all, taking the
rough side of sea life with the smooth, and would not change my lot if I
had the opportunity of making my choice over again, even knowing what I
do now of the service!

My captain I had not as yet seen much of; for, although he came off
every day to sign papers and receive reports, as well as see how things
were going on generally, he lived on shore and did not interfere at all
with Commander Nesbitt, who carried on the work as he pleased.

The latter being a good officer, who thoroughly knew his duty and a
sailor every inch of him, as I have already described, Captain Farmer,
as he probably well understood, could not have done better than thus
leave matters to his second in command while the ship was in harbour.

The Honourable Digby Lanyard, our first lieutenant, was a tall
supercilious young man of five-and-twenty or so who wore an eyeglass.

This was more for effect than from any defect of vision, for he was as
sharp as a needle; and could see a bit of spunyarn adrift or a rope out
of place aloft even quicker than the commander, keen-sighted as he was.

Amongst the men on the lower deck, who have, as a rule, some pet
nickname for most of their officers, especially those whom they may
chance to like or dislike more than the rest, he always went by the
sobriquet of "glass-eye"; and it was wonderful how this dandy chap who
was so particular in his dress and would mince his words in conversation
with his brother officers in the wardroom, speaking with a lisp of
affectation and a languid air as if it were too much trouble to
articulate distinctly, would, when the occasion arose, roar out his
orders in a voice that could be heard from one end of the ship to the
other and make the men skip about, like the young lambs mentioned by the
Psalmist!

As for us youngsters, we dreaded his icy contemptuous stare and his
"haw-haw" manner more than anything.

He seemed to have the power of freezing us with a look should he ever
condescend to notice us at all; but this, fortunately, was very seldom,
the lieutenant being wont to ignore our existence except when he had
reason to call us to account for some neglect of duty, at which times we
disliked more his disdainful glance, accompanied, as it invariably was,
by some cold sarcastic allusion to our shortcomings, than the bullying
and bad language of some of the other officers who were not so refined.

Such at all events was the opinion Dick Andrews and Teddy Al