TYPES OF CAPTAINS. 215 



and excellent appointments at table. In the ward-room of a Russian corvette visited b^ 

 the writer, he found a saloon large enough for a ball, with piano, and gorgeous side-board, 

 set out as in the houses of most of the northern nations of Europe, with sundry bottles 

 and incitives to emptying them, in the shape of salt anchovies and salmon, caviare and 

 cheese. In a British flag-ship he found the adrniraFs cabin, while in port at least, a 

 perfect little bijou of a drawing-room, with harmonium and piano, vases of flowers, port- 

 folios of drawings, an elaborate stove, and all else that could conduce to comfort and 

 luxury. Outside of this was a more plainly-furnished cabin, used as a dining-room. Of 

 course much of this disappears at sea. The china and glass are securely packed, and all 

 of the smaller loose articles stowed away ; the piano covered up in canvas and securely 

 "tied up" to the side; likely enough the carpet removed, and a rough canvas substi- 

 tuted. Still, all is ship-shape and neat as a new pin. The few "old tubs" of vessels 

 still in the service are rarely employed beyond trifling harbour duties, or are kept for 

 emergencies on foreign stations. They will soon disappear, to be replaced by smart and 

 handy little gun-boats or other craft, where, if the accommodations are limited, at least 

 the very most is made of the room at command. How different all this is to many of 

 the vessels of the last century and commencement of this, described by our nautical 

 novelists as little better than colliers, pest ships, and tubs, smelling of pitch, paint, 

 bilge-water, tar, and rum ! Readers will remember Marryafs captain, who, with his wife, 

 was so inordinately fond of pork that he turned his ship into a floating pig-sty. At his 

 dinner there appeared mock-turtle soup (of pig's head) ; boiled pork and pease pudding; 

 roast spare rib ; sausages and pettitoes ; and, last of all, sucking-pig. He will doubtless 

 remember how he was eventually frightened off the ship, then about to proceed to the 

 West Indies, by the doctor telling him that with his habit of living he would not give 

 much for his life on that station. But although Marryat's characters were true to the 

 life of his time, you would go far to find a similar example to-day. Captains still have 

 their idiosyncrasies, but not of such a marked nature. There may be indolent captains, 

 like he who was nicknamed "The Sloth;" or, less likely, prying captains, like he in 

 "Peter Simple," who made himself so unpopular that he lost all the good sailors on 

 board, and had to put up with a "scratch crew;" or (a comparatively harmless variety) 

 captains who amuse their officers with the most outrageous yarns, but who are in all 

 else the souls of honour. Who can help laughing over that Captain Kearney, who tells 

 the tale of the Atta of Roses ship ? He relates how she had a puncheon of the precious 

 essence on board ; it could be smelt three miles off at sea, and the odour was so strong 

 on board that the men fainted when they ventured near the hold. The timbers of the 

 ship became so impregnated with the smell that they could never make any use of her 

 afterwards, till they broke her up and sold her to the shopkeepers of Brighton and Tun- 

 bridge-wells, who turned her into scented boxes and fancy articles, and then into money. 

 The absolutely vulgar captain is a thing of the past, for the possibilities of entering "by 

 the hawse-hole," the technical expression applied to the man who was occasionally in the 

 old times promoted from the fo'castle to the quarter-deck, are very rare indeed nowa- 

 days. Still, there are gentlemen and there are gentlemen. The perfect example is a 

 rar a avis everywhere. 



