The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1886-02-17
THE MUTINY.

One foggy afternoon few weeks ago
the captain of a trim clipper ship of
about 1000 tons, which lay at an East
river pier, was pacing up and down on
the after house, and occasionally glanc-
ing out upon the mist-covered river.
The ship was to have set sail for Aus.
tralia that morning, but owing to the
fog the captain had preferred to remain
at the dock.
'No, l won't take any chances" said
the captain to friend who had come
aboard few moments before, and stood
leaning against the talfrail Although
I'm young man, stop and think be-
fore l run any risk; that is, when there's
any time for me to stop and think. And
yet when | was boy / was the most
needless youngster going. l did what
ever came into my head, and never
thought of the consequences. But once,
just In the nick of time, it flashed
through my mind that ought to stop
and think. did stop and think, and if
l hadn't wouldn't be alive now, nor
would the ship under me be afloat. I
was brought up on farm in the interior
OF this State" continued the captain,
''but when was about sixteen years old
lgrew tired of farm life and ran away
and came to New York. | found a place
In grocery store, but soon got tired
of that sort of work. Then it struck me
that would like to go to sea. so off l
hurried to sailors boarding house, the
keeper of which got berth for me on
this very ship. She was then only about
a couple of years old, although
l don't know that she looked
any newer then than she does now. l
signed articles for voyage from this
port to China by way of Valparaiso and
back to America We hadn't been out
many days before found that the life
of boy on board ship, wasn't very
pleasant one. The second mate, in whose
watch l was, often kicked and
cuiled me, and the mate struck me
whenever he had q chance, while the
old captain, who always hated boys,
would look at me as if he wanted to
throw me overheard The sailors used to
swear at me, and some of them thought
nothing of hitting me when none of the
officers were looking. All this made
me wish had never even heard of the
sea. Arter we had passed the equator
we were carried along by the southeast
trade winds until we got about off Rio
Janerio. The first evening after we lost
the trades, when the watch went to the
pumps they would not work. There
was some obstruction in them, but the
carpenter could not find out what it was.
AS the ship was leaking a little the cap
tain decided that it would never do to
go around Cape Horn with the pumps in
that condition, so he said he would put
into Rio Janeiro and have them over
hauled.
II was, of course, delighted at the
prospect of seeing foreign port. The
night after we had headed toward Rio
heard the sailors in my watch talking
about the captain. One of them said
that the cook had told him that the cap
tain was going to do some trading on his
own account when he got to China, and
that he had considerable money with
him. paid no attention to thrs state
ment at the time. All l thought of was
about getting into Rio Janeiro. We
got within abouta days sale of Rio when
the carpenter, who was tinkering about |
the pumps, discovered the obstruction !
and succeeded in removing it, Then |
there was no need putting into port, and |
the captain gave orders 10 head toward |
Cape Horn again. did not like this at
all. 1t was late in the afternoon |
when we put about. | noticed during
the dog watch that the men were talking
very earnestly among themselves in the |
forecastle. Eight bells struck, and the
watch to which belonged went on
deck. kept the lookout for two hours,
and at four bells, when / went down on
the main deck, one of the sailors. who |
was known as Big Pete, came up to me
and began to talk very pleasantly. This
surprised me, because generally he had |
seemed TO dislike me. Big Pete was
tall, brawny fellow, and was the wicked
sEt-looking man in the crew, and that