The Lieutenant and Commander Part 20

Last of all the pilot comes on board; the sails are loosed and hoisted; and the las.h.i.+ngs being cast off from the hulk, the gay s.h.i.+p sails joyously out of harbour, and takes up her anchorage at the anchoring ground. The officers and crew set to work in getting things into their places; and being all thoroughly tired of harbour, and anxious to get to sea, a fresh feeling of zeal and activity pervades the whole establishment.

The powder is now got on board; the warrant-officers "indent" or sign the proper acknowledgments for their stores at the dockyard; and the purser, having completed the stock of provisions, closes his accounts at the victualling-office. The captain's wife begins to pack up her band-boxes in order to return home, while the Jews and b.u.m-boat folks are pus.h.i.+ng all the interest they can sc.r.a.pe together to induce the first lieutenant to give them the priority of entrance with their goods and chattels on the approaching pay-day. The sailors' wives about this period besiege the captain and his lady alternately, with pet.i.tions to be allowed to go to sea in the s.h.i.+p; to all, or most of which, a deaf ear must be turned. When all things are put to rights, the port-admiral comes on board to muster and inspect the s.h.i.+p's company, and to see how the different equipments have been attended to.

At length, just before sailing, pay-day comes, and with it many a disgusting scene will ever be a.s.sociated until the present system be modified. The s.h.i.+p is surrounded by a fleet of boats filled with gangs of queer-looking Jew-pedlars sitting in the midst of piles of slop-clothing, gaudy handkerchiefs, tawdry trinkets, eggs and b.u.t.ter, red herrings and cheeses, tin-pots, fruit, joints of meat, and bags of potatoes, well concealed beneath which are bottles and bladders filled with the most horribly adulterated spirituous liquors. As many of these dealers as can be conveniently ranged on the quarter-deck and gangways may be admitted, that the market may be as open and fair as possible; but it is very indiscreet to allow any of them to go on the main-deck.

Right happy is that hour when the s.h.i.+p is fairly clear of all these annoyances--sweethearts and wives inclusive--and when, with the water filled up to the last gallon, the bread-room chock full, and as many quarters of beef got on board as will keep fresh, the joyful sound of "Up Anchor!" rings throughout the s.h.i.+p. The capstan is manned; the messenger brought to; round fly the bars; and as the anchor spins buoyantly up to the bows, the jib is hoisted, the topsails sheeted home, and off she goes, merrily before the breeze!

FINIS.

A SERIES OF SELECT WORKS OF FAVOURITE AUTHORS.

Now Ready.

Walton's Complete Angler.

Sea Songs and Ballads. By Dibdin, and others.

White's Natural History of Selborne.

Coleridge's Poems.

The Robin Hood Ballads.

The Lieutenant and Commander. By Capt. Hall, R.N.

The Mids.h.i.+pman. By Capt. Basil Hall, R.N.

Southey's Life of Nelson.

George Herbert's Poems.

George Herbert's Works.

Longfellow's Poems.

Lamb's Tales from Shakspeare.

Milton's Paradise Lost.

Milton's Paradise Regained and other Poems.

Burns's Poems.

Burns's Songs.

The Conquest of India. By Capt. Basil Hall, R.N.

Walton's Lives of Donne, Wotton, Hooker, &c.

Gray's Poems.

Goldsmith's Poems.

Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield.

Henry Vaughan's Poems.