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One does not go to the
Highlands to shoot partridges; yet it so happened that on the 6th day of
September I found myself some twenty miles north of Inverness, waking up
these birds from the turnip-fields, the corn being still uncut; and with the
assistance of my companions, I managed to make up a pretty good bag.
Such a confession cannot be made without an apology. Here it is. I had been
staying some weeks with kind friends; and what with short excursions to
places of interest in Ross and Sutherland, salmon and trout fishing,
shooting deer both roe and fallow, to say nothing of wild-duck, with an
occasional snipe and wood-cock, the time had passed as pleasantly as
rapidly. Yet it so happened that on this particular 6th day of September,
there was no chance of a fish rising or of getting near a roe. Grouse there
were none. There was nothing particular to do, so we waked up the partridges
until it was time for luncheon. Visions of a pleasant close to the day
enlivened the walk home.
There had been some talk of music for the evening, and a return-match at
four-handed chess. There was a certain sunny corner where a volume of Scott
was wonderfully appreciated in the afternoon. Dinner must not be forgotten,
with its accompaniments of roe-deer soup, fresh caught fish, game-pie, and
venison chops hot from the gridiron, and in one of the kindest, most
cheerful, and friendly parties that ever crossed the border. But, alas! the
inexorable post anticipated the well-earned luncheon. A letter of ominous
official form was put into my hand. The seal was broken, and I read—
‘Admiralty, 4th September.
‘Sir—My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty having appointed you----------—
of Her Majesty’s sloop the Saucy, it is their Lordships direction that you
repair immediately to the superintendent of Sheerness Dockyard for your
appointment, and that you report to me the day on which you shall have
joined the ship. I am, sir, your very humble servant,
W. A. B. Hamilton.
P. S.—It is desired that you acknowledge the receipt of this letter?
This was not the first time that a like sudden stop had been put to
favourite plans by the calls of the service. So putting a good face on the
matter, and scarcely knowing whether to ask for condolence or
congratulation, a few things were hurried into a portmanteau, a biscuit into
the pocket, a hasty good-by exchanged, and within an hour from the receipt
of my letter, I was waiting at a turnpike two miles off for the northern
mail to give me a passage to Inverness. This gave me an opportunity of
shaking hands with an old friend, who was hurrying off with his bride to
Dunrobin as fast as post-horses could carry him; and what with this and the
glow produced by a fast drive through the sharp, bracing air, on a bright
Highland day, I was quite inclined to look on the light side of things by
the time I was seated before a round of beef in the Caledonian Hotel at
Inverness.
A visit to Mr M‘Dougall at his Clan Tartan Warehouse enabled me to defy the
cold of a night on the Grampians; so in another hour I was again behind four
horses for a fourteen hours drive on the mail to Perth. Skirting the Moor of
Culloden, lighted by a bright moon, enlivened by a cheerful fellow-traveller,
nothing could have been more pleasant than this drive, had it only been a
little warmer. The dark hills looked out majestically in the moonlight, the
deep shadows adding immensely to their effect; while, to crown all, about
midnight a magnificent aurora borealis lighted up the northern sky, shooting
up its gigantic rockets from the horizon. Then came the drive through
Blair-Athol and Dunkeld, and nine o'clock saw us at the city of the Fair
Maid of Perth. From this to Edinburgh, the route was easy; thence twelve
hours by express-train conveyed me to London, and in due time I found myself
at that most detestable of all our ports, Sheerness, looking at my future
home as she lay near the pier.
The time of fitting out a ship is the most unpleasant part of the
commission. One must either live in a hulk, and go backwards and forwards in
boats several times a day, or take up quarters in some dirty inn ashore,
until the ship is made habitable. What I wish to tell, however, is what the
fitting out of a ship of war is, and I flatter myself the information, taken
as a whole, will be new to most readers.
It generally surprises any one who sees a ship of war at anchor in one of
our harbours, when he is told that 1000, 500, or 150 persons, according to
the size of the ship, live on board her. A corvette, with a crew of 150 men,
does not appear, and really is not, larger than an ordinary merchant-ship of
500 or 600 tons, yet all these persons are boarded and lodged comfortably in
their floating-home. But this is not all. The ship must carry a quantity of
stores and provisions, which, if they were laid out on the shore, would fill
a good-sized barn, and which any one would be apt to bet heavy odds could
not be put on board the little ship. In the first place, water and
provisions for the whole crew must be carried for some months, to make the
ship efficient In our case, we carried a complete supply for five months: we
had fifty-three tons of water, and the weight of the tanks containing this
water was eleven tons. Then the weight of beef and pork, biscuit, peas, and
flour, sugar, tea, and cocoa, with other provisions, amounted to nearly
twenty-five tons, the casks containing them weighing two tons and a quarter.
