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Transcriber’s note:
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BOY SCOUTS AT SEA
[Illustration: Without thinking of the side-ladder, he dove off the
rail. FRONTISPIECE. _See page 205._]
BOY SCOUTS AT SEA
Or A Chronicle of the B. S. S. _Bright Wing_
by
ARTHUR A. CAREY
With Illustrations by Harold James Cue
[Illustration]
Boston
Little, Brown, and Company
1918
Copyright, 1918, by Little, Brown, and Company.
All rights reserved
Published, September, 1918
The University Press, Cambridge, U. S. A.
TO MY SHIPMATES ON THE BOY SCOUT SHIP _PIONEER_
PREFACE
This is not a boys’ “book of adventure” but an imaginary chronicle
based upon the setting of an actual cruise. It is believed that there
are Sea Scouts who will recognize familiar surroundings and will recall
the ideas which are associated with them; and it is hoped that Land
Scouts will feel, on the _Bright Wing_, the same spirit that they
associate with the inspiration of the camp fire.
A. A. C.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I “AFTER YOU, PILOT” 1
II GETTING READY 16
III JACK--CHIEF BOATSWAIN’S MATE 28
IV ALL HANDS ABOARD! 40
V THE FIRST FORENOON AT ANCHOR 56
VI SPORTS BY LAND AND WATER 67
VII UNDER WAY FOR MARBLEHEAD 81
VIII THE SALEM FIRE 92
IX SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE 103
X IN MARBLEHEAD HARBOR 113
XI DICK’S CONFESSION 126
XII ANOTHER MEETING OF THE CLUB 140
XIII A GREEN HAND 148
XIV THE KEY OF THE KEELSON 158
XV SEASICKNESS 168
XVI THE COMMANDANT’S INSPECTION 185
XVII STORM-BOUND AT PROVINCETOWN 194
XVIII A CLEARING SKY AND A FRESH START 208
XIX A RESCUE 222
XX VINEYARD HAVEN 237
XXI DISRATING AND PROMOTION 249
XXII FRIENDLY THINGS AND A NEW POINT OF VIEW 259
XXIII THE FOUR SQUARE CLUB 271
XXIV A GUEST OF THE CLUB 282
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Without thinking of the side-ladder, he dove off the
rail _Frontispiece_
PAGE
He wet his thumb and held it up in the air to judge
which way the wind was blowing 52
Dick dove forward on the ground to touch the base 70
She seemed to be measuring the distance to a really
secure footing on Dick’s shoulder 109
* * * * *
BOY SCOUTS AT SEA
CHAPTER I “AFTER YOU, PILOT”
“Say, George, won’t you come down to the island this afternoon and spin
us a yarn? You know we’re going to Boston to-morrow to ship on board
the _Bright Wing_, and we want to talk things over; perhaps you could
give us some extra points.”
The speaker was Dick Gray, who had been an apprentice Sea Scout ever
since the previous autumn, and was now about to take his first summer
cruise on the Boy Scout ship with his two companions, Tom Sheffield and
Chippie Smith. He was talking to his brother George, a midshipman just
home from Annapolis for his vacation, and he naturally looked up to
him as an authority in nautical matters. Besides, George had recently
returned from a long trans-Atlantic cruise, and he had only just heard
of Dick’s interest in the Sea Scouts. Much had happened since George’s
last visit home, and Dick was eager to tell him all about it and to win
his sympathy and approval.
The headquarters of the three boys was a little shack on Duck Island,
which formed part of the home farm, where, for a couple of years past,
they had kept their pets and hatched all the plans for their various
adventures.
George was a good deal older than Dick, and had recently--within the
last few days--heard a story which had impressed him so deeply that his
idea of all his duties as an officer had been changed and heightened.
When, therefore, Dick asked him to come down to the island and to spin
a yarn to the boys, this story immediately jumped into his mind and he
wondered whether he could tell it in such a way as to create in them
the same feeling that it had aroused in him.
“I wish I knew more about your Boy Scout business, Dick. Can’t you tell
me something about it?” he asked.
“Well, now,” answered Dick, “to pass for apprentice we have to know
more knots than the Land Scouts do to pass for tenderfoot, and to swim
twenty-five yards farther.”
“That isn’t exactly what I’m after,” replied George. “I understand
that the Land Scouts learn more woodcraft and such things than the Sea
Scouts, and that the Sea Scouts are supposed to be more at home in the
water. What I would like to know is what the _Boy Scouts_ are? I met
some one the other day who explained to me that there were two branches
of the service--corresponding to the Army and the Navy--but he did not
tell me exactly what the service itself was. Now, in the Navy, it’s our
duty to defend the country by sea, and all our education is intended to
make us efficient in seamanship and the art of war. The object of the
whole thing is just the same in the Navy as in the Army, except that
the one fights by sea and the other by land. It’s the protection and
service of our country in either case, and both branches take the oath
of allegiance.”
