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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/24954-0.txt b/24954-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..60b7f57 --- /dev/null +++ b/24954-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,939 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of “Pig-Headed” Sailor Men, by Louis Becke + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: “Pig-Headed” Sailor Men + From “The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton and Other + Stories” - 1902 + +Author: Louis Becke + +Release Date: March 29, 2008 [EBook #24954] +Last Updated: March 8, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK “PIG-HEADED” SAILOR MEN *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +“PIG-HEADED” SAILOR MEN + +By Louis Becke + +T. FISHER UNWIN, 1902 + +LONDON + + +Crossing from Holyhead to Ireland one night the captain of the steamer +and myself, during an hour's talk on the bridge, found that we each had +sailed in a certain Australian coasting steamer more than twenty years +before--he as chief officer and I as passenger; and her shipwreck one +Christmas Eye (long after), which was attended by an appalling loss of +life, led us to talk of “pig-headed” skippers generally. His experiences +were large, and some of his stories were terrible even to hear, others +were grotesquely humorous, and the memory of that particularly pleasant +passage across a sea as smooth as a mill pond, has impelled me to +retell some of the incidents I related to him of my own adventures with +obstinate, self-willed, or incapable captains. + +My first experience was with a gentleman of the “incapable” variety, and +befell me when I was quite a lad. I had taken my passage in a very +smart little Sydney (N.S.W.) barque bound for Samoa _via_ the Friendly +Islands. She was commanded by a Captain Rosser, who had sailed her for +nearly twenty years in the South Sea trade, and who was justly regarded +as the _doyen_ of island skippers. He was a “Bluenose,” stood six +feet two in his stockinged feet, and was a man of the most determined +courage, unflinching resolution, and was widely known and respected by +the white traders and the natives all over the South Pacific. + +In those days there was quite a fleet of vessels engaged in the South +Sea trade, and most of them were owned in, and sailed from Sydney, and +I could have secured a passage in any one of three other vessels, but +preferred the _Rimitara_ (so I will call her), merely because the agent +had told me that no other passengers were going by her. Captain Rosser +himself frankly told me that he did not like passengers, but when he +learned that I had been to sea before, and intended settling in Samoa +as a trader, his grim visage relaxed, and he growled something about +my finding the accommodation ample enough, as I was to be the only +passenger. + +The _Rimitara_ was lying off Garden Island, and as she was to sail at +eleven in the morning I went on board at ten with the captain himself. +Just ahead of the barque was a very handsome brigantine, also bound for +the Friendly Islands. She had been launched only a few weeks previously, +and had been built for His Majesty King George of Tonga, at a cost of +£4,000, as a combined cargo and despatch vessel. As Rosser and I stepped +on the barque's poop the captain of the brigantine--whose decks were +crowded with visitors--hailed the former and challenged him to a race. + +“Oh, race with yourself, sir,” was Rosser's abrupt reply, as he bade +his chief mate heave up, and then seeing that a number of ladies were +standing beside the captain of the brigantine, he raised his hat, and +added more good-humouredly that although the _Rimitara_ was not a yacht +like the _Tuitoga_, he would bet the captain of the latter ten pounds +that the barque would be at anchor in Nukualofa Harbour forty-eight +hours before him. + +“Make it fifty,” cried the master of the new ship, amid the cheers of +his guests. + +Rosser shook his head, and replied with apparent unconcern (though he +was really angry) that ten pounds was enough for any one to lose. “But,” + he added, “don't think I'm going to race you. I'm just going to dodder +along as usual.” (He kept his word most thoroughly.) + +We got underway first, and were just passing out between Sydney Heads +under easy sail, when the brigantine overtook us, and passed us like a +race-horse galloping past a trotting donkey. She presented a beautiful +sight as she swept by with yards braced up sharp to a good south-east +breeze, and every stitch of her brand-new canvas drawing. One of the +officers had the bad manners to take up a coil of small line, and make +a pretence of heaving it to us for a tow rope. Rosser looked on with an +unmoved face, though our own mate made some strong remarks. + +“Guess it's that champagne he's drunk,” was all that Rosser said as he +turned away, and I have no doubt he was right, for we afterwards learned +that nearly every one aft on board the brigantine was half-drunk when +she lifted anchor, the visitors having brought on board half a dozen +cases of champagne--as a matter of fact we had seen the steward opening +bottles on the poop. In an hour the _Tuitoga_ was a long way ahead. + +Rosser said to us at dinner-- + +“That brigantine will come to grief. She's