YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY Gift of
Francis W. Bronson

SHIP " SWIFT.'

THE GAM,

BEING A GROUP OF WHALING STORIES

BY

Capt. Charles Henry Robbins,

WHO GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE EDITORIAL
SUGGESTIONS OF HIS FRIEND,
MR. ROLLIN LYNDE HARTT.

71\

NEW BEDFORD:
H. S. HUTCHIXSOX & COMPAXV.
1S90,

Copyright, 1899.
By lilZZIE PrJpE ROEBIHS.

All rights reserved.

R. H. Blodgett & Co., Printers,
30 Bromtield St., Boston.

INTRODUCTION.
I HAVE for many years wondered that the romantic and
exciting experiences of the whale fishery have not been
preserved more often in records in our literature. Occa
sionally we have had sketches of one or another detail in
this marvellous adventure. But it would seem as if the
brave men who engage in such adventure handle harpoons
more willingly than they handle pens. And so you shall
hear many a story of such adventure told by men who
speak of what they have seen, while you do not read one
such story. I was very glad, therefore, to hear that Capt.
Charles H. Bobbins had put to paper some accounts of his
own earlier experiences, and I am very glad that he has
been persuaded to publish them. I am glad to say to
any friend of mine that he may place confident reliance
on the narrative of Capt. Robbins, as being that of one
who tells of what he saw, of which indeed he was much
himself.
EDWARD E. HALE.
RoxBUEY, May 27, 1899.

contents.
The Fatted Calf ....... 1
The Great Leviathan ..... 27
Bringing Mr. Townsend Back Again . . 48
Right Whales ........ 63
PiTCAiEN's Island ....... (>7
Rudder Simpson, Myself and the Personage . 72
The Cast-Away . . . . . ',).3
The Whaleman Who Went on the Stage . .118
" Whales has Feelin's " ..... 127
The Gam  143
AuGusTiN Bay ........ 156
The Albatross ....... 166
The Captain  193

illustrations.

Ship "Swift" 
The Gam . . . > .
OuB First Sperm Whale
CuTTixii IN A Whale ....
Our First Ri(;ht Whale
The Stoven Boats .....
The Ship " Swift '' off Pitcairn's Island
ilAN Overboard off Cape Horn .
A Burial at Sea .....
The Bark " Hope " Towing Off Shore
The Fighting Whale ....
The Bark " Clara Bell "...
St. Elmo's Fire 
Rounding Cape of Good Hope
" Thomas Pope " before the Storm
"Thomas Pope" in the Hurricane
" Thomas Pope " under Jury Masts
Landinc Place, St. Helena .
The "Briars" . ....
" Ladder Hill " at St. Helena

Frontispiece 6
38
4664
66 69
91
106
114
13.-:
] r>')
p. 171
175 178
185 189
Opp. p. 195
. " 197
. " 201

Opp.

THE FATTED CALF.

" Tliere 's many a slip 'twixt tlie two mugs ! "
— O' Hod ill (Ill's Proverbs.

" Not by any means," said the Girl. '¦ On the
other hand, you are very vividly remembered ! "
"And by what?"
" By lots of things — glorious things, too — but
I hardly think you're proud of them now ! "
" Oh ! I don't know."
" I do, though," said a voice from across the
supper table. " He's as proud of them as ever he
was. Five years haven't changed him a particle.
He's just the same incorrigible young rascal he
was before he went away to sea ! "
" Is that true ? " said the Girl.
" I'm afraid it is," he laughed, " I'm truly
afraid it is ! Just ask the ' old man.' He'll tell
you. But " — the jolly prodigal turned to the
Girl at his side. He blushed as her eyes met his.
It was so long since he had talked to girls. He
felt like a tough, old right whale addressing a
little pink water-lily.
" But," he made bold to ask, " what are the
'glorious' things you think I'm not proud of?"

2 THE FATTED CALF.
" Mr. Robbins, if you please, I prefer not to
tell." She tossed her pretty head, and the two
long, dark ringlets, nestling against her soft
cheeks, seemed to laugh and taunt him. They
were as bewitchingly mischievous as her brown
eyes, or the dimples that came and went wdth her
smiles, or even that defiant little toss of her head.
The tiny gold beads, too, and the big cameo brooch
were leagued together against him. So were her
smooth, white shoulders. For in those good old
days of Forty-one, the Girl, whose picture (in
daguerrotype, of course) is still considered the
supreme triumph of New Bedford photography,
was in the first bloom of her youth and beauty.
" Oh, but you're not going to get off so easy ! "
said still another voice. " If Dorothy won't tell,
we will. You're remembered for putting a fiat
stone on the top of Daddy Jones's chimney. Yes,
and for smoking old Daddy out of his cobbler-shop
as if he'd been a poor hunted wood-chuck."
"And for writing a Bible verse on Daddy Jones's
door," cried a lad with a rose in his coat, trying
to loom into view from the lee side of a much-
hewn turkey. " Don't you remember ? It was
when Daddy had got so lazy he never opened his
shop till ten in the morning, and the Prodigal and I
wrote on his door, "^e is not dead, hut sleepetli!"

THE FATTED CALF. 6
" Yes, yes," cried the blonde girl in lavendar,
" for that, too, and for kicking the football against
Squire Tomlinson's window so he came out as mad
as a March hare, and seized the ball and put it in
the stove. 0, we remember 3011 well ! The deeds
that New Bedford boys do live after them. Besides,
we've not forgotten how you got another foot-ball
next day and filled it with gunpowder, and then
kicked that against the window till the S(|uire came
and caught it and put it in the stove just like
the first one, and then there wasn't any stove."
The Prodigal turned again to Dorothy. " You
wouldn't have told those stories, would you ? "
He thought this tentative sally a triumph of pure
heroism. He was never so timid in his life. He
had chased whales and darted harpoons into their
slippery black backs out of the dancing prow of a
whale-boat ; he had gone among tattooed natives
who might have cooked and eaten him had they
chosen ; he had clambered down over the ship's
bows in a storm to repair a broken bob-stay, and
had stuck it out bravel}' till the bob-stay was
mended, though he Avas plunged twenty times
under water before the process was complete ; but
those exploits were as nothing beside this highly
problematic encounter with ringlets, and dimples,
and soft eyes, and tender white shoulders !

t THE FATTED CALF.
" No, sir," said Dorothy (that was before young
people were taught never to say ' sir ' to anybody)
" I assure you I wouldn't have told those stories;
tortures couldn't have drawn them from me ! "
The Prodigal felt thirty feet tall. Dorothy's
smile made his heart leap. It was like Words
worth's rainbow in its effect.
" But," said Dorothy, growing stern all of a
sudden, " I expect to be rewarded for my good
ness. I've got you in my power now, and you
must do my bidding to the death ! " (She looked
straight through him with her round eyes.) " And
I greatly fear you'll fail of your quest ; and if you
do fail, then you're no true knight ! " (Dimpling
again, her pretty cheeks coming up ever so Httle
to make her eyes dance and sparkle.) "Wretched
swain," (very serious again, pausing, with tight-
closed lips), " I command you to confess all your
manifold sins and wickednesses — yes, every one
of them. Every jolly wrong thing you did while
you served as cabin boy on the dear old Swift,
and if the sins you confess aren't as picturesque as
those you committed in New Bedford before you
turned whaleman, then" (a majestic toss of
the head that set the ringlets caressing her
pink cheeks again) " I'll refuse to grant you
absolution ! "

THE FATTED CALF. 0
" Yes, old fellow, you'll do as Dorothy says, if
you're wise. She has her way sooner or later
every time and there's no escape. We all have to
submit, and you're no exception, even if you are
a whaleman ! "
Submit ? Of course he would submit. He
would have pushed a holy st(me up and down
the deck from morn till dewy eve (and never
growled) if the Girl had bidden him. He would
have tarred the rigging from the fore-royal stay
to the topping-lift (and left no " holidays") if the
Girl had so ordered. He would haAc slushed the
mast in the blaze of the torrid equatorial sun (and
without inwardly cursing the lot of poor Jack) if
Dorothy's dimpling smiles would have approved
his toil. And, as the greater includes the less, he
was ready to tell at her behest how he had consti
tuted himself a i>er)iona tkdi grata aboard the
whale-ship Swift.
He was twenty. At fifteen he had signed sail
ing papers that bound him away as a cabin-boy
on a three years' voyage sperm-whaling, but the
three years had stretched out to four, and the
four to nearly five. At last he was home again,
after roving so long among the islands of the
South Pacific. He had just arrived. In fact,
twenty-four hours had not yet gone by since he

THE FATTED CALF.

THE FATTED CALF. 7
had rushed in upon his mother and been formally
introduced to his own sisters, who had grown to
unrecognizable dimensions since his departure ;
and this grand New England banquet was being
given in his honor by neighbors just over the way.
The sixteen young people around the table were
his old schoolmates. They called him the Prodi
gal ; but well they knew that the boy had come
home unstained from his wanderings. With equal
pertinence, and not less, they called the turkey a
" fatted calf."
He had perhaps an unusually pleasant way of
telling a story, this young sea-rover — a way that
has remained with him until this day. He hoists
his Blue Peter, heaves up his mud-hook, shakes
out his canvas and puts to ' sea. Nobody tries to
help him. He sails over his course as straight as
a well-found ship, and he comes into port with a
new coat of paint, and pendant flying.
" Well," said the Prodigal, "if I must, I must.
And I'll begin by telling you how the old man put
his watch in soak."
"Stop!" cried the Girl. "I object. This is
not to be a story about an old gentleman. What's
more, it's not to be told in sailor language. It's
to be about yourself " (such a sweet tone as she
said " yourself ") " and it's to be told in faultless

8 THE FATTED CALF.
New Bedford English (eyes again, utterly distract
ing) or I'll — ! "
" But," the Prodigal answered, " you've not yet
heard the story. Listen. The ' old man ' is the
captain (they always call him so on shipboard) ;
' putting one's watch in soak ' is not a sea-term at
all ; and the story is really about me, and it's told
in the only language I know, for I've lived in the
cabin like a fine gentleman. You must remember
that the boy's not allowed to go before the mast.
" So, here goes." He was now under way. He
would forge ahead, all fluking, without further
interruption. " After we'd been about six months out from
home, we anchored at Porter's, one of the Galla-
pagos Islands, and there we found an old apple-
bowed, square-sterned, painted-ported bark, the
Surprise, of Wilmington, Cap'n Crocker. Next
morning the two old men — Crocker and my own
cap'n — gave liberty on shore for all hands, ex
cept cooks, stewards, and boys, to hunt terrapin,
if you call that liberty. After they had landed,
the old man and Crocker called us boys and took
us ashore to help them try and catch a seal.
Mighty glad we were to go.
¦' We landed on a little island, only three miles
round and covered with woods. It was high and
very rugged.

THE FATTED CALF. 9
" The cap'ns gave us youngsters leave to ramble
about for an hour, ,so we thought we'd cross the
island, get down to the shore on the other side,
and follow the beach back to the boat. We had
high hopes of finding a seal, for neither of us had
ever seen one alive.
" It was easy enough getting to the top of the
island, but from there on it was all a tangle of
gullies and ravines, and when we finally came to
the other side we found ourselves looking down
from the edge of a three-hundred-foot cliff. It
made us dizzy, as you may imagine, to peer over
it, but we lay out flat on our stomachs and rested
our heads on our hands and our elbows on the
rocks, and studied that bluff. It was straight
up and down, like the Swffs checkered sides.
There was no beach at the bottom. There
was a dead flat calm, no waves at all save the
everlasting heave and swell that never ceased and
never tvill cease ; and yet the breakers were
white at the foot of the cliff and we could hear
their roar. It was what we sailors call an iron-
bound coast.
" Our hearts went down into the soles of our
boots. Climl? down that precipice ? Crawl along
at the water's edge ? Not by a jugful !

10 THE FATTED CALF.
" Suddenly it occured to us we must have been
gone a pretty long hour. So we started back
— disappointed and scared and ashamed — the
way we had come, as well as we could judge,
and we were not far wrong. But everything was
against us. Thorns and brambles caught us, one
or both. Steep crags got in our way on purpose.
Gullies sank under our feet. So fully four hours
had gone by when we came in view of the landing
place again. The cap'ns were hallooing with all
their might, but we were too scared to answer
and so kept still. That didn't pa}-, though. When
the old man clapped his eyes on me, he hollered
out at the top of his lungs, ' Come here, you
rascal. I'll learn you to run away 1 I'll learn
you to keep me waiting ! Come here till I make
a little spread-eaglet of you ! /'// learn j'ou this
lesson so it'll stick in your back as well as your
head ! Come ! Are vou dead ? Show a leg- there ' '
" With that the old man gra))l3ed hold of the
boat's warp and was going to give me a thrashino-
with the bitter end of it. But the other cap'n
begged me off.
" ' Well,' said the old man, ' I'll put drmjgs on
the rascal so he won't run out so blamed swift.
Here's what I'll do. Cap'n Crocker can have his
way about the Httle spread-eaglet, but I'll have

THE FATTED CALF. 11
mine about that twenty-pound stone over yonder
there. Come, sonnywax, bring me that flat stone
— that big, round one, with the barnacles all
over it ! '
" I went and brought the stone. It was shaped
like Daddy Jones's lapstone and it weighed not an
ounce under twenty pounds. The old tyrant took
that stone and slung it to my back with a strong
cord slipped round in a lark's head knot.
" ' Now,' he roared, ' I guess you'll not get out
of hailing distance again this cruise ! '
" Then we pushed the boat off through the
rollers and made for the large island. I tugged
at my oar with the big stone banging against my
shoulder-blades and jabbing the barnacles into my
back. I would rather have taken the rope-ending.
" I thought we'd never get ashore, but at last
we did. We rushed the boat out of the water on
a fine sand beach, a mile or more long and as
straight as a street.
" The cap'ns started ahead, keeping a bright
lookout for seals, but we boys lagged behind,
and as soon as we dared we got a new stone, the
same shape but only about half as heavy, and
no barnacles on it, and we put it in place of the
twenty-pounder on my back. I tell you, it was a
relief !

12 THE FATTED CALF.
" The cap'ns had got a long way in the lead —
a quarter of a mile at the very least — when sud
denly I heard a rifle-shot and saw a moving puff
of blue smoke.
" The old man had shot a seal, and the wounded
beast was dancing around the beach like a man in
a sack-race, and every jump he made brought him
a little nearer the Avater.
" The old man wanted me now as he'd never
wanted me before, for I had the powder and balls
in my pocket to reload his rifle. He hollered like
mad. '' ' Hurry up, you scoundrel ! Do you hear ?
Quick ! Drop your ballast, I tell you ; quick, or
I'll thrash you ! Quick I say ! Quick ! Quick ! !
QUICK ! ! ! '
" I ran as fast as I could, but the sand was soft
and the stone was hard and I made sorry work
of it.
" The old man chased the seal into the water
with a club, but as soon as the animal got afloat
in the surf he was the better off for the change.
He dashed away for life and liberty — the old
man after him, dealing murderous blows with the
cudgel. As I came up, puffing and blowing like a
winded walrus, the old man was in up to his ears
in salt water and the seal was bleeding from

fe

a

THE FATTED CALF. 13
dozen gashes at once. Another swing of the club
put him out of his misery.
" The old man came splashing and sputtering
out of the surf, dragging his lifeless prey after
him. " ' Blast the boy,' he yelled, ' I've got a pretty
drenching.' ¦' Cap'n Crocker roared with laughter. ' Better
have left the boy free to run, sir ! '
" The old man .shook himself like a wet dog.
" ' Cap'n,' cried Crocker, rolling from side to
side with amusement, ' can you tell me the time
o' day ? '
" The old man felt for his watch, only to dis
cover that he had ruined it in the surf !
" Crocker stamped about the beach, bellowing
like a facetious big bull. ' 0-ho-ho ! ' he howled,
I've seen many a beautiful timepiece go in soak
in my day, but never before on account of a
rascally cabin boy with a stone on his back ! '
" So that's how the old man put his watch in
soak, your majesty. Please, may I stop now?"
He looked into Dorothy's eyes as he spoke.
They looked into his. There was nothing re
markable in that, but nevertheless he felt as if he
had taken something that didn't belong to him.
However, he had no desire to put it back.

14 THE FATTED CALF.
" Absolvo te ! " said the Girl. " Isn't that what
they say at confessional ! " A burst of generous
laughter shook the table.
" What did we tell you ? " said he of the red
rose. " Just the same rogue as before he turned
blubber-hunter. Daddy Jones was right. You
remember he said, ' Glad he's gone — pesky glad,
but I pity that there cap'n o' his'n ! ' "
Turkey, doughnuts, mince-pie, and sweet cider
had found their way to destruction. The merry
party left the table and trooped into the large,
old-fashioned parlor, where the fun began afresh.
There was dancing, in the quaint manner now
gone by ; there were games, of the hilarious
sort no longer in vogue ; there were songs
— forgotten, most of them, long ere this. The
Prodigal thought it a sumptuous occasion. For
five years he had not sat in a cushioned chair
or stepped upon a carpeted floor. To his sailorly
eyes that staid and demure parlor, with its tall
looking-glasses, its marbled wall-paper, and its
solemn, mahogany furniture, was princely mag
nificence. To all intents it far outshone the
wealth of Ormus and of Ind.
But the Girl was there — not always at his side,
but always responsive. Even if she sat, for the
moment, at the farther end of the room, under

THE PATTED CALF. 15
the silver candalabra, she made him feel that her
interest was in him. Was it her eyes ? Perhaps
— for they were always brightest as they met his.
Or was it her pretty posture ? Very likely — for
it was always one of eager attention when he
spoke. He thought for a moment that he Avas
being mischievously pursued. Then he thought
it rather nice to be pursued. Finally he thought
the Girl was not at all to blame for pursuing so
interesting a person as the returned Prodigal from
the South Pacific. Besides, had not he done all
he knew how, in his sailorly way, to interest the
Girl? " You didn't do as you promised," she said,
when they chanced to come side by side again.
" You promised to confess all your sins, and you
stopped with one — though it was a very good
one. And noAV, sir, if you don't confess another
this very minute if not sooner, I'll excommuni
cate you ! "
" How's that done ? "
" You'll find out to your grief," said the red
rose, " if you don't tell another story as good as
the last, and that immediately.''
" Yes, yes," they all cried, " confess your sins
or we'll excommunicate you, too, and it'll be
something awful — awful ! "

16 THE FATTED CALF.
They drew their chairs close around the Prodi
gal. There Avas no way of escape. He was
secretly glad there was none.
Doubtless it was not wholly by accident that
Dorothy sat directly in front of him. Her seat
Avas a sort of low hassock. She curled herself
round it prettily, one knee raised, one little slipper
peeping out from the edge of her yelloAV satin
gown, her hands clasped over her knee, and her
sweet face lifted up toward his. A girl is her
loveliest Avhen she looks up. Probably that is
why Dorothy had chosen the hassock.
" Well, if I must, I must. This time Til teU
you about the Ten Commandments.
" One Sunday, not so very long after the old
man had put his watch in soak, I happened to be
feeling a bit out of sorts. I kncAv that if I told
the old man I Avas sick he'd dose me with castor
oil every hour for a week. So I cast about for a
nice, quiet place to lie doAvn and go to sleep. I
found just Avhat I Avanted and, willingly running
the risk of punishment, I curled myself up in the
second mate's bunk and sailed for the land of Nod.
" NoAv it Avas my duty to take the hog-yoke on
deck at eleven o'clock." (Dorothy's eyes said,
"What, sir, do you mean by a hog-yoke?")
" That's the quadrant, you know, for the old man

THE FATTED CALF. 17
to shoot the sun " (a froAvn of perplexitA' on
Dorothy's Avhite forehead) — "I mean, for the old
man to take the sun's altitude and see Avhat
latitude Ave were in. That's the only safe Avay to
steer a ship, you know.
"But that day the quadrant didn't come on
deck in time. In fact, it didn't come at all.
" The old man was frantic. He set all hands
searching for me. They hunted in the cabin,
they hunted in the fo'c'sle — that's where the
sailors live, you knoAV ; you call it ' forecastle,'
and that's wrong — and they hunted in the steer
age ; but nobody could find me.
" Then the old man got anxious. He hailed
the men at the mast-heads — wanted to know if
they'd seen anything floating on the water astern
of the ship, which meant, of course, had the cabin
boy gone overboard ? At last the old man got so
worried he wasn't content with ordering other
folks to hunt, but even turned to and hunted
for me himself.
" Now all this while I was dreaming of an
enchanted island, loaded Avith treasures, and I Avas
just going to be married to the queen of the
island, when there came a tremendous yank at my
collar, and the old man landed me on the floor
with a shock that all but shivered my timbers and

18 THE FATTED CALF.
studded the ceiling with all the blazing stars in
creation. " The old man kicked me up the cabin stairway
and gave me half an hour to think. Meanwhile,
he was thinking, I kncAv that. He was inventing
some wonderful new kind of punishment, and he
was going to try it on me as soon as he'd got it
all invented.
" At last he came on deck. ' Boy,' he shouted,
' can you say th« Ten Commandments ? '
" ' No, sir,' I answered. ' I used to when I was
in Sunday school, but I can't now, sir.'
" ' Then you just tumble down the cabin stairs
and bring the Bible on deck.'
" I did as the old man said, and then he gave
me the funniest order you ever heard on a ship.
' Go out on the end o' that spanker-boom, take
that Bible along with you, and don't you dare to
come back till you can say the Ten Command
ments from beginning to end without a single
mistake, or I'll make a little spread eaglet of you !
That's what T\\ do ! '
" What ? Don't know what the spanker-boom
is ? Why, it's the big round spar that keeps the
spanker doAvn, and the spanker, you knoAv is the
monstrous hind sail of the ship. What a place to
learn the Ten Commandments by heart! That

THE FATTED CALF. 10
spanker-boom is the unsteadiest piece of stick
aboard any vessel, and the further out you go the
livelier it swings.
" Well, I tucked the book under mv left arm,
and crawled along that swinging boom, Avay out
over the hurricane house and far beyond the
ship's stern. When I got to the end of it, I
leaned my breast against the topping-lift, with one
arm curled round it, and laced my legs together
under the boom.
" Then I began a hunt for the Ten Command
ments. I hadn't the faintest notion where to look
for them. First I thought I'd try Revelation.
Next it seemed more likely they'd turn up some
where in Ruth. Again, I had an impulse that
led me toward Jonah. Jonah is a very popular
book among sailors. It's almost as good as the
story of Paul's shipwreck, where they put haw
sers round and round the ship, just as if they
were strapping a trunk.
" But at last I concluded to begin at the first
chapter of Genesis, and eat along to windward till
I raised the Ten Commandments. Happy thought !
I found them in fifteen minutes. Then I set
about learning them.
" The boom swung in the wind, the topping-
lift quivered from the strain on it, the white wake

20 THE FATTED CALF.
ran bubbling under me, and the wind blew the
pages of the Bible so I thought it would tear them
out and whisk them away. Now and then I would
look up. Every man on deck was staring aft and
Avondered what in the name of hemp and oakum
the old man had sent the boy out there for !
" As soon as I got the Commandments so I
could say them, I crawled back on deck and said
my piece to the old man — every word right.
The old man told me ' not to forget 'em, for if I
did he'd learn 'em into my back with a rope's end
so they'd never come out.'
" Several Sundays later, instead of giving the
crew a day of comparative rest, the old man
found them some extra work to do. He con
formed to the spirit of the old rhyme,
" ' Six days shalt thou work and do all thou art able,
And on the seventh, holy-stone the deck and clean-scrape
the cable.'
But the particular application he gave it was, —
having an old torn sail got on deck and mended.
The crew were growling as they went about their
task. They were as sullen as a crowd of school
boys kept in at recess.
"I thought I'd see if I could change that a
little. So when the old man came on deck, I

THE FATTED CALF. 21
strolled past him, muttering just loud enough for
him to hear : ' Remember-tlie-Sabbath-day-to
keep-it-holy-six-days-shalt-thou-labor- and - do
all-thy- work-but - the - seventh-day-is-the-Sab-
bath-of-the-Lord-thy-God-in-it-thou-shalt-not do-any-work-thou-nor-thy-mate - nor - thy-sec-
ond - mate - nor - thy - third- iiiate-nor-thy-creAV
nor— thy-cook— nor— thy-carpenter-nor-thy-cooper
nor-thy-cabin-boy.' " The old man pretended he didn't hear me, but
after awhile he went beloAV and I heard his bell ring.
" So down I tumbled, and as soon as the old
man got his face straight he said, ' Boy, what day
is this ? '
" ' Sunday, sir.'
" ' That so ? Then you go straight to the chief
mate and tell him I say knock off work on that
sail and quit breaking the Sabbath day ! '
" After that Ave used to get a little rest of a
Sunday ; and that's the sum and substance of the
Ten Commandment story. Please may I stop ? "
" Absolvo te ! " laughed the Girl. Then the
Prodigal suggested a fresh game, and the scene
shifted ancAV. Instead of a group around the
Prodigal, you had a group around Dorothy.
Now I had all along been thinking — Avhat ! I?
Ah, I've let Pussy pop out of my bag of discretion!

