Jack Buntline

Two months thus passed speedily away, and then Jack found that he must go to sea once more. He would have liked to stay much longer, but if Nancy once got used to him, as he said, she would not let him go at all; so he had better go while he could. This time he found his way to Portsmouth, and sailed in a line of battle ship for the East Indies. Four years soon passed by out there, though before they were over he longed to be again at home. Fever visited the ship and carried off many victims, but he was spared. He was in more than one tempest, and formed one of a boat’s crew who boarded a dismasted Indiaman, at the risk of their own lives, and were the means of preserving those of all on board.

On his reaching England, he found that a fleet was fitting out for the Mediterranean, and that something was to be done. He would not miss the opportunity, though he longed to be at home; so he at once entered on board another line of battle ship, and then got a few days leave to run down and see his wife. He found her in great affliction, for she had just lost her mother, and much he wished to stay and comfort her, but duty called him away. Poor Nancy would be very lonely during his absence, and with a heavier heart than he had ever before in his bosom he left her, her only comfort his promise that he would return as soon as he had the power.

Long had the unhappy Greeks groaned under the grinding tyranny of the Turks. An army under Ibrahim Pacha was oppressing them with fresh exactions. Generous England, ever ready to assist the weak and injured, resolved to send a squadron to relieve them. It was placed under the command of Sir Edward Codrington. Jack was on board one of the line of battle ships. Joined by the squadrons of France and Russia they entered the harbour of Navarin, where the Turkish and Egyptian fleets, mounting altogether nearly two thousand guns, lay moored in the form of a crescent, supported by some heavy batteries on shore. The Turks commenced hostilities by firing on a flag of truce and killing an officer and several men. The Dartmouth on this opened a fire of musketry to protect the boat, and the action commenced in earnest. Jack had never before been in a general action. The allies had about thirty ships, and the Turks had a hundred, and all these were now blazing away together. Shot, and shell, and musket balls were flying thickly about. Loud and deafening was the roar from upwards of three thousand guns as they sent forth their messengers of death, a dark canopy from their smoke forming overhead and serving as a funeral pall to many a brave man who fell that day. Each British ship was opposed to several of the foe, but discipline and true courage prevailed over fanaticism, and one after the other the Turkish ships caught fire, and many blew up with terrific explosions, destroying their own crews and the ill-fated Greek prisoners they had on board. Jack stood manfully at his gun, seeing but little of what was going forward; but one thing he saw not to be forgotten, a British man-of-war cutter engage a brig and a corvette; and when the brig blew up, and her own cable being cut she drifted foul of a frigate, repel repeated boarding parties of the Turks, and in addition an attack from a large Turkish boat, which her two carronades knocked to pieces. Jack had seen many of his shipmates fall. As he was in the act of hauling away at the tackle to run out his gun, he felt himself struck to the deck. He attempted to rise.

“Let me have another shot at them,” he sung out, but his shattered leg shewed him how vain was the wish. He was carried below, and the surgeon made short work in lopping off the limb.

Minus his leg, yet unbroken in spirit, and with a heart warm as ever and his trust in God’s mercy unabated, Jack returned once more to old England. Happily he had served long enough to entitle him to a berth in Greenwich Hospital. For that magnificent abode of England’s gallant and worn-out defenders he accordingly bore up, and on his way there he sent for his faithful Nancy to nurse him and keep him company. A smiling black countenance under a three-cornered gold-laced hat greeted him on his arrival, and he found his hand warmly grasped by his old friend Sambo. For many a year were they known at the Hospital, and many a long yarn did Jack spin of the adventures which befel him during his nautical career.

The End.