Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1891-04-29
THE SAILORS YARN.

| AbO"iSu6O VI ho'iSosiV" cSA0'S w
can command a ship, do you ?" said
an intelligent-looking seaman to a
clearinghouse runner the other day
as the pair stood on an East river
pier waiting for an incoming ship to
be locked. II do" said the runner.
"Then you are out of your reckoning"
continued the seaman; "for / have
known a man to command ship and
make good runs in her, and yet he
didn't know any more about naviga-
ton than you do" The runner and
several others who stood near and
who had heard the seamon's peculiar
statement asked him to tell them
about the strange captain who knew
nothing about navigation. This re-
quest seemed to strike the seaman as
quite reasonable and he at once pro-
ceeded to spin his yarn.
about twenty years ago." he be-
gan, "when l was first made an able
seaman, l shipped here on a full rig.
ged clipper bound for Callao, Peru.
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 if he knew everything,
when you looked at him close to for a
minute somehow he didn't look a
smart man. The first time / went to
the wheel he was on deck, and /
watched him a deal more than / did
the compass, and the more l looked
at him the more / made up my mind
that with all his talking ways and
looks he wasn't what called smart
man. One queer thing about Capt.
Phillips was that he kept servant.
That's something very strange for the
captain of an American ship to do.
But they said that the captain was
born in England, and he talked
little as if he was. But that servant
of his was queer looking fish. They
called him Scotty. That fellow was
awkward. His legs and arms seemed
twisted. Nothing fitted him and he
had red hair, and his ugly face was
all covered with big 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 l couldn't help think that
Scotty was much the smarter of the
two, although the skipper was man
past 40. while Scotty was little more
than half that. Scotty never had
anything to do with the men. He
lived in the cabin and was almost al
ways with the captain. Although
they called him a. servant l never saw
him do any work. Sometimes he
would come on deck and give the
mate in charge of the deck some mes
sage from the captain about changing
the course or going about, or some
thing else about navigating the ship.
At times in heavy weather or when
the captain was putting the ship
about he would walk up and down
leaning Oh Scotty's shoulder. Scotty
would look out kind of queer from
his eyebrows while he walked along
side the captain, and he always seem.
ed to be muttering something. All
this seemed kind of strange to me.
Once in a 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.
Zone night when we were getting
down near Cape Horn our watch had
from 8 to IL o'clock on deck. 1 was
standing near the pumps and the
mate told me to go aft and coil up
some ropes that the other watch had
left down. / went aft, grumbling of
course, and began coiling the ropes.
l noticed lighted window, and get
ting down to i'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,
but my eyes stuck out when | saw
Scotty. That young fellow sat at
table with chart before him. He
had pair of compasses out and was
making out his course on the chart.
He jumped up and took look al the
weather glass aud then he started to-
ward the after companion-way. l
jumped up and went to coiling the
ropes again. heard Scotty come on
deck. Says he to the man ut 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 call, for the glass is