The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-06-26

voice of the carpenter called down: BE
low there. Hain't the starboard watch got
their dinner yet? Tumble upl Tumble upl
The winds drawed ahead, and the yards
want trimming"
Tumble upT" exclaimed Black Sam.
Don't you be holding your nose too long
over the hatch or it'll be you as'll be tum-
bling down Can't We smell it? Oh, it's
nothen but us mems dinner. There's
plenty left if we've mind for bite"
who's that a-jawing?" exclaimed Mr..
Chips, who combined the duty of second
mate with that of ships carpenter. "Tum-
BILE up, 1 tell you. The winds drawed
ahead"
Catch it and smell it for yourself"
shouted a seaman, plunging his hand into
the mess kid and hurting lump Of pork
through the hatch The sailors heard the
hurried steps of Mr.. Chips as he went aft.
He'll betelling the old man." said Black
Sam; "let's go on deck and have it ont,
lads. Pll do the talking part, with your
good leave. Wedon't want no language.
Civility's a trump card in these here traw
erses. We ali knows what we mean to get,
and Ill say it for ye."
He led the way; his shipmates followed;
|
group gazing at the after part of the ship.
The vessel was the Rose, from Liverpool
to an East African port. She was an old
| fashioned composite ship, but her lines
were those of a yacht, and there were few
vessels then afioat which could look at her
on bowline Her yards were immensely
square, and she carried swinging booms
and main skysail mast, and her burden
was between 600 and 700 tons. Such ship
as this demanded twenty of crew at the
least, not to mention master, mates and
'idlers." Instead of twenty the Rose had
sailed with ten men in the foreoastle and a
cook in the galley, and the others were a
carpenter, who acted as second mate, an
Only Mate and the captain. Of the slender
crew two had been swept overheard in a
gale of wind They were foreigners, and
the English jacks did not lament their
shipmatcs' end, but on the contrary grinned
fendishly when it was discovered that the
foreigners were gone, and they hideously
wished that all Dutchmen who signed arti-
Giles for the red ensign of England would
go and fall overheard as those two foreign
ers had, and as promptly, too, so that no
body concerned might be kept waiting.
During the gale in which the two Dutch
men had persisted the ship had been so
strained as to oblige the hands to serve the
pumps every four hours. Undermined,
leaky, the provisions rottonl There must
be limit to patience and endurance, even
though the sufferer be sailor. The seven
seamen Jumped together on the foreCastle
of the Rose stood staring aft. The cook, a
pale man, lounged in his galley door, half
in and half out, and his face wore an ex-
preston of sour expectation. The carpen-
ter, as | may call him, was talking to the
captain, and the Only Mate was slowly
rising through the companion hatch as tue
body of seamen stood staring.
The captain, whose name was Jones' was
tail, lean, gaunt man, his face of the
color of sulphur, his appeara nee decidedly
Yankee, though he happened to belong to
Limehouse. He wore square toed boots, a
cloak that might have been taken from the
shoulders of stage bandit and a sugar
loafed hat. The hair ON his face consisted
of beard that fell from under his chin
like goats, and his eyes were black, bril-
liant and restless.
The Only Mate, whose name was John
son, was about half the captains height.
The ocean had done its work with him,
had withered up his face, dried the marrow
out of his bones, put turn in either leg,
SO that his walk was like pantomime
clowns Instead of being an Only Mate
he should have formed the eighth part of
mate You would have thought that
eight at least of such men as Mr.. johnson
should go to the making of an Only Mate
for the Rose had you sent your glance
from the dried and kinked figure to the
body of men forward, more particularly to
the giant Black Sam who with the rest
continued to gaze aft.
The carpenter, or second mate, was a
brown faced man of about fifty, but brine
had taken the place of blood in his veins,
and he looked sixty, with his white locks
and rounded back and long, hanging arms,
whose fingers were curled in the manner
of fish hooks. At the wheel stood the
Scandinavian seaman, Peter, the like of
whom you may see any day blowing in a
German band in the streets of London;
veal colored, freckled, yellow haired, a fig
ure loosely put together, and as meaning
less an expression of countenance as a
dab's.
The captain was putting at long cigar
that dropped between his lips Presently /
he pulled his cigar from his mouth and !
starboard watch can trim sail Trim sail. |
starboard watchP' and replacing his cigar |
he fell to swiftly striding the quarter deck /
to and fro.
The seven sailors marched aft and came
to a stand little abaft the mainmast- |
Black Sam advanced himself by a step, /
and exclaimed:
"Capt'n Jones, US men don't mean to do /
no more work until our wrongs are
righted."
The captain. speaking with the cigar in |
his mouth, halted opposite the men and !
said: What are your wrongs? Are ye too |
well fedi Are ye growing too fat for the |
want of work? Say the word and Pll right |
them wrongs for We fast enough"
we've got a SOW under that there long /
boat, Capt'n JONES'" said Black Sam. /
Would We give her the whites US men
have TO live on and work hard on7 Mol |
And why? Because the life and health of |
a sow is of more consequence to the likes /
of such men as you and the owners of this I
vessel than the life and health of sailor"
Captain Jones clenched his fist aud
glared. But what is the use Of one man
elenching his fist and glazing at seven
savage. hairy, resolved British seamen, and
the captain might well know that he was
but one man to the whole ships company,
for the Only Mate stood at the rail looking
over the side IS though ne were passea-
ger, willing to listen, but rather anxious
not to be involved" while the carpen-
ter had stepped aft, and was dividing his
between the compass card and
the main royal The captain looked around
him. He then pulled few moments at
his cigar, while an expression entered his
face that would have persuaded shrewder
observers than the sailors he confronted