The Brassbounder: A Tale of the Sea
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Title: The Brassbounder: A Tale of the Sea
Author: David W. Bone
Release date: March 4, 2010 [eBook #31497]
Most recently updated: January 6, 2021
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31497
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BRASSBOUNDER: A TALE OF THE SEA ***
Produced by Al Haines
THE BRASSBOUNDER
_A Tale of the Sea_
by
DAVID W. BONE
AUTHOR OF "BROKEN STOWAGE"
DUCKWORTH
3 HENRIETTA STREET
LONDON, W.C.2.
All Rights Reserved
First published 1910. Reprinted (twice) 1910.
Reprinted 1911. Popular Edition printed 1913.
Reprinted 1916 and 1924.
Reprinted (New Readers Library) 1927.
Made and Printed in Great Britain by
The Camelot Press Limited
London and Southampton
TO
JAMES HAMILTON MUIR
THE NEW READERS LIBRARY
1. GREEN MANSIONS by W. H. HUDSON
2. THE POLYGLOTS by WILLIAM GERHARDI
3. THE SEA AND THE JUNGLE by H. M. TOMLINSON
4. THE ROADMENDER by MICHAEL FAIRLESS
5. THE TERROR by ARTHUR MACHEN
6. LOST DIARIES by MAURICE BARING
7. THE BONADVENTURE by EDMUND BLUNDEN
8. SUCCESS by CUNNINGHAM GRAHAM
9. BIRDS AND MAN by W. H. HUDSON
10. THE BLACK MONK by ANTON TCHEKOFF
11. GOD'S COUNTRY by JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD
12. BUCOLIC COMEDIES by EDITH SITWELL
13. THE BRASSBOUNDER by DAVID W. BONE
14. THE PURPLE LAND by W. H. HUDSON
15. CALABAN'S GUIDE TO LETTERS AND LAMKIN'S REMAINS by HILAIRE BELLOC
16. OBITER DICTA by AUGUSTINE BIRRELL
17. AMARYLLIS AT THE FAIR by RICHARD JEFFERIES
18. A CRYSTAL AGE by W. H. HUDSON
19. THE KISS by ANTON TCHEKOFF
20. GOSSIP OF THE 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES by JOHN BERESFORD
21. FUTILITY by WILLIAM GERHARDI
22. TRIPLE FUGUE by OSBERT SITWELL
23. EL OMBÚ by W. H. HUDSON
24. SIX SHORT PLAYS by JOHN GALSWORTHY
CONTENTS
I. THE 'BLUE PETER'
II. STEERSMANSHIP
III. THE WAY OF THE HALF-DECK
IV. THE 'DEAD HORSE'
V. 'SEA PRICE'
VI. ROUNDING THE HORN
VII. A HOT CARGO
VIII. WORK!
IX. IN 'FRISCO TOWN
X. THE DIFFICULTY WITH THE 'TORREADOR'S'
XI. THE 'CONVALESCENT'
XII. ON THE SACRAMENTO
XIII. HOMEWARD!
XIV. A TRICK AT THE WHEEL
XV. ''OLY JOES'
XVI. EAST, HALF SOUTH!
XVII. ADRIFT
XVIII. "----AFTER FORTY YEAR!"
XIX. 'IN LITTLE SCOTLAND'
XX. UNDER THE FLAG
XXI. 'DOLDRUMS'
XXII. ON SUNDAY
XXIII. A LANDFALL
XXIV. FALMOUTH FOR ORDERS
XXV. "T' WIND'ARD!"
XXVI. LIKE A MAN
EPILOGUE: "1910"
THE BRASSBOUNDER
I
THE 'BLUE PETER'
Ding ... dong.... Ding ... dong. The university bells toll out in
strength of tone that tells of south-west winds and misty weather. On
the street below my window familiar city noises, unheeded by day,
strike tellingly on the ear--hoof-strokes and rattle of wheels, tramp
of feet on the stone flags, a snatch of song from a late reveller, then
silence, broken in a little by the deep mournful note of a steamer's
siren, wind-borne through the Kelvin Valley, or the shrilling of an
engine whistle that marks a driver impatient at the junction points.
Sleepless, I think of my coming voyage, of the long months--years,
perhaps--that will come and go ere next I lie awake hearkening to the
night voices of my native city. My days of holiday--an all too brief
spell of comfort and shore living--are over; another peal or more of
the familiar bells and my emissary of the fates--a Gorbals cabman,
belike--will be at the door, ready to set me rattling over the granite
setts on the direct road that leads by Bath Street, Finnieston, and
Cape Horn--to San Francisco. A long voyage and a hard. And where
next? No one seems to know! Anywhere where wind blows and square-sail
can carry a freight. At the office on Saturday, the shipping clerk
turned his palms out at my questioning.
"Home again, perhaps. The colonies! Up the Sound or across to Japan,"
he said, looking in his _Murray's Diary_ and then at the clock, to see
if there was time for him to nip home for his clubs and catch the 1.15
for Kilmacolm.
Nearly seventeen months of my apprenticeship remain to be served.
Seventeen months of a hard sea life, between the masts of a starvation
Scotch barque, in the roughest of seafaring, on the long voyage, the
stormy track leading westward round the Horn.
It will be February or March when we get down there. Not the worst
months, thank Heaven! but bad enough at the best. And we'll be badly
off this voyage, for the owners have taken two able seamen off our
complement. "Hard times!" they will be saying. Aye! hard times--for
us, who will now have to share two men's weight in working our heavily
sparred barque.
Two new apprentices have joined. Poor little devils! they don't know
what it is. It seemed all very fine to that wee chap from Inverary who
came with his father to see the ship before he joined. How the eyes of
him glinted as he looked about, proud of his brass-bound clothes and
badge cap. And the Mate, all smiles, showing them over the ship and
telling the old Hielan' clergyman what a fine vessel she was, and what
an interest he took in boys, and what fine times they had on board
ship, and all that! Ah yes--fine times! It's as well the old chap
doesn't know what he is sending his son to! How can he? We know--but
we don't tell.... Pride! Rotten pride! We come home from our first
voyage sick of it all.... Would give up but for pride.... Afraid to
be called 'stuck sailors' ... of the sneers of our old schoolmates....
So we come home in a great show of bravery and swagger about in our
brass-bound uniform and lie finely about the fine times we had ... out
there! ... And then nothing will do but Jimmy, next door, must be off
to the sea too--to come back and play the same game on young Alick!
That's the way of it! ...
Then when the Mate and them came to the half-deck, it was: "Oh yes,
Sir! This is the boys' quarters. Well! Not always like that,
Sir--when we get away to sea, you know, and get things shipshape. Oh,
well no! There's not much room aboard ship, you see. This is one of
our boys--Mister Jones." (Jones, looking like a miller's man--he had
been stowing ship's biscuits in the tanks--grinned foolishly at the
Mate's introduction: 'Mister!') "We're very busy just now, getting
ready for sea. Everything's in a mess, as you see, Sir. Only joined,
myself, last week. But, oh yes! It will be all right when we get to
sea--when we get things shipshape and settled down, Sir!"
Oh yes! Everything will be all right then, eh? Especially when we get
down off the Horn, and the dingy half-deck will be awash most of the
time with icy water. The owners would do nothing to it this trip, in
spite of our complaints. They sent a young man down from the office
last week who poked at the covering boards with his umbrella and wanted
to know what we were growling at. Wish we had him out there--off Diego
Ramirez. Give him something to growl at with the ship working, and
green seas on deck, and the water lashing about the floor of the house,
washing out the lower bunks, bed and bedding, and soaking every stitch
of the clothing that we had fondly hoped would keep us moderately dry
in the next bitter night watch. And when (as we try with trembling,
benumbed fingers to buckle on the sodden clothes) the ill-hinged door
swings to, and a rush of water and a blast of icy wind chills us to the
marrow, it needs but a hoarse, raucous shout from without to crown the
summit of misery. "Out there, the watch! Turn out!" in tone that
admits of no protest. "Turn out, damn ye, an' stand-by t' wear ship!"
(A blast of wind and rain rattles on my window-pane. _Ugh_! I turn
the more cosily amid my blankets.)
Oh yes! He would have something to growl at, that young man who asked
if the 'Skipp-ah' was aboard, and said he "was deshed if he could see
what we hed to complain of."
He would learn, painfully, that a ship, snugly moored in the south-east
corner of the Queen's Dock (stern-on to a telephone call-box), and the
same craft, labouring in the teeth of a Cape Horn gale, present some
points of difference; that it is a far cry from 58° South to the Clyde
Repair Works, and that the business of shipping is not entirely a
matter of ledgers.
Oh well! Just have to stick it, though. After all, it won't always be
hard times. Think of the long, sunny days drowsing along down the
'Trades,' of the fine times out there in 'Frisco, of joys of strenuous
action greater than the shipping clerk will ever know, even if he
should manage to hole out in three. Seventeen months! It will soon
pass, and I'll be a free man when I get back to Glasgow again.
Seventeen months, and then--then----
Ding ... dong.... Ding ... dong.... Ding dong....
Quarter to! With a sigh for the comfort of a life ashore, I rise and
dress. Through the window I see the Square, shrouded in mist, the
nearer leafless shrubs swaying in the chill wind, pavement glistening
in the flickering light of street lamps. A dismal morning to be
setting off to the sea! Portent of head winds and foul weather that we
may meet in Channel before the last of Glasgow's grime and smoke-wrack
is blown from the rigging.
A stir in the next room marks another rising. Kindly old '_Ding ...
dong_' has called a favourite brother from his rest to give me convoy
to the harbour.
Ready for the road, he comes to my room. Sleepy-eyed, yawning. "Four
o'clock! _Ugh_! Who ever heard of a man going to sea at four in the
morning! Ought to be a bright summer's day, and the sun shining and
flags flying an'----" A choked laugh.
"Glad I'm not a sailorman to be going out on a morning like this! Sure
you've remembered everything? Your cab should be here now. Just gone
four. Heard the bells as I was dressing----"
Rattle of wheels on the granite setts--sharp, metallic ring of shod
heels--a moment of looking for a number--a ring of the door-bell.
"Perty that's tae gang doon tae th' Queen's Dock wi' luggage.... A'
richt, Mister! Ah can cairry them ma'sel'.... Aye! Weel! Noo that
ye menshun it, Sur ... oon a mornin' like this.... Ma respeks, gents!"
There are no good-byes: the last has been said the night before. There
could be no enthusiasm at four on a raw November's morning; it is best
that I slip out quietly and take my seat, with a last look at the quiet
street, the darkened windows, the quaint, familiar belfry of St. Jude's.
"A' richt, Sur. G'up, mere! Haud up, mere, ye!"
At a corner of the Square the night policeman, yawning whole-heartedly,
peers into the cab to see who goes. There is nothing to investigate;
the sea-chest, sailor-bag, and bedding, piled awkwardly on the
'dickey,' tell all he wants to know.
"A sailor for aff!"
Jingling his keys, he thinks maybe of the many 'braw laads' from
Lochinver who go the same hard road.
* * * * *
Down the deserted wind-swept streets we drive steadily on, till house
lights glinting behind the blinds and hurrying figures of a
'night-shift' show that we are near the river and the docks. A turn
along the waterside, the dim outlines of the ships and tracery of mast
and spar looming large and fantastic in the darkness, and the driver,
questioning, brings up at a dim-lit shed, bare of goods and cargo--the
berth of a full-laden outward-bounder. My barque--the _Florence_, of
Glasgow--lies in a corner of the dock, ready for sea. Tugs are
churning the muddy water alongside, getting into position to drag her
from the quay wall; the lurid side-light gleams on a small knot of
well-wishers gathered at the forward gangway exchanging parting words
with the local seamen of our crew. I have cut my time but short.
"Come en there, you!" is my greeting from the harassed Chief Mate.
"Are you turned a ---- passenger, with your gloves and overcoat? You
sh'd have been here an hour ago! Get a move on ye, now, and bear a
hand with these warps.... Gad! A drunken crew an' skulkin'
'prentices, an' th' Old Man growlin' like a bear with a sore----"
Grumbling loudly, he goes forward, leaving me the minute for
'good-bye,' the late 'remembers,' the last long hand-grip.
Into the half-deck, to change hurriedly into working clothes. Time
enough to note the guttering lamp, evil smell, the dismal aspect of my
home afloat--then, on deck again, to haul, viciously despondent, at the
cast-off mooring ropes.
Forward the crew--drunk to a man--are giving the Chief Mate trouble,
and it is only when the gangway is hauled ashore that anything can be
done. The cook, lying as he fell over his sailor bag, sings, "_'t wis
ye'r vice, ma gen-tul Merry!_" in as many keys as there are points in
the compass, drunkenly indifferent to the farewells of a sad-faced
woman, standing on the quayside with a baby in her arms. Riot and
disorder is the way of things; the Mates, out of temper with the
muddlers at the ropes, are swearing, pushing, coaxing--to some attempt
at getting the ship unmoored. Double work for the sober ones, and for
thanks--a muttered curse. Small wonder that men go drunk to the sea:
the wonder is that any go sober!
At starting there is a delay. Some of the men have slipped ashore for
a last pull at a neighbourly 'hauf-mutchkin,' and at a muster four are
missing. For a time we hold on at single moorings, the stern tug
blowing a 'hurry-up' blast on her siren, the Captain and a River Pilot
stamping on the poop, angrily impatient. One rejoins, drunken and
defiant, but of the others there is no sign. We can wait no longer.
"Let go, aft!" shouts the Captain. "Let go, an' haul in. Damn them
for worthless sodjers, anyway! Mister"--to a waiting Board of Trade
official--"send them t' Greenock, if ye can run them in. If not,
telephone down that we're three A.B.'s short.... Lie up t' th'
norr'ard, stern tug, there. Hard a-port, Mister? All right! Let go
all, forr'ard!" ... We swing into the dock passage, from whence the
figures of our friends on the misty quayside are faintly visible. The
little crowd raises a weakly cheer, and one bold spirit (with his
guid-brither's 'hauf-pey note' in his pocket) shouts a bar or two of
"Wull ye no' come back again!" A few muttered farewells, and the shore
folk hurry down between the wagons to exchange a last parting word at
the Kelvinhaugh. '_... Dong ... ding ... DONG ... DONG...._' Set to a
fanfare of steam whistles, Old Brazen Tongue of Gilmorehill tolls us
benison as we steer between the pierheads. Six sonorous strokes, loud
above the shrilling of workshop signals and the nearer merry jangle of
the engine-house chimes.
Workmen, hurrying to their jobs, curse us for robbing them of a
'quarter,' the swing-bridge being open to let us through. "Come oon!
Hurry up wi' that auld 'jeely-dish,' an' see's a chance tae get tae wur
wark," they shout in a chorus of just irritation. A facetious member
of our crew shouts:
"Wot--oh, old stiy-at-'omes. Cahmin' aat t' get wandered?"--and a
dockman answers:
"Hello, Jake, 'i ye therr? Man, th' sailormen maun a' be deid when th'
Mate gied you a sicht! Jist you wait tae he catches ye fanklin' th'
cro'-jeck sheets!"
We swing slowly between the pierheads, and the workmen, humoured by the
dockman's jest, give us a hoarse cheer as they scurry across the still
moving bridge. In time-honoured fashion our Cockney humorist calls
for, 'Three cheers f'r ol' Pier-'ead, boys,' and such of the 'boys' as
are able chant a feeble echo to his shout. The tugs straighten us up
in the river, and we breast the flood cautiously, for the mist has not
yet cleared and the coasting skippers are taking risks to get to their
berths before the stevedores have picked their men. In the shipyards
workmen are beginning their day's toil, the lowe of their flares light
up the gaunt structures of ships to be. Sharp at the last wailing note
of the whistle, the din of strenuous work begins, and we are fittingly
drummed down the reaches to a merry tune of clanging hammers--the
shipyard chorus "Let Glasgow flourish!"
Dawn finds us off Bowling, and as the fog clears gives us misty views
of the Kilpatrick Hills. Ahead, Dumbarton Rock looms up, gaunt and
misty, sentinel o'er the lesser heights. South, the Renfrew shore
stretches broadly out under the brightening sky--the wooded Elderslie
slopes and distant hills, and, nearer, the shoal ground behind the lang
Dyke where screaming gulls circle and wheel. The setting out is none
so ill now, with God's good daylight broad over all, and the flags
flying--the 'Blue Peter' fluttering its message at the fore.
On the poop, the Captain (the 'Old Man,' be he twenty-one or fifty)
paces to and fro--a short sailor walk, with a pause now and then to
mark the steering or pass a word with the River Pilot. Of medium
height, though broad to the point of ungainliness, Old Jock Leish (in
his ill-fitting broadcloth shore-clothes) might have passed for a
prosperous farmer, but it needed only a glance at the keen grey eyes
peering from beneath bushy eyebrows, the determined set of a square
lower jaw, to note a man of action, accustomed to command. A quick,
alert turn of the head, the lift of shoulders as he walked--arms
swinging in seaman-like balance--and the trick of pausing at a windward
turn to glance at the weather sky, marked the sailing shipmaster--the
man to whom thought and action must be as one.
Pausing at the binnacle to note the direction of the wind, he gives an
exclamation of disgust.
"A 'dead muzzler,' Pilot. No sign o' a slant in the trend o' th' upper
clouds. Sou'west, outside, I'm afraid.... Mebbe it's just as weel;
we'll have t' bring up at th' Tail o' th' Bank, anyway, for these three
hands, damn them.... An' th' rest are useless.... Drunk t' a man, th'
Mate says. God! They'd better sober up soon, or we'll have to try
'Yankee music' t' get things shipshape!"
The Pilot laughed. "I thought the 'Yankee touch' was done with at sea
now," he said. "Merchant Shippin' Act, and that sort of thing,
Captain?"
"Goad, no! It's no bye wi' yet, an' never will be as long as work has
to be done at sea. I never was much taken with it myself, but, damn
it, ye've got to sail the ship, and ye can't do it without hands. Oh,
a little of it at the setting off does no harm--they forget all about
it before long; but at the end of a voyage, when ye're getting near
port, it's not very wise. No, not very wise--an' besides, you don't
need it!"
The Pilot grins again, thinking maybe of his own experiences, before he
'swallowed part of the anchor,' and Old Jock returns to his walk.
Overhead the masts and spars are black with the grime of a 'voyage' in
Glasgow Harbour, and 'Irish pennants' fluttering wildly on spar and
rigging tell of the scamped work of those whose names are not on our
'Articles.' Sternly superintended (now that the Mate has given up all
hope of getting work out of the men), we elder boys are held aloft,
reeving running gear through the leads in the maintop. On the deck
below the new apprentices gaze in open-mouthed admiration at our deeds:
they wonder why the Mate should think such clever fellows laggard, why
he should curse us for clumsy 'sodgers,' as a long length of rope goes
(wrongly led) through the top. In a few months more they themselves
will be criticising the 'hoodlums,' and discussing the wisdom of the
'Old Man' in standing so far to the south'ard.
Fog comes dense on us at Port Glasgow, and incoming steamers, looming
large on the narrowed horizon, steer sharply to the south to give us
water. Enveloped in the driving wraiths we hear the deep notes of
moving vessels, the clatter of bells on ships at anchor, and farther
down, loud over all, the siren at the Cloch, bellowing a warning of
thick weather beyond the Point. Sheering cautiously out of the
fairway, we come to anchor at Tail of the Bank to wait for our
'pier-head jumps.' At four in the afternoon, a launch comes off with
our recruits and our whipper-in explains his apparent delay.
"Hilt nor hair o' th' men that left ye hae I seen. I thocht I'd fin'
them at 'Dirty Dick's' when th' pubs opened ... but no, no' a sign: an'
a wheen tailor buddies wha cashed their advance notes huntin' high an'
low! I seen yin o' them ower by M'Lean Street wi' a nicht polis wi 'm
t' see he didna get a heid pit on 'm!--'_sss_! A pant! So I cam' doon
here, an' I hiv been lookin' for sailormen sin' ten o'clock. Man,
they'll no' gang in thae wind-jammers, wi' sae mony new steamers
speirin' hauns, an' new boats giein' twa ten fur th' run tae London....
Thir's th' only yins I can get, an' ye wadna get them, but that twa's
feart o' th' polis an' Jorgensen wants t' see th' month's advance o'
th' lang yin!"
The Captain eyes the men and demands of one:
"Been to sea before?"
"_Nach robh mhi_? Twa years I wass a 'bow rope' in the _I-on-a_, an' I
wass a wheelhouse in the Allan Line."
A glance at his discharges confirms his claim, slight as it is, to
seamanship, and Duncan M'Innes, of Sleat, in Skye, after being
cautioned as to his obligations, signs his name and goes forward.
Patrick Laughlin has considerable difficulty in explaining his absence
from the sea for two years, but the Captain, after listening to a long,
rambling statement... "i' th' yairds ... riggin' planks fur th'
rivitter boys.... Guid-brither a gaffer in Hamilton's, at the 'Poort'
... shoart time" ... gives a quick glance at the alleged seaman's
cropped head and winks solemnly at the Shipping-master, who is signing
the men on. Hands being so scarce, however, Patrick is allowed to
touch the pen.
One glance at the third suffices. Blue eyes and light colourless hair,
high cheek-bones and lithe limbs, mark the Scandinavian. Strong, wiry
fingers and an indescribable something proclaim the sailor, and though
Von Shmit can hardly say 'yes' in English, he looks the most likely man
of the three.
The Shipping-master, having concluded his business, steps aboard his
launch, leaving us with a full crew, to wait the weather clearing, and
the fair wind that would lift us down Channel.
* * * * *
Daybreak next morning shows promise of better weather, and a light
S.S.E. wind with a comparatively clear sky decides the Old Man to take
the North Channel for it. As soon as there is light enough to mark
their colours, a string of flags brings off our tug-boat from Princes
Pier, and we start to heave up the anchor. A stout coloured man sets
up a 'chantey' in a very creditable baritone, and the crew, sobered now
by the snell morning air, give sheet to the chorus.
'_Blow, boy-s, blow,--for Califor-ny, oh!_
_For there's lot's of gold, so I've been told,_
_On the banks--of Sa-cramen-to!_'
The towing-hawser is passed aboard, and the tug takes the weight off
the cable. The nigger having reeled off all he knows of 'Californy,' a
Dutchman sings lustily of 'Sally Brown.' Soon the Mate reports,
"Anchor's short, Sir," and gets the order to weigh. A few more
powerful heaves with the seaman-like poise between each--"_Spent my
mo-ney on Sa-lley Brown!_"--and the shout comes, "Anchor's a-weigh!"
Down comes the Blue Peter from the fore, whipping at shroud and
backstay in quick descent--our barque rides ground-free, the voyage
begun!
The light is broad over all now, and the Highland hills loom dark and
misty to the norr'ard. With a catch at the heart, we pass the
well-known places, slowly making way, as if the flood-tide were
striving still to hold us in our native waters. A Customs boat hails,
and asks of us, "Whither bound?" "'Frisco away!" we shout, and they
wave us a brief God-speed. Rounding the Cloch, we meet the coasting
steamers scurrying up the Firth.
