St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-11-24
A %trike' on Ship-Board
BY George H. Coomer.
IL is seldom that a shaler. has a
i better crew than had the shin An

Ao SelGom that a shaler has
better crew than had the ship An
drcmache, during a voyage that
once made in her. The greater par,
OF her hands were young men will
nigh and just appreciations in tn,
business they had adopted. Our boat
steerers were fine. capable fellows
and as to our three mates, they were
men who went about their duties in !
sturdy, sensible manner, withou:
abusing those under them.
But there was one serious draw
back to our content. Our captain, be
sides being a harsh man, was SO ex
tremely ciosc-fisted as to- begrudgt
us every mouthful of provision that
we consumed. Interested in the YES
sci as a part owner, he appeared te
think that we were really doing lin
an injury by eating at all; SO tha,
whenever new barrel of beef was
broken out" as The term is, we were
sure TO hear violent outburst from
hlm about our waste fulness.
Nevertheless, in the earlier part o1
the voyage we fared toierahly well in
spite of his fault-fEding. While h
confined himself to mere words, we
could put down the "salt junk" in
silence, and feel equal to 20-mile pull
at the oars or i2 hours task at
cutting in" However weary We
might be, it was great satisfaction
TO reflect that good solid meal OF
fNon n II
of cur work.
But at length there came change.
We were cruising in the South Allan
tic, away down by Tristan de Acunha,
when the .'old man. as we called him,
introduced reform" in our manner
of living, putting US on an allowance
of one pound of beef and bone per
day for each man. with but a short
supply of bread
A pound of clear beef, with fair
quantity of bread, might have suf-
feed; but the beef and bone were
weighed out together, and it often
happened that there was as much
bona as meat.
Whales were abundant, but some
what wild, and we had many long
chase for nothing, although tolerably
successful upon the whole. Whenever
whale was Killed, if the ship hap
penad to be to the leeward, he must
be towed to her by long and tedious
rowing; and then came the cutting,
the hoisting and all the incidental
work of the occasion.
The shipkeeper. and the boat steer-
ers had the same fare as the foremast
hands, and We're equally as discon-
tented. The condition of things had
become intolerabIe, and we deter
mined upon revolution" 1t should
be q ''peaceable revolution" but eff
fective and complete.
No more whaling on empty stom-
achs," we said; .let the fulfilled ones
catch the whales"
1t was settled that the shipkeeper
should be our spokesman to the cap
tain, presenting our ultimatum as TO
what we would and would not do.
No positive mutiny should be set on
foot, no criminal act committed; but
either we must have a full allowance
of provisions or the ship must be
headed for home--otherwise we would
refuse duty.
Having decided upon our course of
action, we marched aft in a body to
the quarter deck, the shipkeeper car
rying our last kid of beef, which
contained a bone almost as large as
quadrant and nearly of the same
shape.
/ suppose we were rather quaint
looking company, in our sailor caps
and trousers, as we shuffied along
with our grim spokesman in the van,
tugging the "kid'' of beef.
Capt. Winthrop said the old tar,
respectfully, ''the crew ask me to
speak for, EN-, and have brought aft
their allowance to show you what sort
of fare they have. You see this big
bone, sir, and can judge for yourself
how much meat will be left when the
weight Of this is taken out. l speak
for the boat steerers and myself. as
well as for the for'ard hands. What
we want is full allowance of meat
and bread, sir, and we can't work
without it,
He put the kid down on the deck,
and held up the huge beef bone, with
its thin covering of meat and gristle.
Il don't care what you want!"
roared the captain, savagely. I'm
not going to have you running to me
with every bone you happen to find
in piece of beef! Go forward-all
of you-and don't let me hear any
more of your grumbling. I'm cap
tain of this ship, and / shall feed you
as think best!"
"Well. sir" replied the shipkeeper.
in a decided tone. 'then we ask you |
to head the ship for home-our whal-
ing is up"
"Ah!" calculated the captain. "your
is up, is it? Mutiny, you ras-
Gals. mutiny. eh?"
NO, sir. there is no mutiny We |
will go to work the moment you agree
to feed us as we ought to be fed. but |
not before, except SO far as to take
the ship home"
"You're a fine lot of mutineers, /
must sayl" cried the commander.
.And as for you, shipkeeper. I've a
good mind to put you in irons! Re-
fuse duty, do you? I'll see whether
or not you'll obey orders when the
time comes!"
We went forward, even the helms
man leaving his post. so that the off,
GERS had to steer. 1t was our resolu-
ton not to touch brace nor bowline,
tuck or sheet, unless one or the other
Of cur demands should be complied
with, and should hundred whales
come alongside. they might remain
there undisturbed for aught that we
would do to molest them. Yet we /
really did hope to see spout. as this,
we felt, would at once bring matters
to climax.
or the day previous we had chased
/ considerable school unsuccessfully, /
and it might at any moment be redis-
Altbouph we had sspiyen nm