THE END
[1] Cutting away the mast is nobly described by poor Falconer.
"'Haste, with your weapons cut the shrouds and stay,
And hew at once the mizen-mast away!'
He said: the attentive sailors on each side,
At his command the trembling cords divide.
Fast by the fated pine bold Rodmond stands,
Th' impatient axe hung gleaming in his hands:
Brandish'd on high, it fell with dreadful sound:
The tall mast groaning, felt the deadly wound."
Shipwreck.
[2] The well is an apartment in a ship's hold, serving to enclose the pumps. It is sounded by dropping a measured iron rod down into it by a long line; hence the increase or diminution of the leaks is easily discovered.
"They sound the well, and, terrible to hear,
Five feet immersed along the line appear;
At either pump they ply the clanking brake,
And turn by turn the ungrateful office take."
Falconer's Shipwreck.
"While on the quivering deck, from van to rear,
Broad surges roll in terrible career,
Rodmond, Arion, and a chosen crew,
This office in the face of death pursue.
The wheel'd artillery o'er the deck to guide,
Rodmond descending, claim'd the weather side.
Fearless of heart, the chief his orders gave,
Fronting the rude attacks of every wave.
Meantime Arion traversing the waist, }
The cordage of the leeward guns embraced, }
And pointed crows beneath the metal placed. }
Watching the roll, their forelocks they withdrew,
And from their beds the reeling cannon threw.
Then from the windward battlements unbound,
Rodmond's associates wheel'd the artillery round;
Then, hurl'd from sounding hinges o'er the side,
Thundering they plunge into the flashing tide."
Falconer's Shipwreck.
[4] The progress of vegetation is very curious in those islands, which are supposed by geologists to be thrown up from the bottom of the sea by volcanoes, or formed by the unceasing labours of the coral animalculi. These generally present at first a rocky surface, barren and arid. By degrees, a little soil is deposited by sea-fowl and birds of passage; on this at first grow the seeds of some of those minute plants, which are literally carried on the wings of the wind from countries that appear too far distant for any such conveyance. These plants flourish, fade, and are renewed by the seasons, until from their decayed parts is formed that fine vegetable mould which overspreads the more fertile surface of the earth. When this process is begun, if the land receives from the hand of some benevolent discoverer a few seeds of trees or plants to which the climate is congenial, the work of fertilization is rapidly accelerated; grass grows luxuriantly under the shade of the trees: verdure increases, and creeps farther and farther, till from one little spot, an oasis in the midst of a desert, the whole island becomes fruitful.
[5] The sciences requisite to form a complete seaman are beautifully described by Falconer:—
"Him Science taught by mystic lore to trace
The planets wheeling in eternal race;
To mark the ship in floating balance held,
By earth attracted, and by seas repelled;
Or point her devious track through climes unknown,
That leads to every shore, and every zone.—
He saw the moon through heaven's blue concave glide,
And into motion charm the expanding tide;
While earth impetuous round her axle rolls,
Exalts her watery zone, and sinks the poles.
Light and attraction from their genial source,
He saw still wandering with diminish'd force;
While on the margin of declining day
Night's shadowy cone reluctant melts away."
To add to this,
"That never seaman more serenely brave
Led Britain's conquering squadrons o'er the wave."
The Shipwreck.
Perhaps it will be considered that Falconer's beautiful poem is too generally known to give these extracts the charm of novelty; yet surely every one who is acquainted with the talents and fate of Falconer, will feel almost a tender emotion when his writings are alluded to, from a combination of circumstances. His poem is very interesting, his character and fate are still more so, and his memory is thrice hallowed and will be immortalized by the beautiful allusion to his Shipwreck in the "Pleasures of Hope."
[6] Commodore Byron found some repairs necessary at Rio de Janeiro.—"We had six Portuguese caulkers to assist our carpenters, who were paid at the rate of 6s. per diem; though it is certain an English caulker could do as much in one day as they did in three; but, though slow and inactive, they perform their work very effectually."
Byron's Voyage.
[7] Sir Cloudesly Shovel, Admiral Hopson, Admiral Campbell, Sir Samuel Cornish, and many other gallant gentlemen, rose from the lowest ranks.
[8] Cox's Travels.
[9] Encyclopædia Britannica.
[10] Otherwise called Aurora Borealis.
[11] The mollissima, or eider-duck, is double the size of the common duck. The feathers, which are soft and valuable, fall off during incubation. The male is white above, but black below and behind; the female is greenish. This species is found in the Western Isles of Scotland, but in greater numbers in Norway, Iceland, and Greenland; from whence vast quantities of the down, known by the name of eider, or edder, (which these birds furnish,) is annually imported. Its warm, light, and elastic qualities, make it highly esteemed as stuffings for coverlets and down beds. This down is produced from the breast of the birds, in the breeding season. The eider-duck lays its eggs among the stones or plants near the shore, and prepares a soft bed for them by plucking the down from its own breast; the natives watch the opportunity, and take away both eggs and nest. The duck lays again, and repeats the plucking of its breast. If she is robbed after that, she will still lay; but the drakes must supply the down, as her stock is now exhausted: but, if her eggs are taken from her a fourth time, she wholly deserts the place. The number of eggs in each nest are from three to five, warmly bedded in down; they are of a pale olive colour, and very large, glossy, and smooth. The ducks now and then, however, lay as many as eight, for sixteen have been found in one nest, with two females sitting on them, who agree remarkably well together. They take their young on their backs to sea; then dive to shake them off, and teach them to shift for themselves. They live on shell-fish, for which they dive to great depths. The males are five years old before they come to their full colours. It is said they live to a great age, and grow quite grey.
[12] Watches were only in general use at court, in the time of Charles the Second.
[13] The gold coinage in the reigns of the Stuarts were commonly called Caroluses and Jacobuses.
[14] In an old song, published a few days after Solebay fight, there are the following lines:—
"Well might you hear their guns, I guess,
From Sizewell Gap to Easton Ness;
They fill'd up all the hollow coast,
From Walberswick to Dunwich."