Sand and shell : nautical sketches

Front matter

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Preface

THESE papers, reprinted from the United Service Magazine and Household Words (thanks to the kind permission of the conductors of those periodicals), are intended to give the reader glimpses of modern Sea Life, seen through the coloured glass of Fiction—a glass not distorting the forms of things, though tinging them with the hues of imagination. I draw from experience.

But why call the book Sand and Shells? The title is not so merely fantastic, as at first sight it may appear. ‘‘ Sand and Shells” are the ‘soundings ”’ of the “ fairway” of the Channel. What is the fairway of our life’s voyage, but a path like this—hard and sandy at bottom, with such graceful shelly sprinkling, and help from the beautiful, as fortune may give it? Toa little collection of ‘‘ soundings,” then, taken in this voyage, the title may not improperly be given.

One word in conclusion. <A great satirist of antiquity tells us, that he ‘laughs and hates.” But one may laugh and love. I have written here, and elsewhere, to little purpose of my old profession, if I have not made it clear, among the effusions of a satiric vein, that I have the _profoundest faith in those high qualities of our Navy, which make it, at this moment, the central point of our hopes, amidst the agitations and dangers of Europe.

James Hannay.

Contents

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SAND AND SHELLS.

Chapter I

Tue pleasant white island of Malta, which lies and boils in the water like an egg, every summer, had been peculiarly hot in the summer of 184—. There had been an extraordinary drought ; the men-of-war had been obliged to go to Syracuse for water, and at all the churches there were prayers for rain. Father Porposa had attributed this state of things to the machinations of the Protestants: but it seems difficult to believe that such geniuses as those he blamed could have had any such influence. At allevents, everybody was confoundedly tried, and among others, the gentlemen of the Regina were very sad indeed. Higg said that this was not the kind of thing he had bargained for, and entertained an idea of ‘‘ cutting the service,” an awful threat, which he always uttered on occasions of annoyance. Indeed, Higg was a very ill-used person. His father (need we mention the Count Higg, a friend of Royalty ?) had been ruined by the very first gentleman in Europe, and had got some half a dozen mediocre appointments for his children, to save them from starving, after all the family fortune was gone. Having achieved this object, and having hitherto lived like a gentlman, one thing remained—the next best—to die like a gentleman; which thing, indeed, Count Higg accomplished, breathing his last in lodgings in Bury Street, in a red night-cap, which had been worked for him by “the gentle Marchesa.” One feels that all this kind of thing is a little too noble for ordinary scribbling about, but it is all a@ propos to the little incident in the career of Scrymgeour Forbessy, with which our first sketch opens. Higg was the heutenant of the watch of which Forbessy was midshipman ; and, when it rained heavily at sea, or blew shamefully, or when Captain Ricks was violent or troublesome, it was to the said Scrymgeour Forbessy that Higg opened his sorrowful heart. On such occasions of annoyance, we say, Higg solemnly cursed the parental profligacy and stupidity, which had compelled the son of Count Higg—the grandson of Higg, a general in the Russian service—the inheritor of a diamond which had belonged to Peter the Great—to be blown about the planet on a lieutenant’s pay, and to be buillied by Captain Ricks, the son of nobody, and the inheritor of nothing. It is curious to reflect, likewise, that another Higg in the Marines, and a Higg in the Indian Service, did likewise curse the parental ditto, ditto; and thus from the grave of the count there perpetually exhaled a damp and deadly vapour, poisoning and perplexing the brains of his children. Higg was very sore this summer, and, in the night-watch, had much grief to pour into the ears of Forbessy.

Forsrssy was descended from the ancient family of Forbessy of Forbessy Tower. This old property, which its proprietors dealt with as with a pot of porter—each man handing it to the next, considerably diminished—got very seedy about the time of Charles II. The then Forbessy completed the business. For, as if nothing devolved on him but to live and be merry, he married Adelinda Scrymgeour—Scotch, pretty, well-born, and poor—and had fifteen Forbessys, all with blood as blue as heaven, and nothing to inherit but the family arms. Some went abroad, and were never heard of any more. One (the well-known translator of Suetonius) died in a brawl in London. The property itself was sold in due time to the great Gubbinses, who now represent the county on the very highest Tory interest, who made most of their money as contractors during the Seven Years’ War, by supplying huge and hideous quantities of horse [they invented the new mode of preserving meat, by the bye,] to the brave warriors of the period. They have built a very fine castle, and the old tower moulders away in a corner of their grounds.

