The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-04-28

respect to the vessel or the service when he
spoke in this manner. He had begun his
naval life a powder monkey at Vera Cruz,
and he often said some of the solid shot he
helped to pitch at Santa Anna we're sticking
| in the walls of San Juan de UIloa yet. He
served through the Civil War with honor
to his country and with credit to himself,
and was never known to complain, or, as
that performance is best known, growl
He always loved the ship that carried him
over LIES tough pillows, he said, and
when he called her "a wagon" with big.
bad D, he was speaking of her, his only
sweetheart in the tenderest way he could.
Fisher was different from his contem-
porary, Paddy White, who when he did
speak-which was seldom-growled. He
growled at the bright warm sunshine that
dried his "scrub-and-wash" clothes on
the line, and even at the wind that blew
him along Fisher was always good ma
tured, always happy and always talking.
His favorite theme was his old maid sister,
to whom he sent his monthly money in
Philadelphia, who, he said. was the
homeliest woman this side of the Western
ocean. Often when the softest of winds
were wandering over the tropic sea, throw
ing up little ripples which the thin
scimeter of a westing moon was tipping
with silver, and the idle sails far up in the
semi-lghted spaces were waving in and
heave of the ship, we would gather around
the old man sitting on the breech of the
60 FOUNDER and hear him dilate upon the
beautiless features of that ever-traduced
female.
"Ah, my boy" said he, looking along
the shining wake of the sinking crescent,
chat sister of mine always run me down,
no matter what ship | was in, when she
wanted to have growl. She would come
riding through the air on squilgee-handle
and always found me, whether | was in
my hammock or at the wheel. [ didn't
particularly object to her coming to me
when | was turned in, because | could
sleep through all her jawing. But when
she came to the wheel along in the mid
watch, the wind abaft the quarter and the
ship hard to steer, we had cat-and-dog
time. She would buzz in my ear until l
was blind and unable to see the compass.
Zone night | couldn't stand it any longer
and reported her to the officer of the deck.
Of course he couldn't see her, and told me
| was getting crazy. So stood there and
suffered while she fairly howled at me. |
rolled the wheel to starboard and port, and
! thought the ship would yaw her head off
during that watch
One of Fishers stock stories was visit
she made to him when he was in the Sara
toga. He was out on the topsail yard one
dark, stormy night reefng the sail, when
his relative appeared, witchlike, standing
on the studding-sail boom near him. The
spar, jumping under the heave of the ship
over the rough sea, would shake her Off,
and she would flutter through the air, try
ing to light on the boom, with her feet
stuck straight down like gulPs. 1t was
SO amusing to Sake that he laughed at
the spectacle, and she knocked him off the
yard with the squilgee-handle she was
riding. He luckily fell into the maintop,
l.; OK ha1a opH
with a cracked head.
He said she got married when she was
about nine and thirty, but being too young
for voyage in matrimony the cruise only
lasted the afternoon. About dark her
man jumped aboard of big clipper bound
around God Hope, saying he'd rather sail
with Vanderdecken in the Flying Dutch
man forever and day than live with that
woman week.
When Sake Fisher went to the Essex, he
was made ships painter. His abilities in
the marine artistic line were limited to
dipping a rag in a bucket of the ebon
LIQUID, and smearing it on the Essex's
black sides, but he told the first huff such
remarkable yarns of his work with
brush in the "last ship" that he was rated
and given a "crow," as the eagle which
petty-officers wear on their arms is called.
The alcohol, which is part OF the paint
stores of war vessel, is an object of in
tense desire on the part of the old shells.
The tank which holds the delicious nectar
is iealously guarded by the equipment
officer, who knows the weakness forward
for the pungent spirit The shrewdest little
schemes will be originated for the purpose
of procuring few ounces OF the delectable
draught for toddies. A bit of deck must
be shellacked with ocher and alcohol, gun
must be coated with mixture OF alcohol
and wax, or something must be done
whereby the precious liquid is needed. tits