The Sun.
London, England, 1835-02-09 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCE

A few days ago a tide-waiter, who was doing duty on
board a vessel called the Belfast, from Belfast, lying at
Fresh Wharf, near Billingsgate, saw a sailor strike another
of the crew, who appeared to be a mere lad, a violent blow
without cause. The lad, who was called James, began to
cry, and the tide-waiter, after having called the assailant a
cowardly rascal for beating the boy, turned round and said
to the latter, " Don't cry—why you are like a great girl."
" Girl !" roared out the seaman, " you may say that ; she
is a girl, the d—d bitch ; and blow me, if she makes any
fuss about it, I'll let everybody know all about it." Sur-
prised at this information, which issued from the brute with
a savage sincerity of manner, the tide-waiter did not delay
inquiry, and he soon learned that the charge against the
poor insulted person of being a female, was correct. News
of this kind could not long be confined to few persons in
such a neighbourhood as Billingsgate ; and the captain of
the vessel finding that a general interest was excited, invited
some gentlemen to see his phenomenon fly up the shrouds.
Amongst those who went to witness the exhibition, were
two gentlemen, who, perceiving the reluctance with which
the order of the captain was complied with, and judging
that such an unfeeling master was not the sort of person
under whose guidance a child of misfortune was likely to be
benefitted, asked the object of their interests to accompany
them ashore, and let them know the history of so strange
a metamorphosis, and point out to them in what manner
they could render service in such an exigency. The girl,
who Was at this time dressed in a red worsted jacket and
duck trousers, consented to leave the vessel, although she
appeared very anxious to receive five months' pay, which
was due to her from her captain, at the rate of 21. 10s. a
month ; but which he was just as anxious to retain, ex-
pecting that—by holding this menace of exposure over
her,—she might be induced to abandon the claim alto-
gether. _ _

The history she gave was indeed a romantic one. Hay.
ing stated her name, of which we are in possession, but
which, from motives the reader will admit to be cogent as
he peruses the story, we conceal, she said that some. years
ago her father left Gloucestershire for Ireland, where, in a
northern county, he carried on the business of a cornfactor,
and lived respectably. Upwards of three years ago she
became acquainted with, and soon afterwards attached to,
the Captain of a vessel which traded to the next port. The
attachment was mutual. The Captain was, however,
obliged to sail for America, and thither, after having waited
in vain for his return or intelligence about him, she deter-
mined to go. She then formed the extraordinory resolu-
tion of laying in a stock of sailor's clothes as well as female
apparel, that she might, in the event of any emergency,
adapt herself to it without the hazard of delay. Arrived
in America, she proceeded to the place in which she hoped
to hear some tidings of the man for whom she had made
such a sacrifice ; but she had passed over the ocean only to
see the turf that covered his remains. He had expired a
few days before her arrival. The event she apprehended
and had prepared for, had now arrived. She resolved to
be a sailor herself, and succeeded in obtaining the situation
of cook and steward on board a vessel sailing for the Medi-
terranean. Her swarthy complexion favoured the dece:..
tion, and for nearly two years she had been tossed al;but by
sea and land, no human being ever having susPe'Lied during
that time that she was other than what tv.ie appeared to
be, with her cropped poll and jacket and trowsers. At
length the secret was to be discovYred. About six months
ago she engaged at Lisbon with the Captain of the Bel-
fast, as cook and steward, at 2/. 103. a month, and she
sailed to many ports with him. One day, while she was
washing in her berth, with her jacket loose in the front,
one of the crew caught an accidental view of her bosom.
He immediately expressed his astonishment, and threatened
to inform the captain if she refused to consent to the only
terms on which he would promise silence, and these terms
being rejected in such a manner as to show the inefficiency
of any future solicitation, everybody in the vessel was
speedily acquainted with the fact that there was a " she"
amongst them. The poor girl was from that moment
doomed to suffer great misery. The captain thought that
as he was the master of her fortunes for the time he ought
also to be master of her person, and when he found that
he had calculated too much upon his power, turned her out
to work amongst the men, by whom she was upon all occa-
sions most grossly insulted. She declared that, upon one
occasion, she saved her person from violation, by calling
God to witness that she would prosecute every man in
the ship, if they persevered in their attempts ; but the
captain never even advised any abatement of the persecu-
tion she daily and hourly underwent. In the most despe-
rate weather she has been ordered up the shrouds, and her
hands are now as hard as those of any man before the mast,
and the gibes and jeers and curses of the rascally crew,
was the language to which she had been constantly obliged
to listen.

The gentlemen to whom these circumstances were Ye-
cited would not permit the poor girl to return to the ves-
sel, which sailed next day ; and the captain succeeded, at
least for a time, in his object of pocketing her wages, hav-
ing determined to resist upon the ground, that he had
agreed to pay a man and not a woman.
The gentlemen, after having provided for this extraordi-
nary person, for the present, in a respectable family, wrote
to her father an account of the whole transaction, and in
the course of the week an answer of a very favourable
description will no doubt be received.