EARLY EXPERIENCES.
My mother consents to my going to sea—Journey to Portsmouth—Join H.M.S. Blonde—Take General Prescott and suite on board—We sail—Supply West Indiamen with provisions and in return impress six seamen—Windbound at Falmouth—Again sail—Attacked by four French frigates, but escape and again make Falmouth—Finally sail for West Indies—Amusements in crossing the Equator.
pp. 1-17
CHAPTER II.
WEST INDIES.
Arrival in West Indies—Cruise among the French Islands—Bombardment and capture of St. Pierre, Dominique—Attack on Fort Bourbon—Capture of Forts—Surrender of General Rochambeau and the French garrison.
pp. 18-29
CHAPTER III.
RETURN TO ENGLAND.
Sail for England with despatches—A lunar rainbow—A two-tailed fish—Reach Falmouth after passage of fifteen days—To Plymouth to refit—All leave refused—Sailors’ frolics ashore—To sea again—Cruise off French coast and Channel Islands—Run aground off Guernsey—Return to Plymouth to repair damages—Rejoin fleet—French fleet escapes into Brest—Return to Plymouth to refit for foreign service—Transhipped to H.M.S. Hannibal—Description of the ship’s officers—Tricks played on the Irish chaplain.
pp. 30-45
[pg VIII]
CHAPTER IV.
OFF USHANT.
Join the Channel fleet off Ushant—Capture the French frigate Gentille, also a twenty-four-gun ship five days later—Fleet returns to Portsmouth—Prize-money—To sea again in charge of a convoy—Transport with two hundred Hessian troops on board founders off Cape Finisterre—Suddenly ordered to West Indies—Fight between a negro and a shark at Port Royal, Jamaica—Dignity balls—Collision with H.M.S. Sampson—Outbreak of yellow fever—Ordered to sea—Capture two French ships and two privateers.
pp. 46-56
CHAPTER V.
WEST INDIES AGAIN.
Owing to ravages of yellow fever go to Jamaica to obtain more seamen—Difficulties and humours of impressment—Author attacked by yellow fever—Proceed to Cape St. Nicholas mole—Great mortality among the officers.
pp. 57-68
CHAPTER VI.
TOUGH YARNS.
Tough yarns—The sea-serpent—The fair-wind sellers of Bremen—Mermen and mermaidens—Capture of Spanish schooner with mulatto laundresses on board—Boat attack on, and capture of the French privateer Salamandre—Outbreak of malignant scurvy—Novel method of treatment—French women dressed as men—A voyage of discovery.
pp. 69-85
CHAPTER VII.
CRUISING OFF PORTO RICO.
A ball on board—Fishing with a seine—Ordered to cruise off Porto Rico—News of the Battle of Camperdown—The boasts of Napoleon—Views on matrimony—A sailor’s courtship—Futile boat attack on a Spanish war vessel at St. Domingo—Author loses the hearing of his left ear from effect of a wound.
pp. 86-99
CHAPTER VIII
