CHAPTER XVI.

THE HISTORY OF SHIPS AND SHIPPING INTERESTS (_continued_). Noble Adventurers—The Earl of Cumberland as a Pirate—Rich 291 Prizes—Action with the _Madre de Dios_—Capture of the Great Carrack—A Cargo worth £150,000—Burning of the _Cinco Chagas_—But Fifteen saved out of Eleven Hundred Souls—The _Scourge of Malice_—Establishment of the Slave Trade—Sir John Hawkins’ Ventures—High-handed Proceedings—The Spaniards forced to purchase—A Fleet of Slavers—Hawkins sanctioned by “Good Queen Bess”—Joins in a Negro War—A Disastrous Voyage—Sir Francis Drake—His First Loss—The Treasure at Nombre de Dios—Drake’s First Sight of the Pacific—Tons of Silver captured—John Oxenham’s Voyage—The First Englishman on the Pacific—His Disasters and Death—Drake’s Voyage Round the World—Blood-letting at the Equator—Arrival at Port Julian—Trouble with the Natives—Execution of a Mutineer—Passage of the Straits of Magellan—Vessels separated in a Gale—Loss of the _Marigold_—Tragic Fate of Eight Men—Drake driven to Cape Horn—Proceedings at Valparaiso—Prizes taken—Capture of the Great Treasure Ship—Drake’s Resolve to change his Course Home—Vessel refitted at Nicaragua—Stay in the Bay of San Francisco—The Natives worship the English—Grand Reception at Ternate—Drake’s Ship nearly wrecked—Return to England—Honours accorded Drake—His Character and Influence—Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s Disasters and Death—Raleigh’s Virginia Settlements

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE British Crosses & Medals Examining a “Haul” on Board the _Challenger_ _Frontispiece._ The _Victory_ at Portsmouth 5 Rocks near Cape St. Vincent 9 The _Victory_ at Close Quarters with the 12 _Redoubtable_ The Siege of Gibraltar 17 The Original _Merrimac_ 21 Engagement between the _Merrimac_ and _Monitor_ 25 The Peruvian Ironclad _Huascar_ attacked by two Chilian Ironclads The Peruvian Ironclad _Huascar_ Objects of Interest brought Home by the _Challenger_ 32 The _Challenger_ in Antarctic Ice 33 The “Accumulator” 35 The _Challenger_ at Juan Fernandez 36 The _Challenger_ made fast to St. Paul’s Rocks (South Atlantic) The Naturalist’s Room on Board the _Challenger_ 37 Dredging Implements used by the _Challenger_ 38 The _Chichester_ Training-ship 45 Instruction on Board a Man-of-war 49 The _Captain_ in the Bay of Biscay 56 The Wreck of the _Royal George_ 61 The Loss of the _Vanguard_ _To face page_ 63 The Loss of the _Kent_ 64 H.M.S. _Vanguard_ at Sea The _Vanguard_ as she appeared at Low Water 65 Falmouth Harbour 72 The Loss of the _Birkenhead_ 73 The Raft of the _Medusa_ 76 On the Raft of the _Medusa_—a Sail in sight 81 Section of a First-class Man-of-war 84 The _Warrior_ 85 The Rock of Gibraltar from the Mainland _To face page_ 87 Gibraltar: the Neutral Ground 89 Moorish Tower at Gibraltar 93 Malta 96 The Defence of Malta by the Knights of St. John 100 against the Turks in 1565 Catacombs at Citta Vecchia, Malta 101 M. Lesseps 105 Bird’s-eye View of Suez Canal 109 Map of the Suez Canal 111 Opening of the Suez Canal (Procession of Ships) _To face page_ 113 The Suez Canal: Dredges at Work 113 Catching Pelicans on Lake Menzaleh 116 Jiddah, from the Sea 117 Cyclone at Calcutta 120 Macao 124 Vessels in the Port of Shanghai 125 Yokohama 128 The Fusiyama Mountain 129 A Tea Mart in Japan 133 Petropaulovski and the Avatcha Mountain 137 Whalers at Work 140 Our “Patent Smoke-stack” 141 View in the Straits of Malacca 145 Junks in a Chinese Harbour 148 Island in the Straits of Malacca _To face page_ 149 Chinese Junk at Singapore 149 Singapore, looking Seawards 152 Looking down on Singapore 153 A Timber Wharf at San Francisco 156 The Bay of San Francisco 160 The British Camp: San Juan 165 The Port of Valparaiso 173 Cape Horn 176 The Landing of Columbus at Trinidad 177 View in Jamaica 180 Kingston Harbour, Jamaica 181 Havana 184 The _Centaur_ at the Diamond Rock, Martinique _To face page_ 187 Bermuda, from Gibbs Hills 188 The North Rock, Bermuda 189 The Bermuda Floating Dock 192 Voyage of the _Bermuda_ 193 Map of New York Harbour 195 Brooklyn Bridge 196 Ferry Boat, New York Harbour 197 The Island of Ascension 200 Tristan D’Acunha 201 Sierra Leone 204 Cape Town 205 The _Galatea_ passing Knysna Heads 209 St. Helena 213 On Deck a Man-of-war, Eighteenth Century _To face page_ 214 Between Decks of a Man-of-war, Eighteenth Century 217 Naval Officers and Seamen, Eighteenth Century 221 Engine Room of H.M.S. _Warrior_ 225 Fight between the _Courageux_ and the _Bellona_ 229 The _Great Harry_ and _Great Eastern_ in contrast 233 The Crew of H.M.S. _Bounty_ landing at Otaheite 236 The Mutineers seizing Captain Bligh 237 Bligh cast adrift 240 Map of the Islands of the Pacific 245 H.M.S. _Briton_ at Pitcairn Island 248 Pitcairn Island The Mutiny at Portsmouth _To face page_ 251 Admiral Duncan addressing his Crew 253 Lord St. Vincent 257 Fleet of Roman Galleys 261 Approach of the Danish Fleet 265 Ships of William the Conqueror 268 Crusaders and Saracens 269 Duel between French and English Ships 272 Reverse of the Seal of Sandwich 274 Sir Andrew Wood’s Victory 277 Old Deptford Dockyard 280 The Defeat of Sir A. Barton _To face page_ 280 The First Shot against the Armada 285 The Fire-ships attacking the Armada 288 Drake’s First View of the Pacific _To face page_ 289 Queen Elizabeth on her way to St. Paul’s 289 The Earl of Cumberland and the _Madre de Dios_ 293 On the Coast of Cornwall 297 Sir John Hawkins 300 Hawkins at St. Juan de Ulloa 301 Oxenham embarking on the Pacific 304 Sir F. Drake 309 Drake’s Arrival at Ternate 312 The Death of Sir Humphrey Gilbert 317

