Thirty Years from Home; or, a Voice from the main deck ... With notes by Ebenezer Collins

Front matter

BEASLEY COLLECTION. THIRTY YEARS FROM HOME; OR A VOICE FROM THE MAIN DECK, BEING SIX YEARS IN A MAN-OF-WAR. THE EXPERIENCE Or SAMUEL LEECH, WHO WAS FOR SIX YEARS IN THE BRITISH AND AMERICAN NAVIES WAS CAPTURED IN THE BRITISH FRIGATE MACEDONIAN ; AFTERWARDS ENTERED THE AMERICAN NAVY, AND WAS TAKEN IN THE UNITED STATES BRIG SYREN, BY THE BRITISH SHIP MEDWAY. WITH NOTES, EBENEZER COLLINS, LATE OF THE BRAZILIAN NAVY UNDER LORD COCHRANE. LONDON: JOHN NEALE, 25, TAVISTOCK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. MDCCCXLIV. PHINTED BY W. LAKE, 170, FLEET STHEET, LONUON.

Preface

. I have often been solicited, by my personal friends, to commit tbe incidents of my life to paper. It was thought that they contained sufficient interest to command public attention. At any rate, there is a novelty in the fact, of an unlettered sailor's appearance before the public, detailing the secrets of the naval Main Deck. The Quarter Deck has long and often told its own story, and has given its own colouring to naval life. Here, however, is a voice from the main deck, revealing life in a man of-war as it appears to the sailor him self. As such, this work bas some claim on the attention of the public. I have endeavoured to state facts as they were when I was a sailor, and in the ships to wliich I belonged. My object is to give a true picture. That I have done, as far as a remarkably strong memory enabled me.

I kept no journals, and consequently some slight mistakes in names, dates and places, may be found in my book ; but I have heen careful to state nothing as facts, of which I was not certain. Tbat the naval service has improved since I belonged to it, is, 1 believe uni versally admitted. I rejoice at it. Still, it is not yet what it should be. If this work should, in any degree, stir up the public mind to amend the condition of seamen, I shall feel gratified, and fully repaid for the labour of placing these facts on record. With many prayers that the perusal of these pages may do good, I leave the reader to pursue his way along the track of my experience : assuring him, that what may afford him pleasure to read, has cost me much pain to suffer. Samuel Leech. RECOMMENDATIONS. From the Hon. Erastus Corning.

Albany, December 3, 18<1_. To WHOM IT MAY CONCERN : 1 have known and have had inter course with Mr. Samuel Leech, for the last twenty years, and have always found him honourable in his dealings, and consider him entitled to the confidence of the public as a man of 6trict in tegrity. ERASTUS CORNING'. The undersigned, being acquainted with Mr. Samuel Leech, the author of the following work, do cheerfully vouch for his moral and Christian character ; and assure the public, that the interesting volume, which he here presents to the world, may be relied upon as an honest statement of facts, with which the writer was personally conversant ; and as having no fellowship whatever with those fictitious tales of the sea, which, under the garb and professions of truth, have been proffered to the reading community.

CHARLES ADAMS, Principal Wes. Academy. JOHN BOWERS Pastor Cong. Church, Wilbraham, Mass. Wilbraham, May 1,1843. DAVID PATTEN, Pastor, Providence, R. I. REUBEN RANSOM, P. Elder, Springfield Dis. N. E. C HENRY CHASE, Preaclier to Seamen, N. Y. ii CONTENTS.

Chapter I

The author's father — An unlucky fall — Dying expressions of his father — Change in his condition — Early predilection for the sea — An orphan's fate — A cross aunt — A child's home — A sailor cousin — Visit to London — Removal to Bladen — Home — A sailor's frolics — A kind father-in-law — Bladen village — Its moral character — Lent — Bladen feast —Discontent — The old soldier's influence — Other influences — Visit to Lord Fitzroy — High hopes — Agreeable news — Preparation — Departure from Bladen.

