CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
A DINNER PARTY AT THE ADMIRAL'S PENN.
The dinner that evening at the Penn was a very pleasant affair indeed,at all events for Courtenay and myself; for on that occasion we reapedthe first-fruits of all the toil and peril which we had recentlyencountered in the shape of that ungrudging and unstinted praise andcommendation which is so welcome and so encouraging to the youngaspirant for fame. The party consisted of three post-captains, acommander, four lieutenants, and half a dozen mids, ourselves included;which, with the jolly old admiral our host, made up a nice compactparty. The guests, it appeared, had all been invited expressly to meetus and do us honour; we consequently found ourselves to be the lions ofthe evening. We were, of course, invited to tell our story all overagain from its commencement, which we did, beginning with the mutiny onboard the _Hermione_, the narrative being frequently broken in upon byquestions from one or another of the guests, all of whom, I am bound torecord, manifested the utmost interest in what we had to say. Thesequestions, on more than one occasion, took quite the form of a severecross-examination, the post-captains in particular seeming determined toarrive at a clear and distinct understanding as to the motives whichprompted us in many of our actions and decisions. I was somewhat at aloss at first to comprehend the meaning of all this cross-questioning;but it became apparent later on in the evening when the three captainsand the commander each formally offered to receive us on board theirships, one of which happened to be a seventy-four, whilst the otherthree were fine dashing frigates. These offers were all, of course, ofa most advantageous character, and had we accepted them I feel surethat, joining either ship with the reputations which we had honestly wonfor ourselves, our advancement in the service would have been certainand rapid. But something in the admiral's manner caused me to hesitate,so, with hearty thanks to each for his kind offer, I begged the favourof a few hours for consideration; and Courtenay, taking his cue from me,did the same. When at length we all rose to take leave of our host andreturn to our respective ships the admiral drew Courtenay and me aside,and said, as he shook hands with us:
"Before you decide to accept or to refuse either of the offers whichhave been made to you to-night come and see me. I shall be on board theflag-ship to-morrow at noon."
We promised that we would do so, and shortly afterwards got under weighin company with our fellow guests, the whole party being on horseback,for Kingston; our road, or rather the bush path along which we travelledfor the greater part of the way, being brilliantly lighted by the raysof a glorious full moon.
The "autocrats of the quarter-deck" with whom we thus found ourselvesprivileged to ride cheek by jowl all proved to be splendid fellows, verygentlemanly in their manner, yet--having evidently sunk the quarter-deckfor the nonce--frank and hearty as I believe only sailors can be. Theypermitted, or rather they _invited_ us by their cordial manner, to joinfreely in the conversation, instead of relegating us to the rear, assome captains would undoubtedly have done in like circumstances, andheld out so many inducements for us to join that I at length got theidea into my head that they actually _wanted_ us. This frank andfriendly treatment served one good purpose at least; it gave us aclearer insight into their characters and dispositions than we had beenable to obtain at the admiral's dinner-table, and helped us todefinitely make up our minds under which leader, if either of them, wewould serve.
Punctual to the moment Courtenay and I presented ourselves on thequarter-deck of the _Mars_ next day and sent in our names to theadmiral, who was in his cabin, just as the ship's bell was strikingeight. We were at once invited to step into the cabin, which we did,finding the old gentleman busy with his secretary writing letters. Hehad evidently just completed the dictation of one as we entered, for heremarked to the thin pale young man who was seated with him at thetable:
"There, Purkis, that will do for the present. Just transcribe thedocuments you have already taken down whilst I have a chat with theseyoung gentlemen; and I daresay that by the time you have finished Ishall be ready to go on again. Well, young gentlemen," he continued,"good morning. Find a couple of chairs and bring yourselves to ananchor," waving his hand toward some of the articles of furniture inquestion as he spoke.
When we had seated ourselves he resumed:
"Well, now that you have slept over the offers you received last night,what do you think of them?"
As he looked straight at me during the propounding of this question Itook the initiative in replying, and said:
"So far as I am concerned, sir, _unless you have something else in viewfor me_, I should like to join the _Alecto_ and serve under CaptainFanshawe."
