Tales and Sketches.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 117, 12 July 1873, Page 8

Tales and Sketches.

CAPTAIN MARRYAT.* [From the Times.] Captain Marryat, our greatest naval novelist, was born in 1792, the second son of Mr Joseph Marryat, of Wimbledon - house, a man well-known in the political and mercantile world of that day as member for Horsham and Sandwich, and Chairman of the Committee of Lloyd's. On his mother's side he had Hessian and American blood in his veins, as in 1790 his father married Miss von Geyer, of Boston, in the United States. The second of fifteen sons and daughters, ten of whom attained maturity, Frederick Marryat soon showed vigor both of mind and body. Of his boyhood there is little to tell, except that, like most children of strong passions and precocious minds, he was very troublesome. He learnt easily and forgot readily, preferred play to lessons, and was constantly flogged for idleness and inattention. How profound his master's foresight must have been is proved by the fact that he was always declaring that Frederick Marryat and his schoolfellow, Charles Babbage, the great mathematician and mechanical genius, would never come to any good. They could never be anything else than dunces, at they paid such little heed to his instruction. The following extract will showhow soon the characteristics of the two boys came out :

One event of his boyhood deserves to be narrated, not merely as giving interesting evidence of the pertinacity with which Babbage adhered to a resolution he had once formed, but also as associating his name with that of a genial and deservedly popular writer—the late Captain Marryat. Babbage and a studious schoolfellow were in the habit of getting up in the morning at 3 o'clock, lighting a fire in the schoolroom, and studying surreptitiously until 5 or half-past 5. Hearing of this, Fred Marryat proposed to join them, but not so much from a desire to study as for the sake of doing what was forbidden. So at leasi Babbage interpreted the request, and he refused to let Marryat join them. One night, in trying to open the door of his bedroom, Babbage found that Marryat's bed had been pulled up against it. He gently pushed it back, without waking the future captain, and pursued his way to the schoolroom. This happened on several successive nights ; but at length Marryat improved the plan by fastening a string from his hand to the door lock. Babbage detected the trick, and untied the cord. A few nights later so stout a cord was used that he could only free the lock by cutting the string. Presently a chain took the place of the cord, and for one night Babbage was kept from his studies ; for he was determined rather to stay away from the schoolroom than to waken Marryat. On the next night he had provided himself with a pair of stout pliers, with which he opened a link of the chain, and so effected his object. Each night he found a stouter chain, but he managed to remove the obstruction for several successive nights. At length a chain was made which he was unable to break. The next night, however, he relates, " I provided myself with a ball of packthread. As soon as I heard by his breathing that Marryat slept, I crept over to the door, drew one end of my ball of packthread through a link, and bringing it back with me to bed, gave it a sudden jerk." Marryat jumped up, but finding his chain all right, lay down again. As soon as he was asleep Babbage unmercifully woke him again. However, the end of the matter was that Marryat was allowed to prevail, when the consequences predicted by Babbage presently followed. Others joined them, play took the place of work, fireworks were let off, and of course the delinquents were discovered. It was either at this school or another kept by a Mr Freeman, at Ponder's-end, that Frederick Marryat was one day discovered by his master standing on his head, with a book in his' hand, a position which might have come natural to him, since as a boy that part of him appeared too big for the rest of his body. When Mr Freeman asked him why he chose so strange a method of studying his lesson, all the answer he got was, " Well, I've been trying for three hours to learn ifc on my feet, but I couldn't; so I thought I would try whether it would be easier to learn it on my head." Yes ; he was a very bad boy at his lessons, and at last took to running away from school, and, when he was re-captured, repeating the operation. When taken to task at home for this, he answered that it was all a mistake to suppose he ran away from books and work; he ran away only from the indignity he felt at having to wear the cast-off clothes of his eldest brother, whose outgrown skeleton suits were regularly passed on to him as the younger. At last, when he was fourteen years old, he finally ran away from the school, and was transferred to a tutor, from whom he very soon escaped. Whenever he ran away it was to what his daughter calls

" the El Dorado of his imagination—the sea ;" and at last Mr Marryat finding it useless to resist this inclination any longer, made the necessary arrangements, and on the 23rd of September, 1806, Frederick Marryat started on his first voyage on board the Imperieuse, commanded by Lord Cochrane, for the Mediterranean.