22 THE FATTED CALF.
Yes, I. A truce to disguises ! The Prodigal
was myself, or the self that was then — Charlie
Robbins, as they all called me — Capn'n Robbins,
as they call me today.
To resume (and with an easier conscience) I,
Charlie Robbins, cabin-boy, was thinking that
Dorothy was the sweetest girl in the world, that
I had made a profound impression upon her, and
that my life would be an arid waste if I let her
escape me. She Avas so distractingly pretty, and
so dangerously clever. I remembered that when
I bade her good-bye five years ago she was a year
younger than I. Gratifying reflection — she must
be so, still !
I was building air-castles.
I knew I must move rapidly. Girls are so dif
ferent from whales — at least to whalemen. For
you get fast to a whale and if he runs, you run ;
or if he goes down, you wait till he comes up
again. Barring accidents, it's only a matter of
time till you kill him or he kiUs you. But with
girls its more complicated. Sometimes you're not
fast to them when you think you are. Sometimes
they go down and never come up again. And
when you're a whaleman you've little time for
courting.. The stay in a home port is shockingly
short. That ship in the harbor Avon't lay her

THE FATTED CALF. 23
main yard aback and wait till the chase is ended.
You must be quick.
I made up my mind that I would improve the
first and all subsequent opportunities of charming,
captivating and otherwise hypnotizing this unex
ampled young lady. Whatever form later chances
might assume, . the near and most available one
Avas my fund of sea-yarns. 1 Avas a sort of blubber-
hunting Othello. She Avas my incomparable
Desdemona. So I lowered away, every chance I got.
Her taste, I thought, Avas peculiar. She cared
little or nothing for whales that tossed one's boat
in the air with their flukes, or for the cannibal
islanders that cook one and eat one, or for hurri
canes and tidal waves and Avaterspouts and the
terrors of " the vasty deep." She demanded
yarns about me (how gratifying ! ) and about my
" sins." Every time, she Avould look as grave as
His Holiness of Rome and say, " Absolvo te ! "
and then laugh — so prettily that I iiiAvardly
cursed myself for ever haA'ing adopted the Avhale-
man's lot — and then say, " Go on, Mr. Robbins !
I must have the next story now — and as good
as the last, or I'll excommunicate you ! "
They were a curious skein of yarns. Hoav I
Avas sent to get the grindstone from the locker

24 THE FATTED CALF.
under the cabin-stairs, drew out a bag of letters,
and in so doing knocked the grindstone against a
demijohn of turpentine, which toppled over help
lessly, a reeking, jingling wreck, with the conse
quence that thereafter the old man made me keep
a Domesday Book, to record everything I managed
to lose or break on board the ship ; how I came to
be held to blame whenever a tool was mislaid,
with the penalty of having to write it in the Book
of Judgment, so that by-and-by when I found a
lost article I secretly pitched it overboard rather
than be blamed for finding it ; how, one Sunday
morning, the old man took an observation of the
sun and gave the data to me to work out the
reckoning, but was not pleased with my ansAver,
and accordingly grabbed me by the hair and lifted
me clean off the deck, so that I took care to get
my hair cut immediately ; and when the old man
made another observation that afternoon and g-aAC
it to me in the same way and with the same
result, he grabbed for my hair again and, missing
that, lifted me off' the deck by my ears, saying
he'd " stretch 'em out as long as a jackass ! "
and this despite the fact that I was right and he
was Avrong, for Ave were cruising down the line
and during the night Ave had crossed the Equator,
so that Ave had to apply our corrections differ-

THE FATTED CALF. 2o
ently ; and also how I stole the cabin molasses
keg while we were at Talcuhano, and sold the
molasses in a pulparee on shore, upon agreement
that the empty keg must be brought aboard next
evening. But the ship sailed in the morning and
both keg and molasses were left behind. Think
of the fix that put me in ! Presently the stcAA^ard
wanted some molasses for the " doctor " to cook
with, — but Avhere in the name of the Great
Horned Spoon Avas that precious molasses keg ?
Of course I kncAv nothing about it — absolutely
nothing — vastly less than nothing ! The men
searched everywhere, and the further they searched
the madder they got. They swore like great
whales. But that was not the Avorst of it. My con
science swore, too. The thought of lying galled
me and cut me, till at last I Avent to the old man
and confessed my crime. That made me feel a
whole lot better, but it made the old man feel a
whole lot worse ! " Blast you, boy, I'll get even
Avith you! You just waltz forward and tell the
cooper I say to give you a dozen barrel-staves.
I'm going to learn you a lesson that'll last you
Avav over into the next Avorld ! " When I came
back Avith the barrel-staves, the old man stationed
me in the Avaist, where everybody on board could
Avatch me, and said, " Now, sonnvAvax, you take

26 THE FATTED CALF.
this saw and this plane the carpenter's brought
you, and you make a new keg to take the place of
the one you've stolen. Here's a chance to show
your talent. The crew'll come around you and
give you advice once in a while and encourage
you, and Avhon the pretty creature's all done
they'll hold up their hands and admire it ! " I
worked four days. At the end of that time I had
something in the shape of a keg, but it wouldn't
hold water or molasses any more than the " doc
tor's " cullender. When these four days of atone
ment were over, the captain told me to quit.
I quitted. How swiftly that pleasant evening ran by I
The merry party broke up all too soon, I thought.
And yet not too soon. For one reason, at least, I
Avas glad it was over. Now I should see Dorothy
home. It was in the doorway, after the general and
particular good-nights, that I asked her if I might.
Oh, tragical deception ! The Girl gave me one
defiant flash from her brown eyes, and ran like
a deer !
That was the last I saw of her.
I went home alone.
Six Aveeks later I sailed aAvay in the Balaena,
sperm-Avhaling again.

THAT GREAT LEVIATHAN.
The case of Dorothy being noAv got well out
of the way, I turn, and not without a grateful
sense of relief, to weightier considerations.
For this gam of mine — you know the term ?
— is meant to set forth the grave as Avell as
the trivial interests of that young madcap who
was so early, and withal so auspiciously, put afloat
in the whaling ship Swift. It would, in truth,
be far from fair to leave the reader in possession
of the startling revelations of the last chapter,
unless, over against those light and altogether
frivolous narratives, be set some mention of the
serious business of whaling, — its toil, its peril,
its joy and thrill, to say nothing of its magical
fascination for a boy of fifteen.
Pleasantly my memory runs back sixty years to
the day of our departure. Stars and stripes at the
peak. Blue Peter at the fore ; officers and crew
on board ; four boats on the cranes ; and the hold
filled with white oak casks and a stock of pro
visions to last three years and more; then, as
somebody or other says, " Waiting is what ? "
Waiting is the pilot. But, once aboard, his
majesty takes command, and the voyage is begun.

28 THAT GREAT LEVIATHAN.
The captain, while the pilot remains in the ship,
is a mere inactive looker-on, a person of no more
consequence than a passenger or a spare figure
head. " Mr. Mate, are you all ready ? "
" AU ready, sir ? "
" Then heave ahead ! "
"Aye, aye, sir. Man the windlass ! "
Now comes the confusion, the ' hurrying and
blundering, invariably seen on board a ship when
she is getting under way with a crew made up
largely of green hands ; then an attempt on the
part of the officers to bring something like order
out of this hurly-burly ; and Avhile at every turn
of the powerful windlass the chain cable rattles
heavily on deck, the Swift walks steadily up to
her anchor as if impatient for the word to spread
her white wings and be away.
" A-vast heaving," shouts the first officer. " A
short stay peak, sir ! "
"Aye, aye," responds the pilot.
" Let fall and sheet home top-s'ls and to'-
galn-s'ls ! "
Away sprang half a dozen men aloft, and soon
the broad sheets of cauA-as are unfurled and hauled
home and the yards are mast-headed.
Next a volley of incomprehensible orders :

THAT GREAT LEAaATHAN. 29
" Brace head yards a-starboard ! "
" Lay helm aport ! "
" Heave up the anchor ! "
The first mate answers, " All away, sir ! " and
you know then that the good ship has loosed her
hold on terra firma, and you watch her move
ments, as — gracefully as a girl in a minuet — she
turns her head seaAvard.
The pilot springs to the boAv, now and again
shouting his orders to the helmsmen, who invari
ably echoes the words, that there may be no
possibility of mistake.
And so, with a breeze fresh and free, we sped
down the bay, borroAving a little, now on one
shore, then on the other, or shaving close to some
rocky ledge, as our sharp-eyed, skillful guide
might direct, in order to shorten our course from
the confines of harbor to the freedom of the
open sea.
A little farther, and we open up Gay Head
lighthouse on the western end of Martha's Vine-
yard, so called from the abundance of wild grape
vines growing there. Once outside, the tiny pilot-
boat, which has been dodging about the heavy
ship like a will-o'-the-wisp, shoots alongside^ and
his lordship the pilot and our friends, mostly
men of the sea, hasten to make their adieus, and

30 THAT GREAT LEVIATHAN.
descend to the restless little craft that will soon
take them back to their homes. The lingering
trrasp of hands, the ill-concealed tremor of fare-
Avells, and the moistened, glistening eye, tell of
the friendship of men who have together battled
Avith the giant seas and fierce winds of the Horn,
Avho have stood shoulder to shoulder Avhen short
ening the wings of their hurrying ship in the
short-lived gales of the Equator, and who haA^e
for long years shared alike in common hardships,
joys and sorrows.
The little fairy shoots ahead, and, flying up into
the wind, is soon on our weather beam, homeward
bound. Three rousing cheers from her deck, and
three from the outward bound, and we are alone
on the sea, with nothing binding us to the shore
but memories of the past and hopes for the future !
And now, indeed, though with everything yet
to learn, I was fairly made a sailor of. There
was no possible back-wending, however I might
thereafterward mope and AA'himper. Accordingly
I turned my heart manfully toward my strange,
new life and faced it with earnest cheer.
The first day out, the ship's crew is divided into
two Avatches, larboard and starboard, the former
always headed b}- the first officer and the latter by
the second. The men are mustered aft and the

THAT GREAT LEVIATHAN. 31
rules of the ship laid down to them. At seven
that evening, the watch is set, the second officer
always taking the first night watch from the home
port, and those not on duty go below and sleep —
if they can. Next morning all hands are called
aft again, this time for choosing boat's crews.
The first officer takes precedence by selecting
one man, followed in turn by the second, third,
and fourth mates, each choosing one, until every
boat has a crew standing by her side. Then
follows, usually, the emphatic caution, "Now
remember to which you belong, and bear a hand
when she's called away ! "
And what of the voyage ? Southward ? Yes,
in the main ; crossing the Gulf Stream ; battling,
stripped for the fight, with many a heavy gale ;
passing, with men all the while at our mast-heads,
through the " horse latitudes ; " lowering our
boats, now and then, to give our whalemen
practice in rowing ; and taking advantage, now,
of every slant of wind to press on our way toward
the stormy Horn.
Days and long weeks go by, nor are we alone
in the tedious struggle. Several sails are in sight,
all striving to get south.
And so, with bracing round, or squaring the
yards, making and shortening sail, and backing

32 THAT GREAT LEVIATHAN.
and fining generaU}'. Ave get a sharp squaH, AAath
rain, from the eastward, and then the old salts
cast at each other significant glances, Avhich, if
rightly interpreted, Avould say, " I believe Ave've
got the Trades at last ! " After a few hours, the
Avind moderates and hauls to the northAvard. All
sail is set again, Avith the breeze fresh and free,
and Ave go bowHng along to the southward at the
rate of ten knots au hour.
Oh, the beautiful world of waters ! Almost
every day Ave pass ships showing the flags of
different nations, some near and others in the far
distance, all under a press of canvas, and all seem
ing to revel in the bright sunshine and the breeze.
The Avater, too — so Avarm and so transparent —
is full of life. Porpoises, dolphins, albicore, and
barricota are gambolling and sporting in the sum
mer sea. Thousands of birds are on the wing or
resting on the waves, while not infrequently a
huge fin-back, or sulphur Avhale rolls lazily along,
now throwing clouds of misty spray into the air,
and again lashing the water into foam Avith its
broad flukes, doubtless to rid himself of the
numerous parasites which persistently strive to
fasten themseh'es upon these Avorthless vagabonds.
Vitality and loveliness are above, beneath and
around us, and Ave seem verily to be sailing on a

TH.AT GREAT LEVIATHAN. 33
sea of enchantment. The stars seem nearer, and
shine and tAvinkle with that Avonderful bright
ness seen only in that southern hemisphei-e. The
North stai- has dipped into the ocean, not to rise
again until we cross the Equator on the Pacific
ocean. Instead we gaze in novel delight upon
the Southern Cross, and Ave are constantly looking
for that mysterious and ghostlike thing known to
seamen as the Magellan cloud, and said to mark
the entrance to the famous straits of that name.
It is enough to make a man quote the spirited
lines of Kipling :
" O, the blazing tropic night when tlip wake's a welt of light
That holds the hot sky tame,
And the steady forefoot snores through the planet-powdered floors,
Where the soared whale flukes in flame ! ' '
Round the horn we fly, wrestling with giant
seas, and then, while penguins and fur-seals go
sporting and barking around the Swift, we pass
the rugged, half-glaciered island of Terra del
Fuego. Warmer, day by day, grows the air and
softer. At last, though never a spouter have we
yet raised out of the ocean, our hog-yoke tells us
we are upon the rich off-shore whaling grounds.
After Ave had been out from home eight long
months avc chanced to speak the full-rig ship

34 THAT GREAT LEVIATHAN.
William Rotch, and I then beheld a sight that
stirred my soul from truck to keelson and knocked
my youthful emotions galley-end wise. For the
Rotch had a monstrous whale, just taken, tethered
alongside. There he lay, a bit ingloriously, to be sure, for
he was riding belly uppermost and tail foremost ;
but I felt Hke a Titan when I looked at him.
That was the prey I had gone a-seeking. I Avas a
fighter of dragons and Avorse. Oh, what more
heroic opportunity is offered to man or boy than
to join battle with such a monster as that? So
thought I (turning sea-green the while with euA-y
of yonder lucky crew) and longed, Avith inexpres
sible heart-hunger, for our own first Avhale-fight.
Moreover, I wished myself at that moment a
blood-thirsty pirate ; for, ethical considerations
aside, it would have been a gratifying relief to
my feelings had we boarded that ship, like
" gentlemen of fortune," boAvie-knifed her gaUant
crew, and stolen that whale aAvay.
We kept company with the Rotch aU night, and
we "gammed" — that is to say, we exchanged
visits back and forth, and enjoyed a general
fo'c'sle pow-wow for'ard while the officers made
merry in the cabins ; and particularly merry they
Avere that evening, too, for the old man's brother

THAT GREAT LEVIATHAN. 35
was mate of the William Rotch, and the two had
not come face to face for many an eventful year.
But who knoweth what a day may bring forth ?
The sun came red and fierce and savage out of
the water. The morning mist lifted lazily off the
ocean. The long-expected happened.
Try how I will, I cannot recall in any former or
any subsequent experience, whether upon land or
sea, such a panic and stampede of emotions as in-
stamtly followed a ringing cry from the mast-head.
" There she blows ! " I heard a man shout.
A haze seemed to rush over my soul. All that
happened in the next five minutes is an utter con
fusion of tumultuous and ungovernable impres
sions. " All hands " must haA'e been called, but
I could not hear the words. Every man sprang
toward his boat — in fact, the movements of the
crew were automatic and inerrant — yet I made
nothing coherent of their desperate hurry. Almost
in an instant the boats were lowered sAvift aAvay ;
but not until three long whale-boats were dashing
out after the great leviathan and bent now upon
actual chase, did I come to' myself far enough to
take good account of how this A^ast concern was
being brought to pass.
I have heard of buck fever. But, lands and
seas, it is nothing to whale fever !

36 THAT GREAT LEVIATHAN.
Nevertheless, in the midst of so crazed a mood,
I did, Avithout so much as considering it, my
appointed duty which, for all that, was not diffi
cult ; being, as long beforehand I had been in
structed, to remain on board and do nothing.
That was a simple task, but by no means agree
able. It was certainly a vivid contradiction, as I have
often since reflected, that while I, who was least in
the struggle, went clean daft for the moment, the
Avhale, who was of all concerned most gravely
implicated, lay spouting contentedly only a small
way from the Swift, and as wholly free from worry
or care as a comfortable cow nibbling pink and
white clover-tops.
" Boy," said the cooper, for he stood next to me
and together we watched the chase, " I'll bet my
go-ashore shirt and pantaloons they'll set you
a-turning that 'ar grin-stun I "
This sage observation was the expression of a
splendid optimism, for when a whale is being cut
in, the cabin-boy turns the grindstone while the
cooper sharpens the cutting-spades.
" Oh, by Reuben Ranzo ! " yelled the cooper,
grabbing me by the collar, " They'll gahey him ! "
Then, tightening his grip on my neck tiU I
thought he would strangle me, he emphasized his

THAT GREAT I^EVIATHAN. Oi
sudden plunge into pessimism with a blast of
emphatic and unmistakable English.
Luckily for my continued existence, the fortunes
of the whale-chase suddenly grew brighter. The
cooper loosed his unconscious grip on my throat
and leaned out over the rail, his eyes bulging with
intense interest.
The chief mate's boat approached the column of
steam that rose from the whale's spout-hole.
The harpooner hurled his merciless iron.
The iron took hold in the quivering flesh of the
whale, and instantly the captain's boat dashed up
and a second harpoon went hurtling through the
air to plant itself close to the first. The whale
writhed with sudden pain and fright, but did not
.go down. He preferred to fight.
The old man, howcA^er, had plans of his own ;
he would kill the whale, and that immediately.
He belloAved a hasty order to the mate, thinking
to drive the mate's boat out of his Avay, but he had
not calculated upon the stubborn ambition of that
hot-headed officer. The mate never budged.
• Enraged at his opposition, the captain crowded
in between the mate and the monster, and ran his
lance into the Avhale's A'itals. Then there Avas
such a commotion as I had noA^er before Avitnessed.
The whale went into a frantic flurry, barrels-full of

38

THAT GREAT LEVIATHAN.

THAT GREAT LEVIATHAN. 39
rich, dark blood were hurled into the air from his
spout-hole, the boats dashed away from him as
they would from an enraged sea-serpent, and
behold — a half-dozen men floundering about in
the water !
" Stoven ! " yelled the cooper, renewing his
unconscious assaults upon my collar. " Served
him dead right, I swear ! An' bless ye, boy, the
old lobster-back can't swim a stroke ! "
Indeed he could not. There was the captain in
the water, as helpless as a lady, and two of his
men were trying their best to keep him from
sinking, while one of the two uninjured boats Avas
coming up to take him aboard.
" Same old yarn," said the cooper. " I've sailed
with the old man five year if I've sailed a day, an'
I tell ye, boy, he's done this lubberly trick forty
times over. Gits Avearisome, now an' then, dead
Avearisome for them Jacks to float a poor lubber
that AVon't learn swimmin', and dead wearisome
for poor old Chips to have to mend the old man's
boat after every blessed chase."
" Then Avhy doesn't the captain learn to saaIhi?"
The cooper ventured no answer. He Avas
Avatching the mate getting a line fast to Old
Blubber. Suddenly he bethought himself of
grindstone and spades, and as quickly was off to

40 THAT GREAT LEVIATHAN.
make ready for the work that Avould turn me into
a slavish minion.
Even before the boats had come in and had got
the whale alongside and well into the fluke-chains,
the grinding of spades began.
Often and often I had heard men of the sea tell
how a whale was cut in and tried out, but now,
with my own lucky eyes, I was to see the thing
done. But before I describe how the whale was cut in,
I must say something about Avhales in general.
There are many kinds, but only two are of
importance to whalemen. The right whale is
sought for his bone. The sperm whale is sought
for his blubber. We of the Swift were sperm
Avhaling. Pictures of whales are uniformly deceptive.
They give the impression that a good part of the
animal (not fish, — a Avhale is a hot-blooded mam
mal) can be seen above the surface of the sea.
They also indicate that a AA'hale's spout is made
of Avater. It is no such thing. All you can
commonly see of a Avhale from the ship's deck is
his spout and that is a mere column of vapor.
It's his breath. Get that once in mind and you'll
never call a whale a fish. You never saAv a fish
breathe air. You never found a fish Avarm enouuli

THAT GREAT LEVIATHAN. 41
to belch out Avhite vapor on a summer's day like a
steamboat. Such, then, is the Avhale's spout. And by the
spout the two kinds of whales, sperm and right,
can be distinguished. A sperm Avhale has but one
spout-hole, and throws the spout forward at an
angle of about forty-fiA^e degrees ^— a thick spout
and not very high, rising from a point near the
whale's " nose." A right whale has two spout-
holes, very close together. They are about
eighteen feet from the end of his head and, of
course, much nearer his lungs than is the case
Avith the sperm whale. Consequently the vapor
shoots up higher and as straight as a mast. It
spreads as it rises. I suppose, too, that the big
ness of a Avhale is something fcAV land.smen could
well give account of. As a matter of fact, a sixty-
foot Avhale is about as big as you Avill ever see.
Big enough, says any Avhaleman — big enough to
ser\'e as a very Avorthy adversary to pigmy man
Avho goes to slay him !
Very naturally you ask, as Brutus did (or Avas
it Cassius ? ) : " What meat has this, our Csesar
fed on, that he is groAvn so great ? "
That depends on your Avhale. The sperm
whale, having teeth, lives on deep-sea jelly-fish.
The right Avhale, Avhich is as toothless as any

42 THAT GREAT LEA'IATHAN.
dotard, lives on a tiny red creature called brit, no
larger than a spider, but so numerous as to color
the water a yellowish red over whole acres.
It is because of his choice of diet that the right
whale has his mouth filled with a huge sieve of
whalebone. That sieve is to let the brit through
and to shut bigger sea-things out.
The arrangement is a decided success. I haA^e
seen a right Avhale make a scoop of his broad lips
and rush through a field of brit (like a snow-
plow through a drift) and leave a trail of blue
water behind him. That is a sight to remember
and also a sound to remember, for AAlien a right
whale is feeding he spouts with tremendous force.
At such a time you Avill have no hope of striking
him. But right whales don't concern me nor do I
concern right whales. We were after oil and we
wanted sperm Avhales or none.
. The oil is made from the blubber, mainh', and
the blubljer covers the Avhale like a thick coating
of fat pork. In one sense it is a blanket ; it
keeps the whale warm in the coldest sea-Avater.
In another sense it is a shell — or even a padded
coat ; it relieves the tremendous pressure of the
water upon the whale's body when he sounds to
the depths of the sea.

THAT GREAT LEVIATHAN. 43
Sperm whales have, as already intimated, their
ups and downs. A large sperm whale remains
under water from forty-five minutes to an hour
and a quarter. That is a fact to go by. When a
whale has sounded and you are waiting for him to
come up, it is a relief to know that some sort of
limit is set ijpon his delay. But that is not all.
You can judge where he will come up. For a
whale travels, unless vigorously disturbed, about
two miles an hour. So you note which way he
headed when he sounded, and you measure off tAvo
miles in that direction, and you know where to
meet your friend again. This is an infallible rule
whenever it works.
But a whale has something beside ups and
downs and blubber. He has a marvellous
sagacity. By some mysterious process, Avhich
I suppose the Society for Psychical Research
would call " thought transference," AA'hales pass
the news of disaster from one end of a school
to another. When one of the company is
wounded, every whale within a radius of four
miles is advised of the fact. Sometimes the
alarm will bring speedy assistance. That gives
the whaleman only a better chance to ply his
"¦ainful trade. Sometimes a retreat is ordered.
The Avhole squadron AAdll dash away as by some

44 THAT GREAT LEVIATHAN.
instantaneous common impulse, evidently terror-
struck. Can a sperm Avhale be called a globe-trotter ?
Be that as it may, the sperm whale migrates far
and AAdde. Ships cruise on the shores of ChiH and
Peru at a distance of from two to one hundred
leagues from the shore, and you will often see
both in- and off-shore vessels doing nothing. At
other times all will be engaged. Where were the
whales while the ships lay idle ? RoA'ing over the
broad seas, no doubt, and many a mile aAvay,
a-taking of their ease.
It is known to a solid certainty that AA'hales
have been harpooned in the Atlantic ocean, and
have been afterward taken in the Pacific. The
marks on the irons proved the identity of the
AA'hale every time. Old Blubber seems to travel
for change of scene. It is clear that he is not led
to migrate by any fear of the whalemen. Indeed,
Avhales are not easily driven aAvay from their
feeding-ground by ships.
But whatever the ups and downs of that Avhale
alongside the Swft. and whatever the vicissitudes
of his travelling days, one thing Avas clear. That
Avhale was dead. Like Marley of blessed memory,
he Avas dead as a door-nail. Unlike Marley, how
ever, he could never come to life again. They
Avere cutting him in. I saAv it done.

THAT GREAT LEVTATHAN. 45
I beheld two stages slung OA^er £he side of the
ship, each stage six feet long and a foot wide.
Men stood upon the stages with sharp spades —
one to cut the blubber, the other to kill the sharks
that would have devoured our prize.
I saw an aperture made near the whale's fin. I
saw the great hook inserted. I saw a semi-circle
cut around the hook.
Then they took the falls to the windlass. The
Avindlass wound in the chain. The chain passed
through a block at the main-mast head. The chain
then became the tackle, heaved hard at the iron
hook, and stripped the blubber from the whale.
The blubber came off in a continuous spiral
strip. The whale meanwhile kept turning over
and over in the water. The ripping of the blubber
from the carcass Avas guided by the sharp spade of
the officer on the stage.
I saw a strip of white, pork-Hke blubber,
twentv-fiA^e feet long and five feet wide, hoisted
into a perpendicular position and its top touch
ing the mast-head. Then they cut the piece
( "blanket-piece," they said) loose from the Avhale
and lowered the blubber into the ship's hold
between decks, at the same time attaching the
other tackle to a fresh cut in the whale's flesh and
preparing to raise another blanket^piece.

46

THAT GREAT LEVIATHAN.

THAT GREAT LEVIATHAN. 47
I saw this process repeated until the blubber
was stripped from the whale.
I saw the head cut off from the huge beast
and hoisted on deck. I felt the great ship
strain. The standing-rigging on the starboard
side slackened. The mast bent over like a whip-
stock. I saw the Swift Hsted till her plank-shear
was nearly level with the water.
A filthy column of black smoke rose out of the
try-works. They were cutting the blubber into
horse-pieces, mincing these pieces, and putting the
hashed blubber into huge pots with brick flooring
under them and a blazing fire of blubber scraps
blazing around them. Thence the oil passed into
a huge copper cooler and thence in turn into casks.
They made merry over the boiling. They
nibbled bits of fried blubber, and they fried
doughnuts in the grease.
The whole ship was befouled, but we soon had
her cleaned up again, man-o'-war fashion ; and
what was better yet, we coopered a hundred
barrels of oil.
" Lands and seas," said I to myself, " this is the
biggest business afloat or ashore."
But as yet I had not chased a whale.

BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND
BACK AGAIN.

' Escape me?
Never.Beloved! " — Browning.