"And you?" inquired the old gentleman, turning to Courtenay.
"I should like to accompany my friend Lascelles wherever he goes, if youhave no objection, sir," was Courtenay's reply.
"Well," said the admiral, rubbing his bald head in a manner which seemedto denote that he was somewhat perplexed, "I think you have chosen verywell. The _Alecto_ is a noble frigate and a very comfortable ship,whilst Fanshawe is one of the very best men on the station, or indeed Imay say in the entire service. He will be very glad to have you both, Iknow, if you elect to join, him. But you," he continued, addressing memore particularly, "qualified the expression of your choice by addingthe words, `unless you have something else in view for me,' upon whichwords you laid some stress. Now, I do not wish to influence either ofyou in any way; but do I understand you to mean by that expression thatyou are willing to place yourselves in my hands?"
"Most assuredly yes, sir," I replied. "In any case it would be our dutyto do so, but you have been pleased to express such very high approvalof our conduct during our recent cruise, and have exhibited such aflattering interest in us and our welfare, that duty in this casebecomes a positive pleasure; and for my part, I ask nothing better thanpermission to leave myself entirely in your hands."
"And I, also," chimed in Courtenay.
"Very well spoken, young sirs; very well spoken, indeed!" exclaimed theadmiral, evidently much gratified at our reply. "Well," he continued,"I _have_ other views for you both; views which presented themselves asI sat listening to what you had to tell me yesterday morning, and whichwere strengthened by what I afterwards found in your capitally writtenreport. It is not my practice to flatter or unduly praise officers--especially youngsters like you--for a proper performance of their duty;such a practice is apt to make them conceited--to think too much ofthemselves, to consider that there is nobody like them, and that theycannot be done without. But you both appear to be modest and thoroughlysensible lads; you have exhibited an amount of tact and judgment quitebeyond your years, in circumstances where much older men might have beenpuzzled how to act; I therefore do not hesitate to say that I amexceedingly pleased with you both, that I am thoroughly satisfied withyour conduct in every respect; and that I think, considering how veryshort-handed we are at present on the station in the matter of officers,you might be better employed than in the mere doing of midshipman's dutyeven on board a smart frigate. You have, both of you, interested mevery much; I should like to see you getting on in your profession andmounting the ratlines as speedily as may be; and if you like to trustyourselves to me, are willing to work hard and behave well, I'll see toit that you have every chance given you to make your mark. But I amafraid I shall have to separate you. Now, what do you say?"
As the question was again put pointedly to me I replied that, whilst Ishould greatly regret being separated from so stanch a shipmate and sotrue a friend as my companion had proved himself to be in many asituation of difficulty and peril, I would not allow the feeling tointerfere in any way with the plans of a kind and generous patron; and Ifelt sure that, in saying this on my own behalf, I might also say asmuch for my friend. To which speech Courtenay bowed his acquiescence,looking rather glum at the same time, I must say.
