Many people have their special antipathies. There are instances on
record of one fainting at the scent of heliotrope; of another becoming
hysterical at the mewing of a cat; and so on, and so on, _ad
infinitum_. The Scotch, as a rule, are anything but a nervously
susceptible nation, taken either collectively or individually. Nor
have I heard that those members of it who follow the sea as a calling
are more so than their shorekeeping compatriots.
Still, to the present day, and probably to the day of his departure,
John M‘Cracken, retired master mariner, of Aberdeen, becomes signally
and powerfully moved by the cry of the domestic duck, rendered
universally and approximately as ‘Quack!’ His red face grows redder,
his light blue eyes glower menacingly, and his hands open and close
nervously, as if longing for some missile wherewith to annihilate the
unconscious fowl—or its human imitator.
The _Sparrowhawk_, barque, M‘Cracken master, was chartered to convey
returning Chinese passengers from Singapore to Amoy.
I think the regulations as to space, numbers, etc., etc., could not,
in those days, have been very strict. Be this as it may, Skipper
M‘Cracken filled up until he could fill no more. The ’tween deck was
like a freshly-opened sardine tin; on the main deck they lay in double
tiers. Many roosted in the tops. The boats on the davits and the
long-boat on the skids swarmed with the home-going children of the
Flowery Land. The better class, merchants, tradesmen, etc., had
secured everything aft, from the captain’s cabin to the steward’s
pantry, for which accommodation fabulous sums found their way into the
pockets of M‘Cracken and his mates. For’ard, the crew had vacated the
forecastle in consideration of sundry handfuls per man of dollars,
which they had subsequently discovered to be ‘chop.’
The mild-eyed heathen in his leisure moments had amused himself by
punching pellets of good silver out of them, and filling the holes up
with lead. From taffrail to bowsprit-heel, from waterways to keelson,
the _Sparrowhawk_ seethed and stank with a sweltering mass of yellow
humanity. Every soul had a square of matting and a water-jar, also an
umbrella. They also all had money—more or less. The fellows aft, with
the flowing silk gowns and long finger-nails, owned chests of it, all
in silver specie, stowed snugly away in the lazarette. The herd
carried their little fortunes, hardly earned by years of incessant
toil as _sampan_ men, porters, or what not, in the great border city
on the sea, hidden upon their persons.
The vessel looked grotesque to a degree. She was flying light, and
towered loftily out of the water. Upon her deck, amidships, rose two
big arrangements after the nature of boilers. These were for cooking
rice, and were occasionally the scenes of fierce fighting, during
which the Europeans would clamber into the rigging, leaving a clear
field, and applaud vociferously. They were a harmless people, and
fought like sheep-dogs, rarely doing one another much harm.
From the barque’s side protruded curious cage-like structures
connected with the sanitary affairs of the multitude. This last lay
everywhere, pervaded everything. If you wanted a rope you had to
dislodge half-a-dozen grunting, naked bodies. Trimming the yards o’
nights the watches tripped and fell amongst the prostrate ranks.
The passengers, however, bore it all placidly. They had paid M‘Cracken
so many dollars per head for a piece of his deck, and the situation of
it was quite immaterial. Moreover, were they not homeward bound after
years of separation from wives and little ones with fortunes made
beyond the sea? Men in such circumstances are apt to be good-tempered.
A heavy squall would probably have caused the loss of the
_Sparrowhawk_ and all on board. But Captain M‘Cracken took the
risk—and the dollars. He slept on an old sail folded across the cuddy
skylight. His mattress he had leased along with his state-room to one
of the merchants who, he understood, was a convert to Christianity.
The wind kept light, with showers at intervals. At the first drop, up
would go every umbrella; and, looking from aloft, the sight was a
queer one.
On leaving Singapore the skipper had been warned that pirates were
still to be met with in Chinese waters, and, short though the passage
was, advised to arm, at all events in some sort, his ship and crew.
