LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 478, 29 December 1875, Page 3

LITERATURE.

MUTINY ON BOARD.

I commenced my medical career with exceptional disadvantages. My parents were dead, and I had not a friend or relative willing or able to help me ; I was cast entirely on my own resources, which were a diploma, a respectable wardrobe, and twenty pounds in cash—the balance of the capital which had sufficed for my education. Feeling desperately the necessity of exertion, I applied to all sorts of people, rushing into the presence of bigwigs, who ought not to be approached without proper introduction, and outraging them with demands for surgical employment. I should say I sometimes received as many as live snubs and rebuffs in a morning. At last I fairly broke down in the presence of a haughty young Admiralty clerk, who was perturbed and melted by my distress, when on my asking him to tell me how 1 could get into the Navy, he replied — ‘ Suppose you apply on a pwopper form through the pwopper channel. Look here, ’ he said, calling me back : ‘ leave your name and address. Surgeons are sometimes wanted for things sometimes in a hurry.’ Two days afterwards I received a letter, informing me that a surgeon was required for the Aleoto, which was to sail for Sydney o* tke following Sunday with a cargo of

convicts, and that if I applied in person at a place and hour named, answered certain questions satisfactorily, there was little doubt but what I should get the appointment.

There was no medical employment on earth that I would not have jumped at, blindfold, just then ; so I made my application, was accepted without any difficulty—with rather an ominous alacrity indeed; and after such poor preparations in the way of outfit as my ignorance suggested and my slender means could afford, I went on board the Alecto, which was lying off Greenwich, and found myself in medical charge of a captain, two mates, a lieutenant of the Royal Navy, in some mysterious capacity which I never rightly comprehended ; twenty sailors, an officer of marines and his men, and 250 convicts.

The naval lieutenant was the only man on the quarter-deck when I went up the side. ‘I am the surgeon,’ I began, advancing towards him; but before I could say another word, he asked abruptly—- * Can you play at chess ?’ ‘Yes —alittle,’ I replied. ‘ I’m thankful, vera thankful for that. Shake hands, sir. The marine body, Mr Phipps, no cares for the game; and how should we surveeve sich a protracted and tedious voyage without chess ? My name is Mac Nab, and I hope we shall be friends, sir, ’

I said that I hoped so, too, and we engaged in a conversation which was the reverse of inspiriting. I gathered from Mr Mac Nab that the skipper had been unfortunate in former voyages—that his mates were ruffians—that the crew were very poor types indeed of the British sailor—that the ship herself was a rotten old hulk that ought to have been broken up years before. I went down to my cabin, which seemed absurdly small, and low and dark ; got my portmanteau there, and tried to make arrangements for future comfort. Then I studied the printed instructions I had received, as to how often I was to inspect the convicts, &o, and wondered what was to be done if they were refractory, and who had authority over me to prevent me shirking my duties; for 1 had sole command, it seemed, in my particular department.

When 1 returned on deck, I found the captain and Mr Phipps there. The former had a red nose and watery eyes, which explained, perhaps, why he had been unfortunate with his ships; the latter was a gentlemanly fellow enough, but desponding and taciturn, his silence being of the less importance that when he did talk he generally grumbled, which did not add to the cheerfulness of so small a party. His only solace was in making pen and ink sketches, at which he was very clever ; landscapes, with chiaroscuro effects, involving an immense amount of time and labour, being his prir • cipal forte. Both he and Mac Nab were disappointed men ; but the Scotchman was the better philosopher of the two. We four supped together, and in due time I went to my berth, and found out how to get into it. I felt like a toy put away on a shelf in a cupboard, for it was my first experience of ship accommodation. When you have learned to lie on your back and not want to move all night—to take enough oxygen into the lungs while on deck to last for the time you are below, and to be indfferent to cockroaches running over you, you get on a great deal better. On reaching the deck next morning, I found that we were under sail, and dropping down the river, which had grown verywide.

It was not long before we were fairly in the Channel, and the pilot got into his boat and left us.

There was a nice breeze, but the sea was perfectly smooth, and the ship glided through the water with a delightful glibness ; so that I felt 1 ought to be doing something towards learning my duties while 1 was able, and c nfided to Mac Nab that I should like to hold an inspection of the convicts, who were all gathered on the main deck in charge of their warders and the marines, who mounted sentry over them with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets. I found that I had made an official application in the right quarter by accident, for Mac Nab immediately said—- ‘ At what time ? at once ?’

And when I replied in the affirmative, gave certain sharp orders, the result of which was that in less than ten minutes a warder came up to me, touched his cap, and reported ‘ All ready, sir. ’ And following him, I found the convicts drawn up in lines, bare-footted. My inspection of them was a mere form, for, of course, they were sent on board sound and clean, but I made certain suggestions with regard to the sanitary arrangements between decks, where their hammocks were slung, ami these were promptly attended to where practicable. When I had done Mac Nab challenged me to a game of chess, and fortunately we proved to be very evenly matched. He was quite right in relying so much upon it as a resource ; how we should have got through the weeks without it I cannot imagine ; we played at least six hours daily out of the twenty-four. When we got into the broad swell of the Atlantic I had a week’s sea sickness, during which Mac Nab had the best of me at chess, and after I was well I began to have some trouble with the convicts. What schemers they were ! Their one great object was to get a glass of grog or wine, which could only be done by my order, and they regularly studied the complaints for which I prescribed such medical comforts, and either si raulated or managed to produce them artificially. Greenhorn as I was, they imposed upon me rarely at first, and just as I was getting up to their dodges we passed the liquator, and there was a good deal of real sickness, which gave them the advantage again. As time went on I became familiarised with the rogues, and learned to look upon them as fellow-men who had gone wrong, rather than as wild beasts. I talked to them freely, learned many of their histories—at least their own versions of them —and took considerable interest in some of the narrators. Most were ignorant debased creatures, either born and bred to prey on their fellow creatures, or recruited from the most neglected ranks of society ; but there were one or two exceptions—notably, a man who pas sed under the name of Williams, who was gifted with rare abilities and had the manners and address of a gentleman. His face would have afforded an interesting study to a physiognomist, the upper part being highly intellectual, the lower half betokening unbounded sensuality. His crime was forgery of bank notes. This man never con descended to try and trick me, as the others did ; neither did he sulk, like some of the

better-class convicts, or protest his innocence, which was the almost universal custom. He was civil, somewhat subdued in manner, and glad of my conversation. He had yielded to the temptation of trying to make his fortune in too great a hurry, had failed, and was content to pay the penalty, he said. Though a “lifer,” he by no means despaired of his future. He was informed that with good conduct he would soon be a free man within the limits of the colony, and had perfect confidence in his ability to earn a comfortable livelihood if he had that chance. And what did the country matter ? Life could be made as enjoyable in one place as another' He would not go back to England to be cut by all his relations and former friends if he could. (To be continued,')