Los Angeles herald., 1907-10-21

We had wire cable lines for springs and
did not then use the tin discs on, lines
they have now. 1 was coming aboard
from visit to a friend nearby. 1t was
about a. m. and the moon was we'll
up yet, SO could see very plainly. The
springs, fore and aft, were covered with
rats all under lead of one small gray
fellow, and they moved with the pre-
cision of soldiers, till they got on the
wharf and made for the sea wall. Then
the trouble began. Most of the ship
rats were from Liverpool and 1t was
case of Britisher against the Yankee.
and by the noise you would swear lot
of dogs were fighting. 1t all took place
under the wharf level and lasted for
some ten minutes. How they settled 1t
cannot tell. but the ship rats stayed
ashore, all right.
Carried tho Plague
| ST mentioned the matter to the captain
| next day and was laughed at for my
| pains. The other officers and men took
| a different view of the matter however,
| and 1t was some time before we got a
complement and towed to sea. Now 1t
| Is q fact that in three weeks time, as
learned subsequently, that whole sec
| ton of Frisco was infected with plague,
and the doctors called 1t by some other
| name. Rats have always been the bane
| OF searnen."
When the glasses were emptied Capt
| Bob Somers, who is mate of the vessel
| (nearly all coastwise officers have been in
command on deep water), got the ears
of the party by exclaiming:
"Rats is hell. you betl When I was
mate of the Argomene. 1imejuice' wheat
packet in the San Francisco wheat trade
| to Europe for orders, we got our cargo
| at Port Costa, too. That same Port Costa
is the worst place for rats I ever saw.
They wear whiskers and fight like bull
dogs They can tell when the noon
whistle blows, and they come up In
swarms to clean up crumbs left by the
men after the noon hour. They are larger
and fiercer than common rats, being a
cross between the native California rats
and breeds from all parts of the world
where the ships touch.
Board the Wheat Ship
.'In 'se we went to the dock for wheat.
and had paid extra attention to the
cleaning of the hold. fore and aft. and TO
killing off all rats I could get at and put
shoppers on every line to prevent any
more from getting aboard. But you might
as well try to hold back a gale Of wind
with a fan as keep rats from wheat
ship. was busy in reeving new running
gear and having some light sails over
hauled. and when we were ready for the
tug to take us to Frisco you can bet We
had our complement of rats aboard
Lying off Frisco we got our men aboard
two days before we sailed. and I had a
circus to get that ships sails bent and
fit her for sea. Boarding house tricks
were worse then than now, and runners
stole four men from us the first night.
went ashore to look up men and found a
fellow on the dock who told me a hard
luck story and asked for a chance to
ship we cannot use landsmen to DO
work on a ship. and it is generally hard
for him when he chances to deceive the
shipping commissioner and captain, but
1 took to this man and induced the captain
to sign him up.
Landsman Is Seasick
"Off the heads, when we were under
running the tow line after the tug let
go, my landsman worked like q trooper,
but before we got all sail on her he was
seasick and helpless as child. In
choosing watches / took him In my
watch, for knew the second mate would
make 1t hot for him. We took depart
ure from the Farallone light just before
sundown and squared away to fine
breeze off shore, and soon lost the light
I'm three days we picked up the trades
and then began the real cleaning up OF
the ship ard gear. My landsman was q
good worker, but it was task to get
MIN over the Sheerpole, ana even went
aloft with him. for the watch and my
self knew something of his story, and
he won our good will by doing readily all
he could.
"Man Overheard"
1--WE were chipping her sides prepara-
tory to painting. and I wished to paint
over the name under the counter, and
as had no man could trust to make
a good Job of 1t I undertook 1t myself.
/ had stage rugged with lines over the
pumpkin blocks and made them fast to
the pins the vangs were fast to, shifting
the vangs forward to the mizzen pin rail.
hung a tarpaulin over the stern to
keep the wind off and got down on the
stage to paint We were going about
nine knots. with everything set, in a
fairly heavy sea, and was out OF sight
under the counter, painting the ships
name and singing snatches from Pima
fore which I had heard just before we
left
LAS is common in the trades, the second
mate. who had the watch, wanted to