The Two Whalers | Page 3

as soon as possible. You'll never get on without
that," he said, and producing an old, well-thumbed edition of Hamilton
Moore's "Epitome of Navigation," he added, "I'll give you this, Jack. It
has served me, and will serve you well if you master it as I've done."
How I did prize that book! I doubt if I ever valued anything more in my
life. My brother, I should have said, had been at an excellent nautical
school in Deal, established a few years before by several officers of the
Royal Navy, where he gained much credit by his intelligence and
attention to his studies. As soon as it was finally settled that I was to go
to sea I was sent to the same school on the day my brother left home to
go on his next voyage. I easily passed in, as I knew all the simple rules
of arithmetic thoroughly, and was pretty well up in decimals. Having
learned from my brother that the use of logarithms and the first

principles of geometry would soon be taught me at school, with his
help I had at once set to work on them, and after he went away I
continued my studies in the evenings when other boys were at play, so
that I quickly mastered all those necessary preliminaries. I
consequently got over them at school with a rapidity which astonished
the master, and with no little pride I heard the inspector, a naval captain,
remark, "First-rate boy--beats his brother--be a master in a jiffy."
The result of my working so hard out of hours was that at our annual
examination I took the first prize, and was shortly afterwards
pronounced fit to be sent to sea. As I still held to my wish to go, my
father at once wrote to the owners of several first-class South Sea
whalers, who immediately agreed to send me as an apprentice on board
one of their ships, the "Eagle," Captain Hake, just about to sail for the
Pacific.
On the night before my departure I slept but little for thinking of the
novel and wonderful scenes I expected to go through, and I am pretty
sure that my kind mother did not close her eyes, but from a different
cause. She was thinking of parting from me, and of the dangers to
which I was to be exposed. She was praying that I might be preserved
from them I know, for she told me so. At three o'clock in the morning
she called me up, that I might be ready to start with my father by the
mail coach for Margate, whence we were to go up the river to London
by steamer. How earnestly did my pious father at family prayers, which
he never omitted, commend me to the care of Him who watches over
all the creatures of His hands! I felt that there was a reality in that
prayer, such as I had never before comprehended.
Breakfast over, and parting embraces given, we started, and rattling
away to Margate, were soon on board the "Royal Adelaide" on our way
up the Thames. Bitter as was the cold, I was too much occupied in
running about and examining everything connected with the steamer to
mind it. The helm, the machinery, the masts and rigging, the huge
paddle-wheels, the lead and lead-line, all came under my notice. As I
was in no ways bashful I made the acquaintance of several persons on
board, and among others I spoke to a lad considerably my senior,

whose dress and well-bronzed face and hands showed me that he was a
sailor.
"Are you going to sea, youngster?" he asked, looking me over from
head to foot, as if to judge how far I was cut out for a nautical life.
"Yes, in a few days, I hope, on board the `Eagle,'" I answered.
"That is curious; she is the ship I belong to," he remarked. "You're in
luck, for she's a smart craft, and, as things go, we are tolerably
comfortable on board; but you must be prepared to take the rough with
the smooth, mind you; there are a good many things to rub against
afloat as well as ashore, you'll find."
"And what sort of man is the captain?" I asked somewhat eagerly,
anxious to know the character of my future commander.
"The captain is the captain, and while you are on board his ship you'd
better not rub against him, but listen to what he tells you to do, and do
it; sharp's the word with him." I was not much the wiser from this
information, but I gathered from it that Captain Hake was a man who
would stand no nonsense. I determined at all events to learn my duty,