LONDON:B. C. BARRETT, ROUPELL STREET, BLACKFRIARS.
LONDON:B. C. BARRETT, ROUPELL STREET, BLACKFRIARS.
THE SAILOR HERO;OR,THE FRIGATE AND THE LUGGER.CHAPTER I.
THE SAILOR HERO;OR,THE FRIGATE AND THE LUGGER.
The war with France had just commenced. Vice-Admiral Lord Hood hoisted his flag on board the Victory, of one hundred guns; and, with the English fleet under his command, sailed from Spithead.
Amongst the many midshipmen on board the Victory, were two youths, who will occupy prominent places in our story;—one, William Thornton, our intended hero, was at this period between sixteen and seventeen years of age, and was known on board the Victory as the Admiral’sprotégé. He was a high-spirited and generous youth, and had, thus early in life, distinguished himself on several occasions, and was a general favourite; but all that was known of his parentage was, that his supposed father had been formerly Lord Hood’s favourite coxswain, and that the Admiral had taken him on board the Victory as one of his midshipmen. Henry Howard Etherton, the other, the younger son of a wealthy baronet, was nearly two years older than William Thornton, but unlike him in every respect, except, perhaps, in personal appearance. He was well-looking, tall, and of gentlemanly manners; he had served two years in another ship, had been four years the schoolfellow of William Thornton; and when he left the school, which he did before William, it was with a feeling of bitter hatred against his schoolfellow, and for no better reason than that he excelled him in mental acquirements, and bodily exercises.
The meeting of the two youths on board the Victory was a surprise to both.
William Thornton was, as we have said, a general favourite, but especially with a fine young fellow, named Saunders, a top-man, whose life he had saved under very trying circumstances.
Howard Etherton took especial care to circulate all he knew of young Thornton’s antecedents. He stated that he passed at school as the son of Lord Hood’s coxswain; but it was doubtful whose son he was; some one had paid his schooling and other expenses munificently, but that it was too bad to have as a comrade in the midshipmen’s berth one of so doubtful, or at all events, of so low an origin.
Only some of Howard’s cronies and toadies listened to these spiteful stories; the officers, perhaps, heard, but gave no heed to them, for the young midshipman was a noble-looking boy, singularly powerful and tall for his age.
One day nearly all the midshipmen happened to be assembled together in their berth, when one of their number, a stout youth of eighteen, who was noted for his envious disposition, took up a large book, like an account book, saying—
“Gentlemen, I wish to ask your attention for a moment.”
Then, turning to William Thornton, he continued, with a serious countenance:—
“In this book, Master Thornton, we enter the names of our fathers and mothers, as well as of our sisters, provided we have any. Now, ours are all down; pray oblige me with your father’s name, and also your mother’s maiden name, if you remember such a personage.”
William Thornton fixed his dark, expressive eyes upon the speaker with a most unmitigated expression of contempt; but with perfect self-control, said,—
“You cannot suppose, Master Joshua Dykes, that I am quite so green as to listen seriously to your nonsense. You have been put up to this intended insult by Howard Etherton, who knows remarkably well that I have the misfortune not to know who my parents were; therefore you are weak and silly enough to get this trash up for the express purpose of provoking me; but——”
“Oh, by St. Peter’s toe! and that’s a brass one,” exclaimed a loud, manly voice, the speaker at the moment entering the midshipmen’s berth, “give us your hand, William; I’ll be your father and mother, and, faith, your grand-mother too, if you’re in want of one; you’re a broth of a boy, and have shown us what pluck and heart can do. Now, if any of these sky-larking lubbers bother you again with their balderdash, by the powers of Moll Kelly, I’ll tache them better manners. Hark ye, my lads! my name, as you all know, is Patrick O’Loughlin, and, as far as I know, I never had a father or mother; but look at this (and clenching his hand, he tucked up his sleeve, and stretched out an arm capable of felling an ox); there, this has been my father and mother, and, faith, a whole host of relations beside; it has made me thirdlieutenant of the Victory; and that’s what I call being a father and mother. Now if any of you want to be better acquainted with William Thornton’s father and mother, he can show you just such another fist and arm, and is quite willing to give you a taste of it, to establish his parentage; and now, William, come with me; I want to have half-an-hour’s chat with you.”
Most of the mids burst into a hearty laugh, taking the Lieutenant’s words good-humouredly, for he was greatly loved by all the officers and crew of the ship. Howard Etherton and two others, his special cronies, sneered, though they evidently did not admire Lieutenant O’Loughlin’s father and mother.
William Thornton and Lieutenant O’Loughlin sat down in the latter’s berth, with a bottle of light wine and some biscuits before them.
“Now tell me, William,” said the kind-hearted Lieutenant, “all you know about yourself. You promised to tell me. We have an idle hour now—to-morrow may see us in action.”
