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Updated: May 19, 2025
How can you expect a man to have any muscle to speak of when he never does a stroke of hard work? I don’t say they don’t fight well, for I own they do their duty like men in that line; but when it comes to work, why, they ain’t in it with a jack-tar. I do believe I could pull a couple of them over a line.”
I ha' got a mate for you, Bet as fine a seafaring lad as ever stepped always sure of his berth, and earning lots of money a fine, honest, brave jack-tar; and he'll put you in a little place of your own, and he'll do for you and the boys, and I'll go away to Lunnon. There, Bet the day you marries him, your father'll take third-class fare to Lunnon." "Who is he?" said Bet.
They were all British seamen, but displayed at that time none of the well-known hearty off-hand rollicking characteristics of the Jack-tar. It is natural for man to rejoice in sunshine. His sympathy with cats in this respect is profound and universal. Not less deep and wide is his discord with the moles and bats.
But, says he, 'ye'll need to pretind ye're a Roosian, or a Pole, or somethin' o' that kind; for the fellows in thim parts are great rascals, and there's a few Englishmen among them who would soon find out that ye're only a jack-tar before the mast, and would chate ye at no allowance; but if ye could spake no language under the sun but the gibberish pecooliar to the unbeknown provinces o' Siberia, ye could escape detection as far as yer voice is consarned; and by lettin' yer beard grow as long as possible, and dressin' yersilf properly, ye might pass, and be as dignified as the great Mogul.
And yet there were times when "pressing from protections" had its plenary significance too. Lovers of prints who are familiar with Hogarth's "Stage Coach; or, a Country Inn Yard," date 1747, will readily recall the two "outsides" the one a down-in-the-mouth soldier, the other a jolly Jack-tar on whose bundle may be read the word "Centurion." The life-protection was an indulgence extended to few.
"It's only that we've diskivered our captin," cried Molloy, eager to get any one to sympathise. "Wot captin's that?" growled the Jack-tar. "Why, him as led us on the hillock, to be sure, at Suakim." When acts of heroism and personal prowess are of frequent occurrence, deeds of daring are not apt to draw general attention, unless they rise above the average.
And hardly had the carriage turned the corner and rattled into the high road with this inexplicable pair, than the whistle broke forth prolonged, and low and tremulous; and the groom, already so far relieved, vented the rest of his surprise in one simple English word, friendly to the mouth of Jack-tar and the sooty pitman, and hurried to spread the news round the servants' hall of Naseby House.
But, says he, `ye'll need to pretind ye're a Roosian, or a Pole, or somethin' o' that kind; for the fellows in thim parts are great rascals, and there's a few Englishmen among them who would soon find out that ye're only a jack-tar before the mast and would chate ye at no allowance; but if ye could spake no language under the sun but the gibberish pecooliar to the unbeknown provinces o' Siberia, ye could escape detection as far as yer voice is consarned; and by lettin' yer beard grow as long as possible, and dressin' yersilf properly, ye might pass, and be as dignified as the great Mogul.
"Oh, I thought it had been the ghost," said Gurney, somewhat relieved, for that fat little Jack-tar fully believed in apparitions, and always listened to a ghost story in fear and trembling. "No it wasn't the ghost; it was the stump of a tree. Well, I set sail again, an' presently I sees a great white thing risin' up ahead o' me." "Hah! that was it," whispered Gurney.
In the tenth century he might have been a Sea-king or something similar. Born as he was in the nineteenth century, he was only a Jack-tar and a hero!
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