The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-10-29

Dissertation by Carl Ycnson, Boat
swain.
New York Post)

SNa4A
tNew York Post)
The boatswain of the Kencleuch. a
squarely built Swede. blue eyed and
firm jawed, stood on the rail. as the
morning mists blew up the river and
Whistled cheerily between his teeth.
Oversides. on a sloppy. half submerged
raft, that rose and fell heavily in the
cold. dirty water Antonio the Greek,
Carlo (knoWn as Charlie in the fore
castle) the Austrian, and two Norwe-
gian lads We're seraping down the SIDES
or the ship. knocking OF the sea growth
of the warm China seas. Seven l.tt!e
Cinnamon, wearing sleeveless under
shirts, blue canvas trousers and with
stockingless feet stuck in tapping,
( heelless slippers. were washing down
the iron doors of the house.
In response to a hail the bos'un ran
I lightly along the rail and swung him
self onto the bridge deck. He said that
( his name was Yonson. and 10 prevent
any mistake. spelt it out carefully
JOHNSON. He has been fourteen
years in the company's service and has
I had a vast experience in the handling
/ of men. At one time or another al
/ the nations Of the earth have con-
! tributed to the restless. shifting atoms
/ over whom he has held authority. He
/ has fought with knives and iron buck
/ cts, mop handles and iron Delaying
pins. but mostly with his two great,
/ hairy. red knuckled fists. Moved 10
slow speech. he spoke of many things.
! 'Chinamen is most extraordinary
! creatures; not like human folks like
you and me. Look at 'em now wOrkin'
in the cold without proper clothin'
! They can stand the heat down in the
fire room that makes the chief engineer
/ lie down and swear; they can stand the
cold. an they don't eat nOthin' much
/ but rice. We don't carry Cinnamon on
deck in this ship, all of 'em belong in
the first room squad, and / don't have
any dealin's with 'em.
II had trouble IN my last ship with
| some of 'em. IL was In Leith, that's in
| Scotland, sir, one Saturday afternoon.
Both the mates was ashore. and / was
in charge of the ship. The Chinese
was loafin'. / ordered the donkey man
TO get some steam on deck, but he said:
| You no belong my boss and went and
| crawled into his bunk I went in and
hauled him out by his pigtail. and me
an him grappled in the port alley way.
| He nearly bit a piece out of my lefs
| hand before ] pulled him off; then
hit him a punch in the mouth and
4 knocked out his four front teeth. He
spit 'em out in his hand, and counted
! them-thats how queer they are-be-
fore he began to yell. All the others
come a pilin' in. but me and the lamp
! trimmer beat their heads together and
kept 'em off till the constables come
| aboard. That row cost me three pounds
in the police court, but the old man
stood by me, and paid the fine. W.
carried that lot out to Hongkong. and
/ ac . efIL thew only
| wanted to be shown who was boss.
THE donkey man on this ship is a
China boy. and if | may say so, is a
regular pOlyglot. He can talk a little
Norwegian an French an English. lis
more than queer when Chinamal
talks Norwegian None of the others
can talk English. except number enc
man and number two man of the bre
room squad.
Men at sea is just the same as men
ashore some is swine and some is not.
Some you've got 10 drive, and some you
got TO lead. You can't hit man on an
English ship like these Yankee mates
do. May be you'll have heard OF Bully
! Jones of the old Black Ball nine. They
do say he was a terror. They used TO
tell a tale about him that when he
turned out a watch he would sing out
down the fok'sle hatch and then stand
by with a capstan bar to bash in the
head of the last man on deck. Every
time his watch turned out one of 'em
had a bloody head. That was his way
of getting a lively crew. Now if an
English officer was to do that. they'd
/ take his certificate away from him.
IAN English crew for work, Chinese
crew for cheapness. and a mixed crew
for devilment; that's been my expert
ence, sir"