The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-01

It was upon the quarter-deck Of his own stout old ship. the Annie Howsley. as she lay idle against the wharVes at New Bedford, that Cap tain Howsley told me this story; and 1t is here set down, as near as may be, in his own words. For it not Captain Howsley a large man, and robust? And has he not smitten- aye, and slain-Leviathan in the waters? Who am ]. then. tc edit this copy? If you have a quarrel with what is here set down, your quarrel is with the captain-and you are at liberty, for all of me, to pursue it. You will find him no trouble in the world, for all in New Bedford know him. As for myself. I am con- tent tC take it as it comes from the saturnine slit of a mouth above his rasping whiskers. and 1 should advise you to do the same.
 Expect no tumble of nautica! phraseology in what follows, for the captain knew me for a lubber who never saw deep water save from the shore. and with such listener. he can, when he chooses, talk as traightforwardly as you or I.
 Next to HongKong (said Captain different kinds of folk aboard whaler than anywhere else in the world. There'n be backbone of Yankee stock. and there'n apt as not be threfour Cape NerderS-har- boomers and such like-and the rest may be anything from kanaka 10 an English cook.
 But this p'ticular cruise, we was more that way than most. I shipped as hird-mate-though 'twere on mighty long lay, account of me be- ing still a younk er-but when time came to fly the Blue Peter and throw the try works overheard, I was first officer. A whales flukes did for the second mate, and James Mace, first mate, died of complaint of the digestion. l always counted it as coming from eating whales steaks, and never could stomach them from that day. It was an ignominious demise for man that might have been snatched into watery eternity by a whale; and Jem felt it SC. and take out his boat and trust suthin' happening; but the old man would not hear to that. So James turned up his boots in his bunk; and we be- ing handy by, he was buried on stretch of beach on the Solander all.
 But as I was telling; we sailed with a hedge podge, and when wed gone half around the world and put in at the Sandwich Island for water and potatoes, the old man shipped
  we ran down to the Friendly island. and stopped at Tongataboo. and there this man came out to us in canoe, with natives padding him in state like king of the islands. He came over the rail and asked the old man to sign him on.
 Have ye any acquaintance with the ways O the sea and O ships" the old man asked Mannis, his name was-Thomas Mannis, Scotch Presby- terian, and most unrighteous man with language when he was aroused.
 ''Too much.' says this man. "Too much acquaintance. But I'd rather empty myself into the wide. wide ocean than stay on there" and he waved an unfriendly hand at the Friendly islands.
 How come ye there?" the old man asked.
 Its a long story" says this youth; ''Ill tell you as we go along"
 q do be needing a man for Mister Maces boat" said the old man, half to himself. And at this the stranger stepped to the rail and waved tL' the natives that had padded him out.
 'Ye may go, men," he caled grandly to them. I'm leaving you"
 We had ample time thereafter to hear the young mans story. He was a prey to his own loquacity; and the true distinction between a man before the mast and a ships officer was never fully clear to him. Such matters are not always emphasized aboard a whaler so vigorously as might be; for it is not easy to keep your dignity throughout a three year cruise. The old man heard his story first, and the rest of us as chance came; for it had happened that for some days after leaving Tongataboo we sighted no fish. bar ring two that we saw tied up to the Virgin, out of Nantucket.
 I set the man to work oiling the bottom of my boat. one day, and stood by to see he did a proper job. His story as he told it then was this:
 He was a cowboy-a cow-puncher, he called himself. He had come from Wyoming-or Montana, maybe-and at gathering of his kind, had won championship in what he called broncho- busting. He said this was the same thing as riding horses. With