The Romance of the Coast | Page 7

who was a ship captain and sailed one of
his father's vessels. The shipowner was anxious to see some steady man
sail with his lad; so he asked the Veteran's father to go as mate of a
barque which the son was going to take out to Genoa. The terms
offered were so very tempting that the old man decided to take another
short spell of the sea; and when the Veteran next brought his little sloop
on to the Hard, he found his father had run round to Hull in the barque.
The young captain, of whom the old man had taken charge, behaved
very badly during the southerly trip, and in the end had delirium
tremens. During the whole of the night the madman divided his time
between giving contradictory orders and crying out with fear of the
dreadful things which he said were chasing him. On the night after the
vessel brought up at Hull he staggered aboard, and stumbled into the
cabin. Sitting down at the table, he set himself deliberately to insult his
mate, who had been quietly reading. He called the old man a pig, and
asked him why he had not gone to his sty. Finding that all his insults
were received with good humour, he grew bolder, and at last went
round the table and hit out heavily. A white mark appeared on the
mate's cheek where the blow landed, and in return he delivered a

tremendous right-hander full in the captain's face. The bully was lifted
off his feet and fell against the cabin-door, crashing one of the panels
out. He rose, wiped the blood from his mouth, and went ashore.
The lieutenant of a frigate which was lying in the harbour was ashore
with a press-gang. The drunkard went and declared that the Veteran's
father had been insubordinate, and showed a bruised face in evidence.
So in the grey of the morning the naval officer and half-a-dozen
seamen came under the barque's quarter and climbed aboard. The old
man was walking the deck, being very much perturbed about the last
night's affray, and he grasped the whole situation at once. He picked up
a handspike and got ready to defend himself; but the seamen made a
rush, and a blow with the flat of a heavy cutlass knocked the old sailor
senseless. When he came to himself he found that he was on board the
guardship.
Two days after the Veteran was strolling along the quay in all the glory
of white duck and blue pilot cloth. (Sailors were great dandies in those
days, and every one of the little ports from the Firth to the Foreland had
its own particular fashion in the matter of go-ashore rig.) The Veteran
was going to be married as soon as his next trip was over; and on this
particular evening he intended to stroll through the lanes and see his
sweetheart, who was a farmer's daughter. A fine southerly breeze was
blowing, and a little fishing smack crossed the bar and ran up the
harbour, lying hard over with press of sail. The Veteran had the
curiosity to wait until the little craft had brought up, and he watched the
dingy come ashore with two men aboard. He was very much surprised
to hear one of the men mention his name; so he turned to ask what was
wanted. The fisherman handed him a dirty letter, and on opening it the
Veteran found that it was from one of the able seamen aboard the
barque. The writer briefly told the circumstances, and then added that
there would be no delivery from the guard ship for four days. Within
two hours the smack was beating away to the southward with the
Veteran in her. He had bidden his sweetheart good-bye, telling her
quietly that they could not be married for a long time; but she did not
know then how very long it would be.

The Veteran helped to work the smack round to the Humber, and it is
probable that his thoughts during the trip were not cheerful. He had
asked a friend to take charge of his sloop, and had rapidly
countermanded all the preparations that were being made for his
marriage. On arriving at Hull the Veteran went at once on board the
guardship, and was shown into the commander's cabin. His business
was soon over, and a sergeant of marines took him down to the
wretched cockpit, where he found his father lying with cloths about his
head. The lad said quite simply, "I want you to go ashore, father, and
look after the girl until I come back; I have volunteered in your stead."
The old man would have liked to argue the point; but he knew that his
son