meeting in opposite directions, and are very ugly things to come across. The shock we sustained fairly started five bolts of our main chains, and strained several of the planks. The sail was shortened in a trice, and a large hawser passed over one of the tops, and made fast on either side to keep the masts from going overboard.

At Plymouth my real adventures may be said to have begun. The jolly-boat was sent ashore with a hospital party, and as I had asked leave to do so, I accompanied it. When the men were landed, I volunteered to remain and look after the boat. Permission was readily accorded, but before the Doctor's mate left, he fumbled about in his pocket, and then inquired of me whether I had brought any money from the ship. I showed him my two-pound note, which he directly "borrowed" and then disappeared. I was delighted to have a boat all to myself, and began to pole about, never dreaming of the tide, which soon went out and deposited me helpless upon the mud. There I remained until it came in again, and the Doctor's mate and boat's crew returned. was getting dark when we shoved off for the ship, and a squall was springing up. As it freshened we found it difficult to make any way, and the waves dashed in over the boat. I began to feel nervous, the more so that the Doctor's mate did not look as if he was pleased with our position. I must have

It

revealed my fears in my face, as the coxswain called out, "Don't you be afraid, Mr Jackson; I'll look after you." As it was impossible to get on with safety through the squall, we determined to make for the shore again.

As we neared it, I stood up to be ready to disembark, and the Doctor's mate did likewise; but in his anxiety to get first he made a rush forwards, and as he passed shoved me right over the gunwale into the water. Daniels, the coxswain, saw the accident, and as the water was deep, he was after me in a moment; and despite the height and roughness of the waves, secured me and brought me on land. I had some minutes in the water, and felt half - drowned when rescued, but they carried me up to a small inn where I was quickly put into a warm bed and my clothes laid out to dry. In the morning I was found curled up like a dog under the sheets in the middle of the bed fast asleep, and none the worse for my ducking. I was soon roused and dressed, and set off to the boat with the Doctor's mate, who on the way patronisingly informed me that after paying for my night's lodging and giving Daniels something in the way of a reward for having saved my life, there was nothing left of the two pounds. Young and green as I was, I took all he said for gospel, and agreed not to mention that he had kindly saved me the trouble of laying out the money, should

I be asked any questions on the ship. With great forethought he enumerated a list of various articles in the purchase of which I could always account for the absence of my money, without the slightest necessity for revealing his share in the transaction. He spoke so fast in order to settle the matter before we reached the boat that I quite forgot the fictitious list, and only remembered the item "apples," upon which he had laid some stress as being a source of attraction most fatal to the purses of seafaring youths.

As luck would have it, not long after the event the Captain asked me what money I had on board.

"None, sir," I replied, feeling somewhat warm about the cheeks, and conscious of the duty I owed to the Doctor's mate.

"None ? said he. "Did you not bring any with you to the ship? "Yes, sir."

friend the Doctor's mate and acquainted him of the fix I was in. I must admit he looked rather blank at the news, especially when I told him how fickle my memory had been, and that apples" had alone survived the wreck. I forget now what he called me, but whatever it was, he instantly relented and made me out an appropriate account of my one night's expenditure. Apples naturally predominated, and to a most unwholesome extent, so much so, that the Captain on reading the list declined still to credit it, and became more inquisitive than ever. He let me off at last with a caution, expressing also a suspicion that there had been more hands than one concerned in the mysterious disappearance of the two pounds.

We had some queer characters in the Lapwing. Our boatswain was one. A better warrant officer never existed-when he was sober,-nor a man more generally liked; but his bane was the grog bottle. On leaving Plymouth we took to cruising off Guernsey, and were riding out a gale soon after our arrival there, when the Spitfire (Captain Robert Keen), another man-of-war similar to ourselves, dragged her anchor and drifted alongside of us. We were in such close quarters that the muzzles of our guns got into her ports, and as we rose and she fell, they were almost rent from their carriages. Everything was in dire confusion, and all hands alive

save the boatswain, who, in a fit of drunkenness, had taken up his position under the break of the quarter-deck, and in the presence of the Captain was roaring out, "There she "There she goes, grind away! Look at the .., there she goes." Captain Rotheram was in no humour to be trifled with, and had scarcely let go the floodgates of his wrath upon the drunken boatswain, and got clear of the Spitfire, when, to the astonishment of everybody, a stentorian voice from the ship commenced to hail the Captain of the other vessel. "Captain Keen, sir," shouted he-"Captain Keen," repeated the voice again and again, the individual addressed replying each time with fresh vigour. "Aren't you ashamed of yourself, sir?" it continued. "Call yourself a sailor, sir?" Captain Rotheram's amazement may be imagined as he ran from one place to another in vain trying to discover the offender, shouting as he did so, "I am not hailing you, Captain Keen; it's some damned blackguard whom I'll catch presently." After the lapse of a few minutes the culprit was brought to light, and turned out to be the Captain's own servant, who, following the boatswain's example, had been taking a drop too much, and was amusing himself at his master's expense by hailing the Spitfire from the quarter-gallery of the Captain's cabin. When called upon to answer his absurd miscon

sir;

sir.

sir.

