Extracts from The Post Captain by John Davis

Page 120

The prisoners were now landed; and Mr Echo, who had so conspicuously distinguished himself on the deck of glory, was made lieutenant in the place of the one who had been slain.

Page 160

"Harry!" said Echo, "did you ever hear of a place called Gretna Green?"
"I have, Tom, it is the port that brings up the runaways. They go there to get spliced."
"Whereabouts is it?"
"I cannot exactly tell; but I think it is in Ireland. However, to be certain, I will go and overhaul my gazetteer."
While Hurricane was gone, Echo walked up and down the garden with disordered pace. A sailor never forgets his quarter-deck step.
"I have made the land, Tom," cried Hurricane, returning. "Gretna Green is in the chops of Scotland. It bears from Chelsea north-west three quarters north; and it is distant one hundred leagues. With a fair wind you may run it in two days, for the devil's in it if a post-chaise cannot sail at the rate of six knots an hour. And you was always a h...l of a fellow to carry sail."
"I will carry sail till I run my vessel under water."
"But will Sophonisba shove her boat off with you?"
"Yes; for when I asked her to shove off her boat with me for Gretna, she sighed like the wind when it whistles through a block, and said 'Love I will."' 'When did you ask her?"
"Why, just after I took that swig at her lips."
"You are a lucky fellow! Sophonisba would, I guess, either sail, scud, or lie-to, better than Flora or Cassandra. She has a noble pair of catheads for rousing an anchor up to her bows."
"She is more beautiful than the Brittania going large before the wind."
"How nicely she bends her sails!"
"What a clean run she has from her bows all the way to her counter!"
"What a pair of toplights!"
"What head-rails, Harry!"
"You'll be very happy, Tom!"
"She shall go to sea with me, Harry!"
"Go from sea. Tom. You are now both at Chelsea, and will leave it, I do not doubt, before the commodore at Spithead tumbles down the main hatchway."

Page 185

Let us now return to lieutenant Echo, and the fair Soponisba, whom we left together, dancing it away from Chelsea to Hyde-park corner. I can now behold the young officer handing the timid maid into a chaise, and the driver pursuing the road that leads towards Scotland. I behold the two pilgrims thus departing at night - not to rob, or to steal, or to betray - but to get to Gretna Green; a spot more delicious than the feigned gardens of Adonis or Alcinous. They travelled all night with inconceivable speed; never was there a quicker succession of chaises on the road. But the next morning, as they were about to enter the little village of Henley, their chaise broke down, and their flight was impeded.
Had the vessel of lieutenant Echo struck against a rock, he could not have been disposed to swear with more vehemence. I say disposed; for before he could articulate his first oath, the eye, the smile, the whole animated visage of Sophonisba soothed the transports of his rage! So true is it, that the presence of the fair sex never fails to soften men's manners.
In this mournful situation, a chaise was discovered behind, scouring furiously along the road, the horses snorting, the dust flying. ~ Sophonisba turned pale. "Here they overhaul us!" cried Echo. "Here they overhaul us hand over hand! - But no matter. I am ready for action." And, so saying, he put his hand into his pocket, and grasped a pistol, that he had provided for his defence.
The solicitude of Sophonisba very soon subsided. The chaise behind did not contain pursuers, but another tender couple, who were also dancing it away to the hymeneal altar; namely, William Tempest, esquire, late commander of his Britannic Majesty's ship, the Salamander, and Amelia Million, eldest daughter of Miles Million, esquire, banker, of the city of London.......

Page 189

At length they arrive at Carlisle; and now they are within one stage of Gretna-Hall. Fresh horses are ordered, and Echo beheld the structure of Gretna rise to his view with not less transport than the marine decries land.

Page 192

"Softly!" said the parson. "I always come to terms before I marry. Nor is it much. When lord Saddog ran away with Miss Wealthy, the banker's daughter, he gave me a hundred pound note for marrying them. I am well known....
"Well," replied Tempest, "do your duty, parson; I will give you the twenty guineas."

Page 194

Captain Tempest was now wedded to Amelia, and lieutenant Echo to Sophonisba. The parson's bill was paid; the horses were again put to, and back the bridegrooms and brides were conveyed with rapidity to Carlisle.

Page 195

Our married group remained a week at Carlisle, of whom it may be said, that each couple was one flesh.
Echo was now happy.

Page 196

The breast of Echo knew not this aching. Content with the possession of Sophonisba, he wanted not to multiply his money. Sophonisba to him was everything. She was his ship, his yatch, his barge, his pinnace. Indeed she was an exquisite girl. Before marriage she was lovely; but now she was an earthly houri.
Three weeks had now elapsed, when the wedded group returned to London. Tempest took a suite of rooms in St Jame's: and Echo carried his wife to Chelsea, where they were received with acclamations of heartfelt joy.