It is needless to say, and, in fact, the works of Marryat render it unnecessary, that midshipmen were then " very differently treated to what they are at the present time." To use his own words—- " There was no species of tyranny, injustice, and persecution to which youngsters were not compelled to submit from those who were their superiors in bodily strength." " The King's Own" and the "Naval Officer," not to speak of the immortal " Peter Simple" and " Midshipman Easy," are full of traits of the brutality and bullying to which young gentlemen in the navy were then subjected. There is little in this Life and these Letters to throw light, except incidentally, on the sufferings of Marryat as a midshipman ; but enough appears in them to show that his chief persecutor was one Cobbett, who afterwards was branded as Murphy in " The Naval Officer." Teased and tormented till they could not call their lives their own, and insufficiently fed, on the great principles of " First come first served," and " The weakest goes to the wall," it is a wonder how weakly boys lived through such a hell afloat. Nor, though we abuse our authorities now-a-days. is it to be supposed that the " authorities" in thosr* days were not quite as blameworthy. When the Imperieuse sailed, the Admiral of the Port was one who would not listeu to reason or common sense. He enforced the signal for sailing by gun after gun, and so, with all her stores on deck, and her guns not even mounted, she was driven out of harbor to encounter a heavy gale. In the general confusion, some iron too near the binnacle attracted the compass, and the ship was steered out of her course, and so at midnight the Imperieuse dashed upon the rocks between TJshant and the Main. " The cry of terror," says Captain Marryat, " which ran through the lower decks, the grating of the keel as she was forced in, the violence ef the shocks which convulsed the frame of the vessel, the hurrying up of the ship's company without their clothes, and then the enormous waves which again bore her up, 5 and carried her clean over the reef, will never be effaced from my memory." Had the Imperieuse been lost then with all her gallant crew, as the Avenger in December, 1847, on the reef between the Sorelli and Fratelli rocks in the Mediterranean, as gallant a sailor would have perished in the father as the navy lost in the son, and England would have been deprived of her greatest writer of naval fiction, all because an obstinate old Admiral would persist in driving a ship to sea in a gale in an unseaworthy condition. But the Imperieuse beat over the reef, while the Avenger rolled off the rocks and sank, and the father was saved, while the son perished. For the rest, young Marryat could not have been in a better ship and under a bolder captain. The cruises of the Im perieuse were periods of constant excitement ; " from the hour in which she hove up her anchor till she dropped it again in port the day that passed without a shot being fired in anger was a blank day." To use Marryat's own words, " The beautiful precision of our fire, obtained by constant practice ; the coolness and courage of our captain, inoculating the whole of the ship's company ; the suddenness of our attacks, the gathering after the combat, the killed lamented, the wounded almost envied, the powder so burnt into our faces that years could not remove it, the adoration we all felt for our commander, the hairbreadth escapes, and the indifference to life shown by all—when memory sweeps along these years of excitement, even now my pulse beats more quickly with the reminiscence." With such a captain and such a crew we must not be surprised to hear that during the three years that Marryat served on board the Imperieuse he was witness of more than fifty engagements, in which he tookas active and prominent a part as a lad of his age could be expected to do. On one occasion his service was nearly coming to an end. It was, we believe, in February, 1808, that Lord Cochrane determined to cut out a vessel which had taken refuge beneath a battery in the bay of Arcasson, and ordered a party, of which Mr Midshipman Marryat was one, to board her in the boats. On nearing the enemy some " difficulty," as the Americans would say, was experienced in gaining her deck, and it was not until serious loss had been sustained that the boarders were successful. The lieutenant in command was shot dead, and Marryat, who was close behind him, was knocked down by his corpse and trampled on by the rest in their eagerness to avenge their leader. Thus crushed, he remained oa the deck insensible, and when the list of the killed and wounded was at length called over his name was returned among the former. In "The Naval Officer' 5 he has given an account of his adventure, and at the same time