Chapter II

Visit to Wanstead — Gravesend — Goes on board the Macedonian — Internal arrangements of a ship of war — Top-men — Forecastle men — After-guard, waisters — Scavengers — Boys - — Wardroom officers and servants — Watches described — Idlers - — The guns — Quarters — Duties of marines — Boarders — Difference between a merchant ship and a man-of-war — The boatswain — Piping the hands up, described — The rope's-end argument — Anecdote of Billy Garvy — A wise determination — Bill of fare in a man-of-war — Grog — Wine — A sailor's burial — The Macedonian gets under weigh — Arrival at Spithead — Flogging for drunkenness — The scene described — Honourable exceptions — Mr. Scott and the marine — Two boys run away — We take troops on board and sail for Lisbon — Sea-sickness— Land — The Tagus — Arrival at Lisbon — The city described — Supply of edibles — An order — A cruise to Corunna A desertion — Our return to Lisbon — The victim of jealousy — Affray — Shocking sight — Change of officers — Increase of floggings — Poor Bob Hammond — A flogging scene — Flogging through the fleet — Bad effects of severe discipline — Murder of a marine — Execution — Advantage of mild discipline — Drunkenness — Christmas-day on board the Macedonian — Improvement among seamen desirable.

Chapter III

An alarm — A bootless cruise — Wreck — Quarrel between tho captain and sailing-master — Its result — Change of commanders — -Mr. Hope and the boys — Our men desert — Bloody Dick — Happy Jack — Attempted suicide — - A negro runs away and is retaken — Good Friday in Lisbon— A perplexity on shore — Narrow escape from being flogged — The press-gang — Several Americans impressed — Another cruise — A terrible storm — Loss of a man — The author's sickness — Black Tom's death and burial — Another bare escape from flogging — Another change of commanders — Severity of Captain Carden's administration—- A brutal sentence on an alleged thief — A man flogged through the fleet — Our drummer demands a court-martial — Its unpleasant termination — A question — Danger of attempting mutiny — Change in mj situation — The captain's band — Order for a new cruise.

Chapter IV

A man overboard — A false alarm — Arrive at Madeira — Cruise to St. Michael's — Birth of two children — Return to Lisbon — Short cruises whyliked — Bob Hammond in trouble again — Jack Sadler attempts to desert — Sadler and Hammond placed in irons — Bob's defence — The Broomers — Bob Hammond rnns away — Rumour of war with America — The Macedonian sails with despatches to America — Sufferings through cold — Anecdote of a tyrannical lieutenant — Reach Hampton Roads — Good fare — Refusal to let the crew go ashore — Reason — Exchange of courtesies between Captain Carden and Commodore Decatur — The Leopard and the Chesapeake — Departure from Virginia— At Lisbon — The mail-bag — Advantage of a little education — Macedonian sails for England. CONTENTS. V

Chapter V

Delight at seeing my native land — Plymouth — Use made of shore-liberty by sailors — A Sabbath ashore — Good effects of temperance illustrated — Desire and opportunity to run away — I resolve to remain — A man-of-war a bad place fora boy — Licentiousness in port — Danger follows the sailor everywhere — The loss of the Royal George — Extract from Cowper — The Macedonian is hauled up — Repaired — Sailing orders — Engaged in the blockade of Brest — Ordered to Plymouth — Order countermanded — Unlucky adventures — A prize.

Chapter VI

Rumour of war — A great mistake — Departure from Torbay with a convoy — A strict look-out — Sabbath at sea — A sail — Hands beat to quarters — Battle between the Macedonian and the United States — Awful destruction of life — Surrender of the Macedonian — Copy of a letter from Captain Garden to the British admiralty office, describing tbe action.

Chapter VII

Scenes in the cockpit and steerage after the battle — Arrival of the victors on board — Part of our crew taken on board the United States — Good feeling between all parties- — Macedonian refitted — Meeting of the two commanders — Sailing qualities of the United States inferior to the Macedonian—Difference in force and metal between the two frigates — The influence of motives in favour of the Americans — Arrival at Newport — Burial of Thomas Whittaker — The wounded taken on shore — Visitors at Hurl-gate — Christmas-day — The author escapes from the Macedonian — Reaches New York — Boards at a widow's in the city — Good news — Celebration of Decatur's victory — Decatur's wife — Account of the fortunes of several of the prisoners who ran away.

