Part 3 (1/2)

CHAPTER V.

--Of my First s.h.i.+p, the Gannet.

Once it had been settled that I should go to sea, my uncle lost no time in getting me a s.h.i.+p. Through his influence, his intimacy with Sir Thomas Middleton, and also through the interest which Sir Thomas showed towards me, the matter was an easy one, and before August was out I found myself being escorted down to the dockyard to join the Gannet.

This stout craft I must describe. She was of six hundred tons burthen and pierced for fifty guns. She had three masts, besides a small one at her bowsprit-head. When first I saw her she was having a new mizzen fitted, her old mast having been lost in a gale outside the Wight.

Her figurehead represented a man on horseback trampling on a Dutchman, a Frenchman, a Spaniard, and an Algerine. I was told that the horseman was supposed to be the arch-traitor, Old Noll, but a clever hewer of wood had caused all likeness of the great rebel to disappear, and had graven instead the features of honest George, now created Duke of Albemarle.

Her stern gallery was upheld by a row of gilt figures representing that hero of mythology, Master Atlas, of whom my father used to speak; while over the gallery towered three enormous lanterns, and above everything was a maze of spars and rigging that confused me not a little, though before long I was well acquainted with the names of all of them.

This much did I see from the dockyard wall, for the Gannet was lying at anchor in the harbour. One of the seamen on the quay hailed her through a speaking-trumpet, and presently a longboat came off for us, manned by ten l.u.s.ty rowers, while a boy of about my own age sat in the stern-sheets steering the boat and giving orders to the men as if the commanding of the boat had been his life-long business.

Directly we embarked--that is, my uncle, my cousin Maurice, and myself--the boat pushed off, and urged by long strokes soon covered the distance betwixt the sh.o.r.e and the s.h.i.+p. As she neared the latter the youngster shouted: ”Oars!” in such a loud voice that I thought something had happened. The rowers immediately tossed their oars, while the boat ran alongside the Gannet.

We climbed by a steep ladder up the rounding side of the s.h.i.+p, my uncle performing the feat with surprising agility, though he was puffing heartily when he gained the deck and took off his hat to the royal arms that graced the quarterdeck at the break of the p.o.o.p.

We were received by the captain, one Adrian Poynings, said to be a descendant of the fiery governor of Portsmouth who bore the same name, and whose will was the terror of the inhabitants of Portsmouth in the days of Queen Bess.

The captain did not appear to bear the same reputation as did his ancestor. He seemed, for a king's officer, a very mild-mannered gentleman, for when speaking to his subordinates he would say: ”Desire Master So-and-so to do this”, or ”Desire the bos'n to be sent to me”; and so on.

Having been introduced to him, I was sent off in charge of a mids.h.i.+pman to be shown round the s.h.i.+p. This youngster, whose name was Greville Drake (a remote relation of the immortal Sir Francis Drake), was one of the six gentlemen mids.h.i.+pmen serving on the s.h.i.+p. He appeared to be a keen young officer, knowing the ins and outs of everything, yet withal he was of a roguish disposition, and given to skylarking. Before long we were excellent friends.

Having inspected the waist of the s.h.i.+p, the main and upper gundecks, he led me below to the orlop deck, where right aft was situated the gunroom or mids.h.i.+pmen's mess.

Here, illuminated by the glimmer of a couple of purser's dips, or tallow candles, was the place where for the next two or three years I was to live and sleep--otherwise my floating home. The heavy beams were so low that I was obliged to stoop when pa.s.sing underneath them. Innumerable c.o.c.kroaches crawled across the floor or attempted to climb the sides of the cabin, till pinked by a well-directed thrust with a sail-needle.

There were four other mids.h.i.+pmen, taking things as easily as their surroundings would permit, and on our entry I was warmly greeted with a volley of remarks that were both good-natured and humorous.

But my tour of the Gannet was by no means finished, my mentor evidently meaning to make me thoroughly acquainted with the s.h.i.+p. Below the orlop deck we went, pa.s.sing down a steep ladder to the flats, or part of the s.h.i.+p immediately above the ballast. The amids.h.i.+p portion of this s.p.a.ce is termed the c.o.c.kpit, and, though nearly empty, it did not require much imagination on my part to see the forms of mangled seamen dimly outlined in the feeble glimmer of the lantern, young Drake telling me of some of the ghastly sights of the c.o.c.kpit during action in a highly-worded and realistic style.

I could discern the heels of the fore and main masts, and the well of the s.h.i.+p's pump, while farther away was a stack of imperishable s.h.i.+p's stores, from which a number of rats darted, seemingly unmindful of our presence.

When we gained the daylight once more I blinked like an owl, breathing in the fresh air with a relish that the stifling atmosphere of between decks had caused; but short was my respite, for my new friend asked me whether I would be bold enough to go to the foretopmast head.

Not wis.h.i.+ng to be thought a coward, and having had plenty of experience of tree-climbing, I a.s.sented; and Drake, kicking off his shoes, immediately sprang into the shrouds, making his way aloft with marvellous rapidity.

I followed, clinging tenaciously to the shrouds with my hands, while my bare feet were tortured by the contact with the sharp ratlines. However, I stuck to it, followed Drake over the futtock shrouds, where for a s.p.a.ce I felt like a fly on a ceiling, and at length gained the foretop.

Without pausing for breath my guide literally jumped into the topmast shrouds, and before I had attempted to follow he was perched upon the crosstrees. Five minutes later I was by his side, and I must confess that on looking down I experienced a feeling of giddiness that required a strong effort on my part to overcome. Eighty feet below, the deck looked like a long, narrow strip of dazzling white planks, the crew appearing no larger than manikins.