overmasted, and the fellow +who has her ought not to be trusted with her. He's going to make a mess +of things.” + +Then in his slow, drawling manner, he told us that the command of +the _Tuitoga_ had been given to an ex-lieutenant of the navy, whose +knowledge of sailing vessels was confined to his youthful experiences on +one of the service training brigs; but King George of Tonga was anxious +to secure an English naval officer to command the new ship, and out of +some hundreds of eager applicants, Lieutenant Raye had been selected. + +By sundown the brigantine was hull down ahead of us, though the barque +was a very smart vessel, and we were then making eleven knots. At +midnight, I heard the mate give orders to take in royals and topgallant +sails, and going on deck, found the wind had almost died away. + +Rosser was on deck, and told me that we were “going to get it hot from +the N.E. before long;” and by four in the morning we were under topsails +and lower courses only, the ship flying before a most unpleasant sea. I +turned in again, and slept till daylight, when the second mate gave me a +call. + +“Come on deck and see something pretty.” + +The “something pretty” was the brigantine, which was in sight about a +mile away on our lee bow. She was in a terrible mess. Her fore and main +royal masts and topgallant masts and jibboom had apparently all been +carried away together, and she was almost lying on her beam ends. We ran +down to her, and saw that her crew were busy in cutting away the spars +and sails alongside. All her boats were gone, and her for'ard deck house +had started, and was working to and fro with every sea. + +In less than half an hour the mate and six hands from the barque were +on board, assisting the crew, cutting away the wire rigging and trimming +the cargo, the shifting of which had nearly sent her to the bottom. I +went with the boat to lend a hand, and the second mate of the brigantine +told me that the young captain had refused to listen to the mate's +suggestion to shorten sail, when the officer told him that the wind +would certainly come away suddenly from the N.E. The consequence was +that a furious squall took her aback, and had not the jibboom--and then +the upper spars--carried away under the terrific strain, she would have +gone to the bottom. The worst part of the business was that two poor +seamen had been lost overboard. + +“He's a pretty kind of man for a skipper if you like,” said the +second officer bitterly. “He ought to be hanged for pretending he's +a sailorman. It's sheer murder to put such a jackass in command of a +deep-water sailing ship.” + +After rendering all possible assistance to the brigantine, we left her +about mid-day; and had been lying at anchor for two weeks in Nukualofa +Harbour before she put in an appearance outside the reef. A native pilot +went out in a canoe, but the captain haughtily declined his services, +and would not even let him come on board--he wanted to show people that +although he had never seen Naknalofa Harbour before, he could bring +his ship in without a pilot. In less than half an hour, a swirling eddy +caught the vessel, and earned her broadside on to the reef, where she +would have been battered to pieces, had not our two boats gone to her +assistance, and with great difficulty got her off again. Captain Rosser +several times countermanded orders given by his chief officer--an +experienced seaman--and bullied and “jawed” his crew in the most pompous +and irritating manner, and finally when we succeeded in getting the +vessel off the reef with the loss of her false keel and rudder, and +were towing her into smooth water inside the reef, he came for'ard, and +abruptly desired our chief mate to cease towing, as he meant to anchor. + +“Anchor, and be hanged to you,” replied our officer with angry contempt; +“the kind of ship you ought to command is one that is towed by a horse +along a path in the old country.” + +We cast off and left him to his own conceit and devices. He let go in +less than five fathoms, paid out too much cable, and went stern first +on to a coral patch, where he stuck for a couple of days, much to our +delight. + +Within six months this gentleman succeeded in getting the brigantine +ashore on four occasions, and she had to return to Sydney to be repaired +at a cost of £1,700. + +***** + +My next two experiences were with the pig-headed type. I had made an +agreement with the master of a Fiji-owned vessel--also a brigantine--to +convey myself and my stock of trade goods from an island in the Tokelau +or Union Group (South Pacific) to Yap, in the Caroline Islands in the +North-west, where I intended starting a trading business. This captain +was as good a seaman as ever trod a deck, and had had a rather long +experience of the island trade, but a mule could not surpass him in +obstinacy, as I was soon to learn, to my sorrow. + +A week after leaving the Tokelaus, we dropped anchor on the edge of the +reef of one of the Gilbert Group, to land supplies for a trader living +there. The coast was very exposed to all but an easterly wind, and +neither the mate nor myself liked the idea of anchoring at all. The +skipper, however, brought his vessel close in to the roaring breakers +on the reef, let go his anchor in six fathoms, and then neatly backed +astern into blue