then directed Mr. Sharpe to get what sail he could on the ship, the wind
being now westerly, and dived into his cabin.
The boatswain piped three shrill pipes, and “All hands up anchor,” was
thrice repeated forward, followed by private admonitions, “Rouse and
bitt!” “Show a leg!” &c., and up tumbled the crew with homeward bound
written on their tanned faces.
(Pipe.) “Up all hammocks.”
In ten minutes the ninety and odd hammocks were all stowed neatly in
the netting, and covered with a snowy hammock-cloth; and the hands were
active, unbitting the cable, shipping the capstan bars, &c.
“All ready below, sir,” cried a voice.
“Man the bars,” returned Mr. Sharpe from the quarter-deck. “Play up,
fifer. Heave away.”
Out broke the merry fife, with a rhythmical tune, and tramp, tramp,
tramp went a hundred and twenty feet round and round, and, with brawny
chests pressed tight against the capstan bars, sixty fine fellows walked
the ship up to her anchor, drowning the fife at intervals with their
sturdy song, as pat to their feet as an echo:--
Heave with a will, ye jolly boys,
Heave around:
We're off from Chainee, jolly boys,
Homeward bound.
“Short stay apeak, sir,” roars the boatswain from forward.
“Unship the bars. Way aloft. Loose sails. Let fall.”
The ship being now over her anchor, and the top-sails set, the capstan
bars were shipped again, the men all heaved with a will, the messenger
grinned, the anchor was torn out of China with a mighty heave, and then
ran up with a luff tackle and secured; the ship's head cast to port.
“Up with the jib--man the taupsle halliards--all hands make sail.” Round
she came slow and majestically; the sails filled, and the good ship bore
away for England.
She made the Bogue forts in three or four tacks, and there she had to
come to again for another chop, China being a place as hard to get into
as Heaven, and to get out of as--Chancery. At three P.M. she was at
Macao, and hove to four miles from the land to take in her passengers.
A gun was fired from the forecastle. No boats came off. Sharpe began to
fret; for the wind, though light, had now got to the N.W., and they were
wasting it. After a while the captain came on deck, and ordered all
the carronades to be scaled. The eight heavy reports bellowed the great
ship's impatience across the water and out pulled two boats with the
passengers. While they were coming, Dodd sent and ordered the gunner to
load the carronades with shot, and secure and apron them. The first boat
brought Colonel Kenealy, Mr. Fullalove, and a prodigious negro, who all
mounted by the side-ropes. But the whip was rigged for the next boat,
and the Honourable Mrs. Beresford and poodle hoisted on board, item her
white maid, item her black nurse, item her little boy and male Oriental
in charge thereof, the strangest compound of dignity and servility, and
of black and white, being clad in snowy cotton and japanned to the nine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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