was promoted,
and went home ; but the five A.B.'s remained in
the Camilla, which soon afterwards sailed for
Japan, and was never heard of again, nor was
a stick or a rag of her ever found. She had very
taunt masts and a great spread of canvas, and
probably capsized, like a good many other brigs,
some of which I mentioned in an earlier chapter.
One night while we were lying at Hongkong
we saw a great blaze on shore, and, as it was
close to the water's edge, I was sent away in the
pinnace with our little hand fire-engine and a party
of men to help to put it out. We squirted away at
it for about a quarter of an hour, with, no more
effect than if one of our tars had expectorated his
'baccy-juice at it ; and it became obvious that if
the fire was to be prevented from spreading an
adjacent house must be demolished, and, as there
was no dynamite in those days, we were asked
to pull the house down, instead of squirting at
the fire. Just the very job the sailors liked.
" Down ouse ! " What a lark !
The pinnace's cablet, a Sj-inch cable-laid rope,
was brought on shore ; the end rove in through

138 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
one window on the second floor and out through
another, and a bowline-knot put on it. Then we
manned the hawser and got about fifty Chinamen
to clap on. "One, two, three, haul!" and out
came the side of the house and down came the
roof, and the whole jerry-built structure collapsed
in a cloud of dust. The fire was stopped from
spreading in that direction, but it was not finally
extinguished till next day.
In April the Betribution went down to
Singapore, hoisted the broad pennant of
Commodore Harry Edgell, and became flagship
on the East India station, which was not then
a separate command, as it is now, but was a sort
of adjunct to the China station. A very unpractical
and inconvenient arrangement, as the commodore,
though much nearer home, had to send his reports
through the admiral in China and also get his
orders through him, and there was of course no
telegraphic communication.
We had to dismount two of our main deck guns
and build cabins for a commander and a secretary,
who came with the commodore. The secretary,
J. S. Moore, was a first-rate fellow and a keen
sportsman ; but the commander rubbed everybody
the wrong way, and we hated him.
While we were lying at Singapore we witnessed
a mutiny on board an American merchant ship.
She was lying close to us, and was one of those
splendid well-kept clippers that were seen in all
parts of the world prior to the American civil war.
About five o'clock one afternoon we heard a great
row going on on board the Neptune's Car. The
crew all came aft on the quarter-deck and

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 139
apparently began arguing with the three mates,
who were standing at the poop rails. The alter
cation was obviously a, very angry one, and then
suddenly some of the crew rushed to the fife rails,
pulled out the iron belaying-pins, and let fly at the
three officers on the poop, who dodged as best they
could ; but while this was going on, something was
happening which no one on board the Neptune's
Car could see, though we could. A boat rowed off
from the shore, came under the stern of the ship,
and a little man swarmed up the rope-ladder which
was hanging over the stern and suddenly appeared
at the break of the poop with something in his
hand. He was a very small, boyish-looking little
fellow, but the effect of his appearance was
magical. The whole crew turned and fled like a
flock of sheep before a dog. They fled on to the
forecastle and the little man after them. They
swarmed out on the bowsprit, out on to the jib-
boom, out on to the flying jib-boom, and then they
began dropping off the end of the flying jib-boom
into the water like dead flies. One of our cutters
happened to be manned alongside, and she was
immediately sent away and picked up some of
them and brought them on hoard the Betribution,
where they were lent clothes while their own were
drying, and then sent on shore and handed over to
the United States consul. All the Yankee swank
was taken out of them and they were as tame as
kitchen cats ; and when we asked them what on
earth induced them to go overboard in a sharky
place like Singapore, all we could get out of them
was — " That captain of ours is a snotty little
cuss."

CHAPTEE VIII
Trincomalee — Elephant - hunting in Ceylon — Madras — The
Admiral of the Catamarans — Calcutta — On the Hoogli — The
Indian Navy — Laying the first submarine cable to India —
Bombay — Cotton fire — Smuggling — Home again.
AS soon as our extra cabins were ready we
shipped our commodore and his staff, hoisted
his broad pennant and his twelve-oared green
barge on board, and sailed for Trincomalee, which
was then the headquarters of the East India
Squadron. Colombo breakwater had not yet been
built, and Trincomalee was the only good harbour
in Ceylon ; in fact, it was the best on the station.
There was an Admiralty House there for the
commodore and a very efficient little dockyard,
which has since been closed and the stores sold, in
order to save money and admit of a reduction in
the navy estimates. This was one of Lord Fisher's
famous " reforms," which may possibly be reversed
in the near future, as it has been discovered that
Great Britain has still some interest in India and
Ceylon. In 1859 Trincomalee was a sailor's paradise.
There was a small but pleasant English colony, a
regiment, a battery of artillery, some engineers,
and a small sprinkling of civilians and ladies. We
had dances, cricket, regattas, horse-racing, picnics,
140

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 141
and there was very good shooting — from snipe to
elephants. What more could any man — or mid
shipman — want ? I shot an elephant myself ; but
of this anon. The officer commanding the Eoyal
Engineers kept three horses, and they were all at the
disposal of the midshipmen of the Betribution when
ever they liked to go and order them to be saddled.
Did anybody ever hear of any other man who lent
his horses to midshipmen whenever they wanted
to go for a gallop ? If so, I should like to know
his name, to be put alongside of that of Captain
Kelsall, E.E., who I certainly think was the most
good-natured man I ever met. Many a good
gallop I had on his horses, and we kept them in
good exercise. One of them was a notorious bolter.
Nobody could hold him. He used to grip the bit
firmly between his teeth, and then you might as
well haul away at a rope belayed round a towing
bollard as pull at the reins. The only thing was to
keep him straight until he was tired.
The first shooting expedition that I took part in
in Ceylon was to Tamblegan, where there is a
famous snipe marsh ; but we were not after such
small fry as snipe. Elephants or elk were the
object of our ambition, though we did not get
either on that occasion. We engaged as our chief
shikari a renowned hunter known as " Shooting
Abraham," a Mahomedan, who we were told would
be sure to find game for us. Our party consisted
of Moore, the secretary, Teddy Hunter, one of the
lieutenants, Bullen, the paymaster, and myself.
Bullen was on many occasions my shooting chum,
and a right good companion he was. He has long
since joined the great majority. This expedition

142 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
was blank. We had come to what we were told
was the usual understanding when out after
elephants — viz., not to fire at small game for fear
of frightening any elephants which might be
within sound of the shot, and only to fire at an
elk if we got a really good close shot at one, or a
bear or leopard in self-defence. We were out for
five days and saw neither elephants nor elks, and
came to the conclusion that the next time we went
shooting we would have no understanding and just
fire at everything we saw. We generally slept in
the rest-houses which are dotted along the roads
in Ceylon ; but one night, as we were nowhere near
a rest-house, we slept in the open under a camphor-
tree. There was a village about a mile off and a tank
or large pond about 200 yards off. This was said
to be full of alligators. I don't know why we
selected this spot, but we did, and after supper we
all four lay down in a row and pulled a rug over
us, as the nights were chilly ; but just before we
lay down, one of the villagers told us that a few
nights before an alligator had taken a child much
farther from the tank than we were then encamped,
so no doubt we had alligators in our dreams ; and
in the middle of the night we all jumped up in a
panic, seized our rifles, and by great good luck
did not shoot one another. A company of monkeys
had come down out of the camphor-tree and run
right across us ; so there really was some excuse
for us, though it would be hard to say which was
most scared — the hunters or the monkeys. Any
how, the monkeys made the most noise.
We were all four of us quite strange to jungle
shooting, and we started upon this expedition with

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 143
a somewhat exaggerated idea of the danger from
snakes, which abound in Ceylon. When we were
in long grass we walked delicately — like Agag —
picking our steps and looking out sharp for cobras ;
yet strange to say, on this our first expedition
not one of us saw a snake of any sort.
I went on several other shooting trips in Ceylon,
but with small success until the last one of all,
when I "bagged" an elephant — the heaviest bag
I ever made. On this occasion the party was only
two — Bullen and myself. We rode twenty-five
miles, to a place called Kandelli, a district said
to be swarming with elephants, and there certainly
were tracks of them in all directions ; yet we
hunted — sometimes by day and sometimes by
night — for four days before we sighted wild
elephants for the first time in our lives. Tracking
is rather exciting work, especially when the spoor
is fresh and you do not know the moment you may
come suddenly upon a herd of elephants in quite
thick jungle. Our trackers would never follow the
spoor of a single elephant. Nothing would induce
them to do so. A single elephant, like a single man,
is always a rogue. He has been unable to get
a mate, and has been turned out of the herd and
put in Coventry, which spoils his temper ; and it
is said that a rogue elephant will attack men
gratuitously, without having been wounded or
even fired at, but just out of sheer devilment and
ill-humour. I never saw a rogue — I mean a rogue
elephant; but our commodore and the com
mandant of the fort, who went on a shooting trip
together about this time, came suddenly across a
rogue, and were advised by their trackers to get

144 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
up trees as quickly as possible, which they did,
and were kept there for two or three hours by the
rogue, who came seeking them. This sort of
hunting with " the bear behind " must be very
unpleasant. It never happened to me. But to
return to my own story. As I have already said,
Bullen and I followed elephant tracks for the best
part of four days without getting a sight of one ;
so, in desperation, we decided on the last day that
we would sleep in the afternoon, get some supper,
hunt all night, and return to Trincomalee next
day, where we were due on board the ship that
evening. So off we started just after sundown
and followed the freshest spoor we could find. It
was a fine, moonlight night, and about two o'clock
in the morning we emerged from a rather thick
jungle on to an open plain, and there, to our great
joy, we saw, about a hundred yards off, a herd
of some fifty elephants, not travelling, but stand
ing quite still. We each had two gun-bearers
with a rifle each, besides the one we had in our
hands, for this was in the days of muzzle-loaders,
and there was no time to reload if one was
charged by a wounded beast. My battery con
sisted of a rifle I had borrowed from Kelsall, a
ship's rifle, and a short Marine Artillery carbine,
borrowed from my marine servant ; and Bullen's
battery was much of the same nature. We first
lay down flat and consulted in whispers. The
natives were greatly excited, and we had much
difficulty in making them keep their mouths shut.
Then we advanced cautiously, crawling on our
hands and knees. We felt rather bold, as we had
been told that a herd never charged — only rogues

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 145
did that ; so we crawled along until we got within
about thirty yards of the elephants, still un
observed. At this distance we thought we were
near enough to open fire, which we did, and six
rifle shots rang out on the still night air. We
expected to see one or two of them drop ; but there
was no result, except that they made all sorts of
strange noises, and set off at a swinging trot, with
their trunks up in the air, snorting, grunting, and
squealing ; and away we went after them, loading
as we ran as best we could — not easy with a
muzzle-loader. The herd kept along the plain,
parallel with the edge of the jungle out of which
we had come, for a mile or more, and then they
turned into the jungle.
I was young and active in those days, and
having out-run all the others, I caught up to the
herd just as they were turning into the jungle. I
looked round, but there was nobody in sight. The
moon was obscured, and it was very dark, and
at the place which the elephants had selected for
turning into the jungle there was a sharp dividing
line between the plain and wood, the latter being
on the side of a very steep hill, which rose abruptly
from the former, and up this the whole herd went
in a panic, crashing and smashing and breaking
down quite good-sized trees. If they had only
realized their strength and the size of the little
animal who was chasing them, they would have
turned and trampled me to pulp in less than
a minute ; but they didn't, and when I caught
up to them they all seemed to be trying to get
through the same doorway, like a panic-stricken
crowd escaping from a burning theatre, and I got
11

146 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
so close to them that I could easily have caught
hold of their tails, which were hanging down like
bell-ropes ; but it was no use ringing that sort
of bell nor firing at that part of an elephant. I
wanted heads and it was all tails, until suddenly,
by an extraordinary piece of good luck, one of
the rear guard, who had been trying to squeeze his
way through the gap made by the leaders, got
pushed back by his mates and stood facing me
about three or four yards off. All I could see
in the darkness were two great ears ; but, pre
suming there must be a head between them, I let
fly, and down he came with a crash, and never
gave another kick. I put another bullet into his
head to make sure he was not shamming, and
when Bullen and the trackers came up they found
me dancing a hornpipe on top of him.
If the gods from their star-lit gallery were
watching me while I was chasing the elephants,
I must have looked rather like a fox-terrier
chasing a flock of frightened sheep. When
Bullen and I were consulting in whispers — just
before we advanced into the plain — as to what
we would do in case we were charged by a
wounded elephant, we decided that we would
make for the jungle which covered the side of
the steep ridge down which we had come before
sighting the elephants ; as we thought, in our
ignorance, that nothing less active than a monkey
would be able to follow us up such a rough and
precipitous place ; yet this was the very place
up which the elephants made their final escape
when they found that I was gaining on them,
and up which they made their way as fast or

MEMORIES OF THE SEA 147
faster than we could have done ourselves. So
little did we know of the climbing powers
of elephants in their wild state. Alas ! my
elephant had no tusks. Very few of the Ceylon
elephants have any. only small tushes, so that it
seems to be rather wanton destruction to shoot
them ; though I may explain that fifty years ago
the wild elephants in Ceylon were regarded rather
as vermin, to be exterminated, as they used to
do immense damage to the coffee plantations, and
it was considered meritorious to shoot them. There
was a major in the Ceylon Rifles — I think his
name was Hook — who was said to have shot eight
hundred, a good percentage of them being rogues,
though very few tuskers. Since those days the
elephants in Ceylon have been protected by very
strict laws. Probably they don't get at the tea,
which has now taken the place of coffee.
This was my last shooting expedition in Ceylon,
and shortly afterwards we took a cruise to Madras,
and a most unpleasant place it was to he at :
no harbour, just an open roadstead, a heavy
ground swell, the ship rolling so that all lower-
deck scuttles had to be kept closed, and no
possibility of landing except in one of the regular
surf-boats manned by a dozen natives, or upon
a catamaran — i.e., three logs of wood lashed
together and tapered off at the ends, upon which
the native kneels and propels himself with a
paddle. Needless to say he is almost as much in
the water as out of it, especially in going through
the surf.
During our stay in Madras Eoads the commodore
received a formal visit from the Admiral of the

148 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
Catamarans, a venerable old native who had
greatly distinguished himself in saving lives
during a cyclone and series of shipwrecks, which
occurred some years before our visit.
The story was that a sudden storm arose with
out any warning, and that fourteen ships which
were lying in Madras Eoads all dragged their
anchors and were wrecked, several hundred yards
from dry land. The sea was much too heavy
for any of the surf-boats to live in, and there
was a good chance that all the crews would
have been drowned had not a number of cata
marans put off to the rescue and landed a good
many, including some women and children, who
must have been in sorry plight by the time they
got ashore through the surf on a catamaran.
At any rate, a large number of lives were saved,
and the gallant old native, who now bore the
proud title of Admiral of the Catamarans, was
the man who, by his exhortations and example,
had been mainly instrumental in organizing the
rescue. I give this story from memory and
cannot vouch for the accuracy of the details,
though I think I am right with regard to the
main features of it. At any rate, the admiral's
visit was not unexpected ; we were looking out
for him, and one afternoon the signalman of the
watch reported him as coming off through the
surf in (or rather on) his catamaran, with his flag
flying in the bow. And there he was sure enough,
arrayed in an admiral's full-dress uniform, sitting,
or rather kneeling, on the fore part of the
logs whilst two stalwart paddlers on the after
part brought him alongside. It had been the

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 149
immemorial custom for some years past, whenever
a flag officer, admiral, or commodore visited
Madras, to present this old gentleman with some
article of naval uniform, if it could be spared;
and no doubt his uniform required pretty frequent
renewal, as salt water is bad for gold lace. He
was duly received on the quarter-deck by our
oommodore and an admiral's guard of honour :
but I noticed that the latter had some difficulty
in keeping their countenances ; in fact we all
had, for it was certainly an unusual sight to see
au elderly brown gentleman appearing on the
quarter-deck, arrayed in an admiral's full-dress
coat, epaulettes, full-dress sword-belt, cocked hat
and no trousers of any sort ; but a pair of skinny
brown legs with white patohes of incrusted salt
upon the knees and heels. He was taken down
to the oommodore's oabin and given refreshment ;
and as he represented that his cocked hat was
getting rather the worse for wear and the salt
water, the commodore gave him a new one, or
rather an old one; and with that and a bottle
of rum he went ashore quite happy.
There was a Madras story about the landing
of a certain Governor and his wife, whioh I also
give from memory. It appears that the lady
was of a somewhat prudish disposition, and
having heard from a friend that she would have
to land in a surf-boat, the crew of which would
have no clothing save the orthodox loin-clout,
she had prepared twelve suits of light clothing,
consisting of a short neat jumper bound with
blue braid and a pair of short pants down to the
knee. These had been duly sent on beforehand,

150 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
and when the Governor's surf -boat appeared along
side the mail steamer, to land his Excellency
and his party, the crew looked not only pictur
esque, but quite decent in their new garments
and very proud of themselves. They then rowed
in through the half-mile of smooth water which
separates the anchorage from the surf; but just
before they got to the first line of breakers they
laid on their oars and proceeded to divest them
selves of their beautiful new garments. His
Excellency remonstrated; all the staff remon
strated ; even the native coxswain remonstrated ;
but it was quite useless. The thrifty oarsmen
were not going to risk spoiling their new clothes
by getting them wet with salt water; so they
took them off, folded them up neatly, and stowed
them under the thwarts, and then, lo and behold,
they had nothing on at all ! The best laid
schemes of mice and men gang aft agley.
About this time the old Betribution began to
show unmistakable signs of senile decay. She
leaked at sea when carrying sail. The mizen
mast was found to be rotten at the partners,
and we had to fish it. The rudder struck work
altogether : it had shown signs of weakness for
some time, and we had unshipped and landed
it at the Falkland Islands, and hooped the head
with iron bands ; but the constant rolling in the
roadstead at Madras had set the head working
again, and on close examination it was found
to be little better than a bundle of shakes held
together with numerous hoops. This was serious,
as the rudder only went over a little way when
the tiller was put hard over. So we bought a

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 151
huge baulk of teak, too heavy to hoist in, towed
it down to Trincomalee, and made a new rudder ;
and a very good job old " Chips" made of it, for
it went into its place without a struggle and
fitted like a glove.
Our next cruise was to Calcutta, and a very
interesting visit it was. This was in November
1859, just two years after the outbreak of the great
Mutiny, which was even then hardly suppressed on
the North- West frontier. Everybody's mind was
full of the horrors of this great tragedy and of
the heroic deeds of our soldiers and of the small
naval brigade, composed of almost every fighting
man from the crews of the Shannon and Pearl,
under the command of the gallant Peel, the
captain of the Shannon, who after transporting
a powerful battery of 65 ewt. 8-inch guns from
Calcutta to Lucknow and rendering splendid
service in the suppression of the mutiny, died of
smallpox at Cawnpore.
The navigation of the tidal waters of the Hoogli
from the Sand Heads to Calcutta was a very
different business from the navigation of the Yang
tze. Instead of groping our way amongst the
shallows without pilot and without chart, the ship
was taken charge of by a very grand pilot in
uniform, who brought with him two young
gentlemen to act as leadsmen (sucking-pilots they
were) and his own leadlines marked to feet instead
of fathoms.
The pilotage of the Hoogli is most difficult
and intricate and the pilots are highly paid and
have to undergo many years' apprenticeship, com
mencing as leadsmen. The currents are strong

152 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
and the sand-banks shift frequently, so that the
river is in a constant state of being resurveyed
and charted. Moreover the rise and fall of the
tide is so uncertain that there are tide gauges and
semaphore stations at intervals along the banks,
and these make signals to the pilots of passing
ships, stating the exact depth of water on the
various bars, of which there are a good many.
The pilot never left the bridge while the ship was
under way, and his meals were taken to him on
deck ; but the young-gentlemen-leadsmen were
allowed a spell off occasionally, one at a time, and
we took them down and fed them in our berth,
and listened to some tall stories of the dangers of
the navigation of the river, and how ships even in
charge of pilots had been known to run on to
brand new shoals and got rolled right over with the
force of the current and all hands drowned ; to
which we replied with shocking stories of the
perils of the open sea.
There were two routes to Calcutta in 1859 :
the long sea route round the Cape, carried on by
sailing ships, and the " overland" route by Suez,
which was mainly in the hands of the P. & O
Company and worked with steamers. There were
two sets of steamers, and these of course carried the
mails to the East and to the Far East. The
Home Squadron ran the mails and passengers to
Alexandria, and these then crossed over to Suez ;
in the early days on camels and later by rail.
At Suez they embarked in one of the Eastern
Squadron of the P. & 0. Company, which carried
them to India or Hongkong. There was practi
cally no competition with the P. & 0. in the

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 153
overland route at this time, so that fares were
high and many passengers preferred the longer
but cheaper route round the Cape in a sailing ship :
and splendid ships of their day these " East India-
men " were. Green had a line of magnificent
frigate-built ships sailing round the Cape to
Calcutta : they were as well-found and well-kept as
men-of-war, and looked just like frigates — bar the
guns ; though of course in still earlier days all the
East; Indiamen did carry guns, and naval history
tells us they fought some gallant actions against
the enemies of their country ; not always in pure
self-defence, if I remember right. And why
shouldn't they ? War is war, and first blow, well
directed, often counts for a good deal. It is only
decadent nations that make up their minds to fight
only in self-defence, and they always get licked by
warlike neighbours and lose those possessions in
the attempted preservation of which they acted
" purely in self-defence." There can be no stand
ing still in this world. A nation must either beat
to windward or drift to leeward ; and if it attempts
to heave to, with the maintop-sail to the mast, it
drifts to leeward, more or less rapidly, as every
sailor knows. The warlike races inherit the earth,
and industrialism has always made a poor show
against militarism. A study of history seems to
teach us that there is no alternative between foreign
war and civil war. The so-called Peace Party are
now working up rapidly towards civil war, and the
International Labour Party will soon have to point
their guns either against their own countrymen or
against the foreigner. Perhaps both. Very sad,
but indubitably true.

154 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
The East India Company was still in existence
in 1859 ; though shortly afterwards it was
abohshed and the government of the country placed
directly under the Crown. There was also a sepa
rate East Indian navy, in the pay of and under the
management of the Company. I find in my private
journal the following prejudiced and decidedly
ill-natured remark : " There were some Indian
navy ships lying here and we took a particular
dislike to the Indian navy midshipmen. Most of
them were snobs. They talked of nothing but them
selves and their Service. They wore dirty white
waistcoats and did not button their shirt collars."
How could we officers of the Eoyal Navy possibly
consort with brother officers who wore dirty white
waistcoats and did not button their shirt-collars ?
The Indian Navy was shortly after this abohshed.
Besides the Indian Navy ships we met at
Calcutta, there was quite a large fleet of big
Cape-route sailing-ships, to which I have
before alluded, and although these ships did not
carry guns, they were capable of doing so in case
of emergency. They had main decks like frigates
with large port-holes ; but to have carried guns
and ammunition would, of course, have detracted
from their cargo-carrying capacity and passenger
accommodation. Some of the older ones still had
their sides adorned with quakers — relics of the
old war. A quaker is a wooden gun-muzzle stuck
on outside a painted port-hole, and was intended
to frighten off the enemy's privateers; as of course
a privateer, whose business was the plunder of
unarmed merchant-ships, would not think of
attacking a frigate with a tier of main-deck guns.

Dahabieh off Alf.xandria.
From a water-colour drawing by the Aitt/ior.

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 155
Perhaps the privateers learnt to recognize a
quaker, even at a distance; but naval history is
unfortunately not very explicit upon this per
plexing point.
From Calcutta we were ordered round to
Karachi to assist in laying the first submarine
telegraph cable to India. The length from Suez
to Aden had already been laid and was working,
and the connection was now to be made between
Karachi and Aden. This was to be done in three
lengths. Starting from Karachi, the first section
was to go to Muskat, on the coast of Arabia, where
it was to be landed and a telegraph station estab
lished ; from thence to the Kuria Muria Islands,
a small group of desert isles off the south coast
of Arabia, where it was again to be landed and
another station established; and from thence to
Aden. This was rather a roundabout route, and
the cable now goes direct from Aden to Bombay ;
but in these early days of deep-sea cables there
had not been much experience, either in the
manufacture of the cables or in the art of laying
them, and deep water and great single lengths
were avoided as much as possible. There was
one stretch of very deep water between Karachi
and Muskat ; this was just to the eastward of
Muskat, across the mouth of the Gulf of Oman,
which forms the entrance to the Persian Gulf.
The two ships selected for laying the cable were
the Impdrador and Impdratrice, which had been
built in England for the Brazilian Government,
but were purchased before completion and specially
fitted with all the up-to-date appliances for cable-
laying. The Betribution and the Cyclops (an

156 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
old paddle-wheel man-of-war sloop) met them at
Karachi and escorted them during the operation,
to clear the course and to render assistance if
necessary. The contractors for laying the cable
were Newall & Co., and to the best of my
recollection the terms of the contract required
them to lay the cable and work all three sections
of it successfully for two months. We heard after
wards that the first length broke down about a
week after the two months had expired, and that
the whole of it had ceased to work within six
months ; but this did not by any means imply
dishonesty or skimping on the part of the con
tractors, but simply want of experience in the
manufacture and laying of deep-sea cables, an art
which is now on a very different footing.
The landing of the shore end of the cable at
Karachi was made the occasion for a great show
of bunting, with plenty of cheering and our brass
band playing patriotic airs, and then, when all
was ready, the Impdrador started off, paying out
the cable very slowly at first and then more
rapidly as she got into deeper water. The Betri
bution led the way and the old Cyclops brought up
the rear, illuminating the midnight sky with red
flames out of her funnel, struggling to keep up
with us at 6J miles an hour. The exciting time
came on the third day, when we had to cross the
entrance to the Gulf of Oman, where the depth of
waterwas 2,000 fathoms and the cable ran out rather
quicker than was intended ; but all went well :
the cable was not checked, the Impdrador went on
a little faster, the old Cyclops was left out of sight,
and we got into Muskat harbour all right, landed

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 157
the end safely, established a telegraph station at
this sun-baked depot for the contraband arms
traffic, greatly pitying the unfortunate clerks who
had to stay there and work it, and then went on
with the next length to the Kuria Muria Islands.
But if we pitied the unfortunate operators who
were to be left at Muskat to work the telegraph
at that station, we found on arrival at the Kuria
Muria Islands that their colleagues to be left there
were still more deserving of our sympathy, for of
all the derelict cinder-heaps on the face of the
earth, not even excepting Socotra, these desert
islands seem to take the palm. It is to be hoped
that they did not have to stay there long, for
if they did they probably stayed there altogether.
Finally we completed the direct telegraph from
England to India by joining up at Aden with the
Eed Sea section, fired a royal salute, dressed
ship, played " God Save the Queen " and " Eule,
Britannia," said goodbye to our friends in the two
telegraph ships, and then returned to Bombay to
dock the old Betribution, which was showing still
more marked signs of senile decay. She leaked
badly whenever we were on the port tack, the
seams opened and the water came in, and if we
were steaming and sailing at the same time and
the ship heeling over, the cranks of the engines cut
into the fore-and-aft carlings like cheese, showing
that the upper deck, with its ten heavy guns, was
loose and sagging over to leeward. So the old
ship was docked, and when the copper and outside
planking on the port side before the paddle-wheel
were taken off the timbers fell out into the dock
quite rotten, so that she might really have gone

158 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
down under us in the first gale of wind we got
into. The question now was whether she could be
patched up sufficiently to make her staunch
enough to go home round the Cape and weather
the storms we were likely to meet there, for there
was no Suez Canal yet. So a survey was made,
the result of which was that the job was to be
taken in hand. The ship was in dock for three
months, and during that time the crew had to be
disposed of, as they could not live on board in
dry dock. An old merchant-barque called the
Euphemia was hired, and some of us lived on
board her and some on board an old Indian Navy
steamer which had had her engines and boilers
removed and was used as a receiving ship. She
was infested with cockroaches. Never before nor
since have I seen such monsters. They were as
big as locusts, and in the evening when the candles
were lighted they used to get up in flocks like
sparrows and fly about the cabin with a loud
whirr. Two or three would get into your cup of
tea, one or two into your hair, and one would
probably crawl down the back of your neck. They
smelt abominably. It was really no use killing
them, as it seemed to make no difference to their
numbers, and they were a perfect plague. The
weather was very hot and there was no ice, as the
expected ice-ship had been wrecked just outside
Bombay harbour, and any ice there was left in
the town was earmarked for the hospitals. Well
do I remember that ice famine. Ice had been
getting scarce and expensive for some time,
but our comprador used to tell us cheerfully every

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 159
morning, "Ice-ship soon come, sar; perhaps come
to-morrow morning." This went on for some time,
price of ice steadily rising, until one fine morning
came the sad news that the expected ice-ship had
gone ashore and become a total wreck a few miles
to the southward of Bombay. Many boats went
round to her, and some of the ice was salved as she
broke up, but the price was prohibitive and we had
to drink warm water, or warm beer, which was
nearly as bad.
About this time there was a great cotton fire
at Bombay. There were some thousands of bales
standing on the wharf. They were loose, impressed
bales of raw cotton, about 8 feet long by 4 square,
sewn up loosely in sacking. They were not ready
for shipping to Manchester, as they would have
to pass through the hydraulic press and be
squeezed down to about a third of their size,
and hooped with iron bands before being shipped
for export. It was these loose bales, standing
close to the edge of the wharf, which took fire;
and a happy — or unhappy — thought occurred to
those in charge of the wharf, that the best thing
to do was to get long poles and push the burning
bales into the sea. This was done, with the
result that instead of quenching the burning
cotton, it drifted along the wharf with the current,
and little pieces of it flew up and ignited other
bales which were standing close to the edge of
the wharf, until, in a short time, there was half
a mile of burning cotton bales, and most of these
were pushed off into the harbour and drifted about
amongst the shipping, much to the consternation
of those on board, particularly to that of the

160 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
captain of a brig laden with combustibles ; but
although no ship was set on fire, the surface of
Bombay harbour was for many hours covered
with burning and smouldering cotton, giving off a
pungent and suffocating , smoke which got into
our eyes and almost blinded us. I was sent away
in a boat with our hand fire-engine to help
to put the fire out ; but our pigmy squirt was quite
useless, so we tried to beat the burning cotton
under water with the blades of the oars, but
nothing seemed to put it out : water seemed to
have no effect upon it, and if you drove a lump
of the burning stuff under water it came up again
all alight. There was no absolute flame, but a
good deal of heat, and at one time our boat got
into an extra hot corner, where the burning cotton
lay very thick on the water, and the thin, white,
pungent smoke got into our throats and our eyes,
so that we were quite overcome by it, and we
all lay down in the bottom of the boat with
the tears streaming down our cheeks, tearfully
chaffing each other with, " What are you crying
about ? " Happily we drifted out of it, and then
returned to our ship, as our labour was in vain.
There was no further damage done beyond the
loss of the cotton, as the wind was offshore. Had
it been otherwise the consequences might have
been serious, as this was just, before the monsoon
and everything was dry as tinder.
After we had been about a month on board
the Euphemia and the Auckland these two old
hulks were declared to be insanitary, though I
am not sure that this was the word used ; probably
there was some other word in use at this time

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 161
which expressed the same thing. Anyhow they
did stink, both of them, and as we had several
cases of cholera and one or two deaths, it was
decided to land the ship's company on a little
island called Butcher's Island, at the head of
Bombay harbour, not far from the island which
contains the famous rock caves of Elephanta.
Here we spent another two months while the ship
was still in dock, and a very dull time it was, though
better than in the two evil-smelling old hulks.
The two great difficulties the officers had to en
counter were, to find suitable and healthy employ
ment for the men, and to prevent liquor from
being smuggled on to the island, with the conse
quent drunkenness which this always produces.
Smuggling liquor ! I suppose there is no crime in
the whole naval category which has been respon
sible for so much trouble, so much punishment, so
much drunkenness, so much disrating of otherwise
excellent and trustworthy petty officers, as the
crime of smuggling liquor. There is — or perhaps
I should say there was — an absolute mania
amongst seamen for smuggling liquor on board
ship. Every conceivable trick and deception
was used for outwitting the officers and the ship's
police. Special skins of all sorts of shapes and
sizes were used for concealment about the person,
so as to evade the search by the master-at-arms
and ship's corporals, which always took place when
the liberty men returned from leave or from any
place where they might possibly have been able
to buy spirits. I really think this smuggling was
often done from an innate love of risk and sport ; the
great joy of weathering " Johndy " (the master-at-
12

162 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
arms), and the common idea that anything clandes
tinely obtained, like stolen kisses, must be better
than things prosaically and legitimately acquired.
Marryat in one of his novels gives an account of
one of the dodges used in his day, known as
" sucking the monkey." Innocent looking green
coconuts were brought on board by the black
bumboat-women at Port Eoyal and sold to the
crew : but there had been a tiny hole made in one
end of them, the natural milk drawn off and its
place taken by new Jamaica rum, which is rather
heady stuff.
If it was difficult to frustrate the arts of the
liquor-smuggler on board ship, it was almost
impossible to check his illegal traffic when the
crew were living on shore in huts on Butcher's
Island. Boats would come off from the mainland
at night, and by prearrangement bottles of arrack
would be planted, like the treasures of the buc
caneers, on a certain bearing — so many paces
distant from such and such a tree, there dig, and
one foot below the surface you will find that which
will make you either jolly or dead drunk, according
to how much you drink. The risks to both vendor
and buyer were considerable, and no doubt the
prices were high ; but then the sport of it !
We had a sort of a cricket ground on Butcher's
Island, and we used to play there for an hour
or two in the evenings; but the weather was
very hot, the ice-ship had been wrecked, and we
were glad enough to get back again on board our
ship as soon as she came out of dock. The repairs
had been only in the nature of a patched-up job,
just to give us a chance of weathering the storms

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 163
off the Cape and of getting home alive. The ship
had no ribs on the port side before the paddle-
box, so it was deemed wise to strike all the
upper-deck guns down into the hold, to remove
all shot from the shot-racks, so as to relieve the
strain on the weak side as much as possible, and
to carry sail on the port tack with discretion.
This was done, and we got safe home to old
England in the depth of the coldest winter
(1860-1) which had been known for many years.
I do not remember much about the passage
home, except that I was in bed a good deal of
the time with an attack of peritonitis, which very
nearly finished me, and from which it is scarcely
possible I could have recovered had not my kind-
hearted, generous shipmate, J. S. Moore, the
commodore's secretary, given up his cabin to
me and accepted the discomfort of swinging in
my hammock on the main deck : a genuine act
of kindness to which, I believe, I owe my life,
and for which I have never been able to make
the smallest requital. But I have at least the
consolation of knowing that the men who do
such acts never look for or think of requital.
They do them out of the sheer generosity of their
hearts and from the love of doing good. And this
reminds one of the argument of the constitution
ally selfish man who, on being reproved by a
friend for his selfishness, and told to look at and
admire the generous acts of his brother Tom,
who was always doing something kind for his
neighbours, replied: "Ah yes, that's just the
difference between us ; it gives Tom real pleasure
to do these things, but it does not give me any.

164 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
Tom is therefore pursuing his own pleasure just
as much as I am by spending all my money on
myself : so it seems to me that Tom is just every
bit as selfish as I am, for we are both seeking
our own pleasure in our own way."
Philosophy ? or Sophistry ?
I have devoted a very large proportion of my
space to the commission of the Betribution.
It was a very interesting commission. I do not
think it would have been possible for a youngster
of my age — fifteen when we left England — to have
selected a more interesting cruise, had he been
given free choice in the matter. First a trip up
the Mediterranean; then out to the Pacific, via
the Canaries, Eio Janiero, the Falkland Islands,
Straits of Magellan, and Valparaiso. A year on
the Pacific Station; then across to China and
Japan — a year there ; then on to the East
Indies — a year there ; and then home round the
Cape. Four years and four months altogether,
counting passages. Out a boy, home a man ; and
I did not know my own brother when I met him.
I quote the following from my journal : " We
dismantled the old ship and paid her off alongside
the jetty at Portsmouth. It was December and
very cold, and there was ice and snow everywhere.
When we had been alongside the dockyard for
two or three days and our lower yards and other
spars were lying on the jetty, I was walking up
and down looking at my home for four years,
with nothing standing save her lower masts and
funnels, when presently I saw some one else
walking up and down and looking very hard at
me, but apparently not liking to speak, as if he

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 165
were not sure of me. I thought I had seen him
before, but was also doubtful about it and was
shy of speaking first. In this way we walked up
and down two or three times, looking hard at
each other, like a couple of strange dogs, but with
the main-yard lying on the jetty between us, until
at last I thought that, being so close to my own
kennel, I might speak first ; so I asked him if he
wanted to see anybody on board the ship, and then
directly we spoke we knew each other's voices and
discovered that we were brothers. It was Bob,
who had come to look for me; and then a little
later two uncles. James Ingham and James Gordon,
appeared, and we all dined together at the George
Hotel that night." and a merry party we were.

