Frank Mildmay Part 15

I am not going to relate how many kisses these lovely girls bestowed on this envied captain. If such are captains' perquisites, who would not be a captain? Suffice it to say, they released the whole of their countrymen, and returned on board in triumph. The story reached Halifax, where the good-humoured admiral only said he was sorry he was not a captain, and all the happy society made themselves very merry with it. The captain, who is as brave as he is good, was promoted soon after, entirely from his own intrinsic merit, but not for this action, in which candour and friends.h.i.+p must acknowledge he was defeated. The Lord-Chancellor used to say, he always laughed at the settlement of pin-money, as ladies were either kicked out of it or kissed out of it; but his lords.h.i.+p, in the whole course of his legal practice, never saw a captain of a man-of-war kissed out of forty men by two pretty Irish girls. After this, who would not shout "_Erin go bragh_!"

Das.h.i.+ng with a fine breeze out of the harbour, I saw with joy the field of fortune open to me, holding out a fair promise of glory and riches.

"Adieu!" said I, in my heart, "adieu, ye lovely Nova Scotians! learn in future to distinguish between false glitter and real worth. Me ye prized for a handsome person and a smooth tongue, while you foolishly rejected men of ten times my worth, because they wanted the outward blandishments."

We were ordered to Bermuda, and on our first quitting the port, steered away to the southward with a fair wind at north-west. This breeze soon freshened into a gale at south-east, and blew with some violence; but after awhile it died away to a perfect calm, leaving a heavy swell, in which the s.h.i.+p rolled incessantly. About eleven o'clock the sky began to blacken; and, before noon, had a.s.sumed an appearance of the most dismal and foreboding darkness; the sea-gulls screamed as they flew distractedly by, warning us to prepare for the approaching hurricane, whose symptoms could hardly be mistaken. The warning was not lost upon us, most of our sails were taken in, and we had, as we thought, so well secured everything, as to bid defiance to the storm. About noon it came with a sudden and terrific violence that astonished the oldest and most experienced seamen among us: the noise it made was horrible, and its ravages inconceivable.

The wind was from the north-west--the water, as it blew on board, and all over us, was warm as milk; the murkiness and close smell of the air was in a short time dispelled: but such was the violence of the wind, that, on the moment of its striking the s.h.i.+p, she lay over on her side with her lee guns under water. Every article that could move was danced to leeward; the shot flew out of the lockers, and the greatest confusion and dismay prevailed below, while above deck things went still worse; the mizen-mast and the fore and main top-mast went over the side; but such was the noise of the wind, that we could not hear them fall; nor did I, who was standing close to the mizen-mast at the moment, know it was gone, until I turned round and saw the stump of the mast snapped in two like a carrot. The noise of the wind "waxed louder and louder;" it was like one continued peal of thunder; and the enormous waves, as they rose, were instantly beheaded by its fury, and sent in foaming spray along the bosom of the deep; the storm stay-sails flew to atoms; the captain, officers, and men stood aghast, looking at each other, and waiting the awful event in utter amazement.

The s.h.i.+p lay over on her larboard side so heavily as to force the gun ports, and the nettings of the waist hammocks, and seemed as if settling bodily down; while large ma.s.ses of water, by the force of the wind, were whirled up into the air; and others were pouring down the hatchways, which we had not had time to batten down, and before we had succeeded, the lower deck was half full, and the chests and hammocks were all floating about in dreadful disorder. The sheep, cow, pigs, and poultry were all washed overboard out of the waist and drowned; no voice could be heard, and no orders were given; all discipline was suspended; every man was equal to his neighbour; captain and sweeper clung alike to the same rope for security.

The carpenter was for cutting away the masts, but the captain would not consent. A seaman crawled aft on the quarter-deck, and, screaming into the ear of the captain, informed him that one of the anchors had broken adrift, and was hanging by the cable under the bows. To have let it remain long in this situation, was certain destruction to the s.h.i.+p, and I was ordered forward to see it cut away; but so much had the gale and the sea increased in a few minutes, that a pa.s.sage to the forecastle was not to be found; on the weather side, the wind and sea were so violent that no man could face them. I was blown against the boats, and with difficulty got back to the quarter-deck; and going over to leeward, I swam along the gangway under the lee of the boats, and delivered the orders, which with infinite difficulty at last were executed.

