The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands, Robert Michael Ballantyne [ebook pc reader txt] 📗

and caution. He began to be more circumspect in his replies to Mr Larks, and to put questions, in his turn, which soon induced that gentleman to discontinue his visits, so that Billy Towler again found himself in what might with propriety have been styled his normal condition--absolutely destitute of friends.

But Billy was not so destitute as he supposed himself to be--as we shall see.

Meanwhile Morley Jones went about his special business. He reported the loss of the sloop Nora; had it advertised in the _Gazette_; took the necessary steps to prove the fact; called at the office of the Submarine Insurance Company, and at the end of three weeks walked away, chuckling, with 300 pounds in his pocket!

In the satisfaction which the success of this piece of business induced, he opened his heart and mind pretty freely to his daughter Nora, and revealed not only the fact of Billy Towler's illness, but the place where he then lay. Until the money had been secured he had kept this a secret from her, and had sent Jim Welton on special business to Gravesend in order that he might be out of the way for a time, but, the motive being past, he made no more secret of the matter.

Nora, who had become deeply interested in the boy, resolved to have him brought up from Ramsgate to Yarmouth by means of love, not being possessed of money. The moment, therefore, that Jim Welton returned, she issued her commands that he should go straight off to Ramsgate, find the boy, and, by hook or crook, bring him to the "Garden of Eden," on pain of her utmost displeasure.

"But the thing an't possible," said Jim, "I haven't got money enough to do it."

"Then you must find money somehow, or make it," said Nora, firmly. "That dear boy _must_ be saved. When he was stopping here I wormed all his secrets out of his little heart, bless it--"

"I don't wonder!" interrupted Jim, with a look of admiration.

"And what do you think?" continued the girl, not noticing the interruption, "he confessed to me that he had been a regular London thief! Now I am quite sure that God will enable me to win him back, if I get him here--for I know that he is fond of me--and I am equally sure that he will be lost if he is again cast loose on the world."

"God bless you, Nora; I'll do my best to fetch him to 'ee, even if I should have to walk to Ramsgate and carry him here on my shoulders; but don't you think it would be as well also to keep him--forgive me, dear Nora, I _must_ say it--to keep him out of your father's way? He might teach him to drink, you know, if he taught him no worse, and that's bad enough."

Nora's face grew pale as she said--

"Oh, Jim, are you _sure_ there is nothing worse that he is likely to teach him? My father has a great deal of money just now, I--I hope that--"

"Why, Nora, you need not think he stole it," said Jim hurriedly, and with a somewhat confused look; "he got it in the regular way from the Insurance Company, and I couldn't say that there's anything absolutely wrong in the business; but--"

The young sailor stopped short and sighed deeply. Nora's countenance became still more pale, and she cast down her eyes, but spoke not a word for some moments.

"You _must_ bring the boy to me, Jim," she resumed, with a sudden start. "He may be in danger here, but there is almost certain ruin before him if he is left to fall back into his old way of life."

We need not trouble the reader with a detailed account of the means by which Jim Welton accomplished his object. Love prevailed--as it always did, always does, and always will--and ere many days had passed Billy Towler was once more a member of the drunkard's family, with the sweet presence of Nora ever near him, like an angel's wing overshadowing and protecting him from evil.


CHAPTER ELEVEN.


THE ANCIENT CORPORATION OF TRINITY HOUSE OF DEPTFORD STROND.

As landmarks--because of their affording variety, among other reasons-- are pleasant objects of contemplation to the weary traveller on a long and dusty road, so landmarks in a tale are useful as resting-places. We purpose, therefore, to relieve the reader, for a very brief period, from the strain of mingled fact and fiction in which we have hitherto indulged--turn into a siding, as it were--and, before getting on the main line again, devote a short chapter to pure and unmitigated fact.

So much has been said in previous chapters, and so much has yet to be said, about the lights, and buoys, and beacons which guard the shores of Old England, that it would be unpardonable as well as ungracious were we to omit making special reference to the ancient CORPORATION OF TRINITY HOUSE OF DEPTFORD STROND, under the able management of which the whole of the important work has been devised and carried into operation, and is now most efficiently maintained.

It cannot be too urgently pressed upon un-nautical--especially young-- readers, that the work which this Corporation does, and the duties which it performs, constitute what we may term _vital service_.

It would be too much, perhaps, to say that the life of the nation depends on the faithful and wise conduct of that service, but assuredly our national prosperity is intimately bound up with it. The annual list of ships wrecked and lives lost on the shores of the kingdom is appalling enough already, as every observant reader of the newspapers must know, but if the work of the Trinity House--the labours of the Elder Brethren--were suspended for a single year--if the lights, fixed and floating, were extinguished, and the buoys and beacons removed, the writer could not express, nor could the reader conceive, the awful crash of ruin, and the terrific cry of anguish that would sweep over the land from end to end, like the besom of destruction.