Page 201

Captain Brilliant, having settled his business in town, prepared to depart for Wales, whither Mr Hurricane and his wife, together with Mr Echo and his wife, had also resolved to go.

Page 202

Our party, in their journey to Bristol, took the more circuitous road to Salisbury, desirous to visit that famous city......Our party passed the night at Salisbury, and early the next morning proceeded to Bristol, where they put up at the Greyhound in Broad-Mead....After crossing the little river Severn, a day's easy journey brought our party to Caerfilly, from whence the chaises were dragged by the populace to the house of admiral Roughknot.

Page 209

"And so, Mrs Echo," said admiral Roughknot, "notwithstanding the vaunted powers of a red coat, you preferred a true-blue to it. You chose rather to join hand and heart with a lieutenant on half-pay, who had been all his life afloat, than an union with a quill-driver of extensive fortune."
Sophonisba smiled.
"And I am positive the young lieutenant is one of the happiest men that ever stepped between the stem and stern of a ship. He is never at rest but when he is sitting alongside of you, or has got you in tow."

Page 213

Captain Brilliant and his lady accepted the invitation of the admiral, to make his house their permanent abode; but lieutenant Hurricane and young Echo, having well considered the affair, hired, for twelvemonth, ready furnished lodgings in the neighbourhood of Swansea.

Page 221

It was at an early hour of the morning that the two lieutenants, and their lovely spouses, bade adieu to admiral Roughknot and their shipmates, captain Brilliant and his lady, and began their journey to Swansea...........The heart of Sophonisba danced with secret gladness. She loved retirement, but she loved an ardent lover in whose ear she could tell the pleasures of retirement, either in the morning, on the mountain-top; at noon, in the shade; or, at evening, before the door of her modest villa. Such a lover she now found under the endearing name of husband, a husband wholly devoted to her, as the fairest being in creation.

Page 232

We may now consider our gallant tars and their wives in their rural privacy, possessed of as much happiness as falls to the lot of humanity. The retrospect of their former days brought with it a self-approving conscience; and the horizon of their future life was gilded with sunshine, giving them assurance of health, peace and competence.

The Post-Captain; or, the Wooden Walls Well Manned by John Davis, pub. Thomas Tegg, London, 1806.

Thanks to Trevor Cree for drawing my attention to this book and sending the extracts shown here.

The relevance of this web page to Cree surname research is that the character of Sophonisba may have been loosely based on the life of Eleanor Cree. The book, a "rollicking romance" was written after her death by her husband John Davis. The facts concerning Eleanor's life are contained on her page in the Cree Online Genealogy Database.

Trevor Cree writes: I believe that most authors draw on their own personal experiences when writing their novels. That is why I felt that a review of one of John Davis's books could be useful. In "The Post-Captain" it is, I believe, noticeable that certain events and places in his own life are included in the book. The most relevant is his elopement to Gretna Green but we also have mention of Salisbury, Bristol and Swansea. As we know, James MacMahon Esq. of Swansea was included in John Cree's will and I believe that it is quite possible that John Davis and Eleanor Cree spent some time in Swansea after they married. The Post Captain is a "ripping yarn" full of naval slang and I believe authentic of certain aspects of naval life at a time when England was at war with France. In the book John Davis is Lieutenant Echo and Eleanor Cree is Sophonisba. Mr Echo was a midshipman who was promoted to Lieutenant after the capture of Le Fripon, whilst John Davis was also promoted to acting Lieutenant.

Clearly John Davis did not choose the names of the characters in The Post Captain at random. Following the custom of the time, they reflected their personalities or roles. So why Lieutenant Echo? Was he not in fact an echo of the author himself? And the under-age girl he marries? She is given the name Sophonisba. Trevor Cree has pointed to the Wikipedia entry which states,

Sophonisba (fl. 203 BC) was a Carthaginian noblewoman... [and] a celebrated beauty... Masinissa fell in love with Sophonisba and married her. Scipio, however, refused to agree to this arrangement, insisting on the immediate surrender of the princess so that she could be taken to Rome and appear in the triumphal parade. Masinissa, upbraided by Scipio for his weakness, was urged to leave her. Masinissa feared the Romans more than he loved Sophonisba. Thus, he went to Sophonisba and swore his love to her. He told her that he could not free her from captivity or shield her from Roman wrath, and so he asked her to die like a true Carthaginian princess. With great composure, she drank a cup of poison that he offered her. The outrage that Sophonisba escaped was being led in a triumphal parade at Rome with its accompanying degradations and humiliations.

Is my imagination running in overdrive or does this have sinister implications for Eleanor Cree's death? (I have already suggested that she may have died of a broken heart.)