came to the side of the _Industry_. And Captain Sol was hurrying to put
a ladder over, so that the English officer could come up without any
trouble. But the officer didn't wait for any ladder; he and his men
swarmed up the side like flies. And Captain Sol met the officer, and he
laughed and said that he was glad to see him. And the officer smiled and
wondered why that was, and he shook hands with Captain Sol; and then
Captain Sol and the officer went into the cabin together. And Captain
Sol told the officer about the Spanish privateer.
When the officer had heard the story he said it was hard luck, but, as
the vessel was a Spanish prize, he should have to take her. He thought
that the Admiralty court would fix that matter all right. And Captain
Sol sighed and said that he hoped so, but he didn't know much about
Admiralty courts. He had understood that American owners were apt to get
the worst of it. And then Captain Sol and the officer had a glass of
wine together, and it was so good that they each had another glass; and
then they went on deck.
The officer bundled the Spaniards into the boat and left ten Englishmen
to take their places, apologizing to Captain Sol for leaving him so
short-handed. The _Industry_ generally had a crew of twenty-five or
thirty men. Then the officer got into the boat and rowed away. Captain
Sol was to take the _Industry_ to Gibraltar, which was right on the way
to Leghorn, too. And it was pretty near, so that he ought to get there
the next day.
Then Captain Sol had an idea. He served out a little rum, first, and he
told the crew that if nothing happened he would take the ship straight
to Gibraltar. But the Spaniards were pretty thick between where they
were and Gibraltar, so he thought he would ask them a question. If they
should be taken by the Spaniards again, and the crew should be left on
board, would they agree to sign as his crew, for a voyage to Leghorn and
other ports?
When the English sailors heard that, some of them began to grin; and
they talked together for a little while, and then they said that they
would agree to do as Captain Sol had said. And Captain Sol was pleased,
and he served out another helping of rum all around. The sailors called
it grog.
Sure enough, they were captured again, the next morning, before they had
got within sight of Gibraltar; and the Spanish ship put on board the
_Industry_ a prize crew of nine men. But she left the English crew on
board, for she had already taken several other prizes; and she had put
other prize crews on board of those prizes, and she had their crews as
prisoners. And her captain was afraid to have more prisoners because he
would have nearly as many prisoners as he had men left in his crew. Then
the Spanish ship told Captain Sol to steer for Algiers, and she sailed
away about her business.
Captain Sol did as he was told and steered for Algiers. But, in the
night of that day, the two mates went, while the Spanish crew weren't
looking, and they set free the Englishmen and gave them a paper to sign.
That paper made them Captain Sol's sailors. And then they gave each man
pistols and a cutlass, and the first mate took half of the Englishmen
and went to the forecastle, where four men of the Spanish crew were
sleeping; and the second mate took the other five Englishmen, and he
went on deck, where the other five men of the Spanish crew were on
watch, but he hid his Englishmen. And Captain Sol was walking back and
forth on the quarter deck, and suddenly he began to whistle softly. And
all the Englishmen sprang out, and they had that Spanish crew captured
before they knew what had happened. But they didn't have to hurt
anybody, they captured them so quickly.
Then Captain Sol changed the course of the _Industry_ so that she was
heading for Leghorn, and he got to Leghorn in due time; but he had some
trouble in getting rid of his Spanish prisoners.
And nobody ever knew whether Captain Sol meant to be captured by the
Spaniards, that last time, or not.
And that's all.
THE RACE STORY
Once upon a time there was a wide river that ran into the ocean, and
beside it was a little city. And in that city was a wharf where great
ships came from far countries. And a narrow road led down a very steep
hill to that wharf, and anybody that wanted to go to the wharf had to go
down the steep hill on the narrow road, for there wasn't any other way.
And because ships had come there for a great many years and all the
sailors and all the captains and all the men who had business with the
ships had to go on that narrow road, the flagstones that made the
sidewalk were much worn. That was a great many years ago.
The wharf was Captain Jonathan's and Captain Jacob's and they owned the
ships that sailed from it; and, after their ships had been sailing from
that wharf in the little city for a good many years, they changed their
office to Boston. After that, their ships sailed from a wharf in Boston.