" Tell me, messmate, why in the name of aH
that's shipshape did you ever come to sea ? "
" Shiver my soul if I can tell ! "
" I'll teH you, boy, I'll tell you. You come to
sea just to see the Avorld. Ain't I right. Jack ?
All you come for was just to see the world. You
Avanted to clap your blinkin' top-lights on Nuka-
hiva, an' Upolo, an' Hivaoa, an' the Cape, an'
Mahee, an' all them high-saoundin' places you
hearn tell on Avhen you was knee-high to a marlin'
spike." The older man spoke with an air of preternatu
ral knowingness. He leaned forAvard insinuatingly
upon the stout iron hoop that ran under his arms.
The youth, as he listened to this relentless diag
nosis of his distemper, lolled back upon his own
iron hoop and thrust his half-akimbo elbows out
across it. The tAvo Avhalemen Avere upon lookout
duty at the mainmast head of that staunch old
hooker, the whaling ship Swift.

BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN. 49
"Tabwnsend," the old sea-dog continued, "I
don't much blame you for coming, but by the
bloody wars you're a fool if you desert. We've
had blasted poor luck, I knoAv, blasted poor. And
I know, too, we've all got to lose by it, every Jack
Tar of us, all the way from the old man on the
quarter-deck down to CharHe Robbins in the cabin.
Some ways I'd rather be to sea in a merchantman
and git reg'lar Avages 'stid o' goin' by lays. But I
tell you, Taownsend, you're a blarsted ninny if
you try to get aout o' this butter-box. First
place, them tattoo natives'U make dunder-funk
o' your tender timbers 'fore aou been ashore half
a day. Nex' place, you'll never git a lift off that
there island if you once git on it — you'll just be
a low-daown beach comber all the rest o' your
natchral days. Third place, the old man'll git the
darbies on you 'n less 'n a week an' then you'll be
back aboard o' here an' Avishin' you was plumb
dead." A very determined look glaring out of the
old blubber hunter's sharp eyes showed that he
thought his logic invincible.
One fact, however, he had wholly overlooked.
Townsend was in debt to the old man. He had
shipped for a long lay and had a thumping big
bill for outfitting and board before we sailed from
4

50 BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN.
old New Bedford. So if he remained in the Swift
throughout the voyage he would have Httle or
nothing coming to him at its conclusion. There
fore, from Townsend' s standpoint it was worth
Avhile to take big risks and try to ship again.
The venture involved no loss and a possible gain.
So, despite the grave counsel from the ancient
mariner, this daring young citizen of Rochester,
N. Y., gazed wistfully toward the splendid wooded
island — one of the Navigator group, better known
xmder the name of Samoa — AA^hich rose majesti
cally out of the ocean, green, luxuriant, fascinating.
It was scarce two miles aAvay.
"My stars!" said Townsend to himself, "my
stars, if I was only there ! "
No amount of good advice could change ToAvn-
send's determination to leave the ship. Old
Bowline might have informed the officers of Town-
send' s plans, but he thought he had talked the
boy out of his folly. So the project developed
quite as if it had suffered nothing by interference.
We cruised so near the Samoa Islands that not
infrequently the natives would come off in canoes,
bringing the usual commodities — fruit, cocoanuts,
iowl and pigs — to trade for cotton cloth, gun
powder, iron hoops, and the trinkets and gimcracks
they always find so desirable.

BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN. 51
It often happened that a canoe would bring
along as trader and interpreter some renegade
whaleman who had deserted his ship and turned
" beachcomber," living among the natives, and
little better than the worst of them. This is one
of the strangest things about sailoring. A sea
man's civilization will drop off like the cast skin
of a rattlesnake when he goes to live among
savages. While trading was going on — and it would
sometimes last two days at a stretch — the old
man would keep one of the brown-skinned, yellow-
haired, frizzle-headed tatooed natives on board as
a hostage. The old man had learned caution by
bitter experience. At Hivaoa we had found it by
no means easy to keep the natives from kidnap
ping a red-haired sailor. They thought his scalp
worth more than his life. At Auhuga one of our
men Avas actually roasted and eaten.
That was a lesson to remember. We never
took chances after that. But with a native host
age on board the ship, we were not afraid to go a
long way in-shore in our boats, though we never
quite ventured to land. When the trading was
done and we were about to leave, we would send
the hostage off in one of our boats, and as soon as
we came within swimming distance of the shore

52 BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN.
we would pitch him overboard and make him
paddle for terra firma.
Now it was on one of these occasions, Avhen a
hostage was being returned to the bosom of his
tribe, that the Rochester boy found an opportun
ity to desert. He was in the boat as we took off
the native, and when the tatooed man was about
to start ashore, ToAvnsend suddenly jumped over
board and swam for the land. The officer in
charge ordered him to return, but he never paid
the least attention — just tumbled through the
surf, scrambled up the beach and made away
inland as fast as his truant heels could carry him.
" Blast my luck," said the officer, " blast my
ugly luck ! Noto I'll have to face the music !
Now the old man'll make me waltz ! " But he
checked the outpouring of his chagrined rage.
He tried to recover something like dignity before
his men. The men, on their part, suppressed their
merriment. Without another word from anybody
the boat returned to the ship.
It was just as the second mate had predicted.
The old man flew into a terrible passion, swore
hideous blasts of blubber-slicer profanity, cursed
everybody and everything from the chief mate to
the carpenter's ditty-box, and voAved lie'd have
that Townsend back in his clutches again if he had

BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN. 53
to chase him till the end of time. He didn't care
what it cost. He'd get even with that cussed
young beach-comber if he had to die for it, and
all the rest of us along with him. He'd rather
get a good fierce grip on Ed. Townsend than try
out the last sperm whale in the South Pacific —
he'd be Mowed if he wouldn't !
But, as on former occasions, we saAv the gale
bloAv by. The Avorse the old man raged the
sooner he would calm down. And Avhen the
tempest was over, all that remained of the case
against Townsend was a sincere desire, with
a proportionate determination, to recover the
services of so good a sailor.
So the next day we stood in to another bay,
about four miles to the lecAvard of the place that
had Avitnessed Townsend's escape. There, unable
to drop our mud-hook, we lay off and on.
We had not been long in the bay before a canoe
came off Avith a white man and two natives. That
wfjis just the very thing the old man wanted. He
received the visitors with eager welcome, invited
them into the cabin, ordered drinks for four, and
dismissed the steward, Avarning him to shut the
door tight behind him.
The quartette remained in solemn executive
session for half an hour. Then the cabin door

54 BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN.
opened, the men came up on deck, and as the
visitors clambered down into their canoe again I
heard the old man whisper over the rail, " Now
remember, my man, two white flags and you get
your reward ! "
Then we stood off and put to sea, cruising the
grounds again looking for whales.
One warm, bright, clear-shining Southern morn
ing we Avere fanning along under a cloud of canvas
over a delightfully smooth sea, when a cry from
the clouds called down the spirited warning I had
heard on a former occasion :
" There she blows ! Sperm whale ! "
" Where away ?"
There Avas breathless excitement on deck. My
heart hammered against my ribs. I shook with
bewildered suspense.
" Four points on the lee bow, sir."
The words stabbed through and through me.
"How far off?"
" Three miles, sir."
The captain Avas in his element. His eyes
blazed. His face was Avhite. His voice was harsh
and strident. He was master of a splendid
occasion. " Call all hands ! " he thundered. " Get your
boats ready ! Square the mainyard ! Put the

BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN. Ob
helm up and keep her off ! " Heavens, Avhat
confusion !
" Stand by your boats ! "
At that, every man knew his place and sprang
for it Avith an eager bound of joy. I was among
them. For the first time in my young life 1 Avas
to go in a Avhale-boat. I Avas in the mate's boat.
•• Lower away Ijoats ! " bellowed His Majesty.
Instantly the mate and the boat-steerer sprang
into the cedar boat — one in either end, boat-
steerer forward, officer aft — and our crew were
over the ship's side before the boat splashed in
the water. We pounced upon our thwarts, seized
our long oars, looked sharp astern, and took the
prompt word of command. I pulled after oar.
The sail was up in a twinkling. It bellied out
full. We dashed headlong after our prey. We
were in the lead. The captain and the second
mate followed close.
I shall noA'er forget the dazzling sensations
of that first moment — the tall ship, Avith her
checkered sides and her huge Avhite davits ; the
tAVO sharp-boAved clinker built boats — five long
oars in each ; tAvo on one side, three on the other;
the sun-glint upon the oar-blades as they Hfted
above the surface, the Avhite splash Avhen they
dipped again ; the rapid, nervous, brutal stroke ;

56 BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN.
the pose of the officers as they stood in the stern-
sheets of the boats, each with his lifted left hand
holding the steering oar, and each with his right
hand pushing upon the stroke oar ; and, yet more
vivid, the one figure I could see in our own boat.
For the mate stood last, steering with one hand
and helping me row with the other.
How those men sprang to their oars — it makes
my blood tingle to recall. The oars bent in the
water. We ripped through the waA'es, the spraj-
dashing high and Avhite. We were chasing the
whale !
And here is the wonderful thing. I had riot yet
got a glimpse of the Avhale. In the confusion and
excitement of lowering away, I had not even seen
the column of vapor that marked him to vioAv. I
sat toiling in that pitching and careening boat,
with my back toward the whale.
It was terrible — going to my death, it might
be, and going backward !
The mate's face reassured me. He was cool
and determined — teeth clenched, eyes glaring,
brows knitted, but not a sign of anxiety. He
kneAv no such thing as fear.
He thrust out his chin. I could see the cords
draw stiff in his neck. His face Avas red from
exertion. Every nerve thrilled Avith a fierce joy.

BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN. 0/
He whispered encouragement to his crcAV — hissed
it — gasped it.
" Spring hard, my Ha'cIv hearties ! Spring
hard ! Break a stick, will you ? will you ? break
a stick ! Come, come, come, — spring hard ! "
We pulled like mad.
" Not a word — not a word ! If you make the
least bit of noise I'll brain every one of you !
Come, come, — break an oar!"
We exerted ourselves to the uttermost. We
bent the oars till I thought they Avould snap
in two.
" Give away, boys ! Spring hard ! "
The captain tried his best to outfoot us. The
water leaped in foam around the proAV of his boat.
Suddenly the mate's face changed. He bit his
lip. His eyes stared fixedly. He thrcAv back
his head.
" Peak your oar," he hissed. Then he shouted,
" Stand up and let him have it ! "
I thought niA- heart Avould burst. Everything
swam before me. I gripped my oar tight. I
thought I was fainting.
" Starn all," the mate roared. " Starn all, and
get out of the suds ! "
I fell forward with m}^ full Aveight upon my oar.
The mast and sail came down as by magic. The

58 BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN.
mate rushed forward ; the harpooner rushed aft ;
they changed places. The line leaped out of its
Flemish coil in the tub.
We were fast to a whale !
The whale sounded and the line flew after him.
It smoked around the loggerheard, it buzzed as it
raced past the men, it groaned in the chocks.
They poured water on the loggerhead to keep it
from taking fire. The whale, with two harpoons
in him, took tAvo hundred fathoms of our line.
He was gone but Ha'c minutes.
Then, oh the horror ! A vast, black, shining
mass stood up ten feet out of Avater on our lee
beam. It Avas the whale. He had come up head
first, a hundred feet away.
The boat-steerer swung the steering-oar Avith all
his might. The boat instantly turned half about.
" Haul Hne, all hands ! " whispered the boat-
steerer. The Manila line came in Avet and heaAy,
and ran back into the stern-sheets. We Avere
gaining upon our pre}'.
" Take your oars now."
Again we were brought Avith our backs to the
whale. The awful moment Avas at hand. Oh, for
eyes in the back of my head ! The officer must
already be standing up, lance in hand, ready to
strike the murderous blow.

BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN. 59
The boat-steerer' s mouth was half-open with
expectancy — and behold ! Almost against our
boat, and just awash of the surface, the monstrous
black bulk of the whale ! He stretched huge and
dim under water. Only part of him could be
seen. A slanting column of hot white vapor stood
up ten feet tall, like a rakish mast. It was the
whale's spout.
When the mate's lance had been sent into the
whale's vitals, the boat dashed away from the
monster, and I got my first good view of him.
He was cutting and thrashing like a cat in a fit.
The water all round him was crimson. Jets of
thick, cloggy blood — a hogsheadful at each jet —
leaped six feet high from his spout-hole. Then
gradually the jets greAV feebler. Then the blood
merely poured out. Then the whale took a swift,
\Aade circle against the sun, threw his whole mass
out of water, breaching ; fell on his side with
a hideous, wallowing splash ; stuck one fin up,
quivering ; dropped his huge, ivory-toothed jaw,
and lay dead, in a lather of blood and foam !
An involuntary yell of triumph went up simul
taneously from all three boats.
We rowed up to the whale, and before we
attached our tow-rope, the mate ran his lance into
the whale's eye to make sure the life was all gone

60 BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN.
out of him. He never even quivered. So the
line Avas made fast to a slit cut in old Blubber's
spout-hole, and Ave towed his huge carcass to the
Swift. On the way thither. Brother Bowline,
Avho was pulling bow oar, leaned forward between
strokes, and said, in jerky phrases interrupted by
his Avork, " I tell you, Charlie, young Townsend
Avould be sorry enough — if he could see us now,
don't you — say so, boy ? Never saAv prettier
fight, no — body hurt, nothin' broke. Lord, how
I pity that fool on the island ! "
It amazed me to see how easily Ave towed the
tremendous, sixty-foot carcass. After Ave once
got the whale started he seemed to propel himself.
You Avould never think it from his " model," and
yet the big beast can run like a race-horse Avhen
he's alive. The motion is all but effortless — a
little squirming movement of the tail sends him
Avhizzing through the Avater.
We cut that whale in and boiled out his blubber.
Then Ave set about a most unaccountable task.
The old man ordered it and we had to obey, but
we growled while Ave Avorked. The task Avas no
less than the sending down of our light yards —
top-gallants and royals — and the striking of fore
and mizzen-top-gallant masts. There seemed to
be no need for such a procedure. There Avas only

BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN. 61
a very light breeze blovidng, and not a sign of a
storm anyAvhere.
Old Bowline thought the crew were being hazed.
He reminded his shipmates that the old man had
had " such times " before. Didn't CA^ery man
remember pounding the anchor hour after hour ?
Could anybody forget the unnecessarA' holyston
ing of the deck ? Had nobody any recollection of
wearing out his knees pushing a " prayer book "
— and SAvearing inside his jumpers Avhile he did it ?
I, for my part, had quite different suspicions.
I could not shake myself wholly free of the notion
that all this change aboard the Swft was in some
way connected with the old man's farewell admoni
tion to the beach-comber : " Remember, uoav. two
white flags, and you get your rcAvard ! "
After ten days had gone by, an island rose
proudly out of the ocean.
It was the same green, Avooded paradise we had
last put out from — a beautiful, mountainous oasis,
if one may so speak, in ' the vast waste of blue
waters. We stood in for the beach-comber's bay, my
fancy big with expectancy. I knew now why
the old man had disguised the ship.
It all fell out just as I had expected. We beat
our way up the harbor, and I Avatched the shore

62 BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN.
with eager eyes. Presently I saw a canoe coming
off, dancing on the swell, her paddles dipped first
one side and then the other, six Kanakas on her
thwarts and a white man in either end. Each
white man held up a white flag.
Full of waggish fun, the old man made ready to
wear ship as soon as the canoe approached, and
when the Swift came round so as to expose the
five bold capitals painted across her stern, one of
the white flags went down as if the man in the
canoe's proAv had suddenly been shot. The man
fell flat in the bottom of the canoe, burying his
face in his hands.
He was our man Townsend !
The beach-comber brought the canoe alongside,
and her crew, Townsend not excepted, clambered
on board.
We shouted with wicked glee. " What'd I tell
you," said Old Bowline. " Didn't I tell you you
was a blarsted ninny ever to desert ? Now you've
got your come-up-ance ! " I called out, " Hoist
by your own petard ; hanged on your own
gallows; caught by your own flag ! " But the
captain called us all aft and prepared to lay down
the law.
We stood in a sort of loose ring on the quarter
deck. Townsend faced the captain. Poor truant,
he was pale as the ship's courses !

BRINGING AIR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN. 63
The old man looked the picture and personifica
tion of awful wrath.
" Townsend," he began in a sepulchral tone
that made us all shiver — but he never got any
further with his intended oration.
" Ha ! ha ! ha-a-a ! " he bellowed. " Thought
you'd run away from the captain of the whaling
ship Swift , didn't you ? Oh, ha ! — ha ! — ha ! —
ha-a-a!- Come, my hearties, just tow this deserter
before the mast and tell him what you think of
him ! Far as I'm concerned I've got only this to
say : if the poor fool plays me another trick like
this, I'll make it hot for him ! "
Then, turning to the beach-comber, he said,
" We'll settle accounts in the cabin, if you like ! "
RIGHT WHALES.
We cruised about three months in the Southern
Ocean, looking for right whales. We saAV many,
and took six hundred barrels of oil and about five
thousand pounds of bone.
One day, when the weather was fine and
the ocean very calm, we lowered and gave chase
to two monstrous right Avhales that were going
slowly to the leeward. The captain's boat came
up to them first, and succeeded in striking one.

64 BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN.

BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN, 65
Instantly down went both the whales. When
they came up again, the mate struck the other
one. They proved to be a bull and a cow — the
coAv Avas struck first.
The bull made the sea foam. He cut around in
great fury and stove tAvo of our boats — the cap
tain's and the mate's — and the lines had to be
cut to get clear. The second mate came along
lively and picked up the crews, Avhich came near
sinking his boat. Eighteen men in one boat, and
the ship four miles aAvay to lecAvard — a pleasant
prospect ! And as the wind had died down com
pletely there was nothing for it but to roAV, and
that in an all but sinking boat, so crowded
you could hardly move without knocking your
neighbor overboard !
But that was not the Avorst of it. The Avorst of
it fell upon myself and another dare-deA'il young
chap — or rather he and I brought it doAvn upon
ourselves, for we volunteered. It was this way.
The captain was bound not to lose sight of the
stoven boats, and wanted two of the men to stay
by them until he could bring the old hooker and
pick them up. We two, being young and fearless,
offered to take the job. We stood each on the
stern and bow of a boat, sunken just to the
water's edge, and hung on to a flag-pole for three

66 BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN.

BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN. 67
terrible hours, with the two wounded whales
cutting about and making the water white AAith
their huge flukes, only a little way from where
we stood.
All that while we were afraid for our lives, as
Ave were out in the middle of the ocean and the
ship Avas four miles oft'.
It is always with a shudder that I recall that
adventure, though fifty years and more have
gone by since then. But I remember that even
when the danger was worst, we found room for
joking and one of our men cried out, " Better
have paid your washwoman ! " That is the usual
gibe when a man is caught in a stoven boat, for
there is a belief among whalers that if you don't
pay your washwoman you'll suffer the penalty of
getting your boat smashed.
PITCAIRN'S ISLAND.
Here I insert a piece of literature penned
by the Swift's mate and contributed to Ellis's
" History of New Bedford."
" Making our passage to the eastward," says he,
" when in the longitude of Pitcairn's Island, the
ship was put to the north, and at 8 A. M. on the
next day, Ave made the land, appearing more like

68 BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN.
a sail or ship in the long distance. On nearing
we found the island to be nearly 2000 feet high,
and about five miles in circumference, with a
ledge of rocks making off a few rods from the
north and south points. When within two miles
of the islands five of the natives came off in their
canoes, the canoes being dug out of a tree ten or
twelve feet long and about two feet Avide, with
keel from three to four inches broad.
" The natives, before coming on board, very
politely asked permission of the captain. They
speak very good English Avhen talking to English
or Americans, but not intelligibly at all to me
Avheu talking to each other, owing to their talk
ing so A'ery quickly. At 9 in the morning I Avent
on shore and found it very tiresome in walking
up the long, steep hill or cliff. Their houses are
built of boards, planed the sides and ends. The
sides ship and unship on account of its being
very Avarm. The roofs are thatched with the
leaves of the trees. We found the people very
friendly and hospitable ; the Aoung married and
single women very diffident. They are tall — the
most of theiu — and handsomely shaped. Their
every-day dress is a loose gown, Avith no shoes,
bonnet, or handkerchief. The children are very
pretty and healthy and are good scholars. The

BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN. 69

70 BRINGING AIR. TOAVNSEND BACK AGAIN.
boys at ten and eleven had gone as far as the
rule of three. The men are well made, tall, with
good features, and are A'ery strong. They are A'ery
fair and honest in all their dealings. Their prin
cipal industry is in cultivating the ground. The
island is equally divided among all the jseople. In
trading with ships CA'ery family sells an equal
share. The women are very strong. I met
several coming from the mountain. When down
to the village I took the load from some of their
backs, and counted five large watermelons as one
load. ' These Avomen are between the ages of
thirty and forty, and the mothers of ten or twelve
children. An American lady can hardly come up
to that. The girls are marriageable at the age of
twelve, and mothers of fine children at thirteen.
Rather too young for our folks.' The above in
quotation marks is a copy from my journal, writ
ten in the fall of 1839, at the time of our visit to
the island. When the boats returned to the ship
Avith the captain, he was accompanied by John
Adams, the son of John Adams, one of the
survivors of the Bounty, the son of Lieteunant
Christian, the leader of the mutiny. By invita
tion of Adams I spent the night at his home.
His family consisted at this time of wife and one
daughter, and I received the most hospitable

BRINGING MR. TOWNSEND BACK AGAIN. 71
treatment in their simple and womanly manner.
The boats coming in in the morning were loaded
wi1;h the products of the island when I returned to
the ship."

I I

RUDDER SIMPSON, MYSELF
AND THE PERSONAGE.

* strangers in strange places should always be strangers."
— Ruth Ashmore.

" 'Taint much like a New Bedford Sunday, eh
boy?" " Not by a long sea mile! "
" Church in the morning — Holy Joe in his
heavenly togs. Bull-fight in the afternoon —
Holy Joe on deck with blood in his for'ard lights,
b'gawsh ! Gra?iny Howland ! what a crew these
here heathen Chilenos be ! Eh, boy ? "
" Pious, though."
"Eh?"" Pious, Rudder, pious as a saint in a stained-
glass window. I was on shore yesterday ; and
Rudder, you ought to've seen the turn-out. Beats
man-o'-war' s men at quarters. Pretty as a New
Bedford Fourth-o'-July. Long strings o' priests
and such ; big crew o' sogers ; band o' music ;
flags and candles ; and all the dagoes in Talca-
huano turned loose and shouting Spanish so I
thought they'd bust an oar — sure ! I gave

SIMPSON, MYSELF AND THE PERSONACJE. 73
chase, o' course, and they made off to Avindward
and brought up in some kind o' big square."
" Plaza," said Rudder. " That's Avhat these
here heathen Chilienos calls it."
" Yes," I Avent on, " that's the Avord. Funny
lingo they talk here. And, Rudder, that Avhole
turn-out was brought up all standing by an order
from the colonel, or general, or Avhatever they
call their ' old man,' and then they got out a
dummy of Judas Iscariot."
" Effigy," laughed Rudder, " That's the Avord
you're soundin' for."
" Well, effigy then. That whole ship's company
fell in line again, and peppered that effigy Avith
cold lead. Then they set the old moss-back afire,
beginning with his boots, and Avhen the fire crept
up amidships he l)leAv himself to bits, like a Ixmib
lance, and all the people yelled and jumped and
croAved. Don't you call that piou.s, Ruddei' ?''
'¦ Well, t'aiu't my notion of piosit}-. Piosity,
boy, is to keep out o' jail, keep out o' bull-fights,
and steer clear o' them dev'lish pulparees. That's
Avhat / call piosity. An' them pulparees — I tell
you, boy — them pulparees is the sartin road to
Granny Howlau' 's washtub. Why, there's one
now, boy." (A moment of hesitation, a Avriggle
of futile resistance.) "Say AA'e go in?"

74 SIMPSON, MYSELF AND THE PERSONAGE.
I laughed outright. So did Rudder, and in
Ave went.
A pulparee is by interpretation a grog-shop.
Pulparla is the Spanish, but we mariners give
it a turn of our own. Dark and grimy is the
pulparee; desperate and dangerous are the idlers
that lounge there ; Adle and strong is the fiery
liquor they drink.
I stepped across the well-worn threshold with a
stinging sense of guilt. I had never entered such
a place before. I was a thorough-going teeto
taller. And besides I began to Avonder how ever
should I manage to comport myself becomingly in
the fellowship of these hard and reckless chole
drinkers. I was sorry, now, that I had let Rudder
Simpson take me in tow.
My embarrassment, however, was soon relieved,
for a superb native, gorgeous in many dazzling
colors, stepped up to Simpson and engaged him
in conversation.
" Bowling-alleyo," said the glittering stranger,
" Senor Hka play nine-pinza ? "
" You're right," said Rudder, flattered with the
attention, "Where away?"
" Come," said the dazzling personage, Avith a
stagy gesture. He looked as if he had just
stepped out of " Carmen."

SIMPSON, MYSELF AND THE PERSONAGE. i O
The Personage led the way into the street, and
we followed. We passed on together along a
thoroughfare crowded with Chilian merrymakers.
Here an organ grinder had gathered a motley
crowd of listeners. Yonder a man and a woman,
bothpeones, were dancing the zamacueca. Leisure
ly throngs strolled by on their way to the
bull-fight. Now and then a pretty senorlta
peered out at us through a grated window
piercing some stout adobe wall.
Spanish was spoken on every hand. Rudder
and I enjoyed the novelty of the situation. It
was a great thing to have a notable personage to
serve as guide and guardian, as we roamed through
that old, white-walled, red- tiled Chilian town.
We came at last to a sort of cheap inn, or
posada, entering which, we crossed the enclosed
patio and found ourselves in the bowling alley.
Here the Personage bargained with the salloAv,
round-shouldered, little proprietor, and explained
to Rudder the terms of the agreement. It Avas
simplicity itself. The loser of the game was to
pay for the use of the alley.
Then the game began. The Personage threw off
his emerald-hued ^onq/zo and gaA'e it to me to hold.
With a magnificent Avave of his patrician hand,
he said to me, "You, senor, pick up ze nine-pinza!"

