Nigh on Sixty Years at Sea, etc

Preface

. For some years I have contemplated writing an account of my voyages, but leisure for this has been wanting. This is due to the fact that I have constantly been making runs to and from the West Indies. In March 1893, however, I was compelled to remain at home, and very soon after the ship had sailed without me I found myself at some loss as to what use to make of my time. The ladies of my household occasionally reminded me that an idle man about the house, especially in the early part of the day, is not quite welcome to them. I, therefore, turned my Vlll

PREFACE.

. attention to the preparation of a record of my experiences during nigh thrice a score of years, and these experiences are here recorded for the benefit of the reader. Will my work succeed ? Well, one of our great writers has assured me that my chronicle is too truthful, and that the public rather leans to aspiring fiction, not to use a harsher word, in these matters. Sailors are a truthful folk, however, and I have only set down the things that really occurred. What these things are the reader will discover for himself, and I can promise that, besides being strange, these things are true. CON TEN TS.

Part II. Chapter I., . . . . . .163

CHAPTER II

, 167

CHAPTER III

, 175

CHAPTER IV

, 185

CHAPTER V.

. . s . . .198 b CONTENTS. X

CHAPTER VI

, . . • ■ .212

CHAPTER VII

, 224

CHAPTER VIII

, 239

Chapter X

PART I

Nigh on Sixty Tears at Sea

Chapter I

I DON'T suppose it matters a brass farthing to anyone when or where I was born, but as this is meant to be my history, the first thing about it is that I must, of necessity, have been born somewhere. This interesting event took place in the Pier House at Ramsgate, and if ever a poor woman found herself possessed with a bundle of mischief, that woman was my dear mother, on the morning of April 15th, 1826. The first trouble was that all the boat-repairing business, usually carried on at a place called The Lockers (I can't say if that is the right way of spelling it), just in front of the house, had to be stopped, and this caused a good deal of bickering between the boatmen A and the two pier policemen, ' Paddy Ryan ' and ' Sergeant Manning,' who, being old soldiers, would give no other explanation than ' it is the harbour-master's orders.' Now, the harbour master was my father, and, being one of the old-fashioned Royal Naval officers, he did not allow any questioning of his orders, so there was no use for anyone to appeal, and the folks had simply to grin and bear it, and content themselves, as they usually did, by swearing at the author of their trouble, and take the boat somewhere else to repair — rather a troublesome job, perhaps, as, by the time they were stopped, a plank would have been taken out of the boat, and it would not float.

Matters went on pretty smoothly, as far as I have been given to understand, till I was old enough to run about the pier-yard, and then my mischievous propensities began to develop them selves. At that period Ramsgate had not got over the Buonaparte scare. The pier was armed with 32-pounder guns, and the shot was piled up in various places. My great delight was to roll them off the pile, when no one was looking, to the great danger of my fingers and toes, and the disgust of Jemmy Wait, the old sweeper, who had to put them up again. This mischief was soon traced to me, and Paddy Ryan kept watch, with the result that I was caught and, according to his orders, got locked up in the pier-cage, and kept there till after dinner-time. When I got home the reason of my absence was apparently only known by the coal - tar on my hands.

Of course, for the future I did not meddle with the shot, but other boys did, and I got the full credit of it till another boy was caught ; but then I was in trouble, as the boy's mother said I put him up to do it, which was fully believed. I am afraid, as I grew older, I did not im prove, and, when I was sent to the Dame's school, I became acquainted with a boy of my own age, called Billy Green, and we were, forthwith, sworn allies. I was generally sent to school and fetched by a girl called Hannah Nicholls, the daughter of one of the pier-men. This was all very well for a time, whilst I had a little fear of the school ' Marm ' (as our American cousins would call the good lady) ; but my friend Billy Green, who went to and fro by himself, began to taunt me with being in charge of a girl, so one fine day Hannah arrived home without me, holding her apron up to her nose, which was bleeding from the effects of a missile, in the shape of a sheep's foot, which I had thrown at her.

This mutinous conduct, as my father termed it, had to be put a stop to, and I was punished in the way that was more fashionable in those days than now. I may say I did not feel com fortable sitting on the form at school for some days after, so my young friends in misfortune may be able to guess what shape the punish ment took. I soon got too ' owdacious ' for the Dame's school, and, at the age of nine, was handed over to Thomas Whitehead, Esq. (commonly called Old Tim by the boys), of Chatham House Academy, and, for the future, there was no need to punish me at home, as Old Tim was fully equal to the job, and, when necessary, I was made the bearer of a small note which always had the postage levied on it on delivery. There is no doubt in my mind, now, that Mr Whitehead was an excellent preceptor.