A long time ago the brig _Industry_ lay at that wharf in Boston, and she
was all ready to sail for far countries. And there was a ship that was
named the _Augusta Ramsay_ lying at the next wharf, and she was all
ready to sail, too, and she was going to the same country that the
_Industry_ was going to. Captain Sol had been on the _Industry_ for a
long time, seeing that the cargo was stowed as well as it could be
stowed, and trying to hurry the lumpers. But he couldn't make them hurry
very much.
Captain Sol wanted to get the _Industry_ away before the _Augusta
Ramsay_ sailed, so as to gain as much time as he could. For, in those
days, the owners of ships couldn't telegraph to far countries to find
out what they had to sell and what they wanted to buy, but the captains
of their ships had to find out those things when the ships got there.
And the captains had to sell the things they brought for as much as they
could get for them, and they had to buy what they wanted to carry back
for as low a price as they could.
So it made a good deal of difference whether a ship got there first or
not; for the ship that got there first could sell the things that she
brought at a higher price, and could buy the things to bring back for a
lower price than a ship that got there a little later. So Captain Sol
knew that it would be a race, for the whole voyage, between the
_Industry_ and the _Augusta Ramsay_. And Captain Henry, of the _Augusta
Ramsay_, knew it, too, and he was hurrying as fast as he could. The
_Augusta Ramsay_ was a good deal bigger than the _Industry_, but Captain
Sol had his mind made up to beat her if he blew the sticks right out of
the _Industry_.
So it happened that the ship _Augusta Ramsay_ pulled out from her wharf
at exactly the same time that the brig _Industry_ pulled out from hers.
And they both began to set all the sails that they possibly could. And
the ship and the brig sailed down the harbor together before a fair
wind. A fair wind is a wind that blows about the way the vessel is
going. But the _Augusta Ramsay_ was just ahead, going down the harbor,
for the wharf that she started from was a little nearer to the channel
than Captain Jonathan's and Captain Jacob's wharf; and the channel that
led out of Boston Harbor was even more crooked and narrow than it is
now. So the _Industry_ couldn't pass the _Augusta Ramsay_, while they
were in the channel and setting all those many sails, and Captain Sol
didn't try it.
By the time the _Industry_ had got out into Boston Bay she had set her
mainsail and her foresail, and her maintopsail and her foretopsail, and
her maintopgallantsail and her foretopgallantsail, and her mainroyal and
her foreroyal, and her mainskysail and her foreskysail, and all of her
jibs and her spanker and her staysails; and the sailors were busy
getting out her studdingsail booms. The studdingsail booms are sticks
that stick out beyond the ends of the yards; and, as soon as the sailors
had got out these booms, they set the studdingsails that belonged on
them, so that it was just as if the foresail and the other sails that
had studdingsails had been made so much bigger. And the _Industry_ had
set all the sail that she could set.
The _Augusta Ramsay_ had all the sails that the _Industry_ had and,
besides those sails, she had the sails that belong on the mizzenmast:
the cross-jack and the mizzentopsail and the mizzentopgallantsail and
the mizzenroyal and the mizzenskysail and all the mizzenstaysails. But
the _Industry_ couldn't set those sails on the mizzenmast, because she
didn't have any mizzenmast. And the two vessels leaned a good deal and
the foam piled up under their bows and they just flew out of Boston Bay
into Massachusetts Bay and out past Provincetown into the great ocean;
but neither gained on the other any worth mentioning.
And night came and they didn't take in any of the sails that they had
set, but they sailed on, in the moonlight. Captain Sol had to keep his
crew pretty busy, changing the sails so that the wind would blow on
them the right way, and so did Captain Henry. It is a good deal of a job
to change these many sails. But morning came, and there was the _Augusta
Ramsay_ right abreast of them. And the wind increased, so that the two
vessels leaned a great deal; but Captain Sol said that he guessed he
could carry his sail as long as Captain Henry could carry his, and he
wasn't going to be the first to take in sail. But the sailors didn't
like to hear Captain Sol say that because they knew that it meant hard
work for them.
