Crown and Anchor Part 6

"You cannot do better, my dear Jack," said mother, putting one of her arms round my neck caressingly, and stretching out her other hand to take Dad's. "Your father was always known in the service as a gallant officer and an honourable gentleman; and if you follow his example, my boy, you will neither disgrace the name you bear nor do discredit to Her Majesty's uniform! I look forwards, Jack, to your being a credit, not only to us, but to your country and profession!"

I uttered no reply to my mother's little speech, though it made a deep impression on me, for she was seldom given to expressing herself at such length, her words being generally few and to the point; but, I formed there and then a resolve, which I have endeavoured to adhere to all my life, that I would never do anything to make her ashamed of me, nor cause pain to her and Dad, the latter of whom remained silent like myself.

He was thinking, I felt sure, of the approaching parting between us, when I should be beyond his care and only have to trust to the training he had given me.

He knew, however, that I would still be under the watchful eye of another Father, who guards and guides the sailor afloat amidst the stormy waters of the deep as well as the landsman ash.o.r.e, and whose love and forethought are more to be trusted even than that of our earthly parents, prize us as dearly as they will.

On the following morning, to make a long story short, I bade adieu to Dad and mother, both of them accompanying me to the landing steps at the foot of Hardway to see me off in the waterman's wherry that Dad hailed for the conveyance of myself and sea-chest to the _Ill.u.s.trious_.

She was lying in the stream near the mouth of the harbour, as I mentioned I believe before when speaking of my first view of Portsmouth; and as the tide was then at the ebb and running out fast, we were very soon alongside the training-s.h.i.+p, whose huge, black hull glistened in the bright suns.h.i.+ne.

There was a little chap standing by the marine sentry at the entry port on the main deck, where I noticed as I went up the accommodation ladder a little chap only about my own age, but looking as "c.o.c.ksy" as you please.

He was dressed in a similarly smart new uniform to my own, and his face, somehow or other, seemed familiar to me. I could see, too, that he looked as if he recognised me in some sort of way, or was anxious to make my acquaintance.

"Hullo!" he cried, as I gained the deck and returned, with much conscious dignity, the marine's salute, "why, you're the fellow who nearly got stranded in Euclid!"

This remark of his brought back to my mind in an instant the scene in the examination room on board the gunnery s.h.i.+p, and I identified him in an instant, giving him a "Roland" for his "Oliver."

"Oh, you're the little chap who was so awfully stumped in spelling at dictation eh, old fellow?" I retorted, making the marine sentry grin as the s.h.i.+p's corporal on duty hailed my waterman to pull forward under the main yard for my chest to be hoisted inboard. "How did you manage to scramble through, eh?"

"Only by the skin of my teeth," he answered, smiling all over his face in such a good-humoured way that I could not help taking a liking to him. "Just the same as you did, I suppose, Mr Sharp!"

"That isn't my name," said I, laughing, "but we won't quarrel about that. Let us make friends instead."

"Agreed," said he, laughing too. "I liked the cut of your jib when I first saw you in that awful place the other day. I was so sorry I couldn't help you with your Euclid."

"Really? Well, I was sorry I couldn't help you with your spelling, you looked so woe-begone over the big words," I replied, giving him another dig for his unkind reminiscence of my old nightmare. "I think it was 'Mesopotamia' that finally finished you, wasn't it?"

"Pax!" cried he, beseechingly. "You're a bit too sharp for me, I see, to try chaffing with. Let us be chums, as you suggest, old boy. My name is Tom Mills."

"All right, old chap," I rejoined, gripping the hand he stretched out to me as cordially as he had offered this gage of friends.h.i.+p. "I am Jack Vernon. That's my name!"

"Well, Jack," said he, addressing me as familiarly as if we had known each other for years. "You seem a jolly sort of fellow, and I think I shall like you."

"Ditto, Master Tom," said I, much amused at his hearty frankness of speech, for I had never come across such a free and easy fellow before.

"You're another--that's all I can say, old chap!"

This set us off both laughing again; and, in the midst of our glee, up came a tall man in a long frock-coat with a black sword-belt, but no epaulets or other distinguis.h.i.+ng ornaments, whom I afterwards learnt was the master-at-arms. He asked me my name; and, informing me that I was to report myself to the commanding officer, he led the way up the main hatch to the quarter-deck above.

This interview having been satisfactorily got through, I was then escorted to the quarters of the naval instructor, who received me most graciously, telling me the hours of study and drill, and coaching me generally in the routine of my duties.

He catechised me all the while, I noticed, in a sly way in respect of my knowledge of mathematics, putting a series of innocent questions that I saw were meant to test my acquirements.

He did this, however, in such an insidious manner as to disarm me at the outset, preventing my feeling that I was being examined and "turned inside out," so to speak.

He was a nice fat old fellow like Mr Tangent.

Indeed, the majority of naval chaplains I have come across in my time in the service have as a rule been fat, the sea air apparently exercising as beneficial an effect on the clerical const.i.tution as a snug living ash.o.r.e.

This gentleman now, after telling me he thought I should do very well, excused me from any lessons that day, it being the first I was on board.