CHAPTEE IX
The hard winter of 1860-1 — My only shipwreck — I join the
Ariadne at Plymouth — I am promoted to be a lieutenant —
Cod-fish for the Prince of Wales — Examples of Captain
Vansittart's fine seamanship.
WHEN the Betribution was paid off I was an
acting mate, and in order to be confirmed
in that rank I had to pass three examinations
— seamanship, gunnery, and navigation — "college,"
as the latter was called. I had no fear about the
seamanship, and the only really difficult one was the
gunnery on board the Excellent; but thanks to
the assiduous and efficient instructions of our
well-loved friend, Eobert Woollcombe, Eoyal
Marine Artillery — who had conducted the whole of
the gunnery training of both officers and men
for four years, without emolument of any sort —
all, the midshipmen of the Betribution took first-
class certificates in gunnery.
Those who are old enough will probably
remember the winter of 1860-1 ; and those
who are not old enough may take my word for it
that it was a very hard winter. The Thames was
frozen at London Bridge, and I remember hearing
that an ox was roasted whole on the ice. I
skated on the Serpentine in Hyde Park, where
the ice was over a foot thick, but soon got cut

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 167
up and like a ploughed field, and was not worth
skating on after the first week. They tried
flooding it in places : but to the best of my
recollection this only made " cat ice," which was
worse than the original ruts.
I do not propose to dwell long upon the doings
of " Jack ashore " during the four months I spent
on dry land after paying off from the Betribution,
as my yarn is entitled "Memories of the Sea,"
and not of the shore. Yet I must not omit to
mention the only shipwreck that I ever suffered,
which occurred while I was ashore !
It happened as follows, and I am afraid was
rather ignominious for a hardy tar who had just
sailed round the world and thought he knew a
lot. My eldest brother, who was afterwards
Member for Cambridge for eighteen years, was an
undergraduate at Trinity Hall, and I went up and
spent two months with him, and a right good
time I had, for all the available sports and amuse
ments were open to me, without the lectures and
chapels ; and amongst other sports, I did a good
deal of rowing on the Eiver Cam, but in a style
of craft which was very unlike those to which I
was accustomed. To the best of my recollection,
the dimensions of the ship I was wrecked in Were :
length, 28 feet ; beam, 8 inches ; depth, 4 inches ;
weight, 30 pounds : and in this more or less sea
worthy craft I was in the habit of rowing down
the river every afternoon to watch the college
eights practising for the May races. I had
acquired a fair amount of skill in fresh-water
seamanship. I could sit in a sculling-boat
without capsizing, could clear the water with my

168 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
oars without dribbling, and could get up a pretty
good head of speed, and, in fact, I thought I
knew all about it ; when one afternoon, as I was
swinging gaily along, I met a string of nine
coal-laden barges coming up the river, towed by
horses. There looked to me to be plenty of
room to pass them on the right side, and I
innocently entered the trap ; but when I got
abreast of the third or fourth barge it became
obvious that they were all swinging in rapidly
towards the bank, and that I should soon be
nipped ; and almost before I could realize what
was going to happen I was fairly caught. One of
the barges caught the bow of my fragile craft ;
the stern went in against the bank, and in far
less time than it takes to write it my boat shut up
lengthways like one of those pocket spyglasses,
and there was not a bit of her left more than three
or four feet long. I had just time to step out into
one of the barges and pull the oars and the
remains of the boat in after me ; and there I was,
sitting on a heap of coal, with the visible signs of
the disaster around me, shipwrecked on a miserable
inland ditch like the Cam, all the college eights
rowing down the river and stopping to laugh at
me, which they had a perfect right to do ; for what
can possibly be more amusing than the misfortunes
of our neighbours ? The boat was a new one,
which my brother had just had built for him, and
in which he had intended to row for the Colquhoun
Sculls. After spending about two months at Cambridge
and enjoying myself thoroughly on a mate's half-
pay of 2s. 6d. a day, I was appointed to the

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 169
Ariadne at Plymouth, and joiued her there early
in May, 1861.
The Ariadne was a great contrast to the old
Betribution, whioh, I need scarcely say, never
went to sea again. The former was quite new, and
was the finest frigate in the British Navy. In
fact, it would not be too much to say that she and
her sister-ship, the Galatea, were the two finest
wooden frigates ever built in this or any other
country, for we were then on the eve of changing
from wood to iron and steel, and then later to
the abolition of sails altogether. There were two
other big frigates built about the same time, the
Mersey and Orlando ; but they were rather over
done aud regarded somewhat as monstrosities.
They lacked that just balance of proportions and
that indescribable symmetry of lines whioh distin
guished the Ariadne and Galatea, and which is
so obvious to the eye of a sailor but so puzzling
to that of a landsman, who looks upon all ships
very much as we do upon a flock of sheep — all
alike. The Ariadne was in dry dock at Devonport
when I joined her one evening in May, and on
the following morning the first lieutenant put
me in charge of a party of men to go down in the
dock and scrub the ship's bottom. Whilst so
employed, an orderly brought me a letter which
informed me that " their lordships had been
pleased to promote me to the rank of lieutenant."
And as it pleased me also, and as I thought the
Ariadne was a very fine-looking ship, both top
and bottom, and as I had had a good spell on shore
and was restless to get to sea again, I thought I

170 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
could not do better than apply to be reappointed
to her as a lieutenant, which I did, and in a few
days received my appointment as "part comple
ment," the ship being one lieutenant short of her
complement. This was lucky— doubly lucky —
for Captain Vansittart told me afterwards that he
thought I looked too young, and that as he wanted
an older and more experienced hand, he had
written upon my application, before forwarding
it to the Admiralty, " This application is not
solicited " ; and he further told me, in confidence,
that the Sea Lord of the Admiralty whose duty it
was to appoint lieutenants, and who was a personal
friend of his, wrote to him privately in a somewhat
bantering tone to tell him that he had gone the
very way to get me appointed, by saying that he
did not wish it !
When I joined the Ariadne she had been about
six months in commission and had just returned
from Canada, where she escorted the Prince of
Wales (our late gracious Sovereign King Edward),
who flew his standard on board the new 90-gun
line-of-battle ship Hero during his visit to that
country. My new messmates were full of the story of
Captain Vansittart and the basket of fish, a
story which I have been told the late King Edward
was very fond of repeating, with admiration of
the seamanship displayed on the occasion. The
incident happened before I joined the Ariadne,
so I can only repeat the story as I heard it ;
though I am bound to say I have rarely, if ever,
heard a story — a nautical story — told by many
different people with fewer variations, and therefore

H.M.S. Ariadne.
From a drawing by the Author.

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 171
I have no doubt that the main features of it, as
described below, are substantially correct.
The Hero and Ariadne were returning from
Canada, and were crossing the great Bank of
Newfoundland before a fresh S.W. breeze, the
Hero with every stitch of sail set, stunsails alow
and aloft, but the Ariadne, which greatly out
sailed the Hero, carrying much reduced sail, in order
to keep in her station astern of the Hero. They
were passing through a fleet of the cod-fishing
schooners, and Captain Vansittart asked leave of
his senior officer to heave to and buy fish. This
was granted, and the Ariadne hove to, lowered a
boat and bought fish, and by the time this was
done and the boat hoisted, the Hero was a long
way ahead ; but the Ariadne made all sail and had
no difficulty in catching her, and while she was
coming up with her, Captain Vansittart made up
a fine hamper of fresh codfish, with a label
attached — "For His Eoyal Highness the Prince
of Wales, with Captain Vansittart's compliments."
All very well ; but how was the hamper to be got
on board the Hero without stopping both ships
and lowering another boat ? This was how it was
done, and a very pretty piece of risky seamanship
it must have been : A whip was put on the main-
yard and the hamper bent on to it. The Ariadne
was then sailed up abreast of the Hero, and sail was
shortened until the speed of the two ships was
just equal. The Ariadne then sheered in very
gradually until she got so close to the Hero that
as the two ships rolled their yards actually
crossed each other. The hamper was hoisted
about half-way up to the yardarm, and at the

172 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
psychological moment, when the Ariadne rolled
towards the Hero, the whip was let go and the
hamper fell upon the quarter-deck of the Hero,
from which officers and men had been warned to
stand clear. It was said that the captain and
officers of the Hero showed some signs of nervous
ness on this occasion ; and well they might, for
they did not know " old Van " — as we irreverently
called him — a man of iron nerves, a splendid
seaman, and with absolute confidence in himself.
His Eoyal Highness was much gratified, and
made a complimentary signal to Captain
Vansittart ; but it was said that the captain of
the Hero was not so well pleased, and asked
him not to do it again.
On several other occasions during our three
years' commission old Van gave us exhibitions of
his wonderful nerve and self-confidence, one of
which I well remember. We were getting under
way from the anchorage at Quebec late in the
month of November. Winter had set in early,
it was very cold, blowing hard, with frequent
showers of sleet and snow, a crowded anchorage
and a strong current ; and just as our anchor was
atrip, down came the snow so thick that we could
not see half a ship's length in any direction.
Most captains would have veered cable again and
hung on till the weather cleared ; but this was not
old Van's way of doing business, so the anchor
was hove up, catted and fished, and the engine's
put " slow ahead," so as just to stem the current,
which was running at least five knots. Then we
had to turn, to get the ship's head down the
river, where we wanted to go ; and all masters

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 173
and pilots will admit that this was a ticklish
business under the circumstances. We had a
pilot on board, but old Van insisted on taking
charge, and put the helm over for turning.
It was a regular case of blindman's buff; but we
had not long to wait to see what was going to
happen, for we very soon ran into an old merchant-
barque called the Koh-i-noor, taking her nearly
broadside on between her fore and main mast, our
cutwater cutting deep into her side. It looked
as if she would probably founder immediately, and
the captain and crew swarmed in over our bow
sprit ; the captain with his chronometer under his
arm and the mate with the ship's book. Now
came the pinch. (If this is all too technical, lands
men can skip it.) The Koh-i-noor had two anchors
down, but the anchors of a 500-ton barque would
not hold a 3,000-ton frigate in a five-knot tide,
and the two ships began to drift down the river,
the Ariadne stuck fast in the Koh-i-noor. A big
catastrophe seemed to be inevitable, for we were
drifting helplessly down towards a crowded part of
the anchorage, and it looked as if we were going
to act like the typical bull in a china-shop, by
sweeping away half a dozen more ships and finally
piling up on a sand-bank ourselves, for the pilot
was no longer responsible. Under these circum
stances old Van, without a moment's hesitation,
ordered "full speed ahead, hard a starboard." The
Ariadne's head was pointed up the river, and with
the Koh-i-noor across her bows like a piper in the
jaws of a garfish, dragging both anchors along
with us we steamed up to a clear berth — the
weather having fortunately cleared — stopped the

174 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
engines, backed out, and left the Koh-i-noor riding
to her own anchors, anchoring just below her
ourselves. The Koh-i-noor did not sink, she was not stove
below the water-line, as we did not have useless
and pernicious rams on our ship's bows in those
days : our carpenters and shipwrights made her
seaworthy in a couple of days, and we went to sea
and returned to Halifax.
A man with a weaker nerve than Captain
Vansittart, or one who had hesitated when he
found himself in such a dilemma, would have
caused a vast amount more damage to the shipping
in the St. Lawrence than that which happened.
But then on the other hand people may say —
and say truly — that a more cautious man would
not have got under way at all under the circum
stances. True, no doubt. Caution is all very
well in its way, though it is possible to have too
much of it in a service like the navy. Caution does
not win battles nor build empires ; and if a more
cautious man had been in command of the
British Mediterranean Squadron on August 2,
1798, Bruey's fleet would have been afloat under
the French flag for many a day after that date.
And Napoleon ? Well, the devil knows what he
might have done.

CHAPTEE X
The Ariadne sails for the West Indies — The Bittern in Chinese
waters — A visit to New York — Trouble in the Gulf of Mexico
— Maximilian's end — Admiral Milne — Belic-hunting — A cricket
match.I MADE the last chapter a very short one, as I
want to say to the reader, before I go any
farther, that I do not propose to maintain the
chronological order which I have so far done in
recording my memories of the sea, and this for
two reasons. First, I think that the journalistic
method I have been using must be getting tire
some to the reader, and rather too much like a
ship's log, or a blue-book ; and secondly, I find that
my notes and journals are of a far more frag
mentary nature than they were in the Betribution,
for when I found myself "in a position of greater
freedom " I ceased to keep a regular journal of any
sort, never dreaming that anything I was seeing or
doing could be of the smallest interest to any one
but myself ; nor have I that truthful and accurate
record — a midshipman's log — to fall back upon.
I have already said that the Ariadne was the
finest frigate in the navy, and it really was a
pleasure to handle that ship under sail as officer
of the watch. There was something for the officer
of the watch to do in those days besides walking
175

176 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
up and down the bridge and turning the engine-
room telegraph handle. One had to keep one's
wits about one and look out for squalls ; and in
the Ariadne we had to look out for squalls in more
senses than one, for old Van was a bit of a Tartar
and had a rough side to his tongue. He used to
sleep with one eye open, and if we did not love
him we all respected him, for he was a splendid
seaman, and he seemed to know everything that
was going on on deck when he was sitting in his
cabin in the daytime or nominally asleep in his
bunk at night. He had one fault, perhaps more
than one, but at any rate one that he owned up to.
He spoilt the midshipmen (alas ! I was a lieutenant).
No midshipman could do wrong. The first lieu
tenant was not allowed to stop their leave, give
them watch and watch, or punish them in any
way, so that they were released from all discipline,
cheeked their senior officers, and did whatsoever
they pleased. It was a very mistaken kindness on
old Van's part, and the results were deplorable, for
very few of them got on in the Service and several
came to grief altogether.
When the officer of the watch went into the
captain's cabin to make his reports, he generally
found three or four midshipmen lolling about on
armchairs or sprawling on the sofas, and old Van
writing at his desk. There was hardly any smok
ing by officers in those days, otherwise no doubt
the midshipmen would all have been smoking
cigarettes and dropping the ashes about the carpet.
They patronized the lieutenants and were generally
quite civil to us, though not always ; and we had
not the slightest control over them, either on or

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 177
off duty. Needless to say this was not conducive
to the general discipline of the ship ; f or ' ' Jack ' '
is an imitative animal. Old Van was not a bit
ashamed of his hobby, but admitted to all his
brother captains that he spoilt his midshipmen.
Thus he acknowledged his transgression and truly
his sin was ever before him ; but as he was always
very strict — not to say haughty — towards all the
other officers, he probably consoled himself with
the idea that he had succeeded in squaring the
circle of discipline.
The Ariadne sailed for the West Indies in the
summer of 1861. The American Civil War was
then in full swing, and Great Britain kept a
powerful squadron in those waters and at Bermuda
and Halifax during its whole course ; and indeed,
there were one or two occasions when it seemed
likely that we should have to take a hand :
notably after the incident known as the " Trent
affair,-' when the British mail steamer Trent
was stopped on the high seas by a United States
(Northern) cruiser and two ambassadors from the
Southern States (Messrs. Slidel and Mason), on
their way to England, were forcibly removed from
her. This outrage was a little too much for even
peace-loving England, and their release was per
emptorily demanded by the British Government ;
it being clearly understood that a refusal to comply
with this demand would inevitably lead to war.
Uncle Sam was very sore just at this time and
not at all inclined to knuckle down ; but on second
thoughts he came to the conclusion that to have
Great Britain on top of him at the same time that
he had a big civil war on hand, would be rather
13

178 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
more than he could manage, so Shdel and Mason
were released, with an apology. There was no
doubt great sympathy in England with the
Southern States in their revolt. The question of
slavery — which was at the bottom of it all — was
temporarily lost sight of by most Englishmen,
who naturally backed the small boy against the
big one — the weaker Power fighting for its
freedom, its " freedom " to enforce " slavery " and
whop its own niggers.
Old Van, who was spoiling for a fight, made a
very warlike speech to the ship's company of the
Ariadne on the occasion of the strained relations
over the " Trent affair." He was not a man of
many words, but he worked us up to a high pitch
of excitement and indignation at the outrage to
our flag, and made us all think that war with the
United States was almost a certainty and only
a question of a few days ; but it all fizzled out
and nothing came of it.
I have frequently heard it remarked by brother
officers that it was a great pity there was not a big
naval war during the period that Captain Van
sittart commanded ships, just to give him a chance
of showing his quality; and he no doubt would
have done something startling, for he was un
acquainted with the meaning of the word
" caution." In proof of which I must relate an
incident which occurred when he was in command
of the Bittern, a small 12-gun brig, in China.
The British merchants at Shanghai had com
plained to the admiral in command on that
station that there had been a series of piratical
outrages all along the coast between Foochow

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 179
and Shanghai. Several trading ships had been
attacked by the pirates, the crews murdered, and
the ships plundered and burnt. Under these cir
cumstances the admiral ordered Commander Van
sittart — as he then was — to go and hunt for the
pirates, whose headquarters were believed to be in
one of the islands of the Chusan Archipelago.
Van sought information and paid for it, the
Chinaman being always ready to betray his own
countrymen for money, though in this case he was
no doubt justified. After a prolonged search the
pirates' stronghold was found, and one fine after
noon the Bittern sailed with a fair wind into a
snug little harbour and let go her anchor. She
was received with a hot fire from half a dozen
armed piratical junks and two mud batteries
mounted with brass cannon. The sails were
clewed up, but without waiting to furl them the
guns were manned and the Bittern blazed away
for half an hour ; at the end of which time nearly
all the ammunition was expended, and although
the fire of the junks had been silenced, the
batteries were still firing. The situation was
critical, as the Bittern could not get out of the
harbour with the wind blowing straight into it.
Fortunately the enemy's fire had not been very
accurate, and although the brig had been hulled
several times and lost some men, the boats had
not been seriously damaged ; so Van piped " man
and arm boats," and landed with every available
man, stormed the batteries, sent the rascals
scutthng up-country, captured and brought off
all the brass guns, burnt the junks, and sailed out
the harbour again as soon as the wind came fair.

180 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
I should like to have seen Van's face when the
gunner reported to him that the ammunition was
nearly expended, and the batteries were still firing
at him ; for he loved being in a tight place.
A "cautious" man would scarcely have been
successful in ridding the China Seas of this nest
of pirates ; a service for which Commander Van
sittart was promoted to the rank of captain ; and
he was also presented with a handsome service
of silver plate by the merchants of Shanghai, both
British and foreign. Yet this fine fighting seaman
never hoisted his flag as an admiral, but was
placed on the retired list as a captain. Men of
this type never shine in the piping times of peace ;
they hate red tape, kick against irksome regula
tions, are frequently at loggerheads with their
pedantic superiors, and are scorned, neglected, and
not uncommonly ridiculed by those whose safety,
honour, welfare, and wealth entirely depend upon
the warlike qualities of the men who defend their
money-bags. It has ever been so, and it reminds
one of Eudyard Kipling's pithy lines :
" For it's Tommy this and Tommy that,
And chuck him out, the brute,
But it's ' Saviour of 'is country '
When the guns begins to shoot."
And also of an old song that I used to hear sung
long years ago, the chorus to which was,
" Then oh protect the hardy Tar,
'Tis policy to do it,
Or when grim war shall come again
Oh, Britons, ye may rue it."

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 181
Vansittart lived and died a confirmed bachelor ;
more's the pity, as we shall want some of this
breed when next grim war shall come again and
the " guns begins to shoot," in the North Sea or
elsewhere. And now after this little digression in memory
of my old captain, I must return to the Ariadne,
which paid a visit to New York shortly after her
arrival on the North American Station. This
was in the winter of 1861-2, and — as I have
before reminded the reader — the United States
were at this time in the throes of their great Civil
War. Euormous bounties were being offered to
men to enlist in the Northern armies. Nation
ality was of no consequence so long as the men
were ready to fight for the Northerners and help
to whip those darned Seeesh rebels ; and the
temptation of a big bounty and the Field- Marshal's
baton which he was to carry in his knapsack
was too much for some of our discontented charac
ters who were pining for a change of life ; which
they got by deserting from the British Navy and
joining the Northern army ; but whether they got
the bounty or not we never heard, for none of
them ever came back to us. Probably the crimps
who seduced them got the bounty and our men
the baton. We lost twenty-two men altogether,
notwithstanding that no leave was given and that
we were not lying immediately off New York city,
but off Staton Island, six miles down the harbour ;
yet in spite of the strictest precautions it was
impossible to prevent those from deserting who
wanted to go. All sorts of dodges were resorted
to. For instance, if the second gig was called

182 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
away to hook on (in order to be hoisted) instead of
the second gig's proper crew getting into her,
four or five would-be deserters would get in,
and instead of hooking on they would row on
shore, cast the boat adrift, and march up-
country. We had double sentries round the ship,
loaded with ball cartridge, and they were ordered
to fire at the deserters, but they never hit any,
and did not even seem to frighten them. In
fact, all the sympathy of those who did not
themselves want to desert was entirely with
those who did. The United States officers were
very civil about it, admitted that desertion was
a sad crime, and promised to do all in their power
to apprehend and return our deserters ; but told
us frankly that there were great difficulties about
it, as their own men not infrequently deserted
and went off to join another regiment under
another name, so as to get another bounty. For
some time they were not successful in apprehend
ing any of our deserters, but one afternoon an
officer came on board and reported that four of our
men had been caught and were safely locked up
in the guardroom, and that- if we would send a
guard of marines on shore to take charge of them
they would be duly handed over to us. So a
sergeant and six veterans were sent on shore to
bring off the runaways, but after some consider
able delay the sergeant and his men returned on
board and reported that when they got to the
guardroom they found it empty, and were
informed that about an hour before their arrival
the United States guard and our four deserters had
fraternized and marched off together in " citizens'

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 183
clothing " to join some other regiment. Never
shall I forget the shouts of laughter that arose
from the lower deck when the news spread to
that quarter.
Under the above circumstances we did not stay
longer at New York than we could help, and sailed
off to the Gulf of Mexico, where there was also
trouble on hand.
I have more than once begged the reader to
remember that I am not undertaking to write
history; yet it would be difficult to understand
why the Ariadne found herself in company with
powerful British, French, and Spanish squadrons
lying off Vera Cruz during the greater part of
the summer of 1862 without presenting a brief
historical sketch of the situation in Mexico at
that date; and this I propose to do by quoting
from a popular modern history the following con
cise but comprehensive account of the situation : —
" For years during the confused condition of the
country [Mexico] the rights and property of
foreigners had been frequently violated without
the demands for indemnification of the European
Powers having met with any response ; but
complaints and protests became more frequent
when the ' puros ' under Juarez came into power.
Instead of satisfying these demands, the chief
thought of the new Government was to fill the
empty treasury. Congress passed a law according
to which all payments, including the interest on
the debt to England, were to be suspended for
two years and the inland duties on foreign wares
were to be doubled. At this point the Govern
ment of Spain succeeded in persuading France

184 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
and England to adopt joint measures against the
Eepublic. By the convention of London (October
31, 1861) the three Powers — France, England
and Spain — declared that on account of the
unreliability of the Mexican authorities they felt
compelled to demand better protection for their
subjects and their property, and to enforce the
execution of the agreements stipulated by treaty,
adding at the same time that they had no intention
of curtailing the right of Mexico to choose and
model her own form of government, nor did
they have in mind any extensions of their own
possessions or other private interests. After the
conclusion of this convention three fleets with
landing troops were dispatched to Mexico to
demand satisfaction for the past and guarantees
for the future. They occupied the city of Vera
Cruz, together with the fort of San Juan de Uloa,
which had been evacuated by the Spanish troops
and officials, and took up camping positions
inland, where the troops were less exposed
to the ravages of the yellow fever. The Spaniards,
under General Prim, camped in Orizaba; the
French, under De la Graviere, in Tahuacan ; the
English commander, Sir Charles Wyke, chose
Cordova. But since the expedition had no
commander-in-chief, and a joint method of
procedure was difficult of attainment, while at
the same time the three leaders followed different
ends and interests, the undertaking lacked
strength and unity. Juarez responded to a
manifesto drawn up in a moderate tone by the
plenipotentiaries of the three Powers (February 19,
1862) by threatening to punish all who should

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 185
have any intercourse with the foreigners, and
after long delay he rejected an ultimatum in
words which sounded like an insult.
The above is no doubt a fair account of the
position of affairs in Mexico when the Ariadne
joined the international squadrons lying in the
anchorage off Vera Cruz in the spring of 1862.
There is, however, one important omission which
seems to me to be rather in the nature of a sup-
pressio veri, and this is, that the historian has
neglected to mention that in consequence of the
American Civil War, Uncle Sam was not in a posi
tion to flourish in the face of the three European
Powers that international bone of contention
known as the Monroe doctrine ; for indeed it does
not call for either a very wide stretch of imagina
tion, or any special knowledge of international
politics, in order to lead to the conclusion that had
the United States been free to pursue their usual
and well-known policy with regard to European
interference on the Western Continent, we should
have been spared the fiasco of the military occu
pation of Mexico by France, with the subsequent
tragedy of the execution of the amiable Maximilian.
The historian I have quoted above tells us
further: "But as the French harboured leaders
of the Mexican reactionaries, and showed a dis
position to interfere with Mexican domestic
politics, which lay beyond the terms of the joint
convention, Great Britain and Spain withdrew
their forces in March, 1862." *
To the best of my recollection the British army
landed in Mexico consisted of seven hundred
* " Historians' History of the World," vol. xxiii. p. 630-1.

186 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
marines ; not taken from the ships, but a special
battalion sent out from England. They lost a few
men from yellow fever and then came home again,
without adding anything to the laurels of that
ubiquitous and distinguished corps, save giving
one more proof — if indeed that were necessary —
that they are ever ready at a moment's notice to go
anywhere and do anything ; though unfortunately
in this case there was nothing for them to do.
It may perhaps be interesting to my readers if
I recall to their memory the subsequent scenes of
this Mexican drama. A French army occupied
the city of Mexico. Louis Napoleon placed upon
the throne the Archduke Maximilian, brother of
Francis Joseph, the present Emperor of Austria,
and he became Emperor of Mexico in June, 1864.
But the new empire was unstable from the first.
The country was not really conquered, and was in
a constant state of turmoil and revolution. There
was a good deal of desultory fighting, generally
resulting in victory for the trained European troops.
There were two centres of disturbance opposed to
the emperor : one party led by Porfirio Diaz, who
afterwards became President of the Mexican
Eepublic for a great many years ; and the other
by Juarez, who was an uneducated half-blood
Indian, but a born leader. Maximilian decreed
that Juarez was a rebel, who, if captured, was to
be tried by court-martial and shot. The French
army of occupation was relieved by Austrian and
Belgian troops, and the fighting went on with more
or less regularity, until finally Jaurez defeated
and captured Maximilian, tried him by court-
martial, and shot him.

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 187
There was great excitement and fury in Europe
about the shooting of Maximilian, which was
stigmatized as a brutal and cold-blooded murder ;
though, as Maximilian had threatened to shoot
Jaurez if he caught him, it seemed to unprejudiced
onlookers to be only fair play that when Juarez
defeated and captured Maximilian he was justified
in shooting him — the invader of his country.
The above account of affairs in Mexico will
explain why Great Britain, France, and Spain
kept powerful squadrons in the Gulf of Mexico in
1861-2. The British squadron lying off Vera Cruz
consisted at one time of two line-of-battle ships,
three large frigates, and numerous smaller vessels ;
and a very dull and uninteresting time we had
there. Yellow fever was raging in Vera Cruz city,
and although we occasionally sent the stewards on
shore to try and get fresh provisions, there was,
practically speaking, no communication with
the shore, and we might just as well have been at
sea, where there would have been something to do
looking after the sails.
That able and hard-headed Scotchman, Admiral
Sir Alexander Milne, was the admiral in command
of the North American and West Indian station
at this time, and it was generally believed that it
was mainly owing to his judicious management of
affairs that war did not take place between
England and the United States. How greatly
might the course of history have been changed if
we had gone to war over the Trent affair ! There
can indeed be little doubt that the Southern
States would have gained their independence and
the Great Eepublic split in twain.

188 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
Admiral Milne was too busy watching develop
ments on the northern part of his station to come
down to the Gulf of Mexico, so a first-class com
modore (Hugh Dunlop) was appointed to take
charge of the southern division : more in conse
quence of the large number of ships assembled off
Vera Cruz than because there was anything for
him to do ; and indeed it would be scarcely pos
sible to imagine any naval service more deadly
dull than that which fell to our lot during the
many weary months, both winter and summer,
which we spent at the open anchorage, four miles
from Vera Cruz city. The little harbour inside
the islet of Juan de Uloa — where Hawkins and
Drake were worsted in 1568 — is only capable of
accommodating quite small vessels ; so that the
international fleet spent its time at the Sacrificios
anchorage, which is open to the north and only
partially protected from the north-east by the little
sandy islet and coral-reef of Sacrificios. During
the winter months the "northers" come on very
suddenly and blow with great violence ; so that
we were sometimes lying with three anchors ahead
and steam up, in case of accidents. But the
summer was the worst, as there was not then
even the excitement of the northers, and the damp
heat was very oppressive.
Our active-minded captain found the monotony
very irksome, and volunteered to do "bumboat"
for the squadron — an offer which was accepted by
the commodore. So off we went to Havana for a
cargo of bullocks, and a nice mess they made on
our gun-deck with its twenty-four shining 10-inch
gun, the biggest afloat. Then to Jamaica for

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 189
stores and provisions : so that perhaps altogether
we were less to be pitied than the ships which
laid at anchor the whole time ; for we were doing
something, if not exactly man-of-war work. Yet
for all our bumboating and store-ship work we
spent many weary weeks lying at the Sacrificios
anchorage. There were plenty of turtles about, and
we tried to catch them to vary our monotonous
diet, but we did not know how, and we never got
but one, which was caught in the seine. I dis
covered the trick afterwards, and caught plenty of
them when I was down here a few years later in
the Cordelia; but that wiU be another story.
The little sandy islet of Sacrificios where
many a gallant French soldier now lies buried,
is not more than about a dozen acres in extent,
and its sole flora is canes and its fauna crabs ;
but it contains some interesting relics of the
ancient Aztec race which inhabited Mexico at
the time of the Spanish invasion under Cortez ;
and as there was little else to do in the way of
taking exercise beyond hockey and rounders,
some of my messmates, whose age and figures
were unsuited to these boyish games, found their
recreation in digging for Aztec remains. Old Van
also found himself a little stiff for rounders, though
he played once or twice and then joined the
diggers ; but like everything else he did, he went
at it systematically. He landed every afternoon
with the galley's crew, consisting of six stalwart
sailors, and instead of digging about in a desultory
sort of way, as the others were doing, he started to
dig a trench six feet wide and three feet deep, right
across the island ; and in so doing he unearthed

190 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
a very interesting collection of Aztec remains,
consisting mainly of pottery, with a few bronzes.
Some of us looked on idly ; and then Satan —
ever ready to find some mischief still for idle
hands to do — entered into us, and the idea of
playing a trick upon our imperious captain became
irresistible. So two of us braved the yellow fever,
went up to Vera Cruz, bought a quantity of cheap,
tawdry, bright-painted children's toys, landed on
Sacrificios in the dead of night, and planted
them a few yards in front of the great trench.
In due course the toys were dug up and added
to the collection without a word of remark, until
a week or two later, when old Van, satisfied with
his collection of Aztec remains, finished his
digging, arranged his treasures in the Ariadne's
fore cabin, and invited all the officers of the fleet
to come and look at them. The practical jokers
went too ; and, by an extraordinary coincidence,
the proud possessor of the collection paid particu
lar and marked attention to them, calling their
special notice to the wonderfully enduring colours
the old Aztecs must have used, so that some
of the things really looked "as if they had only
been buried yesterday."
The old boy was very good-humoured about it :
yet it was a trying moment for the culprits, who
did not quite know what to say ; nor did they ever
find out how he managed to spot them ; though
they did know that it was very hard to get to
windward of him at any game.
To such childish tricks were we reduced by the
monotony of our long banishment to the Gulf of
Mexico !