They sailed on, that way, for a long time, and they never lost sight of
each other. But, first, the _Augusta Ramsay_ would be a little way ahead
and then the _Industry_ would gain a little and go ahead of the _Augusta
Ramsay_. Then, one day, it began to blow harder and harder and Captain
Sol knew that they would have a storm. And he got a little worried
because he was afraid that he might have to take in some sail before
Captain Henry did. For he wouldn't risk his ship just because he had
said that he wasn't going to be the first to take in sail. And he
looked, through his glass, at the _Augusta Ramsay_, to see if she took
in any of her sails, and he waited as long as he dared to wait. Then,
just as he was going to give it up, and take his glass down, he saw the
sailors on the _Augusta Ramsay_ going up on the yards. And he was very
glad of it, and he gave orders for his sailors to reduce sail. And the
sailors were glad, too, and they swarmed up aloft and took in the sails
in a jiffy.
The storm lasted for three days and two nights. The wind blew harder and
harder and the waves got higher and higher and the rain came down in
sheets. Then it would stop raining, for a little while, and the wind
would blow harder than ever, while the flying clouds seemed to be no
higher than the masthead. Then it would begin to rain again. But they
didn't lose sight of the _Augusta Ramsay_ completely, although, at
times, she was hidden by the rain and, for one whole day, they didn't
see her at all. But she was there on the next morning. And the
_Industry_, all through that hard blow, was sailing under double-reefed
topsails, and so was the _Augusta Ramsay_. And double-reefed topsails is
very little sail, compared to the enormous spread of canvas that the
vessels had set when they left Boston.
At last, after dark of the third day, the wind began to be less and the
clouds to be more broken, and Captain Sol knew that the storm was over.
And he made up his mind that he would get out of that place just as soon
as he could, for he thought that, just as likely as not, it would be
calm there for some time. And he thought that the sooner he got out of
any place where there was likely to be no wind, the better. So he didn't
go to bed, but he watched the weather, and he waited. Finally, he
thought that the _Industry_ could stand a little more sail.
"Call all hands," he said to the mate, "and get sail on her, little by
little. We don't want to loaf around here."
It was two o'clock in the morning, and the mate thought that the sailors
would grumble; but he didn't care. "Aye, aye, sir," he said.
And he called all hands, and they came up on deck, grumbling at the
captain for routing them up at that time, to make sail, when it was
blowing hard enough, anyway. But the mate pretended not to hear them,
and he ordered some of the sailors aloft. And the sailors that went
aloft shook out the reefs in the topsails; and the sailors that were on
deck pulled away at the halliards and at the sheets, but they didn't
shout out any chanty.
And the _Industry_ began to sail faster. And pretty soon Captain Sol had
the men shake out some other sails and hoist them. And the wind was
less, and a star showed. And Captain Sol had the men set more sails, so
that the vessel had all that she could stand. Then, pretty soon, more
stars showed, and the wind kept on going down. And, by daylight, he had
nearly all the sails set, and nothing was to be seen of the _Augusta
Ramsay_. And Captain Sol chuckled to himself, and went down to bed.
He didn't sleep very long but just took a little nap and then he went on
deck again. There were two things that bothered him a little, besides
the sailing of his vessel, which couldn't be said to bother him at all;
for he always did the very best he could. Nobody can do any more than
that. And, when he had done the very best he could, Captain Sol didn't
worry about what would happen; which was very sensible on Captain Sol's
part. And the two things that bothered him were, first, where the
_Augusta Ramsay_ was; and, second, the disposition of his crew. It
seemed to him that they were likely to make trouble. Captain Sol wasn't
afraid of trouble, but he knew that the willingness of the crew made a
great difference in the speed that could be got out of a vessel in a
long voyage. So he made up his mind that he would attend to the second
matter first.
Captain Sol had all hands called; and the men came up unwillingly, and
they were very cross with Captain Sol because they thought that he had
called them to change the sails again. And they had been up nearly the
whole of three nights and wanted to sleep. But Captain Sol called them
all aft, and he stood by the railing that was at the edge of the quarter
deck and he made them a little speech. He said that the men must know
that there was a race between the _Augusta Ramsay_ and the _Industry_,
and that each vessel was trying to be the first to get to the far
country, where they both were bound. It was worth something to his
owners to have the _Industry_ get there first, and he would promise the
crew five dollars apiece if they beat the _Augusta Ramsay_, even if they
only beat her by an hour. And, for every day that they beat her, up to
two weeks, he would promise them two dollars apiece. He didn't care
about beating her by more than two weeks, because he thought that he
would have his cargo aboard, all ready to carry back to Boston, in that
time. But there must be no skulking and no unwillingness. Anything of
that kind would be severely dealt with, and he would not hesitate to put
any man in irons for the rest of the voyage who didn't jump to his duty
at the word.
