Chapter Four.My first day on board.I sat up with Larry for the greater part of the night, after the surgeon had left him. He groaned sometimes as if in pain, and talked at one time of the scrimmage with the O’Sullivans, and at another of his fiddle, which he feared had been broken. I accordingly, to pacify him, went down and got it, and managed to produce some few notes, which had the desired effect. The major after some time came in to relieve me, for we could not trust any of the people at the inn, who would to a certainty have been dosing our patient with whisky, under the belief that they were doing him a kindness, but at the risk of producing a fever.In the morning Mr O’Shea came in.“I thought you said that the boy would be all to rights by this time,” I observed.“Shure that was somewhat hyperbolical,” he answered, with a wink. “You can’t expect a man with a broken neck, and a gash as big as my thumb at the back of it, to come round in a few hours.”We couldn’t complain, for certainly the worthy surgeon had been the means of saving Larry’s life; but the incident detained us three whole days, before he was fit to mount his pony and accompany us to Cork. Before leaving my uncle called on Doctor Murphy, who, to his great amusement, he found had no intention of calling him out, but merely expected to receive a fee for pronouncing a living man a dead one. Though my uncle might have declined to pay the amount demanded, he handed it to the doctor, and wished him good morning.I afterwards heard that Doctor Murphy had challenged Mr O’Shea. That gentleman, however, refused to go out on the plea that should he be wounded, and become a patient of his brother practitioner, he should certainly go the way of the rest of those under his medical care. For many a long day Doctor Murphy and Mr O’Shea carried on a fierce warfare, till their patients agreed to fight it out and settle the matter, when the doctor’s party being defeated, no inconsiderable number of broken heads being the result, he left the town to exercise his skill in some other locality, where, as Mr O’Shea remarked, there was a superabundant population.We were too late on arriving at Cork to go on board the frigate that evening, and thus Larry got the advantage of another night’s rest, and I had time to brush up my uniform, and, as I conceived, to make myself as smart as any officer in His Majesty’s service. The next morning my uncle hired a boat to proceed down the fair river of Cork to the harbour where the frigate lay. As we approached her my heart thrilled with pleasure as I thought of the honour I was about to enjoy of becoming one of her officers.“There’s theLiffy, yer honour,” said the boatman, pointing her out as she lay some distance from the shore. Her masts had already been replaced, and her yards were across, though the sails were not as yet bent; this, however, I did not observe.“I hope I have not detained her, uncle,” I said; “I should be sorry to have done that.”The major seldom indulged in a laugh, but he did so on this occasion till the tears rolled down his cheeks.“Midshipmen are not of so much account as you suppose, Terence,” he said, still laughing. “If you were to go on shore and not return on board in time, you would soon discover that the ship would not wait for you a single moment after the captain had resolved to put to sea.”As we approached, the sentry hailed to know who we were. In my eagerness I replied, “Major McMahon and the new midshipman, Mr Terence O’Finnahan,” whereat a laugh came forth from one of the ports at which, as it appeared, some of my future messmates were standing.“You’d have better have held your tongue,” said my uncle. “And now, Terence, remember to salute the flag as you see me do,” he added, as he was about to mount the side of the ship. He went up, I followed, and next came Larry. On reaching the deck he took off his hat, and I doffed mine with all the grace I could muster, Larry at the same time making a profound bow and a scrape of his foot. The master’s mate who received us, when my uncle inquired for Captain Macnamara, pointed to the after-part of the deck, where my future commander, with several other well-dressed officers, was standing. My uncle at once moved towards him, and I and Larry followed in the same direction. The captain, a fine-looking man, seeing him approach came forward, and they exchanged cordial greetings.“I have come expressly to introduce my nephew Terence to you, Macnamara,” said my uncle. “You were good enough, in a letter I received from you a few days ago, to say that you would receive him as a midshipman on board your ship. He’s a broth of a boy, and will be an ornament to the service, I hope.”“Can’t say that he is much of an ornament at present,” I heard one of the officers remark to another. “Looks more like a mummer or stage-player than a midshipman.”Looking up, I observed a smile on their countenances, as they eyed me from head to foot.“Wishing to present the boy in a respectable way to you on the quarter-deck of His Majesty’s ship, we had a uniform made for him at Ballinahone, which is, I fancy, such as your officers are accustomed to wear on grand occasions,” said the major, taking me by the arm as if to exhibit me to more advantage.“I thought rather that it was the fashionable dress worn by young gentlemen in the west of Ireland at wakes or weddings,” remarked the captain; “but I confess, my dear McMahon, that I do not recognise it as a naval uniform, except in the matter of the buttons, which I see are according to the right pattern. The young gentleman will have to dress differently, except when he has a fancy to go to a masquerade on shore.”The major stepped back with a look of astonishment; then surveying the uniform of the officers standing around, and taking another look at my costume, he exclaimed, laughing, “Faith, I see there is a difference, but as no regulations or patterns were procurable at Ballinahone, we did the best we could.”“Of that I have no doubt about, McMahon; you always did your best, and very well done it was,” said the captain; “but I would advise you to take your nephew on shore, and get him rigged out in a more proper costume as soon as possible.”I was completely taken aback on hearing this, and finding that instead of making a favourable impression on the captain, my costume had produced a very contrary effect. In a short time, however, somewhat regaining my confidence and remembering Larry, I turned to my uncle and begged that, according to his promise, he would introduce him.“To be shure I will,” he answered, and then addressing the captain, he said, “My nephew has a foster-brother, the boy standing there, who has made up his mind to go to sea. Will you receive him on board your ship? I own, however, that he will require a good deal of licking into shape before he becomes a sailor.”“He appears to be a stout lad, and I have no doubt but that in course of time we shall succeed in making him one,” answered the captain. “Do you wish to go to sea, boy?”Larry, who didn’t quite understand, I suspect, what licking into shape meant, answered notwithstanding, “Shure, yer honour, wherever Maisther Terence goes, I’m desirous of following, and as he’s to become a midshipman, I’d wish to go wherever I can be with him.”“That cannot be so exactly,” answered the captain, laughing; “but if you become one of the crew, you’ll not be far from him, and I hope I may see you some day following your leader on board an enemy’s ship, and hauling down her flag.”“Hurrah! shure that’s what I’ll be after doing, and anything else your honour plaises,” exclaimed Larry at the top of his voice, flourishing his hat at the same time above his head. “I’ll be after showing yer honour how the boys in Tipperary fight.”That matter being settled much to my satisfaction, Larry was taken off to have his name entered on the ship’s books, for in those days a fish having been once caught in the net, it was not thought advisable to let him go again. In the meantime, my uncle having gone into the captain’s cabin to take luncheon, I was led by a person whom, though I thought he was an officer, I supposed, from his appearance, to be one of very subordinate rank, to be introduced to my new messmates, in the midshipmen’s berth.“And so you think we wear silks and satins on board ship, I see, young gentleman, do you?” he said with a comical grin, eyeing my new coat and waistcoat. “You’ll have to send these back to your grandmother, or the old woman who made them for you.”“Arrah, sir, d’ye intend to insult me?” I asked. “Were they not put together by Pat Cassidy, the family tailor, under the direction of my uncle, Major McMahon, and he shure knows what a young gentleman should wear on board ship.”“No, my lad, I only intended to laugh at you; but do you know who I am?”“No, but I’ll have you to understand that an O’Finnahan of Castle Ballinahone, County Tipperary, Ireland, is not to be insulted with impunity,” I answered, trying to look as dignified as I could.“Then I’ll give you to understand, young sir, that I’m the first lieutenant of this ship, and that lieutenants don’t insult midshipmen, even if they think fit to send them to the masthead. It will be your business to obey, and to ask no questions.”As I knew no more, at the time, of the rank and position of a first lieutenant on board ship than I did of the man in the moon, this announcement did not make much impression on my mind. I only thought that he was some old fellow who was fond of boasting, and had a fancy to try and make me believe that he was a personage of importance, or perhaps to frighten me. I soon discovered, however, that though he generally wore a shabby uniform, he was not a man to be trifled with. I may as well here say that his name was Saunders, that he was a thorough tar, who had come in at the hawse-hole, and had worked his way up to his present position. Old “Rough and Ready” I found he was called. His hands were continually in the tar-bucket, and he was never so happy as when, with a marline-spike hung round his neck by a rope-yarn, he was engaged in gammoning the bowsprit, or setting up the rigging. But that I found out afterwards.“Now come along, youngster, for I don’t wish to be hard on you; I’m only laughing at the ridiculous figure you cut,” he said, giving way to a burst of rough merriment. By the time it was over we reached the door of the berth, where the midshipmen were assembled for dinner.“Young gentlemen,” said Mr Saunders with perfect gravity, opening the door, “I have to tell you that this is Mr Terence O’Finnahan, of Castle Ballinahone, County Tipperary, Ireland, who is to become your messmate as soon as he is docked of his fine feathers; and you’ll be pleased to receive him as such.”Saying this he took his departure, and two of my new messmates seized me by the fists, which they gripped with a force intended perhaps to show the ardour of their regard, but which was excessively painful to my feelings. I restrained them, however, and stood looking round at the numerous strange faces turned towards me.“Make room for Mr Terence O’Finnahan, of Castle Ballinahone, County Tipperary, Ireland,” cried an old master’s mate from the further end of the table; “but let all understand that it’s the last time such a designation is to be applied to him. It’s much too long a name for any practical purpose, and from henceforth he’s to be known on board this ship as Paddy Finn, the Irish midshipman; and so, Paddy Finn, old boy, I’ll drink your health. Gentlemen, fill your glasses; here’s to the health of Paddy Finn.”Every one in the berth filled up their mugs and cups with rum and water, in which they pledged me with mock gravity. Having in the meantime taken my seat, I rose and begged to return my thanks to them for the honour they had done me, assuring them that I should be happy to be known by the new name they had given me, or by any other which might sound as sweet.“Only, gentlemen, there’s one point I must bargain for,” I added; “let me be called Paddy, whatever other designation you may in your judgment think fit to bestow on me, for let me tell you that I consider it an honour to be an Irishman, and I am as proud of my native land as you can be of yours.”“Bravo, Paddy!” cried several. “You’re a trump,” observed the president.“The chief has got pluck in him,” said the Scotch assistant surgeon, who sat opposite to the president, a man whose grizzled hair showed that he had been long in the service.“Where did you get those clothes from?” asked a young gentleman, whom I afterwards found to be the purser’s clerk.“He picked them up at a theatrical property shop as he passed through Cork,” remarked another.“Haul in the slack of your impudence,” cried the president, whose favour I had won. “If his friends had never seen a naval uniform, how should they know how to rig him out?”“I’m mightily obliged to you, sir,” I said, for I was by this time getting heartily ashamed of my gay feathers; “and as the ship won’t be sailing yet, I hope to get fitted out properly before I return on board.”“All right, youngster,” said the president. “Now, I will have the pleasure of helping you to a slice of mutton. Hand the greens and potatoes up to Paddy Finn.”The plate was passed round to me, and I was allowed, without being further bantered, to discuss the viands placed under my nose, which I did with a good appetite. I was not silent, however, but introducing my journey to Cork, amused my messmates with an account of the various incidents which had occurred. When, at length, one of the midshipmen who had being doing duty on deck appeared at the door to say that Major McMahon was about to return on shore, and wanted his nephew, my new friends shook me warmly by the hand, and the president again proposed three hearty cheers for their new messmate, Paddy Finn.
I sat up with Larry for the greater part of the night, after the surgeon had left him. He groaned sometimes as if in pain, and talked at one time of the scrimmage with the O’Sullivans, and at another of his fiddle, which he feared had been broken. I accordingly, to pacify him, went down and got it, and managed to produce some few notes, which had the desired effect. The major after some time came in to relieve me, for we could not trust any of the people at the inn, who would to a certainty have been dosing our patient with whisky, under the belief that they were doing him a kindness, but at the risk of producing a fever.
In the morning Mr O’Shea came in.
“I thought you said that the boy would be all to rights by this time,” I observed.
“Shure that was somewhat hyperbolical,” he answered, with a wink. “You can’t expect a man with a broken neck, and a gash as big as my thumb at the back of it, to come round in a few hours.”
We couldn’t complain, for certainly the worthy surgeon had been the means of saving Larry’s life; but the incident detained us three whole days, before he was fit to mount his pony and accompany us to Cork. Before leaving my uncle called on Doctor Murphy, who, to his great amusement, he found had no intention of calling him out, but merely expected to receive a fee for pronouncing a living man a dead one. Though my uncle might have declined to pay the amount demanded, he handed it to the doctor, and wished him good morning.
I afterwards heard that Doctor Murphy had challenged Mr O’Shea. That gentleman, however, refused to go out on the plea that should he be wounded, and become a patient of his brother practitioner, he should certainly go the way of the rest of those under his medical care. For many a long day Doctor Murphy and Mr O’Shea carried on a fierce warfare, till their patients agreed to fight it out and settle the matter, when the doctor’s party being defeated, no inconsiderable number of broken heads being the result, he left the town to exercise his skill in some other locality, where, as Mr O’Shea remarked, there was a superabundant population.
We were too late on arriving at Cork to go on board the frigate that evening, and thus Larry got the advantage of another night’s rest, and I had time to brush up my uniform, and, as I conceived, to make myself as smart as any officer in His Majesty’s service. The next morning my uncle hired a boat to proceed down the fair river of Cork to the harbour where the frigate lay. As we approached her my heart thrilled with pleasure as I thought of the honour I was about to enjoy of becoming one of her officers.
