"They did at first. We hope to let them all be clear of the trawl for
the future."
Mr. Cassall looked at Sir James. "I say, Doctor, how would you like one
of your men to operate just after he had been handling fish? Do they
clean the fish, Mr. Fullerton? They do? What charming surgeons!"
"We have gone on the principle of trying to do our best with any
material. Our skippers are not first-rate pulpit orators, but we have
been obliged to let them preach. Both their preaching and their surgery
have done an incredible amount of good, but we want more."
"Exactly. Now, I'm a merchant, Mr. Fullerton, and I know nothing about
ships, but I understand your vessels are all sailers. Is that the proper
word? You depend on the wind entirely. How would you manage if you
took a man on board right up, or down, the North Sea?--I don't know
which is up and which is down; but, any way, you want to run from one
end to the other. How would you manage if you had a very foul wind
after your man got cured?"
"We must take our chance. As a matter of experience, we find that our
vessels do get about very well. The temperatures of the land on each
side of the sea vary so much, that we are never long without a breeze."
"Still, you depend on chance. Is that not so? Now I never like doing
things by halves. Tell me frankly, Mr. Fullerton, what _would_ you do
if you took off a small-pox case, and got becalmed on the run home?"
Fullerton laughed. "You are a remarkably good devil's advocate, Mr.
Cassall, but if I had ever conjured up obstacles in my own mind, there
would have been no mission--would there, Blair? And I venture to think
that the total amount of human happiness would have been less by a very
appreciable quantity." Besides, it is absolutely against rules to take
infectious cases on board the mission vessels.
"Cassall isn't putting obstacles in your way," interposed Sir James. "I
know what he's driving at, but strangers are apt to mistake him. He
means to draw out of you by cross-examination the fact that quick
transport is absolutely necessary for your hospital scheme. Take an
instance. Miss Dearsley tells me the men stay out eight weeks, and then
run home. Now suppose your cruiser meets one of the home-going vessels,
and the captain of this vessel says, 'There's a dying man fifty miles
N.W. (or S.W., or whatever it is) from here. You must go soon, or he
won't be saved. What are you going to do if you have a foul wind or a
calm?"
"But that dying man would probably be in a _fleet_, and what I wish to
see is not a single cruising hospital, but that _all_ our mission
vessels in future should be of that type, i.e., one with every fleet."
Cassall broke in, "Yes, yes, by all means but, I say, could you not try
steam as well? Why not go in at once for a steamer as an experiment, and
then you can whisk round like a flash, and time your visits from week to
week."
Blair rose in his seat wearing a comic expression of despair and terror.
"Why, we're driven silly now by people who offer us ships, without
saying anything about ways and means for keeping the ships up. My dear
Cassall, you do not know what a devourer of money a vessel is. Every
hour at sea means wear and tear somewhere, and if we are to make our
ships quite safe we must be constantly renewing. It's the _maintenance_
funds that puzzle us. If you give us a ship without a fund for renewals
of gear, wages, and so on, it is exactly as though you graciously made a
City clerk a present of a couple of Irish hunters, and requested him not
to sell them. The vessel Fullerton has in his mind will need an outlay
of L1,200 a year to keep her up. Suppose we invest the necessary
capital in a good, sound stock, we shall get about 4 per cent. for
money, so that we require L30,000 for a sailing ship alone. As to the
steamer, whew-w-w!"
"A very good little speech, Blair, but I think I know what I'm talking
about. After all, come now, the steamer only needs extra for coal,
engineers, and stokers. You don't trust to chance at all; you don't
care a rush for wind or tide, and you can go like an arrow to the point
you aim at. Then, don't you see, my very good nautical men--Blair is an
absolutely insufferable old Salt since he came home--you can always
disengage your propeller when there is a strong, useful wind, and you
bank your fires. Brassey told me that, and he said he could always get
at least seven knots' speed out of his boat if there was the least bit
of a breeze. Then, if you're in a hurry, down goes your propeller, and
off you go. The wards must be in the middle--what you call it, Blair,
the taffrail?--oh, amidships. The wards must be amidships, and you must
be able to lay on steam so as to work a lift. You shove down a platform
in a heavy sea, lower a light cage, put your wounded man in it, and
steam away. There you are; you may make your calls like the postman.
Bill Buncle breaks his leg on Sunday; his mates say, 'All right,
William, the doctor's coming to-morrow.' You take me? Tell me, how
will you manage if you have a vessel short of hands to work her?"
"We propose to have several spare hands on board our hospital vessels.
Hundreds will be only too glad to go, and we shall always have a sound
man to take the place of the patient."
"Exactly. Well, with steam you can deposit your men and take them off
with all the regularity of an ordinary railway staff on shore."
"But the money. It is too colossal to think of."
The falcon-faced old merchant waved his hand. "Blair and I, and you
too, Mr. Fullerton, not to mention Roche, are all business men, and we
don't brag about money. But you know that if I fitted out and endowed
ten steamers, I should still be a fairly comfortable man. If you can't
keep a steamer going with L4,000 a year, you don't deserve to have one,
and if I choose to put down one hundred thousand, and you satisfy mo as
to the management, why should I not gratify my whimsy?"
"And I don't mean to be behindhand if I satisfy myself as to the quality
of the work to be done," added Sir James. "Cassall and I will arrange
as to how many beds--Roche beds, you understand--I shall be permitted to
endow."
Fullerton sat dumb; a flush came and went over his clear face, and his
lips moved.
Cassall proceeded: "My idea is to have a sailing vessel _and_ a steamer.
You have told us, Mr. Fullerton, that you must, in time, fit up half a
dozen cruisers, if you mean to work efficiently, and our preliminary
experiment will decide whether sail or steam is the better. Now, Blair,
you must let me fit up your boat for a cruise."
"And pray why, Croesus? You talk as if you meant going a-buccaneering."
"I don't know what you call it, but I'm going round among those fleets
with my niece, and I shall start in a week. If I'm satisfied, you shall
hear from me."
"And I'm going to play truant and go with you, Cassall," said Sir James.
"All right; that being so, we'll join the ladies."
Henry Fullerton and Blair walked to the station together that night, and
the enthusiast said, "I pray that my brain may be able to bear this."
"Your fiddlestick, bear this! I wish some one would give me L150,000 to
carry out my pet fad. I'd bear it, and go on bearing it, quite
gallantly, I assure you, my friend."
A very happy pair of people were left to chat in Cassall's drawing-room
as the midnight drew near. Sir James had retired early after the two
good old boys had addressed each other as buccaneers and shellbacks, and
made all sorts of nautical jokes. The discussion as to who should be
admiral promised to supply a month's fun, but Cassall pretended to
remember that Phoenix Sawbones would certainly wish to be commander, on
account of the young puppy's experience.
Marion whispered to her uncle, "I do believe you will make yourself very
happy;" and the old gentleman answered, "It really seems to be more like
a question of making _you_ happy, you little jilt."
The little jilt, who was not much shorter than her uncle, looked demure,
and the _seance_ closed very happily.
Next day, Mr. Cassall began fitting out in a style which threatened an
Arctic voyage of several winters at least; he was artfully encouraged by
the little jilt, and he was so intensely pleased with his yachting
clothes that he wore them in the grounds until he went away, which
proceeding raised unfeigned admiration among the gardeners and the
maids.
