Chapter XXVI (1)

WHAT POETS HAVE SUNG OF THE SEA, THE SAILOR, AND THE SHIP.

The Poet of the Sea still Wanting—Biblical Allusions—The Classical
Writers—Want of True Sympathy with the Subject—Virgil’s
“Æneid”—His Stage Storms—The Immortal Bard—His Intimate
Acquaintance with the Sea and the Sailor—The Golden Days of
Maritime Enterprise—The _Tempest_—Miranda’s Compassion—Pranks of
the “Airy Spirit”—The _Merchant of Venice_—Piracy in Shakespeare’s
Days—A Birth at Sea—_Cymbeline_: the Queen’s Description of our
Isle—Byron’s “Ocean”—Falconer’s “Shipwreck”—His Technical
Knowledge—The “True Ring”—The Dibdins—“Tom Bowling”—“The Boatmen
of the Downs”—Three Touching Poems—Mrs. Hemans, Longfellow, and
Kingsley—Browning’s “Hervé Riel”—The True Breton Pilot—A New
Departure—Hood’s “Demon Ship”—Popular Songs of the Day—Conclusion.

“I love the sea; she is my fellow‐creature,
My careful purveyor—she provides me store;
She walls me round, she makes my diet greater,
She wafts me treasures from a foreign shore.”(85)

The sea, the sailor, and the ship, have been fertile subjects for the poets, although countries and lands, and those who dwell therein, have occupied by far the larger part of their attention. Sooth to say, however, there has not yet arisen a single _great_ writer whose name could fairly be identified with the ocean as its own particular poet. There may be reasons for this. The poet is usually of delicate organisation, and is more likely to be found studying Nature on the quiet shore than on the turbulent ocean. Maybe he is practically a recluse, accessible to a few only; and if of social nature, and not averse to companionship amid the busy haunts of men, he yet shrinks from the roughness usual to, though not inseparable from, the men of the sea. The modern facilities of travel, enabling the student to con Nature with comparative ease, may some day aid in producing a representative poet of the sea. At present the position is vacant.

In days of old, however, the poet prophets, David the sweet singer of Israel, and one or two writers in the New Testament, gave glimpses of the ocean which indicated an acquaintance with the subject. Nothing can well be finer than the Psalmist’s conception of the mariner’s life and its dangers in the lines commencing:—

“They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;

“These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.”

The prophet Jeremiah draws a beautiful though pathetic picture of the ocean’s unrest when he says: “There is sorrow on the sea, it cannot be quiet;” and the serious poets have followed his outlines. Milton describes one—

“In a troubled sea of passion tossed.”

Michelet defines its “many voices,” its murmur and its menace, its thunder and its roar, its wail, its sigh, its “sublime duets with the rocks.”

The classical writers of antiquity had little sympathy with the sea. We have seen Horace’s opinion of that man’s boldness who first trusted himself in a frail vessel on the merciless ocean; and, as Dryden shows us, there was good reason for a general dread of the sea, at least on the part of landsmen—

“Rude as their ships was navigation then,
No useful compass or meridian known;
Coasting, they kept the land within their ken,
And knew no north but when the pole‐star shone.”

Virgil’s “Æneid” is essentially a sea‐poem, yet a writer of critical acumen considers that “in literature the sea is all the worse for Virgil having dealt with it.... The poem, as nobody needs telling, begins its events with a tremendous sea‐piece. In the very first sight we get of the hero and his companions they are dividing the foaming brine with their keels, and the initial incident is a shipwreck. The description assuredly has overwhelming vigour in it...; an impression of unusual turmoil is given, and that is what Virgil sought, but it is got by a jumble of violence of every kind. Winds, billows, lightning, thunder, reefs, shallows, eddies, are mixed together. The only detail of disaster left out is collision among the ships, which with a fleet so crowded is the one thing that would have occurred had this been a natural storm. Such a tempest now rages in a transpontine theatre, and in no other part of the world; it takes Neptune himself to still it in the ‘Æneid.’”(86) And yet Virgil lived long by the glorious Bay of Naples; and the famous ode of Horace, praying that he might have fair weather, shows that he had made at least one voyage.

If a poet has a genuine feeling for his subject, the lightest epithets he applies may tell a story. What terms does Virgil employ? They are somewhat commonplace. Boundless, mighty, swelling, windy, faithless, deep, dark, blue, azure, vast, foaming, salt, and so forth, are well enough, but they do not compare with many of Shakespeare’s, and later poets. Take three of Shakespeare’s: the “yeasty” waves, the “multitudinous” sea, and the “wasteful” ocean. These epithets are in themselves admirable descriptions.

The works of our immortal bard are full of allusions to the sea, and show an intimate acquaintance therewith. Perhaps Shakespeare’s knowledge is in this instance less surprising than in some other directions, for although we have no proof that he ever left the shores of old England, and are quite certain that he never ventured far, his was a golden day in the history of maritime enterprise. The reign of the Virgin Queen, during the larger part of which he flourished, saw the defeat of the Armada, and many another repulse in the Spanish colonies. It was the day of such naval heroes as Howard of Effingham, Drake and Hawkins, Raleigh and Frobisher. It witnessed the first English voyage round the world, the discovery of Virginia—to say nothing of Virginia’s tobacco and potatoes—the establishment of the profitable whale fishery and the disgraceful slave‐ trade, the inauguration of that long‐time monopoly the East India Company, and numerous lesser developments in commercial prosperity.

Appropriately, then, the play of Shakespeare which more particularly than any other deals with the sea is that which is generally placed at the commencement of the series in the published editions. The _Tempest_ opens with a storm “on a ship at sea.” The fury of the gale increases, and the vessel is nearly on the rocks. “We split! we split! we split!” sings out the honest old Neapolitan councillor, Gonzalo, adding—

“Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren
ground,
Long heath, brown furze, anything. The wills above be done! but I
Would fain die a dry death.”

But neither he nor his master the king suffers death by shipwreck, for amiable and tender‐hearted Miranda intercedes with her father. Prospero reassures her, though Ariel, it will be remembered, had been playing many a prank on the unsuspecting mariners, and with lightning and thunder‐claps and “sulphurous roaring,” had fairly frightened them out of their wits. All but the mariners had “plunged in the foaming brine and quitted the vessel”:—

“The king’s son have I landed by himself,
Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs,
In an odd angle of the isle,”

Sings the “airy spirit,” adding, however—

“Safely in harbour
Is the king’s ship in the deep nook; where once
Thou call’st me up at midnight, to fetch dew
From the still vexed Bermoothes,(87) there she’s hid:
The mariners all under hatches stowed.”

And so with the kindly spirit and the rightful Duke we may leave the tempest‐tossed mariners.