“There’s theLiffy, yer honour,” said the boatman, pointing her out as she lay some distance from the shore. Her masts had already been replaced, and her yards were across, though the sails were not as yet bent; this, however, I did not observe.
“I hope I have not detained her, uncle,” I said; “I should be sorry to have done that.”
The major seldom indulged in a laugh, but he did so on this occasion till the tears rolled down his cheeks.
“Midshipmen are not of so much account as you suppose, Terence,” he said, still laughing. “If you were to go on shore and not return on board in time, you would soon discover that the ship would not wait for you a single moment after the captain had resolved to put to sea.”
As we approached, the sentry hailed to know who we were. In my eagerness I replied, “Major McMahon and the new midshipman, Mr Terence O’Finnahan,” whereat a laugh came forth from one of the ports at which, as it appeared, some of my future messmates were standing.
“You’d have better have held your tongue,” said my uncle. “And now, Terence, remember to salute the flag as you see me do,” he added, as he was about to mount the side of the ship. He went up, I followed, and next came Larry. On reaching the deck he took off his hat, and I doffed mine with all the grace I could muster, Larry at the same time making a profound bow and a scrape of his foot. The master’s mate who received us, when my uncle inquired for Captain Macnamara, pointed to the after-part of the deck, where my future commander, with several other well-dressed officers, was standing. My uncle at once moved towards him, and I and Larry followed in the same direction. The captain, a fine-looking man, seeing him approach came forward, and they exchanged cordial greetings.
“I have come expressly to introduce my nephew Terence to you, Macnamara,” said my uncle. “You were good enough, in a letter I received from you a few days ago, to say that you would receive him as a midshipman on board your ship. He’s a broth of a boy, and will be an ornament to the service, I hope.”
“Can’t say that he is much of an ornament at present,” I heard one of the officers remark to another. “Looks more like a mummer or stage-player than a midshipman.”
Looking up, I observed a smile on their countenances, as they eyed me from head to foot.
“Wishing to present the boy in a respectable way to you on the quarter-deck of His Majesty’s ship, we had a uniform made for him at Ballinahone, which is, I fancy, such as your officers are accustomed to wear on grand occasions,” said the major, taking me by the arm as if to exhibit me to more advantage.
“I thought rather that it was the fashionable dress worn by young gentlemen in the west of Ireland at wakes or weddings,” remarked the captain; “but I confess, my dear McMahon, that I do not recognise it as a naval uniform, except in the matter of the buttons, which I see are according to the right pattern. The young gentleman will have to dress differently, except when he has a fancy to go to a masquerade on shore.”
The major stepped back with a look of astonishment; then surveying the uniform of the officers standing around, and taking another look at my costume, he exclaimed, laughing, “Faith, I see there is a difference, but as no regulations or patterns were procurable at Ballinahone, we did the best we could.”
“Of that I have no doubt about, McMahon; you always did your best, and very well done it was,” said the captain; “but I would advise you to take your nephew on shore, and get him rigged out in a more proper costume as soon as possible.”
I was completely taken aback on hearing this, and finding that instead of making a favourable impression on the captain, my costume had produced a very contrary effect. In a short time, however, somewhat regaining my confidence and remembering Larry, I turned to my uncle and begged that, according to his promise, he would introduce him.
“To be shure I will,” he answered, and then addressing the captain, he said, “My nephew has a foster-brother, the boy standing there, who has made up his mind to go to sea. Will you receive him on board your ship? I own, however, that he will require a good deal of licking into shape before he becomes a sailor.”
“He appears to be a stout lad, and I have no doubt but that in course of time we shall succeed in making him one,” answered the captain. “Do you wish to go to sea, boy?”
Larry, who didn’t quite understand, I suspect, what licking into shape meant, answered notwithstanding, “Shure, yer honour, wherever Maisther Terence goes, I’m desirous of following, and as he’s to become a midshipman, I’d wish to go wherever I can be with him.”
“That cannot be so exactly,” answered the captain, laughing; “but if you become one of the crew, you’ll not be far from him, and I hope I may see you some day following your leader on board an enemy’s ship, and hauling down her flag.”
“Hurrah! shure that’s what I’ll be after doing, and anything else your honour plaises,” exclaimed Larry at the top of his voice, flourishing his hat at the same time above his head. “I’ll be after showing yer honour how the boys in Tipperary fight.”
That matter being settled much to my satisfaction, Larry was taken off to have his name entered on the ship’s books, for in those days a fish having been once caught in the net, it was not thought advisable to let him go again. In the meantime, my uncle having gone into the captain’s cabin to take luncheon, I was led by a person whom, though I thought he was an officer, I supposed, from his appearance, to be one of very subordinate rank, to be introduced to my new messmates, in the midshipmen’s berth.
“And so you think we wear silks and satins on board ship, I see, young gentleman, do you?” he said with a comical grin, eyeing my new coat and waistcoat. “You’ll have to send these back to your grandmother, or the old woman who made them for you.”
“Arrah, sir, d’ye intend to insult me?” I asked. “Were they not put together by Pat Cassidy, the family tailor, under the direction of my uncle, Major McMahon, and he shure knows what a young gentleman should wear on board ship.”
“No, my lad, I only intended to laugh at you; but do you know who I am?”
“No, but I’ll have you to understand that an O’Finnahan of Castle Ballinahone, County Tipperary, Ireland, is not to be insulted with impunity,” I answered, trying to look as dignified as I could.
“Then I’ll give you to understand, young sir, that I’m the first lieutenant of this ship, and that lieutenants don’t insult midshipmen, even if they think fit to send them to the masthead. It will be your business to obey, and to ask no questions.”
As I knew no more, at the time, of the rank and position of a first lieutenant on board ship than I did of the man in the moon, this announcement did not make much impression on my mind. I only thought that he was some old fellow who was fond of boasting, and had a fancy to try and make me believe that he was a personage of importance, or perhaps to frighten me. I soon discovered, however, that though he generally wore a shabby uniform, he was not a man to be trifled with. I may as well here say that his name was Saunders, that he was a thorough tar, who had come in at the hawse-hole, and had worked his way up to his present position. Old “Rough and Ready” I found he was called. His hands were continually in the tar-bucket, and he was never so happy as when, with a marline-spike hung round his neck by a rope-yarn, he was engaged in gammoning the bowsprit, or setting up the rigging. But that I found out afterwards.
“Now come along, youngster, for I don’t wish to be hard on you; I’m only laughing at the ridiculous figure you cut,” he said, giving way to a burst of rough merriment. By the time it was over we reached the door of the berth, where the midshipmen were assembled for dinner.
“Young gentlemen,” said Mr Saunders with perfect gravity, opening the door, “I have to tell you that this is Mr Terence O’Finnahan, of Castle Ballinahone, County Tipperary, Ireland, who is to become your messmate as soon as he is docked of his fine feathers; and you’ll be pleased to receive him as such.”
Saying this he took his departure, and two of my new messmates seized me by the fists, which they gripped with a force intended perhaps to show the ardour of their regard, but which was excessively painful to my feelings. I restrained them, however, and stood looking round at the numerous strange faces turned towards me.
“Make room for Mr Terence O’Finnahan, of Castle Ballinahone, County Tipperary, Ireland,” cried an old master’s mate from the further end of the table; “but let all understand that it’s the last time such a designation is to be applied to him. It’s much too long a name for any practical purpose, and from henceforth he’s to be known on board this ship as Paddy Finn, the Irish midshipman; and so, Paddy Finn, old boy, I’ll drink your health. Gentlemen, fill your glasses; here’s to the health of Paddy Finn.”
Every one in the berth filled up their mugs and cups with rum and water, in which they pledged me with mock gravity. Having in the meantime taken my seat, I rose and begged to return my thanks to them for the honour they had done me, assuring them that I should be happy to be known by the new name they had given me, or by any other which might sound as sweet.
“Only, gentlemen, there’s one point I must bargain for,” I added; “let me be called Paddy, whatever other designation you may in your judgment think fit to bestow on me, for let me tell you that I consider it an honour to be an Irishman, and I am as proud of my native land as you can be of yours.”
“Bravo, Paddy!” cried several. “You’re a trump,” observed the president.
“The chief has got pluck in him,” said the Scotch assistant surgeon, who sat opposite to the president, a man whose grizzled hair showed that he had been long in the service.
“Where did you get those clothes from?” asked a young gentleman, whom I afterwards found to be the purser’s clerk.
“He picked them up at a theatrical property shop as he passed through Cork,” remarked another.
“Haul in the slack of your impudence,” cried the president, whose favour I had won. “If his friends had never seen a naval uniform, how should they know how to rig him out?”
“I’m mightily obliged to you, sir,” I said, for I was by this time getting heartily ashamed of my gay feathers; “and as the ship won’t be sailing yet, I hope to get fitted out properly before I return on board.”
“All right, youngster,” said the president. “Now, I will have the pleasure of helping you to a slice of mutton. Hand the greens and potatoes up to Paddy Finn.”
The plate was passed round to me, and I was allowed, without being further bantered, to discuss the viands placed under my nose, which I did with a good appetite. I was not silent, however, but introducing my journey to Cork, amused my messmates with an account of the various incidents which had occurred. When, at length, one of the midshipmen who had being doing duty on deck appeared at the door to say that Major McMahon was about to return on shore, and wanted his nephew, my new friends shook me warmly by the hand, and the president again proposed three hearty cheers for their new messmate, Paddy Finn.
