He was one of those whose
advancement depended on himself. I doubt whether he would
ever have been promoted but for an accident which I shall
speak of presently.
When we got into warm latitudes we were taught not only to
knot and splice, but to take in and set the mizzen royal.
There were four of us boys, and in all weathers at last we
were practised aloft until we were as active and as smart as
any of the ship's lads, even in dirty weather or in sudden
squalls.
We had a capital naval instructor for lessons in navigation,
and the quartermaster of the watch taught us how to handle
the wheel and con.
These quartermasters - there was one to each of the three
watches - were picked men who had been captains of tops or
boatswains' mates. They were much older than any of the
crew. Our three in the 'Blonde' had all seen service in the
French and Spanish wars. One, a tall, handsome old fellow,
had been a smuggler; and many a fight with, or narrow escape
from, the coast-guard he had to tell of. The other two had
been badly wounded. Old Jimmy Bartlett of my watch had a
hole in his chest half an inch deep from a boarding pike. He
had also lost a finger, and a bullet had passed through his
cheek. One of his fights was in the 'Amethyst' frigate when,
under Sir Michael Seymour, she captured the 'Niemen' in 1809.
