Crown and Anchor Part 9

Pa.s.sing across the gangway with Commander Nesbitt to the hulk, which served as a sort of floating hotel for all of us while the _Candahar_ was preparing for sea, officers and men alike sleeping and messing in her and only going on board our own ship during working hours between meals, as long as daylight lasted, I found Dr Nettleby, the chief of our medical staff, with one of his a.s.sistants, busily engaged in the sick bay on the main deck.

They were examining all the new hands who had just joined, to see whether any of them were suffering from organic disease, or some other physical infirmity that might incapacitate them for service afloat, none but the able-bodied being accepted.

The curtained door of the sick bay being open and the cabin itself close to the main hatchway, which I had necessarily to pa.s.s in going below to the gunroom, I could not help overhearing something of what was proceeding in the medical sanctum, the more especially from the fact of Dr Nettleby, the presiding genius, having a short temper and a snappy manner of expressing himself peculiarly his own.

He was a good-hearted man at the bottom, however, and as tender as a woman in cases of real suffering; though woe to the malingerer or shammer of illness who incautiously ventured within reach of his caustic tongue!

A couple of the cadets who had come on board with me that morning were standing by the doorway of the sick bay, in company with one of the older midshipmen and some others; and, seeing these all grinning, as if enjoying themselves mightily at what was going on within, I joined the group--the lot of us sheltering ourselves from observation behind a tall canvas screen that was rigged across the deck amidships, shutting out the draught from the port-holes fore and aft, besides serving also as an ante-room to the doctor's cabin and surgery. From this inner apartment would emerge ever and anon some culprit marine or shamefaced seaman, trying to walk steady, who, having perhaps been a trifle too jolly overnight and pleading indisposition as an excuse for his inability to attend to his duties, had been brought before the doctor for treatment-- only, alas! to receive a dose of pungent satire, in lieu of the soothing medicine they craved to banish the effects of their drunken spree.

Meanwhile, the new hands who were awaiting their medical examination were drawn up on the other side of the gangway, "marking time" until these regular, or rather irregular, patients were disposed of in turn, no doubt enjoying the fun like ourselves.

"Listen," whispered Larkyns, the senior midshipman, nudging the fellow next him and winking to me as I came up. "That's Macan, our corporal of marines, who's getting it now. By Jove, the doctor is giving it him hot!"

He certainly was, judging from what reached my ears, at least.

"Stuff and nonsense, corporal!" I heard Dr Nettleby rasp out snappishly, his voice sounding from within the cabin just like a terrier dog barking, for I could hear him plainly enough. "You can't gammon me, my man, though you might take in the first lieutenant! It's 'rumatism,'

not rheumatism you're suffering from, you scoundrel! You've been drinking, that's what's the matter with you; and if I report you to the cap'en, as I ought, you'll not only lose your stripes before sunset, but get four dozen as well, and serve you right, too!"

"Faith, yer honour, I haven't tasted a dhrop of anythin' barrin' tay since yesterday noon at Eight Bells. May I die this minnit if I have, sor," boldly a.s.serted the accused in a rich Irish brogue that was as distinct as the doctor's voice. "It's the rheumaticks, sure! I've got 'em in the legs bad this toime and can't hould mesilf up at all, nor walk more than a choild!"

"Macgilpin, just diagnose this case for me," cried the doctor to his a.s.sistant. "What does he smell of?"

"Whuskey," replied the a.s.sistant-surgeon, a rawboned expert from Edinburgh, who had only recently donned Her Majesty's uniform and brought his north-country accent with him when he came southwards.

"There's nae doot aboot that. He smells o' whuskey, and bad whuskey, tae!"

"Begorrah, yer nose is wrong, sor, and the doctor's roight, as he always is, sor, beggin' yer pardon," said the culprit, confessing his offence in his anxiety to stand up for the medical insight of the chief, with whom he had served before and whose professional pride he knew how to work upon. "It was rhum, sure enough."

"You rascal!" shouted out Dr Nettleby. "Why, not a moment ago you swore you hadn't tasted a drop of anything but tea alone since yesterday."

"Faith, yer honner, I didn't know it wor rhum till too late, sor. I sware, sor, I droonk it out av a taypot."

"Out of a teapot, man?"

"Yis, sor, I'll till yer honner how it wor, sure," explained the wily fellow, who could tell from the doctor's change of tone that his offence was condoned and that he need fear no worse consequences now than one of his usual lectures, which only went in at one ear and out at the other, as Dr Nettleby himself said. "I wint over to the rendywoo last noight be the cap'en's orders, sor, fur to say if there wor any more hands awaitin' to jine. Faith an' there I mates me wife's first cousin, Bridget O'Halloran, as is merried now be the same token to Sargint Lintstock."

