And ever the fitful gusts between
We heard the leadsman’s voice:
“Mark ten!” “Deep eight!” “And a quarter seven!”
Which made our hearts rejoice.
When anchored safe in Plymouth Sound
We came round by degrees—
With tea, then bed, then ten o’clock:
“Out lights, sir, if you please!”
Such was the winter trip of the Wave
On that dull November day;
But that we had a merry time
How few of us could say!
The writer, it will be noticed, has adhered very closely to the pattern he selected, quoting one verse in its entirety, and displaying a certain recklessness in respect of the number of feet in a line which is so characteristic of Longfellow.
There were many other cruises, both winter and summer, in the Wave after this, and apparently the weather was more propitious, for we do not hear any more sad wailings about it; though one of the party, on this first occasion, was heard to declare that if he were twenty years in the ship he would not again be caught going for a “pleasure trip” such as this in the winter months.
The magazine was not confined to descriptions of this kind, or laudatory articles and accounts of successful sports, etc.—of which more anon—but warnings, editorial and otherwise, on various points of conduct and etiquette are not infrequent.
A letter, signed “A Cadet,” enlarges on the undesirability of certain prevalent pranks when travelling by rail:—
If the cadets continue to play the fool with the porters, shoot off catapults and squibs at travellers, etc., they will be getting all leave stopped, or a corporal in attendance; or the railway company will refuse to stop the trains at the level, and they will have to walk round from Kingswear Station.
This last allusion is to the accommodation of having certain trains stopped opposite the ship for the convenience of officers and cadets. Those who are not acquainted with the locality may not be aware that the railway does not run into Dartmouth, Kingswear, on the opposite side of the harbour, being the terminus.
Curiously enough, there is a letter in the same number from an outsider on precisely the same subject over the signature “Old Meddler,” who is evidently a somewhat irascible old gentleman residing in Torquay. He concludes his letter as follows:—