THE AGITATOR
It was Sunday morning and those of the crew who were not on watch lay
upon the foc'sle head, sat on the for'ad hatch, or still lay snoring in
their bunks. A favoured few were lounging round the galley, some peeling
potatoes--for which they would receive their reward in due course--and
others helping them with good advice. From within the galley came the
voice of "Slushy," the cook, bellowing out snatches of hymns
intermingled with pungent profanities, each equally sincere.
"There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Emmanuel's veins,"
he roared. "Get to hell out o' this, you perishin' son of a swab!" he
added to a fireman who was making a surreptitious effort to get at the
hot water.
"Damn your 'ot water, you pasty-faced dough-walloper!" retorted the
fireman.
Then followed a scuffle, more profanities, and the fireman performed an
acrobatic feat which landed him in the scuppers.
"Put your lousy 'ead in 'ere again and I'll murder you," said the cook.
"I won't 'ave no bloomin' bad language in 'ere," he added warningly to
the others. "There's a damned sight too much of it on this bug-trap."
He again lifted up his voice in song.
"And sinners plunged beneath the flood,
Lose all their guilty sta--a--ains."
He paused to administer a cutting admonition to one of his assistants.
"Lose all their guilty stains," he trilled forth, pouring the hot water
in which potatoes had been boiled, into the iron kettle that held the
crew's tea.
In another part of the ship, under the lee of the forecastle a second
and somewhat different meeting was in progress. Jasper Skelt,
ex-boatswain of the _Esmeralda_, was addressing half a dozen men in
fierce whispers, emphasising his remarks with violent gestures of the
head and hands. The men listened, placidly smoking their pipes and
occasionally turning a nervous glance towards the bridge to make sure
that they were not being observed by the Captain.
"What proof have we that this boat is a licensed privateer?" Skelt was
saying--or rather, whispering--"only the Captain's word. We ain't seen
his Letters of Marque and ain't likely to. Why?"
The orator paused as if for a reply. It came.
"'Cause the first man 'as asked to see 'em 'ud get murdered," said one
of the audience.
For a moment Skelt was disconcerted by the subdued laughter which
followed this answer. But he pulled himself together and went on:
"No; and I'll tell you why we ain't likely to see his Letters of Marque:
because he ain't got any."
This statement, delivered with all the confidence of one who knew,
produced an effect. The men stared at each other with puzzled faces.
"'Ow the blazes do you know?" asked one of the men angrily.
"Because the British Government haven't granted any for this war,"
answered the agitator. "They're chartering merchant steamers and arming
'em themselves. Commerce-destroyers they call them, but they're really
Government-owned privateers."
"Who told you so?" queried a sceptic.
"Don't ask me, read the papers and see for yourself," answered Skelt.
"Ho yus, I forgot all about me Sunday paper!" ejaculated another member
of the audience sarcastically. "Boy, give me a _Lloyds_ and the
_Observer_."
A roar of unrestrained laughter went up at this witticism, and the
orator had some ado to master his wrath.
"It's all very well to laugh about it now," he said heatedly. "But wait
till later on; wait till this lunatic who calls himself a Captain sinks
one or two vessels; wait till he's called upon to show his papers--then
you'll change your tune, my merry clinker-knockers!"
"What the 'ell does it matter to us, anyway?" asked someone.
"I'll tell you, my innocent babe. If we start in to sink ships, commit
murder and rob the cargoes without having the proper authority--that is
Letters of Marque--we're not privateers at all; we're blooming, God-damn
pirates, that's what we are," answered Skelt. "What's more, if any
brainless swab here doesn't know what the punishment is for piracy, I'll
have much pleasure in telling him."
"'Anging, ain't it?"
"Right first time; hanging it is."
"It ain't nothin' to do with us, any'ow," said one of the objectors. "We
ain't responsible for what the skipper does."
"P'raps not, but if he orders you to shoot a man and you do it, you're a
murderer and will be treated as such. You won't save your neck by
telling the beak that you thought you were a privateer. No, my son,
it'll be a hanging job, you can take your Davy on that. Maybe they'll
put a photo of your handsome dial in the newspapers, but your gal will
soon be looking for another jolly sailor-boy to sponge on, and mother'll
lose her curly-headed darling."
There was a constrained silence for some moments, during which Skelt
grinned at his audience sardonically. Despite the affected incredulity
of his listeners, they were evidently beginning to feel nervous. To even
the most ignorant among them, piracy was an ugly word, much akin to
murder.
"S'posing what you say's right, what are we to do?" asked one of the
hecklers at last.
"Ask the skipper to let us get out and walk," suggested someone amidst
laughter.
"If any of you had brains a fraction of the size of your guts you
wouldn't ask me a fool question like that," answered Skelt. "If a bloke
came up and said 'I'm going to hang you in five minutes,' what would you
do?"
"Knock 'is bloomin' light out," said a fireman.
"Shove a knife between 'is ribs," suggested another.
"Of course you would," said the ex-boatswain. "But here's a man who gets
you on board his ship and then tells you to do something that'll get you
hanged as sure as infants eat pap. And you'd sooner risk your necks than
tell him that, if he wants any murdering done, he'd better do it
himself. You're a perishing set of heroes, strike me blind!"
