Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1903-01-09
CHAPTER VII.

in her building, sDo nau Crusheu ahoo"o.
to death the day she left 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 DO
diabolical fatality about them.
1t Is not to be supposed that sailormen
rush to Join a craft of this sinister reputa-
ton. They may be asses in the bulk, but
they are 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
Dutohman, there are not sufficient berths
Of any sort whatever to supply all aspir-
ants, 1t 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, 30 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
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, un-
trustworthy even to correct compass and
useless to drive truoulent 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 a ships company. Like all men in
the merchant marine, he had been bred In
the toughest school, but unlike his sue
cessful brethren he had not graduated
later on to the smooth things of well
manned passenger liner. For his sins he
had remained the pitiful knockabout skip.
per, @ man with knife edged words always
ready on the lip Of his teeth, leaden
whistle in ono jacket pocket and lethal
weapon in the other.
He was an excellent seaman and navi-
gator, q 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, 1t
may be understood that while in command
at sea he credited himself with the pow
ers of czar 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 q dog and an unholy reputation for
craftsmanship. For the handling of such
O menagerie of all nation scoundreldom
and incapacity as bunked in the steamship
Port Edes no better man than Owen ket-
tie breathed in either hemisphere.
The crew signed their marks on tho ar
ticles at the shipping office in the Sailors
home and went grumbling to get rid of
their advances. Later most of them turned
up on the steamer, some with their
worldly goods done up in dunnage sacks,
which look to the uninitiated like pillow
slips. some apparently possessing moth
ing but the squalid raiment they stood up
in. There was not one of them dressed
idea. Yet most of. them had made their
bread upon the seas since early boyhood,
which shows what conventional ideas are
sometimes worth. They were most of
them oldsh men and looked even older
than their years.
The engineers came on board early, for
the most part in scrubby blue serge and
sour black temper. They grumbled at the
;v>b lac kas ia1
evil lin advance) about the capacities of
the messroom steward and the ships cook,
dumped their belongings into their vail
Gus rooms and changed to apparel more
suitable for tail twisting In the unclean
regions below. Then they went on duty,
quarreled with the donkeyman who was
making steam for the winches and pro-
oeeded to split up their crew of firemen
and trimmers into watches and apportion
them to furnace doors and bunkers.
The three mates, the boatswain and the
carpenter were also on board hetiMes
most of them large headed with recent IL
bations and feeling oantankerous accord
ingly. There was q small general cargo
being shipped for New Orleans, and it
gave these worthy officers ease to find &C.
casional acid fault with the stevedore' S
crew or the crane men on the wharf, but
for the most part they shuffled about the
decks in easy slippers, attending to the
various ship duties in massive sneering
silence.
Patrick Cambel came into the chart
room on the bridge deck, closing the door
behind him. "A CHEEKY, amiable crowd
you've collected" be said.
Aren't theyf" replied Captain Kettle
from a sofa locker. They re just terror
of a crew. You wait till we get to sea, and
they start on mischief. My mates a cur.
He wouldn't stand up to a Chinaman.
And the rest Of the after guard is much
of pattern, picked that way on purpose.
Oh, tell you, Mr.. Cambel, that 1 stand
alone, and shall have my hands full. E 1t
let 'em start, the brutes! I'll haze the l.
1t isn't new sort of tea party this with
me-"
you're going into it with your eyes
open anyway"
"Oh, don't you make any error" said
Kettle. II know my job. And if warn
you it's because you'll see things for
yourself and perhaps join in at them.
don't 60 and tell everybody. Not much.
They think ashore I've got real soft
thing on this time. Why, do you know,
Mr.. Cambel," he added, with thin, sour