"'Ow'd ye like t' be a stiy-at-'ome, splashin' abaht in ten fathoms,
like them blokes, eh?" the Cockney asks me, with a deep-water man's
contempt in his tone.
How indeed? Yearning eyes follow their glistening stern-wash as they
speed past, hot-foot for the river berths.
Tide has made now. A short period of slack water, and the ebb bears us
seaward, past the Cowal shore, glinting in the wintry sunlight, the
blue smoke in Dunoon valley curling upward to Kilbride Hill, past
Skelmorlie Buoy (tolling a doleful benediction), past Rothesay Bay,
with the misty Kyles beyond. The Garroch Head, with a cluster of Clyde
Trust Hoppers, glides abaft the beam, and the blue Cock o' Arran shows
up across the opening water. All is haste and bustle. Aloft,
spider-like figures, black against the tracery of the rigging, cast
down sheets and clew lines in the one place where they must go. Shouts
and hails--"Fore cross-trees, there! Royal buntline inside th'
crin'line, _in_-side, damn ye!"
"Aye, aye! Stan' fr' under!"
..._rrup_! A coil of rope hurtling from a height comes rattling to the
rail, to be secured to its own particular belaying-pin. Out of a
seeming chaos comes order. Every rope has its name and its place and
its purpose; and though we have 'sodjers' among us, before Arran is
astern we are ready to take to the wind. Off Pladda we set staysails
and steer to the westward, and, when the wind allows, hoist topsails
and crowd the canvas on her. The short November day has run its course
when we cast off the tow-rope. As we pass the standing tug, all her
hands are hauling the hawser aboard. Soon she comes tearing in our
wake to take our last letters ashore and to receive the Captain's
'blessing.' A heaving-line is thrown aboard, and into a small oilskin
bag are put our hastily written messages and the Captain's material
'blessing.' Shades of Romance! Our last link with civilisation
severed by a bottle of Hennessy's Three Star!
The tugmen (after satisfying themselves as to the contents of the bag)
give us a cheer and a few parting 'skreichs' on their siren and,
turning quickly, make off to a Norwegian barque, lying-to, off Ailsa
Craig.
All hands, under the Mates, are hard driven, sweating on sheet and
halyard to make the most of the light breeze. At the wheel I have
little to do; she is steering easily, asking no more than a spoke or
two, when the Atlantic swell, running under, lifts her to the wind.
Ahead of us a few trawlers are standing out to the Skerryvore Banks.
Broad to the North, the rugged, mist-capped Mull of Cantyre looms up
across the heaving water. The breeze is steady, but a falling
barometer tells of wind or mist ere morning.
Darkness falls, and coast lights show up in all airts. Forward, all
hands are putting a last drag on the topsail halyards, and the voice of
the nigger tells of the fortunes of--
'_Renzo--boys, Renzo!_'
II
STEERSMANSHIP
Wee Laughlin, dismissed from the wheel for bad steering, was sitting on
the fore-hatch, a figure of truculence and discontent, mouthing a
statement on the Rights of Man, accompanied by every oath ever heard on
Clydeside from Caird's to Tommy Seath's at Ru'glen. It was not the
loss of his turn that he regretted--he was better here, where he could
squirt tobacco juice at will, than on the poop under the Mate's
eye--but, hardened at the 'Poort' as he was, he could not but feel the
curious glances of his watchmates, lounging about in dog-watch freedom
and making no secret of their contempt of an able seaman who couldn't
steer, to begin with.
"'Ow wos she 'eadin', young feller, w'en ye--left?" Cockney Hicks,
glancing away from the culprit, was looking at the trembling leaches of
top'gal'nsails, sign of head winds.
"'Er heid? Ach, aboot Nor' thurty west!"
"Nor' thirty west? Blimy! Where th' 'ell's that? 'Ere! Give us it
in points! None o' yer bloomin' degrees aboard square-sail, young
feller!"
"Weel, that's a' th' wye I ken it!" Sullen, mouth twisted askew in the
correct mode of the 'Poort,' defiant.
"It wis aye degrees in a' th' boats I hiv been in--none o' thae wee
black chats ye ca' p'ints; we niver heeded thim. Degrees, an' 'poort'
an' 'starboord '--t' hell wit' yer 'luffs' an' 'nae highers'!"
"Blimy!"
"Aye, blimy! An' I cud steer them as nate's ye like; but I'm no guid
enough fur that swine o' a Mate, aft there!" He spat viciously. "'Nae
higher,' sez he t' me. 'Nae higher, Sur,' says I, pitten' the wheel a
bit doon. 'Up,' says he, 'up, blast ye! Ye're lettin 'r come up i'
th' win',' says he. I pit th' ---- wheel up, keepin' ma 'ee on th'
compass caird; but that wis a fau't tae.... 'Damn ye!' says he; 'keep
yer 'ee on th' to'gallan' leaches,' ... 'Whaur's that?' sez I. 'Oh,
holy smoke!' sez he. 'Whit hiv we got here?' An' he cam' ower and hut
me a kick, an' shouts fur anither haun' t' th' wheel! ... By ----"
mumbling a vicious formula, eyes darkening angrily as he looked aft at
the misty figure on the poop.
Cockney looked at him curiously.
"Wot boats 'ave ye bin in, anyway?" he said. "Them boats wot ye never
steered by th' win' before?"
"---- fine boats! A ban' sicht better nor this bluidy ould wreck.
Boats wi' a guid gaun screw at th' stern av thim! Steamers, av coorse!
This is th' furst bluidy win'-jammer I hae been in, an' by ---- it'll
be th' last! An' that Mate! Him! ... Oh! If I only hid 'm in
Rue-en' Street ... wi' ma crood aboot,"--kicking savagely at a coil of
rope--"he widna be sae smert wi' 'is fit! Goad, no!"
"Ye' fust win'-jammer, eh?" said Cockney pleasantly. "Oh well--ye'll
l'arn a lot! Blimy, ye'll l'arn a lot before ye sees Rue-hend Street
again. An' look 'ere!"--as if it were a small matter--"if ye cawn't
steer th' bloomin' ship afore we clears th' bloomin' Channel, ye kin
count _hon_ me fer a bloomin' good 'idin'! I ain't agoin' t' take no
other bloomin' bloke's w'eel! Not much, I ain't!"
"Nor me!" "Nor me!" said the others, and Wee Laughlin, looking round at
the ring of threatening faces, realised that he was up against a
greater power than the Officer tramping the poop beyond.
"Wull ye no'?" he said, spitting with a great show of bravery. "Wull
ye no'? Mebbe I'll hae sumthin' t' say aboot th' hidin'.... An' ye'll
hae twa av us tae hide whin ye're a' it. I'm nut th' only yin.
There's the Hielan'man ... him wi' th' fush scales on's oilskins. He
nivvir wis in a win'-jammer afore, he telt me; an'----"
"An' whaat eef I nefer wass in a win'-chammer pefore?" M'Innes, quick
to anger, added another lowering face to the group. "Wait you till I
am sent awaay from th' wheel ... an' thaat iss not yet, no! ...
Hielan'man? ... Hielan'man? ... Tamm you, I wass steerin' by th' win'
pefore you wass porn, aye! ... An' aal t' time you wass in chail,
yess!"
In the face of further enmity, Wee Laughlin said no more, preferring to
gaze darkly at the unknowing Mate, while his lips made strange
formations--excess of thought! The others, with a few further
threats--a word or two about 'hoodlums' and 'them wot signed for a
man's wage, an' couldn't do a man's work'--returned to their short
dog-watch pacings, two and two, talking together of former voyages and
the way of things on their last ships.
We were in the North Channel, one day out, with the Mull of Cantyre
just lost to view. The light wind that had carried us out to the Firth
had worked to the westward, to rain and misty weather, and all day we
had been working ship in sight of the Irish coast, making little
headway against the wind. It was dreary work, this laggard setting
out--hanging about the land, tack and tack, instead of trimming yards
to a run down Channel. Out on the open sea we could perforce be
philosophic, and talk of 'the more days, the more dollars'; but here in
crowded waters, with the high crown of Innistrahull mocking at our
efforts, it was difficult not to think of the goodness of a shore life.
As the close of each watch came round the same spirit of discontent
prompted the question of the relief, officer or man. On the poop it
was, "Well, Mister! How's her head now? Any sign of a slant?" On the
foredeck, "'Ere! Wot th' 'ell 'ave ye bin doin' with 'er? Got th'
bloomin' anchor down or wot?"
At nightfall the rain came down heavily before fitful bursts of chill
wind. Ours was the first watch, and tramping the deck in stiff, new
oilskins, we grumbled loudly at the ill-luck that kept us marking time.
"I wonder w'y th' Old Man don't put abaht an' run dahn th' Gawges
Channel. Wot's 'e 'angin' abaht 'ere for, hanyw'y? Wot does 'e
expeck?" said Cockney, himself a 'navigator'--by his way of it.
"Oh, shift o' wind, or something," said I. "I was aft at th' binnacles
an' heard him talkin' t' th' Mate about it. Says th' wind 'll back t'
th' south'ard if th' barometer don't rise. Told the Mate to call him
if the glass went up before twelve. I see old 'Steady-all'" (we are
one day out, but all properly named) "popping up and down the cabin
stairs. He'll be building a reef of burnt matches round the barometers
before that fair wind comes."
"Sout' vass fair vind, ass ve goes now, aind't id?" asked Dutch John, a
pleasant-faced North German.
"Fair wind? 'Oo th' 'ell's talkin' 'bout fair win's, an' that Shmit at
th' w'eel? 'Ow d'ye expeck a fair win' with a Finn--a bloody Rooshian
Finn's a-steerin' ov 'er?" Martin, a tough old sea-dog, with years of
service, claimed a hearing.
"No, an' we won't 'ave no fair win' till a lucky steers 'er! Ain't
much that way myself--me bein' a Liverpool man--but there's Collins
there--the nigger.... Niggers is lucky, an' West-country-men, an'
South of Ireland men--if they ain't got black 'air--but Finns! Finns
is the wu'st o' bloody bad luck! ... Knowed a Finn onst wot raised an
'owlin' gale agin us, just a-cos th' Ol' Man called 'im a cross-eyed
son ef a gun fur breakin' th' p'int ov a marlinspike! Raised an
'owlin' gale, 'e did! No, no! Ye won't 'ave no fair win' till a lucky
man goes aft. 'Ere, Collins! Your nex' w'eel, ain't it?"
Collins grinned an affirmative.
"Right-o! Well, young fellers, ye kin spit on yer 'an's fur squarin'
them yards somewheres between four an' eight bells. Nuthin' like a
nigger for bringin' fair win's.... An' 'e's a speshul kind o' nigger,
too.... Nova Scotiaman, Pictou way ... talks the same lingo as th'
'ilandman ... 'im on th' look-out, there."
"Not the Gaelic, surely?" said I.
"Aye, Gaelic. That's it. They speak that lingo out there, black an'
w'ite. Knowed lots o' niggers wot spoke it ... an' chows too!"
I turned to Collins--a broad, black nigger with thick lips, woolly
hair, white, gleaming teeth--the type! He grinned.
"Oh yass," he said. "Dat's ri'! Dey speak de Gaelic dere--dem
bluenose Scotchmen, an' Ah larn it when Ah wass small boy. Ah doan'
know much now ... forgot it mos' ... but Ah know 'nuff t' ask dat boy
Munro how de wass. _Hoo! Ho!! Hoo!!!_ 'Cia mar tha thu nis,' Ah
says, an' he got so fright', he doan' be seasick no mo'!"
A wondrous cure!
At ten Collins relieved the wheel and we looked for the shift that old
Martin had promised, but there was no sign of it--no lift to the misty
horizon, no lessening in the strength of the squalls, now heavy with a
smashing of bitter sleet. Bunched up against the helm, a mass of
oilskins glistening in the compass light, our 'lucky man' scarce seemed
to be doing anything but cower from the weather. Only the great eyes
of him, peering aloft from under the peak of his sou'wester, showed
that the man was awake; and the ready turns of the helm, that brought a
steering tremor to the weather leaches, marked him a cunning steersman,
whichever way his luck lay.
Six bells struck, the Mate stepped below to the barometers, and a gruff
"Up! up!" (his way of a whisper) accompanied the tapping of the
aneroid. There he found encouragement and soon had the Old Man on
deck, peering with him in the wind's eye at the brightening glare of
Innistrahull Light out in the west.
"Clearing, eh? And the glass risin'," said the Old Man. "Looks like
nor'-west! Round she goes, Mister: we'll lose no more time. Stan' by
t' wear ship!"
"Aye, aye, Sir! Stan' by t' square mainyards, the watch, there!"
Shouting as he left the poop, the Mate mustered his men at the braces.
"Square mainyards! That's th' talk," said old Martin, throwing the
coils down with a swing. "Didn't Ah tell ye it wos a nigger as'd bring
a fair win'!"
"But it ain't fair yet," said I. "Wind's west as ever it was; only th'
Old Man's made up his mind t' run her down th' George's Channel. Might
ha' done that four hours ago!"
"Wot's th' use o' talkin' like that? 'Ow th' 'ell could 'e make up 'is
min' wi' a Rooshian Finn at th' w'eel, eh? Don't tell me! Ah knows as
niggers is lucky an' Finns ain't; an' don't ye give me none o' yer
bloody sass, young feller, cos ..." ("Haul away mainyards, there!") ...
"_Ho! ... io ... io...._ Ho! round 'em in, me sons. ... _Ho! ... io
... io...._ Twenty days t' th' Line, boys! ... _Ho ... io ... ho!_"
A hard case, Martin!
Turning on heel, we left Innistrahull to fade away on the quarter, and,
under the freshening breeze, made gallant steering for the nigger.
This was more like the proper way to go to sea, and when eight bells
clanged we called the other watch with a rousing shout.
"Out, ye bloomin' Jonahs! Turn out, and see what the port watch can do
for ye. A fair wind down Channel, boys! Come on! Turn out, ye hungry
Jonahs, and coil down for your betters!"
* * * * *
After two days of keen sailing, running through the Channel traffic, we
reached the edge of soundings. The nor'-west breeze still held, though
blowing light, and under a spread of canvas we were leaning away to the
south'ard on a course for the Line Crossing. We sighted a large
steamer coming in from the west, and the Old Man, glad of a chance to
be reported, hauled up to 'speak' her. In hoists of gaily coloured
bunting we told our name and destination, and a wisp of red and white
at the liner's mast acknowledged our message. As she sped past she
flew a cheering signal to wish us a 'pleasant voyage,' and then lowered
her ensign to ours as a parting salute.
"Keep her off to her course again--sou'-west, half south!" ordered the
Old Man when the last signal had been made.
"Aff tae her coorse ag'in, Sur! Sou'-west, hauf south, Sur!"
At sound of the steersman's answer I turned from my job at the signal
locker. Wee Laughlin, eyes on the weather clew of the royals, was
learning!
III
THE WAY OF THE HALF-DECK
The guttering lamp gave little light in the half-deck; its trimming had
been neglected on this day of storm, so we sat in semi-gloom listening
to the thunder of seas outside. On the grimy deal table lay the
remains of our supper--crumbs of broken sea-biscuits, a scrap of greasy
salt horse, dirty plates and pannikins, a fork stabbed into the deal to
hold the lot from rolling, and an overturned hook-pot that rattled from
side to side at each lurch of the ship, the dregs of the tea it had
held dripping to the weltering floor. For once in a way we were
miserably silent. We sat dourly together, as cheerless a quartette as
ever passed watch below. "Who wouldn't sell his farm and go to sea?"
asked Hansen, throwing off his damp jacket and boots and turning into
his bunk. "'A life on th' ocean wave,' eh? Egad! here's one who
wishes he had learned to drive a wagon!"
"And another," said Eccles. "That--or selling matches on th' highway!
... Come on, Kid! Get a move on ye and clear away! ... And mind ye
jamm the gear off in the locker. No more o' these tricks like ye did
in Channel--emptyin' half the bloomin' whack into th' scupper! You
jamm the gear off proper, or I'll lick ye!"
Young Munro, the 'peggy' of our watch, swallowed hard and set about his
bidding. His small features were pinched and drawn, and a ghastly
pallor showed that a second attack of sea-sickness was not far off. He
staggered over to the table and made a half-hearted attempt to put the
gear away,
"What's th' matter with ye?" said Eccles roughly. "Ye've been long
enough away from ye'r mammy t' be able t' keep ye'r feet. A fortnight
at sea, an' still comin' th' 'Gentle Annie'! You look sharp now, an'
don't----"
"Eccles!"
"Eh?"
"You let the Kid alone," said Hansen in a dreamy, half-sleepy tone.
"You let the Kid alone, or I'll twist your damn neck! Time enough for
you to start chinnin' when your elders are out o' sight. You shut up!"
"Oh, all right! Ye needn't get ratty. If you want t' pamper the
bloomin' Kid, it's none of my business, I s'pose.... All the same, you
took jolly good care I did _my_ 'peggy' last voyage! There was no
pamperin' that I remember!"
"Different!" said Hansen, still in the same sleepy tone. "Different!
You were always big enough an' ugly enough t' stand the racket. You
leave the Kid alone!"
Eccles turned away to his bunk and, seeking his pipe, struck match
after match in a vain attempt to light the damp tobacco. Now and then
the ship would falter in her swing--an ominous moment of silence and
steadiness--before the shock of a big sea sent her reeling again. The
crazy old half-deck rocked and groaned at the battery as the sea ran
aft, and a spurt of green water came from under the covering board.
Some of the sea-chests worked out of the lashings and rattled down to
leeward. Eccles and I triced them up, then stowed the supper gear in
the locker.
"A few more big 'uns like that," said I, "and this rotten old house 'll
go a-voyagin'! ... Wonder it has stood so long."
"Do ye think there's danger?" asked the Kid, in a falter, and turning
terrified eyes on one after another.
"Course," said Hansen--we had thought him asleep--"course there is!
That's what ye came here for, isn't it? This is when th' hero stands
on th' weather taffrail, graspin' th' tautened backst'y an' hurlin'
defiance at th' mighty elements--'Nick Carter,' chap. one!"
Eccles and I grinned. Munro took heart.
"Danger," still the drowsy tone, "I should think there is! Why, any
one o' these seas might sweep the harness-cask and t'morrow's dinner
overboard! Any one of 'em might----"
The door swung to with a crash, a blast of chill wind and rain blew in
on us, the lamp flickered and flared, a dripping oilskin-clad figure
clambered over the washboard.
"Door! door!" we yelled as he fumbled awkwardly with the handle.
"Oh, shut up! Ye'd think it was the swing-door of a pub. t' hear ye
shouting!" He pulled heavily, and the broken-hinged baulk slammed into
place. It was Jones, of the other watch, come in to turn us out.
"Well, I'm hanged!" He looked around the house--at the litter on the
floor, at the spurting water that lashed across with the lurch of her.
"Why don't some of ye bale the place out 'stead of standing by t' shout
'Door, door!' when there's no need? Damn! Look at that!" She lurched
again. A foot or more of broken water dashed from side to side,
carrying odds of loose gear with it. "Egad! The port watch for lazy
sojers--every time! Why don't ye turn to an' dry the half-deck out?
Oh no; not your way! It's 'Damn you, Jack--I'm all right!' with you
chaps. Goin' on deck again soon, eh? Why should ye dry up for the
other watch, eh? ... Oh! all right. Just you----"
"Oh, dry up yourself, Jones!" Hansen sat up in his bunk and turned his
legs out. "What you making all the noise about? We've been balin' and
balin', and it's no use! No use at all ... with that covering board
working loose and the planks opening out at every roll.... What's up,
anyway? ... All hands, eh?"
"Yes. 'All hands wear ship' at eight bells! We've just set the fore
lower tops'l. Think we must be getting near the Western Islands by the
way th' Old Man's poppin' up and down. It's pipin' outside! Blowin'
harder than ever, and that last big sea stove in the weather side of
the galley. The watch are at it now, planking up and that.... Well,
I'm off! Ye've quarter an hour t' get your gear on. Lively, now! ..."
At the door he turned, eyeing the floor, now awash. "Look here, young
'un"--to poor, woebegone Munro--"the Mate says you're not to come on
deck. You stay here and bale up, an' if the damn place isn't dry when
we come below I'll hide the life out o' ye! ... Oh, it's no use
screwin' your face up. 'Cry baby' business is no good aboard a packet!
You buck up an' bale the house ... or ... look out!" He heaved at the
door, sprawled over, and floundered out into the black night.
Munro turned a white, despairing face on us elders. We had no support
for him. Hansen was fumbling with his belt. I was drawing on my long
boots. Both of us seemed not to have heard. This was the way of the
half-deck. With Eccles it had been different. He was only a second
voyager, a dog-watch at sea--almost a 'greenhorn.' There was time
enough for him to 'chew the rag' when he had got the length of keeping
a regular 'wheel and look out.' Besides, it was a 'breach' for him to
start bossing about when there were two of his elders in the house. We
could fix him all right!
Ah! But Jones! ... It was not that we were afraid of him. Either of
us would have plugged him one at the word 'Go!' if it had been a
straight affair between us. But this was no business of ours. Jones
was almost a man. In a month or two his time would be out. There
could be no interference, not a word could be said; it was--the way of
the half-deck.
Swaying, sailor-like, on the reeling deck, we drew on our oilskins and
sea-boots, buckled our belts, tied down the flaps of our sou'westers,
and made ready. While we were at it Munro started on his task. He
filled the big bucket, dragged it half-way to the door, then sat down
heavily with a low cry of dismay.
"What's the matter, Kid, eh?" said Hansen kindly. "Got the blues, eh?
Buck up, man! Blue's a rotten colour aboard ship! Here, hand me the
bucket!"
He gripped the handle, stood listening for a chance, then swung the
door out an inch or two, and tipped the bucket.
"It ... it's ... not ... that," said the youngster. "It's ...
s-s-staying in here w-when you fellows are on d-deck! ... Ye ...
s-said th' house m-might go ... any time! ... Let me come!..."
"No, no! Th' Mate said you weren't t' come on deck! You stay here!
You'd only be in th' way! You'll be all right here; the rotten old box
'll stand a few gales yet! ... What's that?"
Above the shrilling of the gale we heard the Mate's bull roar: "All ...
hands ... wear ... ship!"
We took our chance, swung the door to, and dashed out. Dismayed for a
moment--the sudden change from light to utter darkness--we brought up,
grasping the life-lines in the waist, and swaying to meet the wild
lurches of the ship. As our eyes sobered to the murk we saw the lift
of the huge seas that thundered down the wind. No glint of moon or
star broke through the mass of driving cloud that blackened the sky to
windward; only when the gleam of a breaking crest spread out could we
mark the depth to which we drove, or the height when we topped a wall
of foaming water. The old barque was labouring heavily, reeling to it,
the decks awash to our knees. Only the lower tops'ls and a stays'l
were set; small canvas, but spread enough to keep her head at the right
angle as wave after wave swept under or all but over her. "Stations!"
we heard the Mate calling from his post at the lee fore braces. "Lay
along here! Port watch, forrard!"
