“. . . Mr Manby is wrong about our getting no compensation for the Damage (so far as it cd be seen) inflicted on us by the steamer. Whether we could claim it or not, the Steamer Captain granted it: being (as Newson says) quite a Gentleman, &c. So we have had the Carpenters for two Days, who have restored the broken Stanchions,
&c. What mischief the Shock may have done to the Body of the Ship remains to be proved: ‘Anyhow, it can’t have done her any good,’ says Job’s Comforter, Captn. Newson. The Steamer’s Captain admitted that he had expected us to be cracked like a Walnut.
“Now, I want you to tell me of this. You know of Newson’s lending Posh [104] money. I have advised that, beside an I.O.U. from Posh, he should give security upon some of his Effects: Boats, Nets, or other Gear. Tell me how this should be done, if you can: the Form of Writing required: and perhaps what Interest Newson should have on his Money.
“Last night at the ‘Suffolk’ I was where Newson, Posh, & Co. were at their Ale: a little of which got into Newson’s head: who began to touch up Posh about such an Apparatus of Rockets, Mortars, etc., for the Rescue of those two stranded Vessels, when he declares that he and one or two Felixstowe Men would have pushed off a Boat through the pauses of the Surf, and done all that was wanted. He had seen, and been on, the Shipwash scores of times when the jump of the Ship pitched him on his Back, and sent the Topmast flying. So had Posh
on the Home-sand here, he said; his Sand was just as bad as Tom’s, he knew; and the Lowestoft Men just as good as the Felixstowe, &c. I fomented the Quarrel gently:—no Quarrel, or I should not: all Newson meant (which I believe is very true) there are so many men here, and no one Man to command, that they are worse off with all their Men and Boats than at the Ferry [Bawdsey], where Newson or Percival are Spokesmen and Masters. This I have explained to Posh To-day, as he was sitting, like Abraham, in his Tent—like an Apostle, mending his nets. ‘Posh, your Frill was out last night?’ ‘No—no—only I didn’t like to hear the Lowestoft Chaps weren’t as good, etc., especially before the Stranger Men from Harwich, etc.’”
“Lowestoft, October 7, ’66. [Ib.]
“. . . ‘Posh’ went off in his new, old Lugger, [105] which I call ‘The Porpoise,’ on Thursday: came in yesterday with a Last and a half of Herrings: and is just put to Sea again, Sunday though it be. It is reported to be an extraordinary Herring Year, along shore: and now he goes into deeper Water. I am amused to see Newson’s devotion to his younger Friend: he won’t leave him a moment if possible, was the first to see him come in
yesterday, and has just watched him out of sight. He declined having any Bill of Sale on Posh’s Goods for Money lent; old as he is (enough to distrust all Mankind)—has perfect reliance on his Honour, Industry, Skill, and Luck. This is a pretty Sight to me. I tell Newson he has at last found his Master, and become possessed of that troublesome thing: an anxious Regard for some one.
“I was noticing for several Days how many Robins were singing along the ‘London Road’ here; and (without my speaking of it) Lusia Kerrich told me they had almost a Plague of Robins at Gelson [Geldestone]: 3 or 4 coming into the Breakfast room every morning; getting under Kerrich’s Legs, &c. And yesterday Posh told me that three came to his Lugger out at Sea; also another very pretty Bird, whose name he didn’t know, but which he caught and caged in the Binnacle, where it was found dead in due time. . . .
“P.S.—Posh (as Cooper, whom I question, tells me) was over 12 miles from Land when the four Robins came aboard: a Bird which he nor Cooper had ever seen to visit a Ship before. The Bird he shut up in the Binnacle he describes as of ‘all sorts of Colours’—perhaps a Tomtit!—and I fear it was roasted in the Binnacle, when Posh lighted up at night, forgetting his Guest. ‘Poor little fallow!’”