native country, are decidedly and deservedly considered to be the very best in the world! "notwithstanding, (to use the language of their excellent friend, Captain Anselm John Griffiths, R. N.) that it has unfortunately become the fashion to think and speak in harsh terms of their character." We feel thankful for the possession of very different sentiments towards them, and an intimate knowledge of their character and value. In our estimation, there does not exist any class of men more susceptible of kind treatment; and, although they may have deviated a little from their wonted honesty, generosity, and self-devotion, they have, nevertheless, every claim to liberal consideration. And notwithstanding all the hue-and-cry which has been raised against them, we still think them to be actuated by a thoughtless indifference to self, and a generous feeling towards others. Those "Jolly Tars," in praise of whom so much has been said, and a great deal more has been sung! Those "Jolly Tars," who, in time of war, are expected to make the greatest personal and pecuniary sacrifices, and to submit to the greatest privations, are, in these "piping times of peace," loaded with obloquy, because, imitating the example of the ship-owners, they have formed themselves into societies or unions for the promotion of their particular interest. Just as if the seamen have not as great a right to form themselves into clubs or societies as the ship-owners have; while they have a much greater reason for doing so. The ship-owners are, generally speaking, a wealthy class of men; and it is a well known fact, that wealth can, at all times, command attention in this country. And we do not believe, that the representations and the wishes of any class of the community have been more readily attended to, or more promptly complied with, than those of the shipowners. Not so with regard to the seamen; poor and needy as they are, they never experienced, nor expect to experience, the slightest attention to either their representations, or their wishes. In a government so decidedly aristocratical as ours, those who are destitute of wealth are decidedly destitute of influence; and nothing can more completely exemplify this, than the manner in which the ship-owners are attended to, and the seamen are neglected. Look at the horrible system of Impressment! at once cruel and unjust! Cruel, because it forcibly severs the seamen from their kindred and dearest connection for an indefinite period, perhaps, for ever! Unjust, because it affords to the affluent the greatest facilities of evading its operation! And yet, notwithstanding the humble, but earnest petitions of the seamen, eleven years of profound peace have been allowed to roll over our heads without the government having made one single efficient effort to avert the'. necessity of recurring to the horrible system! We the more deeply regret this, because our experience warrants our saying that the seamen deserve greater consideration, and because the day may come when we shall not only want all the hands we can muster, but shall likewise want all the unanimity, and all the enthusiasm that can be created. We are, as every seaman ought to be, grateful to the Lords of the Admiralty for the highly beneficial regulations which they have recently introduced into the Navy; but, let them not stay the work of amelioration, but proceed until they have rendered the royal navy service sufficiently popular to supersede the necessity of recurring to impressment. We shall return to this subject again, when we hope we shall be able to do justice to the claims which Captain Griffiths, Mr. Urquhart, Mr. Dennis, and other humane and patriotic individuals, have upon the gratitude of our seamen. We repeat, that we still consider our seamen entitled to the most liberal consideration: we know that they can, and will too, if it be necessary, cheerfully endure hunger, thirst and fatigue; that in short"No clime can this eradicate, They glory in annoyance, SIXTY-FOURS IN DISGUISE; A Long-Boat Story. "Don't tell me," said Fearnought Weatherall to his messmates, assembled under the lee of the long boat, every man of whom had an old stocking about his neck, "don't tell me about Sixty-Fours in Disguise; I have been on board the Constitution, the Yankees call her Old Ironsides, the pride of Boston; and I have been on board of the United States: they are thundering frigates to be sure, but they are not bigger than the Le Forte was, if they are so big: they don't carry more guns, nor