We floundered through the swirl of water that brimmed the decks and
took our places. Aft, we could see the other watch standing by at the
main. Good! It would be a quick job, soon over! The Old Man was at
the weather gangway, conning the ship and waiting for a chance. Below
him, all hands stood at his orders--twenty-three lives were in his
keeping at the moment; but there was no thought of that--we knew our
Old Jock, we boasted of his sea cunning. At length the chance came; a
patch of lesser violence after a big sea had been met and surmounted.
The sure, steady eye marked the next heavy roller. There was time and
distance! ... "Helm up, there!" (Old Jock for a voice!)
Now her head paid off, and the order was given, 'Square mainyards!'
Someone wailed a hauling cry and the great yards swung round, tops'l
lifting to the quartering wind. As the wind drew aft she gathered
weight and scudded before the gale. Seas raced up and crashed their
bulk at us when, at the word, we strained together to drag the
foreyards from the backstays. Now she rolled the rails under--green,
solid seas to each staggering lift. At times it seemed as if we were
all swept overboard there was no hold to the feet! We stamped and
floundered to find a solid place to brace our feet and knees against;
trailed out on the ropes--all afloat--when she scooped the ocean up,
yet stood and hauled when the chance was ours. A back roll would come.
"Hold all! ... Stand to it, sons! ..." With a jerk that seemed to
tear at the limbs of us, the heavy yards would weigh against us. There
was no pulling ... only "stand and hold" ... "hold hard." Then, to us
again: "Hay ... o ... Ho.... Hay ... o! ... Round 'em in, boys! ..."
Quick work, hand over hand, the blocks rattling cheerily as we ran in
the slack.
"Vast haulin' foreyards! Turn all and lay aft!" We belayed the ropes,
and struggled aft to where the weaker watch were hauling manfully. The
sea was now on the other quarter, and lashing over the top rail with
great fury. Twice the Second Mate, who was 'tending the weather
braces, was washed down among us, still holding by the ropes. "Haul
awaay, lauds!" he would roar as he struggled back to his perilous post.
"Haul, you!"
We dragged the yards to a new tack; then to the fore, where again we
stood the buffet till we had the ship in trim for heaving-to.
"All hands off the deck!" roared the Mate when the headyards were
steadied. "Lay aft, all hands!"
Drenched and arm weary as we were, there was no tardiness in our
scramble for safe quarters--some to the poop, some to the main rigging.
We knew what would come when she rounded-to in a sea like that.
"All ready, Sir," said the Mate when he came aft to report. "All hands
are off the deck!"
"Aye, aye!" Old Jock was peering out to windward, watching keenly for
a chance to put his helm down. There was a perceptible lull in the
wind, but the sea was high as ever. The heavy, racing clouds had
broken in the zenith; there were rifts here and there through which
shone fleeting gleams from the moon, lighting the furious ocean for a
moment, then vanishing as the storm-wrack swept over.
It seemed a long time before the Old Man saw the 'smooth' he was
waiting for. A succession of big seas raced up, broke, and poured
aboard: one, higher than all, swept by, sending her reeling to the
trough. Now--the chance! "Ease th' helm down!" he shouted. "Stand
by, all!" Her head swung steadily to windward, the steering way was
well timed.
Suddenly, as we on the poop watched ahead, a gleam of light shone on
the wet decks. The half-deck door was swung out--a figure blocked the
light, sprawling over the washboard--Munro! "Back!" we yelled. "Go
back!"
There was time enough, but the youngster, confused by the shouts, ran
forward, then aft, bewildered.
The ship was bearing up to the wind and sea. Already her head was
driving down before the coming of the wave that was to check her way.
In a moment it would be over us. The Mate leapt to the ladder, but, as
he balanced, we saw one of the men in the main rigging slide down a
backstay, drop heavily on deck, recover, and dash on towards the boy.
Broad on the beam of her, the sea tore at us and brimmed the decks--a
white-lashing fury of a sea, that swept fore and aft, then frothed in a
whelming torrent to leeward.
When we got forward through the wash of it, we found Jones crouching
under the weather rail. One arm was jammed round the bulwark
stanchion, the wrist stiffened and torn by the wrench, the other held
the Kid--a limp, unconscious figure.
"Carry him aft," said Jones. "I think ... he's ... all right ... only
half drowned!" He swayed as he spoke, holding his hand to his head,
gasping, and spitting out. "D-damn young swine! What ... he ...
w-want t' come on deck f-for? T-told ... him t' ... s-stay below!"
IV
THE 'DEAD HORSE'
Fine weather, if hot as the breath of Hades, and the last dying airs of
the nor'-east trades drifting us to the south'ard at a leisured three
knots.
From the first streak of daylight we had been hard at work finishing up
the general overhaul cf gear and rigging that can only be done in the
steady trade winds. Now it was over; we could step out aloft, sure of
our foothold; all the treacherous ropes were safe in keeping of the
'shakin's cask,' and every block and runner was working smoothly, in
readiness for the shifting winds of the doldrums that would soon be
with us.
The work done, bucket and spar were manned and, for the fourth time
that day, the sun-scorched planks and gaping seams of the deck were
sluiced down--a job at which we lingered, splashing the limpid water as
fast the wetted planks steamed and dried again. A grateful coolness
came with the westing of the tyrant sun, and when our miserable evening
meal had been hurried through we sought the deck again, to sit under
the cool draught of the foresail watching the brazen glow that attended
the sun's setting, the glassy patches of windless sea, the faint
ripples that now and then swept over the calm--the dying breath of a
stout breeze that had lifted us from 27° North. What talk there was
among us concerned our voyage, a never-failing topic; and old Martin,
to set the speakers right, had brought his 'log'--a slender
yardstick--from the forecastle.
"... ty-seven ... ty-eight ... twenty-nine," he said, counting a row of
notches. "Thirty days hout t'morrer, an' th' 'dead 'orse' is hup t'
day, sons!"
"'Dead 'oss' hup t' dye? 'Ow d'ye mike that aht?" said 'Cockney'
Hicks, a man of importance, now promoted to bo'sun. "Fust Sunday we
wos in Channel, runnin' dahn th' Irish lights, worn't it?"
"Aye!"
"Secon' Sunday we wos routin' abaht in them strong southerly win's,
hoff th' Weste'n Isles?"
"That's so," said Martin, patting his yard-stick, "Right-o!"
"Third Sunday we 'ad th' trides, runnin' south; lawst Sunday wos fourth
Sunday hout, an' this 'ere's Friday--'peasoup-dye,' ain't it? 'Ow d'ye
mike a month o' that? 'Dead 'oss' ain't up till t'morrer, I reckon!"
"Well, ye reckons wrong, bo'sun! Ye ain't a-countin' of th' day wot we
lay at anchor at th' Tail o' th' Bank!"
"Blimy, no! I'd forgotten that dye!"
"No! An' I tell ye th' 'dead 'orse' is hup, right enuff. I don't make
no mistake in my log.... Look at 'ere," pointing to a cross-cut at the
head of his stick. "That's the dye wot we lay at anchor--w'en you an'
me an' the rest ov us wos proper drunk. 'Ere we starts away," turning
to another side; "them up strokes is 'ead win's, an' them downs is
fair; 'ere's where we got that blow hoff th' Weste'n Isles," putting
his finger-nail into a deep cleft; "that time we carries away th'
topmas' stays'l sheet; an' 'ere's th' trade win's wot we're 'avin' now!
... All k'rect, I tell ye. Ain't no mistakes 'ere, sons!" He put the
stick aside the better to fill his pipe.
"Vat yo' calls dem holes in de top, Martin, _zoone_? Dot vass
sometings, aind't id?"
Vootgert, the Belgian, picked the stick up, turning it over carelessly.
Martin snatched it away.
"A course it's 'sometings,' ye Flemish 'og! If ye wants to know
pertiklar, them 'oles is two p'un' o' tebaccer wot I had sence I come
aboard. Don't allow no Ol' Man t' do _me_ in the bloomin' hye w'en it
comes t' tottin' th' bill! ... I'll watch it! I keeps a good tally ov
wot I gets, tho' I can't read nor write like them young 'know-alls'
over there" (Martin had no love for 'brassbounders'), "them wot orter
be aft in their proper place, an' not sittin' 'ere, chinnin' wi' th'
sailormen!"
"Who's chinnin'?" said Jones, Martin's particular enemy. "Ain't said a
word! Not but what I wanted to ... sittin' here, listenin' to a lot of
bally rot about ye'r dead horses an' logs an' that!"
Jones rose with a great pantomime of disgust (directed especially at
the old man), and went aft, leaving Munro and me to weather Martin's
rage.
"Oh, shut up, Martin!" said the bo'sun. "They ain't doin' no 'arm!
Boys is boys!"
"Ho no, they ain't, bo'sun: not in this ship, they ain't. Boys is men,
an' men's old beggars, 'ere! I don't 'old wi' them a-comin' forrard
'ere at awl! A place fer everything, an' everybody 'as 'is place, I
says! Captin' on the bloomin' poop o' her, an' cook t' th' foresheet!
That's shipshape an' Bristol fashion, ain't it?"
"That's so, that's so! ... But them young 'uns is 'ere for
hin-for-mashun, eh?"
Martin grumbled loudly and turned to counting his notches. "Know-alls!
That's wot _they_ is--ruddy know-alls! Told me I didn't know wot a
fair win' wos!" he muttered as he fingered his 'log.'
"'Dead 'oss?'" said the bo'sun, turning to Munro. "'Dead 'oss' is th'
fust month out, w'en ye're workin' for ye'r boardin'-mawster. 'E gets
ye'r month's advawnce w'en ye sails, an' ye've got to work that hoff
afore ye earns any pay!"
"Who vass ride your 'dead 'oss,' Martin?" asked the Belgian when quiet
was restored.
"Oh, Jemmy Grant; 'im wot 'as an 'ouse in Springfield Lane. Come in t'
th' Clyde in th' _Loch Ness_ from Melb'un--heighty-five days, an' a
damn good passage too, an' twel' poun' ten of a pay day! Dunno' 'ow it
went.... Spent it awl in four or five days. I put up at Jemmy Grant's
for a week 'r two arter th' money was gone, an' 'e guv' me five bob an'
a new suit of oilskins out 'er my month's advawnce on this 'ere 'ooker!"
"Indeed to goodness, now! That iss not pad at all, indeed," said John
Lewis, our brawny Welshman. "I came home in th' _Wanderer_, o' St.
Johnss, an' wass paid off with thirty-fife poun'ss, I tell 'oo. I
stayed in Owen Evanss' house in Great Clyde Street, an' when I went
there I give him ten poun'ss t' keep for me. 'Indeed, an' I will, m'
lad,' he sayss, 'an' 'oo can have it whenever 'oo likes,' he sayss....
Damn him for a rogue, I tell 'oo!"
Martin laughed. "Well, ye was soft. Them blokes' bizness is keepin',
ain't it?"
"Iss, indeed! Well, I tell 'oo, I got in trouble with a policeman in
th' Broomielaw. It took four o' them to run me in, indeed!" pleasantly
reminiscent; "an' the next mornin' I wass put up for assaultin' th'
police. 'I don't know nothin' about it,' I sayss, when the old fella'
asked me. 'Thirty shillins' or fourteen days,' he sayss! ... Well, I
didn't haf any money left, but I told a policeman, and he said he would
send for Owen Evanss.... After a while Evanss come to the office, an'
they took me in. I was quite quiet, indeed, bein' sober, I tell
'oo.... 'Owen, _machgen-i_,' I sayss, 'will 'oo pay the thirty
shillin's out of the ten poun'ss I give 'oo?' 'What ten poun'ss?' he
sayss. 'What ten poun'ss?' I sayss. '_Diwedd-i_, the ten poun'ss I
give 'oo t' keep for me,' I sayss. 'Ten poun'ss,' he sayss, 'ten
poun'ss to keep for 'oo, an' it iss two weeks' board an' lodgin' 'oo
are owin' me, indeed!' 'Damn 'oo!' I sayss. 'Did I not give 'oo ten
poun'ss when I wass paid off out of the _Wanderer_, an' 'oo said 'oo
would keep it for ne and give it back again when I wanted it?' I
sayss.... 'What are 'oo talkin' about?' he sayss. ''Oo must be drunk,
indeed!' ... 'Have 'oo got a receipt for it, m' lad?' sayss the
Sergeant. 'No, indeed,' I sayss. 'I didn't ask him for a receipt.'
... 'Oh,' he sayss, 'we've heard this pefore,' he sayss, shuttin' th'
book an' signin' to the policeman to put me away. I made for Owen
Evanss, but there wass too many policemen indeed.... So I had to serve
the month, I tell 'oo!" John stroked his beard mournfully, muttering,
"Ten poun'ss, indeed! Ten poun'ss, py damm!"
"An' didn't ye git square wi' th' bloke wot done ye?" asked the bo'sun.
"Oh, iss! Iss, indeed!" John brightened up at thought of it. "When I
came out I went straight to Great Clyde Street an' give him th' best
hidin' he effer got, I tell 'oo! I took ten poun'ss of skin an' hair
out of him pefore th' police came. Fine! I think it wass fine, an' I
had to do two months for that.... When I come out the street wass full
of policemen, indeed, so I signed in this barque an' sold my advance
note to a Jew for ten pob!"
Ten shillings! For what, if the discounter saw to it that his man went
to sea, was worth three pounds when the ship had cleared the Channel!
On the other hand, Dan Nairn, a Straits of Canso sailor-farmer (mostly
farmer), had something to say.
"Waall, boy-ees, they ain't awl like that, I guess! I came acraus
caow-punchin' on a Donalds'n cattle boat, an' landed in Glasgow with
damn all but a stick ov chewin' tebaccer an' two dallars, Canad'n, in
my packet. I put up with a Scowwegian in Centre Street; a stiff good
feller too! Guess I was 'baout six weeks or more in 'is 'aouse, an' he
give me a tidy lot 'er fixin's--oilskins an' sea-boots an' awl--out 'er
my month's advance."
"Oh, some is good and some ain't," said Martin. "Ah knowed a feller
wot 'ad an 'ard-up boardin'-'ouse in Tiger Bay. Awl th' stiffs in
Cardiff use' ter lay back on 'im w'en nobody else 'ud give 'em 'ouse
room--hoodlums and Dagos an' Greeks wot couldn't get a ship proper. 'E
'ad rooms in 'is 'ouse fitted up wi' bunks like a bloomin' fo'cs'le,
ah' 'is crowd got their grub sarved out, same's they wos at sea. Every
tide time 'e wos down at th' pier-'ead wi' six or seven of 'is
gang--'ook-pots an' pannikins, an' bed an' piller--waitin' their chanst
ov a 'pier-'ead jump.' That wos th' only way 'e could get 'is men
away, 'cos they worn't proper sailormen as c'd go aboard a packet 'n
ast for a sight like you an' me. Most of 'em 'ad bad discharges or
dead-'un's papers or somethin'! 'Pier-'ead jumps,' they wos, an' they
wouldn't never 'a' got a ship, only f'r that feller an' 'is 'ard-up
boardin'-'ouse."
Martin picked up his precious 'log' and turned to go below. "Anyways,
good or bad," he said, "them 'sharks' 'as got my ol' iron fer the last
month, an' if this worn't a starvation bloomin' Scotch packet, an' a
crew of bloomin' know-alls, fixing me with a fancy curl of lip, we'd a
_chanteyed_ th' 'dead 'orse' aft t'night an' ast th' Ol' Man t' splice
the mainbrace."
He passed into the forecastle, and through the open door we could hear
him sing a snatch of the 'dead horse' _chantey_:--
"_But now th' month is up, ol' turk!_
(_An' we says so, an' we 'opes so._)
_Get up, ye swine, an' look fer work!_
(_Oh! Poor--ol'--man!_)
"_Get up, ye swine, an' look fer graft!_
(_An' we says so, an' we 'opes so._)
_While we lays on an' yanks ye aft!_
(_Oh! Poor--ol'--man!_)"
V
'SEA PRICE'
At first weak and baffling, the south-east trades strengthened and blew
true as we reached away to the south'ard under all sail. Already we
had forgotten the way of bad weather. It seemed ages since we had last
tramped the weltering decks, stamping heavily in our big sea-boots for
warmth, or crouching in odd corners to shelter from the driven spray,
the bitter wind and rain. Now we were fine-weather voyagers--like the
flying-fish and the albacore, and bonita, that leapt the sea we sailed
in. The tranquil days went by in busy sailor work; we spent the nights
in a sleepy languor, in semi-wakefulness. In watch below we were
assured of our rest, and even when 'on deck'--save for a yawning pull
at sheet or halyard when the Mate was jealous at our idling, or a brief
spell at wheel or look out--were at liberty to seek out a soft plank
and lie back, gazing up at the gently swaying mastheads till sleep came
again. Higher and higher, as the days went by, the southern stars rose
from the sea-line, while--in the north--homely constellations dipped
and were lost to view. Night by night we had the same true breeze, the
sea unchanged, the fleecy trade clouds forming on the sea-line--to fade
ere they had reached the zenith. There seemed no end to our pleasured
progress! Ah, it is good to be alive and afloat where the trades blow.
Down south, there!
But, in spite of the fine weather and the steady breeze, there were
signs of what our voyage would be when the 'barefoot days' were done.
Out beyond the clear sky and tender clouds, the old hands saw the
wraith of the rugged Cape that we had yet to weather. The impending
wrestle with the rigours of 'the Horn' sent them to their preparations
when we had scarce crossed the Line. Old Martin was the fore hand.
Now, his oilskins hung out over the head, stretched on hoops and
broomsticks, glistening in a brave new coat of oil and blacking. Then
Vootgert and Dutch John took the notion, and set to work by turns at a
canvas wheel-coat that was to defy the worst gale that ever blew.
Young Houston--canny Shetlander--put aside his melodeon, and clicked
and clicked his needles at a famous pair of north-country hose. Welsh
John and M'Innes--'the Celtic twins'--clubbed their total outfit and
were busy overhauling, while Bo'sun Hicks spent valuable time and
denied us his yarns while he fortified his leaky bunk by tar and strips
of canvas. Even Wee Laughlin, infected by the general industry of the
forecastle, was stitching away (long, outward-bound stitches) at a
cunning arrangement of trousers that would enable him to draw on his
two pairs at once. All had some preparation to make--all but we
brassbounders!
We saw no farther than the fine weather about us. Most had been 'round
the Horn' before, and we should have known but there was no old
'steady-all' to ballast our cock-a-boat, and we scorned the wisdom of
the forecastle. 'Good enough t' be goin' on with,' and 'come day, go
day'--were our mottoes in the half-deck. Time enough, by and by, when
the weather showed a sign! We had work enough when on duty to keep us
healthy! Fine days and 'watch below' were meant for lazying--for old
annuals of the B.O.P., for Dicks's Standards, for the Seaside library!
Everyone knows that the short dog-watches were meant for sing-song and
larking, and, perhaps, a fight, or two! What did we care if Old Martin
and his mates were croak, croak, croakin' about 'standin' by' and
settin' th' gear handy? We were 'hard cases,' all of us, even young
Munro and Burke, the 'nipper' of the starboard watch! _We_ didn't
care! _We_ could stand the racket! _Huh!_
So we lazied the fine days away, while our sea harness lay stiffening
in the dark lockers.
Subtly, almost imperceptibly, the weather changed. There was a chill
in the night air; it was no longer pleasant to sleep on deck. The
stars were as bright, the sky as clear, the sea as smooth; but when the
sun had gone, damp vapours came and left the deck chill and clammy to
the touch.... 'Barefoot days' were over!
Still and all, the 'times' were good enough. If the flying-fish no
longer swept from under the bows in a glistening shoal, the trades yet
served us well. The days drew on. The day when we shifted the patched
and threadbare tropic sails and bent our stoutest canvas in their
place; the day when Sann'y Armstrong, the carpenter, was set to make
strong weatherboards for the cabin skylights; the day--a cloudy
day--when the spars were doubly lashed and all spare fittings sent
below. We had our warning; there were signs, a plenty!
All too soon our sunny days came to an end. The trades petered out in
calms and squally weather. Off the River Plate a chill wind from the
south set us to 'tack and tack,' and when the wind hauled and let us
free to our course again, it was only to run her into a gale on the
verge of the 'Forties.' Then for three days we lay hove-to, labouring
among heavy seas.
The 'buster' fairly took our breath away. The long spell of light
winds had turned us unhandy for storm work. The swollen ropes,
stiffened in the block-sheaves, were stubborn when we hauled; the wet,
heavy canvas that thrashed at us when stowing sail proved a fighting
demon that called for all our strength; the never-ending small work in
a swirl of lashing water found us slow and laboured at the task.
All this was quickly noted by the Mate, and he lost no time in putting
us to rights. Service in New Bedford whalers had taught him the
'Yankee touch,' and, as M'Innes put it, he was 'no' slow' with his big
hands.
"Lay along here, sons," he would roar, standing to the braces.... "Lay
along, sons;--ye know what sons I mean! ... Aft here, ye lazy hounds,
and see me make 'sojers,' sailors!!"
With his language we had no great grievance. We could appreciate a man
who said things--sailor-like and above board--but when it came to
knocking a man about (just because he was 'goin' t' get his oilskins,'
when the order was 'aloft, an' furl') there were ugly looks here and
there. We had our drilling while the gale lasted, and, when it
cleared, our back muscles were 'waking up.'
Now--with moderate weather again--famous preparations began in the
half-deck; everyone of us was in haste to put his weather armour to
rights. Oilskins, damp and sticking, were dragged from dark corners.
"Rotten stuff, anyway. We'll have no more of Blank's outfits, after
this," we said, as we pulled and pinched them apart. "Oh, damn! I
forgot about that stitchin' on the leg of my sea-boot," said one.
"Wish I'd had time t' put a patch on here," said another, ruefully
holding out his rubbers. "Too far gone for darning," said Eccles.
"Here goes," and he snipped the feet part from a pair of stockings and
tied a ropeyarn at the cut!
We were jeered at from the forecastle. Old Martin went about
_clucking_ in his beard. At every new effort on our part, his head
went nod, nod, nodding. "Oh, them brassbounders!" he would say. "Them
ruddy 'know-alls'! Wot did I tell ye, eh? Wot did I tell 'em, w'en we
was a-crossin' th' Line, eh? An' them 's th' fellers wot'll be
a-bossin' of you an' me, bo'sun! Comin' th' 'hard case,' like the big
feller aft there!"
Martin was right, and we felt properly humbled when we sneaked forward
in search of assistance. Happily, in Dan Nairn we found a cunning
cobbler, and for a token in sea currency--a plug or two of hard
tobacco--he patched and mended our boots. With the oilskins, all our
smoothing and pinching was hopeless. The time was gone when we could
scrub the sticky mess off and put a fresh coating of oil on the fabric.
Ah! We pulled long faces now and thought that, perhaps, sing-song and
larking, and Dicks's Standards and the Seaside Library are not good
value for a frozen soaking off the Horn!
But there was still a haven to which we careless mariners could put in
and refit. The Captain's 'slop chest'--a general store, where oilskins
were 'sea priced' at a sovereign, and sea-boots could be had for thirty
shillings! At these figures they would have stood till they crumbled
in a sailor-town shop window, but 50° S. is a world away from
Broomielaw Corner, and we were glad enough to be served, even if old
Niven, the steward, did pass off old stock on us.
