Sea life in Nelson's time

by John Masefield

CHAPTER IX

In port—Jews—Lovely Nan—Mutinies—Their punishment—Sailor songs—“Drops of Brandy”—“Spanish Ladies,” etc.—Flags—Salutes

When a ship came into port after a long absence at sea or on a foreign station, with several years of pay due to her crew, she was surrounded by boats from the shore containing “Girls and Jews.” During the wars the sailors were given hardly any shore leave, lest they should run away. Those who did get ashore were so watched by the land folk eager to earn a little head or blood money—the reward for capturing a deserter—that they had little pleasure in their jaunts on land. They never touched their pay till the ship was about to sail again, so that they had small chance of enjoying themselves, or of buying necessaries if they did succeed in getting out of the ship. The Jews knew this very well, and therefore plied a very thriving business with the sailors at every great sea-port. When the ship came to an anchor they came off in their wherries with all manner of fancy articles such as the sailors cared for. “Gold” watches, which ticked very loudly, and went for a week, made a very profitable line. Gold seals, of the same quality; bright brass telescopes, which put an edge of brilliant colours round everything one saw through them; scarlet and blue silk handkerchiefs, fancy shoes, shoe-buckles, suspenders, watch-chains, diamond rings, etc.—all of these things were laid out, with a great deal of glitter, on the pedlars’ trays amidships. For all this trash they asked enormous prices, about five times more than the things were worth. Others brought sailors’ clothes, of cuts and colours more beautiful than those sold by the purser, such as blue-and-white striped trousers, as baggy as the mouths of wind-sails, waistcoats like tropical sunsets, and neckerchiefs like blood and broken eggs. Others brought little natty straw hats, with ribbons neatly painted with the name of the ship; or glazed tarpaulin hats with linings of some violently-coloured cloth. Some brought sailors’ necessaries, such as gaudy crockery, clay pipes, “silver” tobacco stoppers, clasp and sheath knives, real silver spoons, hammock stretchers, tin pots and pans, boxes of sugar, red-herrings, eggs, Dutch cheeses, butter, apples, onions, etc. Nearly all of them had skins and bladders full of red-eye, gin, or similar “sailor’s joy,” such as would give a waister the action of a port-admiral. Towards the end of the long French wars the captains grew more strict in their admission of these creatures. They allowed them aboard only under certain conditions, generally restricting them to the quarter-deck and gangways, where they did business under the eyes of the officers and the marine sentries. This kept them from smuggling drink aboard in any quantity, though they generally contrived to smuggle in a little, despite the searching of the master-at-arms. It also kept them from cheating the sailors unduly, and from being cheated or man-handled by the sailors’ ladies. Another regulation adopted towards the end of the war kept the Jews out of the ship till pay-day, a day or two before the ship sailed again. In the eighteenth century they came aboard directly the ship was anchored, for in addition to the slop and bumboat trade they carried on the profitable business of money-lending, advancing ready money, at a ruinous rate of interest, on the sailors’ pay-tickets. The sailors knew very well that the Jews cheated them, but they had no alternative but to submit. In the matter of slops and trinkets they were cheated less badly than over the pay, for when they came to hand over the money for the gear they had bought they were generally drunk with “the parting cans.” In this condition they argued and wrangled, and blacked the Jews’ eyes, and flung the pedlars’ trays down the hatches, and often enough refused to pay a red cent of the money claimed. However, as Marryat says, “the Jews’ charges were so extravagant that if one-third of their bills were paid there still remained a profit.” When the strangers were turned out of the ship on pay-day nights there were some lively scenes between the sergeant of marines, or the master-at-arms, and the sailors and Jews who felt themselves cheated.

H.M.S. VENERABLE AT ANCHOR

In the old days, when a man-of-war came into a home port, the boatmen on the along-shore made their bargains with the women of the town. They charged each woman several shillings for the trip out to the ship, the women stipulating that if they failed to please the sailors the fare should not be paid. This stipulation made the boatmen very careful what women they took with them. They rowed out only the prettiest and the best dressed, for if the women were not chosen by the sailors they lost their fare, and had all their trouble for nothing. Besides, the lieutenants were very jealous of the reputations of their ships. It was not unusual for a lieutenant to overlook the boatloads as they came alongside, and to refuse to admit any ugly women, or any woman not smartly attired or freshly painted. When the boats came alongside, each man slipped down the gangway, made his choice, and carried her down to the berth. We would add that most of the sailors were young men, that they sometimes stayed several years away from England without so much as seeing a woman, and that a lower-deck, at that time, was neither refined nor prudish.