avenged himself on one of his prosecutors under the name of Murphy :—" A boat brought the surgeon and his assistant to inspect the dead and assist the living. Murphy came with them. He had not been of the boarding party, and, seeing my supposed lifeless corpse, he gave it a slight kick, saying at the same time ' Here is a young cock that has done crowing. Well, for a wonder, this chap has cheated the gallows.' The sound of the fellow's detested voice was enough to recal me from the grave if my orders had been signed. I faintly exclaimed, ' You're a liar,' which even with all the melancholy scene around us produced a burst of laughter at his expense. I was removed to the ship, put to bed, and bled, and was soon able to relate the particulars of my adventure, but I continued a long time dangerously ill." It is amusing to see that then at least Fred Marryat believed in lucky and unlvcky days. As for Friday, the authority of Lord Nelson is quoted. " Why,'' said he, "I was once fool enough to believe it was all nonsense, and I did one cruise sail on a Friday, much to the annoyance of the men. The consequence was that I ran my ship aground and nearly lost her; which I never did before in my life, and nothing shall induce me to sail upon a Friday again." So much for unlucky Friday ! But with the Imperieuse, on the old principle, " the better the day the better the deed," Sunday was the lucky day. So many of her bold deeds were done on that da}', that at last the crew were convinced that no harm could happen to them on Sunday. Thus, in the Walcheren Expedition, after Lord Cochrane had left her, the Imperieuse led the attack up the Scheldt. The Dutch pilot, wilfully or through ignorance, took the ship close up to the Terneuse battery, which enfiladed the narrow channel, and so pounded the English ship with fifteen guns, while she, coming end on, could not return a shot. " I think we shall get a hammering," said Marryat to one of the captains of the guns on the main deck. " We've one chance, at all events, Sir," he replied, "it's Sunday." As the battery continued its fire the people came out of the .church, and the men, women, and children, dressed in their best, were seen standing about and on the battery, for they felt secure. "It was amusement to them but death to us," says Marryat, " but how soon was the scene changed ! Not being able to fire our guns, we loaded a small brass howitzer which we had on the booms and returned a shell. By the merest chance the shell not only fell into the battery but rolled into the magazine. A tremendous explosion ensued; bodies were seen in all directions flying up in the air—men, women, and children ;'all on the battery perished. The firing immediately ceased, and, as we passed the dismantled ruins, the fragments ;of the poor creatures who had been induced by curiosity to witness the scene were strewed, still burning and smoking, in every direction. I need not observe that this singular incident, so fortunate for ua and so unexpected, only added to the conviction of the seamen that Sunday was the lucky day for His Majesty's ship Imperieuse."

But it was not in encounters with the enemy alone that young Marryat distinguished himself in the Imperieuse. In December, 1808, he had been recommended for promotion, and in May, 1809, he received a certificate from the same officer for gallantry in leaping overboard while in the harbour of Malta to save the life of Mr Midshipman Cobbett. It so happened that this Mr Midshipman Cobbett had been one of his chief persecutors, and in " The Naval Officer," he gave a very different account of this gallant exploit from that which he wrote home at the time to his mother. In the novel he says that he only saved his life that he might torment him, " as a cat does a mouse." It is more creditable to human and to Marryat's nature to believe that in narrating to his mother how he had saved the life of a lad from whom he had received the most brutal treatment on first joining the ship, and with whom he had carried on a war to the knife, he was truthful when he wrote-—" From that moment I have loved the fellow as I never loved friend before. All my hate is forgiven ; I have saved his life. While on this subject let us not omit to state that in 1818 Captain Marryat was presented with the gold medal by the Royal Humane Society, on which occasion it appeared that he had saved at least a dozen lives, at the imminent hazard of his own. In like acts of daring his eldest son Frederick, to whose melancholy death in 1847 we have already alluded, showed himself the worthy son of a worthy father. Just before the loss of the Avenger be leapt overboard to save one of the crew, to the imminent peril of his own life. We have not space to dwell on the services of Mr Midshipman Marryat in the Centaur and in. the JEolus, in both of which he distinguished himself. In 181* he was promoted to be Lieutenant of the Espiegle, in which he visited the West Indies, and the Spanish Main, and then it was that he visited Barbadoes, and was. present at that famous Dignity Ball, gi? ett

by Miss Nancy, over which Mr Apollo Johnson presided as a sable Master of the Ceremonies. The readers of that scene immortalised in "Peter Simple'' little thiok that the ball in question was attended with great peril to Lieutenant Marryat. In April, 1813, he was invalided from the Espiegfle, and this is the surgeon's account of his illness : Jlarryat, on the 21st of March last, ruptured a blood vessel while dancing at a ball at Barbadoes, which produced an immediate discharge of about four 'pounds of arterial blood.'' At the end of his report the surgeon significantly adds, "Lieutenant Marryat's return to Barbadoes would be productive of the most dangerous and ultimately fatal consequence to him." It was atrophy produced by the rupture of a blood vessel, which ultimately caused his death at the premature age of 56, and there can be little doubt that the first seeds of his fatal malady are to be traced to what the doctors called his "tendency to haemoptysis," which first showed itself during his visit to Barbadoes. Owing to continued ill-health Lieutenant Marryat returned to England in 1815 in the Conroy, and on the 13th of June he was made a Commander.