"Naw! Ye'll no' get ye'r pick! Yell jist tak' whit 's gien' ye ... or
nane ava'!"
Wee Laughlin was a large buyer. He--of us all--had come to sea 'same
's he was goin' t' church!' A pier-head jump! So far, he had borrowed
and borrowed, but even good-natured Dutch John was learning English,
and would say, "Jou come to _mein haus, und_ stay mit me," or "_Was
für_ jou nod trink less _und_ buy somet'ings," at each wily approach.
On the day when 'slops' were served out, the Pride of Rue-en' Street
was first at the cabin door. As he was fitted and stepped along
forward with his purchases, the bo'sun saw him, and called: "Hello!
Oilskins an' sea-boots an' new shirts, eh? I see ye're outward bound,
young feller!" Laughlin leered and winked cunning-like.
"What d'ye mean by outward bound," asked Munro. "We're all outward
bound, an't we?"
"Of course; of course," said Hicks. "All outward bound! But w'en I
says it that wye, I mean as Lawklin is a-spendin' of 'is 'dibs,' ...
meanin' t' desert w'en we gets out! If 'e don't 'op it as soon as we
anchors in 'Frisco Bay, ye kin call me a ruddy Dutchman!"
"Desert? But that's serious?"
"Ho no! Not there it ain't! Desertin' 's as easy as rollin' off a
log, ... out there! D'ye think th' queer-fella' is goin' t' pay them
prices for 'is kit, if 'e wos goin' t' stop by her in 'Frisco? Not
much 'e ain't! An' ye kin tike it as a few more is goin' t' 'op it, or
ye wouldn't see so many of 'em aft 'ere for their bloomin' 'sundries'!"
"_Wel, wel_, now! These prices is not pad, indeed," said Welsh John,
who had joined us. "I haf paid more than three shillin' for a knife
pefore!"
"_Heh! Heh!_" The bo'sun laughed. "When a 'Taffy' that's a-buyin'
says that, ye may say it's right! ... But, blimy--the boot's on th'
other foot w'en it's 'Taffy' as is a-sellin'! _Heh! Heh!_ There wos
Old Man Lewis of th' _Vanguard_, o' Liverpool, that I signed in!
Blimy! 'e could tell ye wot 'sea price' is!"
"Good ol' 'sea price,'" said Martin. "Many an' 'appy 'ome, an' garden
wit' a flagstaff, is built o' 'sea price'!"
"Right, ol' son! Right," continued the bo'sun. "Old Man Lewis owned a
row of 'em, ... down in Fishguard.... I sailed in th' _Vanguard_ out
o' Liverpool t' Noo York an' then down south, 'ere--boun' t' Callao.
Off th' Falklan's, the Old Man opens out 'is bloomin' slop-chest an'
starts dealin'. A pound for blankits wot ye c'd shoot peas through,
an' fifteen bob for serge shirts--same kind as th' Sheenies sells a'
four an' tanner in th' Mawrsh! Of course, nobody 'ud buy 'em in at
that price, though we wos all 'parish rigged'--us bein' 'bout eight
months out from 'ome. If we 'ad been intendin' t' leave 'er, like th'
queer-fella, there, it 'ud a bin all right, but we 'ad 'bout
twenty-five poun' doo each of us, an' we wasn't keen on makin' th' Old
Man a n'ansome presint!"
"How could he get that?"
"'Ow could 'e get it? Easy 'nuff, in them days! As soon as we 'ad a
bin over th' rail, 'e 'ud 'ave us down in 'is bloomin' book--slops
supplied--five pun' 'ere--six pun' there--an' so on! ... Well, I was
sayin' as we was goin' south, round th' 'Orn! Winter time it was--an'
cold! Cruel! Ye couldn't tell who ye'r feet belonged to till ye 'ad
ye'r boots off. West an' sou'-west gales, 'ard runnin', ... an' there
we wos, away t' hell an' gone south' o' th' reg'lar track!
"I wos at the wheel one day, an' I 'eard th' Old Man an' th' Mate
confabbin' 'bout th' ship's position.
"'Fifty-nine, forty, south,' says th' Mate. 'Antarctic bloody
exploration, I call this!' ... 'E was frappin' 'is 'an's like a
Fenchurch cabby.... 'It's 'bout time ye wos goin' round, Capt'n!
She'd fetch round 'Cape Stiff' with a true west wind! She'll be in
among th' ice soon, if ye don't alter th' course! Time we was gettin'
out o' this,' says he, 'with two of th' han's frost-bit an' th' rest of
us 'bout perishin'!'
"'Oh no,' says old Lewis. 'No, indeed! Don't you make any mistike,
Mister! South's th' course, ... south till I sells them fine blankits
an' warm shirts!'"
VI
ROUNDING THE HORN
Rounding Cape Horn from the eastward, setting to the teeth of the great
west wind, to the shock and onset of towering seas; furious combination
of the elements that sweep unchecked around the globe!
Days passed, and we fared no farther on. North we would go with the
yards hard on the back-stays; to wear ship, and steer again south over
the same track. Hopeless work it was, and only the prospect of a
slant--a shift of wind that would let us to our journey--kept us
hammering doggedly at the task.
Day after day of huge sea and swell, mountainous in calm or storm.
Leaden-grey skies, with a brief glint of sunshine now and then--for it
was nominally summer time in low latitudes. Days of gloomy calm,
presage of a fiercer blow, when the Old Man (Orcadian philosopher that
he was) caught and skilfully stuffed the great-winged albatross that
flounders helplessly when the wind fails. Days of strong breezes, when
we tried to beat to windward under a straining main-to'gal'nsail; ever
a west wind to thwart our best endeavours, and week-long gales, that we
rode out, hove-to in the trough of overwhelming seas, lurching to
leeward under low canvas.
We had become sailors in earnest. We had forgotten the way of steady
trades and flying-fish weather, and, when the wind howled a whole gale,
we slapped our oilskin-clad thighs and lied cheerfully to each other of
greater gales we had been in. Even Wee Laughlin and M'Innes were
turned to some account and talked of sail and spars as if they had
never known the reek of steamer smoke. In the half-deck we had little
comfort during watch below. At every lurch of the staggering barque, a
flood of water poured through the crazy planking, and often we were
washed out by an untimely opening of the door. Though at heart we
would rather have been porters at a country railway station, we put a
bold front to the hard times and slept with our wet clothes under us
that they might be the less chilly for putting on at eight bells. We
had seldom a stitch of dry clothing, and the galley looked like a
corner of Paddy's market whenever McEwan, the 'gallus' cook, took pity
on our sodden misery.
In the forecastle the men were better off. Collins had rigged an
affair of pipes to draw the smoke away, and it was possible, in all but
the worst of weather, to keep the bogie-stove alight. We would gladly
have shifted to these warmer quarters, but our parents had paid a
premium for _privileged berthing_, and the Old Man would not hear of
our flitting. Happily, we had little darkness to add to the misery of
our passage, for the sun was far south, and we had only three hours of
night. Yet, when the black squalls of snow and sleet rolled up from
the westward, there was darkness enough. At times a flaw in the
wind--a brief veering to the south--would let us keep the ship
travelling to the westward. All hands would be in high spirits; we
would go below at the end of our watches, making light of sodden
bedclothes, heartened that at last our 'slant' had come. Alas for our
hopes! Before our watch was due we would be rudely wakened. "_All
hands wear ship_"--the dreaded call, and the Mate thundering at the
half-deck door, shouting orders in a threatening tone that called for
instant spur. Then, at the braces, hanging to the ropes in a swirl of
icy water, facing up to the driving sleet and bitter spray, that cut
and stung like a whiplash. And when at last the yards were laid to the
wind, and the order '_down helm_' was given, we would spring to the
rigging for safety, and, clinging desperately, watch the furious sweep
of a towering 'greybeard' over the barque, as she came to the wind and
lay-to.
Wild, heart-breaking work! Only the old hands, 'hard cases' like
Martin and Welsh John and the bo'sun, were the stoics, and there was
some small comfort in their "Whoo! This ain't nuthin'! Ye sh'd a' bin
shipmates with me in the ol' _Boryallus_!" (Or some such ancient
craft.) "_Them_ wos 'ard times!"
Twice we saw Diego Ramirez and the Iledefonsos, with an interval of a
fortnight between the sightings--a cluster of bleak rocks, standing out
of surf and broken water, taking the relentless battery of huge seas
that swept them from base to summit. Once, in clear weather, we marked
a blue ridge of land far to the norrard, and Old Martin and Vootgert
nearly came to blows as to whether it was Cape Horn or the False Cape.
Fighting hard for every inch of our laboured progress, doubling back,
crossing, recrossing (our track on the old blue-back chart was a maze
of lines and figures) we won our way to 70° W., and there, in the
hardest gale of the passage, we were called on for tribute, for one
more to the toll of sailor lives claimed by the rugged southern gateman.
All day the black ragged clouds had swept up from the south-west, the
wind and sea had increased hourly in violence. At dusk we had
shortened sail to topsails and reefed foresail. But the Old Man hung
on to his canvas as the southing wind allowed us to go 'full and by' to
the nor'-west. Hurtling seas swept the decks, tearing stout fittings
from their lashings. The crazy old half-deck seemed about to fetch
loose with every sea that crashed aboard. From stem to stern there was
no shelter from the growing fury of the gale; but still the Old Man
held to his course to make the most of the only proper 'slant' in six
weary weeks.
At midnight the wind was howling slaughter, and stout Old Jock,
dismayed at last at the furious sea upreared against him, was at last
forced to lay her to. In a piping squall of snow and sleet we set to
haul up the foresail. Even the nigger could not find heart to rouse
more than a mournful _i--o--ho_ at the buntlines, as we slowly dragged
the heavy slatting canvas to the yard. Intent on the work, we had no
eye to the weather, and only the Captain and steersman saw the sweep of
a monster sea that bore down on us, white-crested and curling.
"Stand by," yelled the Old Man. "Hang on, for your lives, men!
Christ! Hold hard there!"
Underfoot we felt the ship falter in swing--an ominous check in her
lift to the heaving sea. Then out of the blackness to windward a swift
towering crest reared up--a high wall of moving water, winged with
leagues of tempest at its back. It struck us sheer on the broadside,
and shattered its bulk aboard in a whelming torrent, brimming the decks
with a weight that left no life in the labouring barque. We were swept
to leeward at the first shock, a huddled mass of writhing figures, and
dashed to and fro with the sweep of the sea. Gradually, as the water
cleared, we came by foothold again, sorely bruised and battered.
"Haul away again, men!" The Mate, clearing the blood of a head wound
from his eyes, was again at the foretack giving slack. "Hell! what ye
standing at? Haul away, blast ye! Haul an' rouse her up!"
Half-handed, we strained to raise the thundering canvas; the rest, with
the Second Mate, were labouring at the spare spar, under which Houston,
an ordinary seaman, lay jammed with his thigh broken. Pinching with
handspikes, they got him out and carried aft, and joined us at the
gear; and at last the sail was hauled up. "_Aloft and furl_," was the
next order, and we sprang to the rigging in time to escape a second
thundering 'grey-beard.'
It was dark, with a black squall making up to windward, as we laid out
on the yard and grappled with the wet and heavy canvas. Once we had
the sail up, but the wind that burst on us tore it from our stiffened
fingers. Near me a grown man cried with the pain of a finger-nail torn
from the flesh. We rested a moment before bending anew to the task.
"Handy now, laads!" the Second Mate at the bunt was roaring down the
wind. "Stick t it, ma herts, ... hold aal, now! ... Damn ye, hold it,
you. Ye haandless sojer! ... Up, m' sons; up an' hold aal."
Cursing the stubborn folds, swaying dizzily on the slippery footropes,
shouting for hold and gasket, we fought the struggling wind-possessed
monster, and again the leach was passed along the yard. A turn of the
gasket would have held it, but even the leading hands at the bunt were
as weak and breathless as ourselves. The squall caught at an open lug,
and again the sail bellied out, thrashing fiendishly over the yard.
There was a low but distinct cry, "Oh, Christ!" from the quarter, and
M'Innes, clutching wildly, passed into the blackness below. For a
moment all hands clung desperately to the jackstay, fending the
thrashing sail with bent heads; then some of the bolder spirits made to
come off the yard.... "The starboard boat .... Who? ... Duncan ...
It's Duncan gone.... Quick there, the star ... the lashings!"
The Second Mate checked their movement.
"No! No! Back, ye fools! Back, I say! Man canna' help Duncan now!"
He stood on the truss of the yard, grasping the stay, and swung his
heavy sea-boot menacingly.
"Back, I say! Back, an' furl the sail, ... if ye wouldna' follow
Duncan!"
Slowly we laid out the yard again, and set sullenly to master Duncan's
murderer.
A lull came. We clutched and pounded at the board-like cloths, dug
with hooked fingers to make a crease for handhold, and at last turned
the sail to the yard, though lubberly and ill-furled.
One by one, as our bit was secured, we straggled down the rigging.
Some of the hands were aft on the lee side of the poop, staring into
the darkness astern--where Duncan was. Munro, utterly unmanned, was
crying hysterically. In his father's country manse, he had known
nothing more bitter than the death of a favourite collie. Now he was
at sea, and by his side a man muttered, "Dead?--My God, I hope he's
dead, ... out there!"
The Old Man crossed over from the weather side, and addressing the men,
said: "The Second Mate tells me ye wanted t' get t' th' boat when
M'Innes .... went.... I'm pleased that ye've that much guts in ye,
but I could risk no boat's crew in a sea like this.... Besides, I'm
more-ally certain that M'Innes was dead before he took the water. Eh,
Mister?"
"Aye ... dead," said the Mate. "I saw him strike the to'gal'nt rail,
and no man could live after a blow like that. Dead, sure!"
Old Jock returned to his post under the weather-cloth, and the Mate
ordered the watch below.
So Duncan took his discharge, and a few days later, in clearing
weather, his few belongings were sold at the mast. It was known that
he wasn't married, but Welsh John, who knew him best, said he had
spoken of his mother in Skye; and the Old Man kept a few letters and
his watch that he might have something besides his money to send to
Duncan's relatives.
As if Duncan had paid our toll for rounding the storm-scarred Cape, the
weather cleared and winds set fair to us after that last dread night of
storm. Under a press of canvas we put her head to the norrard, and
soon left the Horn and the 'Roaring Forties' astern.
* * * * *
One night, in the middle watch, when we had nearly run out the
south-east trades, I went forward, looking for someone to talk to, or
anything to relieve the tedium of my two hours on the lee side of the
poop. I found Welsh John sitting on the main-hatch and disposed to
yarn. He had been the most intimate with Duncan, harkening to his
queer tales of the fairies in Knoidart when we others would scoff, and
naturally the talk came round to our lost shipmate.
It was bright moonlight, and the shadow of sails and rigging was cast
over the deck. Near us, in the lee of the house, some sleepers lay
stretched. The Mate stepped drowsily fore and aft the poop, now and
then squinting up at the royals.
"I wonder what brought Duncan to a windjammer," I said. "He was too
old to be starting the sea, an' there were plenty of jobs on the river
for a well-doin' man like him."
Welsh John spat carefully on the deck, and, after looking round, said,
"Tuncan was here, indeed, because he thought the police would bother
him. He told me he wass in a small steamboat that runs from Loch Fyne
to the Clyde, an' the skipper was a man from Killigan or Kalligan, near
Tuncan's place."
"Kyle-akin," I suggested.
"That iss it, Kyle-akin; an' he was very far in drink. They started
from Inverary for the river, and it wass plowin' strong from the
south-east, an' the small boat wass makin' very bad weather, indeed.
The skipper wass very trunk, an' Tuncan, who wass steerin', said they
should put in to shelter for the night. But the skipper wass
quarrelsome, an' called Tuncan a coward an' a nameless man from Skye,
an' they came to plows. Tuncan let go the tiller, an' the small boat
came broadside on, and shipped a big sea, an' when Tuncan got to the
tiller an' put it up, the skipper was gone. They never saw him, so
they came on to the Clyde, where Tuncan left the poat. An' they were
askin' questions from him, an' Tuncan was afraid; but indeed to
goodness he had no need to pe. So he shipped with us--a pier-head jump
it wass...."
A sleeper stirred uneasily, rolled over, and cursed us for a pair of
chatterin' lawyers.
We were both quiet for a moment or two; then the strident voice of the
Mate rang out, "Boy! Boy! Where the hell have you got to now? Lay
aft and trim the binnacle!"
I mounted the poop ladder, muttering the usual excuse about having been
to see the side-lights. I trimmed the lamps, and as it was then a
quarter to four, struck one bell and called the watch. As I waited on
the poop to strike the hour, the men were turning out forward, and I
could hear the voice of the eldest apprentice chiding the laggards in
the half-deck. I thought of Duncan, and of what Welsh John had told me.
"Aye, aye, that was Duncan. That was the way of it. I always wond----"
_Cla--clang--Cla--clang--Cla--clang--Cla--clang._
The Mate, anxious to get his head on pillow, had flogged the clock and
had struck eight bells himself.
VII
A HOT CARGO
Shorefolk can have but a hazy idea of all that it means to the
deep-water sailor when at last, after long voyaging, the port of his
destination heaves in sight. For months he has been penned up on
shipboard, the subject of a discipline more strict than that in any way
of life ashore. The food, poor in quality, and of meagre allowance at
the best, has become doubly distasteful to him. The fresh water has
nearly run out, and the red rusty sediment of the tank bottoms has a
nauseating effect and does little to assuage the thirst engendered by
salt rations. Shipmates have told and retold their yarns, discussions
now verge perilously on a turn of fisticuffs. He is wearying of sea
life, is longing for a change, for a break in the monotony of day's
work and watch-keeping, of watch-keeping and day's work.
A welcome reaction comes on the day when he is ordered to put the
harbour gear in readiness. Generally he has only a hazy notion of the
ship's position (it is sea fashion to keep that an Officers' secret),
and the rousing up of the long idle anchor chains and tackle is his
first intimation that the land is near, that any day may now bring the
shore to view, that soon he will be kicking his heels in a sailor-town
tavern, washing off his 'salt casing' with lashings of the right stuff.
This was in part our case when we were a hundred and forty days out
from the Clyde. The food was bad and short allowance; the key of the
pump was strictly guarded, but we had excitement enough and to spare,
for, six days before our 'landfall,' the bo'sun discovered fire in the
fore-hold that had evidently been smouldering for some time, was
deep-seated, and had secured a firm hold.
It was difficult to get at the fire on account of the small hatchway,
and notwithstanding the laboured efforts of all hands, we were at last
obliged to batten the hatches down and to trust to a lucky 'slant' to
put us within hail of assistance. The water which we had so
fruitlessly poured below had all to be pumped out again to get the ship
in sailing trim; and heart-breaking work it was, with the wheezy old
pump sucking every time the ship careened to leeward. Anxiety showed
on all faces, and it was with great relief that, one day at noon, we
watched the Mate nailing a silver dollar to the mizzenmast. The dollar
was his who should first sight the distant shore.
We held a leading wind from the norrard, and when, on the afternoon of
a bright day, we heard the glad shout from the fore-tops'l
yard--"Land-oh"--we put a hustle on our movements, and, light at heart,
found excuse to lay aloft to have a far-away look at God's good earth
again. It was the Farallone Islands we had made--thirty miles west
from the Golden Gate--a good landfall. Dutch John was the lucky man to
see it first, and we gave him a cheer as he laid aft to take the dollar
off the mast.
In the second dog-watch we hung about the decks discussing prospective
doings when we set foot ashore, and those who had been in 'Frisco
before formed centres of inquiry and importance. From the bearing of
the land, we expected orders to check in the yards, but, greatly to our
surprise, the Mate ordered us to the lee fore-brace, and seemed to be
unable to get the yards far enough forrard to please him. When Wee
Laughlin came from the wheel at eight bells, we learned that the ship
was now heading to the nor'east, and away from our port; and the old
hands, with many shakings of the head, maintained that some tricky game
was afoot. The Old Man and the Mate were colloguing earnestly at the
break of the poop; and Jones, who went aft on a pretence of trimming
the binnacle, reported that the Old Man was expressing heated opinions
on the iniquity of salvage. At midnight we squared away, but as we
approached the land the wind fell light and hauled ahead. Wonder of
wonders! This seemed to please the Captain hugely, and his face beamed
like a nor'west moon every time he peered into the compass.
Dawn found us well to the norrard of the islands, and close-hauled,
standing into the land. From break of day all hands were busy getting
the anchors cleared and the cables ranged. Some were engaged painting
out the rusty bits on the starboard top-side. A 'work-up' job they
thought it was until the Mate ordered them to leave the stages hanging
over the water abreast of the fore-hatch. Here the iron plating was
hot, the paint was blistered off, and every time the ship heeled over
there was an unmistakable _sssh_ as the water lapped the heated side.
This, and the smell of hot iron, was all that there was to tell of our
smouldering coal below, but 'Frisco men from the Water Front are sharp
as ferrets, and very little would give them an inkling of the state of
affairs. Presently we raised the land broad on the port bow, and two
of us were perched on the fore-to'gal'nt yard to look out for the pilot
schooner; or, if luck was in our way, a tow-boat. The land became more
distinct as the day wore on, and the bearing of several conspicuous
hills gave the Captain the position he sought. Before noon we reported
smoke ahead, and the Mate, coming aloft with his telescope, made out
the stranger to be a tow-boat, and heading for us. We were called down
from aloft, and the ship was put about.
We were now, for the second time, heading away from our port; and when
the Mate set us to slap the paint on the burned patch, we understood
the Old Man's manoeuvre, which had the object of preventing the
tow-boat from rounding to on our starboard side. Her skipper would
there have assuredly seen evidences of our plight, and would not have
been slow to take advantage of it.
The tug neared us rapidly (they lose no time on the Pacific slope), and
the Captain recognised her as the _Active_.
"She's one of Spreckel's boats," said he, shutting his glass. "Cutbush
runs her, an' he's a dead wide ane. If he smells a rat, Mister, we'll
be damned lucky if we get into harbour under a couple o' thousand."
We were all excited at the game, though it mattered little to us what
our owners paid, as long as we got out of our hot corner. Straight for
us he came, and when he rounded our stern and lay up on the lee
quarter, the bo'sun voiced the general opinion that the Old Man had
done the trick.
"Morn, Cap.! Guess ye've bin a long time on th' road," sang out the
tow-boat's skipper, eyeing our rusty side and grassy counter.
"Head winds," said the Old Man, "head winds, an' no luck this side o'
th' Horn."
"Ye're a long way to th' norrard, Cap. Bin havin' thick weather
outside?"
"Well, not what ye might call thick, but musty, these last few days.
We were lookin' to pick up the Farallones." (The unblushing old
Ananias!)
There ensued a conversation about winds and weather, ships and
freights, interspersed with the news of five months back. The talk
went on, and neither seemed inclined to get to business. At last the
tow-boat man broke the ice.
"Wall, Cap., I reckon ye don't want t' stay here all day. Wind's
easterly inside, an' there ain't none too much water on th' bar. Ye'd
better give us yer hawser 'n let's git right along."