Chapter VIII

Tbe author meets with his old shipmates — A proposition — An awkwark dilemma — Refusal to ship- — Low state of his funds — A generous offer — — The author becomes a boot-maker's apprentice — A pleasant report — A visit to the United States frigate — A pleasant discovery — Change of pur pose — Quits the shoemaker — Is robbed by a negro — Goes to Salem — Dreams— Serious emotions — Revival among the Baptists — A fishing excur sion — Dangerous proximity to a Bri tish brig — Tbe Chesapeake and Shan non — The author ships in the gun brig Syren — Her armament, &c. described.

Chapter IX

Plan to capture the Nimrod defeated by the wind — Orders to sail for Africa —Leave Boston — Voyage to the African coast — Death of the captain — An unpleasant catastrophe — Mr. Nicholson assumes the command — ■ The Grand Turk frightened — Trade with the natives — Short allowance of water — An enemy — Battle of Senegal — A Yankee trick — The Syren reaches St. Thomas — A prize — Another capture — Petty tyranny resisted — The gunner's water keg robbed — The Syren refitted at Angola — She starts for America— Passes the Island of Ascension — A sail — Anecdote — - Chase — The Syren captured by the Medway seventy-four — Short allowance — Landed at Simon's Town — A painful journey — Arrival at the prison in Cape Town.

Chapter X

Description of our prison — Rules adopted — A petty annoyance cured —A lesson given to a Dutchman — Quality of our provisions — Dainties — Amusements — A suicide — The slaves of Cape Town — Table mountain and the Lion's Rump — The hospital — The author visits it — Feigns sickness — The Trunk — The surgeon's passion, and its consequences — A Dutch wedding — A plot — Discovery — Rumoured visit of a missionary — True feelings of seamen on religious subjects- — Anecdote — Mr. Thorn's visit — Religious meetings — Seriousness — The author's dream — A pleasant rumour — Presents of the prisoners to Mr. Thom — The author's alarm — Embarkation on board the Cumberland — Voyage to St. Helena — A CONTENTS. VI transfer — A cause for great fear — An American ship — Tidings of the re newal of tbe French war — Its reception by the officers and crew of the Grampus — Arrival at Spithead — ■ Transfer to the Puissant — Anecdote — Removed to the Rover and con veyed to Plymouth — Placed on board the Royal Sovereign — Transferred to the Woodrop Simms — Sail for Ame rica — A terrible gale — Arrival at New York — Placed on board the Tom Bowling — The Syren's crew paid off— Life in a boarding-house — Good resolutions evaporate — Money soon expended — The author ships in the brig Boxer.

Chapter XI

Land-sharks — Purser's tricks — The Boxer — Desertions — A man killed — Captain Porter — Hardships — A blow on the head — Sailing orders — The sailing-master — Tyrannical officers — Flogging by the officers — Arrival at Ship Island — Getting water — Moschetos and gallinippers — Passage to New Orleans— A man brutally flogged — A passionate blow — The Boxer hauled up — Desertions — Flogging — Return to Ship Island — Work on Captain Porter's land — A murder — Passage to Tampico — Turtle — Privateers — An attack — The privateer hauls off — The Boxer cruises to various ports — The unlucky handspike — Danger to seamen on the look-out — Sea-sickness — More running away — Mv own feelings — Capture of the Comet, a privateer — Tom Smith, Iiis philosophy and punishment — Character of our crew — Need of Christian labour among seamen — A plan suggested.

Chapter XII

Homeward passage — Story telling — Their moral effect — The author threatened with a flogging — Smuggling — Arrival at New \ork — My discontent — Escape from the Boxer — Journey to Hartford — Distress — The hospitable Presbyterian — Deacon Cook — Woman's kindness — A fortunate discovery of an old shipmate — - A situation — The author at work on a farm —Anecdote — The funeral — Its moral effects — Seriousness — -A prayer meeting — Profession of religion — A period of backsliding — Recovery — A camp-meeting — Father Taylor — The parting scene — Author joins the Methodist church — The crew of the Macedonian — John Wiskey — Hutch inson — James Day.

