"MAN OVERBOARD."
THE trappers were badly frightened, there could be no doubt about
that, and it was a spectacle the Club had never expected to witness.
That these two men, who had time and again faced death in almost every
shape in which he presents himself on shore, who had lived in the very
midst of danger from their youth up, and who sought and delighted in
perilous exploits, should be so nearly overcome with terror by hearing
of things with which every schoolboy is familiar, was surprising; and
there was something so ludicrous in the manner in which they exhibited
their alarm, that the boys could scarcely restrain their laughter until
they could get out of sight. Old Bob glared wildly about him, seemingly
on the point of jumping overboard and swimming ashore, and Dick
Lewis leaned against the rail, drawing his breath in quick gasps and
looking altogether as if he did not yet fairly understand the startling
discovery he had made. Uncle Dick Gaylord took one glance at him and
then went to the stern and looked over into the water, while the boys
dived down into the cabin and threw themselves into chairs, or leaned
up in corners, holding their handkerchiefs over their mouths--all
except Archie, who never could control himself when he wanted to laugh.
He ran into his state-room, shut the door and buried his head in the
pillows. The funny part of it was, that Dick should suppose, that those
who attempted the reckless task of sailing around the world, should be
obliged to take a magnet with them, in order to keep themselves and
their vessel from falling off when they reached the "under side of the
earth."
At the end of five minutes Archie made an attempt to come out into the
cabin, but he was still bubbling over with laughter, and the sight
of him created a fresh explosion, and set Archie himself to going
again at such a rate that he was obliged to go back. It is hard to
tell how long it would have been before the boys could have controlled
themselves sufficiently to talk the matter over, had it not been that a
commotion which suddenly arose on deck, drew their attention to other
affairs.
"Fore rigging, there," exclaimed Uncle Dick. "What do you see?"
"A man overboard, sir," replied the voice of the boatswain's mate. "He
jumped off that whaler, sir."
"And he's swimming this way, sir," said another voice, "and making
signals of distress."
"Have the cutter called away, Mr. Baldwin," said Uncle Dick, to his
first mate, "and send a crew out to pick him up."
The boys waited to hear no more. They crowded up the companion ladder
with such haste that they ran some risk of sticking fast in the narrow
passageway, and reached the deck just as the crew of the cutter were
tumbling into their boat which lay along side moored to a swinging
boom, man-of-war fashion.
"Where is Mr. Parker?" said Uncle Dick, looking around for his second
officer.
"O, let me go in charge of the boat, Uncle," exclaimed Eugene,
snatching Fred's hat from his head, for he had left his own in the
cabin.
"Away you go, then," said the old sailor. "Don't let him sink before
you reach him."
"They're sending out a boat from the whaler, sir," said the foremast
hand, who was at work in the forward rigging, and who had been the
first to discover the man in the water.
"Does he appear to be all right?"
"O, yes, sir. He swims like a duck, but he's waving his hand to us."
"Hold on a minute, Eugene."
Uncle Dick sprang upon the rail and supporting himself by the shrouds
looked towards the man, and then toward the boat that was coming out
to pick him up, while the boys, all except Eugene, who stood ready
to take his place in the cutter at a moment's warning, swarmed up
the rigging and looked on with no little interest. They saw at once
that the man had no trouble in keeping afloat, for he swam over the
waves as buoyantly as a cork. They saw, too, that he did not want to
be overtaken by the whaler's boat, if he could help it, for he looked
back at her occasionally to see if she was gaining on him, and then
redoubled his efforts to reach the schooner.
"He is trying to desert," said Uncle Dick, "and I think we had better
have nothing to do with him."
"Quartermaster, pass up that spy-glass," said Frank.
The petty officer handed the instrument to Featherweight, who happened
to be lowest in the shrouds, and he passed it to George Le Dell,
who handed it up to Frank. The latter mounted to the crosstrees and
levelled the glass at the swimmer. He held it to his eye for a few
minutes, and then passing it back to George, said:
"That man has either met with a severe accident, or been roughly
handled. His face is bleeding."
"Help! help!" cried a faint voice.
"Go and pick him up," said Uncle Dick.
"Shove off," commanded Eugene, before he was fairly seated in the
stern-sheets of the cutter. "Remember, men, that you are racing with a
whale-boat, and that you don't want to be beaten."
The cutter swung around with her bow toward the swimmer, and propelled
by eight strong oarsmen, who seemed to lift her fairly out of the
water at every stroke, flew over the waves like a duck. A boat race
was something in which Eugene took especial delight, but the one that
came off that morning between the cutter and the whale-boat was not as
exciting or as closely contested as he had hoped it would be. In fact
it was no race at all; for when the officer, whoever he was, who had
charge of the deck of the whaler, saw that the cutter was likely to
reach the swimmer first, he hailed his boat, which turned around and
went back.
