LUBBERS' HOLE 23 



in reefing topsails ; and it was upon one of the last 

 occasions, "when the captain had ordered the men up aloft 

 a second time in consequence of their not being smart 

 enough to please him, that one of our best men fell from 

 the main top-sail yard-arm on to the larboard gangway, 

 and was killed on the spot. I was standing by the side 

 of the captain on the poop at the time, and when he went 

 down the ladder on to the quarter-deck into his cabin, 

 his face covered with his hands, I did not envy him his 

 feelings. 



I cannot boast of any progress I made in my 23rofession 

 during this short run, unless it be that I was able to 

 reach the main or mizzen top, though not by the way 

 used by the topmen, the futtock shrouds, but through 

 " Lubbers' hole," as the sailors call the ojoen space in that 

 lofty platform. 



While at Madeira our captain induced his brother of 

 the Russell, to let us have the assistance of a school- 

 master he had on board, for a few weeks ; and during the 

 run to Rio Janeiro he assembled the midshipmen every 

 day in his cabin to be instructed in navigation. My 

 aptitude for learning had not forsaken me, and I quickly 

 left my competitors for scientific acquirements a long way 

 behind. Geometry, Trigonometry, and Mensuration were 

 soon mastered, so well had I been prepared at the school 

 I had so recently and so reluctantly quitted. At the end 

 of six weeks I was as capable of taking and working a 

 lunar observation as any ofiicer in the ship — much to the 

 annoyance of many of my brother midshipmen, my 

 seniors in age and service ; and having obtained a greater 

 share of notice in consequence, did not add to my own 