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 191
But all things must have an end, and in due
course and with great joy we received orders to
go to Halifax. Not a day too soon ; for the crew
were getting sickly and wanted a change of
climate after their long stay in the tropics.
During our passage to the north — which, as
usual, was made almost entirely under sail — we
were joined at sea by two distinguished visitors
in the shape of two great snowy owls. The
ship was about fifty miles south-east of Cape
Hatteras, beating to windward under double-reefed
topsails and courses against a hard, cold, northerly
wind, which shrivelled us up considerably after the
damp heat of the Gulf of Mexico, when one
forenoon a large white bird was seen perched upon
the main truck, holding on for all he was worth.
The parson was walking the quarter-deck, and says
he : " Five shillings for any man who will bring
that bird down alive." Up goes a small signal
boy named Collins — one of the smallest boys in
the ship ; and then we watched as fine and as
plucky a tussle as one could wish to see. The
owl did not fly away, but stood his ground and
showed fight. He had most formidable talons,
which he used, and when Collins came down he
was covered with blood. Nobody could help the
lad, as there was only room for one up there,
besides the owl ; and the boy was first up, and
was not going to give way to any one, or be beaten
by man or owl.
The battle must have lasted, for nearly half an
hour, until finally the lad managed to get a
clove hitch round one of the owl's legs with the
signal halyards, and the great bird was hauled

192 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
down on deck, protesting vehemently; the victor
swarming down the topgallant backstay, bleeding
and grinning.
There was something more in it than the mere
prospect of getting five shillings — a silver crown —
for the capture of the bird, which made the boy
stick to it and called forth all his grit and deter
mination. It was the golden crown of victory
against what seemed long odds that he sought
and won, to the admiration of his shipmates ; for
it was a tough and plucky fight in its small way.
The owl was a magnificent bird, almost snow-
white, with some small spots on his head and back.
I have never seen anything like him, before or
since, either at the Zoological Gardens or wild.
He had an enormous head and great yellow eyes,
and when he opened his mouth I felt sure I could
have put my closed fist into it, though I felt no
great inclination to do so.
The same day, just before sunset, another owl,
exactly similar to the first one, flew on board,
alighted in the fore-rigging, and was easily cap
tured by one of the seamen ; and our doctor — who
was our acknowledged authority on natural history
— pronounced the two birds to be splendid indi
viduals of a rare species, and worth a lot of money.
On our arrival at Halifax the parson magnani
mously presented his owl to a zoological society
in that city, and it soon became known that there
was another similar bird on board the Ariadne,
which was up for sale to the highest bidder.
We were lying alongside the wharf, taking in
stores and provisions, and several would-be pur
chasers came to inspect the owl and make offers

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 193
for him. The owner, with visions of such riches
as would afford him and his chums a rousing spree,
was showing off the beautiful bird. He had made
fast about ten fathoms of fishing-line round one
of his legs, and was allowing him to take short
flights, to show the spread of his great wings to an
admiring crowd. The bidding was brisk, and, to
the best of my recollection, was well above twenty
dollars (£4), when the end of the line slipped out
of the man's fingers and the owl soared aloft and
rapidly disappeared over the hills, homeward
bound, with the fishing-line still on his leg,
which no doubt he pecked off at his leisure.
A shout of heartless laughter went up from all
save the owner, or rather the late owner, whose
face was a study and who used bad words.
Halifax was a paradise after the Gulf of Mexico.
Dances, picnics, fishing, cricket, and all sorts of
amusements in a bracing climate, to restore our
jaded constitutions.
In the sixties cricket was still the great naval
game. It had not yet been ousted by vulgar,
boisterous football; and most ships had an officers'
eleven, though occasionally one or two of the
men were included, if they showed exceptional
ability and kept sober after a victory. In the
Ariadne we played all officers and won most of
our matches ; so that we were very proud of
ourselves and challenged everybody we came
across. It was a rather curious eleven, for there
were only two bowlers, and if either of these broke
down we were done, for there was no change;
but these two bowlers were deadly and very seldom
did break down, and on one notable occasion one
14

194 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
of them (Charles Eeade, midshipman) took four
wickets — clean bowled — in four consecutive balls,
which was a remarkable performance, even in
naval cricket.
One peculiarity of our team was that our
batting was indifferent and we never made any
thing like a big score ; but our fielding was very
smart — though " Point " says so — and we never
let our opponents make a score either. Their
most famous bats, " good for 50," used to be
knocked out one after the other for duck's eggs,
much to their astonishment.
We played one very remarkable match, which
I think deserves recording : for although cricket
is proverbially full of surprises, this was certainly
the most surprising that I ever took part in or
looked on at. It took place at Bermuda, where
there was a large squadron lying, consisting of
the flagship Nile and seven other ships besides
the Ariadne. We had beaten the flagship soundly
and also every other ship that was worth playing ;
so, in the zenith of pride, we conceived the auda
cious idea of challenging the whole fleet. This
we did, and a match was duly arranged, between
our marine officer, who was captain of our eleven,
and the parson of the flagship, who, as captain
of her eleven, selected the strongest team he
could find from the squadron of seven ships then
present. The fateful day arrived, and all Burmuda
turned out to see those "bumptious" Ariadnes
get a good licking. His Excellency the Governor,
the admiral, and all the elite of the islands, naval,
military, and civil, and the band of the flagship

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 195
to add to the attraction ; but unfortunately they
saw nothing of the match, as they did not arrive
till after lunch, and the match was finished before
even the band appeared upon the ground.
As it was to be a two-innings match and to
be played off in one day, we began rather early —
about eleven o'clock.
We won the toss and went in first, and were
all dismissed in about half an hour, for a total
of 22 runs. The fleet eleven smiled and chaffed
and took their time about going to the wickets;
but when they did go there they did not stay
long, for in about a quarter of an hour the whole
side was out for a total of 11 runs, four of the
" good for 50 " men being clean bowled by Mr.
Midshipman Eeade with four consecutive balls.
The enemy looked blue, but said it was a fluke
and that this sort of thing could not happen
again : so after an interval and the usual talk
about the uncertainties of cricket, our side took
the field again and their side went to the wickets,
as the rule at this date was that if one side
failed to make half the score of their opponents
they had to follow their innings.
This time the debacle was even worse than
their first innings, for the whole eleven was dis
posed of for 8 runs ; and when the Governor, the
admiral, the captains, the ladies, and the band
of music arrived, they found us playing leap-frog
and tip-and-run.
It was certainly a very remarkable match, even
for naval cricket ; the score being — Ariadne 22,
Fleet 11 and 8. We had therefore beaten them
in one innings with 3 runs to spare. I wrote a

196 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
"poem" about this match, something in the style
of the " Iliad " ; but I did not publish it, as it
would probably have called forth a counterblast
from the flagship's poets. Perhaps a paraphrase
of Bon Gaultier —
" By heavens ! thou shalt not twist our names
Into thy verses vile,
Nor mimic in thy puny song
The thunders of the Nile."
So they were denied the pleasure of hearing
" hoarse Fitzgerald bawl his creaking couplets
in the tavern hall," and also the sweet consolation
of a repartee.
It may be believed that we were not a little
proud of ourselves ; and if we had been in England
we should probably have challenged M.C.C. and
Ground. But alas ! pride goeth before a fall ; and it was
not long after this that on our return to Halifax
we were challenged and most ignominiously de
feated by a school of small boys, not one of
whom had yet shed his childish voice ; and I
have still ringing in my ears the sound of that
shrill, exultant cheer, from the whole school,
which greeted the fall of our last wicket, leaving
the small boys with a substantial lead.
On this occasion one of our two bowlers broke
down completely, and the doctor's and my lobs
were sent flying about the field to all the thirty-
two points of the compass, much to the school
boys' delight ; and the moral effect of this defeat
was so depressing that I don't think we ever quite
recovered from it.

CHAPTEE XI
The North American waters — Sail versus steam — Snipe and
alligators in Jamaica — Pot-hunting — "Man overboard!" —
Home again — Sheerness — Some reflections on naval discipline
— The Ariadne is paid off.
I SPENT seven consecutive years on the North
American and West Indian station (1861-8),
with a short break of about three months
in England while the Ariadne was paying off
and the Cordelia commissioning. It was an
interesting station during these years, which
included the American Civil War, the Jamaica
rebellion, and the Fenian raids on the border
between the United States and Canada ; and
the ships that got a fair share of the northern
division found it a very pleasant station.
Of course all our cruising and most of our
passages — unless there was some very urgent
business in hand — were made under sail ; and
it is curious now to look back upon the craze
for economy in the use of coal which possessed
our Admiralty at this time : and woe betide
the captain who got up steam without some
very good reason for doing so.
The following Admiralty circular of about this
date shows the estimation in which steam engines
were held by our rulers : —1JT

198 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
" My Lords desire to call the attention of
all officers in command of Her Majesty's ships
to Circular 177, as well as to the orders which
have been given from time to time respecting
the expenditure of coals, and to impress upon
them the necessity that exists for working their
ships without the aid of steam, when the duty
required can and ought to be performed under
sail alone, not only on the score of economy,
but for the important purpose of ensuring the
efficiency of screw ships as sailing ships."
With this circular hanging over their heads
and a wholesome fear of incurring " My Lords' "
displeasure, captains were very shy about getting
up steam ; and although no doubt the restriction
on the use of coal may have maintained the
efficiency of screw ships as sailing ships — whatever
this may have been worth as a fighting asset in
a war navy — it is quite certain that it turned
out to be penny wise, pound foolish, for it was
directly responsible for the loss of quite a con
siderable number of Her Majesty's ships, notably
that of a splendid new line-of-battle ship, a
101-gun two-decker, the Conqueror, which drifted
ashore on Bum Quay (ominous name !) under
sail and became a total wreck, because the
captain economized a few tons of coal and failed
to get up steam in time. The Conqueror was
worth about £150,000, which would have paid
for a lot of coal.
There can be no doubt that the sails were
a splendid school of education for both officers
and men. In the officers they called for great
vigilance, alertness, sound judgment, prompt

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 199
decision, and steady nerves; and in the petty
officers and seamen, for physical agility, grit
and daring of a very high order. To see half
a dozen topgallant-yard men struggling to furl
a topgallant sail which had been carried too
long in a rising gale by a foolhardy officer
was a sight which no man could fail to admire.
Captains varied a good deal in their ideas
about " carrying on " in a rising breeze. Some
were over-cautious and were universally despised,
especially by the men, who were not at all averse
to showing their shipmates how they could tackle a
tough job aloft. Other captains, again, were reck
less even to foolhardiness, and seemed to care little
what risks they ran so long as they could gain
a reputation for "carrying on" and "not being
afraid," which was not specially praiseworthy,
seeing that they had not to go aloft themselves
to furl the split sail or shift the broken spar.
The really fine seaman, of whom there were
not a few amongst the captains I served under,
seemed to know by a sort of instinct the right
moment to shorten sail : not a minute too soon,
not a minute too late.
It was never considered bad seamanship to
carry away a studding-sail boom when making
the most of a fair wind; but to carry away a
topgallant mast or to spring a yard or a topmast,
was usually dubbed a lubberly job, and was, in
point of fact, nearly always the result of bad
seamanship or inexcusable recklessness.
The sails died hard in the navy, and we who
were brought up under them, and realized what a
splendid arid incomparable institution they were

200 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
for developing all the finest and manliest charac
teristics of the British seaman, were very sorry to
see them go ; but bitterly as we regretted the
change, to sailless ships, some of us were cruelly
called traitors and renegades because we threw
over our early love and strenuously urged the
abolition of sails from all our ironclads when it
became obvious that they were not only a useless
and expensive appendage but that they interfered
seriously with fighting efficiency ; and I am not
ashamed to admit that I was amongst the traitors.
It is difficult to fathom what could have been
in the minds of the men who rigged the Inflexible
of 1875 — a low-freeboard turret ship, with four
80-ton guns and twenty-four inches of armour on
her side, or rather on part of her side : and this,
too, was after the Captain had capsized in the
Bay of Biscay — another low-freeboard turret ship
with tripod masts and a full spread of canvas.
Truly the sails died hard ; yet, in justice to our
naval architects, it must be admitted that it was
not their fault that sails and rigging remained for
many years as part of the equipment of warships
of all classes, to hamper their movements and
interfere seriously with their fighting efficiency.
Happily, other nations followed our lead, so it was
not of much consequence ; but it was the sailors,
and not the naval architects, who were responsible
for this piece of ultra-conservatism ; and it was not
until the present Sir William White and Admiral
Hopkins assumed command of the Admiralty
workshop that the sails received their final
quietus. Fine seaman though Hopkins was, he
could see a little beyond the next lamp-post, and

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 201
had faith — since well justified — that Vulcan could
step into Neptune's sea-boots, though many of his
contemporaries prophesied the downfall of the
British Navy when once our ships were unrigged
and the school of the sails lost. Small blame to
them that they could not foresee the nerve-
training which was shortly to be afforded with
the advent of T.B.D.'s manoeuvring in close order
at twenty knots, submarines, and air scouts.
I believe it has ever been the custom for old
sailors, at all periods of naval history, to lament
the good old times and the " modern " decay of
seamanship ; but that is no reason why I should
inflict upon the reader any more lamentations or
dirges. To return to the West Indies. I have some
delightful recollections of the island of Jamaica.
Not exactly of Port Boyal harbour, where I spent
a good deal of my time, but of romantic rides in
the mountains, sometimes with charming com
panions ; and invariably with a very hearty
welcome from the hospitable planters, notwith
standing that at this time they were passing
through a most disastrous financial depression for
the honour and glory of free trade in sugar. We
used to hear how " a few years ago " sugar fetched
£60 a ton, and " now " they were glad to get £20.
Yet the traditional hospitality of the Jamaica
planters was held so sacred that these kind-
hearted people were always ready to kill the fatted
calf to entertain visitors, especially sailors, and
if they hadn't got a calf they'd kill their only pig
or their only laying hen.
We used to ride about the island with saddle-

202 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
bags as our sole luggage, and one had only to
get a letter of introduction to the first planter out
of Kingston — just to say who you were — dine and
sleep there, and he would pass you on to another
planter, and so on all round the island, making
certain of a warm welcome and the very best they
could give you.
It was a delightful way of seeing the most
beautiful island in the West Indies. The scenery
in the highlands of Jamaica is magnificent, and
the change for the sun-baked sailor, from a
stuffy little cabin on board a ship in Port Eoyal
harbour, with the thermometer at 80°, to a large
airy bedroom, with the thermometer at 65°, was
a joy to be long remembered.
Fifty years ago there was only one short railway
in Jamaica and very few roads for wheel traffic ;
practically speaking none, in the most beautiful
parts of the highlands. Even the military station
at Newcastle, 4,000 feet above the sea, had no
carriage road to it, only a bridle-path, and that a
very steep one. But this made a cruise in the
mountains all the more enjoyable, as there was no
noise and no dust, and the crisp mountain air
laden with the fragrant odours of the rich tropical
and sub-tropical vegetation, the cultivated valleys,
the rugged sides of the jungle-covered mountains,
the beautiful banana-plant with its long green
satin leaves, the graceful tree-ferns, and the stately
cabbage-palms afforded a grateful change of scene
from the smell of pitch and tar, and the noise,
dust, and sweat of Port Boyal dockyard, where old
Van invariably put me in charge of the working
party, as he said he could trust me to hunt them

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 203
and keep them from idling — a compliment, no
doubt, though one that I should have been happy
to share with some of my brother-lieutenants,
though perhaps I should have been wrong, as
old Van was a good friend to me, and always
" gave me a chance " whenever there was any
thing extra and out-of-the-way to be done, which
relieved the monotony of harbour watch-keeping.
There is not much sport to be had in the West
Indies, though I remember on one occasion getting
ten couple of snipe before breakfast at a place
called Savanna-la-Mar, in the west end of the
island. He is a true cosmopolitan, the snipe. I
have shot him in Syria, in Albania, in Spain, in
Canada, in the Falkland Islands, in China, in
Japan, in Ceylon, in Jamaica, and in the bogs of
my native land ; and he is the same sporting bird
wherever you meet him, wildest in the United
Kingdom, tamest in North China, where he only
flies about a hundred yards and then alights
again, so that you can go on till you get him — if
you have ammunition enough.
One day I was shooting snipe in Jamaica in a
marshy field where there were cattle grazing. I
had bagged three or four couple and was looking
round for the next likely place, which appeared
to be a very green-looking spot on the far side of a
stout post-and-rail fence, near the bank of a small,
sluggish stream.
I was just about to step over the fence when
it occurred to me that the ground beyond looked
suspiciously green even for Jamaica, and on closer
examination I could see that it was " all afloat" —
in other words, that it was water with a mass of

204 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
very green vegetation floating on the top of it ; so
I then realized that if I had got over the fence
and taken a step or two beyond it I should prob
ably have gone in over my head and lost my gun.
But I had still further reason to congratulate
myself that I looked before I leaped, for just
before turning away to retrace my steps I saw
something which looked like a log of wood, almost
completely immersed, about ten or fifteen yards on
the far side of the fence. The log, however,
moved without any apparent reason, and then I
saw that it was the head of an alligator, with very
little more than the tip of his snout and one eye
showing, so I took a steady rest over the top rail
and let fly two barrels of snipe-shot at his eye.
There was a great upheaval and commotion in the
pond, almost as great as when the snapping turtle
swallowed Philip Slingsby and —
"Like a mighty steamship foundering
Down the monstrous vision sank,
And the ripple, slowly rolling,
Plashed and played upon the bank.
Still and stiller grew the waters,
Hushed the canes within the brake ;
There was but a kind of coughing
At the bottom of the lake."
I waited and watched for some time, but failed
even to catch the sound of a kind of coughing at
the bottom of the lake, such as had greeted the
ears of Cullen Bryant after the snapping turtle
had disappeared with Slingsby inside him. So I
then went on with my snipe shooting, and saw
no more of the alligator, though I must admit that

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 205
when I fired snipe-shot at an alligator I did not
feel quite certain as to what he would do, and I
was prepared to make a rapid strategic movement
to the rear.
On the following morning I had to return to my
ship, but I got a letter about a week afterwards
from the friend with whom I had been staying to
say that a dead alligator, about fourteen feet long,
had been found by the herd in the field where
the cattle were grazing, not far from the spot
where I fired my shot.
On the shores of that El Dorado of the buc
caneers, known as the Spanish Main, lies the city
of Santa Marta, not far from the mouth of the
great Magdalena Eiver. It is a sleepy, evil-
smelling, unattractive, Spanish-American town,
and we visited it several times in the Ariadne,
presumably for political reasons.
Most of these towns on the Spanish Main
seemed to be afflicted with chronic yellow fever —
what the doctors call "endemic" — so that it was
impossible to give leave to the men at any of
them ; and even the officers avoided the towns
as much as possible, and sought exercise and
diversion in the surrounding country, which,
however, was mostly jungle, though sometimes
very beautiful jungle. In some places it was so
thick that it was only possible to get through
it by cutting a way with a machete, while in
others it was more open, with magnificent trees
rearing their great trunks to a height of a hundred
feet without a leaf, and then spreading out in a
rich foliage, so thick as to make twilight in the
forest at noonday ; the trunks of the trees being

206 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
often adorned with various creepers, covered with
gorgeous, many-tinted blossoms. But no pen of
mine can do justice to the beauty of these Central
American forests, and I must refer the reader to
that delightful book, Charles Kingsley's " At
Last," where he will find such a fascinating
description of these tropical forests that he will
never be happy until he sees them.
We got some shooting at Santa Marta — a very
curious kind of shooting, which some ultra-fastidi
ous people will probably deny me the right to
call " sport," as we shot the birds on the
ground ! It was pot-hunting, pure and unadulter
ated ; but I have already ventured the remark in
a previous chapter that pot-hunting is the very
essence of sport, and that unless you are shooting
for the pot you don't realize the meaning of
the word " sport."
We used to call the birds "quail," though I
believe their proper name is Virginian partridge.
They are a little bigger than quail, and they
have a tuft on the top of their heads, and are
very good eating.
Some little distance from the town of Santa
Marta there were several patches of cultivated
land ; they were like oases in the primeval forest ;
and on these the birds fed in great numbers
between the first streak of dawn and the time
that the sun rose above the tops of the tall
trees. We used, therefore, to land about an hour
before dawn and make our way in the dark as
best we could, so as to get to the cultivated
patches just as the day was breaking, and then,
as soon as it was light enough to distinguish

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 207
objects thirty or forty yards off, the stalk began —
one barrel on the ground, and the second barrel
as the birds rose, right into the brown of them ;
and as they were generally in large coveys and
fed close together, we sometimes got seven or
eight with one shot, and thus made some good
pot-hunting bags of very good birds that we
could not have got in any other way, as the
natives never seemed to trouble them.
Several times we tried following the birds into
the forest, but it was quite useless, and we
never got another sight of them once they were
off the cultivated land.
There is another kind of pot-hunting sport
which is peculiar to the Central American forests ;
but this is on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.
The quarry is the chachalaca, a bird about the
size of a small turkey, and excellent eating. You
don't shoot him on the ground, because you
never get a shot at him there ; but you do shoot
him sitting in a tree.
The bird is also known as the Texan quan,
and dogs are useful for this chase. The dogs
find them and put them up, and they fly into
one of the tall forest trees and perch there. The
dogs then bark excitedly at the foot of the tree
and the bird replies by calling out " Chachalaca !
chachalaca ! chachalaca ! " with all his might,
apparently in defiance of the dogs, or as much
as to say, " Sold again," or, "You haven't got
me yet " ; but whatever the cry means in bird
language, the continued repetition of it costs
the silly bird his life ; for if he only sat tight
and held his tongue, the chances would be about

208 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
a hundred to one that you would never be able
to locate him or get a sight of him amongst the
thick foliage of the tropical forest ; but as he
continues to call out "Chachalaca !," as long as the
dogs bark, you can generally manage to sight
him after some difficulty ; and as he is badly
wanted for the pot, down he comes with a thud ;
and then you must get at him before the dogs
do, else these hungry tykes would make short
work of him, for they also are hunting for the pot.
I fear the readers of the Pink 'Un, and other
orthodox sportsmen of that type, will dub me an
arrant poacher for making such admissions.
Well, I must acknowledge that I have always
had a sneaking regard for the poacher; and I
am not sure that he is not the true sportsman,
as he is hunting for something that he really
wants — bird, beast, or fish — for himself and his
family. Moreover, as he is not only hunting,
but hunted, he has a double excitement, which
must add to the sport.
He is, of course, breaking the law ; but then he
argues that the law is an unjust one and tthat
wild animals, birds or fishes are the property of
any one who likes to kill them, and that if they
are not wild, but tame, and preserved, there is
no sport in killing them. The argument that if
there were no game laws there would not be a
pheasant, partridge, deer, or salmon in the United
Kingdom in ten years' time does not appeal to
him, as he would then find some other business,
such as house-breaking or henroost-robbing, in
imitation of one of his country's distinguished
lawmakers.

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 209
As I cannot claim to be a professor of ethics,
I will not pursue the argument farther; though
I well remember being struck with the simple
logio of a reply made to me on one occasion by
a notorious poacher in Co. Donegal, when I
remonstrated with him on his acknowledgment
of a method of salmon-poaching which even I
in my direst extremity would have hesitated to
adopt. He thought for a moment, as if he was
a little bit ashamed of himself, and then said
sadly, " Shure, the family must live."
And now that we have had a good spell on
shore, and indulged in various kinds of sport,
from quails to alligators, it is time to return to
the sea and the Ariadne.
Fifty years ago Her Majesty's ships used to do
a good deal of " trooping," which is now performed
by merchant-steamers. Thus on one occasion the
Ariadne carried a battery of artillery from Pictou
to Quebec ; and I find the following entry in the
journal (October 29, 1862): " Embarked 4th Battery
Eoyal Artillery, consisting of 161 rank and file,
9 sergeants, 7 officers, 19 women and 30 children. "
These we landed at Quebec. And then (Novem
ber 7th) : "Embarked 4 officers, 108 men, 74 women,
and 148 children of the Eoyal Canadian Bifles "
(sic). And then (November 9th): "Anna Madden,
wife of James Madden, private B.C.E., was
dehvered of a female child." Poor Anna Madden !
she must have had a rough time on board a man-
of-war in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the month
of November; though, if I remember right, our
kind-hearted assistant surgeon gave up his cabin
for the event ; and no doubt the young lady was
15

210 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
in due time christened Ariadne. We landed the
Eoyal Canadian Eifles, with their 148 children,
at St. John's, Newfoundland, where I hope they
are now all flourishing as good and loyal subjects
of our gracious king.
During the American Civil War there was a big
business done in blockade-running between Nasau
in the Bahama Islands and Wilmington, and some
other ports in the possession of the Southerners.
It was a risky but very profitable game, if you got
through with a cargo.
Special, very fast, shallow- draught, paddle-
wheel steamers were built on the Clyde for this
purpose, and several of these were commanded
by British naval officers, some of whom rose to
distinction in our navy afterwards. Murray
Aynsley was one, and Hobart (who afterwards
became Hobart Pasha) was another, and I think
the late Sir William Hewett, V.C., and Captain
Burgoyne, who was lost in the Captain, were
others ; but of the two last I am not sure. Of
course if any of these officers had been caught
by the Federal cruisers which were blockading
Southern ports they would have been repudiated
by our Government, for they were guilty of a
breach of the neutrality declaration issued by Her
Majesty ; but the offer of the command of a
blockade-runner, with a large share of the profits if
successful, must have been very tempting to an
adventurous young commander on half-pay, who
probably enjoyed the risks and the excitement as
much as the prospective profits.
I remember hearing that Hobart, whose
acquaintance I made some time afterwards at

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 211
Constantinople, had at one time made about
£20,000, but went once too often and lost all.
Boots, leather accoutrements, and all munitions
of war were in great demand in the Southern
States ; and I also remember hearing that quinine
was three guineas an ounce. So that blockade-
running must have been an immensely profitable
business. To run a cargo in — even if you never got out
again — must have cleared all expenses and made
a handsome profit ; but if you could get out
with a cargo of cotton, the profits were, of course,
still larger ; for those who are old enough will
remember the cotton famine and the great distress
caused in Manchester by the American Civil
War, and the high prices which ruled for raw
cotton, the Southern States being almost the
only source of supply : so that the sympathy —
not only the sentimental, but also the business
sympathy — of England was with the Southerners.
The Northerners had, practically speaking,
what is called "command of the sea"; that is to
say, the Southerners were in no position to come
out and fight a battle to raise the blockade of their
coast. But, on the other hand, the Northern navy
was not sufficiently powerful or ubiquitous to
prevent the Alabama and other Southern com
merce-destroyers from effecting such depredations
amongst the foreign-going mercantile marine of
the Northern States— entirely composed of sailing
ships — as to sweep the Stars and Stripes from
every ocean. And although Great Britain after
wards handed over a nice little sum of £2,000,000
as compensation for allowing the Alabama to

212 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
escape from a British port, the United States
have never recovered the share of ocean commerce
which they then lost.
And now we must take the Ariadne home and
pay her off, else I shall never be able to
give the reader a cruise in all my ships, in the
space at my disposal.
We sailed from Bermuda — homeward bound —
on February 13, 1864, and directly we were
clear of the islands we got a westerly gale to
speed us on our way to old England, which was
very nice, so far as helping us along went ; but
our decks had not been caulked for a long time,
and the change of climate from the Caribbean Sea
to the North Atlantic, together with the heavy
rolling of the ship, caused the seams to open ;
and as the decks were " all afloat," the water
poured into our cabins in streams. I made a
duck-tent to go over my bed, and this kept out a
good deal of it. Some of my messmates slept in
oilskins, but that did not look comfortable, and
I thought the tent was better. No doubt
we grumbled more or less, yet I don't suppose
we were worse off than soldiers campaigning. My
messmate, George Boyes, got a bad attack of
rheumatic fever, and suffered agonies from the
rolling of the ship ; yet I could do little towards
nursing or helping him, as his illness put the
lieutenants in three watches, and thus gave us but
little spare time.
However, in spite of all our discomfort, we had
the consolation to think that we were nearing
home at the rate of between two and three
hundred miles a day, and that it could not last

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 213
long, if only the westerly wind would hold ; and it
did hold until we had arrived within about three
hundred miles of the Scilly Isles, when, like a
flash, it chopped round to the eastward and blew
with equal strength from that quarter ; so that we
took a week to do this last three hundred miles of
our voyage.
It was during this easterly gale that I had one
of the most exciting experiences of my life, in
an open boat in a gale of wind in the Atlantic.
A few years ago I was asked to contribute an
essay to a book entitled " Unwritten Laws and
Ideals," which embraced such professions as the
Army, the Navy, the Church, the Law, the medical
profession, and many others, and I found myself
in some very distinguished company. The navy
was, of course, the subject allotted to me, and
I propose to describe the incident alluded to
above by quoting from my own essay, which
I trust will not be regarded as an act of piracy.
The reader will perhaps forgive the attempt
to give a sort of dramatic touch to the language
in which I described the unwritten law of picking
up a lifebuoy whenever it had been let go : —
" Scene : North Atlantic, in the month of
March ; an easterly gale blowing ; one of our finest
wooden frigates under triple-reefed topsails and
reefed courses, struggling to get to the eastward.
Time, 2.30 p.m., and the wardroom officers
just about to sit down to dinner.
" Cry, ' Man overboard ! ' — an exciting cry at
any time, but under the above circumstances
peculiarly so.
" ' Hands shorten sail ! ' Officers and men rush

214 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
on deck; the courses are hauled up, the main
topsails backed, and the ship hove to. And
now comes the critical and all-important question,
Will the captain lower a boat? The lifebuoy
has been let go, and there is a tradition, an ideal,
an unwritten law, that if the lifebuoy has been
let go it ought to be picked up again ; but there
is a heavy sea running, and to lower a boat in
such weather is to risk the lives of fourteen or
fifteen men on the off-chance of saving one : yet
there is a strong feeling, an unwritten law, that
it is mean and discreditable not to make
an effort to save a shipmate who has had the
misfortune to fall overboard. The ship is hove
to, the boat — a 12-oared cutter — is manned, the
men stationed to lower her are standing by the
falls, the midshipman of the boat and one of
the lieutenants are in the stern sheets, and the
latter takes the helm, as the proper coxswain
is absent (and is promptly disrated next
morning). " And now the decision rests with the captain.
Will he lower the boat ? Is it worth the risk ?
He is a splendid seaman, a man of iron nerve ;
but there is a nasty short, steep sea running, such
as always accompanies -an easterly gale in the
Atlantic, and the ship — a large frigate — is rolling
her main-deck guns into the water.
" The captain hesitates for a moment, and then
gives the order, ' Lower away the lifeboat ! ' This
is cleverly done ; the boat takes the water, the falls
are let go at the right moment, the tackles smartly
unhooked, and the boat gets clear of the ship with
out accident, and pulls away to windward in the

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 215
direction of the lifebuoy. It is an anxious time
for those in the boat, as she has to encounter some
ugly, curling, breaking seas, which threaten to
swamp her, and would do so if they caught her
broadside on; but the helmsman is an experienced
boatman,* and he dodges the seas, always keeping
the boat's bows on to any particularly threatening-
looking curler, and thus makes his way slowly
to the lifebuoy and picks it up ; but alas ! there is
no man on it, and as the seat that the man was
sitting on when he was washed overboard is also
picked up, there can be no doubt that the poor
fellow has been drowned ; so there is nothing for
the boat to do now but to return to the ship.
But this is not such an easy matter ; far more
difficult and dangerous than it was to get her up
to windward where she now is ; for she will first
have to turn round and pass through the critical
position of ' broadside on,' and then run before
the sea, which is more dangerous than heading it,
as she is a square-sterned boat, and therefore
more liable to be pooped than a boat of whaleboat
build ; but the helmsman watches his opportunity,
gets the boat round successfully, and steers for
the ship, dodging the seas as best he can.
"Frequently the boat and the ship lose sight
of each other as they pass through the trough of
the seas; and those on board the ship are very
anxious, probably far more anxious than those in
the boat, as the latter have the excitement and
* I took the liberty of describing myself as an experienced
boatman, as I was brought up in boats from my earliest
childhood, and could row a small oar and sail a small boat
almost as soon as I could walk.

216 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
elation which always attach to any service with
a spice of danger in it ; whereas the former
feel their utter helplessness to do anything but
look on.
" The captain, as has been said, was a man of
iron nerve, and those who knew him best and had
been in some tight places with him had never
before seen him perturbed; but on this occasion
he showed great anxiety and was quite unable
to maintain his accustomed sang-froid, asking
frequent questions of the men aloft — ' Can you
see the boat? What is she doing? Has she
picked up the lifebuoy ? Is she coming back ? '
and finally going up the mizen rigging himself, in
order that he might keep sight of her; but the
' sweet little cherub that sits up aloft to keep
watch o'er the life of poor Jack ' has his eye on
that boat, and brings her safely back to the ship.
" The excitement is not over yet, however, for
the boat has to be hoisted up, and that is no easy
matter in such a sea, with the ship labouring
heavily and rolling her main-deck guns, and some
times her main-chains, into the water. It would,
of course, be possible for the men to scramble
into the ship and abandon the boat, and this is
sometimes done on such occasions; but there is an
unwritten law which says that if it is in the
power of British seamen to save the boat it ought
to be done, and there are always men ready to
volunteer to hook the boat on if the captain
will allow them to try ; and on this occasion he
does allow them, though it very nearly costs them
their lives; for when the boat is about half-way
up the ship gives a sudden and heavy lurch to

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 217
windward which dashes the boat against the
ship's side, smashing in half a dozen of her planks
severely hurting two of the men in her, and throw
ing two others overboard. Preparation has, how
ever, been made for this eventuality : a dozen
ropes, with a bowline knot at the end of each of
them, are already dangling over the lee quarter,
and after an anxious five minutes the two men
overboard are fished up and hauled on board, the
remnants of the boat are hoisted up and secured,
the two injured men (one with three ribs broken)
are attended by the surgeon, and thus ends an
exciting incident in the cruise of one of Her
Majesty's ships."
In describing the event as above for the
volume of " Unwritten Laws and Ideals " all
names were, for obvious reasons, suppressed ;
though the reader will, of course, understand
that the ship was the Ariadne, the captain was
Vansittart, and I was the lieutenant who had
the good fortune to find the coxswain's post
vacant ; though I am not quite sure that I
should have allowed him to steer if he had
been there, for I have always been obsessed
with the vain conceit that I can steer a boat
better than anybody else : and when all is said
and done, a certain measure of self-confidence
is better than doubt and hesitation when you
find yourself in a tight place, especially if your
conceit is not entirely founded upon the " valour
of ignorance."
Many years after this I met my old captain
in the hall of the United Service Club. He
was then a very old man and obviously failing

218 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
fast, both physically and mentally. I saw he
did not recognize me, so I accosted him with,
" You don't remember me, sir, I'm afraid."
He looked hard at me for a moment from under
his shaggy eyebrows, and then said, " I can't
remember your name, but you are the young
lieutenant who went away in the boat to try
and pick the man up ; and by Jove ! if you had
not been able to handle a boat you'd all have
been drowned."
Then he thought again for a moment, and
the scene appeared to come back to his memory,
and he added, in an apologetic tone: "I never
would have lowered the boat at all, ye know,
only that I saw the man's cap on the water."
Old Van died a year or two after this, and
I never saw him again, but his commanding
figure, his imperious voice, his prompt decisions,
splendid self-confidence, and fine seamanship
are memories of the sea which can never be
effaced. Four or five years afterwards the Ariadne
lost a boat's crew of twelve men and two officers
not far from the same spot and under somewhat
similar circumstances ; though according to all
accounts the weather was not nearly so bad,
as the ship was carrying topgallant sails at
the time : but it was said that there was lack
of good seamanship on the part of the captain
on this occasion, and the " sweet little cherub
that sits up aloft " must have been asleep or
off duty.
It took us another week to get to Plymouth
— only about 300 miles — after the incident related

MEMORIES OF THE SEA 219
above. The hard easterly wind continued, and
there was too much sea to steam against it,
even with our 800 horse power (now our big
cruisers have 70,000 !). Besides which, to the
best of my recoUection we had veiy little coal
on board, as we had not filled up at Bermuda,
expecting westerly winds and not wishing to
have all the labour of getting out a lot of coal
before paying off ; for in the old days a ship
had to be emptied of everything before the crew
were dismissed. However, we got to Plymouth
at last, laid in a stock of fresh bread and butter
and Devonshire cream, and then went on to
Sheerness to pay off.
Fifty years ago Sheerness was generally
declared by naval officers to be the most God
forsaken place on the face of the earth. There
was no railway to it, and the only way of getting
at it was by crazy little paddle-steamers from
Chatham. The town itself was mostly composed
of wooden hovels built of dockyard chips ; for in
the old days — the very old days — the shipwrights
were allowed to carry out of the dockyards, when
they went home at night, the chips they had
made during the day — partly to clear up the
litter round the building shps and partly as
perquisites, for firewood ; but this indulgence had
to be stopped, as it was found that they made an
abnormal amount of chips, quite out of proportion
to the finished article, and that the chips got to
be bigger and bigger, until at last they were able
to build houses with them. And thus it came
about that the district known as " Blue Town,"
where most of the dockyard workmen lived, was

220 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
a collection of clinker-built houses built of dock
yard chips; the term "clinker" or " lapstrake,"
indicating, in technical language, that method of
boat-building most commonly in use where one
plank laps over the next one.
The Ariadne was not allowed to go alongside
the dockyard to strip and return her gear, although
there was plenty of room, but was moored to a
buoy in the harbour, half a mile from the dock
yard, as this was in accordance with red-tape and
was certain to cause the greatest amount of incon
venience and involve the largest amount of labour
for the crew ; and I really think the stripping
of that ship was the bitterest time I ever had in
my life.
It was the month of March, and very cold,
especially for us after the West Indies. The
wind kept hard in the east. It rained a good deal,
and when it didn't rain it snowed or froze. We
couldn't get the sails dry, and we couldn't get
the yards down until the sails were dry. This
delayed us considerably, as the dockyard authori
ties would not receive the sails until they were
quite dry.
The ship had to be emptied. Guns, ammuni
tion, stores, coal, even the water-tanks taken out,
cleaned and returned to the victualling yard. She
also had to be " stripped to a gantline," which
means that every bit of standing and running
rigging had to be unrove, jagged up, docketted,
and returned to the dockyard. All spars except
the actual lower masts had to be launched over the
side and towed on shore by rowboats : as there
were no steam launches in those days and we were

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 221
lying in a strong tideway this was a heavy and
difficult job.
To add to all our troubles, there were only two
lieutenants out of five for duty. My old friend
George Boyes (now, alas ! paid off for full-due) was
still very ill with rheumatic fever, and had to go
to the hospital; and both the first and second
lieutenants promptly got the surgeon to put
them on the sick-list directly the hard work
began ; and so Key and I had to pay the ship off.
Old Van was furious ; he dropped remarks
occasionally which showed that he thought the
first and second lieutenants were shamming, and
this made him very angry : he was angry with
them and angry with the surgeon for putting
them on the sick-list ; but he could do nothing
but grin and bear it and rampage about between
the ship and the dockyard, leading us all what
the sailors call " a dog's life of it." Key had
the ship work and I had the dockyard work, which
included the landing and hauling up of all the
spars. One afternoon I was on shore with the dock
yard party hauling up the main-yard, when old Van
came along in the tantrums and gave me such
an extra allowance of cold tongue that I answered
him back and we " had words," for which I was
sorry afterwards, though he really was unreason
ably provoking, for it was not my fault that the
first and second lieutenants had gone on the sick-
list ; still, I suppose I ought to have known that
this was the real cause of his anger and allowed
myself to be made the scapegoat for the good of
discipline.