76 SIMPSON, MYSELF AND THE PERSONAGE.
Rudder could not have made me do it. I
should have fought to the last eyelash. But for
the personage — Avhy, certainly, with pleasure !
It was a great treat to watch those two men
play. What a curious contrast! The Personage
would take his cigarrito between the fingers of his
left hand, poise the wooden ball in the palm of his
right hand, strike a startling, statuesque attitude,
and then, with a sudden spring that sent the long
red sash swinging against his yellow breeches, and
brought the huge silver spurs of his tall boots
banging against the floor, he would hurl the ball
down the alley. Then he would pose like Hamlet-
when he says, " To be or not to be," and wait to
see the result.
Rudder, on the other hand, rolled into range
with a slovenly waddle and discharged his missile
Avithout further ado. Whish-sh-sh-sht, bumpety-
bump-hump-bumj), whir-r-r-r, crash ! Down would
go the nine-pins — never less than six — gener
ally all nine ! But with the Personage it was
not so. Had he been drinking az<^ac?e;i^e — aaIio
knoAvs ?
I picked up nine-pins for fullj' an hour.
From time to time I saAv a pained look in the
Personage's proud face, for the Personage was
playing a losing game.

SIMPSON, MYSELF AND THE PERSONAGE. 77
When the hour was done. Rudder said, " Now
colonel, you settle with the Czar ! "
"/ — howyousaya? / paya ze gamo ? No,
senor, no ! You Avin, you paya ! I lose ze gamo.
You lose ze oro — how you saya ? — ze monee ! "
"No, ye don't," cried Rudder. " Blowed if
ye do!"
"Si, senor. How you say? — yes, sirra!"
" Blast ye ? " bawled Rudder. " Pay doAvn that
cash or I'll make old rags out o' yer rainbow togs.
Blowed if I don't! Hear that. Dago?"
Now, as a matter of solemn fact, the Personage
had not so much as a piastre in his wallet. He
had already spent his last copper for augadente in
the pulparee.
Rudder was not uncommonly quick of percep
tion. It was a moment before he fully grasped
the enormity of the outrage the Personage had
perpetrated upon him. When he saw through
the scheme, he boiled Avith Avrath. Before he
had time to lay into the Personage, the round-
shouldered proprietor stuck his sallow A'isage
through the door of his lair, and seeing AA'hat was
up, made' haste to insure himself against fraud.
He expostulated fiercely with Rudder and
the Personage, demanding four times the usual
fee.

78 SIMPSON, MYSELF AND THE PERSONAGE.
" Say, old boss," said Rudder, " this sunset
dandy here won't pay down the cash ; an' if he
don't, I'll shiver his blarsted timbers, b'gawsh !
Hear that, ye blasted Dago ? "
The Personage puffed his cigarrito in silence.
Rudder gazed at his enemy a second in unutter
able malice. Then he swung his huge palm in
air and brought it across the face of the Per
sonage with a slam that knocked that worthy's
cigarritto clean into his mouth, light and aU !
Now, I flatter myself that my wits work quicker
than Rudder Simpson's. In an instant I got three
different Adews of the situation. First, this was
a den of robbers and the Personage was a decoy
to lead us into peril, the provocation being raised
by him to induce us to begin the fight and take
the consequence if ever the case got into court.
Second, this was a first-class hotel, but full of the
friends of the Personage, who would be willing to
take his part in a quarrel. Third, the hotel was
well-nigh deserted because of the bull-fight, and
therefore there would be few witnesses of what
might presently occur. In any contingency, the
scene of the battle must be immediately trans
ferred to the open street.
To this end I grabbed the Chileno's green
poncho, slapped him on the head with it, to

SIMPSON, MYSELF AND THE PERSONAGE. 79
attract his attention, and then turned and ran
like a gallied whale.
The Personage dashed after me. Rudder
Simpson dashed after the Personage, and the
round-shouldered alley-owner dashed after Rudder
Simpson. I led my excited followers a swift chase
across the patio, plunged headlong through the
posado and brought up in the street. Once there
I dropped the jjoncho, and just as I did so, the
agile Simpson landed a merciless right-swing on
the Chileno's starboard ear.
Neither the stoop-shouldered proprietor nor the
eighteen-year-old cabin-boy cared to get mixed up
in the row, so we two stood well back from the
mill. We were not alone, however, for the battle
was no more than joined when up came a dozen
sailors from various ships in the harbor.
" I sy," bawled a ruddy Cockney, " 'ore's a
bloody row the syme as a bloody bull-fight !
Wat's on ? "
" 'It 'im, Yank, 'it 'im bloomin' 'ard ! "
"Avast ! " cried a Nantucket Avhaleman. "His
chimney's afire ! He's spoutin' blood ! It's his
flurry ! "
"No, 'taint; he's only a little groggy. There,
my hearties, bring the claret — give away,
boys ! "

80 SIMPSON, MYSELF AND THE PERSONAGE.

" That's right. Jack, you're a good 'un, 'eart
an' 'and ! "
" Watch 'im, watch 'im ! There, good un ! "
By this time the Personage had lost his silk
sash, his shirt Avas torn open from shoulder to belt,
and his hairless head was, as Dr. Doyle would say,
a study in scarlet. Rudder, on the other hand,
was still in prime condition. He was badly out of
wind and he had a lump under his left eye like a
pigeon's egg, but there Avas unlimited fight in that
huge, lanky frame of his. He made a furious lead
at his foe. The two men grappled and clinched.
The Spaniard was forced to the wall.
" Give it to him, Yank ! "
" Look sharp, Yank ; 'e'll spur."
And spur he did. That was what he had been
waiting for. He jabbed the sharp steel rowel
deep into the calf of Rudder Simpson's leg and
ground it to and fro in the wound.
" Down kilHck ! "
" Kill the Dago ! "
In Rudder's effort to escape the spur he had
lost his balance, and the two desperate men fell
to the earth together.
" Bully for you ! "
" Kin 'im, Yank ! "
" Don't get galHed ! "

SIMPSON, MYSELF AND THE PERSONAGE. 81
But best he could do. Rudder was forced under.
Then I heard a half-smothered cry : " Help —
quick — more beef!" The Spaniard was biting
Rudder Simpson's nose ! !
I sprang to the rescue. As I did so, a dozen
Chilenos came up out of the ground. A dozen
more dropped down from the sky. I battered the
Spaniard with both fists till I thought I had killed
him, and then —
Two seconds later it was several hours after
ward. I opened my eyes — or rather, my eye, for one
of them somehow stayed shut — and observed
iniportant changes in my surroundings. Four
walls had closed around me. A low couch had
worked its way in under my back. A heavy-
raftered roof unaccountably met my gaze. In
other Avords, I had been carried into a house and
rescued from the blood-thirsty Chilenos.
It was night.
I took in the situation only by degrees. A dark-
eyed woman was sitting at the foot of the couch.
She was brightly clad, and she had a brilHant
shawl thrown over her shoulders. Her hair hung
in two heavy, dark braids. The woman gazed
across the room. Her attention was fixed upon
someone speaking. That someone knelt before

82 SIMPSON, MYSELF AND THE PERSONAGE.
an image of the blessed Virgin, and Avas praying
aloud to the holy Mother of God ?
I had never heard such pathos in a woman's
voice. It was the agony of unanswered prayer.
It was a sweet voice. The woman was very
young. I could not understand what she said, but I
know she was entreating the Maid of Galilee to
spare my life. I could not bear to see the woman
so sad ; so I moved gently on the couch.
" Oh, Inez ! " cried the mother.
The girl sprang from her knees. The two
women embraced each other and bent over me.
Their brown eyes shown with exultant joy ; their
hair brushed my face.
I felt like a person suddenly required to make
a speech. I had been saved — saved from the
fury of a blood-thirsty mob ; these women had
saved me — I owed my life to them ! Oh, how
could I thank them enough ? I tried to frame
some sort of expression for my gratitude; but
then it occurred to me that I had a capital
excuse for saying absolutely nothing at all. I
knew not a single word of Spanish.
What an agreeable relief !
But had I attempted even the feeblest sentence,
it would inevitably have been interrupted, for just

SIMPSON, MYSELF AND THE PERSONAGE. 83
then there was a deafening uproar in the street.
I could hear loud cries. The words were Spanish.
I could nevertheless understand one word, Ameri
cano, and I realized that I was the person so
earnestly held in request.
Inez rushed to the windows to make sure that
the shutters were securely barred. As she did so,
she left a pretty picture in my memory — her
white arms outstretched, her head thrown back,
her hair luxuriant and beautiful. She was my
guardian angel.
I lifted my head to watch her, but the effort
made me dizzy, and I swooned again.
I think it must have been only a few minutes
before I was myself once more, but when I next
realized the possible gravity of the situation, the
mob had gone and we were for the moment safe.
Inez sat by my side, stroking my hand and look
ing distractingly lovely. I noticed the pungent
odor of some foreign drug. On the table was an
open flask.
But now there came a fresh assault upon the
street door. Again I heard cries.
Chilenos f No, the rabble had gone their way.
Vigilantes ? No, those mounted night patrolmen
were apparently quite indifferent to the fact of
my existence. The voices were familiar A'oices,
and the words were English.

84 SIMPSON, MYSELF AND THE PERSONAGE.
" Hi there, boy ! You in there, you rascal ?
Come, turn to ! None o' your sogering I Do
you hear the news ? Tumble up, lively ! " It
was the old man !
I shouted back, " Spanish folks in here. Don't
known English. Can't tell 'em to open the
door ! "
" Open it yourself, then, you leatherhead ! "
That was unmistakably the mate's voice.
Now my preservers, hearing English spoken
and realizing that the men on the doorstep must
be acquaintances of mine, or at all events no
enemies, else I should have been afraid to answer,
opened the door.
In strode the two burly men. The captain
never looked so big, the mate was never so surly.
" Well," the old man observed in a tone of
infinite disgust, " here you are with your head
broke ! "
My head was not exactly "broke," though it
was by no means attractively embellished by my
recent battle with the Personage. I had a gash
about an inch long over my left eye, and that
luckless optic was completely closed by the black
ened swelling.
The old man roared at me with such thunderous
ferocity that Inez was frightened. She seemed to

SlilPSON, MYSELF AND THE PERSONAGE. 85
think my destruction was now a matter of grim
certainty. She threw herself upon her knees
between the old man and his prey. Her mother
at the same time seized the mate by the collar.
It was like a scene in a melodrama !
I found the gust of cool night air from the open
door very refreshing. There was a certain ener
gizing property also in the old man's harsh voice.
I ro.se from the couch. I felt so much better that
I thought I could Avalk alone. I tried — yes, I could.
My first impulse was to kiss Inez (the dear
girl!); but it occurred to me she Avould hardly like
to be kissed by a chap with a broken head and a
game eye. I found it somcAvhat easier to refrain
from kissing her mother. I had not the slightest
temptation to kiss the old man.
As it Avas, I bowed, and Avaved my hand in a
futile sort of pantomime, and Avished Avith all my
heart I could put my farewell into AVords, for then
I should have made Inez promise to write often.
I Avas pitiably conscious of figuring in an aAvkward
and inglorious attempt at sentiment. It was as
absurd as that place in Fanny Burney's novel
Avhere it says, " They both wept, curtseyed and
withdrcAv." Very little was said about the affair, however,
as we three Americanos returned to the Swift.

86 SIMPSON, MYSELF AND THE PERSONAGE.

Of course I was wriggling with curiosity to know
what in creation had become of Rudder Simpson
and the Personage. I wanted to know, too, what
had been the result of the fight and the subse
quent riot. I suppose it was part of the old
man's vengeful design to keep me in ignorance
of the facts.
Next day, as I rose from my bunk, I was seized
with a sudden fit of dizziness — from loss of blood,
the old man said — and in consequence I was
ordered to remain in bed all day.
I have always supposed that that was done in
malice. The old man babied me there in port as
you never saw him baby me at sea.
I spent that day imagining all possible and
impossible outcomes of the affray. I sent Rudder
to jail, had him tried for bloody murder and shot
like a dog. I visited a similiar fate upon the Per
sonage. I even congratulated myself that it had
not been my own lot to leave my bones in the
Potter's Field at Talcahuano. Over and over I
turned the story till it became a sort of waking
nightmare, groAving constantly more and more
hideous. I have heard of the fashionable woman
who said she couldn' t go to Europe because she Avas
reading seventeen serial stories. My own interest
in this Chileno romance was hardly less keen.

SIMPSON, MYSELF AND THE PERSONAGE. 87
The day passed uneventfully, but late that
evening a shout went ringing through the ship.
calling all hands. All hands ! And in port !
what possible emergency could occasion such an
appeal to force as that ?
I leaped from my bunk, grabbed hastily for
boots and trousers, pulled them on in a jiffy, and
dashed up the cabin stairs. It Avas bright as day
only it was a horrible, yellow-red light. All was
confusion on deck. Orders were given in quick
succession. All hands Avere needed to save the
ship. I sprang up the ratlines with the rest. I
heard a voice say, " She's the Ganges, shipmates,
the Ganges, poor barky ! " He was right. Off
to windward lay the handsome, well-found, full-
rigged ship Ganges of Fall River, swathed in a
shroud of flames.
In my excitement I obeyed orders automati
cally, not stopping to consider the meaning of
the words I acted upon. SomehoAv I had got
the hollow of my feet set upon the foot-rope and
my arms flung over the particular yard assigned
me as my post of honor. I could see the Ganges
ablaze from stem to waist. A man at my right
was doing precisely Avhat I was doing, Avaiting for
a bucket to be passed to him. The man had a
white nose. It was covered Avith sticking plaster.

88 SIMPSON, MYSELF AND THE PERSONAGE.
"Why, Rudder," I exclaimed, "I didn't knoAv
you were alive ! "
" Oh, yes," said the imperturbable Simpson.
" Nose in a sling, but still seaworthy. Rigged up
jury-nose — see ? "
The fire burst through the Ganges' main-hatch,
sending up a fountain of rushing, soaring, spread
ing, fluttering red sparks. They scattered out
over the sky. They fell in hot showers upon a
score of anchored ships. Every endangered ves
sel had men aloft.
Buckets were passed from tarry hand to tarry
hand. We drenched the masts and yards and
sails and rigging.
" Why in the name o' sea-sense, don't somebody
scuttle the old hooker ? "
•' 'Fraid to."
" Don't wonder ; no fun to go below in a blazin'
butter-box — resky, blamed resky . But AA'hy in
blazes don't  Oh, look, boy, look! clap yer
for'ard lights on that — they done it a'ready ! "
So they had. The old ballahoo settled aAvay,
like a spaded shark, and went hissing to the
bottom, only her blazing masts still stuck out of
the Avater.
" Good," said Rudder, " bully for every man
Jack of 'em ! "

SIJIPSON, MYSELF AND THE PERSONAGE. 89
Those various men Jacks were at that time
afloat in their whale-boats, and now they made for
a ship near by. The light had nearly faded aAvay,
but Ave could still see them. In fact, Ave could
see the whole Bay of Conception, and the " long,
black land " six miles away across the harbor.
" AVell," said Rudder, " s'pose the old man'll
keep us a-soakin' this here riggin' a good haour
more, blast 'im! "
" Then, Rudder," said I, " tell me Hoav that
fight came out. I don't knoAV a thing that hap
pened after I AA-as hit."
" Well," said Rudder, " 'tain't no great twister.
Chilenos an' mobs an' Dago police, an' the steward
o' that there Ganges, that's jest naow a-bunkin'
in Granny's wash-tub there, stuck in his blazin'
innards an' took to the haw-spittle, an' not a
blamed stitch o' liberty for them sweet, lob-lolly
boys sence ! Them's the facts, boy."
" And what do you think now of that big
Chileno Personage — duke, baron, earl — some
such nabob ? "
"Not by a jugfuU ! That there rainbow dandy,
so says Slush Dooley (an' he's knocked araoun'
Talky-wanno nigh onto a twelA'e-month), that
there rainbow dandy, says he, Avhy, he's just a
darned old farmer. Them togs is Avhat they Avear

90 SIMPSON, MYSELF AND THE PERSONAGE.
up-country. BIoav aH their cash on their jeans !
An' I tell you, boy, they ain't no true piosity in
splicin' elbows AA-ith Dago strangers — not of a
Sunday, no, sir — not if the court knows herself,
an' (feeling of his plastered nose, and glancing
mournfully at my bandaged head and blackened
eye) she thinJcs she do ! "
We finally bade adieu to the beautiful islands
of the South Pacific ocean, and began our home-
Avard voyage. We had a fair passage to the Cape,
but as we neared that point of storms and gales,
the days grew shorter and the weather more
boisterous. When we ran to the eastward, we
encountered heavy gales, with a tremendous sea
running. Although the gales were a fair AA'ind
for us, the old man did nob run nights, as the ship
Avas deeply laden with oil, and he was afraid of
losing our boats or having our decks swept by the
sea Avashing over us. We hoA'e to several nights,
and on one of these nights Ave lost a man over
board. Thanks to the tireless exertions of the
crew, he was saved from a Avatery graA-e. He
had been sent aloft to loose the fore-top-sail
during the night and Avas stepping from the top
sail yard to the rigging, when the ship fetched a
heavy roll to the windward. He missed his hold
and fell into the sea ; but as he was to windward,

SIMPSON, MYSELF AND THY. PERSONAGE. 91

«oump.
¦<
fafaO
QPS<!
O »>Of!¦*

92 SIMPSON, MYSELF AND THE PERSONAGE.
the sea washed him up to the side of the vessel.
The night was very clear and the moon was full,
SO' Ave could see the huge waves Avash him up the
ship's side and the receding wave, or undertow,
take him aAvay — sometimes fifty feet away. It
would have been folly to attempt to lower a boat
at that time. There was, however, only one other
thing to do, and that we did. The men tied ropes
around their bodies and hung over the side to
grasp him if possible. After a while a sailor
caught him by his foot, but his boot came off and
we Avere almost ready to giA'e him up as lost. Yet
in a short time he was seen again, and was thrown
to the side. Just at that moment one of our men
seized him by the arm, and with help got him on
board. The poor fellow was nearly done for,
but by rubbing him, and wrapping him in warm
blankets, and giving him hot drinks, Ave saved
him. I have hinted at this story before. This
was the man Townsend who tried to desert us at
the Navigator Islands.

THE CAST-AWAY.

"Alone, alone ; all, all alone !
Alone on a wide, wide sea ! "
— Ancient Mariner,

TRISTAN DE ACUNHA- ALMOST A WRECK.

" As beautiful Nancy was ¦svalkin' one dy,
She met a young sylor, al) hon the 'igh-wy,
'E stept up beside 'er, and to 'er did sy,
O Avare hare ye goin', tell me pretty myde ? "

" Bully good ! " shouted a dozen gruff voices,
" You sing like a gen'leman o' forshun ! Take
'nother turn around the capstan an' give us nex'
versh ! "
" Close-reef, first," replied the Cockney singer.
" Ware's the bloody bottle ? 'Ere, Weatherface,
— the bottle, you lubber ! "
The British tar threw back his burly head and
took an observation through his tumbler. He
glanced round expectantly upon the crowd of
whalemen, awaiting a more distinct encore.
" Nex' versh ! " roared Weatherface, making
the low coral walls re-echo, " Nex' versh ! "
Then they all shouted together, " Go on. Jack !
Go on ! "

94 THE CAST- A WAY.
So Jack Burkett took up his song again, sitting
astride the canoe's bows in that abandoned boat-
house, the light from a single lantern streaming
warm and yelloAV in his hard face while he
sang, —
" As beautiful Nancy was walkin' one dy,
She met a young sylor, all hon the 'igh-wy,
'E stept up beside her," —
" Avast ! Avast ! " bawled Mattapoisett Joe,
" Avast ! you boozy lime-juicer, you 've sung
that verse a'ready. You're half-seas over, lad.
You 're drunk as old Weatherface."
" 'Old on, ye bloody Yank ! Hif ye don't like
me bloody chanty, then just ye sing us a bloody
chanty as ye do Hke."
" The bottle," said Mattapoisett Joe, with a
bland smile. " Will my brave friend Weatherface
kindly pass me the bottle ? First I'll splice the
main-brace, and then I'll sing, as requested.
Come, my bulHes, we '11 all drink together ! Fill
Tip your glasses — how 's this for a toast ? —
' Be cheery, my lads ! May your hearts never fail,
While the bold harpooneer is a-striking the whale ! '
There, clink your glasses I — now shoot the
sun !

THE CAST-AWAY. 95
Up went twenty chins in air. Down went
twenty scalding gulps of New England rum.
Mattapoisett set his empty tumbler on the
coral window-sill, leaned heavily against the wall,
folded his brawny arms, and began, — his round,
mellow baritone filling the boat-house with a fine,
vibrant melody. It was a voice that would have
been worthy of applause in better company.

" When sunk deep in sleep on the ocean,
'Neath southern skies" brilliant blue dome.
In fancy I hear the trees rustle,
That shaded my window at home.
I hear the flocks bleat in the meadows,
The cries of the men to their teams.
But dearer to me are the many
Loved faces I see in my dreams."

" Good, good, good ! " they shouted, Britons
and Yankees alike. Mattapoisett Joe had chosen
the one song that would soften every heart, the
" one touch of nature " that would make the
whole sailor-world kin. He took up the second
verse : —

" First rises the old chimney corner,
And then my dear father I see,
Whose pride ties are over, are over.
His children to have on his knee.
And then by the bunk-board stands mother,
With eyes full of sweet, loving joy,
AA'ho, ere going to rest, bends to oiier
A prayer for her poor sailor boy."

96 THE CAST-AWAY.
Had the Hght from the lantern been a very
little brighter, all hands might have beheld real
tears welling up in the eyes of Jack Weatherface,
but whether his tender sentimentality was due to
musical responsiveness, or to an affectionate dis
position, or to a guilty conscience, or to the
effects of New England rum, no fellow can say for
certain. His feelings, however, were those of the
whole company. The song had found their
hearts. Mattapoisett sang on, with a half perceptible
quiver in his Aoice : —
"All changeless beside me is standing,
A sweet girl I know, oh so well !
A voice murmurs, ' Break not your promise,
You made in the green, leafy dell ! '
Now she's gone ; and I start from my pillow.
Aroused by the sea-birds' wild screams.
And I'm far, far away from those loved ones,
Whose faces I see in my dreams ! ' '
There was a moment of silence.
Then " Bravo ! Bravo ! " burst from the throats
of the whalemen.
The low rafters shook with their applause. Six
tumblers were smashed in the uproar, and the
sashing was knocked clean out of the Avindow-
frame. " Come," said Mattapoisett, " Curse the doleful
chanty ! Let's take a cruise around the old

THE CAST-AWAY. 97
French town ! There's a bottle half-full. Put it
under the canoe. When Ave come back we'll
finish it off, and then we'll be half-full, eh, my
hearties ? "
With that the twenty ruffians burst through
the door, — all but one, the English cooper, who,
for half-inebriated reasons of his own, preferred
to remain behind in the boat-house.
NoAv the palm wooded summit of " Mt. Blanc,"
looking down from the altitude of three thousand
feet, has seen many a wild time in old Victoria.
Often and often has the little island of Mahe,
though biggest of all the Seychelles, been fairly
made to shake under the riotous revelling of
whaling crews ashore. But of all the fierce nights,
this black and starless evening Avas among the
fiercest ; and of all the disorderly gangs ashore on
Mahe, these Yankees of mine and these British
tars from the " lime-juicer " were far to the fore.
" You know the old saw, ship-mates," sang out
Mattapoisett Joe, " We must all hang together or
we'll all hang separately ! "
"Aye-aye," said Jack Burkett, "splice helbows
heverybody. Hey, my lively 'earties. Splice
helbows hall 'ands ! "
And so they did; nineteen tipsy sailors all lock
ing arms and careering wildly through the toAvn.

98 THE CAST- A WAY.
They danced around a gens d'armes, they OA^er-
turned a fruiterer's truck, they smashed a
dozen windows, and they kissed all the girls they
could find on the streets. Then they locked arms
once more, and charged down the main avenue of
Victoria on their way back to the boat-house.
'• Half bottle leff ! " gurgled poor, old Weather
face. "Splice main brace, — brace main splice, —
close-reef ! "
As has already been intimated, the cooper of
the English whaleship, though absent, had not
been made conspicuous by his absence. Now,
however, as the rollicking party tumbled into the
boat-house again, the cooper became shockingly
conspicuous by his presence.
He lay stretched out in the canoe, like the
Lady of Shalott, and he was quite as unconscious
as that unfortunate celebrity. Beside him lay
the bottle ( a " dead soldier " ) entirely empty.
At first sight of so horrid a spectacle a howl of
dismay went up from, the crowd.
"Blast his toppy blood-lights!" roared
Weatherface. " How'll we main splice-brace
now !
"Curse the cooper," said Burkett, "we'll
cooper 'im; we'll put the 'oops on 'im; we'll
'ammer 'is styves ! "

THE CAST- A WAY. 99
But Mattapoisett was the recognized ring
leader. " Avast ! " he cried, " See all clear !
Shove them big doors open ! We '11 do for
the son of a sea-cook ! We '11 do for him hand
some ! Bear a hand there, my bully chummies,
handsomely ! Cheerily ! Now, ~ shipmates, all
together ! "
With that the ruffians seized hold of the
cooper's canoe, rushed it swiftly down the beach,
and launched it out into the darkness and the
night. Then they staggered back into their lair, shut
the big doors, laid in a new bottle of " close-
reef," drank the health of the cast>away cooper,
and toasted his many virtues.
They topped off the barrel-smith's obsequies
w^ith that ghastly sailor-song since made famous
by Stevenson :
" Fifteen men on the dead man's chest,
Yo - ho - ho, and a bottle of rum.' '
"Rum, rum, rum, an' bottle o' ho -ho! " mut
tered the hilarious Weatherface. " Let by-gones
be 'gones ! Somebody sing sholly janty ! "
Burkett, so merry that he had quite forgotten
his somewhat recent discomfiture, called lustily
for a chanty from Mattapoisett Joe. The whole
crowd took up the cry.

