The Loss of the Royal George | Page 7

she said that she would ask her to stop, as she did not
seem fit to walk back to the village. I offered to go to the inn and fetch
her things, but she had a bag in her hand which she said contained
sufficient for the night, and she would send for them the next morning.

I soon afterwards had to go off to the ship, so I saw no more of the
young lady, who had gone to her room with the little boy.
CHAPTER THREE.
What a change it was from the quiet cottage, with my sweet Susan by
my side, to the lower-deck of the big ship, crowded with people, not
only her own seamen and marines, but some hundreds of visitors,
women and children! some of them the honest wives of the men, but
others drunken, swearing, loud-talking creatures--a disgrace to their sex.
Quarrelling and fighting and the wildest uproar were taking place; and
then there were a number of Jews with pinchbeck watches, and all sorts
of trumpery wares, which they were eager to exchange for poor Jack's
golden guineas. Some of them went away in the evening, but many
more came back the next morning to drive their trade, and would have
come as long as coin was to be picked up.
I am not likely to forget that next morning, the 28th of August. It was a
fine summer's morning, and there was just a little sea on, with a
strongish breeze blowing from the eastward, but not enough to prevent
boats coming off from Portsmouth. I counted forty sail-of-the-line, a
dozen frigates and smaller ships of war, and well-nigh three hundred
merchant vessels, riding, as of course we were, to the flood with our
heads towards Cowes.
You will understand that under the lower-deck was fitted a cistern, into
which the sea-water was received and then pumped up by a hand pump,
fixed in the middle of the gun-deck, for the purpose of washing the two
lower gun-decks; the water was let into this cistern by a pipe which
passed through the ship's side, and which was secured by a stop-cock,
on the inside. It had been found the morning before that this water-cock,
which was about three feet below the water line, was out of order and
must be repaired.
The foreman came off from the dockyard, and said that it was
necessary to careen the ship over to port sufficiently to raise the mouth
of the pipe, which went through the ship's timbers below, clean out of

the water, that he and his men might work at it. Between seven and
eight o'clock the order was given to run the larboard guns out as far as
they could go, the larboard ports being opened. The starboard guns
were also run in amidships and secured by tackles, the moving over of
this great weight of metal bringing the larboard lower-deck port-cills
just level with the water. The men were then able to get at the mouth of
the pipe. For an hour the ship remained in this position, while the
carpenters were at work. We had been taking in ruin and shot in the
previous day, and now a sloop called the Lark, which belonged to three
brothers, came alongside with the last cargo of rum; she having been
secured to the larboard side, the hands were piped to clear lighter.
I had been on duty on the main-deck; several ladies had come off early
in the morning, friends and relations of the officers. Some of them were
either in the ward-room or gun-room, and others were walking the
quarter-deck with the help of their gentlemen friends, as it was no easy
matter, the ship heeling over as much as she was then doing. They
thought it very good fun, however, and were laughing and talking as
they tried to keep their feet from slipping. I had been sent with a
message to Mr Hollingbury, our third lieutenant, who was officer of the
watch; he seemed out of temper, and gave me a rough answer, as he
generally did. He was not a favourite indeed with us, and we used to
call him "Jib-and-Foresail Jack"; for when he had the watch at night he
was always singing out, "Up jib," and "Down jib"; "Up foresail,"
"Down foresail"; and from a habit he had of moving his fingers about
when walking the quarter-deck, we used to say that he had been an
organ-player in London. Just as I got back to the main-deck, I caught a
glimpse of a young lady in black, leading a little boy; she turned her
face towards me, and I saw that she was the very same who had come
to my wife's cottage the previous evening--indeed I