In the _Merchant of Venice_ we have admirable illustrations of the troubles and anxieties of a merchant shipowner of the day. Antonio is sad. “Your mind,” says Salarino, “is tossing on the ocean.” Antonio’s friends continue:—

“_Salanio._ Believe me, sir, had I such ventures forth,
The better part of my affections would
Be with my hopes abroad * * *

_Salarino._ My wind, cooling my breath,
Would blow me to an ague, when I thought
What harm a wind too great might do at sea.
I should not see the sandy hour‐glass run,
But I should think of shallows and of flats;
And see my wealthy Andrew dock’d in sand,
Vailing her high‐top lower than her ribs,
To kiss her burial. Should I go to church,
And see the holy edifice of stone,
And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks,
Which, touching but my gentle vessel’s side,
Would scatter all the spices on the stream;
Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks;
And, in a word, but even now worth this,
And now worth nothing?”

So Shylock, though ready to advance the three thousand ducats to Bassanio on Antonio’s bond, doubts whether the ships bound to Tripolis, the Indies, Mexico, and England, may not come to grief. For “ships are but boards, sailors but men; there be land‐rats and water‐rats, land‐thieves and water‐thieves—I mean pirates; and then, there is the peril of waters, winds, and rocks.” Soon after it was spread on the Rialto that Antonio had “a ship of rich lading wrecked on the narrow seas; the Goodwins, I think,” says his friend, “they call the place; a very dangerous flat, and fatal, where the carcases of many a tall ship lie buried;” and this was followed by the news that not one of his vessels had escaped

“The dreadful touch
Of merchant‐marring rocks.”

All, however, ends happily, and the argosies, richly laden, arrive in safety.

Piracy on the high seas in Shakespeare’s days may be said to have been of two kinds: that which was practically legalised, for purposes of reprisal on foreign foes, and that which was for private and individual plunder. How prevalent it was may be gathered from the passages indicated below.(88)

In _Measure for Measure_ we find the freebooter’s calling satirised in the comparison: “like the sanctimonious pirate that went to sea with the Ten Commandments, but scraped one out of the table”—that one, of course, being, “Thou shalt not steal.” Their reckless life is literally described by Richard Plantagenet in the Second Part of _King Henry VI._, where he says—

“Pirates may make cheap pennyworths of their pillage,
And purchase friends, and give to courtezans,
Still revelling, like lords, till all be gone”—

while Suffolk dies by pirates later on. In the same historical play King Henry again describes his condition, harassed by the rebel Jack Cade and the troublesome Duke of York, as

“Like to a ship, that having ’scaped a tempest,
Is straightway calmed and boarded with a pirate.”

Queen Margaret in _Richard III._ addresses three noble lords as

“Ye wrangling pirates, that fall out
In sharing that which you have pill’d(89) from me.”

In _Pericles_ Shakespeare introduces the not uncommon episode of a birth at sea, which occurs in a terrible gale, the mother apparently dying immediately afterwards, to be later cast into the sea in a chest, and revive when thrown upon the shore.

And for our last Shakespearian quotation, in _Cymbeline_ we have a fine description of our own little island and its impregnability. “Remember,” says the Queen—

“The natural bravery of your isle, which stands
As Neptune’s park, ribbed and paled in
With rocks unscaleable and roaring waters;
With sands that will not bear your enemies’ boats,
But suck them up to the topmast. A kind of conquest
Cæsar made here; but made not here his brag
Of _came_, and _saw_, and _overcame_: with shame
(The first that ever touched him), he was carried
From off our coast twice beaten; and his shipping
(Poor ignorant baubles!) on our terrible seas,
Like egg‐shells moved upon their surges, cracked
As easily ’gainst our rocks; for joy whereof,
The famed Cassibelan, who was once at point
(O giglot(90) fortune!) to master Cæsar’s sword,
Made Lud’s town with rejoicing fires bright,
And Britons strut with courage.”

Next to Shakespeare in intimate knowledge and power to portray, Byron must be placed. What can be grander than his well‐known apostrophe to the Ocean?—

“Roll on, thou deep and dark 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 deed, nor doth remain
A shadow of man’s ravage, save his own,
When, for a moment, like a drop of rain,
He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,
Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.
* * * * *
“Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee—
Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they?
Thy waters washed them power while they were free,
And many a tyrant since; their shores obey
The stranger, slave, or savage; their decay
Has dried up realms to deserts:—not so thou;—
Unchangeable save to thy wild waves’ play—
Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow—
Such as creation’s dawn beheld, thou rollest now.”

“HE SINKS INTO THY DEPTHS WITH BUBBLING GROAN,
WITHOUT A GRAVE, UNKNELLED, UNCOFFINED, AND UNKNOWN.”]

The poet _par excellence_ of the sea, partly on account of the literary merits of his production, but more by reason of his technical correctness, was William Falconer, the author of “The Shipwreck,” on the title pages of all the older editions of which he is described simply as “a sailor.” His poem, which is in three cantos, was founded on actual incidents in a shipwreck from which himself and but two or three of the crew were saved. Again, in 1769 he embarked on board the _Aurora_ frigate on a venture to the East Indies, but from the time the ship left the Cape of Good Hope no information was ever received of her, and she is believed to have foundered with all hands, including the poet. Falconer, although a disciple of the Muse, wrote a political satire, entitled, “The Demagogue;” while his Marine Dictionary is, in its revised form, a recognised authority to‐day. The poem on which his fame rests is remarkable for the absolute correctness of its details. Take, for example, the following passage, which could not have been written by a landsman‐poet:—

“A squall, deep lowering, blots the southern sky,
Before whose boisterous breath the waters fly.
Its weight the topsails can no more sustain—
Reef topsails, reef! the boatswain calls again!
The haliards and top‐bow‐lines soon are gone;
To clue‐lines and reef‐tackles next they run:
The shivering sails descend; and now they square
The yards, while ready sailors mount in air.
* * * * *
“Deep on her side the reeling vessel lies—
‘Brail up the mizzen, quick!’ the master cries,
’Man the clue‐garnets! let the main‐sheet fly!’
The boisterous squall still presses from on high,
And swift and fatal as the lightning’s course
Thro’ the torn main‐sail bursts with thundering force.”

And so forth. The fact is, that most readers of Falconer’s poem require his “Dictionary of the Marine” at hand, or some old “salt” to explain the constantly recurring nautical terms.