The general peace of 1815 rendered many naval men idle, and the Admiral thought of using Commander Marryat's ener-gies in conducting a surveyingmission into Central Africa. It is fortunate for the literary world that Marryat's marriage to Miss Catherine Shairp frustrated this intention. In all probability had he gone he would hare left his bones in the heart of Africa, and we never should have had his naval novels. On the 13th of June 1820, Marryat was again afloat in the Beaver sloop, which till May, 1821, was employed in the melancholy service of cruising round and round the island of St. Helena, and playing the part of policeman over Napoleon Bonaparte. On the sth of that month the exiled Emperor died, and on the 16th Commander Marryat, who had exchanged into the Rosario, sailed for England with despatches from Sir Hudson Lowe announcing that event. On the afternoon of the day of the Emperor's death Commander Marryat, who was an accomplished draughtsman, took the well-known sketch of the dead Emperor in full profile, which represents him lying on his camp bed, with his hands crossed above the crucifix upon his breast, and which has always been considered one of the most striking likenesses presented of him. After his return to England in the Bosario, the ship formed part of the squadron, assembled to escort the remains of Queen Caroline from Harwich to Cuxhaven, after which she was pronounced no longer seaworthy and paid off in February, 1822. In 1822 Captain Marryat published a pamphlet entitled, " Suggestions for the Abolition of the Present System of Impressment in the Naval Service," and an able letter to the Admiralty on the prevention of smuggling in the Channel, of which he had seen and learnt something when in the old Bosario on the Home station. We only mention these works to remark that they were full of good sense, and to add that the first of them created a rooted aversion to the name of Marryat in the mind of the Duke of Clarence, who, when asked to bestow some mark of favour when he became King on Captain Marryat, said, "Give him what you please ; you best know his services." The Minister was about to retire, when His Majesty called him back, —" Marryat, Marryat; by-the-by, is not that the. man who wrote a book against the impressment of seamen?" "The same, your Majesty." " Then he shan't woar the Order (the Legion of Honour just given him by Louis Philippe), and he shall have nothing." " This story needs no comment," says his daughter; " it is sufficient to say that His Majesty's wishes were religiously attended to, although some time afterwards it was hinted through influential quarters to Captain Marryat that, if he would present himself at a certain "Lev£e," the King was ready to retract his word. This concession, however, he altogether refused to make, and the consequence was that he continued to be in disfavour at Court."

But this is anticipating. He was still to do his country good service in his profession. In the early part of 1823, when he was 31, he was appointed to the Larne, and he then joined the Burmese Expedition, in which he performed some most gallant exploits, and more especially captured the famous stockades in the Rangoon Biver. Unfortunately scurvy broke out with such virulence in the Larne that she had to sail for Penan R to recruit. When her crew had somewhat recovered, the Larne returned to Burmah, and had her full share of the dangers and fame belonging to the expedition to Bassein and the Irrawady River. Iu April, 1825, Captain Marryat was appointed to the command of the Tees, and *a. the next winter finally left unhealthy jßurmah. In the beginning of 1826 the ■lees was paid off at Chatham, but it was Dot till January 1827, that Marryat's appointment as Post Captain was conormed, an act of official tardiness which placed several junior officers overhia head