”You have pluck, Aubrey,” remarked Drake. ”I thought you would have shrunk from the task, or, in any case, have climbed no farther than the foretop. And you didn't crawl through the lubber's hole, either!”

”The lubber's hole! What's that?”

”Those openings on the tops. Greenhorns generally scramble through those instead of going over the futtock shrouds. I say, can you swim?”

”No,” I replied. ”An old s.h.i.+pman whom I know, one Master Collings, of Gosport, used to say that swimming was a useless art, for when a man fell overboard his agony was only unduly prolonged.”

”Ah! Many an old seaman thinks the same, but nevertheless to be able to swim comes in very handy. Supposing you fell overboard; well, in nine cases out of ten you would be picked up again if you could swim. I've been knocked overboard as often as four times and I am still here. Now, take the first opportunity and let me teach you.”

I thanked my newly-found friend for his offer, and, now thoroughly rested, I began my descent to the deck, grasping the shrouds tightly and feeling very gingerly with one foot till I found a secure foothold.

On gaining the deck I saw that my uncle and the captain had been watching my manoeuvres, both being well satisfied with my maiden efforts at going aloft.

The time of parting had come, and dry-eyed, though with a curious feeling in my throat, I bade farewell to my uncle and cousin Maurice.

I watched them row ash.o.r.e, waving my handkerchief as they went, and when they reached the wharf they waited to see the Gannet get under way.

It was a busy scene, and an operation in which I could take no part. The captain gave the s.h.i.+p in charge to the master; the red cross of St. George was struck at the gaff and run up to the peak. The shrill notes of the bosn's whistle had hardly died away when the rigging was alive with men; the canvas was spread from the yards as if by magic, and all that remained was to break the anchor out, the cable already being hove short.

A part of the crew manned the capstan bars, a fiddler being perched on the capstan head. ”Heave round the capstan,” came the order, and with a patter of bare feet, the clanking of the pawls, and the merry lilt of the fiddle, the cable came inboard.

”Up and down,” shouted a man stationed for'ard, meaning the anchor has left its muddy bed. ”Now, then, my hearties, heave and away!” And to an increased pace the anchor came home.

A medley of other orders, unintelligible to me, followed; the sheets were hauled well home, the braces and bowlines made taut, and by the peculiar gliding sensation that followed I knew the Gannet was under way.

The old town of Portsmouth appeared to slip past our larboard quarter, and presently the s.h.i.+p was lifting to the gentle swell, as, close-hauled, we headed towards the English Channel.

Thus commenced the three years' cruise of my first s.h.i.+p, His Majesty's s.h.i.+p Gannet, and I soon accustomed myself to the routine, showing a keen interest in the duties of a mids.h.i.+pman; and ere long I could vie with my messmates in the most hazardous tasks that fell to their lot.

The Gannet first sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar to the Mediterranean Sea, for the purpose of keeping an eye on the Algerine rovers, who had again begun, in spite of the sharp lesson taught them by Admiral Blake, to molest peaceful traders. From the Mediterranean we sailed across the Atlantic to the Indies, to make our headquarters the town of Port Royal in Jamaica, an island that Penn and Venables had seized from the Spaniards some five years before.

CHAPTER VI.

--Of the Finding of Pedro Alvarez, and of the Strange Tale that he Told.

On arriving at Port Royal Captain Poynings decided that the Gannet should be refitted. Accordingly preparations were made to overhaul the s.h.i.+p thoroughly ere she joined her consorts in a cruise amongst the Antilles for the purpose of destroying those hornets' nests of buccaneers that made the Caribbean Sea a terror to law-abiding seamen.

Our task was rendered doubly difficult, first by the oppressive heat, and secondly by the fact that, like the Mediterranean, these waters are practically tideless, so that the difference between the rise and fall can be measured by the span of a man's hand.

On this account it is impossible for a vessel to be left high and dry, so the operation of cleaning her hull below the waterline is performed by ”careening”, or allowing her to lie on one bilge, so that the other side is raised above the water.

All heavy gear, including the guns, was taken ash.o.r.e, the manual work being performed by gangs of negro slaves, who toiled and groaned under the lash of their relentless taskmasters.

To me the sight was a terrible one, unaccustomed as I was to scenes of cruelty, and I unburdened myself to the master.

”Heart alive, lad!” he replied with a careless laugh, ”they are but n.i.g.g.e.rs, and know naught else of life but to toil. Treat them kindly, and they'll take care to work still less. And, mark my words, lad, if ever it comes to pa.s.s that these blackamoors are freed, as Master Penn would persuade us to do, then these islands are doomed. Never a stroke will they do save under compulsion---- There, look at that!”

A crash, a loud shriek, and a babel of shouts showed that a disaster had occurred. One of the largest guns was being hoisted over the side by a combination of tackle between the lower fore and main yards. Just as it swung outboard the sling on the chase parted, and the huge ma.s.s of metal fell into a barge alongside, crus.h.i.+ng two negroes and tearing through the bottom of the sh.o.r.e-craft. Instantly all was confusion; the master gunner was cursing at the loss of his piece of ordnance, his voice raised high above the shouts of the terrified negroes, the bos'n receiving the brunt of his attack. ”Dost want me to teach thee thy trade, landlubber? Is it not time that ye learned to tie aught but a slippery hitch?”

This aspersion on the boatswain's workmans.h.i.+p caused a fierce dispute, but this had not lasted long when it was suddenly stopped by another yell of terror.