It is not wonderful that so many of our poets have written more or less concerning the sea, few passing over the grand subject entirely, when we consider England’s paramount position on and interests in it. A number of them have produced works in which we seem to sniff the briny ocean as we read them, while only a minority have written artificially and without a true feeling for their subject. Much that the Dibdins(91) indited for the concert‐room, the theatre, and to an extent for the sailor himself, is of a trivial nature, dealing largely—too largely—with grog and sweethearts, and more than occasionally verging on the coarse and indelicate. But among their productions are songs with the true ring, ballads that will never die while our language lasts or Britain “rules the waves.” Among these may fairly be counted Charles Dibdin’s “Poor Jack,” “The Greenwich Pensioner” (“’Twas in the good ship _Rover_”), “The Sailor’s Journal” (“’Twas post‐ meridian, half‐past four”), and, above all, that noble picture of a true sailor, “Tom Bowling”—

“Tom never from his word departed,
His virtues were so rare;
His friends were many and true‐hearted,
His Poll was kind and fair:
And then he’d sing so blithe and jolly,
Ah! many’s the time and oft;
But mirth is turned to melancholy,
For Tom is gone aloft.

“Yet shall poor Tom find pleasant weather
When He who all commands
Shall give, to call life’s crew together,
The word to pipe all hands.
Thus death, who kings and tars despatches,
In vain Tom’s life has doffed;
For though his body’s under hatches
His soul is gone aloft.”

Eliza Cook(92) has followed the same vein in her “Gallant English Tar,” and has also paid a worthy tribute to those hardy sons of Neptune, “The Boatmen of the Downs.”

“There’s fury in the tempest, and there’s madness in the waves,
The lightning snake coils round the foam, the headlong thunder raves;
Yet a boat is on the waters filled with Britain’s daring sons,
Who pull like lions out to sea, and count the minute guns.
’Tis mercy calls them to the work—a ship is in distress!
Away they speed with timely help that many a heart shall bless;
And braver deeds than ever turned the fate of kings and crowns
Are done for England’s glory by her boatmen of the Downs!”

Perhaps no modern verses are more popular with all lovers of true poetry than the “Casabianca” of Mrs. Hemans, Longfellow’s “Wreck of the _Hesperus_,” and Kingsley’s “Three Fishers;” and no wonder, for they touch a chord in every heart, while vividly portraying the perils of a seafaring life. In the story of the “burning deck” we have the record of a true sailor boy, who would not desert his “lone post of death.” And—

“The noblest thing that perished there
Was that young faithful heart!”

In the second‐named poem the skipper has taken his little daughter to “bear him company.” A hurricane rises, and it is the poor frightened child who alone hears the “fog‐bell on a rock‐bound coast.” She runs to her father:—

“But the father answered never a word,
A frozen corpse was he.”

The ship drifts into the breakers and on the cruel rocks.

“At daybreak, on the bleak sea beach,
A fisherman stood aghast,
To see the form of a maiden fair
Lashed close to a drifting mast.

“The salt sea was frozen on her breast,
The salt tears in her eyes;
And he saw her hair, like the brown sea‐weed,
On the billows fall and rise.

“Such was the wreck of the _Hesperus_,
In the midnight and the snow;
Christ save us all from a death like this,
On the reef of Norman’s Woe!”

In Kingsley’s poem, “three fishermen sailed away to the West,” thinking of their much‐loved home; “three wives sat weeping in the lighthouse tower.”

“Three corses lay out on the shining sands
In the morning gleam as the tide went down,
And the women are weeping and wringing their hands
For those who will never come home to the town;
For men must work and women must weep,
And the sooner it’s over the sooner to sleep;
And good‐bye to the bar and its moaning.”

No more splendid tribute has ever been paid to a neglected hero than that which appeared in the pages of a popular monthly(93) some years since, over the honoured signature of Robert Browning.

The year 1692 was specially disastrous to France, and a fleet of twenty‐ two vessels were hotly and closely pursued by the English. The squadron came helter‐skelter, “like a crowd of frightened porpoises” with the sharks after them, to St. Malo on the Rance. The pilots who were on board laughed at the bare idea of their great ships entering the rocky passage; and Damfreville, the admiral of the fleet, was seriously thinking of blowing up or burning all his ships, when out stepped in front of all the assembled officers a poor coasting‐pilot.

“Are you mad, you Malouins? are you cowards, fools, or rogues?” said he, as he hurriedly and impetuously assured the admiral that he knew every rock and shoal, and could lead the fleet in safely.

“‘Sirs, they know I speak the truth! Sirs, believe me there’s a way!
And if one ship misbehave—
Keel so much as grate the ground,
Why, I’ve nothing but my life—here’s my head!’ cries Hervé Riel.

“Not a minute more to wait,
‘Steer us in, then, small and great!
Take the helm, lead the line, save the squadron!’ cried its chief.
‘Captains, give the sailor place!
He is admiral, in brief.’
Still the north wind, by God’s grace.
See the noble fellow’s face
As the big ship, with a bound,
Clears the entry like a hound,
Keeps the passage as its inch of way were the wide seas profound!
See, safe through shoal and rock,
How they follow in a flock.
Not a ship that misbehaves, not a keel that grates the ground,
Not a spar that comes to grief!
The peril, see, is past,
All are harboured to the last,
And just as Hervé Riel hollas ‘Anchor!’—sure as fate,
Up the English come, too late.”

So all are saved, and the crews see longingly the green heights above Grève, all bursting out, with one accord—

“‘Let France, let France’s King
Thank the man that did the thing!’
What a shout, and all one word,
‘Hervé Riel,’
As he stepped in front once more,
Not a symptom of surprise
In the frank blue Breton eyes,
Just the same man as before.

“Then said Damfreville, ‘My friend,
I must speak out at the end,
Though I find the speaking hard:
Praise is deeper than the lips:
You have saved the King his ships,
You must name your own reward.
’Faith, our sun was near eclipse!
Demand whate’er you will,
France remains your debtor still.
Ask to heart’s content and have! or my name’s not Damfreville.’

“Then a beam of fun outbroke
On the bearded mouth that spoke,
As the honest heart laughed through
Those frank eyes of Breton blue:
‘Since I needs must say my say,
Since on board the duty’s done—
And from Malo Roads to Croisie Point what is it but a run?

“‘Since ’tis ask and have, I may—
Since the others go ashore—
Come! a good whole holiday!
Leave to go and see my wife, whom I call the Belle Aurore!’
That he asked and that he got—nothing more.”