Our Forbessy’s grandfather, who sold the estate, left one son, who, being poor, married a lady with some fortune, and left only Serymgeour. Scrymgeour, who had no relations by the father’s side within hail (for his distant cousins were all naturalised in the colonies by this time), devolved, on his father’s death, on the tender mercies of his mother’s relations. These worthy people, who looked on Forbessy, senior, as an interloper, who had married into their family ‘for the sake of the money,” gave Master Scrymgeour a kind of education, a naval appointment, and a moderate allowance. So here he was, mid. of the Regina six foot high, every inch a gentleman, and talking to the mournful Higeg in the middle watch.

“Well,” said Higg, ‘‘may the tombstone of that old gentleman——’”’

‘Really, Mr. Higg, don’t you think——” began Forbessy.

“1 know what you're going to say, youngster; but, by Jove—I’ve no patience with the old man. Quarter-master, bring the pipkin! If he had made the tin himself, you see Forbessy, it would have been another matter. But he got it to hand down, sir. The general’s blood, sir, earned that money !”’

The quartermaster came with the pipkin of cool water, and a bottle ofruminit. Higg “swizzled.” i

“Yes, youngster—No; I always will say it. If I had had that fortune now! Would I have been walking about here? Would i

*« But the old gentleman spent it like a gentleman,” said Forbessy, bringing out the one odd consolatory fact.

“Why, deuce thank him, with his chances, for being a swell! Do people call me Count Higg, and admire my manner?”

This was, unhappily, unanswerable. Nobody did call Higg a count, or did admire his manner.

“No,” he resumed ; ‘may fragments of tile and broken flower-pots lie on his resting place!”” And with this odd malediction he commenced walking about the deck with rapid strides. Perhaps it will seem odd to the old Mediterranean cruiser, if any such honour these pages by perusal, that a lieutenant should have been keeping watch in harbour; but Ricks had been bilious lately, and had been attending to discipline. What is more wonderful, Ricks had been actually living on board the vessel, and was now asleep in his cabin. This

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state of things naturally astonished and disgusted everybody. To resume—

“ Forbessy.!” called out Higg, who was afraid his midshipman might be dozing: and what right has a midshipman to doze if the officer of his watch wants to chat?

« Yes, sir.’ And Forbessy patiently trotted over. :

* Oh! all right, my boy; I didn’t see you. Why, here’s another cursed disadvantage flowing out of the governor’s conduct (may his monument be turned into holystones !)—a fellow can’t marry !”

Forbessy yawned, and laughed at Higg’s way of turning up new disadvantages at the most extraordinary times. Presently there was a gurele heard, as from the narrow mouth of the pipkin, a pleasant congratulatory chuckle, which the pipkin was wont to give. About the same time, four bells struck, announcing two in the morning; and within a minute or two you heard ship after ship answering to the announcement along the hushed and darkened harbour; the ponderous and sonorous cry of the big line-of-battle-ship bell, and the sharp, musieal, alert cry of the trim brig. It is a most eloquent announcement of time, that of a ship’s bell, and beats a clock, to my mind, for effect. Then machinery, you observe, makes the clock strike, whereas the bell indicates the watchful human life that is awake through the nightsilence. The clock gives the fact, but there is a human poetry in the sound of the bell.

Higg did not think all this, but only that it was two o’clock; and he, with a certain elaborateness, arranged his fat person in the starboard hammock-netting. ‘‘ Youngster!” he said, with a snuffling noise, ‘* pull the hammock-cloth over me. Night dew! Thank you. Well?”

Forbessy turned away, and commenced walking about the deck. The quarter-master was motionless on the poop; everything was perfectl still. No time can be better than the very heart of the middle-wate for solitary meditation; your loves, your duns, your enemies and your ambitions, all begin to hold witch-revels, and dance round the boiling cauldron of your imagination !

Scrymgeour was giving the powers of the time their own privilege. Indeed, we may remark, that the night-watch is the only time you get to yourself for the indulgence of your romance, if you are at all romantic. Everybody now-a-days is so “ knowing,” that ‘ chaff” is on the look-out for romance all day long, and nobody can be persuaded that it has not the intellectual superiority. It is true that the Danish king’s ghost has to fly when the cock crows: but which is the noblest, the vhost or the cock P

Serymgeour was indulging in a sort of hasty overhaul of his past life (just as old Collingwood used to bring up his old clothes on a sunny afternoon and give them an airing—the fine, quiet, homely old fellow!) He had reminiscences, growing ever dimmer, of the Moravian school in Switzerland, where his boyhood had passed; and of being recalled to England, and sent across like a parcel to that country; and of a very pig-headed old kinsman, who told him that his father was dead, and that he was to be sent into a gallant profession; and how he went right off to the Pacific, in the Lobos, and how three years made a man of him, and he got himself a ship next time, and was now drawing near the great time of “ Passing!” What other things he had to think about may hereafter be indicated. But, by Jove! there was something stirring below just at that moment—in the captain’s cabin, too.