On the forecastle I found the oldest and stoutest seamen holding on by the weather-rigging, and crying like children: I was surprised at this, and felt proud to be above such weakness. While my superiors in age and experience were sinking under apprehension, I was aware of our danger, and saw very clearly, that if the frigate did not right very shortly, it would be all over with us; for in spite of our precautions, the water was increasing below. I swam back to the quarter-deck, where the captain, who was as brave a man as ever trod a plank, stood at the wheel, with three of the best seamen; but such were the rude shocks which the rudder received from the sea, that it was with the utmost difficulty they could prevent themselves being thrown over the s.h.i.+p's side. The lee quarter-deck guns were under water; but it was proposed to throw them overboard and as it was a matter of life and death, we succeeded. Still she lay like a log, and would not right, and settled down in a very alarming manner. The violence of the hurricane was unabated, and the general feeling seemed to be, "To prayers!--to prayers!--all lost!"

The fore and mainmasts still stood, supporting the weight of rigging and wreck which hung to them, and which like a powerful lever, pressed the labouring s.h.i.+p down on her side. To disengage this enormous top-hamper was to us an object more to be desired than expected. Yet the case was desperate, and a desperate effort was to be made, or in half an hour we should have been past praying for, except by a Roman Catholic priest.

The danger of sending a man aloft was so imminent, that the captain would not order one on this service; but calling the s.h.i.+p's company on the quarter-deck, pointed to the impending wreck, and by signs and gestures, and hard bawling, convinced them that unless the s.h.i.+p was immediately eased of her burden, she must go down.

At this moment every wave seemed to make a deeper and more fatal impression on her. She descended rapidly in the hollows of the sea, and rose with dull and exhausted motion, as if she felt she could do no more. She was worn out in the contest, and about to surrender, like a n.o.ble and battered fortress, to the overwhelming power of her enemies.

The men seemed stupefied with the danger, and I have no doubt, could they have got at the spirits, would have made themselves drunk, and in that state, have met their inevitable fate. At every lurch, the mainmast appeared as if making the most violent efforts to disengage itself from the s.h.i.+p; the weather shrouds became like straight bars of iron, while the lee shrouds hung over in a semicircle to leeward, or with the weather-roll, banged against the mast, and threatened instant destruction, each moment, from the convulsive jerks. We expected to see the mast fall, and with it the side of the s.h.i.+p to be beaten in. No man could be found daring enough, at the captain's request, to venture aloft, and cut away the wreck of the main top-mast, and the main yard, which was hanging up and down, with the weight of the top-mast and topsail-yard resting upon it. There was a dead and stupid pause, while the hurricane, if anything, increased in violence.

I confess that I felt gratified at this acknowledgment of a danger which none dared face. I waited a few seconds to see if a volunteer would step forward, resolved, if he did, that I would be his enemy for life, inasmuch as he would have robbed me of the gratification of my darling pa.s.sion--unbounded pride. Dangers, in common with others, I had often faced, and been the first to encounter: but to dare that which a gallant and hardy crew of a frigate had declined, was a climax of superiority which I had never dreamed of attaining. Seizing a sharp tomahawk, I made signs to the captain that I would attempt to cut away the wreck, follow me who dared. I mounted the weather-rigging; five or six hardy seamen followed me; sailors will rarely refuse to follow where they find an officer lead the way.

The jerks of the rigging had nearly thrown us overboard, or jammed us with the wreck. We were forced to embrace the shrouds with arms and legs; and anxiously, and with breathless apprehension for our lives, did the captain, officers, and crew gaze on us as we mounted, and cheered us at every stroke of the tomahawk. The danger seethed pa.s.sed when we reached the catharpings, where we had foot room. We divided our work; some took the lanyards of the top-mast rigging; I, the slings of the main yard. The l.u.s.ty blows we dealt were answered by corresponding crashes; and at length, down fell the tremendous wreck over the larboard gunwale. The s.h.i.+p felt instant relief; she righted, and we descended amidst the cheers, the applauses, the congratulations, and, I may add, the tears of grat.i.tude of most of our s.h.i.+pmates. The work now became lighter, the gale abated every moment, the wreck was gradually cleared away, and we forgot our cares.

This was the proudest moment of my life, and no earthly possession would I have taken in exchange for what I felt when I once more placed my foot on the quarter-deck. The approving smile of the captain--the hearty shake by the hand--the praises of the officers--the eager gaze of the s.h.i.+p's company, who looked on me with astonishment and obeyed me with alacrity, were something in my mind, when abstractedly considered, but nothing compared to the inward feeling of gratified ambition--a pa.s.sion so intimately interwoven in my existence, that to have eradicated it the whole fabric of my fame must have been demolished. I felt pride justified.