Turn we now to a “new departure” in sea poetry, one partially inaugurated by the Dibdins, carried on by Tom Hood the elder, and having of late years William Schwenck Gilbert for its principal exponent. It is often as full of nature as the serious productions of other poets, yet itself favours the ludicrous and satirical side. Hood’s “Demon Ship” is a fair example—

“Down went my helm—close‐reefed—the tack held freely in my hand—
With ballast snug—I put about, and scudded for the land.
Loud hissed the sea beneath her lee; my little boat flew fast,
But faster still the rushing storm came borne upon the blast.
Lord! what a roaring hurricane beset the straining sail!
What furious sleet, with level drift, and fierce assaults of hail!
What darksome caverns yawned before! what jagged steeps behind!
Like battle steeds with foamy manes wild tossing in the wind.
Each after each sank down astern, exhausted in the chase,
But where it sank another rose, and galloped in its place;
As black as night—they turned to white, and cast against the cloud
A snowy sheet, as if each surge upturned a sailor’s shroud:
Still flew my boat; alas! alas! her course was nearly run.
Behold yon fatal billow rise—ten billows heaped in one.
With fearful speed the dreary mass came rolling, rolling fast,
As if the scooping sea contained one only wave at last.
Still on it came, with horrid roar, a swift pursuing grave;
It seemed as though some cloud had turned its hugeness to a wave.
Its briny sleet began to beat beforehand in my face—
I felt the rearward keel begin to climb its swelling base!
I saw its alpine hoary head impending over mine.
Another pulse—and down it rushed, an avalanche of brine!
Brief pause had I on God to cry, or think of wife and home;
The waters closed, and when I shrieked, I shrieked below the foam!”

After battling with the water, and half insensible, he finds himself at last safely on board a strange vessel; a terrible face haunts him—black, grimly black, all black, except the grinning teeth. The sooty crew were like their master. “Where am I? in what dreadful ship?” cried he, in terrified agony. The answer was a laugh that rang from stem to stern from the gloomy shapes that flitted round. They guffawed and grinned and choked to the top of their bent—

“And then the chief made answer for the whole:—
‘Our skins,’ said he ‘are black, because we carry coal.
You’ll find your mother, sure enough, and see your native fields,
For this here ship has picked you up—the _Mary Anne_ of Shields.’”

The transition from the really powerful and dramatic description of the billows and surf to the ridiculous _dénouement_ is irresistibly and artistically comic. Hood’s purely amusing pieces are more generally known than the above. Take as an example “Faithless Sally Brown;” the girl who so soon forgot her first Ben is modelled on Dibdinian lines, but the touches of humour are infinitely more delicate.

The popularity of a class of sea‐songs which can now be heard from the streets to the drawing‐room, and from the fo’castle to the ward‐room, is creditable to our age. Some of these productions, in which noble sentiments, expressed in simple and feeling words, are wedded to effective and artistic music, help to keep alive humanity, love, and honour in the rising generation. “The poor old slave is free” directly he climbs the British ship; “the sailor’s wife the sailor’s star should be,” and usually is; while the story of the poor little wounded “midshipmite” is as touching in its way as the boy who would not leave the burning deck.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

Our voyages are ended; and we may now peacefully peruse, by the cosy fireside, the record of the heroic deeds and the startling perils of the sailor’s career while he is engaged in bringing to our shores the necessaries and comforts of our daily life. While we stay at home in ease, let us not forget this noble army of “conscripts, fighting our battles for us;” and when the tempests howl and the lightnings flash, let us breathe our heartfelt earnest prayers “for those at sea.”

“Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bids’t the mighty ocean deep,
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea.”

GENERAL INDEX.

_The names of the Ships in the British Navy are printed in Italics. Those of the Mercantile Marine and foreign vessels are printed with inverted commas [“ ”]._

“Aaron Manby,” iron steamer, ii. 102
Abbot of Arberbrothok: the bell on the Inchcape Rock, ii. 173
Accumulator, the, for deep‐sea sounding, i. 29, 35
Acephala, iv. 128
Actinozoa, iv. 115
Adair, Captain, killed at Trafalgar, i. 11
Adams, John, a survivor of the mutiny of the _Bounty_, i. 248, 249
Adams, William: his attempt to discover the North‐west Passage, iii.
142
Adrianson, Claes: his death at Nova Zembla, iii. 139, 140
“Advance,” Dr. Kane’s ship in his search for Franklin, iii. 214,
233;
the ship abandoned, iii. 247
“Adventure,” the ship of Captain Kidd, the pirate, iii. 56, 57
“Adventure,” wrecked in the Tyne, ii. 210
_ Adventure_ and _Resolution_, Captain Cook’s voyage of discovery,
