steered so that she went in the deepest part of the channel. And they
came up to the wharf, gently, and the ship was tied to the wharf with
great ropes; and there was a little of the afternoon left. So Captain
Sol went to attend to the business that he wanted to do. But John Wilson
went to the office of Captain Jonathan and Captain Jacob and they paid
him some money for piloting the _Industry_ up the harbor.
Then he went back to the wharf and watched the sailors, who were busy on
the _Industry_, and he waited for Joe to come, with the sloop, to take
him back to Winthrop. And, in about half an hour, there was the sloop.
And John Wilson got aboard and sailed away for Winthrop.
And that's all.
THE DRIFTWOOD 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
sidewalks were much worn. That was a great many years ago.
The river and the ocean are there yet, as they always have been and
always will be; and the city is there, but it is a different kind of a
city from what it used to be. And the wharf is slowly falling down, for
it is not used now; and the narrow road down the steep hill is all grown
up with weeds and grass.
Many times, in the long ago, the brig _Industry_ had sailed from that
wharf, on voyages to far countries, and had come back again to the
wharf, bringing spices and tea and sets of china and pretty little
tables inlaid with ivory and ebony, and camel's hair shawls, and cloth
of goat's hair, and logs of teak-wood to make things of, and many
another beautiful thing. And, when Captain Jonathan and Captain Jacob
moved their office to Boston, she had sailed from a wharf in Boston to
that far country. Captain Solomon was the captain of the _Industry_
then. And Captain Solomon married and had sons, and when those sons were
beginning to get old enough to go to sea, Captain Solomon stopped being
a captain and became a farmer. For he didn't want his sons to go to sea,
and he thought that, if he had a farm, away from the salt ocean, they
wouldn't go. So he bought the farm that it tells about in the Farm
Stories. But little Sol ran away to sea, just the same; and he got to be
the captain of the _Industry_.
And Captain Jonathan got to be an old man, and he died peacefully. And
still the brig _Industry_ sailed to that far country and sailed back
again. And the years passed, and Captain Jacob got to be a very old man,
and he died, too; and Lois was an old woman, and little Jacob, her son,
had grown to be a man, and little Lois, her daughter, had grown up and
married. And still the brig _Industry_ sailed on her voyages and came
back again, but she was getting to be old, too.
[Illustration: "MANY TIMES HAD SHE BEEN TIED UP AT THAT WHARF"]
And, at last, after more years had passed, the _Industry_ was so old
that she needed to have a lot done to her to make her safe. And her
owners decided that it wasn't worth while to rebuild an old vessel, but
they would build a new one instead; for they didn't build the kind of
ship that the _Industry_ was any more, but they built a kind that they
thought was better and faster. So, when she got in the next time from
that far country, they told her captain what they had decided to do.
That captain wasn't Captain Sol. He didn't go to sea any more, but he
lived in Boston.
So, when she had been unloaded, the captain and some sailors sailed her
down to the wide river that the little city was beside. It took them
only about a half a day to go there from Boston, and the _Industry_
sailed into the river for the last time, and up to the wharf that was
all falling down. And the men tied her to the wharf with great ropes.
Many times had she been tied up at that wharf, and she had loaded there
and had been unloaded there many times. But she now would never again go
sailing out of the river into the great ocean.
And the captain went to the riggers of ships, and he had hard work to
find them; but at last he found some riggers of ships that were left,
and he told them to come to the wharf and take the sails and the yards
off the _Industry_, and the masts out of her, because she was going to
be broken up. And the riggers came, and they took the sails off the
yards and they took the yards down; and they took down the topmasts, and
they took off the bowsprit, and they took out the great masts that had
felt the strain of the winds blowing on the sails for thousands and
thousands of miles. And the _Industry_ was nothing but an old hulk
lying at an old wharf that was falling down.
Then some junk men came, and they stripped off the copper sheets that
were on her bottom, and they took the iron work out of her, and they
carried the copper sheets and the iron to their shop. Then they untied
the great ropes which held the hulk to the wharf, and they towed all
that was left of the _Industry_ to a shallow place, up the wide river,
and there they pulled it high up on the shore. And some more men came
and began stripping off the sheathing of thin boards that had been put
on outside of her planking, and they sawed this sheathing up until it
was small enough to go in a fireplace, and they split it up into small
sticks. For the sheathing, that has been next to the copper sheets and
has gone in the salt water for so many years, would burn with pretty
green and blue flames and little flashes of red. And then they began to
take off her thick planking of oak.
Lois's son, that had been little Jacob, was Squire Jacob when he had
grown up. And he heard of it, and he came to see the end of the
_Industry_. And, when he saw the remains of the ship lying there on the
shore, and saw where the men had taken the planks off, so that her great
ribs showed, like a skeleton, the sight filled his heart with sadness.
He thought of the voyage that he had made in her, when he was a little
boy, and he thought of the many times that she had sailed to that far
country and had always brought the sailors and the captains back safe;
and he stood there, looking, for a long time. But, at last, he turned
away, and he went to the men who had the sheathing all sawed and split
into small sticks, and he bought that sheathing, every bit of it. And he
told the men that he would like to have the rudder and one or two of the
ribs. And the men said that they would be glad to give him the rudder
and some of the ribs.
