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Updated: June 27, 2025
`Old Hankey Pankey, though, as he was called on the lower deck sailors having always a nickname for their officers, whether they like them or dislike them possessed the rare art of managing those under his command to such a degree that he would have turned out a likely enough crew from much worse material; while he `got to win'ard' of the engineers so cleverly that they never grumbled at any orders he gave unlike those gentry in general thus enabling us to pile on steam and make the passage out from England in far less time than we expected, there being no complaints from the stokehold of `leaking tubes' and `priming' boilers necessitating our having to `slow down.
"Yes, yes," said `old Hankey Pankey, as if thinking over the matter "yes. Got the rockets ready, Mr ahem Shrapnell?" "Aye, aye, sir," replied `Gunnery Jack, who had come up from his guns, on the halt being cried, to see whether the captain might not have any special orders for him. "They're close at hand, sir." "The signal rockets, I mean."
At once, the whole lot of us that were left followed him up to the front, where Larrikins and `old Hankey Pankey' the latter of whom of course could not rise of his own accord, by reason of the injury to his legs were fighting as only Englishmen can fight amidst a perfect horde of Arabs, who had poured out from the stockade on seeing us retreat.
"Stand by!" roared `old Hankey Pankey' from his perch on the top of Larry's shoulders, noticing our hasty retreat from the left of the stockade, our fellows indeed rushing back in their scurrying flight into the midst of the centre column and mixing it up into irretrievable confusion. "Steady there! Face round, my men, stand firm!"
`Old Hankey Pankey' did not waste time when he had once got his orders; and some couple of hours after we had weighed anchor and were rapidly leaving Zanzibar, with its rows of square stone houses, built with flat roofs in the eastern style, that front the beautiful curving bay, whose white sandy beach is washed by water so clear that you can see the bottom at six fathoms, and which is backed, beyond the warehouses and mansions of the merchants, by the bright greenery of palm trees and dates and other rich tropical growths, the beautiful foliage of which contrasts vividly with the intense whiteness of the buildings and adjacent shore, offering quite a relief to the eye from the glaring sun and coppery sky overhead.
But `old Hankey Pankey' was not going to let any one, junior or senior in the service, beat him for first place when fighting was on; and no one who had known how terribly he had been wounded, the muscles of his legs having become shrunk after the holes made by the matchlock ball had closed up, would have dreamt him capable of going the pace he did now.
This made them quicken their movements if possible; while `old Hankey Pankey, seeing we were a trifle short in our range, steamed on after them so that they might have the full benefit of all our battery the water now churning up over the gunwale of the cutter as she dragged us on astern of her, the bow of the boat high in air, while we were all the more depressed aft from having the other boats behind us.
"That's right, Mr Shrapnell; tell Adams to get one of the signals ready for sending up at once, for I expect to see the admiral's every minute," said `old Hankey Pankey'; adding, as `Gunnery Jack' stepped back to prepare the signal rocket with Adams, "That chap thinks himself very smart with his rocket and tube, as if I didn't know the real difference between the two!
The breakfast next morning was like the tea over night, except that Mrs Pipchin took her roll instead of toast, and seemed a little more irate when it was over. That done, Miss Pankey was borne away to be shampoo'd; and Master Bitherstone to have something else done to him with salt water, from which he always returned very blue and dejected.
This `old Hankey Pankey' was forced to do, much against the grain, a moment or two later on, Captain Oliver having been driven off from the right attack, thus leaving both our flanks now exposed as well as our front to the fire of the Somalis, who once more rushed out from the stockade upon us. "We must retire, my lads," cried the captain in a hoarse voice, the words coming out with almost a sob.
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