A youthful man-o'-warsman, from the diary of an English lad ..who served in the British frigate Macedonian during her memorable action with the American frigate United States; who afterward deserted and entered the American Navy .. . qualities hadcommended themselves to the Admiralty. Among the popular members of the Mace-donians ships company was a negro namedNugent. He had a fine presence, polite mannersand easy address which had won for him pro-motion to a wardroom servant. As he was anAmerican, however, and had been unjustly im-pressed in the British service, he had long kept a weather eye
A youthful man-o'-warsman, from the diary of an English lad ..who served in the British frigate Macedonian during her memorable action with the American frigate United States; who afterward deserted and entered the American Navy .. . qualities hadcommended themselves to the Admiralty. Among the popular members of the Mace-donians ships company was a negro namedNugent. He had a fine presence, polite mannersand easy address which had won for him pro-motion to a wardroom servant. As he was anAmerican, however, and had been unjustly im-pressed in the British service, he had long kept a weather eye open for an opportunity to escape. Soon after the return of the squadron to Lis-bon, as just narrated, Nugent found his chanceand managed to get aboard an American ship thatwas shortly to sail for the other side of the At-lantic. So far, his effort to escape had beenentirely successful for the British officers had notbeen able to trace him. But one unlucky day, while Nugent was stand-ing in full view on the deck of his ship, an officeron the Macedonians quarter deck, who had thevery professional habit of leveling his spyglass atany and every thing in sight, happened to bringNugent within the field of his vision; and, recog-. A BOAT ITTTIXc; Oil- 1-RuM AX EX(JLISH WAUSIIIIFrom the original painting by R. Wcstall. « Impressing Skamrn. 57 nizinq- the deserter, sent a boat off which soonreturned with the ofTender. Punishment for de-sertion from the Britisli navy, at that time, wasexceedingly brutal. Nu^c^cnt was placed in ironsuntil the ship again ^rot to sea but, owing to hisgeneral popularity and favor with the officers, hegot off without the dreaded flogging. In those days British officers were unscru-pulous in impressing men into their service, itfrequently happening that citizens of other na-tions were seized in the streets and hurried off toBritish war ships. Of course, these men couldappeal to their consuls and, in some cases, werereleased. But, in many instances (such as
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectsailors, bookyear1910
