Page 54 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

CHAPTER IV

FROM PLYMOUTH TO TRINCOMALEE

‘The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,
Merrily did we drop
Below the kirk, below the hill,
Below the lighthouse top.’
The Ancient Mariner: Samuel Coleridge - 1722-1834

f June 9th 1818, athalfpastoncin the afternoon, H.M.S.
I 1 Eden weighed anchor in Plymouth Sound, and set sail for
JIndia and the Persian Gulf, in company with H.M.S. Tees,
bound for St. Helena. It was delightful weather, and a firm
breeze was blowing from the cast. The Eden was commanded by
Captain Francis E. Loch, who had been commissioned in March
by Lord Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty, to fit her for India.
She mounted 26 guns, and had a complement of 125 officers and
men. All the officers and men were new to Loch with the excep­
tion of Lieutenant Moffath, an old friend of his who had served
with him in H.M.S. Minstrel. Loch had a high opinion of Mof-
fath’s capabilities; he had been with Loch in Plymouth during the
two months that it took to fit the ship for the voyage, and it was
due to his ‘amiability and excellence of temper, added to strong
good sense* that everything had gone smoothly. He was always
known as ‘Old Moffath’, not on account of his age, but because
he had a very staid manner. In the Eden, Moffath was the junior
lieutenant, rather to Loch’s regret, because both the other two
lieutenants who had joined the ship were senior to him.
Besides the Captain, there were three lieutenants, a marine
officer, a* master, two surgeons, a purser, two mates, seven mid­
shipmen and a Captain’s clerk. In addition to the ship’s officer
there were two passengers, Colonel John Manscl, C.B., and
Colonel Dunkin, of the 34th Regiment. Mansel, who was in
the 53 rd Regiment also kept a diary, but unfortunately the only
entries during his voyage in the Eden were notes giving the dates
of arrival and departure at the ports which were visited. The two
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