El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-06-30
CHAPTER VII.

The Port Edes had gained the name of
an unlucky ship. She had slain three men
in her building, she had crushed another
to death the day she lett the slips, and
though only three years in the water she
had already MANNED enough hands from
various crews to make her full compile
ment. Some vessels are this way. From
no explainable cause there seems to be q
diabolical fatality about them.
1t is not to be supposed that sailormen
rush to join craft of this sinister reputa-
ton. They may be asses in the bulk, but
they only asses in part. They always
try for the best berths first. But because
there are not enough of these to go round,
and because, thanks to the Dago and the
Dutchman, there not sufficient berUhs
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 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
TANNER, you do not get much pick of a
crew. You have to put up with what 9th
or people have left, and it does not take
you long to learn that your beauties have
not been rejected for their excellencies.
1t was this way on the Port Edes. For
ward and aft engine hold and pantry,
each man on board of her had his private
sea failing. Between them they lacked
wakefulness, 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 skillful in gaining the small
est possible knottage per ton of coal; the
mates were all slipshod navigators, I'M
trustworthy even to correct a compass and
useless to drive a truculent crew.
Over all was Owen Kettle master mar
liner, and whatever his failings might be
and the index of them tailed out-they
did not show prominently at the head OF
such ships company. Like all men in
the merchant marine, he had been bred in
the roughesJ school, but unlike his sue
cessful brethren he had not graduated
later to the smooth things of well
manned passenger liner. For his sins he
had remained tho pitiful knockabout skip
per, man with knife edged words always
ready on the lip of his teeth, a loaden
whistle in one jacket pocket and a lethal
weapon in the other.
He was an excellent seaman and navi
gator, man capable of going an entire
voyage without taking off his clothes or
enjoying one watch of regular sleep. TAX
ing into account these qualifications, it
may be understood that while in command
at sea he credited himself with the pow
ers Of a ozar and was entirely unscrupu-
lous in gaining ends which expediency or
his owners laid down for him, and though
not physically powerful he had the pluck
of a dog and an unholy reputation for
craftsmanship. For the handling of such
q 1nenagerie of all nation scoundreldom
and fncapacity as buhked in the steamship
Port Edes no better man than Owen Ket-
tie breathed in either hemisphere.