us by the influence of his uncle, who was a post-captain at
the time. Well, you know we generally entered at the age of fourteen, and
you may imagine our surprise and amusement at a fellow arriving to begin,
who was as old as the senior mid on board. Lord though he was, there was
no nonsense about Cochrane. He was a very pleasant fellow, and I never saw
anyone work so hard to learn his profession as he did. He actually
satisfied even our first lieutenant, who was a rough, hard-working fellow,
who had made his way up after having got his promotion from the main-deck,
or having, as we used to call it, come in at the hawse-holes.

"He was an admirable seaman, heart and soul in his work, and ready to take
off his coat and put on a suit of slops and work himself. He took rather a
dislike at first to Cochrane, first because he was a lord, in the second
place because he considered that he had taken to the profession too old to
learn, and lastly because he brought a chest on board altogether beyond
regulation size. Jack Larmour soon made short work of that. He called up
the carpenters, and bade them saw a portion off the chest, cutting it
through just on one side of the keyhole, so that the lock was now in the
corner. Cochrane only laughed and said nothing, but I have no doubt the
lieutenant expected him to say something hasty and so get himself into
trouble. However, Jack soon changed his opinion of the new mid. The
earnest desire of Cochrane to learn, and his willingness to put on a rough
suit and work, showed that he was of the right stuff, and made him at last
a prime favourite of the first lieutenant's.

"I was only with him then a couple of months, for I was transferred to
another ship, and did not come across him again until he was appointed by
Lord Keith to the command of the _Speedy_, lying at Port Mahon. He had
done a good deal of knocking about by that time, for the _Hind_ was sent
out to the coast of Norway, where it was suspected that French privateers
used the fiords as hiding-places. On the return of the _Hind_ from Norway,
Cochrane's uncle was appointed to the _Thetis_, and the _Hind's_ crew were
transferred to her. The _Thetis_ went out with a squadron for the
protection of the islands of Nova Scotia, and so well was Cochrane thought
of that in January, 1795, he was appointed by the admiral of the station
acting third lieutenant of the _Thetis_, and was soon after transferred,
with the same rank, to the _Africa