*CHAPTER IV.*
*THE DENOUEMENT.*
The stout-hearted old gentlemen ran out from the Colne in Blair's
schooner, and Freeman had orders to take the Schelling, Ameland,
Nordeney, and all the other banks in order. I need not go over the
ground again in detail, but I may say that Sir James was never
unobservant; he made the most minute notes and sought to provide against
every difficulty. The bad weather still held, and there were accidents
enough and illness enough, in all conscience. Cassall proposed to hang
somebody for permitting the cabins of the smacks to remain in such a
wildly unsanitary state; but beyond propounding this totally unpractical
suggestion he said little, and contented himself with steady
observation. One day he remarked to Sir James, "A lazy humbug would
have a fine time in our cruiser if he liked. Who, among us landsmen,
durst face weather like this constantly?"
"Yes; I've been thinking of that. You must have a regular masterful
Tartar of a surgeon, and make him bear all responsibility. Pick out a
good man, and give him a free hand; that seems the best thing to be
done."
The two observers saw all that Ferrier had seen, and suffered a little
of what he had suffered. Before they had their vessel's head pointed
for home, Cassall remarked: "That young Sawbones must have a reasonable
pluck, mind you, Roche. I find it hard enough to keep my feet, without
having to manage delicate operations; and you notice that we've heard at
least fifty of the men talk about this Ferrier's skill with his hands."
"That's your man, Cassall, if you only knew it. I shall make a point of
meeting him. You haven't seen my plans, have you? Well, I've employed
myself since we came out in trying to design every kind of fitting that
you're likely to need. I used to be very good at that kind of thing,
and I'm very glad my hand hasn't forgot its cunning. I shall test young
Ferrier's judgment over my drawings, and that will be a good pretext for
meeting him."
"The spring is on us now, Roche. We must use that youngster to get at
people. He must have some kind of personal magnetism. Did you notice how
that fellow choked and sobbed when he told us how the youngster refused
to leave him during the gale? A good sign that. We must have parties
to meet him, and let him do the talkee-talkee lecturing business. I
shouldn't wonder if my girl found the nerve to speak. If you had only
heard her oration delivered for my private gratification, you would have
been pretty much amazed. She shall spout if she likes."
"I see you've set up a new hobby, my friend, and I can back you to ride
hard. Seriously speaking, I never knew any cause that I would assist
sooner than this. That fellow Fullerton was once described to me by a
Jew as 'hare-brained.' It needed a curious sort of hare-brain to build
up such an organization as we have seen. I may tell you a little
secret, as we are alone. When I was fighting my way up, I was very glad
to attend a working man, and I starved genteelly for a long time in a
big fishing-port. I assure you that in those days a fisherman was the
most ill-conditioned dog on God's earth. He knew less of goodness than
a dog does, and I think you could see every possible phase of
hoggishness and cruel wickedness on a Saturday night in that town. It
used to be a mere commonplace to say that no one should venture into the
fishermen's quarter after dark. There is a big change. You snarl at
parsons a good deal, I know, but you can't snarl at what we have seen.
You are quite right, and I mean to help spur your new hobby as hard as I
can."
* * * * *
After Robert Cassall had been some days at home, Mr. Fullerton received
the following letter:--
DEAR SIR,--As arranged at our last meeting, I went out to view your work
among the North Sea fishermen, and I am satisfied that I may assist your
admirable efforts. In this letter I merely sketch my proposals in an
informal manner, but my solicitors, Messrs. Bowles and Gordon, Gresham
Buildings, will be ready at any time to meet a deputation from the
Council of the Mission, so that my wishes may be accurately stated, and
all business settled in strict legal form.
1. I propose to build a steam cruiser of 350 tons, and I am now engaged
in consulting with practical men concerning those technical details of
which I have scanty knowledge.
2. This cruiser I wish to support entirely at my own expense; and, after
my decease, the capital sum set aside for the maintenance of the vessel
will pass into the hands of the Council.
3. I should naturally desire to have some voice in the appointment of
trustees, and also in the selection of the medical staff; but no doubt
my solicitors will arrange that to the satisfaction of all parties.
4. My niece, Miss Marion Dearsley, is intensely interested in your work,
and, as a very large sum of money belonging to that lady remains at my
disposal as her trustee, I have, with her approval, transferred to the
Mission L30,000 Great Northern Railway ordinary shares, with which we
desire to found a maintenance fund for a vessel of 200 tons. This
transaction has been carried out at the urgent desire of my niece. I am
informed that this sailing cruiser must be schooner-rigged on account of
her tonnage, which would require an unworkable spread of canvas if she
were rigged as a ketch. These matters I leave entirely to the experts
whom I have retained.
5. Should you agree to my terms, and should you also come to a
thoroughly clear understanding with my legal representatives, the
building of the vessels may proceed at once. I will have nothing but
the _best_, and therefore I will ask you to let me act directly and
indirectly as superintendent of the construction of the ships. I have
already taken the liberty of engaging a practical and scientific
seaman--a merchant captain--who will, with your permission, watch over
the building of the vessels to the last rivet.
6. We learn that Mr. Ferrier has returned. Could you and he make it
convenient to come to us from Saturday next until Monday? In that time
we may have much useful talk.
7. In conclusion, you will perhaps not be displeased if an old man, who
has not your strong faith, ventures nevertheless to ask God's blessing
on you and your Mission. With much admiration and regard,
I am, dear sir,
Your obedient servant,
ROBERT CASSALL.
H. Fullerton, Esq.
Committees of charitable organizations are not usually wanting in
complaisance toward gentlemen who can spare lump sums of L130,000; so
Mr. Cassall and his lawyers had very much of their own way. On the day
when the last formal business was completed, Fullerton and our young
savant, both in a state of bewildered exaltation of spirit, paid their
visit to Mr. Cassall. Ferrier was strangely dumb in presence of Miss
Dearsley, but he made up amply for his silence when he was alone with
the men. Robert Cassall observed, however, that the youngster never
spoke of himself. Once or twice the old man delicately referred to
certain little matters which had occurred during the January gales--the
amputation, the rescue of Lennard, the rough trips from smack to smack,
the swamping of the small boat: but Ferrier was too eager for other
people's good; he had so utterly forgotten himself that he hardly
recognized Mr. Cassall's allusions. On the first evening at dinner Mr.
Cassall said: "Now, Marion, you and Miss Lena must stay with us. She's
not an orator like you; she was meant for a mouse, but you can do all
the talk you like. And now, gentlemen, let me lay a few statements
before you. I shall talk shorthand style if I can. First, I want Mr.
Ferrier to be our first medical director, and I wish him to take the
steamer on her first cruise. After that, if he likes to be a sort of
inspector-general, we can arrange it. Next, I want to draw some more
people into Mr. Fullerton's net. Excuse the poaching term. Mr. Ferrier
and Mr. Fullerton can teach us, and I wish to begin with a big party
here as soon as possible. After that, our young friend must go
crusading. I'll provide every kind of expense, and we'll regard his
engagement as beginning to-day if he likes. Next, I may tell you that I
have already arranged for men to work night and day in relays on both my
vessels--or rather your vessels. Mr. Director-General must see his
hospital wards fitted out to the last locker, and I've taken another
liberty in that direction. There's your cheque-book, and you are to
draw at Yarmouth or London for any amount that you may think necessary.
And now I fancy that is about all I need say."
