CAPTAIN WILL RATLIN.
THE watch below, after completing the work which had summoned them for
the time being on deck, tumbled helter-skelter down the fore hatch once
more, and left on the deck of the "Sea Witch" about a dozen able seamen
who formed the watch upon deck. A number of these were now gathered in a
knot on the forecastle, and while they were sitting cross-legged,
picking old rope, and preparing it in suitable form for caulking the
ship's seams, one of their number was spinning a yarn, the hero of which
was evidently him who now filled the post of commander on board their
vessel. The object of their remarks, meanwhile, stood once more quietly
leaning over the monkey-rail on the weather side of the quarter-deck,
quite unconscious that he was supplying a theme of entertainment to the
forecastle.
There was an absent expression in his handsome face, a look as though
his heart was far distant from the scene about him, and yet a habit of
watchful caution seemed ever and anon to recall his senses, and his
quick, keen glance would run over the craft from stem to stern with a
searching and comprehensive power that showed him master of his
profession, and worthy his trust. Trust?--what was the trust he held?
Surely, no legitimate commerce could warrant the outfit of such a vessel
as he controlled. A man-of-war could hardly have been more fully
equipped with means of offence and defence. Amidship, beneath that long
boat, was a long, heavy metalled gun that worked on a traverse, and
which could command nearly every point of the compass, while the ship
kept her course. Just inside the rise of the low quarter-deck--the cabin
being entered from the deck by the descent of a couple of steps--there
were ranged boarding pikes, muskets, cutlasses and pistols, ready for
instant use. In shape they formed stars, hearts and diamonds, dangerous
but fantastic ornaments.
The brightness of these arms, and the handy way in which they were
arranged in the sockets made to receive them, showed at once that they
were designed for use, while the various other fixtures of the cabin and
docks plainly bespoke preparation for conflict. A strong and lofty
boarding-netting being stowed, also, told of the readiness of the "Sea
Witch" to repel boarders. That all these preparations had been made
merely as ordinary precautions in a peaceful trade was by no means
probable; and yet there they were, and there stood the bright-eyed,
handsome and youthful commander upon the quarter-deck, but he did not
look the desperado--such a term would have poorly accorded with his
open and manly countenance, hie quiet and gentlemanly mien. A pirate
would hardly have dared to lay the course he steered in these latitudes,
where an English or French cruiser was very likely to cross his track.
"He handles a ship as prettily as ever a true blue did yet," said one of
the forecastle group, in replying to some remark of a comrade concerning
the commander.
"That's true," answered another; "he seems to have a sort of natural way
with him, as though he'd been born aboard and never seed the land at
all; and as to that matter, there may be them on board who say as much
of him."
"That isn't far from the truth," answered Bill Marline, "seein' he
started so arly on the sea he can't tell when he wasn't there himself."
"How was that matter, Bill?" asked one of his messmates. "They say you
have kept the captain's reckoning, man and boy, these fifteen years."
"That have I, and never a truer heart floated than the man you see
yonder leaning over the rail on the quarterdeck, where he belongs,"
answered Bill Marline.
"How did you first fall in with him, Bill?--Tell us that," said one of
the crew.
"Well, do ye see, messmates, it must have been the matter of thirteen
years ago, there or thereabouts, but I can't exactly say, seeing's I
never have kept a log and can't write; but must have been about that
length of time, when I was a foremast hand on board the 'Sea Lion,' as
fine an Indiaman as you would wish to see. We were lying in the
Liverpool docks, with sails bent and cargo stowed, under sailing orders,
when one afternoon there strolled alongside a boy rather ragged and
dirty, but with such eyes and such a countenance as would make him a
passport anywhere. Well, do ye see, we were lazing away time on board,
and waiting the captain's coming before we hauled out into the stream,
and so we coaxed the lad aboard. He either didn't know where he came
from or wouldn't tell, and when we proposed to take him to sea with us,
he readily agreed, and sure enough he sailed in the 'Sea Lion.'"
"Well, heave ahead, Bill," said one of the group, as the narrator
stopped to stove a fresh instalment of the Virginia weed in his larboard
cheek.
"Heave ahead."
"We hadn't got fairly clear of the channel," continued Bill Marline,
"before the boy had become a general favorite all over the ship. We
washed him up and bent on a new suit of toggery on him, with a reg'lar
tarpaulin, and there was almost a fight whether the forecastle or the
cabin should have him. At last it was left to the boy himself, and he
chose to remain with us in the forecastle. The boy wasn't sick an hour
on the passage until after we left the Cape of Good Hope, when the flag
halliards getting fouled, he was sent up to the peak to loosen it, and
by some lurch of the ship was throw upon deck. Why it didn't kill him
was the wonder of all, but the boy was crazy for near a month from the
blow on his head, which he got in falling, but he gradually got cured
under our captain's care.
"Well, do ye see, our captain was a regular whole-souled fellow, though
he did sometimes work up a hand's old iron pretty close for him, and so
he took the boy into the cabin and gave him a berth alongside his own,
and as he grew better took to teaching him the use of his instruments,
and mathematics, and the like. The boy they said was wonderful ready,
and learned like a book, and could take the sun and work up the ship's
course as well as the captain; but what was the funniest of all was
that, after he got well, he didn't know one of us, he had forgotten or
even how he came on board the ship, the injury had put such a stopper on
his brain that he had forgotten all that ever occurred before it. To my
mind, howdsomever, it wasn't much to forget, seeing he was little better
than a baby, and hadn't been to sea at all, and you know there aint
anything worth knowing on shore, more'n one can overhaul in a day's
leave, more or less, within hail of the sea."