In addition to this government supply of food and drink, the captain and
officers take about seven tons of private stores for their own particular
nourishment. Four tons of coal and wood; two tons of clothing, soap,
candles, tobacco, &c.; two hundredweights of medical stores; and a ton and a
half of rum; with more than a ton of holy-stones and sand for cleaning the
decks, would fill a moderate-sized warehouse. Then when we consider the
weight the good ship has to carry, we must calculate upon twenty tons of
ballast, and upon sixteen or seventeen tons as the weight of the men and
boys, with their clothing and bedding. The bowsprit, masts, yards, and booms
weigh more than twenty-four tons; the rigging, twenty tons; and there are
more than four tons of blocks only, or what are better known to landsmen as
pulleys. The sails weigh two tons and a half, and there is the same weight
of spare sails. There are sixteen tons of iron cable, and three tons of
hempen cable. Four anchors weigh together more than seven tons; the boats
more than three tons and a half. Then come the eighteen guns, which weigh
together twenty-seven tons; and the stores taken by the gunners for working
their guns, amount to about four tons and a half. The stores taken by the
boatswain and carpenter to keep the ship and her rigging in working-order,
weigh more than seventeen tons. Lastly, we have three tons and a half of
powder, two tons and a half of case-shot, nineteen tons of cannon-balls, two
tons of shells, and two tons of musket-balls and small-arms. If all this be
added together, the reader will at once see that when our little vessel
floated out of Sheerness Harbour to the Nore, she carried with her more than
300 tons of valuable property.
But as a friend of ours exclaimed when we were endeavouring to impress this
upon him: ‘Where, in the name of all that is wonderful, can it all be put?
How can you live amid such a heap of incongruous matter? Where do you all
live? Where is the kitchen? Where do you sleep, and where do all the men
sleep? — These are all very natural questions, and it will require some
little time to answer them.
To commence with the space 'under hatches', as it is called, or beneath the
floor of the deck on which men and officers live. Any one who knows the
shape of a ship, will see, on a little reflection, that this space will be
broad and deep in the centre, gradually becoming narrower and more shallow
towards both head and stern. At the extreme after-end, there was a space for
the captain’s stores; and beneath his cabin, the breadroom, capable of
holding 100 bags of biscuit, each weighing a hundredweight. Then advancing
forward, and beneath two of the officers’ cabins, is the slop-room, where
all the cloth and duck, shoes, flannel, hats, and other articles for men's
clothing, are kept. Parallel with this, and beneath the gun-room, extending
also some way into the centre of the bread-room, is the shell-room and
magazine. Each of the shells is packed in a separate box, and treated with
such care that no one felt uneasy, although sitting every day at meals with
110 of them only separated from his feet by a plank, with nearly three tons
of powder in the magazine close by. In a space corresponding to the
slop-room, on the opposite side, was the officers’ storeroom for provisions.
Further forward, in the centre, are the lockers for shot, holding 1260 of
these gentle persuaders of thirty-two pounds of cold iron. On either side of
them, and of the shell-room, are holds for provisions and spirits. The
nineteen tons of iron ballast are arranged just above the keel and round the
lowest parts of the inside of the ship. Immediately upon these are the iron
water-tanks, corresponding in shape to that of the vessel; those in the
centre fitting square; those towards the sides circling at different angles.
Six of the largest of these tanks hold each 600 gallons; two smaller ones,
each 400 gallons; two of 200; twelve of 375; and eighteen of 110: making
together forty tanks, holding 11,280 gallons, or more than fifty tons. These
tanks occupy the central part of the ship, except a space reserved for the
chain-cable and a small store of provisions for daily use. Further forward
is a hold for the beef and pork, with another for coal and firing. Beyond
this is the sail-room, where all the spare sails are kept; and, lastly,
quite in the bows, the store-rooms, as they are called, but really a sort of
dark cupboard, where the boatswain and carpenter keep their stores. All this
is under hatches— that is to say, a hatch must be raised to get into any of
these spaces. A hatch is a square piece of the floor or deck cut out, so
that it can be lifted by a ring, and furnished with locks, and so made as to
keep all the lower part of the ship water-tight, or nearly so.
Next comes the inhabited portion of the ship. Commencing as before, from the
after-part, we had first two cabins for the captain, each extending the
whole breadth of the ship. The after one was small; but with a couple of
arm-chairs and a portable fireplace, was a perfect little snuggery for him
in winter, to lounge with a book or play a game at chess with one of us. The
fore-cabin was much longer. At one side, doors opened into a sleeping-cabin
and a large cupboard, where the charts and chronometers are kept. At the
other, was an open sofa-bed place and a cabin where the steward kept all the
glass, crockery, &c., for the table. The open space of the cabin was some
seven paces by six, and between six and seven feet in height, being lighted
by a sky-light on deck. In the centre, was a forge square table, where many
a jolly party of eight or ten have sat down to as good a dinner as was ever
given afloat. Some well-filled book-shelves, a writing-desk and a few
chairs, with a barometer and compass, completed the furniture.