Hurricanes are rarely of long continuance; this was succeeded by a gale, which, though strong, was fine weather compared to what we had seen. We fell to work, rigged our jury-mast, and in a few days presented ourselves to the welcome gaze of the town of Halifax, which, having felt the full force of the hurricane, expressed very considerable alarm for our safety. My arms and legs did not recover for some time from the effects of the bruises I had received in going aloft, and for some days I remained on board. When I recovered, I went on sh.o.r.e, and was kindly and affectionately received by my numerous friends.

I had not been long at Halifax before a sudden change took place in the behaviour of my captain towards me. The cause I could never exactly discover, though I had given myself some room for conjecture. I must confess with sorrow, that notwithstanding his kindness to me on every occasion, and notwithstanding my high respect for him, as an officer and a gentleman, I had raised a laugh against him. But he was too good-humoured a man to be offended at such a harmless act of youthful levity; and five minutes were usually the limits of anger with this amiable man on such occasions as I am about to relate.

The fact was this; my truly n.o.ble captain sported a remarkably wide pair of blue trousers. Whether he thought it sailor-like, or whether his tailor was afraid of putting his lords.h.i.+p to short allowance of cloth, for fear of phlogistic consequences, I know not; but broad as was the beam of his lords.h.i.+p, still broader and more ample in proportion were the folds of this essential part of his drapery, quite enough to have embraced twice the volume of human flesh contained within them, large as it undoubtedly was.

That "a st.i.tch in time saves nine," is a wise saw, unhappily, like many others of the same thrifty kind, but little heeded in this our day. So it was with Lord Edward. A rent had, by some mischance, been made in the central seam, and, on the morning of the hurricane, was still unmended. When the gale came, it sought a quarrel with anything it could lay hold of, and the harmless trousers of Lord Edward became subject to its mighty and resistless devastation; the bl.u.s.tering Boreas entered by the seam aforesaid, and filled the trousers like the cheeks of a trumpeter. Yorks.h.i.+re wool could not stand the inflated pressure, the dress split to ribbons, and soundly flagellated the very part it was intended to conceal. What could he do, "in sweet confusion lost, and dubious _flutterings_"--the only defence left against the rude blast was his s.h.i.+rt (for the weather was so warm that second garments were dispensed with), and this too being old, fled in tatters before the gale. In short, clap a sailor's jacket on the Gladiator in Hyde Park, and you have a fair view of Lord Edward in the hurricane.

The case was inconvenient enough; but as the s.h.i.+p was in distress, and we all expected to go to the bottom in half an hour, it was not worth while to quit the deck to replace the dress, which would have availed him nothing in the depths of the sea, particularly as we were not likely to meet with any ladies there: nor if there had been any, was it a matter of any moment whether we went to Davy's locker with or without breeches; but when the danger was pa.s.sed, the joke began to appear, and I was amusing a large company with the _tale_, when his lords.h.i.+p came in. The t.i.tter of the ladies increased to a giggle, and then by regular gradation, to a loud and uncontrollable laugh. He very soon discovered that he was the subject, and I the cause, and for a minute or two seemed sulky; but it soon went off, and I cannot think this was the reason of his change of sentiments; for, although it is high treason in a mids.h.i.+pman to look black at the captain's dog, much less to laugh at the captain under any circ.u.mstances, still I knew that my captain was too good a fellow to be offended with such a trifle. I rather suspect I was wished out of the s.h.i.+p by the first lieutenant and gun-room officers; and they were right, for where an inferior officer is popular with the men, discipline must suffer from it. I received a good-natured hint from Lord Edward that another captain in a larger frigate would be happy to receive me. I understood him; we parted good friends, and I shall ever think of him with respect and grat.i.tude.

My new captain was a very different sort of man, refined in his manner, a scholar, and a gentleman. Kind and friendly with his officers, his library was at their disposal; the fore cabin, where his books were usually kept, was open to all; it was the school-room of the young mids.h.i.+pmen and the study of the old ones. He was an excellent draughtsman, and I profited not a little by his instructions; he loved the society of the ladies, so did I; but he being a married man was more select in his company and more correct in his conduct than I could pretend to be.