Chapter XIII

Home feelings — Correspondence with home — Letter from my mother — Fear of apprehension leads me to decline going to her — My father-in-law's death — A new business — Another change — Rum selling — Convictions on the subject— The temperance lecture — My marriage — Rum selling given up — Removal to Wilbraham— Prosperity — A visit to the Macedonian — An exhortation to her crew — Home correspondence — LordChurchill's note — Dr. Fisk's visit to my mother — A mother's present — Resolution to visit England — Preparations.

Chapter XIV

Departure from home — A cabin in the George Washington — Cheated by the cook — The packet sails — A day's experience from my journal — Religious service on Sabbath — Arrival at Liverpool — The custom-house, Liverpool — Journey to Stafford — The hackmen — Meeting with my sister — Election day in Stafford — Stafford — Remains of a baronial castle — St. Mary's church — The poor-house — A good custom — Beggars aud poverty — Drunkenness — Beer, a hindrance to the temperance cause — Departure from Stafford — Arrival at Bladen — Meeting with my mother — A happy family party — Visit to Oxford — Description of the town — Great Tom — Mr. Wesley's room at College — The martyr's stones — Departure from Bladen — Arrival at London — Trip to Wiilthamstow and Wanstcad — A visit to the City-road chapel— Tombs of Wesley, Clarke, Benson, Bunyan, and Watts— Condition ofthe English poor — Taxation — Expenses of royalty — Departure for Boston — Long passage—Safe arrival— Closing remarks lo tlie reader — Note— My mother's death.

Chapter I

Wf.he it not that the most common of all inquiries, respecting every man who comes before the public, is, " Who is he? whence did he proceed? who were his parents?" &c, I would not detain the reader with any account of my humble ancestors and their circumstances. But, since men naturally ex pect this information, and would hence consider my narrative imperfect without it, I shall take the liberty to introduce them. My father's occupation was that of valet de chambre to Lord William Fitzroy, son of the Duke of Grafton. My recollections concerning him are few and indistinct, as he died while I was yet scarcely three years old. One little incident alone reminds me of wear inga mourning dress as a memento of sorrow for his death. Returning from the parish church in Walthamstow, I observed the larger boys amusing them selves by swinging across the rails of the fences ; endeavouring to join in their amusement, my hands slipped, and falling into a muddy ditch, I nearly finished my course, ere it was well be gun, by a violent death.

A benevolent stranger, however, rescued me ; and once safe, my grief for the sad condition of my little black frock was excessive and inconsolable. A trifling cause for sor row, to be sure, yet men and women often grieve sor causes equally contemptible. Although my personal re membrances of my father's death are so indistinct, yet the frequent mention made of him by my mother, has left the pleasing impression on my mind that he died a Christian. " I have thought of my numerous sins, but God has forgiven them all. Be not troubled, for the Lord will provide for you and your children. You need not fear to leave me, for I am not alone; God is with me, though you are out of the room," were among his dying expressions ; when, after fourteen months' endurance of the pains which accompany a slow consumption, he ap proached " that bourne from which no traveller returns."

I expect to find my honoured father in heaven. Wanstead, in Essex, about seven miles from the great metropolis of England, was the town, and 1798 the year, of my birth. Were it necessary to designate the place more particularly, it might be said that the part of Wan stead where I first struggled into being, was called Nightingale Place ; a most musical name, conferred in honour of the nightingales which abounded in the vicinity. Two years subsequently to my father's demise, my mother became an inmate of the family of Lady Francis Spencer, daughter of the Duke of Grafton, and wife of Lord Spencer. As a consequence of this event, I was deprived of a mother's care and con signed to the charge of my aunt Turner, whose family amounted to the very respectable number of twenty-two sons and two daughters.

The transfer of a child from the care of its parent to that of another person, may appear, at first sight, to be a very unimportant incident; but trifling as it seems, it often exerts an influence which very materially changes the destiny of the child : it was so in my case. Most of my cousins were sailors, and some of them were constantly returning home, bringing, with true sailors' munificence, the pleasing and curious productions of distant climes as presents to their parents and friends ; then, seated round the bright hearth-side, they used to tell of wild adventures and hair-breadth escapes, spinning out the winter even ing's tale to the infinite delight of their willing listeners. Poor fellows ! three of them died at sea ; two more, John and Richard, perished in the ill-fated Blenheim, a seventy-four gun ship of the British navy, wbich went down off the Cape of Good Hope, with seven hundred as brave men on board as ever trod a plank.

