the Channel, and off the Scilly Isles--which frequently,
when aided by the contrary winds they engender, drive a ship on to the
French coast, and into the Bay of Biscay, thus entailing a lot of
beating up to the northwards again to gain a proper westerly course.

Under these circumstances, therefore, my skipper, who I could see thus
early "had his head," as they say, "screwed on straight," taking his
point of departure from Lundy, and so bidding farewell to the land which
he didn't intend approaching again for the next few weeks if he could
help it, kept a straight course by the compass due west for twenty-four
hours, by the end of which time, and this was about noon on our second
day out, we had cleared the Scilly Islands, passing some twenty leagues
to the northward of the Bishop's Rock. We were now well in with the
Atlantic Ocean, and pursued the same direction, right before the wind,
until we reached the meridian of 12 degrees 15 minutes West, when we
hauled round more to the southwards, shaping a course to take us well to
the westward of Madeira.

Before this, however--that is, on our first day out, shortly after we
had cleared Lundy Island, and when Sam and the pilot and his cutter were
out of sight, and the ship clear of "strangers"--Captain Billings called
a muster of all hands aft, when he divided the crew into two watches,
officered respectively by the first and second mates.

The "complement," as they say in the Royal Navy, of the _Esmeralda_, I
may as well state here, consisted of the skipper, Captain Billings; the
two mates, one occupying the proud position of "chief of the staff," and
the other being merely an executive officer of little superior grade to
one of the foremast hands; a boatswain, carpenter, sail-maker, cook,
steward, and eighteen regular crew--the vessel, on account of her being
barque-rigged, not requiring such a number of men in proportion to her
tonnage as would have been necessary if she had been fitted as a ship,
with yards and squaresails on the mizen-mast.

When apportioning out the hands to their several officers, Captain
Billings assigned me to the starboard watch, under charge of the second
mate, telling the boatswain at the same time to "keep an eye upon me,"
so as to have me thoroughly initiated into the practical part of my
profession.

I had not observed this latter individual previously, he having been
employed forwards while I had been mostly on the poop ever since I had