222 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
Looking back now upon this time after a lapse
of near fifty years, it is still puzzling to understand
what use there could be, from a Service point of
view, in making that ship strip and clear out in
the tideway instead of going alongside the yard
where there was plenty of room for her, and the
work could have been done in about half the time.
Probably it was in accordance with an unwritten
law or an ideal of a bygone age : at any rate it
gave us a vast amount of extra work, and no
leave was given to either officers or men while
a ship was preparing to pay off. This was cer
tainly wise so far as the men were concerned,
as there would have been but little chance of
their turning up sober and ready for work next
morning. Nobody who has the good of the Service
at heart would like to revert to the harsh methods
by which we maintained discipline in the navy
fifty years ago ; though it may be open to doubt
whether we are not now going to the other extreme
by pampering and coddling our seamen a little too
much. We don't want the navy manned with tame
cats and domesticated spaniels, but with hardy
seamen, who think more of their ship and their
duty than of getting on shore to their wives and
families every second night when the ship is in
harbour. No doubt one of the great difficulties
which a commanding officer now has to contend
with arises from the fact that five-sixths of our
fighting ships are kept hanging around the coasts
of Great Britain, and all hands with one eye on
the shore and the other on the ship.

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 223
In former days we never used to think we
could begin to get our ships into real proper
order until we were clear of the home ports and
well out in blue water, on our way to the
Mediterranean or some other station. Yet the
present unsatisfactory state of affairs must con
tinue so long as the country is guilty of the
insensate folly of encouraging a few patriotic and
zealous amateurs to play at soldiering in their
spare time, instead of providing itself with a
national army, by making every man do his
duty. The " naval discontent," which we are now
beginning to hear about, is largely due to the
fact that our ships are too much in the home
ports and the men get married, and then find
that their pay is not sufficient to support a wife
and family, which it never was intended to be.
Marriage may be very good for their morals, but
what we want is fighting efficiency and not goody-
goody tame cats, brought up on jam and " soft
tack," who make a great fuss if they are not allowed
to spend Christmas Day in the bosom of their
families. In former days we generally found it better
for discipline to spend Christmas Day at sea if
we could manage it. Of course the men grumbled
more or less — it is one of their privileges to do so —
though they knew in their hearts it was good for
them. And that reminds me of an old song that
used to be rather popular on the fo'c'sle. It
was the lament of a lady who was expecting
her sweetheart to spend Christmas Day with
her, instead of which the port-admiral sent his

224 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
ship to sea. The chorus verse was always sung
with great gusto —
" And you've sent his ship in a gale of wind,
On a lee shore to be jam mod ;
I'll give you a bit of my mind, old hunks :
Port-admiral, you be damned I "
And now I must return to the Ariadne, pay her
off, and take a last fond farewell of her and of
my shipmates, with none of whom did I ever
serve again.
At the end of three weeks' hard work in rain,
wind, frost and snow we had the ship cleared out
and stripped, and we were then taken alongside
the dockyard to pay off, with nothing left stand
ing but the lower masts ; and right glad wo were
to find ourselves free, and to get away from
Sheerness as soon as possible.
I had not been quite three years a lieutenant,
and as there was no full-pay leave for commis
sioned officers in those days, I went on shore on
half-pay, or what was called half-pay, which
in my case was 4s. a day ; though, as my
full pay had been 10s. a day, I discovered that
the arithmetic of my grateful country was
different from that which I had been taught at
school. However, it was enough to pay for my washing,
and I had plenty of kind friends to offer me a
hearty welcome, and after spending a very happy
three months on shore I was appointed first lieu
tenant of the Cordelia, fitting out at Plymouth.

CHAPTEE XH
HALS. Cordelia — Spearing, playing, and hunting turtle in the
Gulf of Mexico — Fishing at night-— Chasing a pirate schooner
— Devil-fish — Hayu and H.M.S. Bulldog — The Jamaica Be-
bellion of 1S65 — Duck-shooang.
THE Cordelia was what sailors elegantly call
a " bug-trap " (and she became one literally
on more than one occasion during our commission
in the West Ladies).
A ••bug-trap" may be described as a futile
attempt of the naval architect to squeeze a
quart of naval energy into a pint bottle. It
never succeeds, and of late years it seems to
have been abandoned, for no one can now
accuse our naval architects of being afraid of
tonnage. The Cordeiia was only a few tons bigger than
the old brigs, yet into her were crowded engines.
boilers, coal-bunkers, eleven guns, the spars
and rigging of a full-rigged ship, twelve officers
and a hundred and thirty men; and they sent
ns trooping ! Yes, on one occasion we carried
fifty black soldiers, two white sergeants and their
wives, a four days' trip, from Jamaica to Belize,
and this was one of the occasions upon which
the Cordelia earned her sobriquet.
She was lying in Plymouth Sound when I
16 £

226 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
joined her, and I found everybody "waiting for
the first lieutenant." It seems that another
man had been appointed, but asked to be excused,
and then I was appointed, as a sort of after
thought, and thus arrived late upon the scene.
I cannot say I was altogether enchanted by
the look of the little ship, either inside or out ;
but I was young for the billet, and consoled
myself with the adage, "Better first in a village
than second in Borne."
Our wardroom was thirteen feet square and
the table in the middle just held the six of us —
two lieutenants, the master, two doctors, and
the paymaster ; and if one of us wanted to
ask a friend to dine, some one else had to dine
out ; but we had a fine big skylight with fresh
air and plenty of daylight.
The midshipmen's berth was about eight feet
square, and it only had one small scuttle for
light and air. There were eight in it originally,
three being naval cadets on first entry ; but
two of the said cadets' fathers who came on
board to pay their sons a visit were so horrified
at the sight of the " dog-hole " that they went
straight up to the Admiralty and got the boys
removed before the ship sailed; so that I had
only one cadet left to bully, and right well he
turned out.
We first went to Halifax, and took a month
to get there. This was the Cordelia's second
commission, and in the interval she had a top
gallant forecastle built on her ; but this put
her so much out of trim and down by the head
that all the bilge water ran forward to the bows

a; «r
3 >

::

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 227
instead of coming to the suctions of the pumps,
and by the time we got to Halifax you could
have smelt us a mile off.
It was fortunate that we did not go straight
to the West Indies in that condition, or we
should probably have got yellow fever or some
other plague. At Halifax we got fifteen tons
of ballast and put it in the stern, and this put
her in trim again, but spoilt her sailing qualities
— if she ever had any.
It was rather a come-down from the Ariadne
to the Cordelia, from the finest frigate afloat
to a sloop of 579 tons, just half the size of some
of our modern torpedo-boat destroyers. Yet a
first lieutenant is a bit of an autocrat in his
way, especially if he has an easy-going captain,
as I had for the first six months of the commission,
while getting the ship in order — as we used
to call it — by gilding the trucks and the name
on the stern, painting the port-holes vermilion,
sticking a gilt arrow in the end of the flying
jib-boom, and one or two other little adornments ;
for Jack likes his ship to look " saucy," and
although biologists may be quite right when
they tell us that the curl in the pig's tail is
of no use to him, and only for ornament, he
would certainly look less jaunty if his tail were
straight. We were not given a very long holiday at
Halifax, but soon sent down to the old happy
hunting-grounds in the West Indies, and before
long we found ourselves in the Gulf of Mexico,
lying at the usual anchorage under the lee of
Sacrificios Island, four miles from the city of

228 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
Vera Cruz ; but the great international fleet had
departed and the Island of Sacrificios had become
a French cemetery ; so there could be no more
digging for Aztec remains, as we should only
have dug up Frenchmen.
In a former chapter I mentioned that there
are plenty of turtle in the Gulf of Mexico, but
that we did not know how to catch them when
I was there in the Ariadne. There were no tracks
of them on the shores of the little sandy islets,
and they never seemed to come on shore, like
they do at Ascension, where they are turned
(hence " turn turtle ") when they come on shore
at night to lay their eggs. Of course only the
cows are caught in this way, as the bull never
comes on shore ; he is not such a fool.
Before going down to Vera Cruz in the
Cordelia I had made such inquiries and gained
such information with regard to pelagic turtling
that we were able to catch as many as we wanted
for our own use while we were there, and also
take back fifty to Jamaica when we returned
there and give them away to our friends.
Not only was it very agreeable to be able to
vary our diet with turtle soup, turtle steaks, turtle
fin, but it was really very fine sport catching
them ; and as I do not think that many of my
readers have ever speared and played a 300-lb.
turtle, I will give a somewhat detailed description
of how it is done, which those who care nothing
for sport may skip.
" Spearing " and " playing " may perhaps sound
cruel, so it must be explained that the so-called
spearing is painless, as the little steel peg only

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 229
sticks into the hard carapace of the turtle, which
has no more feeling than the horny part of a
horse's hoof, and it is a condition of securing
the turtle uninjured, so that he may live in
peace until he is wanted for food ; that the spear-
point must not be more than three-quarters of
an inch long, as otherwise it would penetrate the
lungs and the creature would bleed to death.

Inches

This is the exact size of the spear, which is
made of steel, a fits loosely into a metal
socket at the end of a nine-foot ash shaft. Bound
b the line is spliced ; and c is the point to be stuck
into the shell of the turtle. The rest of the out
fit consists of an ash shaft about the thickness
of an ordinary boathook staff. Sixty fathoms
of line, rather stouter than cod-line, with a buoy
on the inboard end of it, to be thrown overboard in
case all the line has run out before the boat's
head can be pointed in the right direction, though
this does not often happen.
The southern shores of the Gulf of Mexico are
skirted by numerous coral-reefs, some of them
several miles in extent, and in general character
these reefs are all more or less alike, the depth
of water on them ranging from three to six feet,
with a sandy bottom studded with lumps of brain
coral ; the weather, or seaward, side of the reef
being protected by a great bank of coral well

230 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
above water, this bank having been piled up by
the winter storms ; and the result is that with the
prevailing wind there is smooth water on the
reef. The turtle lie asleep, or apparently asleep, on
the bottom, and as the water is as clear as crystal,
they can be seen a good way off, especially if
the sun is shining, which it generally is in this
country. The boat we used was a little fourteen-foot skiff
with a small sail, and the crew consisted of three,
one in the bow with the spear, one at the helm,
and one ready to get the mast and sail down and
the oars out directly the turtle is struck. It is
absolutely necessary that there must be a breeze
to ruffle the surface of the water and give the
boat steerage way. Many times we tried to
approach the turtle in a calm by rowing very
gently, or poling with a long pole, but it was
useless, for they were always off and away before
we could get within striking distance ; but under
sail we could get right over them and job the little
steel peg into the shell before they moved, and
then they did move. The pace at which these
unwieldy-looking creatures can go for a short
distance is quite astonishing and difficult to
believe unless absolutely seen. The line — neatly
coiled in the bottom of the boat — fizzed out
and burned one's fingers, while the other two
members of the crew were lowering the sail,
getting out the oars, and turning the boat's head
in the right direction, for the turtle would make
his first rush in whichever direction he was facing
when struck, and this might be broad on the

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 231
beam or even astern ; but after a little practice
the crew got so smart that it was necessary on
the rarest occasions only to throw the buoy over
and chase it.
Of course, if the line were checked for an instant
while the turtle was running, either the peg
would come out or the line would break as
surely as if you checked the reel when your
salmon was making his first rush ; for although
the gear is stronger, so also is a 300-lb. turtle
stronger and heavier than a 30-lb. salmon.
There was a good deal to be learnt and to
remember before we were quite successful in this
turtle-hunting campaign. One thing to remember
was that it was necessary to pull back the shaft
the instant you felt that the peg was in, for if
you failed to do this the peg would fall out again
at once, the line of impact being altered by the
onward motion of the boat ; and from this it will
be understood that the spear was not thrown, but
jobbed, like pig-sticking, and then the haft drawn
back quickly.
I really think this turtle-hunting was quite as
good sport as any salmon-fishing, and I have
always put salmon-fishing second only to hunting,
though, of course, the sport was scarcely suitable
for middle-aged or elderly people, as will be
seen by the following description of a successful
hunt : —
The little boat, with its crew of three, has
arrived upon the reef, and the little sprit-sail is
put up, and we begin to tack to windward slowly.
A keen young midshipman is at the helm, the
skiff-boy sits in the middle of the boat, and I stand

232 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
in the bow with the spear. We never got a turtle
when running before the wind, as the boat was
then going too fast and the peg always came out.
Presently I sight a turtle on the weather bow,
about twenty yards off, and we make a bid for
him by luffing up just before we get abreast of
him, but the little boat does not carry her way
sufficiently to get within reach of him, and he sees
us and makes off. Then we sight one on the
lee bow, and by making a short detour leeward
and then luffing up, we get right over him with
very little way on the boat, and I get a fair job at
him and feel that he is well and firmly pegged.
Off he goes at an astonishing speed, broad on the
bow, and the line burns my fingers as it runs out ;
but the middy and the boy get the mast and
sail down very smartly, out oars, turn the boat's
head in the right direction, and then give way,
so that I am soon able to put a little strain on
the line, and finally to hold on tight and make
the turtle tow the boat, which he does quite as
fast as we could row her.
His first rush is about 150 yards, and then he
stops, and I haul up to him hand over hand until
quite close to him, when he makes another
rush, but shorter than the first one, and so on,
for about twenty minutes or half an hour, at the
end of which time he is played out like a salmon
and flops about helplessly on the top of the water ;
and now he has to be turned on his back and got
into the boat, so overboard go the middy and
the boy, and soon have him upside down and
helpless. They are standing on the bottom, up
to their armpits in water. I am in the boat, and

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 233
get a grip of one fore-fin and one hind-fin of the
turtle, and they get their shoulders under him,
and with a " One, two, three ! heave ! " down goes
the gunwale of the boat and in comes the turtle ;
and in comes also the water, so that the little
boat is more than half full, and my crew must
wait patiently while I bail her out with a bucket,
until they can be allowed on board again.
Most of the turtle we caught were over 300 lb.,
a few were over 400, and occasionally we got
a small one under 100, but this was rare. I kept
a regular record, a turtle log, and the best day's
sport was five big turtle all over 350 lb. We
caught more than we could use ourselves at the
time, so we built a storage pond of coral rocks
on the shore of one of the islets, and put a lot
of turtle into it ; but one night it came on to
blow and knocked a hole in the wall and ten
turtle escaped, so then we tried mooring them
to posts driven into the sand close to the water's
edge, and in this way they swam about gaily and
seemed to be quite happy, though they were not
getting any " forrarder."
One day the gunner, who was a very good
fellow and a bit of a character in his way, said
he would like to try his hand at turtle-spearing,
so we took him out in the little boat and gave
him the spear ; the other two being my amphibious
middy (G. Temple) and myself. In due time
we got him over a big turtle, and he drove in
the peg with a mighty thrust, as if he were
ramming home a 32-lb. shot. Off went the
turtle and out went the line, into the coil
of which the gunner managed to place one of

234 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
his enormous feet. A catastrophe seemed to be
inevitable ; but on the inspiration of the moment,
and in order to avoid losing his turtle, he promptly
jumped overboard. The turtle was not then
actually running, and we hoped to be able to
clear the line before he made his next move ;
but we were not given time, for the gunner,
who was standing up to his shoulders in water,
was whipped off his legs and towed away
in spite of himself. Temple and I rowed after
him, but just before we got to him the turtle
made another rush, and off went the gunner
again with his head under water. We could
hardly row for laughing, and scarcely realized
how critical the situation was until we finally
got hold of the gunner and found that he was
very nearly drowned ; for although he was a
good swimmer he never got a chance. We
got him into the boat eventually, puffing and
spluttering and making use of strange language ;
but the frequent jerks on the line had loosened
the peg, and the turtle was lost.
Shortly after this the gunner announced that
in his opinion spearing was all humbug, and
that he could catch a turtle by jumping over
board and turning him, without the unnecessary
operation of spearing him ; and he was sure, at
any rate, that two could do it, so he persuaded
another of the midshipmen (Shergold Smith)*
to join him in the attempt. They made several
* George Shergold Smith was a fine plucky lad; he
left the navy after becoming a lieutenant, and went out
to East Africa as a missionary, and he and all his com
panions were murdered on an island in Lake Tanganyika.

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 235
bets that they would succeed, and away they
went in the little boat. We watched them from
the ship, and they seemed to be a long time
finding a turtle (it turned out afterwards they
were looking for a small one). Then they both
jumped overboard, and we saw a great splashing
going on in the water and the boy in the boat
rowing after them. Presently they came on
board with a small turtle of about 50 lb. weight.
They had won their bet, but the gunner had
his arm in a sling for several days with a
sprained wrist, and Smith's knees and feet were
so scraped and cut with the coral that he could
not put his trousers on, and had to go on the
sick-list. They did not try it again.
There were plenty of other fish on the reefs
besides the turtle (N.B. A turtle is a " reptile "),
but we could not get near them in the day
time to spear them ; so we constructed a sort
of cage with iron hoops and filled this with
combustibles, to which we set a light, and then
went out on the reefs at night with the grains, to
spear fish. The so-called "grains" is a weapon
with five barbed prongs, like Neptune's trident,
the butt being heavily weighted with lead, and
it is thrown, and not jobbed like the turtle spear.
The fishes, attracted by the light, came rushing
at it from all quarters, and the water being
extremely phosphorescent, they made a bright
silvery streak which we could see coming along
like a comet from a long way off, and then,
passing under the flambeau, they disappeared
again in the distance. We could not see the
fish itself and could only guess what it was

236 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
as we took a shot at it. There was a great
fascination about this night fishing. We did
not get many fish, but there was something
weird and mysterious in the streak of silver
rushing at the light and then disappearing again
in the opposite direction. There was a charm,
too, in the surroundings — bright starlight
night, with every star shining " like a diamond
in the sky," the water almost calm, with
a faint land breeze wafting off the odours of
the tropical forest. It is like fairy-land or
a dream. But there is not much time for
dreaming, for here comes a mighty comet,
straight at the light. Down goes Neptune's
trident, and it rebounds again off the horny
back of a silly old turtle, who ought to have
known better than to go dashing about at
this time of night, instead of sleeping quietly
on his sandy bed. He makes off again, frightened
but unhurt. And now here comes another streak
of light, not so big as the last one, but still
it must be a good-sized fish. This time we
make a good shot, and up comes a parrot-fish,
a brilliant green creature with large scales, canine
teeth, and lips like an animal ; very (beautiful
to look at, but not much good to eat. In
fact, as a general rule these tropical fishes are
not to be compared to our cold-water fishes as
food. Still, they are all we can get at present,
and better than nothing.
And now probably the reader has had enough
of fishing for the present ; so we will get back to
Jamaica, with fifty fine fat turtle to distribute
amongst our friends.

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 237
I used often to try and calculate how much
those fifty turtle would have fetched in the
London market, if we could have got them there
in good condition. Turtle in captivity do not seem
to require food. We often had them for weeks
on their backs, with their heads on wet swabs,
without their losing weight appreciably; but I
believe they are generally brought home to
England in separate small tanks, about the size
of the turtle himself, so as to avoid knocking
about when the ship rolls. At any rate there
need be no shortage of turtle-soup for our city
aldermen until the reefs of the Gulf of Mexico
are fished out, and that will take some time.
One day, when we were lying peacefully at
anchor in Port Eoyal harbour, Jamaica, news
came on board that a trading schooner belonging
to Emanuel Lyons & Co., of Kingston, had been
pirated ; that is to say, the black crew had
mutinied, murdered the only two white men,
the captain and the cook, and carried off the
vessel, which was laden with what the Yankees
call " notions," and the black crew were now
coasting along and selling the goods at all the
small towns and villages on the coasts of
Honduras and Nicaragua. With this informa
tion, but with a very vague notion of where
the schooner might now be, the Cordelia started
off in pursuit.
We had a long and weary chase after that
vessel. Sometimes we got news of her only a
few days old, and it seemed as if we might come
up with her at any moment, as we had the use
of steam and she had none, but then at the next

238 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
place we touched it might perhaps be a fortnight
or three weeks since she was there, so that we
knew not which way to turn, as the people told
us that she always sailed at night and they could
not say which way she had gone.
It was something like the chase of Evangeline
after her lover, though I expect the meeting
would have been different if in either case the
end had been attained.
One day we were anchored close to the shore
near the Pearl Quay lagoon, when we saw a
schooner which answered to the description of
the one we were seeking. She was beating up
to windward along the shore, towards us, but
had been hidden by a point of land until she was
within about a mile of us, when she suddenly put
her helm up and ran away before the wind. Our
fires were not alight, the captain and three
other officers and thirty men were on shore
hauling the seine, so I hoisted the general recall,
ordered steam with all dispatch, and opened fire
on the schooner with the 40-pounder Armstrong.
But she was a very small object, and although we
put a few shot over her, we failed to hit her, and
she was soon out of range, scudding away before
the wind.
By the time we had got our men on board, our
boats hoisted, our anchor up and sail set, night
had fallen, and we never got another sight of the
pirate schooner — assuming that this really was
the vessel we were seeking, though of course
there was no proof of it beyond the suspicious
circumstance that she turned about directly she
saw us. Still, it might have been a peaceful

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 239
smuggler or some other navigator who had no wish
to meet a man-of-war : and I wonder what would
have been done to me if I had sunk her or killed
some of the crew and she had turned out not
to be the pirate.
After this we lost all trace of our chase, and
finally we got reliable information that the
mutineers, having disposed of Emanuel Lyons'
cargo of " notions," took the vessel round Cape
Catoche into the Gulf of Mexico, ran her on
shore on the Yucatan coast, set fire to her, and
escaped up-country with the swag.
While we were engaged upon our fruitless
chase we found it most difficult to get fresh
provisions of any sort, and we were on " salt
grub ' ' — both officers and men — nearly the whole
time. The paymaster managed to buy two bulls
at a little island called Cozumel, and he did not
hear the last of those bulls for a long time, for
they were so tough that the youngest and
hungriest A.B. in the ship could not get his
teeth through their sinews, and " Cozumel bull "
became a byword for tough meat for the rest
of our commission.
One of the places I landed at to seek informa
tion was a small village near Cape Gracios-o-Dios :
it was an open beach exposed to the trade-wind,
there was a nasty surf extending a long way out,
and the cutter was half full of water and nearly
swamped by the time we got on shore. I got no
information here, but while I was talking to the
natives, who understood a little nigger English,
a man came along leading a well-grown calf with
a rope round his neck and offered the beast for

240 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
sale. After a good deal of bargaining, I purchased
the animal for three dollars (12s.) and the man
handed me the rope and got his money ; but no
sooner had the rope changed hands than the calf
kicked up his heels and set off full gallop along
the sandy beach, amidst roars of laughter from
the natives, in which I am afraid my own boat's
crew joined also ; as well they might, for he was
a well-grown calf, almost as big as what they
call a "store" in Ireland, and it was all I could
do to hold on to the rope and keep up with him.
He went for about a hundred yards and then
stopped and glared at me, as if he had never seen
a naval officer in uniform before. Then he kicked
up his heels again and galloped off along the beach,
but this time luckily towards the boat, where my
trusty sailors, having had their laugh, formed a
cordon across his path, armed with the boat's
stretchers, soon stopped his wild career, threw
him on his side, spanshackled his legs, and
bundled him into the boat, and it was not long
before that calf was turned into roast veal.
I have always thought that the man who sold
me the calf for three dollars believed the animal
would make his escape, and then, having got
his money, he would have run off himself and
eventually caught the beast ; but if that was his
game he was sold. Anyhow, our caterer admitted
that it was the cheapest meat he had ever bought
for the mess, and he was also able to supply the
captain and the midshipmen's berth with as much
as they wanted. The only difficulty was that we
could never agree as to whether the so-called calf
was a young individual of a big breed of the genus

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 241
bovinae or an older member of a small breed, and
thus a fierce argument arose as to whether
we were eating veal or beef, an argument which
was never settled and which quite embittered
the harmony of our mess; like Bret Harte's two
miner chums who swore mortal enmity, and tried
to shoot one another, because one said there was
too much salt in the soup and the other said there
wasn't. Having lost all trace of the pirate schooner and
practically abandoned the chase, we anchored
off Cape Catoche, the north-eastern cape of the
Yucatan Peninsula, hoping that perhaps the
vessel would try to make for the Gulf of Mexico
when she found it was getting too hot for her on
the eastern coast. This she actually did, but
whether before or after our visit we never knew.
It was while lying at this anchorage that I got
the only close view I ever had of those great flat
fish known as " devil-fish." We were in four
fathoms of water, and it was so beautifully
clear that we could see our anchor and the chain
lying on the sandy bottom. We were just sitting
down to breakfast in the wardroom, when the
quartermaster of the watch put his head down he
hatchway and reported that there were " two
tremenjous great fishes a-swimmin' under the
stern." We all ran on deck, and there we saw
the brown backs of two great fish like enormous
skate swimming very slowly, and occasionally
rising to the surface and breaking the water.
" Call away the first cutter. Send for Berry."
Berry was a weather-beaten old A.B. who had
served his time in a whaler, and was the recog-
17

242 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
nized harpooner of the ship and a dead shot at
porpoises and dolphin. The cutter was soon
ready, and Berry too, as keen as mustard ; but,
as bad luck would have it, Berry that very
morning had broken the harpoon in the back of
a shark, so that the only weapon available was
the five-pronged fish grains (Neptune's trident).
The blacksmith was instantly set to work to
repair the harpoon, but as there was no time to
lose, Berry was sent away in the cutter with
the grains and the deep-sea lead line, and five
minutes afterwards we saw him lunge the grains
into the back of one of the devil-fish, which
immediately quickened his pace and went off,
towing the cutter after him ; but he was a most
accommodating devil-fish, for instead of going
out to sea, as we expected, he turned and came
back towards the ship. Then there was great
excitement ; every officer and man in the ship
came up to see what was going to happen, all
the bluejackets up in the rigging and the marines
along the hammock nettings.
" Man the second cutter." But what was she
to do? The blacksmith was still hammering
away frantically at the harpoon, but there seemed
little chance that it could be ready in time to be
of any use. The gunner suggested boarding pikes
and the sergeant of marines suggested half a dozen
marines with their rifles, to try and shoot the
devil-fish. Both suggestions were adopted : the
marines with their rifles and ball cartridge and
the boarding pikes were put into the second cutter,
which was now manned alongside, and she shoved
off to join in the fray.

MEMOETES OF THE SEA 243
Just then the devil-fish turned and came
straight back for the ship and passed close under
the flying jib-boom, towing the first cutter behind
him, and with the fish grains sticking in his back.
The second boat cut him off, got right over him,
and drove three or four boarding pikes into him,
and the marines fired volleys into him at close
quarters : but this salute seemed to have no effect
upon him : the bullets and the boarding pikes
were mere-pin pricks, and the latter, having no
barbs, quickly fell out ; the short prongs of the
fish grains had not sufficient hold, and after
towing the cutter about for another ten minutes
they also fell out; the devil-fish was free, and we
saw him no more.
These were the only devil-fish I ever saw at
close quarters, though I believe there is a regular
fishery for them on the shores of South Carolina.
It was perhaps just as well that the devil-fish
escaped, for I have not the least idea what we
should have done with him if we had captured
him. Shortly after this we were ordered to Hayti,
the Black Bepublie. where the perennial revolution
was in progress. First we went to Port-au-Prince,
the capital, where some snuff-and-butter-coloured
Jews who claimed British citizenship were singing
out for a man-of-war to come and protect their
money-bags. A sort of desultory warfare went
on round the town, hut the area of operations was
limited by the fiat of the foreign consuls, which
prohibited all shooting within certain zones. This
made it rather awkward for the combatants, but
they thought it better to submit under protest

244 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
than to have a foreign man-of-war bombarding
their positions.
Then we were relieved at Port-au-Prince by
another ship, and went on to Cap Hatien, a small
town at the north-west corner of the island.
Here there was also fighting going on. The party
which supported one of the presidents was in
possession of the town, and the party which sup
ported the rival nigger president was besieging
the town ; but the fighting was of a rather desul
tory and not of a very deadly type. They used to
stop shooting altogether and look at one another
for days together, and then fire a few shots, and
so on. Probably they were short of ammunition.
We were very good friends with both parties,
and we used to land and talk to them. They
were, of course, very anxious to gain our sympathy
and support, and tried to borrow money and
get powder from us ; but we maintained strict
neutrality. After spending about six weeks here without
seeing anything exciting in the shape of a fight,
we were relieved by H.M.S. Bulldog and returned
to Port Eoyal, leaving the Bulldog to protect
British interests at Cap Hatien ; and then a most
extraordinary thing happened. It seems that the
captain of the Bulldog had occasion to find fault
with the proceedings of the party which was in
occupation of the town. I think they fired upon a
small schooner which was taking supplies to their
enemies, and which, with or without authority,
was flying the British flag. At any rate, whatever
it was they did, the captain of the Bulldog sent
them an ultimatum to the effect that if they

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 245
did not make such and such reparation before
morning he would bombard the town and sink
their navy, which latter consisted of one small
screw steamer, mounting a brass 6-pounder in
the bows.
The reparation was not made, and the Bulldog
then withdrew from the anchorage for the night,
and on the following morning at daylight steamed
in again, and having fired a few shots into the
town, which replied feebly, she steamed straight
at the small steamer, which was lying at anchor,
intending to ram her and sink her ; but,
unfortunately for the Bulldog, the little steamer
had shifted her berth during the night and got
in behind a shoal with about ten feet of water
on it, and in the grey of the morning the
" bulldogs " did not observe this change of posi
tion, and in trying to ram the steamer they went
hard and fast aground on the shoal. It was a
regular booby-trap, and the Bulldog was fairly
caught in it.
The first thing the Bulldog did after getting
aground was to sink the small steamer with
one shot from her bow gun, and then, instead
of silencing the little guns on shore, which she
could easily have done with her heavy armament,
she proceeded to hoist out her boats and lay
out anchors for heaving the ship off. There
was nothing in the fortifications of Cap Hatien
which any ordinary British gunboat could not
have silenced in half an hour. We in the
Cordelia knew every gun and popgun that was
mounted in the place, and we always considered
that if it had come to blows while we were

246 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
protecting British interests we could have
knocked the place about their ears with the
greatest ease. The guns were very old, iron
six and nine pounders of an ancient French
pattern, with the vents nearly as big as the
bore ; the carriages were rotten and the ammu
nition bad.
Possibly the captain of the Bulldog did not
know this. At any rate he devoted all his
attention to getting out boats, laying out anchors,
and throwing overboard coal and stores to lighten
the ship. The result was that the enemy's
popguns, being practically unmolested, fired
away steadily at the ship, and after some time
a lucky shot killed the boatswain and two men.
This seems to have created something very like
a panic in the Bulldog, and the captain de
cided to abandon and set fire to the ship and
escape in the boats, trusting to be picked up
by some passing ship. This plan was adopted,
and the Bulldog's crew were picked up at sea
by a merchant-steamer and brought to Port
Eoyal. I think my old friend Captain Vansittart
would have landed and spiked the guns ; though
he would have wanted some biggish spikes, for
the vents were enormous.
Of course there was a court-martial on the
loss of the Bulldog, and the captain was cen
sured ; but the Press in England took his part,
particularly Punch, and he became rather a
hero for a short time. I well remember Punch's
picture. It Was a cartoon, and I think by
Tenniel. There was a robust-looking naval officer

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 247
in a captain's full-dress uniform, with the head
of a bulldog, and there were complimentary
verses, the burden of which was that "he
thinks less about courts-martial than the honour
of the flag."
It must be a grand thing to get the Press
on your side if you get into trouble. They
always know such a lot about it.
I don't think the captain of the Bulldog was ever
employed again ; but he got a good service pension !
In 1865 the Jamaica rebellion broke out ;
though it is not known to this day whether it
was worthy of the term "rebellion" or whether
it was merely a local rising of small importance
magnified into a rebellion in consequence of the
panic which seized upon the whole of the white
population of the island. At any rate it was
suppressed with extreme severity, not to say
cruelty; and even those who would be the last
to advocate leniency in cases of mutiny or
rebellion were horrified at the orgie of slaughter
which went on in the island for weeks after every
sign of riot and disorder had been suppressed.
There was a long and acrimonious controversy
over the conduct of Governor Eyres. Those who
supported him maintained that it was only by
the prompt and vigorous measures which he
adopted that a wholesale massacre of all the
white population of the island was averted,
while his critics declared that he acted in panic
and that there never was any widespread plot
for a general rising of the blacks for the purpose
of exterminating the whites.
In justice to Governor Eyres and those who

248 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
acted with him it must be borne in mind that
it was only eight years since the great Indian
Mutiny, and a small white population, with
their women and children, living scattered and
isolated amidst an overwhelming number of
blacks, may well have had their nerves unstrung
and their mental balance upset by the memory
of Cawnpore ; and there was also the record of
the neighbouring island of Hayti, where the
blacks actually did rise and slay their French
masters at the time of the French Eevolution.
Yet when all legitimate excuses for panic have
been made, the story of the suppression of the
Jamaica riot is not a chapter in national history
of which Englishmen can be proud, and I do
not propose to dwell upon it. All I know is
that I was very glad the Cordelia was not at
Jamaica when it occurred, for it is quite possible
that we also might have been infected with the
panic. We were at Havana, and when we got
back to Port Boyal it was all over except the
hanging and shooting, which went on for some
time, but in which we were not called upon to
take part.
One result of the Jamaica riot was that the
admiral, Sir James Hope, came to Port Boyal
in his flagship, the Duncan ; and having collected
a squadron of seven of his ships, he stationed
them round the island at various ports, with
very elaborate and somewhat pedantic orders as
to what steps were to be taken in case there
were any further riots and it became necessary
to land marine and small-arm parties for the
protection of the white population.

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 249
Our station in the Cordelia was first at Savanna-
la-Mar and then at Black Biver, both in the west
end of the island. At Savanna-la-Mar there was
still a good deal of the sugar business going on,
and the planters were most kind and hospitable,
though they impressed upon us that they were
making sugar at a loss, in the hope of better
times coming, when the home country would
reverse the suicidal policy of free trade ; though
I fear none of them lived to see these better
times. We also got very good snipe-shooting here,
and our captain got engaged to be married to
a fair Creole, but the marriage never came off, as
he was invalided home to England and died at sea
during the passage.
At Black Biver we were near a delightful part
of the island known as the Santa Cruz Mountains,
where there was quite a large colony of white
planters and their families, who were always ready
to receive us and entertain us with the proverbial
hospitality of Jamaica ; and many merry days we
spent in that beautiful district, riding their horses
in the daytime and dancing with their daughters
at night.
Not far from Black Biver there was an extensive
marsh, in which there were many wild duck ; but
we could not get within shot of them in the day
time, as there was very little cover. We found
out, however, that they used to fly in a certain
direction after dark, crossing a ridge of dry land.
These ducks used to whistle, just like a human
being, as they flew, and they did not fly just
after sunset, like respectable non-whistling ducks,
but waited until it was quite dark, so that one

250 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
could not distinguish the individual birds at all,
but only see something like a dark cloud passing
overhead, into which you let fly both barrels, and
very often down came one or more ducks. The
birds seemed to fly in very close order at night,
much closer than ducks do in the daytime ; for
otherwise we should scarcely have been as suc
cessful as we were by blazing into " the brown."
The bother was that we lost a great many dead
birds. We could hear the flop well enough when
they fell, but if they were quite dead it was very
difficult to find them, though if they were only
wounded and flapping about, it was much easier
to pick them up. The whistle was of great
assistance, as it let us know when they were
coming; and, indeed, it was so dark sometimes
that we fired quite as much at the whistle as at
the very indistinct cloud.