Next came the gun-room, where the gun-room officers, namely, two
lieutenants, master, surgeon, purser, assistant-surgeon—mess. This is also a
square cabin, lighted by a sky-light, six paces by five, of the same height
as the captain’s cabin, furnished simply with a square table, a few chairs,
lockers for wine, which converted into a sort of sofa by a cushion, and
drivers and glass-stands for the furniture of the table. At one side, are
two cabins for the two lieutenants; at the other side, are doors opening
into a narrow pasage which leads from the captain’s cabin, past the room, on
to the lower-deck, and separates the guner from the cabins of the master,
surgeon, purser and assistant-surgeon; which correspond with those of the
lieutenants on the opposite side of the ship, but is carried further
forward. All these cabins are about six feet square.' There is a bed-place
with drawers beneath it, a wash hand-stand, a flap which can be raised to
form a table, book-shelves, a chair, and chest of drawers; and this
completes the home of each officer. Yet it is surprising how much is stowed
away in so small a space, and how much taste is often displayed in setting
off one’s own particular corner of the ship to the best advantage. Pictures
and looking-glasses, Turkish rugs and Greek lace, velvet and gilding are all
brought into play; yet room is still found foi clothes and books, the
cumbersome cases of uniform, gun-cases, telescope, sextant, and the
curiosities picked up at different ports, to prove our remembrance of old
friends when arriving again in England.
The midshipmen’s berth is on the same side as the lieutenants’ cabins, just
abaft the main-hatchway. It is merely a cabin some five paces square, nearly
filled by a table, over which swings a lamp, and is lighted, like all the
officers’ cabins, by what are called bulls-eyes— prisms of glass let in
through the deck. Around the table are square lockers, and on the top of
these the middies sit. Of course there is no room for chairs Some shelves
above receive the sextants, glasses, desks, and books; a recess is fitted up
for crockery, and the berth is complete. In this we had two mates, five
midshipmen, a clerk, and a master’s assistant. None of these officers sleep
in cabins, but are slung at night in hammocks like the men, in a part of the
lower-deck, just outside their berth, where each has his chest arranged. In
this chest he must keep the whole of his dress and property, and a drawer
for his washing utensils.
The lower-deck, or the space where the seamen live cook, eat, and sleep, was
54 feet long, 6 feet 6 inches in height between the beams, and 28 feet in
breadth at the broadest part. In this space, 130 seamen had t< find
accommodation; not only for themselves, but for the galley or kitchen, and
for all the mess-tables and stools—to live by day when not on deck, and to
sleep by night. It was as well supplied with light and all as is any ship of
the class, but still susceptible of improvement in these respects. Along
each side a number of mess-tables are arranged, each capable of
accommodating a dozen men, six on each side, seated on a stool of the length
of the table. Shelves arranged on the sides of the ship receive the plates
and ‘mess-gear,’ as the cookery of the men is called. There is a good deal
of pride in the show the men can make in this way and a little rivalry
between, different messes. All along the beams are rows of hooks, fourteen
inchei apart, to which the hammocks are slung at night for the men to sleep
in. The hammock is simply an oblong piece of canvas, with holes at each end,
through which lines are passed, brought together, and the hammock thus hung
to the hooks. It contains a hair mattress and pillow, and a blanket or two
for the men, the officers adding the luxury of sheets. In the morning, every
hammock is rolled up, tied into a fixed size and shape, and arranged around
the bulwarks of the ship, being uncovered in fine weather, but protected
when necessary, by a covering of tarpaulin. Then there is no sign of a
sleeping-place on the lower-deck during the day, all the hammocks being
above.
The galley or kitchen would sadly puzzle a shore-cook. No fire is to be
seen; no joints are seen roasting. All is enclosed in a square iron case;
there is a furnace below, surrounded by water, and into this sauce-pans of
all shapes and sizes are let in—from the caldron which boils the soup for
the whole ship’s company, to the sauce-boat for the officers’ fish — all
boiling, baking, roasting so called, toasting, stewing for the meals of the
captain, the two officers’ messes and the whole of the men, are thus done in
an iroi box some five feet square, and in ipany ships distilled water is
prepared at the same time. In some of the large troop-ships, 800 gallons of
distilled water are thw prepared every day.
Such was our craft below. On deck we had eighteei 32-pounders; and aloft,
the usual sails of a three masted, square-rigged vessel. This was our
Fitting Out. We were now ready for sea; and, with the usual complement of
officers and men, we sailed where our duty called us.
Philosophical Transactions
XV. On a new principle of constructing His Majesty's Ships of War. By Robert
Seppings (1814) (pdf) |
