On Board the Esmeralda Part 15

But, my quandary did not last very long; for, on Captain Billings dismissing the men after the full-dress parade he had held on the quarter-deck, the boatswain came up to me with a genial grin on his hairy face.

"Hullo, Master Leigh," said he, "Who'd a' thought of us two meeting ag'in like this?"

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE.

"What!" I exclaimed, in much amazement. "Is it really you, Jorrocks?

I can hardly believe my eyes!"

"Aye, aye, it's me sure enough," replied my old ally of the _Saucy Sall_, shaking hands with great heartiness, as if he were really glad to see me again under such altered circ.u.mstances. "It's me sure enough, Master Leigh--that is, unless I've got some double of a twin brother, as like me as two peas, a-sailing round in these lat.i.tudes!"

There could be no question of his ident.i.ty after I had once heard the tones of his well-remembered voice; but the beard which he had allowed to grow since I had last seen him had so completely altered the expression of his face, or rather indeed its entire appearance, that there was some excuse for my not recognising him at the moment.

Jorrocks, however, he was without doubt; and, I need hardly say that I was quite as much pleased at this unexpected meeting as he seemed to be--albeit the sight of him, when I realised the fact that it was really himself and heard his cheery familiar accents, brought back in an instant to my mind the scene on board the coal brig that eventful day when the _Saucy Sall's_ surly skipper discovered that Tom and I had stolen a march on him, and treated us each to a dose of his sovereign specific for stowaways!

"How is it, though, Jorrocks, that you've abandoned the brig?" I asked him presently, when we had got over our mutual surprise at thus meeting in such an unlooked-for fashion. "I thought you were a fixture there, and didn't know you were a regular sailor--I mean one accustomed to sea- going ships like this?"

I said this with much dignity, being greatly impressed with the responsibility of my new position; and I'm sure I must have spoken as if I were a post captain at least, addressing some subordinate officer!

Jorrocks, however, took my patronage in good part, although I could detect a faint c.o.c.k of his eye, denoting sly amus.e.m.e.nt at my ridiculous a.s.sumption of superiority. This he now proceeded to "take down a peg"

in his roundabout way.

"Why, bless you, Master Leigh, I sailed as able seaman in a China clipper afore you were born, and when I were that high!" he replied, laughing, putting his hand about a foot above the deck to ill.u.s.trate his approximate stature at the period referred to, and representing himself to be at that time certainly a very diminutive son of Neptune.

"You must have been very young, then," said I, a little bit nettled at his remark--thinking it a slur on my nautical experience, so bran-new as that was!

But Jorrocks went on as coolly as if I had not cast a doubt on the veracity of his statement concerning his early commencement of sailor life.

"Aye, aye," he answered, quite collectedly, "I grant I were young, but then you must rec'lect, my lad, I got the flavour o' the sea early in a lighthouse tower, where I was born and brought up, my father having the lantern to mind; and, since then, I've v'y'ged a'most to every part you could mention, and shipped in a'most every kind of craft, from an East Indyman down to a Yarmouth hoy. Bless you! I only took to the coasting line two or three years ago, when you and I first ran foul of each other; and the reason for my doing that was in cons'quence of my getting spliced, and the missus wanting me to take a 'longsh.o.r.e berth.

Howsomedevers, I couldn't stand it long, being once used to a decent fo'c's'le in a proper sort of vessel v'y'ging o'er the seas in true shipshape fashion; and so, I parted company with the brig and came aboard the _Esmeralda_ eighteen months ago come next July--a long spell for a sailor to stick to one ship without changing, but then Cap'en Billings 's a good sort, and he made me boatswain o' the craft last v'y'ge but one, so I hopes to remain with him longer still."

"You like him, then?" I said, tentatively, looking him straight in the face.