He knew the character of every boy in the school — (there were always ninety-nine boarders ; he would not have one hundred), and, no matter what mischief was reported to him, he decided at once which boy did it, and, after prayers in the morning, it was, ' Boy so-and-so step this way,' and he said to him, ' Now, sir, why did you do — ? ' whatever it might be. He never asked whether you did it ; he felt certain about it, and I never knew him to be in error. And the school was in other respects a good one. There was plenty of wholesome food and plenty of hard work. I and the other day - boys had to be at school at 5.40 A.M., and we were not allowed to go home till 8.20 P.M, after prayers. This sort of training very few boys of the present day could stand, but I never knew of any of them breaking down.

It is true that no weakly boy was received ; Mr Whitehead saying that Chatham House was not an hospital. I suppose it was necessary, on account of the short time — most boys leaving school at fourteen, and being bound apprentices to whatever business they were to follow. Thus, on 29th April, 1840, I had left school and was apprenticed to one Mr Gunstan of London, the owner, among other vessels, of the brig ' Diadem ' (called ' Didaddem ' by the sailors), engaged in the timber - trade. We sailed for Quebec on 29th April, and I found that school, hard as I thought it, was quite a pleasure com pared to the routine in the brig. Watch and watch was hard enough, but it was always all hands in the afternoon. The crew of the brig consisted of ten, all told. The master and mate had been apprentices to the same owner, as also had William, the second mate, but, after William had served his time at sea, he was apprenticed to the shipbuilder at Sunderland who built Mr Gunstan's vessels, and so was qualified as second mate and carpenter ; with the exception of an old sailor, David Rees by name, the rest were apprentices, and generally under the charge of old David, who repaired the sails and instructed us generally in rigging work.

As I was the youngest apprentice, I had to be cook and steward, and did not keep any watch ; as soon as I could be instructed, I had to take the helm from four till six in the morn ing watch, and from six till eight in the evening. It was not many days before I was able to steer as well as any of them, having learnt to steer the boats at Ramsgate, and to box the compass at school, but old David took the credit of it, begging me not to tell the master, who was quite at a loss to understand how a green-hand, and a gentleman's son, could so soon have learnt to do what it generally took others at least a whole voyage to pick up. As long as the brig was sailing on a wind, I could manage perfectly ; but, going large, my strength was not always equal to the work, the brig being steered with a tiller.

The principal work on the passage was the repairing an old ship gig, which the master had bought cheap and intended to sell for a good price. It was quite astonishing how that boat got renovated under the hands of William and the master, who was a very fair boat-builder, his father having been in that line ; and when it was put in the water, on arrival at Quebec, it looked quite like a new one, and was sold to one of the rowing clubs for .£20. We saw it win a prize at the regatta before we sailed for home. We had generally fine weather on the way out, but had a narrow escape of getting wrecked on Cape Race in a gale of wind, which made it a lee-shore ; the brig being in ballast was barely able to claw off, and must have gone ashore had not the wind shifted suddenly in the middle watch. A few days after this we got into the River St Lawrence, and had to anchor every time it was high water, as the wind blew right down the river.

One night we anchored off some islets called the Brandy-pots, and I was left on watch with old Rees. A boat came off from the shore, and as there was no tobacco on board, very little having been brought away in the vessel, old Rees wanted to get some from the boatmen ; of course, he had no money, and tobacco was not to be got for nothing, so some of the vessel's stores had to be given in exchange. We had made, on the passage, two long gaskets for the boom main sail ; one of these the boatmen wanted, to make their sail fast, so old David sent me up to take it off, and he swapped it for two plugs of Cavendish. I was so disgusted at this that I there and then made a resolution, to which I have always adhered, that I would never use tobacco. Fortunately the gasket was not missed, as old David very soon made another.

On a Sunday morning in May, we arrived at Quebec and anchored in the ballast ground ; the approach was very beautiful after having seen nothing but water and rugged shores for a month. I was particularly struck with the sun shining on the zinc-covered roofs of the houses, and the hundreds of vessels at anchor. As we dropped towards the anchorage, we were nearly in collision with a huge raft of timber, and a good deal of very bad French was exchanged between our pilot and the inhabitants of the raft, which was at anchor near to Point Tear, waiting the turn of the tide ; fortunately a puff of wind came and we were able to make a stern board and cleared it. Now began the heaviest work of the voyage, viz, heaving the ballast overboard — this we had to do ourselves, as the master would not employ labour and we were not used to shovelling.