He had been walking the poop, put he slided like a lizard down the ladder, and tugged at Lieut. Higz’s leg. The lieutenant sprang upright in the netting at once; and a white figure, crowned with a white cap, came crawling out from the cabin under the poop. Oh, Ricks! you artful old gentleman!

“‘ Officer of the watch!”

“‘ Sir,’ answered Higg, as lively as a lark, and safe on deck.

“Oh, hem! Mr. Higg, eh?”

“ Yes, sir,” said Higg, drily; “ Mr. Higg.”

“ Midshipman of the watch!”

“« Sir,” answers that officer.

“ Mr. Forbessy ?”

“ Yes, sir; Scrymgeour Forbessy.”

“ Ah, hem—ah, Mr. Higg, eh?”

It is impossible to fancy anything more ridiculous than Captain Ricks at that moment; and the quartermaster, too, had come running with a lantern—a ghastly old figure in a long white nightgown, with a lot of greyish-brown hair bursting wildly out of his nightcap.

“ Anything stirring?” he asked.

“ Nothing, sir.”

The gallant officer turned to go in again, when Higg could not help an audible chuckle. Ricks wheeled round.

“Very well, sir! I see you, sir!— Laughing at your superior officer! Very well, sir!”

How those bloodshot old eyes glared under the nightcap, as he shook his bony fist before turning to go in once more.

This trifling incident started our friend Forbessy on a new series of adventures ; for next morning, Captain Ricks, who had fully relied on finding Higg asleep, and so having him “under his thumb,’— to use a favourite expression (and a most vicious squeeze that thumb had in it!)—was somewhat puzzled what to do. Higg’s chuckle he could scarcely make much of. On the other hand, here wasa story evidently calculated to fly over the island. The only way was to get rid of the main witnesses. So, Higg he contrived to get exchanged to the Dragon steamer, and Forbessy to get “lent” to the corvette, Bloater— a craft known (and not without reason) as a jackass frigate. Orders to accomplish these changes were soon forthcoming—there being a very good understanding (not in the sense of intellect, by the bye), between Captain Ricks and the admiral.

‘A whip on the main-yard” conveyed Mr. Forbessy’s worldly goods into the first cutter one fine afternoon; and the cutter conveyed him and them at a brisk pace to the mouth of Dockyard Creek, where the Sloater was lying, He was struck by her appearance. She was very seedy, for one thing, and clumsy in build. ‘The midshipman who conveyed him, and who had always served in “ swell” vessels, looked at her, as Brummell would have looked at a Radical member. “ A rum ‘craft, eh, Forbessy ? Gad! she’s a tub!”

On board they went. ‘Come to join, sir,’ said Forbessy to the officer of the watch. As he glanced round, he caught the quick eye of a very sunburnt youngster looking at him hard and curiously.

“Come to join, eh?” said the spectacled lieutenant who received him, in a solemn heavy voice. ‘‘ Our responsibilities increase, I observe.”

Forbessy stared at the solemn gentleman, and pierced through his spectacles almost.

‘“‘ Perhaps you'll introduce me to somebody, sir,” he said, ‘“ I don’t know a soul in the ship.”

“A soul inthe ship! There is levity here!” was the solemn gentleman’s remark. ‘ But we shall do in time, doubtless.”

The chest, which bore Mr. Forbessy’s name, came swinging on board at this instant. The Regina’s midshipman shook hands with him with a pitying smile, and took himself off. And there stood Forbessy, considering what was coming next.

‘« Well, young gentleman,” said the solemn lieutenant, “ our captain —it scarcely becomes me, perhaps, to call him owr excellent capta— shall be duly informed of your arrival. Meanwhile, it will be as well that you should personally know those with whom, as I trust, you will live on terms of amity and mutual improvement.” The speaker took off and wiped his spectacles, and called out, with a somewhat stern manner, “‘ Mr. Adair!”

