Midshipman

“ There might be more guns hidden on the high land all round him. The cruisers might still oppose him valiantly, and there was but one hour of daylight remaining, yet he determined to make this last effort for entire success.
"Get back to the Laird as fast as you can," he said to Toddles, the midshipman of the boat, who had been looking with wonder at the change which had come over him.
"Back starboard; give way port. Pull, men, for your lives;" and with bending oars they drove the boat out to sea again, out between the destroyers, and splashed through the heavy seas. ”

“ A midshipman generally has charge of one of the boats, and takes great pride in keeping it and its crew well up to the mark. The "young gentlemen" drill under the gunnery lieutenant before breakfast, work with the chaplain or naval instructor during the forenoon, and at any moment must be ready to go away in charge of their boats. Every midshipman is expected to keep a daily "log", which is periodically inspected by the captain. ”

“ Midshipman Easy was strong on the necessity for the gunner mastering navigation, and had many instances in point where all the officers had been killed down to the gunner, who in such case would have been sadly handicapped by ignorance of navigation. I fancy the doubt seldom needed to be settled in service; the duties of midshipman and boatswain could rarely come into collision, if each minded his own business. By luck, just after writing these words, I for the first time in my life have found a plausible derivation for midshipman. ”

“ Phil bowed his willingness, and the foreign officer beckoning the quartermaster to follow with his lantern, the two disappeared within the cabin.
The disguised midshipman saw the launch crawl slowly ahead, and a moment afterward his straining ear caught the indistinct sound of a body being lowered into the whale-boat tied at the boom of the gunboat. ”

“ The rank of a master in the service is above that of a midshipman, but still the midshipman is a gentleman by birth, and the master, generally speaking, is not. Even at this moment, in the service, if the master were to damn the eyes of a midshipman, and tell him that he was a liar, would there be any redress, or if so, would it be commensurate to the insult? ”

“ Arriving in good time abreast of the wooden Midshipman on the opposite side of the way, and waiting for an opportunity to cross the street, they were a little surprised at first to see, at the Instrument-maker's door, a round-headed lad, with his chubby face addressed towards the sky, who, as they looked at him, suddenly thrust into his capacious mouth two fingers of each hand, and with the assistance of that machinery whistled, with astonishing shrillness, to some pigeons at a considerable elevation in the air. ”

“ Who would not rather command a gunboat, or even a despatch vessel or fire-ship, than be a junior lieutenant, mate, or midshipman on board a line-of-battle ship or the smartest frigate afloat? Such were Murray’s feelings as he and Adair paced the deck of the somewhat unseaworthy little schooner of which he had been placed in charge by Captain Grant. While he stood away towards Sierra Leone, the Ranger continued her course to the southward. ”

“ He achieved nothing spectacular in a way, but he always tried to do his duty and something more. The British midshipman of that era was often a mere rosy-cheeked infant who pranced into the thick of a boarding-party with his cutlass and dirk or bullied a boat’s crew of old salts in some desperate adventure on an enemy’s coast. The precocious breed survives in the Royal Navy of to-day, and in the great battleships270 of the Grand Fleet, at Rosyth or Scapa Flow, you might have seen these bantam midshipmen standing a deck watch with all the dignity of a four-starred admiral. ”

“ I ended up by saying that "Mr. Arthur Bouchier Christie, midshipman, and Mr. Thomas Algernon Foote, midshipman, chums of mine, would like to go too".
I was very careful to give their full names to prevent mistakes, and put "midshipman" after their names just to show that they had also passed out of the Britannia. near the top of the list, and so must be pretty good at chasing "X and Y", which, of course, is a great "leg up" in the navy.
Two mornings after this Milly sent me a postcard: "Hope to manage it for the three of you". ”

“ I've been brought up to believe a midshipman could not do a dishonorable thing and remain a midshipman; is Bligh to do a scoundrelly act and not only go unpunished but also to have the secret of it kept by us who would have been disgraced if he had succeeded in his purpose? ”

