[20]. So in MS.; but the word is ‘back-strapped,’ carried by the current to the back of Gibraltar. The writing ‘black’ shows how entirely the meaning of the term had been lost sight of. It is so with very many of the old nautical expressions.
[21]. More commonly known as the ‘floating batteries.’ They were burnt.
[22]. Neither Marshall nor Gardner seems to have realised the utterly worthless character of the scurrilous book referred to—The Naval Atalantis, by ‘Nauticus Junior,’ said to have been Joseph Harris, sometime secretary to Admiral Milbanke.
[23]. The pigsty, with its inmates, ‘under the forecastle,’ when going into action, seems indeed ‘remarkable’ on board an English ship, even in 1782.
[24]. Sixteen years later, before the battle of the Nile, the live stock was ruthlessly thrown overboard. Cf. Log of the Zealous (N.R.S. xviii. 12).
[25]. The statement is curious, for instances of similar escape are by no means rare. In the days of sailing ships there can have been few officers of any seniority who had not known of at least one.
[26]. The obsolete gibberish seems worth preserving, if only as a parallel to the still familiar ‘So she went into the garden, &c.,’ attributed to Samuel Foote.
[27]. Now Devonport.
[28]. Sc. in nautical life.
[29]. Cf. Barrow, Life of Earl Howe, p. [165] seq.; Schomberg, Naval Chronology, ii. 131.