do they carry heavier metal; and yet when we took the Le Forte we heard nothing about "Sixty-Fours in Disguise,' not we. Our ship, the Le Sybille, you know, was a French frigate before we had her; and I believe she was taken by the Romney, fifty, up the Mediterranean. Howsomever, she was what they call an eight-and-thirty, because she had fourteen ports of a side, besides the bridle port;-well, and the Guerriere, the Macedonian, and the Java, were just the same: they were all looked upon as a match for a French or Spanish sixty-four, especially in any thing of a breeze, you know. But what's the use of talking about the size of a ship, the ship's company is every thing; and if there had not been so many English fighting, as it were, with halters about their necks, on board of the Yankee frigates, they would not have carried the swag as they did. No, no: look how we in the Sybille ripped up the Le Forte, aud that too in a brace of shakes, although the Le Forte was laid down for an eighty four, on two decks, and mounted fifty-six guns, besides swivels, long French thirty-sixes on her main-deck, and forty-two pounder carronades on her quarter-deck and forecastle. Lord have mercy upon us! there was smashing work! we got sight of her in the dog-watch, from four to six, and she lay to for us, thinking we were an Indiaman; and we afterwards heard that her captain made cocksure of us; but he made a Scotch prize, as we shall presently see. Why, the d-d fool let his ship lay like a log upon the water, and never thought of filling to give her steerage-way, until it was too late: but then you know he thought it was an Indiaman he was about to deal with. Howsomever, he paid dearly enough for it, for the first broadside we gave her sent him to Glory! "We expected tight work, and were prepared for it. It was dark before we got down to her; but not a light was to be seen on board of our ship. As soon as we got within hail she hailed us in French, and then in English: but we returned no answer. She fired a gun, but we heeded it not and as she was laying to on the larboard tack, we run down close under her stern, took the bags off our lanterns, and gave her a raking broadside, which we afterwards heard knocked out all her lights fore and aft. We then hauled to the wind on the starboard tack, crossed her stern again, and gave her another raking broadside before they had time to recover from the confusion occasioned by the first. We then hove about and brought-to upon her larboard quarter, and before you could say Jack Robinson, knocked five or six of her after-ports into one; but just at this time a barrel of musket-cartridges, I think it was, blew up near our main-mast, which made the Crappos think we were on fire. They manned their rigging to give us three cheers; but we returned the compliment with a whole broadside, which completely dismasted her at once, when they hailed, and begged us to cease firing as they had struck. "Never was ship so cruelly mauled our shot went in on the larboard quarter and out at the starboard bow, leaving scarcely a whole beam in her; we killed 76, and wounded 170, on board of her: both her captains, and nearly all of her officers were killed. We had 3 killed and 19 wounded, and our captain died of his wounds at Calcutta, and was buried in grand style, God rest his soul! "But harkye, nothing was said about a sixty-four in disguise' then; it was only a frigate taking a frigate our first lieftennant Hardyman was posted and our master Douglas was made a lieftennant!" quar A VOICE FROM THE DEEP; A Galley Yarn. "What say you, boys, a caulk or a yarn?" says one of the " ter gunners," addressing indiscriminately the watch one night, as soon as they were mustered. "Oh, let's have a yarn, as we've eight hours in," replied one of the top-men.-'Bob Bowers will spin us a twist;" and away to the galley a group of eight or ten instantly repaired. 66 Well, boys," says Bowers, "let's see, what'll you have?-one of the Lee Virginny's, or the saucy Gee's?