“He’ll do, he’ll do,” he said to himself more than once. “Meadows, too, seems an active young fellow. Nothing could have turned out better.”
At length the moment for parting came. Ned accompanied his uncle down the side, and again and again the kind old lieutenant wrung his hand before he stepped into the wherry which was to carry him to shore. Ned stood watching the boat, thinking of his uncle and his home, until he was recalled to himself by the boatswain’s whistle summoning the crew to weigh anchor and make sail. With a fair breeze and all canvas spread, the “Ione” stood out through the Needle Passage on her course down channel. As she came off that part of the coast where his boyhood had been spent, he turned a wistful gaze in that direction, knowing that although the lieutenant was not at home, his telescope would be pointed seaward, and that even then Mary might be looking at the graceful ship which floated like a swan over the calm water. The Lizard was the last point of land seen, and the “Ione” stood out into the broad Atlantic.
“Well, Ned, we are at sea at last, you really have shown yourself more of a man than I expected,” said Charley Meadows.
“What should have made you fancy I should have been otherwise?” asked Ned.
“Why, you’ve been brought up so much at home that I was afraid you’d prove rather too soft for the life you’ll have to lead on board. However, I have no fear about that, whatever others may think. Some of the fellows may try to bully you because you are the youngest on board, but keep your temper, and do not let them see that you know what they are about; I’ll back you up, and they’ll soon cease annoying you.”
Ned followed his friend’s advice, and managed without quarrelling or fighting to obtain the respect of even the least well-disposed of his messmates.
Charley was at first inclined to exhibit a somewhat patronising manner towards Ned, who, however, wisely did not show that he perceived this, nor did he in the slightest degree resent it. He from the first had endeavoured to gain all the nautical knowledge he possibly could, and was never ashamed of asking for information from those able to afford it.
“That’s the way to become a seaman,” observed Mr Dawes the boatswain, to whom he frequently went when he wanted any matter explained. “Come to me as often as you like, and I shall be glad to tell you what I know; and I ought to know a thing or two, as I’ve been at sea, man and boy, pretty near five-and-twenty years, though I’ve not got much book-learning.”
Ned thanked him, promising to take advantage of his offer, and, as was natural, became a great favourite with the boatswain. Ned was well up in many of the details of seamanship, and having been accustomed to boats all his life, was as well able to manage one as anybody on board. He quickly learned to go aloft, and to lay out on the yards to reef or loose the sails, while he was as active and fearless as many a far older seaman. His knowledge of navigation too was considerable, his uncle having taken great pains to instruct him, he, on his part, being always anxious to learn. Charley, therefore, in a short time, finding that Ned was not only his equal in most respects, but his superior in several, dropped his patronising manner, and they became faster friends than ever.
The first lieutenant, Mr Hanson, did not fail to remark Ned’s progress, and calling him up, expressed his approval. “Go on as you have begun, Garth, and you will become a good officer. The commander has his eye on you, and will always, you may depend upon it, prove your friend.”