Part 19 (2/2)
Now, I had been away the whole morning, and it was then half-past one, and I had had no dinner; but I said nothing, and went into the boat. As soon as I was off, O'Brien, who stood by Mr Falcon, said, ”Peter was thinking of his dinner, poor fellow!”
”I really quite forgot it,” replied the first lieutenant, ”there is so much to do. He is a willing boy, and he shall dine in the gun-room when he comes back.” And so I did--so I lost nothing by not expostulating, and gained more of the favour of the first lieutenant, who never forgot what he called _zeal_. But the hardest trial of the whole is to the mids.h.i.+pman who is sent to the boat to purchase the supplies for the cabin and gun-room on the day before the s.h.i.+p's sailing. It was my misfortune to be ordered upon that service this time, and that very unexpectedly. I had been ordered to dress myself to take the gig on sh.o.r.e for the captain's orders, and was walking the deck with my very best uniform and sidearms, when the marine officer, who was the gun-room caterer, came up to the first lieutenant and asked him for a boat. The boat was manned, and a mids.h.i.+pman ordered to take charge of it; but when he came up, the first lieutenant recollecting that he had come off two days before with only half his boat's crew, would not trust him, and calling out to me, ”Here, Mr Simple, I must send you in this boat; mind you are careful that none of the men leave it; and bring off the serjeant of marines, who is on sh.o.r.e looking for the men who have broken their liberty.” Although I could not but feel proud of the compliment, yet I did not much like going in my very best uniform, and would have run down and changed it, but the marine officer and all the people were in the boat, and I could not keep it waiting, so down the side I went, and we shoved off. We had, besides the boat's crew, the marine officer, the purser, the gun-room steward, the captain's steward, and the pursers steward; so that we were pretty full. It blew hard from the S.E., and there was a sea running, but as the tide was flowing into the harbour there was not much bubble. We hoisted the foresail, flew before the wind and tide, and in quarter of an hour we were at Mutton Cove, when the marine officer expressed his wish to land. The landing-place was crowded with boats; and it was not without sundry exchanges of foul words and oaths, and the bow-men das.h.i.+ng the points of their boat-hooks into the sh.o.r.e-boats, to make them keep clear of us, that we forced our way to the beach. The marine officer and all the stewards then left the boat, and I had to look after the men. I had not been there three minutes before the bowman said that his wife was on the wharf with his clothes from the wash, and begged leave to go and fetch them. I refused, telling him that she could bring them to him. ”Vy, now, Mr Simple,” said the woman, ”ar'n't you a nice lady's man, to go for to ax me to muddle my way through all the dead dogs, cabbage-stalks, and stinking hakes' heads, with my bran new shoes and clean stockings?” I looked at her, and sure enough she was, as they say in France, _bien chaussee_. ”Come, Mr Simple, let him out to come for his clothes, and you'll see that he's back in a moment.” I did not like to refuse her, as it was very dirty and wet, and the s.h.i.+ngle was strewed with all that she had mentioned. The bow-man made a spring out with his boat-hook, threw it back, went up to his wife, and commenced talking with her, while I watched him. ”If you please, sir, there's my young woman come down, mayn't I speak to her?” said another of the men. I turned round, and refused him. He expostulated, and begged very hard, but I was resolute; however, when I again turned my eyes to watch the bowman, he and his wife were gone. ”There,” says I to the c.o.xswain, ”I knew it would be so; you see Hickman is off.”
”Only gone to take a parting gla.s.s, sir,” replied the c.o.xswain; ”he'll be here directly.”
”I hope so; but I'm afraid not.” After this, I refused all the solicitations of the men to be allowed to leave the boat, but I permitted them to have some beer brought down to them. The gun-boat steward then came back with a basket of _soft-tack_, i.e., loaves of bread, and told me that the marine officer requested I would allow two of the men to go up with him to Glencross' shop, to bring down some of the stores. Of course I sent two of the men, and told the steward if he saw Hickman, to bring him down to the boat.
By this time many of the women belonging to the s.h.i.+p had a.s.sembled, and commenced a noisy conversation with the boat's crew. One brought one article for Jim, another some clothes for Bill; some of them climbed into the boat, and sat with the men--others came and went, bringing beer and tobacco, which the men desired them to purchase. The crowd, the noise, and confusion, were so great, that it was with the utmost difficulty that I could keep my eyes on all my men, who, one after another, made an attempt to leave the boat. Just at that time came down the sergeant of marines, with three of our men whom he had picked up, _roaring drunk_. They were tumbled into the boat, and increased the difficulty, as in looking after those who were riotous, and would try to leave the boat by force, I was not so well able to keep my eyes on those who were sober. The sergeant then went up after another man, and I told him also about Hickman. About half-an-hour afterwards the steward came down with the two men, loaded with cabbages, baskets of eggs, strings of onions, crockery of all descriptions, paper parcels of groceries, legs and shoulders of mutton, which were crowded in, until not only the stern-sheets, but all under the thwarts of the boat was also crammed full. They told me that they had a few more things to bring down, and that the marine officer had gone to Stonehouse to see his wife, so that they should be down long before him. In half-an-hour more, during which I had the greatest difficulty to manage the boat's crew they returned with a dozen geese, and two ducks, tied by the legs, but without the two men, who had given them the slip, so that there were now three men gone, and I knew Mr Falcon would be very angry, for they were three of the smartest men in the s.h.i.+p. I was now determined not to run the risk of losing more men, and I ordered the boat's crew to shove off, that I might lie at the wharf, where they could not climb up. They were very mutinous, grumbled very much, and would hardly obey me; the fact is, they had drunk a great deal, and some of them were more than half tipsy.
