New Britain herald., 1925-02-10
BEGIN HERE TODAY

Alden Drake, formerly a sailor, now grown soft and flabby through life of idle ease, visits Sailor town, where he meets
 Joe Bunting, a seaman, with whom he drinks himself off his feet in a barroom. Awakening next morning Drake hears
 Captain Stevens of the Orontes denounce him as dude" Angry, Drake sneaks aboard the Orontes as one of the crew, but is recognized by Stevens and soundly trounced on two different occasions. Drake is put down on the ships articles as Boy, thereby shaming him before
 Mary Manning, daughter of the owner, who is passenger on the Orontes.
 Drake is not ships boy - God knows what he is," Stevens tells Mary. Don't you see you should not encourage him in familiari- ties?"
 NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY
 Tn the days that followed, the angel Of peace lowered a bit further away from the Orontes than usual. After the first few days of settling down, when, men and mates not yet acquainted with each other the mates of necessity seemed hard un- til they knew the men. the finest of harmony had ruled the tall clip per. The men were as good as the average, if not better; the mates knew their work and did not drive the men unnecessarily. But the devil seemed to have entered into Captain Stevens. He ordered the mates to work the men at jobs and hours out of reason. The mates had 10 do it. Instead of peace, there was smodering discontent in the fore castle, and the mon Bunting and Nick Coombs, both blamed Drake for it. Even Joe's friends grumbled that he had brought this upon the men by daring to put up a fight when the skipper hammered him.
 Drake took all their grumblng with a laugh. He was sorry for them, but told them to blame the skipper rather than him. It was the skipper who started in to hammer him, not he the skipper. But all told, there was unrest in the fore castle where before had been peace.
 'Erbert Oats asked to be shifted over to the other watch. He was afraid of Tony. Tony was bound to kill him, he said. 'Erb was laughed at by the mate. He took his tale to the skipper, who ran him out of the cabin by his collar, and told the mate to tic rattle around his neck. And Tony grinned evlly at the panic he was starting. Tony and the Doctor formed themselves into a gang of two. The Doctor, dirty at first, dirtier as the voyage. rolled on, was an outcast. Not even the apprentices stopped 10 toady to him for privileges. Instead of flatterng him so that they might cook their Dogs Body in the afternoons for supper, they went boldly to the mate and secured the privilege of ficially. That made the Doctor hate the mate. Soon there would be trouble with the crew, too; for the food, good enough, was spoiled by bad cooking. Tony was q good man 10 swing in with. He handled a knife like a man, did Tony. Thus the Doc tor reasoned. And old Bill Gadgctt, the bosun, after settling down to a comfortable voyage with a crew who knew their work, found him. self suddenly as bc-damned and outcast as the Doctor; and all be- cause he was ordered by the mates to work up the men.
 Drake had in turn done all the humiliating jobs of the ship. The apprentices were given the brass work to clean, and he was given the morning job of cleaning out the chicken coops and the sheep pen. That was always to be done in the hours when Mary Manning invari-l ably took her morning walk on deck. It was an unpleasant job. Chickens kept in narrow quarters become nasty. They smell. The smell has bad habit of lingering in a fellows clothes.
 But Drake whistled and sang at his unpleasant tasks. He whistlcd Anchored, and when Mary was in sight he sang Maimuna.
 
 The brcezes hardened into gales as the latitudes were crossed. The watches were hard worked all day without any extra jobs having to be invented. New running gear, pre- venter backstays, new sail or quick shift to an old one while a rent was patched. Sails sewed all day on stout, heavy weather can vas. Chips overhauled tops and cross-trees, mast ids and rigging i screws; saw to his tarpaulins and batten wedges.
 Then came the night when the Doctor was washed out of his gal ley, bombardcd by his pots, and smothercd i'll d sticky mass of dough which would certainly have brought about his end as d cook l had it even been made into bread. 1 The Doctor never knew that his narrow escape from drowning had 1 saved his life for a little while longer. But the sea that cleaned out his galley filled the deep main deck. It held the ship down perilously. It was no time for cracking on.
 1.-TWO 'ands send down th' skyS'l yard." roarcd old Bill Gadgett. l.lAc n,r.