"Oh, aye--first-cla.s.s," replied Jorrocks to my implied question, with much seriousness, "He's not only a good skipper--as good as they make 'em, treating the hands as if they were men, and not dogs--but he's a prime seaman, and knows what's what in a gale, better nor most I've ever sailed with. Howsomedevers, he'll stand no nonsense; and when he puts his foot down, you may as well give up, as you might sooner soft-sawder a trenail into a two-inch plank as get over him and shirk your duty!

The old man, easy-going when you take him right, is as stiff as a porkypine when you runs foul of his hawse; so, you'd better not try on any o' them pranks o' yours you told me you and your messmate played off on your old schoolmaster, for Cap'en Billings has cut his eye teeth, my hearty."

"Why, I wouldn't dream of such a thing," I exclaimed, indignantly, "what Tom and I did to Dr h.e.l.lyer was quite different, and served him right for his cruelty."

"Aye, aye, that may be accordin' to your notion," said Jorrocks, sententiously; "but that schoolmaster were the skipper of his own ship, the same as Cap'en Billings is here aboard this here craft, and it ain't right to trifle with them as is set in authority over us!"

I can't tell what I might have replied to this appropriate little sermon that Jorrocks delivered about the mischievous and dangerous trick that Tom and I conspired together to commit, and which I have often subsequently reflected might have led to the most disastrous consequences, and perhaps injured the Doctor for life; but, at that moment, Captain Billings, seeing my old friend and I chatting together, came over to leeward, where we were standing.

"Hullo, boatswain!" he shouted out, "making friends with the youngster, eh?"

"Why, bless you, Cap'en Billings," answered Jorrocks, touching his cap, "he and I are old shipmates."

"Indeed! I had no idea of his having been at sea before," said the skipper, apparently very much astonished at this news.

"Oh, aye, sir, he has," returned my old friend, glad to be able to put in a good word for me, as he thought, after the little lecture he had just given me. "He was on board a coal brig with me two years ago, a coasting craft that plied up along sh.o.r.e to Noocastle and back; and you'll find him no green hand, Cap', but a smart able chap, one that'll get out to the weather earing when there's a call to reef topsails sooner than many a full-grown seaman, for he knows his way up the rigging."

"I'm very glad to hear that," said the skipper, turning to me, with an affable smile that lighted up his twinkling blue eyes. "When Sam Pengelly told me you were a capable lad, of course, I naturally took his opinion to proceed more from personal bias than practical comment on your seamanship; but, now that I learn from Jorrocks here, on more independent testimony, that you're no novice on board ship and have already mastered the rough rudiments of your profession in the best way possible--that of having been before the mast as a regular hand--why, you'll be able to get on all the faster, and be able to command the deck by-and-by on your own hook. How are you up in navigation, eh?"

"I can take the sun, sir," said I, modestly, not wishing to blow my own trumpet.

"Anything else?"

"Yes, sir, I can work out a reckoning, I believe," I answered.

"Ha, humph, pretty good! I'll try you by-and-by, Leigh," said Captain Billings, turning aside for the moment to order the port watch to give one extra pull to the weather braces--"mind and bring out your s.e.xtant when you see me on deck at eight bells. I suppose you've got one in your chest, eh?"

"Oh yes, sir, Sam Pengelly gave me one," I replied, and the skipper then went into the cabin while Jorrocks and I resumed our interrupted conversation.

My old friend took advantage of the opportunity to put me up to a good many wrinkles concerning my fellow-shipmates.

The mate, Mr Macdougall, who was a tall, hatchet-faced Scotsman, with high cheek-bones and a very prominent nose--Jorrocks told me, in confidence--was a tight-handed, close-fisted, cross-tempered man, ever fond of displaying his authority and working the hands to death, under the plea of preventing their idling or "hazing," as he called it.

"I advise you not to get into a row with him, Mister Leigh, if so as you can help it; 'cause, once a chap falls foul of him in any way, he neversomedevers by no chance forgets or forgives it, nohow."

"I shan't give him the chance," I answered to this, with a laugh. "I suppose he doesn't think himself greater than the captain!"

