The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1906-12-19
'SAD SEA TALES
FROM THE BABCOCK

From Maine to Flattery they know
Jack Clark, twenty-years going second
and first officer of ships and never
nothing wrong with him, and a pretty
good mess of luck, I'm telling you-but
it had to be for him to find what was
the real article in the manner of tough
luck when he came second mate aboard
the Babcock," said the gentleman mem
toned i'm his own words above quoted,
yesterday morning. 1.-TWO hundred and
odd dollars I'VE got coming to me out of
this packet" he continued, land never
again will l set eyes on her, so help me
gracious, not if I'm in my right senses.
why they only put enough grub
aboard the ship for two months and
here we've been what's almost as good |
| as two hundred days out of Baltimore
Not but what there was beef and |
pork a-plenty, but what's beef and |
pork when the spuds was bought in |
| Frisco November a year ago and go
| ing bad when we was out scarce sixty
days, and everything running short
| but beef and pork and, when you get
/ tired of that menu, pork and beef for
/ a change. In a couple of years I'll be
1
have their chance, but don't want any
more such luck as came along with
us in the Babcock.
Talking about luck, say, she had
her share of it. They was men hurt
a-painting of her outside, on the star
board side, before she ever got out;
then there was bit of kid what had
to go and get drowned in Baltimore
from off her; and then off Brazil we
had to tack to further orders, with
nothing doing to get ahead. Then we
gets down about the Horn and get
into the edge of a bit of a gale and
| what must the captain do but pass it
up for making the I-orn and coming
| away round this way by Good Hope.
Then the bo's'n breaks his leg and
boy goes overheard to Davy Jones and
a fellow dies of the scurVy or something
else and is buried with scrap-iron on
his toes, and all the time our grub a
getting thinner and thinner and worse
and the crew a-gettng to look like u
hospital in distress, with cookie laid
up off and on, and the captain as ner-
vous as a sailor in church. Don't talk
to me about hard luck"
Boatswain Ables, moving about from
saloon to saloon ashore with the aid
' of a stick, in token of his amending leg
;. swore he'd not have a word to say un-
less he was paid space rates. Evident
!. ly he has been used to writing for the
~ Fireside Companion and wants his
rates as an author. Anything in it?"
he inquired, and on being informed
that there We're so many yarns free
for the asking that interviews were not
I" commanding so much per word, he
pounded his stick on the pave and re
fused to be interviewed"
!. Not so the veteran cook He was
= full of stories and enthusiasm and a
little something else only his stories
a were more given to words than in
formation. He wanted to impress up.
on the reporter that there was logic iT
everything under the sun except the
ship w. f. Babcock which arrived here
last Friday, 1879 days from Baltimore
d with her pantry in distress and hel
crew hungryeyed. He expatiated OF
the logic of making bread when he haC
- anything to make it with, admitting
that yeast was more essential ever
than logic when it came to mixing
dough.
Hard tack" he exclaimed "yes
there was all the hard tack we want
ed only we didn't want it; it was to,
full of maggots. Sometimes to b.
II. sure I'd take a bit of pork and soal
the hard tack and fix the crew VI
some cracker-hash, and 1 Tell yol
there was plenty of meat in the has
without taking any notice of the pork
Some of the sailors would wait til
dark to eat their hard tack, when tn
II | bread was sour, which it mostly was
" SOS they couldn't see the maggots il
the biscuit. That's the best time t
eat a wormsandwich-in the dark, an
- the blooming crew ought to have bee
darned glad they weren't glow worms
1 can tell you. Excuse me, I'm don
ID with the BabCock, and there's logi
in what I'm a-telling you Of"
Except for a United States Deput
Marshal the steward and few scurv
hooking members of the crew tn
70. Babcock, lying over near the quaran
y. tine wharf, was deserted yeBterda
OF and the Captain had given strict order
from ashore or ashore from aboard.
Her officers were around town, run
d. ming between the u. S. Commissioner
,s office on Queen street and places @
refreshment and a goodly proportio
of her crew was in the hospital wit
- scurvy, where one Of them may nc
recover.