This he did. At a marine store he bought, second-hand, a couple of
cannon—three pounders—also several dozen of grape shot. In exchange
for a worn mizzen-topsail and the fat saved by the cook (of usage the
latter’s perquisite) on the passage out, he procured some old Tower
muskets, a few boarding-pikes, and three horse-pistols for his own and
his officers’ especial use. These last had flintlocks and mouths like
a bell. Thus equipped, he declared himself ready for any piratical
attack.
The ship’s agents smiled meaningly, and winked at each other; but,
knowing their man, forbore further advice, well recognising the
inutility of it. A Scotchman who owns a full half interest in his
ship, who hails from Aberdeen, and habitually comes ashore in
latitude 0 with a Glengarry cap on, no umbrella, and naked feet, is
not a being to stand argument.
One night the moon rose full, and right aft. She rose, too, with a big
black spot in her disc that had no right to be there.
There was too much _samshoo_ aboard for a very sharp look-out to be
kept for’ard. That native spirit gets into men’s eyes and weakens
them. But aft the skipper caught sight of the object.
‘It’ll be a junk, I’m thinkin’!’ he said presently, after working away
for a while with his glass; ‘an a muckle ane at that. She’s fetchin’ a
breezie wi’ her, whilk’s a comfort.’
Some of the long-nailed aristocrats were lounging about the poop. They
needed no glass to make out the approaching vessel. Gathering in a
group, they cackled noisily, pointing and gesticulating among
themselves.
Then, coming up to the captain, one—it was his Christian
friend—plucked him by the arm and uttered laconically, with extended
digit, ‘Prat!’
‘Weel, Johnnie,’ replied old M‘Cracken coolly, as he gathered the
other’s meaning, ‘pireet, or no pireet, gin he come a wee closer,
we’ll just pepper the hide o’ him wi’ cauld airn.’
Without more ado, the Chinaman dived into his cabin and in a minute or
two reappeared with a most hideous idol and a bundle of perfumed
paper. Placing the thing right under the skipper’s nose, he lit a yard
of paper and began to screech an invocation. As of good Presbyterian
stock, M‘Cracken was irritated and shocked.
‘Mon, mon,’ he exclaimed, ‘what wad ye be at! Hae ye niver been tauld
that a’ graven eemages is an abomination in the sicht o’ the Lord? An’
I thocht ye was a Christian.’ So saying, he seized the joss and flung
it far overboard into the silvery water, just rippling under the
coming breeze. The worshipper uttered a yell of dismay. But there was
no time to lose, and, rushing below, he brought up another god, ten
times as hideous as the first one, and, descending to the main deck,
aroused the ship with his devotions.
Then arose the sound of a multitude waking in fear—an impressive sound
and a catching. Up the open hatchways from the steaming, fœtid ’tween
decks they streamed in hundreds, like disturbed ants, with cries of
alarm and grief, and strong callings upon their gods. In a minute the
ship was alive with lights burning before idols of every description.
A thousand half-naked figures crouched cowering from the break of the
poop right for’ard. Aft, a handful of rugged Scotch seamen gazed
quietly at the black spot over the water. Presently the two little
guns were crammed half up to the muzzle with powder and grape, and
placed each in a socket cut out for it after leaving Singapore. The
remainder of the weapons were, with a stock of ammunition, divided
amongst the crew. Hot irons were put in the galley fire; and the
skipper, having thus placed his ship in a thorough state of defence,
felt complacent, and half-inclined to shorten sail, wait for the
pirates to come up, and then give them a lesson. Old seaman though he
was, he was a new hand in these Eastern waters.
Confiding his notion to the second mate, who was also carpenter, also
sailmaker, a grizzled ancient shellback of much experience and endless
voyaging, the other laughed aloud, but not mirthfully.
‘If,’ said he, ‘yon’s a “prat,” as Johnnie there ca’s it, we’ll a’ be
meat for the fishes afore the sun’s risen!’
