[1]. It is not out of place to mention here what we were told many years ago by an officer of the Conway, that the late Professor Montague Burrows, when a lieutenant of the Winchester, was initiated in the mysteries of the Greek Grammar by the late Sir Anthony Hoskins, then a cadet fresh from Westminster. Burrows afterwards took a first class in classics at Oxford.
[2]. D.N.B.—In 1780, commander-in-chief in the Channel; baronet in 1782. Died in 1796.
[3]. Charnock, v. 350. Died in 1779.
[4]. It was then, and for many years afterwards, quite usual for a youngster to be at school while his name was on the ship’s books. When—as in this case—the boy was his father’s servant, he might be on board while the ship was in a home port.
[5]. The heroine of a low-class chap-book, The Adventures of Moll Swanson of Portsmouth, which may still occasionally be met with.
[6]. Born in 1720; died 1830. His portrait, painted shortly before his death, is in the Painted Hall at Greenwich. See post, p. [213].
[7]. This was then usual. Probably the fate of the Ramillies had a good deal to do with putting it out of fashion, as it certainly had with forcing seamen to consider that there was a right and a wrong tack on which to lie to; and may thus be said to have brought about the discovery of the Law of Storms.
[8]. There is no reason to doubt the fact; but, in the absence of Christian name and date, the court martial cannot be traced; nor can any man of the name be found, as surgeon, in the pay-books of the Jamaica.
[9]. Large holystones, fitted with beckets, were drawn about by two men. The smaller ones, used in the hand, were ‘hand organs.’