Then he went back to the little city, and he found an old sailor who had
sailed in the _Industry_. That sailor was an old man and he didn't go to
sea any more, he was so old; but he lived in a nice kind of a place that
was for old sailors to live in, and he liked to whittle things with his
knife. He could whittle pretty well, for sailors are great whittlers.
And Lois's son, Squire Jacob, told this old sailor about the
_Industry_, and how he had bought all the sheathing that there was, and
that he would have the rudder and some of the ribs. And he asked the
sailor if he could manage to make a model of the brig _Industry_ out of
the rudder, and fit it with sails and everything just as the _Industry_
really had been. And the sailor was sorry when he heard about it, and he
said he would like nothing better than to make the model, and it should
be exactly like the _Industry_, down to the smallest block and the least
rope. And he said that he would make the model for nothing if he might
have the rest of the rudder to make a model for himself, too.
So Squire Jacob was glad, and he told the old sailor that he could have
the rest of the rudder and welcome, and that he must come up sometimes
and sit in front of his fire when the sheathing was burning; for he had
a good deal of it, and it would be a long time before it was all burned
up. And the old man thanked him and said that he would be glad to come.
Then Squire Jacob went to some cabinet makers, and he said that he would
like to have them make a chair for him out of the ribs of the
_Industry_. It would be an arm-chair and would have a picture of the
brig carved in the wood up at the top of the back. And the cabinet
makers understood, and they said that they would make him the arm-chair.
[Illustration]
And at last the arm-chair was all done, and the model was almost done;
but the arm-chair was done first. And, one evening, Squire Jacob was
sitting in the arm-chair before the fire, and in his hand he held the
little model of the _Industry_, that an old sailor had carved, with his
jack-knife, for his Christmas present when he went on that voyage to far
countries as a little boy. The hull of that little model was made of
ebony and the masts and spars were little ebony sticks; and the sails
were of ivory, scraped thin, and the ropes were silk thread. And the
sails were bulging, as if the wind was filling them and making them
stand out from the yards. But the ivory sails were yellow with age, and
the silk thread was all yellow and rotten.
That little model was only about three inches long, so that it rested
easily on Squire Jacob's hand. He sat before the fire, looking at the
little model, and his wife sat in another chair beside him. And their
daughter, who was named Lois, was sitting in a low chair by her mother.
That Lois was pretty nearly grown up. And Squire Jacob remembered, and
he told his wife and his daughter Lois the things that it tells about in
the Christmas Story.
When he had finished telling the Christmas Story, the door-bell rang;
and Lois went to the door, and she came back and said that an old man
was out in the hall, but he wouldn't come in. And Squire Jacob went out
to the hall, and he came back with the old sailor who had carved the
model of the brig _Industry_ out of the real rudder of the ship. He had
that model in his arms. And he set the model that he had brought in the
middle of the mantel, over the fire, and sat down in the arm-chair. And
Squire Jacob didn't say anything, but he handed him the little model,
made of ebony and ivory.
The old sailor took the little model, and it made him remember many
things; and he remembered about the old man who had carved that model
and about that very voyage, for he had been one of the crew of the
_Industry_ when she went on that voyage to far countries and carried
little Jacob and little Sol. And he told some stories about that sailor
and that voyage that Squire Jacob was very glad to hear.
They all sat there for a long time, but they didn't say much. And the
old sailor looked from the little model of the _Industry_, in his hand,
to the big one, that was on the mantel before him; and Squire Jacob took
some of the sheathing of the real _Industry_ and put it on the fire. And
it blazed up with flames that were all green and blue, and red.
"A many miles o' ocean 's in that flame," said the old sailor, "a many
miles."
"And a good ship," said Squire Jacob.
"That she was," said the old sailor. "A good ship."
[Illustration]
And they watched the sheathing burning, and Squire Jacob thought that he
saw pictures in the flames. At first he saw a ship all alone on the
great ocean, and nothing could be seen from the ship but miles of
tossing water; and the flame died out. Then another flame blazed up, and
Squire Jacob saw a great river with a city on the bank, and the brig
_Industry_ was anchored in the river. And many little boats were rowed
from the city to the ship and back again. The little boats were loaded
with tea and spices and camel's-hair shawls and many other beautiful
things. And he saw Captain Solomon on the ship; and that flame died out.
And another flame blazed up, and he saw the _Industry_ just coming up
the river and tying up at the wharf that the narrow road led down to.
And that flame died out quickly, and the piece of sheathing only glowed,
for it was all burned to ashes, and the ashes dropped down where the
other ashes were.
And that's all of this book.
THE SANDMAN: HIS SEA STORIES
These stories give you a good picture of life on an old-time sailing
vessel. When you want to look up some special point, this index will
show you the right page.
Albatross, 187-193
Christmas, on shipboard, 121, 136
Communication, 141-142, 144, 293
Driftwood, 333-334
Elephants, 160-169
Equator, 122
Fish, porpoise, 47-55;
flying fish, 71, 76-84;
shark, 107-119
Food, 54, 84, 125, 133-136, 143
Lighthouses, 219-221
Ocean, 197-198; sounding, 145-151;
seaweed, 64-73
Selling and trading, 155, 245, 250-251
Transportation: bullock carts, 159;
sailing ships, 3, 32, 36-42, 45-46, 86-101, 128, 133, 143-144, 331-338
Weather, 211-216;
barometer, 193;
storm, 7-30
End of Project Gutenberg's The Sandman: His Sea Stories, by William J. Hopkins