‘Hoots!’ exclaimed the skipper angrily, ‘whaur’s yer pluck, Davie,
mon! I didna think ye’d be for showin’ the white feather a’ready, an’
ye a Newburgh lad as weel’s mysel’! What’s a handfu’ o’ naked salvages
like yon, in compare wi’ us an’ oor arteelery?’
‘An’ hoo mony men micht she carry yonder, div ye think?’ queried the
other, taking a squint at the junk, whose huge oblong sails shone
whitely under the moonbeams.
‘Mebbe a score or sae,’ replied M‘Cracken, ‘airmed maistley wi’
spears, an’ skeens, sic, as I’ve been tauld, bein’ their usual
weepons.’
The other chuckled hoarsely as he said, ‘If she’s a pireet, she’ll hae
at the vera leest a guid twa ’unnered aboord, a’ airmed wi’ muskets
an’ swords, forbye things they ca’ gingals, takin’ a sax-ounce ball,
to say nothin’ o’ stinkpots an’ ither deviltries. Mon, I’ve seen ’em
wi’ guns they cannonies there wadna mak’ rammars for. But if that chap
has ony, I doubt we sud ha’ heard frae him ere the noo.
‘I was ance,’ continued he, ‘lyin’ in Hongkong Harbour, when they cut
oot the _Cashmere_, a bouncin’ ocean steamer, in the braid daylicht,
an’ murthered ivery soul on boord o’ her. Na, na, skipper; let her but
get a haud on us, and ye’ll see the deil gang o’er Jock Wabster sure
aneuch.’
The skipper listened silently. Then, wetting his finger and holding it
up, he said,—
‘Perhaps, after a’, Davie, mon, ye might ’s weel set they t’g’nt
stun’s’ls, gin ye can get them up, wi’ sic an awfu’ rabble as is aboot
the deck.’
The breeze had died away again. There was only just enough of it to
keep the sails full. The fresh canvas, however, sent the _Sparrowhawk_
through the water half a knot faster, and she was beginning to
perceptibly leave the junk astern, when suddenly out from her sides
flashed a long row of sweeps, under whose impulse she recovered her
lost ground very quickly. If there had been any doubt about the
character of the stranger, there remained none now; and the uproar,
which had partially ceased, arose with tenfold vigour.
Some of the passengers went down into the lazarette and commenced to
stow as many dollars as they could about their clothing. Others
divided their attention between their idols and the skipper, running
frantically from one to the other. Curiously enough the junk appeared
satisfied to maintain her distance, although, had she so desired, she
could with her sweeps have easily overhauled the barque.
Now, from away on the port hand, where lay the outline of the Chinese
coast, black beneath the moon, came a gentle mist hanging low and
thick upon the water. As it gradually enveloped the ship, hiding all
but close objects from view, she was kept away three or four points.
But, presently, with the haze, what wind there was left her, the sails
gave a few ominous flaps, and then hung limply down. At this moment a
Chinaman, uttering a loud yell of fright, pointed over the starboard
quarter. There, close aboard, loomed up a dark mass almost, high as
she was, on a level with the _Sparrowhawk’s_ poop-railing. It was the
junk.
‘The het poker, quick!’ shouted the captain. Some one brought it and,
unheeding the skipper, dabbed it straightway on the touch-hole of the
little cannon pointing directly, as it happened, at the pirate.
The powder being damp, fizzed for a minute, and, just as M‘Cracken
sung out, ‘More pouther; she’s fluffed ’i the pan!’ with a roar the
thing went off. Off and up as well, for it sprung six feet in the air,
and descended with a crash into the binnacle.
‘Fetch the ither ane,’ shouted M‘Cracken, ‘an’ gie ’em anither dose i’
the wame. Hear till ’em,’ he continued, as a most extraordinary noise
arose from the junk now just abreast of the mizzen-rigging. ‘Hear till
’em scraighin’, the thievin’ heathen pireets. They havena muckle
likin’ for sic a med’cin’. It gives them the mirligoes. Pit yer fut on
her, Tam Wulson, whiles I send her aff,’ he went on, addressing a
sailor, as the other gun was brought over and shipped.
