[50]. D.N.B.
[51]. John Culverhouse, 1st lieutenant of the Minerve, was made commander for the capture of the Spanish frigate Sabina, on the special recommendation of Nelson. Captain, 1802. Drowned when agent for transports at the Cape of Good Hope in 1809.—Nicolas, Nelson Despatches (Index).
[52]. Byam Martin’s recollection of Leveson Gower was even more unfavourable than Gardner’s. Cf. N.R.S. xix. 292.
[53]. The ‘Belfry’—which has long been obsolete—is defined by Smyth as ‘an ornamental frame or shelter, under which the ship’s bell is suspended.’ It would seem to have been commonly fixed on the break of the forecastle, and is so shown in the models in the Museum of the Royal United Service Institution.
[54]. Misappropriation of government stores (Smyth, Sailors’ Word-Book). Cf. N.R.S. xxviii. 48. A writer in Notes and Queries (X. ii. 397) refers the term to the Dutch ‘te kaap varen’ = to go a-privateering (N.E.D., s.v. Cape); a not improbable derivation.
[55]. Musical composer, died 1796. Cf. D.N.B.
[56]. See in the Record Office (Admiralty, Sec. In Letters, 5326), the minutes of these curious and remarkable courts martial—on David Wardrope, the surgeon, for drunkenness, quarrelling and beating the lieutenants: death; on William Wall and John Lucas, lieutenants, for permitting themselves to be beaten: dismissed the ship; on George Dawson, captain, for tyranny, oppression, malversation, suttling and such like: dismissed the service; and on John Wilkie, the master, for neglect of duty, disobedience, disrespect and drunkenness: dismissed the ship.
[57]. Le Languedoc, 80, D’Estaing’s flagship. She had been previously dismasted in a gale. Cf. Beatson, iv. 348; Chevalier, i. 117.
[58]. Syrup of maidenhair, flavoured with orange-flower.
[59]. There are not so many readers of Ossian now as there were a hundred years ago, and the description given of this Spirit may be novel. ‘Connal lay by the sound of the mountain stream, beneath the aged tree.... At distance from the heroes he lay; the son of the sword feared no foe. The hero beheld, in his rest, a dark-red stream of fire rushing down from the hill. Crugal sat upon the beam, a chief who fell in fight.... His face is like the beam of the setting moon. His robes are of the clouds of the hill. His eyes are two decaying flames. Dark is the wound of his breast....’—Fingal, ii.