My resistance
to the brutality of our common taskmaster had pleased them; they told
me what a tyrant and what a disgrace to the service he was, and how
shameful it was that he should be entrusted with the command of so
fine a vessel, or of any vessel at all, except it were a convict ship.
The stories they told me of him were almost incredible, and nothing
but the too well founded idea, that an officer trying his captain by
a court-martial, had a black mark against him for ever after, and was
never known to rise, could have saved this man from the punishment he
so richly deserved: no officer, they said, had been more than three
weeks in the ship, and they were all making interest to leave her.
In my report of what occurred in this vessel during the time I
belonged to her, I must, in justice to the captains and commanders of
his Majesty's navy observe, that the case was unique of its kind--such
a character as Captain G---- was rarely met with in the navy then,
and, for reasons which I shall give, will be still more rare in
future. The first lieutenant told me that I had acted very judiciously
in resisting at first his undue exertion of authority; that he was
at once a tyrant, a bully, and a coward, and would be careful how he
attacked me again. "But be on your guard," said he, "he will never
forgive you; and, when he is most agreeable, there is the most
mischief to be dreaded. He will lull you into security, and, whenever
he can catch you tripping, he will try you by a court-martial.
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