Chapter Five.I make the acquaintance of one of my new messmates.I was in much better spirits when I rejoined my uncle than when I had been led below by Mr Saunders. I found him standing with the captain on the main-deck, they having just come out of the cabin.“I should like to take a turn round the ship before we leave her, in case I should be unable to pay you another visit,” said the major. “I wish to brush up my recollections of what a frigate is like.”“Come along then,” answered the captain, and he led the way along the deck.As we got forward, we heard loud roars of laughter and clapping of hands. The cause was very evident, for there was Larry in the midst of a group of seamen, dancing an Irish jig to the tune of one of his most rollicksome songs.“Stop a bit, my boys, and I’ll show you what real music is like,” he exclaimed after he had finished the song. “Wait till I get my fiddle among yer, and I’ll make it squeak louder thin a score of peacocks or a dozen of sucking pigs;” and he then began again singing—“A broth of a boy was young Daniel O’Shane,As he danced with the maidens of fair Derrynane.”Then he went on jigging away, to the great delight of his audience,—no one observing the captain or us.It was very evident that Larry had without loss of time made himself at home among his new shipmates. They treated him much as they would have treated a young bear, or any other pet animal they might have obtained. I had expected to find him looking somewhat forlorn and downcast among so many strangers; but in reality, I ought to have trusted an Irish boy of his degree to make friends wherever he goes.“I think we may leave your follower where he is, as, should you not require his services, he is much more likely to be kept out of mischief here than he would be ashore,” said the captain to the major.To this my uncle agreed. We had got some way along the deck when I felt a touch on my shoulder, and turning round, saw Larry’s countenance grinning from ear to ear.“Shure they’re broths of boys these sailor fellows, and I’m mighty plaised to be among them; but, Maisther Terence dear, I have a favour to ask you. Would you tell the captain that I’d be mightily obliged to him if he would let me go back to Cork for my fiddle. I left it at the inn, and if I had it now I’d set all the boys on board a-jigging, with the captain and officers into the bargain.”I told him that as the captain thought it better he should remain on board, I could not ask leave for him to go on shore; but I promised that if I had an opportunity, I would send him his violin at once, or if not, would be careful to bring it myself.“You’ll not be long then, Maisther Terence; for the boys here are mighty eager to hear me play.”Assuring him how glad I was to find that he was happy, I advised him to go back to his new friends again, promising not to forget his violin.We had come on board on the larboard side; we now went to the starboard. On each side of the gangway stood several officers and midshipmen, while on the accommodation-ladder were arranged two lines of boys. The captain’s own gig was waiting for us, manned by eight smart seamen, their oars in the air. The captain himself descended, returning the salutes of the officers and men. I followed my uncle, who was treated with a similar mark of respect; but as I thought a portion was intended for me, and wishing to act in the politest way possible, I took off my hat altogether, and made several most polite bows. I had a suspicion, however, from the expression on the countenances of the midshipmen, with the suppressed titter among them, together with the grin on the faces of the men and boys, that I was doing something not altogether according to custom. Perhaps, I thought to myself, I hadn’t bowed low enough, so I turned, now to my right, now to my left, and, not seeing where I was going to, should have pitched right down the ladder had not one of the men standing there caught my arm, bidding me as he did so to keep my hat on my head.In my eagerness to get into the boat I made a spring, and should have leapt right over into the water had not another friendly hand caught me and forced me down by the side of the major.The captain, taking the white yoke-lines, gave the order to shove off; the boat’s head swung away from the side of the frigate; the oars fell with their blades flat on the water; and we began to glide rapidly up the harbour, propelled by the sturdy arms of the crew. I felt very proud as I looked at the captain in his cocked hat and laced coat, and at the midshipman who accompanied him, in a bran new uniform, though, to be sure, there wasn’t much of him to look at, for he was a mere mite of a fellow.Had I not discovered that my own costume was not according to rule, I should have considered it a much more elegant one than his. After some time, the captain observing, I fancy, that I looked rather dull, having no one to talk to, said something to the midshipman, who immediately came and sat by me.“Well, Paddy, how do you like coming to sea?” he asked in a good-natured tone.“I’ve not yet formed an opinion,” I answered.“True, my boy; Cork harbour is not the Atlantic,” he remarked. “We may chance to see the waves running mountains high when we get there, and all the things tumbling about like shuttlecocks.”“I’ll be content to wait until I see that same to form an opinion,” I answered. “As I’ve come to sea, I shall be glad to witness whatever takes place there.”“You’re not to be caught, I perceive,” he said. “Well, Paddy, and how do you like your name?”“Faith, I’m grateful to you and my other messmates for giving it,” I answered. “I’m not ashamed of the name, and I hope to have the opportunity of making it known far and wide some day or other; and now may I ask you what’s your name, for I haven’t had the pleasure of hearing it.”“Thomas Pim,” he answered.“Come, that’s short enough, anyhow,” I observed.“Yes; but when I first came aboard, the mess declared it was too long, so they cut off the ‘h’ and the ‘as’ and ‘m’ and called me Tom Pi; but even then they were not content, for they further docked it of its fair proportions, and decided that I was to be named Topi, though generally I’m called simply Pi.”“Do you mind it?” I asked.“Not a bit,” he answered. “It suits my size, I confess; for, to tell you the truth, I’m older than I look, and have been three years at sea.”“I thought you had only just joined,” I remarked, for my companion was, as I have just said, a very little fellow, scarcely reaching up to my shoulder. On examining his countenance more minutely, I observed that it had a somewhat old look.“Though I’m little I’m good, and not ashamed of my size or my name either,” he said. “When bigger men are knocked over, I’ve a chance of escaping. I can stow myself away where others can’t get in their legs; and when I go aloft or take a run on shore, I’ve less weight to carry,—so has the steed I ride. When I go with others to hire horses, I generally manage to get the best from the stable-keeper.”“Yes, I see that you have many advantages over bigger fellows,” I said.“I’m perfectly contented with myself now I’ve found that out, but I confess that at first I didn’t like being laughed at and having remarks made about my name and my size. I have grown slightly since then, and no one observes now that I’m an especially little fellow.”Tom spoke for some time on the same subject.“I say, Paddy Finn, I hope you and I will be friends,” he continued. “I’ve heard that you Irishmen are frequently quarrelsome, but I hope you won’t quarrel with me, or, for your own sake, with any of the rest of the mess. You’ll gain nothing by it, as they would all turn against you to put you down.”“No fear of that,” I replied, “always provided that they say nothing insulting of Ireland, or of my family or friends, or of the opinions I may hold, or take liberties which I don’t like, or do anything which I consider unbecoming gentlemen.”“You leave a pretty wide door open,” remarked Tom; “but, as I said before, if you don’t keep the peace it will be the worse for you.”We were all this time proceeding at a rapid rate up the stream, between its wooded and picturesque banks. On arriving at Cork, the captain wished the major good-bye, saying that I must be on board again within three days, which would allow me ample time to get a proper uniform made.I asked Tom Pim what he was going to do with himself, and proposed that, after I had been measured by the tailor, we should take a stroll together.“Do you think the captain brought me up here for my pleasure?” he said. “I have to stay by the boat while he’s on shore, to see that the men don’t run away. Why, if I didn’t keep my eye on them, they’d be off like shots, and drunk as fiddlers by the time the captain came back.”“I’m sorry you can’t come,” I said. “By the bye, talking of fiddlers, will you mind taking a fiddle on board to the boy who came with me,—Larry Harrigan? I promised to send it to him, though I didn’t expect so soon to have the opportunity.”“With the greatest pleasure in the world,” said Tom Pim. “Perhaps I may take a scrape on it myself. When I was a little fellow, I learned to play it.”“You must have been a very little fellow,” I couldn’t help remarking, though Tom didn’t mind it.As our inn was not far off, I asked my uncle to let me run on and get the fiddle, and take it down to the boat. As I carried it along, I heard people making various remarks, evidently showing that they took me for a musician or stage-player, which made me more than ever anxious to get out of a costume which I had once been so proud of wearing. Having delivered the violin in its case to Tom Pim, who promised to convey it to Larry, I rejoined my uncle.We proceeded at once to the tailor recommended by Captain Macnamara, who, having a pattern, promised to finish my uniform in time, and to supply all the other articles I required. We spent the few days we were in Cork in visiting some old friends of the major’s.I was very anxious about the non-appearance of my chest, but the night before I was to go on board, to my great satisfaction, it arrived.“It’s a good big one, at all events,” I thought; “it will hold all the things I want, and some curiosities I hope to bring back from foreign parts.”It was capable of doing so, for although it might have been somewhat smaller than the one in which the bride who never got out again hid away, it was of magnificent proportions, solid as oak and iron clamps could make it; it was big enough to hold half-a-dozen of my smaller brothers and sisters, who used to stow themselves away in it when playing hide-and-seek about the house.Soon after the chest arrived the tailor brought my uniform.It certainly was a contrast to the comical suit I had hitherto been wearing. I put it on with infinite satisfaction, and girded to my side a new dirk, which my uncle had given me, instead of my grandfather’s old sword. The latter, however, my uncle recommended me to take on board.“You may want it, Terence, maybe on some cutting-out expedition,” he said; “and you’ll remember that it belonged to your ancestors, and make it do its duty.”As the chest was already full, I had a difficulty in stowing away the things the tailor had brought. I therefore began to unpack it while he was waiting, and I observed that he cast a look of supreme contempt on most of the articles it contained. He even ventured to suggest that he should be allowed to replace them with others which he could supply.“The boy has enough and to spare, and I should like to know how many of them will find their way back to Cork,” said my uncle.Some of them I found, on consideration, that I should be as well without. Among other things were a pair of thick brogues, which Molly the cook had put in to keep my feet from the wet deck, and a huge cake; this, though, I guessed would not be sneered at in the mess, and would travel just as well outside. At length I found room for everything I required, and the chest was once more locked and corded.I don’t believe I slept a wink that night with thinking of what I should do when I got on board the frigate. It was a satisfaction to remember that the ice had been broken, and that I should not appear as a perfect stranger amongst my messmates. I already knew Tom Pim, and he had told me the names of several others, among whom were those of Jack Nettleship the old mate and caterer of the mess, Dick Sinnet the senior midshipman, Sims the purser’s clerk, and Donald McPherson the assistant-surgeon. The others I could not remember. The lieutenants, he said, were very nice fellows, though they had their peculiarities. None of the officers were Irishmen, consequently I had been dubbed Paddy.
I was in much better spirits when I rejoined my uncle than when I had been led below by Mr Saunders. I found him standing with the captain on the main-deck, they having just come out of the cabin.
“I should like to take a turn round the ship before we leave her, in case I should be unable to pay you another visit,” said the major. “I wish to brush up my recollections of what a frigate is like.”
“Come along then,” answered the captain, and he led the way along the deck.
As we got forward, we heard loud roars of laughter and clapping of hands. The cause was very evident, for there was Larry in the midst of a group of seamen, dancing an Irish jig to the tune of one of his most rollicksome songs.
“Stop a bit, my boys, and I’ll show you what real music is like,” he exclaimed after he had finished the song. “Wait till I get my fiddle among yer, and I’ll make it squeak louder thin a score of peacocks or a dozen of sucking pigs;” and he then began again singing—
“A broth of a boy was young Daniel O’Shane,As he danced with the maidens of fair Derrynane.”
“A broth of a boy was young Daniel O’Shane,As he danced with the maidens of fair Derrynane.”
Then he went on jigging away, to the great delight of his audience,—no one observing the captain or us.
It was very evident that Larry had without loss of time made himself at home among his new shipmates. They treated him much as they would have treated a young bear, or any other pet animal they might have obtained. I had expected to find him looking somewhat forlorn and downcast among so many strangers; but in reality, I ought to have trusted an Irish boy of his degree to make friends wherever he goes.
“I think we may leave your follower where he is, as, should you not require his services, he is much more likely to be kept out of mischief here than he would be ashore,” said the captain to the major.
To this my uncle agreed. We had got some way along the deck when I felt a touch on my shoulder, and turning round, saw Larry’s countenance grinning from ear to ear.
“Shure they’re broths of boys these sailor fellows, and I’m mighty plaised to be among them; but, Maisther Terence dear, I have a favour to ask you. Would you tell the captain that I’d be mightily obliged to him if he would let me go back to Cork for my fiddle. I left it at the inn, and if I had it now I’d set all the boys on board a-jigging, with the captain and officers into the bargain.”
I told him that as the captain thought it better he should remain on board, I could not ask leave for him to go on shore; but I promised that if I had an opportunity, I would send him his violin at once, or if not, would be careful to bring it myself.
“You’ll not be long then, Maisther Terence; for the boys here are mighty eager to hear me play.”
Assuring him how glad I was to find that he was happy, I advised him to go back to his new friends again, promising not to forget his violin.
We had come on board on the larboard side; we now went to the starboard. On each side of the gangway stood several officers and midshipmen, while on the accommodation-ladder were arranged two lines of boys. The captain’s own gig was waiting for us, manned by eight smart seamen, their oars in the air. The captain himself descended, returning the salutes of the officers and men. I followed my uncle, who was treated with a similar mark of respect; but as I thought a portion was intended for me, and wishing to act in the politest way possible, I took off my hat altogether, and made several most polite bows. I had a suspicion, however, from the expression on the countenances of the midshipmen, with the suppressed titter among them, together with the grin on the faces of the men and boys, that I was doing something not altogether according to custom. Perhaps, I thought to myself, I hadn’t bowed low enough, so I turned, now to my right, now to my left, and, not seeing where I was going to, should have pitched right down the ladder had not one of the men standing there caught my arm, bidding me as he did so to keep my hat on my head.
In my eagerness to get into the boat I made a spring, and should have leapt right over into the water had not another friendly hand caught me and forced me down by the side of the major.
The captain, taking the white yoke-lines, gave the order to shove off; the boat’s head swung away from the side of the frigate; the oars fell with their blades flat on the water; and we began to glide rapidly up the harbour, propelled by the sturdy arms of the crew. I felt very proud as I looked at the captain in his cocked hat and laced coat, and at the midshipman who accompanied him, in a bran new uniform, though, to be sure, there wasn’t much of him to look at, for he was a mere mite of a fellow.
Had I not discovered that my own costume was not according to rule, I should have considered it a much more elegant one than his. After some time, the captain observing, I fancy, that I looked rather dull, having no one to talk to, said something to the midshipman, who immediately came and sat by me.
“Well, Paddy, how do you like coming to sea?” he asked in a good-natured tone.
“I’ve not yet formed an opinion,” I answered.
“True, my boy; Cork harbour is not the Atlantic,” he remarked. “We may chance to see the waves running mountains high when we get there, and all the things tumbling about like shuttlecocks.”
“I’ll be content to wait until I see that same to form an opinion,” I answered. “As I’ve come to sea, I shall be glad to witness whatever takes place there.”
“You’re not to be caught, I perceive,” he said. “Well, Paddy, and how do you like your name?”
“Faith, I’m grateful to you and my other messmates for giving it,” I answered. “I’m not ashamed of the name, and I hope to have the opportunity of making it known far and wide some day or other; and now may I ask you what’s your name, for I haven’t had the pleasure of hearing it.”
“Thomas Pim,” he answered.
“Come, that’s short enough, anyhow,” I observed.
“Yes; but when I first came aboard, the mess declared it was too long, so they cut off the ‘h’ and the ‘as’ and ‘m’ and called me Tom Pi; but even then they were not content, for they further docked it of its fair proportions, and decided that I was to be named Topi, though generally I’m called simply Pi.”
“Do you mind it?” I asked.
“Not a bit,” he answered. “It suits my size, I confess; for, to tell you the truth, I’m older than I look, and have been three years at sea.”
“I thought you had only just joined,” I remarked, for my companion was, as I have just said, a very little fellow, scarcely reaching up to my shoulder. On examining his countenance more minutely, I observed that it had a somewhat old look.
“Though I’m little I’m good, and not ashamed of my size or my name either,” he said. “When bigger men are knocked over, I’ve a chance of escaping. I can stow myself away where others can’t get in their legs; and when I go aloft or take a run on shore, I’ve less weight to carry,—so has the steed I ride. When I go with others to hire horses, I generally manage to get the best from the stable-keeper.”
“Yes, I see that you have many advantages over bigger fellows,” I said.
“I’m perfectly contented with myself now I’ve found that out, but I confess that at first I didn’t like being laughed at and having remarks made about my name and my size. I have grown slightly since then, and no one observes now that I’m an especially little fellow.”
Tom spoke for some time on the same subject.
“I say, Paddy Finn, I hope you and I will be friends,” he continued. “I’ve heard that you Irishmen are frequently quarrelsome, but I hope you won’t quarrel with me, or, for your own sake, with any of the rest of the mess. You’ll gain nothing by it, as they would all turn against you to put you down.”
“No fear of that,” I replied, “always provided that they say nothing insulting of Ireland, or of my family or friends, or of the opinions I may hold, or take liberties which I don’t like, or do anything which I consider unbecoming gentlemen.”
“You leave a pretty wide door open,” remarked Tom; “but, as I said before, if you don’t keep the peace it will be the worse for you.”
