592 THE SORROWS OF A SAILOR BOY. 



greatest service to the whole fleet. What follows will best declare whe- 

 ther my patron made a wrong estimate of my capacity. 



One night, the ship which I so materially served, was in the North 

 Sea. The sun had set blood-red ; black clouds drifted along the sky, 

 and the wind began to moan, and then rose higher and higher, until we 

 had a thorough stiff gale abaft. The night grew pitch dark : the topsails 

 were close reefed, and all hands were kept on deck. By degrees, anxiety 

 pervaded the whole of the crew ; dissensions arose the man at the helm 

 bit his lip and hardly breathed, as he plied his task ; the men in the 

 chains heaved the lead, and at every cast there was less water. In 

 another minute the ship would have been hard and fast, had I not, boy 

 as I was, compelled the steersman to put up the helm and steer clear of 

 the neighbouring sand. Landsmen will, of course, think that I received 

 some grateful acknowledgment of my service : not a word, not a 

 look : the danger over, the crew took no more notice of me than if they 

 had never seen me. This is one of many instances of cold ingratitude. 



Another time, I was the means of preserving an Indiaman, richly 

 freighted. It was a fine star-light night in July, the fourteenth, for it 

 was the natal day of the second mate, who was keeping his first watch ; 

 and who, in honour of his birth, had quaffed a black-jack full of stiff 

 grog ; neither had he stinted any of his watch ; though, of course, I 

 shared not in his liberality. The ship was one of the first in the service, 

 laden with tea and spice. The night, as I have premised, was very fine ; 

 " light winds from the south west, (I quote from the log-book), under 

 top-gallant sails." However, the grog liberally, though secretly served 

 out by the second mate, had had more than a wished-for effect, tor three 

 parts of the watch were asleep; the mate was leaning against the capstern 

 winking and fitfully droning " Meg of Wapping ;" the helmsman's 

 eyes now stared unconsciously at the compass, and now at the sails, and 

 nothing could have saved the ship from the most terrible quicksand, had 

 I not suddenly arrested the man at the wheel, who, the ship answering 

 well to her helm, with a turn of the hand, saved the vessel from certain 

 destruction. Of course, had any eulogy been passed upon me, it must 

 have been at the expence of the watch of the second mate. 



I swim well, and have more than once preserved human life. One 

 time, the ship I studiously conceal the names of the vessels ran bump 

 on the sand ; she floundered like a stranded whale, and in a little time, 

 made herself a comfortable bed : the wind came up the sea, like 

 mountains of rolling snow went over her crash went masts and yards 

 the seamen swore and raved- the passengers screamed and cried ; every 

 wave tore away a part of the ship, whilst some of the crew lashed them- 

 selves to the floating masts and spars. In the dreadful havoc, a woman 

 seized hold of me ; she caught me with the straining, convulsive grasp of 

 death. I swam, now above the waters, now under them but still she 

 grasped me. I preserved her she was taken into the long-boat, and 

 since that time, has been the happy mother of three young children. But 

 did she think of me ? No, not a thought did she waste on her preserver. 

 It is thus that I have spent my boyhood, and these these are my 

 returns ! 



ERRATUM. In the foregoing, the printer has been guilty of a curious 

 blunder. In every instance, where the word occurs, for boy, please to 

 read BUOY ! 



Goodwin Sands, Nov. 29, 1832. 