"Oh! no hurry, Capt'in; there's no hurry. What's a day here or there
when ye'r well over the hundreds? I can lay up to th' pilot ground on
th' next tack.... Ye'll be wantin' a big figure from here, an' my
owners won't stand a long pull."
"Only six hundred, Cap., only six hundred, with your hawser."
The Old Man started back in amazement.
"Six hundred dollars, Capt'in. Did you say six hundred? Holy smoke!
I don't want t' buy yer boat, Capt'in.... Six hundred--well, I'm
damned. Loose them royals, Mister! Six hundred, no damn fear!"
Quickly we put the royals on her, though they were little use, the wind
having fallen very light. The tow-boat sheered off a bit, and her
skipper watched us sheeting-home, as if it were a most interesting and
uncommon sight.
He gave his wheel a spoke or two and came alongside again.
"All right, Cap. Give us yer hawser 'n I'll dock ye for five-fifty!"
The Old Man paid no attention to his request, but paced fore and aft
the weather side, gazing occasionally at the lazy royals, then fixing
the man at the wheel with a reproachful eye. At last he turned to
leeward with a surprised expression, as if astonished to find the
tow-boat still there.
"Come, Cap.! Strike it right naow! What d'ye offer? Mind the wind,
as there is ov it, is due east in the Strait."
The Old Man thought carefully for quite a time. "Hundred 'n fifty, 'n
your hawser," he said.
The Captain of the _Active_ jammed his telegraph at full speed ahead.
"Good morn', Cap.," he said. "Guess I'll see ye in 'Frisco this side
o' the Noo Year." He forged rapidly ahead, and when clear of the bows
took a long turn to seaward. The Mate took advantage of his being away
and wiped off the paint on the burned patch, which was beginning to
smell abominably. Fresh paint was hurriedly put on, and the stages
were again aboard when the _Active_, finding nothing to interest her on
the western horizon, returned--again to the lee quarter.
"Saay, Cap., kan't we do a deal; kan't we meet somewhere?" said
Cutbush, conciliatory. "Say five hundred or four-eighty, 'n I'll toss
ye for th' hawser?"
"I can't do it, Capt'in.... I'd lose my job if I went," (here the Old
Man paused to damn the steersman's eyes, and to tell him to keep her
full) "if I went that length."
The tow-boat again sheered off, and her skipper busied himself with his
telescope.
"Wall, Cap., she may be a smart barque, but I'm darn ef ye can beat her
though the Golden Gate the way th' wind is. Saay! Make it
three-fifty? What the hell's about a fifty dollars. Darn me! I've
blown that in half-hour's poker!"
"Aye, aye! That's so; but I'm no' takin' a hand in that game. Set the
stays'ls, Mister, 'n get a pull on the fore 'n main sheets!"
We went about the job, and the _Active_ took another turn, this time to
the south'ard. Munro, aloft loosing the staysails, reported a steamer
away under the land. She was sending up a dense smoke, and that caused
the Old Man to account her another tow-boat out seeking.
"That'll fetch him," he said to the Mate, "'n if he offers again I'll
close. Three-fifty's pretty stiff, but we can't complain."
"Egad, no!" said the Mate; "if I'd been you I'd have closed for five
hundred, an' be done with it."
"Aye, aye, no doubt! no doubt! But ye're not a Scotchman looking after
his owners' interest."
Soon we saw the _Active_ smoking up and coming towards us with 'a bone
in her mouth.' Cutbush had seen the stranger's smoke, and he lost no
time. He seemed to be heading for our starboard side, and we thought
the game was up; but the Old Man kept off imperceptibly, and again the
tug came to port.
"Changed yer mind, Cap.? Guess I must be gwine back. Got t' take the
_Drumeltan_ up t' Port-Costa in th' mornin'. What d'ye say t' three
hundred?"
The Old Man called the Mate, and together they held a serious
consultation, with many looks to windward, aloft, and at the compass.
The stranger was rapidly approaching, and showed herself to be a
yellow-funnelled tow-boat, with a business-like foam about her bows.
Spreckel's man was getting fidgety, as this was one of the opposition
boats, and he expected soon to be quoting a competitive figure. To his
pleased surprise, the Old Man came over to leeward, and, after a last
wrangle about the hawser, took him on at the satisfactory figure of
three hundred dollars.
We put about, and the Mate had another little deal in burned paint.
Courses were hauled up, and the Active came along our starboard side to
pass the towing wire aboard. The paint hid the patch, and in the
manoeuvre of keeping clear of our whisker-booms, the smell escaped
notice, and the marks of our distress were not noticed by her crew. We
hauled the wire aboard and secured the end, and the _Active's_ crew
heard nothing significant in the cheer with which we set about
clewing-up and furling sail.
The afternoon was far spent when we reached the pilot schooner. She
was lying at anchor outside the bar, the wind having died away; and as
she lifted to the swell, showed the graceful underbody of an old-time
'crack.' The pilot boarded us as we towed past. Scarce was he over
the rail before he shouted to the Old Man, "What's the matter, Cap'n?
Guess she looks 's if she had a prutty hot cargo aboard."
"Hot enough, Pilot! Hot enough, b' Goad! We've bin afire forr'ard
these last seven days that we know of, and I'm no' sayin' but that I'm
glad t' see th' beach again."
"Wall, that's bad, Cap'n. That's bad. Ye won't make much this trip, I
guess, when the 'boys' have felt ye over.' He meant when the 'Frisco
sharps had got their pickings, and the Old Man chuckled audibly as he
replied.
"Oh, we'll chance that--aye, we'll chance that. It's no' so bad 's if
Cutbush was gettin' his figger."
"What's he gettin', anyway?"
"Oh, he's doin' verra well. He's doin' verra well," said the Old Man
evasively.
We were now approaching the far-famed Golden Gate, the talk of mariners
on seven seas. We boys were sent aloft to unrig the chafing gear, and
took advantage of our position and the Mate's occupation to nurse the
job, that we might enjoy the prospect. The blue headland and the
glistening shingle of Drake's Bay to the norrard and the high cliffs of
Benita ahead: the land stretching away south, and the light of the
westing sun on the distant hills. No wonder that when the Mate called
us down from aloft to hand flags there was much of our work left
unfinished.
At Benita Point we had a busy time signalling news of our condition to
the ship's agents at 'Frisco. After we passed through the Narrows, we
had a near view of the wooded slopes of Saucilito, with the
white-painted houses nestling comfortably among the trees. Away to the
right the undulating plains of the Presidio reached out to the purple
haze of the distant city. The Pilot, seeing admiration in our eyes,
couldn't help blowing, even to us boys, and exclaimed aloud on the
greatness of the U-nited States in possessing such a sea-board.
"Saay, boys," he said. "Guess yew ain't got nothin' like this in th'
old country!"
Young Munro, who was the nearest, didn't let the Pilot away with that,
and he mentioned a 'glint of Loch Fyre, when the sun was in the
west'ard.' "And that's only one place I'm speakin' of."
The sun was low behind us as we neared the anchorage, and a light haze
softened and made even more beautiful the outlines of the stately City.
As we looked on the shore, no one had mind of the long dreary voyage.
That was past and done. We had thought only for the City of the West
that lay before us, the dream of many long weary nights.
But, as I gazed and turned away, I was sharply minded of what the sea
held for us. Houston had been carried on deck, "t' see th' sichts," as
he said. His stretcher stood near me, and the sight of his wan face
brought up the memory of bitter times 'off the Horn.' Of the black
night when we lost Duncan! Of the day when Houston lay on the cabin
floor, and the master-surgeon and his rude assistants buckled to 'the
job'! Of the screams of the tortured lad--"Let me alane! Oh, Christ!
Let me al----" till kindly Mother Nature did what we had no means to
do! ... "Man, but it was a tough job, with her rolling and pitching in
the track o' th' gale!" The Old Man was telling the Pilot about it.
"But there he is, noo! As sound as ye like ... a bit weak, mebbe, but
sound! ... We'll send him t' th' hospital, when we get settled
down.... No' that they could dae mair than I've dune." Here a smile
of worthy pride. "But a ship 's no' the place for scienteefic
measures--stretchin', an' rubbin', an' that.... Oh, yes! Straight?
I'll bate ye he walks as straight as a serjunt before we're ready for
sea again!"
As we drew on to the anchorage, a large raft-like vessel with barges in
tow made out to meet us. The Old Man turned his glasses on her and
gave an exclamation of satisfaction.
"Meyer's been damn smart in sending out the fire-float," he said to the
Mate, adding, "Get the foreyard cock-billed, Mister; and a burton
rigged to heave out the cargo as soon 's we anchor. There's the
tow-boat whistlin' for ye to shorten in th' hawser. Bear a hand, mind
ye, for we've a tough night's work before us."
* * * * *
But all was not pleasant anticipation aboard of the screw tug _Active_,
towing gallantly ahead, for Captain John Cutbush had discovered his
loss, and the world wasn't big enough for his indictment of Fortune.
He had seen our flags off Benita, but had not troubled to read the
message, as he saw the answering pennant flying from the Lighthouse.
In scanning the anchorage for a convenient berth to swing his tow in,
the fire-float caught his eye.
"Hello! somethin' afire in th' Bay!" He turned his glasses among the
shipping, in search of a commotion, but all was quiet among the tall
ships.
"But where's she lyin'-to fer? There ain't nothin' this side ov
Alcatraz, I reckon."
Then a dread suspicion crossed his mind, that made him jump for the
signal-book. He remembered the flags of our last hoist, and feverishly
turned them up.
"Arrange--assistance---for--arrival."
Muttering oaths, he dropped the book and focussed his glasses on the
tow. The track of the fire was patent to the world now, and we were
unbending the sails from the yards above the fore-hatch.
"She's afire right 'nuff, 'n I never cottoned. Roast me for a ----.
'N that's what the downy old thief was standin' t' th' norrard for, 'n
I never cottoned! 'N that's what he took me on at three hundred for,
'n Meyer's boat almost along-side. Three ---- hundred 'n my ----
hawser. Waal--I'm--damned! The old limejuice pirate! Guess I should
'a known him for a bloody sharp when I saw Glasgow on her stern."
He stopped cursing, to blow his whistle--a signal for us to shorten in
the towing hawser. In the ensuing manoeuvres he was able to relieve
his feelings by criticising our seamanship; he swung us round with a
vicious sheer, eased up, and watched our anchor tumbling from the bows.
He gazed despairingly at his Mate, who was steering.
"Here's a ruddy mess, Gee-orge," he said. "Three thousan' dollars
clean thrown away. What'll the boss say. What'll they say on th'
Front?"
George cursed volubly, and expended much valuable tobacco juice.
"Here's a boomer fer th' 'Examiner,' Geeorge; here's a sweet headline
fer th' 'Call'!
"'Cutbush done!'
"'Cap'n Jan Cutbush done in th' eye!!'
"'Cap'n Jan S. Cutbush, th' smartest skipper on th' Front, done in the
bloody eye by a bargoo-eatin' son ef a gun ef a grey-headed
limejuicer!!!'"
VIII
WORK!
Scarcely was our anchor down in 'Frisco Bay than the boarding-house
'crimps' were alongside, beaming with good-fellowship, and tumbling
over one another in their anxiety to shake 'Jack' by the hand, and to
tell him of the glorious openings and opportunities for smart sailormen
ashore. The Mate vainly endeavoured to prevent them boarding the ship,
but with the ordinary harassing duties incident on arrival, and the
extraordinary matter of a serious fire in the hold, he could not do
everything; so the 'crimps' installed themselves in the fo'cas'le, and
the grog (Welcome-home Brand) was flowing far and free.
The starboard watch were aloft furling the tops'ls, and only the
presence of the Captain and Mates at the foot of the rigging kept them
from joining the hilarious crowd in the fo'cas'le. The Mate's watch
had been employed at the ground tackle, and had dodged in and out of
the fo'cas'le; so that, in a very short time, they were all 'three
sheets in the wind,' and making for trouble. Vootgert, the Belgian,
was the first to fall foul of the Mate, and that sorely-tried Officer
could hardly be blamed for using all four limbs on the offending
'squarehead.' Seeing their shipmate thus handled, the watch would have
raised a general mêlée, but the boarding-house 'crimps,' having no
liking for police interference, succeeded in calming the valiant ones
by further draughts of their fiery panacea. To us boys (who had heard
great tales of revolvers and other weapons being freely used by ship
captains in preventing their men from being 'got at') these mutinous
ongoings were a matter of great wonderment; but, later, we learned that
freights were low, and we were likely to be many months in 'Frisco;
that crews' wages and victualling, when the ship is earning no money,
reflect on the professional character of an old-time shipmaster, and
that to baulk the 'crimps' on arrival means an expensive delay in
making up a crew when the ship is again ready for sea.
Wee Laughlin and the nigger were the first to yield to the eloquence of
their visitors. No one was surprised that the Mate let Laughlin clear
without interference. A poor sailor, though a lot had been licked into
him since he left the 'Poort,' he was not worth keeping. His kind
could be picked up on the Water Front any day. He had come on board at
Greenock--a pierhead jump, with his wardrobe on his back and a
'hauf-mutchkin' of very inferior whisky in his pocket. Now, to our
astonishment, he threw a well-filled bag over the side before he slid
down the rope into the 'crimp's' boat. Long intending to desert when
we arrived, he had taken as much of his pay in clothes and slop-chest
gear as the Old Man would allow. It was said, too, that a lot of poor
Duncan's clothes never came to auction, and more than one suspected Wee
Laughlin of a run through Duncan's bag before the Old Niven got forward
and claimed what was left.
That well-filled bag!
To the Second Mate, who was eyeing his departure, he flung a
salutation, first seeing that his line of retreat was clear. "Weel, so
long, Mister, ye Hielan' ----, ye can pit ma fower pun ten i' yer e'e
'n ca' yersel' a bloody banker!"
No one saw the nigger go, but gone he was, bag and baggage; and loud
were the curses of the cook, to whom he owed four pounds of tobacco for
losses at crib.
While all this was going on, and the 'crimps' were marking down their
prey, the crew of the fire-float had located the fire and cut a hole in
the 'tween-decks above the hottest part. Through this a big ten-inch
hose was passed, and soon the rhythmic _clank-clank_ of their pump
brought 'Frisco Bay to our assistance.
Darkness fell on a scene of uproar. Everything was at sixes and sevens
forward, and the discipline of five months was set at naught. Drunken
men tumbled over the big hose and slippery decks, and got in the
firemen's way; steam enveloped the decks as in a fog; dim figures of
men struggled and quarrelled; curses and hoarse shouts came from the
fo'cas'le, whence the hands were being driven by the rising smoke and
steam; rushing figures transferred their few belongings to safer
quarters; and through all throbbed the steady _clank-clank_ of the
fire-engine.
A strange contrast to the quiet and peaceful scene about us--with a low
moon over San Rafael, and the lights of the shipping reflected in the
placid water. A few fishing-boats were drifting out on the tide, with
creak of oar and rowlock; and above all was the glare of the lighted
streets and harbour lights of the great city.
Not long had we to contrast the scenes, for the Mate, and the Old Man
himself, were at our backs, man-driving the few sober hands, to make up
for their inability to handle the skulkers. They did not spare
themselves in driving, and at salving the gear in the lamp-room the
Captain made a weird picture, black and grimy, with a cloth over his
mouth, passing the lamps out to the boys.
With such a volume of water pouring below, it was necessary to get a
pump in position to keep our craft afloat. She was now far down by the
head and had a heavy list, and as the ship's pumps would not draw, the
Firemaster arranged to put one of his pumps into the fore-peak. To
make this efficient, we had to raise the sluice in the forrard
bulkhead; and even the Old Man looked anxious when the Carpenter
reported that the sluice was jammed, and that the screw had broken in
his hands. The stream of water into the hold was immediately stopped,
and all available hands (few enough we were) were put to clearing the
fore-peak, that the sluice could be got at. In this compartment all
the ship's spare gear and bos'un's stores were kept, and the lower hold
held ten tons of the ship's coal. The small hatchway made despatch
impossible, and the want of a winch was keenly felt. It was
back-breaking work, hauling up the heavy blocks, the cordage, sails and
tarpaulins, chains, kegs and coils, and dragging them out on deck. A
suffocating atmosphere and foul gases below showed that the seat of the
fire was not far off, and often the workers were dragged up in a
semi-conscious state. The Mate was the first to go down, and he hung
out till nature rebelled, and he was dragged up and put in the open
air. There the aggrieved Belgian saw him, and, maddened by drink, took
advantage of his exhaustion to kick him viciously in the ribs; but
Jones promptly laid the Dutchman out with a hand-spike.
In a moment the drink, discontent, excitement, and overwork found vent
in furious riot: shipmates of five months' standing, comrades in fair
weather and foul, were at each other's throats, and amid the smoke and
steam no man could name his enemy. Welsh John, in trying to get young
Munro out of harm's way, was knocked down the open hatch, and he lay,
groaning, with a broken arm, amid the steam and stench. Hicks, the
bo'sun, was stabbed in the cheek, and someone knocking the lamps over,
added darkness to the vicious conflict. Blind and blaspheming, animals
all, we fought our way to the doors, and the malcontents, in ill plight
themselves, cared little to follow us.
Meantime the Firemaster, seeing how matters stood, called his men
together and turned a hose into the fo'cas'le. The thin, vicious
stream proved too much for the mutineers, and we were soon in
possession again. John was taken up from the fore-peak (he was far
through) and carried aft. The mutineers, such as were fit, were put
down below to dig coals till they could dig no more; and again the work
went on--weary, body-racking work.
With aching eyes and every muscle in revolt, we toiled on in silence,
not even a curse among us. Silence, broken only by the rattle of the
block-sheave, as the baskets of coal were hove up and emptied. There
was now no need for the Old Man to hold himself in readiness, with
something in his pocket that bulged prominently, for there was not an
ounce of fight left in the crowd, and 'Smith and Wessons' are
ill-fitting things to carry about. Two hours we had of this, and give
in was very near when the welcome news came up that they had got at the
sluice, that the water was trickling through. Soon after, the sluice
was prised up, and the pent-up water rushed into the peak. The
Firemaster passed his pipe below, and again the pumps were set agoing.
We staggered out into the fresh morning air, red-eyed and ragged, and a
madhouse gang we looked in the half-light of an early Californian dawn.
Faces haggard and blackened by the smoke, eyes dazed and bloodshot, and
on nearly everyone evidence of the ten minutes' sanguinary encounter in
bruised eyes and bloody faces. The Mate called a muster to serve out
grog, and of our crew of twenty-seven hands only fifteen answered the
call. The Old Man tried to make a few remarks to the men. He had been
frequently to the bottle through the night, for his speech was thick
and his periods uncertain.
"No bloody nozzush, b' Goad ... tan' no nozzush, Mis'r----" was about
the burden of his lay.
With a modest glass of strong rum to raise our spirits momentarily, we
lingered before going below to note the wreck and confusion that our
once trim barque was now in. She was still down by the head, and
listed at an awkward angle. The decks were littered with gear and
stores, muddy and dirty as a city street on a day of rain. Aloft, the
ill-furled tops'ls hung bunched below the yards, with lazy gaskets
streaming idly in mid-air; and the yards, 'lifted' at all angles, gave
a lubberly touch to our distressed appearance. The riding-light, still
burning brightly on the forestay, though the sun was now above the
horizon, showed that we had lost all regard for routine.
A damp mist, the 'pride o' the morning,' was creeping in from seaward,
and the siren at the Golden Gate emitted a mournful wail at intervals.
Near us, at the anchorage, a big black barque, loaded and in sea-trim,
was getting under weigh, and the haunting strain of 'Shenandoah,' most
beautiful of sea-chanteys, timed by the musical _clank_ of the windlass
pawls, was borne on the wind to us.
"An outward-bounder, and a blue-nose at that," said Martin.
We wondered if Wee Laughlin was already in her fo'cas'le, with a
skinful of drugged liquor to reckon with. The 'crimps' lose no time if
they can get their man under, and Wee Laughlin, by his own glory of it,
was a famous swallower.
In the half-deck, some of the boys were already turned in, and lying in
uneasy attitudes, with only their boots and jackets off. Jones, who
had been severely handled in the scrimmage, was moaning fitfully in his
sleep, his head swathed in bloody bandages, and the pallor showing in
his face through the grime and coal-dust. Hansen was the last man in.
He threw himself wearily down on the sea-chests, now all of a heap to
leeward, snatched a pillow from under Munro's head, and composed
himself to rest.
"Mate says I'm to keep watch, 'n call him at eight bells; but, judgin'
by th' way he put the grog down, I'm damn sure he'll stir tack nor
sheet till midday.... Firemaster says she's under hand, 'n he'll have
the fire out in two hours, 'n she can bally well look out for
herself.... T' hell with an anchor watch; I can't keep my eyes open,
an' 'll work ... work ... no m----"
IX
IN 'FRISCO TOWN
We moored at Mission Wharf to discharge what cargo the fire had spared,
and there we made a lubberly picture, outcast among so many trim ships.
The firemen had done their duty and had left us to do ours, and we had
to work our hardest to put the ship in order again. A firm of
shipwrights were employed to repair the damage--the twisted stanchions,
buckled beams, burnt decks, worthless pumps, and hold fittings. Old
Jock was not a Scotchman for nothing, and to make their contract
profitable, the 'wrights did nothing that they could wriggle out of.
So we had extra work to do--their work--and from daylight to dark were
kept hard at it, man-driven as only our hardcase Mate could drive. It
was no wonder that we were in a state of discontent. Here we were,
after a long, hard voyage, working our 'soul-case' to shreds! And
there--just across the wharf--were the lights of Market Street, that
seemed to beckon us to come ashore! There were angry mutterings, and
only a wholesome fear of the Mate's big hands kept us at the task.
With the men forward it was even worse. The word had gone out that no
money would be advanced until the cargo was discharged and the ship put
to rights. No money--not even the price of a 'schooner'! And the
ghost of nigh six months, salt beef waiting to be 'laid!'
Their state of mind was soon observed by the boarding-masters. Whalers
were in the Bay, fitted out and ready for sea, and only a lack of
sailormen kept them within the Golden Gate. To get these men--the
blood-money for their shipment, rather--was the business of the
'crimps,' who showed a wealth of imagination in describing the various
topping shore jobs that they held at their disposal. Now it was a
'mine manager' they were looking for in our forecastle; to-morrow it
would be a fruit salesman they wanted! They secured smiling Dutch John
as a decoy, and set him up behind the bar of a Water Front saloon.
There, when work was over for the day, his former shipmates
foregathered, and John (fairly sober, considering) put up free drinks
and expanded on the goodness of a long-shore life.
"Vat jou boysh stop _mit der_ ship on? Jou tinks dere vas no yobs on
shore? De boardin'-master damn lie, eh? ... Ah vas get me four
dollars a day; _und der_ boss, ven 'e see me de glasses break, say me
nodings! Ah goes from _der haus, und_ comes to _der haus in--und_ 'e
say nod like _der_ Mate, 'Vat jou do dere, _verdamt shwine_? Was _für_
jou no go on mit jour vark?' ... _'ttverdam_! It vas _der_ life,
_mein_ boysh! It vas _der_ life!"