Then Mr. Cassall smiled on his dumbfoundered hearers.
Ferrier said, "I must eventually stay on shore, I fear. I have resigned
the professorship which I had hoped to keep; but I do not need to
practise, and I am ready to see your venture well started."
Then the host finally insisted on hearing all about the cruise; he could
understand every local allusion now, and the narrative touched him far
more than any romance could have done. The girls dropped in a word here
and there, for they claimed to be among the initiated, and thus an
evening was spent in piling fresh fuel on the old gentleman's new-born
fire of enthusiasm.
There never was such an elderly tornado of a man. After church on
Sunday he packed the girls off in the pony-carriage, and then took his
guests for a most vehement walk, during which he asked questions in a
voice as vehement as his gait, and set forth projects with all the fine
breadth of conception and heedlessness of cost which might be expected
from an inspired man with a practically inexhaustible fund at his
disposal.
The good Henry Fullerton had long walked in darkness; doubts had been
presented to him; jibes and sneers had hailed upon him; all sorts of
mean detractors had tried to label him as visionary, or crackbrain, or
humbug, or even as money-grub: and now the clouds that obscured the wild
path along which he had fared with such forlorn courage were all lifted
away, and he saw the fulfilment of the visions which had tantalized him
on doleful nights, when effort seemed vain and hope dead. He maintained
his serenity, and calmly calculated pounds and shillings with all the
methodic coolness of a banker's clerk. On the Sunday evening he was
asked to confer privately with Mr. Cassall, and Ferrier was left free.
Of course Lewis proposed a stroll in the grounds--what young man would
have missed the opportunity?--and he listened delightedly to that
musical, girlish talk for which he had longed during his tremendous
vigils on the Sea of Storms.
Miss Ranken was in a flutter of exultation. "Did you ever know any one
so clever as Marion?" she inquired, with quite the air of an elderly
person accustomed to judge intellects. "We knew she could do anything
with Mr. Cassall, but we never expected this. And now, Mr. Ferrier, you
won't go and get drowned in nasty cabins any more, and you'll have your
sailors all under your eye, and no more degenerate sea-sick ladies to
plague you. Why, now we've made a start, we must capture some more
millionaires, and we'll have a vessel with every fleet, and no sick men
lying on grimy floors. By the way, what a capital association that
would be--The Royal Society for the Capture of Millionaires. President
and Organizing Director, Marion Dearsley; Treasurer, Lena Ranken;
General Agent for Great Britain and the Colonies, Lewis Ferrier!
Wouldn't that be splendid? I begin to feel quite like an administrator."
This was the very longest speech that Miss Ranken was ever known to
make, and she was applauded for her remarkable excursion into practical
affairs.
"You must tell us a little more about your winter, Mr. Ferrier. Lena
hasn't heard half enough," observed the stately "little jilt" when the
cataract of Miss Ranken's eloquence had ceased flowing.
"Better wait until the meeting, Miss Dearsley. Then, if you are
satisfied, I may be able to do something in different places."
"But you will tell us how Tom Betts fared in the end?"
"He was well and at work when we left his fleet, and he had established
a sort of elaborate myth, with you as central figure. I'm afraid you
would never recognize your own doings if you heard his version of them.
Tom's imagination is distinctly active. We had no bad mishaps with our
men, but it was a dreadful time."
"I think you seem to be more solemn and older than when you went away
first, Mr. Ferrier," remarked the Treasurer of the Capturers.
"One ages fast there; I really lived a good deal. One life isn't enough
for that work. I suppose the Englishmen began working on the Banks two
hundred years ago, and we have all that time of neglect to make up."
"Yes. I wonder now what was the use of our ancestors. My brother says
that no philosopher has ever discovered the ultimate uses of babies; I
wonder if any one can tell the uses of those blundering, silly old
ancestors of ours. As far as I can see, we have to put up with all
sorts of horrid things, and you have to go and get wet on dirty
fishing-boats, just because our ancestors neglected their proper
business and stayed lazy at home."
"You mustn't start a Society for the Abolition of Ancestors, Miss
Ranken. We have to make up all lost ground, and we can't help it. I'm
sorry almost that I take it all so seriously. I feel so very much like a
middle-aged prig. Perhaps, Miss Dearsley, we may grow more cheerful when
your uncle and I (and you) are fairly at work and clear of brooding. At
present I seem to exude lectures and serious precepts."
"You go to Yarmouth after the meeting, Mr. Ferrier?"
"Yes; we must all of us copy you, and humour your uncle. I can see he
feels time going very fast, and I shall play at being in a hurry all the
time I am looking after the new vessels."
"My uncle says I must speak to our meeting."
"Why not? If you like, I can bring some good lady orators to keep you
in countenance."
"I shall consider. I don't think we ought to talk; but we cannot afford
to neglect any fancy of uncle's."
Ferrier never heard so queer a speech from a girl before. She had
evidently made up her mind to face an ordeal which would stagger the
nerves of the "young person" of the drawing-room; and her deliberate
acceptance of a strained and unnatural situation pleased him. He
thought, "If she ever does take to the platform, the capture of the
millionaires is sure to begin."
Cassall and Fullerton looked very solemn and satisfied during the
evening, and both of them were just a little tiresome in recurring to
their new and exhaustless topic.
The old man was off to Yarmouth long before his guests were astir, for a
fever of haste was upon him. He returned in the evening, and until
Saturday he was employed with his beautiful secretary in making the most
lordly preparations for the great meeting--the first of the series which
was to revolutionize rich people's conceptions of duty and necessity.
A very brilliant company assembled; the old man was an artist in his
way, and he had spread his lures with consummate tact. How on earth he
got hold of eminent pressmen, I cannot tell; but then, eminent pressmen,
like the rest of our world, are distinctly susceptible to the
blandishments of amiable millionaires. Sir John Rooby, the ex-Lord
Mayor, appeared in apoplectic importance; Lady Glendower, who had
expended a fortune on the conversion of the Siamese, also waited with
acute curiosity; every name on every card there was known more or less
to Secretaries, to Missionary Societies, to begging-letter writers--to
all the people who run on the track of wealth. The great saloon, which
reached from the front, right across the mansion to the windows that
overlooked the park, was filled fairly; and Ferrier was not a little
perturbed by the sight of his audience.
Mr. Cassall soon ended all suspense by coming to the point in his quick
fashion. (He would not have succeeded as a parliamenteer, for he had a
most uncultivated habit of never using forty words where five would
serve.) "Sir John, my lords, ladies, and gentlemen,--I have lately
returned from a voyage in the North Sea among the Fishing Fleets. That
was perhaps a foolish trip for an old man to make, in a world of
rheumatics and doctors' fees; but I'm very glad I made it. Most people
are very ready to point out the faults of others: I have to point out my
own. I learned that I had been unwittingly neglecting a duty, and now I
blame myself for remissness. It's very pleasant to blame yourself,
because it gives you such a superior sense of humility, and I am
enjoying the luxury to the full. I saw a great deal of beautiful and
promising work going on, and I saw ever so much pain, and squalor, and
unnecessary unhappiness. I needn't tell you that I've made up my mind
to assault that pain and squalor and unhappiness, and try to drive them
out of the field; I needn't tell you, because the newspapers have done
that for me. They always know my business as well as I know it myself.
