“Oh, that’s it,” he observed. “Well, Jack, I wish you could come, but if you cannot, I must take your excuses; though I am sure the captain would not be angry, if you sent him a polite message.”
“My father knows better than I do,” I answered; “and I have not seen the captain, so I must go. I am very sorry, for I should like to have come with you.”
Master Richard wrung my hand very warmly, and most unwillingly went back towards his home. How Sergeant Turbot did laugh when we got on board, and my father told him what had happened. He advised me not to give Master Richard’s message. My father, having left me under charge of the sergeant, took his departure. He came on board, however, several times in old Dick’s wherry.
“I don’t ask you to come home, my boy,” he said, “for I have not got the heart to go through that parting business again. Besides, Jack, the home is not as comfortable as it should be. Perhaps, however, when you come back, four or five years hence, things will have mended. And you will not forget your father, Jack, and I’m sure you won’t her that’s gone.”
These remarks were made the last time I saw my worthy father before the ship went out of harbour. I, in time, got accustomed to the ways of a ship, or, rather, to the ways of the men. It was rather curious, at first, to see a number of big fellows standing round a tub or basin, all washing themselves in the same water; one toothbrush, if they were particular enough to have such a thing, and one comb, serving for the whole party. Only a few, however, of the cleanest men used the former article. Still, things were somewhat trying to a young chap. When the ship appeared to have got a little quiet, suddenly, as I was seated near Sergeant Turbot, I heard a sharp whistle and a ferocious growl, which made me jump off the bench. “All hands on deck?” or some such cry, were the words which followed the whistle.
“Who is that growling out?” I asked of the sergeant.
“That is one of our licensed growlers,” was the answer. “It’s his business to growl; he is paid for it. Seamen are fond enough of growling generally, but they get nothing when they do, though they growl till they are hoarse.”
Now, as I said, I had been aboard all sorts of ships in ordinary, or in the dockyard, but never before on board one fitting-out. When, therefore, I stepped on deck after the men, I was perfectly confounded; and the scene of confusion around me—such piping, and swearing, and bawling, and shouting, swaying up yards, getting in guns and stores, and pulling and hauling in all directions. Still, I made the best of it; and, having my eyes about me, kept out of harm’s way, and stood ready to try and do anything I was told to do. This went on till the men knocked off work again, and the hubbub was concentrated on the main and lower decks, especially round the galley-fire, where the cooks were busy serving out dinners to the different messes. “It smells fine, at all events,” I thought to myself, and would have made me hungry, if I had not been so already. Then a marine struck a bell four times double, which made eight bells, and the officer of the watch roared out, “Pipe to dinner!” Didn’t the whistle of the boatswain and his men sound shrilly then! The dishes being arranged on the mess-tables, which were placed in rows along the decks, all hands fell to with a will; and I, among the number, ate my first dinner aboard ship. In about an hour there was another pipe, and the word “Grog!” was bawled out. Each man went to receive his quantum of rum and water. The sergeant said that rum was a bad thing for little boys, and drank mine for me. I now think that he was right. I had as yet seen nothing of Master Plumb, and I began to think that he was not coming after all. This did not concern me, I own, very much; for, as he would be at one end of the ship and I at the other, we should not exchange words very often, and I knew pretty well, from what I had already seen, that he would soon get into the ways of his messmates, and look down upon me, and swear and abuse me, as some of the other young gentlemen were apt to do.
At last all stores were on board, the sails were bent, and, casting off from the old hulk, we hauled out into the stream. The Roarer certainly looked to greater advantage than she had hitherto done. The next day decks were cleared, the men put on clean shirts and trousers, the officers appeared in full fig, and the long-expected captain came up the side.
“Butter won’t melt in his mouth,” I heard one of the seamen near me observe.