But now it was that our new second and third lieutenants showed their mettle, for on the very night of my arrival on board they organised two formidable pressgangs, which they led ashore, one party landing at Portsmouth and the other at Gosport; and between them they managed to make a clean sweep of pretty nearly all the crimps' houses within a radius of four miles of the harbour, returning to the ship shortly before daylight the next morning considerably battered and the worse for wear--for they had been engaged in a series of desperate hand-to-hand fights--but bringing with them sixty-three fine, able-bodied merchant seamen, who had been in close hiding while awaiting a berth.