"Why don't you tell that to the old man yourself?" asked one of the
audience. "Your neck's as much in danger as ours."
"Aye, aye, tell 'im yourself," echoed the others.
"So I would if I thought you'd stand by me. But you're such a set of
white-livered skunks that, at the first word from this one-eyed skipper,
you'd turn on me. Why, if you were men instead of a damned pack of
slaves, you'd take charge of this packet yourselves and clap that
lunatic aft in irons. Then you'd take the ship into the nearest port and
claim salvage, and a nice little fortune you'd make out of it. It'd be
every man his own pub then and don't you forget it."
"What about the orf'cers, old son?" inquired someone.
"Treat 'em the same if they refused to come in with us. One of them
would have to do the navigating, and if he had any objections we'd soon
get rid of them. A bit of whipcord tightened round a man's head is a
wonderful persuader."
"So's the wooden 'orse," cried a fireman, referring to the manner in
which the fiery orator had been induced to waive his claim to be
regarded as a passenger.
There was another burst of laughter at this sally, but the would-be
righter of wrongs, though annoyed, was not to be put down.
"Whose fault was that?" he demanded. "One man couldn't fight the whole
crowd of you, and if that swivel-eyed swine had given the word you'd
have been on me like a pack of dogs. But I haven't forgotten, and I'll
lay my life against a mouldy biscuit that I get even before I leave this
stinking slave-dhow."
"You oughter be in 'Ide Park, you ought," said the sceptical fireman.
"You'd look fine on a Sunday afternoon standin' on the top of a tub."
"If it pleases you to be funny, it doesn't hurt me," retorted Skelt.
"But wait till you're up before the beak on a charge of piracy on the
high seas; maybe you'll sing a different tune."
He stuck his hands in his pockets and, with an expression of utter
contempt on his face, turned away. But, despite the scornful incredulity
with which his remarks had been received, they had not fallen on
entirely barren soil. As a general rule, the sailor-man is hopelessly
ignorant of the law, and, in consequence, has a vague but very real
dread of it. For him, it possesses all the terrors of the unknown; its
very jargon cows him, and the wording of a summons sounds more terrible
in his ears than the worst abuse of the worst skipper that ever sailed
the seas. Skelt, it was true, had not served out any fear-inspiring
legal phrases, but he had mentioned piracy, which is an ugly word to use
on a ship whose character and mission savour somewhat of that offence.
So, while they pretended to laugh at the ex-boatswain's words, those who
had heard them began to feel a new and unpleasant sense of dread. This
quickly communicated itself to the rest of the crew, and before the
first dog-watch was called that day there was hardly a man who was not
obsessed by it. Many of them would have cut a person's throat for the
price of a drink; not a few had seen the inside of a prison for some
offence or other, but piracy, the greatest crime of which a sailor can
be guilty, made them shudder. It belonged to the highest order of crime,
and, though the punishment could not be greater than that meted out for
stabbing a man in the back, the fact that it was vaster and infinitely
more daring than anything their coarse minds had ever conceived, made it
seem appallingly stupendous.
During the afternoon those who were off watch discussed the subject in
whispers. Some were for sending a deputation to the skipper, but no one
could be found whose courage was equal to the task. Skelt, who was
approached on the subject, flatly declined to act as the crew's
representative. He had done his part, he asserted, by warning them of
their danger; let somebody else have the privilege of bearding Calamity.
"You didn't help me when I was strung across that damned spar and I'm
not going to help you," he said. "Still," he added, "I'll give you a bit
of advice. When the time comes for you to man the guns and start blazing
away at some ship or other, stand fast. Let the swivel-eyed blighter do
his own murdering."
"That's all right," growled a voice, "but 'e'll start doin' it on us."
"Yes, and you'll ask his kind permission to take off your jumpers so's
he can cut your throats easier," sneered Skelt.
"No, by God, we won't!" exclaimed someone truculently.
The new note of defiance was taken up. It was one thing to face the
terrible skipper in his cabin, but quite another to swear to disobey his
orders, when there was no immediate prospect of those orders being
given. Their courage went up by leaps and bounds, and they discussed
plans for defying the Captain's commands--in whispers.
"That's the right spirit," said Skelt encouragingly. "This skipper may
be a holy terror, but he can't murder us all if we stick together. Just
show him that you don't mean to put your necks in the hangman's rope for
his sake, and he'll soon calm down, I'll swear. I know them bucko
skippers: all froth and fury so long as they think you're afraid of 'em;
but once they see you don't care a Dago's damn for all their bullying,
they become as meek as lambs. Oh, I know 'em! Sailed with one----"
The ex-boatswain's reminiscence was cut short by the sound of a whistle
on deck. Next moment the foc'sle door was flung open and the second-mate
put his head in.
"To your stations, every man!" he shouted. "Uncover the guns and stand
by for orders!"
There was a rush from the foc'sle, and the first man to take his station
and start peeling the tarpaulins off the machine-gun, was the fiery and
defiant Jasper Skelt.