water sixty fathoms deep. Here we lay apparently safe +enough, for the time, the wind being easterly and steady. + +By sunset we had finished landing stores and shipping cargo, and when +the captain came off in the last boat, we naturally expected him to +heave up and get out of such a dangerous place, but to our surprise he +remarked carelessly that as the men were very tired, he would hold on +until daylight. + +“I wouldn't risk it if I were you,” said the trader, who had come aboard +in his own boat to “square up.” “You can't depend on this easterly +breeze holding all night, and it may come on squally from the west or +south-west in a few hours, and take you unawares.” + +“Bosh!” was the reply. “Hoist the boats up, Mr. Laird, and tell the men +to get supper.” + +“Very well, sir,” replied the mate, none too cheerfully. + +Just as the trader was going ashore, he said to me aside, quietly, “This +little monkey-faced skipper is a blazing idiot” (our captain was a very, +very little man). “I told him again just now, that if the wind comes +away from west or south-west, or even if it falls calm, he'll find he's +caught, to a dead certainty. But he as good as told me to mind my own +business.” + +Naturally enough I was anxious. I had on board trade goods which had +cost £1,100, and of course had not one penny of insurance on them. The +brigantine, however, was well insured, though I do not impute this fact +as being the cause of the captain's neglect of a sensible warning. + +After supper, the captain turned in, while the mate and I, both feeling +very uneasy, paced the deck till about nine o'clock, at which hour the +wind had become perceptibly lighter, and the captain was called. He came +on deck, trotted up and down in his pyjamas for a few minutes, sat on +the rail, like a monkey on a fence, and then asked the mate snappishly +what he was “scared about?” + +The mate made no reply, and the captain was just going below again, when +two fishing canoes, with four natives in each, came quite near us, both +heading for the shore; and the skipper asked me to hail them and see if +they had any fish to sell. I did so. + +“No,” was the reply; “we are going back again, because much rain and +wind is coming from the westward, and we want to get over the reef +before the surf becomes too great.” Then one of them stood up and +added-- + +“Why does not the ship go away quickly. This is a very bad place here +when the wind and the sea come from the west. Your ship will be broken +to pieces.” + +“What do they say?” inquired the little man. + +I translated what they had said. + +“Bosh, I say again,” was the reply, “the glass has been as steady as a +rock for the past three days,” and then, to my intense anger, he added +an insinuation that my fears had led me to deliberately misinterpret +what the natives had said. The retort I made was of so practical a +nature that the mate had to assist the skipper to his feet. + +A quarter of an hour later, as the mate and I still walked the deck, +discussing the captain's shortcomings, the wind died away suddenly, and +then several of our native crew came aft, and said that a squall was +coming up from the westward, and the mate, though neither he nor myself +could then see any sign of it, went below and again called the captain. + +He came on deck, with one hand covering his injured left optic, told +me he would settle with me in the morning, and then took a long look +astern, and there, certainly enough, was a long streak of black rising +over the horizon. The mate stood by waiting his orders. + +“It's not coming near us,” said the little man more snappishly than +ever, as he marched up and down the poop. + +“I say it is,” said Laird bluntly, “and I consider this ship will be +ashore, if we don't slip and tow out a bit before it is too late.” + +The mate's manner had some effect on the obstinate little animal--“Oh, +well, if there's such a lot of old women on board, I'll give in. Call +the hands, and we'll heave up.” + +“Heave up!” echoed the mate in angry astonishment, “what's the use of +trying to heave up now! That squall will be on us in ten minutes, and +if we had an hour to spare, it would be none too long. Why, man, it's +a dead calm, and the swell will send us into the surf on the reef quick +enough without our dragging the ship into it. Reckon the best and only +thing we can do, is down boats, and then slip cable right-away. We might +get a show then to lay along the reef, and get clear.” + +“I'm not going to lose a new cable and anchor to please any one,” was +the stupid reply. (He could very easily have recovered both anchor and +cable with the assistance of the natives on the following day, or indeed +months after.) + +Then he sang out to the men to man the windlass. + +The hands, realising the danger, turned to with a will, but within five +minutes the first breath of the squall caught us, and sent us ahead, +as was evident by the way the slackened cable came in through the +hawsepipe. + +We had out fifty-five fathoms of chain, and before twenty-five were in, +the squall was upon us properly; the brigantine went gracefully ahead, +overran her anchor, plunged into the roaring breakers on the reef, and +struck bows on. + +In another moment or two a heavy sea caught her on the starboard +quarter, canted her round, and dashed her