We were ordered to Quebec, sailed through the beautiful Gut of Canso, and up the s.p.a.cious and majestic St. Lawrence, pa.s.sing in sight of the Island of Anticosta. Nothing material occurred during the pa.s.sage, save that a Scotch surgeon's a.s.sistant, having adopted certain aristocratic notions, required a democratical lecture on heads, which was duly administered to him. He pretended that he was, by birth and education (at Edinburgh), ent.i.tled to be at the head of our mess. This I resisted, and soon taught the ambitious son of Esculapius that the science of defence was as important as the art of healing; and that if he was skilful in this latter, I would give him an opportunity of employing it on his own person: whereupon I implanted on his sinciput, occiput, os frontis, os nasi, and all other vulnerable parts of his body, certain concussions calculated to stupify and benumb the sensorium, and to produce under each eye a quant.i.ty of black, extravasated blood; while, at the same time, a copious stream of carmine fluid issued from either nostril. It was never my habit to bully or take any unfair advantage; so, having perceived a cessation of arms on his part, I put the usual interrogatives as to whether the party contending was satisfied, and being answered in the affirmative, I laid by my metacarpal until they might be further wanted, either for reproof or correction.

We anch.o.r.ed off Cape Diamond, which divides the St. Lawrence from the little river St. Charles. The continuation of this cape, as it recedes, forms the Heights of Abraham; on which the immortal Wolfe defeated Montcalm, in the year 1759, when both the generals ended their glorious career on the field of battle. The city stands on the extremity of the cape, and has a very romantic appearance. The houses and churches are generally covered with tin, to prevent conflagration, to which the place was remarkably subject when the houses were covered with thatch or s.h.i.+ngle. When the rays of the sun lay on the buildings, they had the appearance of being cased in silver.

One of our objects in going to Quebec was to procure men, of which the squadron was very deficient. Our seamen and marines were secretly and suddenly formed into pressgangs. The command of one of them was conferred on me. The officers and marines went on sh.o.r.e in disguise, having agreed on private signals and places of rendezvous; while the seamen on whom we could depend acted as decoy-ducks, pretending to belong to merchant vessels, of which their officer was the master, and inducing them to engage, for ten gallons of rum and three hundred dollars, to take the run home. Many were procured in this manner, and were not undeceived until they found themselves alongside of the frigate, when their oaths and execrations may be better conceived than described or repeated.

It may be proper to explain here that the vessels employed in the timber trade arrive in the month of June, as soon as the ice is clear of the river, and, if they do not sail by or before the end of October, are usually set fast in the ice, and forced to winter in the St. Lawrence, losing their voyage, and lying seven or eight months idle. Aware of this, the sailors, as soon as they arrive, desert, and are secreted and fed by the crimps, who make their market of them in the fall of the year by selling them to the captains; procuring for the men an exorbitant sum for the voyage home, and for themselves a handsome _douceur_ for their trouble, both from the captain and the sailor.

We were desired not to take men out of the merchant vessels, but to search for them in the houses of the crimps. This was to us a source of great amus.e.m.e.nt and singular adventure; for the ingenuity in concealing them was only equalled by the art and cunning exercised in the discovery of their abodes. Cellars and lofts were stale and out of use: we found more game in the interior of haystacks, church-steeples, closets under fireplaces where the fire was burning. Some we found headed up in sugar-hogsheads, and some concealed within bundles of hoop-staves.

Sometimes we found seamen, dressed as gentlemen, drinking wine and talking with the greatest familiarity with people much above them in rank, who had used these means to conceal them. Our information led us to detect these excusable impositions.

I went into the country, about fifteen miles from Quebec, where I had heard of a crimp's preserve, and after a tedious search, discovered some good seamen on the rafters of an outhouse intended only to smoke and cure bacon; and as the fires were lighted, and the smoke ascending, it was difficult to conceive a human being could exist there: nor should we have discovered them if one of them had not coughed; on which he received the execrations of the others, and the whole party was instantly handed out. We immediately cut the strings of their trousers behind, to prevent their running away (this ought never to be omitted), and, placing them and ourselves in the farmer's waggon, made him put his team to and drive us all to Quebec, the new-raised men joining with our own in all the jokes which flew thick about on the occasion of their discovery. It was astonis.h.i.+ng to me how easily these fine fellows reconciled themselves to the thoughts of a man-of-war; perhaps the approaching row with the Yankees tended very much to preserve good humour. I became an enthusiast in man-hunting, although sober reflection has since convinced me of its cruelty, injustice, and inexpediency, tending to drive seamen from the country more than any measure the government could adopt; but I am not going to write a treatise on impressment. I cared not one farthing about the liberty of the subject, as long as I got my s.h.i.+p well manned for the impending conflict; and as I gratified my love of adventure, I was as thoughtless of the consequences as when I rode over a farmer's turnips in England, or broke through his hedges in pursuit of a fox.