Against such a pronouncement from their whilom shipmate, and with the
plain evidence of his prosperity before their eyes, it was useless to
argue. Here was John able to stand free drinks all round, and the
saloon boss 'standin' by' and smiling pleasantly. Didn't John say,
"Here, boss, jou gif me a light for _mein_ cigar!" and the owner of the
place handed out his silver box instanter? John! A 'Dutchman,'
too,--not even the best sailorman of the 'crowd'! ... ("Here, boss,
what was that job ye was talkin' about? I _guess_ there ain't nuthin'
I can't do w'en I sets my 'ead to it!") Soon the 'crimps,' ever ready
at hand, were off to the ship, hot-foot, for bags and baggage!
Those who still held by the ship were visited at all hours, and the
comings and goings of the tempters were not even checked by the Mate.
The dinner hour was the most opportune time for them, for then they had
the miserable meal to point to in scorn.
"Call yewrselves min," they said, "a sittin' hyar at yer lobscouse an'
dawg biscuits, an' forty dallars a month jest waitin' t' be picked up?
... Forty dallars ... an' no more graft 'n a boy kin dew! Darn it, I
wouldn't give that mess to me dawg! ... A fine lot yees are, fer sure!
Ain't got no heart t' strike aout f'r decent grub 'n a soft job....
Forty dallars, I guess! ... Is thar a 'man' among ye? ... Chip in
yewr dunnage an' step ashore, me bucks! A soft job in a free country,
an' no damn lime juice Mate t' sweat ye araound!"
The 'spell worked'! Within a fortnight of our arrival most of the men
who had signed with us had, '_Deserted. Left no effects_,' entered
against their names in our official Log. Soon the whalers were at sea,
standing to the north, and Dutch John shorn of his proud position, was
shipped as cook on a hard-case New Yorker!
The bos'un and Old Martin were still with us, and we had Welsh John and
Houston safe in the hospital--about the only place in 'Frisco where no
healthy 'crimp' could gain admission. For want of better game,
perhaps, the boarding-masters paid some attention to the half-deck, but
we had, in the Chaplain of the British Seamen's Institute, a muscular
mentor to guide us aright. From the first he had won our hearts by his
ability to put Browne (our fancy man) under the ropes in three rounds.
It was said that, in the absence of a better argument, he was able and
willing to turn his sleeves up to the stiffest 'crimp' on the Front.
Be that as it may, there was no doubt about his influence with
brassbounders in the port. Desertions among us--that had formerly been
frequent--were rare enough when James Fell came, swinging his stick, to
see what was doing on the Front!
With the crew gone, we found matters improved with us. The Mate,
having no 'crowd' to rush around, was inclined to take things easy,
and, when sober, was quite decent. Although but a few weeks in the
country, we were now imbued with the spirit of freedom; learned to
'guess' and 'reckon'; called Tuesday 'Toosday'; and said "No, sir-rr!"
when emphatic denial was called for. Eccles even tried the democratic
experiment of omitting his "sir" when answering the Mate. Disastrous
result!
Seamanship was shelved, for a time at least, and we were employed like
longshore labourers on the ship's hull. The rust and barnacles of our
outward passage had to be chipped off and scraped, and we had more than
enough of the din of chipping hammers and the stench of patent
compositions. One day Burke discovered his elder brother's name
painted on the piles of the wharf, and when he told us with pride of
the painter's position, 'Captain of a big tramp steamer,' we were
consoled by the thought that we were only going through the mill as
others had done before us. When the painting was finished we had the
satisfaction of knowing that our barque was not the least comely of the
many tall ships that lined the wharves.
At night, when work was over, we had the freedom of the City. It was
good to be on the beach again. Money was scarce with us, and in a
place where five cents is the smallest currency, we found our little
stock go fast, if not far. If luxuries were beyond our reach, at least
the lighted streets were ours, and it was with a delightful sense of
freedom from ship discipline that we sauntered from 'sailor-town' to
'China-town,' or through the giant thoroughfares that span the heart of
the City itself. Everything was new, and fine, and strange. The
simple street happenings, the busy life and movements, the glare and
gaudery of the lights, were as curious to us as if we had never landed
before.
'Sailor-town'--the Water Front, was first beyond the gangway. Here
were the boarding-houses and garish saloons, the money-changers' and
shoddy shops. The boarding-houses were cleaner than the dinginess of
an old-world seaport would allow, and the proprietors who manned their
doorways looked genial monuments of benevolence. On occasions they
would invite us in--"Come right in, boyees, an' drink the health o' th'
haouse," was the word of it--but we had heard of the _Shanghai
Passage_, and were chary of their advances. Often our evident distrust
was received with boisterous laughter. "Saay," they would shout.
"_Yew_ needn't shy, me sucking bloody Nelsons! It's little use _yew_
'ud be aboard a packet!" ... "Light--the--binnacle, bo--oy!" was
another salutation for brassbounders, but that came usually from a lady
at an upper window, and there would be a sailorman there--out of sight,
as prompters properly are.
At the clothing shop doors, the Jews were ever on the alert for custom.
A cheap way of entertainment was to linger for a moment at their
windows, pointing and admiring. Isaac would be at us in a moment,
feeling the texture of our jackets with his bony fingers and calling on
the whole street to witness that it was "a biece 'f damn good shduff!"
Then it would be, "Gome into de shop, Misdur! I guess I god de tingsh
you vannt!"
After we had spent a time examining and pricing his scent-bottles and
spring garters, and hand-painted braces and flowered velvet slippers
and 'Green River' sheath-knives, we thought it but right to tell him
that Levy Eckstein of Montgomery Street was our man; that our Captain
would pay no bills for us but his!
With Levy our business was purely financial; cent, per cent,
transactions in hard cash. He had contracted with the Old Man to
supply us with clothing, but, though our bills specified an outfit of
substantial dry goods, we were always able to carry away the parcels in
our smallest waistcoat pocket. "One dollar for two," was Levy's motto.
If his terms were hard, his money was good, and, excepting for the Old
Man's grudging advances, we had no other way of 'raising the wind.'
In 'China-town' we found much to astonish us. We could readily fancy
ourselves in far Cathay. There was nothing in the narrow streets and
fancily carved house fronts to suggest an important City in the States.
Quaint shop signs and curious swinging lanterns; weird music and noises
in the 'theatres'; uncanny smells from the eating-houses; the cat-like
sound of China talk--all jumbled together in a corner of the most
western city of the West!
The artisans in their little shops, working away far into the night,
interested us the most, and some of our little money went to purchase
small wares for the home folks. It was here that Munro bought that
long 'back-scratcher'; the one he took home to his father!
Sometimes, when we could induce our Burke to make up to one of his
compatriots (the blue-coated, six-foot Fenians who keep 'Frisco under
martial law), we saw something of the real, the underground China-town.
It was supposed to be a hazardous excursion, but, beyond treading the
dark, forbidding alleys, haunts of 'Li-Johns' and 'Highbinders,' we had
no sight of the sensational scenes that others told us of. We saw
opium dens, and were surprised at the appearance of the smokers.
Instead of the wasted and debauched beings, of whom we had read, we
found stout Johns and lean Johns, lively Johns and somnolent Johns,
busy and idle--but all looking as if they regarded life as a huge joke.
They laughed amiably at our open mouths, and made remarks to us.
These, of course, we were unable to understand, but at least we could
grin, and that seemed to be the answer expected. When our guide took
us to free air again, and we found ourselves far from where we had
entered, we could readily 'take it from Michael' that the underground
passages offered harbour to all the queer fellows of the City. With
the night drawing on, and a reminder in our limbs that we had done a
hard day's work, we would go to Clark's, in Kearney, a coffee-house
famed among brassbounders. There we would refresh and exchange ship
news with 'men' from other ships. Clark himself--a kindly person with
a hint of the Doric amidst his 'Amurricanisms'--was always open to
reason in the middle of the week, and we never heard that he had lost
much by his 'accommodations.'
When we returned to the streets, the exodus from the theatres would be
streaming towards cars and ferry. It was time we were on board again.
Often there would be a crowd of us bound for the wharves. It was a
custom to tramp through 'sailor-town' together. On the way we would
cheer the 'crimps' up by a stave or two of 'Mariners of England.'
X
THE DIFFICULTY WITH THE 'TORREADOR'S'
In the half-deck differences, sometimes leading to fisticuffs, were of
daily occurrence; but, considering that we were boys, drawn from all
parts, each with his town or county's claim to urge, we dwelt very
happily together. Though our barque was Scotch, we were only two
strong, and at times it was very difficult to keep our end up, and
impress our Southron shipmates with a proper sense of our national
importance. The voice of reason was not always pacific, and on these
occasions we could but do our best. Our Jones (of Yorkshire) was of a
quarrelsome nature; most of our bickers were of his seeking, and to him
our strained relations with the 'Torreador's' was mainly due.
The _Torreador_ had berthed next to us at Mission Wharf, and by the
unwritten laws of the sea and the customs of the port of San Francisco,
her crew should have fraternised with us; from the mates (who could
exchange views on the sizes of rope and the chances of promotion) down
to the younger apprentices (who should have visited one another to
'swap' ship's biscuit). With other ships matters might have been
arranged, but the _Torreador_ was a crack ship, and flew the blue
ensign, even on week-days; her captain was an F.R.A.S., and her boys
(whose parents paid heavy premiums for the glitter) wore brass buttons
to everyday work, and were rated as midshipmen, no less! The day after
her arrival some of them were leaning over the rail looking at our
barque, and acquaintance might have been made then and there, but Jones
(who fancied himself a wit) spoiled the chances of an understanding by
asking them if the stewardess had aired their socks properly that
morning. Such a question aroused great indignation, and for over a
fortnight we were 'low bounders,' and they 'kid-glove sailors.'
Matters went ill between us, and our ships were too close together to
ignore one another altogether. The 'Torreador's' contented themselves
with looking smarter and more aggressively clean than ever, and with
casting supercilious glances all over us when they saw us chipping and
scraping the rust off our vessel's topside--(they never got such jobs
to do, as their Old Man was too busy cramming them up with "Sumners"
and "Deviation Curves"). We replied by making stage asides to one
another on the methods of 'coddling sickly sailors,' and Jones even
went the length of arraying himself in a huge paper collar when he was
put over-side to paint ship. A brilliant idea, he thought it, until
the Mate noticed him, and made his ears tingle till sundown.
The 'Torreador's' kept a gangway watch, and one of his duties seemed to
be to cross the deck at intervals and inspect our barque, crew, and
equipment in a lofty manner. He would even (if his Mate--the Chief
Officer, they called him--wasn't looking) put his hands in his beckets
and his tongue in his cheek. At first we greeted his appearance with
exaggerated respect; we would stand to attention and salute him in
style; but latterly, his frequent appearances (particularly as he
always seemed to be there when our Mate was recounting our misdeeds,
and explaining what lazy, loafing, ignorant, and 'sodgering' creatures
he had to handle) got on our nerves.
Matters went on in this way for over a week, and everybody was getting
tired of it; not only on our ship, for one day we caught a 'Torreador'
openly admiring our collection of sharks' tails which we had nailed to
the jib-boom. When he found himself observed he blushed and went about
some business, before we had a chance to ask him aboard to see the
sharks' backbones--fashioned into fearsome walking-sticks. Up town we
met them occasionally, but no one seemed inclined to talk, and a
'barley' was as far away as ever. If we went to the Institute they
were to be seen lolling all over the sofas in the billiard-room,
smoking cigarettes, when, as everyone knows, a briar pipe is the only
thing that goes decently with a brass-bound cap, tilted at the right
angle. They did not seem to make many friends, and their talk among
themselves was of matters that most apprentices ignore. One night
Jones heard them rotting about 'Great Circle sailing,' and 'ice to the
south'ard of the Horn,' and subjects like that, when, properly, they
ought to be criticising their Old Man, and saying what an utter duffer
of a Second Mate they had. Jones was wonderfully indignant at such
talk, and couldn't sleep at night for thinking of all the fine
sarcastic remarks he might have made, if he had thought of them at the
time.
When our barque, by discharge of cargo, was risen in the water, we were
put to send the royal-yards down on deck, and took it as a great relief
from our unsailorly harbour jobs. The 'Torreador's,' with envious
eyes, watched us reeving off the yard ropes. They had a Naval Reserve
crew aboard to do these things, and their seamanship was mostly with a
model mast in the half-deck. They followed all the operations with
interest, and when Hansen and Eccles got the main royal yard on deck,
in record time, they looked sorry that they weren't at the doing.
"Sumners" and "Deviation Curves" are all very well in their way, but a
seamanlike job aloft, on a bright morning, is something stirring to
begin the day with. A clear head to find one's way, and a sharp hand
to unbend the gear and get the yard canted for lowering; then, with a
glance at the fore (where fumblers are in difficulties with their
lifts), the prideful hail to the deck, "All clear, aloft! Lower away!"
No wonder the 'Torreador's' were not satisfied with their model mast!
Some days later we got another chance to show them how things were done
aloft, and even if we were not so smart at it as we might have been,
still it was a fairly creditable operation for some boys and a
sailorman. Our main topgal'nmast was found to be 'sprung' at the heel,
and one fine morning we turned-to to send the yard and mast down. This
was rather a big job for us who had never handled but royal-yards
before; but under the able instructions of the Mate and Bo'sun, we did
our work without any serious digression from the standards of
seamanship. The Mate wondered what was making us so uncommon smart and
attentive, but when he caught sight of the 'Torreador's' watching our
operations with eager eyes, he understood, and even spurred us on by
shouting, "_Mister!_" (the boys of the _Torreador_ were thus addressed
by their Officers) "_Mister_ Hansen, please lay out 'n the topsl-yard,
'n unhook that bloody brace!"
At dusk the 'Torreador's' had stiff necks with looking aloft so much,
and when we knocked off, with the yard and mast on deck, and the gear
stopped-up, they went below and hid their elaborate model mast under a
bunk in the half-deck.
Soon after this a better feeling began. Eccles met one of the
'Torreador's' up-town, and an acquaintance was made. They spent the
evening together, and he learned that the other chap came from near his
place. [It was really about fifty miles from there, but what's a fifty
miles when one is fourteen thousand miles from home?] The next evening
two of them came across. "To see the ship," they said. They brought
briar pipes with them, which was rather more than we could reasonably
have expected. Thereafter nightly visits were the rule, and we became
as thick as thieves. We took them to our bosom, and told them of many
fresh ways to rob the store-room, though they had no need to go
plundering, theirs being a well-found ship. We even went the length of
elaborating a concerted and, as we afterwards found, unworkable scheme
to get even with a certain policeman who had caught our Munro a clip on
the arm with his club when that youngster was singing "Rule Britannia"
along the Water Front at half-past midnight. In the evenings our
respective commanders could be seen leaning across their poop rails,
engaged in genial conversation, addressing one another as "Captain" in
the middle of each sentence with true nautical punctiliousness.
Once the 'Torreador's' Old Man seemed to be propounding his views on
the training of apprentices with great earnestness. What he said we
could not hear, but our Old Man replied that he had work enough "----
to get the young 'sodgers' to learn to splice a rope, cross a
royal-yard, and steer the ship decently, let alone the trouble of
keeping them out of the store-room," and that he'd "---- nae doot but
they'd learn navigation ---- in guid time!"
The elder boys went picnicing on the Sundays to Cliff House or
Saucilito; the second voyagers played team billiards together at the
Institute, and proposed one another to sing at the impromptu concerts;
while the young ones--those who had only been a dog-watch at sea--made
themselves sick smoking black tobacco and talking 'ship-talk' in the
half-deck.
Thus we fraternised in earnest, and when the _Torreador_ left for Port
Costa to load for home we bent our best ensign (though it was on a
week-day), and cheered her out of the berth.
Next week a Norwegian barque took up her vacant place. She had come
out from Swansea in ninety-eight days, and was an object of interest
for a while. Soon, though, we grew tired of the daily hammering of
'stock-fish' before breakfast, and the sight of her Mate starting the
windmill pump when the afternoon breeze came away. We longed for the
time when we, too, would tow up to Port Costa, for we had a little
matter of a race for ship's gigs to settle with the 'Torreador's' and
were only waiting for our Captains to take it up and put silk hats on
the issue.
XI
THE 'CONVALESCENT'
Welsh John was discharged from hospital at ten on a Sunday morning;
before dark he was locked up, charged with riotous behaviour and the
assaulting of one Hans Maartens, a Water Front saloon keeper. A matter
of strong drink, a weak head, and a maudlin argument, we thought; but
Hansen saw the hand of the 'crimps' in the affair, and when we heard
that sailormen were scarce (no ships having arrived within a
fortnight), we felt sure that they were counting on John's blood-money
from an outward-bound New Yorker.
"Ye see, John hadn't money enough t' get drunk on," he said. "We saw
him in hospital last Sunday, an' Munro gave him a 'half' to pay his
cars down t' th' ship when he came out. Half-dollars don't go far in
'sailor-town.' I guess these sharks have bin primin' him up t' get 'm
shipped down th' Bay. The _J. B. Grace_ has been lyin' at anchor off
The Presidio, with her 'Blue Peter' up this last week or more, an'
nobody 's allowed aboard 'r ashore but Daly an' his gang. Maartens is
in with 'em, an' the whole thing 's a plant to shanghai John. Drunk or
no' drunk, John 's seen th' game, an' plugged th' Dutchman for a start."
As it was on Munro's account that he had come by the injuries that put
him in hospital, we felt more than a passing interest in John's case,
and decided to get him clear of the 'crimps' if we could. We knew he
would be fined, for saloon-keepers and boarding-masters are persons of
weight and influence in 'Frisco town, and, although John had nearly
eight months' pay due to him, it would be considered a weakness, a sort
of confession of Jack's importance, for the Captain to disburse on his
account. It being the beginning of a week, we could only muster a few
dollars among us, so we applied to James Peden, a man of substance on
the Front, for assistance and advice.
James was from Dundee. After a varied career as seaman, whaleman,
boarding-house keeper, gold seeker, gravedigger, and beach-comber, he
had taken to decent ways and now acted as head-foreman to a firm of
stevedores. He was an office-bearer of the local Scottish Society,
talked braid Scots on occasions (though his command of Yankee slang
when stimulating his men in the holds was finely complete), and wore a
tartan neck-tie that might aptly be called a gathering of the clans.
To James we stated our case when he came aboard to see that his
'boy-ees made things hum.' It was rather a delicate matter to do this
properly, as we had to leave it to inference that James's knowledge of
these matters was that of a reputable foreman stevedore, and not that
of a quondam boarding-master whose exploits in the 'crimping' business
were occasionally referred to when men talked, with a half-laugh, of
shady doings. It was nicely done, though, and James, recalling a
parallel case that occurred to a man, "whom he knew," was pessimistic.
"Weel, lauds, Ah guess Joan Welsh 'r Welsh Joan 'll be ootward bound
afore the morn's nicht. They'll pit 'm up afore Judge Kelly, a bluidy
Fenian, wha'll gie 'm 'ten dollars or fourteen days' fur bein' a
British sailorman alane. Pluggin' a Dutchman 's naethin'; it's th'
'Rid Rag' that Kelly's doon oan. Ah ken the swine; he touched me
twinty dollars fur gie'n a winchman a clout i' the lug--an ill-faured
Dago wi' a haun' on 's knife. Ah guess there's nae chance for a
lime-juicer up-bye, an' ye may take it that yer man 'll be fined. Noo,
withoot sayin' ony mair aboot it, ye ken fine that yer Captain 's no'
gaun tae pey 't. Wi' nae sicht o' a charter an' th' chances o' 's ship
bein' laid bye fur a whilie, he'll no' be wantin' mair men aboard, 'n
Ahm thinkin' he'll no' be sorry tae see th' last o' this Joan Welsh.
This is whaur Daly 'll come in. He'll offer t' pey th' fine, an' yer
man, wi' seeven weeks' hospital ahint 'm, an' the prospeck o' a
fortnicht's jile afore 'm, 'll jump at th' chance o' a spree. Daly 'll
pey th' fine, gae yer man a nicht's rope fur a maddenin' drunk, an'
ship 'm on th' New-Yorker i' th' mornin'. There's nae help for't;
that's th' wey they dae things oot here; unless maybe ye'd pey th' fine
yersels?"
This was our opportunity, and Munro asked for a loan till next week.
He explained the state of our purses and the uselessness of applying to
the Captain so early in the week; James was dubious. Munro urged the
case in homely Doric; James, though pleased to hear the old tongue, was
still hesitating when Munro skilfully put a word of the Gaelic here and
there. A master move! James was highly flattered at our thinking he
had the Gaelic (though never a word he knew), and when Munro brought a
torrent of liquid vowels into the appeal, James was undone. The blood
of the Standard Bearer of the Honourable Order of the Scottish Clans
coursed proudly through his veins, and, readjusting his tartan necktie,
he parted with fifteen dollars on account.
Now a difficulty arose. It being a working day, none of us would get
away to attend the Court. We thought of Old Martin, the night
watchman. As he slept soundly during three-fifths of his night watch,
it was no hardship for the old 'shellback' to turn out, but he wasn't
in the best of tempers when we wakened him and asked his assistance.
"Yew boys thinks nuthin' ov roustin' a man out, as 'as bin on watch awl
night." (Martin was stretched out like a jib downhaul, sound asleep on
the galley floor, when we had come aboard on Sunday night). "Thinks
nuthin' at awl ov callin' a man w'en ye ain't got no damn business
to.... W'en Ah was a boy, it was ropesendin' fer scratchin' a match in
fo'cas'le, 'n hell's-hidin' fer speakin' in a Dago's whisper!"--Martin
sullenly stretched out for his pipe, ever his first move on
waking--"Nowadays boys is men an' men 's old.---- W'y"--Martin waved
his little black pipe accusingly--"taint only t' other day w'en that
there Jones lays out 'n th' tawps'l yardarm afore me 'n mittens th'
bloody earin' 's if awl th' sailormen wos dead!" His indignation was
great, his growls long and deep, but at last he consented to do our
errand--"tho' ain't got no use for that damned Welshman meself!"
Arrayed in his pilot cloth suit, with a sailorlike felt hat perched
rakish on his hard old head, old Martin set out with our fifteen
dollars in his pocket, and his instructions, to pay John's fine and
steer clear of the 'crimps.' We had misgivings as to the staunchness
of our messenger, but we had no other, and it was with some slight
relief that we watched him pass the nearest saloon with only a wave of
his arm to the bar-keeper and tramp sturdily up the street towards the
City.
At dinner-time neither John nor Old Martin had rejoined the ship. We
thought, with misgiving, that a man with fifteen dollars in his becket
would be little likely to remember the miserly meal provided by the
ship, and even Browne (the Mark Tapley of our half-deck) said he
shouldn't be surprised if the 'crimps' had got both John and Old Martin
(to say nothing of our fifteen dollars). As the day wore on we grew
anxious, but at last we got news of the absentees when Peden passed, on
his way out to the Bay. The sentimental Scotsman of the morning had
thought a lot after his liberal response to Munro's appeal, and had
called round at the Police Court to see that the affair was genuine.