broadside on to the reef with +terrific violence. Then, fortunately for our lives, two or three further +rollers sent her crashing along till she brought up against two or +three coral boulders, whose tops were revealed every now and then by the +backwash. In less than twenty minutes she was hopelessly bilged, and her +decks swept by every sea. + +We carried three boats, and our native sailors showed their pluck and +skill by actually getting all three safely into the water, two on the +lee side, and one on the other. + +The captain, now conscious of his folly, became very modest, and gave +his orders quietly. The crew, however, took no notice of him and looked +to the mate. He (the captain) ordered me into the first boat, in which +were the ship's papers, charts, chronometer, &c. I refused, and said I +preferred getting on shore in my own way. + +I had seen that two native boys (passengers) had run out on to the +bowsprit, and, watching their chance, had dropped over into a curling +roller, and were carried safely ashore. + +I had with me on board about nine hundred silver Mexican and Chili +dollars--some in a cash box, the rest in a bag. Calling my native +servant, Levi, I asked him if he thought all the boats would get ashore +safely. He shook his head, said that it was doubtful, and that it would +be better for me to throw the bag and the cash box over the lee side, +where they were pretty sure to be recovered in the morning at low tide. + +“All the boats will capsize, or get stove in, going over the reef, or +else will be smashed to bits on the shore,” he said, “and the natives +will steal everything they can lay their hands on, especially if the +white men are drowned. So it is better to throw the money overboard.” + +I took his advice, and going on deck, we dropped both box and bag +overboard, just where Levi pointed out a big boulder, against which the +brigantine was crushing and pounding her quarter. + +Again refusing to enter any of the boats, I watched my chance, and ran +for'ard, followed by Levi, and as soon as a big roller came along, we +dropped, and were carried ashore beautifully. Some hundreds of natives +and the white trader were on the look out, and ran in and caught us +before the backwash carried us out again. + +The mate's boat had already reached the shore without accident, owing to +the splendid manner in which he and his native crew had handled her; but +both the captain and second mate came to grief, their boats broaching to +and capsizing just as they were within a few fathoms of the shore. + +However, no lives were lost, and although next morning the brigantine's +decks had worked out of her and came ashore, the hull held together for +some weeks, and we saved a lot of stores. My money I recovered two or +three days later, though it had been carried more than a hundred yards +away from the spot where it had been dropped overboard. The tin cashbox +(which I had tied up in an oilskin coat, parcelled round with spun yarn, +and weighted inside with several hundred Snider cartridges) was found +buried in sand and broken coral, in a small pool on the reef; it +presented a most curious appearance, being almost round in shape. The +canvas bag was found near by, under a ledge of the reef, together with +the binnacle bell--which was doubled flat--and a dinner plate! The +bag (of No 2 canvas) had been hastily rolled up by Levi in the cabin +table-cloth, weighted with all the loose Snider cartridges we could find +in the darkened trade room, and tied up at each end like a “roly-poly.” + This proved its salvation, for when we dug it out (under three fathoms +of water) the outer covering came away in fine shreds, and some of the +big Mexican sun dollars had cut through the canvas. + +So ended my second experience, and the only satisfactory thing about it +to me, after losing over a thousand pounds worth of goods through the +captain's obstinacy, was that when he was fussing about after the wreck +trying to get one of the anchors ashore, he managed to lose his right +forefinger. I regret to say that whilst I dressed the stump and bound up +his hand for him, I could not help telling him that I was sorry it was +not his head that had been knocked off--previous to our going ashore. +'Twas very unchristianlike, but I was very sore with the man for his +pig-headedness, and then he so bewailed the loss of his finger; never +thinking of the fact that the boatswain had all but lost an eye, but had +never even murmured at his hard luck. + +***** + +My third experience of a “pig-headed” master mariner, followed very +quickly--so quickly, that I began to think some evil star attended my +fortunes, or rather misfortunes. + +After living on the island for three months, after the loss of the +brigantine, two vessels arrived on the same day--one, a schooner +belonging to San Francisco, and bound to that port; the other, the +_George Noble_, a fine handsome barquentine, bound to Sydney. Now, it +would have suited me very well to go to California in the schooner, +but finding that the skipper of the wrecked brigantine had arranged +for passages for himself, officers and crew in her, I decided to-go to +Sydney in the _George Noble_, purely because the little man with the +missing finger had become so objectionable to me--brooding over my +losses, and wondering how I could