On the 8th or 9th of January, 1815, we proceeded, in the PrincessCharlotte, Indiaman, to North-fleet Hope, and received on board ourcargo. On February 28th, we sailed to Gravesend, in company with theCompany's ships Ceres, Lady Melville, Rose, and Medcalfe, and arrivedat the Downs on the 3d of March. Our dispatches not being expected forsome time, we moored ship. Our time passed on very pleasantly till the27th inst., when the weather became rather boisterous, and accompaniedby a heavy swell. On the evening of the 28th, as the Hon. Company'sship Tarva, from Bengal, was rounding the Foreland, she struck on theGoodwin Sands, and was forced to cut away her masts to lighten her,and get her clear off. The Ceres drifted almost on board us; weslipped our cables, and with difficulty escaped the Goodwin Sands.
On the 1st of April the pursers joined their respective ships, and onthe 3d we made sail with a fair breeze, and soon cleared the Englishchannel. Nothing was now heard but confusion; the pilot having justleft the ship, the hoarse voice of the captain resounded through aspeaking trumpet, while the seamen were busy in making sail. We had afine steady breeze till we[4] made the Bay of Biscay, when we had astrong gale for three days.
After the hurry and bustle of the gale was over, we had a fine steadybreeze; I then began to feel an inward pleasure, and to rejoice in thepredilection I had imbibed from my earliest years.
We arrived on the equinoctial about eight o'clock in the evening ofthe 19th of April, when one of the oldest seamen is deputed Neptune;when he went into the head and hailed the ship in the usual form,Ship, hoa! ship, hoa! what ship is that? The chief officer replied,The Hon. Company's ship Princess Charlotte of Wales, and that he wouldbe glad of his company on the morrow. Gladly would I have dispensedwith it. On his quitting the vessel, as is supposed, a pitch cask wasthrown overboard on fire, which had the appearance of a boat till lostto view.
The next morning, about nine a. m., Neptune hailed the ship again,when he was invited on board (from the head). On the fore-part of thegang-way and after-part of the long-boat, a boom was placed across,and a tarpauling was hung in form of a curtain, so that when they werein readiness they took it down, and the procession moved on towardsthe cuddy, twelve of the officers walking in the front, two by twowith staves (broomsticks); next followed Neptune's car, (a gratingwith a chair covered with sheep skins) with Neptune, and his wife andchild, (a recruit's child, as we had 250 on board, of his majesty's46th regiment) Neptune bearing in his hand the granes with forksuppermost, and the representation of a dolphin on the middle prong,and Neptune's footman riding behind (barber) his carriage, dragged bythe constables. The captain and officers came out to meet him, andpresented him with a glass of gin, which was on this occasion termedwine. After the captain's health was drank, he desired them to proceedto business, and to make as m