And, when Captain Sol had finished his speech, the men all shouted out a
cheer for him and another cheer for Captain Jonathan and Captain Jacob.
And they weren't grumbly any more but they were glad. And Captain Sol
turned away and looked through his glass to see if he could make out the
_Augusta Ramsay_. But he couldn't see any sign of her.
So Captain Sol sailed the _Industry_ across the wide ocean and down
around the Cape of Good Hope and across the Indian Ocean; and he
carried sail until it almost cracked the masts, and his crew were as
willing as they could be and nobody skulked. But, all that time, there
was no sign of the _Augusta Ramsay_. And they sailed into the wide river
and anchored; and Captain Sol sold the things he had brought and bought
the things to carry back, and still there was no sign of the _Augusta
Ramsay_.
And he loaded the _Industry_ with the things that he had bought, and he
hoisted his anchor and sailed away down the river. And, just as he came
to the ocean, there was the _Augusta Ramsay_ sailing in.
Captain Sol had the sails fixed so that the ship wouldn't go ahead and
so did Captain Henry. And Captain Sol had a boat lowered and sailors got
in, to row it, and he went over to make a call on Captain Henry. And he
found that the _Augusta Ramsay_ had been caught in a calm place, after
that storm, because Captain Henry hadn't been willing to rout his men
out at two o'clock in the morning; and she hadn't been able to get out
of that calm place for nearly two weeks, but had stayed there, with her
sails flapping against the masts, for all that long time. And Captain
Henry said that it was a joke on him and bade Captain Sol good bye and
wished him a good voyage home. But Captain Sol thought that it was no
joke for the owners of the _Augusta Ramsay_.
Then he got into his boat again and went back to his ship. And the
_Augusta Ramsay_ fixed her sails so that she would go ahead, and so did
the _Industry_. And they sailed away from each other; but Captain Sol
had taken Captain Henry's letters.
And that's all.
THE PILOT STORY
Once upon a time there was a wide river that ran into the ocean, and
beside it was a little city. And in that city was a wharf where great
ships came from far countries. And a narrow road led down a very steep
hill to that wharf, and anybody that wanted to go to the wharf had to go
down the steep hill on the narrow road, for there wasn't any other way.
And because ships had come there for a great many years and all the
sailors and all the captains and all the men who had business with the
ships had to go on that narrow road, the flagstones that made the
sidewalk were much worn. That was a great many years ago.
The wharf was Captain Jonathan's and Captain Jacob's and they owned the
ships that sailed from it; and, after their ships had been sailing from
that wharf in the little city for a good many years, they changed their
office to Boston. After that, their ships sailed from a wharf in Boston.
The channel into Boston Harbor was crooked and narrow and a captain had
to know it very well to be able to take a ship in safely. A good many
captains didn't like to risk it, even if they thought they did know the
channel pretty well. So there were some men who made it their business
to take vessels out of the harbor, that wanted to go out, and to bring
vessels in, that wanted to come in. Those men were called harbor pilots,
or just pilots. And they knew just exactly how much water they would
find at each place; and they knew the whole harbor so well that they
could tell, almost, where every stone, of the size of a hat, was on the
bottom of it. In the year 1820, John Wilson was one of these pilots, and
he lived at Winthrop. Winthrop was a convenient place for a pilot to
live in, for it is on a sort of a point that bends around, so that it is
outside of Boston Harbor.
Now John Wilson's house was where he could see, from the windows of a
room upstairs, far out to sea. He could have seen Provincetown, on the
end of Cape Cod, if it hadn't been so far away that it was hidden by
the roundness of the world; and there was nothing, except the ocean and
the ships that sailed on it, between him and Europe. On clear days he
was apt to sit at his upper window, looking out over the ocean and
smoking. And whenever he saw the upper sails of some vessel beginning to
show, far away, over the waters of Massachusetts Bay, he would hurry off
to his sloop, that always lay ready at the wharf, just below; and he
would tell the man who was pottering about on the sloop, and who was
named Joe, that there was a vessel coming up and that he had better stir
his stumps. For he thought that it was the ship _Dawn_. Or, perhaps, it
was the brig _Sally Ann_ or the _Coromandel_, or the ship _Pactolys_, or
the _Savannah_, or the _Augusta Ramsay_, or the brig _Industry_. For
John Wilson knew every vessel that sailed from Boston so well that he
could tell a vessel's name as soon as he caught sight of her upper
sails.