We leave to hard-headed politicians to say what, or whether, improvements of any kind might be made in connection with the Trinity Corporation. We do not pretend to be competent to judge whether or not that work might be _better_ done. All that we pretend to is a certain amount of competency to judge, and right to assert, that it is _well_ done, and one of the easiest ways to assure one's-self of that fact is, to go visit the lighthouses and light-vessels on the coast, and note their perfect management; the splendid adaptation of scientific discoveries to the ends they are designed to serve; the thoroughness, the cleanliness, the beauty of everything connected with the _materiel_ employed; the massive solidity and apparent indestructibility of the various structures erected and afloat; the method everywhere observable; the perfect organisation and the steady respectability of the light-keepers--observe and note all these things, we say, and it will be impossible to return from the investigation without a feeling that the management of this department of our coast service is in pre-eminently able hands.

Nor is this to be wondered at, when we reflect that the Corporation of Trinity House is composed chiefly (the acting part of it entirely) of nautical men--men who have spent their youth and manhood on the sea, and have had constantly to watch and guard against those very rocks and shoals, and traverse those channels which it is now their duty to light and buoy. [See note 1.]

It has been sagely remarked by some philosopher, we believe--at least it might have been if it has not--that everything must have a beginning. We agree with the proposition, and therefore conclude that the Corporation of Trinity House must have had a beginning, but that beginning would appear to be involved in those celebrated "mists of antiquity" which unhappily obscure so much that men would give their ears to know now-a-days.

Fire--which has probably been the cause of more destruction and confusion than all of the other elements put together--was the cause of the difficulty that now exists in tracing this ancient Corporation to its origin, as will be seen from the following quotation from a little "Memoir, drawn up the present Deputy-Master, and printed for private distribution," which was kindly lent to us by the present secretary of the House, and from which most of our information has been derived.

"The printed information hitherto extant [in regard to the Corporation of Trinity House] is limited to the charter of confirmation granted by James the Second (with the minor concession, by Charles the Second, of Thames Ballastage) and a compilation from the records of the Corporation down to 1746, by its then secretary, Mr Whormby, supplemented by a memoir drawn up, in 1822, by Captain Joseph Cotton, then Deputy-master. But the _data_ of these latter are necessarily imperfect, as the destruction by fire, in 1714, of the house in Water Lane had already involved a disastrous loss of documentary evidence, leaving much to be inferentially traced from collateral records of Admiralty and Navy Boards. These, however, sufficiently attest administrative powers and protective influence scarcely inferior to the scope of those departments."

More than a hundred years before the date of its original charter (1514) the Corporation existed in the form of a voluntary association of the "shipmen and mariners of England," to which reference is made in the charter as being an influential body of long standing even at that time, which protected maritime interests, and relieved the aged and indigent among the seafaring community, for which latter purpose they had erected an almshouse at Deptford, in Kent, where also were their headquarters. This society had inspired confidence and acquired authority to establish regulations for the navigation of ships and the government of seamen, which, by general consent, had been adopted throughout the service. It was, therefore, of tested and approved capacity, which at length resulted in the granting to it of a charter by Henry VIII in 1514.

From this date the history proper of the Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond begins. In the charter referred to it is first so named, and is described as "The Guild or Fraternity of the most glorious and undividable Trinity of Saint Clement." The subsequent charter of James I, and all later charters, are granted to "The Master, Wardens, and Assistants of the Guild, Fraternity, or Brotherhood of the most glorious and undivided Trinity, and of Saint Clement, in the parish of Deptford, in the county of Kent." The grant of Arms to the Corporation is dated 1573, and includes the motto, _Trinitas in Unitate_.

No reason can now be assigned for the application of its distinctive title. The mere fact that the constitution of the guild included provision for the maintenance of a chaplain, and for the conduct of divine service in the parish church, is not, we think, sufficient to account for it.

In the house or hall at Deptford, adjoining the almshouses, the business of the Corporation was first conducted. Afterwards, for the sake of convenient intercourse with shipowners and others, in a house in Ratcliffe; next at Stepney, and then in Water Lane, Tower Street. The tenement there falling into decay--after having been twice burnt and restored--was forsaken, and an estate was purchased on Tower Hill, on which the present Trinity House was built, from designs by Wyatt, in 1798.

A good idea of the _relative_ antiquity of the Corporation may be