Now it struck me that many men are as ignorant as I was. I know that
some people continually go about imagining evil; but there are others
who are constantly seeking for chances of doing good, and they jump at
their chance the moment they clap eye on it. That is why I arranged
this meeting. I cannot describe things, nor put out anything very
lucidly--except a balance-sheet; but I have a young friend here, who has
been at sea all winter in those ugly gales that made us so uncomfortable
on shore, and he will tell us something. Then we have also Mr.
Fullerton, who has been working and speechifying to some purpose for
years. While I was purblind, this gentleman was clear-sighted; and, if
you could go where I have been, and see the missionary work that I have
seen, you would never speak ill of a missionary again. I do not believe
ill of men. Some one among our statesmen summed up his ideas of life by
saying, 'Men are very good fellows, but rather vain.' I should say,
'Men are mixtures; but few can resist the temptation to do a good action
if they are shown how to do it.' Now, we're all very comfortable
here--or I hope so, at all events; and it will do us good to hear of
strong, useful men who never know what comfort means--and that through
no fault of their own, but only through the strange complications of
civilized society. I call on Mr. Fullerton to address this meeting."
Fullerton rose and faced his audience like a practised hand. His
trance-like intensity of gaze might have led you to think that he was
going to pour out a lengthy speech: but he had tact; he knew that he
would please Cassall and the audience by letting them hear the words of
a new man, and he merely said: "For years I have addressed many
meetings, and I have worked and prayed day and night. Help has risen up
for me, and now I am content to be a humble member of the company who
have agreed in their hundreds to aid in my life's work. I am but an
instrument to be laid aside when my weary day is over and my Master's
behests fulfilled. I see light spreading, darkness waning, kindness
growing warmer, purity and sobriety become the rule in quarters where
they were unknown; and I am thankful--not proud, only thankful--to have
helped in a work which, I believe, is of God. We are now near the
attainment of a long dream of mine, thanks to Robert Cassall; and, when
the fulfilment is complete, I care not when I may be called on to say my
'Nunc dimittis.' And now I will not stand longer between you and Mr.
Ferrier."
Thus, with one dexterous push Ferrier found himself projected into the
unknown depths of his speech. He was easy enough before students, but
the quick whispers, the lightning flash of raised eye-glasses, the calm,
bovine stare of certain ladies, rather disconcerted him at first. But
he warmed to his work, and in deliberate, mathematical fashion wrought
through his subject. He told of the long Night; the dark age of the
North Sea. The little shivering cabin-boy lay on his dank wooden couch,
and curled under the wrench of the bitter winter nights; he had to bear
a hard struggle for existence, and, if he were a weakling, he soon went
under. Alas! there had been instances, only too well authenticated, of
boys being subjected to the most shocking treatment--though we would not
saddle upon the majority of fishermen the responsibility for this
cruelty on the part of a few. "What could a boy know of good?" said the
speaker, with a sharp ring of the voice. "Why, the very name of God was
not so much as a symbol to him; it was a sound to curse with--no more;
and it might have seemed to a man of bitter soul that God had turned
away His face from those of His human works that lived, and sinned, and
suffered and perished on the grey sea." Then Ferrier showed how the
light of new faith, the light of new kindness, had suddenly shot in on
the envenomed darkness, like the purifying lightning that leaps and
cleans the obscured face of a murky sky. He told of the incredulity
which greeted the first missionaries, and he explained that the men
could not think it possible that any one should care to show them human
sympathy; he traced the gradual growth of belief, and passionate
gratitude, and he then turned dexterously off and asked, "But how could
you touch men's souls with transforming effect, where the poor body--the
humble mask through which the soul gazes--was torn with great pain, or
perplexed with pettier ills? My lords, ladies, and gentlemen, I have
seen, in one afternoon, suffering borne with sombre acquiescence,
suffering the very sight of which in all its manifold dreariness would
have driven you homeward shuddering from this beautiful place. Till
this good man--I will say this great man--carried his baffling compound
of sacred zeal and keen sense into that weary country, those toiling
sailors were hopeless, loveless, comfortless, joyless, and--I say it
with awe--heavenless; for scarcely a man of them had knowledge or
expectation of a life wherein the miseries of this one may be redressed
in some far land where Time is not." Then the youngster coldly, gravely
told of his surgical work, and it seemed as if he were drawing an
inexorable steel edge across the nerves of his terrified hearers. He
watched the impression spread, and then sprang at his peroration with
lightning-footed tact. "We English are like barbarians who have been
transferred from a chilly land to a kind of hot-house existence. We are
too secure; no predatory creature can harm us, and we cultivate the
lordlier and lazier vices. Our middle class, as Bismarck says, has 'gone
to fat,' and is too slothful to look for the miseries of others. The
middle-class man, and even the aristocrat, are both too content to think
of looking beyond their own horizon. And yet we are good in essentials,
and no tale of pity is unheeded--if only it be called forth loudly
enough. Let us wake our languid rich folk. They suffer from a
surfeit--an apoplexy--of money. An eager, wakeful, nervous American
plutocrat, thinks nothing of giving a large fortune to endow a hospital
or an institute for some petty Western town. Are we meaner or more
griping than the Americans? Never. Our men only want to know. Here is a
work for you. I do not call our fishermen stainless; they are rude,
they are stormy in passions, they are lacking in self-control; but they
are worth helping. It is not fitting that these lost children of
civilization should draw their breath in pain. Help us to heal their
bodies, and maybe you will see a day when their strength will be your
succour, and when their rescued souls shall be made in a glory of good
deeds and manly righteousness."
There was no mistake about the effect of this simple speech. I cannot
give the effect of the timbre of Ferrier's voice, but his virility, his
majestic seriousness, just tinctured by acuteness, and his thrill of
half-restrained passion, all told heavily.
Slowly the party dispersed to the tents on the lawn, and many were the
languidly curious inquiries made about the strange young professor who
had turned missionary. The man himself was captured by Lady Glendower,
who explained her woe at the perfidious behaviour of Myung Tang, the
most interesting convert ever seen, who was now in penal servitude for
exercising his imitative skill on my lady's signature. "And I expended
a fortune, Mr. Ferrier, on those ungrateful people. Is it not enough to
make one misanthropic?"
"Your ladyship must begin again on a new line."
"After hearing you, and all about those charmingly horrid accidents, I
am almost tempted to take your advice."
Ferrier was invited to address at least a dozen more drawing-room
meetings, and Sir John Rooby grunted, "Young man! I'm ready to put a
set of engines in that boat of Cassall's, and you can have so much the
more money for her maintenance."
Before Ferrier went to Yarmouth he heard that Fullerton was astounded at
the number of financial sheep who had followed the plucky bell-wether.
Said he, "We shall never turn our backs now. There will be three
hospital cruisers on the stocks before the autumn, and your steamer will
serve to supply them when we have them at work. If I were not fixed on
God's firm ground, I should think I had passed away and was dreaming
blissfully."
Oh! the fury and hurry around that steamer! Men were toiling without
cessation during all night and all day; one shift relieved another, and
Cassall employed two superintendents instead of one. The way the notion
came to him was this:--he had an abrupt but most essentially pleasant
way of getting into conversation with casual strangers of all ranks, and
he always managed to learn something from them. "Nice smack that on the
stocks," he remarked to a bronzed, blue-eyed man who was standing alert
on a certain quay.
"Yes, sir. That's honest oak. I like that. But that other's not so
honest."
"You mean the steamer?"
