Daily Honolulu press. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1886, 1886-03-19
THE SAILORS YARN.
New York Tlmes.i

You say that q man has got to have
knowledge of navigation before he can
command ship, do your" said an intelli.
gent-looking seaman to boarding house
runner the other day as the pair stood on
an East river pier waiting for an incom-
ing ship to be locked IL do. said the
runner. Then you are out of your
reckoning" continued the seaman "for |
have known man to command ship
and make good runs in her, and yet he
than you do. The runner aud several
others who stood near and who bad heard
the seaman's peculiar statement asked
him to tell to tell them about the strange
captain who knew nothing about naviga
ton This request seemed to strike the
seaman as quite reasonable and he at
once proceeded to spin his yarn
About twenty years ago he began,
"when ] was first made an able seaman,
shipped here on full rugged clipper
bound for Cal,ao cru. The captain
was as fine a looking skipper as ever
saw. He was tall and stout built with
heavy beard. which he took good deal
OF pains with. They called him Capt
Phillips Though he was mighty fine
looking and talked as II he knew every
thing, when you look at him close to for
q minute somehow he didn't look smart
man. The first time / went to the wheel
he was on deck. and | watched him deal
more than / did the compass, and the
more looked at him the more | made
up my mind that with all his talking
ways and looks he wasn't what / called a
smart man. One queer thing about
Capt hillips was that he kept a
servant That's something very strange
e. 81 taf. f.f A .a.tan oh n.
do But they said that the captain
was born in England, and he talked lit
tie as If he was But that servant of his
was queer looking fish. They called
him ,Stotty. Tint fellow was awkward.
His legs and arms seemed twisted. Moth
ing fitted him, and he had red hair, and
his ugly face was all covered with dig
freckles. But somehow about the eyes
he looked smart.
Every now and then while / was at the
wheel the captain and Scotty would be on
deck, and when / heard them talk
couldn't help think that Scotty was much
the smarter OF the two, although the skip
per was a man past 40 while Scotty was
little more than ba f that Scotty never
had anything to do with the men. He
lived in the cabin and was almost always
with the captain Although they called
him q servant | never saw him do any
work. Sometimes he would come on
deck and give the mate in charge of the
deck some message from the captain
about changing the course or going
about or something. else about .navi-
eating the ship At times in heavy
weather or when the captain was putting
the ship about he would walk up and
down leaning on Scottys shoulder
Scotty would look out kind of queerly
from under his eyebrows while he walked
alongside the captain, and he always
seemed to be muttering something. All
this seemed kind of strange to me. Once
in while the captain would be the worse
for liquor He never came on deck much
then, but when he wanted the course of
the ship changed or anything like that
DONE he would send up word to the mate
In charge of the. deck by Scotty.
"One night when we were getting
down near Cape Horn our watch had
from 8 to 10 o'clock on deck l was
standing near the pumps and the mate
told me 10 go aft and coil up some ropes
that the other watch had left down.
went uft, grumbling, of course, and be-
gan ,oiling the ropes / noticed lighted
window. and getting down TO It'll was
curious when / was young you see-I
could look into the captains cabin. On
The lounge lay Capt Phillips who looked
as if he'd been drinking too much,
hut my eyes stuck out when | saw
scotty. That young fellow sat at table
with chart before him. He had a pair
of compasses out and was making out his
course on the chart He jumped up and
took look at the weather glass and then
he started toward the after companion
way. jumped up and went to coiling
the ropes again. / heard Scotty come on
on deck. says he TO the man at the
wheel: The captain says change the
course point to the west The mate
came aft then, and Scotty told him about
changing the course and then said: The
captain says when you change the watches
tell your men to be ready for cali, for
the glass is going down and we're likely
to have a heavy breeze before morning
finished coiiing up the ropes and went
forward Thinks /; This ship is navi-
gated by Scotty, and the captain. with all
hin airs, ism I any more navigator than
lam He may be captain, but he's no
more than speaking trumpet for Scotty
so lar as handling the ship goes.
At IL o'clock my watch turned in, but
somehow / couldn't sleep. kept thinking
about Scotty. | saw how he had all along
given his own orders about handling the
ship while he seemed to be only giving
messages from. the captain. When the
captain had come on deck and given any
orders felt sure that Scotty had told him
what to say before he left the cabin And
when he had given orders with Scotty by
him Scotty had always muttercd, and
what had he muttered but the very orders
that Capt Phillips repeated after him.
saw what fraud the captain was when
thought it all over but what puzzled me
most was why didn't Scotty strike out for
himself and be captain. instead of pre-
tending to be ser cant and letting Capt
Phillips use him that way. There was
some mystery about it, that was plain,
but couldn't guess what it was | could
only suspect that in some way or
other the captain had got light
hold on Scotty. While lay in
my bunk thinking about all this 1t
came on to blow. and all hands were
called TO shorten sail Scotty was right
when he told the mate that he were likely
TO have storm. although when lie said It
the weather looked as nice rs you could
ask TO have il in those ATTITUDES That
showed how well scotty understood what
he was about
We got into Callao and landed our
cargo all right The captain then said
that we would go to San Francisco where
we would be paid OF and the ship would
take on cargo OF grain for Europe
Early in the afternoon of the second day
out from Callao the mate went out into
the main channels 10 see II The patchwork
there didn't want touching up Some.
how he lOgt his balance and went over