pay my debts--that I felt I could +not possibly remain at close quarters with the man in a small schooner +without taking a thousand pounds worth of damage out of him during the +voyage, which “taking out” process might land me in a gaol with two +years imprisonment to serve. So I bade goodbye to good mate Laird, and +the boatswain with the injured eye, and the native crew who had acted so +gallantly; and then with Levi standing by my side, holding my ponderous +bag of my beloved Mexican dollars in one hand, and a few articles of +clothing in the other, I told Captain ------ that I considered him to +be an anthropoid ape, an old washerwoman, and a person who should be +generally despised and rejected by all people, even those of the dullest +intellects, such as those of the members of the firm who employed him. +And then recalling to my memory the sarcastic remark of the mate of the +_Rimitara_, to the pompous captain of the _Tuitoga_ about the command +of a canal boat, I wound up by adding that he had missed his vocation +in life, and instead of being skipper of a smart brigantine, he +was intended by Providence to be captain of a mud-dredge, for which +position, however, he had probably barely sufficient intelligence. + +Feeling very despondent--for I had but nine hundred Mexican and Chilian +dollars to meet a debt of eleven hundred pounds, and had out of this to +keep myself and servant for perhaps six months until I got another start +as a trader, I went on board the _George Noble_ and bargained with her +captain for a passage to Sydney, at which port I knew I could at once +meet with an engagement. + +The captain of the _George Noble_ was a very decent and good-natured +German, named Evers. He agreed to take me and my henchman to Sydney for +125 dollars--I to live aft, the boy to go for'ard with the sailors, and +lend a hand in working the ship, if called upon in an emergency. The +vessel, I found, was owned by a firm of Chinese merchants in Sydney, and +carried a Chinese supercargo, but he was the only Celestial on board, +the firm only employing him on account of their having so many Chinese +traders throughout the equatorial islands of the Pacific. + +I had not been long on board the _George Noble_ when I discovered that +Evers, who was a fine sailorman and a good navigator as well, was one +of the “pig-headed” kind. His mate, second mate, and carpenter, were +Britishers, as were nearly all the crew, but they and the skipper could +not agree. There was no open rupture--but Evers had the idea that both +his officers and men disliked him because he was a “Dutchman.” Perhaps +this was so, but if it was, the officers and men never showed their +dislike at being commanded by a foreigner--they knew he was a good +seaman, and gave him unvarying respect and obedience. Nevertheless, +Captain Evers never spoke a friendly word to any one of his officers, +and when he had to speak to them, he did so in such a manner of strained +politeness and severity, that it was really unpleasant to hear him. + +On our way to Sydney we called at various islands of the Gilbert Group, +and finally went into Apaian Lagoon, where the barquentine had to load +one hundred tons of copra (dried coco-nut). During the time I had been +on board, Evers and myself had become very intimate, and, I am glad to +say, through me, he and his officers became quite friendly with each +other. And we all spent many happy evenings together. But I could see +that Evers was extremely jealous of his second mate's reputation as a +South Sea pilot, and he would very often purposely question him as to +the entrance of such and such a passage of such and such an island, +and then deliberately contradict his officer's plain and truthful +statements, and tell him he was wrong. Foster, a good-humoured old +fellow, would merely laugh and change the subject, though he well knew +that Captain Evers had had very little experience of the navigation +of the South Seas, and relied upon his charts more than upon his local +knowledge--he would never take a suggestion from his officers, both of +whom were old “island” men--especially the second mate. + +We loaded the hundred tons of copra, and were ready for sea by nine +o'clock one morning, when a number of large sailing canoes came off, +crowded with natives from a distant part of the island, all anxious to +buy firearms and ammunition in view of a great expedition against the +adjacent island of Tarawa. They all possessed either plenty of money +or copra, and Evers did a remarkably good, though illegal business, and +sold them over a hundred rifles. By the time they had finished, however, +it was past one o'clock, and I concluded that we could not leave the +lagoon till the following morning. To my surprise, and the second mate's +open-mouthed astonishment, the skipper, who was highly elated with his +morning's trading, told the mate to clear the decks, and get ready to +heave up. + +“Why, he's mad!” said the second officer to me. + +Now I must explain: Apaian Lagoon is a vast atoll completely enclosed on +the eastern and southern sides by a low, narrow strip of land, densely +covered with coco-palms, and on the northern and western by a continuous +chain of tiny islets connected by the reef. On the western side there +are two narrow ship passages, both exceedingly