66

duct, he began to howl most piteously, and beseeched the Captain as he loved him to give him "a dozen." Flog me, do, sir-I'm a scoundrel, Please give me a dozen, sir." He, like the boatswain, was also a good and valuable man when sober, and as this was his first serious shortcoming, the Captain ordered him to be tied to the rigging instead of granting his request. I could not help thinking what his fate would have been under Sir Edward Hamilton.

As the Prince of Wales was recruiting himself at Brighton, we were instructed to proceed there, and lay off to be in attendance on his Royal Highness. Proceeding thither, we passed a sunken ship with her top-gallant masts visible out of the water. On consequent inquiry, we were informed that a boy had been saved out of the wreck by some fishermen not long before, whose testimony afterwards went to prove that the ship had been scuttled to gain the insurance, but not in sufficiently deep water. As events showed, the Captain had forgotten to insure his own neck also neck also against the possible consequences of his villainy; for he was convicted of the crime and hanged.

When relieved from duty at Brighton, and during a Sunday's cruise off Beachy Head, we ran aground upon the Sovereign Shoal-an accident that was generally attributed by the sailors to a sermon which had been preached on board

by a clergyman passenger. With considerable hard work and the exertion of many ingenious contrivances, we managed to float her again, not, however, without springing a dangerous leak, through which it was calculated the water came in at the rate of nine feet an hour. By unremitting labour at the pumps, we kept her up long enough to reach Sheerness, when

the vessel went immediately into dock and was paid off. Whilst occupied in getting the ship off the Shoal, it was amusing to see how some womenforty or fifty in number-who were on board exerted themselves at the ropes. The rules of the service were not always stringently enforced, and Jack often smuggled his sweetheart on board for a short cruise.

Mr Coffin, the Commissioner at Sheerness, was an awful character in the eyes of most youngsters in the Navy to whom he was known personally or by repute, and no one cared to go before him twice. It was my turn to wait upon him, and I came in for a treat at once. Sir, you have come into my presence without a cocked hat in opposition to the rules of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. I therefore decline to give you your pay." Captain Rotheram, who was present, took hold of my arm and led me up to another Midshipman who sported the article in requisition and transferred it, pro tem, from his head to mine, and thus supplied the omission. The Midshipman had a head as big again as mine, and the hat nearly proved an extinguisher; but it suited the purpose so far, and I returned to the Commissioner. Despite the cocked hat I was still in his clutches. He demanded my journal

about the last thing in the world I should have cared to put into the hands of such a tyrant. My handwriting was of the vilest possible description. Moreover, I had thoughtlessly beguiled many an idle hour by scribbling all sorts of nonsense in its pages, adding frequently such remarks on general topics as a volatile mind might suggest to me, who was not particularly versed in polite language. I am not sure that the monotony of writing was not occasionally broken by attempts at a higher order of art. Where an uncertainty existed, in some places, about the spelling of a word, I had adopted a method of my own, and the whole thing was as unfitted as could be for the inspection of such a man. Luckily for me, the style of writing discouraged him from examining the subject-matter too minutely. One glance at the first few leaves sufficed. "If ever you come before me again, sir, with such a book as this, I'll withhold your pay and

report you directly." The great man looked terrific, and I got farther into the cocked hat for refuge, determining, as I quitted his presence, to exercise my talents for composition in a more private direction in future, and try to improve my "fist."

Mr Coffin must have been to naval men what I have heard the Proctors described as being to undergraduates at the Universities. He was always turning up when least expected, and asking unpleasant questions. If he caught an officer in mufti, it was "Your name and ship, sir?" and the offender was invariably despatched back on board under arrest.

No excuse was ever allowed-go back he must. With old hands the difficulty was easily disposed of; they went to their ships and said nothing about the arrest, and to do the Commissioner what little justice even the old gentleman himself may claim, he seldom followed up his game unless in a more than usually sour frame of mind.

One story told of this person will exhibit a feature of his coarse and eccentric nature. A youngster of very good family waited on Mr Coffin, bearing from an aunt a letter of introduction, in which she mildly solicited Mr Coffin's interest with the Admiralty for her nephew. "Tell your aunt, sir," he cried, "with my compliments, that I am no more to the Lords Commissioners than a louse on an elephant's back." He was a great friend of VOL. CCXX.-NO. MCCCXXXIII.

Admiral Earl St Vincent, who, perhaps from a somewhat similar temperament, not only cultivated his intimacy, but permitted him to indulge his eccentricities without restraint. Once on a visit to the Admiral he astonished his Lordship's valet one morning by letting himself out of a window, and walking off with a huge brownpaper parcel under his arm. The valet reported the circumstance at breakfast. "Oh, let him alone," replied the Earl, "he'll be back to dinner; and so he was, though he made no apology for his absence during the day, nor for his strange method of exit from the house. He found his match at last. In a weak moment he married, and was shortly afterwards turned adrift by his wife and her mother for insisting on cooking his own meals in the kitchen of his mother-in-law's house, and his wife never returned to him.

The Carysfort was the next ship I joined (Captain Robert Fanshawe), and once more, "ere we parted for ever," Mr Coffin and I came into collision. He went on board to make an advance of pay to the officers and men. "Your journal, sir?" he remarked the moment I stood before him. I handed it over, and was immediately refused my share of the advance, and the Captain was admonished on the spot to withhold all allowances until my handwriting had considerably improved. This deprivation put me hors de combat 2A2