Notwithstanding these sad recollections, and though none per ceived it, my three years' residence among these '' sailors bold" decided the nature of my future calling ; it cap tivated my imagination and begat a curiosity, which ultimately led me to make my "home upon the bounding deep." An orphan is ever exposed to changes. The loss of either parent calls for a degree of sympathy and kindness from others, which they are rarely willing to expend except on their own. Such is the almost universal selfishness of human nature. My ex perience affords a verification of the truthfulness of the remark. For some cause or other, it became inconvenient for me to remain with my kind aunt Turner, and my next home was with a widowed aunt, at Wanstead, where I did not meet with the same kindness of treatment.

The breaking of a cup, or any of the thousand-and-one offences found in the list of juvenile defects, was sure to bring upon me the infliction of the rod; and, what was equally painful, my most economical aunt exacted the full payment for all these losses from the little pocket money I obtained by holding a horse, running errands, or as new-year and Christmas presents ; thus gratifying her temper and her covetous ness at once, besides embittering, to some extent, the boyish hours of my unfortunate self. There is no evil in the management of children to be more deprecated than that species of treatment which tends to destroy their hap piness. Correction for obvious faults, in a proper manner, is essential to their proper moral training; but a habit of incessantly scolding them for every little accident or offence, only serves to excite the growth of evil passions and to make them dislike their home : things to be avoided as much as Scylla and Charybdis by the careful mariner.

The influence of such mal-treatment follows the child through life, like an evil genius, materially affecting his views of life and the temper of his mind. For aught that now occurs to me, but for this unkindness, my early predilec tion for the sea would have died within me; while, as it was, I panted to enjoy the freedom my fancy painted in its pictures of sailor life. To add to my sorrows, my mother removed my sister,. who had been my cheerful companion and true friend, to a lady's school at Woodstock, in Oxfordshire, for the twofold purpose of affording her greater literary advantages, and of being able to see her more frequently. Several incidents occurred during my abode here, which tended to increase my growing desire. A smart, active sailor, over six feet in height and well propor tioned, one day presented himself at my aunt's door.

He told us he had been to America, where he had seen a young man named George Turner, who was her nephew and my cousin. He pro ceeded to tell many fine stories about him, and at last inquired if she should not like to see him, and if sbe should know him. " I don't know as I should," said my aunt, " he has been away so long." " Well then," replied he, "I am George Turner!" This fine, bold seaman, then, was my own cousin, eon to my aunt Turner ; he had been eleven years at sea, and, after visiting his parents, took this method of surprising his aunt. Most likely he has made this adventure the subject of many a forecastle yarn since then. While he remained he was so jolly, so liberal, and so full of pleasant stories, tbat I be gan to feel quite sure that sailors were noble fellows. We were also favoured with a visit from an uncle, then visiting Europe from the West Indies.

He was one of two brothers, who were educated at Greenwich for the navy. One of them had entered the British navy, and by dint of merit and hard service rose to the possession of a commission in the service, but ultimately perished at sea. This one had chosen the merchant ser vice, but afterwards settled at Antigua. He took me with him to London, and carried me over the West India docks ; he being well acquainted with many of the captains, tbey treated me with play ful attention, inquiring if I did not wish to be a cabin-boy, and the like. When I returned to Wanstead, it was with a stronger desire than ever to be a sailor. My uncle went to Trinidad, and died shortly after. A very pleasant piece of intelligence greeted me soon after these incidents ; it was nothing less than my removal from the care of my unkind aunt to the roof of my mother.

Weary of her widow hood, she had again become a wife. My new parent was a widower with one son, and a carpenter by occupation, in the employ of the Duke of Marlborough. Great was my joy when this, fact was communicated to my young mind. I hailed it as a deliverance from bondage, and witb beaming eyes and cheerful face hurried to bid adieu to my classmates in the day and in the Sunday school — a sad proof of the unfitness of my aunt for her task ; since a child properly treated, will love its home too well to quit it without a tear ; and if parents and guar dians wish to prevent their children from being wanderers and stragglers through the wide world, let me bid them exert the utmost effort to make their home pleasant. Throw a charm round it make it enchanted ground, cause it to become, in the language of a living poet, " The fairy ring of bliss ;" and then your children will love it too well to wander.