iii. 277
Africa: diamond fields, i. 210
African Company: slave trade, ii. 33
African Naval Station, i. 202
Agalma rubra, iv. 118, 120
_ Agamemnon_, i. 16;
laying the first submarine Atlantic telegraph cable, iv. 101,
102
Agassiz, Prof.: on the sea‐serpent, iv. 187, 189
“Aid,” steam tug, Ramsgate, ii. 215–224; iv. 246
Airy, Prof. Sir G. B.: the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, iv. 278–282
Alaska, i. 169;
Sitka, its capital, 169, 170;
intense cold in, iii. 111, 135;
houses of the natives, 156, 157
“Albemarle,” Lieut. Cushing’s attack on the, ii. 151
“Albion,” lugger, hovelling, ii. 246;
the lugger lost, 248
Alcatras Island, San Francisco, i. 157
_ Alceste_, wreck of the, i. 82, 83
Aldrich, Lieut. P., voyage of the _Alert_, iii. 102, 107
_ Alert_ and _Discovery_: expedition to the Polar regions, highest
latitude ever reached, iii. 99–114;
departure of the ships from Portsmouth, 65, 84;
the _Alert_ described, 92;
The _Alert_ in winter quarters, 104
Aleutian Islands, i. 169, 170
_ Alexandra_, turret ship, ii. 146, 147
Alfonso XI., Gibraltar besieged by, i. 91
Alfred the Great: his ships, i. 265
Allan, Dr. John: propulsion of ships, ii. 80
Almendral, or Almond Grove, Valparaiso, i. 174
“Amazon,” burning of the, ii. 257, 278–290
Amadas, Captain, discovery of Virginia, i. 319
America: its name derived from Amerigo Vespucci, iii. 301;
probably peopled by natives of Asia, i. 139;
its colonisation, ii. 62, 69;
map of Central America, iii. 17
“America,” Pacific steam‐ship, iv. 38
American Arctic expeditions. (_See_ Grinnell, H.)
American railways, iv. 15–20
American sailors, i. 226
Amerigo Vespucci, title of America derived from him, iii. 301
“Amethyst,” action with the “Huascar,” i. 26
Amherst, Lord: wreck of the _Alceste_, i. 83
Ammonites, iv. 143
Amroth, submerged forest at, iv. 199
Amsterdam Island, iii. 257
Amusements: on board ships, iv. 33, 34;
on American railways, 27
Anderson, captain of the “Great Eastern:” laying the submarine
telegraph cable, iv. 108, 110
Anemones: sea‐anemones, iv. 123, 125
Animal life in the Arctic regions, iii. 167, 171
“Ann” wrecked: loss of a life‐boat, ii. 212, 216
Anson, Commodore, at Juan Fernandez, i. 33;
portrait, ii. 45;
his voyage round the world in the _Centurion_, 45–62;
at Cape Horn, 49;
scurvy, 50;
mutiny and desertion, 52, 53;
capture of the “Carmelo,” ii. 55, 56.
Other prizes:
capture of Paita, 55;
Tinian, Ladrone Islands, 57;
“Nostra Signora de Cadabonga,” galleon, taken, 59, 60,
61
Antarctic Ice, the _Challenger_ in, i. 33;
icebergs, 35
Antarctic Regions, the, iii. 276
Ants on board ship, i. 222
Apes at Gibraltar, i. 88, 97
Aquaria, their early and recent history, iv. 114
Arbroath, the Bell Rock Lighthouse, ii. 174
Arcachon, Bay of, its oyster‐beds, iv. 137
“Archimedes,” screw‐propeller, ii. 103
Arctic, derivation of the word, iii. 276
Arctic expeditions, iii. 84–275;
the first Arctic voyages, iii. 115–123;
other early expeditions, 123–129
“Arctic,” steam ship: collision with the “Vesta,” ii. 107;
foundering of the “Arctic,” 108; iv. 283
Argonauta, paper nautilus, iv. 150
“Arizona,” Atlantic steamer, iv. 3
Armada, Spanish, i. 283–291
Armour plates and guns, i. 86.
(_See_ Iron‐clad ships.)
Armstrong, Sir W. G.: the Armstrong guns, i. 86
Arsenals established by Henry VIII., i. 282
Artillery, Marine, early history, i. 278;
gunnery of war ships, i. 14
Ascension, Island of, i. 200, 202;
abundance of turtle, 202
“Assari Tefvik” (Turkish) and “Vesta” (Russian) ships: action
between them, i. 27
_ Assistance_, the search for Franklin, iii. 207
Assyrian skin‐floats and basket‐boats, i. 258
“Astarte,” wreck of the, iv. 243
Asterias (starfish), iv. 125
Astrology, modern belief in, iv. 278
Astronomy and Astronomers: the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Sir G.
B. Airy, Astronomer‐Royal, and his predecessors, iv. 278–282
Atlantic Ferry, the Great: history of Transatlantic navigation, iv.
1;
steerage of a steam‐ship now and forty years ago, 4, 10–12;
different routes of circumnavigation, _ib._;
Dickens’s first trip, 3–12;
dinner in a storm, 9;
sub‐marine telegraph cables: historical notices, 100
Atlantic Ocean: its depth and other characteristics, i. 29;
chart, iv. 88
Audubon: passenger‐pigeons on the Ohio, iii. 167
Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights, iii. 278
Austin, Captain: search for Franklin in the _Resolute_, iii. 207;
“Fox” expedition in search of Franklin, iii. 216
Australia, discovery of gold in, i. 151;
voyages of Dampier and Captain Cook, _ib._:
Botany Bay, _ib._:
Possession Island, 152;
Port Jackson, _ib._;
Sydney Cove, _ib._;
growth of population, 153;
transportation and free emigration, _ib._;
Sydney, 154;
hot winds, 155;
Port Philip, _ib._;
Melbourne, _ib._;
Sydney, iv. 52;
Melbourne: view in Collins Street, 53;
gold, 55
Australian Naval Station, i. 119, 131, 150
Austro‐Hungarian Arctic expedition, iii. 270;
the “Tegethoff:” two years on an ice‐floe, 271
Avatcha Bay and Mountain, i. 131, 137
Avery, Captain, the pirate, iii. 59–62
Avocado, or alligator‐pear, i. 186

