After we reached the blue water, and the wind began to blow and the sea
to rise, the old brig, with corresponding motion, tossed and wallowed
about as if for a wager. Although while in port her bottom had been
calked and graved, the leak, which gave so much trouble the previous
voyage, had not been stopped. In a fresh breeze and a head sea the seams
would open, and a good "spell at the pump," every twenty minutes at
least, was required to keep her free.
The captain grumbled and swore like a pirate; but this had no
perceptible effect in stopping the leak. On the contrary, the more he
raved, denouncing the brig as a humbug, and the man who sold her to
him as a knave and a swindler, the more the brig leaked. And what was
remarkable, after the first ten days, the brig leaked as much in a light
breeze and a smooth sea as in rough weather. It was necessary to keep
one pump in action the whole time. But when the men, wearied by their
unremitting exertions, talked of abandoning the vessel to her fate,
and taking refuge in the first vessel they might fall in with, the
leak seemed suddenly to diminish, until the bottom of the old craft was
comparatively tight!
All this was inexplicable to me, and the mystery caused much
philosophical discussion and sage remark among the ship's company. As
we were in a part of the ocean which abounded in flying fish, it was
the general opinion that the stoppage of the leak was caused by the
involuntary action of a flying fish! The theory was, that an unfortunate
fish, swimming beneath the bottom of the vessel, in the neighborhood of
the crevice through which the water rushed, unsuspicious of danger, was
suddenly "sucked in," and plugged up the hole until it was drawn through
or removed by decomposition!
One day the cook, a negro not remarkable for quickness of apprehension
or general intelligence, received such an unmerciful beating from the
captain that he was unable to attend to his manifold duties, and a
portion of them fell to my share. Among them was the task of drawing off
the regular allowance of rum, half a pint to each man, and serving it
out to the crew. The rum was in the after part of the vessel, beneath
the cabin, a place designated as "the run." It was approached by a
scuttle in the cabin floor, and of course could not be explored by any
of the crew without the especial permission of the captain or mate.
I entered the dark hole, aided by the glimmering light of a lantern,
groped my way to the barrel which contained the liquid so highly prized
by the sons of Neptune as the liquor of life, the pure AQUA VITAE, and
filled my can with the precious fluid.
When I inserted the spigot I still heard a gurgling sound, as of
the rush of water through a narrow passage. I listened, and examined
further, and became convinced I had discovered the leak. I hastily
emerged from "the run," and passed up on deck. The captain was taking
a meridian observation of the sun, when, with a radiant countenance
and glistening eye, my whole frame trembling with joy and anticipated
triumph, I communicated the important information that I had discovered
the leak; it was in the run, could be easily reached, and with a little
ingenuity and labor stopped.
Instead of rewarding me for my intelligence and zeal with a smile of
approbation and a word of encouragement, the captain gave me a look
which petrified me for a time, and would have killed me on the spot if
looks could kill in those degenerate days. Seizing me roughly by the
shoulder, he addressed me in a hissing, hoarse voice, yet so low that
his words, although terribly intelligible to me, could be distinctly
heard by no other person: "Mind your own business, my lad, and let the
leaks take care of themselves! Go about your work; and if you whisper a
syllable of what you have told me to any other person, I WILL THROW
YOU OVERBOARD, you officious, intermeddling little vagabond!" And he
indorsed his fearful threat by an oath too impious to be transcribed.
This unexpected rebuke, coupled with the fact that I had seen in "the
run" the large screw auger which had been missing from the tool-chest
for more than a week, furnished a key to unlock the mysteries connected
with the leak. The captain, for some purpose which he did not choose to
reveal, with the connivance and aid of the mate, had bored holes through
the bottom of the brig, and could let in the water at his pleasure!
A few days after this interesting incident which threw a new light
on the character of the man to whose charge I had been intrusted, we
reached the latitude of Martinico. As the brig now leaked more than
ever, and the men, one and all, were worn out with continued pumping,
the captain proclaimed to the crew that in consequence of the leaky
condition of the brig, he did not consider it safe to proceed further on
the voyage to Cayenne, and had determined to make the first port.
This determination met the approbation of all hands, without a
dissenting voice. The yards were squared, the helm was put up, the
course was given "due west," and with a cracking trade wind, away we
bowled off before it for the Island of Martinico.
