Mark Seaworth | Page 6

who had been in India before--military and civil officers of the
Company, merchants, lawyers, and clergymen; but I need not more
particularly describe them.
Ellen Barrow, Mrs Clayton's charge, was not only sweetly pretty, but
good and amiable in every respect. I do not know that she had what is
called a regular feature in her face; but her sunny smile, and an
expression which gave sure indication of a good disposition, made
those who saw her think her far more beautiful than many ladies whose
countenances were in other respects faultless. I praise her from having
known her well, and all the excellencies of her character, as they were
in after-years more fully developed. At present her most intimate
friends would probably have said little more about her than that she
was a nice, pretty-looking, happy girl.
There was another person on board, of whom I must by no means omit
to speak, and that is Captain Willis. He was a very gentlemanly man,

both in appearance and manners, as indeed he was by birth; nor had
the rough school in which he was educated left a trace behind.
He was the son of a merchant of excellent family connections and his
mother was, I believe, a lady of rank. When he was about the age of
fourteen, both his parents died, leaving him perfectly penniless, for his
father had just before that event failed and lost all his property. He had
had, fortunately, the opportunity of obtaining an excellent education,
and he had profited by it and this gave him an independence of
feeling--which he could not otherwise justly have enjoyed. He was also
a lad of honest spirit; his relations had quarrelled with his parents, and
treated them, he considered, unjustly; so that his heart rebelled at the
idea of soliciting charity from them, and he at once resolved to fight his
own way in the world.
He had always had a strong predilection for a sea life, and he was on
the point of going into the Royal Navy when his father's misfortunes
commenced.
His thoughts consequently at once reverted to the sea; and the day after
his father's funeral, he set out with a sad heart, and yet with the
buoyant hope of youth cheering him on in spite of his grief, to take
counsel of an old friend, the master of a merchantman, who had been
much indebted to his father.
Captain Styles was a rough-mannered but a good man, and a
thoroughly practical sailor. He at once offered every aid in his power;
but Edward Willis, thanking him, assured him that he only came for
advice.
"Do you want to become a seaman in whom your owners and
passengers will place perfect confidence, and who will be able, if man
can do it, to navigate your ship through narrow channels and among
shoals, and clear off a lee-shore if you are ever caught on one; or do
you wish just to know how to navigate a ship from London to Calcutta
and back, with the aid of a pilot when you get into shallow waters, and
to look after the ladies in fine weather, and let your first officer take
care of the ship in bad?"

"I wish to become a thorough seaman," replied Edward Willis.
"Then, my lad, you must first go to the school where you will learn the
trade," said Captain Styles. "I have an old friend, the master of a
Newcastle collier. He is an honest man, kind-hearted, and a first-rate
seaman. In six months with him you will learn more than in six years in
a big ship. If you were younger, it would be different; for it is rough
work, mind you. He is always at sea, running up and down the coast:
sometimes to the north, and at other times round the South Foreland,
and right down channel. Indeed, to my mind there is not a finer school
to make a man a seaman in a short time. It's the royal road to a
knowledge of the sea, though I grant it, as I said before, a very rough
one."
Willis replied that he was not afraid of hard work, and would follow his
advice. Accordingly he went to sea in a collier for three years; then he
shipped on board a vessel trading to the Baltic, and next made a
voyage to Baffin's Bay, in a whaler; after which he joined an Indiaman.
Here, after what he had gone through, the work appeared
comparatively easy. He now perfected himself in the higher branches of
navigation, and from this time rose rapidly from junior mate to first
officer, and finally, in a few years, to the command of a first-class
Indiaman, where he was in a fair way