I went aft on the quarter-deck where Captain Crojack stood eying the
towering cloud of snowy canvas, from the foot of the mainsail to the
skysail yards.
“By gorry, Mr. Gore,” said he, “we’ve got a good start, and if the wind
holds we’ll make a good offing during the night. I suppose you’ve met my
passengers before?” and he motioned toward Miss Waters and her mother
who stood near the companionway. They were apparently admiring
everything about the ship except her sudden lurches, which caused them
to make sundry clutches for support.
I bowed and spoke to them, but the young girl was so absorbed in the new
scene before her that she said little except that it was “perfectly
lovely,” while the mother began to show signs of paleness coupled with a
nervous catching of the breath at each roll of the ship.
“She’s got a good lively feel to her, don’t you think?” went on the
skipper, referring to his vessel. “The only thing that worried me was
the stowing of all that marble and stuff amidships, and so much iron in
her ends.”
As he spoke, the ship gave a jerk and tremble, throwing the sea from her
weather-bow in a smother and going through it like a half-tide rock in a
strong current.
There was no earthly use of disagreeing with him, so I said nothing,
knowing full well he had overloaded his vessel by three or four hundred
tons in order to make the extra freight money.
In a short time Mr. Brown came aft and, after greeting the passengers,
told me that the second mate wished to see me, as he had mustered the
crew on the deck in the waist.
I left the quarter with the skipper in charge, and went forward to where
O’Toole had all hands lined up to divide into watches.
“Ha!” he cried, “Mr. Gore, but we’ve got some foine burds t’ choose from
this voyage. By th’ sowl av St. Patrick, I niver seen sich a set o’
mugs nayther before nor since. Which wan will ye choose for the first
man? How would that mollyhawk-looking Scandinavian suit yer eye, ey?”
“None of your land-shark tricks on me. I know a man as well as you,” I
replied, sharply, but he caught the expression of my eye and he showed
his teeth in a broad grin. He had a great, freckled, hairless face, this
O’Toole.
So saying, I picked out a stout, heavy-shouldered young German, who was
the most active and intelligent-looking man in the crowd.
O’Toole followed by picking out a powerful young Swede, and I then
motioned for a dago to join me. We kept it up until I had eleven and he
twelve men, for, as I had the third mate, it was better that the loss of
our deserter should fall on my watch.
The carpenter, cook, and Chinese steward made up the rest of the ship’s
company.
After making a short address to the men and giving all hands a glass of
grog, I dismissed them and told off my watch, the port, for the first
after eight bells that evening.
O’Toole, however, called his men into the starboard gangway and
addressed them according to his own ideas of what became a second
officer.
“Now I jist want to hint to ye, so t’ spake,” he began, “that fer a set
av windjammers, ye air a bloomin’, ill-favoured lot o’ sons o’ Belial.
But all ye’ve got t’ do is t’ jump whin I gives the whurd or I’ll knock
the divil and damnation thunder out o’ ye quicker ’n old Nick can scorch
a feather, d’ye see?
“I don’t want no foolin’ nor shirkin’, an’ mum’s the whurd. Ef ye can’t
understand English, yer got yerselves into a mighty unhealthy ship, fer
I only spake ter onct. Ef yer do yer duty, I’ll be as tinder an’ aisy
with ye as yer swatehearts, but ef ye don’t, by the howly, jumping
Jezebel, I’ll bear down on yer, an’ thin stand from under.”
Then, cursing them individually and collectively, he sent them forward
and retired to his own room in the side of the forward cabin.
On going aft again I found the skipper explaining some nautical matters
to Mr. Brown in such a contemptuous tone that it was evident the old man
didn’t believe in young men starting out as sailors with access to the
quarter-deck.
However, the third mate kept his temper, and showed by his answers that
he was by no means ignorant of the theoretical knowledge of navigation,
whatever he might lack in a practical sense. He replied so intelligently
to some of the skipper’s questions that I almost believed that he had
been to sea before, and I was quite pleased with him.
As I now had a chance to observe him closely in his sailor’s togs, I
could see that he was a well-made man and would prove useful with a
little guidance from an older hand. His clear gray eyes looked straight
into mine when I addressed him, and his small, though firm, chin gave
him an air of honesty that was ill coupled with what I had overheard of
him.
I had handled a great many men and had long ago come to the conclusion
that I could judge a man’s capabilities as well as any one, so that
neither denunciation nor praise of a person’s character affected my
judgment. Not that I am entirely impervious to prejudice, for, being
nothing but a rough and not over-intelligent sailor, I can hardly claim
such perfection. Still, I allow it to affect me as little as any human
being can.
While we stood the first watch that evening, I had the opportunity to
judge the sociable side of the young man’s nature, for we talked nearly
the whole four hours, while the ship ran along steadily to the eastward.
Neither Miss Waters nor her mother appeared on deck, and from certain
sounds that issued from the cabin window, it appeared evident that they
were not at present interested in nautical scenery. The skipper came up
from below several times to see how we were heading and to look at the
patent log, which trailed taut from the taffrail. He finally turned in,
after muttering something about the glass having fallen a little.
