A few letters which my father wrote home from the Halifax station,
covering a period of about twelve months from July 1817, I set out here
as giving better than any comment of my own an account of his life and
experiences in Nova Scotia at that time. They present a self-reliant
character, and the young midshipman who was so early recognised by his
superior officers as efficient and capable was found worthy of a small,
but most important, command soon after joining this station. His father,
Sir Joseph Yorke, who lost no opportunity of watching his son's progress
in his profession, was a little nervous at his undertaking a
responsibility of the kind, but how well his superiors' confidence was
justified will be evident from his letters. Young Yorke was full of
pride in his little sloop the _Jane_, and there is no hint in his
letters of the risk and danger of this service. As a fact, she was an
exceedingly difficult craft to handle, and if not unseaworthy, was, to
say the least, an unpleasant vessel in a sea, with decks constantly
awash, and the character she bore in the service appears in her nickname
the _Crazy Jane_. I have often heard my father describe this as a
most arduous and dangerous service, and say that life upon the
_Jane_ was 'like living on a fish's back.' In her he made voyages
to Bermuda from Halifax and back with despatches and ships' mails in
very heavy weather, and I find the following note referring to this
service in my mother's handwriting:

'C. commanded the _Jane_ at the age of nineteen, carrying mails
from Bermuda to Halifax during winter months when ordinary mail was
struck off, during which perilous service he had not a man on board who
could write or take an observation. This _crazy Jane_ was hardly
seaworthy, and he finished her career and nearly his own by running her