A woman so chosen remained aboard with her chooser, or with any other man whom she preferred. The protector, or fancy-man, kept her with him while the ship remained in port, sharing his allowance with her, and buying her little delicacies from the bumboats which came alongside. A man-of-war of the first-rate had frequently 500 women aboard at the same time, each woman being ready to swear that she was the lawful wife of her protector. With the women came drink, and what with the drink and the women the ship’s discipline came to a stop. The master-at-arms searched every woman who came aboard, for bladders full of spirits, scent-bottles, etc. etc. Marines kept guard on the chains overlooking the ship’s sides, so that no drink should be conveyed through the ports from shore boats. The head ports were barred in. The sentries guarded the forecastle, so that no man might lower a bucket privily over the bows. Every boat which came alongside was searched by the ship’s corporals. Every boatman who came aboard was examined and felt. But, with all these precautions, the red-eye came aboard. Nothing kept it out very long. It came aboard a little at a time, inside cocoa-nuts, balls of lard, oranges, or anything with tolerable cubic capacity. When it had come aboard the lower-deck became a pandemonium. The men and women drank and quarrelled between the guns. The decks were allowed to become dirty. Drunken sailors could be found lying under each hatchway. Drunken women were continually coming aft to insult the officers, or to lodge some complaint outside a lieutenant’s province. Sometimes the women ran aloft to wave their petticoats to the flagship. Now and then they fell from aloft while performing this manœuvre, and so broke their necks and came to an unhappy end.

In some ways they may have been of benefit to the sailors. Though they cheated them themselves they kept others from cheating them. They were not without tenderness, nor were they so unfaithful as most people would suppose. In many cases the sailors married them. In others, the women grew so fond of their protectors that they followed the ship by land, if she were ordered, say, from Spithead to Sheerness, or to some other home port. It was not unusual for a monstrous regiment of women to march right across England so that they might join their mates on the other side.

When a ship set sail after a long sojourn in a home port there was a great deal of misery upon the lower-deck. The sailors, or at anyrate the tender-hearted ones, were melancholy; the women were either crying or drunk; the Jews were clamouring for their moneys; the bumboat people wanted their bills paid; and the sailors were drinking parting cans and hoping to pay their debts with a loose fore-topsail. Before the marines drove the women out of the ship the tender-hearted sailors came aft to the captain for permission to take their wives to sea with them. A line-of-battle ship often carried as many as a dozen women to sea. It seems that the practice did not quite die out for many years after the time of which we write. Some admirals strictly forbade it, as fatal to all discipline. As a rule, however, the married warrant officers, and perhaps a few men, obtained leave to take their wives with them, on the understanding that misconduct would involve their instant dismissal. A captain had to weigh such applications very carefully, admitting only the most respectable of those who offered. He had also to suffer patiently the abuses and menaces of the harridans he refused to ship.

The partings between the robuster sailors and their ladies were not marked by any great flow of sentiment. The women smuggled off a last bladder of red-eye for the brewing of a good-bye flip. The sailors bought onions and turnips, the latter as a symbol of subsequent unfaithfulness, the former to induce tears in “eyes unus’d to flow.” With a good deal of merry, blackguardly banter, a good deal of drunken squabble, and a very energetic wrangle over the sailors’ money, the last day aboard came to an end. Before sunset of the day before sailing the strangers were driven out of the ship, and bundled down into the shore boats. The drunken men were lashed into their hammocks till morning, when discipline again took hold and reduced them to order.

After a spell in port a ship was nearly always dirty and evil-smelling. The men were diseased, and in poor condition. It generally took a month to bring them back to their old standard of smartness. Very few of them came to sea with any money. The little left to them after they had cashed their tickets, or swept the heaps of coins into their hats, had gone to their women, or to the Jews. After the wars our roads were thronged with sturdy beggars, who had been in the King’s ships, and had wasted their substance in the home ports. It is said that the number of loose women in Portsmouth decreased at that time from 20,000 to about a fifth of that number.

The custom of admitting women to the ships was not abolished for many years—barely more than sixty years ago. In the early forties, the captain of a frigate in the West Indies sent ashore for 300 women, so that every man and boy aboard might have a black mistress during their stay in the port. A white planter supplied the women from his plantations. The lieutenants were not allowed to keep women on board, but until the beginning of the nineteenth century the midshipmen, and some of the junior ward-room officers, indulged as licentiously, with as little authoritative restraint, as their inferiors. An old naval surgeon, writing in 1826, tell us that he knew of several fine lads who died miserably from perseverance “in their debauched habits.” After the first decade of the nineteenth century the captains were more careful of the manners of the young gentlemen. Their vices, if practised at all, were then practised ashore, out of the captain’s jurisdiction. After 1814 the service was purged of some of its vicious officers by the examination known as “passing for a gentleman,” to which we have alluded elsewhere.

