Crown and Anchor Part 19

"I hope you haven't hurt yourself," said "Joe," seeing that the other kept his white cambric handkerchief still tightly pressed to his forehead. "That was a rather nasty knock you got! Cut yourself, eh?"

"I--I--don't quite know, you know," answered the reverend gentleman, removing the handkerchief after some hesitation and proceeding to examine it carefully as if fearing the worst; but, finding now no trace of blood on its snowy surface, he became rea.s.sured and said, in a more cheery tone, "no, not cut, I think, only a severe contusion, thank you, Mr Jellaby. The pain has nearly gone now!"

"That's right; I'm glad you've escaped so well," said "Joe," taking Mr Smythe's arm again and wheeling him in line so as to resume their walk; while I stood by, with my ears c.o.c.ked, listening to the detached fragments of their talk. "On board my last s.h.i.+p, the _Blanche_, we had a rum start one day with our life-buoy sentry. Would you like me to tell you the story?"

"Thanks, much," responded the chaplain; "I should be delighted."

"Well, you see," began the lieutenant, starting off with his yarn and quarter-deck walk again simultaneously, "we had a lot of raw marine lads who had just enlisted sent us from Forton to complete our complement; and, one of these green hands, as luck would have it, was placed as sentry on the p.o.o.p by the sergeant of the guard, the first day he came aboard, though he'd probably never seen a s.h.i.+p in his life before. You see, eh?"

"Ah!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the chaplain as "Joe" turned abruptly when close up to the taffrail and nearly twisted him off his legs. "Yes, I--ah--see."

"When the poor jolly was put on sentry," continued the lieutenant, bolstering up Mr Smythe with his arm and just saving him in the nick of time from coming to grief again over a ringbolt on the deck, "the sergeant told him he would have to call out when the bell was struck, thinking, of course, he knew all about it. The poor fellow, though, as you are aware, was quite ignorant of the custom; so, as soon as the sergeant's back was turned, he asked one of the men of the starboard watch standing by, 'What am I to call out when they strike the bell?'

"'Life-buoy!' replied the other. 'Life-buoy!'

"'All right, chummy, I thank you kindly,' said the young marine, full of grat.i.tude; and so, when, by-and-by, Two Bells were struck, he called out in a voice that could be heard all over the s.h.i.+p, 'Live boy!'"

"He--he--he!" chuckled the chaplain in his feeble way, he and Mr Jellaby coming to a stop, I was glad to see, close to where I stood.

"That was funny! Very, very funny!"

"Nothing to what's coming," went on Mr Jellaby, pleased that his efforts at comic narrative under such difficulties had been so far successful, the chaplain not objecting to the secular amus.e.m.e.nt from any conscientious scruples. "Well, as soon as the ignorant chaw-bacon chap yelled out this, which naturally made everyone who heard it laugh, although they put the mistake down to the poor fellow's provincial p.r.o.nunciation, he turns to the man who had previously instructed him and asks in a proud sort of way, as if seeking praise for his performance, 'Say, how did I sing out that, chum?'

"'Very well,' replied the other, who, if he had advised him in good faith in the first instance, on now seeing the result of his teaching was anxious to take a rise out of the 'stupid jolly,' as he thought him.

'But, chummy, you'll have to do different next time.'

"'Oh!' exclaimed the marine. 'What shall I have to sing out, then?'

"'You called "Live boy" at Two Bells; and so it'll be "Dead boy" when it strikes Three Bells. It's always turn and turn about aboard s.h.i.+p.'

"'Yes, that's fair enough and I thank you kindly,' answered the poor marine, sucking in the other's gammon like milk, not perceiving for a moment that the sailor was 'pulling his leg'; and, the next time the bell sounded, as sure as we both stand here, if you'll believe me, Mr Smythe, the silly donkey shouted out, even louder than he had done before, at the very pitch of his voice, 'Dead boy.'"

"He, he, he!" cackled Mr Smythe again, while d.i.c.k Popplethorne, who had joined me by the taffrail and was intently listening like myself to "Joe's" yarn, burst out in a regular guffaw, which he had to choke his fist into his mouth to suppress; for, any such violent expression of merriment was totally at variance with the discipline of a man-of-war and had to be checked at once for the good of the service! "But, what-- ah, happened, Mr Jellaby, to the poor fellow, eh?"

"Why, the officer of the watch sent for the sergeant of the guard with a file of marines, and put the man under arrest for being drunk and mutinous!"

"You don't--ah, mean to say he was punished?"

"No," replied "Joe," with a wink to us. "He certainly was brought up on the quarter-deck before the captain, who had heard his queer shout, as everybody did, indeed, who was on deck at the time; but, the bluejacket who had misled him came forward at the last moment and got him released from chokey, our captain, who was a good-tempered chap and enjoyed a joke, letting them both off, although he read 'em a lecture and had to bite his lip the while he spoke of the heinousness of their joint offence, he being hardly able to speak seriously!"

"Ah, I see," said the Reverend Mr Smythe approvingly, though in a very faint tone, walking off towards the p.o.o.p-ladder with the lieutenant's aid, having evidently had enough of the s.h.i.+p's rolling. He expressed a wish to seek the seclusion of his own cabin, whereat I was not surprised, both d.i.c.k Popplethorne and myself having observed his face a.s.sume a greenish-yellowy-liver sort of look during the last few moments of "Joe's" narrative; but he kept up his courage to the last, murmuring yet more faintly as he tottered below. "Ve-wy good--ah! Ye-es, ve-wy good--ah, indeed!"

"Funny, wasn't it?" said d.i.c.k Popplethorne to me as the two turned away, laughing again, only more quietly now. "What a rum start for him to sing out, 'dead boy!'"