The quick-eyed youngster came running over, with his sunburnt and gay countenance, looking subdued and decorous. ‘ Sir.”

“ Mr.—Forbessy, I think P—yes, Mr. Forbessy joins us, to supply the place of our late shipmate, Mr. Trimmer, I apprehend. Not to follow in the footsteps of Trimmer, I hope, by the bye; but of this anon. Mr. Forbessy—Mr. Adair!’ So saying, the first-leutenant, Hackles, walked aft.

Forbessy was not much given to profane exclamations; but there are periods of surprise when a naval man may be pardoned, perhaps, for soliloquising in such fashion as “ Well, tm d—d!” I say, he might have been excused, had he done so; but he suppressed the inclination.

« Mr. Adair, eh ?”’ he said, in a cheerful, off-hand way, ‘“ I’m tooold a stager to be ceremonious. I come here to join. What is the plain English of that odd lieutenant?”

* You know nothing of the Bloater, eh ?”’ said young Adair, inquiringly. ‘Just step in the waist here, and we'll take a private turn together. You're not related, then, to anybody on board P ’”’ eld

“Related, by Jove!” said Forbessy laughing. ‘I am a ‘ kinless loon,’ as the Scotch say, altogether. Are you related to anybody ?”

“ That’s the point!” said Adair, briskly. ‘ Not toa soul; and Ill tell you what, we'll have to strike up a cousinship,” he added, laughing. ‘* Why, my dear sir, the first-lieutenant’s the captain’s cousin,

THE FAMILY SHIP. f and the assistant-surgeon’s the first lieutenant’s brother-in-law ; and the second-lieutenant’s aunt married the captain’s uncle; and two of the youngsters are the captain’s nephews! ‘Then—let me see—the purser comes in somehow. Ah!—the purser’s mother’s maiden-name was Hackles. Yes, that’s it! he’s somehow related to the first-lieutenant.”

*« Bless my life!” exlaimed the new-comer.

** Yes; she’s a family ship,” said Mr. Adair, using a very well-known naval phrase.

. At this moment the “side” was piped; and the two young men, looking at the gangway, saw come on board the head of the family— as he might properly be called —the commander of the Bloater, the gallant Captain Pappleton, a little, somewhat stout man, with a very broad-tailed coat, and an uneasy jerking manner. He and the solemn first-lieutenant exchanged the formal salutes, and then began talking in a friendly way.

‘id Bey is your washing come off?” he inquired audibly.

Yes.”

** And how about the keg of lime-juice, eh P—Oh, coxswain, bring the biscuits in the tin-case aft, and let Mug follow with the warming-pan.”

Two huge black-whiskered fellows, accordingly, paced across the deck. The man with the warming-pan actually blushed at having such an office to perform. There was a knot of sailors gazing aft at the proceeding in high wonder and delight.

“We'll sail directly, Hackles,” the captain pursued. ‘‘ It’s all comfortable in your place, I suppose? Let us have no omission this time. Fresh bread I will not find for your mess, if omitted again! The ties of kindred are the ties of kindred, Mr. Hackles; but the service is also the service !”

“We have anew young officer committed to our care,” said Mr. Hackles, pointing out Forbessy in the distance.

‘In the place of Trimmer, I suppose? I have written to Trimmer’s father,” pursued the captain, severely, ‘‘ this morning. I hope I have not exceeded my duties. But when a youth points the finger of ridicule at his superiors, he is in a bad way!”

Captain Pappleton paused; and then made a slight movement about the deck, which you could not better describe than by calling it * fidgeting.” Then he turned round again to Hackles —‘‘ Oh, Hackles —the elder-wine came on board, I suppose ?”

** Tt did so,” said Mr. Hackles.

Our friend Forbessy caught these words, for he was still in the larboard waist with young Adair, and the captain had ranged within ear-shot of them.

“*Elder-wine?” said Forbessy to the youngster, “ does your old gentleman patronise that P”

* Patronise it! why, we—that is the youngsters (I don’t see that I’m a youngster though, properly —I’ve been two years on the coast, and I killed a fellow that showed fight, in boarding the Blackbird slaver !)—we’re obliged to take elder, instead of rum!”

“ This is becoming terrible,” said Forbessy, with a grin.

« Why, what’s a fellow todo?” He makes out that it’s good for your health, and your morals; and these two young Pappletons, his nephews, are in the mess, and one falls into the same discipline as they do.”

