The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1895-06-07
THE CAPTAINS WIFE.

speaking OF women" said the mate,
mo man respects women more than l
do. My mother was a woman, sir! and
| make no doubt yours was woman,
too"
admitted that the mates surmise
was correct
"Well. sir! having said what Ihave,
you won't misunderstood me when
say that the one thing / can't stand Is
a woman aboard ship. Give me
corpses, and parsons and lunatics
every day in the year sooner than wo-
men. A woman, when she's aboard
ship. is either sick, in which case she
expects the whole ships company 10
do nothing but wait upon her. or she
isn't sick, in which case she Is inter-
fering with everything and getting in
eyerybodys way"
yet there was woman l re-
marked, "a captains wife, who took
command OF the ship when her hus-
band died. and brought her into port
1--WE heard that yarn" the mate
replied, lever since l first went to sea,
and I believed 1t once, when | didn't
know any better.
But to come back to what l was
talking about. Were you ever ship
wrecked in company with woman.
Well, you can be thankful you were
not. It's bad enough to have to aban-
don your ship and take to the boats
when you're a thousand miles from
land and your chances Of being pick
ed up Is about one in a thousand; but
if YOU have 10 take a woman in the
boat with you it's just-I beg your
pardon, sir! and won't use such lang
wage again. But It aggravates me to
think of the experience once had with
a woman in a boat.
81 was mate Of big clipper ship In
the China trade at the time l am tell
ing you Of She was the Chariot Of the
Seas and most Of us like you remem-
ber her. She was a smart ship, but
about as uncomfortable one as q
man ever set his foot aboard.
1.-THE captains name was McConigle,
and he was a Scotchman, and he took
his wife with him. | wouldn't have
shipped II had known that there was
to be a woman in the cabin, but i
naturally didn't find 1t out until We
came to sail.
"The captain was about as hard and
about as mean as they make 'en1, so
far as the crew were concerned, but
/ am free TO say that he always treat
ed me WELL and was the most sociable
man ! ever sailed with. What was
curious. however, was that he had
mighty little to say to his wife. Nei-
aher of them seemed to care a straw
for the other, and at first l couldn't
understand why he took her with him,
when he might have left her ashore.
she was a handsome woman. She
was young, being, as l should Judge,
about twenty-five, and she carried
more sail in the way Of high spirits
than any sober woman l ever knew.
She was always laughing and singing
and making jokes with the captain
and me though she couldn't ever get q
smile out of him.
"On the contrary, when she tried
joke on him he would look so grim
that you couldn't have hoisted a smile
out Of him even with the steam winch.
l mistrusted the woman from the
first. And then, before we had been
week out Of London she began max
ing eyes at meat least, as far as
could judge.
"As you might suppose, I had very
little to do with the woman. OF
course, | treated her politely, she be-
ing woman, and being also the cap
tain's wife, but l never let her come
to anchor alongside Of me If I could
help it.
Il couldn't help finding, out, how
ever, that she and her husband led a
cat and dog life, and that she was
about as miserable as a woman can be,
in spite of her jokes and her singing
That made me all the more shy Of
her, for an unhappy married woman
is more dangerous than cargo OF gun
powder
ut so happened that when the cap
tain judged it was time to put the
ship to the westward, and double the
Horn, heavy easterly gale came I'D,
with thick snow and the glass falling,
net quick, you understand, but slow
end steady. There was ice in the
neighborhood, TOO, for we sighted two
icebergs TO the southwark of us about
daybreak.
There are some men, Mr. Smith,
says the captain 10 me, who would
shorten sail and try to keep a look
or for ice. Now that isn't my style.
! don't like ice any better than any
other man does but so long as l cans
see it | don't worry over it.
There is no good in keeping look
ovt for ice when you couldn't see an
Iceberg til your flying jibboom fouled
81, and II she's going 10 strike an Ice
berg, she'll do it under her topsails
lust as soon as she will with her top
gallant sails.
IF there's an iceberg in the road 4,
went get out of the way for us, and
Nee cant get out of the way for II, SO
Tho only thing to do is to Just slam
thc ship right through till we get
clear wea ther again
Excepting the steward and the cap
tain's wife, and the cook and the men
~ the wheel, all hands were under
20 lee OF The long boat, and the Sec
I'D mate was smoking In the door oI
lt2 cabooSe, All at once the old mar
says IN go below now, Mr.. Smith
ead you'li cali me IL there is any
I ~Aange Ia the weather.