-come, I'll give you a saucy Gee. Well, you see, when I sarved in the Go-along-Gee-Captain D*** (he as was killed at Traflygar, aboard the Mars, seventy-four)-ay, and as fine a fellow as ever shipped a swab, or fell on a deck. warn't a better man a-board from stem to starn. He knew a seaman's There duty, and more he never ax'd; and not like half your capering skippers what expect unpossibilities. It went against his grain to seize a grating up, and he never flogged a man he didn't wince as if he felt the lash himself! and as for starting-blow me if he didn't break the boatswain by a court-martial for rope's ending Tom Cox, the captain o' the fore-top, in Plymouth Sound, and yet he was'nt a man what courted, as they call it, pocularity; for once desarve it, you were sure to buy it; but do your duty like a man, and, damn it, he'd sink or swim with you! one. "He never could abide to hear a man abused :-let's see, was't to the first or second leeftennant he saysno 'twas the second-and blow me too, if I dosen't think 'twas the third -it was the third, kase I remember now, he'd never a civil word for no Well, howsomever, you see, says the skipper, mocking the leeftennant, in a sneering manner, one morn, who'd just sung out, You sir!' you know, to one o'the topmen, You sir, I mean,' says the skipper, looking straight in the leeftennant's face, pray, sir,' says he, 'how do you like to be you sir'd yourself?' ey-a. "Well, the leeftennant shams deafness, you know; but I'm blow'd but he heard every word o'nt-for, never a dolphin a dying turned more colours nor he did at the time! But avast there a bit-I'm yawning about in my course. Howsomever you know, 'tis but due to the dead, and no more nor his memory desarves; -so here's try again-small helm bo-steady-Well, you know, the Go-along-Gee was one o' your flash Irish cruisers-the first o' your fir-built frigates and a hell of a clipper she was! Give her a foot o' the sheet, and she'd go like a witch but somehow o'nother, she'd bag on a bowline to leeward. Well, there was a crack set o'ships at the time on the station. Let's see, there was the Lee Revolushoneer (the flyer you know) then there was the fighting Feeby-the dashing Dry'd, and one or two more o' your flash-uns; but the Gee took the shine on'em all in reefing and furling. ،، Well, there was also a cruiser or two from the station, as went with the West-Ingee convoy, as far as Madery or so-to protect'em, you know, from the French privateers, and to bring back a pipe of the stuff for the Admiral; ay, and I take it the old boy must have boused-up his jib-stay pretty often, for many's the pipe we shipped in the Gee for him. "Howsomever, you see we was ordered to sail with one of these thund'ring convoys, the largest as ever was gathered together in Cove -nigh-hand a hundred and eighty or ninety sail.-Let's see, there was the Polly-infamous, sixty-four, was our commodore, you know : and, 'sides we in the Gee, there was a ship cravatte, and an eighteen gun brig. Well, we sailed with the convoy from Cove on St. Patrick's day with a staggering breeze at east north-east. We were stationed astern to jog up the dull-uns, and to touch 'em up in the bunt,' with the buntin. 66 Well, a'ter we runs out of one of your reg'lar easterly gales, what has more lives nor a cat, and going for ever like a blacksmith's bellows, till it blows itself out, we meets with the tail of a westerly hurricane (one o' your sneezers, you know). Four or five of our headmost or leewardmost ships, what tasted the thick on it first, was taken aback; two was dismasted clean by the board: but the Go-along-Gee was as snug as a duck in a ditch, never straining as much as a rope-yarn aloft, and as tight as a bottle below. "Well, howsomever we weathers out like a 'Mudian: though we lost to be sure the corporal of marines overboard as he was consulting his ease in the lee mizen chains. Well, a'ter the wind and sea gets down, the commodore closes the convoy, and sends shipwrights aboard of such ships as needed 'em most. Well, at last we gets into your regular trades, with wind just enough for a gentleman's yacht, or to ruffle the frill of a lady's flounce; and on one o'those nights, as the convoy, you know, was cracking on every thing, low and aloft, looking just like a forest afloat-we keeping our station astarn on'em all,-topsails low'r'd on the cap-the sea as smooth as Poll Patterson's tongue, and the moon as bright as her eyeshoals of beneties playing under the bows; what should I hear but a voice as was hailing the ship! Well I never says nothing till I looks well around (for you see I'd the starboard cathead at the time); so I waits till I hears it again-when sky-larking Dick, who'd the larboard look-out, sneaks over and says, Bob, I say, Bob-bo, did you never hear nothing just now?' well, he scarcely axes the question, when we hears hailing again- Aboard the G-e, ahoy 6 Well there was nothing, you know, in sight within hail (for the starnmost ships of the convoy were more nor two miles a head)-so I'm d-d if Dick and myself wasn't puzzled a-bit, for we warn't just then in old Badgerbag's track.