Captain Turner, although not remarkable for the strictness of his
principles, was a shrewd and intelligent man. On shore he had the
semblance of a gentleman. On shipboard he was a good sailor and a
skilful navigator. If to his energy, talents, and intelligence had
been added a moderate share of honesty, he would probably have
been successful in his struggle for wealth, and might have attained
respectability. I have often had occasion to note that "a rogue in
grain" finds it more difficult to achieve success in life than an
honest man. Shakespeare, the great exponent of human nature, makes the
unscrupulous Cardinal Wolsey say, when crushed by the hand of royalty,
deserted by his friends, and a prey to disgrace and ignominy,
"Had I but served my God with half the zeal
I served my king, he would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies."
On the morning after this change in our course, the high land of
Martinico was seen in the distance; and in the afternoon, before the sun
had reached the horizon, we were snugly anchored in the roadstead of
St. Pierre. This port, at the bottom of a wide bay, with good anchorage
close to the beach, is open to the sea. But being on the lee of
the island, it is protected from the trade winds, which, with rare
exceptions, blow throughout the year. From a westerly tempest there
is no protection, and a hurricane always carries destruction among the
shipping.
The reason why the brig was made to spring a leak was now evident.
Captain Turner never intended to go to Cayenne, but wished to be
justified in the eye of the law in proceeding to what he considered
a better market. The non-intercourse act being in operation, American
vessels were prohibited from entering an English or a French port,
EXCEPTING IN CASES OF DISTRESS. It was therefore determined that the
Dolphin should spring a leak, and SEEM in danger of foundering, in order
to furnish a pretext for entering the harbor of St. Pierre!
Captain Turner expected to find no American vessels in port, and of
course no American produce. He calculated to realize a high price for
his cargo, and was surprised and disappointed to ascertain that other
Yankees were as shrewd and unscrupulous as himself. The anchorage was
thickly sprinkled with American vessels, and the market was overstocked
with American produce. These vessels had been driven into St. Pierre by
"stress of weather" or "dangerous leaks," and their commanders cherished
as little respect for the revenue laws, or any other mandates of the
United States government, as Captain Turner. A protest, carefully
worded, and signed and sworn to by the mate and two seamen, and a
survey of the vessel made by persons JUDICIOUSLY selected, acted as a
protecting shield against any subsequent troublesome interference on the
part of the American authorities.
The wisdom of the "Long Embargo," and the "Non-intercourse Act" is
greatly doubted by the statesmen of the present day. Besides crippling
our own resources, and paralyzing the whole commercial interest of the
United States, a craven spirit was thus manifested on the part of our
rulers, which exposed us to insults and outrages from the belligerent
powers. And if the policy of these extraordinary measures can be
defended, it must be admitted that they were the direct cause of more
roguery than would compensate for an immense amount of good.
Having arrived at Martinico in distress, we were precluded from
proceeding to any other port in search of a better market. The cargo
was sold at prices that would hardly pay the expenses of the voyage. In
delivering the lumber, however, an opportunity offered in making up in
QUANTITY the deficiency in price, of which our honest captain, following
the example, I regret to say, of many of the West India captains OF
THOSE DAYS, eagerly availed himself.
The lumber was taken to the shore on large rafts, and hauled up on the
beach by men belonging to the brig. The mark on every separate board or
plank was called out in a clear voice by the man who dragged it from
the raft to the beach, and was noted down by the mate of the brig and a
clerk of the mercantile house that purchased the lumber. Those parties
were comfortably seated beneath the shade of a tamarind tree, at some
distance, smoking cigars and pleasantly conversing. They compared notes
from time to time, and there was no difference in their accounts. Every
thing on our part was apparently conducted on the strictest principles
of honesty. But each sailor having received a hint from the mate, who
had been posted by the captain, and a promise of other indulgences,
often added from fifteen to twenty per cent, to the mark which had been
actually scored by the surveyor on every board or plank. Thus, if a
board was MARKED twelve feet, the amount given was fifteen feet; a board
that measured only eighteen or twenty feet, would be represented as
twenty-five; and sometimes a large, portly-looking board, measuring
thirty or thirty-five feet, not only received an addition of eight or
ten feet, but was suddenly transformed into a PLANK, which was counted
as containing DOUBLE the measurement of a board of the same superficial
dimensions. Thus a board actually measuring only thirty feet was passed
off upon the unsophisticated clerk of the purchaser as a piece of lumber
measuring seventy feet. In this way Captain Turner managed, in what he
contended was the usual and proper manner among the Yankees, to make a
cargo of lumber "hold out!" Another attempt which this gentleman made
to realize a profit on merchandise greater than could be obtained by a
system of fair trading was not attended with so favorable a result.
