Sketches From My Life

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Sketches From My Life

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Title: Sketches From My Life By The Late Admiral Hobart Pasha
Author: Hobart Pasha
Release Date: July 15, 2005 [EBook #16296]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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SKETCHES
FROM
MY LIFE
BY THE LATE
ADMIRAL HOBART PASHA

WITH A PORTRAIT
THIRD EDITION
LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1887
All rights reserved PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE LONDON

PREFACE.
These pages were the last ever written by the brave and true-hearted sailor of whose life they are a simple record.
A few months before his death, some of his friends made the fortunate suggestion that he should put on paper a detailed account of his sporting adventures, and this idea gradually developed itself until the work took the present form of an autobiography, written roughly, it is true, and put together without much method, part of it being dictated at the Riviera during the last days of the author's fatal illness. Such as it is, however, we are convinced that the many devoted friends of Hobart Pasha who now lament his death will be glad to recall in these 'Sketches' the adventures and sports which some of them shared with him, and the genial disposition and manly qualities which endeared him to them all.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. A ROUGH START IN LIFE 1
II. PERILS BY SEA AND LAND 14
III. A TRAGICAL AFFAIR 27
IV. RIO DE JANEIRO 36
V. SLAVER HUNTING 43
VI. SLAVER HUNTING (_continued_) 53
VII. LOVE AND MURDER 62
VIII. THE QUEEN'S YACHT 71
IX. IN THE BALTIC 78
X. BLOCKADE-RUNNING 87
XI. EXCITING ADVENTURES 103
XII. A VISIT TO CHARLESTON 120
XIII. NEVER CAUGHT! 133
XIV. LAST DAYS ON THE 'D----N' 147
CHAPTER PAGE
XV. RICHMOND DURING THE SIEGE 159
XVI. THE LAND BLOCKADE 175
XVII. I ENTER THE TURKISH NAVY 186
XVIII. THE WAR WITH RUSSIA 201
XIX. THE TURKISH FLEET DURING THE WAR 217
XX. SPORT IN TURKEY 235
XXI. SPORT AND SOCIETY 253
EXTRACT FROM THE 'DAILY TELEGRAPH' 277
SKETCHES FROM MY LIFE.
CHAPTER I.
A ROUGH START IN LIFE.
To attempt to write and publish sketches of my somewhat eventful career is an act that, I fear, entails the risk of making enemies of some with whom I have come in contact. But I have arrived at that time of life when, while respecting, as I do, public opinion, I have hardened somewhat into indifference of censure. I will, however, endeavour to write as far as lies in my power (while recording facts) 'in charity with all men.' This can be done in most part by omitting the names of ships in which and officers under whom I have served.
I was born, as the novelists say, of respectable parents, at Walton-on-the-Wold, in Leicestershire, on April 1, 1822. I will pass over my early youth, which was, as might be expected, from the time of my birth until I was ten years of age, without any event that could prove interesting to those who are kind enough to peruse these pages.
At the age of ten I was sent to a well-known school at Cheam, in Surrey, the master of which, Dr. Mayo, has turned out some very distinguished pupils, of whom I was not fated to be one; for, after a year or so of futile attempt on my part to learn something, and give promise that I might aspire to the woolsack or the premiership, I was pronounced hopeless; and having declared myself anxious to emulate the deeds of Nelson, and other celebrated sailors, it was decided that I should enter the navy, and steps were taken to send me at once to sea.
A young cousin of mine who had been advanced to the rank of captain, more through the influence of his high connections than from any merit of his own, condescended to give me a nomination in a ship which he had just commissioned, and thus I was launched like a young bear, 'having all his sorrows to come,' into Her Majesty's navy as a naval cadet. I shall never forget the pride with which I donned my first uniform, little thinking what I should have to go through. My only consolation while recounting facts that will make many parents shudder at the thought of what their children (for they are little more when they join the service) were liable to suffer, is, that things are now totally altered, and that under the present r��gime every officer, whatever his rank, is treated like a gentleman, or he, or his