Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1882-08-05
A MONTGOMERY COUNTY BOY ON A FOR
EiGN CRUISE.

We re-publish the following letter
clipped from the Mount Vernon 20.
Banner. 1t was written by yount
DR.. H. W. Whitaker, Montgomer,
county boy, and son of DR.. II. M. Whit
taker of this county. He is now al
Assistant Surgeon in the United
States Navy, and is at present on ;
foreign cruise with the U. S. training
ship, Portsmouth" This letter vii
doubtless interest his many friends
and acquaintance in this county.
The U. S. Training Squadron sailed
from Newport, with the Portsmouth
as flagship, for a asummer cruise il
Europe, on April 18th. This training
system is for boys who wish to make
thorough and practical seamen; they
are taken from the ages OF fourteen tC
eighteen and are kept until twenty
one years OF age, by which time they
have learned enough to be thorough
seamen, and are ready to go aboard a
man of war as such; by this means a
UGIUCI
set of men is brought into the service
The boys do all the work in regular
routine and in a short time an apt
boy will "fall in" and be "tar" with
amazing rapidity The winter months
are spent III hibernating, as 1t were,
in port with their scholastic duties,
and in early spring they are taken to
sea for the summer, that they may
| learn what it is to be "jolly tar and
sail the ocean blue"
Our first DAYS out were mild, in fact
we were becalmed the second morn
ing and everything seemed to bid fair
for mild and pleasant voyage for our
youthful crew-for some Pm sure you
would say, ought to remain for a
mothers care, so young and small they
were-but April winds are not to be
trusted; for how soon did they gather
and drive the sails they may chance to
find into a gale! Such was in store
for us; they woed us at first but twas
only to deceive us. The fourth day
brought us into a roaring, raging gale,
which lasted with varying force for
ten days; the sea ran high and squalls
were frequent, we were "hove to" for
more than day with reefed mainsail,
and it was the hum of desolation that
the wind made rushing through the
bare rigging. So great was the roll
ing at one time that heavy seas would
come over the sides and go rushing
over the decks from one side to the
other with each roll The life lines
were set early, and in spite of them, a
man would fetch up i'll most undig-
nitied manner at some unexpected
place. He would get up with his
clothes soaking wet and an expression
of extreme contempt on his face, par
ticularly if he were trying to eat either
of his unceremoniOus meals; such a
thing as eating from table would be
extremely ridiculous at such times as
that The nights were little spent in
sleeping, but entirely consumed by
vain endeavOrs to retain ones self in
his bunk Nobly our little ship braved
the storm and rode the waves some
times at the rate of fifteen knots until
the fury of the storm had passed and
left us within three hundred miles of
our first anchorage. The sea went
down and we sailed nicely till the
nineteenth day out which left us in
another calm ninety miles off Scilly
Islands. We were here only twelve
hours when a gentle breeze took us
past the light house ON Sunday morn
ing at 10 Scilly Islands were our
first land, eagerly did every one look
to the horizon to catch glimpse of
land, so compensatory was the look of
something green! Only two sails did
we meet the whole of our journeying
and to have something to refresh the
eye was indeed satisfying We had
the pleasure of watching the slow APP
proach, at first an indistinct outline,
then the shape of hills, then houses,
then the pure, living green! These
islands were passed, then Lands End"
which is the extreme corner of Eng
land wound up with its peculiar blue
color and abrupt chalky cliffs. On the
other side is the cave in which the
Pirates of Penzance" had their abode.
These pirates are made familiar to us
all by Gilbert Il Sullivan. The coast
of England is desolate looking and
fit place for pirates in the days long
past. Many ships have been lost near
this point and the cargOes entirely
consumed by the people who lived
there, and took it as God send to
have ship lost, so poorly did they
live.
When we had gone little further
up the channel we picked up pilot
to take us into Plymouth, and we
turned in that ght feeling comfortable
over the idea of being at anchor when
the morning would come. This was
the topic of our last conversation be-
fore giving ourselves up to the dreams
of those we had left so far behind us.
At 1915 there came heavy thud, fol-
lowed by a quiver, then harsh scrap
ing noise something similar to that
made by the anchor chains running
out-what could it be? a collision. |
In few moments every officer was |
ON deck, eager to know the result, !
which showed that we had clashed |
with a schooner without injury to |
ourselves, but not without some to the |
other more unfortunate rig.
When the light of morning came |
sure enough it found us riding at an
chor in the bay of Plymouth, having
made the passage in twenty days with
I'LL IldIluS We'll. we NCIC al OlO Alo-
toric Plymouth. Quite inexpressible
were the first impressions gained by
rapid glance from the quarter deck.
The rugged hills on every side glori-
ously beautiful, while the heavy forti-
fications looked down upon us with al
most repugnance, the sOlidity of which
told us It was truly English.
Plymouth is one of the naval sta
lions and only second to that OF Ports
mouth. The town is old and quaint,
and the surroundings are modern and
oft he typical English substantial kind;
streets narrow, very irregular, but
clean. In the reign of Henry III, it was
4 small town, the home of fishermen,
Dating so far back, it is the
home of many historical events many
Of their monuments remaining to-day.
From its geographical position and
it has been place Of
much contention from time to time,
md is now OF much importance, but
nlpregnably fortified. One of the
most striking historical land marks is
- q III az stands IN n hill nnt far from