We were all this time proceeding at a rapid rate up the stream, between its wooded and picturesque banks. On arriving at Cork, the captain wished the major good-bye, saying that I must be on board again within three days, which would allow me ample time to get a proper uniform made.
I asked Tom Pim what he was going to do with himself, and proposed that, after I had been measured by the tailor, we should take a stroll together.
“Do you think the captain brought me up here for my pleasure?” he said. “I have to stay by the boat while he’s on shore, to see that the men don’t run away. Why, if I didn’t keep my eye on them, they’d be off like shots, and drunk as fiddlers by the time the captain came back.”
“I’m sorry you can’t come,” I said. “By the bye, talking of fiddlers, will you mind taking a fiddle on board to the boy who came with me,—Larry Harrigan? I promised to send it to him, though I didn’t expect so soon to have the opportunity.”
“With the greatest pleasure in the world,” said Tom Pim. “Perhaps I may take a scrape on it myself. When I was a little fellow, I learned to play it.”
“You must have been a very little fellow,” I couldn’t help remarking, though Tom didn’t mind it.
As our inn was not far off, I asked my uncle to let me run on and get the fiddle, and take it down to the boat. As I carried it along, I heard people making various remarks, evidently showing that they took me for a musician or stage-player, which made me more than ever anxious to get out of a costume which I had once been so proud of wearing. Having delivered the violin in its case to Tom Pim, who promised to convey it to Larry, I rejoined my uncle.
We proceeded at once to the tailor recommended by Captain Macnamara, who, having a pattern, promised to finish my uniform in time, and to supply all the other articles I required. We spent the few days we were in Cork in visiting some old friends of the major’s.
I was very anxious about the non-appearance of my chest, but the night before I was to go on board, to my great satisfaction, it arrived.
“It’s a good big one, at all events,” I thought; “it will hold all the things I want, and some curiosities I hope to bring back from foreign parts.”
It was capable of doing so, for although it might have been somewhat smaller than the one in which the bride who never got out again hid away, it was of magnificent proportions, solid as oak and iron clamps could make it; it was big enough to hold half-a-dozen of my smaller brothers and sisters, who used to stow themselves away in it when playing hide-and-seek about the house.
Soon after the chest arrived the tailor brought my uniform.
It certainly was a contrast to the comical suit I had hitherto been wearing. I put it on with infinite satisfaction, and girded to my side a new dirk, which my uncle had given me, instead of my grandfather’s old sword. The latter, however, my uncle recommended me to take on board.
“You may want it, Terence, maybe on some cutting-out expedition,” he said; “and you’ll remember that it belonged to your ancestors, and make it do its duty.”
As the chest was already full, I had a difficulty in stowing away the things the tailor had brought. I therefore began to unpack it while he was waiting, and I observed that he cast a look of supreme contempt on most of the articles it contained. He even ventured to suggest that he should be allowed to replace them with others which he could supply.
“The boy has enough and to spare, and I should like to know how many of them will find their way back to Cork,” said my uncle.
Some of them I found, on consideration, that I should be as well without. Among other things were a pair of thick brogues, which Molly the cook had put in to keep my feet from the wet deck, and a huge cake; this, though, I guessed would not be sneered at in the mess, and would travel just as well outside. At length I found room for everything I required, and the chest was once more locked and corded.
I don’t believe I slept a wink that night with thinking of what I should do when I got on board the frigate. It was a satisfaction to remember that the ice had been broken, and that I should not appear as a perfect stranger amongst my messmates. I already knew Tom Pim, and he had told me the names of several others, among whom were those of Jack Nettleship the old mate and caterer of the mess, Dick Sinnet the senior midshipman, Sims the purser’s clerk, and Donald McPherson the assistant-surgeon. The others I could not remember. The lieutenants, he said, were very nice fellows, though they had their peculiarities. None of the officers were Irishmen, consequently I had been dubbed Paddy.
Chapter Six.I commence my naval career.The morning came. My chest and my other strat things had been carried down in a cart to the river, where they were shipped on board a shore-boat. As we walked along following it, my uncle, after being silent for a minute, as if considering how he should address me, said: “You have got a new life before you, away from friends, among all sorts of characters,—some good, it may be, many bad or indifferent, but no one probably on whom you may rely. You will be placed in difficult, often in dangerous situations, when you’ll have only yourself, or Him who orders all things, to trust to. Be self-reliant; ever strive to do your duty; and don’t be after troubling yourself about the consequences. You will be engaged in scenes of warfare and bloodshed. I have taken part in many such, and I know their horrors. War is a stern necessity. May you never love it for itself; but when fighting, comport yourself like a man fearless of danger, while you avoid running your head needlessly into it. Be courteous and polite, slow to take offence,—especially when no offence is intended, as is the case in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred where quarrels occur. Remember that it always takes two to make a quarrel, and that the man who never gives offence will seldom get into one. Never grumble; be cheerful and obliging. Never insist on your own rights when those rights are not worth insisting on. Sacrifice your own feelings to those of others, and be ever ready to help a companion out of a difficulty. You may be surprised to hear me—an old soldier and an Irishman—talking in this way; but I give you the advice, because I have seen so many act differently, and, wrapped up in intense selfishness, become utterly regardless of others,—reaping the consequences by being disliked and neglected, and finally deserted by all who were their friends. There’s another point I must speak to you about, and it’s a matter which weighs greatly on my mind. Example, they say, is better than precept. Now your father has set you a mighty bad example, and so have many others who have come to the castle. Don’t follow it. You see the effect which his potations of rum shrub and whisky-toddy have produced on him. When I was on duty, or going on it, I never touched liquor; and no man ever lost his life from my carelessness, as I have seen the lives of many poor soldiers thrown away when their officers, being drunk, have led them into useless danger. So I say, Terence, keep clear of liquor. The habit of drinking grows on a man, and in my time I have seen it the ruin of many as fine young fellows as ever smelt powder.”I thanked my uncle, and promised as far as I could to follow his excellent advice.As we reached the water-side, my uncle stopped, and putting one hand on my shoulder and taking mine with the other, looked me kindly in the face.“Fare thee well, Terence, my boy,” he said; “we may not again meet on earth, but wherever you go, an old man’s warmest affection follows you. Be afraid of nothing but doing wrong. If your life is spared, you’ll rise in the profession you have chosen, second only in my opinion to that of the army.”I stepped into the boat, and the men shoved off. My uncle stood watching me as we descended the stream. Again and again he waved his hand, and I returned his salute. He was still standing there when a bend of the river shut him out from my sight. I was too much engaged with my thoughts to listen to what the boatmen said, and I suspect they thought me either too dull or too proud to talk to them. As we pulled up on the larboard side, thinking that I was now somebody, I shouted to some men I saw looking through the ports to come down and lift my chest on board, though how that was to be done was more than I could tell. A chorus of laughs was the reply.Presently I heard a gruff voice say, “Send a whip down there, and have that big lumber chest, or whatever it is, up on deck.” My chest was quickly hauled up, and as quickly transferred by the orders of the lieutenant in charge of the watch below, before Mr Saunders’ eyes had fallen on it. I mounted the side in as dignified a way as I could, saluting the flag on reaching the deck, as my uncle had told me to do.I had recognised Tom Pim, who was ready to receive me. “You must go to the first lieutenant,—he’s in the gun-room,—and say, ‘Come aboard, sir,’ and then when you’re dismissed make your way into the berth,” he said.“But how am I to be after finding the gun-room; is it where the guns are kept?” I asked.Tom laughed at my simplicity. “No; it’s where the gun-room officers, the lieutenants and master, the doctor, and purser, and lieutenant of marines, mess. They all mess together, as do the mates, and we the midshipmen, the second master and master’s assistant, the clerks and the assistant-surgeon.”“And have you no ensign?” I asked.“No; there are none in the marines, and so we have no soldiers in our berth,” he answered; “but let’s come along, I’ll show you the way, and then you’ll be in time for dinner.” We descended to the gun-room door, where Tom left me, bidding me go in and ask for the first lieutenant. I didn’t see him, but one of the other officers, of whom I made inquiries, pointed me to the first lieutenant’s cabin.I knocked at the door. “Come in,” answered a gruff voice. I found the lieutenant with his shirt-sleeves tucked up, he having just completed his morning ablutions, an old stocking on one fist and a needle and thread in the other, engaged in darning it.“Come on board, sir,” I said.“Very well, youngster,” he answered; “I should scarcely have known you in your present proper uniform. There’s nothing like being particular as to dress. I’ll see about placing you in a watch. You’ll understand that you’re to try and do your duty to the best of your abilities.”“Shure it’s what I hope to do, sir,” I answered briskly; “and I’m mighty glad you like my uniform.”“I didn’t say I liked it, youngster,—I said it was proper according to the regulations. Turn round, let me see. There is room for growing, which a midshipman’s uniform should have. You’ll remember always to be neat and clean, and follow the example I try to set you youngsters.”“Yes, sir,” I answered, my eyes falling on a huge patch which the lieutenant had on one of the knees of his trousers.“Now you may go!” he said. “Understand that you’re not to quit the ship without my leave, and that you must master the rules and regulations of the service as soon as possible, for I can receive no excuse if you infringe them.”Altogether I was pretty well satisfied with my interview with old Rough-and-Ready, and hurrying out of the gun-room I directed my course for the young gentlemen’s berth, as it was called, which was some way further forward on the starboard side. I intended, after making my appearance there, to go in search of Larry, but the mulatto steward and a boy came hurrying aft along the deck with steaming dishes, which they placed on the table, and I found that the dinner was about to commence.“Glad to see you, Paddy,” said Jack Nettleship, who had already taken his place at the head of the table. “You look less like a play-actor’s apprentice and more like an embryo naval officer than you did when you first came on board. Now sit down and enjoy the good things of life while you can get them. Time will come when we shall have to luxuriate on salt junk as hard as a millstone and weevilly biscuits.”Plenty of joking took place, and everybody seemed in good humour, so that I soon found myself fairly at my ease, and all I wanted to be perfectly so was to know the ways of the ship. I succeeded in producing several roars of laughter by the stories I told, not attempting to overcome my brogue, but rather the contrary, as I found it amused my auditors. When the rum was passed round, of which each person had a certain quantum, the doctor sang out to the youngsters, including Tom Pim and me, “Hold fast! it’s a vara bad thing for you laddies, and I shall be having you all on the sick list before long if I allow you to take it. Pass the pernicious liquor along here.”Tom obeyed, and so did I, willingly enough, for I had tasted the stuff and thought it abominably nasty, but two or three of the other midshipmen hesitated, and some seemed inclined to revolt.“I call on you, Nettleship, as president of the mess, to interfere,” exclaimed the doctor. “What do these youngsters suppose I’m sent here for, but to watch over their morals and their health; and as I find it difficult in the one case to do my duty with the exactitude I desire, I shall take care not to neglect it in the other. There’s young Chaffey there, who has stowed away enough duff to kill a bull, and now he’s going to increase the evil by pouring this burning fiery liquid down his throat. Do you want to be in your grave, Jack? if not, be wise, and let the grog alone.”Chaffey, the fattest midshipman among us, looked somewhat alarmed, and quickly passed up the rum. I observed that the doctor kept it by his side, and having finished his own quantum, began to sip the portions he had forbidden the youngsters to drink. It was difficult to suppose that he was perfectly disinterested in his advice.Being in harbour, we sat much longer than usual. At last I asked Tom if he thought I could venture to go and look out for Larry.“Oh, yes; this is Liberty Hall,” he answered.I was going forward, when I heard my name called, and going to the spot from whence the voice came, I saw the first lieutenant standing before my chest, at which he cast a look of mingled indignation and contempt. By his side was a warrant officer, whom I heard addressed as Mr Bradawl, with a saw and chisel and hammer in hand.“Does this huge chest belong to you?” asked old Rough-and-Ready, as I came up.“Yes, sir,” I answered; “I’m rather proud of it.”“We shall see if you continue so,” he exclaimed. “Do you think we have room to stow away such a lumbering thing as this? Where’s the key?”I produced it.“Now tumble your things out.”“But please, sir, I haven’t room to pack them away. I have got this bundle, and that case, and those other things are all mine.”“Tumble them out!” cried the lieutenant, without attending to my expostulations.I obeyed. And the carpenter began sawing away at a line which old Rough-and-Ready had chalked out not far from the keyhole. Mr Bradawl had a pretty tough job of it, for the oak was hard. The lieutenant stood by, watching the proceeding with evident satisfaction. He was showing me that a first lieutenant was all-powerful on board ship. I watched this cruel curtailment of my chest with feelings of dismay.Having sawn it thus nearly in two, the carpenter knocked off the end of the part he had severed from the rest, and then hammered it on with several huge nails.“Now, youngster, pick out the most requisite articles, and send the others ashore, or overboard, or anywhere, so that they’re out of the ship,” exclaimed the first lieutenant; saying which he turned away to attend to some other duty, leaving me wondering how I should stow the things away. Tom Pim, who had seen what was going forward, came up to my assistance; and by putting the things in carefully, and stamping them down, layer after layer, we managed to stow away more than I had conceived possible.“I think I could find room for some of them in my chest, as we have been to sea for some time, and a good many of my own have been expended; and, I daresay, the other fellows will be equally ready to oblige you,” said Tom.I was delighted at the proposal, and hastened to accept it,—but I didn’t find it quite so easy to get them back again! Tom, however, soon smelt out the cake. At first he suggested that it would be safe in his chest, but Chaffey coming by, also discovered it; and though he was most anxious to take charge of it for me, Tom, knowing very well what would be its fate, insisted on its being carried into the berth. I need hardly say that by the end of tea-time it had disappeared.I had no difficulty in finding Larry, when I at length set forth in quest of him. The sound of his fiddle drew me to the spot, where, surrounded by a party of admiring shipmates, he was scraping away as happy as a prince. On catching sight of me, he sprang out of the circle.“Och, Misther Terence, I’m mighty glad to see you; but shure I didn’t know you at first in your new clothes. I hope you like coming to sea as much as myself. Shure it’s rare fun we’re having in this big ship; and is his honour the major gone home again?”I told him that I concluded such was the case, and how pleased I was to find that he liked his life on board,—though it didn’t occur to me at the time that not having as yet been put to perform any special duty, he fancied he was always to lead the idle life he had hitherto been enjoying. We were both of us doomed ere long to discover that things don’t always run smoothly at sea.