Then Joe would hurry and John Wilson would hurry and they would sail
down to meet that vessel. And John Wilson, if he was the first pilot to
get to the vessel, which he generally was, would climb aboard, leaving
Joe to sail the sloop alone; and he would take command of the vessel and
pilot her safely in, through the channel, to her wharf.
But, if it was foggy or hazy, so that John Wilson could not see the
sails of vessels far off, over the water, even with his long glass, he
and Joe would sail back and forth before the entrance to Boston Harbor.
Sometimes there would be three or four pilot boats sailing back and
forth, waiting for the ships to come in; and, when they sighted a ship,
it would be a race to see which boat would get to her first.
One afternoon, in the late summer, John Wilson sat at his upper window,
smoking and looking out at the gulls. His long glass lay on another
chair beside him, all ready to look through; and, once in a while, he
took it up and looked, very carefully, all along the edge of the ocean.
But, no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't see any ships. There was
a fisherman going out, but fishermen didn't take pilots, and, if they
had, it was too late, anyway. And he saw another small vessel coming in,
pretty soon after the fisherman had gone. It was the Portland packet.
She didn't take a pilot, either, but her captain was a pilot.
[Illustration]
John Wilson was getting tired of sitting by that window, although it was
a very pleasant place on a summer afternoon. He got up and stretched
sleepily, for it was sleepy work sitting there, doing nothing. Then he
thought that he might as well take a last look through the glass, before
he went, and he lifted it and held it against the frame of the window
and looked.
"Hello!" he said to himself. "The skysails and royals of something. It's
a brig. By the cut of her sails, she'll be the _Industry_. Haven't heard
of her since she was spoken, going out, five months ago. She must have
made a quick passage."
Then he put down the glass and hurried down to the sloop.
"Hurry up, Joe," he said. "The old _Industry_'s coming in. And she's in
a hurry, too. That Cap'n Sol's carrying royals and skysails. That's all
that showed. Like enough he's got stu'n'sails on her, too. He seems to
want to get in to-night; and we've got to hurry, for she'll keep right
on to his wharf, pilot or no pilot."
"He hasn't been reported at Manila," said Joe.
"No," said John Wilson, "he hasn't. But he'll report his own arrival
there. There's few can carry sail with Cap'n Sol."
[Illustration: "THE SLOOP WAS ON HER WAY"]
The sloop was on her way, by that time, out to the channel and down to
the bay. She was rather fast, for such a small vessel, for the pilot who
had the fastest boat had the best chance; and she had a good deal of
sail for a boat of her size. But she couldn't sail as fast as the
_Industry_. She met the _Industry_ about five miles out in the bay,
and John Wilson saw that Captain Sol had put a flag in the rigging, to
show that he wanted a pilot.
Captain Sol had the sails fixed so that the _Industry_ wouldn't go ahead
very fast, and the sloop came alongside and John Wilson scrambled
aboard. The sloop wasn't tied to the ship at all, and she didn't stay
alongside as long as a minute; then she was sailing off again, towards
Boston. For Joe had to take John Wilson home again after he had got a
vessel piloted safely in to the wharf that she was going to.
Captain Sol met John Wilson when he came on board and shook hands with
him.
"Hello, John," he said. "I hoped we should get you."
"Hello, Sol," said John Wilson. "You haven't been reported at Manila,
yet, and you have no business to be here."
"So?" asked Captain Sol. "Three ships sailed from Manila for Boston
ahead of me. They'll be along in the course of time." He smiled to
himself at the thought of his having passed those ships. But Captain Sol
didn't generally say much, and John Wilson didn't ask him anything more
about those ships. But he made up his mind that he would keep a sharp
lookout for them. "Get us in as soon as you can, John," continued
Captain Sol. "I have some business that I want to get done before dark."
"All right," said John Wilson; and he began to give his orders.
The sails were fixed so that the ship would go ahead again as fast as
she was going before. They passed the pilot boat, with Joe sailing it
all alone, and then John Wilson told the sailors to begin to take in
sail. They had so much sail spread that it would take the sailors all
the time, until they got to the wharf, to take it in, for they had
reached the beginning of the channel between the islands.