He was now in his right senses; a man of rock, not to be moved even by
a mention of Burns's 'Hielan' Mary,' his tartan tie had slipped nearly
out of sight beneath the collar of his coat, and the hard, metallic
twang of his voice would have exalted a right 'down-easter.'
"Yewr man was 'up' w'en Ah got raound," he said, "up before Kelly, 's
Ah reckoned. Ah didn't hear the chyarge, but thyar was th' Dutchman
with 's head awl bandaged up--faked up, Ah guess. Th' Jedge ses t' th'
prisoner, 'Did yew strike this man?' Yewr man answers, 'Inteed to
goodness, yer 'anner, he looks 's if somebody 'd struck 'm!' Wi' that
a laugh wint raound, an' yewr man tells 's story." (James's Doric was
returning to him, and the twang of his "u's" became less pronounced.)
"He had bin in hospital, he said, wasn't very strong--here th' Dutchman
looks up, wonderin' like--had ta'en a drap o' drink wi' a man he met in
'sailor-town.' There wis talk aboot a joab ashore, an' they were in
Mertin's tae see aboot it, an' yer man sees this Mertin pit somethin'
i' th' drink. He didna like the looks o't, he said, so he ups an' gies
Mertin yin on th' heid wi' a 'schooner' gless. That wis a' he kent
aboot it, an' th' Dutchman begood his yarn. Oot o' his
kind-hertedness, he'd gie'n th' pris'ner a gless or twa, fower at th'
maist, when th' thankless villain ups an' ca's 'm names an' belts 'm on
th' heid wi' a gless. 'Pit drugs i' th' drink?' Naethin' o' th' kind!
He wis jist takin' a fly oot o't wi' the haunle o' a spune.
"A bad business, says Kelly, a bad business! There's faur too miny av
thim British sailormin makin' trouble on th' Front. It's tin dallars,
says he, tin dallars 'r fourteen days!
"Ah saw Daly git up frae th' sate an' he his a long confab wi' yer man,
but jist then yer auld watchman tramps in, an' efter speirin' aboot he
ups an' peys th' fine, an' they let yer man oot. Ah seen th' twa o'
them gang aff wi' Daly, an' Ah couldna verra weel ha'e onythin' tae dae
wi' them when he wis bye."
This was James's news; he was not surprised to learn that they had not
returned to the ship, and, as he passed on, on his way to the jetty
steps, muttered, "Weel, it's a gey peety they had that five dollars
ower much, for Ah doot they'll baith be under th' 'Blue Peter' before
th' morn's mornin'."
When we knocked off for the day we were soon ashore looking for the
wanderers, and early found plain evidence that they had been
celebrating John's 'convalescence' and release. An Italian
orange-seller whom we met had distinct memory of two seafaring
gentlemen purchasing oranges and playing 'bowls' with them in the
gutter of a busy street; a Jewish outfitter and his assistants were
working well into the night, rearranging oilskins and sea-boots on the
ceiling of a disordered shop, and a Scandinavian dame, a vendor of
peanuts, had a tale of strange bargainings to tell.
Unable to find them, we returned to the ship. One of us had to keep
Martin's watch, and the Mate was already on the track of the affair
with threatenings of punishment for the absent watchman.
About ten we heard a commotion on the dock side, and looked over to see
the wanderers, accompanied by all the 'larrikins' of 'sailor-town,'
making for the ship. Two policemen in the near background were there
to see that no deliberate breach-of-the-peace took place.
Martin, hard-headed Old Martin, who stood drink better than the
Welshman, was singing '_Bound away to the West'ard in th' Dreadnought
we go_' in the pipingest of trebles, and Welsh John, hardly able to
stand, was defying the Dutch, backed by numberless Judge Kellys, and
inviting them to step up, take off their jackets and come on.
XII
ON THE SACRAMENTO
After our cargo was discharged we left Mission Wharf for an anchorage
in the Bay, and there--swinging flood and ebb--we lay in idleness.
There were many ships in the anchorage, and many more laid up at
Martinez and Saucilito, for the year's crop was not yet to hand, and
Masters were hanging back for a rise in freights. There we lay, idle
ships, while the summer sun ripened the crops and reared the golden
grain for the harvest--the harvest that we waited to carry round the
roaring Horn to Europe. Daily we rowed the Old Man ashore, and when he
returned from the Agent's office, we could tell by the way he took a
request (say, for a small advance "to buy a knife") that our ship was
still unchartered, and likely to be so for some time.
To a convenient wharf the gigs of each ship came every morning, and
from then to untold hours of the night the jetty steps were well worn
by comings and goings. Some of the Captains (the man-driving ones, who
owed no man a moment) used to send their boats back to the ship as soon
as they landed, but a number kept theirs at the wharf in case messages
had to be sent off. We usually hung around at the jetty, where there
were fine wooden piles that we could carve our barque's name on when
our knives were sharp enough. With the boats' crews from other ships
we could exchange news and opinions, and quarrel over points in
seamanship.
Those amongst us who had often voyaged to 'Frisco, and others who had
been long in the port, were looked upon as 'oracles,' and treated with
considerable respect. The _Manydown_ had been sixteen months in
'Frisco, and her boys could easily have passed muster as Americans.
They chewed sweet tobacco ("malassus kyake," they called it), and swore
Spanish oaths with freedom and abandon. Their gig was by far the
finest and smartest at the jetty, and woe betide the unwitting 'bow'
who touched her glossy varnished side with his boat-hook. For him a
wet swab was kept in readiness, and their stroke, a burly ruffian, was
always willing to attend to the little affair if it went any farther.
Our Captains came down in batches, as a rule, and there would be great
clatter of oars and shipping of rowlocks as their boats hauled
alongside to take them off. Rivalry was keen, and many were the
gallant races out to the anchorage, with perhaps a little sum at stake
just for the honour of the ship.
We had about a month of this, and it was daily becoming more difficult
to find a decently clear space on the piles on which to carve
'_Florence_, of Glasgow.' One day the Old Man returned at an unusual
hour, and it was early evident that something was afoot; he was too
preoccupied to curse Hansen properly for being away from the boat on
business of his own, and, instead of criticising our stroke and telling
us what rotten rowers we were, as was his wont, he busied himself with
letters and papers. We put off to the ship in haste, and soon the news
went round that we were going up-river to Port Costa, to load for home.
Old Joe Niven was the medium through whom all news filtered from the
cabin, and from him we had the particulars even down to the amount of
the freight. We felt galled that a German barque, which had gone up a
week before, was getting two and twopence-ha'penny more; but we took
consolation in the thought of what a fine crow we would have over the
'Torreador's,' who were only loading at forty-five and sixpence, direct
to Hull.
On board we only mustered hands enough to do the ordinary harbour work,
and raising the heavy anchors was a task beyond us; so at daybreak next
morning we rowed round the ships to collect a crew. The other Captains
had promised our Old Man a hand, here and there, and when we pulled
back we had men enough, lusty and willing, to kedge her up a hill.
There was mist on the water when we started to 'clear hawse'--the
thick, clammy mist that comes before a warm day. About us bells
clattered on the ships at anchor, and steamers went slowly by with a
hiss of waste steam that told of a ready hand on the levers. Overhead,
the sky was bright with the promise of a glorious day, but with no mind
to lift the pall from the water, it looked ill for a ready passage. We
had four turns of a foul hawse to clear (the track of a week's calms),
and our windlass was of a very ancient type, but our scratch crew
worked well and handy, and we were ready for the road when the screw
tug _Escort_ laid alongside and lashed herself up to our quarter. They
tow that way on the Pacific Coast--the wily ones know the advantage of
having a ship's length in front of them to brush away the 'snags.'
A light breeze took the mist ''way down under,' and we broke the
weather anchor out with the rousing chorus of an old sea song:
Old Storm-along, he's dead a-an' gone,
(_To my way-ay, Storm-alo-ong;_)
O-old Storm-along, he's dead a-an' gone,
(_Aye! Aye! Aye! Mister Storm-along._)
Some friends of the Captain had boarded us from the tug, eager for the
novelty of a trip up-river in a real Cape Horner. One elderly lady was
so charmed by our 'chantey,' that she wanted the Captain to make us
sing it over again. She wondered when he told her that that was one
thing he could not do. With the rare and privileged sight of frocks on
the poop, there was a lot of talk about who should go to the wheel.
Jones worked himself into it, and laid aft in a clean rig when the Old
Man called for a hand to the wheel. There he made the most of it, and
hung gracefully over the spokes with his wrists turned out to show the
tattoo marks.
The skipper of the tug came aboard our ship to pilot up the river, and
he directed the movements of his own vessel from our poop deck. We
passed under the guns of rocky Alcatraz, and stood over to the wooded
slopes and vineyards of Saucilito, where many 'laid-up' ships were
lying at the buoys, with upper yards down and huge ballast booms lashed
alongside. Here we turned sharply to the norrard and bore up the broad
bosom of Sacramento--the river that sailormen make songs about, the
river that flows over a golden bed. Dull, muddy water flowing swiftly
seawards; straight rip in the channel, and a race where the high banks
are; a race that the Greek fishermen show holy pictures to, when the
springs are flowing!
With us, the tide was light enough, and our Pilot twisted her about
with the skill and nonchalance of a master hand. One of our
passengers, a young woman who had enthused over everything, from the
shark's tail on the spanker-boom end ("Waal--I never!") to the curl of
the bo'sun's whiskers ("Jest real sweet!"), seemed greatly interested
at the frequent orders to the steersman.
"Sa-ay, Pilot!" she said, "Ah guess yew must know every rock 'bout
hyar?"
"Wa-al, no, Miss, ah kyan't say 's Ah dew," answered Palinurus; "but Ah
reckon tew know whar th' deep wa-r-r is!"
As we approached the shallows at the head of San Pablo Bay, the Old Man
expressed an opinion as to the lack of water, and the Pilot again
provided a jest for the moment.
"Oh, that's awl right, Cap.; she's only drawin' twelve feet, 'n Ah kin
tak' 'r over a damp meadow 'n this trim!"
We met a big stern-wheel ferry bound down from Benicia with a load of
freight wagons. She looked like an important junction adrift.
Afterwards we saw a full-rigged ship towing down, and when near we made
her out to be the _Torreador_, ready for sea. This was a great
disappointment to us, for we had looked forward to being with her at
Port Costa. Now, our long-dreamt-of boat-race was off (with our boat's
crew in first-class trim, too!), and amid the cheering as we met and
passed on, we heard a shrill and unmistakable '_cock-a-doodle-doo!_'
which we remembered with indignation for many a day. Tall and stately
she looked, with her flags a-peak and everything in trim: yards all
aloft, and squared to an inch and her sails rolled up without crease
like the dummy covers on the booms of a King's yacht. A gallant ship,
and a credit to the flag she flew.
We passed many floating tree trunks and branches in the river. The
snows had come away from the Sierras, and there was spate on
Sacramento. We rode over one of the 'snags' with a shudder, and all
our jack-easy Pilot said was, "Guess that'll take some 'f th' barnacles
off 'r battum, bettr'r a week's sojerin' with the patent scrubber!"
All the same he took very good care that his own craft rode free of
obstruction.
Rounding a bend, we came in sight of our rendezvous, but Port Costa
showed little promise from the water-side, though the sight of our old
friends, the _Crocodile_, the _Peleus_, and the _Drumeltan_, moored at
the wharf cheered us. Two or three large mills, with a cluster of
white houses about, composed the township; a large raft-like ferry
which carried the 'Frisco mail trains bodily across the river
contributed to its importance, but there was nothing else about the
place to excite the remark of even an idle 'prentice boy.
A little way up-stream was a town, indeed; a town of happy memories.
Benicia, with its vineyards and fruit gardens, and the low, old houses,
alone perhaps in all California to tell of Spain's dominion. A town of
hearty, hospitable folk, unaffected by the hustle of larger cities; a
people of peace and patience, the patience of tillers of the vine.
Off Martinez, where the river is wide, we canted ship, and worked back
to Port Costa against the tide. We made fast at the ballast wharf, and
our borrowed crew, having completed their job, laid aft to receive the
Captain's blessing, and a silver dollar to put in their pockets. Then
they boarded the tug, and were soon on their way back to 'Frisco.
When Jones came from the wheel, he had great tales to tell of the
attentions the ladies had paid him. He plainly wished us to understand
that he'd made an impression, but we knew that was not the way of it,
for Old Niven had told Eccles that the pretty one was engaged to be
married to the ship's butcher, down in 'Frisco, a fairy Dutchman of
about fifteen stone six.
XIII
HOMEWARD
In a Sunday morning, while Benicia's bells were chiming for early Mass,
we cast off from the wharf at Port Costa and towed down Sacramento.
Though loaded and in sea trim, we were still short of a proper crew, so
we brought up in 'Frisco Bay to complete our complement.
Days passed and the boarding-masters could give us no more than two
'rancheros' (who had once seen the sea from Sonoma Heights), and a
young coloured man, a sort of a seaman, who had just been discharged
from Oakland Jail. The Old Man paid daily visits to the Consul, who
could do nothing--there were no men. He went to the boarding-houses,
and had to put up with coarse familiarity, to drink beer with the scum
of all nations, to clap scoundrels on the back and tell them what sly
dogs they were. It was all of no use. The 'crimps' were
crippled--there were no men.
"Wa-al, Cap.," Daly would say to the Old Man's complaint, "what kin we
dew? I guess we kyan't make men, same's yewr bo'sin 'ud make
spunyarn.... Ain't bin a darned soul in this haouse fer weeks as cud
tell a clew from a crojeck. Th' ships is hangin' on ter ther men like
ole blue! Captens is a-given' em chickens an' soft-tack, be gosh, an'
dollars fer 'a drunk' on Sundays.... When they turns 'em to, it's,
'Naow, lads, me boys! When yew'r ready, me sons!' ... A month a-gone
it was, 'Out, ye swine! Turn aout, damn ye, an' get a move on!' ...
Ah, times is bad, Cap.; times is damn bad! I ain't fingered an advance
note since th' _Dharwar_ sailed--a fortnight ago! Hard times, I guess,
an' we kyan't club 'em aboard, same's we use ter!"
A hopeless quest, indeed, looking for sailormen ashore; but ships were
expected, and when the wind was in the West the Old Man would be up on
deck at daybreak, peering out towards the Golden Gate, longing for the
glad sight of an inward bounder, that would bring the sorely needed
sailors in from the sea.
A week passed, a week of fine weather, with two days of a rattling
nor'west wind that would have sent us on our way, free of the land,
with a smother of foam under the bows. All lost to us, for no ships
came in, and we lay at anchor, swinging ebb and flood--a useless hull
and fabric, without a crew to spread the canvas and swing the great
yards!
Every morning the Mate would put the windlass in gear and set
everything in readiness for breaking out the anchor; but when we saw no
tug putting off, and no harbour cat-boats tacking out from the shore
with sailors' bags piled in the bows, he would undo the morning's work
and put us to 'stand-by' jobs on the rigging. There were other loaded
ships in as bad a plight as we. The _Drumeltan_ was eight hands short
of her crew of twenty-six, and the Captain of the _Peleus_ was
considering the risk of setting off for the Horn, short-handed by
three. Sailors' wages were up to thirty and thirty-five dollars a
month, and at that (nearly the wage of a Chief Mate of a 'limejuicer')
there were no proper able seamen coming forward. Even the 'hobos' and
ne'er-do-weels, who usually flock at 'Frisco on the chance of getting a
ship's passage out of the country, seemed to be lying low.
One evening the ship _Blackadder_ came in from sea. She was from the
Colonies; had made a long passage, and was spoken of as an extra
'hungry' ship--and her crew were in a proper spirit of discontent. She
anchored near us, and the Old Man gazed longingly at the fine stout
colonials who manned her. He watched the cat-boats putting off from
the shore, and smiled at the futile attempts of the ship's Captain and
Mates to keep the 'crimps' from boarding. If one was checked at the
gangway, two clambered aboard by the head, and the game went merrily on.
"Where's she from, Mister?" said the Old Man to the Mate who stood with
him. "Did ye hear?"
"Newcastle, New South Wales, I heard," said Mr. Hollins. "Sixty-five
days out, the butcher said; him that came off with the stores this
morning."
"Sixty-five, eh! Thirty o' that for a 'dead horse,' an' there'll be
about six pound due the men; a matter o' four or five pound wi' slop
chest an' that! They'll not stop, Mister, damn the one o' them' ...
Ah, there they go; there they go!" Sailors' bags were being loaded
into the cat-boats. It was the case of:
_The grub was bad, an' th' wages low,_
_An' it's time--for us--t' leave 'r!_
"Good business for us, anyway," said the Old Man, and told the Mate to
get his windlass ready for 'heaving up' in the morning.
Alas! he left the other eager shipmasters out of his count. The
Captain of the _Drumeltan_ raised the 'blood-money' to an unheard-of
sum, and two days later towed out to sea, though the wind was W.S.W.
beyond the Straits--a 'dead muzzler'!
A big American ship--the _J. B. Flint_--was one of the fleet of
'waiters.' She was for China. 'Bully' Nathan was Captain of her (a
man who would have made the starkest of pirates, if he had lived in
pirate times), and many stories of his and his Mates' brutality were
current at the Front. No seaman would sign in the _Flint_ if he had
the choice; but the choice lay with the boarding-master when 'Bully'
Nathan put up the price.
"Give me gravediggers or organ-grinders, boys, if ye kyan't get
sailormen," he was reported to have said. "Anything with two hands an'
feet. I guess I'm Jan--K.--Nathan, and they'll be sailormen or
'stiffs' before we reach aout!" No one knew where she got a crew, but
while the Britishers were awaiting semi-lawful service, Jan K. slipped
out through the night, getting the boarding-house runners to set sail
for him before they left the _Flint_ with her crew of drugged
longshoremen. At the end of the week we got three more men. Granger,
a Liverpool man, who had been working in the Union Ironworks, and,
"sick o' th' beach," as he put it, wanted to get back to sea again.
Pat Hogan, a merry-faced Irishman, who signed as cook (much to the joy
of Houston, who had been the 'food spoiler' since McEwan cleared). The
third was a lad, Cutler, a runaway apprentice, who had been working
ashore since his ship had sailed. It was said that he had been
'conducting' a tramcar to his own immediate profit and was anxious. We
were still six hands short, but, on the morning after a Yankee clipper
came in from New York, we towed out--with three prostrate figures lying
huddled among the raffle in the fo'cas'le.
* * * * *
We raised the anchor about midnight and dawn found us creeping through
the Golden Gate in the wake of a panting tug. There was nothing to
see, for the morning mist was over the Straits, and we had no parting
view of the harbour. The siren on Benita Point roared a raucous
warning as we felt our way past the Head; and that, for us, was the
last of the land.
When we reached the schooner and discharged our Pilot, it was still a
'clock calm,' and there was nothing for it but to tow for an offing,
while we put the canvas on her in readiness for a breeze.
At setting sail we were hard wrought, for we were still three hands
short of our complement, and the three in the fo'cas'le were beyond
hope by reason of drug and drink. The blocks and gear were stiff after
the long spell in harbour. Some of the new men were poor stuff. The
Mexican 'rancheros' were the worst; one was already sea-sick, and the
other had a look of despair. They followed the 'crowd' about and made
some show of pulling on the tail of the halyards, but they were very
green, and it was easy to work off an old sailor's trick on
them--'lighting up the slack' of the rope, thus landing them on the
broad of their backs when they pulled--at nothing! We should have had
pity for them, for they never even pretended to be seamen; but we were
shorthanded in a heavy ship, and the more our arms ached, the louder
grew our curses at their clumsy 'sodgerin'.'
One of the three in the fo'cas'le 'came to' and staggered out on deck
to see where he was. As he gazed about, dazed and bewildered, the
Mate, seeing him, shouted.
"Here, you! What's yer name?"
The man passed his hand over his eyes and said, "Hans."
"Well, Hans, you git along to the tops'l halyards; damn smart's th'
word!"
With hands to his aching head, the man staggered drunkenly. Everything
was confusion to him. Where was he? What ship? What voyage? The
last he remembered would be setting the tune to a Dago fiddler in a
gaudy saloon, with lashings of drink to keep his feet a-tripping. Now
all was mixed and hazy, but in the mist one thing stood definite, a
seamanlike order: "Top'sl halyards! Damn smart!" Hans laid aft and
tallied on with the crowd.
Here was a man who had been outrageously used.
Drugged--robbed--'shanghai-ed'! His head splitting with the foul
drink, knowing nothing and no one; but he had heard a seamanlike order,
so he hauled on the rope, and only muttered something about his last
ship having a crab-winch for the topsail halyards!
About noon we cast off the tug, but there was yet no wind to fill our
canvas, and we lay as she had left us long after her smoke had vanished
from the misty horizon.
At one we were sent below for our first sea-meal. Over our beef and
potatoes we discussed our new shipmates and agreed that they were a
weedy lot for a long voyage. In this our view was held by the better
men in the fo'cas'le and, after dinner, the crew came aft in a body,
headed by Old Martin, who said "as 'ow they wanted t' speak t' th'
Captin!"
The Old Man was evidently prepared for a 'growl' from forward, and took
a conciliatory stand.
"Well, men? What's the trouble? What have you to say?" he said.
Old Martin took the lead with assurance. "I speaks for all 'ans,
Captin," he said.... "An' we says as 'ow this 'ere barque is
short-'anded; we says as 'ow there's three empty bunks in th'
fo'cas'le; an' two of th' 'ans wot's shipped ain't never bin aloft
afore. We says as 'ow--with all doo respeck, Captin--we wants yer t'
put back t' port for a crew wot can take th' bloomin' packet round the
'Orn, Sir!"
Martin stepped back, having fired his shot, and he carefully arranged a
position among his mates, so that he was neither in front of the 'men'
or behind, where Houston and the cook and the 'rancheros' stood.
The Old Man leaned over the poop-rail and looked at the men
collectively, with great admiration. He singled out no man for
particular regard, but just admired them all, as one looks at soldiers
on parade. He moved across the poop to see them at a side angle; the
hands became hotly uncomfortable.
"What's this I hear, men? What's this I hear?"
("As fine a crowd o' men as ever I shipped, Mister," a very audible
aside to the Mate.) "What's this I hear? D'ye mean t' tell me that
ye're afraid t' be homeward bound in a well-found ship, just because
we're three hands short of a big 'crowd'?"
"Wot 'bout them wot ain't never been aloft afore," muttered Martin,
though in a somewhat subdued voice.
"What about them?" said the Old Man. "What about them? Why, a month
in fo'cas'le alongside such fine seamen as I see before me" (here he
singled out Welsh John and some of the old hands for a pleasant smile),
"alongside men that know their work." (Welsh John and the others
straightened themselves up and looked away to the horizon, as if the
outcome of the affair were a matter of utter indifference to them.)
"D'ye tell me a month alongside men that have sailed with me before
won't make sailors of them, eh? _Tchutt_, I know different....
Sailors they'll be before we reach the Horn." (Here one of the
potential 'sailors' ran to the ship's side, intent on an affair of his
own.)
The men turned to one another, sheepish.
"Ye know well enough we can't get men, even if we did put back to
port," continued the Old Man. "They're no' t' be had! Ye'll have to
do yer best, and I'll see" (a sly wink to the Mate) "that ye ain't put
on. Steward!"