The songs most popular among the sailors were not always those purporting to deal with life afloat. Their most popular song was a song very popular ashore. It is still well known, though the old name for it, “Drops of Brandy,” is now nearly forgotten. The tune is an old country dance tune. The words the sailors sang to it are the familiar:

“And Johnny shall have a new bonnet

And Johnny shall go to the fair,

And Johnny shall have a blue ribbon

To tie up his bonny brown hair.

And why should I not love Johnny

And why should not Johnny love me,

And why should I not love Johnny

As well as another bodie.”

The tune is simple and beautiful. When the marines and waisters manned the capstan, to weigh the anchor, aboard one of these old ships of war the pipers struck up “Drops of Brandy,” to put a heart into the jollies as they hove around. It was sung by many merry sailors over their grog, in the dark sea snuggeries between the guns. A tune which kept many a miserable pressed man from going over the side should be reverently treated. We give the music below.

DROPS OF BRANDY

Campbell’s Dances, Book 11th, circa, 1800

The tune the fifers played to call the sailors to the grog tub was “Nancy Dawson,” a tune well known to everyone as “Sally in our Alley.” The “double double double beat,” which drummed the men to quarters, is also well known, as “Hearts of Oak”—a song still popular in many parts of England. After these, the best-known song was that known as “Spanish Ladies,” a beautiful old song, long popular at sea, and still familiar to many people. It has been quoted so often, by so many popular writers, that we must apologise for reprinting it. It is still sung at sea, especially aboard American merchant-vessels. The Americans sing it with various alterations.

SPANISH LADIES

SPANISH LADIES

Farewell and adieu to you fine Spanish Ladies—

Farewell and adieu all you Ladies of Spain—

For we’ve received orders to sail for Old England

And perhaps we shall never more see you again.

Chorus—We’ll rant and we’ll roar like true British Sailors,

We’ll range and we’ll roam over all the salt seas,

Until we strike soundings in the Channel of Old England—

From Ushant to Scilly ’tis thirty-five leagues.

We hove our ship to when the wind was sou’west, boys,

We hove our ship to for to strike soundings clear,

Then we filled our main-tops’l and bore right away, boys,

And right up the Channel our course we did steer.

Chorus—We’ll rant and we’ll roar, etc.

The first land we made it is known as the Deadman,

Next Ram Head near Plymouth, Start, Portland, and Wight;

We sailed past Beachy, past Fairley and Dungeness,

And then bore away for the South Foreland Light.

Chorus—We’ll rant and we’ll roar, etc.

Then the signal was made for the grand fleet to anchor

All all in the Downs that night for to meet,

So stand by your stoppers, see clear your shank-painters,

Haul all your clew-garnets, stick out tacks and sheets.

Chorus—We’ll rant and we’ll roar, etc.

Now let every man toss off a full bumper,

Now let every man toss off a full bowl,

For we will be jolly and drown melancholy

In a health to each jovial and true-hearted soul.

Chorus—We’ll rant and we’ll roar, etc.

Many of Charles Dibdin’s songs were popular in our fleets and naval hospitals. His most popular song appears to have been “Tom Bowling,” a song which seems to have continued in the popular favour until our own time. His songs sent so many young men to the Tower tender as naval recruits that the Government pensioned him.

It was hardly possible for human beings to live contentedly under the iron regulations of a man-of-war. One has but to read the books left to us by the sailors to realise the peculiar horror of the life between-decks. Cooped up there, like sardines in a tin, were several hundreds of men, gathered by force and kept together by brutality. A lower-deck was the home of every vice, every baseness, and every misery. The life lived there was something like the life of the negro slave who happened to be housed in a gaol. It is not strange that the men sometimes revolted, and broke out in open mutiny in order to obtain redress. The story of the mutiny of the Bounty, in which the men were “hazed” into turning their obnoxious officers adrift in an open boat, is well known. The stories of the mutinies at the Nore and at Spithead are also familiar. The seamen concerned in these latter mutinies have been held up for execration, but we would ask the indignant reader to learn something of the sufferings which prompted them, and of the temperate and manly way in which they made their wants known. They asked for a slight increase of pay, amounting to about threepence a day for each man, so that they might be able to support their wives and families. They asked for an occasional day ashore; for fresh vegetables when in port; for better food, and for more humane treatment for their wounded. They also asked that they might be paid in cash instead of by ticket, and that the pay of the wounded might not be stopped while they lay in their hammocks under the surgeon’s hands. They had suffered much from the treatment of some of their officers, but their attitude towards these men was singularly humane. They towed one brutal lieutenant ashore on a grating, and they very nearly hanged a marine officer for firing on a boat-load of delegates. With these exceptions they acted throughout with a moderation as praiseworthy as it was astonishing. They were less temperate aboard H.M.S. Hermione, a 32-gun frigate, commanded by Captain Hugh Pigot, the son of an admiral. Captain Pigot was one of the most tyrannical and cruel officers who ever held command. He maddened his crew by repeated acts of cruelty, which culminated at last off the South American coast. One quiet afternoon he drilled his topmen at reefing top-sails. While the men were doing their best, “lighting out,” and “passing earrings,” he called out to the men on the mizzen top-sail-yard that he would flog the last man down. In their hurry down from aloft two of the men fell on to the deck at the captain’s feet, breaking all the bones in their bodies. His remark on this occasion was: “Heave those lubbers overboard!” That night the crew rose in open mutiny. They broke into the cabin, and stabbed Captain Pigot with repeated stabs, so that he died. They killed a number of the lesser officers, and turned several others adrift in a boat. They then sailed the Hermione into La Guayra, and handed her over to the Spanish authorities. She was captured in Puerto Cabello a couple of years later, by the boats of H.M.S. Surprise. Many of the mutineers were afterwards apprehended, and hanged.