But I was now about to leave Wan stead, and, although delighted to be rid of tbe serveilance of a cross old relation^ there were some things wbich threw an air of sadness occasionally over my mind. There were many pleasant asso ciations connected with the place ; its beautiful park, with herds of timid deer grazing under its tall oaks, upon whose green old heads the sun had shone for centuries ; the venerable mansion, seated like a queen amid the sylvan scene ; the old parish church, with its gorgeously painted windows, to which I had often walked on the Sabbath with my fellow scholars, in the Sabbath school, and beside whose deep-toned organ I had sat listening to the learned priest ; the annual hunt at Easter, in which I had often joined the crew of idle lads that gave chase to the distracted deer ; and the pleasant walks, made cheerful by the songs of innumerable birds, in Epping forest, were all to be left — per haps for ever.

This thought made me somewhat sad, but it was swallowed up in the joy I felt when my mother appeared to conduct me to Bladen, some sixty miles from London, which was the place of her abode since her marriage. Behold me then, gentle reader, seated with my mother on the outside of a stage-coach, with some ten fellow-pas sengers. Tbe stage-coach of England is quite a different vehicle from the carriage known by that name in America. True, it is drawn by four horses, and it runs on four wheels, but here the likeness ends ; instead of being built to carry twelve persons inside, it carries but six, while outside it has seats for twelve. Three or four passengers ride very com fortably behind, in what is called the basket, which is the territory of the guard, as the boot before is of the coach man.

All mail coaches, and all others travelling in the night, carry a guard, or an armed man, for the purpose of protecting the coach from tbe attacks of footpads or highway robbers. The dullness of our journey was somewhat relieved, after a long season of silence, by the distress of an unfortunate passenger, who, falling asleep, nodded so violently that his hat, supposing it was receiving notice to quit, very unceremoniously took leave of the skull it covered, and plunged into the mud. The outcry of tbe poor passenger, who was soon waked by the wind sporting amid his hair, and his unavailing requests to stop the stage, put us all into good humour with ourselves and with each other. We had another source of relief in the antics ofa hairbrained sailor. From spinning yarns, which looked amazingly like new inventions, he would take to dancing on the roof of tbe coach ; at the foot ofa hill he would leap off, and then spring up again with the agility of a monkey, to the no small amusement of the passengers.

The more I saw of this reckless, thoughtless tar, the more enamoured I became with the idea of a sea life ; and thus this journey to my mother's new abode was another link in the chain that decided my future destiny in the drama of life. How strangely and imperceptibly do small events tend to unexpected results. A match may fire a city and lay desolate the work of ages ; a single leak may sink a bark and carry desolation to a hundred firesides — and trifles in the daily scenes of human life, give charac ter to our immortality. We cannot, there fore, too carefully watch the influence of small events, especially on young minds. At Woodstock, famed in the annals of England as the scene of the loves of King Henry and Rosamond Clifford, we quitted our stage companions, and proceeded on foot to Bladen, two miles distant.

Our road lay through Blen heim or Woodstock park, which we entered through the triumphal arch, a spacious portal erected to the memory of John, Duke of Marlborough, by Sarah, his duchess.* On entering the park, wliich is nearly twelve miles in circum- * I visited this spot on the occasion of my pilgrimage to the tomb nj Shakspere in the year 1841, It tlien looked little better than a magnificent ruin. — E. C. ference, one of the most beautiful prospects imaginable disclosed itself. Blenheim Palace, which is among the most magnificent piles of architecture in England, appeared in front ; on the left were to be seen a part of the village of Woodstock, and on the right a broad and spacious lake, crossed by a supeib bridge ;* a lofty column on the rising ground, erected in honour of John, Duke of Marlborough, on which is the statue of that noble warrior ; a delightful valley, hills, plantations, herds of deer feeding, shady groves and ancient trees, all conspired to render the scene enchantingly beautiful.