Marryat was one of the great swarm4 of Englishmen who profited by the peace to visit the Continent, which had been as nearly as might be shut to the peaceful traveller for twenty-two years. He is credited with having “occupied himself in acquiring a perfect knowledge of such branches of science as might prove useful should the Lords of the Admiralty think fit to employ[47] him in a voyage of discovery or survey.” Doubtless Marryat loved his profession, and worked at it, but when he was recalled from Italy, in 1818, on some vague scheme of African exploration he was probably engaged in amusing himself. The scheme came to nothing, and in January, 1819, he married—a most convincing proof that his intention of exploring Africa had not lasted long. Mrs. Marryat was a Miss Shairp, daughter of a Scotch5 gentleman who had been Consul-General in Russia. Marryat never agreed with St. Vincent that married men are ruined for the service, and some eighteen months later he was at sea again in command of the Beaver6 sloop7.
In this commission he saw the end of the man who had kept Europe in turmoil8 for the major part of a generation. The Beaver was ordered on an all-round cruise in the South Atlantic to show the flag at Madeira and the Azores, at the solitary9 rock of Tristan d’Acunha, at our own possessions at the Cape10, and finally to do guard duty at St. Helena. When the Beaver arrived at her station Napoleon was just reaching the end of his final years of imprisonment11. We still maintained a naval guard against the enterprises of any Buonapartist adventurer who might try to take the Emperor off the rock where he sat, consumed with unavailing regrets, and disgracing his fall by undignified squabbles with Sir Hudson Lowe. An English man-of-war was always kept cruising to windward of the island. The last officer who performed this duty was Captain Marryat. The Beaver was watching for the possible liberator12, who never came, when Napoleon died. Marryat, who was a[48] clever draughtsman, took a sketch13 of the Emperor on his death-bed. He was already apparently14 suffering from dysentery or he fell ill immediately (and somewhat conveniently) afterwards. As his health did not permit him to remain in the South Atlantic station any longer, he was allowed to exchange into the Rosario. In her he brought the despatches announcing the Emperor’s death home to Spithead. From Spithead he was ordered round to Harwich to form part of the squadron which escorted the body of Queen Caroline to Cuxhaven. This piece of ceremonial duty was followed by work of a very different kind. The Rosario was told off for revenue duty in the Channel, and continued cruising for smugglers till she was put out of commission in February, 1822. This was service of a very sufficiently18 serious kind. There was indeed no fighting to be done, but the cruising was arduous19 and incessant20. The smugglers were among the smartest seamen21 in the Channel, and to catch them required on the part of the revenue officers constant vigilance, great activity, and an intimate knowledge of the coast—that is to say, if the work was to be properly done. As a matter of fact it seems to have been scamped. Marryat, who had perhaps been infected by Cochrane with an inability to let a comfortable old abuse alone, forwarded to the Admiralty a long despatch15 showing that the preventive service was inefficiently22 performed, and pointing out how it could be improved. The despatch was written after the Rosario had been paid off, and was founded on his own experience. It gives a curious glimpse into a phase of sea life which has entirely23 disappeared since the establishment of free[49] trade ruined the smugglers by making it not worth any man’s while to smuggle16. The industry which went on all round the coast, from the mouth of the Clyde to the mouth of the Firth of Forth24, was conducted on varying principles in different districts. Marryat dealt only with what he had seen himself:—the smuggling carried on in that part of the English Channel which lies between Portsmouth and the Start.