"Very well," said the admiral, "I _must_ separate you for the present;but I promise you that you shall become shipmates again
at the earliestconvenient opportunity. Now, listen to me. There have been numerouscomplaints from the merchants here, during the last two or three months,that cargoes consigned to them have never arrived; and the onlyconclusion possible is that the ships carrying these cargoes have beensnapped up by privateers. I have already sent out all the men-of-waravailable to cruise about the spots most likely to be haunted by thesepests; but there are a couple of cruising grounds which are still lesseffectively watched than I should like, and I have been thinking I wouldsend you two lads away to them, just to see what you can do. You,Courtenay, I intend to put in charge of that large felucca you broughtin from the lagoons; she is just the craft for the work you will have todo--a good powerful vessel, but of light draught of water. Yourcruising ground will be from Cape Maysi northward as far as Long Island,giving the Kays in Austral Bay an overhaul now and then, thence towindward of the Windward Passages, down as far south as, say, the SilverKay Passage, then to the westward as far as Cape Maysi again. But youwill have to be very careful, young gentleman, in your navigation ofAustral Bay, or you may find yourself cast away on one or another of theshoals. You, Lascelles, I intend to put in command of that schooner,the _Dauphin_, which was brought in by the _Minerva_ a few days ago; sheis a really formidable vessel of her class, and I think it quite likelyI shall be very severely blamed--behind my back--for intrusting her to amere boy, as you are; but you must look upon this command as anindication of the confidence I have in your gallantry and discretion,and I shall look to you to justify me by your conduct in the choice Ihave made. Your cruising ground will be round Saint Domingo and as fareast as the Virgin Islands, and the duty of you both will be, firstly,to protect commerce, and next to beat up the enemy's quarters everywherewithin your bounds, and capture, sink, burn, and destroy everything youcan lay hands on which is not too big for you to tackle. The wholecoast of Saint Domingo is swarming with French privateers, reallypirates under a rather more respectable name; and it is to these fellowsI want you to more particularly direct your attention. The _Foam_ Ishall pay off at once, and I think it will be a good plan if you, MrCourtenay, will try to secure the hands you now have on board thefelucca for your next cruise. If you, Mr Lascelles, have anyparticularly good men on board the _Foam_ that you would like to keep,you had better endeavour to get them to enter for the _Dauphin_, which,by the way, we will re-christen and call the _Dolphin_ for the future.And now, good morning both of you; if you want a few days' leave, takeit, sending Mr Purkis here your addresses, so that I may know where tocommunicate with you. Do not leave your ships, however, until the_Foam_ is paid off, which will be to-morrow."
Upon this hint to depart we rose, and thanking our kind benefactor asbriefly as possible for his really extraordinary kindness to us, bowedourselves out and withdrew.
As we went down over the side I resolved that I would there and then paya visit to my new command, and see what she was like. I had alreadynoticed her lying alongside the dockyard wharf, and had admired her, notonly for her handsome rakish appearance, but also because she was thelargest schooner I had at that time ever seen. We therefore pulledstraight away for the dockyard, Courtenay accompanying me in the_Foam's_ gig. As soon as we were fairly away from the _Mars_ my _fidusachates_ turned to me and said:
"Well, Lascelles, this is all very well for you, old fellow, who arewell up in your navigation; but I really don't know how in the world _I_shall get on. It is true I did fairly well in the felucca on our tripfrom the lagoons; but then I was always careful to keep the schoonerwell in sight, so that I was really trusting to you as much as tomyself. But now I shall have to depend upon myself, and if I had notfelt certain that you will polish me up during the few days that we maybe in port together, I should have been obliged to decline the admiral'svery kind offer. What a brick the old fellow is, to be sure; and yetsee what a name he has for harshness and severity."
"Depend upon it," said I, "he is only harsh and severe with those whodeserve it. Then, great allowances must be made for a man occupyingsuch a responsible position as his; no matter what goes wrong, or who isto blame, it is always he who is called to account for it. He hascertainly proved himself a true friend to us, and henceforward I willnever sit down tamely and hear him vilified. And as to yourself, mydear fellow, make your mind easy; you are a far better navigator thanyou think yourself, and what little help you may need to render youperfect I will cheerfully give you; a week's hard study on your partwill be quite sufficient to qualify you for going anywhere."