However, at last I was obeyed, but not without being saluted with a shower of invectives from the women, and the execrations of the men belonging to the wherries and _sh.o.r.e_ boats which were washed against our sides by the swell. The weather had become much worse and looked very threatening. I waited an hour more, when the sergeant of marines came down with two more men, one of whom, to my great joy, was Hickman.
This made me more comfortable, as I was not answerable for the other two; still I was in great trouble from the riotous and insolent behaviour of the boat's crew, and the other men brought down by the sergeant of marines. One of them fell back into a basket of eggs, and smashed them all to atoms; still the marine officer did not come down and it was getting late. The tide being now at the ebb, running out against the wind, there was a very heavy sea, and I had to go off to the s.h.i.+p with a boat deeply laden, and most of the people in her in a state of intoxication. The c.o.xswain, who was the only one who was sober, recommended our shoving off, as it would soon be dark, and some accident would happen. I reflected a minute, and agreeing with him, I ordered the oars to be got out, and we shoved off, the sergeant of marines and the gun-room steward perched up in the bows--drunken men, ducks and geese, lying together at the bottom of the boat--the stern sheets loaded up to the gunwale, and the other pa.s.sengers and myself sitting how we could among the crockery and a variety of other articles with which the boat was crowded. It was a scene of much confusion--the half-drunken boat's crew _catching crabs_, and falling forward upon the others--those who were quite drunk swearing they _would_ pull. ”Lay on your oar, Sullivan; you were doing more harm than good. You drunken rascal, I'll report you as soon as we get on board.”
”How the devil can I pull, your honour, when there's that fellow Jones breaking the very back o' me with his oar, and he never touching the water all the while?”
”You lie,” cried Jones; ”I'm pulling the boat by myself against the whole of the larboard oars.”
”He's rowing _dry_, your honour--only making bilave.”
”Do you call this rowing dry?” cried another, as a sea swept over the boat, fore and aft, wetting every body to the skin.
”Now, your honour, just look and see if I a'n't pulling the very arms off me?” cried Sullivan.
”Is there water enough to cross the bridge, Swinburne?” said I to the c.o.xswain.
”Plenty, Mr Simple; it is but quarter ebb, and the sooner we are on board the better.”
We were now past Devil's Point, and the sea was very heavy: the boat plunged in the trough, so that I was afraid that we should break her back. She was soon half full of water, and the two after oars were laid in for the men to bale. ”Plase your honour, hadn't I better cut free the legs of them ducks and geese, and allow them to swim for their lives?” cried Sullivan, resting on his oar; ”the poor birds will be drowned else in their own _iliment_.”
”No, no--pull away as hard as you can.”
By this time the drunken men in the bottom of the boat began to be very uneasy, from the quant.i.ty of water which washed about them, and made several staggering attempts to get on their legs. They fell down again upon the ducks and geese, the major part of which were saved from being drowned by being suffocated. The sea on the Bridge was very heavy: and although the tide swept us out, we were nearly swamped. Soft bread was was.h.i.+ng about the bottom of the boat; the parcels of sugar, pepper, and salt, were wet through with the salt water, and a sudden jerk threw the captain's steward, who was seated upon the gunwale close to the after-oar, right upon the whole of the crockery and eggs, which added to the ma.s.s of destruction. A few more seas s.h.i.+pped completed the job, and the gun-room steward was in despair. ”That's a darling!” cried Sullivan: ”the politest boat in the whole fleet. She makes more bows and curtsys than the finest couple in the land. Give way, my lads, and work the crater stuff out of your elbows, and the first lieutenant will see us all so sober, and so wet in the bargain, and think we're all so dry, that perhaps he'll be after giving us a raw nip when we get on board.”
In a quarter of an hour we were nearly alongside, but the men pulled so badly, and the sea was so great, that we missed the s.h.i.+p, and went astern. They veered out a buoy with a line, which we got hold of, and were hauled up by the marines and after guard, the boat plunging bows under, and drenching us through and through. At last we got under the counter, and I climbed up by the stern ladder. Mr Falcon was on deck, and very angry at the boat not coming alongside properly. ”I thought, Mr Simple, that you knew by this time how to bring a boat alongside.”
”So I do, sir, I hope,” replied I; ”but the boat was so full of water, and the men would not give way.”
”What men has the sergeant brought on board?”
”Three, sir,” replied I, s.h.i.+vering with the cold, and unhappy at my very best uniform being spoiled.
”Are all your boat's crew with you, sir?”
”No, sir, there are two left on sh.o.r.e; they--”
”Not a word, sir. Up to the mast-head, and stay there till I call you down. If it were not so late, I would send you on sh.o.r.e, and not receive you on board again without the men. Up, sir, immediately.”
I did not venture to explain, but up I went. It was very cold, blowing hard from the S.E., with heavy squalls; I was so wet, that the wind appeared to blow through me, and it was now nearly dark. I reached the cross-trees, and when I was seated there, I felt that I had done my duty, and had not been fairly treated. During this time, the boat had been hauled up alongside to clear, and a pretty clearance there was.
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