A portion of the cargo of the Dolphin consisted of barrels of salted
provisions. This part of the cargo was not enumerated among the articles
in the manifest. Captain Turner intended to dispose of it to the
shipping in the harbor, and thus avoid the payment of the regular
duties. He accordingly sold some ten or a dozen barrels of beef
and pork, at a high price, to the captain of an English ship. The
transaction, by some unknown means, was discovered by the government
officials, who, in a very grave and imposing manner, visited the brig
with a formidable posse. They found in the hold a considerable quantity
of the salted provisions on which no duty had been paid; this they
conveyed on shore and confiscated to the use of His Majesty the King of
Great Britain. The brig also was seized, but was subsequently released
on payment of a heavy fine.
The merchant vessels lying in St. Pierre are generally moored head and
stern, one of the anchors being carried ashore, and embedded in the
ground on the beach. A few days after we were thus moored, a large
Spanish schooner from the Main hauled in and moored alongside, at the
distance of only a few fathoms. Besides the captain, there were several
well-dressed personages on board, who appeared to take an interest in
the cargo, and lived in the cabin. But harmony did not characterize
their intercourse with each other. At times violent altercations
occurred, which, being carried on in the Spanish language, were to us
neither edifying nor amusing.
One Sunday morning, after the Spanish schooner had been about a week in
port, and was nearly ready for sea, a fierce quarrel took place on the
quarter-deck of the vessel, which, being attended with loud language,
menacing looks, and frantic gesticulations, attracted the attention of
all who were within sight or hearing.
Two of the Spaniards, large, good-looking men, were apparently very
bitter in their denunciations of each other. They suddenly threw off
their coats, which they wrapped around the left arm, and each
grasping a long Spanish knife, the original of the murderous
"bowie-knife,"--attacked each other with a ferocity terrible to behold.
Every muscle seemed trembling and convulsed with passion, their
eyes flashed with desperation, and their muscles seemed endued with
superhuman power, as they pushed upon each other.
Many furious passes were made, and dexterously parried by the left arm,
which was used as a buckler in which to receive the thrusts. At length
one of the combatants received a wound in the chest, and his shirt bosom
was instantly stained with blood. This served only to rouse him to more
desperate exertions if possible; and, like two enraged tigers, these
men no longer thought of defending themselves, but were bent only on
assailing each other.
Such a combat could not last long. One of the Spaniards sank to the
deck, covered with wounds and exhausted with blood, while the victor,
who, from the gory condition of his linen, his pallid cheeks, and
staggering steps seemed in little better plight, was assisted into the
cabin by his companions.
Duels of a similar character, fought on the spot with knives, the
left arm protected with a garment used as a shield, were by no means
unfrequent among the Spaniards in the New World, and the barbarous
custom is not yet obsolete.
The vessel, on whose decks this horrible scene of butchery was enacted,
left the harbor on the following day, to the great gratification of her
neighbors; and a rusty, ill-looking schooner, called the John, hauled
from another part of the roadstead, and took the berth vacated by the
Spaniards. Like other American vessels that had been coquetting with the
revenue laws, neither the name of the schooner nor the place to which
she belonged was painted on her stern. A close intimacy, intended
doubtless for their mutual advantage, existed between Captain Turner
and the master of the John. The crews of the two vessels also became
acquainted, and when the day's work was ended, often assembled on board
one of the vessels, and indulged in singing, conversing, skylarking, or
spinning yarns.