CHAPTEE XIII
In Canadian waters — The Fenian scare — A wedding and an
accident — Catching a sturgeon— Canadian hospitality — Prince
Edward's Island — Trout-fishing at Gaspe — Winter sports at
Halifax — Back in the West Indies — The mongoose.
IN 1866 some Irish-Americans calling them
selves Fenians sought to free their native
land from the Saxon yoke by making armed raids
into Canadian territory, where they had a few
sympathizers ; and these incursions called a large
part of the West Indian squadron to the North.
The Cordelia went North, and we remained in
Canada for a whole year, spending most of the
summer in the Bay of Fundy and the winter at
Halifax, without ever coming down into the tropics.
It is an ill wind that blows nobody some good,
and we blessed the Fenians, for we had a very
good time. At first we lay in the river at the
flourishing town of St. John, New Brunswick,
where we received the greatest hospitality, and
then we moved down to St. Andrew's, a small
town on the border between the State of Maine
and New Brunswick, as there had been some raids
across the border and more were threatened.
There was a little island called Indian Island,
practically uninhabited, but where sheep were
grazed. It was just on the border, and we
1 251

252 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
received information that a party of Fenians were
planning a raid upon it, so we landed a guard of
marines and bluejackets, with their rifles and
the field-gun, under the command of our only
other lieutenant and two midshipmen. The
distance from the ship was about a mile, and we
were always on the alert and ready to man and
arm boats and send reinforcements in case of an
attack. One night, about midnight, blue-lights were
burnt on Indian Island and a brisk rifle-fire was
opened. Eeinforcements were immediately sent,
but by the time they arrived the battle was over
and firing had ceased. It was a very dark night,
and nothing could be seen, on land or sea; and
the total result of the engagement was that one
bluejacket sentry had a fit and one sheep was
found dead in the morning. It was never known
for certain whether there had or had not been a
raid. The people on the island said there had,
but the people in the ship remained sceptical.
The greater part of this summer was spent
at St. John's, where we made many friends and
enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. We had dances
to our heart's content, and were also able to get
away for three or four days at a time on fishing
excursions, as the trout streams were numerous
and the trout unsophisticated and not nearly so
shy as English or Irish trout, so that we some
times got very good baskets. One place called
Sussex Vale was a fisherman's paradise, though we
could get no meat at the little cottage at which
we put up, and we got very tired of our own trout
and eggs.

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 253
We were, of course, more or less tied to our
ship ; but when the Fenian scare had quieted
down a bit I made an interesting trip up-country
to a place called Sackville, to attend the wedding
of a friend. Sackville is at the head of the Bay
of Fundy, where there is the greatest rise and
fall of tide in the world — sixty feet perpendicular.
We did not go by water, but by land. There
was a train for a hundred miles and then twenty
miles by coach, a regular old-fashioned four-in-
hand mail-coach, which landed us at Sackville, a
very primitive village forty-five years ago, and a
wild country, not at all like Longfellow's Acadia,
which must have been somewhere near this spot.
After the wedding, when the bride and bridegroom
had departed, there was a sumptuous supper, and
the only place big enough to hold all the guests
was an empty barn, where improvised tables and
planks laid on casks for seats accommodated some
fifty people. All went merry as a marriage-bell
until my own captain, standing up, with a knife and
fork in his hands, to carve a turkey, was seized
with an epileptic fit and fell backwards, flourishing
the knife and fork and giving a piercing scream.
This produced a panic which could scarcely
have been worse if the barn had caught fire, and
the merry guests rushed about in all directions, as
if there had been an earthquake or a devastating
hurricane. After helping to carry out my captain, who
was as stiff as a plank, and putting him in the
hands of a doctor, I returned to the barn and
found there a forlorn maiden of my acquaintance
who had lost her mamma in the confusion, and

254 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
was in a state bordering on hysterics ; so I got
her out, took the first buggy I found (the horses
were all tied up to trees round the barn), and
drove off in the dark, feeling like Perseus rescuing
Andromeda. The buggy had no lights, and before
I had gone very far, another buggy, coming in the
opposite direction, ran into us and capsized our
buggy, knocking down the horse, breaking both
shafts, and shooting me and my fair charge into
a muddy ditch. Andromeda was now quite limp,
and could neither stand nor walk, so I had to
pick her up in my arms and carry her to the
nearest house, which fortunately was not far.
The man who ran into me was most apologetic,
said it was all his fault, as he was on the wrong
side of the road, undertook to look after the
wreck while I carried off the maiden, said he
would make it all right with the owner of the
buggy I had commandeered, which he did, like
a gentleman, and next day, when I offered to
pay all damages, I was courteously told by the
young men of the place that I had only done
what any of them would have done under the
same circumstances, and they would not let me
pay a penny. I heard casually afterwards that
I was expected to propose to Andromeda. It
would have been romantic ; but I did not want
a wife just at that time.
After my captain had had a day's rest, the
doctor declared him fit to travel, so we started
to go back to St. John's ; but when we joined our
mail-coach (about a dozen wedding guests) we
found the coachman was so drunk that it was
impossible he could have driven without an upset.

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 255
Matters looked bad, as there was only one possible
train from Monkton — the railway- station — to
St. John's, and we could not afford to wait until
the coaohman got sober. There was a consulta
tion, and all the men declared that they had
never driven four-in-hand and were not prepared
to undertake the job with a coach full of passen
gers. At last one of them proposed that he and
I should sit together on the box and that he
would drive the leaders if I would drive the
wheelers, an arrangement to which I agreed,
and in this way we got to Monkton in time for
the train and without a capsize. Steering the
wheelers was quite an easy business, as they
just had to go wherever the leaders took them.
The coasts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia
swarm with fish, and Newfoundland may be said
to live on fish. One day, when we were lying
at Campobello Island, I went away in my little
skiff with one of the midshipmen, and, having
bought six pennyworth of bait, we anchored in
sixteen fathoms of water and started fishing. In
two hours our arms were so tired with hauling
in our lines that we could hardly row back to
the ship, and the little boat was full up to the
thwarts with cod and haddock.
There is a very good kind of fish which I never
saw anywhere except in the Bay of Fundy. They
call them gaspereau, and they are like very big
herrings, and excellent eating. One day, when we
were lying in the river off St. John's, there were
a number of boats fishing for gaspereau with
drift-nets, when one of them got hold of something
bigger than a gaspereau, and, being in trouble,

256 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
asked leave to hold on astern of our ship, which,
of course, was granted, and presently they hauled
in a sturgeon about six feet long. He had fouled
and torn the net, and they had further to cut
it to get him clear; and they were making use
of very strong language, which rather surprised
me, as I thought it was quite a valuable catch,
which would more than pay for the repair of the
net ; and I was still further surprised when they
told me that they did not want the sturgeon, and
I could take him if I wanted him, as they were
going to throw him overboard after killing him
to prevent him from doing any more mischief.
So I accepted the gift, got the sturgeon on board,
and found he weighed 180 lb., and further that
he, or rather she, was full of roe. Visions of
caviare ! Two wash-deck buckets full of sturgeon's
roe. Was there ever such a chance of getting
a supply of cheap caviare at something less than
10s. a pound? Well, we tried it all ways —
fresh, salted, boiled, pickled in vinegar, dried in
the sun; but we could make nothing of it, and
had to throw it all away.
I had always heard that a sturgeon was a royal
fish, fit for a king's table, but we found it very
indifferent eating, coarse and tasteless, something
like bad veal.
One day the Cordelia was becalmed on the edge
of the great bank of Newfoundland, in seventy-
fathom water. Our fishing lines were only forty
fathoms, so the paymaster and I spliced our lines
together, put a sinker and hook on each end, and
fished across the bridge. As he hauled up a fish I
let down my line and vice versa. It was hard

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 257
work in seventy fathoms, but we caught a lot
of big codfish before the breeze sprung up, and
they were all dead by the time we got them on
board. No doubt the sudden change of pressure
from that depth of water to the surface killed
them. About this time I had a delightful trip in Prince
Edward's Island. The ship was lying at Pictou,
on the north shore of New Brunswick, and I was
on shore on a fishing expedition with one of the
midshipmen, intending to return to the ship that
night ; but when we got back to Pictou we found
the harbour empty. It appeared that the captain
had received telegraphic orders to go to sea imme
diately, and our messmates had just time to pack
a portmanteau of clothes, put £10 into it,
and write a note to say that the ship would be
at Georgetown, Prince Edward's Island, at the
end of a week ; so next morning we took steamer
to Charlotte Town, in the same island, hired a
horse and trap for a dollar a day and drove
all over the island, fished in every likely-
looking river we came to, and had excellent
sport. The country people were most kind and
hospitable, and by their accent seemed to be
mostly of Scotch and Irish descent, if not actual
immigrants. We used to drive up to a farmhouse or cottage
(all wooden, as there is scarcely any stone in the
island), ask leave to sleep in the barn, which was
readily granted provided we did not smoke —
which neither of us did — and then they fed us
on good plain food and would take no payment of
any sort, saying they were only too glad to see us,
18

258 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
and apologizing that they had no spare bedrooms
in which to accommodate us. Most of them
seemed to have good big families and to be
healthy, happy, and flourishing, and we were very
comfortable in the barns, as it was the height of
summer and quite warm.
It was a very cheap and a very enjoyable trip,
and we caught quantities of trout, which we were
able to be generous with, though, strange to say,
the farmers and their wives did not seem to care
much about them, which accounts for the rivers
being full of them.
Prince Edward's Island is about one hundred
miles long, and we explored almost the whole of
it. The roads are bad ; there being no stone to
metal them, they are made of wood — "corduroy"
roads they call them — just logs laid crosswise ; and
then when two or three logs together get rotten, it
makes a good big rut. The whole island is com
posed of a soft, rich, red clay, and very fertile.
The winter is hard, and the island is sometimes
cut off from the mainland by floating ice for
weeks together. The width of the strait dividing
the island from the mainland is about twelve
miles, and the only method of communication in
the winter is by light canoes, which are alternately
paddled in the clear water, then dragged across
the ice floes, then launched again, and so on. A
hazardous and precarious sort of passenger service.
But I am speaking of forty-five years ago, and they
probably now have train ferries and ice-breakers,
like Lake Baikal.
The best day's trout-fishing I ever had in my
life was at Gaspe, which lies at the extreme north-

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 259
east corner of New Brunswick, just where the
estuary of the St. Lawrence Biver turns eastward
into the gulf.
The Cordelia anchored in Gasp6 basin one fine
summer's day about noon, and our gallant captain
— who was not a fisherman — announced that he
intended to go to sea again at two o'clock on the
following afternoon. This was very trying, but the
paymaster and I were both keen fishermen and not
easily put off when there was a chance. So we
landed that evening and obtained such informa
tion as caused us to undertake an expedition on
the morrow, and as the ship was to go to sea at
two o'clock next day, we had to make an early
start to get to our river. Thus 3 a.m. saw us
landing in the dark on the south shore of the bay,
from whence we had to make our way through the
pathless woods for about two miles. We had a
compass and a box of matches, with which we
illuminated the compass from time to time ; but
it was very dark under the trees, and we stumbled
about, barking our shins against fallen trunks and
floundering in morasses, yet keeping a tolerably
straight course for our point, and arrived at the
river just as day was breaking. Here we found
the watcher, who told us that the two lessees of
the river were in camp about a mile farther down,
and that he had no doubt they would give us leave
to fish for trout, as they were only fishing for
salmon. In fact he was so sure of it that he said
we might put up our rods and begin fishing at
once, while he took our cards and a request to
be allowed to fish for trout. So we set to work
at once, and as the river was swarming with

260 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
ravenous white trout we soon had our baskets
full and many more lying on the bank.
In about a couple of hours the watcher returned,
bringing with him a polite note, saying we might
fish for trout, and salmon, too, if liked; and
adding, that as the sportsmen thought we must
have left our ship before breakfast, they took the
liberty of sending us some provisions, which they
hoped would be acceptable ; and they were. The
basket sent contained a York game pie, bread
and butter, and a bottle of claret, and there was
not much left when we had finished with them.
The names of these two good Samaritans must
be recorded. They were Colonel Manningham
Buller and Mr. Morland, of Quebec, and never
from that day to this have I met either of them
to express my gratitude for their hospitality : yet
my gratitude was sincere and quite untainted by
any anticipations of favours to come ; for we never
expected to go to Gaspe again, nor did we.
I find in my journal that " the air was full of
rumours of prospective Fenian raids into Canada
during this winter (1866-7). A considerable naval
force wintered at Quebec, and the Duncan (90),
Sir James Hope's flagship, the Niger, a corvette,
and the Cordelia, a sloop, wintered at Halifax." So
at the end of November all three ships hauled
alongside Halifax dockyard, unbent sails, unrove
running rigging, and housed in with double canvas
for the winter. The great difficulty was to find
suitable employment for the crews ; for generally
speaking when "Jack" has not enough work to
do he gives trouble : so we taught them soldiering,
and every day, when it was not snowing, we

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 261
landed small-arm parties and field-guns' crews,
and prepared generally to march up country and
fight the Fenians ; but the Fenians did not come.
When Dido found that Aeneas did not come,
she wept in silence and was di-do-dum.
As for the officers, we thoroughly enjoyed our
selves with skating, sleighing, tobogganing, and
dancing. There were several thaws during the
winter, so that we not only had skating in the
covered rink, but also on one of the numerous
lakes on the Dartmouth side of the harbour, and
also on an arm of the sea known as the North
west arm. The open-air skating was much more
enjoyable than the rink skating, and, as most of
the young ladies at Halifax were accomplished
skaters, we had tea-parties on the lakes, lighting
a fire and making tea on the ice, which was two
or three feet thick. Ice hockey was also good fun
and warm work, and the winter was, in fact, one
big holiday — all beer and skittles — so that we were
quite sorry when the spring came and we had to
re-rig our ship and go to sea again. And, strange
to say, none of us got engaged to be married,
though we were all, except one, bachelors.
The summer of 1867 saw us down in the West
Indies again, and very shortly after our return to
the hot weather our captain (De Wahl) got so ill
that he had to be invalided home to England, and
we then got our fourth captain (the late Charles
Parry, son of Sir Edward Parry, the famous
Arctic explorer).
On our return to our old quarters at Port
Eoyal, Jamaica, we found three ships lying there
with yellow fever on board. It was not a bad

262 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
epidemic, nor was the fever of a virulent type ; so
it was hoped that it would be stamped out without
sending the ships to the north, which was always
done when the fever was really bad ; but they
were getting odd cases about every other day, and
immediately landing them at the hospital. One
of the ships went to sea for a cruise, and while
she was away one of her men died in hospital;
and then, by some strange piece of official per
versity, the Cordelia (the only ship in the harbour
which had not had a case of yellow fever) was
ordered to send a funeral party and bury the
man. The duty fell to the lot of my young friend,
Shergold Smith, whom I have before mentioned ;
and as the hospital chaplain was sick, Mr.
Midshipman Smith had to perform the service
himself, which I have no doubt he did with due
reverence ; but as he was coming on board with
his party in the cutter, I saw something in the
water towing astern of the boat, and on dis
covering that this was the Union Jack, I felt it
my duty to remonstrate with the young man upon
such a want of respect towards the sacred emblem
of his country. " Oh ! " he said, " it was covering
the coffin, and, as the coffin looked leaky, I
thought it better to give the flag a good washing
before bringing it on board," which was certainly a
practical resource.
When I was talking about Jamaica in a former
chapter, I forgot to mention a curious case of
what may happen when man interferes with the
balance of nature. I give the story exactly as it
was told to me by a planter, though, of course, I

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 263
cannot vouch for the accuracy of it. The rats
were eating the sugar-canes and doing an immense
amount of damage to the plantations. The
planters were told that the Indian mongoose was
a deadly enemy to rats, and could be easily
naturalized in any tropical country. So a stock
of these animals was imported from Ceylon and
turned loose in Jamaica. They throve well, and
rapidly increased in numbers, and they did destroy
the rats ; but having done so, either their appetite
or their love of destruction was not satisfied, and
they next attacked the land crabs, and gave their
particular attention to one sort of crab known as
the black crab, which is considered one of three
gastronomic delicacies of Jamaica ; the other two
being the ringtail pigeon and the mountain mullet.
Having polished off the black crabs, the enter
prising mongoose next climbed the trees and sucked
the eggs of the ringtail pigeons, and practically
exterminated them. This was bad enough, but
worse was to come, for, having developed a taste for
eggs, he also sucked those of the insectivorous birds
which lived on ticks and other insects ; and as a
result of this activity a large and particularly
irritating species of tick increased in such myriads
that neither man nor beast could go into the
Guinea-grass — the Guinea-grass being the herbage
upon which cattle are fattened in Jamaica.
I have never heard whether the Jamaica
farmers have imported some animal to destroy
the mongoose and restore the balance of power
in the island ; but such experiments are, at least,
dangerous. And now I must bring this frivolous chapter to

264 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
a close. It has been almost all about sports —
including the shooting of the sheep on Indian
Island ; and we must take the Cordelia home and
pay her off, and place her on the scrap-heap ; or,
as she was all wood and not iron, she can be used
for firewood, which no doubt she was.
We paid the old ship off at Plymouth in July,
1868, and as I had now been more than six years a
lieutenant, I went on shore on 6s. a day instead
of 4s.
In the autumn of the same year I was appointed
as first lieutenant to the Hercules, fitting out at
Chatham for her first commission.

CHAPTEE XIV
H.M.S. Hercules — Gambling at " Para Grande " — Lisbon —
Snipe-shooting — Hunting at Gibraltar — An expedition to
Bonda — The foundering of the Captain — "Broadside versus
turrets " — Searching for survivors — The sinking of the
Vanguard.THE Hercules was the most powerful ironclad
afloat, in this or any other country. She
carried 18-ton guns — muzzle-loaders — and nine
inches of armour, though this was only in
patches ; but she had a good deal of six-inch
armour, and her water-line and battery were well
protected, as against ordnance of that date. She
was full rigged, with the spars and sails of a line-
of-battle ship, and she could steam fourteen knots
— on a pinch, and could sail a little. In fact she
was the masterpiece of Sir Edward Eeed's genius.
Up to the advent of the Hercules the three
great five-masted ships of 10,000 tons, the
Minotaur, Agincourt, and Northumberland, had
been considered the most powerful ships in the
British Navy, and probably in the world, and
Sir Edward Eeed's triumph was, that he built
a ship of about 8,500 tons which carried a more
powerful armament, thicker armour, fifty feet
shorter and thus much handier, steamed the
same speed, and I was going to say — sailed better ;
but I had better say — did not sail quite so badly ;
265

266 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
and it must ever be borne in mind that at this
transition stage in the development of the navy,
our rulers at Whitehall insisted that our ships
of all classes should have full sail power suitable
to their tonnage. " For," said they, " the engines
might break down, and then where would you
be?" As to the extent that this conservative insist
ence upon full sail power handicapped the efforts
of our naval architects in making the best use
of the various inventions and improvements in
metallurgy, gunnery, and marine engineering,
which were taking place about this time, there
were differences of opinion ; though of course we
were all very wise after the event, when sails were
finally abolished ; but there can be no doubt
that the naval architects themselves were greatly
irritated by the restrictions in development which
were thus placed upon them ; and Sir Edward
Eeed — himself a keen and slashing controver
sialist — used to speak contemptuously of the
" mere sailing admirals " who placed their veto on
some of his pet schemes, because "engines might
break down."
The five lieutenants selected for the Hercules
received their appointments two months before the
ship was commissioned, and were all sent to the
ExceUent — the gunnery school at Portsmouth —
to get furbished up in modern gunnery before
joining their ship at Chatham. I was at this time
only seven years' standing as a lieutenant, and
was considered extremely lucky in being appointed
first lieutenant of such a ship : in fact, I am sure
it must have created some jealousy amongst many

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 267
of my seniors of nine and ten years' standing,
who were looking out for such a billet, as it meant
almost certain promotion, if all went well ; and
the most difficult step to gain in the navy is now,
and always has been, the step from lieutenant to
commander. We commissioned the Hercules in the stream,
about a mile below Chatham, in October, 1868.
Lord Gilford was the captain, Lord Walter Kerr
commander, myself first lieutenant, John Ingles
second and gunnery, Jim Bruce third, Jimmy
Hulton fourth, Eobert Bruce fifth, seven sub
lieutenants (the old mates under a new name), and
a whole heap of midshipmen. We were very proud
of our ship, and it was not long before we got her
into apple-pie order.
After our steam trials were over and we had
squeezed fourteen knots out of her, we were sent
out to join the Channel Squadron at Lisbon ;
which at that time was under the command of
that splendid old seaman and disciplinarian Sir
Thomas Symonds — son of Admiral Sir William
Symonds, who for many years was controller of
the navy and was responsible for the building
of a special design of warships known as the
" Symondites," good sailers, but very wet, and
notorious rollers.
Sir Thomas, or " old Tom " as he was familiarly
called, had lately relieved an old gentleman who
had allowed the Channel Squadron to fall into
a very slack and undisciplined condition : for,
according to all accounts, the captains of the
various ships used to do pretty much as they
pleased, and chaff the admiral by signal and

268 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
otherwise. There was a story that on one occa
sion when the admiral made a signal to one of
the captains (my old friend Vansittart) to report
his reasons for being out of station, the latter
replied that a woodcock flew across the bows and
distracted the attention of the officer of the
watch. Old Tom very soon put a stop to this kind of thing,
and at the time the Hercules joined the squadron
there was very little chaff going on, but good,
stern discipline and the strictest station-keeping
under either sail or steam. The cruising was all
done under sail alone, and it was a far more difficult
business to make those great, lumbering ironclads
behave themselves under sail than it had been
with wooden ships. It was really a great waste
of time and energy, for it was quite obvious that
the advent of armoured ships had struck the
death-knell of the sails ; and even for some years
before sea-going armoured ships appeared on the
scene, it was equally obvious that battles would
never again be fought under sail ; yet the cry still
was, " Make sailors of them — whatever you do,
make sailors of them." And so we did.
Neither Lord Gilford nor any of his lieutenants
had had much practice in squadron sailing, and
we all got some nasty knocks over the knuckles
from old Tom before we managed to keep the
Hercules in good station, either under sail or
steam, notwithstanding that he ordered all the
senior lieutenants in every ship to keep watch
and to be in three watches, so that there were two
lieutenants in some of the watches, and I had
a lieutenant of four years' standing as mate of

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 269
the forecastle in my watch. This was not good
for the internal discipline or gunnery efficiency
of the ship, as neither I nor the gunnery lieu
tenant had time to perform our proper duties ; but
it taught us accurate station-keeping, and before
long Sir Thomas Symonds was able to take his
squadron up the Tagus at a speed of ten knots and
make a running moor off Lisbon in fine style.
The Channel Squadron at this date used to
spend a good deal of its time at Lisbon, between
the cruises, and a very pleasant place it was
during the winter months. There was a good
opera, very good snipe-shooting, and as a set-off
against these innocent amusements there was a
gambling place with roulette-tables. This was
known in the squadron as "Para Grande," and
was kept by a Portuguese marquis, who fleeced
us properly ; and it was the ruin of many a
promising young officer, for the accommodating
proprietor was always ready to cash bills, trusting
to the honour of the British Navy.
I am reminded of an amusing but most im
proper incident that occurred in the case of one
of the midshipmen of the squadron, who, having
been seized with the fatal spirit of gambling, and
having flown all the legitimate kites he could,
and borrowed and lost all the money he could get
from his messmates, finally drew a bill upon the
firm of " Pump and Getit, Fleet Street, London,"
and signed it " Step and Fetchit." The Portu
guese marquis cashed it ; but as the firm could
not be found in Fleet Street, nor in any other
street in London, the bill was returned, the
culprit was discovered through his handwriting,

270 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
and his captain had him turned out of the Service
for the honour of the navy. I must say I always
felt a kind of sympathy for that lad, as he
probably did not realize the heinous nature of
his little joke. If he had been a real forger he
would have drawn his bill on a real firm and
signed some one else's real name.
There were a good many others who came to
grief at "Para Grande" besides Mr. "Step and
Fetchit." But there was one really remarkable
instance of steadfast determination by one of the
gunroom officers of the Hercules (not a midshipman
in this case). Mr. T  went to "Para Grande"
one night and won £100, and then stopped
playing, and came on board and went to bed.
Next morning he told his messmates that he did
not intend to play any more, for which announce
ment he was laughed to scorn, as they said they
had often heard that yarn before. Nevertheless,
he stuck to his resolution, and the most remark
able part of it was that he used to go frequently
to the roulette-tables and look on for hours, but
never staked another penny, though he used to
advise his friends as to which numbers they
should back, and there was certainly a popular
belief that his luck was still with him, as he
was constantly asked for his advice. The tempta
tion, therefore, must have been great, but he never
succumbed. Lisbon from the sea is one of the most beautiful
cities in the world. In this respect it is probably
only rivalled by Constantinople ; but in both cases
the charm is somewhat dispelled on landing, par
ticularly so n the case of Constantinople, which

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 271
is only beautiful from a distance ; but Lisbon — if
your sense of smell is not too acute — may be
classed as a fine city, for it stands on a magnificent
site, facing an inland sea twenty miles long and
from five to ten wide.
Every one knows that the Portuguese were
amongst the earliest navigators — I mean, of
course, the navigators of the great oceans of the
world, and not the Phoenicians, the Eomans, the
Greeks, and the Norsemen ; but I expect very few
people know — not even sailors — what was the
origin of the familiar words "starboard" and
"port." Well, I give the legend as it came
to me : —
The prevailing wind in the Tagus is from the
north. It blows from the north for about ten
months out of the twelve all along the coast of
Portugal. The old ships of the early navigators
were very leewardly, and the pilot used to stand to
leeward when bringing his ship up the river so
that he could see out on the lee bow under the
sails. The ships were steered with a long tiller,
and when the pilot wanted the tiller brought over
his way he said " Esta borda " (this way) — star
board, and when he wanted it put the other way
he said " Porto " (push) — port. So there you are,
my gallant tars, and you may take it or leave
it, as you please; but I think it sounds as plausible
as any other solution of the conundrum.
There was very good snipe-shooting within easy
reach of the anchorage off Lisbon. Asambouge
Marsh was up near the famous lines of Torres
Vedras, about an hour by train ; and there was
Alcochete, across the inland sea, about two hours

272 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
by boat; but my favourite marsh was at Coina,
also across the lake and about two miles up a
small river.
There was always a great rush for these
marshes by the sportsmen of the various ships
directly after the arrival of the squadron, and the
party that got there first got the cream ; for the
natives did not trouble the snipe, and looked upon
us as lunatics for floundering about in mud and
water up to our knees for the sake of such insig
nificant little birds.
One evening the squadron arrived and moored
off Lisbon about five o'clock ; and as I wanted to
get the cream of Coina I arranged with a mess
mate to make a very early start next morning ;
so we left the ship at 3 a.m. in a little private
skiff of my own which I was allowed to keep on
board. It was very dark and blowing fresh
from the north, and as we got away from the
shelter of the high land the wind increased and
also the sea ; but we scudded before it with our
little sail at a rapid pace and got over to the far
side of the lake (about six miles) much quicker
than we had bargained for, so that it was still very
dark when we got to where the mouth of the river
ought to be. We had gone fairly dry up to
this ; but the sea had now increased considerably
and my messmate was baling hard, while I was
trying to keep the little boat from being pooped
and swamped with a big boat cloak which I
pulled round my shoulders as I sat in the stern,
steering. Day was just breaking and we could see
nothing ahead of us but a line of white breakers,
without any apparent opening through which we

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 273
could pass. There could be no turning back, as
we were already close to the first line of breakers,
so there was nothing to do but to take a shot at it
and chance it, as we knew that the mouth of the
little river must be somewhere about here and we
might be lucky enough to hit it off if we were not
swamped on the bar ; though I must admit that I
felt a little nervous, for I had only been up the
river twice before, and the leading marks were
very indistinct in the murky dawn.
However, that sweet little cherub must have
had his eye upon us, as upon many former occa
sions in my life ; and far more by good luck than
good management we got safely through the
breakers and found ourselves in smooth water
inside the bar ; and then we chuckled, and said
we to ourselves, " Anyhow if we have had a bit of
a shave for it, we have managed to keep our
ammunition dry; we shall be first on Coina Marsh
to-day and get the cream of it before the birds are
scared by other guns " ; and thus congratulating
ourselves on our good luck, we sailed gaily up the
river. But, oh horror ! What was that ? " Bang,
bang, bang." Surely those infernal Portuguese
must have taken to shooting our snipe, for it is
impossible that any boat from the squadron can
have been ahead of us and got into the river with
less daylight than we had.
We had not long to wait to discover the bitter
truth. Four midshipmen from the Warrior had
got leave to go on shore from their too-indulgent
commander directly the squadron anchored on the
previous evening ; they had hired a shore boat
19

274 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
and come across to Coina, just saving their day
light over the bar ; they had slept in a native
hovel and were out on the marsh at the first
streak of dawn, frightening all the birds though
getting very few.
I should probably have done the same when I
was a midshipman ; but I thought that three
o'clock in the morning was early enough for a
staid lieutenant, and a first lieutenant too ; and
then to be cut out by midshipmen !
Our usual ports of refreshment between our
monotonous cruises under sail in those unwieldy
ironclads, were Vigo, Lisbon, Gibraltar, and
Madeira. At Vigo there was not much shooting,
though one evening Lieutenant M  of the
Northumberland, was reported to have come on
board with ten couple of snipe : so all the signal
men of the other ships received strict orders to
watch Lieutenant M  ¦ the next time he landed,
and to report the direction in which he walked, as
long as he remained in sight; but Lieutenant M 
was quite aware that he would be watched and
was not such an ass as to betray himself ; so he
first walked in the opposite direction to that in
which the marsh lay and then disappeared behind
the nearest hill, when all trace of him was lost.
Of course his secret was found out in time, but he
got the cream of the marsh he had discovered
before anybody else found it out.
There were so many sportsmen in the Channel
Squadron that when one discovered anything
fresh, it was necessary to exercise some selfishness
and protect one's vested interests and sporting
rights by secrecy, and suppressio veri, if not by

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 275
suggestio falsi, as otherwise the "find" was sure
to be overrun and swamped.
During one visit to Vigo in the summer, I dis
covered a very nice little trout-stream a few miles
from the town, and I managed to keep it for
myself and shipmates for some time ; but it was,
of course, eventually discovered by the whole
fleet, and then its placid waters were lashed into
a foam like bottled beer, so that the hitherto un
sophisticated trout refused to rise any more.
At Gibraltar during the winter months we had
the Calpe hounds, and many a good gallop I had
with them on a hired screw at one guinea a day,
and cheap at the price, as the little hardy Barb
horses were very good goers, though there was
but little jumping; but "The Bock" in the
summer was very hot and relaxing. However,
one day in the month of August my captain
suggested to me that we should ride to Eonda,
a picturesque old Moorish town about sixty miles
from Gibraltar. So we packed our saddle-bags,
hired our screws, and started off one fine morning
at the first break of dawn : the party consisting of
my captain, the captain of the Warrior, and the
first lieutenants of the two ships ; leaving the two
commanders in charge. We also took a native
guide to show us the way.
I think it was the hottest ride I ever had in my
life. Nothing in Jamaica, even in the low-lying
parts, could compare with the scorched plains of
Andalusia in the month of August. Our guide,
who took us by bridle-paths, lost his way, and it
was getting dark when we arrived at the little
village of Gausine, just half-way to Eonda, and put

276 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
up for the night at the only inn. We were tired
and hungry: but though the so-called " chickens"
were as tough as shoe-leather, the beds at any
rate looked clean and comfortable. The sheets
were snowy-white and there was a beautiful lace
fringe on the pillow-covers.
The whited sepulchres ! No sooner were we
in bed and the candles blown out than we realized
that there were a good many other live creatures
in the beds besides ourselves, so that we spent
the night hunting instead of sleeping ; we also
found these companionable creatures in great
numbers at Eonda and also at another village at
which we slept (or rather tried to sleep) on our
way back ; so no doubt they are indigenous in
Spain. Eonda is a picturesque and interesting old
Moorish town, beautifully situated at the edge
of a precipice, so that it only had to be fortified
on one side, being quite inaccessible on the other.
The town is split in two by a great fissure with
perpendicular sides, and at the bottom of this
fissure — supposed to have been caused by a pre
historic earthquake — the Eiver Guadiara takes its
rise in an icy-cold spring 250 feet below the level
of the town. There are two bridges crossing this
curious geological " fault " in the middle of the
town. The new one has a single span, but the
old one, with its three arches and quaint archi
tecture, is by far the most picturesque.
We went down by flights of steps to the bottom
of the chasm, and had a delicious swim in a sort
of rock-cavern tank into which the spring rushes
from the rock in a crystal-clear torrent, and then

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 277
flows away through the gully on to the plain below
the town, to form the head-waters of the Guadiara
Eiver. The water was very cold and we did not
stay in long; but it was the only time we were
cool during the whole expedition.
There is a fine bull-ring at Eonda, but May
is the season, and there was no bull-fighting while
we were there : though at San Eoque — just beyond
the lines at Gibraltar — we used sometimes to
patronize the Spanish national "sport"; which
is certainly exciting to watch, and there would
be nothing revolting about a bull-fight were it not
for the mutilation of the wretched horses. The
bull dies fighting, like a brave animal, facing his
foes and game to the last : but the poor horse
never gets a chance of fighting at all, and is
simply gored in captivity, and in his old age too
after many years of faithful service to his masters.
The sight of the gored and dying horse used to
suggest the uncharitable wish that some of the
men might get a poke up behind, just to see how
they liked it.
Our ride back to Gibraltar was just as hot
as our ride up, and equally diversified by midnight
hunts. One of the three winters that I spent in the
Hercules with the Channel Squadron — sarcastically
called by the officers' wives "the Lisbon Squadron"
— we made Portland our headquarters between
the cruises, and I had some good runs with
the Blackmore Vale hounds — one of the best
packs I ever hunted with, and at that time
hunted by Sir Eichard Glyn — known as " the
deadly one."

278 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
I take the following from my journal : —
" There was not much doing in the way of drills
and exercises in the squadron, and notwith
standing that I was first lieutenant of a battleship,
I managed to get away one day a week and went
up by train to Yeovil, where I hired very good
horses from a man called Hussey and had some
capital runs with the Blackmore Vale hounds. I
had not had much hunting during my life at
sea ; but I suddenly got to be desperately fond of
it, and I think I would, at that time, have pawned
some of my clothes for a hunt, if I could not
have got it otherwise. I was a very light weight
and almost any screw could carry me. It is a
trite saying that some men ride to hunt, whilst
others hunt to ride, and I am afraid I belonged to
the latter class ; for, although I did — to a certain
extent — enjoy seeing hounds hunt cleverly, the
real joy was in cutting down a man on a two
hundred guinea horse upon a thirty shilling hired
hack. I had some splendid runs, every incident
of which I love to dwell upon except when I came
to grief over a post-and-rail, or floundered into a
wet ditch."
And now I come to a tragedy, the saddest event
that ever occurred in any squadron in which I
have sailed. On September 7, 1870, the iron
clad battleship Captain capsized in the middle of
the squadron ; and out of a crew of six hundred,
only the gunner and seventeen men were saved.
In the autumn of 1870 the Mediterranean
Squadron, under the command of Sir Alexander
Milne, joined up with the Channel Squadron for
the purpose of carrying out combined manoeuvres

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 279
off the coast of Portugal, and Sir Alexander, being
the senior admiral, took supreme command.
The low freeboard, fully rigged turret-ship
Captain had joined the Channel Squadron a short
time before, and the combined fleet put to sea
from Vigo on the 6th of September.
On the 7th the fleet was sailing in two columns
on the starboard tack in a fresh north-west breeze,
and Sir Alexander Milne went on board the
Captain in the afternoon to inspect her and see
how she behaved at sea, as she was a novelty,
and many old sailors looked grave and shook
their heads when they saw her sailing close-
hauled with her lee-rail awash.
During the time the Commander-in-Chief was
on board the Captain the wind and sea had
increased, and he had great difficulty in getting
into his boat to get back again to his own ship —
the Lord Warden. In fact, the captain of the
Captain (Hugh Burgoyne) tried to persuade him
not to risk it, but to remain on board for the
night and return in the morning. Sir Alexander,
however, was a dour auld Scotsman and said he
would get back to his ship, and did.
It was my morning watch (4 to 8) on the
morning of the 8th, and when I relieved the
officer of the middle watch at 4 o'clock he told
me there had been a squall, to which we had to
shorten sail, but he had not the least suspicion
that anything out-of-the-way had happened to
any of the ships in the fleet. There was, how
ever, no doubt (afterwards) that it was in this
squall that the Captain had capsized and foun
dered.