on the list of Post Captains. At the same time, his gallantry in Burmah was rewarded by a Companionship of the Bath, In November, 1828, Captain Marryat was appointed to his last ship, the Ariadne, in which vessel he was employed at Madeira, and the Western Isles on Diplomatic service, and subsequently in searching for supposed rocks and shoals in the Atlantic. Two years later " private affairs" induced him to resign the command of his ship. These " private affairs" wore that he had been appoined Equerry to the Duke of Sussex, and was therefore expected to remain near the person of the King's brother. It was a connection which did not last long ; Captain Marryat was made for other pursuits than dancing attendance in Royal ante-rooms. Before this he had already written his naval volume, " Frank Mildmay; or, the JN"aval Officer," published in 1829, a year before he resigned the command of the Ariadne. For this early work he received from Mr Colburn the sum of 400 guineas, and it was rapidly followed by others written in better taste and of greater interest. It was just at this time that he purchased an estate in Norfolk called Langham, of about 1000 acres, on which he spent a mint of money, though he did not retire to live and die there till fifteen more years had passed. In 1832 appeared "NewtonForster,"which was first published in the " Metropolitan Magazine," which Captain Marryat for four years edited. In this it was at once perceived that England possessed a writer of naval fiction, equal to Smollett, possessing many of his merits and little or none of his coarseness. Next on the list came " Peter Simple," by general consent the favorite of all Captain Marryat's novels, though in our opinion the most truthful and lifelike of all his creations is "Japhet in Search of a Father." But while the interest attaching to Japhet was more limited, " Peter Simple," to use a hackneyed expression, was " everybody's money." But the production of these and other works of fiction was not enough to satisfy the energy of Frederick Marryat, for the same year he stood for the Tower Hamlets in company with Colonel Leicester Stanhope, Mr Clay, and Dr Lushington. After delivering very telling speeches, and undergoing the usual vexations of a canvass, he lost his election, and never, we believe, again repeated the attempt to enter Parliament. After this, he returned to Brighton, and there, in the year 1834, wrote three novels, "Jacob Faithful," "Mr Midshipman Easy," and " Japhet in Search of a Father." He was now at the zenith of his fame as a novelist, and, though he wrote on for several years, he never equalled the works we have mentioned. In 1835, Captain Marryat left England for the Continent with his wife and children. At Brussels he wrote the " Pirate and Three Cutters," and at Lausanne, where he established his family, " Snarleyyow" and the " Pasha of Many Tales," for all of which he received large sums of money from his publishers ; but though his genius was so prolific and so profitable, it is not to be supposed that either he or his publishers reposed on beds of roses. From their correspondence —except, indeed, that both were so frank in their scoldings-one would have thought they were natural enemies. When one of his publishers confessed that he was " somewhat warm-tempered, and, therefore, make allowance for yours, which certainly is warm enough," Marryat replied, " There was no occasion for you to make the admission that you are somewhat warm tempered ; your letter establishes that fact. Considering your age, you are a little volcano ; and if the insurance officers were aware of your frequent visits at the Royal Exchange they would demand double premium for the building. Indeed, I have my surmises now as to the last conflagration." And, again, " We all have our own ideas of Paradise, and if other authors think like me, the most pleasurable portion of anticipated bliss is that there will be no publishers there. That idea often supports me after an interview with one of your fraternity." In 1837 Marryat visited America, where he remained more than two years. On the whole, he was well received, though he got into very bad odour with a large party in the States for proposing at a dinner at Toronto " The health of Captain Drew and his Drave comrades who cut out the Caroline." We willingly leave the heartburnings of that period to oblivion, and refer all who wish to be informed of the matter to the newspapers of the day and to Marryat's " Diary in America," in which his opinion of the manners and customs of that country, as well as of the people, government, and politics, are fully given. In June, 1839, we find him back in England, and living ia Duke-street, St. James's. Between 1839 and 1843 he lived in London, in Duke-street and Spanish place, living in society and editing or writing novels. In 1843 his health began to fail, and he longed for retirement. Then it was that he finally settled at Langham, where he found his property extremely dilapidated by the. neglect of a wasteful tenant. There at Langham he lived for five years happily in the bosom of his family, proud of his

sons and daughters. It was in August, 1847, that his ailments became alarming. In that month he writes to his sister that he had twice broken a blood vessel and had lost two stone in weight. By the end of the year his malady increased so much as to occasion the liveliest apprehensions in his family. He removed to Hastings for a milder climate, and when there received the terrible news of the loss of the Avenger, in which his eldest son perished. After this shock all chance of recovery faded away. He lingered on, however, till August 1848, and then, on the 9th of that month, died peacefully of an atrophy caused by loss of blood having been heard to murmur a sentence of the Lord's Prayer just before he breathed his last. So died England's greatest naval novelist, a man who by his writings had remedied more abuse in his time than any naval reformer. He was a brave, energetic spirit, and whether on sea or land was ever foremost in the redress of wrong and injustice. He was 56 when he died, and though many since his death have attempted to wear his mantle, it has not been found to fit the shoulders of this puny generation. It was high time that the life of such a man was written, and the thanks of the public are due to his daughter for ably discharging at the eleventh hour the labour of love.