‘Pit yer ain fut on her, captain,’ answered the man. ‘I dinna
a’thegither like the notion. She’ll lat oot like ony cuddy, judgin’
frae her mate.’ But the skipper was too excited to argue, and,
applying the hot iron, spit—fizzle—bang, and the piece went up, and,
this time, clean overboard.
A thousand capering madmen were yelling at the top of their voices on
board the _Sparrowhawk_; but high and shrill above even that clamour
could be heard the screech from the junk at that last discharge. The
fog was still thick around the latter, and the ship’s sails being
aback, she was making a stern board towards the enemy, to whom
M‘Cracken, exulting, determined to administer a _coup de grâce_.
‘Noo then, a’thegither,’ he cried, and the old muskets and the
bell-muzzled pistols roared and kicked and sent a leaden shower
somewhere, while, amidst an indescribable medley of yells and cheers,
the defeated pirate vanished into the mist.
Someone cried out that she had sunk. But presently the sound of her
sweeps could be heard in the distance.
Then the skipper, flushed and elated with victory, snapped his fingers
in the second mate’s face, as he exclaimed,—
‘That for yer Chinese pireets, Davie M‘Phairson! Whaurs a’ their
muskets an’ gingals an’ sic-like the noo? Gin they had ony, they were
ower frichted to make use o’ them I expeck! But,’ growing serious, ‘my
name’s nae Sandy M‘Cracken gin I dinna chairge Tam Wulson two pun ten
shillin’—whilk is the price o’ her at cost—for lettin’ the wee bit
cannonie gang overboord. I tellt him to keep her down wi’ his feet,
and he wadna.’
* * * * *
Swatow at last; and the _Sparrowhawk_ surrounded with a thousand
_sampans_ whose occupants welcomed their returned friends and
relatives by trying to emulate Babel.
M‘Cracken was deified. His cabin could not hold the presents—mostly in
kind—that he received. Also, his grateful passengers, having set apart
a day for special rejoicing and thanksgiving, returned, and, willy
nilly, decorated the _Sparrowhawk_ after the manner of their land with
banners and lanterns, and had a high old time on board under the
leadership of the convert, who bewailed his backsliding, and privately
asked M‘Cracken to baptise him anew.
The story of the fight ran all up and down the seaboard. Hongkong
heard of it, or a version of it, and the _Gazette_ published a long
story headed in big caps: ‘Another Piratical Outrage.—The
_Sparrowhawk_ turns on her Pursuer—Conspicuous Bravery of the Captain
and Crew—The Pirate Beaten off with Great Loss.’ Singapore heard it,
and the _Straits Times_ followed suit with ‘Four Junks and Terrible
Slaughter.’ This latter item, as we shall presently see, being pretty
near the mark.
* * * * *
But what cripple is this that, in a couple of days, comes staggering
up to the Swatow anchorage with her mat sails full of holes and her
decks covered with scarcely dry blood, and whose crew dance and
screech a wild defiance at the _Sparrowhawk_ as she passes on to the
inner harbour?
Presently off comes a mandarin and a guard of soldiers and hales
M‘Cracken ashore, protesting and threatening.
The British Consul is just dead of enteric fever. There is, however, a
French one, and in his room the complaint of Sum Kum On, master of the
_Delight of the Foaming Seas_, is heard. The tribunal is a mixed one,
consisting of two mandarins and the Consul. The first witness called
is Sum Kum On. He states that his vessel is a coaster, engaged mostly
in the poultry trade. That, on the present trip, he left Kin Fo, a
small port four days’ sail from Swatow, laden with a deck cargo of
ducks for the Swatow and Chee Foo markets. Had on board one passenger,
a wealthy tea-grower of Honan, who, carrying with him many dollars,
was naturally nervous, and afraid of pirates. Sighting the big
vessel, the tea-grower, now in court, and prepared to give evidence,
prayed him (Sum Kum On) to keep close to it for protection from said
pirates.
