With Cochrane the Dauntless

er the sea. "Upon my word I don't see my way at all; this peace has stranded most of us, and at any rate, so far as I am concerned, there is not a ghost of a chance of my ob

t for sea. I don't think I should have minded so much if I had got post rank before being laid on the shelf. The difference of pension, too, would have been a help, for goodness kno

books as long as you could. I grant there are many officers even in His Majesty's service who are as rough as if they had come in through the hawse-hole, but it tells against them. However, as you are past fifte

opportunities for teaching you all this on short coasting voyages and on board ships driven in here by stress of weather. I suppose, Steve, however much we may talk of other professions, it comes to the sea at last. I know that you have always wanted it, but if I could have seen any opening for you on land I would r

e merchant service isn't the best, for it is dull work indeed being years on a station when there is no chance of a brush with an enemy or the capture of a prize. In the merchant service you can have [pg 13]at least a change, and a smar

ould have done if I had gone to sea two years ago; but I do want to be working and earning somethi

in, we became great friends. We were about the same age, and the loss at that time would have been a very serious one to him. I stayed with him once or twice when I was in town. I have not seen him for some years now-one cannot afford to run about on a lieutenant's half-pay-but I remembered him the other day when I was thinking things over in every light, and wrote to him. I told him how we were situated, and asked him if he would put you on board one of his ships, and this morning I had an an

t can be managed without expense, though I should be q

mast; for although the latter may have picked up enough to scrape through his examination, he is rarely a good navigator, and works out his reckoning by rule of thumb, which is all very well as lon

antmen, but on the 6th of May, 1801, he took the Gamo, a Spanish frigate, carrying six times as many men as the Speedy and seven times her weight of shot, an exploit that so aroused the jealousy of Earl St. Vincent that for a long time Lord Cochrane could not obtain employment. Three years later, when Lord Melville succeeded St. Vincent as fir

subjected to a persecution altogether without precedent in parliamentary history. In the court-marshal which was held upon Lord Gambier for his failure to assist Cochrane in the action in the Basque Roads, the admiralty went so far as to forge charts, and so to show that the admiral could not come to Cochrane's assistance, and Gambier was not only acquitted, but received a vote of thank

n as the latter heard a report of the affair he left his ship, came up to London, and demanded an investigation. Then followed one of the most disgraceful parodies of justice ever performed in this country. Lord Cochrane was arrested, tried, and by means of a partisan judge, false evidence, and measures more

g in prison for some months he effected his escape and presented himself in the House of Commons. He was seized and carried back to prison, where he was thrown into a dungeon, and there kept until his health so suffered that his persecutors, fearing that fatal consequences would ensue, were obliged to place him in

as used to pay the fine, and to reimburse him for the former fine to which he had been subjected. All Lord Cochrane's efforts to obtain a new trial, or an expression of an opinion from the House as to the illegality of the proceedings of his judge, Lord Ellenborough, were ineffective, the House, on ea

st a very keen one, but it was less bitterly felt after the conclusion of peace and the great reduction of the navy, as his fate was only that of thousands of other officers; and he had now come to feel that the effects of his wound, for which he received a small addition to his half-pay, rendered him unfit for further service, even could he have obtained an appointment. He had, since leaving the navy, lived

eutenant received a letter from his friend in London, saying that one of his ships that had returned a fortnight before was now unloaded, and would at once begin to fit out for a fresh voyage, and it would be therefore as well for him to bring Stephen up, so that he might have the advantage of seeing th

well treated and cared for. In the next place, the Tiger does not, like my other ships, make regular voyages to and from a foreign port, but carries on the business of a trader among the East Indian islands. It is not every one to whom such a business could be safely intrusted; but I have great confidence in Ca

ng, in fact, as Pinder finds that he can carry on a really good business with the natives. Then she will return to Calcutta and fill up with freight for her return voyage. Thus, you see, your boy will gain a good deal of varied expe

satisfied indeed at his being in such good hands. As to navigation, it is practice only that he wants. I have [pg 19]taught him all

y have not received the education to enable them to grapple with mathematical problems, even of the simplest kind; and although, in case of Pinder falling sick, they might manage under favourable circumstances to bring the ship home, they would fare very badly if they had a long spell of bad weather and could not get an observation at noon for days or even weeks together. It will be a satisfaction to me to know that in case of anything happening to the captain there is someon

ay Mr. Hewson sent for a hackney-co

"She is six hundred tons, three years old, and a fast sailer. She is not much

"And for myself, I would rather command a cra

h dirt. A body of riggers were at work in parcelling and serving with spun yarn the

as not on board from the very first hour that the riggers were beginning their work. G

aft to the poop-cabin, from which the captain came out as h

all in the rough, you see. One hardly expec

Embleton of the royal navy, and this is his s

bleton. "Every sailor knows you by reputation as being one of Lord Cochra

s teaching, and, theoretically at any rate, he is already well up in his work. When I tell you that he can tak