"Yes, sir. I don't like the way things goes along. The surveyor's been
down. He and the manager are having champagne together now, and you may
bet there's some skulking work going on in the dark corners. I know the
ocean tramps, sir. Many's the time I've seen the dishonest rivets start
out of 'em like buttons of a woman's bodice if it's too tight. If I was
an owner, and building a vessel, I'd test every join and every rivet
myself. You force a faulty plate into place, and the first time your
vessel gets across a sea she buckles, and there's an end of all."
"You understand shipbuilding?"
"Only a sailor does, sir. He has the peril; the builders have the
money."
"What are you?"
"Merchant captain, sir," said the stout man, turning on the questioner a
clear, light blue eye that shone with health and evident courage.
"Are you in a situation?"
"My vessel's laid up, sir, and I'm waiting to take her again."
"I'm not impertinent, but tell me your wages."
"Ten pound a month, and good enough too, these bad times."
"Then if you'll superintend the building of a vessel for me, I'll give
you L150 a year--or at that rate, and you shall have a smaller vessel
afterwards, if you care to sail a mere smack."
And so the bargain was struck, and Captain Powys was employed as
bulldog, a special clause being inserted in the contract to that effect.
"Men won't like it," said the builder. "They'll lead him a life."
"Tell them, if they do, you lose your contract and they lose their
work."
So the splendid little steamer grew apace; she was composite, and
Cassall took care that she should be strong. The most celebrated living
designer of yachts had offered to make the drawings for nothing, out of
mere fondness for Cassall, but the old gentleman paid his heavy fee. If
any one can design a good and safe vessel it is the yacht-builder, whose
little thirty tenners are expected to run quite securely across the Bay
in the wild autumn. The _Robert Cassall_ had not a nail or bolt in her
that was not scrutinized by a stern critic. "Never mind fancy work or
fancy speed. Give me perfect collision bulk-heads; perfect water-tight
compartments; make her unsinkable, and I don't care if you only make her
travel ten knots--that's good enough for the North Sea."
Powys asked and obtained an assistant to take a turn on the day or night
shifts, and the British workmen were held hard in hand by two acute and
most critical mariners.
Robert Cassall had value for every penny of his money, but he certainly
did not spare the place. His friend the yacht-builder twice came to see
how the work was going on, and he said, "You'll be able to run her round
the Horn if you like. You see I took care that she shouldn't kick like
those steam-carriers. You'll find her as stiff as they make them."
Sir John Rooby resolved that the peerless engines which he provided
should be fitted under cover, so, as soon as the hull was completed, the
engineers began their work; and as it turned out, the experiment of
launching a boat with all engines complete was an entire success. Sir
James Roche came and watched the fitting of all the appliances designed
by him, and it seemed that he was as exquisite in mechanical skill as he
was sagacious in treatment of disease. Ferrier was afraid that the
vehement old man would wear him out, but he bottled his impatience, and
sought repose in the gentle society of Sir James. The two medicos
pottered on with pulleys and wheels and inclined planes with much
contentment, and they satisfied themselves at last that a man might be
picked up in any sea, and swiftly placed under cover, without sustaining
a jar severe enough to hurt even a gouty subject.
Cassall did not like the workmen to be discontented over his incessantly
vigilant superintendents, so, with his inexhaustible good-humour and
resolution, he hit on a mode of conciliation. He met both shifts on a
Friday, and said, "Now, men, I'm not a bad sort even if I _am_
determined not to have a scamped nail in my vessel. Now you're working
hard, and we'll show the prettiest vessel in England presently, so
to-morrow we'll have two brakes here at eleven o'clock, all who like
will drive to a certain little place that I know of, and we'll have a
rare good dinner together, and come home in the evening. We'll have no
spirits, and no shaky hands for Monday. Plenty of good, pure spring
water with orange champagne for those who like it."
This was a very successful announcement, and Robert presided at table
with extreme satisfaction on account of his own Machiavellian
astuteness. Oh! those millionaires. What chances they have!
The scene at the launch of the _Robert Cassall_ was imposing. The
Queen, it was thought, would be present; but an intensely exciting and
close general election had just taken place, and Her Majesty was
occupied with relays of the gentlemen who are good enough to carry on
the operation known as Governing the Country; so that the bunting and
the manifold decorations served to grace the progress of a Royal Duke,
who brought his August Mother's message.
I have nothing to do with the speeches this time; I only know that the
steamer looked superb, with her gay stripe, and her beautiful trim on
the water. The town was in a state of excitement until nightfall, and
the people who had tickets to view the Fisherman's Palace passed in a
steady and orderly procession over the broad deck; through the smart
main ward with its polished oak floor; through the operating-room, and
through the comfortable, unostentatious club-room, which had been
designed by Lewis Ferrier. Robert Cassall was silently ecstatic now
that the pinch of his work was over; and he had good reason to be proud,
for no prettier or more serviceable piece of work was ever bought with
money, and no man on earth need have grudged to exchange the costly
obscurity of the monumental stone, for this beautiful memorial which
promised to be the pride of the North Sea.
The riggers went hard at work; the captain and crew were sent on board
to assist, and thus before the autumn storms broke once more, the
_Robert Cassall_ was ready for sea.
The whole fabric seemed to have risen like a vision, and the most
hopeful of those who endured that cruel gale the year before could
hardly believe that they were not deceived by some uneasy, uncanny
dream.
The steamer surged away past the pier on her first trip, and a dense
black crowd cheered and shouted blessings after her.
"Ah! they jeered me the first time I sailed from here under that flag.
Thank God for the wonderful change," said Fullerton.
"Never mind bygones. There's a good stiff sea outside. Let us watch
how she takes it."
The sturdy old man was triumphant, satisfied with himself and his work,
and he only wished to see how the contrivance of his audacious, teeming
brain would succeed. Tom Lennard was on board again; and he only
recovered from a congestion of adjectives on the brain, after he had
fairly freed his nerves by smoking a pipe. He was still subdued, and he
never let loose that booming laugh of his except on supremely important
occasions. He attached himself much to Miss Dearsley, and, as he was
passionately fond of talking about Lewis Ferrier, his company was
surprisingly grateful to the young lady. Blair could not be with them,
but he religiously promised to give Ferrier a lively time in the spring.
The party of five were enough in themselves, and they watched with all
the pride of successful people as their vessel, the offspring of dreams,
flew over the seas without plunging or staggering.
The captain came aft.
"Well, sir, this is better than wind-jamming. I think she's doing
elevens easily, and, if the wind comes round a bit, she shall have the
try-sails, and I warrant she does twelve."
"You'll go right for the Short Blues, as we arranged?"
"We shall pick them up in eighteen hours from now, sir, and I'll be glad
if we haven't to work your patent sling, though I'd like to see it
tried."
When the night came, and the men were smoking in Ferrier's room, the
young man suddenly said, "Mr. Cassall, I hope you'll live to see at
least six of these ships knocking about. In the meantime I'd sooner
have your memorial than that awful, costly abortion of Byron's. I mean
the one with a cat, or a puppy or something, sprawling at the man's
feet."
Cassall slowly smiled.
"Not bad; not bad. But wait till I'm done, my lad; wait till I'm done.
I've managed a beginning; I've designed a scheme for a ship, and now I'm
bent on something bigger. Wait. I mean to move the conscience of your
plutocrats, and I shall do it the hard, City style; see if I don't."
