The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-12-21

lever, and these were located exactly
where on stormy nights the wild waves
were in the habit of fiing.1g over the
bulwarks hogshead or two Of water to
drench us and wash us off our feet.
The Wizard was a very "wet ship"
She loved giving us moist surprises.
Sometimes on a fine day she would
gracefully, but suddenly, poke her nose
lnder, and come up and out Of the At
lantic or Pacific ocean with fifteen or
.wenty tons of pea green sea water FOAM
ing over the t'gallant forecastle, cascad-
ing thence on the spar deck and washing
everything movable slam bang up and
sometimes into the cabin. This took
place once on washday. Sailors wash.
day is often regulated by the supply Of
water caught from the clouds On this
particular occasion the fore deck was
full of old salts up to their barred elbows
in suds, vigorously discorrsing washtub
and washboard. Then the food came,
and in a moment the deck was filled
with great surge bearing on its crest
all these old salts struggling among their
tubs, their washboards, .hcir soap and
partly washed garments. The cabin
bulkhead partly stopped some, but the
door being open Others were borne partly
inside. and their wooden shirts were af-
terward found stranded on the carpeted
cabin floor. One duff day" we had
gathered about our extra repast in the
boys house. The duff and New Orleans
molasses had just commenced to disap-
pear.
Then a shining, greenish, translucent
cataract filed the doorway from top to
bottom. 1t struck boys, beef, bread
duff and dishes. 1t scattered them. ID
tumbled them in various heaps. 1t was
. brief season of terror, splitting and
suffering salt water, and a scrambling
for life, as we thought. 1t washed under
hunks and in remote corners duff. bread,
beef, plates, knives, forks, cups. spoons
and molasses bottles. The dinner was
lost. Going on deck we found couple
of feet of water smashing from bulwark
to bulwark with every roll, bearing with
it heavy blocks and everything movable
which had been loosened by the shock,
to the great risk of legs and bodies. But
these were trifes. At least we call them
critics when they are over. have no
ticed, however, that man may swear
as hard at jammed finger as broken
leg, and the most efficacious means in
the world to quickly develop a furious
temper is to loose ones dinner when
hungry, get wet through, then abused
by Dutch mate for not stirring around
quicker, and finally work all the after
noon setting things to rights on an
empty stomach, robbed and disappoint-
ed of its duff. This is no trihe.
Learning the ropes isn't all boys first
lessons at sea. He must learn also to
wash and mend his own clothes. AT
least he must try to learn and so through
the forms. never could wash tianneA
shirt, and how the extraneous matter
called dirt, which the washing process is
intended to disperse, is gotten rid of by
soap and muscle at an equal average
over the entire surface of the garment Is
for me today one Of earths mysteries. l
could wash a shirt in spots; when tried
to convince myself that had finished it,
could still see where had washed clean
and where had not. There is certain
system in the proper manipulation of q
garment in washtub which to me is IN
comprehensive. An old sailor is usually
good washer. It's part Of his trade.
Those on the Wizard would reprove the
boys for their slipshod work. such
slovenly washed shirt as that" said Con-
ner, an old man-of-war's man, chung in
The rigging is disgrace to the ship"
He alluded to one of mine. The failure
was not from any lack of labor put on it.
The trouble lay in that | didn't know
-nere to put the labor on.
1t was particularly disagreeable at mid
night as we assembled at the bell ropes
10 give her the last "shake up" and,
more asleep than awake, pulled YEARLY,
with monotonous clank. Sometimes at
that hour, when our labors were half
through, the valves would get out of
order. 1t was then necessary to call the
carpenter and have them repaired. This
would keep us on deck half an hour or
more, for by mutual compact each watch
vas obliged to "suck its own pumps"
They stopped singing at their work-al-
ways bad sign-and became silent, mo-
rose and sullen. For the first six weeks
all the "shanti-song5" known on the sea
had been sung. Regularly at each pump
ing exercise we had "Santy Anna"
"Bully in the Alley" Miranda Lee"
"Storm Along, John, y and other operatic
maritime gems, some of which might
have a place in our modern operas Of
1.-THE Pinafore" school. 4
There's good deal of rough melody
when these airs are rolled out by twenty
or thirty strong lungs to the accompani-
ment of windlass' clank and the wild,
shrill sweep of the winds in the rigging
above. But the men would no longer
sing. The fact was reported TO the cap
tain. He put on his spectacles, walked
out on the quarter deck and gazed at
them mournfully and reprovingly. The
mates tried to incite them to renewed
melody But the shipping articles did
not compel them to sing unless they felt
like it. The pumps clanked gloomily