CKOSSESTG THE LINE. 



229 



poured in what they familiarly termed two ' comfortable broadsides ' upon the enemy, who 

 now called out loudly for quarter, and firing at length ceased on both sides/'' The 

 Courageux was a mere wreck, having nothing but her foremast and bowsprit standing, 

 several of her ports knocked into one, and her deck rent in a hundred places. She lost 

 240 killed, and 110 wounded men were put ashore at Lisbon. On board the Bellona 

 only six men were killed outright, and about twenty-eight wounded; the loss of her 

 mizen was her only serious disaster. 



One more possibility in the officer's existence, although now nearly obsolete. The 

 ceremonies formerly attendant on " crossing the line " i.e., passing over the equator so 

 often described, have, of late years, been more honoured in the breach than in the 

 observance. On merchant vessels they had become a nuisance, as the sailors often made 



FIGHT BETWEEN THE " COURAOEtX " AND THE " BELLONA. 



them an opportunity for levying black mail on timid and nervous passengers. In the 

 Royal Navy, they afforded the one chance for " getting even " with unpopular officers ; 

 and very roughly was it sometimes accomplished. They are for this reason introduced in 

 this chapter, as the officers had a direct interest in them. With trifling exceptions, the 

 programme was as follows. The men stripped to the waist, wearing only " duck " 

 unmentionables, prepared, immediately after breakfast, for the saturnalia of the day a day 

 when the ship was en carnival, and discipline relaxed. Early in the day, a man at the 

 masthead, peering through a telescope, would announce a boat on the weather-bow, and 

 soon after, a voice from the jibboom was heard hailing the ship, announcing that Neptune 

 wished to come on board. The ship was accordingly hove-to, when a sailor, in fashionable 

 coat, knee-breeches, and powdered hair, came aft, and announced to the commander that he 

 was gentleman's gentleman to the god of the sea, who desired an interview. This accorded, 

 the procession of Neptune from the forecastle at once commenced. The triumphal car was 

 a gun-carriage, drawn by half-a-dozen half-naked and grotesquely-painted sailors, their 

 heads covered by wigs of sea-weed. Neptune was always masked, as were many of his 