100 THE CAST-AAVAY.
It was really wonderful what a cargo Matta
poisett could carry. He was a little uncertain in
his steps, and he had an air of general inaccuracy
that shook one's faith in his mental stability, yet
his tongue had not forgotten its cunning.
The song as a song was a genuine triumph.
Ah, yes ; but the selection was most unfortunate.
It was entitled " The Sailor's Grave," and ran like
this : — ' ' Our bark was far, far from the land.
When the fairest of our gallant band,
Grew deadly pale and weaned away.
Like the twilight hours of an autumn day.
We watched him through long hours of pain ;
Our cares were great, our hopes in vain.
At death's stroke he showed no coward alarms,
But smiled and died in his messmates' arms.
" We had no costly winding-sheet,
We placed two-pound shot at his feet ;
He lay in his hammock as snug and proud
As a king in his long robe, marble bound.
We proudly decked his funeral vest.
With the stars and stripes across his breast —
We gave him these as a badge of the brave.
And then he was fit for a sailor's grave.
" Our voices failed, our hearts grew weak.
Hot tears were seen on brownest cheek,
A quiver played on the lip of pride,
As we lowered him over the ship's dark side.
A plunge, and a splash, and it all was o'er,
The billows rolled as they rolled before ;
But many a wild prayer hallowed the wave,
As he sank to rest in a sailor's grave."
It may seem strange till you stop to think of it,
but no applause rewarded the song. Each man

THE CAST- A WAY. 101
had solemn and guilty thoughts in his heart, which
were roused into terrible activity by Burkett's
ill-chosen chanty. Yet no one spoke. The men
were squatting on the boat-house floor, leaning
lazily against the white walls. The yellow
lantern was smoking dismally.
At this junction, so ominous of sullen resent
ment and its possible result in blows, if not
bloodshed, a sudden interruption changed the
scene abruptly.
There was a loud rapping on the door and cries
of " Ouvrez la porte, ouvrez aux gens d'armes,
vous etes nos prisonniers ! Place aux officiers ! "
A dozen uniformed Frenchmen, armed to the
teeth, dashed into the boat-house ; great con
fusion ensued ; scAcral pistol-shots Avere fired into
the air ; there were grapplings and bloAvs here
and there ; and then the biggest of the gens
d'armes, no doubt a sort of prefect of police,
screamed out in broken English, " Silence ! Je
command silence ; you think you pouvez raise le
diable in zis place ! You think you pouvez
embrace tous les davies! 1 tell you non, non,
NON, messieurs ! "
Amazed at the brilliant behavior of the prefect,
the whalemen " came to order." In an instant
the boathouse seemed transformed from a field
of battle to a court of justice.

102 THE CAST-AWAY.
Mattapoisett pleaded for the whole crowd,
urging that his followers were a well-meaning
lot of lads; gentle little things, you knoAV, and
very young ; and that they were not altogether
familiar with the customs of Mahe, and had
offended unwittingly. How were an innocent
crew of foreigners to know that the ladies of
Victoria objected to being promiscuously kissed ?
In New Bedford, he insisted, it was so different.
They were very, very sorry, and would never,
never, never disturb the island again.
The upshot of the matter was that the drunken
sailors were all shipped off to the whalers in the
harbor; and, thanks to Mattapoisett' s logic and
rhetoric, no arrests were made. HoAvever a gens
d'armes came aboard the Hope to notify me that
my crew had received an official reprimand, and
from the Hope he went directly to the captain of
the lime juicer.
" Ciel!" he said, "Fos hommes, ne sont-ils j^cis
mechants ? "
Now, Avlien the English officers counted noses
next morning, they found many a grog-blossomed
bill, but there were not quite bills enough to suit
them. Some one was missing.
There was no cooper to Ije found amongst the
crew !

THE CAST-AWAY. 103
Apparently the cooper had deserted ; or was it
not possible that he had been arrested and jailed
for participation in the night's disturbances ? In
either case there Avas but one thing to do — appeal
to the authorities on shore.
This the bold Briton reluctantly did, hating
above all things to ask a favor of a Frenchman.
At the same time he sent off a boat to call at
CA'ery ship in the harbor and request that diligent
search for the missing cooper be made on board.
The day went by ; the whole island and the
whole harbor were searched with the utmost care ;
but the lost sheep could nowise be brought back
into the fold.
A council extraordinary met in the forecastle of
of the lime juicer that afternoon and chose Jack
Burkett as their uuAvilling spokesman, deputing
him to proceed to the quarter-deck and to render
to the captain a full and complete confession of
their manifold sins and Avickednesses, neither dis
sembling nor cloaking them, but acknoAvledging
them all " with an humble, lowly, penitent and
obedient heart."
So Burkett went aft upon the hateful errand.
He told the Avhole disgraceful story — nineteen
sailors crazy Avith rum, the English cooper set
adrift in an oarless and paddleless canoe, and a
strong tide running out to the ocean.

104 THE CAST- A WAY.
Rage like that of a frenzied demon blazed from
the old man's tough countenance. He swore a
volley of terrible curses.
But as soon as he came to himself he realized
that not a moment was to be lost in the mere
indulgence of righteous wrath ; so, calling " 'Hall
'ands " aft, he detailed the men to various duties
in rescue service.
The mast-heads were to be manned directly.
Two boats were to spread the news through the
harbor and ask assistance in the name of human
ity. The other boats Avere to sail and row out to
sea as far as they dared and Avith all speed, keep
ing Avide apart, to cover as large an area as
possible, and search for the cooper's canoe.
I gladly lent my services in so imperative an
enterprise. I was the more eager to help find the
cooper because, years and years before, I had seen
a cooper buried at sea, and my sympathies Avere
touched and my fears aroused by the recollection
of that pitiful scene. Was the poor EngHsh
barrel-smith to be lost in the deep, buried in its
restless waters, and not to be honored with even
the formal reading of a written service ?
It is strange Avith what vividness such impres
sions live in one's memory, and upon Avhat slender
grounds of suggestion they rise ancAvinto activity.

THE CAST- AAA' AY. 105
It seemed but as yesterday that we had left Talcu-
huano for a cruise on the coast of Chili, and we
were only a few days from port Avhen our cooper
fell violently ill. We were within a day's sail of
Valparaiso, so the old man steered for that port
and went on shore for medical advice. He
returned with some medicine, but it proved of
no avail. Next day the cooper died. We kept
him till the following afternoon, and then Ave
buried him.
At four o'clock the ship's headway was stopped,
the stars and stripes flung out at half-mast, and all
hands called to bury the dead. Wrapped in his
blanket and sewed in strong canvas, with a bag of
sand ballast at his feet, the dead man's body Avas
brought to the Avaist and laid gently on the gang-
Avay board. As the captain read the solemn
sei'Alce, the men uncovered and bowed their heads.
At the words " We commit his body to the deep,"
the pall-bearers lifted the body sloAvly at the head ;
and then — all that remained to us of our ship
mate Avas the pleasant memory he left behind him,
for he had always been a favorite among our crcAv.
So Ave left him to his peaceful, dreamless sleep,
" there to await the general resurrection in the
last day." That night I read Avith a better
understanding the cheering words of the Apostle,

106

THE CAST-AWAY.

THE CAST- A WAY. 107
" This mortal shall put on immortality." (You
didn't know they had Bibles on whale-.ships? Yes,
they do ; and what's more, they read them.) I
had witnessed many burials on shore, but none
had ever impressed itself so indelibly upon my
mind as this solemn burial at sea.
Nor was this the only tragical recollection that
haunted my mind as we joined in that heart
breaking search for the castaway.
For my thoughts Avent out to a certain place
upon the northern end of Bird Island, one of this
same Seychelles Group — a spot I have ever since
called the mournfullest as well as the most deso
late place in the whole world. There, grouped
together upon a lonely, sun-beaten flat, whose
stillness is broken only by the heavy, rolling surf
that dashes on the shore, are the graves of a dozen
sailors who have been buried from whale-ships
cruising around those banks for whales.
Once more I seemed to be standing alone
among those uncared-for graves, and looking
out across the waste of waters toward the distant
home, thinking I could see some poor mother
Avaiting and longing and watching, and at last so
grieA'ously disappointed ; or perhaps a AA'ife and
her little children, enduring prolonged separation
from the one best loved of all, because they are

108 THE CAST-AAA'AY.
saying, " It can't be much longer, dearie, — it
can't be much longer!"
Then was this poor English cooper to be denied
even so desolate a resting-place as the sailor's
cemetery on Bird Island ?
And who — I could not help asking — who
Avould be the broken-hearted ones at home ?
Who Avould listen Avith grief and with tears to
the shameful story of the drunken castaway and
his tragical end ? Oh, there would be sorroAV and
mourning in that little English hamlet on the
Devonshire coast ! Not tonight, nor tomorrow
night ; but a whole year hence, it might be, or
even longer, when the tale would be told at home
by the A-ery men who had sent the cooper to his
doom. Darkness settled like a pall upon our dishearten
ing enterprise. The stars, blazing doAvu from
that southern sky, glared pitiless and cruel. The
moon — red, sullen, mockingly splendid — rose
out of the ocean and made a broad, straight path
to the horizon. (Out upon that path, the men
said, the cooper's canoe had gone.) " Mt. Blanc"
loomed black in the far distance. We could still
see the lights on the ships in the harbor, though
the lights of the town had already sunk into
the sea.

THE CAST-AWAY. 109
At last we turned back and went aboard the
whalers. We had satisfied ourselves that the
cooper had ere this met his death.
There was grief and remorse aboard the Hope.
Half our men had murder written red across
their souls.
All the next day the crew brooded and repented
and growled. There were no songs in the fore
castle. There was no mention of " The Sailor's
Grave." There was no allusion to faces seen in
dreams. They had all seen the same face. Nor
was there any inclination to go ashore. The town
was a haunted town, the boatrhouse a haunted
house. The men longed to leave port. In the
changeless routine of sailing or the adventurous
vicissitudes of whale-hunting, they could forget
their crime.
And so even the third day Avent by much as
had the others before it, though there was a lively
scuffle in the forecastle late that afternoon. Mat
tapoisett Joe was knocked down and jumped upon
by three of his shipmates.
When I looked into the matter I found that
Mattapoisett had been assaulted as a punishment
for — what do you think ? — whistling ! A trivial
offense, you say. Yes, but listen.
" You can't blame us, sir,'' said Weatherface,
when all hands had been called aft for the investi-

110 THE CAST-AWAY.
gation. "He was whistling the tune of that
devilish song, —
" ' Fifteen men on the dead man's chest,
Yo - ho - ho, and a bottle of rum. '
If you was us, you'd jumped on him, too, sir!"
I turned to the bruised whistler, and I said,
" Joe, my man, what shall I do to these lads ? "
" Let 'em all go, sir," said Mattapoisett, " I got
no more 'n I deserA'ed."
" Now go forward, every man of you," said I,
" and let me hear no more of your troubles."
I say the third day went by. Perhaps that is
an over-statement. As my men started forward,
the sun was already setting. The whole harbor
was red in its glare.
No sooner had the crew left the quarter-deck
than loud cheers were heard off to starboard.
The men on the British whaler were dancing
about like lunatics, pitching their caps into the
air, and shouting themselves hoarse.
" 'Urrigh ! 'Urrigh ! ! 'Urrigh ! ! ! " they yeUed.
" 'Ere's for the cooper, once more, boys, —
'Urri-i-i-i-igh ! "
A tiny fishing smack had been beating up the
harbor for the last hour, and now she was coming
alongside the lime-juicer. Once Avithin hailing

THE CAST- A WAY. Ill
distance, her skipper had cried out to the British
captain, " Ahoy, monsieur ! Ahoy ! J'ai voire
coopier ! "
No cooper was seen, but the cooper's canoe
followed close in the wake of the sloop.
Just then two heads appeared above the fisher
man's hatch-way. A moment more, and a third
head came in view.
It was the cooper — pale and sick and haggard,
but still alive — carried in tho arms of his
preservers. " Hurray ! Hurray ! " our sailors answered
when they fully took in the situation. Then they
danced as wildly as the Englishmen, hugged each
other like school-girls, and all but wept for joy.
"Hip, hip! " shouted Mattapoisett Joe, forget-
ing his bruises.
" Hurr-a-a-a-a-a-a-y ! ! ! !" yelled the whole
crew, and I yelled with them.
That night after supper I gave orders to my
men to put on their Sunday clothes, and to dress
our boats with all the bunting they could carry.
Weatherface was to bring his fiddle or be put in
irons. Little Tom Bunker was to bring his accor
dion or suffer a similar penalty. The cabin-boy,
a mere creeper on the face of the earth, was to
remain behind as ship-keeper.

112 THE CAST-AWAY.
Then we manned the boats, lowered away, and
pulled to the merry lime-juicer.
We found ourselves no unexpected guests.
Elaborate preparations had been made for our
entertainment. The " doctor" had filled his " cop
pers" with the most toothsome of land fare. The
crew had dressed up to receive us. The ship had
been loaded Avith bright-colored bunting. The
decks had been cleared for dancing. There was
an all-round, rollicking, sailorly good time that
lasted till midnight.
The poor cooper, though fully conscious of the
honors being paid him, Avas too weak and Avretched
to join in the festivities. A doctor from on shore
came off to look at him, and recommended hot
milk as a harmless restorative. When I looked in
upon the cooper the poor fellow turned his head
mournfully on his pillow and said, " Shiver my
soul, but I feel like a 'ard-boiled owl ! "
Next morning we hoisted our Blue Peter, a
homeward bounder. It was worth a cask of
sperm oil to hear our crew sing at the windlass as
they hove up anchor. I was an old sea-dog even
in those days; I didn't come through the cabin
windows; I was put through the mill, ground and
bolted ; but ueA'er in all my long and varied salt
water experience had 1 heard a crew sing better.

THE CAST-AWAY.

113

Mattapoisett's resonant baritone carried the solo
lines superbly. The crew shouted the refrain
with spirit — or, as little Tom Bunker said, " with
great Aenom."
"My boy he was a sailor, he sailed away to sea.
Heave away, my hearties ; heave away, my boys !
" But when he went to sea he vow,d he'd soon come back to me!
Heave away, my hearties ; heave away, my boys !
" He sailed upon a vessel, a-whaling for to go.
Heave away, my hearties ; heave away, my boys !
"It was a tedious journey, but he was bound to go,
Heave away, my hearties ; heave away, my boys !
" The captain was a good man, a sailor to the core.
Heave awav, my hearties ; heave away, my boys !
"T'was early in the morning, the watch was down below.
Heave away, my hearties ; heave away, my boys !
"A sailor in the mainmast crow's-nest sang out ' There she blows!'
Heave away, my hearties, heave away, my boys I
" They lowered the boats and struck the whale, and soon the
monster died,
Heave away, my hearties; heave away, my boys!
" They tied a rope upon him tight, and towed him alongside.
Heave away, my hearties ; heave away, my boys !
" We cut him in and tried him out, and stowed him down below.
Heave away, my hearties ; heave away, my boys !
"We'll set all sail, and head her straight, and homeward we will go,
Heave away, my hearties ; heave away, my boys !
" And soon we shall be home again; our friends we soon shall see.
Heave away, my hearties ; heave away, my boys !
'' And when we see New Bedford, we will no more go to sea.
Heave a'way, my heai ties ; heave away, my boys !
" And when we go 'longside the wharf, and put our feet on shore,
Heave away, my hearties ; heave away, my boys !
"You can gamble that we'll never go a-whaling any more,
Heave away, my hearties; heave away, my boys! "
It Avas just about Christmas time, fine hot
Aveather, that we came within sight of Tristan de
Acunha, Lat. 37° S., and Long. 12° 16' W. The

114

THE CAST-AWAY.

THE CAST-AAVAY. 115
Portuguese discoverer, AA'hose name the island
bears, put in his first appearance, so I have read,
in 1506. He certainly deserves to have his name
thus immortalized for he gave the world a new
treasure, indeed — a very pearl of an island, seven
miles across, as round as a dollar, and enclosing a
fresh-water lake which never freezes. That, no
doubt, is explained by the volcanic nature of the
Avhole formation. Cliffs, straight as a castle wall,
tower up from the water's edge to a height of
two thousand feet. Harbor there is none, and
but for a narrow inlet on the north side, no ade
quate landing place. A group of white-washed
stone houses on the north-Avest shore is the
nearest approach to a town anywhere on the
island. Now the reason all these details have fastened
themselves so tenaciously upon my memory is
that right here I came near losing my ship. It
was late in the afternoon, and we were taking off
supplies from the shore. The Avind — our only
stay since it was too deep Avater for our best
bower to touch bottom — had died out to a calm.
It was an Irishman's hurricane, straight up and
down ; and yet the strong ground-swell of the
ocean kept carrying us further and further in
shore. We cracked on every stitch of canvas we

116 THE CAST-AAVAY.
could spread, and Avith half a hand at the billows
Ave should have forged ahead all fluking ; but as it
was, our sails hung as limp as the dangling damp
sheets on an indoor clothes-horse. There was not
a bubble of white water at our prow. There was
not a streak or ripple in our Avake. And yet
moment by moment those awful cliffs grew taller.
We sent out a boat Avith a line — then tAvo boats
— then three ! — trying our sturdiest to ratch the
precious barky out of imminent danger. At last
the cliff-crests seemed to rise no higher, though
Ave dared not trust our eyes, we so longed to see
them stop rising. Already the breakers pounded
ominously at their feet. Already the sea-birds,
nesting amongst their crags, called hideously near.
By chance - — or rather, as 1 have always said,
by the providence of God — another ship — and
she a whaler, lay not far from us. I set my colors
for assistance, and doAvn into the water came her
boats, the davit-blocks creaking and the Avhale
men shouting encouragement to our three boats'
crews. Swift as so many racers in a regatta, the
stranger's cedar craft came ripping through the
smooth water, every dip and plash of their oars
seeming measurably to lift and lighten the burden
of our suspense. Six boats and thirty-six men
saved the Hope from being sent on that iron-

THE CAST- A WAY. 117
bound shore. We towed her well off shore, and
a tardy flaw of wind at last bellied out her canvas.
Then is it any wonder that I have never forgotten
Tristan de Acunha ?

THE WHALEMAN WHO WENT
ON THE STAGE.

' Being in a ship is being in jail, with a chance of being drowned."
— Dr. Samuel Johnson.

John Pierce certainly came down from aloft.
There could be no possible doubt about that. I
certainly spoke with him as he passed me on his
way to the forecastle. This much, I am sure, Avill
never be called in question.
But what followed — even to this hour it makes
me shudder, sickened with dread, to recall what
followed — the days of anxiety, the grim mystery,
the final despair, and the haunting, harrowing
problem of that tragical disappearance !
We had put in at Fayal to ship home some
hundred barrels and more of sperm oil, and then
cleared aAvay and steered to the south, carrying
all sail to get away from the island. We left at
five in the afternoon, and by eleven o'clock that
night, when Ave had made about fifteen, miles
offing, I gave orders to take in our top-gallant
sails, and poor Pierce went aloft with the others.
As he slid down the backstay and passed me on
deck, I had a pleasant word with him, and then he

WHALEMAN ON THE STAGE. 119
went forward and was lost to view in the darkness.
Many a time since then have I had reason to be
glad that my last words to the man were kind.
At four next morning, when the watch was
called, no John Pierce could be found.
Every nook and every smallest cranny in the
whole ship was looked into, but all to no purpose.
Not a trace of the fellow could we discover.
Reluctantly at last we gave him up as lost,
convinced against our wills that he had tumbled
overboard during the night.
A solemn hush fell upon us. Hardened, though
most of us were, and accustomed to the constant
dangers of a seaman's calling — used though we
were to these sudden disappearances from life and
duty — we could never be reconciled to them.
Indeed, it seemed as if each new death of this sort
Avere more dreadful than the one before it.
But, as usual, the sense of shock and of wrong
went by. The man's absence ceased to impress
us. At last we had almost forgotten the circum
stance of his taking off.
About one year from the night of Pierce's
disappearance, we were cruising off Madagascar.
I happened that day to be running OA^er my
log-book and chanced upon the entry of the facts
noted above. There was the record in my own

120 WHALEMAN ON THE STAGE.
hand, a deep border of black drawn around it. I
found that I had departed from the usual dry and
formal log-book style. Indeed, I had sentimental
ized not a little. Viewing, in calmer mood, this
eulogy of John Pierce, I could not help feeling a
little amused. I had always made fun of funeral
sermons, and here I had been preaching one
myself in black and white.
As I was in the midst of this reverie, the cabin-
boy dropped down the stairway to bring word that
a whale-ship had just been sighted. It Avas not
long after that, with customary ceremonies, we
spoke her. She proved to be an old friend from
Sag Harbor.
We kept fairly close together until sundown,
and then the Sag Harbor captain and boat's crcAV
came on board to spend the evening.
There in the boat, to our utter amazement, was
JOHN PIERCE ! He had grown a stubby beard
since last we had seen him, but that was no dis
guise. There he was (to my infinite relief) alive
and Avell — the same unmistakable, happy - go -
lucky, jolly Jack Tar as before he had gone to
his Avatery grave. It was enough to make a man
believe in the transmigration of souls ! I was
mightily glad to see him alive, though, to tell the
truth, I had not greatly missed his serA'ices.

WHALEMAN ON THE STAGE. 121
We got a part of the story from the Sag H<irboi-
captain. It seems they had sailed out of port
about ten in the morning, the next day after
Pierce's strange disappearance. At four that after
noon, when they were about fifteen miles from the
land, the man at the lookout on the mainmast
head reported something in sight, floating on the
water about two miles from the ship. The captain
went aloft with the glass to liaA^e a look at it, but
could not make out what it Avas, only he was certain
it was something alive, for it kept moving and
wriggling all the while, as if to attract attention
from the ship. The old man's curiosity Avas so
thoroughly aroused by this time that he A^eered
off his course and steered straight for the strange
object. " When I came near enough," said the captain,
" What should I see through my glass but a little
live man, squatting on the surface of the Avater
and waving his arms ! Yes, that's the real truth,
and I give an honest seaman's word for it."
My eyes were well open by this time, and I
was beginning to believe the story.
Talk about mermaids and sea-serpents and the
Flying Dutchman and the rest of the fo'cas'le
nonsense ! Here was a real, genuine thing to beat
'em all !

122 WHALEMAN ON THE STAGE.
" But the lad's aboard now. Here, John Pierce,
come into the cabin, my man, and tell Captain
Robbins the stiffest twister he ever listened to !
Come, make a clean breast of it. Tell us how
you proved yourself the fool - hardiest, dare-
devilest galley-growler that ever earned a sailor's
blessing ! "
Pierce had already come, unwilHng and Avith
much hesitation, through the cabin door. Appar
ently he was gladder to see me than he was to
have to talk Avith me.
" Give us your flipper, boy ; how are you ? "
said I.
Pierce grinned sheepishly. " Oh, I'm all right,"
he answered, " right enough anyhoAV for a fellow
that's been a whole good year in the bottom of
the sea."
" Come, come," said the captain, " out with it !
Tell the whole outrageous yarn from beginning
to end or I'll log you, haze you, clap the darbies
on your wrists, make a spread eagle of you, and
invite you to Avalk the plank ; and then if that
won't do, I'll shut you up in the run and feed you
on bread and water ! "
We laughed, all three, and the bashful Pierce
sat doAvn between the two "old men" and took
up his parable.

WHALEMAN ON THE STAGE. 123
" Fact is," he began reluctantly, " Stormy Jones
and I got sick 'o the voyage. Nothin' personal,
Cap'n, only we just thought we'd got to have a
change. " So I says to Jones, ' shipmate,' says I, ' let's
move ! '
" ' Avast,' says he, ' Avhere the deuce'll we
move to ? '
" Then says I to Jones, 'Stormy,' says I, ' you
know them stages ? '
" ' What o' them stages ? ' Jones asks, never
taking my meaning.
" Then I says to Jones, ' Bear a bob, messmate,
till I tell you the news. This is what we'll up
and do. We'll lower one of them stages over the
ship's bows in the middle o' some dark night and
we'll float away on it, us two, and before we're
old and gray and toothless some ship or other'U
come along and' pick us up.'
" ' Risky,' says Jones.
" ' Aye, aye, sir,' says I, ' Its risky, maybe, and
risky maybe not. Ships go in schools like coav
whales on these here grounds. Say we try it, my
man ! '
" Then Stormy agrees, old hypocrit as he is,
and next thing you know he goes and backs out
of it, and I finds myself turned captain and mate

124 WHALEMAN ON THE STAGE.
and crew and cabin-boy of a craft eight feet long
and just fifteen inches wide. But I says to myself,
' Pierce, you fool, you're in for it now, so trust
to luck for your miserable life. If you don't
do the act that Jones will tell the crew, and then
you'll have hell afloat the rest of the A-oyage.
" Well, Cap'n Robbins, you remember that
night I took my leave. You thought I'd gone
overboard, didn't you ? You was dead right, cap'n,
dead right, right as a right whale. That's just
Avhere I had gone. But you thought I'd lost the
number of my mess, and in that you were all
wrong ! "
I stared at Pierce, my eyes big Avith wonder.
The Sag Harbor captain stared at me, a broad
grin covering his hard red face as he watched me
take in this ridiculous confirmation of his story.
I said nothing.
"Go on. Pierce," said Pierce's captain.
" Well," said the sailor, " you've got most of the
yarn a'ready, sir. But, 0 Lord ! how my heart
sickened when I heard that stage go plunk into
the water on the Pope's bow. Then I slipped
down onto it and let go. It was all I could do
not to holler for help as the stage slipped aft in
the swash. Oh, but I was sick o' the job ! After
awhile I did holler, but it Avas too late. Nobody

WHALEMAN ON THE STAGE. 125
could hear me. Then I says, ' Pierce, my hearty,
you'll never'U see your Nancy ! '
" You know the rest. The cap'n here picked
me up when I Avas as hungry as a polar bear, and
deathly faint and scared and discouraged.
" But what beats me, Cap'n Robbins, is that
Jones held his tongue all that while and noA^er
told you the news ; for if ever a seaman was
rigged Avith self-acting jawing tackle, it's that
same lubberly coward of a stormy Jones ! "
This ended the mighty yarn. The Sag Harbor
man beamed red as a sunset.
" Aha, sir," said he, " you thought I could swear
through a nine-inch plank, didn't you ? But it's
true, every Avord, just as I tell you and just as my
man Pierce has said. And, Pierce, if the Cap'n
has no objections, you may go for'ard and see if
you caji't find some of your old shipmates in the
fo'cas'le." " Pierce," I added, " when you feel like it, you
may come back here and read your epitaph in the
log-book. You'll never recognize it as your own,
I'll warrant."
Then the Sag Harbor man lit his pipe, leaned
back in his chair, crossed his stout legs, and
changed the subject. " By the way, Cap'n," said

126 WHALEMAN ON THE STAGE.
he, " what do you hear from Ncav Bedford ? They
tell me its the busiest station on the Underground
Railroad."