“That’s it!” said Dick eagerly. “We have an oath, too, and it’s the
same oath for the Sea Scouts as it is for the Land Scouts. I guess it’s
the same for Boy Scouts all over the world; although, of course, they
use different words and speak in different languages.”
George asked his brother to repeat the oath, and then he remarked:
“I’m glad to know that oath, Dick. It has helped me to understand more
about the whole thing.”
“I’ll get you the manual,” said Dick, “and you can look that over and
see for yourself what the law is.”
“The law? Oh, I suppose that’s a sort of Regulations. Run and get me
the book and I’ll come down and spin you a yarn before supper time.
When do you expect the other boys?”
“At four o’clock.”
Dick ran off delighted, and hastened over to the island to put
everything straight for the meeting in the afternoon. Then he came back
to the house and telephoned to Tom Sheffield in the town, for fear he
might possibly make a mistake in the time or forget to come, and asked
him not to forget to bring Chippie with him either.
They arrived on time, sure enough; and George and Dick were already on
the island to receive them. After they had squatted down on the floor
of the shack, George lost no time in beginning.
“Before I begin my yarn, fellows, I want to say that I have had a good
talk with Dick about the Boy Scouts, and I have also been reading
carefully the scout oath and law, and other things given in the manual.
I understand more about it than I did before, especially about the
first point of your oath, which is: ‘To serve God and my country,
and to obey the Scout Law.’ In the Navy, we have to take an oath of
allegiance, too, but are supposed to serve our country principally
through fighting, while you are trained to serve your country in all
sorts of different ways. In the Navy and the Army we have to fight
with shot and shell and cold steel; but this is not the only kind of
fighting a fellow may have to do in order to serve his country. He has
got to fight the _evil in himself_ in order to be trustworthy, helpful,
brave, and all the other things that your scout law requires. These
things that you have to learn are the very foundations of service;
and, if you should engage in military work later on, your training in
these things will make you far better soldiers or sailors than you
otherwise would be. I can only say that I wish I had had such training
before I went to Annapolis. The fact is, every man has to know how to
fight, whether he is a soldier, or a sailor, or a civilian; and, unless
you know how to fight against meanness, and falsehood, and cowardice
beforehand, you won’t make so good a military man or so good a citizen
when the time comes.”
“How about your story, George?” remarked Dick.
“All right,” replied George. “Here goes: I was staying with my chum,
John Stimson, over the week-end a while ago, and, as we were going in
to dinner with his father, Admiral Stimson, I stepped back at the door
to let the old gentleman pass, but he held out his hand and signed for
me to go first--I suppose because he was my host. As he did so, he said
with a smile, ‘After you, pilot!’ Of course I walked in ahead of him,
in obedience to his order, but I couldn’t make out what he meant by
‘pilot’, and the conversation was such that I could not butt in with a
question about it. After dinner I got hold of John, who explained to
me that it was a custom in the Navy, commemorating the act of Captain
Craven of the U. S. S. _Tecumseh_ at the battle of Mobile Bay.
“John said his father was never tired of telling the story, and was
sure that he would be glad to tell it to me then and there. He asked
me to wait a minute while he went to his father’s study to find out,
and returned in a few minutes with this message: ‘By all means,--come
in right away.’
“Well, boys, I wish I could tell it to you the way the old Admiral
told it to John and me. But, as I can’t do that, I’ll just give you
the facts: The Confederate fleet were up in the bay, protected below
by strong coast fortifications on either side. The _Tecumseh_ was the
first ship in the line of Union vessels which were fighting their way
up into the bay against the bombardment of the forts. Captain Craven
was up in the turret with the pilot, who was pointing out the channel
through the mine fields which had been carefully prepared by the enemy.
But a mistake was made in the ship’s course which brought her into
contact with a mine, striking her so that she went on her beam ends.
“You understand what this means?” said George, after a little pause,
and he held up his two hands to indicate the angle to which the deck
of the vessel would rise under the circumstances.
“Then she settled down with a kind of shivering motion and began to
sink as the sea flowed in through the gash in her side.
“The inside of the turret was a small place and the two men shut
up there were in close quarters. The only way out was the way they
had come in, through an opening in the turret deck, like one of the
manholes you see leading underground from the surface of the street.