Back, Captain: Arctic voyages, iii. 166, 189, 193, 194;
his voyage in the _Terror_;
nipped in the ice, 197;
his address to his men on the _Terror_, 201
Back’s Great Fish River, iii. 217
Baffin, William: his Arctic voyages, iii. 149
Bahamas, wrecking at the, ii. 244
Baker, the diver, accompanying Captain Webb in his swim across the
Channel, iv. 264
Ballantyne, R.M.: “The Floating Light on the Goodwin Sands,” iv. 245
Banks, Sir Joseph: expedition of the _Bounty_, i. 235
Baptism, ceremony of, iii. 4
Baranoff, Captain: action between the “Vesta” and “Assari Tefvik,”
i. 27
Barbary, Pirates, ii. 42
Barents, William: his voyage of discovery, iii. 129–140;
his death in Nova Zembla, iii. 139, 140
Barlow, Captain: discovery of Virginia, i. 319
Barnsfield, Edward: discovery of South Polar land, iii. 278
Barrow, Sir John: Arctic exploration, iii. 162, 166, 169
Barton, John, a Scotch pirate of the fifteenth century, i. 279
Barton, Sir Andrew, defeated, i. 257
Basco, Michael de, the pirate, iii. 19
Bastia, siege of, i. 7
Bastides, Rodrigo de: his expedition to America, iii. 303, 304
Bathing: Nautilus Safety Bathing Dress, iv. 262
Bathing: warm or tepid baths a medium for learning to swim (_See_
Swimming.)
Bay of God’s Mercy, iii. 178
Bayeux Tapestry: ships of William the Conqueror, i. 268
Beachey Head, iv. 231;
French vessel wrecked, 231, 233
Bears in the Polar region, iii. 98, 130, 131, 132, 135, 136, 137,
141, 184, 212, 219, 260, 261, 263;
flesh and liver of the bear as food, 138
Beaumaris, ii. 305
Beechey, Captain: his visit to Pitcairn’s Island, i. 249;
Arctic Voyages, iii. 166, 167
Beechy Island, iii. 98;
relics of Franklin’s last voyage, iii. 210
Beeching, James: his prize life‐boat, ii. 213
Behring, Vitus: his monument in Petropaulovski, i. 132, 135;
his Arctic discoveries and death, iii. 159–162
Belcher, Sir Edward, Polar Exploration, iii. 98
Belemnites, iv. 143
Bell, Henry: his passenger steamer, “Comet,” ii. 95;
his first advertisement, _ib._ 98
Bell Rock Lighthouse, ii. 172, 176
Bells on board ship in indicating time, i. 50
_ Bellerophon_: surrender of Napoleon, i. 212
Bellinghausen: discovery of the most southern land, iii. 279, 280
_ Bellona_: action with the “Courageux,” i. 228
Bellot, Lieut., Monument to, iii. 97
Belvedere, Kent: home for disabled and worn‐out merchant seamen, iv.
273
Bennett, Dr.: his “Songs for Sailors,” i. 8
“Bergetta” plundered by wreckers, ii. 243
Bering Sea, i. 135, 137, 169, 170;
Captain Scammon’s soundings, 138
Bermuda, i. 187:
view from Gibbs’ Hill, 188;
convicts, _ib._;
the North Rock, 189, 191;
potato and onion orchards, 190;
the floating dock, 191;
its voyage out, 191, 194
Berrio: Spanish expedition to El Dorado, ii. 9
Biblical allusions to the Sea, iv. 290
Bideford: Avery, the pirate, living at, iii. 61
Bideford Bar: wreck of the _Woolpacket_, ii. 224;
hovellers, 251
“Birkenhead,” loss of the, i. 73–75; iv. 283
Bishop Rock Lighthouse, ii. 269
Black Beard (John Theach), the pirate, ii. 63
_ Black Prince_, i. 18; ii. 143
Bladder‐wrack, iv. 201
Blake, Admiral, ii. 30
_ Blenheim_, i. 8
Bligh, Captain: Mutiny of the _Bounty_, i. 235;
seized by the mutineers, 237;
cast adrift, 240
Blind crustacean from the Atlantic voyage of the _Challenger_, i.
31, 32
Blindness: snow blindness, iii. 182, 239
Blood, Rev. William, survivor of the burning of the “Amazon”: his
description of it, ii. 285
_ Blossom_: Capt. Beechey’s visit to Pitcairn’s Island, i. 249
Boat, ancient, found at New Stoke, iv. 230
Boat improperly hung on board the “Amazon,” ii. 279
Boat voyages of Behrens in the Arctic Regions, iii. 138–142;
of Captain Parry, 179;
of Dr. Kane, 251
Bobadilla: his arrest and ill‐treatment of Columbus, iii. 296, 297,
304
Boers of South Africa, i. 208
Bombay, i. 118
Bonita, a tropical fish, iv. 176
“Bonne Homme Richard”: Paul Jones’s ship, iii. 75
Boobies and Noddies taken by Bligh, mutiny of the _Bounty_, i. 243,
244
Books found among the relics of Franklin’s expedition, iii. 231
Booth, Mr. Sheriff: Sir John Ross’s Arctic expedition fitted out by
him, iii. 186;
survey of Boothia Felix, 187
Boston (U.S.): the obnoxious tax on tea, ii. 67, 68;
Boston port bill; the port closed, 70, 71
Botallack Mine, Cornwall, iv. 207, 209
Botany of Ceylon, i. 119;
Cornwall, iv. 213, 216;
Juan Fernandez, i. 34;
Malta, i. 99;
St. Helena, i. 212;
Singapore, i. 144;
South Australia, i. 154;
Trinidad, i. 182;
West Indies, 182, 186, 188
Botany, Marine. (_See_ _Challenger_, Cruise of the.)
Botany Bay discovered, i. 151;
as a convict settlement, 152
_ Bounty_: History of the mutiny, i. 235–249;
discovery of survivors on Pitcairn Island, 247
Boyle, Frederick: Cape Town, i. 204, 208;
diamond fields, 210;
ostrich farming, 210
Boyton, Captain Paul: his floating dress, iv. 261
Brand, Mr., lost in the “Northfleet,” ii. 263, 264
Brande’s analysis of crimson snow, iii. 164
Brasiliano, Roche, the pirate, iii. 3, 14, 15, 16;
his escape, 15
Brassey, Mrs.: Yokohama, iv. 40;
a Japanese dinner, 42;
the “Sunbeam” in a gale, 61;
a wreck encountered, 62;
a ship on fire: fifteen lives saved by the “Sunbeam,” iv. 63;
coral fields of the South Pacific, 75
Bread‐fruit in Otaheite: expedition of the _Bounty_, history of the
mutiny, i. 235
Breakwater: The Cherbourg Breakwater and fortifications, its origin
and history, ii. 188;
progress of the works, 189;
view, 192;
Plymouth Breakwater, 190;
Portland Breakwater, 192;
Holyhead, 196;
breakwater at Venice, view, 188
Brialmont on ships and forts, i. 14
Bridport, Lord: mutiny at Spithead, i. 250
Brierly, Oswald W., Cruise of the _Galatea_, i. 205
Brighton, iv. 229, 232
Brighton Aquarium, iv. 114
_ Brilliant_: the boatswain’s mate at Trafalgar, i. 227;
action with French ships, 228
_ Britannia_, i. 5
“Britannia” training ship, i. 47
“Britannia”: Dickens’s first trip to America, iv. 5
British Columbia, i. 163;
Cariboo Mines, _ib._;
cedar canoes, i. 167
_ Briton_ at Pitcairn Island: survivors of the mutiny of the
_Bounty_, i. 248
Brooke, G. V., lost in the “London,” ii. 294
Brooklyn, New York, i. 195, 198;
Brooklyn Bridge, 196, 198
Browning, Robert: his lines on passing through the Straits of
Gibraltar, i. 87;
his poem, “Hervé Riel,” iv. 301
Brunel, J. K.: portrait, ii. 129;
designs for the “Great Eastern,” 130;
the launch, _ib._;
view and description of the ship, 130, 133;
Thames Tunnel: use of the diving‐bell, iv. 85
Bubble Companies: the South Sea Bubble, ii. 43
Bucaniers, The, iii. 1–59;
origin of the term, 2
_ Bucentaure_, i. 10, 11
Buchan, Captain: Arctic voyage, iii. 166, 167
Buchanan, Captain, of the “Merrimac,” i. 20
“Buenos Ayrean,” steel steam‐ship, iv. 3
Bulkley, Colonel, at Plover Bay, i. 138, 143
Bullata from the Atlantic, i. 32
Burgoyne, Captain, lost in the _Captain_, i. 55
Buxton, Sir Thomas Fowell: his heroism in saving life, iv. 267
Byron, Lord: his references to the Sea, i. 2; iv. 296;
his swim across the Hellespont, iv. 257;
lines on the Straits of Gibraltar, 97;
the bread‐fruit; mutiny of the _Bounty_, 238
Byron, Hon. John: wreck of the _Wager_, ii. 51–55
“Bywell Castle”: collision with the “Princess Alice,” iv. 284