THE SEA.

One can hardly gaze upon the great ocean without feelings akin to awe and reverence. Whether viewed from some promontory where the eye seeks in vain another resting-place, or when sailing over the deep, one looks around on the unbounded expanse of waters, the sea must always give rise to ideas of infinite space and indefinable mystery hardly paralleled by anything of the earth itself. Beneficent in its calmer aspect, when the silvery moon lights up the ripples and the good ship scuds along before a favouring breeze; terrible in its might, when its merciless breakers dash upon some rock-girt coast, carrying the gallant bark to destruction, or when, rising mountains high, the spars quiver and snap before the tempest’s power, it is always grand, sublime, irresistible. The great highway of commerce and source of boundless supplies, it is, notwithstanding its terrors, infinitely more man’s friend than his enemy. In how great a variety of aspects may it not be viewed!

The poets have seen in it a “type of the Infinite,” and one of the greatest(1) has taken us back to those early days of earth’s history when God said—

“‘Let there be firmament Amid the waters, and let it divide The waters from the waters.’ ... So He the world Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide Crystalline ocean.”

“Water,” said the great Greek lyric poet,(2) “is the chief of all.” The ocean covers nearly three-fourths of the surface of our globe. Earth is its mere offspring. The continents and islands have been and _still are being_ elaborated from its depths. All in all, it has not, however, been treated fairly at the hands of the poets, too many of whom could only see it in its sterner lights. Young speaks of it as merely a

“Dreadful and tumultuous home Of dangers, at eternal war with man, Wide opening and loud roaring still for more,”

ignoring the blessings and benefits it has bestowed so freely, forgetting that man is daily becoming more and more its master, and that his own country in particular has most successfully conquered the seemingly unconquerable. Byron, again, says:—

“Roll on, thou dark and deep blue ocean—roll! Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain; Man marks the earth with ruin—his control Stops with the shore; upon the watery plain The wrecks are all thy deeds.”