"WHALES HAS FEELIN'S."

" "Whales has feelin's as well as anybody. They don't like to be stuck in the
gizzards, an' hauled alongside, an' cut in, an' tried out in these here boilers no
more'n I do! " — Barzy Afack's Biology.

The whale haAdng gone down, we waited for
him to come up again. Three boats danced idly
upon the warm Madagascan water — the mate's,
the second mate's and my own. The sun blazed
viciously down from a cloudless sky.
We lay well apart, covering a large area of
swelling, billowy sea. When the whale came up
again, the real battle would begin.
A whole hour we waited in anxious expectance.
As is natural at such t-imes, my thoughts, mean
while, ran back years and years to other whales
and other fights. Once when I was a cabin boy I
had stood three hours in the stern of a stoven
boat, sunk just to the gunwale, while two wounded
whales were cutting about and making the Avater
white with their huge flukes, so near that it
seemed they must kill me. Was the monster,
down below in those vague amethystine depths,
preparing some such terrors for the present occa
sion ? I recalled, too, how once a dying Avhale
had brought his spout-hole up against our boat

128 "WHALES HAS FEELIN's."
and belched barrelsfull of gore all over us, so that
when I opened my eyes every man was painted
red — completely covered with fresh, hot blood,
so that we all jumped into the water for a hasty
bath. Was this sunken leAlathan making ready
to serve us thus today ? I also remembered Hoav
a gigantic spouter had tossed me on his flukes
— boat, boat's crew, craft and all — whist! —
twenty feet into the air, till it seemed that Ave'd
never come down ; and how I found myself at
last launched adrift, clinging to a piece of the
steering-oar, which had snapped off at the stern-
post bf the shattered boat. Had not this whale
flukes also ? Hoav Avould he use them ? Should
I be his victim ? or the mate ? or the third mate ?
There is something delicious in this exciting
uncertainty. It makes your blood tingle. It
makes your nerves thrill. It makes you feel
yourself ready to face the Avhole Avorld of perils
and proudly conquer them all. You stand in the
stern-sheets, leaning on the steering-oar, and as
you look into the faces of those Ha'c stalwart men
on the thwarts before you, you tell yourself they
are fine heroes, every man Jack of them. Yes,
heroes ! Soldiers face no greater perils. Soldiers
win no Avorthier laurels. Back of every trophy of
military valor, you must needs see human blood-

129

shed, human bereavement, human cruelty, and,
far too often, the human lust for name and place.
But the whaleman's glories are sullied by no such
shameful pollution. Is he rich when his sea-
toiling days are done ? He has impoverished no
one. Instead, he has added to the world's Avealth.
Is he successful in the pursuit of his calling ? Xo
AvidoAV and no tearful orphans mourn over his
triumphs. Is he proud of his profession ? He
can claim for it the good name of an honest liveli
hood, a lawful and law-abiding business, a field
for soldierly courage purged of soldierly brutality.
Nor do tyrany and oppression folloAV in his paths.
Instead, come only the blessings of a peaceful
prosperity. So, as I was saying, you stand and wait, a-tingle
with enthusiasm. You are in your glory now.
You would not for the Avhole world be any other
thing but a whaleman. You are glad that your
boyhood anticipated this splendid life of adven
ture, and aspired after its high responsibilities. To
its toils and its perils you willingly devote your
youth and best manhood. You will be proud, in
long years to come, to recount the history of your
daring sea-battles.
Few landsmen can understand these things.
You must go a-blubber-hunting on your own

130 "whales has feelin's."
account, fully to grasp their meaning. In fact
I know of only one land-lubber who ever really
caught the spirit of the whale-hunt, and that is
old Walt Whitman, who wrote those splendid,
pictorial lines (albeit they go devoid of rhyme,
and, in place of precise metre, have only a feeble
and slovenly wobble) :

" O the whaleman's joys! O I cruise my old cruise again!
I feel the ship's motion under me, I feel the Atlantic breezes
fanning me.
I hear tlie cry again sent down from the mast-head. There she
blows !
Again I spring up the rigging to look with the rest — we descend,
wild wi'h excitement,
I leap in tbe lowered boat, we row toward our prey where he lies,
AVe approach stealthy and silent, I see the mountainous mass,
lethargic, basking,
I see the harpooner standing up, I see the weapon dart from his
vigorous arm ;
O swift again far out in the ocean the wounded whale, settling,
running to windward, tows me.
Again I see liim rise to breathe, we row close again,
I see a lance driven through his side, pressed deep, turned in the
wound,
Again we back oflf, I see him settle again, the life is leaving him
fast.
As he rises he spouts blood, I see him swim in circles narrower and
narrower, swiftly cutting the water —
I see him die.
He gives one convulsive leap in the centre of the circle, and then
falls flat and still in the bloody foam."

Barring the single sentence " I see the moun
tainous mass," (apparently Whitman thought a
whale cruised around tAvo-thirds out of water, like

131

a steam-boat) that is a perfect description of the
taking of the whale. It is more than that. It is
the picture of the inner experience of the chase
and the fight — the joy of it, the glow of it, the
wild, fierce thrill of it !
I was Avishing with all my heart, as we Avaited
for that submarine lounger to return to the sur
face, that I could somehow tell which boat would
get a chance to fasten to him.
But a sudden end to reminiscence and philoso
phizing. Look ! There is frantic excitement in
the mate's boat off to leeward — " Stand up and
give it to him ! Quick, quick, quick ! " See ! — a
figure erect in the boat's bow — a long shaft
Avielded in both hands high over the man's head —
a momentary poise — a swift, springing motion —
a sudden recoil — the harpoon hurtling through the
air — the slender line singing after it — the weapon
sunk fast in something, and that something
sinking rapidly into the depths, dragging the line
through the chocks so fast the druggs could do
nothing to steady it — fifty fathoms — a hun
dred — two hundred ! The mate and the har
pooner have changed places. The men dodged
the flying line.
Now followed a fresh period of suspense —
anxious, but brief.

132 "whales has feelin's."
After a few minutes, there was a sudden uproar
in the second mate's boat. Again the excited cry,
" Stand up quick — give it to him ! ! Again a
heavy harpoon was sent a-whizzing through the
air, and plunging deep into that awful, water-
hidden something. Again the confusion in the
boat and the preparation for lancing.
Responsive to the stab of this second harpoon,
the monster sullenly settled under Avater. The
battle Avas now well joined. What next?
Suddenly and all unexpected, the whale came
up again like a submarine boat. He bumped his
back against the blades of the first mate's oars.
His shiny black hump stood fully a foot out of
water. The men could feel the damp heat of his
spout. We could hear the sound of it.
This time old Blubber had gore in his eye. He
was in for carnage and calamity and consternation.
He lifted his huge square nose ten feet into the
air, and dropping his long under-jaw, deliberately
calculated his distance. Then with a hideous
SAving of his whole appalling mass, he veered
round and took that whale-boat into his mouth.
His ivory teeth smashed through the cedar clinker-
work. The boat Avent to pieces like an egg-shell.
The mate's crew flung themselves headlong into
the water, and escaped by the skin of their teeth.

AA^HALES HAS FEELIn's."

133

134 "whales HAS feelin's."
Now the Avhale turned suddenly about. His
rage redoubled. He Avould have blood or die for
it. Making for the third officer's boat, he threw
his cruel jaw across it, turning it bottom-up and
staving it in. Again, as by a miracle, every man
escaped unhurt.
A pretty situation! There were now two boats'
crews floundering and sputtering in the water,
while the whale was lashing the waves into froth
with his flukes and sending the suds flying in
every direction.
With the one remaining boat, I succeeded in
picking up the swimmers, and in ferrying them
away to the ship. Fortunately we had not far to
travel. How beautiful the Clara Bell looked as the
boat came round so that I faced her again ! Never
had I thought her graceful, half-clipper lines such
an exquisitely perfect model. Never had Avinged-
dragon figure-head impressed me as such a con-
sumate triumph of the Avood-carver's art. Never
had the tAvo white streaks along her side from
stem to stern seemed such a splendid decoration.
Never, in all the days I had sailed in her, had she
looked the white-robed angel-guardian she did
noAV. She stood Avith her main-yard hauled aback.
She nodded and dipped, and rose jauntily on the

135
ocean swell. She Avas the joyfullest ship on all
the seas. We Avere going back to her
" Oh, ain't I all-fired glad we got done Avith that
Avild-eyed monster ? " The speaker was dripping
with brine. " I calc'lated I Avas clean daown-
swallered like old Jonah — all-fired sure I Avere ! "
"Maybe I ain't glad, too! oh, maybe not! I
could look way down in the dratted brute's dratted
big gizzards. Deep ? Maybe not. Oh, no. Felt
like I was dangled over the drattedest deep pit in
the whole dratted world."
" / wouldn't touch that there man-eater with
the far-end of a spare yard — not for money ^y
said a third, squeezing the salt-water out of his
beard, " no, not for money. I tell you, mess
mates, it's homicide an' man-slaughter, an' bloody
murder with malice aforethought to take an'
dump two boats' crews down the gullet o' that
pesky man-eater, I tell you ! "
But think not, gentle reader, that these words
Avere spoken in anything graver than jest.
That this whale Avas a tough one, I have no
inclination to deny — not the slightest. I f olloAved
the sea forty-one years, I was captain of a ship
twenty-eight years, I have sailed more than a
million miles, and I have had a hand in the taking
of about twelve thousand barrels of oil ; but this

136 "whales has feelin's."
fighting leviathan off Fort Dauphin was one of
the fiercest bits of blubber 1 ever raised out of the
ocean. Yet neither I nor my men had any
thought of surrender. We had already wasted
tAVO boats on him and we meant to be paid for the
outlay. We insisted upon exacting a war indemity,
payable in sperm oil — a hundred or a hundred
and twenty barrels — the more the merrier !
We clambered up the ship's side and over the
rail. From the deck we could get a startling
view of the enemy. The infuriated beast lay
wounded, only a short distance from the ship,
thrashing around amongst the floating debris —
oars, paddles, lanterns, and water-kegs — to say
nothing of what remained of our two boats, the
one a stoven wreck, the other smashed to
splinters. It would have turned a landsman cold
and stiff with horror. Nor am I certain that all
our crcAV Avere anxious to renew the battle.
Be that as it may, we immediately got down
two new spare boats from the skids overhead.
We made them ready for a desperate encounter
as we Avere going into the face of death. We
meant to have the chances in our favor. The
boats must be made as light as jjossible, so as to
be aljle to dart away in an instant, if necessary,
AA'hen the Avhale showed fight again. To this end,

-1 r>f-
lo I
we hastily prepared the most severely abridged
outfit — not an inch of line, and not a single piece
of craft beyond a gun and a bomb-lance in the
mate's boat and two hand-lances in mine. We
manned the boats with strong crews. The mate
took the second mate along with him, and I took
the third mate. We lowered the boats and sped
away toward our prey.
Hoav bright, Hoav amber-hued, the southern
sunlight, as it fell languorous and beautiful upon
the ocean billows ! Hoav buoyant the dance of our
h-urrying boats ! How impressiA^e the swoop and
the soaring of the white gulls and albatrosses !
And yet, I dare say, not one of us responded to
the fine romanticism of nature — Ave were bent
upon too desperate an errand. There may be a
perennially fascinating charm in whaling life Avhen
viewed from afar, but there are times Avhen the
business assumes a urim ug-liness at close range.
The poetry of the sea has ahvays been Avritten by
landsmen. It ahvays will be.
Charm assuredly there had been in the suspense
and expectant anxiety proceeding this desperate
fight — charm enough, Avhen its horrors were only
a possibility ; but now, Avhen the mystery Avas
pierced, the terrors liecome hideous facts, and the
nature of the foe fully knoAvn, the fun Avas gone

138 "whales has feelin's."
altogether. When a fighting whale has chewed
up two of your boats and beaten you roundly in
his first pitched battle, it is a little unpleasant to
go at him again.
Our blood ran high, as we approached the
infuriated monster. His spout stood up as tall as
ever. He had been no whit enfeebled by his
tremendous exertions. Two harpoons stuck out
of his back. His flukes swung in air with deadly
force and rapidity.
The mate went to leeward of him and fired a
bomb-lance into him, but missed his vitals.
Instantly the Avounded creature turned about,
heaved his head way out of water, opened his
cavernous mouth, and made a frightful lunge for
the mate's boat. I was just in time. I stood in
the bow of my boat, hardly able to wait long
enough to choose the right spot for the stab. I
was mad with excitement. I plunged the long
lance deep into the Avhale's vitals, and the blood
came belching out of his spout-hole rich and red
and warm, and after a few moments our victim
turned up dead and in a foAV moments more we
had him in the fluke chains along side the Clara
Bell. Deafening indeed were the cheers from the
ship's deck when we had won that desperate

"whales has feelin s. 139
fight ; warm was the hand-grip of mess-mates as
we climbed aboard ; broad and bland the smile on
every sun-browned face ! We were all alive. We
Avere all unhurt. We had killed the Avhale.
The inevitable Avell-worn joke now went the
rounds. " Better haA^e paid your wash-woman ! "
" You needn't talk. Jack ; you're as wet as a
draownded shark."
" Don't care if I be. Ain't no gearin' 'tween
wash-tubs an' whale-boats. Who said there was?"
" Tou did, you slushy hypocritter, you. Ef
'taint so, then what'd you say I cheated my
wash-woman for, jest on accaount o' me bein' in a
stoven boat, you loony beach-comber ? "
" Clew down your jawin'-tackle, sonnywax !
Cheerily, oh ! "
This sort of mock-malice stood for the best of
good-will. The more those men berated each
other the better they felt all around.
When they took the falls to the Avindlass and
manned the bars it was a joy to hear them sing.
Sailor-songs are not metrically faultless, any more
than Whitman's poems ; but they have the Jack
Tar spirit of the forecastle breathing all through
them, and hear and there a touch of easy humor.
This particular song ran, as I remember it, some
thing after this fashion : —

140 "whales has feelin s.

O, Johnny was no sailor,
(Renso, boys, Renso.)
Still he shipped on a Yankee whaler,
(Renso, boys, Renso )
He could not do his duty,
(Renso, boys, Renso.)
And he tried to run away then,
(Renso, boys, Renso.)
They caught and brought him back again,
(Renso, boys, Renso.)
And he said he never would go again,
(Renso, boys, Renso )
They put him pounding cable,
(Renso, boys, Renso.)
And found him very able,
(Renso, boys, Renso.)
He said he'd run away no more,
(Renso, boys, Renso.)
He only waited to get on shore,
(Renso, boys, Renso.)
So when he put his feet on shore,
(Renso, boys, Renso.)
A-whaling he would go no more,
(Renso, boys, Renso.)"

What a whale that was ! He was the biggest
fellow I ever fell in Avith. He measured sixty-
four feet over all, and he had a sixteen-foot jaw.
His flukes stretched sixteen feet from tip to tip.
He made a hundred and thirty barrels of oil.
" Think what that old spouter must have
weighed," said the mate, when Ave had got him
coopered. " One hundred and thirty barrels at
eight pounds a gallon — that makes — let me
see — that makes " (scratching of head, squirming
of eyebroAvs, smile of relief at last) " that makes

"WHALES HAS FEELIN's." 141
two thousand, seven hundred and sixty pounds
of oil."
" Here, here ! " I said, " work that out on
paper, Mr. Wilson ; let's be accurate. I'd really
like to get at the facts."
So Mr. Dorman figured it out in unimpeachable
black and white. He was right. Two thousand,
seven hundred and sixty pounds of oil !
" Now, Cap'n Robbins," he continued, " you'll
grant it's within limits to say, one-third oil, two-
thirds waste ? "
" Yes, a fair estimate ; nobody can dispute
that." " Now, then," bending over the black and
white and cautiously plying the pencil, " three-
times - aught- is-aught-three -times-six-is-eight
and— one— to-carry— three - times-se ven-is-one-and
one-to-carry-is-two - and - two - to - carry-three
times-two 
There ! Eight thousand, two hundred and eighty
pounds. Great Csesar ! "

THE GAM.

' I'd ruther gam for fifteen minutes than slush the raast for fifteen weeks."
— Bubaiyat of Salthcrse Dooley.

"What did you say your old man's name was?"
" Robbins, shipmates, an' as thorough a seaman
as ever trod the quarter-deck."
"Strict?""Yes — an' no. You don't feel like you was
being governed, an' yit ev'ry man aboard done
what he said, ev'ry time. They ain't no haff-
laughs an' sailor's grins about him. He's straight
up an' down, like a yard o' pump water ! "
" A jolly wag, too ! " broke in a third heavy
voice. " You ought to seen him play it on them
full-rig Mohammedans at Johanna. By George,
it was fun ! Worth a man's hull advance pay! "
Two bells ! One o'clock in the morning ! And
the ships were gamming still. The tAvo captains
were holding high converse in the Clara Bell's
cabin, and until the visiting master saw fit to
return to, his vessel, the visiting Avatch from the
stranger made merry in the Clara Bell's fore
castle. It was a delight to see new faces. It was
a rare treat to hear new voices. It was a fine,
novel pleasure to match yarns all round.

the gam. 143
The men sat on the stout sea-chests along the
sides of that semi-circular room in the whale-ship's
bow. There were eighteen men in all ; nine
were hosts, nine were guests. Light streamed
down upon them from greasy lamps hung up
on the bitts. The air was dim with the smoke
of cheap tobacco.
Gamming is distinctly a whaleman's pastime.
Merchant ships will pass each other in mid-ocean
without a sign of recognition, steam-craft Avill go
by with a snobbish air that almost approaches
hostility, but whale-ships, when they meet, are
friendlier. They will heave to, after the day's
cruising is over and there is no longer any chance
of raising whales, and the captain's watch of one
ship will entertain the captain's watch of the other
ship. Similarly, the two chief mates' watches
come together. This is called " gamming."
On that particular occasion the Clara Bell's
forecastle had been a hilarious roistering place
since seven in the evening. There had been
songs and cards and smoke ; and smoke and
cards and songs. There had been long-spun,
hair-lifting narratives of whaling adventures.
There had also been news from home — some
of it a year old, but still very startling ; and some
of it six months new, every word an eye-opener.

144 the gam.
And now they had taken to telling land-yarns and
stories of recent ports. Plainly, the gam was
about gammed out.
" Well, chummy, Avhat about Johanna ? ''
" Dy'e know the place?"
" Know it ? Guess I do. Here's my tarry
flipper on it! Know Johanny, do I ? I knowed
Johanny 'fore I'd learnt my three L's. It's got
high hills 'round it, an' you can see 'em forty mile
out to sea, — ain't I right ? An' them white stone
houses in the town — they ain't no taller, b'gosh,
than a whaleship's hurricane house. Ain't that
so, messmate ? An' them copper-colored natives,
an' their gaff-tops'l turbans, an' their white gowns
as if they was goin' to be buried at sea, an' the
beetle-nut they chews that gits their teeth as
black as tar an' gits the deck as red as blood,
b'gosh, so nothin' short o' the prayer-books '11
take it off ag'in, — don't I remember 'em ? Who
says I ain't been to Johanny ? "
But the third voice, who seemed to think him
self particularly predestined and foreordained to
man the pumps and keep the stories flowing,
urged again, " What about the old man and the
natives ? Tell us, chummy.
So " Bilge " Dennett took his pipe out of his
broad mouth, and tapping the bowl gently against

THE GAM. 145
the sea-chest, dumped the ashes on the forecastle
floor. " Well, boys," he said, looking out craftily from
under his ragged red eye-brows and lifting an
awkward forefinger in a jerky gesture, as if to
say, " Keep your weather eye open ; she's com
ing ! " — "Well, boys; you know Hoav them
sogerin' Moslems hates pork, 'an pork-grease, an
any sort o' grease. Worse 'n Sheenies, ain't they ?
" Well, the old man, he comes it on 'em mighty
ship-shape. He'd clap a lump o' butter in the
palm o' his flipper just 'fore he come up on deck
in the morin' ; an pretty soon a brown Ay-rab
would sail up to him to talk tradin' 'an that like ;
an' when them two spliced hands it was worse 'n
whales an' killers.
" Then, by the bloody wars, they was a
tornado ! That Moslem would be brought up all
standin', an' he'd jump back an' pull his sheath-
knife out o' his belt and strike a figger like a
villian in a play, an' sing out, ' If you wa' n't my
friend, I'd kill you in a minute ! ' You ought to
see it, lads.
" Then the old man would sing out for the
cabin-boy to turn to an' fetch a basin o' water an'
a clean towel, an' when the Ay-rab had swabbed
his flipper he'd feel chummy again and then them
10

146 THE GAM.
tAVO would love each other just like nothin'
oncommon 'd happened."
An appreciative grin spread over the faces of
the listeners.
"Just wait till we put in at Johanna," said
one; "we'll butter them natives; we'll make
buttered rolls of the Avhole crew of 'em ; blowed
if we wont."
Then Bilge resumed.
" That ain't the only thing the old man done at
Johanna, bless his old soul. One day he goes on
shore an' cruises 'round with a Moslem merchant
intendin' to go to the brown man's house. All on
a sudden a bell rings out from a big white mosque,
an' down drops the brown man on his knees like
he was shot — doAvn killick ! — an' he clapped his
head three times on the ground an' had over a
long pious chanty in Ay-rab lingo, an' then up he
got ag'in an' looked 'round for the old man. But
the old man, bless his soul, he'd forged ahead
while the broAvn man was hove down, an' so he
come up to the house first. Ha, ha !
"Now you know how shy them Johanna
women be."
"Guess I do," broke in the Man Who Had
Been There Himself. " You bet I do ! You can
gamble on that, night an' day, b'gosh ! You cruise

THE GAM. 147
around them crooked streets, lookin', an lookin',
an' lookin', but b'gosh you don't raise a gal !
Them women gits from house to house by goin'
aloft an' sneaking' along them flat roofs, b'gosh !
An' a chap don't see his Nancy till they're spliced
in the mosque by some sky-pilot or Holy Joe or
other, or whatever them Ay-rabs calls him ! "
"Aye-aye, messmate, we all know you've been
there, but Bilge Dennett is holding the yarn.
You ain't. Go on, Bilgy ! What did the old man
do when he dropped his mud-hook in the Ay-rab's
shanty?" The speaker Avas one of the visiting
watch. The Man Who Had Been There Himself
subsided. " Well," Bilgy resumed, relieved at being no
longer interrupted, " 'taint so much what he done
inside as what he never done at all Avhen he first
cume up to the door. They's a kind o' harbor
law to Johanna it says you must give three loud
raps on the door an' a good waitin' spell 'tween
the raps so's to let the women folks know a man's
a-comin' an' put for shelter. That's the rule o'
the road an' there's the devil to pay if you don't
sail by it.
"Well, the old man, bless his jolly topHghts,
he just give the door one good thump an' then in
he forged all ataunto.

148 THE GAM.
" There in the cabin — I mean, there in the
parlor, — was the Ay-rab's Avife and daughter,
with not more'n half their standin' riggin' on,
naked from their waists up ! Heavens, wa'n't they
gallied ! They jumped for safety like a brace o'
jack-rabbits. " Then that Ay-rab begun cussin' worse'n forty
pirates on a raft ! Thunder an' lightnin', but
didn't he give it to the old man ! but the old
man just keeps a' talkin' business — so many
fathom o' cotton cloth for so many live hogs, so
many pounds o' gunpowder for so many cords o'
wood, an' so on an' so on — till at last the brown
man cools off as cool as a cask o' sperm oil all fit
to be coopered.
" An frien's an' fellow cit'zens, as they say in
town-meetin' back in old Vermont, that's how I
have the honor (a-hem) to be sailin' under the
only live Yankee that ever saw a woman in
Johanna." There was an evident demand for Johanna
stories. The Clara Bell's men liked to hear the
captain's prowess enlarged upon. The strangers
liked to learn all they could about Johanna so as
not to be altogether green when they came into
port, and every Jack Tar of them was vowing in
his innermost heart of hearts and SAvearing by all

THE GAM 149
that's ship-shape that he'd make those Arabs dance
a break-down and teach them just a few new steps
into the bargain.
" Corae, Bilgy, my jolly sea-dog, tell 'em about
the coffee. That'll start their stanchions ! "
" Yes, Bilgy, tell 'em how the steward hazed
them Ay-rab waisters ! "
" Aye-aye, Bilgy, clew up your jawin' tackle,
an' you'll make these here jolly strangers grin
like so many right whales ! "
" Come, tumble up, my lively hearty, out with
the twister! "
" On one condition an' one only," said Bilge
Dennett, " an' that condition is this, mess-mates :
I'll spin the yarn, but only after that there man-
o'-Avar's-man's sung us another rare old chanty.
So, Four-decker, give us a broadside ! Can't you
bellow the ' Commodore ', or have you clean forgot
it, so long since you was a blue-jacket?"
" The ' Commodore ' — give us the ' Commo
dore,' " the sailors shouted, "give us the ' Commo
dore ', or we'll scuttle your old hulk and send you
plumb to Jimmy Squarefoot."
The blue-jacket — or, as some Avould say, the
jolly — was proud of his former serA'ice in the
navy, so proud, in fact, that he thought he had
stepped down a ratline or tAvo in reducing himself

150 THE GAM.
to a mere mercenary blubber-hunter. He had
been waiting all the evening for somebody to call
for a Hne-of-battle-ship yarn, but this invitation to
sing was the nearest approach to such solicitation.
He therefore jumped at the chance. He assumed
for the moment an air of aggrieved timidity, but
when the crowd insisted, he reluctantly, but firmly,
submitted. Four-decker was a stout, deep-chested, beef-
laden seaman with a cavernous mouth and a
ponderous bass voice. He sang with the gusto of
a music-hall soloist and an occasional tragic gesture
enlivened the ballad : —

" It was on a dark and stormy night,
The wind nor' west did blow;
And from the ship's high, lofty bows,
Tbat were pitching to and fro,
Could be heard loud, rattling peals of thunder,
And fierce, wild liglitnings fly.
Hail, rain and sleet and thunders meet,
And dismal was the sky.
" 'Twas early on next morning
Our brave commander said
' Whoever has the lookout, go up to the mast-head.
And keep a good lookout, my boy,
And try what you can see ! '
And he soon cried out from the mast-head,
' Two large ships under our lee ! '
" Now one was oil our quarter,
The other oil our cat-head.
We cleared away for action,
As our brave commander said.