At that moment the order was given to ‘pass the messenger,” and the watch began running about the deck. J orbessy and Adair went below to the midshipmen’s berth. Forbessy had to stoop, as we may suppose, pretty considerably in passing in. A most seedy little hole it was, the buffet all rickety, and unfit for holding the glasses. The two little Pappletons were employed on an arithmetical problem; the assistant-surgeon was asleep on the lockers; and the captain’s clerk, Mr. Mules (1 don’t know what relation he was to anybody, by the bye, but he had been at school with half the vessel), was zroning a collar on the mess-table.

“‘ Here’s the crib!” said Adair, with a tranquil bitterness. ‘“ Mr. Forbessy, the younkers —look up, younkers,” he said, ‘‘and make your bow!” ‘The two little Pappletons did look up, for they held Adair in dread; pale, meagre boys, one dark, the other light, which caused them (and, indeed, it was convenient) to be distinguished as White Pappleton and Black Pappleton.

“« Mr. Forbessy, Mr. Mules! Mangling done here, you observe, Forbessy!”” Mules blushed with anger. It was too bad (but the coast does make fellows rough!) to ‘ chaff” poor Mules. Mules was a kind of harmless buck in his little way. He even went on shore in plain clothes, sometimes. He haunted the minor circles of Malta, moving politely about the Dockyard Creek, brought cigars from Gibraltar to the rigging-master, and made afternoon calls on the registrar of Tubs’ family. His dress was elaborate; yet, somehow, the result had the appearance, not only of effort, but, if one may be permitted the expression, of Cockney Brummellism. Not that we would be severe on Mules. With his legs and shoulders, with that nose, and the odd mouth, not to mention those grass-green eyes (and his nose, by the way, turned up at them in a hostile manner, like the beak of a bird about to seize upon a gooseberry), with these peculiarities, one is bound to say he made the most of himself. On a fine afternoon, in harbour, the ship’s boys loitered about to see Mules go over the side; and he stepped into the shore-boat with a grace which the present writer feels he will never attain. And then, he made the visits we have mentioned, which he called keeping up his “ position in society !” That phrase was Mules’s favourite one.

Forbessy made a polite bow to the swell. ‘‘ Mr. Adair is more satiric than the bon gout quite justifies,” said Mules. Here, he pressed the iron over the collar; and Adair looked at Forbessy with delight.

“Don’t you find, to be sure I’m no judge (for indeed I employ a washerwoman),” said Forbessy, unconsciously, for he had a great healthy unconsciousness about him, uttering a sarcasm, “ don’t you find the use of an iron unpleasant in the mess P”’

Mules coloured.

* Why, I hardly—ahem !”

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‘“‘ Beeause I should have thought,” pursued Scrymgeour, “ that it made a smell of burning, and that it was apt to knock up against your neighbours.”

“* Just my notion!” cried Adair, with delight, again.

“Well, well,” said Mules, “the collar is finished! I was not aware,” he pursued, trying a kind of bitterness, which he had heard distinguished Lady Ostrich’s manner (her ladyship was ‘“ separated,” and, indeed, snubbed people at Malta as if she was married to them !) “ that I annoyed the mess, though, indeed, Captain Pappleton is open to complaints.”

“Oh; no thought of that, my good fellow,” said Scrymgeour, sprawling himself along one side of the lockers, comfortably ; Mules departed.

“* Why, our friend’s as sore as a skinned bear,” said Scrymgeour.

“Hush! ” Adair said, with a side glance at the “‘younkers.” ‘ Here, White Pappleton ! go and see how the wind is! Black Pappleton, find out when we're going to sail.”

“Uncle said we were to finish our sums.”

“Come, sir, start! The fork’s in the beam!” cried Adair, using an ancient expression, which signifies that the youngsters’ bedtime is come ; and is still used as a formula by stern gentlemen, for getting rid of them.

The boys departed on their missions.

“« You see the kind of vessel you’re come into,” said Adair to Forbessy, “everything’s spoilt, by what they call ‘ Paternal Government.’ ”

* T often wonder, do you know,” said Forbessy, raising himself meditatively from the lockers, where he lay, “ floating many a rood,” *‘ whether the service is going to the devil!”

‘¢T’ve wondered too, about that,” said Adair.

You have wondered likewise about it, have you not, reader? Has it ever occurred to you, that one unhappy thing is—that so few people believe either in the service or the devil ?

“‘T like the old service, I confess,” said Forbessy.

“And I swear I do too,” Adair said. ‘ Only there’s nothing to do, at all events here. There’s no work, and they give stations and ships to old women.”