"Hah-h! Meantime this, sir, is, as I may say, _recherche_, unique,
fahscinating."
"I must set _my_ watch now," laughed the surgeon, and he whistled for
the male nurses. He had drilled them to perfection in a week or two, and
they had no easy time with him, for he was resolved to have naval
precision and naval smartness on board the _Cassall_; and Tom was
thankful that a man whose cheek showed chubby signs of containing a quid
of tobacco, was not instantly suspended from the gaff. That was what he
said, at any rate.
The _Robert Cassall_ picked up the fleet just when the boarding was at
its height, and her arrival caused a wild scene. Work and discipline
were forgotten for a while: men set off flares which were absurdly
ineffective in daylight; they jumped on the thofts of boats, ran up the
rigging, and performed all sorts of clumsy antics out of sheer goodwill,
as the beautiful steamer worked slowly along, piling up a soft, snowy
scuffle of foam at her forefoot. The spare hands who had been brought
out for the cruise yelled salutations to friends, and one of them
casually remarked: "If this had happened before the drink was done away
with, there would have been a funny old booze in some o' them ar smacks,
just for excitement like." There were no patients from the first fleet
excepting one man with that hideous poisoned hand which, like death,
cometh soon or late to every North Sea fisher. He was sent back for his
kit; one of the _Cassall's_ hands was sent in his place, and the steamer
rushed away after leaving a stock of tobacco with the Mission smack.
In the next fleet the same scenes made things in general lively. The
skipper of the ordinary Mission smack came on board, and joyously cried:
"I'm main glad you're come, sir. We've got one case that beats me. I
can't do anything at all." Sir James Roche's boat with the balanced
stretcher was sent, and a crippled man was whipped up and slid along the
boarding-stage before he had time to recover from his surprise. He had
a broken patella--a nasty case--and he had gained the distinction of
being the first man put to bed in that airy, charming ward. He will
probably claim this honour with more or less emphasis during the rest of
his lifetime. I fear that curiosity of an aggravated kind caused one or
two gentlemen to be suddenly afflicted with minor complaints; but
Ferrier had a delightful way of dealing with doubtful martyrs, and the
vessel was soon cleared of them.
So the _Robert Cassall_ scoured the North Sea like a phantom, sometimes
crawling in the wake of fleet when the gear was down, sometimes flying
from one bank to another. In the course of two long, sweeping rounds she
proved that she was worth all the other cruisers put together--for
medical and surgical purposes alone. Danger was reduced to a minimum,
and the sick men were, one by one, returned safely to their own vessels.
When, on a rather calm day, a tubular boat was tried, and a prostrate
man was seen flying over the water with what intelligent constables call
"no visible means of support," the general opinion of the smacksmen was
that no one never knowed what would come next. Some gentlemen
threatened to be gormed if they did not discover a solution of this new
and awful problem; others, more definite, were resolved to be blowed;
and all the oldsters were agreed that only a manifest injustice could
have caused them to be born so soon.
Robert Cassall was at length assured by experience that his enterprise
had quadrupled the power of the Mission, and he only longed to see how
his little miracle would succeed in winter. As for Lewis, he set
himself to make a model hospital; his men were made to practise
ambulance work daily; they had practical lectures in the evening, and,
in a month, before the coals had given out, the mere attendants could
have managed respectably if their adored martinet had given in from any
cause.
One last picture before the _Robert Cassall_ makes her brief scurry
home.
The long sea was rolling very truly; the sick men in the wards were
resting--clean, quiet, attentive; the nurses lounged at the dispensary
door; Tom Leonard leaned his great bulk against the elaborately solid
machinery which Ferrier had designed for purposes of dentistry, and the
grim, calm old man sat with a tender smile in his eyes which contrasted
prettily with the habitual sternness of his mouth.
A deep contralto voice was intoning a certain very noble fragment of
poetry from a book that, the men loved to hear when its words were
spoken by that stately dame, who now read on from psalm to psalm: "For I
said in my haste, I am cut off from before Thine eyes; nevertheless,
Thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto Thee."
"Amen," said Fullerton. "Amen," added the other three men. "Amen,"
said the sick sailors; and the Amen rustled softly above the lower
rustle of the water that fled past the sides of the swift vessel. We
shall see this brave hospital ship again, for I want to dream of her for
long and many a day. Meantime, adieu, sweet lady; adieu.
*APPENDIX A.*
Since I set down a picture of my North Sea dream, I have passed through
a valley of shadows. The world of men seemed to be shut out; the Past
was forgotten, or, through the dark, vague trouble, Death smiled on me
coldly, as if to warn me that my pulses must soon be touched with ice.
In that strange trance my petty self was forgotten, and I waited quietly
till I should be bathed in the flood of bliss to which Death is but the
Portal. As from some dim, far land there came echoes of storm and
stress, and then swift visions of the sea flitted past my eyes. While
gazing languidly on the whirl of the snow, or listening to the thunder
of winds in the clamorous night, I thought, as it were in flashes, about
the fishermen who people the grey country that I used to know.
Nevermore, oh! nevermore shall I see the waves charging down on the
gallant smacks. All is gone: but my little share of a good work is
done; I have warmed both hands before the fire of Life; it sinks, and I
am ready to depart.
The dream has begun to come true in a way which is rather calculated to
astound most folks: a hospital vessel, the _Queen Victoria_, is actually
at work, and has gone out on the wintry sea just at the time when the
annual record of suffering reaches its most intense stage; a scheme at
which grave men naturally shook their heads has been shown to be
practicable, and we see once more that the visionary often has the most
accurate insight into the possibilities of action. To those who do not
go to sea I will give one hint; if a man is sent home on the long
journey over the North Sea, he not only suffers grievously but he loses
his employment, and his family fare badly. _If he be transferred to the
hospital ship his place is filled for a little while by one of the spare
hands whom the Mission sends out, and his berth is saved for him_. I do
not deny that the scheme is rather impressive in the magnitude of its
difficulty; but then no man breathing--except its originator--would ever
have fancied, five years ago, that the Mission would become one of the
miracles of modern social progress. If comfortable folks at home could
only see how those gallant, battered fishermen suffer under certain
circumstances of toil and weather, they would hardly wonder at my
putting forward the hospital project so urgently. By rights I ought to
have spoken about other branches of the Mission's work, but the
importance of the healing department has overshadowed all other
considerations in my mind. To Dare, and Dare again, and Dare always, is
the one plan that leads to success in philanthropy as surely as it leads
to success in politics or war. Those who have undertaken to civilize
our Deep Sea fishermen must continue to dare without ceasing; they must
educate the thousands of good men and women whose sacred impulses lead
them to aim at bettering this blind and struggling world; spiritual
enthusiasm must be backed by material force, and the material force can
only be gained when the great, well-meaning, puzzled masses are
enlightened. We all know the keen old saying about the man who makes
two blades of grass grow where one grew before. How much more worthy of
thankfulness is the man who gives us a harmless, devout citizen in place
of a ruffian, a hale and capable seaman in place of an agonized cripple,
a quiet abstainer in place of a dangerous debauchee, a seemly
well-spoken friend of society in place of a foul-mouthed enemy of
society? Up till very recent years the fishermen were a rather
debauched set, and those who had money or material to barter for liquor
could very easily indulge their taste. Sneaking vessels--floating
grogshops--crept about among the fleets, and an exhausted fisherman
could soon obtain enough fiery brandy to make him senseless and useless.