* Well, we looks broad on the bows, and under the bows, and over the bows, and every where round we could look; when the voice now nearing us fast, and hailing us again, we sees, something as white as a sheet on the water ! well, I looks at Dick, and Dick looks at me-neither of us never saying nothing, you know, at the timewhen looking again, by the light of the moon, I'm dd,' says I, if it isn't the corporal's ghost!'- - I'm d-d if it isn't,' says Dick, and aft he flies to make the report. Well, I felt summut or so queerish a bit, (though I says nothing to no one you know) for 'twas. only a fortnight afore the corporal, and I had a bit of a breeze 'bout 6 taking my pot off the fire.. Well,' says the voice, will you heave us a rope? I don't want a boat,' was the cry. Damn it, ghost, or no * A name given by Jack to Neptune, when playing tricks on travellers upon first crossing the Line. ghost,' says I, I'll give you a rope if it's even to hang you;' so flying you see to the chains, I takes up a coil in my fist and heaves it handsomely into his hand. Well, I was as mum as a monk, till he fixes himself in the bight of a bowline-knot; when looking down on his phiz, says 1, just quietly over my breath, Is that Corporal Crag?' says I, Corporal Hell,' says he, why don't you haul up?'Well, I sings out for some-un to lend us a fist (for Dick was afraid to come forward again and I'm blow'd but the leeftennant himself was as shy as the rest of the watch). So I sings out again for assistance; for there was the unfortunate fellow towing alongside, like a hide what was soft'ning in soak.-'Will no one lend us a hand?" says I, or shall I turn the jolly adrift, and be d--d to you? Well, this puts two o'the topmen, you see, on their pluck, for both on'em claps on the rope, and rouses clean into the chains. Now what do you think? Why the corporal's ghost to be sure,' says one of the group.--No, nor the sign of a ghost-nor a ghost's mate's minister's mate-nor nothing that looked like a lubberly lobster dead or alive: but as fine a young fellow as ever I see'd in my days. For, you see, the whole on it is this 'twas no more nor a chap of an apprentice, whose master had started him that morn; and rather nor stand it again, he takes to his fins and swims like a fish to the Gee --mind! the starnmost ship of the convoy ! though his own was one of the headmost; ay, and running the risk not to fetch us, you know, nor another chance to look to for his life. And why ?--why! bekase the ship had a name· she was the Gee !!!"- Naval Sketch Book. just tell you how it happened. Ola Scourge was uncommonly fond of a nasty book which I hated; he called it the Latin Grammer,' and he wanted to make me learn it. Well, he wasn't the first that tried to do the same thing, but he had no better luck than other folks. I wasn't more than twelve years old when I went aboard his ship-his school, I mean and he tried me for a whole year, but 1 couldn't or wouldn't (hang me if I know which) learn a word. Then he took to beating it into me; and every morning, before breakfast, he used to give me a regular starting if I couldn't say the lesson. I did not like the starting, but then I knew my head wasn't built to carry such a cargo as he wanted to put aboard of it; and I thought it was as well not to lose my time; so I made up my mind not to learn a word. Well, he went on flogging for a good while, until we both of us got tired; but I was tired first. I had been reading the Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner,' and took a main liking to the sea. Charley Russel, who was an orphan, and at the same school, had a notion of a simi lar kind; and Charley and I used to lay our heads together, and plot about deserting and going to sea. Well, after talking about it a great many times, at length we agreed to do it, and a morning was fixed. Charley proposed to set off before the other boys got up: but I could not bring myself to leave old Scourge without thanking him for all the good turns he had done me; so I persuaded Charley to go by himself, and wait for me at a village about five miles from the school. The morning came, and we had made up a bundle containing our joint stock, which was not very large. I let my messmate down into the garden by the sheets of our bed, and then dropped the bundle. He set off unperceived; and, when I had thrown an old shoe after him for luck, I crept back to bed, and lay |