The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1912-08-15

call me when was asleep until we wars
nearly on our beam-ends. and then n
would be SO late that both of us would
have to make herculean efforts tn oct
out OF the absolutely needless scrane into
winch his bravado and lack of FORESIGHT
ana imagination had gotten us, He was
tne most perfect example of that pitiful
OBJECT, energy without insight.'s that
nave ever seen. On his whaling
voyages, under the direction of strict
second mate. on the other hand. he was
perhaps, easily, the best man on board
AND reckless, insolent daredevil that he
was, there was, at that, no better man
avallable IN Nassau; and he was infinite
~ superior to the Nassau niggers, who
are lost when they cannot determine
their position by looking at the bottom
over the boats side, their favorite
1netnoo IN Iact everywhere on the
Bahama Banks.
Mr.. Woodcook had kindly hunted up
Tor me Charleston darky who had
worked at the hotel all winter and pos
sessed the best of references, and had
won great reputation as cook on gov
eminent lighthouse tenders, and who
had seemed all along very anxious to 90
with me-. l waited sometime for this
colored man to get himself and his dun
mage aboard, only to learn finally that he
had come down and looked the catboat
over in my absence, and informed his
fellow darkies at the hotel "that she
looked kinder small to him, and he
reckoned he better 90 North in repu-
lar steamer" which he had alreaJy pro-
ceeded to do, darky-like, without notify
ing me. 1spent pleasant ten minutes.
for me, with him later at Charleston. on
my way North.
Captain Charlie, "as my Swedish Gala
ban delighted to be called, would on the
other hand-I have on doubt-have start
ed North in our l1-foot cypress tender
alone had anyone told him that he didn't
dare to; though owing to constant ex-
posture to the tropical sun, and many
landings on Mr. Bacon's coral strand, she
was pretty we'll stove up, and leaked like
sieve even before we started. In fact,
she would barely carry both of US at one
time from our anchorages to the shore
without filling up to the thwarts.
l delighted in his good health and he
never bored me, as SO many professional
sailors have done in the past, with long
accounts of his aches and pains. He
would work all day and steer all night
with his fingers dripping blood from being
caught in the engine fly wheel; and in
fact, aside from bruises and knocks and
cuts, don't recall that either of US had
single ache or pain of any kind what
ever while we were on the Myrtle. We
worked hard. slept like bears, and ate
from three to five hearty meals every "a
hours, with fruit ad ibitum between
whiles.
And, after all, during his DIR. Jekel
moments | had sort of plying fondness
for him, and we held many good talks
together as we ran the long stretches of
the canals, seated side by side in the
cockpit like pals. We discussed ships
and things of the sea, and geography and
whales, and other big things he had, and
possibly in some cases had not, seen,
among them the merits of the various
makes of gasolene engines, of which he
picked up an extensive if thin smatter-
ing during the last few years, when,
after giving up the temporary profession
of wharf-rat, he had been trying more or
less successfully to fill the place of all
around man on small yachts, on Long
Island Sound summers, and in Florida
waters, winters.
No sketch of him would be complete
without brief mention of the only physi-
cal defect that ever discovered in him,
trivial as it was. At some remote, siren
uous period of his existence, something
had carried away about nine tenths of
one of his upper front teeth-the ex-
IRENE right upper incisor l believe it
was. This ungainly hole in an otherwise
perfect set had come to afford him one
of the chiefs comforts of his life, for he
could just screw the big butt end of a
broken T. D. clay pipe into it so securely
that it would rest there in gale of
wind, with his mouth open. This dirty
brown butt, whether empty or lighted,
right side or wrong side up, had become
as much a part Of his physiognomy as
the little sawed off, turned up nose above
it, and together they gave his face the
appearance of one of Kenyon Cox s
| brownies, familiar to my youth He re-
moved this butt only to enjoy a good
drink, but while sleeping or talking or
even eating he could hold it without any
inconvenience to himself; though, doubt
less, it added to his Vesuvian rumblings
by night, and the indifference of his
speech by day. If by any rare chance
| he left it on seat or locker for mo-
ment | made it point for the safety of
the boat, in order that might under
stand him little better, to step on it;
but he either had an inexhaustable sup
ply of old brown stubs, or else knew
where to procure them secondhand at
the coast ports that we stopped at, for
he always appeared from the galley with
another of exactly the same length and
color as the one that had lust got
broken, screwed in at precisely the same
rakish angle. Only once on the entire
trip, was l able to summons harshness
of command enough into my voice to Jar
him sufficiently to remove it while adj
dressing me; and that was while we
were both terribly excited and thorough
ly frightened in attempting to cross New
River Inlet Bar in heavy breeze of
wind.
The picking of the wild wood violets
and putting them on the cabin table in
his own beer mug while l was awav.
and the remark about the riding light in
the mango bushes looking like a Christ
mas tree in his Swedish home, showed
that his feelings were not too deeply in
crusted with brine to be touched: bnt
these were the only bursts of sentiment
that l noticed from him on the entire
trip; and absolutely the only times /
ever saw his eyes light up, except at the
sight of drink, which never failed to
make them sparkle and glisten. And to-
gether we repeatedly saw both the sun
| nd riS and hot