"Sergeant Lintstock?"

"Ay, sor, that same, which makes him, sure, me second cousin once removed, though, faith, he's me soupayrior orfiser! But, as I were a-tellin' ye, sor, in comes Bridget whilst I were talkin' to the jintleman behoind the bar at the rendywoo. I were jist axin' what the cap'en tells me to axe him; an' 'Mike,' says she, cordial like, 'have a partin' gla.s.s wid me fur the sake of the ould country as ye're abut to lave.'

"'Faith an' that's more nor I dare, Bridget,' says I. 'I promist the docthor, sure, I wouldn't touch another dhrop o' sperrits for the nixt four-an'-twenty hours, as I'm a livin' sinner!'

"'But I don't want ye to dhrink sperrits,' says she. 'Me an' me frind Mistress Wilkins here is jist havin' a cup of tay, sure; an' axes ye to jine us, that's all!'

"'Faith I'm not the bhoy fur to disobleege the ladies,' says I, 'ye can give us a cup, if that's all ye wants me fur to do.' Wid that, Bridget ups with the taypot, a little brown one it wor, sure, by the same token, an' pours me out a cupful in a mug that lay handy sure on the counther, which I drinks to the hilth of her an' Missis Wilkins as wor standin'

by. It wor right-down beautiful tay; so I has another one to the hilth of Bridget's husband the sarjint, an' thin another, that wor a little one faith! to the hilth of the babby; an', begorrah, sor, I rimimbers no more till this mornin' whin I fales so bad wid the rheumatics as I couldn't lift me hid out of me hammock. The sarjint says I wor droonk, but I worn't, sor; though somehows or t'other I thinks it must have been rhum I wor drinkin' at the rendywoo an' not tay as Bridget telled me at the toime, sayin' it wor good fur the stummick an' wud kape the cowld out!"

"I don't believe a word of your story," I heard the doctor answer to this long and circ.u.mstantial yarn. "Why, Macan, you're drunk now!"

"Me droonk now, sor?" repeated the other in a tone of mingled sorrow and solemnity. "Faith I'm as sobher as a jidge this very minnit, as I'm a livin' sinner!"

"Don't tell me any more of your lies!" cried out the doctor irascibly at this juncture, interrupting what further a.s.servation the corporal might have made in support of his unblushing a.s.sertion. "You can go forrud now and thank your stars I don't report you, as I had more than half a mind to at first. If I did, you'd be put into the black list and lose your stripes to a dead certainty."

"May the saints presarve yer honner," exclaimed Macan with effusion as he was thus dismissed, but he was still not satisfied apparently at his word being doubted; for, as he pa.s.sed us, working his way forward by a series of short tacks, he kept on muttering half aloud, much to our amus.e.m.e.nt, "It's all through that blissid Scotch sawbones wid his long 'dog nose' as he calls it, sayin' it wor whisky. I'm as shober as a jidge, faith--as shober as a jidge!"

No more unfortunate circ.u.mstance, however, could have occurred for the corporal of marines, in spite of the doctor having let him off so easily, for, through our overhearing this dialogue between the two, the yarn he had told of meeting his "cousin Bridget" soon got round the ship, and the men could always put him in a rage whenever they liked by an allusion to the "taypot" and his cousin's friend "Missis Wilkins."

We stopped a little longer listening outside the sick bay, but soon gave up the pastime, nothing occurring to interest us during the medical examination of the new hands, a fresh batch of whom came aft, by the way, at Four Bells; for all of them were quickly pa.s.sed by the doctor and were detailed for duty aloft and below, where many jobs were at a standstill for want of men.

This enabled the commander to press on with the work of rigging the ship, the crossjack, or "crochet" yard being sent up by the aid of the mizzen burton hooked on in front of the top; after which the jack was slung and the trusses fixed on, the spar brought home to the mast, the lifts and braces having been fitted before swaying, as is the case with all the lower yards in men-of-war.

The mizzen-trysail mast, on which the spanker is set, was also got up by means of the same tackle; and, what with hoisting in some of the main deck guns and sails and other gear, the afternoon quickly pa.s.sed.

I was not sorry when dinner-time came, Five Bells in the first dog watch, for I was pretty well tired to death with this, my first day's experience on board the _Candahar_, in running up and down the decks fore and aft as Commander Nesbitt's special messenger. It was, however, a very good introduction to the life I should have to lead for the next few years of my career; for, as a junior officer, I would be at the beck and call of everyone on the quarter-deck and "hardly able to call my soul my own,"--as Dad had more than once warned me beforehand.