The foreigners could bring out cheap tobacco, and the men usually went
on board for the tobacco alone. But the shining bottles were there, the
sharp scent of the alcohol appealed to the jaded nerves of men who felt
the tedium of the sea, and thus a villainous agency obtained a terrible
degree of power. I have, in a pamphlet, explained how the founder of
the Mission contrived to defeat and ruin the foreign liquor trade, and I
may do so again in brief fashion. Our Customs authorities at that date
would not let the Mission vessels take tobacco out of bond, and Mr.
Mather was, for a long time, beaten. But he has a somewhat unusual
capacity for mastering obstacles, and he contrived to sweep the copers
off the sea by the most audacious expedient that I have heard of in the
commercial line. A great firm of manufacturers offered tobacco at cost
price; the tobacco was carried by rail from Bristol to London; it was
then sent to Ostend, whence a cruiser belonging to the Mission cleared
it out, and it was carried to the banks and distributed among the
fleets. A fisherman could buy this tobacco at a shilling per pound.
The copers were undersold, and they found it best to take themselves
off. No one can better appreciate this most dashingly beneficial action
than the smack-owners, for their men are more efficient and honest; the
fishermen themselves are grateful, because few of them really craved
after drink, and the general results are obvious to anybody who spends a
month in the North Sea. We know the Six Governments most intimately
concerned have seen the wisdom of this action, and one of the best of
modern reforms has been consummated. The copers did a great amount of
mischief indirectly, apart from the traffic in spirits. If some of our
reformers at home could only see the prints and pictures and models
which were offered for sale, they would own, I fancy, that if the
Mission had done no more than abolish the traffic in literary and other
abominations, it has done much. A few somewhat particular folk object
to supplying the men with cheap tobacco, but any who knows what intense
relief is given to an overworked man by the pipe will hardly heed the
objection much. After a heavy spell of work, a seaman smokes for a few
minutes before the slumberous lethargy creeps round his limbs, and he is
all the better for the harmless narcotic.
In this land of plethoric riches there are crowds of people who treat
philanthropy as a sort of investment; they place money in a sinking fund
and they forego all interest. We want to show them one line of
investment wherein they may at least see plenty of results for their
money. Speaking for myself, I should like to see money which is amassed
by Englishmen concentrated for the benefit of other Englishmen. Looking
at the matter from a cool and business-like point of view, I can see
that every effort made to keep our fishermen in touch with the mass of
their countrymen, is a step towards national insurance--if we put it on
no higher ground. In the old days the fisher had no country; he knew his
own town, but the idea of Britain as a power--as a mother of
nations--never occurred to him; the swarming millions of inland dwellers
were nothing to him, and he could not even understand the distribution
of the wares which he landed. The Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen has
brought him into friendly contact with much that is best among his
countrymen; he is no longer exiled for months together among thousands
of ignorant celibates like himself; he finds that his fortunes are
matters for vivid interest with numbers of people whose very existence
was once like a hazy dream to him; and, above all, he is brought into
contact during long days with sympathetic and refined men, who
incidentally teach him many things which go far beyond the special
subjects touched by amateur or professional missionaries. A gentleman
of breeding and education meets half a dozen smacksmen in a little
cabin, and the company proceed to talk informally. Well, at one time the
seamen's conversation ran entirely on trivialities--or on fish. As soon
as the subject of Fish was exhausted, the exiles growled their comments
on Joe's new mainsail, or the lengthening of Jimmy's smack; but nowadays
the men's horizon is widened, and the little band of half a dozen who
meet the missionary are eager to learn, and eager to express their own
notions in their own simple fashion. The gentleman, of course, shows
his fine manners by granting attention to all his rough friends when
they talk, and the smacksmen find that, instead of a preacher only, a
man who withdraws himself to his private cabin when his discourse has
been delivered, they have among them a kindly fellow-worker, who enters
with the true spirit of _camaraderie_ into all that interests or
concerns them, and gives counsel and cheery chat without a sign of
patronage. Then, after the little meeting is over, and the evening
begins to fall, the fascinating landsman will stroll on the deck for a
few minutes, until the smack's boats come over the great seas to bear
away the visitors; all his gossip is like a revelation to the rude,
good-hearted creatures, and his words filter from vessel to vessel; his
very accent and tone are remembered; and when the hoarse salute "God
bless you!" sounds over the sea, as the boats go away, you may be sure
that the fishers utter their blessing with sincere fervour. Then there
are the great meetings on calm, happy Sundays, when the cultured
clergyman who has snatched a brief rest from his parochial duties, or
five or six amateurs (many of them University men) stroll about among
the congregation before the formal service begins. The roughs who come
on board for the first time are inclined to exhibit a sort of resentful
but sheepish reserve, until they find that the delicate courtesy of
these Christian gentlemen arises from sheer goodwill; then they become
friendly and confidential. Well, all this intercourse is gradually
knitting together the upper and middle classes on shore and the great
sea-going population; the fishers feel that they are cared for, and the
defiant blackguardism of the outcast must by and by be nearly unknown.
I feel it almost a duty to mention one curious matter which came to my
notice. An ugly morning had broken with half a gale of wind blowing;
the sea was not dangerous, but it was nasty--perhaps nastier than it
looked. I was on board a steam-carrier, a low-built, powerful iron
vessel that lunges in the most disturbing manner when she is waiting in
the trough of the sea for the boats which bring off the boxes of fish.
The little boats were crashing, and leaping like hooked salmon, and
grinding against the sides of the steamer, and I could not venture to
walk about very much on that reeling iron deck. The crowd of smacksmen
who came were a very wild lot, and, as the breeze grew stronger, they
were in a hurry to get their boxes on board. Since one of the trunks of
fish weighs 80 lbs., I need hardly say that the process of using such a
box as a dumb-bell is not precisely an easy one, and, when the dumb-bell
practice has to be performed on a kind of stage which jumps like a
bucking broncho, the chances of bruises and of resulting bad language
are much increased. The bounding, wrenching, straining, stumbling mob
in the boats did not look very gentle or civilized; their attire was
quite fanciful and varied, but very filthy, and they were blowzy and
tired after their wild night of lashing rain and chill hours of labour.
A number of the younger fellows had the peculiar street Arab style of
countenance, while the older men were not of the very gentle type. In
that mad race against wind and tide, I should have expected a little of
the usual cursing and fighting from a mob which included a small
percentage of downright roughs. But a tall man, dressed in ordinary
yachtman's clothes, stood smoking on deck, and that was the present
writer. The rough Englishmen did not know that I had been used to the
company of the wildest desperadoes that live on earth. They only knew
that I came from the Mission ship, and they passed the word. Every
rowdy that came up was warned, and one poor rough, who chanced to blurt
out a very common and very nasty Billingsgate word, was silenced by a
moralist, who observed, "Cheese it. Don't cher see the Mission ship
bloke?" I watched like a cat, and I soon saw that the ordinary
hurricane curses were restrained on my account, simply because I came
from the vessel where all are welcome--bad and good. For four hours I
was saluted in all sorts of blundering, good-humoured ways by the men as
they came up. Little scraps of news are always intensely valued at sea,
and it pleased me to see how these rude, kind souls tried to interest me
by giving me scraps of information about the yacht which I had just
left. "She was a-bearing away after the Admiral, sir, when we passed
her. It's funny old weather for her, and I see old Jones a-bin and got
the torps'l off on her"--and so on. Several of the fellows shouted as
they went, "Gord bless you, sir. We wants you in the winter." No doubt
some of them would, at other times, have used a verb not quite allied to
bless; but I could see that they were making an attempt to show courtesy
toward an agency which they respect, and though I remained like a silent
Lama, receiving the salutes of our grimy, greasy friends, I understood
their thoughts, and, in a cynical way, I felt rather thankful to know
that there are some men at least on whom kindness is not thrown away.