“ A midshipman you might get hold of, but it’s more than the whole island dare to touch a post-captain of one of his Majesty’s frigates.” So Jack took the paper and wrote Captain Henry Wilson, of his Majesty’s ship Aurora. ”

“ Half an hour later the Midshipman of the Second Picket Boat, garbed in the "rig of the day," was ladling sugar over his porridge with the abandon of one who is seventeen and master of his fate. A messenger appeared at the gunroom door—
"Duty Steam Boat's called away, sir."
Her Midshipman locked away his pet marmalade-pot (for there are limits even to the communism of a gunroom) and reached for his cap and dirk. "We ain't got much money," he observed grimly, "but we do see life!" ”

“ Unless the midshipman has an unconquerable aversion to the acquisition of those qualifications, which are so essential to his improvement, he will very rarely want opportunities of making a progress therein. Every step he advances in those meritorious employments, will facilitate his accession to the next in order. If the dunces, who are his officers or mess-mates, are rattling the dice, roaring bad verses, hissing on the flute, or scraping discord from the fiddle, his attention to more noble studies will sweeten the hours of relaxation. ”

“ Midshipman is accordingly the station in which a young volunteer is trained in the several exercises, necessary to attain a sufficient knowledge of the machinery, discipline, movements, and military operations of a ship, to qualify him for a sea-officer. ”

“ On graduation the midshipman is an officer of the Navy, though a very humble one. The graduated midshipman's uniform is a more imposing affair than the uniform of a midshipman who is still merely a member of the brigade at the Naval Academy. ”

“ The first lieutenant of the Aurora was a very good officer in many respects, but, as a midshipman, he had contracted the habit of putting his hands in his pockets, and could never keep them out, even when the ship was in a gale of wind; and hands are of some use in a heavy lurch. ”

“ There’s something wonderfully cheering in a good meal, and though only a boy, still the midshipman felt like a new man as he went on deck, ready for anything now, and determined to make a brave fight against any odds of enemy or weather to get his prizes under the wing of the Nautilus, or into port. ”

“ MIDSHIPMAN, the title in the British and American navies of the “young gentlemen” who are serving in order to qualify themselves to hold a commission as lieutenant. The English midshipman was originally a petty officer, one of the crew under the immediate orders of the boatswain. ”

“ When do we sail?”
“The day after to-morrow.”
“To join the fleet off Toulon?”
“Yes; but I suppose we shall be driven on the Spanish coast going there. I never knew a man-of-war that was not.”
“No; wind always blows from the South going up the Mediterranean.”
“Perhaps you’ll take another prize, Jack—mind you don’t go away without the articles of war.”
“I won’t go away without Mesty, if I can help it. Oh, dear, how abominable a midshipman’s berth is after a long run on shore! I positively must go on deck and look at the shore, if I can do nothing else.” ”

“ Five minutes later Phil received a summons from the admiral, which he obeyed with alacrity. On entering the cabin the astonished boy found himself in the presence of General Barras and Admiral Spotts. The midshipman drew himself up stiffly to “attention,” not daring to glance at these important men; his heart beat wildly. ”

“ That is, coming in as a midshipman at fifteen, not till twenty-nine, after ten to twelve years probably on a sea-going vessel, was a man found fit, by official position, to take charge of a ship at sea, or to command a division of guns. True, the famous Billy Culmer, of the British navy, under a system of selection found himself a midshipman still at fifty-six, and then declined a commission on the ground that he preferred to continue senior midshipman rather than be the junior lieutenant ”

“ That is the Midshipman of the olden day, and one often has misgivings that the modern system of sending boys to sea much older is a bad one, when such magnificent results were produced by the old method, more especially as in the former days the Captain had a more paternal charge of those little boys coming on board one by one, as compared with the present crowd sent in batches of big hulking giants, some of them. ”

“ That a midshipman is an officer has been understood ever since there was a navy. He is not one of the common seamen. His name indicates a middle position between that of a superior officer and that of the common seaman. ”

