The daughter opened the street door, and I could not refrain from taking
her hand and kissing it--"
"Where's Mr Chucks? call the boatswain there forward," hallooed out the
lieutenant.
"Here I am, sir," replied Mr Chucks, hastening aft, and leaving me and
his story.
"The captain of the maintop reports the breast backstay much chafed in
the serving. Go up and examine it," said the first lieutenant.
"Yes, sir," replied the boatswain, who immediately went up the rigging.
"And, Mr Simple, attend to the men scraping the spots off the
quarter-deck."
"Yes, sir," replied I; and thus our conversation was broken up.
The weather changed that night, and we had a succession of rain and
baffling winds for six or seven days, during which I had no opportunity
of hearing the remainder of the boatswain's history. We joined the fleet
off Toulon, closed the admiral's ship, and the captain went on board to
pay his respects. When he returned, we found out, through the first
lieutenant, that we were to remain with the fleet until the arrival of
another frigate, expected in about a fortnight, and then the admiral had
promised that we should have a cruise. The second day after we had
joined, we were ordered to form part of the in-shore squadron,
consisting of two line-of-battle ships and four frigates. The French
fleet used to come out and manoeuvre within range of their batteries,
or, if they proceeded further from the shore, they took good care that
they had a leading wind to return again into port.
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