And though this is but the exaggerated and not strictly accurate language of poetry, we may, with Pollok, fairly address the great sea as “strongest of creation’s sons.” The first impressions produced on most animals—not excluding altogether man—by the aspect of the ocean, are of terror in greater or lesser degree. Livingstone tells us that he had intended to bring to England from Africa a friendly native, a man courageous as the lion he had often braved. He had never voyaged upon nor even beheld the sea, and on board the ship which would have safely borne him to a friendly shore he became delirious and insane. Though assured of safety and carefully watched, he escaped one day, and blindly threw himself headlong into the waves. The sea terrified him, and yet held and drew him, fascinated as under a spell. “Even at ebb-tide,” says Michelet,(3) “when, placid and weary, the wave crawls softly on the sand, the horse does not recover his courage. He trembles, and frequently refuses to pass the languishing ripple. The dog barks and recoils, and, according to his manner, insults the billows which he fears.... We are told by a traveller that the dogs of Kamtschatka, though accustomed to the spectacle, are not the less terrified and irritated by it. In numerous troops, they howl through the protracted night against the howling waves, and endeavour to outvie in fury the Ocean of the North.”

The civilised man’s fear is founded, it must be admitted, on a reasonable knowledge of the ocean, so much his friend and yet so often his foe. Man is not independent of his fellow-man in distant countries, nor is it desirable that he should be. No land produces all the necessaries, and the luxuries which have begun to be considered necessaries, sufficient for itself. Transportation by land is often impracticable, or too costly, and the ocean thus becomes the great highway of nations. Vessel after vessel, fleet after fleet, arrive safely and speedily. But as there is danger for man lurking everywhere on land, so also is there on the sea. The world’s wreck-chart for one year must, as we shall see hereafter, be something appalling. That for the British Empire alone in one year has often exceeded 1,000 vessels, great and small! Averaging three years, we find that there was an annual loss during that period of 1,095 vessels and 1,952 lives.(4) Nor are the ravages of ocean confined to the engulfment of vessels, from rotten “coffin-ships” to splendid ironclads. The coasts often bear witness of her fury.

The history of the sea virtually comprises the history of adventure, conquest, and commerce, in all times, and might almost be said to be that of the world itself. We cannot think of it without remembering the great voyagers and sea-captains, the brave naval commanders, the pirates, rovers, and buccaneers of bygone days. Great sea-fights and notable shipwrecks recur to our memory—the progress of naval supremacy, and the means by which millions of people and countless millions of wealth have been transferred from one part of the earth to another. We cannot help thinking, too, of “Poor Jack” and life before the mast, whether on the finest vessel of the Royal Navy, or in the worst form of trading ship. We recall the famous ships themselves, and their careers. We remember, too, the “toilers of the sea”—the fishermen, whalers, pearl-divers, and coral-gatherers; the noble men of the lighthouse, lifeboat, and coastguard services. The horrors of the sea—its storms, hurricanes, whirlpools, waterspouts, impetuous and treacherous currents—rise vividly before our mental vision. Then there are the inhabitants of the sea to be considered—from the tiniest germ of life to the great leviathan, or even the doubtful sea-serpent. And even the lowest depths of ocean, with their mountains, valleys, plains, and luxurious marine vegetation, are full of interest; while at the same time we irresistibly think of the submerged treasure-ships of days gone by, and the submarine cables of to-day. Such are among the subjects we propose to lay before our readers. THE SEA, as one great topic, must comprise descriptions of life on, around, and in the ocean—the perils, mysteries, phenomena, and poetry of the great deep. The subject is too vast for superfluous detail: it would require as many volumes as a grand encyclopædia to do it justice; whilst a formal and chronological history would weary the reader. At all events, the present writer purposes to occasionally gossip and digress, and to arrange facts in groups, not always following the strict sequence of events. The voyage of to-day may recall that of long ago: the discovery made long ago may be traced, by successive leaps, as it were, to its results in the present epoch. We can hardly be wrong in believing that this grand subject has an especial interest for the English reader everywhere; for the spirit of enterprise, enthusiasm, and daring which has carried our flag to the uttermost parts of the earth, and has made the proud words “Britannia rules the waves” no idle vaunt, is shared by a very large proportion of her sons and daughters, at home and abroad. Britain’s part in the exploration and settlement of the whole world has been so pre-eminent that there can be no wonder if, among the English-speaking races everywhere, a peculiar fascination attaches to the sea and all concerning it. Countless thousands of books have been devoted to the land, not a tithe of the number to the ocean. Yet the subject is one of almost boundless interest, and has a special importance at the present time, when so much intelligent attention and humane effort is being put forth to ameliorate the condition of our seafarers.