Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1896-03-27

! IN her building, she Fad crusEed another
to death TIE day she left the slips and
though only three years in the water she
mad already MANNED enough hands from
various crews to make her a full compile
ment Some vessels are this way. From
no explairable cause there seems to be q
diaboiical fatality about them.
1t is not TO be supposed that sailormen
rush TO join craft OF this sinister reputa-
ton. They may Go asses in the bulk, but
they are only asses in part. They always
try for the best berths first But because
there arc not enough of these to 60 round:
and because, thanks to the Dago and the
Dutchman, there are not sufficient berths
of any sort whatever to supply all aspir-
ants, it is always possible to man any YES
sci which board Of trade official will pass
through q dock gates.
just as no man is ever successful in
anything without due course, so per con-
ira few sailormen are down on their luck
except through some peculiar trait of in
capacity, SO that on your unpopular ship,
be she tramp steamer or exc weeping wind
Jammer, you do not get much pick of a
crew. You have to put up with what 9th
err people have left, and it does not take
you long to learn that your beauties have
not been rejected for their cxcellencies.
II was this way on the Port Edes. For
ward and aft, engine hold and pantry,
each man on board of her had his private
tea failing. Between them they lacked
Gakefulness, eyesight, decision, strength
of fist, strength of language, seamanship
and common sobriety Among the deck
hands there were virulent sea lawyers; in
the stoke holds there were ames damnees
wanted by several governments The en-
gineers were skiliful in gaining the small
est possible knott8ge per ton Of coal; the
mates We're all siipshod navigators, IN
trustworthy even to correct compass and
useless to drive truculen6 crew
Over all was Owen Kettle master mar
liner, and whatever his failings might DO
and the index of them tailed out-thcy
did not show prominently ut the head of
ouch ships company. Like all men in
the merchant marine, he had been bred in
the toughest school, but unlike his sue
cessful brethren he had not graduated
later on to the smooth things of n we'll
manned passenger liner. Eoc his sins he
Eau remained sta pititGl knoc3.a aou: skip
pr, a mSn with knito o.l;,ctI (. ovlls nIvyzy1
ready On tho lip OF his tsctti, q ls..s,zu
whistle in ono jacket pocket and q lesfaI
weapon in the ether.
He was an excellent seaman and nayi-
gator, man capable of going an entire
voyage without taking OF his clothes OF
enjoying one watch OF regular sleep. TAX
ing into account these qualifications, It
may tie understood that while in command
at sea he credited himself with the DOW
ers OF o ear and was entirely unsorupu-
lous in gaining enGs which cxpediency OF
Il l. Lid I, r
not physically powerful Le had the pluck
of deg and an unholy reputation for
workmanship. For tho handling of such
a 1nenagerio of all nation scoundreldom
and incapacity as bunked in the steamship
Port Edes no better man than Owen Ket-
tie breathed in either hemisphere.
The crew signed their marks on the ar
ticles at the shipping Office in the Sailors
homo and Went grumbling to get rid of
their advances. Later most of them turned
up on tho steamer, some with their
worldly goods done up III dunnage sacks,
which lock to the uninitiated like pillow
slips, some apparently possessing moth
ing but the squalid raiment they stood I'D
In. There was not one of them dressed
like sailor, according to the conventional
idea. Yet most Of them had made their
bread upon the seas since early boyhood,
which shows what conventional ideas are
sometimes worth. They were most of
them oldislI men and looked even older
than their years.
The engineers caIno On board early, for
the most part in scrubby blue serge and
sour blac. temper. They grumbled at the
messroom in broad Glaswegian, prophesied
evil Tin advance) about the capacities of
the messroom steward and the ships cook,
dumped their belongings into their vari-
Gus rooms and changed to apparel more
suitable for tail twisting in the unclean
regions below. Then they went on duty,
quarrelcd with the donkcyman who was
making steam for the winches and pro-
ceeded to split up their crew of firemen
and trimmers into watches and anportion
them to furnace doors and bunkers.
The three mates, the boatswain and the
carpenter were also on board .cti.nes.
most of them large headed with recent Ii
bations and feeling cantankerous accord