When he came to write as a novelist, Marryat displayed a certain sympathy with the adventurous25 scamps who ran cargoes27 of brandy from Cherbourg to the coast of Hampshire and Dorsetshire. But Captain Marryat the revenue officer was a very different person. In this severe and official capacity he did his best to suppress what he afterwards described with a distinctly humorous sympathy. The smugglers, he pointed28 out, profited by the system adopted by the English revenue boats. Cherbourg was the centre of the trade—the free trade, as the smugglers called it, not knowing, poor fellows, who their real enemy was. Their vessels29 were almost exclusively manned by Portland or Weymouth men. When they were going to run a cargo26 to a point of the coast with which they were not familiar, they would take on a local hand, but as a rule they kept the trade pretty exclusively to themselves. When one of their luggers was sighted by the revenue boats and could not show a clean pair of heels, the cargo was jettisoned30. If this happened in mid31-channel it was a clear loss to everybody. The smuggler17 crews were only paid when they landed a cargo. The revenue boats could get no prize money unless they seized the tubs of spirits. If, however,[50] the cargo was jettisoned in shallow water, the case was different. The smugglers might return, or their confederates on shore could fish up the sunken kegs, and then of course they earned their money. On the other hand, if the landing was stopped, or the kegs were dredged up by the revenue officers they earned their prize money. It is therefore perfectly32 obvious that it was the interest of the revenue officers not to see the smuggling luggers in mid-channel. The more brandy they picked up, the more prize money they earned, and the more credit also. But by allowing the smugglers to approach the English coast they gave them many opportunities of running cargoes. Partly because they wished to secure the approval of their chiefs, who took no account of any service which did not include the capture of kegs—partly also out of a natural human desire for prize money, the revenue boats nursed the illicit33 trade. They went very little to sea, and confined their exertions34 to scouring35 the coasts in cutters and gigs. Marryat’s idea was that much more effect would be produced by pursuing the luggers in mid-channel. If, he argued with great force, the smugglers found that they were compelled to make a dead loss, voyage after voyage, they would soon become tired. As it was, the immense profits earned on any cargo successfully run, paid them for the loss of two, or even three. Of course if his system were adopted there would be no captures to show for the credit of the coastguard, and no prize money to be earned. But the smuggling would be put a stop to. The despatch in which he set forth his opinions is a thoroughly36 able and business-like document,[51] and shows that if Marryat was allowed to fall out of the service it was not because he was wanting in zeal37 or ability.
Although Marryat, like every other naval officer who ever held His Majesty’s commission, thought himself “no favourite” with the Admiralty, he had no intelligible38 reason to complain—at least as yet. The grumblings of naval officers are generally, indeed, unintelligible39 to the landsman, who is apt, after hearing much of them, to arrive at the conclusion that if every gentleman in the service were promoted to be Lord High Admiral and made G.C.B. to morrow morning, they would all be as discontented as ever by midday. Certainly Marryat, who was a commander at twenty-three, and had received a command, on service which brought him into notice, in time of profound peace and reduction of armaments, when the great majority of his fellow officers were vegetating40 on half pay on shore, had little cause to growl41. He must, in truth, have had very good influence at the Admiralty, for though he was only paid off the Rosario in February, 1822, he was re-appointed to the Larne, of twenty guns, in March, 1823, so that he had barely a year on shore. The Larne was fitted out at Portsmouth for service in the East Indies. In July Marryat sailed from Spithead for his station, this time taking out his wife and family. An entry in his log briefly42 records an accident which might, if the amplified43 form of the story given in his biography is to be taken as literally44 true, have ended his career in a somewhat absurd manner. His gig upset in Falmouth Harbour while he was in it. To an athletic45 man and good[52] swimmer a ducking in the month of July was no great disaster, but the boat carried a bumboat woman and a midshipman. The woman swam like a fish, and was delighted at the prospect46 of distinction and profit apparently thrown in her way. She fastened on Marryat, intent on saving a captain, and refused peremptorily47 to let him go when she was asked to transfer her help from the superior officer, who did not need it, to the obscure midshipman, who, not being able to swim, was in imminent48 danger of drowning. In some way or another Marryat did contrive49 to get rid of the incumbrance of her assistance, and the mid was not sacrificed. Whether he did not invent the bumboat woman’s devotion to rank, is perhaps doubtful. A bumboat woman was capable of acting50 in this way, no doubt, but then Marryat was equally capable of seeing that she ought to behave in this way, and of crediting her with fulfilling her duty.
