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Captain Marryat
FREDERICK MARRYAT was born in 1792 and lived till 1848. His father was an Englishman of wealth, who sat in Parliament and was a writer of verse and political pamphlets. The son, however, had the sea in his veins, and even before he was allowed to enter the navy at fourteen he had made numerous attempts to run away to his favorite element. He served under Lord Cochrane in the famous "Imperieuse" and at once began to lay the foundation of that inexhaustible store of knowledge and experience which made him the prince of story-tellers of the sea. The daring Lord Cochrane was an admirable master; during two and a half years he showed his young midshipman some fifty engagements and bold enterprises of every sort. And the latter was an apt pupil whenever there was anything strenuous doing. Honorable mention came his way frequently; in 1818 he received the medal of the Humane Society for "at least a dozen" gallant rescues; he invented a code of signals; he became a Fellow of the Royal Society.
He began his series of twenty-four books with "Frank Mildmay" in 1829, and kept them going for twenty years, to the delight of an expectant public. As happened in the case of so many writers included in this series of one hundred books, instant success came to one who had found a new field to interest the public. "Mr. Midshipman Easy," "Snarley-yow," and all the rest of the two dozen tales hold a thrill for whoever loves the sea.
MR. MIDSHIPMAN EASY By CAPTAIN MARRYAT Condensation by JAMES B. CONNOLLY MR. EASY was for natural equality and the rights of man, which Mrs. Easy did not mind, she being allowed to have her game of patience. Behold then a contented couple to whom, after eleven years of married life, was born our hero Jack. For nurse to the baby the family doctor introduced a strong, healthy young woman. Mrs. Easy, catechising her, was horrified. "What--not married! And you had a child!" "If you please, ma'am, it was such a little one!"
The young woman joined the Easy household, where she aided every other member there to spoil young Jack; and so we have at five years of age a complete specimen of the headstrong young male. To save him from utter ruin the family doctor urged that he be sent to a school which he could highly recommend. The parents agreed, but with the proviso from Mr. Easy that he must not be flogged.
The benevolent-looking master of this school was against flogging also. Caning, in his judgment, was more efficacious; so without troubling to tell Mr. Easy of it, he caned our hero beautifully. Thus, when at fourteen Jack came home to live, all the bully was gone from him. In place thereof was a great disposition to argue things, with natural equality and the rights of man as his favorite themes.
Two disputatious people under one roof were too many. Jack's father packed him off to sea in H. M. sloop Harpy, where he very soon learned that the natural equalities were not in high favor. If he was not towed ashore on a grating by a court-martial order for some of his socially anarchistic opinions when his ship arrived at Gibraltar, it was probably because the captain of H. M. S. Harpy was indebted to Jack's father for the loan of one thousand pounds. Jack's radical opinions did not lessen his naval zeal. As midshipman in command of the ship's second cutter in a certain expedition he ignored the recall signal and so lost sight of his own ship; but losing sight of her led to the capture of a fine big enemy ship; and among this ship's passengers was a lovely Italian girl whom Jack treated with great courtesy, even to seeing her safely ashore in a near-by port.
Being the only officer in his force, it was Jack's duty to navigate the prize back to Gibraltar. "Simple enough," he said. "The land was on our left hand coming out; it should be on our right hand going back"; and he was doing pretty well on that theory when a gale of wind came along and blew him out of sight of land.
In the cargo of their prize the crew had found some casks of wine, to which they helped themselves, and, coming to a group of islands where Jack put in to reconsider his navigation, they went ashore and got gloriously drunk. Their wine gave out. They hailed the ship for more. Jack said no. They set out to swim to the ship after it, but sharks caught three of them; the others returned aboard on Jack's terms.
Jack sailed his prize over pretty much the whole Mediterranean before he found his own ship again. He had been gone two months. But such a story as he had to tell! and fourteen thousand dollars he found in the cabin of the prize helped out the telling it. His captain commended him, but also advised him to give a little time to the study of navigation.