Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1882-03-15
The Rival Whalers.

l. Oc, 1OSy hhO s'hsN
mates" said Tom Clewline, as he took
sip from his can in the fo'ksel Of the
Saucy Nancy, and set it down again.
"Them times is gone by, tell you.
What a whaling feet they used to send
out of Marblehead, Martha's Vineyard,
Nantucket and New Bedford.
"Lord, mates, when l think of it now
it almost makes me ready to cuss an
quit. 1t wasn't question then where
a sailor would git chance to ship, but
where to get a sailor-an' that's the
way it stood when Cap'in Tom Saw-
son, of the Mary Ann, an Cap'in Ned
Morley, of the bark Cetacean, was fit
ting out at the same time from old Nan
tucket, and both on 'em wild to get
men.
"Me and my mate, Ralph Racket,
struck the town together, and made all
sail for the Sailors Home. 'Twasn't so
much of home, neither, when you
como to figure it down; and the grog
they built would just lift the deck off'n
a sailor mans head.
"And the landlord was a long-geered,
slab-sided, lantern,jawed son of freedom
and he'd shanghaed more men than any
crimp from Cape Cod to the Haven.
But we know'd him, love your heart
alive, and he couldn't rake in an old
salt like me.
II says, says to him, Benny, my
sweet-scented rose, I'm agoing to ship,
and so is my mate, but we don't want
none of your foolishness. The old men
know me, and they know Ralph Racket,
/ want harpoon, and so does he.'
"Old Benny knew it want no use to
palaver such as we, so he jest come
down like monkey outn tree.
"'You might let me make a little
suthin',' he says I know just where
to git ship for two likely hands, and
you'll find it mighty hard
"Oh, stow that, says l to him. &c
into the cabin, and jest say to them
captins that Tom Clewline and Ralph
Racket want to ship; that's all you've
got to say to them.
"He hadn't fairly closed the scuttle
when old man Slawson come in with q
bounce that fairly made the. decks
shake, and you never see such friend
ly man in oil your born days. He jest
loved us, that man did, and you never
see a man so free with his grog. But
he hadn't got fairly down to his work
when in come Capt'in Ned, crazy to see
us, and 1 thought he'd shake my hand
off, and he loved Racket just as well.
Then they set to work. and to hear
them talk you'd thought that the
craft each one sailed was an earthly
paradise, and the other hell aAoat.
I only jest winked at 'em and says:
"'Now see here, you two shippers
are good men, and / don't care which l
ship with. IF you wasn't a church
member, Captin Tom, I'd ask you to
set down and play game Of old sledge
to see which on you took u.s.
"'I'm for it, said Capt'in Ned, but
old Tom amt game to do it,
Bring in the papers ~ roared old
Tom, L amt handled the sinful things
in twenty years, but if you think I'm
going to lose two good men, then I'm a
lubber."
$50 they sot in, and, for member
of the church, old man Slawson rat
tied the papers in way that would
have astonished card-sharp. Boys,
he faxed Capt'in Ned sinful, and he
went out of that the maddest man you
ever see. So Capt'in Tom laughed un-
til the windows ratified, and got out his
papers, and We signed with good 'lay,'
and said we'd send our kits aboard the
next morning. Then he went away,
and we didn't have good time that
night, / reckon. I never was SO full in
my life, and me and Ralph went out
side to cool of, and there we met the
landlord.
"'Pity you didn't ship with Capt'in
Ned he says. If you had, you'd a
been out Of this when the tide makes.
| say, I've sent your traps aboard
81 didn't know what business the old
shark had to meddle, anyhow but /
didn't cave in his blamed old figure
head, as / orter done. We strolled
down toward the docks, and Ralph,
who was sailing closer to the wind than
me, said the old crimp was following
us.
"When / turned to run across his
bows, and give him a shot between