n
the boatsman" (who was the officer next to the captain) "cried with an
oath: 'I see a great ship.' Then the master (that is, the captain)
whistled and bade the mariners lay the cable to the windlass to wind
and weigh (that is, heave the anchor up). Then the mariners began to
wind the cable in with many a loud cry; and, as one cried, all the
others cried in that same tune, as it had been an echo in a cave.
'Veer, veer; veer, veer; gentle gallants, gentle gallants! Wind, I see
him! Wind, I see him! _Pourbossa, pourbossa_! Haul all and one!'"
When the anchor was hauled above the water they cried: "_Caupon,
caupon; caupon, cola; caupon holt; Sarrabossa_!" When setting sail
they began with the same kind of gibberish. "_Hou_! _Hou_! _Pulpela,
Pulpela_! Hard out strife! Before the wind! God send! God send!
Fair weather! Many Prizes! Many Prizes! Stow! Stow! Make fast and
belay--Heisa! Heisa! One long pull! One long pull! Young blood!
More mud! There, there! Yellow hair! Great and small! One and all!"
The "yellow hair" refers to the fair-haired Norsemen. What the master
told the steersman might have been said by any skipper of our own day:
"Keep full and by! Luff! Con her! Steady! Keep close!" But what he
told the "Boatswain" next takes us back three hundred years and more.
"Bear stones and limepots full of lime to the top" (whence they would
make it pretty hot for an enemy held fast alongside). The orders to
the artillery and infantry on board are equally old and very odd when
we remember modern war. "Gunners, make ready your cannons, culverins,
falcons, sakers, slings, head-sticks, murdering pieces, passevolants,
bazzils, dogges, arquebusses, calivers, and hail shots! Souldiers,
make ready your cross-bows, hand-bows, fire-spars, hail-shot, lances,
pikes, halberds, rondels, two-handed swords, and targes!" Yet, old as
all this was, the artillery seems to have made a good many noises that
would have been familiar to those of us who heard the noises of the
Great War. "I heard the cannons and guns make many hideous cracks"
(like the stabbing six-inchers). "The bazzils and falcons cried
_tir-duf, tir-duf, tir-duf_" (like the anti-aircraft "Archies"). Then
the small artillery cried _tik-tak, tik-tak, tik-tak_ (something like
the rattle of machine-guns, only very much slower).

The cannons of those days seem like mere pop-guns to those who knew the
British Grand Fleet that swept the Germans o