“So much the better, Cross, for I know nothing about it. Come, I will ring the bell; I suppose some one will answer it.” A lad made his appearance.
“Were you Mr Williams’s servant?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Get me out a bottle of wine and some glasses—there, that will do.”
“Now, Bob, let’s drink success to the Firefly.”
“Here’s success to the Firefly, Mr Keene, and success to the captain. May you do well in her, and be soon out of her.”
“Thank you, Bob: here’s your health, and may we long sail together.”
Bob and I finished the bottle, and then we parted.
The next day, I was very busy in examining my vessel and my ship’s company. The schooner was a beautiful model, very broad in the beam, and very low in the water; she mounted one long brass thirty-two-pounder forward on a circular sweep, so that it could be trained in every direction; abaft, she had four brass nine-pound carronades. My ship’s company consisted of sixty men and officers; that is, myself, two mids, boatswain, gunner, and carpenter. The mids were young lads of about sixteen years of age, a Mr Brown and a Mr Black, gawky tall boys, with their hands thrust too far though the sleeves of their jackets, and their legs pulled too far through their trowsers; in fact, they were growing lads, who had nothing but their pay to subsist upon, being both sons of warrant officers. They bore very good characters, and I resolved to patronise them, and the first thing which I did was, to present them each with a new suit of uniform and a few other necessaries, so as to make them look respectable; a most unheard-of piece of patronage, and which it is, therefore, my boast to record. The fact is, I was resolved that my schooner should look respectable; my ship’s company were really a very fine body of men, most of them tall and stout, and I had received a very good character of them from the officer who had invalided. I had taken all his stores and furniture off his hands, for I had plenty of money, and to spare.
As soon as I had examined my ship’s company, I made them a speech, the which, although they were bound to hear it, I shall not inflict upon the reader, and I then went down and examined every portion of the vessel, ascertained what there was in her and where everything was. Bob Cross accompanied me in this latter duty, which was not over till dinner-time.