If the _Oriana_ of Liverpool was a comfortable ship, and every one
who was in her said so, Captain Joseph Ticehurst was no fool. He
worked his 'crowd' reasonably, but saw that they did work; and if any
of them shirked or malingered, the result was unpleasant for the one
who tried such a game on with the quiet and gentlemanly skipper. And
his mates took their time from him.
'To put it on no higher level,' said Captain Ticehurst, 'it pays to
make a ship comfortable when she visits the Pacific coast of North
America. For as things are now, if we lose the crew in Portland, we
shall have to pay the boarding-house masters at least a hundred and
fifty dollars a man. And as like as not every man we took will be
worth two and a half dollars at the most. I know the Pacific, and
you don't.'
For both his mate and second mate were with him for the first time.
'Is that the "blood-money" one hears of, sir?' asked Mr. Gregg, the
second 'greaser.'
'That's it,' said Ticehurst, 'and last voyage I had to pay a hundred
dollars each for six men to Healy the boarding-house master. And I
own I lost my temper. I swore I'd never do it again. And Healy
grinned in my face, and said that he'd see I paid more next time.
The scoundrel seems to have the whole city in his hands, and half the
newspapers. Oh, I tell you the Pacific coast is an eye-opener to a
man who has never been on it, I tell you that.'
The _Oriana_ was then running north, with a fine south-westerly
breeze. The coast of Oregon showed up clearly. With good glasses it
was possible to see Mount Shasta on the starboard quarter. Its snows
gleamed in the westering sun; and to the north was the range of the
Siskyous.
'We shall be off the mouth of the Columbia by noon to-morrow with any
luck, and if the breeze holds,' said Ticehurst to himself. 'And in
the morning, I'll have a talk to the men. If I could only knock a
little sense into a sailor, I'd try to do it. As one can't, I'll try
talk.'
He leant his back against the weather-rail, and took a broad view of
Oregon.
'"Different ship, different fash," as the Dutchman said when he went
aft to haul down the jib,' thought the captain, 'and it's the same
with countries. I know I'm in for trouble with my friend Healy.
He'll move heaven and earth and the other place to get the men out of
my ship. I'll fight him to a finish this time; and rather than pay
him for men, I'll take her to sea by myself and drift her home.'
He rubbed his smoothly-shaven chin and took a thoughtful pull at his
port whiskers, as if he were checking in the weather braces.
'After all, the men would be crazy to quit; there's hardly one of
them with less than fifteen pounds to take. I think I see how to
manage it. I'll try anyhow.'
That night he had a long talk with the mate. He astonished Mr.
Williams considerably. For Williams by nature belonged to the school
which considers a sailor in the light of a punching-bag. It had
required one or two private interviews with his skipper to induce him
to relinquish practices to which he was wedded.
'Well, sir, this is a revolution,' he declared rather glumly.
'I'm a radical,' said Ticehurst, 'and believe in revolutions when
required. I'll speak to the men to-morrow when they've had their
breakfast. I'm no believer in coddling men, Mr. Williams, but if I
have to ask you and Mr. Gregg to carry them hot shaving-water every
morning while we are in Portland River, in order to do this Healy, I
shall expect you to carry it.'
'Oh, very well, sir,' said Williams, and he retired to his cabin in
some dudgeon.
'It's the principle I'm thinkin' of,' he declared, as he turned in.
The principle he believed in was that sailors should expect nothing,
and that he was to see they got it. His prejudices broke through his
discretion when he turned out at midnight to take the middle watch.
'Has the old man bin letten' you into his sailor-cockerin' scheme for
doin' this Healy in the eye?' he asked.
'No,' replied Gregg.
'His notion is to feed 'em on the fat of Oregon, and give them hot
whisky and water before they turn in. And you and I have got to tuck
the dears up, and bring them shavin'-water in the mornin'!'
'Who are you getting at?' asked the incredulous second greaser.
'You'll see,' said the mate, 'it's as near that as a toucher. And
there'll be a dance on board every night, and private theatricals
every other day, and every day Sunday with no work in between.'
And though his imagination did run away with him, the skipper's
notions as he expounded them to the assembled crowd next morning were
certainly novel.
'I've sent for you, men, to tell you that to-night we shall be in
Portland River,' he began.
The men stared at him eagerly. They wondered 'what kind of a game
was up.'
And Ticehurst leant over the rail at the break of the poop.
'How many of you have been in Portland before?'
Five men held up their hands.
'And how many more in Pacific Coast ports, such as 'Frisco or Tacoma?'
Three more said that they had. The skipper nodded.
'I want to know how many of you left your ships there. Speak up and
tell the truth.'
The eight men shuffled about a bit, and finally a seaman called
Jacobs opened his mouth.
'Yes, Jacobs?' said Ticehurst.
'I reckon we all, more or less, skipped out, sir,' said Jacobs. And
no one contradicted him.
'I thought so,' said the skipper. 'And I'll tell you what happened.
You left a ship and left from ten to twenty pounds behind, and you
went to Healy's or to Sant's at Tacoma, and were drunk on bad liquor
for a week, and then found yourselves without any clothes to speak of
in a homeward-bounder, with an advance of thirty dollars to work out,
didn't you?'
'That's about it, sir,' said the shamefaced Jacobs.
'Yes, sir,' said the rest.
'And when you got home you had two months' pay or thereabouts to
draw, less what you paid for clothes out of the slop chest. That is,
you spent six months at sea and a week ashore for about ten pounds
and a bad headache. Whereas if you had stayed by your ships you
might have saved yourselves the headache, saved your clothes, and
have got back to England with a pay-day of twenty pounds. Jacobs,
what is the worst kind of a fool you know?'