“Isn’t she loaded very deep, Mr. Gore?” asked Brown, when we were
alone.
“Deep as a sand barge,” I answered, “and she will be about as wet as one
in a seaway.”
“That’s what I thought when they inspected her, but the surveyor said
that as he was not going out in her, Captain Crojack would be the one to
suffer. Somehow it seems to me that the fellows on the main-deck will be
the ones who will suffer the most.”
In this I quite agreed with him, and, having once established this
confidence between us, we became friends henceforth. I have often
thought since, after all we went through together, how much trifles
affect the forming of friendships. Here the treating of an honest
opinion with respect, instead of trying to appear blind to error, won
the confidence of a man whose influence saved me from ruin.
As midnight drew near I sent him to call the second mate, and I stood
near the mizzen waiting for the bells to strike.
Suddenly I heard a deep growling of oaths and sounds of a slight scuffle
in the second officer’s cabin. “Och! Ye spalpeen, I’ll break every bone
in your skin. What d’ye mane by waking an honest man in th’ middle av
his watch below--ah, well, I beg yer pardon, Mr. Brown; but why didn’t
ye make yersilf known first? By th’ sowl av th’ saints, if that boot had
struck ye betwixt wind an’ wather ye would have become a cripple fer th’
space av a year.”
“Confound you for a red-headed fool!” returned Brown, angrily. “If you
are going to kill a man every time he turns you out, I’ll come next time
with a handspike to--”
“What, ye mutinous young devil!” roared O’Toole; “what d’ye mane? Well,
well, never moind; perhaps I was a little hasty. Ye see, I thought ye
ware one av thim dagos, an’ I niver allow ayther dago or Dutchman ter
lay his hand on the Lord’s anointed, which, if ye plaise, is no other
than mesilf. Ye say eight bells have struck? All right. Ye can tell yer
chum, Mr. Gore, that I’ll relave him av his onerous duties in about
three shakes av a sheet rope.”
As he said this the door banged and Brown came on deck.
“That red-headed beast threw his boot at me when I tried to wake him,”
he said, “and the next time I turn him out I’ll be on the lookout for
him.”
I told him not to mind the second mate’s peculiarities, as he was a good
sailor, and that after he knew him he would probably like him better.
That, in fact, very few people were charmed with O’Toole’s manner, but
most men got along with him well enough if they resisted his bullying
ways.
The young man said nothing more, but I could see by the light in his
eyes that, although he was a baby in size compared to the giant
Irishman, he would try and give a good account of himself if they should
ever quarrel.
In a few minutes the bells struck and O’Toole came on deck, while the
starboard watch filed out into gangway.
“It’s an apology I owe to Mr. Brown,” said the big fellow, “for he’s th’
right sort av man, an’ it would have been a pity had I broken his neck
with that boot. Ye see, I’m of a very nervous temperament, an’ like th’
news av a thing broken gently. Me own mother was av th’ same nature,
for whin th’ owld man died, through th’ interposition av Providence an’
th’ fore part av a steam-ingine, they had to appoint me brother Mike t’
break th’ news to her aisy like. So he sez, sez he, ‘My dear, ’tis a
short toime th’ owld man will live now.’
“’An’ why?’ sez she; ‘can’t he drink more whiskey an’ curse harder than
any man in town?’
“‘’Cause he’s dead,’ said Mike, and th’ owld woman always hild that th’
aisy manner Mike had in breaking av th’ news was th’ only thing that
previnted her from dyin’ av th’ shock.”
I told him to be more careful in the future, and Brown, coming up at
that moment in time to hear the second mate’s remarks, laughed
good-humouredly, so I felt that there would be no further ill-feeling
between them.
I gave O’Toole the course to steer, if the wind held as it was, and then
went below and turned in. The glass over my bunk had fallen four-tenths
during the day and appeared to be still going down rapidly. I watched
it as I lay awake for a few moments and then suddenly dropped off into a
sound sleep.
As the weather had been clear and wind light enough for skysails, I took
no precautions to fix myself firmly in my bunk. I was, therefore,
astonished to awake suddenly just in time to prevent myself from falling
to the deck as the ship gave a sharp lurch and brought up with a jerk.
Four bells struck, and I found I had only slept two hours, so, jamming
myself in firmly with a blanket, I tried to sleep again.
I heard O’Toole’s footsteps on the deck overhead, and now and then an
oath when he halted at the break of the poop. The vessel seemed to be
off her course, for she now took a heavy rolling sea on the port beam
that sent her jerking and switching along in a most uncomfortable
manner.
Soon I heard O’Toole’s voice giving orders to take a pull in the
foretopsail brace, followed by the tramp of men and clucking rattle of
blocks. Then came the order to take in the skysails, and, with the
creaking of halyards and distant slatting of canvas, I again lost
consciousness.