The morning came. My chest and my other strat things had been carried down in a cart to the river, where they were shipped on board a shore-boat. As we walked along following it, my uncle, after being silent for a minute, as if considering how he should address me, said: “You have got a new life before you, away from friends, among all sorts of characters,—some good, it may be, many bad or indifferent, but no one probably on whom you may rely. You will be placed in difficult, often in dangerous situations, when you’ll have only yourself, or Him who orders all things, to trust to. Be self-reliant; ever strive to do your duty; and don’t be after troubling yourself about the consequences. You will be engaged in scenes of warfare and bloodshed. I have taken part in many such, and I know their horrors. War is a stern necessity. May you never love it for itself; but when fighting, comport yourself like a man fearless of danger, while you avoid running your head needlessly into it. Be courteous and polite, slow to take offence,—especially when no offence is intended, as is the case in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred where quarrels occur. Remember that it always takes two to make a quarrel, and that the man who never gives offence will seldom get into one. Never grumble; be cheerful and obliging. Never insist on your own rights when those rights are not worth insisting on. Sacrifice your own feelings to those of others, and be ever ready to help a companion out of a difficulty. You may be surprised to hear me—an old soldier and an Irishman—talking in this way; but I give you the advice, because I have seen so many act differently, and, wrapped up in intense selfishness, become utterly regardless of others,—reaping the consequences by being disliked and neglected, and finally deserted by all who were their friends. There’s another point I must speak to you about, and it’s a matter which weighs greatly on my mind. Example, they say, is better than precept. Now your father has set you a mighty bad example, and so have many others who have come to the castle. Don’t follow it. You see the effect which his potations of rum shrub and whisky-toddy have produced on him. When I was on duty, or going on it, I never touched liquor; and no man ever lost his life from my carelessness, as I have seen the lives of many poor soldiers thrown away when their officers, being drunk, have led them into useless danger. So I say, Terence, keep clear of liquor. The habit of drinking grows on a man, and in my time I have seen it the ruin of many as fine young fellows as ever smelt powder.”
I thanked my uncle, and promised as far as I could to follow his excellent advice.
As we reached the water-side, my uncle stopped, and putting one hand on my shoulder and taking mine with the other, looked me kindly in the face.
“Fare thee well, Terence, my boy,” he said; “we may not again meet on earth, but wherever you go, an old man’s warmest affection follows you. Be afraid of nothing but doing wrong. If your life is spared, you’ll rise in the profession you have chosen, second only in my opinion to that of the army.”
I stepped into the boat, and the men shoved off. My uncle stood watching me as we descended the stream. Again and again he waved his hand, and I returned his salute. He was still standing there when a bend of the river shut him out from my sight. I was too much engaged with my thoughts to listen to what the boatmen said, and I suspect they thought me either too dull or too proud to talk to them. As we pulled up on the larboard side, thinking that I was now somebody, I shouted to some men I saw looking through the ports to come down and lift my chest on board, though how that was to be done was more than I could tell. A chorus of laughs was the reply.
Presently I heard a gruff voice say, “Send a whip down there, and have that big lumber chest, or whatever it is, up on deck.” My chest was quickly hauled up, and as quickly transferred by the orders of the lieutenant in charge of the watch below, before Mr Saunders’ eyes had fallen on it. I mounted the side in as dignified a way as I could, saluting the flag on reaching the deck, as my uncle had told me to do.
I had recognised Tom Pim, who was ready to receive me. “You must go to the first lieutenant,—he’s in the gun-room,—and say, ‘Come aboard, sir,’ and then when you’re dismissed make your way into the berth,” he said.
“But how am I to be after finding the gun-room; is it where the guns are kept?” I asked.
Tom laughed at my simplicity. “No; it’s where the gun-room officers, the lieutenants and master, the doctor, and purser, and lieutenant of marines, mess. They all mess together, as do the mates, and we the midshipmen, the second master and master’s assistant, the clerks and the assistant-surgeon.”
“And have you no ensign?” I asked.
“No; there are none in the marines, and so we have no soldiers in our berth,” he answered; “but let’s come along, I’ll show you the way, and then you’ll be in time for dinner.” We descended to the gun-room door, where Tom left me, bidding me go in and ask for the first lieutenant. I didn’t see him, but one of the other officers, of whom I made inquiries, pointed me to the first lieutenant’s cabin.
I knocked at the door. “Come in,” answered a gruff voice. I found the lieutenant with his shirt-sleeves tucked up, he having just completed his morning ablutions, an old stocking on one fist and a needle and thread in the other, engaged in darning it.
“Come on board, sir,” I said.
“Very well, youngster,” he answered; “I should scarcely have known you in your present proper uniform. There’s nothing like being particular as to dress. I’ll see about placing you in a watch. You’ll understand that you’re to try and do your duty to the best of your abilities.”
“Shure it’s what I hope to do, sir,” I answered briskly; “and I’m mighty glad you like my uniform.”
“I didn’t say I liked it, youngster,—I said it was proper according to the regulations. Turn round, let me see. There is room for growing, which a midshipman’s uniform should have. You’ll remember always to be neat and clean, and follow the example I try to set you youngsters.”
“Yes, sir,” I answered, my eyes falling on a huge patch which the lieutenant had on one of the knees of his trousers.
“Now you may go!” he said. “Understand that you’re not to quit the ship without my leave, and that you must master the rules and regulations of the service as soon as possible, for I can receive no excuse if you infringe them.”
Altogether I was pretty well satisfied with my interview with old Rough-and-Ready, and hurrying out of the gun-room I directed my course for the young gentlemen’s berth, as it was called, which was some way further forward on the starboard side. I intended, after making my appearance there, to go in search of Larry, but the mulatto steward and a boy came hurrying aft along the deck with steaming dishes, which they placed on the table, and I found that the dinner was about to commence.
“Glad to see you, Paddy,” said Jack Nettleship, who had already taken his place at the head of the table. “You look less like a play-actor’s apprentice and more like an embryo naval officer than you did when you first came on board. Now sit down and enjoy the good things of life while you can get them. Time will come when we shall have to luxuriate on salt junk as hard as a millstone and weevilly biscuits.”
Plenty of joking took place, and everybody seemed in good humour, so that I soon found myself fairly at my ease, and all I wanted to be perfectly so was to know the ways of the ship. I succeeded in producing several roars of laughter by the stories I told, not attempting to overcome my brogue, but rather the contrary, as I found it amused my auditors. When the rum was passed round, of which each person had a certain quantum, the doctor sang out to the youngsters, including Tom Pim and me, “Hold fast! it’s a vara bad thing for you laddies, and I shall be having you all on the sick list before long if I allow you to take it. Pass the pernicious liquor along here.”
Tom obeyed, and so did I, willingly enough, for I had tasted the stuff and thought it abominably nasty, but two or three of the other midshipmen hesitated, and some seemed inclined to revolt.
“I call on you, Nettleship, as president of the mess, to interfere,” exclaimed the doctor. “What do these youngsters suppose I’m sent here for, but to watch over their morals and their health; and as I find it difficult in the one case to do my duty with the exactitude I desire, I shall take care not to neglect it in the other. There’s young Chaffey there, who has stowed away enough duff to kill a bull, and now he’s going to increase the evil by pouring this burning fiery liquid down his throat. Do you want to be in your grave, Jack? if not, be wise, and let the grog alone.”
Chaffey, the fattest midshipman among us, looked somewhat alarmed, and quickly passed up the rum. I observed that the doctor kept it by his side, and having finished his own quantum, began to sip the portions he had forbidden the youngsters to drink. It was difficult to suppose that he was perfectly disinterested in his advice.
Being in harbour, we sat much longer than usual. At last I asked Tom if he thought I could venture to go and look out for Larry.
“Oh, yes; this is Liberty Hall,” he answered.
I was going forward, when I heard my name called, and going to the spot from whence the voice came, I saw the first lieutenant standing before my chest, at which he cast a look of mingled indignation and contempt. By his side was a warrant officer, whom I heard addressed as Mr Bradawl, with a saw and chisel and hammer in hand.
“Does this huge chest belong to you?” asked old Rough-and-Ready, as I came up.
“Yes, sir,” I answered; “I’m rather proud of it.”
“We shall see if you continue so,” he exclaimed. “Do you think we have room to stow away such a lumbering thing as this? Where’s the key?”
I produced it.
“Now tumble your things out.”
“But please, sir, I haven’t room to pack them away. I have got this bundle, and that case, and those other things are all mine.”
“Tumble them out!” cried the lieutenant, without attending to my expostulations.
I obeyed. And the carpenter began sawing away at a line which old Rough-and-Ready had chalked out not far from the keyhole. Mr Bradawl had a pretty tough job of it, for the oak was hard. The lieutenant stood by, watching the proceeding with evident satisfaction. He was showing me that a first lieutenant was all-powerful on board ship. I watched this cruel curtailment of my chest with feelings of dismay.
Having sawn it thus nearly in two, the carpenter knocked off the end of the part he had severed from the rest, and then hammered it on with several huge nails.
“Now, youngster, pick out the most requisite articles, and send the others ashore, or overboard, or anywhere, so that they’re out of the ship,” exclaimed the first lieutenant; saying which he turned away to attend to some other duty, leaving me wondering how I should stow the things away. Tom Pim, who had seen what was going forward, came up to my assistance; and by putting the things in carefully, and stamping them down, layer after layer, we managed to stow away more than I had conceived possible.
“I think I could find room for some of them in my chest, as we have been to sea for some time, and a good many of my own have been expended; and, I daresay, the other fellows will be equally ready to oblige you,” said Tom.
I was delighted at the proposal, and hastened to accept it,—but I didn’t find it quite so easy to get them back again! Tom, however, soon smelt out the cake. At first he suggested that it would be safe in his chest, but Chaffey coming by, also discovered it; and though he was most anxious to take charge of it for me, Tom, knowing very well what would be its fate, insisted on its being carried into the berth. I need hardly say that by the end of tea-time it had disappeared.
I had no difficulty in finding Larry, when I at length set forth in quest of him. The sound of his fiddle drew me to the spot, where, surrounded by a party of admiring shipmates, he was scraping away as happy as a prince. On catching sight of me, he sprang out of the circle.
“Och, Misther Terence, I’m mighty glad to see you; but shure I didn’t know you at first in your new clothes. I hope you like coming to sea as much as myself. Shure it’s rare fun we’re having in this big ship; and is his honour the major gone home again?”
I told him that I concluded such was the case, and how pleased I was to find that he liked his life on board,—though it didn’t occur to me at the time that not having as yet been put to perform any special duty, he fancied he was always to lead the idle life he had hitherto been enjoying. We were both of us doomed ere long to discover that things don’t always run smoothly at sea.