He then dismissed me to join my messmates, whom, he said, I would probably find below in the gunroom, as it was "close on the luncheon hour!"

This reflection seemed to give him some inward satisfaction; for, he patted his waistcoat with a sort of pleasurable antic.i.p.ation as I left him, asking the wardroom steward, who just then entered the cabin, whether there wasn't a veal and ham pie, I recollect.

When I got down to the lower deck I had no need to inquire as to the whereabouts of the gunroom. Such a din and babel of voices proceeded from the after part of the s.h.i.+p that I was certain, from what Dad had let out to me of his former experiences at sea, the noise could only have been made by a batch of middies and naval cadets in their moments of relaxation from the stern discipline of the quarter-deck, when they were allowed to give their superabundance of animal spirits full play.

I was positive I must be in the near vicinity of the gunroom, the "happy hunting ground" of my messmates. Luncheon was evidently either over or not yet begun; for, a crowd of youngsters, amongst whom I at once perceived my friend Tom Mills, were grouped together on the open deck in front of the gunroom, where, as I afterwards heard, their hammocks were slung at night.

The lot were amusing themselves at some game I was not as yet acquainted with, but which evidently was one of the most boisterous character, a "rough and tumble" fight being nothing to it.

"Hullo, Jack, here you are at last!" shouted out Tom Mills, on seeing me. "Come and join us, old fellow. We're playing at 'piling the sacks.'"

"Piling the sacks?" I repeated. "What game is that?"

"Come along," cried he, "you'll soon learn it. Here's a new hand, Master Miller. Sacks to the mill! sacks to the mill!"

Thereupon he and a couple of other fellows seized me by my arms and legs and put me on top of a pile of other johnnies, who were scrambling and struggling and yelling on the deck in a confused ma.s.s, like an animated roly-poly pudding just turned out of the pot!

Another chap was then tossed on above me, and then another and another, till I was well-nigh suffocated; and then, when the pile had reached the top of the hatchway, the "Master Miller" toppled the lot of us over.

On this, we all scrambled to our feet again, laughing and shouting in high glee; with collars torn and s.h.i.+rts crushed and the b.u.t.tons wrenched off our jackets by the dozen. Only to begin the game again as before-- until, finally, the master-at-arms made his appearance below with the compliments of the first lieutenant to the "young gentlemen," and a polite request for them to "make less noise."

It was a jolly game, though, I can tell you!

The next day, we all commenced in earnest our studies in navigation and seamans.h.i.+p, the naval instructor with his a.s.sistants working us up in our mathematics and imparting to us the elements of plane and spherical trigonometry; while the boatswain and his mates gave us practical lessons in the setting up of rigging and making of knots, so that there should be no chance of our mistaking a "sheepshank" for a "cat's paw,"

or a "Flemish eye" for a "grommet!"

Here I at once gained the good opinion of the boatswain by making a "Matthew Walker" knot which, I may mention for the benefit of the uninitiated, is used generally on s.h.i.+p board for the standing part of the lanyards of lower rigging.

This I managed to achieve successfully at my first attempt, thanks to Dad's previous instruction; and I not only "got to win'ard" of the old seaman by the knowledge I thus displayed, but added to my laurels by showing that I knew something also of the somewhat intricate arts of "worming" and "parcelling" and "serving" ropes when occasion arose for dealing with them in such fas.h.i.+on, repeating aloud, to the great satisfaction of my teacher, the distich which guides the tyro and tells him how to do his work properly:--

"_Worm_ and _parcel_ with the lay, And _serve_ the rope the other way!"

With my mathematical studies, too, I made equal progress, in spite of my original dislike to friend Euclid and his vexatious propositions.

I also learnt how to find my lat.i.tude, by "bringing down the sun" with the s.e.xtant; and was taught the bearings and deviation of the compa.s.s, as well as the mastery of the log-line and other similar little niceties of navigation.

These preliminaries achieved, I was reported by the naval instructor to the captain of the training-s.h.i.+p as "efficient" long before my probationary period of three months had expired.

The captain of the training-s.h.i.+p, in due course, reported me to the Admiralty; and one fine morning I received official notice from the Secretary informing me that I was to go to sea, being appointed to the _Candahar_, line-of-battle s.h.i.+p, just commissioned for service on the China station; where, it was reported, matters were getting a little ticklish at the time, our government being at loggerheads with that of the emperor of the sun, moon and stars, and war imminent between the two countries.

It was certainly a splendid opening for me!

"By jingo! you're a lucky johnny," said little Tom Mills when I told him the news, my chum heaving a sigh of disappointment at this early severance of our friends.h.i.+p. He was, I could see, also a little jealous of my going to sea before him. "I'll write to my father and see if he cannot get me appointed to the same s.h.i.+p!"

"I hope you will, Tom," cried I, as I wrung his hand at the gangway, parting company at the same time with the rest of my old messmates, who had not yet pa.s.sed through the course of the training-s.h.i.+p, all of whom gathered round to see the last of me. "I promise you, old chap, I sha'n't have any other chum if you don't come with me!"