The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1901-08-23
When the School,
ma'amS Sailed.
BY HARRY
A. ARMSTRONG.


Judge Nevins sat on the edge of the
drydock whiting and spinning yarns
as he was always doing. Not that he
was a judge or ever had been. but it
shows how a name will stick to a sea-
faring man through life, for the judges
baptismal name was William. Some
one called him judge in the days when
he sailed before the mast, and it stuck
to him always, like his white hat.
Here the judge sat with the calking
hammers Gathering away around him
like spring frogs and the keel of the
Mary Ann of Charlevoix as dry as 1t
was before the launch day. Men were
at work on a plank slung over the side
with the recklessness rightfully belong
ing to drunken sailors.
A woman passed along the opposite
side of the street. She was listening
to the clatter Of the mallets and did
not see the judge as he stood erect, hat
in hand and bowling like Beau Brum-
mel. The other men giggled a bit, not
because a woman was a rare thing on
Goose island, but wholly at the judge.
"That is the bravest woman who
ever stepped over the side of any craft
afioat or on the bottom of the lake. -
said the judge as he slipped back to
his place on the edge of the drydock
and began to stroke his beard, which
had more gray hair than black in it.
'She-that is to say, that lady-doesn't
look afraid of anything, not even the
water out of the river" But the judge
paid no attention to the remark of the
first mate.
''The Mary Ann of Charlevoix was
not so pretty then as she was at first, ~
said the judge half to himself, "but she
was just as seaworthy as any of the
bigger vessels going up and down the
lake under their own steam. When
the June vacations came, the Mary Ann
lay here in the river without a thing
to do. Along came a schOolteacher
and asked me what we would charge
to take half dozen or so young ladies
sailing up the lake to the Thousand
Islands and bring them safely back
to Chicago.
'Now, that was a new kind of 9
cargo, and l had to scratch my head
quite bit before making price. al
right, SIR she said. we will come
down tomorrow And so they came
Every mothers son of us was carrying
provisions and getting a stock of fresf
meats and things when there broke
loose a regular babel at the gangplank
and there they came tripping aboard
with valises and bandboXes and um
brellas and packages and no telling
| what. Just nine came, and we had NJ
trouble slowing them away in tn,
cabin, my room and the mates room
But two more came, and then, just a:
it was getting dark, two more came.
"That made thirteen!
Gas q result / had to go out and picl
up q new crew In the hope of gettin,
under way before the kind of cargo
day was Friday. Something got tan
gled with the lines, or the anchor chail
was rusted, or the wheel had to b.
| fixed. The Mary Ann hugged tn
| wharf till after midnight, when we raj
up a light, and a tug came alongsid
| and towed us out into the lake. Th
young women were all up as we glide'
along past the big elevator and tn
shadows of the mast swept across tn
fields of salt barrels and on into tn
broader basin beyond the life saving
| station.
| 1--WE threw off the lines of the tug
| and there was such a shouting tn
lookout at the life saving station woul
have been excused If he had thought
female lunatic asylum had broken ou
on the Mary Ann.
| Eat? They could eat anything.
believe they would have fattened o
fricassee of rope ends. Oh, it was
jolly lot that drew up to the frs
breakfast, and the cabin boys had t
make several trips to the scullery bt
fore the meal was done. Before moo
they had minutely examined every
thing from the rock ballast in the hol
to the little flags whipping at the mas
heads. They even wanted to steer, an
sometimes the quartermaster woul
let them. The ship would luff, an
the outfit would laugh and grab a
masts and coils of rope as the boa
rolled back to the course.
"When the first night came, the mar
dolins and guitars came OH deck, an
for hours the voices of women wer
mingled with the trembling melody G
the strings. That, too, came to an en-
along about midnight, and the Who'll
13 pulled cots out upon the deck an
slept there.
"But 1 might go on and on about ths
voyage and not get to the point abol
this schoolma'am, so we will pass u
until we are north of Little Mantle
light and four nights out. There cam
!, a good fresh wind that rocked the Mar
Ann like a cradle. Cots on the dec
were showed in, and the girls were b
ginning to regret leaving their mot
ers. One by one they dashed out
the cabin and clutched wildly at IL
A--as-----.>-s----H>--