126 Crossing the Line 



1832, continued 



mid who has given him a sousing but two seconds before! From that moment 

 his commission goes for nothing, and he becomes, for the time being, one of 

 the biggest Billy-boys amongst them. The captain observing him in this 

 mess, shrugs his shoulders, walks aft, muttering, "It's aU your own fault, Mr. 

 Hailtop; you've put yourself amongst these mad younkers; now see how they'll 

 handle you!" 



Nothing, I confess, now looks to me more completely out of character with 

 our well-starched discipline than a "staid Heutenant" romping about the 

 booms, skuUing up tlie rigging, blowing the grampus, and having it blown 

 upon him by a parcel of rattlepated reefers. But I remember well in the Volage 

 being myself so gradually seduced by this animating spectacle of fun, that, be- 

 fore I knew where I was, I had crossed the rope laid on the deck as a boundary 

 between order and disorder, and received a bucket of cold water in each ear, 

 while the spout of a fire-engine, at the distance of two feet, was playing full 

 in my eyes. On turning my head round to escape these cataracts, and to draw 

 breath, a tar-brush was rammed half-way down my throat! 



Far different was the scene, and very different, of course, my deportment, 

 four or five years afterwards on the same spot, when, instead of being the 

 junior heutenant, I was the great gvm of all, the might}'^ master-nob of the 

 whole party, that is to say, the captain himself. I was then in command of the 

 Lyra, a ten-gim sloop-of-war; and after the shaving operations were over, 

 and all things put once more in order, I went on board the Alceste frigate to 

 dine with my excellent friend and commanding officer, the late Sir Murray 

 Maxwell. Lord Amherst, the ambassador to China, was on board, and in great 

 glee with the sight of what had been enacted before him; for although, as I 

 have always said, these scenes are not of a nattue to bear agreeable descrip- 

 tion, they certainly are amusing enough to see — for once. 



We soon sat down to dinner; and there was, of course, a great deal of 

 amusement in teUing the anecdotes of the day, and describing Father Nep- 

 tune's strange aspect, and his stül stranger-looking family and attendants. I 

 ventiured to back one of my figures against all or any of theirs, if not for mon- 

 strosity, at least for interest of another kind. Our dripping Neptime in the 

 Lyra was accompanied, as usual, by a huge she-monster representing Am- 

 phitrite, being no other than one of the boatswain's mates dressed up with 

 the main-hatchway tarpauhn for a cloak, the jolly-boat's mizen for a petticoat, 

 while two half-wet swabs furnished her lubberly head with ringlets. By her 

 side sat a youth, her only son Triton, a morsel of submarine domestic history 

 ascertained by reference previously made to Lempriere's Dictionary. This 

 poor httle fellow was a great pet amongst the crew of the brig, and was in- 

 deed suspected to be entitled by birth to a rank above his present station, 

 so gentle and gentleman-hke he always appeared. Even on this occasion, when 

 disfigured by paint, pitch, and tar, copiously daubed over his deHcate person. 



