From Powder Monkey to Admiral Part 42

Rayner found, on inquiry, that, fortunately, a board was to sit the very next day, and, meeting Captain Saltwell, he mentioned his intention.

"The very thing I was going to advise," was the answer. "I'll write a letter to Captain Cranston, and you can take it with you."

Next morning Rayner presented himself on board the flagship, where he found several other midshipmen ready to go up. First one, and then another, was sent for, and came back with smiling faces. At last one, who certainly did not look as if he would set the Thames on fire, went in. In a short time he reappeared, grumbling and complaining that it was very hard a fellow who had been at sea six years should be turned back.

Rayner's turn came next. Comparatively but a few questions were asked in navigation. He had no difficulty in answering those put to him in seamanship. At last, Captain Cranston, knitting his brow, and looking very serious, said--

"Now, Mr Rayner, supposing the ship you are in charge of is caught on a lee sh.o.r.e with a hurricane blowing, and you find yourself embayed; what would you do?"

"If there was holding ground, I should let go the best bower, and make all snug aloft."

"But suppose the best bower is carried away?"

"I should let go the second bower, sir."

"But suppose you lose that?" asked the captain, looking still more serious.

"I should cut away the masts and bring up with my sheet anchor."

"But in the event of losing that, Mr Rayner, how would you next proceed?"

"I should have done all that a man can do, and should look out for the most suitable place for running the ship ash.o.r.e."

"But, suppose you could find no suitable place, Mr Rayner?"

"Then, sir, I should let her find one for herself, and make the best preparations time would allow for saving the lives of her people, when she struck."

"I have the pleasure to inform you, Mr Rayner, that you have pa.s.sed your examination very creditably," said Captain Cranston, handing him his papers.

Rayner, thanking the captain, and bowing, made his exit. On afterwards comparing notes with the midshipman who had been turned back, he mentioned the question which had been put to him.

"Why, that's the very one he asked me," said his companion. "I told him I would club-haul the ship, and try all sorts of manoeuvres to beat out of the bay, and would not on any account let her go ash.o.r.e."

"I'm not surprised that you were turned back, old fellow," observed Rayner, with a laugh.

On returning on sh.o.r.e he met Commander Saltwell. "I congratulate you, Rayner," he said. "I have just received orders to commission the _Lily_ sloop-of-war, and I will apply to have you with me. By-the-bye, where are you going to put up?"

"Mrs Crofton has asked me to go to her house, and as I thought that you would have no objection, I accepted her offer, sir," answered Rayner.

"I am glad to hear it; the very best thing you could do," said Commander Saltwell. "Though many would prefer the freedom of an inn, I admire your good taste in taking advantage of the opportunity offered you to pa.s.s your time in the society of refined, right-minded persons like Mrs Crofton and her daughter."

Our hero spent a few happy days with the kind widow and Mary, who both evidently took a warm interest in his welfare. It was the first time he had been living on sh.o.r.e, except during his sojourn in France, since he first went to sea. He was introduced to some of the few friends they possessed, and he made several pleasant excursions with them to visit some of the beautiful scenery in the neighbourhood of Plymouth. His observation, unknown to himself, enabled him rapidly to adapt himself to the manners of people of education, and no one would have recognised in the gentlemanly young midshipman the powder monkey of a short time back.

It was with more regret than he supposed he could possibly have felt that he received a summons to join the _Lily_, now fitting out with all despatch for the West Indies. Though he no longer belonged to the _Thisbe_, it was with much sorrow that he heard she was p.r.o.nounced unfit for sea, and that her crew had been dispersed. He made inquiries for Jack and Tom. The former, he discovered, had gone to pay his mother a visit; but, though he searched for Tom, he could nowhere hear of him.

The day after he had joined the _Lily_, he was well pleased to see Jack come on board.

"I found out, sir, that you belonged to the corvette, as I thought you would when I heard that Mr Saltwell was appointed to command her," said Jack; "so, sir, I made up my mind to volunteer for her, if I could escape being pressed before I got back to Plymouth."

"I am glad to see you, Peek," said our hero. "Have you heard anything of Tom Fletcher?"

"Well, sir, I'm sorry to say I have," answered Jack. "He has been knocking about Plymouth, hiding away from the press-gangs in all sorts of places, instead of going home to his father, as he said he would. I only found him last night, and tried to persuade him to join the _Lily_ with me, but he'd still a shiner or two in his locker, and he couldn't make up his mind to come till the last had gone. I know where to find him, and I'll try again after I have entered on board the _Lily_."

"Do so," said Rayner. "He may be better off with a friend like you to look after him than left to himself."

Rayner had the satisfaction of seeing Jack rated as an A.B. Several of the _Thisbe's_ crew had joined the _Lily_, and besides them Ben Twinch, who, owing to Captain Martin's recommendation, had been raised to the rank of warrant officer, was appointed to her as boatswain.

"Very glad to be with you again, Mr Rayner," said honest Ben; "and I hope before the ship is paid off to see you one of her lieutenants. We are likely to have a good ship's company; and I am glad to say my brother warrant officers, Mr Coles the gunner, and Mr Jenks the carpenter, are men who can be trusted."

