On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
the order for about fifty or sixty of my companions with me , was given to get into an ugly ,, clumsy tub of a thing which they called the Launch . She and her motley living cargo were taken in tow by another boat , manned by some dozen of striped Guernseyfrocked ,, tarpaulin-hatted , kinky-faced , red-throated , long-swinging-pigtail Fellows . And , eh ! my stars ! what a beautiful sight it was ! The free grace , and unconstrained swing of their arms ,
shoulders , chests , heads , working so exactly together . Wrists curving with such an air of a sense that they were doing it well ; and two rows of elbows throwing a double range of horizontal circles from stroke-oar to bow , all at once , with such a seeming of conceit , of self-approbation of its skill , as each elbow rode the periphery : while the oars on either side dipped their trimly-shaped and glistening blades into the water , as smoothly as if they were slipping into oil : without splash or spray they fell and rose , and struck a beautiful level line of arcs from stern to stem at
onceand at once from stem to stern again ; all exactly to a parallel with the horizon the oars rose and fell , and rose again ; while in the dull lumbering thing which they lugged after , two clumsy oars lazily swung a parabolic curve—up high—and fell with an ugly sound of splotch into the water , scattering its splinters over the huddled heap oFbodies . Thus we advanced towards the Sound . Where we were going was tq be no affair of ours . It was an official secret
confided alone to him who had us in charge : it was his business only ; and for him to condescend to hint the where-bound to us , that would be a little too much of the familiar . An English officer will respect his station though he be locked up in a cupboard , six feet by four , for a month with a private ; he is cautious against the levelling of distinctions at all times and in all places . He would be irremediably contaminated if he kneeled on the same hassock , at prayer , in a church , with a . man in the ranks . Launch him in
a jolly boat with a pair of mizentopmen , on the wide waste of the Atlantic , discipline , decorum , and distance will be uppermost in his thoughts , the rules and guides of his steering and sail-trimming , and biscuit cracking . Now , here , in this instance , the design , though it had been to carry us but , and sink the boat and cargo in the sea , was not to be questioned . At all events , the chances of being consigned to some well-authenticated and confirmed hell-afloat were ninety-nine to one against us . No matter , that was no affair of ours , —all we had to do was to take off
our hats a » t ' God save the King / and strike up chorus in ' Rule Britannia , ' 1 Britannia rules the waves , The Britons never , never , never will be slaves !'—Hurra ! But by the direction which we were going , I soon discovered ( hat the horrible ., dingy , yellow , pitchy-streaked-sided ship , to which I alluded when entering the Sound in the Tender , was to be our place of deposit , and I sickened again . We arrived alongside ,
Untitled Article
B 2 S Autobiography of Pel . Verjuice .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1833, page 828, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2628/page/24/
-