280 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
It had been a very dark night with frequent
rain squalls, and when day dawned many of the
ships of the combined fleet — having had no
previous practice in sailing together — were con
siderably out of station ; though it would be
too strong an expression to say they were
scattered, for they were all well in sight at half
dawn, except the Captain; but even when day
had fully dawned we could see nothing of her,
and then grave fears filled some of our minds,
though there was still a faint chance that she
might have borne up and run to leeward for some
unknown reason.
It was at any rate certain that there could
not have been a collision, for in that case either
there would be two ships missing, or else the
second one would know something about it. As
it turned out afterwards the Inconstant must
have sailed over the spot where the Captain
foundered, ten minutes after she had gone down,
and yet those on board neither saw nor heard
anything !
The captain of the Hercules came on deck
very early that morning, before daylight, and
walked up and down the bridge nursing his
wounded arm, as he generally did when he was
perturbed or anxious about anything. Some
brief remarks passed between him and the officer
of the watch as day dawned and there was still
nothing to be seen of the Captain ; and at last the
officer of the watch ventured to make the remark
"I believe she has capsized," to which the
captain replied with a grunt, a shrug of his
shoulders, and a significant nod of his head. He

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 281
was a man of few words, but a thorough seaman,
from the peak of his cap down to the heels of his
rather untidy shoes ; and to account for the some
what laconic nature of the conversation given
above, it may be mentioned that the captain and
the first lieutenant had frequently discussed the
question of the stability, or otherwise, of a low
freeboard, fully rigged turret ship, from the first
day the Captain joined the squadron and was
seen under sail.
Many small incidents came back to my memory
after the event, and one was that we used to
draw rough diagrams — very rough — on the signal
slate with a slate pencil, to show that the Captain
ought to capsize after she had passed a compara
tively moderate angle of heel; and we were therefore
very pessimistic and feared that our anticipations
had come true when she was missing from the
fleet that morning.
Now it is quite certain that neither I nor my
captain had any knowledge of the science of naval
architecture. We had probably heard that there
was such a thing as a metacentre — at any rate
in modern ships — but whether it was in the
maintop or the forepeak we did not much care,
as we had sailed in ships of various classes and
got on very well without so much as knowing
whether they had or had not got metacentres.
In fact, I think we looked upon it rather contemp
tuously, as some new-fangled device got up by
scientists to bother sailors. So that it could
only have been some unscientific nautical instinct
that had sown distrust in our minds concerning
the safety of the Captain under sail.

282 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
I do not mention the above with any idea of
claiming the credit of true prophecy ; for there
were many others besides Lord Gilford and myself
who felt that there was something uncanny about
the look of the Captain under sail : and yet, as
we were constantly hearing, just about this time,
of the great advances which had lately been
made in the science of naval architecture, the
discovery of "meta-centres," "righting moments,"
and " curves of stability," we thought that, after
all, the scientific people who built the Captain
might perhaps know more about it than we
did, and with all our apprehensions we found it
difficult to believe that a shipbuilder of high
repute would build and equip an absolutely unstable
ship, and that the Admiralty would allow such
a ship to go to sea.
The story of the building of the Captain is a
curious one. There was at this time an acute
controversy between two schools of naval archi
tecture, which may be briefly described as broad
side versus turrets. The broadside system of
armament found its chief exponent in Sir Edward
Eeed, who was at that time the Director of
Naval Construction, and he was supported by
the Board of Admiralty, and I think I may say
— broadly speaking — by the great majority of
seamen ; for it must ever be remembered that
full sail power was still a sine qua non for war
ships of all classes.
The protagonist of the turret system was
Captain Cowper Coles, E.N., who was enthusiastic
on the subject and had been for some years
urging the Admiralty to build turret ships, as he

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 283
maintained that the superiority of that system
of mounting heavy guns -had been conclusively
proved during the American civil war : and so
perhaps it had, but the American turret ships
were not rigged.
I need scarcely say that I have no intention
of entering into the respective merits of turrets
versus broadside, as that has been settled long
ago ; but to account for the building of the
Captain it is necessary to understand the terms
of the heated controversy which took place at this
time between the advocates of the two systems.
The design of the Captain was opposed by the
Admiralty officials, headed by the Controller of
the Navy (Admiral Sir Spencer Eobinson, my
old captain in the Colossus) and Sir Edward
Eeed, the Director of Naval Construction ; and
this opposition was attributed — by popular opinion
and by a large section of the Press — to personal
jealousy on the part of the Board and their
advisers : and then after the Captain had been
built, sent to sea and lost, popular opinion and
the Press turned upon the Admiralty officials
and reviled them for allowing the Captain to go
to sea !
It may truly and concisely be said that a
valuable ship and six hundred officers and men
were sacrificed in deference to popular opinion.
The Captain was built by a private firm —
Laird Brothers, of Birkenhead — in accordance with
the views of Captain Cowper Coles, who sailed
in her as a passenger and the guest of Captain
Hugh Burgoyne, V.C. ; neither of whom were
saved.

284 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
It was said, after her loss, that in consequence
of further investigations into her design by the
experts at the Admiralty, a memorandum had
been written, and was actually on its way to
the admiral in command, warning him that the
Captain was unstable and should not be allowed
to carry sail in anything like a strong breeze :
but the order was too late.
I must now return to the Hercules on the
morning of the 8th, when it was found that the
Captain was missing from the fleet. The admiral
directed the ships to spread in various directions
to search; each ship being given a compass
course on which she was to steer for so many
hours and then reassemble at a rendezvous before
dark; and so off we went, the Hercules under
sail and steam, on a course nearly dead to lee
ward; but we had not gone more than ten or
twelve miles before we suddenly came into a
mass of wreckage ; the sea being covered with
broken spars, hen coops, gratings, bits of boats,
oars, and anything that would float.
Then, and then only, all hope was lost.
" Hands shorten sail ! Stop the engines ! Call
away both cutters ! "
I was standing on the forecastle at the time,
and ran aft and took charge of one of the
cutters, and I believe I was the first person that
picked up anything belonging to the lost ship,
and that was a piece of her jib-boom with a
seaman's black silk handkerchief knotted through
the sheave-hole; which told a sad tale.
The Commander-in-Chief was still in sight,
so of course we made the necessary signals, and

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 285
then all the fleet assembled and picked up
wreckage ; but none of the crew, alive or dead.
Then there was gloom in the fleet, almost as
deep as if we had suffered a naval defeat. The
search was still continued, and the Monarch was
ordered to go into Corcubion Bay — close to Cape
Finisterre — and see if any survivors could have
got on shore there ; that being the nearest land.
She rejoined the fleet next day, and brought
with her the Captain's launch and the sole
survivors, consisting of Mr. May, the gunner,
and seventeen seamen.
Mr. May owed his life to the fact that he
was anxious about his guns, and turned out in
the middle watch to see that they were properly
secured. He was at work in the foremost turret
when the ship turned over, and was washed
out through the port. The launch was washed
off the booms at the same time, and he and the
seventeen men managed to get into her and
were blown ashore to the nearest land.
At the time the Captain was lost, Mr. Childers
was First Lord of the Admiralty, and he lost
a son in her, a promising young middy.
The Inconstant (at that time the fastest ship
in the navy) was sent home with the sad news,
and of course there was a great sensation in
England, and bitter recriminations, and everybody
knew all about it after the event, and tried to
put the blame on somebody else ; but ' the real
reason for this great sacrifice was the simple
fact that public opinion and the Press thought
they knew more about ship-building than sea
men and naval architects. The climax of in-

286 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
justice was, however, reached when it was sought
to put the blame on the shoulders of Sir Spencer
Eobinson and Mr. E. J. Eeed — as he then was —
both of whom were opposed to the design of the
Captain. Yet it is quite certain that if the
Admiralty had peremptorily refused to allow her
to go to sea, there would have been a howl of
indignation throughout the land, coupled with
charges of official jealousy and obstruction of the
development of a superior and progressive design.
It has always been the custom in the navy
to perpetuate ship's names of glorious memory;
with the idea, no doubt, of inspiring those who
sail in them to emulate the deeds of those who
won renown for their country in a former ship
of the same name.
Thus the Captain flew Nelson's broad pennant
at the battle of Cape St. Vincent, when he
executed that famous tactical manceuvre which
decided the fate of the day; winning for his
country a naval victory, and for Sir John Jervis
an earldom.
The Vanguard was Nelson's flagship at the
battle of the Nile ; and there is something
remarkable in the fact that the Vanguard of the
period I am writing about — an ironclad broadside
ship — came to an untimely end a few years after
the loss of the Captain, being rammed and
sunk in a fog by her sister ship the Iron Duke,
off the south coast of Ireland.
Perhaps this was a special decree of Providence
to warn us that we cannot go on living indefinitely
upon the glories of the past and the heroic deeds
of our ancestors.

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 287
I think it was Mr Jane (naval publicist) who
said a short time ago that we were getting too
much of Nelson nowadays ; which sounded very
like sacrilege in naval ears, though no doubt he
meant to imply that a perpetual chatter about
Nelson and Trafalgar was an inefficient substitute
for due preparation to meet the requirements of
modern naval warfare.
The memory of the heroic deeds of the sailors
and soldiers of mediaeval Spain did not save that
country from defeat and humiliation when it had
to encounter a more energetic, more virile, and
more vigorous race, which felt that its time had
come to demand for itself a place in the sun and
the fulfilment of its " rights " ; which innocent-
looking little word means now, and has always
meant, whatever any nation is strong enough to
take. Nor will a similar dwelling upon the
glories of the past save us when next we are
called upon to defend our " rights."
The loss of the Vanguard was unattended
by any loss of life, as the crew abandoned their
ship in ample time before she sank; and the
British public and the Press — with some few
exceptions — congratulated themselves upon this
satisfactory feature in the loss of another iron
clad. Yet there were some unpractical and
idealistic people who thought that the loss of
the Vanguard was a more deplorable national
disaster than the loss of the Captain; for they
failed to see that " never mind the ship, my lads,
but hurry up and save your own skins," was neither
an inspiring nor lofty ideal to place before British
seamen. Very different indeed was the spirit of

288 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
duty and devotion shown when yet another great
battleship foundered off the coast of Syria, and
the crew, inspired by the precept and example of
the gallant Tryon, stuck to their posts until the
end. "A useless sacrifice," some cynics will say.
But was it a useless sacrifice ? Was Sir Eichard
Grenville's defence of the Bevenge a useless
sacrifice ? I must leave the answer to this
question to those who know more than I do of
those impelling forces, those national and race
characteristics, which lead to the rise of world
wide empires such as ancient Eome and modern
Britain. Gibbon has explained how the decay of
them led to the decline and fall of a mighty
empire.

CHAPTEE XV
" Jap " — Spanish treasure and a salvage company — Torpedoes
and "ramming tactics " — Grounding of the Agincourt — Towed
off by the Hercules — I join the Agincourt — The art of enforcing
discipline — In the Mediterranean — Appointed to the Asia —
On half-pay.
IT has for many years been the custom of the
Admiralty to allow a few naval officers of the
lesser maritime Powers to serve in our navy for
instructional purposes : to learn seamanship,
gunnery, torpedoes, and British naval discipline ;
and thus I have been shipmate with Swedes,
Norwegians, Greeks, Chilians, and Peruvians, and
in the Hercules we had a Japanese, one of the first
of that nation who came to England to study
British naval methods. Etzuki (or " Jap," as he
preferred to be called) was a delightful little man,
the son of a daimio, with those charming manners,
high courtesy, and that bright intelligence and
quick receptivity which distinguish so many of his
race, and which have enabled Japan to rise in
one generation from a position of insignificance
to that of one of the world's leading naval Powers.
Etzuki was placed under my special charge as
first lieutenant, and I found him a very apt pupil,
keen as mustard, full of energy and also full of
fun, and with an almost childish enjoyment of a
20 289

290 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
joke, but yet, while on duty, never forgetting his
position as an officer or his dignity as a Japanese
gentleman, though he loved going aloft with the
men to help to furl a sail, or laying out on the
jib-boom to stow the jib in a strong breeze, the
most difficult sail in the ship to stow, as there
is nothing to hold on to — no jackstay, but just a
greasy spar and a swaying foot-rope.
It used to bring my heart up into my mouth
when I saw Etzuki swarming out on to the jib-
boom with the forecastle men to help to stow that
great flapping sail, for I felt more or less respon
sible for him ; but he was as active as a cat and a
stranger to anything like fear.
The men got to be very fond of him, and helped
him along, and although they evidently regarded
him as an excellent joke, they were always per
fectly respectful to him as an officer, for he had the
honorary rank and uniform of a sub-lieutenant.
On one occasion, and one occasion only, did
" Jap " forget his dignity, and that was when he
turned out of his hammock one morning and put
his foot into a steel rat-trap, which caught him by
the big toe, and he went dancing round the steer
age making use of awful language, I was told,
though I don't know where he could have learned
it ; perhaps from the forecastle men, certainly not
from me.
Poor little "Jap " ! He rose to the rank of
captain in the Japanese Navy and died of cancer
in the throat a short time before the outbreak of
the Chino-Japanese War. I feel sure his name
would have been amongst those upon his country's
brilliant roll of honour had he lived. I saw him

MEMOELES OF THE SEA 291
once again in Japan in 1881, and he gave me a
handsome wedding present.
I have already mentioned Vigo, in the north of
Spain, as one of the Channel Squadron's ports of
refreshment, but I did not mention that at the
time of which I am writing a company was formed
to try and recover a quantity of treasure supposed
to be still deposited in the wrecks of the Spanish
ships destroyed by Eooke's squadron in 1702. The
prospectus of the company stated that no attempt
had been made to recover this treasure since
modern improvements in diving apparatus had
been invented and proved, and that there was
therefore a reasonable prospect of recovering the
greater part of the immense treasure which
rehable records showed must be still lying at
the bottom of the sea in the inner harbour of
Vigo. The wrecks had been located, and there was
therefore nothing to do but to pick up tons of
silver, with the most up-to-date diving appliances,
which the company would supply if they only had
the money ; a very big dividend was certain, etc.
It may interest the reader to know how the
treasure got there.
Eooke, with a combined Anglo-Dutch fleet, con
sisting of fifty sail of the line — thirty English and
twenty Dutch — besides transports containing nine
thousand English and four thousand Dutch troops
under the command of the Duke of Ormonde, had
just made an abortive attack upon Cadiz, and
were on their way home when they picked up
inteUigence at Lagos that the Spanish treasure
fleet, escorted by a powerful French squadron, had
put into the port of Vigo, and as this presented them

292 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
with a lucky opportunity to wipe out the failure of
their attempt on Cadiz, with the additional attrac
tion of a substantial haul of prize money, the allied
commanders decided to attack.
The Spanish galleons and their French escort
had secured themselves in the inner harbour at
Vigo, off the small town of Eedondela. The
French commodore had constructed a formidable
boom with which he barred the entrance, the ends
of the boom being protected by batteries on the
shore. The Duke of Ormonde landed with five thousand
troops and captured the battery at the south
end of the boom. Vice-Admiral Hopsonn, in the
Torbay, sailed in under a heavy fire and broke the
boom ; the other ships that had been detailed to
support him followed, and in a very short time
the whole of the Franco- Spanish fleet was either
burnt, captured, sunk, or run ashore.
In the "Life of Captain Stephen Martin," pub
lished by the Navy Eecords Society, there is a
graphic picture of this amphibious battle of two
hundred years ago, when you could see your
enemy and get at him, instead of bombarding
him some miles off.
" Early in the morning all the boats of the fleet
were employed in landing the soldiers, to the
number of five thousand, in order to attack the
fort on the starboard side, and the Barfleur to
batter it by sea, and the Association to do the like
on the larboard side. A line of twenty-four sail
was appointed to attack the boom and force the
harbour, Vice-Admiral Hopsonn leading the van
with five sail abreast, then a Dutch admiral and

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 293
five sail, and then Sir Stafford Fairborne in the
rear with five sail more, the bombs and fireships
following close in the rear ; and in this manner
they made the attack.
"xAdmiral Hopsonn, with the first five, broke
the boom, notwithstanding the fire from the
battery and ships that guarded it, but his fore-
topmast was shot away. He was no sooner
entered than he was boarded by a fireship
which burnt his foresail, but put herself off
again with the way she had, on coming on
board, and soon after blew up ; and being a
merchant-ship laden with snuff, that in some
measure extinguished the flames, but almost
blinded and suffocated those that were near.
This created such consternation, that the first
lieutenant, purser, and one hundred men of Admiral
Hopsonn's ship jumped overboard, the greater
part of whom were drowned.
"While this was doing, the rest of the ships
having got through as fast as they could, were
all of a cluster; and Captain Martin with his
ship being amongst the thickest, was so near
the fireship that blew up, that the snuff drove
into the sides of his ship and made the planks
of a snuff colour, discolouring everything on
board. In short, in less than an hour's time we
were masters of the port and harbour. The
French, as they quitted their ships, either set
them on fire or blew them up ; so that for
some time there was nothing to be heard or
seen but cannonading, burning, men and guns
flying in the air, and altogether the most lively
scene of horror and confusion that can be

294 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
imagined. This confusion, in some measure,
lasted all night, so that by the next morning
all the ships, French and Spanish, were destroyed
or taken, viz. : of the French, ten men-of-war
were taken ; the remaining five with two frigates
and some smaller vessels were burnt. Of the
Spaniards, nine galleons were taken, the rest
destroyed ; and this victory was obtained with
the loss of not above two hundred men ; but the
enemy lost a great number, for besides what were
killed in the fight and defence of their ships,
the shores of the harbour were strewn with
their bodies, blown up and drowned, and no
small number were found on the shore at a
distance from the harbour, and some a consider
able way up the country, whither they were come
by the force of the gunpowder when the ships
blew up."
The snuff fireship reminds one of the Chinese
stinkpot warfare in the Canton Eiver in 1857,
when H.M.S. Niger was smothered from truck
to waterline by a somewhat similar engine
of warfare ; though the Chinese did not use
snuff, but a junk-load of Cantonese sewage,
and the unfortunate ship retained the odour
for such a long time afterwards that the crews
of the other ships endowed her with a sobriquet
which Dean Swift might have recorded, though
I dare not, as I am not a literary divine.
But to return to the salvage company, which
gave rise to this digression. Directly the divers
got to work they brought up several ingots of
solid silver in a wonderful state of preservation,
and the shares of the company went up with

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 295
a bound. Diving went on ; but no more silver
came up, and it was then whispered that the
recovered ingots looked as if they had not been
two hundred days, let alone two hundred years,
under water ; so that it seemed as if this submarine
mine had been " salted."
The company was dissolved, and some fools lost
their money.
I remember hearing that a further and more
diligent search of the Spanish archives showed
that the bulk of the treasure had been landed
and taken up-country before Eooke and Ormonde
attacked ; and as the attack was evidently expected
and prepared for, it seems probable that this was
the case ; unless we are to suppose that the
Spaniards were as great fools as those who
put their money on the divers.
In the Channel Squadron in 1870 we had some
curious toys in the shape of torpedoes. The
locomotive or "Whitehead" torpedo was then
in its vigorous youth, and its votaries never
doubted the ultimate success of their favourite
weapon; but it was not without rivals.
There was, for instance, the spar or pole
torpedo, with which we used to carry out regular
exercises. This consisted of a charge of gun-
cotton, fixed on to the end of a long pole, which
was rigged out over the bows of a steam cutter.
And you were supposed to steam quietly up to
your enemy, while he was at anchor, poke
the charge under his bottom and explode it
by electricity, then return to your ship and
report, " Enemy sunk, sir ; found him fast
asleep."

296 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
The pole torpedo was actually used during the
American Civil War. I think it was in the James
Eiver, where a boat on the Confederate side
drifted down with the current and torpedoed a
small Federal ship, where they could not have
been keeping a very good look-out ; and it was, no
doubt, in consequence of this incident that the
pole torpedo was introduced into our navy and
flourished for a good many years, until it was
finally realized that there were not enough
chances in a hundred of catching an enemy
asleep to make it worth while going on with
it, and it was then abolished.
Then there was the Harvey torpedo. This was
a very pretty toy, which consisted of a torpedo
in the form of what fishermen know as an otter.
It was towed out on the quarter, at an angle of
about twenty degrees, and was supposed to be
used in conjuction with what was known as the
"ramming tactics" of that era. You were first
to try and ram your enemy, like the ancient
Greek and Eoman galleys used to do ; and then
if you missed him with the ram, it was hoped
that you might catch him with the Harvey
torpedo : and as it was a torpedo which exploded
on contact, there was a device by which you
could dip it under the bottom of a friend without
blowing him up, and then bring it up again when
he had passed.
" Eamming tactics " were very much the vogue
at this period, in consequence of an incident
which occurred at the battle of Lissa, when
the Ferdinand Max, an old converted Austrian
wooden ship, with Admiral Tegethoff in command,

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 297
rammed and sank the Italian ironclad the Bd-
d' Italia ; and notwithstanding that it after
wards transpired the event was at least as
much accident as design, the idea of destroying
your enemy with one blow was so fascinating
that ramming tactics were assiduously cultivated
for many years after the battle of Lissa, until
at last people began to realize, that when ships
were manoeuvring at speed the difference between
ramming and being rammed could only be a
question of a few seconds in point of time and
half a ship's length in distance, and that, more
over, the ramming ship would probably be herself
completely disabled ; and then ramming tactics
died a natural death, although for many years
afterwards our battleships were built with ram
projections on their bows, which sank a good
many friends but no enemies.
A distinguished admiral wrote a book entitled
" The Gun, the Earn, and the Torpedo," in which
ramming tactics were exhaustively discussed.
We were all bitten with the idea, and so late as
1890, when I was in command of a battleship in
the Mediterranean, I induced the admiral to
allow me to protect with faggots the sides of the
steam pinnaces of the squadron, and then practice
actual ramming tactics ; so that I cannot claim
to have been any wiser than my neighbours.
Somewhat later in point of time there appeared
yet another torpedo — the Brennan — for which
invention the Admiralty paid a large sum of
money; I think £25,000. This was a most
ingenious device for destroying an enemy, if he
would come near enough. It was intended for

298 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
the protection of harbours with narrow entrances ;
and there was one in active operation at the
eastern entrance to Hongkong harbour in 1898,
when I was there, and I saw several runs made
with it.
I do not know if the Brennan torpedo is still
considered to be a serious weapon of warfare,
worth its expense ; for I am speaking of fourteen
years ago, and bows and arrows and catapults
were abolished longer ago than that ; but in its
palmiest days the Brennan torpedo seemed to
me very much like the old, and I believe dis
credited, game of trying to catch a bird by first
putting a pinch of salt on its tail. I remember,
when I was a very small boy, actually going out
with a paper of salt and stalking blackbirds and
thrushes ; but I never could get near enough to
put the salt on their tails.
Why do we tell children such fables ? It must
cause them to doubt other things which we tell
them, and which may happen to be true.
Our naval guns of 1870 — and indeed for another
fifteen years after — would bring a smile to the
lips of a modern gunnery lieutenant. They were
short, dumpy things like soda-water bottles, muzzle-
loaders, rifled and with studded projectiles, which
frequently broke up in the gun, or else turned end
over end and went in any direction except the
right one ; but the guns made plenty of smoke.
The French Navy had effective breech-loaders
many years before we had, with the interrupted
screw and the swinging breech block, quite on the
same general principle as the most up-to-date
modern ordnance. But we were too proud to

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 299
copy them, though we had ourselves already
tried and condemned a breech-loading gun,
constructed on a wrong principle— the Arm
strong — which killed a good many of our own
men through the breech block blowing out and
the gun shooting inboard. " Them two-muzzled
guns," as the sailors called them.
The next event of interest in the Channel
Squadron which I have to record was the ground
ing of the Agincourt on the Pearl Eock in the
Straits of Gibraltar, in sight of the fortress, in
broad daylight, in clear weather; but then we
were saving coal, according to Admiralty in
structions. The squadron consisted of the Minotaur (flag
of Admiral Wellesley, in command), the Agincourt
(flag of Bear-Admiral Eardley Wilmot, second in
command), Monarch, Warrior, Inconstant, and
Hercules, and we sailed from Gibraltar for Tangier
one fine morning about nine o'clock. The speed
of the squadron was very slow — I think about six
knots — and the current runs in through the Straits
at about four knots ; so that once we were clear
of Gibraltar Bay we were not making good more
than two knots over the ground ; but we were
saving coal.
The anchors were stowed, the watch was called,
and the admirals went below. Everybody knew
that we were only making about two knots over the
ground ; but what the admirals, the captains, and
the navigating officers did not appear to realize
was that unless the current should happen to be
right ahead the squadron would not proceed in
the direction in which the ships' heads were

300 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
pointed, but, on the contrary, sideways, like a
crab ; and the Agincourt, which was leading the
lee line, next to Cabrita Point, ran hard and
fast aground on the Pearl Eock, but sideways,
and so gently that those on board scarcely
felt it, and the Warrior, which was next astern,
very nearly ran into her. Nevertheless, the
Agincourt was very firmly aground, and remained
there for four days, in spite of the efforts of the
whole squadron to get her off.
As soon as it was realized that the Agincourt
was aground everybody knew all about it, and
the squadron closed in and anchored around the
stranded ship. Anchors were laid out, with which
she tried to heave off, but she did not move ; and
so then we all set to work to lighten her.
It was a beautifully calm day, without a ripple
on the water. Lighters were immediately sent
out from Gibraltar dockyard, and all the boats
of the squadron assembled round the Agincourt
to take in stores, anchors, cables, shot, shell, pro
visions, and everything movable; and there was
very little doubt that she would be able to heave
off next day, if the weather remained fine. The
weather did remain fine, but she did not come off.
So then they began to hoist out the heavy guns ;
and on the second day the Inconstant was ordered
to try and pull her off ; but the captain of the
Inconstant was rather shy about getting too near
the rock, and he did not get near enough to make
a proper connection, so this attempt failed.
The situation was now becoming serious, for if
the weather should change and a swell set in from
the Atlantic before the ship came off, she would

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 301
undoubtedly become a total wreck. So then they
began to jettison some of the coal which had
been saved by steaming at a very "economical "
speed ; and on the afternoon of the fourth day, as
there was still no movement, the Hercules was
ordered to make an attempt to tow her off.
At last they hit upon the right man for the job.
Lord Gilford was a thorough seaman, as I have
before mentioned ; and although, or perhaps
because, he had been brought up under the sails,
he had soon learnt to handle his 8,000-ton iron
clad as though she had been a penny steamer on
the Thames ; and I remember that the first time
we went alongside the mole at Gibraltar he rather
astonished them by refusing the usual tug assist
ance, which the other captains accepted, and put
his ship alongside the wall as if he had been
at it all his life. So when he had received the
admiral's orders to make an attempt at pulling off
the Agincourt, we who knew him felt that it was
going to be neck or nothing ; and it turned out neck.
With perfect confidence in his own judgment,
and without a moment's hesitation, the captain of
the Hercules let go his anchor exactly in the right
spot, and then backed his ship in until the sterns
of the two ships were nearly touching and we had
very little water under our bottom, though just
safe ; and in this position it was possible to make
a proper connection with two chain cables and
to get an equal strain upon them.
Then "Heave round the capstan; full speed
ahead," and off came the Agincourt amidst the
hearty cheers of the squadron, and we all returned
to Gibraltar.

302 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
That very night a fresh westerly wind sprung
up and an Atlantic swell rolled in through the
Straits ; so if the Agincourt had not come off that
afternoon she would never have come off at all.
Of course there were courts-martial, and both
admirals were superseded, which was rather hard
on Admiral Wellesley, who had been brought
home from the comfortable and much more inde
pendent post of commander-in-chief in North
America because there was no other admiral
considered to be equally competent to take com
mand of our principal fighting fleet. But there
is an inexorable naval tradition, stronger than
law, which does not allow admirals or captains to
shunt responsibility on to the shoulders of their
subordinates, though it sometimes comes hard
upon them when they are saddled with careless or
incompetent people to carry out the details of
their orders.
The rescue of the Agincourt from her dangerous
position was a bold and skilful piece of seaman
ship, and was undoubtedly a feather in the cap of
Lord Gilford; and as the Admiralty wanted to
pay him a compliment, they hit upon the idea
of promoting his first lieutenant, which happened
to be me, though I had no more to do with it
than any other officer in the ship who carried out
the captain's orders. Thus I was promoted to the
rank of commander in July, 1871, at twenty-nine
years of age — very lucky, as promotions were
going, at that time.
Soon after the Pearl Bock affair the Channel
Squadron returned to England, and I went on
shore once more, on a commander's half-pay —

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 303
or what was called half-pay — of 8s. 6d. a day,
upon which I expected to enjoy myself for a
year or so, to make the acquaintance of my
relations, and rest from my labours ; for I had had
three years' hard work in the Channel Squadron,
with the double duty of first lieutenant and
watchkeeper at sea : but there was to be no peace
for the wicked, and before I had been a month
on shore I was invited to go as commander of
the Agincourt, with a new admiral and a new
captain ; but she was still to be second flagship
in the Channel Squadron.
The invitation came from the captain, Captain
J. 0. Hopkins, who has from that day to this
been my firm and fast friend, and who taught
me a good many things that I did not know
before. It was, of course, an invitation that there could
be no thought of declining ; so I was duly
appointed, and off I went again to Devonport,
to join the Agincourt, which was still in the
hands of the dockyard, completing her repairs
and refit ; for she had been very much knocked
about and demoralized by her adventure on the
Pearl Eock.
It is not an uncommon event that when a
new captain takes command of a ship, a new
colonel of a regiment, a new manager of a busi
ness concern, and perhaps also when a new
parson is preferred to a parish, he finds that
matters are not always exactly as they should
be, according to his way of thinking. In fact, it
sometimes goes even farther than this, and he
finds that everything is wrong, and that the

304 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
ship, regiment, business, or parish wants reorgan
izing from top to bottom, just as the Socialists
say of society.
Thus when Captain Hopkins and I joined the
Agincourt at Devonport in September, 1871, we
found that she wanted reorganizing from top to
bottom ; and we set to work to do it — according
to our ideas ; though indeed it would be more
true to say, according to his ideas, for he was
the impelling spirit throughout, and I merely
tried to carry out his views, even in the case of
those minor details which are usually left to
the judgment of the executive officer. Yet,
strange to say, I never felt that he was inter
fering unduly, or poaching in any way on my
domain, as he had a way of making suggestions —
always practical and straight to the point — which
made me feel that it was my suggestion, and
not his, and that when the result turned out
well — as it always did — the credit was mine !
Undoubtedly the art of keeping all hands in
a good-humour is of exceeding value to a captain
of a ship, or indeed to anybody in command of
men. It is a personal gift, like genius. It can
not be acquired. It may not be imitated. It is
not gained by relaxing discipline, by undue
familiarity, by seeking popularity, or by any of
the devices with which the unhappy imitator
seeks to attain it : for there is no one more
heartily despised, nor held in greater contempt
by seamen, than a " Popularity Jack." Captain
Hopkins was as far removed from a " Popularity
Jack " as the poles of the earth are from one
another ; yet he was the most popular captain

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 305
I ever served with. The men simply adored him,
and would have done anything for him.
I remember once, when I was midshipman
in command of a jollyboat, overhearing a sotto-
voce conversation between two of my crew. They
were comparing the respective merits of two of
the lieutenants in the ship in which we were
serving, one of whom was blessed with the art
of command and the other was not. Finally, one
of the men said, " I would rather be called a son
of a  by Mr. A. than given a glass of grog
by Mr. B." This was perhaps an extreme way
of putting the case ; though the other man
appeared to agree with it.
The Agincourt was recommissioned with her
old crew ; but there was a new rear-admiral —
Frederick Campbell — a new captain, and a new
commander; and as soon as we were ready we
joined the Channel Squadron as second in com
mand, the squadron at that time being under
the command of that strict and smart seaman
Sir Geoffrey Hornby, so that we knew we should
either have to get our ship well up to the mark
(and the mark was a high one) in all drills and
exercises, or else get a good many raps over the
knuckles and a large allowance of cold tongue
from Sir Geoffrey ; but as we were neither of us
partial to cold tongue, we set to work with all
our might to make our ship a credit to the
squadron ; and I think I may say, without vanity,
that we were not entirely unsuccessful.
Writing to me some years afterwards, my old
captain said : " We turned the Agincourt from
the noisiest and the worst disciplined ship in
21

306 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
the squadron into the quietest and the smartest ;
and a few months after we commissioned we went
out to the Mediterranean for the Lord Clyde
court-martial, and beat the whole Mediterranean
fleet in their drills and exercises, which was a
great triumph." Which was strictly true ; but
it wasn't my doing, although I got much of the
credit for it.
How was it done ?
Well, I really don't know, except that I doubt
very much whether it could have been done by
any one but the man who did it ; for the methods
used in some cases seemed to be far more likely
to lead to discontent, if not insubordination, than
to happiness, smartness, and content.
I will relate one case, which I think will
astonish some of my brother officers who have
gone through the mill of some years' experience
as executive officer.
The squadron was cruising off the coast of
Portugal, as usual, wallowing about under sail,
scarcely under command, but in open order,
as it was too dangerous to let those unwieldy
five-masted ships get too near to one another with
out steam at command. It was much the same
sort of night as that upon which the Captain
capsized, though blowing harder ; and it became
necessary to clew up and furl the mainsail. The
sail was duly clewed up and the mainyard men
sent aloft to furl it, but after spending rather
more than an hour on the yard they came down
again without having furled it, their excuse
being that the sail was wet. Next morning the
captain ordered the mainyard men to be mustered

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 307
on the quarter-deck and asked them once more
why they came down from aloft without furling
the mainsail ; but all they could say was that
they were unable to furl a wet sail. "All right,"
says the captain, "furling wet sails is entirely
a matter of practice, and I'll teach you how to
furl a wet sail."
The mainyard men were then dismissed, and
nothing more was heard upon the subject until about
a fortnight afterwards. When the squadron was
lying at anchor off Lisbon, one Thursday afternoon
the captain sent for me and said, "Muster the
mainyard men, and we'll teach them how to furl
a wet sail."
Now I must explain, for the information of
my non-naval readers, that Thursday afternoon
is " Jack's " half -holi day. It is popularly known
as " make-and-mend-clothes day," and was no
doubt originally set apart to give the sailors
a chance of mending their clothes by daylight,
before there was anything better than a tallow-
dip candle to work by after dark. No drills or
exercises take place, and no work of any sort
that can possibly be avoided ; in fact, it is sacro
sanct as a half-holiday for making and mending
clothes, which means that nine men out of
ten roll up a blue frock for a pillow and he down
on the deck for a " caulk," as they call it; and
nothing is more likely to cause discontent and
grumbling than to disturb them unnecessarily
on Thursday afternoon.
When, therefore, I received the order to muster
the mainyard men on a Thursday afternoon in
harbour, I began to feel some doubt as to whether

308 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
my gallant captain was not going a little too far ;
for I guessed pretty well that he was going to
exercise them at furling the mainsail, though
I did not foresee how the " wet" sail was to be
provided. I had not long to wait, however; for
the matter was taken out of my hands, and I
could only look on and wonder, with some
trepidation as to what would happen.
And this was what happened : First the main-
yard men were ordered to get up the fire-engine
and rig the hose ; then to go aloft and loose the
mainsail ; then to pump on it for half an hour,
until it was thoroughly wet ; then to go aloft and
furl it; which they did in the highest good-
humour, laughing and chuckling, as if it was the
best of jokes and the greatest lark they had ever
had in their lives !
Now I am absolutely unable to explain the
psychology (I believe that is the proper word)
of this affair. All I know is that if I had
done it myself I should have produced some
thing very closely approaching to a mutiny ;
whereas the attractive personality, the obvious
sincerity, and the frank good-humour of my
cheery captain produced exactly the opposite
result. How true it is that one man may steal a horse
whilst another may not look over the gate. Or,
as Locke puts it, "In most cases the manner of
doing is of more consequence than the thing done ;
and on that depends the satisfaction or disgust
wherewith it is received."
One of the innovations in naval routine which
we made in the Agincourt, was the substitu-