THE GAM. 151
The job being done, il counted one.
And lasted from twelve till four.
And what was fearful to relate.
We sank the French Commodore !
' Now five sailors we picked up were Frenchmen,
And six were from haughty Spain.
We picked them up from off the wreck.
That had fioated from the main.
Soon we'll send them to proud France,
Where they had been before,
To tell the proud French admiral
We sanlc his Commodore.' '

The singer wound up his song with a lusty
cadenza that made the forecastle fairly shiver
with its vibrant, tragic resonance. It was easy
to see that Four-decker considered himself entirely
responsible for the sinking of the Commodore.
You would have thought it his habit, had you
heard him sing, to engage a foreign corvette or
sloop-of-war every ten or fifteen minutes.
There was a hearty round of applause, much
kicking of heels against sea-chests and a prodi
gious clapping of hardened hards, but no verbal
suggestion of an encore. A whaleman never dips
his colors to man-of-war service.
It was a trying moment, but Four-decker was
quick to see the dignified way of escape out of
his embarrassment.
" Now, Bilge," he said, with an assumption of
fervent enthusiasm, "it's your trick at the wheel!"

152 THE GAM.
" Yes, Bilge," shouted the Social Pump, " tell
'em about that 'much-good ' coffee."
" Well, boys," Bilge Dennet resumed, " we get
bully good coffee aboard o' this here barkie, an'
you can bet your spare yards on that. An'
when them Ay-rabs come on board to trade,
the steward, bless his soul, he'd lure the whole
school of 'em into the cabin an' treat 'em to hot
coffee all round. An' that jolly flunky knows
hoAv to mix the drink so it'll lift your hair like
a flaw o' wind. It's the real thing — none o'
your water-bewitched, / tell you ! "
" Kind o' lives up to the rule they have in Ryo
Janeero, I reckon," added the Experienced Man,
parenthetically. "Jolly good rule, too, b'gosh!"
" What's that? " queried Bilge Dennett.,
" Why, them yellow-belly Portugees say, ' Cof
fee, to be Al, must be black as night, strong as
death, an' hot as hell !' — that's the rule, b'gosh.
au' you can bet your rudder them Dagoes lives up
to it ! "
" Ay aye," said Bilge, " that's the chart our
flunky sails by, bless his tarry soul, an' he never
let's the doctor touch the mixture when he wants
to come out extra man-o'-war-fashion. An' as I
was sayin', mess-mates, them turban Ay-rabs took
to it like whales take to water.

THE GAM. 153
" ' Much good, much good ! ' they'd say an'
hold out their cups for more.
" Well, this sort o' thing made the steward
mighty popular, / tell you ; he could 'a' been
king o' the island any time he'd say the word ;
but that everlastin' coffee cookin' got to be a
pesky nuisance, an' at last the flunky hit on a
trick to chop it off square.
" So one day he hailed them traders an' says to
'em, ' Come down in the cabin, gents, an' splice
the main-brace with a cup of Al coffee ! '
" So down they climbs, every brown Alladin's
son of 'em, an' that cabin was as full of Ay-rabs
as the hold was full of casks. An' then the flunky
serves out that coffee, made a-purpose, bless his
spankin' soul, — black an' hot an' strong — till it
lifted their turbans for 'em boys, an' made 'em
Aviggle in their chairs. ' Much good, much good,
much good ! ' they yelled, an' the flunkey kep'
a-pourin' an' a-pourin' till he'd emptied the whole
blessed pot.
" ' Well, gents ', he says, ' did you ever swaller
such coffee, in all your heathen born days ? Come,
gents, did you ? ' an' them Ay-rabs says, ' No,
most honorable, we never done it.'
" An' then, boys, Avhat do you think ? That
flunky runs a fork down in the coffee pot, and

154 THE GAM.
claAvs 'round in them black grounds, an' fishes out
a long bit o' salt pork rind, an' holds it up front
o' their crazy top-lights.
" Then you ought to seen the hurricane. That
shiny pork knocked them Ay-rabs alow an' aloft.
They was hit with the horrors. Their head-lights
stuck out so 3'^ou could hang your hat on 'em.
They turned from broAvn to white.
" An' afore you could sing the first line of
' Jack Robinson ' the Avhole school of 'em tumbled
up like the watch below Avhen ' all hands' is called.
Out them Ay-rabs bounced — oh, boys, it Avas
Avorth a bottle o' close-reef to see 'em! They
scudded for the ship's side like a dozen white
yachts in a gale, and there they tickled their hot-
copper gullets with their finger-ends so as to git
clear o' that ' much good ' coffee ! An' mateys,
that ended the coffee nuisance for good an' all, /
teU you."
No sooner was the story finished than there was
a prodigious banging on the forecastle scuttle,
followed by a sharp call of command. The
stranger crew were summoned on deck to return
to their ship, and the gam was over.
I have ever since pitied the Moslems of Johanna
for the treatment they must have got hxmi the
Avhalemen who were so elaborately coached, that
night, in the Clara Bell's forecastle.

THE GAM.

155

AUGUSTINE BAY.
Not a story this time. Instead, a string of
stories. For things come about at sea, as upon
land, without much reference to literary values.
They simply occur. Sometimes they are dramatic ;
oftener not. Sometimes they steer towards a
climax; oftener they don't.
So this is a plain account of what happened —
an account of what happened to me and my crew
and my ship when the lot of us called at Augus
tine Bay.
The Clara Bell had been leaking. It was a
trifle, said I at first ; but now it got worse. The
pumps were at it all the while, not working hard,
but working. Clearly, it was time to worry.
Searching the damp, dark hold, we made out at
last the treacherous spot. There, against the
stern-post, about two feet below the water-line, we
found the sea-brine oozing in.
I should have called it tough luck, this wretched
obstacle to our voyage, had we not been every
man Jack of us ready to welcome such inter
ruption. For our cruise was up. Port was the
place for us, so Ave put away.
Out of the sea rose the green, luxuriantly
wooded Madagascan coast, — within the coast a

AUGUSTINE BAY. 157
lovely harbor, the harbor of Augustine Bay.
Entering there, we dropped our mudhook off
Tent Rock. Very well named, I call that rock,
for it is shaped like a tent and as white as new
canvas. It is just a mile from the shore.
I can't say how it is now, but in those old days
whoever bethought him to land at Augustine Bay
must first make terms with the savages. I knew
that the fuzzy fellows would soon come off to treat
with us. Accordingly I cleared for action. For
savages are thieves, the whole world over, and
whatever may be said in favor of valor, dis
cretion is the better part of holding your OAvn.
Every dispensable article went below — rope,
spare belay ing-pins, buckets, craft — lest those
rogues should make off with them.
Now I confess to a weakness for dogs, particu
larly for big Newfoundland dogs, and most
particularly for my beloved black Rover. I was
bound that no sooty Madagascan should capture
that faithful friend. I therefore shut Rover up.
I tucked him into my room off the cabin and left
him there for safe keeping.
And in that I builded better than I knew.
Hardly had I got upon deck again when the
canoes, deeply laden with their savage freight,
came splashing for us. Then there Avas a wild

158 AUGUSTINE BAY.
scramble up the ship's side. The natives climbed
up over the bulwarks like ants out of a broken
hill. They were terrible fellows. They had grass
mats around their loins. Some had arrayed them
selves in dirty flannel shirts. Their women wore
nondescript garments of cotton cloth, and had
their hair done up in little knots like nutmegs
and covered Avith grease.
We set to business directly. The chief and his
cabinet — "big men," they say — followed me
down into the cabin, where the poAV-AVOw began.
I wanted to land and to recruit the Clara Bell
Avith wood and water. I Avanted to buy that
privilege cheap. They, on their part, wanted
cotton cloth. They wanted all they could get
of it. And that's where Ave disagreed.
Whatever those fuzzies thought of my seaman
ship, they evidently held a very low estimate of
my diplomacy ; but in that they were mistaken.
For we had gammed with a ship from that very
port and I knew the ropes like any old sea-dog.
I knew just how much I ought to give, and just
where I ought to draw the line. The regulation
tariff was thirty yards to the chief and five
fathoms to each of his advisers. That I offered
and there I stuck.
But time Avas precious and I knoAv that, too.
For I had two tribes to deal with. These chaps

AUGUSTINE BAY. 159
at Tent Rock could not give me leave to get
water at- the head of the river. Another tribe
from that quarter would come along directly and
I must get rid of present company before that.
But how the rascals hung on ! They haggled
over prices hour after hour. They Avere like a
batch of Soloman Levis. Indeed, I believe they
were descended from the long-lost tribes of Israel.
I was pretty well driven to destraction, Avhen
suddenly Rover burst the bonds of his imprison
ment. Out he bounded into the cabin and then — oh,
lands and seas, how those chumps did scoot !
They had never seen a dog before ! They jumped
out of that cabin like electrified jack-rabbits.
Rover followed hard and the whole tribe, save
only the chief, made off over the ship's bows,
each one taking the cloth he had held at the
moment of Rover's appearance — some content
with only a fathom, others counting themselves
lucky Avith a strip three yards long.
As for the chief, his knees were knocking
together and his eyes were starting from their
sockets. He made terms in a hurry.
But when the up-river folk came off, I had to
be generous. I Avanted to tow our raft of casks a
long way up their river to get fresh water, and I

160 AUGUSTINE BAY.
was aware that we should have to wait over night
before we could bring them back to the ship. We
must make fast friends with the natives or they
would steal the hoops off our casks and then, so
far as practical purposes went, there wouldn't be
any casks.
We made ourselves " solid " with both chiefs,
and according to agreement they left a native
detective on board to make sure we were not
troubled with thieving. Little good came of that,
however, for the detective was the worst thief of
the lot. That, please observe, is saying a great
deal. The gift for misappropriation is nowhere
more superbly developed than in Madagascar.
And their impudence, combined with their thiev
ing — pity the mariner who must restrain himself
from bloodshed under such torment ! No sort of
sanctity is proof against their ravages.
One day a Yankee clipper came to anchor in
the harbor with the stars and stripes at her peak.
While the captain and his officers were at sup
per, the fuzzies hauled down Old Glory and made
off with it. The Tent Rock chief, so I have
heard, had it made up into a suit of clothes, and
was seen by a British crew, a few weeks later,
strutting about in it like a coal-tar Yankee Doodle.
But all that happened after we had left.

AUGUSTINE BAY. 161
Often, while Ave lay in port, the up-river chief
and his dusky queen and their suite came off to
visit us. We counted that no serious affliction,
for in Madagascar you can entertain royalty on
a very slender outlay. We would put a huge
wash-tub on the quarter deck, pour two or three
pails of water into it, sweeten the water Avith a
quart of molasses, and add ten or a dozen pounds
of ship's biscuit. The royal cortege would squat
round the tub — a guzzling, grinning, jabbering
ring of boobies — thinking themselves lavishly
entertained. Big fun we called that. But that was not our
only sport at Augustine Bay. In fact it was
as nothing beside our mischievous practice of
medicine. One day a native came aboard clutching his
aching belly, and groaning in misery. I knew
Avhat he Avanted, and gave him a nip of New
England rum. Instantaneous cure !
Next day, however, Mr. Fuzzy came back for
further treatment. His case was serious. He
said he had been ill for a year. One dose was
not enough to eradicate a chronic disorder. Of
course not, who ever said it was ?
I therefore turned my patient over to the mate,
who saw a chance to make something out of the

Ifi 2 AUGUSTINE BAY.
Fuzzy' s weakness. The two hit on a capital
agreement — the Fuzzy to bring a bucket of
beans on board every day, the mate to "cure"
the Fuzzy.
Now that mate of mine had ideas of his OAvn,
and this is the series of doses he gave that poor
heathen : —
First day, — half-glass of rum and four table-
spoonfuls castor oil.
Second day, — hot-drops, sugar and water.
Third-day, — vinegar and pepper-sauce.
Fourth day, — molasses and mustard.
Fifth day, — glass of brandy with red pepper.
Sixth day, — cayenne pepper and cheese.
Seventh day — onions, mustard and Chili sauce.
Eighth day, — rum and castor oil, same as
first day.
Ninth day — arnica, paregoric and mustard,
equal parts.
Tenth day, — straight whiskey.
With what result? The A^ery best, the very
best result in the world. The black beggar stuck
it out bravely, patient to the bitter end. He
would take his medicine Avith utter resignation.
He would twist his coarse face into hideous
grimaces. He would go away feeling as if he had
swallowed a bonfire. But when the time expired

AUGUSTINE BAY. 163
he Avas thoroughly cured. As is commonly the
case, he got well in spite of his medicine !
Of course we had the usual port routine to
follow up. Beside water and Avood, we laid in a
supply of beans — much like Lima beans, and a
lot of beef and mutton. The live beef Avas a sight.
The bullocks were large and fat, with humps on
their fore-shoulders. Splendid fellows they were,
sleek as silk, the finest I ever saw ! And the
prices ! — you could buy them for an old flint
lock musket and a feAV brass-headed tacks. (Why
the tacks ? you ask. For ornament. The savages
pound them into the Avooden parts of their guns.)
We Avould purchase those bullocks on the shore
and then we would swim them off to the ship
and hoist them in by their long horns.
Then, too, there was the matter of the leak.
That had to be attended to immediately. We
took the cargo out of the after part of the ship to
lighten her, and then we found the cause of the
trouble. There are no accidents in the world — never
were — never will be. Everything has its cause,
and that particular thing, the leak, had this
cause — the copper bottom had not been securely
soldered about the stern-post. Through the tiny
water-course thus left exposed, the worms had got

164 AUGUSTINE BAY.
in — puny creatures, so small you could hardly
see them Avith the naked eye, yet they had bored
those solid white-oak planks into a sieve like a
honey-comb. A blow from a hammer on the
worm-eaten parts would crush the wood in like an
egg shell. There was a weak spot, easily repaired,
that might HaA^e sent us to Davy Jones.
Before we left Augustine Bay, a fine clipper
swept up the harbor and anchored near us, the
French tri-color at her peak. According to the
best accounts, she had come into port to procure
a cargo of laborers. Innocent word enough, —
laborers ! Ah, but she would take them to the
island of Bourbon. There they would be paid
twelve dollars a month for seven years' service.
And what of that ? Just this : they would
never be able to buy their way out of bondage.
The seven years up, they would all be in debt and
Avould have to remain as slaves, powerless even to
return home. It was slavery in disguise.
Out of the remote interior of the island came
that sombre procession. A slave trader had them
in leash. He herded them all the way to the
shore, and he himself brought them, load after
load, aboard the French ship. Once on deck the
poor creatures were examined by a sort of veteri
nary, who punched their breasts, pinched their

AUGUSTINE BAY. 165
limbs and eyed their teeth as if he were apprais
ing so much horseflesh. Oh, it was a horrid sight !
And I saw it done.
In the midst of the operation a man-of-war,
cruising for slavers, entered the harbor. A boat
sped swiftly across the water, and the officers
boarded the Frenchman. But nothing could be
contrived to saA^e the poor Avretches. The French
man's papers were flawless. Dastardly though
the fact, it was cloaked in a legal fiction. No one
had a right to interfere.
The process of examination went steadily
forward. The young and strong were taken.
The old and decrepit were rejected. Lucky,
indeed, were the physically unfit.
When our repairs were done and all supplies
got in and stowed down, we took our mudhook
and put to sea, beating out of Augustine Bay in
the early afternoon.
Down into the southern sea sank those pleasant
shores, slowly and almost reluctantly, but bold
against the far horizon we could still see the
ugly form of the slaver, swift upon her way
toward Bourbon.

THE ALBATROSS.

' God save thee, Ancient Mariner,
Prom the fiends that plague thee thus!
Why looks thou so ? AVith my cross-bow
I shot the Albatross." — Coleridge.

" Cap'n Robbins, I beg you, don't! "
"Don't—?" " Don't kiU the albatross."
" And, pray, AA-hy shouldn't I ? "
" Because," said the mate of the Thomas Pope,
" it's well known, sir, that terrible consequences
follow the murder of one of those white birds. I
say murder — for I can tell you, sir, it's nothing
less. Haven't you heard that the souls of dead
bo's'ns and sailors go soaring about in these
latitudes in the form of albatrosses ? "
" Why, no,'' I answered, " You see I never
lived in the fo'c's'le, Mr. Russell. My first voyage
I shipped as cabin-boy, and my second voyage I
Avent as third mate in the old Balaena. So, you
see, I never got much acquainted Avith the fo'c's'le
superstitions." " What ! " Russell exclaimed, " has no one
ever told you hoAv dangerous it is to kill an
albatross ? "

THE ALBATROSS. 167
Preparations for albatross-catching were already
going bravely forward in the waist. The sailors
were busy rigging a long, stout fish-line with a
big cod-hook at the end. They were getting a
liberal slice of salt-pork to bait the hook. That
never fails.
" Well," said my mate, " I notice that my
opinions don't weigh any too heavy vnth you;
but tell me, sir, have you ever killed an albatross
before?" " Lots of them. Last time I was rounding the
Cape of Good Hope I killed half-a-dozen. Why,
if I'm not mistaken, it was only a few sea-miles
from where we are just noAv."
"And no unpleasant consequence followed ? "
" Oh, well, to be frank with you, I did come
near losing my ship within a few days after that."
" See," said Russell, " see how that bird hovers
over the main-mast truck ! The creature must
measure at least ten feet across those wings !
And think of it, sir, the albatross has followed
us for three days now — or is it four ? But
pardon the interruption — what was that about
all but losing your ship?"
" Why, it was on one of my voyages homeward
from the Indian Ocean. We were lying to in a
gale. And all of a sudden the wind changed and

168 THE ALBATROSS.
brought us into the trough of the sea, so that Ave
Avere forced to wear ship to keep our decks from
being swept of everything and losing our boats.
' Meet her when she shakes,' the mate shouted,
' full for stays ! ' But when the wheel Avas put
up, and the ship had gathered headway, a great,
rolling swell caught her bodily, and turned her
over on her beam-ends. There we lay, apparently
undecided which way to go, trucks up or keel up.
I lived twenty years in twenty seconds ! Then
the awful moments of suspense went by. The
ship righted herself angrily — mad as a Avhale
in his flurry — and we came round breasting
the sea ! "
" A marvellous escape ! " Russell observed, with
the air of a mathematician about to say Q. E. D.
¦¦ Yes, a marvellous escape ! Many a good
stanch hooker has gone to Davy Jones just that
way. I was lucky to have a long-legged ship.
If she had been one of those round-ribbed, flat-
bottomed butter-boxes they build by the mile
down in Maine and saw off any length you
order, we should surely HaA^e turned turtle and
never been heard from ag-ain ! "
" Aha ! " said Russell, with a twinkle of triumph
in his little black eyes, " Seems to me your oavu
experience confirms the truth of my coua ictions ! "

THE ALBATROSS. 169
"0, not at all!" I answered. "If my logic
serves me well, all it proves is that when you get
into a mighty bad scrape you get out of it unhurt.
If killing albatrosses has anything to do Avith that,
why, where' s the harm of killing them ? It
strikes me, Mr. Russell, we'd better take special
pains to kill a few birds, you and I, (or murder,
them, if you prefer), as a precautionary measure !
At any rate, we'll have that big bird yonder, I
reckon, the very next swoop he makes. These
bo's'ns' ghosts of yours don't show any A'ery
dainty taste in the bait they snap at — eh, Mr.
RusseH?" Russell was about to venture a- reply, Avhen
suddenly, just as I had predicted, the albatross
swooped down upon that irresistible bait of salt
pork. The hook took a cruel hold in the big
fowl's throat. The line was stretched taut. You
Avould have thought the bird Avould break his long
swan-neck, he struggled so madly to be free.
Four men held the line ; they hauled it in ; they
grappled with the albatross and they killed him.
The mate stood horrified. His hands Avere
thrust deep in the pockets of his blue round
about; they twitched nervously. His mouth
tightened at the corners and made deep AA-rinkles
in his yellow checks. He turned to me Avith a

170 THE ALBATROSS.
look of outraged anxiety and spoke tremulously,
"Cap'n Robbins," he said, "we shall all be very
sorry for this — very, very sorry, and that not
many days from noAV ! "
" As for the truth of that cheerful prophecy,"
I answered, "it's more a matter of fact than of
opinion. Let us wait and see ! " pleasantly
enough I smiled as I spoke, but Russell's frown
grew only the gloomier.
The albatross found his way in time into the
cook's coppers and thence at dinner-hour, albeit a
trifle tardy, into the cabin. He was served in a
delicious sea-pie, though my wife, who was then
upon her first voyage, and by no means the tall-
Avater epicure she afterward became, pronounced
him decidedly strong and fishy.
I watched the mate closely, not a little curious
to see how he would behave. He was ashamed
not to take his portion of that double-decker pie
upon his plate, but I noticed that he contented
himself with nibbling the potatoes and onions that
went with the meat, while of the meat itself he
never tasted the finest morsel. His objections,
forsooth, were conscientious. He was not going
to incur the guilt of cannibalism.
" Russell," I said, " Ave were speaking of the
possible consequences of killing an all^atross, you

THE ALBATROSS. 171
remember, and I told you this morning that I had
only one experience to judge by. That is hardly
true. There was another occasion I ought to
have mentioned."
"And that was?  "
" A most extraordinary occurence, Mr. Russell.
I was coming home from one of my merchant
voyages. The ship was nearing the Gulf Stream
on her course from Pernambuco. A heavy sou'-
west gale was blowing, and the old girl was
running under close-reefed main - top - sail and
fore-sail. "We entered the Gulf Stream about midnight.
The wind died out to a calm. Heavy, oily, black
clouds piled up in the nor'-east and covered the
sky till it was dark as the ship's run. I thought
the wind would come from that direction and
strike the ship aback, so I called all hands to take
in main-top-s'l and fore-s'l. You know merchant
ships go with such stingy crews it leaves you
short-handed at a time like that. Consequently I
had to take the wheel.
" The men had got hold of the clew-lines and
bunt-lines, and were about to start the sheets,
when there Avas a sudden flash in the sou'-Avest
and a ball of blazing fire as big as a man's head
leaped out of the clouds. It dashed across the

172 THE ALBATROSS.
sky. It made for our ship. It started at an angle
of forty-five degrees, and it modified its course
into a curving line like part of an ellipse. A
trail of fire followed it. It struck the main-top-
m'st just above the cap on the head of the
main-m'st and exploded Avith a report like that of
a rifle. The sparks flew into the belly of the
main-top-s'l. The light blinded my eyes.
" As soon as I could see again, I looked for my
men. They had all tumbled out of sight. I
locked the wheel and went for'ard. There I
found the crew lying on the deck in the ship's
waist — senseless every man Jack of them. After
a few minutes they all came to but one. He Avas
a young Portuguese. We carried him down into
the cabin and rubbed him and dosed him and put
smelling-salts under his nose, and at last he
opened his eyes and said, ' Bono Dio, Cap, I don't
want see all-same-that again ! '
"In the morning I examined the mast Avith the
utmost care, but I could find nowhere any mark
left by that flying ball of flame. The thing Avas
evidently a sort of ' St. Elmo's Fire ' ; but you
may imagine my horror when I found my crcAv
all unconscious. Heavens ! I thought for a
moment that I Avas the only live man left aboard
that ship ! "

THE ALBATROSS. 173
" Yes," said Russell, " I have read of such
things, and I knew a man once who had seen one.
He called it a corposant — or compresent, some
say ; but what puzzles me, Cap'n Robbins, is to
see what sort of connection there is between a
ball of electric fire in the Gulf Stream and the
killing of an albatross. I never heard of albatrosses
in those latitudes, did you, sir ? "
" No, hardly," I answered, "but since you've
begun to enlighten me, I am inclined to attribute
that occurrence to an albatross I had ' murdered '
three years before ! "
Russell munched his onions and potatoes in
silence. 1 hope he enjoyed them. The conversa
tion lapsed ; the meal was nearly done before it
revived again.
The next day, — according to my log-book it
was the twentieth of November, back in fifty-
nine, — we were struck by a furious gale, the
first real storm since the A-oyage began. Our
little bark scudded under close-reefed main-top
sail and fore-sail before a fierce sou' west wind.
Albatross or no albatross, it was blowing great
guns. The ship labored frightfully. The green
hand at the helm would let her come to a little
now and then, and every time he did it, she
would take a sea in the waist with a noise like

174 THE ALBATROSS.
thunder. I had to watch him as you watch a
madman. At seven bells that morning, the steward had
got the racks on the table, and was putting our
breakfast in readiness. I was below at the
moment. The ship was pitching and heaving till
I thought she would jump the sticks out of her.
Suddenly she brought a tremendous roll to star
board. I shouted to the cabin-boy, "Look out for
the table ! " but the words Avere no more than
spoken when everything slid off on to the floor
with forty different kinds of jingles and crashes
all at once. My Avife shieked with terror ; she
thought we Avere wrecked ; she rushed from the
state-room in her night-gown, and just at that
moment a monstrous wave pooped the Thomas
Pope, and burst over the ship's port quarter.
Tons of salt water came pounding through the
sky-light into the after-cabin, and Mrs. Robbins
arrived upon the scene at the one happy moment
when she would get the full benefit of it. That
sea-going wife of mine has no taste for immer
sion ; but on that memorable morning she could
not choose but submit. As I said at the time,
that big, cold billoAv baptized her for the
Indian Ocean,
I was glad, a few days later, that it had done
so, for after so tremendous an initiation she never

THE ALBATROSS.