Cabot, John, attempts to discover the North‐west Passage, iii. 119,
122
Cabot, Sebastian: his discoveries, i. 278; iii. 119, 121;
rewarded by Edward VI., 121
“Cacafuego,” treasure ship, taken by Drake, i. 311
Cadiz, siege of, ii. 18;
execution of De Soto, the pirate, iii. 83;
view of the town, 81
Cairns in the Polar Regions, iii. 97
“Calais‐Douvres,” iv. 6
Calcutta, i. 118;
the Black Hole, _ib._;
cyclones, 119, 120
Calicut: arrival of Vasco da Gama, iii. 299;
the city bombarded, _ib._;
view of Calicut in the sixteenth century, 300
California: discovery of gold, i. 158;
Chinamen in, 161;
earthquakes, _ib._;
named “New Albion” by Drake, 313;
“roughing it,” camping out, cooking, 166;
forest fires, _ib._;
cedar canoes, 167;
Sacramento; Oakland, iv. 28;
San Francisco, 29
Callao, i. 172;
Drake at, 310
Calthorpe, Hon. S. J. G.: his “Letters” on the Crimean War, i. 15
Calvi, the _Victory_ at, i. 7
Calypso’s Isle, i. 98
“Cambria,” its assistance in the burning of the “Kent,” i. 69–74
Cameron, John: “Our Possessions in Malayan India,” i. 144, 146, 147
Campbell, Lord George: cruise of the _Challenger_, i. 28, 33, 34,
35, 39
Canadian Voyageurs in Franklin’s expedition, iii. 190, 191, 194
Cannibalism, i. 80; iii. 121; iv. 47, 52
Canoes, river and sea: Vancouver Island and British Columbia, i. 167
Canton, i. 119, 121, 124
Canute’s ships, i. 266
Cape Alexander, Greenland, iii. 249
Cape Bounty discovered by Sir E. Parry, iii. 170
Cape Cod, Discovery of, ii. 11;
view of, ii. 64
Cape Chelyuskin, iii. 274
Cape Constitution, iii. 239
Cape Desolation, iii. 88
Cape Farewell, iii. 93
Cape Flattery, Vancouver Island, i. 163
Cape of Good Hope: its discovery; Cape Town, Table Mountain, i. 203,
205; iii. 282;
Port Elizabeth, i. 204;
Simon’s Bay, 205;
visit of the Duke of Edinburgh, 205–209;
Farmer Peck’s Inn, 206;
diamond fields: ostrich farming, 210;
mutiny suppressed, 256;
first named the Cape of Storms, iii. 282;
Waves, iv. 89
Cape Horn, i. 175, 176;
Sir F. Drake, 309;
Anson, ii. 48, 49;
the pirate Sharp, iii. 56;
view, iii. 277
Cape Joseph Henry, sledging at, iii. 112
Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope, i. 203, 205
Cape York: icebergs, iii. 100;
view of Melville Bay, iii. 228
_ Captain_ (Nelson’s ship), i. 8
_ Captain_, Loss of the, i. 54–59;
cause of the disaster, i. 58; ii. 143; iv. 283
Caraccioli, the priest‐pirate, iii. 64, 65, 67
Caribbee Islands discovered by Columbus, iii. 294;
attacked by Ojeda, 302
Cariboo Gold Mines, British Columbia, i. 163
Carlisle, A. D., B.A.: “Round the World in 1870,” iv. 29, 31
Carlsen, Captain: relics of Barents’s expedition discovered by him
at Nova Zembla, iii. 142
“Caroline:” its assistance in the burning of the “Kent,” i. 72
Carrageen: or Irish moss, iv. 202
Carthage, Ships of, i. 259
Cat, The, as a punishment, i. 51, 52
Catacombs at Citta Vecchia, Malta, i. 101, 103
Catoptric lights for lighthouses, ii. 186
Cavalli (fish) of Juan Fernandez, i. 34
Cavendish, Thomas: his circumnavigation of the globe, ii. 11
Caverns of the sea‐shore, iv. 195, 200
Cedar canoes of Vancouver Island, i. 167
_ Centaur_ at the Diamond Rock, Martinique, i. 161, 187
Centipedes, cockroaches, and spiders in ships, i. 221
_ Centurion_: Anson’s voyage round the world, ii. 45–62
Cephalopoda, iv. 139, 142
_ Cerberus_, monitor, at Sydney, iv. 54
Cerimbra Roads, Monson’s action at, ii. 21
Ceuta, Spanish fortress of, i. 97
Ceylon, i. 119, 144;
pearl fishery, iv. 67
_ Challenger_, Cruise of the, i. 28;
deep sea soundings, _ib._;
work of the expedition, and how it was done, 29;
Captain Sir George S. Nares, _ib._;
Prof. Wyville Thomson, _ib._;
sponges, zoophytes, star‐fish, crustacea, cuttle‐fish; island
of Juan Fernandez, 33, 36;
the ship in Antarctic ice, _ib._;
Kerguelen’s Land; Heard Island; sea elephants, 34;
icebergs, 35;
naturalist’s room in the ship, 37;
dredging instruments, 38;
Inaccessible Island: rescue of two voluntary Crusoes, 39
Chancelor, Richard: his journey to Moscow, iii. 122, 123
Chaplains on board ship, i. 222;
trials of Joseph Primrose, 223
Chard, Joseph: his exertions in saving life from shipwrecks, iv. 248
Charles I. and ship‐money, ii. 28;
his navy, 29, 30
Chaucer’s description of the British sailor, i. 272
Cherbourg Breakwater, history and progress, ii. 188;
view, 192
Chesil Bank, ii. 193, 195
Chicago, iv. 15;
view in Madison Street, 17
_ Chichester_ training ship, i. 45, 47
Chili, i. 172
“Chimborazo” in a gale, iv. 13
China: Hong Kong, iv. 43;
Shanghai, 44
China: John Chinaman in San Francisco, i. 161; iv. 31
“China” in a cyclone in the Pacific, iv. 39;
destroyed by fire, _ib._
China Naval Station, i. 119, 137
“China,” steam ship, iv. 31
Chinese junks at Singapore, i. 147, 148
Chinese obstructions to foreign travel, iv. 5
Chinese paintings, i. 126, 147
Chinese phrases: “Pigeon English,” i. 126;
customs and costume, 127
Chinese waiters on board ship, iv. 38
Chinese Merchants’ Steam‐ship Company, iv. 31
“Chinook jargon,” “Pigeon English,” i. 167
Christian IV. of Denmark: his encouragement of Arctic exploration,
iii. 150;
his ill‐treatment of Munk, 151
Christian, Fletcher: the mutiny of the _Bounty_, i. 239–247;
shot by an Otaheitan, 249
Christian, Thursday October, son of Fletcher Christian, discovered
on Pitcairn Island, i. 247
Christmas in the Arctic regions, iii. 103, 222, 224, 263
“Cinco Chagas” (the Five Wounds) burnt by the Earl of Cumberland, i.
294
Cinque Ports, i. 267
“City of Berlin,” Atlantic steamer, iv. 3
“City of Brussels,” Atlantic steamer, iv. 3
“City of Richmond,” Atlantic steamer, iv. 3
Cleodora, a univalve shell, iv. 145