"Ah, you just wait a bit 'fore you decide that p'int. The first mate aboard a marchint ship is a sight more powerful than a judge on the bench, as you'll find out! The skipper allers tells him what he wishes, and the mate sees to its being done, an' it depends what sorter fellow _he_ is, and not on the cap'en, as to how matters go on when a vessel's at sea; for, it's in his power for to make things pleasant like and all plain sailing, or else to cause the crew for to smell brimstone afore their time, I tell you! That Macdougall, now, though you laugh in that light-hearted way, ain't to be trifled with, Mister Leigh, I warn you; and if you go for to raise his dander ag'in you, why, you won't find it worth grinning at, that's sartin, for he's as nasty as he's spiteful, and every man Jack of us hates him like pizen, and wishes he were out of the ship. The skipper, I knows, wouldn't have him aboard if he could have his own way, but he's some connection of the owners, and he can't help himself."

"All right, Jorrocks, I'll try and steer clear of him," I said, trying to look grave, for I saw the old sailor was in earnest, and only speaking for my good. "I will endeavour to do my duty, and then he won't have any occasion to find fault with me."

"Ah, but you'll have to do more than that; for, like most of them uppish chaps, if you don't truckle under to him and purtend as how he's the Lord Mayor, he's safe to be down on you."

"I'm not going to crawl under any man's feet, first mate or no first mate!" I said, proudly. "Why, I'm a first-cla.s.s apprentice, and the captain has rated me as third officer in the ship's books."

"Now, Mister Leigh, don't you go on for being b.u.mptious, now, my lad!"

replied Jorrocks, laughing heartily at my drawing myself up on my dignity. "A third officer or 'third mate,' as we calls him, has a dog's berth aboard a ship if he doesn't lend his hand to anything and b.u.t.ton to the first mate! You needn't go for to really humble yourself afore that Macdougall; I only meant you to purtend like as how you thinks him a regular top-sawyer, and then you'll sail along without a chance of a squall--Mr Ohlsen, the second mate, in charge o' your watch, is an easy-going chap, and you'll get on well enough with him."

"All right," I said in response, as if agreeing with his advice; but I formed my own resolution as to how I would treat the Scotsman should he try to bully me unjustly.

He would find no cringe in me, I vowed!

The rest of my shipmates, Jorrocks then went on to tell me, were a very jolly set of fellows, forming as good a crew as he'd ever sailed with-- fit for anything, and all able seamen "of the proper sort."

Haxell, the carpenter, he said, was a quiet, steady-going, solemn sort of man, with no nonsense about him, who kept himself to himself; while Sails, the sail-maker, whom I have omitted mentioning in his proper place as one of the officers ranking after the boatswain, was a cheery chap, who could sing a good song on Sat.u.r.day night in the fo'c's'le; but, the life of the crew, Jorrocks said, was Pat Doolan, the cook, an Irishman, as his name would imply. He was always ready to crack a joke and "carry on" when there was any skylarking about, besides willing to lend a hand at any time on a pinch. Jorrocks told me "to mind and be good friends with Pat," if it were only for the sake of the pannikin of hot coffee which it was in his power to dispense in the early morning when turning out on watch in the cold.

"Ah, you were not born yesterday, Jorrocks!" I said, when he imparted this valuable bit of information to me, as one of the state secrets of the fo'c's'le.

"No, Mister Leigh," he answered, with a meaning wink; "I've not been to sea, twenty year more or less, for nothing, I tell you."

The steward--to complete the list of those on board--was a flabby half- and-half sort of Welshman, hailing from Cardiff but brought up in London; and, as he was a close ally of the first mate, I need hardly say he was no favourite either of my friend Jorrocks, or with the crew generally--all the hands thinking that he skimped the provisions when serving them out, in deference to Mr Macdougall's prejudices in the way of stinginess!

The _Esmeralda_, therefore, carried twenty-seven souls in all of living freight, including the skipper and my valuable self, besides her thousand tons of coal or so of cargo; we on board representing a little world within ourselves, with our interests identical so long as the voyage lasted.