Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1886-05-05
From the New York Times.l
THE OLD MAID CAPTAIN.


twenty-five years." said the steward
ess of an American coastwise steamer
one afternoon recently, as she sat
in the coy ladies' cabin of the vessel
TO which she belonged, "and yet was
never wrecked, nor has ship / have
been on lost SO much as q spar while
was aboard. Yes, my life has beer
q very commonplace one. There has
been no romance in any way con
nected with it-stop, though. [ did
play a very small part in a romance
once. That happened fully twenty
years ago, and now it seems like a
dream; [ sometimes wonder if it
wasn't after all a dream. 1t seems
stranger to me now than it did even
then" The worthy stewardess paused
and far-away look in her eyes
showed that she was INDUCING in ret
rospection.
ttWhen | was young [ went on sail
ing vessels instead of steamboats,"
continued the stewardess. "About
twenty years ago-that was when ]
was young-I visited some friends In
the country after a long voyage, and
then / came GO New York to find a
ship. The agent went to told me
could go as stewardess on a ship
bound to Australia. The skipper,
said he, 'is a good man, but he's a
regular old maid | said that
didn't mind old maids, and SO it was
settled that [ was to 60 with the odd
maid captain The next day | went
aboard and reported to my new cap
tain, who was called Harris. The
captain was short and rather slightly
built, with mild gray eyes, but with a
full, heavy black beard. He seemed
about 35 years old. His hands were
small and delicate, and his voice was
high and just trife shrill, and he
walked up and down the deck with O.
mincing sort of gait Thinks I, Capt.
Harris. if you wasn't skipper you'd
have made irst-rate single woman;
regularly despised him until the first
storm came on. Then he went on
deck and handled the ship in such a
way that | could not but admit that
he was the best navigator I
had ever sailed under. Then I
began to think better of the old maid
captain. [ never saw q captain so
conslderate OF his men. Ii one OF them
was the least bit sick, the captain
would 60 into the forecastle and at
tend to him as tenderly as any nurse.
And when the weather was bad he
would not allow the mates to make
the men do any work that wasn't
really necessary. The mates used to
make fun Of the captain behind his
back for being SO considerable of his
men, but somehow [ thought it was a
u Two = bT - 4ol,
the captain closely, and [ soon made
up my mind that there was some
mystery about that man. Once or a
pleasant evening | came on deck and
saw the captain looking at the red
sunset with tears in his eyes. At an
sother time, when I thought he was on
deck, went into the after cabin for
something. found him there What
do you think he was doing? Why, he
was sewing and crying into the bar
gain. They are right in calling you
the old maid captain thinks l.
''The mate, Mr.. Wood, was a tall
fine looking down-Easter about 35
years old. The captain seemed to like
him, but | thought how he must envy
him his size and strength. The cap
tain, though, was much the smaller
man OF the two. The mate, somehow,
seemed to take q fancy to me-for as /
said was young in those days. He
was always running into the cabin on
some pretext to talk to me. But l
never encouraged him. You see / was
engaged to be the mate of another
mate, and that mate, poor fellow, was
lost at sea q few years afterward. Al
though the captain didn't seem to care
much about me, he didn't fancy the
mates taking liking to me. That
used to puzzle me. One pleasant even
ing when went ondeck | saw the cap
tain, who stood aft, looking admiring-
ly at the mate. who was sitting at the
starboard gangway. When the cap
tain saw me come on deck he gave me
q sort Of suspicious look, and when
the mate came up to me and began
to make himself agreeable. although,
as said before, had not given him
any encouragement, ] glanced again
at the captain and there was an angry
snap in his eyes. He did not like TO
see the man and me together. That
was plain. But why should he object
to it as long as he didn't seem to care
for me himself? I tried to hit on some
reason for this, but / soon gave the
whole thing up as a mystery too deep
for me to attempt to solve.
''One morning when we were in the
South Pacific some one cried out that
there was a small boat with several
people in it in sight on the lee bow.
We bore away for the boat, which in
a short time was alongside the ship.
Five men and little boy climbed up
from the boat to our deck, and we
gave them a warm welcome. The lit
tie boy couldn't have been day over
8 years old. He was g. bright-looking
little fellow with long curly hair.
Capt. Harris took to him at once.
He carried the little fellow into the af-
ter cabin and put him in his own
berth, and took him something to eat
while the rescued men were telling us
how they came to be in heopen boat.
They belonged to a bark which was