The assistant-surgeon awoke at this moment, and coughed loudly— which was civil—for it gave you warning to mind what you said, and not get “reported; for Mr. Filbert kept watch and ward over the moral condition of the berth, and “had a duty to perform,” and was the senior in years in the mess, and ‘enjoyed the commander’s confidence,” and was red-haired and hideous to behold, and of very sound principles indeed. He had all the severe qualities this description implies, and the one weakness of being somewhat given to good and copious eating; for there is more in “ birth” than my friend Fitz- Goldner believes—and Mr. Filbert was the son of a dissenting minister, who married his cook.

CHAPTER, II.

ScryMGEouR was left alone in the berth in a few minutes, for there was a shrill pipe through the ship, and the hands were “ turned up.” The Bloater was going to sea that evening. A pile of loaves came down for the use of the mess. Mr. Adair’s “ watch-stock ” luckily was not stopped—indeed, had the solemn Hackles spied that comfortable bundle, it would have been, for it comprised claret, curacgoa, pickled salmon, anchovies, and marmalade. A second bundle, addressed to the same youth, from the circulating-library of Mr. Muir, brought him some novels. But let not the reader be alarmed. It is not a little wine-and-water and a novel that will take the service to the devil—or, God help the wicked !

The Bloater was towed out by the Dragon—Captain Kragegles, M.P. The captain stood with an oratorical air on his paddle-box, for he was a statesman on board ship, and a sailor in Parliament—as far, at least, as he was capable of being either, anywhere. The ministry, whose property he was, used him at home or abroad according to their convenience. ‘‘ A cap by night, a stocking all the day,” might have made his motto!

Already the Bloater was right off the harbour’s mouth ; the Dragon had cast off, and had run in again, in time for the ball at Mr. Porwiggle’s. But the Bloater hove too, and hovered off the harbour’s mouth—chop, chopping, in a light swell, with a curling, blueish-grey sea on one side, and the white island, radiant in the sunset, on the other. Why was she hove to? Scrymgeour had heard the order to back the maintop-sail, and was wondering, when a quartermaster came smartly down to the berth door.

«Mr. Forbessy, sir?”

* That’s right.”

*‘ Captain wants you, sir, please.”

Away bounded Scrymgeour, and gained the upper deck. The men were all at their posts, and stared at the stranger’s face as he passed aft. The second lieutenant put up an eyeglass at him; Joe Tender, the master, had a stare; and under this battery, he reached the captain, who was standing with Mr. Hackles.

«This, sir, is our new young gentlemen,” said Mr. Hackles, speaking in his slow way. Scrymgeour bowed.

“Ah, well. You succeed Mr. Trimmer,” said Captain Pappleton. “‘ Not in the footsteps of Trimmer, I hope! But however, Mr. Forbessy, this, as yet (and the career of Trimmer was not long !) has been a happy and united vessel. I feel myself responsible for the welfare—spiritual and temporal—of my youngsters,—Mr. Adair!” Here he suddenly broke off, with a shout.

Sir,” said Adair, coming forward, and touching his cap.

*‘ Hands out of pockets, sir!”

The marines, who were standing in a row holding the main braces, turned away their heads, and tittered—visibly, one would think—but was not the captain intent on the youngster’s spiritual welfare P

“To resume—Mr. Forbessy, have you been vaccinated?” said the captain, as suddenly as before.

“Sir? Yes, sir,” Forbessy said, checking himself, and surprised.

“Hem. Well! I was going to say—but we will have other questions by-and-by. Mr. Trimmer” (it was evident that that misguided youth had left a deep impression on the captain) ‘‘ was indifferent to spiritual considerations ; and when I urged him to show some curiosity in such subjects, he asked me whether Shem, Ham, and Japhet kept three watches in the ark! But that is over, let us be thankful. Now, Mr. Forbessy, I hope you will get on better; and I shall impose your first duty on you, now. Eh, Mr. Hackles—we may, I think?” ,

“Such is my view, Captain Pappleton.”

An order was given, a pipe sounded, and the first cutter was manned and alongside pretty quickly. The coxswain came with a bundle of flags under his arm, and reported the boat ready.

“Now, Mr. Forbessy, you will take the cutter, and land at the point there,”’ indicating it in the distance, “‘and wait for a person who will come off with you.” Here the captain gave a sort of lurid grin and chuckle, which Forbessy could not understand. ‘* You will bring that person off.”