I thought so, too--afterwards.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

OFF USHANT.

At Eight Bells, or four o'clock in the ordinary parlance of landsmen, Mr Bitpin was relieved by the first lieutenant, who then came on deck with the rest of the starboard watch to take charge, while the port watch went below at the same time.

This hour marked the beginning of the first dog watch, which, it may be here mentioned for the benefit of the uninitiated, only lasts two hours, from four o'clock to six, when the second dog watch, of similar duration, commences and continues until eight o'clock, or "Eight Bells,"

again.

These subdivisions of time are necessary on board s.h.i.+p in order to allow all to share alike the rough with the smooth, and give the officers and men a change at regular intervals from day to night service, and the reverse; for, if all the watches were of equal length, there could not be any possible variation of the hours during which the hands would be on and off duty respectively, the one section of the crew in such case coming on deck at precisely the same time each day and going below in similar rotation.

By the system in vogue, however, of cutting one of the watches into two parts, which is common to the seamen of all countries in the mercantile marine and is not merely limited to the routine of our men-of-war, there is a constant change introduced; so that, the men who take, say, the first watch to-night, from eight o'clock till midnight, will have the middle watch to-morrow night, and so on in regular sequence until the time comes round again for them to "return to their old love" again!

"Gla.s.s-eye," as the men called the first lieutenant, I noticed, was a much smarter hand than Mr Bitpin, in spite of his drawly way of speaking and lackadaisical airs below; and when he was officer of the watch there was no lolling about the deck or any of the talking that went on behind the boats and in odd corners, as was the case while "old growler" had charge.

Everyone then, on the contrary, brightened up and kept to his station; while even the old quartermaster and helmsman drawing themselves up at "attention" as soon as the Honourable Digby Lanyard's long, telescopic form appeared on the p.o.o.p, just as if he were the commander, or Captain Farmer himself.

The Honourable was not long inactive, for the sun was already beginning to sink below the western horizon, lighting up Saint Alban's Head, abreast of which we were now speeding along, with a bright glare that displayed every detail of its steep escarpment and the rocky foresh.o.r.e at its base; the glorious...o...b..of day presently disappearing beneath the ocean, leaving a track of radiance behind him across the watery waste and flooding the heavens overhead with a harmony of vivid colouring in which every tint of the rainbow was represented--crimson and purple and gold, melting into rose, that paled again into the most delicate sea-- green and finally became merged in the more neutral tones of night!

"Looks like a change coming, I think," observed Mr Quadrant, the master, glancing at the sunset more with the eye of a meteorologist than that of an artist. "Those northerly winds never last long in the Channel, especially at this time of year."

"The evening's closing in, too," said the "first luff," s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g his eyegla.s.s more tightly into the corner of his eye and bending his lanky body over the p.o.o.p-rail to see if everything was all right on the deck below, after taking a hurried squint aloft. "I shall shorten sail at once. Bosun's mate!"

You should have heard him roar out this hail. Why, it made me jump off my feet as if a cannon had been fired, with a full charge, close to my head!

"Ay, ay, sir," replied the boatswain's mate, coming under the break of the p.o.o.p, so as to be nearer at hand; but there was certainly no necessity for his approaching in order to hear better, for the lieutenant's voice would have been audible a mile off, "I'm here, sir."

"Pipe the watch to shorten sail!"

"Ay, ay, sir."

There was no need, though, of pipe or shout from the worthy petty officer addressed, notwithstanding that the l.u.s.ty seaman could have piped and shouted with the best, should duty demand it of him; for, the lieutenant's order had already reached the ears of every man of the watch, and all were at their several stations, ready for the next command.

This was not long-delayed.

"Topmen aloft! In royals and to'gallant stu'ns'ls!" he bellowed, in a tone that put that of poor Mr Bitpin completely into the shade; his voice sounding as if the wild bull which that gentleman had apparently imitated, according to the facetious Larkyns, had since been under the instruction of Signor Lablache or some other distinguished ba.s.s singer and had learnt to mellow his roar into a deeper tone. No sooner, too, had the hands jumped into the rigging and the studdingsail halliards and tacks been cast off by the watch on deck and the downhauls and sheets manned, than the "first luff," pitching his voice to yet a higher key, sang out in rapid sequence, "Topmast stu'ns'l downhaul--haul taut--clew up--all down!"

"Bosun's mate," he then cried, "turn the hands up!"

This was the last order he gave on his own responsibility; for, while the men of the watch below were hurrying up on deck in obedience to the busy boatswain's mates' whistle and shout of "all ha-a-nds," which could still be heard ringing through the s.h.i.+p, Commander Nesbitt came up on the p.o.o.p and took charge.

He thus superseded his subordinate, the lieutenant; it being the custom of the service for the commander to "carry on" on such occasions and the officer of the watch, whoever he might be, to "play second fiddle," as the saying goes, which part the "first luff," took in the present instance, proceeding at once to his proper station on the forecastle.

No cessation occurred, however, in the task of shortening sail.

"Hands reef tops'ls!" shouted the commander almost on the instant he gained the p.o.o.p, following this up by the command, "Topmen aloft--take in one reef--way aloft!"

Of course Adams and Larkyns and Popplethorne had to scramble up to their posts in the mizzen and main and foretops, much to my admiration and envy; for, being only a cadet, I was not allowed to go aloft except for drill, and then only under special supervision, as I will presently tell.

While these lucky beggars, as I then thought them, were footing it up the ratlines, the commander sang out in rapid rotation, the orders necessary to make the way clear for taking in the reef required--

"Weather topsail braces--round in--lower the tops'ls!"