The Press., 1890-02-13


 There were two pumps at the foot of the l mainmast worked by levers, and these were furnished with "bell ropes" to pull on Half the watch worked at each lever. and these were located exactly I where on stormy nights the wild waves were in the habit of dinging over the bulwarks hogshead or two of water to drench us and wash us off our feet.
 The Wizard was very "wet ship: She loved giving us moist surprises. Sometimes on a fine day she would < gracefully, but suddenly, poke her nose H under, and come up and out of the Att q lantic or Pacific ocean with fifteen or twenty tons of pea green sea water foam ing over the t'gallant forecastle, cascad- z 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 discoursing washtub and washboard. Then the flood came, and in moment the deck was filled with great surge bearing on it's crest all these old salts struggling among their tubs, their washboards, their soap and 2 partly washed garments. The cabin bulkhead partly stopped some, bus the door being open others were borne partly inside, and their woolen 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 shining, greenish, translucent cataract filled the doorway from top to bottom. It struck boys, beef. bread duff and dishes It scattered them. 1t tumbled them in various heaps. 1t was a brief season of terror, splitting and sputtering salt water. and a scrambIing for life, as we thought. It washed under
 hunks and in remote corners du6, bread,
 beef, plates, knives, forks, cups. spoons and molasses bottles. The dinner was
 lost. Going on deck we found 8 couple of feet of water swashing 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 trihes. At least we call them
 trifies when they are over. have no- ticed, however, that a man may swear as hard at jammed finger as broken leg, and the most effcacious means in
 the world to quickly develop 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 trifle. '' >-5~ Learning the ropes isn't all a boys first
 lessons at sea. He must learn also to
 wash and mend his own clothes. At
 least he must try to learn and go through
 the forms. never could wash flannel
 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 earth's mysteries.
 could wash a shirt in spots; when tried
 to convince myself that I had finished it,
 could still see where had washed clean
 and where had not. There is certain
 system in the proper manipulation of
 garment in a washtub which to me is in.
 comprehensible. An old sailor is usually
 good washer. It's part of his trade
 Those on the Wizard would reprove tht
 boys for their slipshod work. ''Such {
 slovenly washed shirt as that" said Con
 ner, an old man-of-war's man. "hung il
 the rigging is a disgrace to the ship.
 He alluded to one of mine. The failurt
 was not from any lack of labor put on it
 The trouble lay in that didn't know
 where to put the labor on. .@ sr.4..s
 Itwas particularly disagreeable at mid , night as we assembled at the bell rope
 to give her the last ''shake up" and more asleep than awake, pulled wearily l with monotonous clank. Sometimes a that hour, when our labors were hal through, the valves would get out 0 , order. It was then necessary to call tn carpenter and have them repaired. Thi F would keep us on deck half an hour 0
 more, for by mutual compact each watc was obliged to ''suck it's own pumps. ! Such delays made the men very angry t They stopped singing at their work-a 2 ways bad sign-and became silent. mo ? rose and sullen. For the first six week - all the ''shanti-songs" known on the Sc i. had been sung. Regularly at each pumI e ing exercise we had "Santy Anna, h "Bully in the Alley" Miranda Lee, t Storm Along, John" and other operati :; maritime gems, some of which migf l, have a place in our modern operas ( , "The Pinafore" school
 : There's good deal of rough melod 8 when these airs are rolled out by twepi [ or thirty strong lungs to the accompsn k ment of windlass' clank and the wil' k shrill sweep of the winds in the riggin F. above. But the men would no long' t sing The fact was reported to the ca 7. tain He put on his spectacles. wake e out on the quarter deck and ssgazed r them mournfully and reprovingly. IT l. mates tried to incite them to renewe l. melody. But the shipping articles al IT not compel them 10 sing unless they fe n like it. The purnps clanked gloomi a without any enlivening chorus. II > captain went sadly back to his cabin ar y renewed his novel
 e PRENTICE MI:T.EsoRD