I had to stand with the next older apprentice on a stage slung up a little below the ballast port ; the others hove the sand up on to the stage and we had to shovel it out ; fortunately my mate was a strong, good-natured lad, and did far more than his share of the work. It is astonishing how much more attention than usual that galley-fire required, whilst the ballast business was going on ! However, all things come to an end, and by the Saturday night the ballast was out and we had Sunday to move the vessel over to Diamond Harbour, where we were to load. We got her moored by dinner-time, and were allowed to go ashore afterwards. I made at once for Wolfe's Monument, and thought I was never going to get there, as, not having done any walking for six weeks, my feet and legs were not quite fit for such a climb ; possibly I did not arrive in a very good humour, but I decided it was a very mean monument to make so much talk about, and that it was not to be compared to our obelisk at Ramsgate.

After resting some time I started back again, and in due time arrived down abreast the brig, and made my first acquaintance with a sailor's public-house, called the ' Strop and Block,' with an invitation to sailors in the following verse : — Brother sailor, pray thee stop And lend me a hand to strop this block, For if you do not stop with speed, I cannot strop this block indeed. Such a pressing invitation, of course, could not be refused, so I went in and found plenty of sailors, not stropping blocks indeed, but in various stages of drunkenness. These men had mostly deserted from ships, which at that time was the fashion. A few nights after the ship arrived, there would be a general clear-out of the crew, who then got shipped in a loaded vessel, at a very high rate for the run. They did not lose anything by deserting, or very little, as they had received a month's advance before leaving England ; neither did they make much by the high-rate homeward, as the landlords of such places as the ' Strop and Block ' kept them whilst in Quebec, and, of course, charged a very high price for the accommodation and keeping them drunk all the time he had them on his hands.

Thus I discovered the wisdom of our owner in having his vessels manned, or rather, perhaps, ' boyed ' (if I may be allowed to coin a word) by apprentices. I was not allowed to remain in this house. The landlady gave me some milk and a biscuit and told me ' to clear out ; ' she did not ' allow brats about her premises, spying and then informing the masters where to find their men. She did not charge me anything for what I had, so I concluded she took the value out in abuse, and I was quite satisfied to let it be so, as the good woman kept her hands off. As the brig was chartered to take timber for the Woolwich Dockyard, it did not require very long to get loaded, and on the Sunday fortnight we were under weigh for home. We had a fair wind all the way from the Island of St Paul's till we arrived off the North Foreland, thence a dead beat up to Woolwich.

On arrival there we found something had gone wrong with the owner, and, after discharging, the vessel, was put up for sale and all of us sent home for the time being.

Chapter II

In the spring of 1841, by the interest of my god father, Captain Robert Welbank, one of the Elder Brethren of the Trinity House, my indentures were transferred to Mr Joseph Soames, and I was sent on board a vessel called ' La Belle Alliance,' fitting out as an armed transport to join the China Expedition. She was loading Government stores off the victualling yard at Deptford. This was quite a different line to the one in which I had made a start. Instead of a small crew con sisting of a few apprentices, this vessel, although only 676 tons registered, carried a crew with a boatswain who piped, as also his two mates, forty A.B.'s, twenty O.S, eight landsmen and seven apprentices. The crew were brought alongside and shipped on board (there not being any shipping offices in those days). They were supplied by a crimp whom the sailors called Ned Skeet, and with whom a good many had been boarding. ■v Having signed the articles and received two months' advance (or rather, when notes for the same had been handed to Mr Skeet), several gentlemen of the Hebrew persuasion came up the side and opened slop-shops about the deck, as Mr Skeet was too prudent to allow any of his mob out of the ship, and the men had to make up their outfit for the voyage.

For such things as they bought Mr Skeet paid cash, of course taking care that the purchases each man made left a good margin in his hands to pay for any board that might be owing to him. It may thus be inferred that Jack's outfit was not a very splendid one, and he had soon to draw on the ship's slop-chest. Towards 3 p.m. the same day, everyone but the crew and Mr Skeet's two auxiliaries were ordered out of the ship, which was unmoored and taken in tow as far as Gravesend, where we anchored for the night. Towards noon the next day a Government tug brought down some officials, who inspected the ship, numbered the crew, and then handed the vessel over to the charge of Lieutenant Densten, R.N, who received his appointment from them, as agent of H.M. Hired Transport, No. 15. The red ensign we had been flying was hauled down, and a blue ensign, with a large yellow anchor in the fly of it, hoisted ; also a blue pen nant, with a yellow anchor in it, was hoisted at the main.

