34 YOUNGSTERS. 



crew consisted of about five hundred, in- 

 cluding warrant, petty officers and idlers, 

 most of them first-class seamen, having 

 been pressed from a homeward-bound East 

 India fleet in the Downs ; and no finer crew 

 ever went to sea in a British man-of-war. 



Our captain's orders were to take charge 

 of a fleet of Indiamen, South-Seamen, &c., 

 that had assembled at the Motherbank, and 

 convoy them to their destination, which 

 was principally Calcutta. 



Being thought too young to join either 

 the starboard or larboard mess in the cock- 

 pit, I, with two other youngsters as we 

 were termed, were committed to the care of 

 the gunner a hard-featured, weather-beaten 

 Scotchman, though rough, yet kind in his 

 manner. 



No sooner was the anchor weighed and 

 the ship under easy sail, than I was seized 

 with a nausea that soon extinguished all 

 feelings of regret at leaving my home 

 indeed, almost all remembrance of that 