“Clermont,” steam vessel, built by Fulton and Livingston, ii. 93
Clocks: The “Mother Clock” at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, iv.
282
Clyde and its ship‐building yards, The, ii. 97
Coal: early trade in “sea‐coal,” i. 271
Coal in the Arctic regions, iii. 107;
in Vancouver Island, i. 168
Coast‐guardsmen and their cottages, iv. 232, 234
Cobb, Captain: burning of the “Kent,” i. 69–74
Cobden, Richard: his support of M. de Lesseps and the Suez Canal, i.
107
Cochrane, Admiral: his description of Lieutenant Larmour and the
naval service, i. 216
Cockles, iv. 204, 205
Cockroaches in ships, i. 221
Cocoa‐nut oil manufactories at Sierra Leone, i. 203
Cocos, or Keeling Coral Island: Darwin’s description, iv. 75, 76
Cod: the Newfoundland and English fisheries, iv. 175, 176
Cod‐liver oil a protection to swimmers, iv. 264
Cœlenterata: Hydrozoa and Actinozoa, iv. 115
Coffin‐ships, i. 3; ii. 112
Cold in the Arctic regions, iii. 171, 225, 236, 237, 276.
(_See_ Temperature.)
Colden, C. D.: his “Life of Fulton,” ii. 94, 150
Coles, Captain Cowper Phipps: his invention of revolving turrets, i.
54;
loss of the _Captain_, _ib._
Collins, Wilkie: the pilchard fishery, iv. 173;
Botallack Mine, 207, 209;
Looe, 212;
Cornish hospitality, 216;
pedestrianism, 218
Collins line of steam‐ships, ii. 106–108
Collinson, Captain: Search of Franklin in the _Enterprise_, iii.
211, 214
Collodon, Dr., on the diving‐bell, iv. 83
Colorado: newspapers at George Town and Central City, iv. 27
Colour of the sea, i. 35, 87; iv. 96
Colpoys, Admiral: mutiny at Spithead, i. 251
Columbus, Bartholomew, brother of Christopher Columbus: iii. 285,
295;
his visit to England, 285;
imprisoned, 296
Columbus, Christopher: his landing at Trinidad, i. 177;
history of his life and discoveries, by his son, iii. 283;
his personal character and appearance, _ib._;
voyage to Iceland, _ib._;
first application to Ferdinand and Isabella, 285;
portrait, _ib._;
first voyage, 286;
land discovered, 288, 289;
his caravels, 288;
at Cuba and Hispaniola, gold and tobacco, 290, 291;
is shipwrecked, 291;
return to Spain, royal reception, 289, 293;
second voyage, 294;
disaffection and mutiny in Hispaniola, _ib._;
return and third voyage, 295;
general mutiny, _ib._;
his arrest and subsequent ill‐treatment, 296, 297;
fourth voyage, _ib._;
his death, 297;
burial and final interment at Havana, 298;
his voyage to Greenland and Iceland, 118
Columbus, Diego, brother of Christopher Columbus: imprisoned by
Bobadillo, iii. 296;
made Governor of San Domingo, 308
Columbus, Ferdinand, son of Christopher Columbus: his history of his
father and his discoveries, iii. 283
Concerts on board ship, iv. 35
“Congress” burnt in action with the “Merrimac,” i. 20, 22, 23
Conrad, Chevalier: his co‐operation with M. de Lesseps, i. 111
Conus, a univalve shell, iv. 141
Coode: construction of Portland Breakwater, ii. 194
Cook, Captain James: his discovery of Botany Bay, i. 151;
his Arctic voyage, iii. 155, 158;
voyage of the _Resolution_ and _Adventure_, 277;
discoveries, 278;
his career, 318;
his tragical death, _ib._
Cook, captain of the “Cambria:” his assistance at the burning of the
“Kent,” i. 74
Cook, Eliza, her verses on the Sea, iv. 299
“Comet,” Bell’s passenger steamer, ii. 95, 96
_ Comet_, naval steam‐tug, ii. 98
Compass on iron ships, ii. 102
Comrie, Dr. Peter, R.N.: on the discipline in training‐ships, i. 46
Copenhagen, Nelson at, ii. 65, 75
Coracles, or basket‐boats, i. 258
Coral‐islands and coral‐fishing, iv. 72, 73
Coral‐reefs in the Red Sea, i. 117
Corals of Singapore, i. 150
Coralline, iv. 201
Cordouan, Tower of, lighthouse, ii. 157
Cordova, Spanish admiral: battle of St. Vincent, i. 7, 10
Cork Harbour, ii. 308
Cornelison: his voyage of discovery, iii. 129, 133, 142
Cornwall: view on the coast of, i. 297;
sketches of the coast, iv. 207–225;
population, 215;
mines and fisheries, 215, 216;
religion, 223
Corsairs, Gibraltar attacked by, i. 92
Cost of ironclad ships of war, i. 14, 231; ii. 146
Costa Rica: towns and villages pillaged by pirates, iii. 30
Coudin, midshipman of the “Medusa,” i. 78, 80
Coupang Bay, Lieutenant Bligh at; mutiny of the _Bounty_, i. 244
“Coupland” wrecked at Scarborough, iv. 254
“Courageux” taken by the _Bellona_, i. 229
Cowries, iv. 140, 141
Crabs, iv. 129, 151, 154
Crayfish, iv. 158
Cricket‐match on board ship, iv. 33
Crimean War, its lessons, i. 15, 19
Crimson snow, iii. 164
Croatoan Island, Virginia, ii. 2
Croker Mountains, an imaginary discovery by Sir John Ross, iii. 166,
170
Cromwell’s Navy, i. 232
Cromwell’s Navigation Act, ii. 30
Crossing the Line: old ceremonies, i. 229
Crozier, Captain: Arctic exploration, iii. 179, 230
Crusaders: their ships, i. 267, 269
Crusoe, Robinson: Alexander Selkirk; Defoe and the island of Juan
Fernandez, i. 33, 36
Crusoe’s Island (Tobago), i. 179; ii. 50
Crustaceans, iv. 150
Crystal Palace Aquarium, iv. 114
Cuba, i. 183;
Havana, 184;
the pirate Morgan, iii. 30, 31;
discovered by Columbus, 290
Culloden, i. 8
Cumberland, Earl of, as a pirate, i. 291, 295, ii. 16;
rich prizes, 292;
action with the “Madre de Dios,” 293;
_ Scourge of Malice_, i. 295;
voyage with Sir William Morison, ii. 17, 18
“Cumberland” sunk in action with the “Merrimac,” i. 20, 21, 22
Cunard steamers: the first, ii. 105, 106;
“Scotia,” “Bothnia,” 109;
success of the Cunard Company, 110
Cushing, Lieutenant: his attack on the “Albemarle,” ii. 149
Cust, Hon. Sir Edward, D.C.L.: his “Annals of the Wars of the
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries,” i. 11, 16
Cuttle‐fish, Gigantic, i. 31; iv. 147