Chapter Seven.Mastheaded.The frigate was not yet ready for sea, and I had therefore time to pick up some scraps of nautical knowledge, to learn the ways of the ship, and to get a tolerable notion of my duties. I quickly mastered the rules and regulations of the service, a copy of which Jack Nettleship gave me.“Stick by them, my lad, and you can’t go wrong; if you do, it’s their fault, not yours,” he observed.“But suppose I don’t understand them?” I asked.“Then you can plead in justification that they are not sufficiently clear for an ordinary comprehension,” he answered. “I do when I make a mistake, and old Rough-and-Ready is always willing to receive my excuses, as he can’t spell them out very easily himself, though they are his constant study day and night. Indeed, I doubt if he reads anything else, except Norie’sNavigationand theNautical Almanack?”Nettleship showed me a copy of the former work, and kindly undertook to instruct me in the science of navigation. All day long, however, he was employed in the duties of the ship, and in the evening I was generally sleepy when it was our watch below, so that I didn’t make much progress. Though I got on very well, I was guilty, I must own, of not a few blunders. I was continually going aft when I intended to be going forward, andvice versa.The day after I came aboard I was skylarking with Tom Pim, Chaffey, and other midshipmites (as the oldsters called us), when I told them that I would hide, and that they might find me if they could. I ran up the after-ladder, when seeing a door open, I was going to bolt through it. Just then a marine, who was standing there, placed his musket to bar my way. Not wishing to be stopped, I dodged under it, turning round and saying—“Arrah, boy! don’t be after telling where I’m gone to.”The sentry, for such he was, not understanding me, seized hold of my collar.“You mustn’t be going in there, whoever you are,” he said in a gruff tone.“I’m a midshipman of this ship, and have a right to go wherever I like, I’m after thinking,” I said, trying to shake myself clear of his grasp. “Hush, now; be pleasant, will ye, and do as I order you!”“I shouldn’t be finding it very pleasant if I was to break through the rules and regulations of the service,” he answered. “Now go forward, young gentleman, and don’t be attempting to playing any of your tricks on me.”“I’m your officer, and I order you not to interfere with me, or say where I’m gone,” I exclaimed.“I obey no orders except from my own lieutenant or the captain and the lieutenants of the ship,” answered the sturdy marine. “You can’t go into the captain’s cabin while I’m standing here as sentry;” and he proceeded to use more force than was agreeable to my dignity.“Shure you’re an impudent fellow to behave so to an officer,” I exclaimed; at which the sentry laughed, and said—“Off with you, Master Jackanapes, and consider yourself fortunate that worse hasn’t come of your larking.”Trying to look dignified I answered—“You’re an impudent fellow, and I shall make known your conduct to your superiors. I know your name, my fine fellow, so you’ll not get off.” I had observed his name, as I thought, on his musket.Just then Tom Pim popped his head above the hatchway,and I, finding that I was discovered, made chase after him. He quickly distanced me; and as I was rushing blindly along, I ran my head right into the stomach of old Rough-and-Ready, who, as ill-luck would have it, was on his way round the lower deck. I nearly upset him, and completely upset myself.“Shure, sir, I never intended to behave so rudely,” I said, as, picking myself up, I discovered whom I had encountered.“Go to the masthead, and stay there till I call you down,” thundered the lieutenant, rubbing the part of his body I had assaulted.“Please, sir, I had no intention in the world of running against you,” I said, trying to look humble, but feeling much inclined to laugh at the comical expression of his countenance.“Look to the rules and regulations of the service, where all inferiors are ordered to pay implicit obedience to their superiors,” cried Mr Saunders. “To the masthead with you.”“If you please, sir, I should be happy to do that same if I knew the way; but I haven’t been up there yet, as the men have been painting the rigging with some black stuff, and I should be after spoiling my new uniform,” I answered.“Go to the masthead,” again shouted the first lieutenant; “and you, Pim, go and show him the way,” he exclaimed, catching sight of Tom Pim, who was grinning at me from the other side of the deck.Tom well knew that it was against the rules and regulations of the service to expostulate; therefore, saying, “Come along, Paddy,” he led the way on deck.“Do as I do,” he said, as he began to mount the rigging. “Just hold on with your hands and feet, and don’t let the rest of your body touch the rattlings or shrouds, and don’t be letting go with one hand till you have got fast hold with the other.”Up he went, and I followed. He was nimble as a monkey, so I had difficulty in keeping pace with him. Looking up, I saw him with his back almost horizontal above me, going along the futtock shrouds to get into the top. These are the shrouds which run from the side of the mast to the outer side of the top, and consequently a person going along them has his face to the sky and his back to the deck. Tom was over them in a moment, and out of sight. I didn’t like the look of things, but did my best; and though he stood ready to give me a helping hand into the top, I got round without assistance. We now had to ascend the topmost rigging to the cross-trees, where we were to stay till called down. This was a comparatively easy matter, and as I didn’t once cast my eyes below I felt no giddiness. Tom seated himself as if perfectly at home, and bade me cross my legs on the other side of the mast.“It’s lucky for you, Paddy, that you are able to gain your experience while the ship is in harbour and as steady as a church steeple. It would be a different matter if she were rolling away across the Bay of Biscay with a strong breeze right aft; so you ought to be duly thankful to old Saunders for mastheading you without waiting till we get there. And now I’d advise you to have a look at the rules and regulations of the service. It will please old Rough-and-Ready if you can tell him you have employed your time up here studying them, but don’t forget you are up here, and go tumbling down on deck.”I was very well disposed to follow Tom’s advice, and I held tight on with one hand while I pulled the paper out of my pocket and read a page or two relating to obedience to superiors. Having thus relieved my conscience, I took a look round at the beautiful panorama in the midst of which the ship floated: the wooded banks, the magnificent harbour dotted over with numerous vessels; ships of war and merchantmen,—the latter waiting for convoy,—while among the former was the admiral’s flag-ship riding proudly, surrounded by the smaller fry. The pretty town of Cove, with neat houses and villas on the one side, and the mouth of the river Lee, running down from Cork, to the westward.Sooner than we expected we heard old Rough-and-Ready’s voice summoning us down. He was not an ill-natured man. He knew well that my fault had been unintentional, and that Tom had certainly not deserved any punishment at all, for grinning at a brother midshipman in his presence could scarcely be considered disrespectful.“You may go through the lubber’s hole,” said Tom, when we reached the top.“No, no. If you go round, I’ll go to,” I answered. For being thus put on my mettle, I determined to do whatever he did. By holding fast with my feet and following him, I managed to put them on the rattlings underneath, and thus, though I didn’t like it at all, got down on to the main rigging.“Next time you run along the deck, youngster, you’ll look where you’re going,” said the first lieutenant, when I reached the deck.“Ay, ay, sir,” I said, touching my hat.“Did you read the rules and regulations?” he asked.“Yes, sir,” I answered; “though I hadn’t time to get through them all.”He was pleased with the respect I paid him.“Well, you’ll know them by heart soon; and to ensure that, remember to take them with you whenever you’re mastheaded.”“Of course, sir, if you wish it,” I answered.He gave a comical look at me under his bushy eyebrows, and turned on his heel.After this I accompanied Tom into the berth. Old Nettleship was there. I told him of the way the marine had behaved, and said that for the sake of keeping up the dignity of the midshipmen, I considered it necessary to make his conduct known, though I had no ill-feeling towards the man himself.At this remark the old mate burst into a hearty fit of laughter.“Midshipmen generally find it necessary to carry their dignity in their pockets; and I’d advise you, Paddy, to put yours there, though I approve of your spirit. The man will have been relieved some time ago, and you’ll find it difficult to recognise him among others.”“Oh! I know his name—it was Tower,” I said in a tone of confidence.At this there was a general roar of laughter.“According to your notion all the jollies are Towers,” cried Nettleship, when he regained his voice. “Why, Paddy, the muskets are all marked with the name of the Tower of London, where the arms are stored before they are served out.”“Shure how should I know anything about the Tower of London?” I asked. “I’m after thinking it’s a poor place compared with Castle Ballinahone.”This remark produced another roar of laughter from my messmates.“What are you after laughing at? I exclaimed. If any of you will honour us with a visit at Castle Ballinahone, you’ll be able to compare the two places, and my father and mother, and brothers and sisters, will be mighty plaised to see you.”The invitation was at once accepted by all hands, though for the present my family were pretty safe from the chances of an inundation of nautical heroes.“And what sort of girls are your sisters?” asked Sims, who, I had discovered, was always ready for some impudence.“Shure they’re Irish young ladies, and that’s all I intend to say about them,” I answered, giving him a look which made him hold his tongue.Still, in spite of the bantering I received, I got on wonderfully well with my new messmates; and though I had a fight now and then, I generally, being older than many of them, and stronger than others who had been some time at sea, came off victorious; and as I was always ready to befriend, and never bullied, my weaker messmates, I was on very good terms with all of them.Tom Pim took a liking to me from the first, and though he didn’t require my protection, I felt ready to afford it him on all occasions. He was sometimes quizzed by Sims and others for his small size. “I don’t mind it,” he answered. “Though I’m little, I’m good. If I’ve a chance, I’ll do something to show what’s in me.” The chance came sooner than he expected. There were a good many raw hands lately entered, Larry among others. From the first he showed no fear of going aloft, looking upon the business much as he would have done climbing a high tree; but how the ropes were rove, and what were their uses, he naturally had no conception. “Is it to the end of them long boughs there I’ve got to go, Misther Terence?” he asked the first time he was ordered aloft, looking up at the yards as he encountered me, I having been sent forward with an order to the third lieutenant.“There’s no doubt about it, Larry,” I said; “but take care you catch hold of one rope before you let go of the other,” said I, giving him the same advice which I had myself received.“Shure I’ll be after doing that same, Misther Terence,” he answered, as, following the example of the other men, he sprang into the rigging. I watched him going up as long as I could, and he seemed to be getting on capitally, exactly imitating the movements of the other men.A day or two afterwards we were all on deck, the men exercising in reefing and furling sails. The new hands were ordered to lay out on the yards, and a few of the older ones to show them what to do. Larry obeyed with alacrity; no one would have supposed that he had been only a few times before aloft. I had to return to the quarter-deck, where I was standing with Tom Pim, and we were remarking the activity displayed by the men. I saw Larry on the starboard fore-topsail yard-arm, and had just left Tom, being sent with a message to the gun-room, when, as my head was flush with the hatchway, I saw an object drop from the yard-arm into the water. It looked more like a large ball falling than a human being, and it didn’t occur to me that it was the latter until I heard the cry of “Man overboard!” Hastening up again, I sprang into the mizzen rigging, from which, just before I got there, Tom Pim had plunged off into the water. It was ebb tide, and a strong current was running out of the river Lee past the ship. The man who had fallen had not sunk, but was fast drifting astern, and seemed unconscious, for he was not struggling, lying like a log on the water. Tom Pim, with rapid strokes, was swimming after him. I heard the order given to lower a boat. Though not a great swimmer, I was about to follow Tom to try and help him, when a strong arm held me back.“Are you a good swimmer, youngster?” asked the first lieutenant, the person who had seized hold of me.“Not very,” I answered.“Then stay aboard, or we shall be having to pick you up instead of saving the man who fell overboard. I know Pim well; he’ll take care of himself.”Saying this, the lieutenant stepped in on deck again, taking me with him. While he superintended the lowering of the boat, I ran aft, and watched Tom and the drowning man. Just then I caught sight of the countenance of the latter, and to my dismay, I saw that he was no other than Larry Harrigan. The boats usually employed were away, and the one now lowered was not in general use, and consequently had in her all sorts of things which should not have been there. It appeared a long time before she was in the water. I watched my poor foster-brother with intense anxiety, expecting to see him go down before Tom could reach him. He was on the point of sinking when my gallant little messmate got up to him, and throwing himself on his back, placed Larry’s head on his own breast, so as completely to keep it out of the water. My fear was that Larry might come to himself and begin to struggle or get hold of Tom, which might be fatal to both. They were drifting farther and farther away from the ship. Tom had not uttered one cry for help, evidently being confident that the boat would be sent to pick them up. Every movement of his showed that he was calm, and knew perfectly what he was about. At length the boat was got into the water, the first lieutenant and four hands jumped into her, and away the men pulled as fast as they could lay their backs to the oars. It was blowing fresh, and there was a good deal of ripple in the harbour, so that the wavelets every now and then washed over Tom. Suddenly Larry, coming to himself, did what I feared; he seized hold of Tom, and in another instant would have dragged him down had not Tom dexterously got clear and held him up by the collar of his shirt. The boat was quickly up to them, and they were, to my intense satisfaction, safely hauled on board. She then rapidly pulled back to the ship, and both greatly exhausted, Larry being scarcely conscious, were lifted up on deck. McPherson, the assistant-surgeon, who had been summoned at once, ordered Tom to be taken below.“Never mind me,” said Tom. “I shall be all to rights presently, when I’ve changed and had a cup of grog. You’ll let me have that, won’t you, McPherson? And now you go and attend to the poor fellow who wants you more than I do.”“Vara true; he ought, from the way he fell, to have broken every bone in his body; and it’s wonderful he did not do it. He seems, indeed, not to be much the worse for his fall, except a slight paralysis,” he remarked when he had finished his examination. “Take him down to the sick bay, and I’ll treat him as he requires.”I first went below to thank Tom Pim for saving my follower, and to express my admiration of his courage and resolution.“Oh, it’s nothing,” he answered; “I can swim better than you, or you’d have done the same.”I then went forward, where I found Larry—his wet clothes stripped off—between the blankets, in a hammock.The doctor administered a stimulant, and directed that he should be rubbed on the side on which he had fallen.“Shure that’s a brave young gentleman to save me from going to the bottom, Misther Terence dear; and I’ll be mighty grateful to him as long as I live,” he said to me.Having spent some time with Larry, who was ordered to remain in his hammock, I returned to the midshipmen’s berth.All were loud in their praises of Tom. Tom received them very modestly, and said that though he felt very glad at being able to save the poor fellow, he didn’t see anything to be especially proud of in what he had done.By the next morning Larry was almost well, only complaining of a little stiffness in one side of the body.