The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1906-04-14
: "Waters, The I~oaiel'.''
BY oui, Eecne :


/ Glad 70 NEE. tuu sir.' sal tho
man quietly. a. l.o ".d / .I9G1, hands
And from hat ,imc out ill ", aa9.
tlo Tvs. al him he WAS Brown. the
steward" ANA Always Sire. H.. ~, p
tain ana me whoa any o1c was pres
| oni a. nieht, how vcr IA" Caist4if,
III t'4o mafcs ana myself world talk
freely together win 'jarh Waters. "
one vi the best saiiarrnen TAT ever
tr3G deck In NV rt@~-TiEiA memory
of MIN, the man is here before r!e
nuW y We first saw tin-tha square
Sc, !rcal,d Iaec. unshaYs.! c!in and
Ions, ragged moustache; keen, deep
set, ke&yy-hroWed eyrs ~ steelg, cEal-
longing gray His every feature was
in coasonate wiyh his buil,l-aomewh
short in stature, broad chcs-. small
feet ana equally small add shlpely
hands. that somehow Sn"l.I quite
disproportionatc to his other l.mbs
But they were hands that he would use
effectively, as we soon discovered.
Our hcatsWain took a Jealous dislike
to Brown" and, two days after we
had left Apia. said something derosa-
tory to him about his cooking.
Brown came aft TO the skipper.
I'm very sorry, sir. but I've hurt
the bos'un. | think it is one of his
ribs
With the lusty southeast trade we
made a quick run from Samoa till We
were abreast Of Ysabel Island in the
solomon group. Then we ran into
dirty weather from the westward and
the second mate 4 half caste Maori,
had his leg badly fractured in trying
10 secure some Of the spare SCARS We
carried on the main deck, and which
mad got adrift one Wild night when
the li.tie rriG was rolling her soul out
in humping cross sea. in which two
Of our h02ti we're damaged. brow Il"
twho WIS tenderly nursing the bOs'nn
with his broken rih) made salints and
set the limb in a thoroIehiy surgeon
like manner ana then offered 10 take
tho injured mans watch.
No said the captain. You stick
70 your raienrs-hut you can lend me
hand TO put in couple Of planks
in the second covering boat. That is.
if you like"
Certainly. sir" replied Brown"
the Wellnannared steward
took the second mates watch. and
the captain worked al the boats
Waters was z man who could turn his
hand to anything, and every thing
he did was done in quiet. self-pos-
sessed manner With our native crew
he was q splendid favorite and we soon
found that he was a splendid Malaga
oolyaesian linGuist. | felt sure that
he had been in the navy. and one day
asked him if it We're so.
Yes. but | left it twenty years
ago" he said, shortly, and saw it
was q subject not to be further al
luGed t.
Our vessel, I must mention. was a
brig OF two hundred and fifty tons, a
very fast sailor, but a terribly wet
ship when under a press OF canvas
Like most small vessels in those early
days Of the labor trade, we carried
four small guns, which were always
kept in good order, though we had
never had occasion to use them to
keep Off sudden rush of canoes, rely
ing upon the numbers and steadiness
Of our crew to foil any attempt at
cutting off. A vessel with a low free
board like ours was a great temptation
to mischeyious savages-they could
so easily jump out Of their canoes
over the rail. bur the si2ht Of the guns
yas always enough for them Our
complement consisted Of the captain
two mates, myself lrerruiter), boat
swain, observation-disclosures, Savage
Islanders, SamOans and two Fiians.
The last no:o1. l.houGh no. such good
men at boat work as The others, were
fine pluc!ly fellows and belonged to
my boat, for they both spoke the
and New-Ireland IAN
auages, and were Invaluable as in
terpreters when opening up commune
cations with the treacherOuS savages
with whom we had to deal Our
Maori haM caste second mate was also
a fairly good lIicronesian linguist, and
always came with me in my landing
boat. | could speak very little of the
dialect. for was almost
new to the Northwest Pacific labor
trade. although had had long expe-
r;ence Of it in the Line Islands, where
the language is Ma!ayos Polynesian.
Our arms were Snider carbines for the
native crew and Winchester carbines
and revolvers for the officers, white |
Seamen and myself So far we had |
been very lucky in not losing man
in three voyages, although the boats
cd heara t:red 0f.ar oh |