AUTHOR'S PREFACE
The popularity of "The Green Hand," both among seamen and others, asbeing true to life, has been wide. It has, however, been thoughtdesirable to issue a revised edition, freed from various expressions nowto a certain extent obsolete or otherwise unsuitable, so as to make itmore thoroughly fit for juvenile readers.
Some considerable time has now elapsed since the period to which theseadventures refer, not without producing a good deal of alteration inmuch that goes on at sea, most especially in the outward accessories ofnautical life. The spanking frigate of former days, for instance, is nowno more; her place being, to the eye at any rate, ill taken up by theironclad screw-steamer. The mechanical appliances have been improved,particularly in the merchant service, as, for example, by thePatent-Reefing-Topsail, which is only one of the countless new helps tothe seaman. In navigation, instead of now taking five, six, or sevenmonths to reach Australia from this country, the captain of anyclipper-line sailing ship would be ashamed of himself if he did not doit within three. Not to multiply cases, Jack himself has, as a rule,added the moustache to his exuberance of whisker; he thinks better thanhe used to do of these excellent institutions, the Sailors' Homes; he isfrequently a temperance man, and has even been known to take the chairat a meeting for vindication of sailors' rights.
But the state of the case, from a plain practical point of view, ispretty well illustrated by an anecdote current at sea among forecastlestory-tellers. According to them, a singular discovery was made, someforty years or so back, in Portsmouth harbour, aboard no lessconspicuous a craft than that immortal three-decker hulk, H.M.S._Victory_ herself, when some alterations were being made down in herlower decks. There certain of the dock-yard people, having occasion tolift a small out-of-the-way lazarette hatch, down on the after-part ofthe orlop, which had been long covered with old coils of hawsers or thelike, were surprised to find a man lying beneath, who rubbed his eyes,stretched himself as if waking out of sleep, and was finally brought upon deck. From undoubted evidence, it turned out that he had been shutdown in joke, under the effect of some strange potion, his roughmessmates having, of course, intended to release him before long; but asudden commotion of a more important nature had arisen, owing to whichthey had forgotten him until too late, being themselves appointed onactive service abroad. Hence it occurred that he had been left there,fast enclosed and asleep, ever since shortly after Trafalgar, when the_Victory_ had come home with Nelson's body, and been paid off,dismantled, and moored in her place as a hulk. From a young reefer, thisgentleman had meanwhile grown into a grizzled oldster, on midshipman'shalf-pay, not likely to have his services further required, seeing thatthe French had long ceased to offer battle afloat. He was, however,freely invited into professional society, where his opinions on thechanges that had taken place were naturally much looked to. The thingshe is said to have principally remarked as new, were that pigtails hadgone out of fashion; the midshipmen's messes were supplied with silverforks; boatswains--in stimulating the men at work--put more force intotheir language, less into their rattans, and that the leading-blocks ofthe mizzen-topsail-reef-tackles hung at the slings of the yard insteadof being as formerly at the rim of the round-top; nor did he ever feelsure that such changes were for the better. This yarn, with a good moraltacked on at the end, in one form or another, still affordsentertainment to many a tarry audience in ships outward bound, at seconddog-watch time, when rolling down the Trades; particularly if spun bysome fluent ex-man-o'-war's-man from any of Her Majesty's iron-clads.The said moral generally being to the effect, that little difference ismade in essentials at sea by progress in the mere shoregoing world.
In the following story no great amount of correction requires to be madein bringing it up to date; and, except in a few minor points, I haveleft this to be done by each juvenile reader for himself, supposing thecase that he should ever find reason in his own professionalexperience. The terms _larboard_ and _starboard_ are both left in usethroughout the book, although the former has long been replaced by theword port--which, in my time, was chiefly confined to the helm, when theresemblance of sound would always have been dangerous at a suddenemergency. The cry "All larbowlins ahoy!" no longer is added to thesummons that rouses the sleepy watch below. But after everything issaid, the main realities of sea-life continue to be what they were.There is constant truth in those grand words known to us all:
Thy shores are empires, changed in all save Thee--
* * * * *
Unchangeable, save to thy wild waves' play, Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow.
The strangeness of foreign sights and tropical wonders has not altered;nor the thrill of excitement amid tempest; wind and weather are no-waydifferent; the sailor feels as much pride as ever in his ship's goodqualities; the occasion of danger still brings out his manhood;hearts-of-oak will always be ready to man our floating bulwarks so longas Britain remains.
If it were only in order to express a hearty belief in this, I am gladto have had the opportunity afforded by the few words prefixed to afresh edition of "The Green Hand." And to all you young readers who mustere long embark upon the troubled sea of life, success and a good voyageto you is the cordial wish of your sincere friend,
THE AUTHOR.
_Edinburgh, August 31, 1878._