“He may thank his stars for being an Irishman,” said McPherson; “no ordinary mortal could have fallen from aloft as he did, into the water, without breaking his bones, or being stunned.”Larry could scarcely believe that it was little Tom Pim who had saved him from drowning.“Shure, young gintleman, I’ll be after lovin’ ye, and fightin’ for ye, and seein’ that no harm comes to ye, all the days of my life!” he exclaimed, the first time he met Tom afterwards on deck. “I’m mighty grateful to ye, sir, that I am.”I was very sure that Larry meant what he said, and, should opportunity offer, would carry out his intentions.We were seated talking in the berth after tea, when old Nettleship was sent for into the cabin. There were many surmises as to what the captain wanted him for. After some time, to my surprise, I was summoned. I found it was only Nettleship that wanted to see me on deck.“Paddy,” he said, “we are to have an expedition on shore, and you are wanted to take part in it, and so is your countryman, Larry Harrigan. The captain, Mr Saunders, and I have planned it. We want some more hands, and we hear that there are a goodish lot hiding away in the town. They are waiting till the men-of-war put to sea, when they think that they will be safe. They are in the hands of some cunning fellows, and it’ll be no easy matter to trap them unless we can manage to play them a trick. I can’t say that I like particularly doing what we propose, but we’re bound to sacrifice our own feelings for the good of the service.”“What is it?” I asked. “Of course I should be proud to be employed in anything for the good of the service.”“All right, Paddy; that’s the spirit which should animate you. Now listen. Mr Saunders and I are going on shore with a strong party of well-armed men, and we want you and the boy Harrigan—or rather, the captain wants you, for remember he gives the order—to go first and pretend that you have run away from a man-of-war, and want to be kept in hiding till she has sailed. You, of course, are to dress up as seamen in old clothes—the more disreputable and dirty you look the better. We know the houses where the men are stowed away, in the lowest slums of Cork, and we can direct you to them. You’re to get into the confidence of the men, and learn what they intend doing; when you’ve gained that, you’re to tell them that one of the lieutenants of your ship is going on shore with a small party of men, to try and press anybody he can find, and that you don’t think he knows much about the business, as he is a stupid Englishman, and advise them to lie snug where they are. Then either you or Harrigan can offer to creep out and try and ascertain in what direction the press-gang is going. There are several houses together, with passages leading from one to the other, so that if we get into one, the men are sure to bolt off into another; and it must be your business to see where they go, and Harrigan must shut the door to prevent their escape, or open it to let us in. I now only describe the outlines of our plan. I’ll give you more particulars as we pull up the river. We shall remain at Passage till after dark, and you and your companion in the meanwhile must make your way into the town.”“But shure won’t I be after telling a lie if I say that Larry and I are runaway ship-boys?” I asked.“Hush, that’s a strong expression. Remember that it’s all for the good of the service,” said Nettleship.Still I was not altogether satisfied that the part I was about to play was altogether an honourable one.He, however, argued the point with me, acknowledging that he himself didn’t think so, but that we were bound to put our private feelings into our pockets when the good of the service required it. He now told me to go and speak to Larry, but on no account to let any one hear me, lest the expedition might get wind among the bumboat women, who would be sure to convey it on shore.To my surprise, Larry was perfectly prepared to undertake the duty imposed on him, feeling flattered at being employed, and taking rather a pleasure at the thoughts of having to entrap some of our countrymen.“They may grumble a little at first, but they’ll be a mighty deal better off on board ship than digging praties, or sailing in one of those little craft out there,” he said, with a look of contempt at the merchant vessels.Mr Saunders took me into his cabin, and made me rig out in a suit of clothes supplied by the purser. I had to rub my hair about till it was like a mop; then, with some charcoal and a mixture of some sort, he daubed my face over in such a way that I didn’t know myself when I looked in his shaving-glass.“You’ll do, Paddy,” said Nettleship when he saw me. “We must be giving a touch or two to Harrigan. He seems a sharp fellow, and will play his part well, I have no doubt.”In a short time the boats were ready. We went with Mr Saunders and Nettleship in the pinnace. She was accompanied by the jolly-boat, which it was intended should convey Larry and me into the neighbourhood of the town. We were, however, not to go on board her until we reached Passage. The crew gave way, and as the tide was in our favour we got along rapidly. I found that the expedition we were engaged in was a hazardous one, especially for Larry and me; for should the men we were in search of discover who we were, they might treat us as spies, and either knock our brains out, or stow us away in some place from which we should not be likely to make our escape. This, however, rather enhanced the interest I began to feel in it, and recompensed me for its doubtful character.Neither Mr Saunders nor Nettleship looked in the slightest degree like officers of the Royal Navy. They were dressed in Flushing coats; the lieutenant in a battered old sou’-wester, with a red woollen comforter round his throat; Nettleship had on an equally ancient-looking tarpaulin, and both wore high-boots, long unacquainted with blacking. They carried stout cudgels in their hands, their hangers and pistols being concealed under their coats. In about an hour and a half we reached Passage, when Nettleship and Larry and I got into the jolly-boat.“I’m going with you,” said Nettleship, “that I may direct you to the scene of operations, and am to wait for Mr Saunders at the ‘Fox and Goose,’—a small public-house, the master of which knows our object and can be trusted.”Nettleship, as we pulled away, minutely described over and over again what Larry and I were to do, so that I thought there was no chance of our making any mistake, provided matters went as he expected. It was dark by the time we reached Cork. The boat pulled into the landing-place, and Larry and I, with two of the men, went ashore, and strolled lazily along a short distance, looking about us. This we did in case we should be observed; but on reaching the corner, Larry and I, as we had been directed, set off running, when the two men returned to the boat, which was to go to another landing-place a little way higher up, whence Nettleship and his party were to proceed to our rendezvous. When we had got a little distance we pulled up, and to be certain that we had made no mistake, we inquired the name of the street of a passer-by. We found that we were all right. We now proceeded stealthily along to the lane where Mother McCleary’s whisky-shop was situated. I had no difficulty in recognising the old woman, as she had been well described to me. Her stout slatternly figure, her bleared eyes, her grog-blossomed nose,—anything but a beauty to look at. Her proceedings were not beautiful either. Going to the end of the counter where she was standing, I tipped her a wink.“Hist, mither! Can yer be after taking care of two poor boys for a night or so?” I asked.“Where do yer come from?” she inquired, eyeing us.“Shure it’s from the say,” answered Larry, who had undertaken to be chief spokesman. “We’ve just run away from a thundering big king’s ship, and don’t want to go back again.”“Why for?” asked the old woman.“For fear of a big baste of a cat which may chance to score our backs, if she doesn’t treat us worse than that.”
The frigate was not yet ready for sea, and I had therefore time to pick up some scraps of nautical knowledge, to learn the ways of the ship, and to get a tolerable notion of my duties. I quickly mastered the rules and regulations of the service, a copy of which Jack Nettleship gave me.
“Stick by them, my lad, and you can’t go wrong; if you do, it’s their fault, not yours,” he observed.
“But suppose I don’t understand them?” I asked.
“Then you can plead in justification that they are not sufficiently clear for an ordinary comprehension,” he answered. “I do when I make a mistake, and old Rough-and-Ready is always willing to receive my excuses, as he can’t spell them out very easily himself, though they are his constant study day and night. Indeed, I doubt if he reads anything else, except Norie’sNavigationand theNautical Almanack?”
Nettleship showed me a copy of the former work, and kindly undertook to instruct me in the science of navigation. All day long, however, he was employed in the duties of the ship, and in the evening I was generally sleepy when it was our watch below, so that I didn’t make much progress. Though I got on very well, I was guilty, I must own, of not a few blunders. I was continually going aft when I intended to be going forward, andvice versa.
The day after I came aboard I was skylarking with Tom Pim, Chaffey, and other midshipmites (as the oldsters called us), when I told them that I would hide, and that they might find me if they could. I ran up the after-ladder, when seeing a door open, I was going to bolt through it. Just then a marine, who was standing there, placed his musket to bar my way. Not wishing to be stopped, I dodged under it, turning round and saying—
“Arrah, boy! don’t be after telling where I’m gone to.”
The sentry, for such he was, not understanding me, seized hold of my collar.
“You mustn’t be going in there, whoever you are,” he said in a gruff tone.
“I’m a midshipman of this ship, and have a right to go wherever I like, I’m after thinking,” I said, trying to shake myself clear of his grasp. “Hush, now; be pleasant, will ye, and do as I order you!”
“I shouldn’t be finding it very pleasant if I was to break through the rules and regulations of the service,” he answered. “Now go forward, young gentleman, and don’t be attempting to playing any of your tricks on me.”
“I’m your officer, and I order you not to interfere with me, or say where I’m gone,” I exclaimed.
“I obey no orders except from my own lieutenant or the captain and the lieutenants of the ship,” answered the sturdy marine. “You can’t go into the captain’s cabin while I’m standing here as sentry;” and he proceeded to use more force than was agreeable to my dignity.
“Shure you’re an impudent fellow to behave so to an officer,” I exclaimed; at which the sentry laughed, and said—
“Off with you, Master Jackanapes, and consider yourself fortunate that worse hasn’t come of your larking.”
Trying to look dignified I answered—
“You’re an impudent fellow, and I shall make known your conduct to your superiors. I know your name, my fine fellow, so you’ll not get off.” I had observed his name, as I thought, on his musket.
Just then Tom Pim popped his head above the hatchway,and I, finding that I was discovered, made chase after him. He quickly distanced me; and as I was rushing blindly along, I ran my head right into the stomach of old Rough-and-Ready, who, as ill-luck would have it, was on his way round the lower deck. I nearly upset him, and completely upset myself.
“Shure, sir, I never intended to behave so rudely,” I said, as, picking myself up, I discovered whom I had encountered.
“Go to the masthead, and stay there till I call you down,” thundered the lieutenant, rubbing the part of his body I had assaulted.
“Please, sir, I had no intention in the world of running against you,” I said, trying to look humble, but feeling much inclined to laugh at the comical expression of his countenance.
“Look to the rules and regulations of the service, where all inferiors are ordered to pay implicit obedience to their superiors,” cried Mr Saunders. “To the masthead with you.”
“If you please, sir, I should be happy to do that same if I knew the way; but I haven’t been up there yet, as the men have been painting the rigging with some black stuff, and I should be after spoiling my new uniform,” I answered.
“Go to the masthead,” again shouted the first lieutenant; “and you, Pim, go and show him the way,” he exclaimed, catching sight of Tom Pim, who was grinning at me from the other side of the deck.
Tom well knew that it was against the rules and regulations of the service to expostulate; therefore, saying, “Come along, Paddy,” he led the way on deck.
“Do as I do,” he said, as he began to mount the rigging. “Just hold on with your hands and feet, and don’t let the rest of your body touch the rattlings or shrouds, and don’t be letting go with one hand till you have got fast hold with the other.”
Up he went, and I followed. He was nimble as a monkey, so I had difficulty in keeping pace with him. Looking up, I saw him with his back almost horizontal above me, going along the futtock shrouds to get into the top. These are the shrouds which run from the side of the mast to the outer side of the top, and consequently a person going along them has his face to the sky and his back to the deck. Tom was over them in a moment, and out of sight. I didn’t like the look of things, but did my best; and though he stood ready to give me a helping hand into the top, I got round without assistance. We now had to ascend the topmost rigging to the cross-trees, where we were to stay till called down. This was a comparatively easy matter, and as I didn’t once cast my eyes below I felt no giddiness. Tom seated himself as if perfectly at home, and bade me cross my legs on the other side of the mast.
“It’s lucky for you, Paddy, that you are able to gain your experience while the ship is in harbour and as steady as a church steeple. It would be a different matter if she were rolling away across the Bay of Biscay with a strong breeze right aft; so you ought to be duly thankful to old Saunders for mastheading you without waiting till we get there. And now I’d advise you to have a look at the rules and regulations of the service. It will please old Rough-and-Ready if you can tell him you have employed your time up here studying them, but don’t forget you are up here, and go tumbling down on deck.”
I was very well disposed to follow Tom’s advice, and I held tight on with one hand while I pulled the paper out of my pocket and read a page or two relating to obedience to superiors. Having thus relieved my conscience, I took a look round at the beautiful panorama in the midst of which the ship floated: the wooded banks, the magnificent harbour dotted over with numerous vessels; ships of war and merchantmen,—the latter waiting for convoy,—while among the former was the admiral’s flag-ship riding proudly, surrounded by the smaller fry. The pretty town of Cove, with neat houses and villas on the one side, and the mouth of the river Lee, running down from Cork, to the westward.
Sooner than we expected we heard old Rough-and-Ready’s voice summoning us down. He was not an ill-natured man. He knew well that my fault had been unintentional, and that Tom had certainly not deserved any punishment at all, for grinning at a brother midshipman in his presence could scarcely be considered disrespectful.
“You may go through the lubber’s hole,” said Tom, when we reached the top.
“No, no. If you go round, I’ll go to,” I answered. For being thus put on my mettle, I determined to do whatever he did. By holding fast with my feet and following him, I managed to put them on the rattlings underneath, and thus, though I didn’t like it at all, got down on to the main rigging.
“Next time you run along the deck, youngster, you’ll look where you’re going,” said the first lieutenant, when I reached the deck.
“Ay, ay, sir,” I said, touching my hat.
“Did you read the rules and regulations?” he asked.
“Yes, sir,” I answered; “though I hadn’t time to get through them all.”
He was pleased with the respect I paid him.
“Well, you’ll know them by heart soon; and to ensure that, remember to take them with you whenever you’re mastheaded.”
“Of course, sir, if you wish it,” I answered.
He gave a comical look at me under his bushy eyebrows, and turned on his heel.
After this I accompanied Tom into the berth. Old Nettleship was there. I told him of the way the marine had behaved, and said that for the sake of keeping up the dignity of the midshipmen, I considered it necessary to make his conduct known, though I had no ill-feeling towards the man himself.
At this remark the old mate burst into a hearty fit of laughter.
“Midshipmen generally find it necessary to carry their dignity in their pockets; and I’d advise you, Paddy, to put yours there, though I approve of your spirit. The man will have been relieved some time ago, and you’ll find it difficult to recognise him among others.”