dangerous on account +of their being studded with numerous coral “mushrooms”--i.e., enormous +boulders of coral rock, which, resembling a mushroom in shape, come to +within a few feet of the surface of the water. Through these passages, +the tide, especially the ebb, rushes with great velocity--six or seven +knots at least--and vessels when leaving the lagoon, generally waited +till slack water, or the first of the flood, when with the usual strong +south-east trades, they could stem the current and avoid the dangerous +“mushrooms.” But no shipmaster would ever attempt either of these +passages, except in the morning, when the sun was astern, and he could, +from aloft, con the ship. After two or three o'clock, the sun would be +directly in his face, and render it almost impossible for him to get +through without striking. + +Here then was the position when Evers, cheerfully smoking a cigar, and +smiling all over his handsome face, gave the order to heave up. It was +blowing very strongly, the tide was on the ebb, the sun was directly +in our faces, and we were to tear through a narrow passage at racehorse +speed without being able to see anything. + +I ventured to suggest to him that it was a bit late for us to get under +way. + +“Not a bit of it. Come along with me up on the foreyard, and you'll see +how the _George Noble_ will skip through.” + +We certainly did skip, for before the anchor was secured, we were +dashing westwards for the passage at eight or nine knots, and Evers kept +calling out to the mate to make more sail. By the time we were abreast +of the passage, the _George Noble_ had every stitch of her canvas on +her, and was fairly “humming” along at nearly thirteen knots over the +smooth water, and then when she spun into the narrow passage through +which a seven-knot current was tearing, her speed became terrific, and I +held my breath. The second mate and boatswain were at the wheel, and +the crew were standing by the braces. The silence on board was almost +painful, for the terrible roar of the current as it tore along the coral +walls of the passage, deadened every sound. + +“Starboard a little,” shouted Evers to a sailor stationed in the fore +rigging below us, who repeated the order to a man on the rail, who in +turn passed the word aft. + +“Steady, there, steady!” + +I tried in vain to discern anything ahead of us--the blinding, blazing +sun prevented my seeing aught but a mad seething swirl of water just +beneath our bows, and on each side of us. Evers, however, seemed very +confident. + +“We'll be through in another two minutes--” he began, and then came a +terrific shock, and both he and I were jerked off the footrope, and +toppled over the yard on to the bellying foresail! + +We both rolled down on top of the windlass, and landed almost in each +others arms, half dazed. I sat down on deck to consider who I was, and +what was the matter, and Evers made a wobbly run aft, the ship still +ripping along, for we had been checked in our mad career for a second or +two only. + +In two or three minutes we were outside, and clear of danger, and Evers, +now much subdued, brought to under the lee of the reef, and anchored. +Then we lowered a boat, and made an examination of the ship for'ard. +Nothing was wrong with her above her water-line, but three feet further +down her stem was smashed into a pulp, and bits of timber kept coming +to the surface every now and then. An hour later we had nine inches of +water in the hold, and the consequence of Evers's pig-headedness was +that we had to keep the pumps going day and night, every two hours, till +we rigged a windmill, which was kept going till we reached Sydney. + +Six months later, the local trader of Apaian wrote to me, and told me +that Evers “has improved the passage into the lagoon very much. You ran +smack into a big mushroom, standing up right in the middle, and broke it +off short, about fifteen feet below the surface. Hope the _George Noble_ +will do the same thing next time.” + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of “Pig-Headed” Sailor Men, by Louis Becke + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK “PIG-HEADED” SAILOR MEN *** + +***** This file should be named 24954-0.txt or 24954-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/9/5/24954/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: "Pig-Headed" Sailor Men + From "The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton and Other + Stories" - 1902 + +Author: Louis Becke + +Release Date: March 29, 2008 [EBook #24954] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "PIG-HEADED" SAILOR MEN *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +"PIG-HEADED" SAILOR MEN + +By Louis Becke + +T. FISHER UNWIN, 1902 + +LONDON + + +Crossing from Holyhead to Ireland one night the captain of the steamer +and myself, during an hour's talk on the bridge, found that we each had +sailed in a certain Australian coasting steamer more than twenty years +before--he as chief officer and I as passenger; and her shipwreck one +Christmas Eye (long after), which was attended by an appalling loss of +life, led us to talk of "pig-headed" skippers generally. His experiences +were large, and some of his stories were terrible even to hear, others +were grotesquely humorous, and the memory of that particularly pleasant +passage