The captain of the carrier said, "I never seen 'em so quiet as this for
a long time, but that was because they seed you. They cotton on to the
Mission--the most on 'em does."
This seems to me a very pretty and significant story. Any one who knows
the British Rough--especially the nautical Rough--knows that the luxury
of an oath is much to him, yet here a thorough crowd of wild and excited
fellows become decorous, and profuse of civilities, only because they
saw a silent and totally emotionless man smoking on the deck of a
steam-carrier. On board the steamer, I noticed that the same spirit
prevailed; the men treated me like a large and essentially helpless
baby, who must be made much of. Alas! do not I remember my first trip
on a carrier, when I was treated rather like a bundle of coarse fish?
The reason for the alteration is obvious, and I give my very last
experience as a most significant thing of its kind. Observe that the
roughest and most defiant of the irreligious men are softened by contact
with an agency which they regard as being too fine or too tiresome for
their fancy, and it is these irregular ruffians who greet the Mission
smacks with the loudest heartiness when they swing into the midst of a
fleet.
Now, I put it to any business man, "Is not this a result worth paying
for, if one wants to invest in charitable work?" I repeat that the
Mission is indirectly effecting a national insurance; the men think of
England, and of the marvellous army of good English folk who care for
them, and they are so much the better citizens. We hear a dolorous howl
in Parliament and elsewhere about the dearth of seamen; experts inform
us that we could not send out much more than half our fleet if a pinch
came, because we have not enough real sailors. Is it not well for us,
as Britons, to care as much as we can for our own hardy flesh and
blood--the finest pilots, the cleverest seamen, the bravest men in the
world? They would fight in the old Norse fashion if it came to that,
and they would be the exact sort of ready-made bluejackets needed to man
the swarms of _Wasps_ which must, some day, be needed to defend our
coasts.
So far for purely utilitarian considerations. Again, supposing you take
on board a hospital ship a man who is enduring bitter suffering;
supposing you heal him, bring him under gentle influences, lead him to
know the Lord Jesus Christ and to follow Him, and send him away with his
personality transformed--is not all that worth a little money, nay, a
great deal? I am fully aware that it is a good thing to convert a Jew
or a Bechuana, or even a Fantee--their rescue from error is a distinct
boon; but, while honouring all missions to savage nations, I like to
plead a little for our own kindly breed of Englishmen. Already we see
what may be done among them; good-hearted amateurs are willing to work
hard, and the one hospital cruiser--One! among so many!--is succeeding
splendidly. Give the English seamen a chance, then.
The interesting West African is clearly a proper object for pity as to
his spiritual condition, but, to my mind, he has, in some respects, the
jolliest, easiest life imaginable. Give him enough melon, and he will
bask blissfully in the sun all day; you cannot get him to work any more
than you can get him to fight for his own safety:--he is a happy, lazy,
worthless specimen of the race, and life glides pleasantly by for him.
Spend thousands on the poor Fantee by all means, but think also of our
own iron men who do not lead easy lives; think of the terror of the
crashing North Sea; think of the cool, imperturbable, matchless braves
who combat that Sea and earn a pittance by providing necessaries (or
luxuries) for you and for me. Save as many souls as you can--"preach
the gospel to _every creature_;" heal as many bodies as you can; but,
since the world's resources are narrow, consider carefully which bodies
are to have your first consideration.
Years ago I had no conception of the amount of positive suffering which
the fishermen endure. I was once on board a merchant steamer during a
few months, and I was installed as surgeon-in-chief. We had a few cases
which were pretty tiresome in their way, but then the utmost work our
men had to do was the trifle of pulling and hauling when the trysails
were put on her, and the usual scraping and scrubbing and painting which
goes on about all iron ships. But the smacksman runs the risk of a hurt
of some kind in every minute of his waking life. He must work with his
oilskins on when rain or spray is coming aboard, and his oilskins fray
the skin when the edges wear a little; then the salt water gets into the
sore and makes a nasty ulcer, which eats its way up until you may see
men who dare not work at the trawl without having their sleeves doubled
to the elbow. Then there are the salt water cracks which cut their way
right to the bone. These, and toothache, the fisherman's great enemy,
are the ailments which may be cured or relieved by the skippers of the
Mission smacks. In a single year nearly eight thousand cases have been
treated in the floating dispensaries, and I may say that I never saw a
malingerer come on board. What would be the use? It is only the stress
of positive pain that makes the men seek help, and their hard stoicism
is very fine to see. A man unbinds an ugly poisoned hand, and quietly
lets you know that he has gone about his work for a week with that
throbbing fester paining him; another will simply say that he kept about
as long as he could with a broken finger. Then there are cases of a
peculiarly distressing nature--scalp wounds caused by falling blocks,
broken limbs in various stages of irritation, internal injuries caused
by violent falls in bad weather, and for all these there is ready and
hearty help aboard the Mission vessel.
Scarcely one of the North Sea converts has turned out badly, for they
usually have the stern stuff of good men in them; they have that manly
and passionate gratitude which only the true and honest professor, free
from taint of humbug or hypocrisy, can maintain, and I say deliberately
that every man of them who is brought to lead a pure, sober, religious
life, represents a distinct gain to our best national wealth--a wealth
that is far above money.
I know that my dream may be translated into fact, for have we not the
early success of the superb hospital smack to reassure us? Let us go a
little farther and complete the work; let us make sure that no poor,
maimed seaman shall be without a chance of speedy relief when his hard
fate overtakes him on that savage North Sea. The fishers are the
forlorn hope in the great Army of Labour; they risk life and limb every
day--every moment--in our behoof; surely the luckier children of
civilization may remember their hardly entreated brethren? No sentiment
is needed in the business, and gush of any sort is altogether hateful.
God forbid that I should hinder those who feel led to aid the members of
an unknown tribe in a dark continent, for in so doing I should be
contravening the Divine injunction to evangelize all nations: but, on
the other hand, I will discharge myself of what has lain as a burden on
my conscience ever since I first visited the smacksmen; I will cry aloud
for _help_ to our own kith and kin, more, _more_ HELP than has ever yet
been given to them!
These men are splendid specimens of English manhood; their country is
not far away; you can visit it for yourself and see what human nerve and
sinew can endure, and if you do you will return, as I did, filled with a
sense of shame that you had spent so many years in ignorance of your
indebtedness to the fine fellows in whose behalf my tale is written. I
am as grateful as our brave souls on the sea for all that has been done,
but I incontinently ask for more, and I entreat those to whom money is
as nothing to give the Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen its hospital ship,
for every fleet that scours the trawling grounds, but especially a fast
or steam cruiser--a _Robert Cassall_--so that the wounded fisherman, in
the hour of his need and his utter helplessness, may be as sure of
relief as are the Wapping labourer or the Mortlake bargeman.