As we rapidly approached the wharf, the noble proportions of the_Dolphin_ became every moment more apparent, and when at length the gigdashed alongside and I passed in through the wide gangway I felt asthough I had a frigate under me. She measured one hundred and twentyfeet in length between perpendiculars, and was thirty feet beam at herwidest part, which dimensions gave her a measurement of close upon fivehundred tons. Her hull was, however, exceedingly shallow, her draughtof water being only nine feet when in her usual sailing trim; her lineswere, moreover, without any exception the finest and most beautiful Iever saw; so that, though, in consequence of the curious manner in whichtonnage was at that time calculated, she was an extraordinarily largevessel of her class, I do not believe she would have carried a cargo ofmore than four hundred tons of dead weight. This, however, was all inher favour, so far as speed was concerned, as it gave her large andbeamy hull a very small displacement, whilst her long flat floorrendered her exceedingly stiff; this latter quality being peculiarlyapparent from the fact that, though on this occasion she had an emptyhold--her iron ballast having been all removed and stacked upon thewharf--she scarcely deigned to heel at all to the sea-breeze, though itwas blowing half a gale at the time, whilst her spars were all atauntojust as she had come in from sea. She was a truly noble craft, hermodel was superb, and I fell in love with her on the spot--no sailorcould have helped doing so. She had been taken under French colours,but my own opinion, which was supported by that of others who were farbetter judges than myself, was that she was American built. There wasan easy graceful spring in her long spacious deck which no Frenchmancould ever have compassed, and there was an American look too about herbows, which raked forward in an exquisite curve, whilst they flaredoutward in a way which promised to make her wondrously dry andcomfortable in a sea-way. Her armament had been, like her ballast,removed to the wharf, and I understood from the foreman in charge thatit was to be replaced by one somewhat lighter; but when I stepped onshore and saw the guns--eight long eighteens, with a long thirty-twomounted on a pivot for the forecastle--I inwardly resolved that, sinceshe had been able to carry them so far, she should continue to do so ifmy powers of persuasion could be made to avail anything with theadmiral. She had accommodation for eighty men forward, and a cabinabaft which for size and elegance of fittings would not have disgraced afrigate. Poor Courtenay was so completely overwhelmed with admirationthat I really felt quite sorry for him; hitherto there had been nothingapproachable in his opinion to the felucca--which, by the bye, I haveforgotten to say was called the _Esmeralda_--but now she was dwarfedinto insignificance in every respect by the _Dolphin_, and her youngskipper quite put out of conceit with her. However, I consoled myself,if not him, with the reflection that, the _Dolphin_ once out of sight,he would forget all about her. Having given the craft a thoroughoverhaul, we sauntered off to the naval hospital, only a short distancefrom the dockyard gates, to see how our wounded were progressing, andalso--to tell the whole truth--that my boat's crew might have anopportunity to take a good look at the schooner, which I felt sure wouldso favourably impress them that I should have little difficulty inpersuading them to enter for her.
We remained in the hospital about an hour, and on our return to thedockyard I just caught a glimpse of my men tumbling over the schooner'sside back into their boat, so I had good hopes of finding that they hadone and all swallowed my bait.
Shoving off, I put Courtenay on board his craft and then proceeded tothe _Foam_, where I was k
ept pretty busy for the remainder of the daypreparing to pay off, as I had no clerk to help me. I allowed the handsto go to dinner without saying anything to them, to give the "gigs" anopportunity to discuss the _Dolphin_ with their shipmates, as I feltsure they would, but before they turned-to after dinner I sent for themaft and made my maiden speech, which ran somewhat as follows:
"My lads," said I, "I have sent for you to tell you that the _Foam_ willbe paid off to-morrow. And I wish to take advantage of the opportunitywhich this announcement affords me to also thank you heartily for thegallant way in which you have all stood by me, and for the way you havebehaved generally from the moment when it devolved upon me, through MrO'Flaherty's wounding and subsequent death, to assume the command of theschooner. Our cruise together has been a short one, it is true, but ithas been long enough to enable me to become personally acquainted withyou individually, and to discover both your good and your bad qualities.The latter, I am pleased to say, have been so few and so trifling thatthey are not worth further mention, whilst the former have been soconspicuous as to render me anxious for a continuance of the connectionbetween us. And this brings me to my final statement, which is that theadmiral has been pleased to announce his intention of commissioning thatfine schooner the _Dolphin_, yonder, and placing me in command. Now, mylads, I daresay you guess pretty well at what further I have to say: the_Dolphin_ is to proceed against the French privateers which are snappingup so many of our westerly-bound merchantmen, so there will probably beplenty of fighting for her to do, but there will also be plenty ofcaptures and recaptures, which mean plenty of prize-money for her crew.And I am most anxious that that crew shall be a good one, as good inevery respect as the _Foam's_ crew has proved itself to be; in short, mylads, I should like to have every one of you with me again. Think thematter over, and those of you who are willing to try another cruise withme, and to enter for the _Dolphin_, can let me know to-morrow when youare paid off. That will do now, you may go to your duty." Instead ofturning-to at once, however, the men clustered together and began toconfer eagerly with each other, and with the boatswain, the gunner, andthe quarter-master; the result of the confabulation being that in lessthan five minutes the entire crew, to a man, came forward and announcedtheir desire to enter for the _Dolphin_. This was eminentlysatisfactory, for I now had at least the nucleus of a thoroughly goodcrew.
