Page 55 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

colonels were going to join their regiments in Madras: they were
pleasant and congenial companions for Loch, with whom they
messed on the long voyage out, and when they left him, on
arrival at Trincomalcc, lie says of them: ‘I shall ever remember
the many happy days and hours they assisted to while away on
the long, tedious, sameness of the passage from England.’
Because the crew were new, ‘as it were all strangers to each
other’, Loch was ‘rather uneasy as to carrying a heavy press of sail
during the night’, consequently in the morning all the ‘light sails
were taken in, and two reefs in the top sails.’ Even for practised
seamen, the first day or night in a new sailing ship must have been
something of an experience. However, all went well, and the
Eden ‘slip’d merrily along, crossing the Bay of Biscay almost with­
out a roll, and with no more motion than we had when lying at
anchor in Plymouth Sound’. With a wind from the cast, the
Eden averaged 124 miles in twenty-four hours. On June 18th,
she anchored in the Bay of Funchal, off the beautiful town of the
same name, the capital of Madeira. On the day after their arrival,
Loch and Rennie, the Captain of the Tees, were taken by the
British Consul, Mr. Reid, to pay their respects to the Governor,
who received them ‘with great politeness and good breeding,
contrary to what is generally stated of the Governors of Madeira,
and evinced every desire to be kind’. For some years, until 1814,
Madeira had been occupied by the British, but at the time of
Loch’s visit it was held by the Portuguese.
When sailors go ashore in foreign parts they seem to take every
opportunity of riding either on horses, camels or donkeys. As
far back as 1676, John Fryer describes how ‘The Europe sailors go
donkey riding and many are thrown off, both to the sport of the
standers by and mirth of their companions’. In recent times, when
British sloops called at Bahrain, one of the first questions which
the officers used to ask was whether they could borrow horses,
and go for a ride - and not all of them knew much about riding!
Probably at the beginning of the 19th century, naval officers were
more proficient riders than they are today. Having finished his
official duties, Loch with the two colonels, and two of the ‘young­
sters’ (midshipmen), started off on an expedition into the hills
behind Funchal. Loch had been lent a horse by Mr. Reid, the
others of the party were mounted on donkeys.
They followed a rough road across ravines, and stretches of open
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