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Updated: September 3, 2025
Then, flushed with excitement and hoarse with shouting, they sang the National Anthem to a close. Altogether, it was a very noisy evening. The Lieutenant for Physical Training Duties came down into the Wardroom and sank into the one remaining arm-chair. "I must say," he ejaculated, "the sailor is a cheerful animal. They comply with the utmost good humour.
Then they learned that the fire of the guns of the starboard turret midships over the wardroom, which was on the port side, had deposited a great many things on the floor which did not belong there; and their expression changed. Even this comfort was taken from them. "We had the range of you!" the British explained. The chaplain of the Inflexible was bound to have an anecdote.
One transfer, however, was made from the prize, being nothing less than a well-grown and intelligent negro lad, named David White, the slave of one of the passengers, who was transferred to the Alabama as waiter to the wardroom mess, where he remained until the closing scene off Cherbourg, by no means disposed, so far as his own word may be taken for it, to regret the change of masters.
'E said we'd be a floatin' hell in a week, an' it 'ud take the rest o' the commission to stop our way. They was arguin' it in the wardroom when the bridge reports a light three points off the port bow. We overtakes her, switches on our search-light, an' she discloses herself as a collier o' no mean reputation, makin' about seven knots on 'er lawful occasions to the Cape most like.
"However," he said, in extenuation, "we only need to sail about southeast to reach the African coast, and when we hit it we'll know it." So the course was changed, and soon they sat down to their breakfast; such a meal as they had not tasted in years wardroom "grub," every mouthful.
By Jove, there he is now coming out of the wardroom right up to us! I say, Charley, stand by me, like a good chap."
"Come," said Forsythe, "down below with us, quick." They descended the galley companion, from which a passage led aft to the petty officers' quarters, which included the armroom, and thence to the forward door of the wardroom. Here they halted, and listened to Denman's movements while he armed himself and climbed the companion stairs. They could also see through the keyhole.
His voice, too, was rather striking. It was that of the wardroom rather than of the mess deck. I liked the look of Petty Officer Trehayne. Dawson presented him to us and then took him aside for instructions. When he had finished, both men rejoined us, and the conversation became light and general.
It will thus be seen that the expedition numbered seventy-seven souls in all nearly the half of our ship's company, in fact the brig being left in charge of the first luff, with the master, the purser, the surgeon, young Burdett of the midshipmen's mess, the cook and his mate, captain's, gun-room, and wardroom stewards, and seventy-eight seamen.
They told the mess-men to navigate towards the extreme an' remote 'orizon, an' they abrogated the sentry about fifteen paces out of earshot. Then they had in the Gunner, the Bo'sun, an' the Carpenter, an' stood them large round drinks. It all come out later wardroom joints bein' lower-deck hash, as the sayin' is that our Number One stuck to it that 'e couldn't trust the ship for the job.
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