across a sea as smooth as a mill pond, has impelled me to +retell some of the incidents I related to him of my own adventures with +obstinate, self-willed, or incapable captains. + +My first experience was with a gentleman of the "incapable" variety, and +befell me when I was quite a lad. I had taken my passage in a very +smart little Sydney (N.S.W.) barque bound for Samoa _via_ the Friendly +Islands. She was commanded by a Captain Rosser, who had sailed her for +nearly twenty years in the South Sea trade, and who was justly regarded +as the _doyen_ of island skippers. He was a "Bluenose," stood six +feet two in his stockinged feet, and was a man of the most determined +courage, unflinching resolution, and was widely known and respected by +the white traders and the natives all over the South Pacific. + +In those days there was quite a fleet of vessels engaged in the South +Sea trade, and most of them were owned in, and sailed from Sydney, and +I could have secured a passage in any one of three other vessels, but +preferred the _Rimitara_ (so I will call her), merely because the agent +had told me that no other passengers were going by her. Captain Rosser +himself frankly told me that he did not like passengers, but when he +learned that I had been to sea before, and intended settling in Samoa +as a trader, his grim visage relaxed, and he growled something about +my finding the accommodation ample enough, as I was to be the only +passenger. + +The _Rimitara_ was lying off Garden Island, and as she was to sail at +eleven in the morning I went on board at ten with the captain himself. +Just ahead of the barque was a very handsome brigantine, also bound for +the Friendly Islands. She had been launched only a few weeks previously, +and had been built for His Majesty King George of Tonga, at a cost of +4,000, as a combined cargo and despatch vessel. As Rosser and I stepped +on the barque's poop the captain of the brigantine--whose decks were +crowded with visitors--hailed the former and challenged him to a race. + +"Oh, race with yourself, sir," was Rosser's abrupt reply, as he bade +his chief mate heave up, and then seeing that a number of ladies were +standing beside the captain of the brigantine, he raised his hat, and +added more good-humouredly that although the _Rimitara_ was not a yacht +like the _Tuitoga_, he would bet the captain of the latter ten pounds +that the barque would be at anchor in Nukualofa Harbour forty-eight +hours before him. + +"Make it fifty," cried the master of the new ship, amid the cheers of +his guests. + +Rosser shook his head, and replied with apparent unconcern (though he +was really angry) that ten pounds was enough for any one to lose. "But," +he added, "don't think I'm going to race you. I'm just going to dodder +along as usual." (He kept his word most thoroughly.) + +We got underway first, and were just passing out between Sydney Heads +under easy sail, when the brigantine overtook us, and passed us like a +race-horse galloping past a trotting donkey. She presented a beautiful +sight as she swept by with yards braced up sharp to a good south-east +breeze, and every stitch of her brand-new canvas drawing. One of the +officers had the bad manners to take up a coil of small line, and make +a pretence of heaving it to us for a tow rope. Rosser looked on with an +unmoved face, though our own mate made some strong remarks. + +"Guess it's that champagne he's drunk," was all that Rosser said as he +turned away, and I have no doubt he was right, for we afterwards learned +that nearly every one aft on board the brigantine was half-drunk when +she lifted anchor, the visitors having brought on board half a dozen +cases of champagne--as a matter of fact we had seen the steward opening +bottles on the poop. In an hour the _Tuitoga_ was a long way ahead. + +Rosser said to us at dinner-- + +"That brigantine will come to grief. She's overmasted, and the fellow +who has her ought not to be trusted with her. He's going to make a mess +of things." + +Then in his slow, drawling manner, he told us that the command of +the _Tuitoga_ had been given to an ex-lieutenant of the navy, whose +knowledge of sailing vessels was confined to his youthful experiences on +one of the service training brigs; but King George of Tonga was anxious +to secure an English naval officer to command the new ship, and out of +some hundreds of eager applicants, Lieutenant Raye had been selected. + +By sundown the brigantine was hull down ahead of us, though the barque +was a very smart vessel, and we were then making eleven knots. At +midnight, I heard the mate give orders to take in royals and topgallant +sails, and going on deck, found the wind had almost died away. + +Rosser was on deck, and told me that we were "going to get it hot from +the N.E. before long;" and by four in the morning we were under topsails +and lower courses only, the ship flying before a most unpleasant sea. I +turned in again, and slept till daylight, when the second mate gave me a +call. + +"Come on deck and see something pretty." + +The "something pretty" was the brigantine, which was in sight about a +mile away on our lee bow. She was in a terrible mess. Her fore and main +royal masts and topgallant masts and jibboom had apparently all been +carried away together, and she was almost lying on her beam