Hanging was the usual end of a mutineer. Mutiny, being the one unpardonable sin in a sailor, was treated with far less mercy than desertion, or attempted desertion. The mutiny at the Nore[27] sent a considerable number of sailors to the yard-arm, and lesser mutinies were no less severely punished. A man who struck an officer was fairly certain to be hanged or flogged through the fleet. A man who raised a disturbance or headed any open rebellion, however trivial, was certain to be put to death. On one ship some sailors were taken in the act of violating the Twenty-Ninth Article of War. They were condemned to be punished publicly. Their shipmates, eager for the honour of the ship, begged that the sentence might not be carried out, lest the crew should be hooted at throughout the fleet. On their request being refused, they at once broke out into a noisy disturbance on the lower-deck. Their officers ran down and secured the ringleaders, drove the remainder on deck, and promptly court-martialled and hanged the offenders. At the cessation of hostilities in 1802 many of the sailors were dissatisfied with the orders relating to paying-off. Some ships stationed in the west were ordered to be paid off in London. Others were ordered off on some short cruise, which kept the sailors from joining the many merchant-ships then fitting out after the winter in port. The ringleaders of these little mutinies were hanged, though the occasion surely warranted a slighter punishment.

Many of our sailors deserted to the French, Spanish, and American services, where the routine was a little less severe, and the pay no worse. Those who were taken in foreign ships of war were invariably hanged at the fore yard-arm.

We have mentioned the narrow pendant, the long banner, with a red St George’s cross on a white ground, and long red swallow-tail, which captains hoisted at the main-topgallant masthead, on placing a ship in commission. We now add a few words about some of the other flags and colours in use in the navy. The Royal Standard, which need not be described, was worn at the main-topgallant masthead of those ships which carried a member of the Royal Family. A ship which carried the Lord High Admiral or his Commissioners flew the Admiralty flag (a square red flag, with a golden anchor and cable in its centre) at the same place. An admiral of the fleet flew the Union Jack at the main-topgallant masthead of his own ship. An admiral of the white, or vice-admiral, flew the St George’s banner at his fore-topgallant masthead. An admiral of the blue, or rear-admiral, flew a square blue flag at his mizzen-topgallant masthead. A commodore, or senior captain of the first class, flew a broad red swallow-tailed pendant at his main-topgallant masthead. If another commodore senior to him were in company he flew a white broad pendant marked with a red St George’s cross. A commodore of the second class flew a blue broad pendant, unless a senior captain were sailing in company.

All ships in commission wore a red, white or blue ensign at the mizzen peak, according to the flag of the admiral under whom they sailed. They also carried a small Union Jack at the end of the bowsprit on a flagstaff above the spritsail-yard.

Flag officers had certain distinctive boat flags which they flew in the bows of their boats when they pulled ashore. There were also a number of coloured flags and pendants in use for signalling. The Union Jack was also used for signalling on certain important occasions, such as the holding of a court-martial.

The Royal Standard, Admiralty flag, admirals’ flags, and commodores’ broad pendants were entitled to salutes of guns, varying in number from twenty-one guns (in the case of the first named) to nine (in the case of a second-class commodore). The numbers of guns fired in salute were always odd, following an ancient custom, not now explicable. Ambassadors, consuls, foreign governors, and dukes were also saluted by guns. A salute was fired quickly, with an interval of about six seconds between each gun.

Merchant-ships, both English and foreign, were expected to lower their top-sails, or to let fly their topgallant sheets, when passing a British man-of-war. This old custom is now nearly obsolete, but the present writer has seen the master of a schooner lowering his top-sail in salute to a cruiser.