When the Larne reached India, Marryat found that she was to form part of the combined force ordered to invade Burmah. This war, which filled 1824 and 1825, was of a kind common with us before we learnt that in war, as in building, it is more economical to employ a hundred men for one day, than one man for a hundred days—before also the common use of steam had made great rapidity of movement possible. Sir Archibald Campbell’s force was not numerous enough, and was unable to move quick. The operations dragged on for months, till fevers, cholera51, and scurvy52, had almost annihilated53 our army, and had almost unmanned the squadron. The duties of the navy, in the war, were to clear the Irrawaddy of Burmese war-boats, to transport[53] the troops, protect their landing, cover their flank, and now and then to help storm a stockade54, or beat down the fire of native batteries mounted with guns which would not fire, handled by gunners who could not shoot. The enemy fought fiercely, according to his lights, but then he had neither good weapons, nor discipline, nor experience. Except when attacked in a particularly strong position, by an insufficient55 force, the poor Burmese were sent into action as cattle to the slaughter56. We naturally make the most of these wars, and politically they are often of the utmost importance, but as far as fighting is concerned, a wilderness57 of them is not equal to the action between the Shannon and the Chesapeake or the Blanche and the Pique58. Yet Marryat was well entitled to say, as he did in a letter to his brother Samuel, that the crew of the Larne had in the course of five months “undergone a severity of service almost unequalled.” The climate was deadly to unseasoned men exposed to it in an unhealthy season. Much toil59 had to be gone through in moving the troops, in rowing guard against the Burmese war-boats, and even in doing engineer work. It is a complaint sometimes made by the navy that, in combined operations with the army, a disproportionate amount of the toil falls to them, while the redcoats get all the fun and the glory of the fighting. In this war the navy had plenty of work, and suffered proportionately from the strain. It also complained, in later days, that its exertions were hardly sufficiently recognized by military historians. Yet their comparatively subordinate position was a necessity of the case. The war was a land, and not a naval war, and the[54] sailors could hardly expect to be more than accessories in it.
Marryat’s share, both of the work and the credit, was as large as that of any naval officer engaged. From the beginning of the campaign, in May, 1824, he was employed until September; at first as subordinate, and then, when Commodore Grant was invalided60, as senior naval officer at Rangoon. The five months almost destroyed the crew of the Larne, and greatly damaged his own health. His men had been on salt provisions since February, and when fatigue61 and exposure were added to unwholesome diet, they naturally suffered grievously from scurvy. After a rest at Pulo Penang, he was back at Rangoon in December, and then, after being despatched on service to India, he was recalled to Burmah to take part in an attack on Bassein. There were more river work, more attacks on stockades62, more exposure to fever. In July, 1824, on the death of Commodore Grant, he was transferred into the Tees, 26, a post-ship, which—as it was a death vacancy—should have given him post rank. The nomination63 was not, however, confirmed by the Admiralty, and Marryat was not actually posted till 1825, a loss of a year, which affected64 his seniority. It was in the Larne that he took part in the occupation of Bassein, and the attack on the Burmese stockades at Negrais and Naputah, but he brought the Tees home and paid her off early in 1826. The thanks of the general and the Indian Government, the Companionship of the Bath, and the command of the Ariadne, 28, were his rewards for good service in Burmah. This command he held for exactly two years,[55] from November, 1828, to November, 1830, when “private affairs” induced him to resign. The Ariadne was his last ship. He was never employed again, nor does he ever seem to have applied65 for a command. When there was a prospect of war with the United States some years later, he spoke66 of going on active service again, but he was in ordinary times quite reconciled apparently to the termination of his career as a naval officer. The end was rather sudden. Up to 1830 he had been in constant employment and very successful. He could hardly have hoped for more than to be a post-captain and a C.B. at thirty-four. The truth doubtless is that he had begun to have other ambitions.
As is not uncommonly67 the case, the end of the old life overlapped68 the beginning of the new. Indeed, the old cannot have consciously come to an end with Marryat for some years. The evidence as to his wishes and hopes is scanty69—extraordinarily scanty considering his prominence70 and that he lived almost into this generation; but what has been made known about him shows that he did not cease to think and work for “the service,” or quite gave up for a long time expecting that he might again hold a command. As an active naval officer, however, his career ended when he resigned the command of the Ariadne. Before that date he had written and published “Frank Mildmay,” and had written the “King’s Own.” What the private affairs may have been which induced him to resign his ship does not appear very clearly. Mrs. Ross Church supposes that he wished to devote himself to his duties as equerry to the Duke of Sussex, which hardly appears a sufficient explanation.[56] Perhaps, like many other sailors, he may have had a period of revolt against the routine work, and long absence from friends and family imposed by naval life, and for which there is little compensation in peace time. With a growing family to look after he had a strong attraction to the shore. Then service in peace time cannot have had many temptations to a man who enjoyed excitement as Marryat did. To be sent on “diplomatic duties,” which in practice would mean visits, in the company of His Majesty’s Consuls71, to foreign governors, or to be ordered off in winter to look for reefs in the Atlantic, which never existed except in the bemused brains of some merchant skipper, must have been very trying. An experience or two of this kind, coinciding with the success of his first book and the equerryship, would be enough to decide him to try his fortune on shore—all the more as he had private means. Whatever the exact motives72 may have been, in 1830 he was on shore for good, and established in Sussex House, Hammersmith.