There was a little ladder in this manhole, and only room enough for
one man to pass at a time. As the vessel settled and sank, it was
inevitable that the water should rise in the manhole and ultimately
fill the turret. There was no time to lose if either one was to make
his escape from the death trap. It must have seemed a long wait to the
two men as they stood facing one another and taking in their situation.
But it probably wasn’t as long as it seemed before Captain Craven
pointed to the manhole with the words that Admiral Stimson had quoted
to me:
“‘After you, pilot.’
“You see, boys, Captain Craven had a law similar to your scout law;
and, according to that, the captain of a sinking ship cannot think of
saving himself until everyone else on board has been rescued. He obeyed
this law of his calling without hesitation; and, when the pilot had
made his escape down the manhole and been picked up and rescued, the
water rose and filled the turret, and the captain went down with his
ship. The whole thing could not have lasted more than a few minutes,
although it must have seemed much longer; and, in that time, Captain
Craven had maintained his honor and that of his country at the expense
of his own life, while at the same time saving the life of another
human being.”
George had realized the scene with so much vividness as he told the
story, that all the three boys present felt as if they, too, had
witnessed Captain Craven’s act of heroism. Dick felt, somehow, as if
the opening of the manhole were right before them in the middle of the
floor of the shack, and all three of them shared in his feeling. There
was a long pause during which they visualized that scene in the turret
of the _Tecumseh_.
George finally broke the silence:
“When the Admiral had finished, I sat back in my chair in a quiet kind
of way, and after a while, the old gentleman spoke.
“‘You see, Gray,’ said he, ‘Craven only did his duty; but what enabled
him to do his duty at that moment so nobly was the fact that he had
done it hundreds of times before--again, and again, and again--in the
ordinary affairs of his life and work. If he had been in the habit of
shirking his studies, or of being mean to other fellows, or of yielding
to fear in his ordinary life from day to day, he would have formed
habits which would have made it difficult or impossible for him to be
generous and manly when the supreme test came.’
“I couldn’t say very much,” continued George, “except to thank the old
gentleman,--but I thought to myself, ‘You’re just such another one as
Craven; and, if you were to ask me to cut off my finger, or my hand,
I’ll be hanged if I wouldn’t do it.’
“Well, after that,” George went on, “I began to think about the
Academy, and I seemed to see a thousand things that I might have done
differently and better; and it seemed to me that I could hardly wait
until vacation was over to get back to my work. Maybe, when you come
back from your cruise, Dick will write me a letter and say how you got
on, but I advise you to do the same thing that I’m going to do,--to
think of that story every day and to put more push into doing the
things that my oath requires.
“I suppose you fellows are going to have your meeting now, and I’ll go
up to the house and unpack my trunk; I’ll see you again at supper.”
There was another pause after George had left the three boys, until
finally Chippie remarked:
“I never thought of that before, fellows; but, when you do act in one
way right straight along, you learn to do it better all the time. You
remember a year ago I couldn’t knock up a ball decently; but I worked
at it quite a lot, and the more I did it, the easier it came.”
“That’s so,” remarked Tom, “and you can knock up about as well as I
can, now; but it seems kind of different with games and sports from
what it does with other things that aren’t so much fun.”
“You bet it is,” chimed in Dick; “my mother gave me a letter to mail
last week, and I found it in the pocket of my jacket three days
after--a scout is trustworthy, eh? I tell you what it is,” continued
Dick, “you know we have called ourselves a club and nobody knows it but
ourselves, and we’ve been stickin’ up for each other at school and in
the town when other fellows have tried to pitch into us, and that’s all
right. But it seems to me that we could do more than that, and I’ll
ask you two fellows to give me a dig in the ribs,--or if that doesn’t
work--a punch in the nose, when you see me going to do a mean thing. I
want to keep the scout law and my oath as much as I want anything, and
I don’t see why you shouldn’t help me do that as well as to stick up
for me when some other cove calls me names behind my back!”
Chippie and Tom looked at each other for a moment, and finally
exclaimed together:
“Gee!”
“Then,” answered Tom, “why shouldn’t we all do the same thing? You know
how hard it is to do things on time; and there’s no ‘being trustworthy’
unless you do. So Chippie, you and Dick just kick me out of bed when
it’s time to get up, and I’ll be much obliged to you. Dad says I’m
lazy, and I know he’s right, but I’ve got to learn to keep this scout
law--or bust!”
All three assented cordially to the idea that they should join forces
as brothers-in-arms against everything that stood in the way of their
scout duty.
“I say,” cried Chippie, “this is what I call a club! And, see here,
there are just three of us. Why not call it The Triangle Club?”
“And I vote,” said Tom, “we make this our motto:
“After you, Pilot!”