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At this latter elevation they were able to enjoy to the full the health-giving properties of the pure sea- breeze, and to revel in a prospect though it was only that of the restless sea of nearly forty nautical miles on every side; the horizon, that is to say, forming a circle of little less than eighty miles diameter round about them.
Flamand, although less pretentious than many others that had sheltered us, was clean and comfortable, the lower deck and companionway were freshly sanded, the whole house had a decidedly nautical air about it, and the captain's state-room on the upper deck, a second-floor room, was large and well-lighted, although the ceiling might have been a trifle too low for the governor, and the bed a few inches too short.
Two sand-glasses are used in connection with the log-line, as the old quartermaster, who was our instructor in this branch of our nautical education, explained, the one called "the long glass," which runs out in twenty-eight seconds, while the other is a fourteen-second glass, which is generally adopted at sea when the ship is going over five knots with a fair wind.
There he would grub amongst the mouldy refuse of the place, and would find treatises of forgotten divines on Daniel and the end of the world, and translations of Ovid on the Art of Love sadly mutilated by rats, and nautical almanacs of a long bygone date, and much other doubtful treasure. The mother came into the brick-paved yard and shrilled 'Paul! Paul lay quiet.
"All right, uncle; I'll remember," he cried promptly. "Then you are going to hire a ship and engage a crew?" "Well," said Uncle Paul thoughtfully, "we are landsmen I mean landsman and a boy but we may as well begin to be nautical at once and call things by the sea-going terms. No, my boy, I am not going to engage a ship too big." "Why, you won't go all that way in a lugger, uncle?" "Bah!
The tiller handle was very low, and when I gave him his course at midnight before turning in myself, he asked me if it would be a breach of nautical etiquette to sit down to steer, as that was the only alternative to directing the ship's course with his ankles. No land was in sight, and the wind had died out when I came on deck for my 4 A.M. to 8 A.M. watch.
"Do you notice what the captain is trying to do?" "Well," I answered, "I don't see how anybody can do anything in weather like this." "There is a strong wind blowing," continued the nautical passenger, "and the fog is liable to lift for a few minutes at a time. If it lifts often enough our captain is going to get us over the bar. It will be rather a sharp bit of work if he succeeds.
Port hard, professor, or we shall be into it." The professor, who was not absolutely ignorant of nautical phraseology, promptly ported his helm and at the same moment stopped the engines, by which manoeuvre the Flying Fish glided close past the object so slowly that it was easily distinguishable as a huge pinnacle of rock.
Till Harry went to sea, we had no naval men in the family, and neither Sir Reginald nor his predecessor, our great grandfather, took any interest in nautical affairs, as they were fox-hunters and sportsmen." Captain Headland said he would talk to Harry on the subject, and see what they could do.
Their respective Admirals fired their severest broadsides into each other, and the bombardment of the forts was silenced by the smart interchange of nautical civilities between the two flagships. Napoleon III, who sought an explanation of this failure of his fleet, was given a reply that I cannot refrain from recommending to the British Admiralty to-day.
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