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They had not entirely respected the English engine, with the shrill falsetto of its whistle, after the burly roar of our locomotives; and the boatswain's pipe of the French conductor had considerably diminished the dignity of a sister republic in their minds; but this Christmas-horn was too droll.
With this heavy and knotted scourge, the boatswain's mate, who is generally selected for his strength, after stripping off his jacket, that he may strike the harder, lashes this young man, on his delicate skin, until his back is cut from his shoulders to his waist! Few men, of ordinary feelings of humanity, could bear to see, without great emotion, even a thief, or a robber, so severely punished.
Some such signal had confidently been expected, after the news of the preceding day; we were in fact all waiting for it, and its display was equivalent to the starting signal for a race, for no sooner did the flags break abroad than they were read, and the next instant the shrill piping of many boatswain's whistles was heard in the calm morning air, the crews of the captain's gigs were seen rushing along the booms and dropping recklessly down into the boats, and in less than a minute the mirror-like waters of the harbour were being churned into foam as the flotilla of gigs darted away from the ships' gangway ladders, each striving to be the first to arrive alongside the Mikasa.
Boatswain's Reef was, as its name described, only half an acre in extent a jagged, stony reef, raised but a few yards at its highest point above high-tide mark. Very cold, somewhat anxious, and much exhausted, we found in a few moments the only shelter it afforded a level place of sand and sea grass, about six yards square, defended on the south-west by a miniature cliff.
The boat or canoe, or whatever it might be, was by this time close aboard of us, within pistol shot at the farthest no time to be lost, so I hailed myself, and this time the challenge did produce an answer. "Sore boat fruit and wegitab." "Shore boat, with fruit and vegetables, at this time of night I don't like it," said I. "Boatswain's mate, all hands pipe away the boarders.
With what indignation, rage and horror, have I seen our brave fellows actuated, while one of these heroes of national rights, and national character, has been relating his sufferings, and showing his degrading scars, made on his body by the accursed whip of a boatswain's mate, by order of an infamous captain of the British navy!
The lieutenant is a very brave man, a great joker, and, as the saying is, hath got the length of his commander's foot though he has another favourite in the house called Tom Pipes, that was his boatswain's mate, and now keeps the servants in order.
This juncture was precisely what Stewart wished to prevent; and in a trice the shrill notes of the boatswain's whistle sent the sailors in swarms into the rigging, and the frigate was as if by magic clothed with a broad expanse of canvas. Quickly she felt the effect, and bounded through the water after the distant ships like a dolphin chasing a school of flying-fish.
Tom Jerrold and I were in the boatswain's cabin one afternoon teaching the starling to speak a fresh sentence the bird having got quite tame and learnt to talk very well already, saying "Bad cess to ye" and "Tip us yer flipper," just like Tim Rooney, with his brogue and all; when, all at once, we heard some scrambling going on in the long-boat above the deckhouse, and the sound of men's voices whispering together.
Boatswain's mate, I wish you would ride in the carriage at her side, while the rest of us walk on the sidewalk close to the carriage." "Aye, aye, sir!" responded the mate, saluting, then turning and lifting his cap gracefully to the woman. He helped her into the carriage, then took his seat beside her.
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