The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1876-02-16
WAIIAN GAZETTE
AN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL,
DEVOTED TO HAWAIIAN PROGRESS.
AnOId SniIor,s Warm,
Sailing in COasier-A Schooner Captain in the
OIden TIME

4
al never wasn't much into fore and alters
said my friend the old sailor, as he handed his
mug TO the boy 10 be reflled, but had one jolly
good time aboard the schooner Evangcline. when
we're a very young man, that never think on
without sighin' that it couldn't lasted always.
You wouldn't think it perhaps, sir, seein' me as
you has, that when were young man ! were
about as good aiookin' chap as you'd commonly
find in days walk.
Well. We cant always be young (jst ill this
up ag'in please, and suppose that's wisely or
dered, as the parsons say; but still it seems to
me. now that I'm CROWN ole stuff in the
jints, TINT 1t would be good Thing TO be et6r-
naliy young, and able TO 90 from spanker-bo0m
end TO flying jib-boom end without ever touchln
u ratn.
I've done il my lad many and many q time.
though you don't think it, looking ut me now.
when I'm old and battered. and have got TO be
what the Frenchmen call on bum point which
they means little heshy.
AYE, lad I've gone from the main tack to
the royal yardarm without touchin' either foot
rope or ratlin up the leeches OF the sails my boy
I like monkey.
Couldn't do it now, Gist Gil this up again)-
couldn't do il now. Too many years, too much
rheumatism, and, well there's your health sir, per.
4 bRps too much grog, though, for the matter CT
that, there amt many youngsters nowadays as
can do them things, They don't build them as
good. lad, (thank you I'll take jst one more }
they don't put tie same stuff into EN-. In my
time boy were good for sometime but the sniv-
elm puny thing they calls boys now, amt worth
as much us a sick monkey onto u lee backstay.
] I've seed boys sir, cry ct to break their blessed
/ little hearts, jst cause man got ahead OF EN- to
loose q royal or mayhap to'galan' sail; but
them boys is grewed up, and all the present hoy
| would cry about would be when man got ahead
1 of him at the suuse kettle or the duff kid.
1 But this hain't neither here nor there lwell,
with you sir, once more) TO what were goin' to
! tell You about. | amt sartain whether it were
the Columbus, Captain Cole. or the North Amer
/ lea, Captain Loaner, that came home 10 any-
| way, il we're Black baler, and Id been shipped
.nt0 her as an ordinary. and had been paid off
/ with 63 cents and that didn't go far in Water
street. even IN them hard money times, and /
were strollin' down to the docks for to look out
! for chance.
d" don't know what took me down to the plea
/ yune pier foot OF James and Roosevelt streets
it weru t curiosity and it weren't business, cause
/ / hadn't the least idea of shippn into EN-, but
/ StrOled down without any motive. Some folks
would call it chance but that amt it, sir. Sail
| ors knows better than that, but then it's cause
! they sees 50 much of SIGH thugs. They sees Il
/ gaie of wind; two chaps will lay up onto yard
fur TO pass puryenter gasket, and one will miss
/ mis- hold and go overheard, and t'other won't.
4 Sometimes a chap will come down from q topsail
/ yard and fall somethin' soft, pine hatch scut-
tie, perhaps and smash it all to pieces, but won't
hart himself, and another chap will roll of water
cask and break his arm. Sailors sees these things
and then they knows that every man is reckoned
| up at the start. He gets his departure and is
/ bound along jist SIGH line, ind no doubt at a
1 but what when you and L weie reckoned up
/ was TO be sittin' right here at this time, and
! expects it were put down that you we're to order
these here mugs filed. It's uncommon dry work
taIkin' to-day. or else it were the mack'rel that
the old woman give me for breakfast.
AS | said afore, were driftin' down the
dock at the foot of James slip. and stopped and
were lOokin' at very pretty schooner, when
chap aboard of her says to me, BE you splicer
| young man 2
We'll says |, Il jist judge kin put two
ends Of a rope together as neat as the next man.
My splicer,' says he, were John Bunker, and
he staid to home this wage cause he's been mar
ried nigh onto year ago, aud his wife we're ex-
| pectih' to be took sick. He weren't of much ac-
count but he could turn his hand to splicin', and
/ now here's our toppin' Lift gone, and it's a fOu.
| stranded rope. and none of US can't do nothin'
/ with it. Seem you, made me think as priaps
you might like for to doa job of splicin' rcasOna-
bic. Could you splice four Stranded rope nOw?'
az There amt nOthn' in the shape of u rope
says /, but what kin splice p
| well, sir, jumps aboard and gets the toppin'
1 lift in on deck, and sits down and puts u snug
long splice into it, and then tells the old man
as how if he'd git me some marine and sarVln'
mallet, I'd sarve over the splice so us nobody
couldn't tell it had ever been parted So he done
that, and | wormed and parceled it snug, and then
sarved it over.
"1he old man seemed to be quite tickled with
the job, and says to me, Stranger, If you likes
TO ship Us splioer with me, III give you Sl2
month and found, cause you seems to be a likely
young chap, and I've took shine to you, and
John Bunker may jst stay at home 'tendn' his
wife to oil eternity for all me-
Well, you see sir, | were lookin' for job
and here it were, so / says, Yes at once, and
goes up and gets my dunnnge
She belonged to Nantucket, and the Cap
tans name was Ezra Pickham. 1t we're won
der, sir, be comm from Nantucket, should be SO
ignorant as not to know bow to splice rope,
cause at that time there was lots Of whalers be-
| ongin' TO the island, and there weren't no bust
ness done which weren't connected with whalin'
some way, and boys went regular from school
aboard OF o ship and never expected for to do
anythin' else, and as for q Nantucket gal them
/ llilcS Win u Clhp AZURE ne
/ killed his whale they'd seen him sugared frat
! So you see ITO find % Captain from Nantucket as
weren't sailor man were funny.
But you see. this old man, in his CROWN up,
we're kind of soft like, not just right aIoft and so
4 his parents, seem that he hadn't sense enough
4 for sailorman concluded TO make Holy Joe
out of him. but he were smarter than they gin,
him credit for, and after preachin awhile he got
| spIiced to wilder OF his congregation what had
1 little money, and bought into this here schoon-
er and run hertwixt the island and New York.
fetcbiui TO the city oil and candles, Goldfish aud
SIGH, and carryin' back all sorts of notions, and
this trade he said though not SO easy as preaehip
! paid better, and that was The main thing.
You see, larned all this here afterwards,
bat at the time shipped all knowed were that
she we're fine lump ola schooner, ard that this
old man were q ignorant cuss as didn't know how
to splice rope. EEs
e think II were somewheres along n August
when jined this craft, aud put in, in her, some
OF the very pleasantest times I've had since I,
were goin' to sea. Besides the old man, there
were the mate, Josiah Macy, and be were the son
of the wilder by her f1st. He weren't no sailor
no more than the old man. bat was took and
made officer OF Just for relation sake. Then,
there were the cook and steward, Abel Munro,
a old gray-headed darkey. q good cook but not
much Of hand for iddlin'. Then there was two
boys Of the Joe Bowers order, sons Of two neigh.
bors OF the old man. These here were all of the
crew, with the exception of Newfoundland dog