Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1895-05-15

were sunk low to the sea SURFACE by the
weight of the cargo, SO that when our
cabin was ON the lee side these windows
were always under water.
This is not an inviting picture am
drawing. 1t is the truth nevertheless.
The apprentice nowadays goes to sea at
| much less cost and is far better used
than was the heavily charged midship
man of my day. Everything good
comes when it's too late," murmurs
poor, heartbroken little Jane Eyre when
she rejects the coveted willow pattern
| plate. have often wished that much OF
| what is good ON board ship nowadays
had been invented in the rough fifties.
/ should have been glad, for example,
| to be shipmates with double topsail
yards. 1 hear of apprentices fed from
| the captain s table. I hear Of apprentices
instructed in navigation by the master
and mates of the ship. Had it depended
| upon the captains Iserved under never
should have lifted a sextant to my eye.
did not choose my bunk. 1t had been
| chosen for me. 1t was the most uncom-
| Portable bunk in the berth. 1t was con-
| sistent with sea tradition, therefore, that
| the youngest and weakest should occupy
| it. On entering to look for it I found it
an athwartships upper bunk. The lower
| bunk was to be occupied by lad lit
| tie older than I, just a little stronger
| and, like myself, a first voyager.
knew my bed place by this token
to the bundle of bedding was attached
label bearing my name, William
Clark Russell, Midshipman, Ship Dun
can Dunbar, E. l. D." But where was
my chest-the chest that contained my
| clothes?
There were no chests in this berth, no
place for such things scarcely room,
indeed, for a mans leg between the rows
| of hunks and the edge of the table AS
| was going out very tall slim mid
| shipman came in. His badge was dim,
his buttons greenish. I, on the contrary,
was most unhappily resplendent-a
brand new sailor-and this old stager
knew me at sight.
tWhat are you cruising about down
here after?" said he.
''They gave me black eye up stairs, -
said l.
Cup stairs, up stairs!'' he roared.
"There's no up stairs at sea, you guffy.
Didn't you know that afore you ship
ped?'
''Didn't I know what?" said I inno-
Gently, for l did not understand him.
"Come here" said he. approached
him. He drew me close and plucked
three hairs from my head. The pain was
not very sharp, but this did not render
the action the less brutally mean and
unnecessary
eff you don It pay attention. said he,
"to what's said to you, you'll be bald
before we're out of soundings What are
you mousing about down here for?''
81 am looking for my sea chest, SIR"
I answered, beginning to think this tall
midshipman great and important per-
son aboard the ship.
Grasping me by the collar of my jack
ct and the seat of my trousers he raised
me high and strobe with ne, thus pill
Jared, into the tween decks.
''What's your name?' said he.
Russell" " said l.
"What horrible name !" he exe1aim-
ed. "My name is Goole. Hcav much
better Goole sounds than Russell" " He
continued to hold me aloft. ''What are
your initials?'' he asked
"W. G. R."
'There you W. G. R., thenr' said he.
And he dumped me down as though I
had been sailors bundle upon one Of
ten or dozen sea chests, moored in all
sorts of places in the steerage.
A midshipman's chest! It was called
in my time ''a hurrah's nest" because
everything was always on top and moth
ing at hand. When lift the lid Of that
chest in memory, I am visited by a
faint, close smell of marine soap. I still
possess the Bible I took with me, and
the volume, like my memory, is haunt
ed with that dim smell of marine soap
in bars, by the impulse and influence Of
which [ am able to see the ship, the
gloomy tween decks, the midsllipmen's
berth, the patched figures Of the emf
grants as vividly as though was aboard
that vanished craft again. ~
I lift the lid of my sea chest, and
what do I find? Some dozens of colored
shirts, all so ungovernably stiff that
feel as unhappy as turtle till they have
been soaked; great quantity of drill
trousers, hard as the shirts, which had
they been distended as the windsail is
by the breeze, would have stood on end
without wearer.
In that chest were brass bound jackets
and waistcoats, and black silk handker
chiefs for the making of streaming sail
ors' knots for the neck. In short, 1 was
more ornamentally than usefully equip
ped, and before we were abreast of the
Cape of Good Hope I should have been
glad to exchange my finery for warm,
homely pilot cloth and the plain under
wear Of the forecastle.
Mr. Goole, who looked as long to my
youthful gaze as the mizzen royal yard,
is the marine ogre of my first voyage,
and in those distant memories he goes
on pulling my hair, tweaking my nose,
twisting my ears, punching my head,
and in many other ways making himself
terror to me. Having dumped me
down on my sea chest, he drove me up
to the qua, ter deck, and thence on to the
poop. What now followed cannot clear
ly remember. / recollect being greatly
scorned by the younger midshipmen,
and pitied and protected by the third
mate. But whether pulled at rope or
did anything except get in the way of
useful people while we were towing
down to Gravesend 1 do not know.
1t was a scene of enchantment, but
not like something out of a fairy book,
nor was it on the sweet side Of magic.
The liver colored river was crowded
with craft of all sorts, stirring up choc-
olate colored froth as they drove aslant
through the Reaches. Our yards lowered
to the dingy heavens of the isle of Dogs.
They were massive as frigate's with
the furled gear, and the ship looked like
frigate with her wide spread of shroud,
Large tops and short royal mastheads. I,
We anchored at Gravesend for the
night, and all through that night I lay
in my clothes in my bed and slept as
deeply as if I had been drugged was
awakened by terrifying commotion.
Tumble up-out you come! All
hands uDrOOOr sbiDt'' Tho third ,nata