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 309
tion of the bugle for the vox humana in all drills
and exercises, including sail and spar drill. It
was found to be difficult, in these long five-masted
ships, for even the most powerful human voice to
make itself heard on the forecastle or in the fore-
top from the quarter-deck or bridge, from whence
the executive officer or the officer of the watch
had to "carry on." So we taught the men a
few of the more distinctive light-infantry bugle-
calls, which were to mean certain well-known
executive orders. Thus in tacking ship, for
instance, instead of the commander or the officer
of the watch bellowing out, " Fore tack head
bowlines, of all haul " (which would have only
sounded on the forecastle like boo-hoo-hoo-hoo),
the bugler at his elbow played a short tune, and
round went the head yards.
The men took to it very kindly, and it proved
to be a great success ; for instead of half a dozen
officers shouting out and repeating orders, there
was perfect silence aloft and also on deck, with
the exception of a short, clear call on the bugle,
which could be heard all over the ship, and all
went like clockwork.
One day the signal was made to us to get up
steam with all dispatch ; but before the fires
could be lighted the funnels had to be got up ; for
in those days they were telescopic and always
kept down except when wanted for use. They
were very heavy, and had to be hove up with
hand-winches by the stokers, which took a long
time — longer, the captain thought, than neces
sary ; so he decided that the stokers should have
some funnel drill, so that the funnels should be

310 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
got up or down more smartly and more in
accordance with the general practice of the ship.
But the difficulty was that we had already
exhausted all the well-known bugle-calls, and
there was nothing left for "Up funnels." It
looked like checkmate on the music ; but my
gallant captain was a bad man to beat, at any
game, so he sent for the bugler, who was a smart
and intelligent lad, and they had a private
interview and rehearsal, the upshot of which was
that the bugler had been taught to play the well-
known air of " Polly, put the kettle on and let's
make tea." The stokers were mustered on the
quarter-deck and told that when they heard this
tune they were to get the funnels up as
quickly as possible, that the time would be noted,
and that they would be exercised at this
manceuvre until they performed it smartly
enough to please the captain.
Most officers, especially popular ones, have
nicknames amongst the men, and Captain
Hopkins — and all of us — knew that his nickname
was "Polly Hopkins," so that there was a sort of
double meaning in " Polly, put the kettle on" as
a tune for " Up funnels."
The next act in this melodrama of " discipline
by consent " occurred once more on a Thursday
afternoon (" make-and-mend-clothes day "), when
all hands were asleep or smoking ; and the bugler
suddenly appeared in the stoker's quarters and
played " Polly, put the kettle on." Up jumped
the stokers, rushed to the funnel-winches, and
up went the funnels in less than half the time
they had ever gone up before, amidst hearty

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 311
laughter from all hands. After this it was not
necessary to have any more gratuitous exercises
at "up funnels."
Now I am well aware that some of our hard
and stern disciplinarians, excellent officers in
their way, will be inclined to sneer at this kind
of thing, and perhaps call it trivial, childish, not
in accordance with the King's Eegulations and
Admiralty Instructions, etc., etc. ; but when all is
said against it, which it may or may not deserve,
no one will deny that a light-hearted, cheerful
and willing ship's company will do better work,
and probably better fighting too, than a discon
tented and grumbling one. Nelson's " band of
brothers " made a good show when it came to
fighting. A keen and generous sense of humour has
smoothed and settled many a difficulty which
has checkmated the pedantic stickler for strict
naval discipline ; but woe betide the man who
lacks it and tries to imitate ! I have seen it tried
more than once, and he always makes a fool of
himself. Perhaps he has never read the warning
of that shrewd old philosopher George Herbert —
" Wit's an unruly engine, wildly striking
Sometimes a friend, sometimes the engineer.
Hast thou the knack? Pamper it not with liking,
But if thou want it, buy it not too dear.
Many, affecting wit beyond their power,
Have got to be a dear fool for an hour."
When the Agincourt had been about four
months in commission she was ordered " up the
Straits," so that our own admiral (Campbell)

312 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
might sit as president of a court-martial on the
captain and officers of the Lord Clyde, which ship
had drifted ashore on the Island of Pantillaria,
whilst saving coal, as usual. The Lord Clyde
had remained on shore for several days, and was
considerably damaged before she got off again,
so of course a court-martial was ordered, Admiral
Campbell was appointed president of it, and off
we went to Malta.
The Agincourt was the first of the three long
five-masted ships, and probably the biggest
ship, that had ever entered Malta harbour, so
she made rather a sensation, and we heard
afterwards that the harbour-master had a fit of
nerves and got no sleep for a week before we
arrived. These three ships were probably the most
unhandy ships that were ever built for the navy.
They were only 10,000 tons — mere jollyboats com
pared with our so-called cruisers of to-day ; but
they only had a single screw, and there was no
balanced rudder, cut away deadwood, round up
of the forefoot, or any of the other devices with
which our naval architects have succeeded in
making our modern monsters as handy as they
are said to be. Nevertheless, we got into Malta
Grand Harbour without running on shore or
smashing anything, and tied up head and stern.
We found the Mediterranean Fleet lying in the
harbour, and it was on this occasion that we
beat them at all their drills and exercises, as
mentioned in a letter which I have already
quoted, which I received some years afterwards
from my old captain. It was, as he said, a

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 313
great triumph to beat the home team in their
own waters at their own special exercises, and
we were very proud of ourselves, as we well
might be.
The spirit of the old sail and spar drill departed
with the sails, and it is scarcely possible for
officers and men who have served only in modern
ships to understand the intense keenness of the
rivalry between ship and ship which these exer
cises called forth and developed. They were, no
doubt, dangerous exercises, and there were many
accidents and some loss of life, when men fell
from aloft or ropes carried away and spars came
tumbling down upon the crowded deck, so that
the marines found themselves in the firing-line
as well as the bluejackets; but the risks and the
dangers were the very things which supplied an
image of war, and demanded courage, agility,
ready resource, confidence in comrades, discipline,
obedience, and a thorough organization of all the
parts of the machine. Thus competitive exercises
with the spars and sails were the best possible
peace preparation for the stern reality of war,
for which the navy must always be as ready as
it is possible to make it.
No doubt it is possible to carry out competitive
exercises of various sorts in modern ships, so as
to keep up a healthy spirit of rivalry — competitive
prize-firing, competitive coaling, laying out
anchors, etc., all of which are attended with
some risk ; but these exercises are not so patent,
not so much in sight, not so romantic — if I may
use the word without being misunderstood — as
the old mast and sail drill. Still, it is no use

314 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
crying over spilt milk. The sails are gone, and
with them a good deal of the romance of a life on
the ocean wave. They ought to have gone twenty
years before they did ; and our seamen must
accommodate themselves to modern conditions.
There are plenty of risks to harden the nerves
in submarines and in destroyers manoeuvring at
high speed in rough weather. There will be
plenty more when we have a squadron of a
hundred naval aeroplanes exercising in the
clouds : so I must crave forgiveness, and plead
constancy to my first love, for indulging in the
above obituary tribute to the glory of the sails.
After the Lord Clyde court-martial we returned
to the Channel and rejoined the " Lisbon Squad
ron " at Lisbon ; a stupid place in summer, as
there was no snipe-shooting. " Para Grande" was
still flourishing, and the Portuguese marquis was
fleecing the officers gaily with his infernal roulette-
table. I used to go there myself occasionally and
drop a dollar or two ; but it was really in a spirit
of altruistic self-sacrifice that I did so, as I found
it kept the midshipmen away. I warned them
all that I might drop in there at any time, and
that if I found any of the midshipmen of the
Agincourt at the gaming-tables, their leave would
be stopped for a month ; and as my captain also
undertook to report to me any midshipman that
he found there, they could never feel safe that
one or other of us might not drop in upon them at
any time ; and I believe it kept them away to
a very great extent, though no doubt they dodged
us occasionally, for the resourceful British mid
shipman is up to a good many tricks, and difficult

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 315
to get to windward of. His one great failing is
that he seems entirely to forget that his captain
and commander were once midshipmen them
selves, and are therefore not quite ignorant
of the strategy and tactics of the gunroom.
Before we had been a full year in commission,
Admiral Campbell was appointed to take command
of the flying squadron, and, to our great grief,
he took with him our beloved captain.
Our new admiral was another Scotsman —
Macdonald — belonging to another clan, and we
were given to understand by his friends that he
was hereditary chief of Clanranald and Lord of
the Isles. The isles, however, had all been sold,
and our new chief did not wear a kilt, even on
grand occasions ; nor did he bring with him
any bagpipes, for which we were thankful ; but
he certainly had an ear for music, as the following
incident will show.
It was the custom for the band to play a
selection of music when the admiral had a dinner
party ; and out of compliment to Admiral Camp
bell they used frequently to play " The Campbells
are Coming," as that was beheved to be his
particular clan tune. But the first time the
chief of the Macdonalds heard it he was very
angry and sent for me — the captain being on
shore — and the following dialogue took place : —
' ' What do they mean by playing ' The Camp
bells are Corning ' ? "
" It has been customary to play it, sir, as a
compliment to Admiral Campbell, and being a
Scotch air, no doubt the bandmaster thought it
would be agreeable to you."

316 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
" Agreeable to me ! Don't you know the next
line of the song ? ' The Campbells are coming,
the Macdonalds are running.' Never let me hear
that tune again."
" Certainly, sir. Your orders shall be obeyed.
Is there any other tune that you would like the
band to play ?
"Yes; let them learn to play 'The Garb of
Old Gaul.' "
So the bandmaster was ordered to get the music
of " The Garb of Old Gaul," and teach it to the
band. The Scotch have ever been a fine fighting race,
even without their kilts and the martial music of
their bagpipes.
I propose to skim very lightly over the thin
ice of my second year in the Agincourt, as the
memory of it is most disagreeable to me — quite
the most unpleasant period of my whole service
afloat ; and it certainly does not make it any
better when I reflect, and feel bound to acknow
ledge, that a great deal of the unpleasantness
was my own fault, and due to my temper and
lack of self-control under somewhat irritating
circumstances. The fact of the matter was,
that I did not " hit it off " with my new
captain, and we were at loggerheads the whole
time. I was of course prepared (more or less) to find
that a new captain, joining in the middle of a
commission, would find that matters were not
exactly as they ought to be ; and that certain
details would require " putting to rights " accord
ing to his ideas of what they ought to be : but I

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 317
was not prepared to hear that everything was
wrong; that the whole of the arrangements by
which Captain Hopkins had, in a few months,
turned the slackest and noisiest ship in the
squadron into the quietest, the smartest, and the
happiest, were bad ; and that they required
turning upside-down from top to bottom, in order
that the ship might be made still better.
The arguments used in support of such a con
tention seemed to me illogical, and I resented
them with, perhaps, undue warmth. It riled me
beyond endurance to hear "Hopkins's fads" spoken
of contemptuously, as if they were not the very
means by which we had risen to pride of
place in the Channel Squadron — a position which
I clearly foresaw we should quickly lose. And
we did ; for a house divided against itself cannot
stand. The new captain and his commander did not
see eye to eye, and our differences of opinion were
very subversive of discipline and bad for the
Service, as sailors are quick to see when there is
disagreement on the quarter-deck.
No doubt there were faults on both sides ;
though, at the time, I could only see the fault
on one side, the mote in my brother's eye, which
looked to me like a beam ; and I used to walk
about, repeating to myself Isabella's well-known
apostrophe : " Man, proud man, dress'd in a little
brief authority . . . like an angry ape, plays such
fantastic tricks before high heaven as make the
angels weep " — forgetful of the fact that my late
captain and I had played some tricks that might
be deemed fantastic, as they were certainly not to

318 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
be found in the Queen's Eegulations and Admiralty
Instructions. But then it depends entirely whether
we are discussing your doxy or my doxy. At any
rate I felt so incapable of carrying out my new
captain's doxy, that I made up my mind to cut
the painter as soon as possible ; notwithstanding
that I knew it would be contrary to my own
professional interests to do so. I therefore wrote
to my old friend, Lord Gilford, who was then
captain of the Asia, steam reserve guardship at
Portsmouth, and offered my services as com
mander of that ship, an appointment which was
just about to fall vacant. He applied for me,
and in due course I was appointed, much to my
delight. This was undoubtedly the false step of my
life ; for the Asia was what is known in the
Service as a " sloping billet," and my three
years in her put me out of the running, as
it resulted in my being eight and a-half years
a commander, instead of six, which was about
the average at that time for those who went
on with continuous service at sea. But I was
worried and disgusted. Mind reacted upon body ;
my health broke down ; I couldn't say a civil
word to anybody, and so I bore up for a harbour
billet. But just before I left the Agincourt I
had the good luck to win the first " Admiral's
cup " that was ever presented for boat sailing.
Admiral Hornby, who then commanded the
Channel Squadron, started the practice of pre
senting a cup, annually, to be sailed for by
the boats of the squadron. This was in 1872 ;
and I believe his example has been followed

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 319
by every admiral in command of every squadron
in every part of the world since that date.
The usual conditions are — Any sails, any rig,
any shaped false keel, but no sinking ballast ;
that is to say, the boat must float when full of
water ; and there is generally a handicap for size.
I had been in bed for some days before the
race with an attack of influenza; but my wise
and amiable doctor decided that it would do
me less harm to get up and sail the race, than
to lie in bed fretting. So up I got, padded
myself like a mummy, with oilskins over all,
sailed the Agincourt's cutter in a strong breeze,
and won the first " Admiral's cup " ; which
adorned my dinner-table for twenty-seven years,
and I then sent it back to the Channel Squadron,
to be sailed for annually as a challenge trophy,
and to be called the " Hornby Cup," in memory
of the smartest, strictest, and yet most popular
officer of modern times ; known in the Service
by the affectionate sobriquet of " Uncle Jeff."
Shortly after this I was appointed to the
Asia, and left the Agincourt without a sigh.
As my story is about memories of the sea, I
do not propose to dwell at any length upon
my three years' service in the Asia, a vener
able old hulk, moored amongst the mud flats,
about half way up to Fareham. The duties
were not onerous. In fact, it was a case of
rest and be thankful, after five consecutive years
of hard work in the Channel Squadron. It was
really the first " spell off" I had ever had during
nineteen years' service, and I was grateful for
it at the time; though, as I have before

320 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
remarked, it was a false step from a professional
point of view, as this was not a "promotion
billet." I generally managed to hunt two days a week,
or perhaps three a fortnight, during the winter,
with the Hambledon or one of the other Hampshire
packs ; and in the summer I had a small yacht
and sailed about in the Solent, so as not to
get absolutely land-rusty; but to a large extent
my three years in the Asia were all beer and
skittles. The most onerous of my duties was
sitting on courts-martial. These were rather
frequent ; they generally came on hunting morn
ings, and as I was invariably summoned to sit
upon them I really did something for my pay.
When I had been about two years in the
Asia, my captain (Lord Gilford) was appointed
Junior Sea Lord of the Admiralty, and of course
had to move up to London and take his seat
in his office ; but I do not think he was ever
happy there. His proper place was the quarter
deck, handling a ship or directing a squadron,
and the sedentary work of an office was un
suited to his temperament. Neither he nor
Admiral Hornby — who also had a spell at the
Admiralty — were ever at home within its gloomy
portals. Both of them were sailors, men of
action and not sea lawyers. Their characters
were too independent and perhaps too peremptory
to sit at a Board and argue, and then act as
merely one of a committee. They were bothered
and irritated by all the formalities and the red
tape, and one can easily imagine either of them
finding himself in the position of the Irish

MEMOEIES OF THE SEA 321
juryman, who, upon realizing that he was in a
minority of one, warmly declared that never
before, in the whole course of his life, had he
met eleven more obstinate men.
Shortly after Lord Gilford had taken his seat
at the Admiralty, an old friend and shipmate
went to pay him a visit, and found him rather
in the dumps. He was sitting at his desk, with
a huge pile of papers in front of him, his chin
sunk upon his waistcoat, nursing his wounded
wrist, silent and morose, and evidently pondering
over some question of more than ordinary im
portance, the solution of which he had not been
able to reach.
" That pile of papers you see there," said he,
" is the result of three months' heated controversy
as to whether the boys in the training ships
are to be supplied with pewter spoons, or whether
they are to dip up this new ration of treacle
with their bread, and without the use of spoons ;
and we have not settled it yet."
The Asia had been Sir Edward Codrington's
flagship at the battle of Navarino in 1827, and
I had the honour of entertaining for one night
his distinguished son, the late General Sir
William Codrington, who commanded the British
Army in the Crimea after the death of Lord
Eaglan. After my three years in the Asia I went on
shore on half-pay, and had a bad hunting
accident in the south of Ireland, got concussion
of the spine, and was on the flat of my back
for nearly a year. And as I have now reached
the limit of my space, and I expect also the
22

322 MEMOEIES OF THE SEA
limit of the reader's endurance, I think this will
be a good place to stop, although I am only
about half-way through my life at sea. But if
the public like my yarns, they can have more
of them at some future date, if I am spared.
I took up my pen to write some memories of
the sea, and find that I have drifted into an
autobiography of an undistinguished naval career.
But such as it is, it must now be launched upon
the stormy seas of criticism, to face the battle
and the breeze and the deadly shafts of our
literary critics, should any of them think it
worth powder and shot. But there is one thing
they cannot do : even if they shiver my timbers,
riddle my water-line and dismount all my guns —
they cannot deprive me of the deep satisfaction,
the joy and the gratitude I feel in having been
permitted to spend all the best years of my life
in the finest Service in the world — a life on the
ocean wave.
"And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy
Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be
Borne, like thy bubbles, onward : from a boy
I wanton 'd with thy breakers — they to me
Were a delight; and if the freshening sea
Made them a terror — 'twas a pleasing fear,
For I was, as it were, a child of thee,
And trusted to thy billows far and near,
And laid my hand upon thy mane— as I do here.

INDEX

Aconcagua Mountain, 84
Adams, English pilot settled at Tokio,
104
quoted, 105
Aden, 155
Age-retirement from navy, 56
Agincourt, 265
aground on Pearl Bock, 299-303
Fitzgerald appointed commander
of, 303
Ajax, guard-ship at Queenstown, 5
Alabama, the, 211
Alexandria, 152
Albacore, fish, 69
Alligator shooting, 204
America and Japan, 109
American Civil War, 177, 211
American whalers in the Pacific, 91
Angell, Mr. Norman, and war, 41
Apurimac, Peruvian frigate, 86
Ariadne, the, 26, 45, 169
sails for West Indies, 177
deserters join Northern Army, 181
paid off, 224
Arica, destroyed by earthquake, 90
Arrogant, first steam frigate, 27
Asambouge Marsh, 271
Asia, Fitzgerald appointed com
mander of, 318
Association, the, 292
Auckland, 160
Aynsley, Murray, 210
Aztec race, relics at Sacrificios Island,
189
Bacon, quoted, 22
Baltic, at anchor in the, 17
Baltic expedition of 1855, 28, 34
fleet returns to England, 43
Band, organizing a, 60
Barker, Capt. C, 56, 66, 127
Barfleur, the, 123, 292
Beaconsfield, on the Crimean War, 30
Belize, 225
Bermuda, 177, 194, 212
Birch, G., 130
Black Biver, Jamaica, 249
Blackmore Vale hounds, 277

Blockade-running, 210
" Blue Town," Sheerness, 219
Bluejackets and marines, 75
Bombay, cotton fire on quay, 159
Bonetta, 69
Boxer, gunboat, 52
Boxer rising of 1900, 99
Boyd, Capt. J, McNiel, 54
Boyes, George, 212, 221
Brennan torpedo, 297
Brest harbour, 78
Brigs, capsizing of, 4
in West Indies, 18, 19
Brinkley's History of Japan, quoted,
103
British China Squadron, 123
Bruce, Lieut. J., 267
Bruce, Lieut. R., 267
Bugle-calls on board the Agincourt, 309
Bull-fighting, 277
Bulldog, H.M.S., at Cap Hatien, 244
Bullen, Prank, his " Cruise of the
Cachalot," 92
Bullen, R. H, paymaster, 60, 141, 143
Buller, Col. Manningham, 260
Bungo reached by the Dutch (1600),
104
Burgoyne, Capt. H., 210, 279, 283
Butcher's Island, 161
Cable-laying, 155-7
Cachalot, 92
Calcutta, 151
routes to, 152
Callao, 86
Calpe' hounds, Gibraltar, 275
Cam, boating on the, 167
Cambridge, 167
Camilla, loss of the, 4, 137
Campbell, Admiral P., 305, 315
Campobello Island, 255
Canada, 170
Cape-route sailing-ships, 154
Cap Hatien, 244
Captain, capsizing of the, 200, 278,
et seq.
Carnegie, Mr., and war, 41
Catamaran, native boat, 147

323

324

INDEX

Catamarans, Admiral of the, 148
Catoche Cape, 239, 241
CeyloD, 55, 140
shooting trips in, 141-3
Chachalaca (Texan quan), 207
Channel Squadron, 267, 278, 295, 305
"Chestnuts," 48
Childers, Pirst Lord of the Admiralty,
285
China, 55
gunboats for rivers, 48
Betribution ordered to, 94, 97
peace made with, 99
China seas, typhoons in, 89
Chinese Imperial Commissioners, 136
stinkpot warfare, 294
Chincha Islands, guano industry at,
89, 90
Chin-kiang-fu, 126
Cholera, Japanese method of dealing
with, 117
Christmas Day in the navy, 134
Christianity, of the Taipings, 128
in Japan, 103, 105
Chusan Archipelago, 179
Coal, economy of, 35, 197, 299
Codrington, Capt., 44
Codrington, Sir Edward, 31, 321
Codrington, General Sir Wm., 321
Coina, snipe-shooting at, 272
Coles, Capt. Cowper, 282, 283
Colossus, manning the, 5
engines on, 11
first steam line-of-battle ship, 27
Constantinople, 270
Continuous-service system, 2
Conqueror, 45
loss of, 35, 198
Cook, Capt., connection with Hawaii,
96
Corcubion Bay, 285
Cordelia, the, 224, et seq.
paid off, 264
Cordova, English troops at, 184
Coryphama, fast-swirnrning fish, 27
see also Dolphin
Cotton famine, 211
fire at Bombay harbour, 159
Cozumel Island, 239
Cracroft, Capt. Peter, 136
Cricket, naval, 193
Crimean War, 30, 50
Cronstadt, 36, 37
Crossing the line, 77
Cruiser, the, 125, 131, 135
Crump, Bob, 73, 86
Custance, Admiral Sir Reginald, 123
Cyclops, 155
Dapper, gunboat, 17
Daring, brig, 3

Desima Island, Dutch on, 107, 115,
116
Devonport. 2S, 169
"Devil-fish," 241
De Wahl, Capt., 261
Deserters, 181
Diana, Russian frigate, 107
Diaz, Porfirio, 186
Discipline in the navy, 222—4
Diving for treasure in Vigo Bay,
294
Dolphin, 69
nomenclature of, 27
dying colours, 28
Dove, the, 125, 135
Duck-shooting, 96, 249
Duncan, the, 248, 260
Dundas, Admiral, 32
Dundonald, Lord, his autobiography,
20
Dunlop, Commodore Hugh, 188
Dutch in Japan, 104, 107, 115
Dutch bumboats, 18
Eardley-Wilmot, Rear- Admiral, 299
East Indies, SI
East India Company, 154
Squadron, 140
Navy, 154
East Indiamen, sailing ships, 153
Edgell, Commodore Harry, 138
Edward VU, H.M. King, voyage to
Canada, 170
Elephant-hunting in Ceylon, 143
Elgin, Lord, in China, 97
Elgin, Lord, 102
his mission to Japan, 60, 113, et
seq.
return to China, 131, 135, 136
Ellenborough, Lord, 10
Etzuki, 2S9
Equator, hailstones on the, 78
Euphemia, 158, 160
Euryalus, flagship, 128
Excellent, gunnery school, 166, 266
Exhibition of 1851, 2, 45
Exmouth, the, 40
Eyres, Governor, 247
Fairbome, Sir Stafford, 293
Falkland Islands, 80
Falmouth Roads, 11
Fenian raids in Canada, 251
Ferdinand ilax, in battle of Lissa,
296
Finland, Gulf of, 36
Fisher, Lord, and navy reform, 140
Fishing, night, 235
trout, 252, 258
in North America, 256
in New Brunswick, 255

INDEX

325

Fitzgerald, Admiral, on the Colossus,
1 ; the Boyal George, 44 ; the
Retribution, 55
joins the Ariadne, 169
appointed first lieutenant to the
Cordelia, 224 ; to the Hercules,
264
commander of the Agincourt, 303 ;
of the Asia, 318
Flogging in the Navy, 8, 9
Flying-fish, 69
Foochow, 178
Foreigners in British Navy, 289
Foxhunting in Valparaiso, 85
with Blackmoor Vale Hounds, 279
in Hampshire, 320
French Navy, gunnery in, 298
occupation of Mexico, 186
Furious, steam frigate, 113, 118, 125,
127, 131, 135
Fuegans, the, 83
Fundy, Bay of, 251
Gabbard Shoal, Colossus on, 43
Gaetano first sighted the Sandwich
Islands, 96
Calatea, the, 169
Ganges, flagship in Valparaiso Bay,
85
Gannets, sea birds, 90
Garland, Mr., 85
Gaspe, trout-fishing at, 258
Gaspereau-fishing, 255
Gausine, 275
Geese on Falkland Island, 81
Gibraltar, 274
hunting in, 275
Gilford, Lord, 267, 268, 301, 313, 320
Glasgow, 45
Glyn, Sir Richard, 277
Gordon, General, 130
Gordon, James, 165
Gracios-o-Dios, Cape, 239
Grafton, flagship, 123
Graham, Sir James, 33
Graviere, De la, 184
Guadiara, River, 276
Guano industry in the Chincha
Islands, 89, 90
Gunnery training, 62, 298
Hailstones on the equator, 78
Hakodate, 122
opened to American shipping, 112
opened to the British, 125
Hale, Col., 53
Halifax, 177, 191, 192, 196, 227, 261
Hambledon hounds, 320
Hankow, 125, 131
Harbours, comparison of, 78
Harvey torpedo, 296

Hatteras, Cape, 191
Havana, 188
Hawaii, 95
Hayti, 243
Hercules, Fitzgerald appointed first
lieutenant, 264
Hero, the, 170
Heron, capsizing of, 4
Hewett, Sir Wm., V.C, 210
" Historians' History of the World,"
quoted, 107, 183
Hobart Pasha, 210
Honduras, 237
Hongkong, 97, et seq., 136, 137
Honolulu harbour, 95
riding at, 96
Hoogli, tidal waters of the, 151
Hope, Sir James, 248, 260
Hopkins, Admiral, 200
Hopkins, Capt. J. O., 303, et seq.
Hopsonn, Vice-Admiral, 292
"Hornby Cup," 319
Hornby, Admiral Sir Geoffrey, 305,
318, 320
Hunter, Lieut., 147, 267
Impiratrice, cable-laying ship, 155
Impirieuse, frigate, 38
Incas' remains, searching for, 92, 93
Inconstant, the, 280, 285, 299
India, 55
first submarine cable to, 60, 155
Indian Island, 251
Inflexible, the, 200
Ingham, Sir James, 58, 165
Ingles, Lieut. J., 267
Islay, 87
attack on, 88
Ito, Admiral, 123
Iwami, Prince of, 111
Iyesasu, Court of, 105
Jamaica, 189, 201, 225
planters, 201
rebellion, 247
Jane, Mr. (naval publicist), 287
Japan, 55
treaty with, 61
relations with, 103
treaty with America signed, 112
Lord Elgin's mission to, 113
Japan, typhoons in sea of, 89
Japanese in British Navy, 20
art, 116
Navy, 118
Jesuit intrigue in Japan, 104
Juan de TJloa, 188
Juares, 184, 186
Kachi, Japanese merchant, 107
Kagoshima, 123

326

INDEX

Kamahameha, King of the Sandwich
Islands, 95
Kampfer, quoted, 106
Karachi, 155
Kelsall, Capt., R.E., 141
Keppel, Capt., 44
Kerr, Commander Lord Walter, 267
Kestrel, gunboat, 100
Keuhein, 131, 132
Kiel, 36
Kipling, quoted, 180
Kinglake's ' ' Invasion of the Crimea, "
quoted, 46
Kingsley's " At Last," 206
Kiushiu, island of, 115
invaded by Kubla Khan, 103
Koh-i-noor run into by the Ariadne,
173
Kondo, island of, 115
Kubla Khan, 103
Kuihein, 134
Kunoshiri, 107
Kuper, Admiral, 123
Kurachee, 60
Kuria Muria Islands, 155, 157
Kyoto, 114
Larmor, Lieut., 20
Lee, gunboat, with Elgin to Japan,
113,118,125,127,131, 132,135
"Life of Capt. Stephen Martin,"
quoted, 292
Lightning-conductors on ships, 79
Lima, British Minister at, murder
of, 93
Lisbon, pastimes at, 267, 269, 270, 274
Lissa, tactics at battle of, 296
London, the, 49
London, Convention of (1861), 184
Lord Clyde, court-martial, 312
Lord Warden, the, 279
Louis Napoleon, 186
Macdonald, Admiral, 315
Madeira, 27, 274
Madras Roads, 147
Magdalena River, 205
Magellan, Straits of, 82
Malikoff, 52
Malta, 51, 55, 64, 312
Marines and bluejackets, 75
Marine Light Infantry, 76
Marryat's novels, 12, 14, 162
Maunder, quoted, 115
Mauna Loa, volcano, 95
Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, shot,
186
May, gunner on the Captain, 285
Mediterranean Squadron, 278
Mersey, the, 169
Mesampho harbour, Korea, 78

Mexico, Gulf of, 183, 186, 227
Midshipmen's quarters, 57
Mikado, Queen Victoria's present to,
114
Militarism, 21
Milne, Admiral Sir Alexander, 187,
278
Minotaur, 265, 299
Mississippi, U.S. steam frigate, 109
Moldavia, Russian invasion of, 30
Mongoose in Jamaica, 263
Monarch, 285, 299
Monroe Doctrine, 185
Montaro, Signor, captain of the
Apurimac, 87
Moore, J. S., 138, 141, 163
Morland, Mr., of Quebec, 260
Murdoch and Yamagata's "History
of Japan," quoted, 104
Muskat, 155
Muskat harbour, 157
Mutiny on board the Colossus, 6, 8
on board trading schooner, 237
Nagasaki harbour, 105, 113-6, 123
Nanking, 125, 126, 129-32, 135
Napier, Sir C, 31-3
Napier, General Elers, his biography
of Sir C. Napier, 32
Napier, Sir Wm. , quoted, 22
Nargen Island, 36
Nasau, Bahama Islands, 210
Natives on shores of Magellan Straits,
83
Navarino, Sir E. Codrington at, 31
Naval architecture, 266, 282
Navy in 1854, 2
transition stage in, 4
age-retirement from, 56
Nelson, allusion to, 67
Neptune's Car, 138
Nerbudda, capsizing of, 4
Newall & Co., cable-laying con
tractors, 156
Newcastle, Jamaica, 202
Newfoundland, Bank of, 171
New York, 181
Nicaragua, 237
Niger, the, 136, 260, 294
Nile, flagship, 194
Nobunaga, Emperor of Japan, 104
Northumberland, 265, 274
Oki, attacked by Kubla Khan (1274),
103
Oman, Gulf of, 155, 156
Orizaba, Spanish troops at, 184
Orlando, the, 169
Ormonde, Duke of, 291, 292
Osborn, Capt., 127
Owls, white, 191

INDEX

327

P. & 0. Co., 152
Pacific Ocean, 89
whaling industry in, 91
Palmerston, Lord, 33
Pantillaria, island of, Lord Clyde
aground on, 312
Papenberg, hill by Nagasaki, 106
" Para Grande," 269, 314
Parry, Capt. C, 261
Patagonian natives, 83
Peace versus War, 21-4, 41, 42, 153
Peace of Paris, 45
Pearl, the, 151
Pearl Quay lagoon, 238
Pearl Rock, Agincourt aground on,
299
Pechili, Gulf of, 89, 98
Peel, Capt., in the Indian Mutiny,
151
Peiho River, 99, 100
Peking, 99
Penguins, 82
Perry, Commodore U.S. Navy, sent
to Japan, 109
Persian Gulf, 155
Peru, revolution, 87
Petropaulovski, ruse de guerre, 37
Pictou, 209, 257
Pilots of the Hoogli, 151
Pirate hunting by Capt. Vansittart,
179
chase of schooner, 237, 241
Plate, River, 79
Plymouth, 219
Plymouth Sound, 225
Poaching, sport of, 208
Pole torpedo, 296
Politicians versus officers, 29, 31
Porpoises, 27
" Port," origin of the word, 271
Port-au-Prince, Hayti, 243
Port Royal harbour, Jamaica, 18,
202, 237, 261
Portsmouth, the Asia at, 319
Portuguese in Japan, 103, 105
navigators, 271
Pottinger, Sir Henry, 125
Prim, General, 184
Prince Edward's Island, 257, 258
Punch cartoons, 34, 246
" Quakers," on merchant-ships, 154
Quebec, 172, 209, 260
Railways in Jamaica, 202
Ramming tactics, 296
Bi d'ltalia, at battle of Lissa, 297
Reade, Charles, 194
Recitations of the night watch, 73
Bedan, 52
Redondela, 292

Reed, Sir Edward, 265, 282, 283, 286
Benown, 45
Betribution, 66
gunnery duties on, 75
ordered to China, 94
with Elgin to Japan, 113, et seq.
to Singapore, 138, 150, 155, 164
Revel, fortress of, 36
Review at Spithead (1856) , 49
Rikord, Capt., 107
Rio Janeiro, 55
the harbour, 78
Robinson, Capt., 51
Robinson, Sir R. Spencer, 27, 39,
283, 286
Bodney, the, 49
Ronda, 276
Rooke, 291
Rorqual, 92
Boyal George, sent to Crimea to bring
home troops, 51, 54
Russell, Lord John, his Government,
45
Russian War, 2
naval demonstrations in, 28
Russia invades Moldavia and
Wallachia, 30
attempts to gain footing in Japan,
107
Rum Quay, 35, 198
Ruskin, quoted, 23
Sacrificios Island, 188, 189, 227
Sackville, 253
Saigo, Count, 123
Sailing ships, 35, 68, 199
St. Andrew's, 251
St. John's, Newfoundland, 210
St. John, New Brunswick, 251
St. Petersburg, Gulf of, 38
Sand Heads, 151
San Juan de Uloa, fort of, 184
San Roque, bull-fighting at, 277
Sandwich Islands, 95
Santa Cruz, British flags in church,
67
Santa Cruz Mountains, 249
Santa Marta, 205
Samshu, 134
Sappho, capsizing of, 4
Saratoga, U.S. steam sloop, 109
Savanna-la-Mar, Jamaica, 203, 249
Scilly Isles, 213
Selborne, Lord, 76
Serpentine, skating on the, 166
Seymour, Admiral Sir G., 40, 49
Seymour, Admiral Sir Edward, 99
Shanghai, 133, 135
complaint of merchants at, 178
Shannon, 151
Sheerness, 219

328

INDEX

Shimodi, 112, 113, 117
Shogun, the, 114
Shooting in Ceylon, 141
Signalling in the navy, 37, 38
Silver Island, 126
Singapore, 138
Skaw Cape, 36
Slade, stoker, 73
Smith, Joe, 73
Smith, George Shergold, 234, 262
Snipe-shooting, 203, 271, 272
Snow-Harris lightning-conductor, 79
Songs of the night watch, 71
Southwark, Sir C. Napier, member
for, 29, 33
Spalding, Corporal, 102
Spanish treasure in Vigo harbour, 291
Spithead, review at (1856), 49
Sport in the West Indies, 203
in " Santa Marta," 206
Stanley harbour, Falkland, 79, 80, 82
" Starboard," origin of the word, 271
Staten Island, 181
Steamships, 34
Storms at sea, 79, 80
Suez Canal, 115, 152
Sugar trade in West Indies, 201, 249
Susquehana, U.S. steam frigate, 109
Sweaborg, bombardment of, 38
Sydney harbour, 78
" Symondites," 267
Symonds, Sir Thomas, 267
Symonds, Admiral Sir W. , 267
Tacna, 90
Tagus, the, 269 '
Tahuacan, French troops at, 184
Taiping rebels, 125-135
Christianity, 128
Tamblegan, 141
Tegethoff, Admiral, 296
Temple, G., 233
Teneriffe, 67
Terrible, tonnage of the, 57
"The Gun, the Ram, and the
Torpedo," 297
Tien-tsin, 99
Tokio, 60, 105
Torbay, the, 292
Torpedoes, 40, 295
Torres Vedras, 271
Townsend, Sam, 52
Trade winds, 27, 68
Trafalgar, 31
" Trent affair," 177
Trincomalee, 81, 140, 144
" Trooping," 209, 225
Trout-fishing, 252, 258, 275
Tsushima, attacked by Kubla Khan
(1274), 103

Turko-Egyptian fleet, destroyed at
Navarino, 32
Turtle catching, 228-35
Typhoons, 89
United States, treaty with Japan
(1854), 112
"Unwritten Laws and Ideals,"
Admiral Fitzgerald's contribu
tion to, 213
Valparaiso, 84
Vanderveld, his sea-pictures, 118
Vanguard, sinking of the, 286-8
Vansittart, Capt., 170, 178
Vera Cruz, 184, 185, 187, 228
Victoria, Queen, review at Spithead,
49
her present to the Mikado, 114
Victory, H.M.S., 1
Vigo, 274
treasure hunters in harbour, 291
Virginian partridge (quail) , 206
Volcanoes in the Sandwich Islands, 95
Wade, Mr., interpreter, 128
Wallachia, Russian invasion of, 30
War versus Peace, 21-4, 41, 42, 153
Warrior, the, 299
Watson, Capt., 40
Wellesley, Admiral, 299
West Indies, Colossus goes to, 18,
177, 201
Whaling industry in the Pacific, 91,
92
White, SirWm., 200
" Whitehead " torpedo, 295
Wilkenson, Wm., drowned in
Shanghai river, 102
Wilmington, 210
Woodcock, gunboat, 100
Woohoo, 129-135
Woollcombe, Lieut., R.M.A., 64, 75,
166
Wusung, arrival at, 101
Wyke, Sir Charles, 184
Xavier, Francis, in Japan, 103
Yalu, battle of, 123
Yangtze-kiang, 125, 130
Yeddo, 114, 115, 119
Yeddo, Gulf of, 118, 122
Yellow fever in Rio, 79
in Jamaica, 261
Yezo, island of, 115
Yokohama, opened to the British, 115
Yokoshika, 123
Yucatan coast, 239
Yuen dynasty, 103

UNWIN BEOTHEBS, LIMITED, PEINTEBS, WOKING AND LONDON.

