The Washington herald., 1907-04-07

life is mostly beer and skittles, observed
the chief boatman, filing his pipe with
exceeding earefulness, but them as has
followed the sea. man and boy. for more
years than they cares to count knows
that such is by no means the case"
1t looks pleasant enough to tempt any
one TO think he would like a sailors life
this morning. replied the stranger.
They sat among the Towering gorse on
the grassy bank in front Of the coast
guard station, with the bees humming in
the gentle. tempered sunshine of a Sep
tslnber morning, and all the ships of all
the world faring to and fro on the placid
bosom of the mighty estuary. writes Com
9nander E. II. Currey, r. n. in the Pail
Mall Gazette.
There amt no donbt but there's a deal
IN what you say" said the chief boat
man. whose pipe was now comfortably
alight, and who was pufting vast clouds
OF strong tobacco into the ambient air
''Twig now that there excursion
steamer-'' The first strains of "A Life
on the Ocean Wave We're borne across
the intervening water NO doubt there's
Il crowd aboard Of her now drinking bot
tied beer ana wishiB they didn't live in
stuffy offices. but was generally employed
ike what they are now; but. Tor, they
don't understand nothing about it,
Those that so down to the sea in
ships" began the stranger.
''Ay, that's just it, replied his COM
panion, throwing an Intellectual stone at
an unusually daring rabbit that had
popped up among the gorse; most sailor
men knows as much of Oily Writ as that
there, and. what's more. thinks that the
man what wrote il knowed what he was
talkin' of all the time. There's something
now. if I remember rightly. about the
stormy wind ariseth, amt there?'
The stranger nodded. Wei it's al
ways there, that same stormy wind.
whether you goes TO look for it OF whether
You doesn't Most times it does no par
ticular harm. other tiIAes it does. and
men loses the number O. their mess. and
wherever you goes and sees the ships
piled up on reefs and sandbanks and
points o land and the like, where bad
luck or maybe a faulty compass OF bro
Een-d3wn engines, or masts carried away,
has stranded EN-.
Never Forgot Ii.
Have / seen many of EN- myself? Ay.
far more than what / cares TO remember.
and there was one ] seen. years backalong
now. that l amt likely 10 forget till
slips my cable Homeward bound we was
At the time after chasin' slavers in the
Mozambique ard all along the coast OF
Madagascar; belongs to the French 1 ears
nowadays. and I wishes 'em Joy of the
bargain We've had enough o roastin'
in the nor east monsoon and sailiu' leaky
boats In the sou west monsoon. Cbasin'
Ghows what sailed two feet TO our one.
Tor To set free bloomin niggers which in
my opinion had just AS soon be slaves as
anythin else. 'Owsomever. that's neither
ere nor there. We put in the commission
endin by chasIn' these here perishin
dhows from Sembrl channel TO Cape 81.
Mary ana back again, am catchin' one in
10.0J0 Fifteen shilhn' and seyenpence
three farthings was my prize money when
il was an said and done. and I got that
six years and nine months afterward, il
bejna adjudicated by a prize court which
90 my thlnEiu' must sail as slow as one o
them there Yorkshire greyhouads he
pointed "a derisive finger at g0Oie ketch
crawling across the estuary.
1T was ON my way home for to realize
this magnificent fortune, what / 'ad
earned by the sweat o. my brow and two
goes o. breakbone fever, that / seen what
I'm telhn' about now SaiIiu' in we was.
wind on the st1TbOard quarter BLOWN
strons, as 1 mind We was under double
reeied topsails. there was "a cruel hump
OF a sea. the decks was awash an stream
in wet all the time, and although il /
wasn't what you call cold in these latl-
foods, it was cold enough for the likes
of us what had sweated out our three
year and Ten months in the tropics Some
way ! don't rightly know how, me bein'
only ordinary seaman at the time, We was
fairly close into the shore, close enough
anyway for to take Il small pun NJ the
Ice braces ard head out a point and a
half when dawn broke. and the navigat-
ing officer seen rightly where he was
We wasn't in no danger-don't run away
with that idea; but as the light strength
encd we pretty soon see that there was
somebody what was
4 Wholesale Massacre.
The chief boaman knocked out his pipe
upon convenient stone. and slowly re-
filled il.
''wer2' queried the stranger, inn
patiently
Even after all this lapse o. years it
don't seem TO bear thinking about 100
much, replied the other. slowly: you see.
I've seen others in tight places. both afore
an since. but then there was some help.
an II some got drowned. why. others got
saved. II wasn't watching wholesale mas. /
sacre like what / seen that day.
Just where we was that mOrnin' there
a cape what's we'll known as dangerous
TO the mariner in them seas, an inside
that cape on a dead lee shore was q
steamer packed with people; it was evil /.
dent that he had been steaming up the /
coast and only found out she was inside |
the cape at dawn. and when we saw her 1
she had managed 10 get her head saaward 1
an was fighting her way out again o.
that deadly place. But youH understand 1
that those was the days OF under-powered !
steamers, an often when one got caught I
in trap like this one had, she'd just go /
ashore because she couldn't fight her way
out against wind and sea; also / want YOU /
20 understand what a cruel position we was /
in. Oh, YES it was safe enough. bein' /
clear of the cape and with fair wind
but We couldn't venture in to the assist |
e>ce of the steamer. and from the very
iirst We seen plain enough that she was /
doomed. We shortened sail and started /
TO raise steam, but every one on board 1
kpowed well from the captain down
ward thar it was Davy Jones locker for 4
every one on board of that struggling /
steamer, SO close to us and us not able TO 4
put out a hand 10 help her. And so we 4
watched. the sea was runDin' in huge
great regular rollers the color o. lead
right straight in the bar. and the steam /