He did so. But in the calm and mist he unwittingly, and without evil
intent (being, as their Highnesses could see, only a poor trader) came
too near, when to his amazement showers of bullets and great cannon
balls tore his sails to pieces; and, but for the coops being piled
high on deck, assuredly every soul must have perished.
In spite of explanations and shouts for mercy he was repeatedly fired
into, all his cargo killed, sixty new coops of the best bamboo knocked
to atoms; one of his crew desperately wounded, his vessel
irretrievably damaged. His claim was for five hundred dollars; and he
retired, secure in the knowledge that the Heaven-Born Son of the great
foreign nation who, that day, with the Twin Lights of Justice,
occupied the judgment-seat, would mete out compensation with an
unsparing hand.
The dealer gave evidence much to the same effect. Then the wounded
sailor, whose scalp had been furrowed by a ball, ghastly with bandages
and the gore which he had liberally smeared over his features, told
his tale. To wind up with, the unlucky jumping cannon, which had
pitched on to the deck of the junk, was produced as evidence of
identity. Outside, in piles, lay other witnesses—hundreds of fine fat
ducks, stiff and ‘high.’
Around the building the fickle crowd could be heard raging for the
blood of the unfortunate M‘Cracken, so lately their hero. The Consul,
who spoke English well, was obviously ill at ease. The two mandarins
glared sourly at the poor skipper.
‘I think, captain, you’d better pay at once,’ said the Consul.
‘Evidently a most unfortunate mistake has been made; and that is the
only way out of it that I can see.’
‘I’ll see him dom’d afore I do!’ exclaimed the skipper. ‘Five hundred
dollars! Why, it’s a hundred pun sterlin’ o’ oor money! An’ a’ for a
wheen dukes an’ a crackit heid! Na, na! Tell the skirlin’ fule I’ll
gie him fifty dollars, and that’s mair than a’ his gear’s worth. I’ll
gang to preesin suner than pay as muckle siller as he’s askin’!’
Outside the ‘Children of far Cathay’ could be heard yelling louder
than ever for the heart, liver, and entrails of the white devil. The
Consul’s face grew graver as he listened to the wounded sailor, just
below the open window haranguing the crowd.
‘What’s a’ that claver aboot?’ asked the skipper.
‘They are demanding,’ replied the Consul, ‘that these
gentlemen’—indicating the mandarins—‘should have you crucified at
once. And, upon my word, captain, if you don’t soon make up your mind,
they’ll do it. I am powerless to assist you in any way beyond finding
you the money.’
M‘Cracken turned blue. It was like parting with his life, the parting
with that hundred pounds. But he could see no escape. As the Consul
quickly told him, this was no question of imprisonment, but one of
cash down. So he paid; and, presently, followed by a coolie carrying
the little cannon, made his way to the boat between lines of grinning
soldiery, over whose shoulders the rabble, derisive now, quacked
itself hoarse. And amongst the noisiest of them he caught sight of his
Christian passenger.
The _Sparrowhawk_ took no freight from Swatow. She sailed for Rangoon
speedily; but there it was just as bad. The joke was too good not to
circulate. In every eastern port she and her people were greeted with
volleys of ‘quacks’ by the native population both on land and water.
Legions of imps, black and copper-coloured, and all quacking with
might and main, formed the skipper’s retinue if he went ashore
anywhere between Yokohama and Bombay.
Native masters of country _wallahs_, lying within hail, would grin,
and ask him for the protection of the _Sparrowhawk_ to their next port
of call. It became unbearable. India, China and Japan seemed to turn
into duck-pens at his approach.
So he took the _Sparrowhawk_ out of those waters altogether, and
shortly afterwards gave up the sea. But, although there are no ducks
within a mile of his house on the Aythen, there are urchins—Scotch
urchins—and he has not perfect peace. The story is too well known.
As for his crew, even yet, if one should, with intent, imitate the cry
of that fowl disastrous where two or three of them happen to be
foregathered, they will come at you with the weapons nearest.