Telegrams : nd , Maddox Street,
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No. 1 8 8 3 Mayfair. February, 1 9 1 3 .

Mr. Edward Arnold's
SPRING
ANNOUNCEMENTS, 1913.

MEMORIES OF THE SEA.
By Admiral C. C. PENROSE FITZGERALD.
With Illustrations. One Volume. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.
This book takes us back to the middle of the last century, when
Admiral FitzGerald joined the Victory in 1854 as a nav£d cadet.
The Author introduces us to a midshipman's berth of that era, and
relates, with engaging frankness, some of the escapades of that
irrepressibleand lark-loving young gentleman, the British midshipman,
in those happy days, before the Juggernaut advance of science,
mechanics, engineering and soldiering befogged his youthful brains,
crushed all the fun out of him, and turned him into a sedate and
solemn " know-all " and an aspiring Jack-of-all-trades.
Admiral FitzGerald tells some amusing yarns of the personal
characteristics of some of his old ship-mates, though gracefully
omitting the names of those concerning whom he has nothing com
plimentary to say. The period dealt with — 1854-74 — embraces
the great transition epoch during which our navy was gradually and
reluctantly changed from wood to iron, and from sails to steam.
All those who take an interest in our first — and perhaps only — line
of defence, will be surprised, if not amused, at the ultra-conservatism
of those veteran seamen who advised the civilian rulers of the navy
to retain masts and sails and muzzle-loading guns in our ironclads
for a dozen years after these relics of a bygone age ought to have
been put upon the scrap-heap ; and indeed it is difficult now to
understand what could have been in the minds of the men who
rigged as a brig the, 11,000-ton Inflexible, with her double screws,
80-ton guns, and 24- inches of armour.

LONDON : EDWARD ARNOLD, 41 & 43 MADDOX STREET, W.

2 Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements.
SIR FREDERICK MAURICE.
a IRecoro of bis Mori? ano ©pinions.
Edited by his Son, Lieut.-Colonel F. MAURICE.
With Eight Essays on Discipline and National Efficiency by
Sir F. Maurice.
With Photogravure Portrait. Demy 8vo. ios. 6d. net.
This record describes Sir Frederick Maurice's early life, the
influence upon him of his father, Frederick Denison Maurice, his
part in the small wars of the Victorian era, his efforts to assist his
friend Lord Wolseley with pen and voice in the reform of our
national defences, his work as a military historian and educationalist,
and his efforts in the cause of national physical improvement.
Shortly before he was seized by the illness which eventually
proved fatal, Sir Frederick Maurice had begun to prepare for
publication a number of papers dealing with the principal problems
which had occupied his life. He had intended a part of these papers
to form a volume treating of the broad aspects of discipline in
relation to national efficiency. These have been selected for
publication with a short account of his life and work, because,
though they may not possess the same intrinsic interest as some of
the historical studies he has left, they display more clearly than it is
possible for the latter to do the principles and ideals by which he
was guided. In some of these essays he discusses the general effect of
national service in its Continental form on national well-being and
efficiency, explains the true nature of military discipline, the part
played in military education by the correct performance of routine
duties, and why the proper polishing of a button has its military
value. In other papers he considers the loss of power and efficiency
caused by neglect to see that the young are brought up in conditions
such as would give them a reasonable chance of becoming physically
capable of performing the duties of citizenship, and shows that the
number of men willing to serve in the army and navy would be
more than sufficient for our needs if they were all physically effective.
Lastly, he selects as an example of the results of discipline the story
of the Birkenhead, and shows that the popular and melodramatic
version of the wreck has little relation to the true tale of duty quietly
performed in the face of death.

Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements. 3
A LITTLE TOUR IN INDIA.
By the Hon. ROBERT PALMER.
One Volume. Demy 8vo. Cloth. 8s. 6d. net.
The tour is described in a series of letters obviously written
without a thought of publication. They recount week by week the
experiences and impressions of a young man of twenty-three on his
first visit to India.
The charm of the book lies in the naive vividness and humour of
the narrative and the shrewd interest with which a wide range of
subjects is touched upon.
The narrative is in effect the diary of a delightful tour, comprising
not only the Durbar and all the great cities on the beaten track of
tourists, but also the less familiar ruins of the south, such as Bijapur,
Goa, Vijayanagar, and the Seven Pagodas. In Western India too
the author saw more than most travellers, having been among the
Deccan villages, both in British territory and in the Nizam's
Dominions near Aurangabad. Nor have many visitors ascended the
sacred mountain of Satranjaya in Kathiawar.
The tour ends with three weeks in the Happy Valley of Kashmir,.
The narrative is interspersed throughout with discussions of every
kind of subject : at one time it is the theory of duck-shooting, at
another the future of missions, at another the transference of capitals,
at another the absurdities of " globe trotting," and so on.
Several of the letters are pointed with good stories, and almost
every page records some kind of droll incident. No one can read
the book without wishing to make the same tour himself.

THE VIOLET CROWN
By Sir RENNELL RODD, G.C.V.O., K.C.M.G.,
Author of " Ballads of the Fleet," etc.
Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net.
In response to numerous requests of the author's friends, it has
been arranged to bring out a new edition of this volume, which has
been out of print for some years. Several new poems have been
added, and the price has been reduced.
¦ ' And fairer crown had never Queen than this
That girds thee round, far-famed Acropolis !
So of these isles, these mountains, and this sea
I wove a crown of song to dedicate to thee." i

4 Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements.
UTILITY POULTRY-KEEPING.
By ELLEN C. DAVIES.
With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. net.
This excellent and practical little work should find a place on the
bookshelves of every poultry-keeper, by reason of its clearness
and simplicity of style and the absence of bewildering technicalities.
The author does not attempt to cater for the fancier, but for those
poultry-keepers who are interested in the British hen from the stand
point of utility, whether they regard the keeping of fowls as a means
of livelihood, as an adjunct to other sources of income, or purely as a
hobby. Every department of the subject is ably treated, and the
expert and amateur alike will find material suited for their respective
needs. The possibilities of poultry-farming, and of poultry on farms,
receive careful treatment, while the chapters on marketing and the
organization of our home trade bring out most forcibly the vast and
growing importance of this branch of industry from the national
standpoint. A noteworthy feature is the inclusion of the admirable " Monthly
Notes for Utility Poultry-Keepers," which won the prize given by
the Utility Poultry Club, and are reprinted by permission of the
Club.

THE YOUNG GARDENER.
an JElementarg <5uioe to tbe first principles of
Cottage Oar&ening.
By the COUNTESS OF SELBORNE.
Paper Covers, 46.
This little book merely contains the very elements of gardening,
told in such common English that it may be read and understood by
children of eleven to fourteen who are interested in their school
gardens and wish to have the instruction they received there set
down in writing, so that they may refresh their memories when they
have left school, and have put their learning to practical use.
It does not pretend to give an exhaustive list of garden plants, but
only of such vegetables and flowers as are in common use in small
gardens. The directions for cultivating each plant have been
shortened as much as possible, and only the most important things
insisted upon.

Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements. 5
WILLIAM AUGUSTUS, DUKE OF
CUMBERLAND, HIS EARLY LIFE
AND TIMES, 1721-1748.
By the Hon. EVAN CHARTERIS,
Author of " Affairs of Scotland, 1744-1746."
With Plans and Illustrations. [In preparation.
Mr. Charteris has a good subject in " Butcher " Cumberland, not
only on account of the historical and romantic interest of his back
ground, but also by reason of the Duke's baneful reputation.
In the present volume the author has carried the career of
the Duke of Cumberland down to the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle.
The period includes the Duke's campaigns in Flanders against
Marshal Saxe, the Battle of Culloden, and the measures taken for
the suppression of the Jacobites in Scotland. Mr. Charteris has had
the exceptional advantage of studying the Cumberland Papers at
Windsor Castle, and it is largely by the aid of hitherto unpublished
documents that he is now able to throw fresh light on a character
which has been the subject of so much malevolent criticism. At the
same time the volume deals with the social and political conditions
among which Cumberland was called on to play so important a part
in the life of the nation. These have been treated by the author
with some fulness of detail. Cumberland, in spite of his foreign
origin, was remarkably typical of the characteristics of the earlier
Georgian period, and an endeavour has been made in the present
volume to establish the link between the Duke and the politics, the
morals, the aims, and the pursuits of the age in which he lived.
MALINGERING.
By Sir JOHN COLLIE, M.D., J.P.,
Medical Examiner to the London Countv Council, Chief Medical Officer under the
Metropolitan Water Board, etc
One Volume. Demy 8vo. ios. 6d. net.
The importance of this work will easily be recognized by all who
have responsibilities under the National Health Insurance Act and
the Workmen's Compensation Act, or who may have to deal with
the subject as employers of labour, insurance companies, solicitors,
medical men, etc. The subject is dealt with from every point of
view, beginning with the prevention of. malingering, proceeding to
methods of medical examination in relation to different organs of the
body and numerous specific diseases, and concluding with a discus
sion of the position under various Acts of Parliament. It is believed
that the book will occupy a unique place and cover ground hitherto
unoccupied, while the experience and knowledge of the author give
him an unquestioned claim to fill the gap.

6 Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements.
THE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF
BURKE.
By JOHN MacCUNN, LL.D.,
Formerly Professor of Philosophy in the University of Liverpool ;
Author of " Six Radical Thinkers."
Crown 8vo. Cloth. 5s. net.
This is an attempt to do what is not known to have hitherto been
done — namely, to gather together and state, with a considerable
amount of accompanying criticism, in a coherent and philosophical
form, the political teaching of Burke. Among the contents will be
found the following subjects : Theories and Theorists, From Kin to
Kind, "Prudence, the Mother of Political Virtues," What is a
People ? Conservatism, The Wisdom of Ancestors, The Limitations
of Discussion, and Toleration, Religion and Politics, Government,
Rights, etc.
A GENERAL HISTORY OF THE
WORLD.
By OSCAR BROWNING, M.A.,
Formerly Lecturer in History in the University of Cambridge.
With Maps. Crown 8vo. Cloth. [Just ready.
Beginning with an account of the earliest civilizations of which
any knowledge has come down to us — those of Egypt and Babylon
— Mr. Browning traces the course of the main stream of history
down to our own day. For the sake of convenience the book is
divided into three conventional periods — ancient, mediaeval, and
modern — but there is no real break in the narrative : indeed, a
constant recognition of the continuity of history is one of the chief
features. How did the modern civilized world which we know
to-day come into being ? The answer to that question is contained
in this volume, set forth with a sense of proportion and perspective
which the author has acquired by an unusually long experience as
student and teacher in every branch of historical learning.
THE LAST CENTURY IN EUROPE,
1814 — 1910.
By C. E. M. HAWKESWORTH,
Assistant Master at Rugby School.
One Volume. Crown 8vo. 5s. net.
The Times..—" It possesses a merit rare in books of the class to which it belongs —
it permits itself to be read through, almost at a sitting, in spite of its length,
without conscious effort. The arrangement is good ; the inter-relation of events
not obviously connected with each other is clearly seen and shown ; the style is
light as well as lucid. Moreover, there is a very creditable endeavour to indicate
the personalities, as well as to record the achievements, of the protagonists in the
European drama."

Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements. 7
NEW FICTION.
BRIDE ELECT.
By A. M. CHAMPNEYS. 6s.
This story of contemporary life opens with the love, marriage,
and bereavement of one of the principal characters. The child of
the marriage is disliked by his father as the cause of his mother's
death ; and the father himself, whose affection for his wife survives
her, forms a close friendship with a distinguished and beautiful
actress. Her efforts towards a more intimate relation are for a
time frustrated by his fidelity to his wife's memory ; and when he
finds himself, in spite of this obstacle, becoming more and more
infatuated, he has recourse to an extreme measure to secure himself
against the influence. When this fails, he is rescued from an
impending moral catastrophe by a girl to whom he has been
constituted guardian. Meanwhile, the history of his ward, her
relations with his son, the baneful influences to which she is
subjected in her earlier years, and the means by which she
eventually emerges from them and discovers her true destiny, form
an important part of the story. Simultaneously is related the career
of the son and his final reconciliation with his father.
The opening scenes are laid in New York ; the later, for the most
part, in England ; but we are for a short time transported to
Paris and given a glimpse of the threatrical society there, as we
follow the career and triumphs of the celebrated actress. Of the
minor characters, each plays a due part in the evolution of the
story.
THE VILLAGE IN THE JUNGLE.
By LEONARD WOOLF.
5s. net.
" The Village in the Jungle " is a story which gives a vivid and
realistic picture of life in a remote jungle village in Ceylon. The
author, who was in the Ceylon Civil Service, had exceptional
opportunties for obtaining a thorough understanding of native life.
The motive of the story is the tragedy of the decay and destruction
of such a village.

8 Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements.
NASH, AND SOME OTHERS.
By C. S. EVANS.
Crown 8vo. Cloth. 6s.
The human boy is always with us, and to the many people who
are interested in his fresh and unconscious humour, this book, by a
new author, should make a direct appeal. Nash, and his boon com
panions, Govey, Wiltshire, and the redoubtable Binks, belong to a
class hitherto somewhat neglected in fiction — the class of boy that
lives in mean streets, receives his education at our elementary schools,
and whose only field of recreation is the playground or the street, in
which, however, by methods all his own, he manages to enjoy him
self immensely. The adventures of a group of such boys, with their
peculiar outlook on life, their queer code of honour and quaint
conventions, have provided the author with material for a series of
entertaining stories, some of them revolving round the daily routine
of the school in which the subjects are often unwilling units. R. L.
Stevenson once said that any man who could faithfully remember the
events of his childhood might write an incomparable book. How
ever this may be, there can be no doubt that in the present volume
the author shows that he has an intimate knowledge of, and real
sympathy with, the characters he describes.

TINKER'S HOLLOW.
By Mrs. F. E. CRICHTON, Author of "The Soundless Tide,"
etc. Second Impression. 6s.
Morning Post. — ¦' Mrs. Crichton is to be warmly congratulated on the appear
ance of this truthful and entrancing story of Ulster village life."
British Weekly. — " This is a most vital book, and full of the true Ulster atmo
sphere. Mrs. Crichton moves us sometimes to laughter and sometimes to tear?.
The plot is a good one and well carried through, but the novel excels in its
records of the talk of Ulster men and women."

THE NEST.
By ANNE DOUGLAS SEDGWICK, Author of " Tante,"
" Franklin Kane," etc. Second Impression. 6s.
The critics generally are struck by the extreme cleverness of the five stories
in this volume, Punch admiring " the diabolical cleverness" of "The Nest," and Mr.
Arnold Bennett calling " The White Pagoda " "extremely briUiant."
Daily News.—" It is not the least exaggeration to say that no living author,
man or woman, could have written these stories with such perfect skill and such
perfectly natural art. "
Standard. — "The whole volume is alive with cleverness, observation, and a
certain humour that is entirely Miss Sedgwick's own, and is purely a thing of
delight."

Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements. 9
PIERS THE PLOWMAN.
Edited by K. M. WARREN.
New Edition. Crown 8vo. Cloth. 2s. 6d.
This fourteenth-century poem is full of interest for the general reader
as well as for the professed student of literature. It touches some
of the most eagerly discussed subjects of our own day in its vivid
picture of certain phases of social life in England five hundred years
ago. The poem is crowded with matter, social, moral, and religious,
expressed imaginatively. The subject is of more importance to
the writer than its form, and the poem loses little of its essential
nature in the process of translation.
The authorship of " Piers the Plowman " is to-day the most
keenly debated problem of English scholarship, and the controversy
is summarized in an appendix.
ARNOLD'S NEW SERIES OF
EDUCATIONAL CLASSICS.-
General Editor:
JOHN WILLIAM ADAMSON,
Professor of Education in the University of London.
PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS.
Edited by J. A. GREEN,
Professor of Education in the University of Sheffield.
FROEBEL'S CHIEF WRITINGS ON
EDUCATION.
Edited by S. S. F. FLETCHER, M.A., Ph.D.,
Lecturer in Education in the University of Cambridge,
And J. WELTON, M.A.,
Professor of Education in the University of Leeds.
THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF
JOHN LOCKE.
Edited by J. W. ADAMSON,
Professor of Education in the University of London.
ROUSSEAU ON EDUCATION.
Edited by R. L. ARCHER, M.A.,
Professor of Education in the University College, Bangor.
VIVES AND THE RENASCENCE? ,
EDUCATION OF WOMEN.
Edited by FOSTER WATSON, M.A.,
Professor of Education in the University College, Aberystwyth.
A pull Prospectus of this Series can be had, post free, on application.

io Mr, Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements.
SOME PRESS OPINIONS
ON RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOKS.
CAMPAIGNS OF A WAR CORRE
SPONDENT.
By MELTON PRIOR. Edited by S. L. BENSUSAN. With
Illustrations from the Author's Sketches in the Illustrated
London News. Second Impression. 15s. net.
Sketch. — " Melton Prior's book is not only one which will be read, but one
which will be kept and re-read. ' '
Observer. — "Full of spirit and colour, racy, intimate, and unstrained, these
chapters make excellent reading."
Nation.- — " A rich harvest of thrilling experiences. . . . The book makes
capital reading from cover to cover."
Daily Chronicle. — ' ' This is perhaps the most entertaining volume of remin
iscences that has ever been written by a newspaper correspondent of the war
variety." Bystander. — " Here is one of the most vivid books on the subject ever printed."
Truth. — ' ' Even the war now raging cannot divert nor even diminish the interest
which must be excited by some of the most thrilling records of past conflicts 1
have ever read — Melton Prior's ' Campaigns.' "
Daily Graphic. — "This wonderful and enthralling record."
GERMANY AND THE NEXT WAR.
By General FRIEDRICH VON BERNHARDI. With a
Map. Second Impression. 10s. 6d. net.
Pall Mall Gazette. — " Since Machiavelli's ' Prince,' we do not recollect so lucid,
so dispassionate, and so cold-bloodedly logical an exposition of the statecraft
which aims unswervingly at political predominance."
Spectator. — "This singular book is a very wholesome study for English
readers, for in it they will be able to examine the German point of view with a
vengeance. The book is remarkable chiefly for this, that it is an unforgettable
assertion of the German principle that war is an instrument of policy. It is the
last variation of the theme of Frederick the Great, that negotiations without arms
are like music-books without instruments."
WELLINGTON'S ARMY.
By C. W. OMAN, Chichele Professor of Modern History at Oxford.
With Illustrations. Second Impression. 7s. 6d. net.
Truth. — " Intensely interesting. . . , A volume which will fascinate a host of
readers for whom military history ordinarily has but little attraction."
Athenmwm. — "Professor Oman has written the very book one would have
wished him to write on Wellington's army in the Peninsula, how it was organized,
moved, armed, clothed, and fed. It throws a flood of light on the campaigns by
supplying the small but all-important details which the ordinary historian
ignores." United Service Magazine. — " Quite indispensable to the student of the Peninsular
War."

Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements. n
THE PASSING OF THE MANCHUS.
By PERCY H. KENT,
Author of " Railway Enterprise in China," etc.
One Volume. With Illustrations and Maps. 15s. net.
Manchester Courier. — " The book is a masterpiece of its kind : wide in its scope,
careful in its generalizations, stimulating and helpful."
Manchester Guardian.— " As one possessing copies of the original official
documents, in both English and Chinese, the present reviewer is in a position to
say that the account of events is in the main accurate from first to last, and that
Mr. Kent's book will supply excellent and safe ' cribbing ' for the numberless
scissors-and-paste authors who are doubtless now preparing to deluge us with
rival accounts of the great Chinese revolution."
Truth. — "A really admirable account."
London and China Telegraph.—" Mr. Kent's book is attractive in every way, and
should command a wide circle of readers."
THE HOLY WAR IN TRIPOLI.
By G. F. ABBOTT,
Author of
"Through India with the Prince," "A Tale of a Tour in Macedonia," etc
One Volume. Demy 8vo. Illustrated. 15s. net.
Birmingham Daily Post. — "We have seldom read a book in which the interest
is so sustained. It is a remarkable work, full of tragedy, excitement, and humour,
and from the first page to the last it conveys the impression that it is an honest
attempt to give the truth about the war in Tripoli from the Turkish camp with
out fear or favour."
Guardian. — "An extremely interesting and instructive book. Evidently the
struggle of the Arabs in defence of their freedom has stirred the author
profoundly, and something of what he feels he succeeds in imparting to his
readers.' '
Athenaum. — "Full of interesting notices of persons and things, and gives an
excellent picture of life in the chaotic headquarters of the Turkish army."
Evening Standard. — "As brilliant an account of the campaign as we should
expect from the lively and judicious author of ' Turkey in Transition.' "
BOYD ALEXANDER'S LAST
JOURNEY.
With a Memoir by HERBERT ALEXANDER.
With Numerous Illustrations and Maps. 12s. 6d. net.
Westminster Gazette. — ¦ ' Those whose sympathies were drawn to the romance of
Boyd Alexander should read this book. There is a real personality that appears
plain through every page of the diary."
Manchester Courier  "The diary is of the greatest interest, and there is a
sincerity attached to the memoirs which lifts it above the usual biographical
sketch." Belfast Northern Whig. — " This volume is exceptional in its appeal to the
general reader. The diary is authentic and of great value. It tells in a light,
pleasant, modest tone all the vicissitudes almost up to the last fatal moment the
gallant explorer met his premature death."

12 Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements.
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND LIFE
OF GEORGE TYRRELL.
By M. D. PETRE.
Illustrated. Two Volumes. 21s. net. [Second Impression.
The Times. — " The interest of these volumes lies in their strangely fascinating
story of the religious evolution of a contemporary soul. So compelling, indeed,
is this interest that the reader may be inclined to resent the chapters which give
the detailed account of Tyrrell's breach with the Society, and of the subsequent
negotiations for the Celebret, just because they seem for the moment to arrest it.
The resentment, if it exists, will be shortsighted and unjust, for the chapters are
essential to the completeness of the story ; and they have besides a paramount
value for the revelation of certain contrasts in Tyrrell's character which largely
affected his whole attitude towards Church authority. As for the autobiography,
it will rank among the most intimate and merciless confessions of a soul that
have ever been written, beside those of Augustine and Jean 'Jacques.' "
Nation. — '' Father Tyrrell's ' Life ' may be regarded either as a study in psy
chology, or as a chapter of contemporary Church History. It is difficult to say
which is its predominant interest ; from each point of view the book takes per
manently high rank. The ' Study of Temperament ' with which the second
volume opens is worthy of the autobiography ; the work, taken as a whole, is a
document of the first importance for students of the religious tendencies of our
time." Church Times. — " We have been expecting Miss Petre's life of Father Tyrrell
for a long time, and now that it has at last appeared we must begin by saying
how admirably the work is done. Miss Petre has produced, we believe, a
biography that will live. The autobiography is extraordinarily interesting
because so extraordinarily frank."
Morning Post. — "The autobiography is a memorable document, and perhaps
destined to immortality, seeing that its author's genius for introspection and high
distinction of style are alike unquestionable."
NEW BOOK BY THE AUTHOR OF " MIRACLES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT."
THROUGH FACTS TO FAITH.
By the Rev. J. M. THOMPSON,
Fellow and Dean of Divinity, Magdalen College, Oxford.
3s. 6d. net.
Prof. Lake, in the Daily News, says : " Mr. Thompson's first book provoked
a long discussion in the Guardian which certainly did not show his case to be
incapable of defence. In ' Through Facts to Faith ' we have the broad outlines
of a reconstruction of theology. How far it will prove acceptable I do not know,
but on the first reading it seems to me that it ought to be possible for many
Churchmen to find real help in their intellectual difficulties in his pages. More
over, the one thing of which I am quite certain is that no one can fail to recognize
that, right or wrong, the man who writes here is the friend, not the enemy, of
spiritual life, and is really trying to do justice both to ' the Catholic religion ' and
' the Christian verity.' "

Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements. 13
A SURVEY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
1780-1830.
By OLIVER ELTON,
Professor of English Literature in the University of Liverpool.
In Two Volumes. Demy 8vo. 21s. net.
Spectator. — ' ' Through more than eight hundred closely printed pages the writer's
clarity of judgment and power of enjoyment never flag. He gives us closely
reasoned criticism, every step thought out, every sentence a fresh effort of
appraisement. The gusto of the book is infectious. The reader lays it down
with a new zest for literature — a unique achievement for a volume of literary
history." Athenceum. — " Among the critics and teachers of English literature in our days
Professor Elton holds high rank. He has the fulness and exactness of knowledge
and the fertility of apt illustration which are the necessary stock-in-trade of one
and the other ; the unwillingness to adopt accepted commonplaces until he has
proved them for himself, which is the peculiar gift of the critic. Everywhere
through these volumes the lover of literature will come upon fine observation and
sound sense."
Professor Herford, in the Manchester Guardian. — "We cannot take leave of this
book without expressing our sense of the magnitude of Professor Elton's achieve
ment. As an example of criticism and scholarship applied in alliance to the
literature of a great epoch, it holds up an ideal which has rarely been approached
in this country, but of which it will be in future less pardonable, and, if example
counts for anything, less easy to fall short."
THE WORKER AND HIS COUNTRY.
By FABIAN WARE.
5s. net.
Morning Post. — " The advantage possessed by Mr. Fabian Ware's book is that
it is written, not only with knowledge, but with sympathy and impartiality. The
author treats his subject with detachment. For this he is well qualified, for he is not
only widely versed in affairs, and in touch with leaders of opinion in England and
the Dominions, but he is a foster child of France as well. Though many may
disagree with his conclusions, he has produced a book, not only of interest, but
of value, which should be read by all who wish to keep alive to tendencies, and
who are concerned with the world of to-morrow. ' '
New Witness. — " To find a book dealing with the wrongs and angers of the
dispossessed which is worth reading, worth studying carefully, worth keeping
for constant reference ; which discusses the feelings and aspirations of the poor
with the continual consciousness that they are men, and which comments upon
their condition and their future with the sense and spirit of a man. Such a book
Mr. Fabian Ware has succeeded in producing."
UNION AND STRENGTH.
By L. S. AMERY, M.P.
Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.
Morning Post. — " That Mr. Amery takes wide views, far-reaching, both in space
and time and is not afraid to go back to first principles, makes him the
philosopher of Imperialism as surely as Mr. Kipling is the poet thereof."
Globe. — " This brilliant and thoughtful book. A book to which we wish the
attention of every Englishman could be directed. ' '
A rmy and Navy Gazette. — ' ' 'Union and Strength ' is a book which soldiers should
not only read, but should keep by them to refresh their memories."

14 Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements.
MEMORIES OF VICTORIAN LONDON.
By Mrs. L. B. WALFORD,
Author of " Recollections of a Scottish Novelist."
In One Volume. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.
Daily Telegraph. — "These memories are late Victorian in atmosphere and
personnel, but they are of no time — or rather, it may be said, of all time — in
their reliance upon the drawing power of anecdote. With, as it were, a loose
thread of chronological narrative, the author has chronicled as full and varied
a miscellany of good stories as could well be got into a single volume. To name
all the famous men and women with whom she came in contact, of whom she is
able to give real personal descriptions and entertaining anecdotes, would be to
give a list of most of the famous people of the last forty years of Queen Victoria's
reign." Manchester Guardian. — " Many of her anecdotes of the great are fresh, and, what
is more valuable, we get the very accent and point of view of a grade of London
society, socially eager, fashionable, yet seriously minded, satisfied and securely
placed, that has now crystallized into separate sections, and no longer offers to
the student the same fascinating combinations."
Daily Chronicle. — "An engaging, human, delightfully-written book."
THE ENGLISH HOUSEWIFE OF THE
SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH
CENTURIES.
By. ROSE BRADLEY.
One Volume. Demy 8vo. Illustrated. 12s. 6d. net.
Pall Mall Gazette. — ' ' There are an unending number of good things to be found
in Miss Bradley's book."
Athenceum. — " Miss Bradley's enterprise in applying the historical method to a
subject of perennial human interest deserves all praise. The book abounds in
pleasant and varied lore."
Nation. — " A new and delightful volume."
Globe. — " Apart from any lesson or instruction to be drawn from its pages, her
book is well worth reading for the delightful and fragrant atmosphere she
imparts."
THE TRINITY FOOT BEAGLES:
Un informal TRecorO of Cambridge Sport ano Sportsmen
During tbe past jfift? i>ears.
Compiled by F. CLAUDE KEMPSON.
Fully Illustrated. Medium 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.
Country Life. — " One of the most amusing and original volumes on sport in
general and hare-hunting in particular that we have come across during many
years of travel through hunting literature ; it ought to be on the shelf of every
follower of the timid but wily hare, and no man or woman interested in the sport
of hunting should miss reading it."
Spectator. — " A most cheerful volume."
Times. — " Full not only of practical beagling, but of all the cheery humours of
friendly sportsmen."

Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements. 15
JOCK SCOTT, MIDSHIPMAN: HIS LOG.
By " AURORA." With Illustrations. 5s. net,
Manchester Guardian.— " The book is a capital picture of life on board ; much
the best of recent times. It makes one realize modern naval society better than
any study known to us ; but it does more than this, it shows clearly and well the
responsibility and solemnity of a naval officer's life."
Northern Whig. — "Free from frills and exaggeration, leaning always rather to
the 'penny plain' than to the 'twopence coloured,' it is long since we have
read a more entertaining and instructive book, or one which ought to appeal
more to the man who pays the bills."
Naval and Military Record. — "Not only can the book be recommended to
anyone wishing to learn something about the navy, but it is certain to attract
many readers among naval officers themselves."
SHIPMATES.
By A. E. LOANE. 6s.
Daily Chronicle. — "These portraits, from memory, of naval officers who were
born between 1805 and 1827, are excellent indeed. The book bristles with
delightful things. In ten minutes one could mark off a column of worthy
pickings, all of which have, in a way, the aroma of good old wine — or perhaps I
ought to say rare and mellow old rum."
Westminster Gazette. — ' ' Mr. Edward Arnold seems to have a happy knack of
finding writers with readable reminiscences of average everyday people. Here
we are introduced to a gallery of men to whom distinction has not fallen, but
who are yet good company. The book has an atmosphere that many an
ambitious and much-quoted volume of recollections lacks."
A BOY IN THE COUNTRY.
By J. STEVENSON,
Author of "Pat M'Carty: his Rhymes."
One Volume. With Illustrations. 5s. net.
Daily Mail. — " The scene of this charming series of recollections is laid in
Ulster, and the author recalls the days of his boyhood with a freshness and grace
that results in delightful reading."
Daily News. — " Mr. Stevenson recalls with delight the joys, austerities, and
jests of the long months of boyhood spent in a County Antrim countryside. . . .
A very human book, charming and unpretentious and sincere."
THE LIFE OF AN ELEPHANT.
By Sir S. EARDLEY-WILMOT, K.C.I.E.,
Author of " The Life of a Tiger," " Forest Life in India," etc.
Fully Illustrated, js. 6d. net.
Times. — "Sir S. Eardley-Wilmot is a dainty word-painter, and his jungle
scenes are true works of literary art. Miss Eardley-Wilmot's vignettes reveal a
gift of humour as well as of line-drawing, and add to the pleasure which is
conveyed to the reader by every page of this very interesting book. "
Globe. — " When we say that Sir Eardley-Wilmot's latest book forms a worthy
companion volume to his delightful and memorable ' Life of a Tiger,' those who
have read that wonderful story of jungle-life will realize the further treat in store
for them."

16 Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements.
NEW SCIENTIFIC WORKS.
NEW AND REVISED EDITION.
FORENSIC MEDICINE AND TOXICOLOGY. By C. O. Haw
thorne, M.D., Lecturer on Forensic Medicine in the London School of
Medicine for Women ; Physician to the North-West London and Royal
Waterloo Hospitals. Crown 8vo. 6s. net.
NEW AND REVISED (FOURTH) EDITION.
SERVICE CHEMISTRY. By V. B. Lewes, Professor at the
Royal Naval College, Greenwich ; and J. S. S. Brame. Fully Illustrated.
In the Press.
This text-book deals with the chemical treatment of subjects of such paramount
importance to the Services as Explosives, Fuel, Drinking Waters, Boiler Incrus
tation, Corrosion and Fouling of Ships, Spontaneous Ignition of Coal Cargoes,
Paints, Ventilation, etc. In preparing it the authors have tried to develop in a
rational way the main facts of the Science, and the theories which are deduced
from them, and have then amplified as fully as possible those portions which
touch on Service questions.
THE PRINCIPLES OF APPLIED ELECTROCHEMISTRY.
By A. J. Allmand, D.Sc 136 Figures. Demy 8vo. 18s. net.
A text-book of the fundamental principles and processes employed in the in
dustrial applications of electrochemistry. The various forms of cells and electric
furnaces are fully described.
WINDING ENGINES AND WINDING APPLIANCES. Their
Design and Economical Working. By G. McCulloch, A.M.I.M.E.,
Inspector of Machinery in the Department of Mines, West Australia, and
T. Campbell Futers, M.I.M.E. Fully Illustrated. 21s. net.
Mining Journal. — "The work before us is probably the first, certainly the most
comprehensive, attempt to deal with this important branch of a mine's equip
ment. The authors are to be congratulated on their effort, which is a complete
study of the subject."
INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL MONOGRAPHS.
NEW VOLUMES.
LEAD POISONING AND LEAD ABSORPTION. By Thomas
M. Legge, M.D. Oxon., D.P.H. Cantab., H.M. Medical Inspector of Fac
tories; and Kenneth W. Goadey, D.P.H. Cantab. 12s. (>d. net.
Morning Post. — " This is an authoritative review of present-day medical know
ledge of lead poisoning. The subject is a vital and interesting one at the present
day, when legislative action with regard to it is being taken in almost every
civilized country."
THE CARRIER PROBLEM IN INFECTIOUS DISEASE.
With particular reference to ^Enteric Fever, Diphtheria, Cerebro-spinal
Meningitis, Bacillary Dysentery, and Cholera. By J. C. G. Ledingham,
D.Sc, M.B., and J. A. Arkwright, M.D. 12s. 6d. net.
THE PROTEIN ELEMENT IN NUTRITION. By Major D.
McCay, M.B., B.Ch., B.A.O., M.R.C.P. Lond., I. M.S., Professor of
Physiology, Medical College, Calcutta ; Examiner in Physiology, Calcutta
and Punjab University. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.
LONDON : EDWARD ARNOLD, 41 & 43 MADDOX STREET, W.

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