The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-20
THE souAHE RIGGEe

THE SQUARE HIGGER
Henry Adams Bellows in the Bellman.
She came slowly down the bay, barely
making her head. for all her towering
masses of dark canvas. against the strong
food tide. Only the quiet ripple under her
ourving forefoot told that she was moving
at all. The light morning wind filled
her sails just enough to hold them steady,
and now and then, as she slipped through
calm space the big iib would flap
lazily for a moment, as If shaking itself
before settling down to work again. We
could see no life on her decks, save
for meandering cat on the windward
bulwarks. A sort of dirty statue was
perched aft on the wheel box, which
served it as pedestal, but no motion in
dlcated that this inert object was really
alive and in charge of the ship.
We knew she had once been a whaler.
pair of massive oak dayits on her rail
had survived from the days when the
lookout's call of Whale off the starboard
bowl would send half q dozen men tum-
bling into the hanging whaleboat ready
to be lowered, crew and all, to go in
chase of the monster. But it was long
since she had set out on one of those
eventful voyages, some of them 80 months
In length, which used to be the great ro-
mances of this part of the New. England
coast. She was now only trader,
bound for the Azores probably, and des-
tined to bring back few dozens of un-
speakably dirty Portuguese to work in the
cotton mills.
We drew of to windward. and ran
alongside close beside her. Her sides were
Scared and battered, and here and there
wooden patch, perilously close to the
water line, had been nailed on to lend a
doubtful strength to some particularly
damaged plank. A couple OF dusky, un-
over the rail. and eyed us with languid
interest. There. seemed to be scarcely
even a memory of "the beauty and mys-
terry of the ships about this slow NOV
ing grimy craft-nothng more than the
rhythmic lift and fall of the huge bow
spirit and the glittering ripple beneath it.
All at once, as so often happens with
a southerly wind, the breeze freshened,
and with the change the ship was sud-
denly transformed. The ripple beneath
the forefoot became a series of cascades
OF luminous spray. The ship heeled to
the breeze, hiding from us the squalid
decks. The sails tugged impatiently at
the yards and sheets. and in their power
full action their dinginess was lost sight
Of The statue on the wheel box became
suddenly animated, and one of the hands
darted~up the rigging to cast loose the
main royal lashings.
Hitherto we had sailed contemptuously
alongside with slackened sheets in order
not to so too fast for our huge COM
panion. Now she began to draw steadily
away. We had been abreast of the. fore
mast when the wind freshened. Soon the
mizzenmast passed us, then the helms
man Then we were astern of her once
more, gazing up into the heaped masses
or sail. Then, one by one, the separate
details. grew fainter. merging into the
bulk of the hull and the towering
stretches of sails and rigging.
For nearly half century that ship had
known all the oceans. She had lived
through the gales of the Horn. She had
lifted high her bowsprit over the swing
ing seas to meet the southern Cross She
had blistered beneath the scorching sun
of the equator and felt the icy touch of
the Arctic wind. Now, old and storm
SCARED as she was. she could still ride
sturdily over the waves and brayely send
back her challenge to the tempest. In
glory of sunlight and flashing blue water
the old square rigger sped past the light
house that marks the lower end of the
bay, and we could see her great masts
begin to sway las she felt the long roll
OF the open sea.