Swimming was an agreeable and refreshing exercise, in which we often
indulged, notwithstanding the harbor of St. Pierre was an open bay in
a tropical climate; the very place which the shark would be likely to
frequent. It was said, however, that sharks were seldom seen in the
bay, and NEVER among the shipping. This statement was regarded as
a sufficient assurance of safety; and although I retained a vivid
recollection of the dreadful tragedy I had seen enacted a few months
before in Demarara, with all the recklessness or a young sailor I
hesitated not to indulge freely in this pleasant and healthy exercise in
the harbor of St. Pierre.
I was careful, however, to follow the advice of a veteran tar, to KEEP
IN MOTION WHILE IN THE WATER. The shark, unless very ferocious and
hungry, will not attack a man while he is swimming, or performing other
aquatic evolutions. At such times he will remain quiet, close at hand,
eyeing his intended victim with an eager and affectionate look; but the
moment the unsuspecting swimmer throws himself on his back, begins to
tread water, or discontinues the exercise of swimming preparatory to
getting on board, this man-eating rascal will pounce on a leg or an arm,
drag his victim beneath the surface, and accomplish the dreadful work.
After the many unfavorable specimens of "old salts" I had met with, I
was agreeably surprised to find that two of the crew of the John were
educated men. One of these was the son of a wealthy merchant of Boston,
who lived in the style of a prince at the "North End." This young sailor
had been wild and dissipated, and had lost for a time the confidence of
his relatives, and as a matter of course, WENT TO SEA. He made a good
sailor; and while I knew him in St. Pierre, and during the subsequent
years of his life, his conduct was in every way correct. His
conversation was improving, and his chest was well stored with books,
which he cheerfully loaned, and to which I was indebted for many happy
hours.
The other was an Irishman by birth, prematurely aged, of diminutive
stature, and unprepossessing appearance. He had been many years at sea;
had witnessed perilous scenes; had fought for his life with the savages
on board the Atahualpa on "the north-west coast"; had served in an
English man-of-war, from which he escaped by swimming ashore, a distance
of several miles, one night while cruising off the island of Antigua.
He reached the land completely exhausted more dead than alive and
was concealed for a time among the slave habitations on one of the
plantations.
Little Jack, as he was familiarly called, was a type of the old sailor
of those days, so far as his habits and general conduct was concerned.
He was reckless, bold, dissolute, generous, never desponding, ever ready
for a drunken frolic or a fight, to do a good deed, plan a piece of
mischief, or head a revolt. He seemed to find enjoyment in every change
which his strange destiny presented. And this man, who seemed at home in
a ship's forecastle, or when mingling with the lowest dregs of society,
had been educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He was well read in the
classics, and familiar with the writings of the old British poets.
He could quote elaborate passages from the best authors, and converse
fluently and learnedly on almost any subject.
Notwithstanding his cultivated mind and intellectual powers, which
should have placed him in a high position in society, he appeared
satisfied with his condition, and aspired to no loftier sphere than that
of a common sailor. We often meet with anomalies in the human character,
for which it would puzzle the most learned psychologist to account.
What strange and sad event had occurred in the early part of that man's
career, to change the current of his fortune, and make him contented in
a condition so humble, and a slave to habits so degrading? His story,
if faithfully told, might furnish a record of ambitious projects and
sanguine expectations, followed by blighted hopes which palsied all
succeeding exertions, and plunged him into the depths of dissipation and
vice.
Captain Turner and the worthy master of the John, the better to conceal
their iniquities from the lynx-eyed satellites of the law, agreed to
make an exchange of vessels, both having been officially condemned as
unseaworthy. For an equivalent, the schooner was to be laden with a
cargo, principally of molasses, and properly furnished with stores,
provisions, and water, for a passage to the United States by the way
of St. Bartholomew. The crews of the two vessels were then to be
interchanged, and Captain Turner his mate and crew, were to take up
their quarters in the John.
The arrangement was carried into effect; but two of the Dolphin's
crew, dissatisfied with the proceedings on board the brig, and thinking
matters would not be improved by a transfer to the schooner, and being
under no obligation to follow Captain Turner to another vessel, demanded
their discharge. In their stead he shipped a boy, about fourteen years
of age, whom he had persuaded to run away from an English merchant ship,
in which he was an apprentice, and an old Frenchman, who had served many
years in the carpenter's gang in a French man-of-war, and who understood
hardly a word of the English language.
We sailed from St. Pierre the day after we had taken possession of the
schooner, bound directly for St. Bartholomew.