[26] Edward Thompson says: “You will find some little outward appearance of religion and Sunday prayers, but the congregation is generally driven together by the boatswain, who neither spares oaths nor blows.”
CHAPTER IX
In port—Jews—Lovely Nan—Mutinies—Their punishment—Sailor songs—“Drops of Brandy”—“Spanish Ladies,” etc.—Flags—Salutes
When a ship came into port after a long absence at sea or on a foreign station, with several years of pay due to her crew, she was surrounded by boats from the shore containing “Girls and Jews.” During the wars the sailors were given hardly any shore leave, lest they should run away. Those who did get ashore were so watched by the land folk eager to earn a little head or blood money—the reward for capturing a deserter—that they had little pleasure in their jaunts on land. They never touched their pay till the ship was about to sail again, so that they had small chance of enjoying themselves, or of buying necessaries if they did succeed in getting out of the ship. The Jews knew this very well, and therefore plied a very thriving business with the sailors at every great sea-port. When the ship came to an anchor they came off in their wherries with all manner of fancy articles such as the sailors cared for. “Gold” watches, which ticked very loudly, and went for a week, made a very profitable line. Gold seals, of the same quality; bright brass telescopes, which put an edge of brilliant colours round everything one saw through them; scarlet and blue silk handkerchiefs, fancy shoes, shoe-buckles, suspenders, watch-chains, diamond rings, etc.—all of these things were laid out, with a great deal of glitter, on the pedlars’ trays amidships. For all this trash they asked enormous prices, about five times more than the things were worth. Others brought sailors’ clothes, of cuts and colours more beautiful than those sold by the purser, such as blue-and-white striped trousers, as baggy as the mouths of wind-sails, waistcoats like tropical sunsets, and neckerchiefs like blood and broken eggs. Others brought little natty straw hats, with ribbons neatly painted with the name of the ship; or glazed tarpaulin hats with linings of some violently-coloured cloth. Some brought sailors’ necessaries, such as gaudy crockery, clay pipes, “silver” tobacco stoppers, clasp and sheath knives, real silver spoons, hammock stretchers, tin pots and pans, boxes of sugar, red-herrings, eggs, Dutch cheeses, butter, apples, onions, etc. Nearly all of them had skins and bladders full of red-eye, gin, or similar “sailor’s joy,” such as would give a waister the action of a port-admiral. Towards the end of the long French wars the captains grew more strict in their admission of these creatures. They allowed them aboard only under certain conditions, generally restricting them to the quarter-deck and gangways, where they did business under the eyes of the officers and the marine sentries. This kept them from smuggling drink aboard in any quantity, though they generally contrived to smuggle in a little, despite the searching of the master-at-arms. It also kept them from cheating the sailors unduly, and from being cheated or man-handled by the sailors’ ladies. Another regulation adopted towards the end of the war kept the Jews out of the ship till pay-day, a day or two before the ship sailed again. In the eighteenth century they came aboard directly the ship was anchored, for in addition to the slop and bumboat trade they carried on the profitable business of money-lending, advancing ready money, at a ruinous rate of interest, on the sailors’ pay-tickets. The sailors knew very well that the Jews cheated them, but they had no alternative but to submit. In the matter of slops and trinkets they were cheated less badly than over the pay, for when they came to hand over the money for the gear they had bought they were generally drunk with “the parting cans.” In this condition they argued and wrangled, and blacked the Jews’ eyes, and flung the pedlars’ trays down the hatches, and often enough refused to pay a red cent of the money claimed. However, as Marryat says, “the Jews’ charges were so extravagant that if one-third of their bills were paid there still remained a profit.” When the strangers were turned out of the ship on pay-day nights there were some lively scenes between the sergeant of marines, or the master-at-arms, and the sailors and Jews who felt themselves cheated.
H.M.S. VENERABLE AT ANCHOR
In the old days, when a man-of-war came into a home port, the boatmen on the along-shore made their bargains with the women of the town. They charged each woman several shillings for the trip out to the ship, the women stipulating that if they failed to please the sailors the fare should not be paid. This stipulation made the boatmen very careful what women they took with them. They rowed out only the prettiest and the best dressed, for if the women were not chosen by the sailors they lost their fare, and had all their trouble for nothing. Besides, the lieutenants were very jealous of the reputations of their ships. It was not unusual for a lieutenant to overlook the boatloads as they came alongside, and to refuse to admit any ugly women, or any woman not smartly attired or freshly painted. When the boats came alongside, each man slipped down the gangway, made his choice, and carried her down to the berth. We would add that most of the sailors were young men, that they sometimes stayed several years away from England without so much as seeing a woman, and that a lower-deck, at that time, was neither refined nor prudish.
A woman so chosen remained aboard with her chooser, or with any other man whom she preferred. The protector, or fancy-man, kept her with him while the ship remained in port, sharing his allowance with her, and buying her little delicacies from the bumboats which came alongside. A man-of-war of the first-rate had frequently 500 women aboard at the same time, each woman being ready to swear that she was the lawful wife of her protector. With the women came drink, and what with the drink and the women the ship’s discipline came to a stop. The master-at-arms searched every woman who came aboard, for bladders full of spirits, scent-bottles, etc. etc. Marines kept guard on the chains overlooking the ship’s sides, so that no drink should be conveyed through the ports from shore boats. The head ports were barred in. The sentries guarded the forecastle, so that no man might lower a bucket privily over the bows. Every boat which came alongside was searched by the ship’s corporals. Every boatman who came aboard was examined and felt. But, with all these precautions, the red-eye came aboard. Nothing kept it out very long. It came aboard a little at a time, inside cocoa-nuts, balls of lard, oranges, or anything with tolerable cubic capacity. When it had come aboard the lower-deck became a pandemonium. The men and women drank and quarrelled between the guns. The decks were allowed to become dirty. Drunken sailors could be found lying under each hatchway. Drunken women were continually coming aft to insult the officers, or to lodge some complaint outside a lieutenant’s province. Sometimes the women ran aloft to wave their petticoats to the flagship. Now and then they fell from aloft while performing this manœuvre, and so broke their necks and came to an unhappy end.
In some ways they may have been of benefit to the sailors. Though they cheated them themselves they kept others from cheating them. They were not without tenderness, nor were they so unfaithful as most people would suppose. In many cases the sailors married them. In others, the women grew so fond of their protectors that they followed the ship by land, if she were ordered, say, from Spithead to Sheerness, or to some other home port. It was not unusual for a monstrous regiment of women to march right across England so that they might join their mates on the other side.
When a ship set sail after a long sojourn in a home port there was a great deal of misery upon the lower-deck. The sailors, or at anyrate the tender-hearted ones, were melancholy; the women were either crying or drunk; the Jews were clamouring for their moneys; the bumboat people wanted their bills paid; and the sailors were drinking parting cans and hoping to pay their debts with a loose fore-topsail. Before the marines drove the women out of the ship the tender-hearted sailors came aft to the captain for permission to take their wives to sea with them. A line-of-battle ship often carried as many as a dozen women to sea. It seems that the practice did not quite die out for many years after the time of which we write. Some admirals strictly forbade it, as fatal to all discipline. As a rule, however, the married warrant officers, and perhaps a few men, obtained leave to take their wives with them, on the understanding that misconduct would involve their instant dismissal. A captain had to weigh such applications very carefully, admitting only the most respectable of those who offered. He had also to suffer patiently the abuses and menaces of the harridans he refused to ship.