Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall sp4.djvu/429

 When at a proper age, Mr. John Smith wa« bound apprentice to a mechanical trade; but his spirit rebelling against this arrangement, he took French leave of his relatives, and of the master they had provided for him; applied to the Marine Society, and was equipped and sent into the naval service by that institution, in 1798. Having received a tolerable education, and being a steady well-behaved lad, he was, after some time had elapsed, taken on the quarterdeck of the Merlin sloop. Captain William Robinson.

In Sept. 1801, the Merlin, cruising on the north side of Jamaica, captured a small Spanish privateer, mounting one gun on a circular sweep, and Mr. Smith, then rated master’s-mate, was sent in her with 20 men to cruise as a tender. “ln a few days,” says he, “at least half the crew were affected with nyctalopia. We were chased one calm morning by a large xebec, carrying from 80 to 100 men, and towards evening she was fast pulling up to us, our people having been fagging at their oars many hours, without any relief. Knowing that night would deprive half our crew of sight, it was proposed to try our strength with the enemy, while it was yet day-light; this was answered by three cheers. The oars were run across, and, the enemy by this time being within gun-shot, the action commenced. After a time, to our great relief, he sheered off and pulled away from us; we, in our turn, became the pursuers; but when night came on, we took especial care to lay our head from the xebec, and saw no more of her. This circumstance put me on devising some means of curing the people affected with night blindness, and I could think of none better than excluding the rays of the sun from one eye during the day, by placing a handkerchief over it; and I was pleased to find, on the succeeding night, that it completely answered the desired purpose, and that the patient could see perfectly well with the eye which had been covered during the day; so that in future, each person so affected had one eye for day, and the other for night; and it was amusing enough to see Jack guarding, with tender care, his night eye from any the slightest communication with the sun’s rays, and occasionally changing the 