A tradesman at Quebec had affronted me, by refusing to discount a bill which I had drawn on my father. I had no other means of paying him for the goods I had purchased of him, and was much disconcerted at his refusal, which he accompanied with an insult to myself and my cloth, never to be forgotten. Turning the paper over and over, he said, "A mids.h.i.+pman's bill is not worth a farthing, and I am too old a bird to be caught with such chaff."

Conscious that the bill was good, I vowed revenge. My search-warrant enabled me to go wherever I could get information of men being concealed--this was easily obtained from a brother mid (the poor man might as well have been in the hands of the holy brotherhood). My companion stated his firm conviction that sailors were concealed in the house: I applied to the captain, and received orders to proceed by all means in execution of my duty. The tradesman was a man of consequence in Quebec, being what is there called a large storekeeper, though we in England should have called him a shopkeeper. About one o'clock in the morning, we hammered at his door with no gentle tap, demanding admittance in the name of our sovereign lord the king. We were refused, and forthwith broke open the door, and spread over his house, like a nest of c.o.c.kroaches. Cellars, garrets, maids' rooms, ladies' rooms, we entered _sans ceremonie_; paid little regard to the Medicean costume of the fair occupants; broke some of the most indispensable articles of bedroom furniture; rattled the pots and pans about in the kitchen; and, finding the two sons of the master of the house, ordered them to dress and come with us, certain, we said, that they were sailors.

When the old tradesman saw me he began to smell a rat, and threatened me with severe punishment. I showed him my search-warrant, and asked him if it was a _good bill_. After having inspected every part of the house, I departed, leaving the two young cubs half dead with fear. The next day a complaint was lodged at the government house; but investigation is a long word when a man-of-war is ordered on service.

Despatches from Albany reached Quebec, stating that the President of the United States had declared war against England; in consequence of which, our captain took leave of the governor, and dropped down the river with all speed, so I never heard any more of my tradesman.

We arrived at Halifax fully manned, and immediately received orders to proceed to sea, "to sink, burn, and destroy." We ran for Boston Bay, when, on the morning we made the land, we discovered ten or twelve sail of merchant vessels. The first we boarded was a brig; one of our boats was lowered down; I got into her, and jumped on the deck of the Yankee, while the frigate continued in chase of the others. The master of the vessel sat on a hen-coop, and did not condescend to rise or offer me the least salute as I pa.s.sed him; he was a short, thick, paunchy-looking fellow.

"You are an Englishman, I guess?"

"I guess I am," I said, imitating him with a nasal tw.a.n.g.

"I thought we shouldn't be long in our waters afore we met some of you old-country sarpents. No harm in what I said, I hope?" added the master.

"Oh, no," said I, "not the least; it will make no difference in the long run. But where do you come from, and where are you bound?"

"Come from Smyrna, and bound to Boston, where I hope to be to-morrow morning, by the blessing of G.o.d, and a good conscience."

From this answer, I perceived that he was unacquainted with the war, and I therefore determined to play with him a little before I gave him the fatal news. "And pray," said I, "what might your cargo consist of? You appear to be light."

"Not so light neither, I guess," said the man; "we have sweet-oil, raisins, and what we calls notions."

"I have no notion," said I, "what they might be. Pray explain yourself."

"Why you see, notions is what we call a little of all sorts like. Some likes one thing, you know, and some another: some likes sweet almonds, and some likes silk, and some likes opium, and some" (he added, with a cunning grin) "likes dollars."

"And are these the notions with which you are loaded?" said I.

"I guess they are," replied Jonathan.

"And what might your outward cargo have been?" said I.

"Salt fish, flour, and tobacco," was his answer.

"And is this all you have in return?" I asked. "I thought the Smyrna trade had been a very good one."

"Well, so it is," said the unwary Yankee. "Thirty thousand dollars in the cabin, besides the oil and the rest of the goods, ain't no bad thing."

"I am very glad to hear of the dollars," said I.

"What odds does that make to you?" said the captain; "it won't be much on 'em as'll come to your share."

"More than you may think," said I. "Have you heard the news as you came along?"

At the word "news," the poor man's face became the colour of one in the jaundice. "What news?" said he, in a state of trepidation that hardly admitted of utterance.

"Why, only that your president, Mr Madison, has thought fit to declare war against England."