"That's true," growled one or two of his messmates.
"Our ship was a first class freighter and passage vessel, and on the
home voyage we had plenty of ladies. 'Twas surprisin' to see how natural
like the boy took to 'em, and how they all liked him. He was constantly
learning something, and soon got so he could parley vou like a real
frog-eating Frenchman. And then, as I said before, he took the sun and
worked up the the ship's reckoning like a commodore. Well, do ye se,
messmates, we made a second and third voyage together in that ship, and
when master Will Ratlin--for that was a name we give him when he first
came on board, and he's kept it ever since--was a matter of fourteen
years, he was nearly as big as he is now, and acted as mate, and through
I say it, who ought to know somewhat about those things, I never seed a
better seaman of twice his years, always savin' present company,
messmates."
"In course, Bill," growled three or four of his messmates, heartily.
"Well, do ye see, messmates, we continued together in the same ship for
the matter of five years, and then master Will and I shipped in another
Indiaman, and we were in the 'Birmingham' for three years or more. One
day we lay off the Cape on the home passage, and a half dozen of us got
shore leave for a few hours, and I among the rest, and somehow I got
rather more grog aboard than I could stow, and when I came off, the
captain swore at me like a pirate, and after I got sober triced me up to
the main rigging for a round dozen. When all hands were called to
witness punishment, shiver my timbers, if master Will Ratlin, who was
the first mate, didn't walk boldly up to the captain, and say, blunt and
honest:
"'Captain Brace, Marline is an old and favorite seaman, and if you will
let this offence pass without further punishment, I will answer for his
future good behaviour, at all times. I ask it, sir, as a personal
favor.'
"'But discipline, discipline must be observed, Mr. Ratlin.'
"'I acknowledge he's in fault, sir,' said our mate.
"'And deserves the punishment,' said the captain.
"'I fear he does, sir; but yet I can't bear to see a good seaman
flogged, said the mate, apologetically.
"'Nor I either,' said the captain; 'but Bill Marline deserves the cat,
though as you make it a personal matter, why I'll let him off this time,
Mr. Ratlin.'
"The captain didn't wish to let me go, but he said he wished to gratify
his mate, and so I was cast loose, and after a broadside of advice, and
a hurricane of oaths, was turned over to duty again. I didn't forget
that favor, messmates, and sink me if I wouldn't go to the bottom to
serve him any time. He commanded a brig in the South American trade
after that, and would have made a mate of me, but somehow I've got a
weakness for grog that isn't very safe, and so he knows 'twont do. You
see him there now, messmates, as calm as a lady; but he's awake when
there's need of it. The man don't live that can handle a ship better
than he; and as for fighting, do ye see, messmates, we were running on
this here same tack, just off the--but avast upon that, I haven't any
more to say, messmates," said the speaker, demurely.
Bill Marline evidently found himself treading upon dangerous ground, and
wisely cut short his yarn, thereby creating a vast amount of curiosity
among his messmates, but he sternly refused to speak further upon the
subject. Either his commander had prohibited him, or he found that by
speaking he should in some way compromise the credit or honor of one
upon whom he evidently looked as being little less than one of a
superior order of beings to himself.
"But what do you bring up so sudden for? Pay out, old fellow, there's
plenty of sea-room, and no land-sharks to fear," said one of the group,
encouragingly.
"Never you mind, messmates, there's nothing like keeping a civil tongue
in your head, especially being quiet about other people's business,"
added Bill.
"What think you, Bill, of this present vocation, eh?" asked another
companion.
"I shipped for six months, that's all I know, and no questions asked. I
understand very well that Captain Ratlin wouldn't ship me where he
wouldn't go himself."
"Well, do you see, Bill, most of us are new on board here, though we
have knocked about long enough to get the number of our mess and to work
ship together, and don't perhaps feel so well satisfied as you do."
"Why, look ye, messmates, arnt you satisfied so long as the articles you
signed are kept by captain and crew?" asked Bill Marline, somewhat
tartly.
"Why, yes, as to that matter; but where are we bound, Bill?" asked the
other.
"Any boy in the ship can make out the 'Sea Witch's' course," said the
old tar, evasively. "We're in these here Northern Trades, close-hauled,
and heading, according to my reckoning, due east, and any man who has
stood his trick at the wheel of a ship, knows that such a course steered
from the West Indies will, if well followed, run down the Cape Verds;
that's all I know."
"Port Praya and a port; that was in the articles sure enough," answered
he who had questioned Bill Marline; "but the 'Sea Witch' will scarce
anchor there before she is off again, according to my reckoning."
That the old tar knew more than he chose to divulge, however, was
apparent to his comrades, but they knew him to be fixed when he chose,
and so did not endeavor by importunity to gather anything further from
him; so the conversation gradually changed into some other channel.
In the meantime, while the crew gathered about Bill Marline were thus
speculating, the vessel bowled along gracefully, with a speed that was
in itself exhilarating to her young commander, who still gazed idly at
the passing current. Once or twice a slight frown clouded his features,
and his lips moved as though he was striving within himself either
against real or imaginary evil, and then the same calm, placid manliness
of countenance radiated his handsome features, and his lips were
composed.
Now he turned to issue some necessary order, which was uttered in that
calm, manly distinctness that challenges obedience, and then he resumed
his idle gaze over the vessel's side, once more losing himself in his
day dream.