The Maid of Sker · Chapter
Beating Up for the Navy explained
Davy Llewellyn, now Master aboard the Bellona, is tasked with a recruiting mission to press men for the Navy.
What happens
Davy Llewellyn, now Master aboard the Bellona, is tasked with a recruiting mission to press men for the Navy. He recounts his expedition to the Welsh coast and then to Devonshire, where he impresses a group of Parson Chowne's naked savages, as well as his old acquaintances Hezekiah and the tailor. The chapter highlights Davy's conflicted feelings about trespassing on Chowne's territory and his justification through duty and Providence.
Themes in this chapter
Morality and Hypocrisy
Davy justifies impressing Parson Chowne's savages as a 'great mercy' and duty, despite acknowledging the act's questionable legality and his own past grievances with Chowne.
Maritime Life and Adventure
The chapter details Davy's command of the Sealark, his recruiting cruise along the Welsh and Devonshire coasts, and the naval preparations for war.
Class Mobility and Ambition
Davy rises from a fisherman to Master aboard a seventy-four, entrusted with a key recruiting mission, reflecting his social ascent through naval service.
Characters to notice
- Davy Llewellyn
Now Master aboard the Bellona, Davy is tasked with a recruiting cruise and recounts his successful impressment of Parson Chowne's savage colony and others.
- Bardie
Visits Davy aboard the Sealark off Porthcawl, along with Bunny and others.
- Bunny
Visits Davy aboard the Sealark off Porthcawl.
- Parson Chowne
The owner of the naked savages that Davy impresses; Davy feels a delicacy about trespassing on his freehold.
- Hezekiah Perkins
Impressed by Davy after being made drunk; he is given six dozen lashes and later becomes useful for his oiliness.
- Captain Rodney Bluett
A junior lieutenant passed over for the recruiting berth; noted as not speaking Welsh.
- Mother Jones
Visits Davy aboard the Sealark off Porthcawl with her children.
- Moxy Thomas
Visits Davy aboard the Sealark off Porthcawl.
Key passages
“So when Providence, in a dream, laid before me the great mercy, and I might say miracle, of impressing the naked people, and bringing them under our good chaplain, to be trained from the error of their ways and live, I felt a sort of delicacy as to trespassing thus upon Parson Chowne's old freehold.”
Davy claims a divine dream inspired him to press the naked savages into naval service, though he hesitates out of respect for Parson Chowne's ownership of them.
Highlights Davy's moral justification and his conflicted loyalty to Chowne.
“We impressed not only my foe the tailor, but also Hezekiah! That is to say, it was not quite what might be called impressment; because, with no war raging yet, we could not resort to violence: but we made them both so entirely drunk, that we were compelled, for their own sake, to weigh anchor while having their bodies on board.”
Davy and his crew trick the tailor and Hezekiah into drunkenness and then take them aboard, technically not impressment since no force was used.
Illustrates the deceptive and morally ambiguous methods of naval recruitment.