SOME CURIOUS BILLETS.

Grey River Argus, 14 April 1916, Page 7

SOME CURIOUS BILLETS.

FROM PLEASURE PALACE TO GALLOPILI. When a man joins the army he discards his feather bed and eiderdown quilt; he cultivates the acquaintance of loose planks and the Army blanket. It is part of the training-. In the course of a year's experience in the Army 1 have been billetted in all sorts of odd places. First of all, : they put me in a brewery. No. Do not j envy me; the barrels, with the elexir of life, were "out of bounds." I slept on a stone floor capable of containing a regiment. We lay in long 1 rows ; our dining- table was a plank, I stretched across . props of piled up bricks; we could have a bath in a bigtank 20 feet long- by feet wide and 4 feet deep. In this brewery*. a pal of mine complained a lot of toothache at night and moaning- would #o outside to see if a stroll in the cool, night ait 'would do it grood. Later, I found out that the night watchman fed him on the best brand of stout, i, too developed toothache. Fiom the brewery we were transferred to a school. We srept in a classroom, where we used to draw caricatures of the officers on the blackboard The windows had a nice outlook on a row of dwelling-houses, we struck up an intimacy with the inmates and would watch for the appearance of -Mar v from No: 8o at 7 a.m. Maud, No. 83, usually buttoned on her jrloves on the' doorstep.

In British: WaW smpowners are very, apt to suffer heavy losses, despite our oviervrhel ming naval superiority, but last century a war was a veritable god send to the firm who possessed a sound ship manned by a crew of dare-devil sailors, who did -not rnirid facing death f Or a fat purse Mounting a few serviceable cannon and replacing peaceful cargo with an ample supply of;war.material,, the embryo warships put to sea an its own — in other words as a privatee.r. If the vessel was sunk there was an end of the yen tune and probably of the crew as well, but, on the other hand, it might, with a little luck run across and capture a •vessel. -.worth, ten times its own value, in wnich case a ready market awaited it in some English port, while to the captors went the thanks of the Government and the admiration of the public. The proceeds were then divided, half usually going to the owners and the other, half shared between officers and crew. Enormous sums, of money changed hands in this way, and so keen at times was the desire for a captain's billet on a successful privateer that as much as £5,000 has been . offered for the post. This it not surprising when some of the fortunes madj§ by privateers'men are scrutinised. Captain James, of the redoubtable "Abererombie Robinson, ' netted £18,000 in three voyages, and this was no exceptional figure. The Earl of Dundonald, progenitor of the pre sent Earl, made a colossal fortune at privateering. But the privateersmen had often to fight desperate battles, and not infrequently the peaceful' looking "merchantman, whose holds promised to be teeming with valuable produce, turned out to be a wolf in sheep's clothing. This- is exactly what happened when last century the Kent attacked the French Confianoe in the Indian Ocean. \The British ship carried twenty 12 and six (> pounders, and was manned by a crew of a hunderd fine fellows, primed for any adventure. Confiance, however, was soon found to be the better gunned yes sel,_not to mention that she carried twice as many fighting mien. In short, she, too, was a privateer and a particularly formidable one ; so it wa sdevil-pull bak er with a vengeance. For a time a great fight was maintained, but unfortunately, the British captain fell mortally wounded, and in the confusion the enemy seized an opportunity to hoard, when his superior numbers carried the day.. One of the finest fights ever put up by the crew of a British privateer was also, a defeat, but a glor ions one. The ship, the Warren Hastings; when homeward bound fell in with a 40-gun French war ship, but, though palpably no match for the latter, she declined to make a race of it, and at once offered battle. The Frenchman's broadside weighed 533 pounds as against 300 for the Britisher, but by sheer superior gunnery and superb handling the latter was able to defy her huge adversary for niany hours. From ten in the morning until five in the afternoon the gallant captain and crew fought the fight of their lives, but the ship was now cut practically to ribbons', and there was nothing for it except surrender. - Of course, there were time when our privateersmen were out to avoid a fight if it was humanly possible. Such an occasion arose when the redoubtable Captain Dance found himself escorting home ten million sterlings worth of goods, mainly made up of tea and silk. The prize was so temp ting that the fear of an attack by the enemy was realised ..long before the British coast was sighted. A French squadron, immensely superior in ships and guns, intercepted the British convoy, but Dance and his men fought as if possessed, and, baulked of their [prey at every turn, the French dropped astern. When the sore-ly-battered ships reached Dover there was -a scene of welcome such as the captain and nxen of a private company perhaps never before received. Dance was feted right and left, the Government knighted him, while his "employers lavished gifts on him. The French commandant, on the other hand, was reviled as a poltroon by a no less personage than Napoleon him self.