The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1865-12-27
A Sailors Narrative.


moved we went in for yarn-sp spinning
And among our number was Captain
Richard Nutter, and a finer man or better
sailor never trod a deck. At length it
came his turn to tell story, or, what we
preferred-and what the rest of US had
done relate some incident Of experience
in his own life.
"Well," said he, rejecting the wine,
which was at that moment passed tashim
for the first time, 81 will give you bit
of the early part of my ocean life, e,and it
was very important bit too, for, upon it
l have built the whole of my subsequent
manhood"
We prepared to listen to Captain Nut
ter with the most profound attention, for
he was not only an old seaman, but one
of the most successful commanders of our
mercantile marine. We listened, and his
story was as follows: #
II was very young when first entered
on ship board, and at the age of fourteen
I considered myself quite sailor. When
I was eighteen was shipped on board an
East Indiaman, for long voyage. There
were six of us on board of about the age.
and we had about the same duties to per-
form. The ship the old Lady Dunlap
was large one, and our crew was large
in proportion. there being ffty-two all
told. We 'boys,' as we were called. mess
ed together, and in all'respects were sep
arated from the rest of the crew, just as
much as the officers were. Our captain
was a noble hearted, honorable man, kind
and generous, but yet very strict. Of
course we youngsters found plenty of oc-
casion to find fault with him, and very Of
ten were his decisions arraigneda before
our mess, and decidedly condemned. In
tiact. we should have reversed many of
This judgments, if we had had the power;
but as he was commander, and we only
foremast hands and boys at that-he had
his own way, and the luminous decisions
we came to were consequently of no avail,
and lost to the world. = goa 49,
- Now, we boys had learned, in the
lcoursel of our travels, to drink our grog
las we'll as any sailors. WecouId toss of
our rum and water with as much grace as
any one, and we claimed the right so to
do, not only as a privilege, but as an hon
or to which life upon the ocean entitled
tus. But eyen'in this respect our captain
pretended to differ with us. When We
could get on shore, we would invariably
indulge in our cups, and not unfrequently
would we come off, or be brought off, In ;
Estate anything but sober. I said I'VE,
but there was one of our number whc
could not be induced to touch drop o
anything intoxicating. His name wa
John Small, and he belonged to one o
the extreme back towns of New Jersey.
Now Jack Small not only refrainet
entirely from drinking himself, but h
used sometimes to ask US to let the stuf
alone. He gave that job up, however, ,fo
, we made such sport of him that he wa
glad to letus alone. But our captain ha,
. sharp eyes, and it was not long before h
began to show Jack favors which he di
I not show to US. He would often tax
I Jack. on shore with him to spend tn
70 night, and such as that, while we wer
/. kept on board the ship. Of course thi
= created sort of envy on our part, and
ended in decided ill-will toward poo
u Jack. f41 = aa
,s "Now, in truth, Jack was one of tn
best fellows in the world. He was kind
n ubliging, honest, always willing to lend
helping hand in case of distress, and a
q true friend as ever lived-only he woul
not drink with us, that was all. No
= that wasn't all. He learned faster tina
we dld-he was a better sailor and ha
- learned more of navigation. But thi
: we tried to lay to the captains paying hil
q more attention, though We knew better a
Q the time for we had the privilege of lear
20 ming Just as much as we had mind to-
Il The truth Of the matter was, we loved tn
N idea of being old salts better than W
did anything else, and we spent more tim
of in watching lforTopportunities to have
: spree than we did in learning to perfec
8 ourselves in the profession we had cht
- SEN. ;i,.,,r +, ffrg;. a5I-f
t""It even, got so, at length, that Jac
Small was called upon to take the dee
7n sometimes when the officers were bus,
e and he used to work out the reconings
Se noon as early as did the captain. Y
he Jack was in our mess, and he was co
4. lstant eye-sore. We saw that he was reac
10 ing rapidly ahead of us in every usei
nm particular, and yet we would not open o
! 4 leyessl We were envious of his good fc
Il tune, las we called it, and used to sci
do every OppOItuuley W tcaso anu iuh III
nd But he never got angry in return.
would sometimes laugh at us, and at OF
he ers he would SO feelingly chide US tt
we would remain very silent for viii
,ou @At length the idea entered our hea
that Jack should drink with u.s.,
NV talked the matter over in the mess VIII
n t Jack was absent, and we mutually plee
ret ed each other that we would make h
drink at the frstcpportunity. After
iif determihation,w treated Jack more XIII
lily, and he was happier than he had bt
o,,t for sometime. Once more we laugh
r,u and joked with him in the mess, and
,ow in turn helped us in our navigation.
at,s were on our homeward bound passage,
mi the way of Brazil, and our ship stop
> at Rio Janeiro, where We remained a W
or so. One pleasant morning we
ss youngsters received permission to GO
ngs shore and spend the whole day; and
II IN cordingly we rugged up in our best
was and were carried TO the landing.
lat- aNew was our chance, and we put