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Updated: June 8, 2025
While Mr McCarthy and the jolly-boat's crew were thus trying to save all the "flotsam and jetsam" they could from the wreck, Ben Boltrope and those of the crew told off to help him, as "carpenter's mates," were as busy as bees house-building, if running up the shanty which Mr Meldrum had designed could be so designated; while the rest of the party were lending all the aid they could in fetching and carrying what the actual workers required.
Staggering to my feet, I rushed in my scanty apparel to the deck, where Captain Boltrope was just then engaged in receiving the Governor's wife and daughter. The ladies shrieked; the youngest, a beautiful girl, blushed deeply. Heeding them not, I sank at his feet, and, embracing them, cried, "My father!" "Chuck him overboard!" roared Captain Boltrope.
"And the rest of the young gentlemen?" roared the enraged officer. "All masthead, sir." "Ah!" said Captain Boltrope, as he smiled grimly, "under the circumstances, Mr. Breezy, you had better go to the masthead too." At the masthead I made the acquaintance of two youngsters of about my own age, one of whom informed me that he had been there three hundred and thirty-two days out of the year.
Mr Meldrum at once rushed to where Captain Dinks was standing close to the wheel-house, where two men had all they could do to control the helm, although they were the strongest hands on board, the one being Ben Boltrope, the ex-man-o'-war's-man, and the other Karl Ericksen, the Norwegian sailor who had been rescued from the boat, and who was a perfect giant now that he was restored to health and strength standing over six feet, and with long brawny arms that seemed as powerful as those of a windmill when he threw them about.
If we're to have the crathur's planks we'll have thim sure enough; and if we aren't, why we won't, that's all about it!" "The sea may run easier at low water, Boltrope," said Mr Meldrum to console the carpenter; "and if she should be broken up by that time, we'll send out the jolly-boat and pick up what we can."
An official letter, with the Admiralty seal, informed me that I was expected to join H. M. ship Belcher, Captain Boltrope, at Portsmouth, without delay. In a few days I presented myself to a tall, stern- visaged man, who was slowly pacing the leeward side of the quarter- deck. As I touched my hat he eyed me sternly: "So ho! Another young suckling. The service is going to the devil.
"They look as if they'd had hard times," said Ben Boltrope, who was one of those who could now have a look at the boat, "and some of them seem to have lost the number of their mess." "And a durned good job, too!" exclaimed Mr Lathrope; "the mean skunks, to scoot away and leave a lot of wemmen and children to drown, as they thought. They've well arned any troubles they've come by, I guess!"
During my paroxysms, I had a wild distempered dream of a stern face bending anxiously over my pillow, a rough hand smoothing my hair, and a kind voice saying: "Bess his 'ittle heart! Did he have the naughty fever?" This face seemed again changed to the well-known stern features of Captain Boltrope. When I was convalescent, a packet edged in black was put in my hand.
When daylight came, through the exertions of Ben Boltrope, the carpenter, and a couple of the crew sent to aid him, the cuddy offered a more presentable appearance than it had done just immediately after the midnight scare; for, the table and seats were fixed back in their original positions, the debris cleared away, and a portion of the skylight restored all of which so brightened up the interior that what had passed but a few hours before seemed but a dream, at first, to those of the passengers who turned out early.
But the news of the sudden and serious illness of Captain Boltrope put off the duel. I hastened to his bedside, but too late, an hour previous he had given up the ghost. I resolved to return to England. I made known the secret of my birth, and exhibited my adopted father's letter to Lady Maitland, who at once suggested my marriage with her daughter, before I returned to claim the property.
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