"In bow," commanded the coxswain of the cutter, who was sitting just
behind Eugene.
The two sailors who were seated in the bow raised their oars from the
water, placed them on the thwarts between them, and then one stood up
with the boat-hook in his hand, while the other threw himself flat on
his face and extended his arm out over the water.
"Way enough! Toss, and stand by," said the coxswain.
The other oars were all thrown up into the air at the same moment,
laid upon the thwarts, and every man leaned over the side to be ready
to seize the swimmer as the cutter moved past him. She retained
steerage-way enough to carry her within a few feet of him, and then the
coxswain, with one movement of the tiller, turned the bow aside, and
the boat-hook was thrust out within reach of his hands. It was a matter
of some difficulty to haul the rescued man aboard, for he was too
nearly exhausted to help himself, and his clothing, being thoroughly
saturated with water, was as heavy as so much lead. Besides, his
forehead was badly cut and bruised, and no doubt he was suffering from
the hurt.
[Illustration: RESCUING THE DESERTER.]
"Did you fall overboard?" asked Eugene, after the man had been pulled
into the boat and had taken his seat in the bow.
"No, sir; I jumped overboard on purpose."
"You hit your head against something, didn't you?"
"The cap'n hit it for me, sir. It was a belaying pin that made that
mark."
Eugene looked wonderingly at the coxswain, who nodded his head, as if
to say that he didn't doubt it at all.
"Why, the officers aboard our vessel don't find it necessary to do such
things," said Eugene.
"But all vessels ain't like the Stranger, sir, nor are all shipmasters
like Cap'n Gaylord," said the coxswain. "Do you s'pose there's a
sailorman aboard of us that would do what this chap has done--try to
desert? No, sir, you couldn't kick 'em off if you wanted to. When we
get back to Bellville we'll have every man we brought away with us,
unless some of 'em are in Davy's locker."
The cutter was soon alongside the schooner, and the rescued man, by
dint of hauling from above and pushing from below, was got upon the
deck. He was a pitiable object when one came to look at him, and Uncle
Dick's first order was: "Take him below, some of you, and give him
something fit to put on. Be in a hurry about it."
The sailors were only too glad to obey. They led the dripping man
into the forecastle, from which he emerged a few minutes later with a
clean face, a suit of dry clothes, and a handkerchief bound about his
forehead. In his appearance, which was very much improved, he would
have compared favorably with any of the seamen on board the Stranger,
and they were the very best that Uncle Dick could find in the port of
New Orleans. He had evidently had plenty of time to tell at least a
portion of his story, for the faces of the sailors were as black as so
many thunder clouds.
The rescued man at once made his way aft, accompanied by the
boatswain's mate, who, presuming for this once upon his captain's
good-nature, and his own position as ranking petty officer on board the
Stranger, took the liberty to go where he knew he had no right except
he was in performance of his duties. The men saluted, removed their
caps and waited for Uncle Dick to speak to them.
"Well, Lucas, what do you want here?" asked the old sailor.
"I ax your pardon, cap'n, for coming on the quarter-deck at this time
without an invite," replied the boatswain's mate, "but I just wanted to
say to you, sir, that this man is black and blue from his head to his
feet, so he is."
"How did he get that way?" asked Uncle Dick, while the boys ranged
themselves behind him so that they could hear all that passed, "and why
is he trying to desert?"
The mate stepped back and moved his hand toward the rescued man, as if
to say that he would tell his own story, and the latter said:
"I don't want to desert my ship, cap'n. I am an able seaman, know my
duty and am ready to do it, if I can only have plenty to eat and am
allowed a wink of sleep now and then. I am trying to get ashore for
protection ag'in' them tyrants aboard the Tycoon, and I hope you won't
send me back to them, sir."
"Go on," said Uncle Dick. "What has happened aboard that ship?"
"She is nearly two years out of Nantucket, on a whaling course, sir,"
said the man, "and there isn't a foremast hand aboard of her that she
brought out with her. They've all deserted. She has to get a new crew
at every port, and when she can't get 'em honest, she kidnaps 'em, sir.
I shipped aboard of her, along with a lot of others, at Callao. We've
been out only four months, and two of the men jumped overboard rather
than stand the hard treatment they received. On the first day out the
officers began on us and never let up. They kept us at work till we
were ready to drop, brought us out of bed at night and made us walk the
deck, and if we fell asleep as we walked, they knocked us down with a
handspike or belaying-pin. They starved us almost to death, and then,
because my boat's crew were too weak to save a whale we made fast to,
they put us all in irons and pounded us with ropes' ends till we were
insensible."
