The Portland daily press., 1899-09-21
THE SILENT SEAMAN.
ne Was an Ola Be'sun's Mate, ana n.
Hated Takers.

eve had an old bo'sun's mate on the
Marion few years ago whose taciturn-
| ity was known among all the old timers
In the service" said a naval officer now
on departmental duty. "He was fine
sailorman. and he had been In the Ameri-
can naval service for more than 30 years.
In the course OF that whole period it was
stated by his oldest shipmatas that he
had probably not spoken more than 1000
superHuous words. His aversion to
speech he applied to all hands.
''fhe old man hated takers, and sea
lawyers only excited grunts Of disgust
from his shaggy throat. He had a
massive contempt for modern ships of
war. He didn't express his preference
for the old wind TANNERS like the Marion
In words, but every time we happened
| upon one OF the new steel cruisers he
would regard the modern vessel suspi-
ciously out Of the tail OF his eye and jerk
his thumb toward her In speechless con-
tempt. He hated talking so much that
when he was assigned to the gangway
to give out the ships calis--pass the
word, that is-he begged off on the
ground that he was a workin man-o'-
warman' and not "a man-o'-war chaw.'
Nobody knew anything about his an
tecedents. where he came from or any
thing Of that sort. The most that was
known of him was that he had a wife
somewhere in the state of California, to
whom he sent each month one-half of his
pay through the paymaster. There was
no record OF his ever having seen his
wife during period Of about 10 years
He always shipped right over directly
one enlistment was served, never took
any shore leave add never, to any ones
knowledge, went ON a visit to his wife.
Zone day while we were tied up at
Mare Island the old bo-sun's mate stood
at the gangway watching the coming
aboard of a big batch Of recruits from
the receiving ship Independence. They
were all newly shipped landsmen, and
pretty raw looking at that. The old man
did considerable grunting as he watched
them clumsily come over the side with
their bags and hammocks. He was one
of the kind Of old tars who can't realize
that sailormen have to start sailorizing
at some time or another, and he had
been in the service so long that he had
probably quite forgotten that he had
even been a raw 'un himself, unfamiliar
with the difference between the cathead
and the miszen staff.
Zone of the young chaps who came
aboard seemed to catch the old mans
eye, and he sized him up narrowly. He
kept his eye on this particular landsman
for some time, but he said nothing. The
object OF his scrutiny was a raw boned,
clumsy looking lad of 20 or so. The
whole bunch of them were given liberty
on the morning after they came aboard.
They returned to the ship in fairly good
shape on the same evening, except that
about dozen OF them were pretty
groggy.
"One OF the groggy ones was the young
chap who'had caught the eye of the old
bo'sun's mate. The young fellow had
apparently been having pretty wild
time during his liberty. and he had abont
all he could do to get up the gangway
ladder. The old bo'sun's mate watched
the crowd come aboard, and when this
particular landsman stumbled up the
ladder and drunkenly made as IL to sa-
Lutte the officer of the deck and 60 for
ward the old man jumped TO the mast
like a fash and had the young fellow by
the scruff of the neck. BE led his cap
tive up to the officer OF the deck, made
the scrape employed by the old timers,
cleared his throat and said:
"'Instead o. putin this 'un in tn brig.
sir, I'd like to have you hand him over to
me-
"This sounded pretty odd to the officer
Of the deck. He didn't know what the
old man meant
"'What do you want with himY In
CURED the officer of the deck.
"The old man knuckled his forehead
for minute. wiped his mouth with the
back Of his hand and said:
20 IA
his carcass about the evils o. this here
shore drinking
But what have you got to do with
his dDdnkenness?' asked the deck officer.
"'Why. tn swab's my son. said the
old man.
1.-THE officer of the deck couldn't help
but break into laugh, the spectacle
was so ridiculous. The youth, whose
collar was still gripped by the old mans
horny paw, had the funniest conceivable
expression of surprise on his drunken
face. 1t afterward came out that while
he knew in a general way that his father
was In the American navy, he had no
idea what ship he was serving on, and
1t Is no wonder that this peculiar way of
meeting with his dad rather surprised
him.
$50 forward, the both of you,' said
the officer of the deck, smiling, and the
old man hauled his brawny, raw boned
son up forward under the to'gallant
fo'c'sle, where he deliberately laid him
over his knee and spanked him good and
hard with the blunt end of marlinspike,
while all the rest of the crew stood about
giving the drunken lad the laugh. The
boy staid aboard that ship and developed
into a good sailorman under the old
mans tutelage, but he never returned
from liberty again in a drunken condi-
ton while | was attached to the Mar
ion. Washington Star.