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ADVENTURES OF A NAVAL OFFICER IN THE TIME 

 OF PEACE. CHAP. I. 



I REMEMBER well my first determination to go to sea. It was one 

 day after dinner, I had been home about a week for the Christmas 

 holidays ; my mother had just left the dining-room, I and my father 

 were alone he filled his third glass, I had just finished my first, the 

 extent of my potations at that time. 



" Well, George, you are now more than twelve years of age it is 

 time that you should consider what profession you would like to 

 follow, in order that you may be properly educated for it, and give 

 your mind to serious study, that you may become a credit to me and 

 an ornament to society ; and depend upon it, my dear boy, which 

 ever way your inclinations lead, you will always find me ready to 

 indulge them, so long as they transgress no moral duty." 



Disgusted with school, looking upon it, as most boys of that age 

 do, as an earthly purgatory, and thinking that could I but once quit 

 it I should be truly happy, I considered this a favourable opportunity 

 to emancipate myself from the dry pages (as I then thought them) 

 of Ovid's Epistles, and the more annoying Odes of Anacreon. I was 

 not long in framing a reply to my father, but quickly answered 

 " that having an uncle who had greatly distinguished himself in the 

 navy, I wished to follow in his footsteps." Whether it was that my 

 youthful propensities had never induced my father to expect I should 

 choose the " fierce, foaming, bursting tide" or not, I cannot tell, but 

 certain it is, that he never contemplated such a resolution, for it came 

 like a thunder-bolt on my kind-hearted parent, and so sudden and 

 unexpectedly, that he could not for some time attempt to dissuade 

 me from what he termed my mad design. At last he recovered him- 

 self, and pointed out, in a manner that would have satisfied any but 

 a school-boy, the dangers of a sea-life, and the difficulty in these 

 " piping times of peace'' to obtain promotion, or even employment, 

 when all the younger branches of the great tree of St. James's are 

 let loose on the navy, to serve their six years in a comfortable ship, 

 on a pleasant station, and then receive their commissions ; painted 

 the numerous advantages of the learned professions ; if I would 

 make up my mind to enter the church, he would promise me a good 

 living if I would consent to be called to the bar, his influence and 

 friends would ensure me practice in fact, any thing but the navy. 



" You have talents, George," said my good father, " that will bring 

 you forward in life, and I can't consent to your throwing them away 

 on the navy." But it would not do even this last bit of flattery, so 

 delightful to boys, was not sufficient to conquer my repugnance to 

 tasks. Hatred to school, and dread of a master peculiarly dexterous 

 in the management of the birch, together with the inflammatory 

 nature of Dibdin's songs, made me determine to be " every inch a 

 sailor." Arguments were useless, and threats my kind, my best of 

 fathers, never used. 