“ In the American Navy, these officers form a class of young men, who, having seen sufficient service at sea as midshipmen to pass an examination before a Board of Commodores, are promoted to the rank of passed-midshipmen, introductory to that of lieutenant. They are supposed to be qualified to do duty as lieutenants, and in some cases temporarily serve as such. The difference between a passed-midshipman and a midshipman may be also inferred from their respective rates of pay. ”

“ Hark to the boatswain's call, the cheering cry, While through the seaman's hand the tackle glides Or schoolboy midshipman that, standing by, Strains his shrill pipe, as good or ill betides, And well the docile crew that skilful urchin guides. ”

“ I am afraid he has too great a command of money ever to be fond of the ship; it is the ruin of a junior officer to be so lavishly supplied."
"He's a long way from ruin yet, Wilson—he's a very fine fellow, even by your own acknowledgment. You humoured him out of gratitude to his father, when he first came into the service; humour him a little now to keep him in it. Besides, if your first lieutenant is such a fool with his universal medicine, can you wonder at a midshipman taking advantage of it?" ”

“ Glancing about and motioning a smart-looking petty officer to advance, “O’Neil, here, is in our division.” Then addressing the attentive coxswain, “You are excused from other work and will lend Mr. Perry a hand. He is our new midshipman, and is about to direct the work on the forecastle.” Then again turning to Phil and dropping his voice: “That’s a splendid man, he knows the name of every man on board. ”

“ I have never revisited my ancestral halls since I left them with Larry to go to sea; and, to say the truth, the Encumbered Estates Court knows more about them than I do. The ocean is my only heritage; my ship is my wife, and I look on my crew as my children. I went to sea again as a midshipman; then, after passing, I spent four years as a mate, and six as a lieutenant; during which time I saw a good deal of hard service. At length I got my promotion as a commander, and have still to look for my post step.
Every career has its trials. A naval life has many ”

“ The skipper braced himself firmly against the topmost head, raised the telescope to his eye, and took a good long look at the stranger, closed the glass sharply, and descended to the deck again with all the agility of a monkey—or a midshipman.
“She is a lugger, sure enough; and a large one too,” he remarked, as he rejoined the first lieutenant. “There can be no doubt that she is French; and I have a strong suspicion that she is a privateer on the lookout for some of our homeward-bound vessels. ”

“ A captain seldom waits for a midshipman, and we took good care he should not wait for us. The dinner was in all respects one “on service.” The captain said a great deal, the lieutenants very little, and the midshipmen nothing at all; but the performance of the knife and fork, and wine-glass (as far as it could be got at) , were exactly in the inverse ratio. The company consisted of my own captain, and two others, our first lieutenant, Murphy, and myself. ”

“ If the law designates a cadet as a midshipman, the designation is an official one. The qualification of cadet midshipman is used for the sake of distinction, to distinguish one kind of midshipman from another,-a midshipman at school from a midshipman aboard ship. ”

“ I should advise all midshipmen not to miss an opportunity of seeing a ship fitted out, if they possibly can. They will find it will save them an immense deal of after trouble, and prove the quickest way of gaining a knowledge of their future home. Meantime Larry was as busy as a bee in getting my kit in order, aided by his better half; and few midshipmen ever obtained so good an insight at so cheap a rate. I got leave to run over to Ryde for a couple of days to wish my aunt and young cousins good-bye. I asked after Alice Marlow. ”

“ That's almost too much of a brag to make, Belle. The truth is, no fellow is safe until he has been commissioned as an ensign, and that's at least two years after he has graduated from the Naval Academy. Why even after examination, you know, a fellow has to go to sea for two years, as a midshipman, and then take another and final examination at sea. ”

“ Midshipman Philip Perry exclaimed, a ring of triumph in his voice as he turned toward his fellow midshipman, Sydney Monroe. Friends of long [11] standing were these two; for four years at the Naval Academy at Annapolis they had been companions and classmates, and during the past year they had together witnessed stirring service in South America and in China. ”