His equerryship seems to have led him to no particular good. “The smiles of princes,” says Mrs. Church, “are by nature evanescent.” The favour of princes at least, like that of other men, requires to be cultivated with due skill and attention. Possibly Marryat may have been wanting in the will or the capacity to practise the art. Certain it is that neither from the Duke of Sussex, nor from the duke’s royal brother, William IV., did he ever obtain any visible good beyond invitations to festivities which appear to have been of a somewhat dreary73 character. According to a story given in the preface to Bone’s edition of the “Pirate and Three[57] Cutters,” and quoted on that authority by Mrs. Ross Church, the King, who all through his life seems to have been moved to do something silly whenever he remembered that he was a naval officer, was offended by Marryat’s condemnation74 of the press-gang. He not only refused to consent to the conferring of some mark of distinction on Marryat in addition to the C.B. given for the Burmah campaign, but would not even allow him to wear the Legion of Honour sent him by Louis Philippe as a reward for the code of signals. The story is credible75 enough of William IV., who, saving the reverence76 of the Crown, was very little better than a fool, and a spiteful fool, too, at times. The Admiralty of its own motion, or the Admiralty and the King together, seem to have decided77 that Marryat need not be employed again. In the enjoyment78 of literary success and liberty, he probably reconciled himself to the want of employment readily enough. He must have been prepared to do without it when he threw up his command. The Admiralty does not love captains who resign their ships.
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naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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smuggling
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| n.走私 | |
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hoisting
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| 起重，提升 | |
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swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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beaver
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| n.海狸，河狸 | |
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sloop
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| n.单桅帆船 | |
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turmoil
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| n.骚乱，混乱，动乱 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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liberator
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| 解放者 | |
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sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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despatch
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| n./v.(dispatch)派遣；发送；n.急件；新闻报道 | |
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smuggle
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| vt.私运；vi.走私 | |
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smuggler
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| n.走私者 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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arduous
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| adj.艰苦的，费力的，陡峭的 | |
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incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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seamen
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| n.海员 | |
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inefficiently
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| adv.无效率地 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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cargoes
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| n.（船或飞机装载的）货物( cargo的名词复数 )；大量，重负 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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jettisoned
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| v.抛弃，丢弃( jettison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mid
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| adj.中央的，中间的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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illicit
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| adj.非法的，禁止的，不正当的 | |
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exertions
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| n.努力( exertion的名词复数 )；费力；（能力、权力等的）运用；行使 | |
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scouring
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| 擦[洗]净，冲刷，洗涤 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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unintelligible
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| adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的 | |
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vegetating
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| v.过单调呆板的生活( vegetate的现在分词 )；植物似地生长；（瘤、疣等）长大 | |
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growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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amplified
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| 放大，扩大( amplify的过去式和过去分词 )； 增强； 详述 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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athletic
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| adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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peremptorily
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| adv.紧急地，不容分说地，专横地 | |
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imminent
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| adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的 | |
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contrive
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| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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cholera
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| n.霍乱 | |
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scurvy
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| adj.下流的，卑鄙的，无礼的；n.坏血病 | |
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annihilated
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| v.（彻底）消灭( annihilate的过去式和过去分词 )；使无效；废止；彻底击溃 | |
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54
stockade
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| n.栅栏，围栏；v.用栅栏防护 | |
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insufficient
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| adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的 | |
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slaughter
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| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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pique
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| v.伤害…的自尊心，使生气 n.不满，生气 | |
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toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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invalided
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| 使伤残（invalid的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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stockades
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| n.（防御用的）栅栏，围桩( stockade的名词复数 ) | |
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nomination
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| n.提名，任命，提名权 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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67
uncommonly
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| adv. 稀罕(极，非常) | |
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68
overlapped
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| _adj.重叠的v.部分重叠( overlap的过去式和过去分词 )；（物体）部份重叠；交叠；（时间上）部份重叠 | |
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69
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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70
prominence
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| n.突出；显著；杰出；重要 | |
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71
consuls
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| 领事( consul的名词复数 )； （古罗马共和国时期）执政官 （古罗马共和国及其军队的最高首长，同时共有两位，每年选举一次） | |
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72
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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73
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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74
condemnation
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| n.谴责; 定罪 | |
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75
credible
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| adj.可信任的，可靠的 | |
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76
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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77
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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78
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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