Year: 1874

yS"s e6cs DH0 mas Dee0 Kept up,
though, all the time right through, and
the OIL is so soaked into her timbers
that there is no rot in her. For nigh
on to Thirty years she pitched and
tumpled on tho Pacific, and many a
whale she has had alongside of her, and
tried out, and if all the money she has
armed was in my pocket or in yourn, or
only halved between us, why, 1, for
one, make bold to say that 1 wouldn't
be here slowing away coal-oil. The
petroleum business is kind of resting
place for old-fashioned ships. It used
TO be the lumber trade but now lots
of the old stagers go into. oosl-oil."


sit is, then, a kind Of charnel-house
for decayed vessels ?"


"Well, that's it, pretty much. L
seed You! looking at her stern. It's a
real nice bit of work that carving.
Them flowers is all buttercupe and
cowslips and sunhowers now from their
color. There is queer yarn about
this here ship which I don't mind tell
ing. am fresh in her, that is to say,
II Will be year this coming February
since took hold of her. / amt had
much luck, that is for my time OF life,
and had hoped at my age.to be some.
thing more Than captain Of an oil-craft;
but lrek is~everything,y Now, we sea-
faring men keep the run somehow of
all the ships and the stories about 'em.
You see, some ships bring luck and
others don't. I've known a ship that
mostly always made money for her
owners, but always killed her captains.
knowed one bark that made every
skipper as sailed her take. to drink.
Yen see, the story about THE ship l got
from the man as Sailed her before me /;
AID during her whole life she amt had
but five men to handle her, and four of
'em, of which I am one, has been on
her during the last ten years. Afore
that, for nigh on to forty years, only
one man sailed her Before the keel of
this ship was laid, there was a seafar-
ing man as sailed out of Maine. That
man struck salt water airly, and
hadn't no education when he was young,
but lots of pluck. III them days, fifty
year ago, passengers used to take the
regular liners from Boston or New
York and go to Charleston. That sailor
man was before the mast. He was
handsome, civil kind of q fellow, and
was learning his duty fast. There
came once aboard the brig he was on,
which was Charleston liner-one of
them big Boston bugs-one of them
aristocrats OF the old time-with a sick
daughter, his only che-ild." My cap
tain, / saw here, was inclined to be
melodramatic, as he insisted on this
peculiar, eccentric subdivision of a sin
gle syllable. '. ..


-'"The v'yage was long one, and
jacks duty it was to go down below
and hand that young miss Oh deck, and
put her like frostbitten flower in the
sun, for they thought she was dying.
Now this rich mans cheild didn't care
a brass farden for Jack, but Jack, who
was an ass, cared for her. When
they got South, Jack put the lady in
her carriage at Charleston, and bid her
goodbye, and didn't say nothing more.
That rich mans cheild came pretty
near dying in Charleston, and Jack
kept calling every day, with the cap
tain's compliments, 80 he said, to see
how she was getting on but they wasn't
the captains compliments, but his own.
She didn't get any better or much worse,
but kept backing and filling. When
it got to be time for Jacks brig to go
home, the girls father he came in per-
son on board to thank the old man for
his civility in sending so often to make
inquiries about his daughter. Now,
this made the captain stare, for the old
skipper, after he had dumped the party
on the Charleston wharf, had no more
thought about 'em than of an odd cask
of nails. So the story got about the
ship. and the crew ran poor Jack about
it, as shipmates will, until Jack got
most wild. But they knowed Jack didn't
allow much chatting, so after regular
knock-down or so, they let Jack alone
Jack stayed by that brig all that winter,
she going regularly on her trips, and
he finding out how the young woman
was making out She stayed South
most year, and then Jack learnt she
was coming home in another vessel.
What does he do but leaves his own
craft and ships in the other one, and
comes home with the young woman.
Jack had brushed up mighty in the
twelvemonth, though he wasn't nothing
more than sailor. The father didn't
know him no more than you could tell
one link of chain cable from another,
but his daughter did. I disremember
exactly how the yarn goes on
here, but as sure as you are born the
rich mans daughter and Jack got to
love one another unbeknownst to the
father. i, r'fE.' r..


"'Now, fifty years ago man that
commanded a.ship wasn't thought no
mean shakes Of. Nova days he is
mighty low down, and amt considered
as much account as head waiter in
dining-saloon. TWAS agreed between
EN- that Jack should fight it through
and get ship, and that then, if the old
man didn't agree to it, they would look
out for themselves. SO he did, and he
went to South America round the Horn
and was gone three years, and come
back second mate. Then he went to
China, and had no end of luck. His
captain and first mate died on board
the ship, as did q good many of the
crew, and Jack brought the vessel into
Boston most by himself, and was made
captain and had all kinds of favors
shown him. You see, sir, have been
third mate more nor once on long
wage, but someho W or other no such
luck never come to me. Well, Jack
had brought from China curious kind
of basket for his true-love, and had
made regular hot-house OF his ship
with queer kinds of China plants,
which wasn't common in them days in
the United States. So now, as captain,
he made bold to give the basket to her,