The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1898-08-23
ned that, watch and watch about, for

uoO lNaC, WaIcl ana watch about, Tor
half hour spells and picked the water
out of her by gallons to the minute.
The sea cocks had been turned off, so
we'd no further leak, and we got the
trysails and the two topsails on her and
shaped q course almost free for the Gu
ban shore. We hadn't got her clear by
daylight or anything like it, for the
hand pump had it's limits, but we'd
pulled the water down below the fire
bars Of the furnaces and were able to
get lit up again and see the steam rise
in the gauges.
1t was an anxious time then. If any
other steamers saw us drifting about
there under sail alone, they would come
up to offer assistance, find out who we
were, and the game would be up The
spot was likely to be crowded, too, be-
cause we were in the ship track between
the gulf ports and the Florida channel.
But the thieves luck held, and we got
her under steam again, kicked out tho
balance of tho water with the bilge
pumps and stood across for O lonely bay
in Cuba, where we could alter the poor
old Shah's appearance undisturbed.
We were at anchor there by early aft
ernoon, and a rough, wild place it was,
walled in with tropical trees and closed
from all view to seaward. Sea fowl
were the only living creatures which
met the eye, unless one could count tho
sharks and the sawfish which cruised
around us in the water As pirates
harbor no better spot could have been
found in all the world, and that is what
we We're then, just pirates-all, that is,
except Chips and myself, who We're
forced into the business against our
will
The work began at once. Stages were
rugged over the side, and the black
paint was changed to gray The names
on the boats and the life buoys were
altered. The funnel was turned from
red and white to black and blue. The
yards were taken off ler forrard, the
foot stump topinasts PIT on end in their
place. The Clyde name plates were
shifted from the engines, and the wheel
house was knocked away from the up
per bridge. She looked Ii different ship.
The gray paint and the stump topmasts
seemed to make her half as big again
as the British steamer Shah that had
sailed out of the Mississippi river.
could have sworn that her own builders
wouldn't have recognized the ship, even
if they had stood beside her on dock
wall.
Well, there was no time lost after
that work was DONE We We're not there
pleasuring, any of US, and we upped
anchor as soon as We had finished trans
mogrifying her and set out for the Horn
and the Chilean coast Legrand was for
putting into a Brazilian port to stay and
pick up few more hands, but Captain
Blake said "No." He was not u nervous
man, but he was no fool to stand in the
way Of unnecessary risks The George
NJ Washington was to keep out of all
human sight till she made her Chilean
port, and then no one could connect her
with the Shah which had been lost in
the Mexican gulf. She was to get car
go from there to China or else 80 across
in ballast, and in China she was to be
sold. That was the programme. He was
qulee aware IL WOULD Ce desperately
hard work fer all hands, but the pay
was big to match, and they could have
free run of all the grub i'll the ship Be
sides, he was not sparing himself.
He was all civility i'll his talk; he'd
good word for every body, but Captain
Blake was not the man you'd care to
be across with. He quite gave you the
notion that he'd as soon stick you as
look at you if it came to refusing to do
exactly what he wished.