pen if there is only one. It has made me anxious many a time, when we had a bad spell of weather, as to how the Tiger would get on if I happened to be washed overboar

ld be good for me to be on board fr

oint of being here myself, and my first officer wouldn't allow anything to prevent his seeing that everything

take a lodging for him as close to the dock-gat

they keep the rooms for us. We both slept there last night. The house is kept by a nice clean woman, the widow of a skipper who was lost with his craft about ten years ago. I

will be in all respects more pleasan

leton then took Stephen to a clothing sho

y, Captain Pinder, I have not ordered Steve's outfit yet, for I know that on some lines the

t at all approve of their mixing with the men forward. I should say, Mr. Embleton, get him one good suit for going ashore, another rougher suit for duty on board, half-a-dozen duck suits for the tropics, and two or three suits of dungaree for slipping on over the others when there is dirty work to be done. The

ch, and get him measured. Then he can be back here again by the time yo

rnoons and Sundays he spent at [pg 23]Mr. Hewson's, where his father was still staying, his host refusing to listen to any talk of his leaving until the Tiger sailed. Another four days were spent in planing decks and painting inside and out. The work was scarcely finished when the cargo began to come on board. As soon as this was the case, the second and third mates and the other two apprentices joined. Like Mr. Staines, Towel and Pasley, the second and thir

the lad's name, and some day he will make a fine officer. He has been at work here since the morning the riggers came on board, and is not afraid to put his hands in

you will learn anywhere, you will learn here, for a better ca

worth. Of course, he would make something out of their passage, but there would, almost certainly, be some cantankerous [pg 24]beggars among them, and of course the table cos

r, the owner and Mr. Embleton came down to look over her. Great was the change that three weeks had made in her appearance. Her deck was beautifully white, the lofty spars well scraped and freshly varni

d on the wharf alongside, taking in every detail of her outfit

e well enough when you come to close quarters, but the long gun generally keeps the pirates from getting there; they don't like being pepp

off without venturing to come to close quarters; and indeed I have never had to loose the broadside guns bu

officers were all in their new uniforms, and after Captain Pinder had show

" Mr. Embleton said, as, after return

forward or quite aft, so that they have not only plenty of freeboard, but are buoyant in a heavy sea. I am sure it pays. I don't insure my ships, and I have not lost one in the last sixt

y cared for in all other respects. The system of insurance is no doubt a good one, but it has been so scandalously abused that it may safely be said that it has largely increased the annual number of wrecks and loss of life. Were it not for insurance, owners

early hour the next morning, it was necessary that Stephen should be on board that evening. He, however, went [pg 26]back with hi

es. He astonished his fellow-apprentices, as soon as they were fairly on their way, by producing his quadrant and taking observations at the same time as did the captain and mates; still more so when he took lunar and star observations, working them all out by figures instead of from

hey teach navigation, but it is of no use, I can't make head or tail of all the letters and zigzigs and things. I have tried and I have tried till my head ached, but the more I study it th

bout, so that it really was not hard, but if I had to do any other sort of mathematical [pg 27]questions I should be just as much puzzled as you are. Then you see, my father explained every step as it came, and

sun, but as for the moon and stars I give them up altogether. There are h

the case, as the instruments were comparatively rough and the chronometers far less accurate than at present, and even those most ski

a day, for there was no saying whether it was a friend or an enemy. One's watch at night was a watch then, for there was never any saying whether a French privateer might not come looming out of the darkness at any moment; and if a vessel of about our size was made out a mile off, it was all hands on deck,

or pirates when you are among the

e knows that they can't come upon us under sail, and on a still night one can hear the beat of their oars miles away. There is never any fear of being surprised as long as there is a hand wide awake and watchful on deck. Calms are the g

rms sometimes

there is no land within fifty miles of you when the storm strikes, the chances are that you are safe. If you can but lie to, you can manage at last to edge out of it on the side that is furthest from land. A cyclone is no joke, I can tell you; but if you get warning enough to get your canvas stowed and to send down your light spars, and have got a shi

s. He expects every man to do his duty, as is right enough; but if that is done well, everything goes on smooth. I don't think that there are ten of the crew who have not been with the skipper for years. When

s to the owner and the skipper,

last moment, for Pasley had not got his certificate then, and couldn't take Towel's place. The man was highly recommended, and was a good sailor, but he was a bully, and a foul-mouthed one, and the skipper put him on shore at the Cape, and paid his passage home out of his own pocket-though I know the owner ret

ch a good name, and the owner had so many applications from friends with sons who wanted to go to sea, that three years ago he made the change. But he is mighty particular who he takes, and all his indentures contain a clause that unless the reports by the captains they sail under are