Young Tom Bowling The Boys of the British Navy

"Hullo, father!" I sang out, when we had got a little way out from the pontoon and opened the mouth of the harbour, noticing, as I looked over my shoulder to see how we were ste...

"Oh!" exclaimed mother, when an hour or so later father set about explaining the matter of our meeting Captain Mordaunt, and his promise of sending me aboard the _Saint Vincent_...

"Look sharp, my lads!" sang out after us the master-at-arms, or "Jaunty" as he is always called on board ship. "The sick-bay's away there forrud on the starboard side; and if yo...

After dinner, which, by the way, my friend Mick Donovan appeared to enjoy mightily, not having had a decent meal for more than a month past, as he confessed to me afterwards, th...

Sudden as had been my downfall, I was sufficiently awake, after the first momentary giddiness caused by the sharp crack with which my head came against the deck had passed away,...

I led the way towards the forecastle of the old ship, where the high bulwarks, I saw, would screen us well from observation; although the place, of course, was on the open deck,...

"Tom," said Mick to me, on my telling him this, when we were dismissed anon from instruction drill and were going up on the upper deck during the `break-off,' for a brief breath...

"How did you manage it, my boy?" panted out the instructor, out of breath by his rapid climb up the rigging to my aid, as I held on desperately to the shrouds, against which I p...

Our life aboard after this passed very evenly, though not uneventfully; for there was hardly a day that something did not occur as interesting as it was novel to our previous ex...

"Look alive, my lads!" shouted out our tall commander, as we stumbled about the deck of the brig, the shock as her keel touched ground knocking us off our pins and making the po...

After that first cruise of mine in the little _Martin_, I was at home one Saturday afternoon, having had permission from the captain--being what they call `a local boy,' my pare...

Shouting out without thinking as loud as I could, "Man overboard!" I plunged into the tideway after him; and, before `Gyp' knew where he was or had time to shake the water out o...

I did not mind Mick's chaff, though. The captain had been a good friend to me while I had been on board, and I parted with him with as much regret as I felt when I said `good-by...

"Tom," said Mick to me, when we came down from the yards, by which time the ship was abreast of Southsea Pier on her way out in the fairway, "Oi'm afther settin' oop, faith, fur...

"Hullo, my lads! This won't do, this won't do!" shouted out a petty officer just then, as he came tacking about the deck and trying to make a straight course for the hatchway. "...

On that, the noble fellow, who thus unselfishly sacrificed his life for mine, fell with a whiz through the air that seemed to send the wind up into my face, down to the deck below.

"Lieutenant Robinson," said he to our persecutor, who looked ill at ease as he stood before him, the sextant which he had snatched up in a hurry to calculate the angle of distan...

"A ring! A ring! Form a ring, all you Actives!" shouted out Mr Jones the signalman, who had come ashore with us, wishing to see the battle between our representative and the dar...

"Stand by, the watch forrud!" he sang out, in a voice of thunder, putting his hands to his mouth so as to form a speaking-trumpet, as he leant against the poop rail, and pitchin...

"I believe I do, Mick," I said, squinting down as eagerly as himself into the boat, near to which the ship was gradually sidling up, her way having been checked by her being bro...

"An' is it whither Oi'll take care ov him ye're afther axin' me?" said my chum, taking hold of Jocko as he spoke. "Begorrah, ye jist coom to me arrums, ye little baiste, and sho...

"Hullo!" exclaimed a voice that seemed very familiar to me, on my getting down to the mess-deck below with my bag, when I had got my number, and been told off to my watch and di...

"On deck, there!" shouted out the lookout-man again, almost before the sound of Lieutenant Dabchick's last yawn had died away in the distance, like a groan or its echo. "There's...

"Larrikins," said I, whispering in his ear, as we stood up together just in the rear of Mr Dabchick, balancing myself on one of the thwarts forward, being about to make another...

At that moment the wind lulled for an instant, and I was just able to make a slash with the sharp edge of my knife across the rope, severing it instanter, and thus saving poor b...

"Stand by!" roared `old Hankey Pankey' from his perch on the top of Larry's shoulders, noticing our hasty retreat from the left of the stockade, our fellows indeed rushing back...

I believe the delicious perfume that permeated the air had almost lulled me to sleep for the moment, when I was rudely roused up by feeling the grip on my throat. "Belay that, L...

"Tom, don't ye know me, owld chappie?" cried Mick, for, of course, it was him; though, what with my deadly struggle and rescue by `Gyp,' whom I thought thousands of miles away,...