On the following day the _Foam_ was paid off, as previously arranged,whereupon all hands re-entered for the _Dolphin_, after which they weregranted forty-eight hours' leave.
This business being settled, I sought another interview with theadmiral, and told him of my success, at which he expressed himselfgreatly pleased. "There will be no difficulty in making up yourcomplement," said he, "though I shall have to put on board you a fewconvalescents from the hospital, but I will take care that you get nonebut thoroughly sound and healthy men; there are at least a dozen nowready to be discharged, and who only want a mouthful of sea air and ameal or two of salt junk to make them fit for anything. I shall alsogive you a couple of midshipmen and a master's mate, which, with whatyou have already, will, I think, make you pretty complete."
This was more than I had dared hope, though certainly not more than wasnecessary for such a craft as the _Dolphin_; so, finding the oldgentleman disposed to be generous, I boldly broached the matter of theguns, and pleaded so earnestly that I at length won his consent to myretention of the schooner's original armament. This concluded mybusiness on board the flag-ship, so, handing my address to thesecretary, I jumped into a shore-boat which I had alongside, and madethe best of my way to Kingston, where Courtenay had preceded me. We hadpreviously made up our minds to test the sincerity of an invitationwhich Mr Thomson--who had very hospitably entertained us on our lastvisit to Kingston--had given us, so we first disposed at the hotel of anexcellent meal, which we _called_ lunch, but which was quite substantialenough to merit the name of dinner, then hastily dashed off letters tothe officers who had proposed to receive us on board their ships,thanking them for their very kind offers, which we explained we weregratefully obliged to decline in consequence of the admiral havingintimated his intention of sending us on special service. This dutyperformed we sallied forth and made the best of our way to our friend'splace of business, where, upon our first hint of having obtained a fewdays' leave, his former invitation was repeated so earnestly andheartily as to leave us in no shadow of doubt as to its sincerity. Wefound to our great gratification that his family still occupied thecountry house where we had previously been so hospitably entertained,and to get over the slight difficulty which presented itself as to howwe were to convey ourselves thither, our host, with a generousconfidence which we certainly had done nothing to merit, urged us tomake an immediate start in his ketureen, begging us at the same time notto forget to send into town a saddle-horse for his own use later on inthe day. The unbounded confidence reposed in us by this gentlemen willbe better understood when I mention that we were actually trusted _todrive ourselves_! However, we proved worthy of the trust, I am proud tosay, we neither broke the knees nor the wind of the spirited animalwhich had us in tow, nor did we smash the ketureen; on the contrary, wearrived at our journey's end with both in such excellent condition as toextort a compliment upon our skilful driving from our somewhat surprisedbut by no means disconcerted hostess. We also faithfully delivered themessage anent the saddle-horse, and then, feeling that we had done ourwhole duty manfully, we dropped into the wake of the two black servantswho had shouldered our trunks, and followed them to the rooms promptlyassigned to us, where we hastily removed our travel stains preparatoryto entering the family circle.
Our appearance there was greeted with enthusiasm; for the news of ourtriumphant return from the lagoons had by this time spread throughoutthe entire length and breadth of the island; we were regarded as heroes,especially by the juveniles; we were invited to fight our battles overand over again; were made much of; and, had we remained there long,there is no doubt we should have been utterly spoiled. Luckily,perhaps, for us--though we certainly did not think so at the time--ourleave was cut short on the fourth day by an intimation from the admiralthat our presence on board our respective ships had now becomedesirable; whereupon we reluctantly bade our land friends adieu oncemore, and returned to Port Royal; Courtenay, I more than half suspected,leaving his heart behind him in charge of sweet Mary Thomson, our host'syoungest and (if such a distinction be permissible) most charmingdaughter.
The Rover's Secret: A Tale of the Pirate Cays and Lagoons of Cuba Page 18