The Three Lieutenants

The Three Lieutenants
Life in the Royal Navy in the 1860s
by W.H.G. Kingston
CHAPTER ONE.
LIEUTENANT JACK ROGERS AT HOME--HIS BROTHER TOM
RESOLVES TO FOLLOW IN HIS WAKE--HIS OLD SHIPMATES
DISCUSSED--LETTER FROM TERENCE ADAIR DESCRIPTIVE
OF HIS FAMILY--ADMIRAL TRITON PLEADS TOM'S
CAUSE--THE ADMIRAL'S ADVICE TO TOM--LEAVING HOME.
"Really, Jack, that uniform is excessively becoming. Do oblige us by
standing up as if you were on the quarter-deck of your ship and hailing
the main-top. I do not remember ever having seen a naval officer above
the rank of a midshipman in uniform before. Do you, Lucy?"
"Only once, at a Twelfth-night party at Foxica, to which you did not go,
when Lady Darlington persuaded Admiral Triton to rig himself out, as
he called it, for our amusement, in a naval suit of the time of Benbow,
belonging to her great-grandfather. I prefer Jack in his uniform, I own,
and he looks infinitely better in it than he does in top-boots and a
hunting-coat, when he is eclipsed by many of the young farmers who
have not two ideas to string together."
These remarks were made in the presence of Jack Rogers by his young
and pretty sisters, Mary and Lucy, soon after his return home from
China, on his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant, when one morning
he entered the breakfast-room, dressed in a bran-new uniform, which,
with inward satisfaction, he had put on at their request, that he might
exhibit it to them. It set off to advantage his manly, well-knit figure, at
which no one could look without seeing that he must possess ample
strength of limb and muscle. An honest, kind heart beamed through a

somewhat broad, very sun-burnt countenance. His features were good,
though, and his head was well set on a wide pair of shoulders, which
made him look shorter than he really was, not that he could boast of
being a man of inches. Take him for all in all, Jack Rogers was a
thoroughly good specimen of the British naval officer. Of course his
sisters admired him--what sisters would not?--but their admiration was
surpassed by that of his youngest brother, Tom, who was firmly of
opinion that there never had been and never could be anybody like him;
yet Tom was Jack in miniature, and the portrait of Jack, taken just
before he went to sea, was frequently supposed to be that of Tom. At
school (Tom went to Eagle House, which, though old Rowley had
retired to enjoy a well-earned "otium cum dignitate" in his native
Cumberland, still kept up its ancient character under an able master) his
great delight was to talk of the sayings and doings of "my brother
Jack," and to read extracts from the accounts of the latter, which from
time to time came home. Tom's schoolfellows knew almost as much
about Jack's adventures as those who, in subsequent years, read them in
print, and they all agreed that he must be a first-rate chap.
"I should think so, indeed," said Tom, in a tone of confidence. "If you
were just to see him once you'd say I am right, and my great wonder is,
that the Lords of the Admiralty don't make him a post-captain right off
at once. They couldn't help themselves if they knew him as well as I
do."
Thus admiring Jack, it was natural that Tom should have resolved to
follow in his footsteps. His whole heart was set upon being a sailor, and
going some day to sea with Jack. He did not talk much about his
intentions; that was not his way, except, perhaps, to one or two very
intimate friends; but he had confided his hopes and wishes to Admiral
Triton, who had promised to forward them.
"You can't choose a better profession, and I'll see about it when the
time comes," answered the Admiral. "Not that the service is what it was,
but I never hold with those who swear that it's going to ruin, and I shall
have no fear on that score as long as there are plenty of fine young
fellows in it, like your brother Jack and his friends Murray and Adair

and scores of others, and such as you'll turn out, Tom, I'm sure. No, no.
I've a notion, however, that we should have been much the better if
those abominable, smoky tea-kettles of affairs introduced of late years
had never been thought of, but one comfort is, that they never can be of
the slightest possible use as men-of-war, though they may serve to tow
ships into action when forts are to be attacked and such-like work.
Never do you get appointed to one if you can help it, Tom. They'll spoil
our sailors as sailors if they do nothing else."
This was