“Most willingly, dear friend,” replied our hero. “I have no desire to conceal any part of my history, and least of all from you; so now listen to a very short yarn, and then you will know as much as I do myself.
“I was reared in a cottage at Deal, by one of the kindest and most generous of men, and whom I honour and love as a fond father. He was once coxswain to Lord Hood, but, having lost a leg and an arm in the service, now lives upon a pension. Shortly after his retirement, he was left a comfortable annuity, and persuaded a sister of his—a widow in poor circumstances—to live with him, purchased a pretty cottage on the sea-coast near Walmer, where I grew up till I was eight years old.
“I was then sent to one of the best seminaries in the county, where I first met Howard Etherton. I remained at school till I was fourteen years old, when I returned to my supposed father’s cottage. He told me I was going to serve His Majesty as a midshipman. I was delighted. One evening the old tar, who was never so happy as when relating sea-yarns, said, ‘Bill, my lad, I’ll spin you a yarn; mix my grog—there, you’re bountiful with the water—sit quiet and listen, for it consarns you.
“‘I was aboard the Quebec, 36-gun frigate,’ began the old tar, ‘commanded by as brave a fellow as ever trod a deck. We were cruising off Ushant, with the Rambler cutter in company. It was the month of October, in the year 177—, we fell in with a large frigate to the sou-west of Ushant, and she had a smart cutter cruising in company. Well, we were soon hammering away at it, and kept it up for three mortal hours. Our decks were slippery with blood, our masts all gone, and our sails, lying over the guns, caught fire, and soonafter we blew up, with our colours flying, and—the Lord be merciful to us!—our captain, and most of our crew were hurled into the air.
“‘I can’t say how I got out of her; all I remember is that I found myself struggling in the water amid a mass of rigging and spars. I was finally picked up and carried on board the French frigate Surveillante, where I found several of my shipmates. We were treated with the greatest kindness, by order of the dying commander, who also desired that we should be put aboard the first neutral vessel they came across, for we had fought gallantly and nobly, and it was not our fault that the ship blew up.
“‘The French frigate had suffered awfully; her masts, sails, and rigging were cut to pieces, and her crew half killed and wounded. We were permitted to walk about the deck. I could speak a little of their lingo, and some of them spoke ours.
“‘One morning I saw a little boy, not much more than two years old, toddling about the ship’s deck, and, to my surprise, I heard him speak some words in English to one of the men.
“‘“You may parley-vous to that little chap in your own language,” said one of the sailors, seeing me caress the child—for I was always soft-hearted, and the child took to me at once. “How did he come here?” asked I.
“‘“Why,’ said the Frenchman, “about ten days before we fought your frigate, in a heavy gale we ran down a ship in the night; we put out our boats, though it did blow a treble-reefed-topsail breeze, but all we could see was the long boat, and all that we found inside of it was that child, wrapped up in a heap of blankets. The poor little thing was half dead with wet and cold.” That’s all I could learn, but the man said, and I could see it, “that the child was sure to be a gentleman’s son, his little garments were so costly and handsome.”
“Well, after a time jury-masts were rigged and we made way; but a gale drove the frigate ashore on Gros Point, to the lee of Isle Dieu. A scene of terrible confusion ensued, in the midst of which, I, with eight comrades, got off in one of the boats. I took the child with me, for I loved it, and it was English. The next day we were picked up by the ——, 74, commanded by Rear-Admiral Hood, who was proceeding to join the fleet under Admiral Rodney. We were all glad, of course, to join that ship, and be under so gallant and brave a seaman.
“‘The child became the pet of the ship, he throve like a young bantam, and crowed like one whenever he heard a gun fired.
“‘The admiral called me to the quarter-deck, and desired me to say how I came by the child, and I did so. Before I leftthe ship I became his coxswain, and, to finish my yarn,’ said Bill Thornton, finishing his grog, ‘I now tell you you are the child so strangely found on board the Surveillante.’
“You may imagine my emotion, O’Loughlin, when I heard this, and how I blessed and caressed the dear old man for the love he had bestowed upon me.
“Now this is all I have to tell you, dear friend; I went to sea shortly after in the —— frigate as midshipman, and in the course of two years was appointed to this ship through the interest Bill Thornton had with his old commander. The admiral knows I am the same child that used to toddle about the quarter-deck of the —— 74, when he commanded her, and thus probably feels an interest for me from the peculiarity of my introduction on board his ship, and his esteem for his old and favourite coxswain.”
“Here’s your health, my lad,” said the Lieutenant, tossing down a full glass, “and here’s my hand; I’ll be a second father to you. I’m five-and-twenty, and upon my conscience it appears to me I have lived fifty years, or I was in some other person’s skin before I got sewed up in this, I’ve been so knocked about in this world. We are in a glorious service, and if we have luck, why, by St. Patrick, we may advance to be admirals by the time we get to seventy!”