The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1912-11-16
CHAPTER VII.
(COntinuedD

my ticket"
You'd be a fool il you did. More
over, here's another point: the bust
LESS anyway will be risky. ana very
possibly will be highly dangerous.
Mr.. Kettle squared his shoulders
You needn't bring that into the &C
count, sir" he snapped. AS | never
suffered from nervousness as a mate
it isn't likely that ] should begin to
shake at the knees IL you're kind
enough 10 promote me to be skipper
IN fact" he added with a little sigh
when troubles come along, it's most
likely meat and drink TO me-"
Sir George laughed rather hardly
81 should have thought that under
existing circumstances you wouldn't
want too much excitement to season
your everyday meal. You ought tc
banker after humdrum, steadygoinG
job with the maximum OF screw and
the minimum of risk"
II know l should, sir, know
should But. / can't help the way
I'm built, however much | may resreI
II. Is the business gun-running?
~ hadn't thought OF that, though we
might add 1t as a side issue. No, IN
one word, Captain, it's salvage. TIE
story's a bit of an unlikely one, though
I've gathered 1t happens with regu
larity at least twice or thrice year
A steamer was coming home from
a foreign port, and cargo shifted. AS
a point OF fact, she was loaded with
copper matte-copper concentrates, If
you like that better--worth some thir-
tF-fEe pounds ton, and she'd four
thousand three hundred tons dead
weight Of II on board II you work
that out, you get into big figures in
pounds sterling"
One hundred fifty thousand. five
hundred pounds said Miss Dubbs,
who by reason Of her exacting pro
fession was OF necessity lightning
calculator.
Good. And then you must add on
anything between twenty and sixty
thousand pounds for the steamer. ac-
cording 10 the condition in which one
finds her Well, Captain, she's been
reported total loss, and Lloyd's have
raid on her as such. The whole tale
is quite understandable. I'm told"
Quite. A breeze came on-a
breeze abeam, and the old man darn
put her nose on TO 1t because tho
chief told him that II she raced bad
". either her engines would tie them
selves up in knots, or else she'd drop
her propeller overheard. So he kept
her plugging along her course, and
she rolled so badly that presently
the cargo began TO shift. That gave
her a list to leeward, and every sea
that hit Der on the tall side sent more
cargo sagging over, and the list got
worse. The cargo being the copper
ore you speak about, sir, they prob
ably got hands below TO do bit Of
trimming. and when she rolled men
got thrown TO leeward, and the heavy
Jumps fell in cascades down on them
till most OF them were crushed into
a kind of pink beef jelly, and the rest
cleared out on deck, and neither guns
nor belaying-pine could drive them be-
low again"
You seem to know the symptoms,
Captain"
You see, sir was shipmaster with
a shifted cargo myself once. Coal 1t
vas"
Well?
oh, we got tarpaulfn on her aft,
and that blew her stern round till
she'd answer to the helm and show
her other side TO the sea, and that
trimmed her again. Lord, but when
that coal did cascade across. / thought
it would 20 slap through her rotten
old plates into the North Sea-"
We'll. and what about the threat
ened ore boat?"
"Oh, they didn't know enough 10
get her round, or tried and couldn't do
and lost her way and kept getting
badly swept, or dozen other things
might have happened. But, anyway,
the crew decided they hadn't SUN.
cient interest on board to stay there
and get drowned, and >hey made of
ia the boats, and whether the after
guard were weak backed enough TO
go with them, you know, sir, better
than | do"
I'm afraid / can't tell But
gather that tho tale fell out much as
YOU have told Il, only the boats got
swamped. and. so far as know, only
one man escaped drowning. lie, as II
happened, poor chap, was a cousin
OF mine, who'd kicked rather badly
over the traces and had found II con
yenient TO disappear lie was drift
ing homeward again, it seems, in this
boats stoke-hold. and was very
pleased with himself because after
about the seas for three
years as trimmer he had at last
been promoted TO being a full-blown
fireman You see, bed once been a
doctor with a very good practice, and
Just made the one mistake and--well.
that won't interest you. Anyway,
there he was, He got picked mp b.
South American beef boat when IL
was too late to be of use to him.
lie knew himself TO be dying and
he'd seen every other man jack OF his
boats crew go under before the ship
turned up which found him.
But here's the rum part OF the
tale. Before he died he wrote me a
letter. which in due time was deliv
cred. He said be wrote to me because
in the past Ia been rather decent &c
him over a certain matter. and In
return he wanted TO put me in pos
BpsstUn OF nrJt- ffttfc- fortune IN
guessed q suppose with a sick mant
cauny knowledge OF such things) tina
his own steamer would be given II;
as total loss, and he wrote TO sal
that, barring the loss OF boats an