We received from the tug a four-oared gig, and a cabin table for the agent's use, and the ship was declared in all respects ready for sea. This ceremony being ended, and all strangers being out of the ship, we weighed, and were towed down to Pausand Hole, where we again anchored for the night. Having now been left to our own devices, and the wind being foul, we remained at anchor all the next day. The crew were divided into watches, and the station-bill made out. The men were also told off to the guns, of which there were ten 24-pounder carronades. At daylight the next morning we were under weigh, and got down to the Downs, where the pilot left, and the ship went on, till, in a day or two, we anchored in Plymouth Sound. I have forgotten to mention that there were eight assistant-sur geons on board, going to join the fleet in China.

These gentlemen each occupied a cabin under the poop, and were the only passengers we had leaving London. On arrival at Plymouth, orders were received to land a portion of the stores we had taken in at Deptford, to make room for the construction of a magazine on the lower deck beams, from the main to the fore-hatch, as we were to take out live-shell. This being done, several dockyard officials came on board, looked at the space, and went away again. Two days after, a lighter came alongside with planks, which were taken on deck. The next day some shipwrights came off and brought their tools, but as the foreman did not come, nothing could be done, and, one way and another, it was quite a week before the magazine was commenced, and it took a fortnight before it was completed, inspected, and pronounced fit to receive the shell, etc.

In the course of another week it got filled, and it was then found the ship was required to carry out a suit of sails for each ship on the station, and the question arose how this could be done. How ever, the agent suggested to the admiral taking half the cabins occupied by the assistant-surgeons for the sails. This measure was adopted, and without further loss of time the sails were stowed away and the ship sailed. At Plymouth we also took on board one hundred marines and forty boys, for service with the fleet ; altogether, the ship was well filled ! Nothing eventful happened on the passage. We called at Teneriffe and replenished the live stock and fresh water, and arrived at Simson Bay (Cape of Good Hope) in due course, having lost both topgallant masts whilst beating in. The passage was enlivened by the constant quarrels that took place between the agent and the assistant-surgeons, who did not forgive him for getting them put two in a cabin.

Whilst in Simon's Bay we landed all the sails and opened them out to air in the dockyard ; this, of course, took some time, as also did filling in the fresh water. I had noticed on the way out that there did not appear any hurry about anything. The ship was put under easy sail every night before dark, and royal -yards sent down, the agent not allowing too much sail to be carried. The least puff of wind brought the old gentleman out of his cabin, and he called out to the captain, — ' Mr Pryce, Mr Pryce, I won't have Her Majesty's stores endangered ! ' I wondered why his orders were so promptly carried out, till I found the ship was paid by the month, and it was, of course, to the owner's interest to be as long as possible on the passage, besides saving the wear and tear in carrying too much sail.

In due time we sailed again, with orders not to call in anywhere till we reached Hong-Kong. This was a work of time, as, by one delay and another, we had lost the season and the N.E. monsoon had commenced in the China Sea. We got short of water and fresh provisions, and were generally uncomfortable on board, notwithstanding we had disobeyed orders and called off Angeir, going through the Strait of Java. The crew did not consider fowls were fresh provisions, and would have nothing to do with them except they were pickled, so they had to go on with the salt-provisions and have lime juice served out to them. This lime juice had to be drawn from the Government stores, as merchant ships did not carry it in those days. Altogether, we were very glad to arrive, which we did after having been six months and twenty one days from Plymouth.

We found Hong-Kong had been taken, and the fleet, except H.M.S. 'Herald' and 'Alligator' had sailed for the north, so, after having recruited a bit and filled up the fresh water, we sailed to join the fleet at Amoy on 23rd November, 1841. The ship, being deeply laden, made bad work of beating up against the monsoon, and after being fourteen days out, we sighted Formosa, where, a gale of wind coming on, we stood across and came to an anchor at the island of Leuconia, having lost jib-boom and head-gear and carried away the main top-sail yard. 1; Whilst lying there matters between the agent and the assistant-surgeons grew serious. The agent had complained against them to Captain Ryas of the ' Herald,' who was the senior naval officer; an inquiry was held, and it was decided there were faults on both sides.