This was only the introduction to the long story the man had to tell,
and to which his auditors listened with breathless interest. According
to his account, the Tycoon was a horrible place, and the cruelties
that were practised by the officers upon the defenceless seamen, were
shocking. The man certainly bore unmistakable evidence of brutal
treatment, and added weight to his story by declaring that he was not
only willing but anxious to meet his persecutors in a court of justice.
Everybody who listened to him was indignant.
"The men on board that vessel have a remedy in their own hands--two
of them, if they only knew it," said Frank. "Why didn't they demand
an interview with the American consul at the first port at which they
touched?"
"It wouldn't have done no good, sir," said the sailor. "The cap'n
wouldn't never let 'em see him, sir."
"He couldn't help himself," returned Frank. "The law compels him to
allow his men to go ashore at every port at which the ship may touch to
lay their complaints, if they have any, before our representative; or,
if there is any good reason why the men cannot go ashore, the captain
must bring the consul aboard to see them, if they demand it."
If there was anything in which Frank was particularly well posted,
it was the law governing the duties of consuls, as some of our
representatives in foreign countries are called. The attorney with
whom he had been studying in Lawrence, had political aspirations, and
had at one time expected to be appointed consul for some port in the
Mediterranean. If he had succeeded in his object Frank would have
gone with him as assistant and clerk. He did not wish to accept any
situation with whose duties and responsibilities he was not familiar,
and in order to fit himself for it, he had obtained a copy of the
Consular Regulations, which he had thoroughly mastered. It is a part
of the consul's duty to care for destitute, discharged and deserting
seamen, to stand between foremast hands and tyrannical officers, to
protect officers from and punish mutinous sailors, and Frank knew the
law bearing upon every case that could possibly arise.
"The consul is obliged to listen to any and all complaints," continued
Frank. "He measures them by the law bearing upon them, and he can
discharge the crew on complaint of the officers, or he can discharge
the officers themselves on a well-founded complaint from the crew."
The sailors opened their eyes and looked at one another. They had never
dreamed that they had so many rights, or that there was a law enacted
on purpose to protect them.
Just then the whale-boat came in sight again, rounding the stern of the
Tycoon. She turned her bow toward the Stranger, and the quartermaster,
after looking at her through his spy-glass, said there was a man in
the stern-sheets dressed in gray. "That's the cap'n," exclaimed the
deserter, in great alarm. "You won't let him take me back, sir?" he
added, in a pleading voice.
"I can't prevent your lawful captain from taking you wherever he may
find you," answered Uncle Dick; "but hold on, now, till I get through,"
he added, as the man began to back toward the rail as if he were about
to take to the water again. "I'll give you a chance to save yourself.
Call away the cutter, Mr. Baldwin, and send this man ashore."
"Thank you, cap'n, thank you," said the sailor gratefully, and with
tears in his eyes. "A prosperous and pleasant voyage to you and your
mates, sir. What shall I do when I get ashore, sir?" he continued,
looking at Frank.
"Go to the nearest justice and take out a warrant against those
officers for assault and battery," was the reply.
The boatswain's mate and the rescued man looked as if they did not
quite understand. "You must know, sir," said the latter, doubtfully,
"that all this beating and pounding was done on the high seas."
"Well, what of it? When one man, without any provocation, handles
another as roughly as you have been handled, he is answerable to the
law, no matter whether the offence was committed on the high seas or on
the land."
"Come now, off you go, my man," said Uncle Dick. "The cutter is
ready, and you've no time to lose. Yes, go with him and take charge
of the boat, Lucas," he added, anticipating the request that the old
boatswain's mate was about to make.
"And whatever you do, don't let those blubber-hunters catch you," said
Eugene, in a low voice. He wanted to say it aloud, so that the cutter's
crew could hear it; but knowing that Uncle Dick did not allow any
interference with his men, he checked himself just in time.
The cutter's crew were all in their places, and there was a determined
look on each man's face which said as plainly as words that the
"blubber-hunters," even if they succeeded in overhauling them--which
was not at all unlikely, seeing that the whale-boat was built for
speed, and was pulled by a crew who were kept in excellent training by
almost daily practice at the oars--the deserter should never be taken
from them. Uncle Dick seemed to read the thoughts that were passing
through their minds, and as he looked at the sturdy fellows, who had
thrown off their caps and rolled up their sleeves in preparation for a
long, hard pull, he remarked to Frank that he would not care to be in
that whale-boat if she succeeded in coming up with the cutter.