Hurrah for the Life of a Sailor!; Fifty Years in the Royal Navy (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VI. OPERATIONS IN THE CANTON RIVER. A Few days after our return to Canton I was ordered down the river in tow of the Coromandel to destroy some mandarin junks which were building at a kind of dockyard on the river's bank. We soon found them: thirty-five junks were on the stocks, some only in frame, others ready for launching. We burnt the lot. It seemed a pity to destroy them, as they were fine handsome craft and worth a lot of money, but they made a grand blaze. For the next few weeks we were busy making and repairing fire-booms, and at night guarding them against the enemy's fire-rafts. The work was hard, and there were only four boats to do it--two of the Calcutta's and two Nankin's. It must be remembered also that in those days we had no steamlaunches or torpedo-boats, so everything had to be done by rowing-boats--even sails were useless for that work. Life in an open boat for months together would have been wearisome but for the constant excitement. There was not much room to move about, and only a plank to lie on at night. Pork, biscuit, and river-water constituted our daily fare, no extras. My kit consisted of a blanket, two flannel shirts--one on and one off--tooth-brush, comb, towel, and soap. For society I had my coxswain and boat's crew, working under a broiling sun by day, with a chance of being blown up at night, or having one's head taken off by a round-shot next morning. But there is a charm in having a command of one's own, be it ever so humble, at eighteen years of age. My coxswain, Jim Parnell, captain of the foretop of the Calcutta, was as fine a seaman as ever I came across: being thrown together so much, I got to know his value, and he backed me up on several occasions when I was in a tight place. We were not only shipmates, b...