Still, I must say, notwithstanding certain drawbacks, which subsequent experience brought to light in due course, I liked it all, taking the rough side of sea life with the smooth, and would not change my lot if I had the opportunity of making my choice over again, even knowing what I do now of the service!

My captain I had not as yet seen much of; for, although he came off every day to sign papers and receive reports, as well as see how things were going on generally, he lived on sh.o.r.e and did not interfere at all with Commander Nesbitt, who carried on the work as he pleased.

The latter being a good officer, who thoroughly knew his duty and a sailor every inch of him, as I have already described, Captain Farmer, as he probably well understood, could not have done better than thus leave matters to his second in command while the ship was in harbour.

The Honourable Digby Lanyard, our first lieutenant, was a tall supercilious young man of five-and-twenty or so who wore an eyegla.s.s.

This was more for effect than from any defect of vision, for he was as sharp as a needle; and could see a bit of spunyarn adrift or a rope out of place aloft even quicker than the commander, keen-sighted as he was.

Amongst the men on the lower deck, who have, as a rule, some pet nickname for most of their officers, especially those whom they may chance to like or dislike more than the rest, he always went by the sobriquet of "gla.s.s-eye"; and it was wonderful how this dandy chap who was so particular in his dress and would mince his words in conversation with his brother officers in the wardroom, speaking with a lisp of affectation and a languid air as if it were too much trouble to articulate distinctly, would, when the occasion arose, roar out his orders in a voice that could be heard from one end of the ship to the other and make the men skip about, like the young lambs mentioned by the Psalmist!

As for us youngsters, we dreaded his icy contemptuous stare and his "haw-haw" manner more than anything.

He seemed to have the power of freezing us with a look should he ever condescend to notice us at all; but this, fortunately, was very seldom, the lieutenant being wont to ignore our existence except when he had reason to call us to account for some neglect of duty, at which times we disliked more his disdainful glance, accompanied, as it invariably was, by some cold sarcastic allusion to our shortcomings, than the bullying and bad language of some of the other officers who were not so refined.

Such at all events was the opinion d.i.c.k Andrews and Teddy Allison and the other cadets had of him, as well as myself; though Fred Larkyns, the big senior midshipman, who patronised us and whom we all liked, he was such a jolly fellow and up to all sorts of fun, said we would find "gla.s.s-eye" not half a bad chap "when we came to know him better."

Subsequent events will tell how far Mr Larkyns proved to be right in this conclusion of his; albeit, we demurred to it at the time that he propounded it in his dogmatic way, rapping poor little Teddy Allison on the head with a parallel ruler, which he held in his hand at the moment, for daring to dispute his oracular a.s.sertion on the point and making us all laugh by a capital imitation of the haughty airs of our pet aversion and his cynical mode of speech, while in the same breath he took his part, generous lad that he was!

We were all too busy, however, to notice the various peculiarities and characteristics of our messmates beyond such as we were brought more immediately in contact with.

Indeed, we had not time even to settle down on board and know each other properly; for each day added to our company, increasing the number of strange faces around us, so that I began to wonder when we would at length get our requisite complement and finish our apparently endless task of fitting out.

"It is a long lane that has no turning," though, as the old adage goes; and so, after three weeks more of enrolling volunteers at Corporal Macan's favourite "rendywoo," and the hoisting in of many guns and boats and stores and provisions of all sorts, until the _Candahar_, I thought, would never contain them all, we finally bent our sails, crossed royal yards and were declared "ready for sea."

Captain Farmer came on board with "all his bag and baggage" on our ship's company "turning over" from the old hulk _Blake_, to which we all bade a long and welcome adieu, all hands being then mustered by divisions to beat of drum along the upper and lower decks.

We were eight hundred strong, all told; officers and men; bluejackets of all ratings, and marines; boys and "idlers," as some of the hardest-worked fellows aboard are somewhat inappropriately designated in the watch bill, according to nautical etiquette; as motley a collection at the first start, and yet as fine a set of fellows as you could pick out in a year's cruise!

These preliminaries being all arranged, we cast off from the hulk late one November afternoon; and, the dockyard tug _Puffing Billy_ taking us in tow, proceeded to Spithead, where we anch.o.r.ed in eleven fathoms, letting out some six shackles of cable, so that we could swing comfortably with the tide as it flowed in and out of the roadstead.

CHAPTER EIGHT.