Finding threats and entreaties useless, the commissioner ordered the Essex to moor in the centre of the harbour. This was done, but rumour had it that at midnight the bodies of eight men, victims of the plague, were taken ashore and buried secretly in the Pest House fields.
Two days afterwards it was known that three more of her crew had died, and were buried on the foreshore at Gosport; while, to disinfect the ship, great quantities of brimstone were burnt, but to no purpose.
Then, strange to relate, the plague broke out in Gosport town, whither some three hundred men pass over every day to work in the dockyard, so it was not surprising to learn that at length the dreaded scourge had appeared in our own town.
With fierce violence it spread. Many houses were shut up, their doors marked by a cross with the words "God have mercy upon us" written underneath. At first passers-by would cross in fear and trembling to the other side of the street whenever this mournful sign met their eyes, but as the number of cases increased people became hardened to the danger.
Many put the cause of the disease, rightly enough, to the filthy habits of the poorer people, and hearing that salt water was a preventive, scores of the inhabitants repaired daily to the seashore, plunging into the bitterly cold waves in the hope of staving off the malady.
Day and night large fires were lighted in the streets, while, to add to the misery, the silent watches of the night were broken by the hoarse shout of the watchmen, who, ringing their bells, cried out in solemn tones: "Bring out your dead."
All the time the war with the Dutch was waged unceasingly, till it was reported that the French, apprehensive of our supremacy at sea, joined forces with the States of Holland and declared war against us.
Early in April, to my great joy, Sir Thomas Middleton informed me that I was to join the Prince Royal, a ship of 100 guns, then lying at Chatham with the rest of the fleet under the command of the Duke of Albemarle and Prince Rupert.
"As the pestilence rages in London town," said he, "it is not meet that a man should risk an inglorious death when he would serve His Majesty better by dying for his country while fighting the Dutch. Therefore, instead of going by coach to London, and thence to Chatham by river, we are sending a shallop to Dover, whence you can travel through the county of Kent to Chatham. Several officers and men are making the passage, to bring up the crew of the Prince Royal to full strength, for she has had some hard knocks, and promotion is sure to be rapid should she again meet with the Dutch."
I thanked the commissioner heartily and withdrew. Having bade farewell to my friends, and gathered together my few personal belongings, I retired for the night, as the shallop was to sail at six the next morning.