d almost forgotten all about a ship.
The men looked so smart and active, for Mr Schank had taken care to get
a picked crew, which some officers in those days could get and some
could not; the Captain and Lieutenants and midshipmen in their new
uniforms looked so spruce, and the marines so trim and well set up, that
I could not help rejoicing that I was once more afloat, though I did not
forget my kind friends at Whithyford, nor the dear Little Lady. We
passed out at the Needle passage, with Hurst Castle on one side and the
tall pointed white rocks off the west end of the island on the other,
not ill-called Needles, sighting Weymouth, where the good old King
George the Third was accustomed to reside. Bless his memory, say I,
for, though he might have had his faults, he was a right-honest
true-hearted man--brave as the bravest of his subjects, and firm too;
though those who opposed him called his firmness obstinacy. However, I
am talking of things of which I knew at that period of my career nothing
at all.

I had grown by this time into a stout, hardy-looking lad, tall and
proportionably broad, so that I looked much older than I was, and thus I
was already rated as a boy on board the ship, though I was the youngest
on board, and likely to remain so for a considerable time. When people
saw my mother, who looked remarkably young, and pretty as ever, they
could scarcely believe that I was her son. Few people retain their
health and good looks as she did. Running across the Bay of Biscay we
sighted Cape Finisterre, rounding which we stood in for the coast, in
hopes of picking up some of the Spanish Guarda Costas or any of the
enemy's merchantmen. However, when standing in for Finisterre Bay the
wind dropped and we lay perfectly becalmed, rolling gently to the swell
which nearly at all times sets in on that coast.

Evening was approaching. Our young Captain walked the deck with
impatient strides. Though so gentle and quiet in his manners there was
a spirit in him that ever desired activity. Several times his glass was
turned towards the distant shore. He then summoned the master and
examined the chart. We had fallen in, the day before, with a Portuguese
Rasca, from the master of which a good deal of information had been
obtained, and as an honest man and a patriot it was supposed that it
could be relied on. Captain Oliver and Mr Schank were in consultation
for some time. We guessed there was something to be done