The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-06-10

10 me 10 rest IN collecting together on the
quarter and relating stories, a few of which
Mrs. Grundy might term equivocal. A
favorite pastime with them was this: A
sailor would jump aloft with a bottle and
sling 1t at the end of the mainyard arm
The captains and leutenants would then
shoot at this bottle with pistols. and this
seemed to amuse them and such sport as II
was certainly made the hours pass. Then,
when the black. wet CLEAN Of the dorsai
fin was visible. the officers fished for
sharks.
The catching of one would fill the ship
with excitement, and with the eye of
memory 1 see the soldiers failing on TO
drag the huge. Hopping horror. forward.
yelling and hurrahing, Irish fashion, as
they sprang off the poop with the shark,
following them like an earthquake, and
see the soldiers standing around the shark
on the forecastle after the carpenter had
nicked its tail and the cook had ripped its
belly up. The pious among them expected
to see Jonah step forth. Certainly the in
terror of shark is dark mystery until
it is revealed, and one never knows the
phenomena that might be knitted untimely
out of a hold in which lap dogs have been
messed the contents Of a pawnbroker's
shop
TAKING A MEAN ADVANTAGE.
have said that the passage to Madras
occupied four months. This. to be sure
was not clipper sailing. There was then
afoat breed of ships from among which
you might have chosen the most beautiful
forms of water borne fabrics ever heard
g
shipbuilding.. Among these ships were the
famous China clippers. whose daily runs
sometimes rose TO the unparalleled figure
Of three hundred and eighty miles. which
was out and away faster than steam as
steam then was. Thus, that lovely vessel
called the Thermopylae made the run, pilot
to pilot, from London to New South Wales
in sixty days. This was her run on her first
voyage. In her second she made the run
in sixty-one days
We were full bowed ship, and, though
her captain would drive her in half gale
OF wind over the stern with the main royal
set half bursting under the truck, yet at
her fieetest We never could heave the log
to more than twelve knots, and this we
reckoned an extraordinary speed.
We arrived off Madras, and sent our
troops ashore in the surf boats. and strug-
gled up to Calcutta as light as a balloon
to load a cargo for London. But after we
had been lying in the Hooghly for two
months the second China war broke out
and we were again chartered as trans
port. Our destination was Hong-K Kong 1t
is wearisome road, fraught with peril,
through the navigable waters of the Spice
islands MT Our
consisted OF the headquarters of the Six
tieth Rifles, but i do not remember that
we carried the band. Certainly the colonel
was on board. l have a very clear recol-
lection Of this gentleman. He was sim
gularly distinguished in appearance, with
Roman nose and spiked mustache, la
Napoleon.
He had glass eye, and was in the habit
of sitting I'm deck chair in front of the
poop and falling asleep. The lids of his
glass eye remained open: those of his ac-
tual vision were sealed. His expression
then was that of fixed wink | was but
a boy at the time, without knowledge of
physiology and had some doubts whether
a man could see with glass eye or not.
To satisfy myself l made on several occa-
sions this experiment: When unobserved
by the skipper or mate | would take up
my stand opposite the sleeping colonel and
make faces at him, having carefully pre-
pared an apology and an explanation in
case he should with his glass eye
and start up and ask me what the devil
meant. The experiments convinced me
that man with glass eye in his head
cannot see through it.
think ma 90 fo Il
would have been entirely to the taste of
the hurry of this age. Certainly the news
paper correspondent would have kept his
editor waiting. The straits of Malacca
were sort of cul de sac ablaze with light
ming all night. and 1 used to think we
should never heave Singapore into sight
QUELLING A MUTINY.
On our arrival at Hong-Kong the Rifles
left us. and we shipped another detach-
ment of soldiers for the bay of Pecheli.
The name of this regiment does not signify
which is fortunate, because have forgot
ten it. 1t is often good for master mari
ners who, not being sailors themselves. do
not know how to treat sailors, to have
troops on board. Our captain was one of
these lucky ones; for one forenoon watch
shortly after we had left Hong-K the
Jacks forward lost their temper and there
certainly would have been a bloody mu-
tiny but for the presence of the soldiers
For some time there had been a great deal
of discomfort in the ship.
/ remember passing some men who were
stitching at sail stretched along the poop
and, as I stepped by a swarthy demon, in
curls and earrings. turning his red eyes of
fire upon the captain. who was walking to
windward with the officer I'm command of
the troops. exclaimed to his mates: I'll
cut that - IS heart out yet If they
fay me for it!'' On the morning refer to
the wheel was to be relieved at four bells
10 o'clock-and the man whose duty it was
TO take the helm refused TO come aft. The
captain was on deck, and told the second
mate to go forward and order the man aft
and clap him into irons if he refused
Thereupon the whole of the ships company
came out of the forecastle and formed
themselves into a menacing crowd upon
the quarterdeck-sinewy arms, naked TO
the elbows, covered with India ink devices
breasts of moss disclosed by the open shirt
dangerous sheath knives strapped to the
hip. and the rage of ill-used men, pale or