175

d,
OWQOoa
o s
ogs
Iz;

176 THE ALBATROSS.
again suffered any fear. I think she regarded
herself as one who had endured the worst there
was to endure, and resolved not to be annoyed by
trifles thereafter.
We rounded the Cape, and then the Aveather
became more pleasant. We steered for the
Mozambique Channel, keeping the watch on deck
busy preparing craft and cutting-gear for whaling.
We might see whales at any time now.
Since that roaring gale off the Cape, the chief
mate had never mentioned the albatross. But I
could, nevertheless, see that his mind was not at
rest. He thought albatross, dreamed albatross,
and, as I thought, CA^en looked albatross. When
the weather moderated and came off warm and
pleasant with favorable winds, I watched him
with a curious interest. A last I broached the
matter myself.
" Mr. Russell," I said, " it strikes me Ave 're
going to come off alive after all, spite of that
cannibal pot-pie ! "
" I tell you what, Cap'n Robbins," he answered,
unmistakably nettled, " we 're not home yet !
No, sir, not by a long sea mile ! "
No sooner had he spoken those ominous words
than I observed a Hugh rolling SAvell, miles in
extent, and straight as the spanker-boom, coming

THE ALBATROSS. 177
(loAvn upon us from the north'ard. The wind had
died out to a flat calm. There Avas not a ripple
of Avhite water under the ship's fore-foot. There
was not a streak of foam nor so much as a bubble
in her Avake. It was an Irishman's tempest,
straight up and down ! The air Avas hazj', sultry,
and almost unbearably hot. There could then be
but one meaning in the powerful swell that
bore down upon the Thomas Pope. To the
northward, just beyond that peaceful horizon,
a hurricane was raging. The roller had been
sent out by it.
A ripple rushes out from a stone dropped in a
mill-pond. That roller was the ripple magnified
to sublime proportions.
Another roller — another ! Then, quicker than
the first three, still another ! And as yet no
faintest flaw of wind !
We were trapped. The albatross Avould be
avenged, and Russell vindicated.
We Avere then about in the middle of Mozam
bique Channel. Madagascar was some three
hundred miles to the eastward, and the coast
of Africa about the same distance off in the
opposite direction.
For a day and a night the flat calm continued.
Then a light breeze sprang up from the sou' east.

12

178

THE ALBATROSS.

"THOMAS pope" BEFORE THE STOBM.

THE ALBATROSS. 179
All the afternoon the Avind increased, first grad
ually, then rapidly, so rapidly that at sundoAvn we
had the Pop)e under storm canvas — close-reefed
top-sails and reefed foresail. The Avind kept fresh
ening. It A^eered steadily toAvard the east. It
raged with increasing fury, a fresh hand at the
bellows. The ship av as talking loudly — pitching
and pounding — bobbing at it Avith a Avill. At ten
o'clock it Avas bloAving a furious gale. We had
got in all sail, save close-reef main-top-sail and
reefed fore-sail. At mid-night matters grew worse.
We got the Pope under main-spencer and fore-
top-mast-stay-sail. The wind was blowing with
maddened frenzy. The ship was over on her
beam ends, with larboard rails and three boats
under water.
I called all hands to batten down the hatches.
We stretched the tarpaulins tight across them and
we nailed the battens fast to the coamings and
head-ledges. By two o'clock in the morning the spencers
and fore-top-mast stay-sails had blown away. The
sails on the yards were Avorking loose from under
the gaskets. I sent men into the rigging to
secure them, but they could not get aloft. When
they were about ten feet up, the AAlnd pinned
them tight against the ratHnes. They Avere like

180 THE ALBATROSS.
dead men. I shouted to them to come back, but
the wind carried the sound aAvay. You could not
have made them hear Avith a trumpet. I waved
my arms at them and they struggled down on
deck and made their way aft with ducked heads,
coming hand over hand, clinging to the belaying
pins along the starboard bulwarks.
The storm had its vjay. The sails blew out
from under the gaskets. They were nearly ncAv
canvas, but they Avere bloAvn into strips like
ribbons. The ship shook with a frightful tremor.
The wind Avas bloAving with such force that the
sea could not rise. Instead, it was rolling over
with a white foam ; and the foam, as it dashed
against the weather side of the ship, Avould send a
spray over us like fine, drifting snoAV.
It was full moon, and that heightened the
terror. It made the dangers visible and invisible
by turns, for clouds rushed OAcr our heads with
frightful rapidity. They were very low — so Ioav
it seemed as if we could reach them. They were
like frightened spirits fleeing from the wrath of
the storm-god !
The cargo was secured Avith billets of wood, so
I had no fears on that score. There was no
danger of its shifting. The real peril Avas the
chance of being blown ashore on the coast of

THE ALBATROSS. 181
Africa, and losing our lives in the surf ; but the
Avind kept A-eering and that held us oft'.
The hurricane increased in fury until the ship
Avas pressed bodily doAvn into the water and held
there. Resolving to make sacrifices to save our Ha'cs, I
ordered the top-mast back-stays cut aAvay, and
AA'hen that Avas done the masts went crashing over
the ship's sides, carrying everything aloft Avith
them. They lay thumping against the A'essel
till I thought they would staA'e her side in.
To prevent this, I ordered all the lee rigging
cut aAvay.
The men stai'ted from the hurricane-house.
Six had knives and axes, and each of them
had a rope round his Avaist. Six others had
hold of the ropes, and clung to any stable
thing they could reach — some grasping the
Aveather la.sh-rail, some seizing hold of the sk}--
light, and one taking a turn round the stump of
the mizzen-mast — AA-hile the men Avith the axes
and boarding-knives went doAvn the sloping deck ;
and, standing in water up to their waists, hacked
at the rigging. The wind bleAv so powerfully
that it Avas next to impossible to SAving an axe.
Most of the work was done Avith knives.
Even the sacrifice of all three masts seemed to
have no effect toAvard easing the ship. No sooner

182 THE ALBATROSS.
had my men crawled back under the hurricane-
house than a tremendous breaching sea boarded
us over the Aveather side the whole length of the
vessel, staving bulwarks and clearing everything
off deck — lee boats, craft, oars, everything but
our try-works, weather boat and cook's galley.
The hurricane continued with unabated fury
until eight o'clock the next morning. Then it
steadily died out, and at noon it was nearly calm.
But as the wind went doAvn the sea came up. The
waves rose to a dizzy height.
Despite the difficulty in keeping our footing —
for the ship tossed and rolled helplessly vidth not
a stitch of canvas to steady her — all hands were
busy clearing aAvay the wreck, for a tangle of
rigging still remained, and there were several
spars alongside, though fortunately none of them
end-on. There was a calm for the space of four hours,
and during that calm the ship Avas covered AAath
birds, which had been blown off from the land —
gulls, hawks, boobies, parrots, cockatoos, cranes
and pheasants — bright-colored Avaif s, wearied AAdth
the storm and so eager for a place to rest that
they forgot their natural fears of one another and
of human kind. They perched on the tops of
the broken masts ; they sat upon the dismantled

THE ALBATROSS. 183
stanchions; they crowded the rail — where any
rail remained ; they swarmed in a many-tinted
flock upon the shattered skylight ; they lit upon
our heads and shoulders. It was calm because
Ave were then in the centre of a revolving storm.
The birds had sought its centre by instinct.
At half-past four the Avind began blowing again
AAlth terrific force from the Avest. The starboard
rail and the one boat left on the cranes went
under water. When the ship began to rise it
took the boat off. We had the full power of the
hurricane until noon the next day, and all that
while we were entirely helpless and lay at the
mercy of the winds and waves, all hands aft under
the house for safety.
Now, ever since the storm began, my wife and
children had been lying beloAV in her stateroom in
utter darkness. It was impossible to keep a light
burning ; and when the mizzen-mast Avent over
the side, it smashed the skylight and Ave had to
batten it down as you do the hatches.
Every little Avhile I Avould go below to the
cabin and ask Mrs. Robbins if she wanted me to
stay with her, but she insisted I must remain
on deck.
"' We are safe in God's hands," she said, " and
He aaIII care for us and do Avhat is best for us all."

184 THE ALBATROSS.
Her courage was magnificent. She seemed to
have no anxiety for herself. All her fears were
for the poor sailors on deck. She urged that I
must be there " to save them from being washed
overboard.'' One of the children, tired and restless from lack
of sleep, piped up, " Papa, Avhy doesn't God make
the wind stop blowing ? "
Once, Avhen the Avind was raging its Avorst, the
second mate came up to me and said, " Cap'n, I
must go below — I'a'c taken a terrible tumble and
almost broken my back ! "
I knew the man was lying ; but as he Avas
too frightened to be of any use on deck, and as
he might possibly be some company for my Avife,
I sent him below.
There the fellow dropped on his knees upon the
cabin floor and began to pray for his " dear wife
at home!" That Avas too much for Mrs. Robbins.
and she giggled outright.
" Mr. Simpkins," she cried, " it seems to me
you'd shoAV more sense to pray for the folks in
peril for their lives aboard this wreck, instead of
praying for a dear lady seven thousand miles
away on dry land ! " After that the officer
prayed in silence or not at all.
Ever since the hurricane began, and it had noAv
been raging for forty-eight hours, I had fed my

THE ALBATROSS.

185

Os «w Ha

186 THE ALBATROSS.
men on canned proAdsions I had brought for the
cabin talkie. Lucky dogs they were to get a
mouthful ! Cooking Avas out of the question.
But now, as the Aveather moderated, Mrs. Robbins
came to our relief. With the aid of her Httle
alcohol lamp she made coffee for those sorry
toilers of the sea — the strongest coffee and the
best, said one and all that had ever been boiled
aboard a Avrecked blubber-hunter !
When, at last, the Avind hauled to the south and
died aAvay and the tempest was over, we began to
take account of stock. As O'Hoolihan has it, we
stood off and looked at ourselves. We counted
our bruises.
Merciless Neptune, what a finding ! Jib-boom
gone at the cap on the bow-sprit ; fore-mast
broken away at the eyes of the rigging, turning
the fore-top over till the cros,s-trees pointed to the
zenith ; main-mast snapped off at the head ;
mizzen-mast gone, save a Avretched stump about
seven feet tall ; bulwarks and rails shattered ;
and five of our six boats missing !
What a frightful change had come over that
poor, storm-stricken ship ! A handsome, Avell-
found barky she had been only tAvo days before —
taut and in perfect trim, " man-o'-war fashion,"
as sailors say — but now she was a pitiable.

THE ALBATROSS. 187
dismantled Avreck, though, thanks to the faith
fulness of her builders, her stanch live-oak hull
was sound and tight.
That cabin of ours Avas a sight to behold. It
Avas a week before we could make it a decent
place to live in, for everything was drenched with
salt water ; and the two harness-casks, containing
salted beef and pork and pickles, had worked out
of their lashings and emptied their savory con
tents down the sky-light into the cabin. Mrs.
Robbins thought it was "much nicer to keep
house on land."
But we were safe and sound, every one of us.
Even the " injured " second mate, who was
obliged to go below on account of the " terrible
tumble '' he had taken, had now recovered the
use of his spine. Furthermore, we were well
provisioned. We had food enough and water
enough to last us till we could reach some
civilized port and refit the Pope. It might be a
tedious passage, but we had nothing in particular
to be afraid of — considering.
So we made the best of a bad matter. We
rigged up jury-masts, and in a week's time we
were able to set top-sails and courses, jib and
spanker. I was puzzled at first to knoAv what port to
make for. If we kept on our course to the

188 THE ALBATROSS.
northward, Ave should have faAorable winds ; but
I could think of no port in that direction Avhere
we could be sure of getting spars and whale-boats
and rigging. In fact, the only port really to be
considered Avas Mauritius. So thither Ave turned,
keeping the ship headed to the southward, and
beat around the south of Madagascar. Forty
days after the hurricane we sighted the Mauritian
harbor of Port Louis. Considering that the F^ope
was a wrecked ship under frail jury-masts, and
considering also that Ave had to contend against
rugged weather nearly all the Avay, I thought that
I had done my duty faithfully and succeeded
triumphantly. As Ave Avere limping into port, Russell came up
to me Avith an insinuating look in his sly little
eyes. " Cap'n Robbins," he said, " if a'uu Avill
pardon me, I have something unpleasant to say to
you. I think it only just to myself to insist that
if you had taken my advice Ave should not now be
putting into Port Louis for repairs ! "
'• Wha,t adA'ice, pray ? "
" Why, don't you remember ? I mean my
advice about the albatross, of course — the poor,
Avhite murdered albatross. HaA'e you forgotten
that Avhen you insisted upon having that bird
killed I said, ' Cap'n Robbins. Ave shall all be very
sorry for this ? ' "

THE ALBATROSS.

189

ii

:'w F. Ill
ki A
4

190 THE ALBATROSS.
" Russell ! " I shouted, forgetting in my amuse
ment to give my mate his " Mister," " what on
earth do you mean by thrusting a lubberly f'c's'le
superstition into the face of the master of a ship ?
Whaling cap'ns don't know — poor, grass-combing
waisters! But before the mast — oh, that's the
place to look for erudition ! Oh, yes ! That's the
place to find the true navigator! That's the
place, and not the quarter-deck ! "
Russell turned a paler shade of yellow than
usual — he was thoroughly scared.
" But, Cap'n, in justice to myself, I must insist
that the fact about the albatross rests upon
surer ground than any mere fo'c's'le gossip. I
have it, sir, upon the authority of Coleridge ! "
" Coleridge ! " I belloAved, in a voice that would
have quelled a mutiny.
" Yes, Coleridge."
" What Coleridge ? "
" Why, Coleridge the writer."
" Writer on navigation ? "
" No, no, no, of course not. I mean the writer
of poetry."
" Not Samuel Taylor Coleridge ? Thunder and
lightning, ivhat a first mate! Samuel Taylor
Coleridge ? And you have the lordly impudence
to thrust Samuel Taylor Coleridge into the face

THE ALBATROSS. 191
of the master of a New Bedford whaler! By
George, you deserve to be — ! "
But I turned on my heel and trod the quarter
deck in silence. Already a tug-boat Avas coming
out to meet us. She came alongside, haggled
as usual, closed the bargain, and took our line.
As soon as we Avere Avell under way again, I
approached Russell once more. I tried to acquire
an insinuating, Russell-like look in my OAvn eyes.
" Mr. Russell," I began, " if 3'ou will pardon
me, I have something unpleasant to say to you.
I think it only just to myself to insist that, if you
take my advice, you'll save wear and tear on your
nervous constitution by bidding a fond adieu to
this nonsense. Come ! You're an officer now.
Just shake yourself free of the fo'c's'le. And I
tell you, too, Mr. Russell, that it rests on better
authority than Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It rests
on the authority of a good seaman ! " (Laughing
in my sleeve.)
Poor, humiliated Russell ! He wriggled in his
roundabout and grew yellower than before. He
looked like a bilious Cape Codder.
" Why, Charles ! " called a gentle voice from
the cabin doorway, " you're not going to dis
charge Mr. Russell because he believes in the
' Ancient Mariner ! ' "

192 THE ALBATROSS.
It was my Avife. She had been down below,
preparing our " long togs " to go ashore, and now
she had come on deck just in time to overhear my
remarks to Russell.
" Hannah, my dear," said I, " Mr. Russell is by
no means discharged. I beg you, don't worry !
Mr. Russell is the best mate I ever had in all my
sea-faring days, only he's capable of improve
ment yet. And as for the albatross — his poor,
' murdered ' albatross — 'seems to me you've got
those wings somewhere, haven't you ? Well,
we'll make some kind of a feather ornament of
them, and hang it up in the cabin, my dear, for a
mascot. For if there's any meaning at all in a
' murdered ' albatross (which same I gravely
doubt) it means that Avhen you've been wrecked
in a hurricane out on the Mozambique channel,
you get into Port Louis with all hands alive and
unhurt! Eh, Russell?"

THE CAPTAIN.
The Captain does not always talk in the jargon
of the fo'c's'le. In fact it might be said he uses
it merely Avhen he "spins a yarn" in order to be
more realistic. He talks with his family, his
friends at home and his townspeople like any
well-educated man whose school-days are far
behind him, but who has learned more of men
and things from cruising about the Avorld than any
books could teach. So this last chapter shall be
told in the every-day language he commonly uses
when in port among his fellow-men.
There are several anecdotes of himself that the
Captain has forgotten to relate. Perhaps he did
not think them of sufficient importance, but 1 do,
and so will you when I have told them as they
were told to me.
The Captain, like many another old salt, loA'es
dearly his country's flag, though he does not say
much about it. But he has carried it into too
many strange countries and welcomed the sight of
it like a friend from home in too many foreign
ports not to be fond of it.
Though he never went to Avar he had an oppor
tunity to defend the flag Avhen it Avas insulted in
an alien country.
13

194 THE CAPTAIN.
The Captain used to tell us this story. He said:
" I was seated one day beneath the shade of
some great trees in front of an hotel in St.
Helena with two other American captains.
" It was very hot and the streets were almost
deserted. Nobody seemed to be about. We sat
there quietly enjoying ourselves, when Ave saAv
three burly-looking sailors coming up the street.
" They belonged on a large English ship that
had just anchored in the harbor. They were
rough-looking, and eAddently meant to make
trouble for somebody if they could.
The United States consul's office was exactly
opposite us, and of course our flag was flying from
a tall staff in front.
" When the sailors came up to it, they began
to call out in derision, insulting the stars and
stripes. Then they cast off the halyards and
hauled it down, cursing in the vilest language the
' bloody Yankee flag,' as they called it, and
Avrapping it about themselves, trailing it in
the dust.
" ' We could stand it no longer,' said the
Captain. ' We felt it was time we took a hand.
So Avhen they began to pitch into the consul's
clerk, Avho came out to try to rescue the flag, we,
too laid hold of them and a general fight ensued.

5^"-"15!IST*^^

?;'T^Tr~'"'T?.'''.'"'''''^ "' '";'!-"'

THE CAPTAIN. 195
" ' We did not intend to hurt the men, but we
did mean to hold them until the police came.
" ' I had my man down and was holding him
with both hands when he reached up and grabbed
my long whiskers. He had me then completely
at his mercy. I could not release myself.
" ' The clerk ran out of the office to relieve me,
and in trying to strike down the hands of the man
beneath me he gave me a severe blow over my
eye with an ebony ruler. It was so sore I had
to stay in my room for several days.
" ' The sailors Avere arrested and fined th-ree
pounds each. Their captain paid their fine and
the police put them on board their ship.
" ' We found out afterwards that they came on
shore with the intention of making a ' row ' and
getting shut up, hoping their captain would go
without them ; but you see their plan did not
succeed.' "
It was during the war of 1863 that the Captain
was at St. Helena, and he Avas one day on shore
dining at the hotel. There were a nmnber of
ladies and gentlemen in the party. Several of
the latter were captains of American ships that
lay in port.
The Captain said :
" A large EngHsh ship had just anchored in the
harbor, and her Captain came ashore to take dinner.

196 THE CAPTAIN.
" He evidently had left his good manners aboard
ship, for he entered the room in a blustering
manner, ignoring the ladies present, and seated
himself near the head of the table and began to
talk to an English officer who was one of the
guests, about our Civil War, asking questions in
a most offensive manner.
" We Avere all feeling very much pleased over
the news of victory we had received and some one
began to tell the captain of Sherman's march to
the sea.
" The EngHsh captain, whom we afterwards
learned was one of England's naval reserves,
spoke up in a loud and boasting tone, saying,
' Well, sir, we will go over and hcip the South
erners Avhip the Yankees Avhen we get back to
England.' " Captain Kelley, an American and a man of
small statue, was sitting near me, and I noticed
his temper was rising. He could not sit still in
his chair. As the English captain went on with
his boisterous and blustering talk, he jumped to
his feet, pushed up his coat-sleeves, looked the
Englishman full in the face, and said, ' It is not
necessary fOr you to wait to whip Yankees. Come
out into the street and I will give you a chance,
for I'm a Yankee.'

THE CAPTAIN. 197
" Kelley was about one-half the size of the
Englishman, who looked thoroughly ashamed.
He made a lame sort of an apology and left the
house. He got his supplies on board that very
afternoon and sailed that night, so we never saw
him again."
"How did I happen to be in St. Helena?"
said the Captain.
"It happened this Avay. Wc lay in the harbor
of Mauritius two months repairing damages, and
getting new masts, rigging and sails ; but Ave
couldn't get a Avhaling boat.
" My crew were deserting and good men were
hard to obtain in that quarter, so as soon as my
sails were ready, I put to sea and finished rigging
her. If any whales had come in sight we couldn't
have taken them, as we had only one boat.
" After being a month at sea, we spoke the
Plover, another whaler, and got one old boat
from her. So, having now two boats, we suc
ceeded in capturing two whales.
" At the end of six months we put into Port
Louis and found four new whale-boats had been
sent us. But we were in as bad a condition as
before, for now Ave had plenty of boats and no
crew to man them.
" We went to the SeycheHe Islands and there I
.shipped nine men. We cruised in the Indian

198 THE CAPTAIN.
Ocean for two years, with poor success, so I
decided to head the bark homeward. We had
fine Aveather round the Cape of Good Hope and
steered straight for the Island of St. Helena,
where we stayed two Aveeks, so I had a chance to
see all there was in that noted place."
St. Helena lies in the track of all vessels bound
from Cape of Good Hope to the United States.
" You know, perhaps, that the island is twenty-
eight miles in circumference, and is in latitude
15" 55" South, longitude 5" 42" West. It rises
up out of the sea like a great tower on the
horizon. You can see it forty miles away, a
great blur in the distance, on a clear day. As
the vessel approaches it, Dana's peak, 2,700 feet
high, is first seen above the clouds.
" The island has good anchorage on the north
side abreast of Jamestown.
"I took my family on shore and we visited
many parts of the island and all the places that
are of world-wide interest on account of their
connection with the great Napoleon. The Briars,
Avhere he lived while Longwood Old House was
being prepared for him, Avas occupied by my
esteemed friend, George Moss, Esq. It is situ
ated on a plateau at the foot of the hills and
has a fine garden. It is surrounded by wild and

THE CAPTAIN. 199
rocky scenery. The Briars has always been kept
as it was when Napoleon lived there. In one of
the rooms it is said that he gave the dictation to
'¦ Las Casas.'
" Longwood Old House was originally a farm
house, but verandas were added and the place
otherAvise improved. After Napoleon's death the
house fell into a state of dilapidation.
" Longwood New House Avas built for Napoleon,
but he never lived in it. It is a one-storied build
ing, and has fifty-six rooms of various sizes.
" It is pleasantly situated in the Eastean part of
the island, 1,760 feet above the sea.
" Another interesting building is St. Paul's
church, in whose graveyard are buried many
strangers who have died on the island.
" Jamestown is in a valley between two lofty
hills and is a picturesque spot, with roads winding
up the hills on each side.
" Ladder Hill is 600 feet high, and is crowned
with a strong fort with barracks for a regiment of
soldiers. " If one wishes to ascend it he may go by the
road which winds up the sides of the hill, or,
curiously enough, by a long ladder with 365
steps, which reaches from the town at the bottom
to the fortress at the top."

200 THE CAPTAIN.
Tell US some of your adventures while there.
Captain. " Yes, I think I have given you geography and
history enough. But it is pleasant for me to
remember I have been in the very rooms where
the great Napoleon planned and thought and
regretted his life away. .
" Our adventures ? Well, here's one. The
very first day we went ashore we had dinner in
Smith's hotel. While Ave were eating, down came
the walls over our heads covering us with plaster.
" No, it wasn't an earthquake, but the work of
the.white ant which eats up the woodwork of the
houses and down they fall Avhen least expected.
I tell you, it is dangerous. So some of the
dwellings are made of teak wood and the ware
houses of iron, both indestructible by this pest.
" We had many drives about the island, visiting
Napoleon's grave and drinking from the spring
near Longwood, where he walked every day as
long as he was able. It is a pleasant spot, cool
and shady from the overhanging willoAV trees.
" Pleasant as was our stay in St. Helena, after
our long ocean voyage, we Avere glad to point the
boAv of our vessel homeward.
" Yet Ave were troubled greatly by rumors we
had heard of the Confederate cruisers, always

"L.4.DDER HILL " ,\T ST. HELENA.

THE CAPTAIN. 201
ready to pick up vessels belonging to the North,
and we kept a good watch out, I assure you, for
such cruisers.
" North of the Bermudas we saw traces of the
foe in the shape of an abandoned hull, her masts
gone, and bearing the marks of fire. We ran
near enough to hail her, but no one was on board.
" At last Ave, too, ran into danger. When only
fifty miles south of Nantucket Shoals, our lookout
sighted a steamer two points off our lee bow. I
went aloft, fearing the Avorst. My fears were
confirmed when I made her out to be a long,
rakish, bark-rigged steamer, standing across our
bows and heading towards the north.
" I was sure we were lost. But we had suffered
all kinds of perils and were to be spared this. For
a large ship had been in sight of us all day about
eight miles to the windward, steering in the same

*¦»

direction that we were.
" She was a richer prize than we would be, and
we saAv through our glasses the steamer overhaul
her and send a boat to board her.
" It was about sunset when this happened. So
we clapped on all sail, put out our lights and
sailed away, fearing lest the steamer should take
us ; but the next day it was thick and foggy, and
we saw the steamer no more.

202 THE CAPTAIN.
" About thirty miles south of No Man's Land
we fell in with a fleet of fishing vessels and gave
them a great fright, for they thought we were the
enemy. " When we lowered a boat to go alongside of
them, we could see them pulling in' their lines to
try to escape us.
" But we soon convinced them we were all
right, and exchanged some of our salt pork for
a fine mess of fresh mackerel. They told us how
the land bore, and the next morning, June 25, at
five o'clock, we came to anchor off Butler's flat in
the lower harbor. New Bedford.
" We had left St. Helena on the first of May,
and it was just three years and eleven months
since we had sailed from home on what proved a
long, disastrous and unfortunate voyage.
" We had suffered from a severe hurricane,
losing our boats, which were not replaced for
nearly a year.
" Our officers and crew had deserted us, which
completely spoiled our plans.
" Yet our ship was new and well-provisioned,
and we were so far from home we could not return.
" We had seen Avhales enough to overload us
with oil, but we could not capture them because
we had not men enough to do it.

THE CAPTAIN. 203
" Yet, Avhen we got home, oil was so high that
what we hafi brought a good price, so our voyage
was a paying one, after all.
" Oh, I must tell you that we found out after
we got ashore the vessel that we saw captured
was the Isaac Webb of New York, and that after
catching her, the steamer tried to find us, but
thanks to the fog and our good fortune, she was
unsuccessful."

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