A sort of a truce was patched up, but the agent would not mess at the cuddy table, and the truce was broken as soon as we got to sea again, with the result that, now we were at anchor, in a place without any authority to prevent it, a duel was resolved on. Accordingly, one morning the agent landed in his gig, of which I was the coxswain, and the captain and two of the surgeons landed in the Captain's gig. The agent fought each of the surgeons. The agent got shot through his stern parts from right to left, and shot his first antagonist in the left arm. In what may be called the second round, the agent went clear, but he put a shot through his opponent's neck, fortunately without touching any vital part. However, all three parties were disabled ; the re maining surgeons were occupied in attending to the wounded, and hostilities were suspended.

By this time the ship had been refitted, and we started again for Amoy, but only succeeded in making the S.E. end of Formosa, and then bore away for Hong-Kong, where we arrived the day before Christmas, considerably the worse for the weather. Here we found H.M.S. 'Blenheim' and 'Nimrod,' in addition to the ' Herald ' and ' Alligator ; ' the latter was about to sail to join the fleet, so the surgeons, marines and boys were turned over to her. We were relieved of a good deal of heavy stores, and generally refitted. H.M.S. ' Sulphur ' also arrived, and the shell we had on board being for her, we handed it over, and by the help of working parties from the ' Blenheim ' we were soon ready for sea again, and sailed under orders to proceed to Chusan, as Amoy had been left under a small garrison. The captain of the ' Blenheim ' also impressed on the agent that he was not to interfere with the sailing ofthe ship, as most likely the master would know more about it than he did.

So, having got rid of the pugnacious doctors, and the ship being clear of the marines and boys, we had more room to work, and were at peace. We took the eastern passage and arrived at Chusan in about three weeks, where we found the whole of the expedition, consisting of H.M.S. fleet, under Admiral Sir Wm. Parker in the 'Cornwallis,' and about a hundred sail of transports, making preparations for the next campaign. Our ship was placed in the second division, and we were watered, filled up with wood, etc, in due course, and otherwise made ready to re ceive three companies of the 18th Royal Irish Regiment. We were no longer allowed to go along in the same slow way we had pursued on the passage out. The officer in command of the division visited each ship belonging to it daily, and the agent had to send in a daily report of what work had been done.

All this work was carried on very systematically. The boats of all the ships in the division were employed carrying water, wood, and stores for one or perhaps two ships in the same division, till they were filled up. On board these ships were working parties from the man-of-war in command of the division, and in charge of an officer. The crews of the ships had to stow the hold whilst the R.N. folks hoisted in. This plan accustomed the crews of the transports to working in the boats, and ensured the boats being kept in efficient working order. All this was particularly necessary, as the success of the expedition depended considerably on good boating services, and there were fire-rafts as well. Everything was ready at last, and all the admiral's fleet assembled by the middle of April, and we sailed for Foo-chow.

Now began the interesting part of the work, viz, fleet-sailing. We were divided into five divisions and sailed in two lines. H.M.S. ' Cornwallis' with the flag led the first division, having always one of the few steamers attached to the expedition on his star board hand, and a small schooner called the ' Hebe ' sailing a little in advance, sounding all the time. H.M.S. ' Blonde ' was the whipper-in of the fleet, and had a pretty onerous task, as she had to look after all the slow sailers, which were placed in the fifth division, and was not allowed to anchor at night till she had seen all the ships anchored in their proper station. Many ships found it a very difficult job to keep their station, and were constantly having the signal displayed to them — ' Make more sail.' On one occasion a vessel called the ' Alibi,' which had every stitch of canvas set, and still lagged, had this signal made to her, and having no more sail to set, the captain hoisted his house flag and sent a boy out to his weather main-royal yardarm to hold the flag out.

On seeing this, the whole of the transports in his division hoisted the signal, ' Well done, " Alibi," ' to the great disgust of the man-of war who led the division, and it was not long before the signal was flying, — ' " Alibi," send a boat on board,' which would give him a lot of trouble, as he would have to drop his dispatch sailing boat and get her alongside the man-of-war, when he could, which most likely would not be before the fleet came to an anchor for the night, except the breeze fell light. The transports were all kept in crack order and discipline ; we were all under martial law, and had to manœuvre the same as men-of-war, and a slack ship always got a good drilling somehow or other. There certainly was no excuse for slackness, as all the ships carried heavy crews, and most of them had soldiers on board, who did all the rope hauling.