National Republican., 1883-03-30
A Lah-de-dah Sailor.
Letler IN FhRadelphta Times.


AZ got badly left in forming hasty opinion
of the lah-de-dah captain of an English iron
clad" said Capt. Ormiston. During the re-
cent war in Egypt l took out supplies to
Alexandria, and after discharging received
orders to go to Berwickport for charter. |
knew nothing of the place and had no chart
of the north coast aboard the steamer. None
OF the merchant captains could supply inc,
and l finally concluded to apply to the captain
of the ironclad lnvincible, that lay close
alongside of us, as n last chance. pulled up
to the gangway and was met by one of the
officers, who said l would have TO wait q few
moments, as the crew were goingto quarters
AS he spoke the boatswains whistle was heard,
clear and sharp above the hOarse calls of dis
mates. Immediately, as if by magic, yards
began to como down and to so aloit, the blue
jackets rushing to and fro on deck, and of u
sudden bang, off went one of the eighty-tOn
guns fit to take your head OF. After the mon
were "piped down" | made my way up 10
the bridge where | found Il little light haired
man trotting up and down. His hat was
cooked rouguishly ON the side of his head I;
he wore long side whiskers, and an eye glass
danglcd from a gold chain about his neck. As
l approached he halted suddenly, whirled
about on one foot screwed his eye glass into
his eye and, in u sweet little piping voice,
said;
"'My deah follah, what can aw do faw your
He cut such II figure that | was tempted to
laugh in his face, but controlling myself, /
stated my errand. Immediately the little
man had all the quartormasters running to
find his sub officers, and in u iilly they re
turned and touching their caps they began to
report that Mr.. A. was ashore on liberty, Mr..
b. had gone to Cairo and that Mr. G. was away
in the first cutter-and so on. lie turned to
me and rubbing his hands, said: My deah
fnll afi.l,t Hnn MIA
assuah YOU you will find no trouble in get
ting I'M aw was there once, meself' Thinks
|, what an ass this man is, and touching my
hat | was about TO CO. when big, bluff,
sailor looking officer appeared and informed
the captain that there was no chart of the
British north coast aboard the ship. Thank
ing the, captain for his trouble l went over
the side and pulled aboard my own ship.
"No doubt you would have agreed with me
that the captain was no sailor and fool be-
side, but you would have been mistaken, as
! was. Tho next night the Invincible went
out TO sea, with man in tho chains heaving
the lead. Of sudden the breaststrap parted,
and away went the man overheard. The
same little captain was on the bridge. In
true sailor appeared. Pulling the bells he
stopped the vessel, and just as he stood, oil
skins, and all on, went overheard to rescue
his man. One of his leutenants and quar-
termaster Jumped overheard to assist their
commander. Instantly all was in an uproar.
All hands were on deck. All the boats were
lowered, and tho four men in II lew minutes
were safe on board the lnvincible. The
leadsman was entanglcd in tho line, aud
would certainly have drowned but for tho
prompt assistance of the captain. In addi-
ton, this was the fourth man that same
officer had rescued from drowning. His crow
swore by him. llo was peer of the realm,
and better officer does not walk the deck Of
an English ship to-day. No, gentlemen, you
can't always tell the man by the cut of his
iib."