“Oh! I know his name—it was Tower,” I said in a tone of confidence.
At this there was a general roar of laughter.
“According to your notion all the jollies are Towers,” cried Nettleship, when he regained his voice. “Why, Paddy, the muskets are all marked with the name of the Tower of London, where the arms are stored before they are served out.”
“Shure how should I know anything about the Tower of London?” I asked. “I’m after thinking it’s a poor place compared with Castle Ballinahone.”
This remark produced another roar of laughter from my messmates.
“What are you after laughing at? I exclaimed. If any of you will honour us with a visit at Castle Ballinahone, you’ll be able to compare the two places, and my father and mother, and brothers and sisters, will be mighty plaised to see you.”
The invitation was at once accepted by all hands, though for the present my family were pretty safe from the chances of an inundation of nautical heroes.
“And what sort of girls are your sisters?” asked Sims, who, I had discovered, was always ready for some impudence.
“Shure they’re Irish young ladies, and that’s all I intend to say about them,” I answered, giving him a look which made him hold his tongue.
Still, in spite of the bantering I received, I got on wonderfully well with my new messmates; and though I had a fight now and then, I generally, being older than many of them, and stronger than others who had been some time at sea, came off victorious; and as I was always ready to befriend, and never bullied, my weaker messmates, I was on very good terms with all of them.
Tom Pim took a liking to me from the first, and though he didn’t require my protection, I felt ready to afford it him on all occasions. He was sometimes quizzed by Sims and others for his small size. “I don’t mind it,” he answered. “Though I’m little, I’m good. If I’ve a chance, I’ll do something to show what’s in me.” The chance came sooner than he expected. There were a good many raw hands lately entered, Larry among others. From the first he showed no fear of going aloft, looking upon the business much as he would have done climbing a high tree; but how the ropes were rove, and what were their uses, he naturally had no conception. “Is it to the end of them long boughs there I’ve got to go, Misther Terence?” he asked the first time he was ordered aloft, looking up at the yards as he encountered me, I having been sent forward with an order to the third lieutenant.
“There’s no doubt about it, Larry,” I said; “but take care you catch hold of one rope before you let go of the other,” said I, giving him the same advice which I had myself received.
“Shure I’ll be after doing that same, Misther Terence,” he answered, as, following the example of the other men, he sprang into the rigging. I watched him going up as long as I could, and he seemed to be getting on capitally, exactly imitating the movements of the other men.
A day or two afterwards we were all on deck, the men exercising in reefing and furling sails. The new hands were ordered to lay out on the yards, and a few of the older ones to show them what to do. Larry obeyed with alacrity; no one would have supposed that he had been only a few times before aloft. I had to return to the quarter-deck, where I was standing with Tom Pim, and we were remarking the activity displayed by the men. I saw Larry on the starboard fore-topsail yard-arm, and had just left Tom, being sent with a message to the gun-room, when, as my head was flush with the hatchway, I saw an object drop from the yard-arm into the water. It looked more like a large ball falling than a human being, and it didn’t occur to me that it was the latter until I heard the cry of “Man overboard!” Hastening up again, I sprang into the mizzen rigging, from which, just before I got there, Tom Pim had plunged off into the water. It was ebb tide, and a strong current was running out of the river Lee past the ship. The man who had fallen had not sunk, but was fast drifting astern, and seemed unconscious, for he was not struggling, lying like a log on the water. Tom Pim, with rapid strokes, was swimming after him. I heard the order given to lower a boat. Though not a great swimmer, I was about to follow Tom to try and help him, when a strong arm held me back.
“Are you a good swimmer, youngster?” asked the first lieutenant, the person who had seized hold of me.
“Not very,” I answered.
“Then stay aboard, or we shall be having to pick you up instead of saving the man who fell overboard. I know Pim well; he’ll take care of himself.”
Saying this, the lieutenant stepped in on deck again, taking me with him. While he superintended the lowering of the boat, I ran aft, and watched Tom and the drowning man. Just then I caught sight of the countenance of the latter, and to my dismay, I saw that he was no other than Larry Harrigan. The boats usually employed were away, and the one now lowered was not in general use, and consequently had in her all sorts of things which should not have been there. It appeared a long time before she was in the water. I watched my poor foster-brother with intense anxiety, expecting to see him go down before Tom could reach him. He was on the point of sinking when my gallant little messmate got up to him, and throwing himself on his back, placed Larry’s head on his own breast, so as completely to keep it out of the water. My fear was that Larry might come to himself and begin to struggle or get hold of Tom, which might be fatal to both. They were drifting farther and farther away from the ship. Tom had not uttered one cry for help, evidently being confident that the boat would be sent to pick them up. Every movement of his showed that he was calm, and knew perfectly what he was about. At length the boat was got into the water, the first lieutenant and four hands jumped into her, and away the men pulled as fast as they could lay their backs to the oars. It was blowing fresh, and there was a good deal of ripple in the harbour, so that the wavelets every now and then washed over Tom. Suddenly Larry, coming to himself, did what I feared; he seized hold of Tom, and in another instant would have dragged him down had not Tom dexterously got clear and held him up by the collar of his shirt. The boat was quickly up to them, and they were, to my intense satisfaction, safely hauled on board. She then rapidly pulled back to the ship, and both greatly exhausted, Larry being scarcely conscious, were lifted up on deck. McPherson, the assistant-surgeon, who had been summoned at once, ordered Tom to be taken below.
“Never mind me,” said Tom. “I shall be all to rights presently, when I’ve changed and had a cup of grog. You’ll let me have that, won’t you, McPherson? And now you go and attend to the poor fellow who wants you more than I do.”
“Vara true; he ought, from the way he fell, to have broken every bone in his body; and it’s wonderful he did not do it. He seems, indeed, not to be much the worse for his fall, except a slight paralysis,” he remarked when he had finished his examination. “Take him down to the sick bay, and I’ll treat him as he requires.”
I first went below to thank Tom Pim for saving my follower, and to express my admiration of his courage and resolution.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” he answered; “I can swim better than you, or you’d have done the same.”
I then went forward, where I found Larry—his wet clothes stripped off—between the blankets, in a hammock.
The doctor administered a stimulant, and directed that he should be rubbed on the side on which he had fallen.
“Shure that’s a brave young gentleman to save me from going to the bottom, Misther Terence dear; and I’ll be mighty grateful to him as long as I live,” he said to me.
Having spent some time with Larry, who was ordered to remain in his hammock, I returned to the midshipmen’s berth.
All were loud in their praises of Tom. Tom received them very modestly, and said that though he felt very glad at being able to save the poor fellow, he didn’t see anything to be especially proud of in what he had done.
By the next morning Larry was almost well, only complaining of a little stiffness in one side of the body.
“He may thank his stars for being an Irishman,” said McPherson; “no ordinary mortal could have fallen from aloft as he did, into the water, without breaking his bones, or being stunned.”
Larry could scarcely believe that it was little Tom Pim who had saved him from drowning.
“Shure, young gintleman, I’ll be after lovin’ ye, and fightin’ for ye, and seein’ that no harm comes to ye, all the days of my life!” he exclaimed, the first time he met Tom afterwards on deck. “I’m mighty grateful to ye, sir, that I am.”
I was very sure that Larry meant what he said, and, should opportunity offer, would carry out his intentions.
We were seated talking in the berth after tea, when old Nettleship was sent for into the cabin. There were many surmises as to what the captain wanted him for. After some time, to my surprise, I was summoned. I found it was only Nettleship that wanted to see me on deck.
“Paddy,” he said, “we are to have an expedition on shore, and you are wanted to take part in it, and so is your countryman, Larry Harrigan. The captain, Mr Saunders, and I have planned it. We want some more hands, and we hear that there are a goodish lot hiding away in the town. They are waiting till the men-of-war put to sea, when they think that they will be safe. They are in the hands of some cunning fellows, and it’ll be no easy matter to trap them unless we can manage to play them a trick. I can’t say that I like particularly doing what we propose, but we’re bound to sacrifice our own feelings for the good of the service.”
“What is it?” I asked. “Of course I should be proud to be employed in anything for the good of the service.”
“All right, Paddy; that’s the spirit which should animate you. Now listen. Mr Saunders and I are going on shore with a strong party of well-armed men, and we want you and the boy Harrigan—or rather, the captain wants you, for remember he gives the order—to go first and pretend that you have run away from a man-of-war, and want to be kept in hiding till she has sailed. You, of course, are to dress up as seamen in old clothes—the more disreputable and dirty you look the better. We know the houses where the men are stowed away, in the lowest slums of Cork, and we can direct you to them. You’re to get into the confidence of the men, and learn what they intend doing; when you’ve gained that, you’re to tell them that one of the lieutenants of your ship is going on shore with a small party of men, to try and press anybody he can find, and that you don’t think he knows much about the business, as he is a stupid Englishman, and advise them to lie snug where they are. Then either you or Harrigan can offer to creep out and try and ascertain in what direction the press-gang is going. There are several houses together, with passages leading from one to the other, so that if we get into one, the men are sure to bolt off into another; and it must be your business to see where they go, and Harrigan must shut the door to prevent their escape, or open it to let us in. I now only describe the outlines of our plan. I’ll give you more particulars as we pull up the river. We shall remain at Passage till after dark, and you and your companion in the meanwhile must make your way into the town.”
“But shure won’t I be after telling a lie if I say that Larry and I are runaway ship-boys?” I asked.
“Hush, that’s a strong expression. Remember that it’s all for the good of the service,” said Nettleship.
Still I was not altogether satisfied that the part I was about to play was altogether an honourable one.
He, however, argued the point with me, acknowledging that he himself didn’t think so, but that we were bound to put our private feelings into our pockets when the good of the service required it. He now told me to go and speak to Larry, but on no account to let any one hear me, lest the expedition might get wind among the bumboat women, who would be sure to convey it on shore.
To my surprise, Larry was perfectly prepared to undertake the duty imposed on him, feeling flattered at being employed, and taking rather a pleasure at the thoughts of having to entrap some of our countrymen.
“They may grumble a little at first, but they’ll be a mighty deal better off on board ship than digging praties, or sailing in one of those little craft out there,” he said, with a look of contempt at the merchant vessels.
Mr Saunders took me into his cabin, and made me rig out in a suit of clothes supplied by the purser. I had to rub my hair about till it was like a mop; then, with some charcoal and a mixture of some sort, he daubed my face over in such a way that I didn’t know myself when I looked in his shaving-glass.
“You’ll do, Paddy,” said Nettleship when he saw me. “We must be giving a touch or two to Harrigan. He seems a sharp fellow, and will play his part well, I have no doubt.”
In a short time the boats were ready. We went with Mr Saunders and Nettleship in the pinnace. She was accompanied by the jolly-boat, which it was intended should convey Larry and me into the neighbourhood of the town. We were, however, not to go on board her until we reached Passage. The crew gave way, and as the tide was in our favour we got along rapidly. I found that the expedition we were engaged in was a hazardous one, especially for Larry and me; for should the men we were in search of discover who we were, they might treat us as spies, and either knock our brains out, or stow us away in some place from which we should not be likely to make our escape. This, however, rather enhanced the interest I began to feel in it, and recompensed me for its doubtful character.
Neither Mr Saunders nor Nettleship looked in the slightest degree like officers of the Royal Navy. They were dressed in Flushing coats; the lieutenant in a battered old sou’-wester, with a red woollen comforter round his throat; Nettleship had on an equally ancient-looking tarpaulin, and both wore high-boots, long unacquainted with blacking. They carried stout cudgels in their hands, their hangers and pistols being concealed under their coats. In about an hour and a half we reached Passage, when Nettleship and Larry and I got into the jolly-boat.
“I’m going with you,” said Nettleship, “that I may direct you to the scene of operations, and am to wait for Mr Saunders at the ‘Fox and Goose,’—a small public-house, the master of which knows our object and can be trusted.”
Nettleship, as we pulled away, minutely described over and over again what Larry and I were to do, so that I thought there was no chance of our making any mistake, provided matters went as he expected. It was dark by the time we reached Cork. The boat pulled into the landing-place, and Larry and I, with two of the men, went ashore, and strolled lazily along a short distance, looking about us. This we did in case we should be observed; but on reaching the corner, Larry and I, as we had been directed, set off running, when the two men returned to the boat, which was to go to another landing-place a little way higher up, whence Nettleship and his party were to proceed to our rendezvous. When we had got a little distance we pulled up, and to be certain that we had made no mistake, we inquired the name of the street of a passer-by. We found that we were all right. We now proceeded stealthily along to the lane where Mother McCleary’s whisky-shop was situated. I had no difficulty in recognising the old woman, as she had been well described to me. Her stout slatternly figure, her bleared eyes, her grog-blossomed nose,—anything but a beauty to look at. Her proceedings were not beautiful either. Going to the end of the counter where she was standing, I tipped her a wink.
“Hist, mither! Can yer be after taking care of two poor boys for a night or so?” I asked.
“Where do yer come from?” she inquired, eyeing us.
“Shure it’s from the say,” answered Larry, who had undertaken to be chief spokesman. “We’ve just run away from a thundering big king’s ship, and don’t want to go back again.”
“Why for?” asked the old woman.
“For fear of a big baste of a cat which may chance to score our backs, if she doesn’t treat us worse than that.”