He gave an order that brought a grin of expectation to the faces of all
''ans,' and the affair ended.
A wily one was our Old Jock!
The Mate was indignant at so much talk.... "A 'clip' under the ear for
that Martin," he said, "would have settled it without all that
palaver"; and then he went on to tell the Old Man what happened when he
was in the New Bedford whalers.
"Aye, aye, man! Aye, aye," said Old Jock, "I know the Yankee game,
Mister--blood an' thunder an' belayin' pins an' six-ounce
knuckle-dusters! Gun play, too, an' all the rest of it. I know that
game, Mister, and it doesn't come off on my ship--no' till a' else has
been tried."
He took a turn or two up and down the poop, whistling for a breeze.
Out in the nor'-west the haze was lifting, and a faint grey line of
ruffled water showed beyond the glassy surface of our encircling calm.
"Stan' by t' check th' yards, Mister," he shouted, rubbing his
hands.... "Phe ... w! Phe ... w! Phe ... w! encouraging."
XIV
A TRICK AT THE WHEEL
"Keep 'r full an' by!"
"Full 'n by!"
Houston, relieved from the wheel, reports to the Mate and goes forward,
and I am left to stand my trick.
We are in the south-east trades; a gentle breeze, and all sail set.
Aloft, the ghostly canvas stands out against a star-studded sky, and
the masthead trucks sway in a stately circle as we heave on the light
swell. She is steering easily, asking nothing but a spoke or two when
a fluttering tremor on the weather leach of the royals shows that she
is nearing the wind. The light in the binnacle is dim and spluttering,
the glass smoke-blackened, and one can but see the points on the
compass card. South sou'-west, she heads, swinging a little west at
times, but making a good course. Eccles, who should see to the lights,
is stretched out on the wheel-box grating, resuming the thread of his
slumbers; a muttered "'ware!" will bring him to his feet when the Mate
comes round; meantime, there are stars ahead to steer by, and the
binnacle-lamp may wait.
South of the Line, at four in the morning, is a fine time to see the
stars, if one be but properly awake. Overhead, Orion has reached his
height, and is now striding towards the western horizon. The Dog-star
is high over the mizzen truck, and Canopus, clear of the weather
backstays, is a friend to a drowsy helmsman. The Southern Cross is
clearing the sea-line, and above it many-eyed Argus keeps watch over
the Pole. Old friends, all of them, companions of many a night watch
on leagues of lonely sea. A glow to the eastward marks where the dawn
will break, and the fleecy trade-clouds about the horizon are already
assuming shape and colour. There the stars are paling, but a planet,
Jupiter, perhaps, stands out in brilliance on the fast lightening sky.
Forward one bell is struck, and the look-out chants a long-drawn,
"Aw--ll's well!"
The Mate, who until now has been leaning lazily over the poop rail,
comes aft, yawning whole-heartedly, as men do at sea. He peers into
the dimly-lighted binnacle, turns his gaze to the sail aloft, sniffs
the wind, and fixes me with a stern though drowsy eye.
"H-mm! You, is it?" (I have but a modest reputation as a steersman.)
"Jest you keep 'r full now, or I'll teach ye steerin' in your watch
below. Keep 'r full, an' no damned shinnanikin!" He goes forward.
'Shinnanikin' is a sailor word; it means anything at all; it may be
made an adjective or a verb, or almost any part of speech, to serve a
purpose or express a thought. Here it meant that there was to be no
fooling at the helm, that she was to be steered as by Gunter himself.
"Full an' by," was the word. "Full an' by, an' no damned shinnanikin!"
Right!
The light grows, and the towering mass of canvas and cordage shows
faint shadows here and there. The chickens in the quarter coops stir
and cackle; a cock crows valiantly. Eccles, sleeping his watch on the
lee side of the poop, stirs uneasily, finds a need for movement, and
tramps irresolutely up and down his appointed station. From somewhere
out of sight the Mate shouts an order, and he goes forward to take in
the sidelights; dim and sickly they shine as he lifts them inboard.
There is now some sign of life about the decks. A keen smell of
burning wood and a glare from the galley show that the cook has taken
up the day's duties. Some men of the watch are already gathered about
the door waiting for their morning coffee, and the 'idlers' (as the
word is at sea), the steward, carpenter, and sailmaker, in various
states of attire, are getting ready for their work.
Two bells marks five o'clock, and the crowd about the galley door grows
impatient. The cook has a difficulty with his fire, and is behind time.
"Come on, 'doctor'!" shouts Old Martin; "get a move on yer! Them
tawps'l 'alyards is screechin' fer a pull, an' th' Mate's got 'is
heagle heye on that 'ere fore-tack. 'E'll be a-floggin' th' clock
afore ye knows it!"
The Mate hears this, as Martin intended he should, and scowls darkly at
that ancient mariner. Martin will have his 'old iron' worked up for
that before the watch is out. He's a hard case. Coffee is served out,
and the crowd disperses. It is now broad daylight, and the sun is on
the horizon. The east is a-fire with his radiance; purest gold there
changing to saffron and rose overhead; and in the west, where fading
stars show, copper-hued clouds are working down to the horizon in track
of the night. Our dingy sails are cut out in seemly curves and glowing
colours against the deep of the sky; red-gold where the light strikes,
and deepest violet in the shadows. Blue smoke from the galley funnel
is wafted aft by the draught from the sails, and gives a kindly scent
to the air; there is no smell like that of wood fires in the pride of
the morning. This is a time to be awake and alive; a morning to be at
the wheel of a leaning ship.
Presently I am relieved for a few minutes that I may have my coffee.
Being the last man, I get a bo'sun's share of the grounds. To my
protests the cook gives scant heed.
"Ach, sure! Phwat are yez growlin' at? Sure, if ye'd been in my last
ship, yez wouldn't have none at all! Devil the coffee would yez get
till eight bells ov a marnin', an' tay at thatt, bedad!"
The 'doctor,' being Irish, is beyond argument, so I take my pannikin
along to our quarters to sift the grounds as best I can. There is
naught but dry ship's biscuit to put down with it, for it is well on in
the week--Thursday, indeed--and only Hansen among us can make his
week's rations last out beyond that; he was bred in the north. The
half-deck is in its usual hopeless disorder--stuffy and close and
dismal in the shuttered half-light. Four small ports give little air,
and sea clothes hanging everywhere crowd up the space. The beams,
blackened by tobacco smoke, are hacked and carved, covered by the
initials and remarks of bygone apprentices. Only the after one is kept
clear; there the Board of Trade inscription (slightly altered by some
inspiring genius), reads, "Certified to suffocate eight seamen." A
dismal hole on a bright morning! Happily, one has not far to go for a
breath of keen air. Ten minutes is my time, and I am back at the wheel
again.
The Mate is seated on the cabin skylight, smoking. This is his time to
consider the trim of the sails. It is no matter that the evening
before the gear was sweated up to the tautest of sailing trim; the wind
is unchanged, but morning shows wrinkles in the clew of the royals or a
sag in the foot of a topsail. Ropes give mysteriously, and this must
all be righted before the Old Man comes on deck. So he smokes
leisurely and considers the trim.
The day's work begins at half-past five. The Mate strikes three bells
himself, exact, on the tick of the minute, and goes forward to turn the
men to.
"Fore tack," as Martin said, is the first order. The Mate signs to me
to luff her up, and when the sail shakes the tack is hove hard down.
Then sheets and halyards are sweated up, ropes coiled, and a boy sent
aloft to stop up the gear. At the main they have the usual morning
wrestle with the weather topsail sheet--a clew that never did fit.
Macallison's loft must have been at sixes and sevens the day they
turned that sail out; a Monday after Glasgow Fair, belike. When the
trim is right, wash deck begins. A bucket and spar is rigged, and the
clear sparkling water is drawn from overside. This is the fine job of
the morning watch in summer seas. The sound of cool sluicing water and
the swish of scrubbing brooms is an invitation that no one can resist.
There is something in it that calls for bare feet and trousers rolled
above the knee. There is grace in the steady throwing of the
water--the brimming bucket poised for the throw, left foot cocked a few
inches above the deck, the balance, and the sweeping half-circle with
the limpid water pouring strongly and evenly over the planking; then
the recovery, and the quick half-turn to pass the empty bucket and
receive a full--a figure for a stately dance!
Now it is six, and I strike four bells. Martin has the next trick, but
I see no signs of my relief. The Mate will have him at some lowly
'work-up' job, cleaning pig-pens or something like that, for his hint
about flogging the clock in the morning. The cranky old 'shellback' is
always 'asking for it.'
In the waist a row begins, a bicker between the sailmaker and bo'sun.
Old Dutchy is laying it off because someone has spilt water on the
main-hatch, where a sail is spread out, ready for his work. In course,
the bo'sun has called him a 'squarehead,' and 'Sails,' a decent old
Swede, is justly indignant at the insult; only Germans are squareheads,
be it known. "Skvarehedd! Jou calls me skvarehedd! Ah vass no more
skvarehedd as jou vass," he says, excited. "Jou tinks d' sheep vass
jours, mit jour vash-backet und deck-scrub. Dere vass no places for d'
sailmake, aindt it? Skvarehedd! Skvarehedd jourselluf, dam Cockney
loafer!" There are the makings of a tidy row, but the Mate, coming
from forrard, cuts it short.
"Now, then, you men there, quit yer chinning an' get on with the work!"
'Sails' tries to explain his grievance, but meets with little sympathy.
"Squarehead? Well, what the hell's th' odds, anyhow? If ye ain't a
squarehead, ye'r as near it 's can be!"
This is rough on old 'Sails,' whose proud boast is that he has been
"for thirty jahrs sailmake mit British sheeps in!" He goes sorrowfully
to his work, and bends over his seam with many shakings of the head.
"Skvarehedd!"
Time is drawing on, and I am getting tired of my long trick, when I see
Martin coming round the deck-house. He has donned the familiar old red
flannel shirt that he stands his wheel in, and, bareheaded as he always
is at sea, he looks a typical old salt, a Western Ocean warrior. He
mounts the lee ladder, crosses to windward in the fashion of the sea,
and stands behind me. Here, I thought, is a rare chance to get at
Martin. I give him the Mate's last steering order as I got it.
"Full an' by," I said, concealing a foolish grin; "full an' by, and no
damned shinnanikin!" Martin looked at me curiously. "No shinnanikin,"
was a new order to a man who could steer blindfold, by the wind on his
cheek; to a man who had steered great ships for perhaps half a century.
On the other hand, orders were orders, meant to be repeated as they
were given, seamanlike.
Martin squared himself, put a fresh piece of tobacco in position, and
gripped the spokes. "Full 'n' by," he said, lifting his keen old eyes
to the weather clews of the royals, "full 'n' by, 'n' no damned
shinnanikin, it is!"
XV
''OLY JOES'
"She'll be one o' them 'oly Joes; them wot cruises among th' Islands
wi' tracks an' picter books for th' bloomin' 'eathens!"
"'O--ly Joes! 'Oly Joes b' damn," said Martin. "'Oly Joes is
schooners same's mission boats on th' Gran' Banks! ... 'Oly Joes!
She's a starvation Britisher, that's wot _she_ is; a pound an' pint
ruddy limejuicer by th' set o' them trucks; sailor's misery in them
painted bloomin' ports o' her."
The subject of discussion was a full-rigged ship, standing upright in
mid-Pacific, with all her canvas furled; looking as she might be in
Queenstown Harbour awaiting orders. The south-east trades had blown us
out of the tropics, and we held a variable wind, but there was nothing
in the clean, fresh morning to cause even a Killala pilot to clew up,
and the strange sight of an idle ship in a working breeze soon drew all
hands from work and slumber, to peer over the head rail, to vent
deep-sea logic over such an odd happening.
One of the younger hands had expressed an opinion, and Martin, who held
that "boys an' Dutchmen should only speak when spoke to," was
scornfully indignant.
"'O--ly bloomin' Joe! ... 'Ow should she be an 'oly Joe, me young
'know-all'? Wot d'ye know 'bout 'oly Joes, anyway?"
"Well! ... 'eard as 'ow they clews up at eight bells o' a Saturd'y
night an' prays, solid on, till they sets tawps'ls, jack-easy, ov a
Monday mornin'!"
The laugh of derision sent him shamefaced to the fo'cas'le, and we
talked about till there was a call for all hands to haul courses up and
stand by to work ship. We hauled sharp up to windward, and, as we drew
on, we saw what was the matter, and the sight caused our Old Man to
dive below to his charts, cursing his wayward chronometer.
We saw the loom of a low island, scarce raised above the sea, with the
surf breaking lightly, and the big ship piled up, all standing, on the
verge of the weather reef. She looked to be but lately gone on, for
her topsides were scarce weather-beaten. The boats were gone from her
skids, and the davit tackles, swinging lubberly overside, told that her
crew had left her. Aloft, she seemed to be in good trim, and her sails
were as well stowed as if she were lying in the Canning Dock with her
nose against the Custom House. We lay-to for some time with our ensign
apeak, but saw no sign of life aboard of the wreck, and when we fired a
charge from our signal-gun (a rusty six-pounder), only a few sea-birds
rose at the report. We were about to bear off on our course again when
we saw two sail rounding the reef from the west side, and beating out.
There was but a light breeze, and they were some time in reaching us.
One was a large boat with barked canvas, going well and weatherly, but
the other, plainly a ship's lifeboat, hung heavy in the wind, and
presently her crew lowered sail and came at us under oars. The big
boat reached us first, her steersman taking every inch out of the
fickle breeze. Plainly these were no deep-water sailor-men, by the way
they handled their boat. Smart, wiry men, they had no look of
castaways, and their light cotton clothes were cleanly and in order.
As they sheered alongside they hailed us in clear, pleasant English:
one shouted, in face of our line of wondering seamen, a strange sea
salutation:
"God bless you, Captain Leish! Are you long out?"
"Blimy," said the bo'sun, "th' young 'un wos right after all. 'Oly
Joes they be!"
"Mebbe 'oly Joes, but them ain't sailormen," muttered Martin sullenly;
"them's Kanakas!"
Neither was quite right, for the boatmen were Pitcairn Islanders, and
they were soon on deck greeting us in the friendly way of men from
afar. Their leader went aft to the Old Man, and the rest remained to
tell us of the wreck, in exchange for what scant knowledge we had of
affairs.
The island was called Oeno. The ship was the _Bowden_, of Liverpool.
She had gone ashore, six weeks back, in a northerly wind, with all sail
on her: chronometer was twenty miles out: a bad case, the whole bottom
was ripped out of her, and her ruined cargo of grain smelt abominably;
two of their men were already sick. Ugh! ... The crew of the ship had
made for Pitcairn, ninety miles to the southward; they might be there
now. They (the Islanders) had now been three weeks on the reef,
salving what they could. There was not much: they were all pretty sick
of the job, and wanted to get back to Pitcairn. Perhaps the Captain
would give them a passage; it was on the way?
As we stood about, the Old Man and the leader of the Islanders came out
of the cabin, and talked with the others. All wanted to get back to
Pitcairn, and, the Old Man agreeing to give them a passage, we hoisted
the smaller boat on our davits, towed the other astern, and were soon
on our way towards Pitcairn.
When we got the ship in fair sailing trim, we had a rare opportunity of
learning something of the Island and its people. Discipline was, for
the time, relaxed, and but for working ship, in which the Islanders
joined us, we had the time to ourselves. In the shade of the great
sails, we stood or sat about, and our decks showed an unusual animation
in the groups of men colloguing earnestly--strangers met by the way.
In stature the Islanders were perhaps above the average height, lithe
and wiry, and but few were darker-skinned than a Spaniard or Italian.
They spoke excellent English (though, among themselves, they had a few
odd words), and their speech had no unnecessary adjectives. They had a
gentle manner, and no ill language; sometimes our rough ship talk
raised a slight protest; a raised hand, or a mild, "Oh, Sir!" Their
leader, who was Governor of the Island, was a man in the prime of life,
and, though dressed in dungarees and a worn cotton shirt, barefooted
like the rest, had a quiet dignity in his manner and address that
caused even our truculent Old Martin to call him Sir. There was one
outlander among them, a wiry old man, an American whaleman, who had
been settled on the Island for many years; he it was who steered the
boat, and he knew a little of navigation.
Their talk was mostly of ships that had visited the Island, and they
asked us to run over the names of the ships that were at 'Frisco when
we left; when we mentioned a ship that they knew, they were eager to
know how it fared with her people. They had fine memories. They could
name the Captain and Mates of each ship; of the whalers they had the
particulars even down to the bulk of oil aboard. They seemed to take a
pleasure in learning our names, and, these known, they let pass no
opportunity of using them, slipping them into sentences in the oddest
manner. They themselves had few surnames--Adams, Fletcher, Christian,
and Hobbs (the names of their forefathers, the stark mutineers of the
_Bounty_)--but their Christian names were many and curious, sometimes
days of the week or even dates. They told us that there was a child
named after our Old Man, who had called off the Island the day after it
was born, five years ago; a weird name for a lassie! In one way the
Islanders had a want. They had no sense of humour. True, they laughed
with us at some merry jest of our Irish cook, but it was the laugh of
children, seeing their elders amused, and though they were ever
cheery-faced and smiling, they were strangely serious in their outlook.
We had light winds, and made slow progress, and it was the afternoon of
the second day when we saw Pitcairn, rising bold and solitary, on the
lee bow. The sun had gone down before we drew nigh, and the Island
stood sharp outlined against the scarlet and gold of a radiant western
sky. Slowly the light failed, and the dark moonless night found us
lifting lazily to the swell off the north point. The Islanders manned
their boats and made off to the landing place. It was clock calm, and
we heard the steady creak of their oars long after the dark had taken
them. We drifted close to the land, and the scent of trees, lime and
orange, was sweetly strange.
The boats were a long time gone, and the Old Man was growing impatient,
when we heard voices on the water, and saw, afar off, the gleam of
phosphorescence on the dripping oars. We heard the cheery hail, "The
_Florence_, ahoy!" and burned a blue light to lead them on.
There were many new men in the boats, and they brought a cargo of fruit
and vegetables to barter with us. The Old Man heaved a sigh of relief
when he learned that the _Bowden's_ crew were disposed of; they had
taken passage in a whaler that had called, nine days before, on her way
across to Valparaiso--a 'full' ship.
In odd corners the bartering began. Cotton clothes were in most
demand; they had little use for anything heavier. A basket of a
hundred or more luscious oranges could be had for an old duck suit, and
a branch of ripening bananas was counted worth a cotton shirt in a
reasonable state of repair. Hansen had red cotton curtains to his
bunk, full lengths, and there was keen bidding before they were taken
down, destined to grace some island beauty. After the trade in
clothing had become exhausted, there were odd items, luxuries to the
Islanders, soap, matches, needles, thread. There was a demand for
parts of old clocks--Martin it was who had a collection; they told us
that there was a man on the island who was a famous hand at putting up
and repairing such battered timepieces as we had to offer. They had
some curios; rudely carved or painted bamboos, and sea-shells cunningly
fashioned into pin-cushions, with Pitcairn in bold black letters, just
as one might see "A Present from Largs." These were the work of the
women-folk, and showed considerable ingenuity in the way the shells
were jointed.
Although they seemed to have a good idea of the value of the trifles we
offered, there was no 'haggling,' and latterly, when trade slackened,
it came to be, "Sir! if you like this, I will give it to you, and you
will give me something."
There was no cheating. Those of our crew who would glory in 'bilking'
a runner or a Dutchman were strangely decent, even generous, in their
dealings. When we were called away to brace the yards round, stock was
taken on both sides; the Islanders had their boats well laden, and our
once trim deck was strewn with a litter of fruit and vegetables, like
the top of Bell Street on a busy morning.
Light was breaking into the east when we laid the yards to a gentle
breeze, and shortly the Islanders, with a great shaking of hands and
"God bless you," got aboard their boats and sheered off. We were now
to leeward of the Island, and the light showed us the bold wooded
heights, high cliffs, steep to the water's edge, and the small houses
scattered apart among the trees. Astern the boats had hoisted sail,
and were standing inshore, leaning gently to the scented land breeze.
The ''oly Joes' were singing together as they sailed; the tune was an
old familiar one that minded us of quiet Sabbath days in the homeland,
of kirk and kent faces, and, somehow, we felt that it was we who were
the 'bloomin' 'eathens,' for their song was 'Rock of Ages,' and it had
a new sound, mellowed by distance and the water.
XVI
EAST, HALF SOUTH
On a day of high action in sea and sky we fled, hot-foot, before the
fury of a nor'-west gale. We had run her overlong. Old Jock, for once
at any rate, had had his weather eye bedimmed. He was expecting a
quick shift into the sou'-west, a moderate gale, and a chance to make
his 'easting' round Cape Horn, but the wind hung stubbornly in the
nor'-west; there was no break in the sky, no cessation in the black
bursts of rain and sleet that swept upon us. A huge sea set up, and we
were past the time when we could, in safety, heave her to the wind.
There was nothing for it but to run--run she did.
We had tops'ls and a reefed foresail on her while daylight lasted, but
on threat of darkness we stowed all but the foretops'l; wings enough
for the weight of a hurricane wind. Under that narrow band of
straining canvas she sped on into the murk of advancing night, while
behind the lurid western sky showed threat of a mightier blast in bank
upon bank of ragged storm-cloud. It was a wild night, never a wilder!
In the darkness the uncanny green shimmer of breaking seas gave an
added terror to the scene of storm. Rain and stinging sleet swept
constantly over us, thundering seas towered and curled at our stern,
lapping viciously at the fleeting quarter, or, parting, crashed aboard
at the waist, filling the decks man high with a power of destruction.
Part of the bulwarks were torn from the side. That was, perhaps, the
saving of us, for the seas swept off as fast as they thundered aboard,
and the barque rode buoyant, when, with bulwarks standing, the weight
of compassed water would have held her at mercy of the next towering
greybeard. A boat on the forward skids was smashed to atoms and the
wreck swept overboard, and every moment we looked to see our crazy
half-deck go tottering to ruin. The fo'ca'sle was awash through a
shattered door, and all hands were gathered on the poop for such safety
as it held. There was nowhere else where man could stand on the
reeling hull, and crouching at the rails, wet and chilled to the
marrow, we spent the night a-watching.
The bo'sun and Martin and Hans took turns of the steering; that was
work beyond the rest of us, and the most we could do was to stand by
a-lee and bear on the spokes with the helmsman. Dutchy was the best
steersman, and his steering was no truer than the stout heart of him.
Once she pooped, and the crest of a huge following sea came crashing on
top of us. But for our hold-fasts, all would have been swept away.
That was the time of trial. A falter at the helm--she would have
'broached-to'--to utter destruction!
Amid the furious rush of broken water, 'Dutchy' stood fast at his post,
though there was a gash on his forehead and blood running in his
eyes--the work of the wrenching wheel.
We showed no lights; no lamps would stand to the weather. There was
only the flickering binnacle, tended as never was temple fire, to show
the compass card. By turns we kept a look-out from the tops'l yard,
but of what use was that when we could steer but to one point. We were
a ship of chance, and God help us and the outward-bounder, 'hove-to' in
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