Rayner's own messmates were all strangers. The first lieutenant, Mr Horrocks, a red-faced man, with curly whiskers, and as stiff as a poker, had not much the cut of a naval officer; while the second lieutenant, Mr Lascelles, who was delicate, refined, young, and good-looking, offered a great contrast to him.

They were both not only civil but kind to Rayner, of whom Commander Saltwell had spoken highly to them.

Jack had been twice on sh.o.r.e to look out for Tom, and had returned saying that he could not persuade him to come on board.

At last, when the ship was almost ready for sea, being still some hands short of her complement, Rayner obtained leave for Jack, with two other men who could be trusted to try and bring him off, and any others they could pick up.

Late in the evening a sh.o.r.e boat came off with several men in her, and Jack made his appearance on deck, where Rayner was doing duty as mate of the watch.

"I have brought him, sir, though he does not exactly know where he is coming to," said Jack.

"I found him with his pockets emptied and the landlady of the house where he was lodging about to turn him out of doors. We managed to bring him along, sir, however, and to-morrow morning, when he comes to his senses, I have no doubt he'll be thankful to enter."

"I'm glad to hear you've got him safe at last, and I know you'll look after him," said Rayner.

Next morning Tom, not knowing that Rayner was on board, or how he himself came there, entered as an ordinary seaman, which placed him in an inferior position to Jack Peek, who might soon, from his activity and good conduct, be raised to the rank of a petty officer.

Our hero paid a last visit to Mrs Crofton and Mary, promising, as they asked him to do, to write whenever he could obtain an opportunity.

At length the _Lily_, a fine corvette, carrying twenty guns on a flush deck and a complement of one hundred and twenty men, was ready for sea.

On going down the Sound she found the _Latona_, which ship she was to a.s.sist in convoying a fleet of merchantmen brought up in Cawsand Bay.

As the men-of-war approached, the merchant vessels, to the number of nearly fifty, got under way and stood down Channel. It was pretty hard work to keep them together, and the corvette was employed in continually firing signals to urge on the laggers, or to prevent the faster craft from running out of sight. What with shortening and making sail and signalling, together with getting a newly commissioned ship into trim, the time of all on board was pretty well occupied, and Rayner had no opportunity of learning anything about Tom Fletcher. A bright look-out was kept on every side, for an enemy might at any moment appear, especially at night, when it was possible some daring privateer might pounce down and attempt to carry off one of the merchantmen, just as a hawk picks off a hapless chicken from a brood watched over so carefully by the hen.

The wind was fair, the sea calm, and the traders bound for Jamaica safely reached Port Royal harbour, the remainder being convoyed to the other islands by the _Latona_ and _Lily_, which were afterwards to be sent to cruise in search of the enemy's privateers. Our hero had not forgotten Tom Fletcher, but watched in the hopes of doing him a service Jack's report of him had not been favourable. He had talked of going home to his father, and had plenty of money in his pocket to do so, but instead of that he had gone to dancing-houses and similar places resorted to by seamen, where his money rapidly disappeared. He might have fallen into the docks, or died in the streets, had not Jack found him and brought him on board the _Lily_. For some neglect of duty his leave had been stopped, and, fortunately for himself, he was not allowed to go on sh.o.r.e at Port Royal when the ship put in there. Tom, however, still avoided Rayner, who had no opportunity, unless he expressly sent to speak to him, to give him a word of advice or encouragement.

Jack, who was really the best friend he had in the ship, did his utmost to keep him out of mischief.

"It's all very fine for you to talk that way," answered Tom, when one day Jack had been giving him a lecture. "You got rated as an able seaman, and now have been made captain of the mizen-top, too, and will, I suppose, before long, get another step; and here am I sticking where I was. It's no fault of mine, that I can see. I'll cut and run if I have the chance, for I cannot bear to see others placed over my head, as you and Bill Rayner have been, and to see him walking the quarter-deck in a brand new uniform, and talking to the officers as friendly and easy as if he had been born among them, while I, a gentleman's son, remain a foremast man, with every chance of being one to the end of my days."

"There's no use grumbling, Tom; all you have to think about is to do your duty with smartness, keep sober, and to avoid doing anything wrong, and with your education, which I wish I had, you are sure to get on."

There is an old saying that it is useless to try and make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. It is to be seen whether Tom Fletcher was like the sow's ear.

Soon after the _Lily_ left Jamaica she fell in with the _Ariel_. As a calm came on while they were in company, the officers of the two ships paid visits to each other. Rayner, recollecting that Mary Crofton's brother Oliver was serving in her, got leave to go on board, for the purpose of making his acquaintance. He was much disappointed, on inquiring for him, to learn that he had been sent away a few days before, in charge of a prize, a brig called the _Clerie_, with orders to take her to Jamaica.

"She ought to have arrived before you left there," observed the midshipman who told him this.

"How provoking that I should have missed him, though I do not think any such vessel came in while we were there," answered Rayner. "His mother and sister are great friends of mine."