Bower a peer of this realm! a fellow of yesterday, that scarce
knows a mast from a manger! a snotty-nose boy, whom I myself have
ordered to the gun, for stealing eggs out of the hen-coops! and
I, Hawser Trunnion, who commanded a ship before be could keep a
reckoning, am laid aside, d'ye see, and forgotten! If so be as this
be the case, there is a rotten plank in our constitution, which
ought to be hove down and repaired, d-- my eyes! For my own part,
d'ye see, I was none of your Guinea pigs: I did not rise in the
service by parlamenteering interest, or a handsome b-- of a wife.
I was not over the bellies of better men, nor strutted athwart the
quarter-deck in a laced doublet, and thingumbobs at the wrists. D--
my limbs! I have been a hard-working man, and served all offices
on board from cook's shifter to the command of a vessel. Here, you
Tunley, there's the hand of a seaman, you dog."
So saying, he laid hold on the landlord's fist, and honoured him with
such a squeeze, as compelled him to roar with great vociferation, to
the infinite satisfaction of the commodore, whose features were a
little unblended by this acknowledgment of his vigour; and he thus
proceeded, in a less outrageous strain: "They make a d--d noise
about this engagement with the French: but, egad! it was no more
than a bumboat battle, in comparison with some that I have seen.
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