the extreme end of the yard, calling upon us to exert
ourselves to save the sail, which would otherwise beat to pieces. A man
said, 'Why, that's the captain! How the ---- did he get there?' He had
followed us up, and, clambering over the backs of the sailors, had
reached the topmast head, above the yard, and thence descended by the
lift,"--a feat unfortunately not easy to be explained to landsmen, but
which will be allowed by seamen to demand great hardihood and address.

All this was the simple overflow of an animal energy not to be
repressed, the exulting prowess of a giant delighting to run his course.
It found expression also in joyous practical jests, like those of a big
boy, which at times had ludicrous consequences. On one occasion of state
ceremony, the king's birthday, Pellew had dressed in full uniform to
attend a dinner on shore. The weather was hot, and the crew had been
permitted an hour's swimming around the ship. While his boat was being
manned, the captain stood by the frigate's rail watching the bathers,
and near by him was one of the ship's boys. "I too shall have a good
swim soon," called the latter to a comrade in the water. "The sooner,
the better," said Pellew, coming behind him and tipping him overboard.
No sooner had the lad risen to the surface from his plunge than it was
plain that he could not swim; so in after him went the practical joker,
with all his toggery. "If ever the captain was frightened," writes the
officer just quoted, "it was then."

But along with all this physical exuberance and needless assumption of
many of the duties of a foremast hand, Pellew possessed to a very
remarkable extent that delicate art of seamanship which consists in so
handling a ship as to make her do just what you want, and to put her
just where she should be; making her, to use a common sea expression, do
everything but talk. This is a faculty probably inborn, like most others
that reach any great degree of perfection, and, while a very desirable
gift, it is by no means indispensable to the highest order of naval
excellence. Nelson did not at all equal Pellew in this respect, as is
indicated by an amusing story transmitted by a Colonel Stewart, who
served on board the great admiral's flag-ship during the expedition
against Copenhagen: "His lordship was rather too apt to interfere in the
working of the ship, and not always with the best judgment or success.
The wind, when off Dungeness, was scanty, and the shi