ends. We ran +down to her, and saw that her crew were busy in cutting away the spars +and sails alongside. All her boats were gone, and her for'ard deck house +had started, and was working to and fro with every sea. + +In less than half an hour the mate and six hands from the barque were +on board, assisting the crew, cutting away the wire rigging and trimming +the cargo, the shifting of which had nearly sent her to the bottom. I +went with the boat to lend a hand, and the second mate of the brigantine +told me that the young captain had refused to listen to the mate's +suggestion to shorten sail, when the officer told him that the wind +would certainly come away suddenly from the N.E. The consequence was +that a furious squall took her aback, and had not the jibboom--and then +the upper spars--carried away under the terrific strain, she would have +gone to the bottom. The worst part of the business was that two poor +seamen had been lost overboard. + +"He's a pretty kind of man for a skipper if you like," said the +second officer bitterly. "He ought to be hanged for pretending he's +a sailorman. It's sheer murder to put such a jackass in command of a +deep-water sailing ship." + +After rendering all possible assistance to the brigantine, we left her +about mid-day; and had been lying at anchor for two weeks in Nukualofa +Harbour before she put in an appearance outside the reef. A native pilot +went out in a canoe, but the captain haughtily declined his services, +and would not even let him come on board--he wanted to show people that +although he had never seen Naknalofa Harbour before, he could bring +his ship in without a pilot. In less than half an hour, a swirling eddy +caught the vessel, and earned her broadside on to the reef, where she +would have been battered to pieces, had not our two boats gone to her +assistance, and with great difficulty got her off again. Captain Rosser +several times countermanded orders given by his chief officer--an +experienced seaman--and bullied and "jawed" his crew in the most pompous +and irritating manner, and finally when we succeeded in getting the +vessel off the reef with the loss of her false keel and rudder, and +were towing her into smooth water inside the reef, he came for'ard, and +abruptly desired our chief mate to cease towing, as he meant to anchor. + +"Anchor, and be hanged to you," replied our officer with angry contempt; +"the kind of ship you ought to command is one that is towed by a horse +along a path in the old country." + +We cast off and left him to his own conceit and devices. He let go in +less than five fathoms, paid out too much cable, and went stern first +on to a coral patch, where he stuck for a couple of days, much to our +delight. + +Within six months this gentleman succeeded in getting the brigantine +ashore on four occasions, and she had to return to Sydney to be repaired +at a cost of 1,700. + +***** + +My next two experiences were with the pig-headed type. I had made an +agreement with the master of a Fiji-owned vessel--also a brigantine--to +convey myself and my stock of trade goods from an island in the Tokelau +or Union Group (South Pacific) to Yap, in the Caroline Islands in the +North-west, where I intended starting a trading business. This captain +was as good a seaman as ever trod a deck, and had had a rather long +experience of the island trade, but a mule could not surpass him in +obstinacy, as I was soon to learn, to my sorrow. + +A week after leaving the Tokelaus, we dropped anchor on the edge of the +reef of one of the Gilbert Group, to land supplies for a trader living +there. The coast was very exposed to all but an easterly wind, and +neither the mate nor myself liked the idea of anchoring at all. The +skipper, however, brought his vessel close in to the roaring breakers +on the reef, let go his anchor in six fathoms, and then neatly backed +astern into blue water sixty fathoms deep. Here we lay apparently safe +enough, for the time, the wind being easterly and steady. + +By sunset we had finished landing stores and shipping cargo, and when +the captain came off in the last boat, we naturally expected him to +heave up and get out of such a dangerous place, but to our surprise he +remarked carelessly that as the men were very tired, he would hold on +until daylight. + +"I wouldn't risk it if I were you," said the trader, who had come aboard +in his own boat to "square up." "You can't depend on this easterly +breeze holding all night, and it may come on squally from the west or +south-west in a few hours, and take you unawares." + +"Bosh!" was the reply. "Hoist the boats up, Mr. Laird, and tell the men +to get supper." + +"Very well, sir," replied the mate, none too cheerfully. + +Just as the trader was going ashore, he said to me aside, quietly, "This +little monkey-faced skipper is a blazing idiot" (our captain was a very, +very little man). "I told him again just now, that if the wind comes +away from west or south-west, or even if it falls calm, he'll find he's +caught, to a dead certainty. But he as good as told me to mind my own +business." + +Naturally enough I was anxious. I had on board trade goods which had +cost 1,100, and of course had not one penny of insurance on them. The +brigantine, however, was well insured, though I do not impute this fact +as being the cause of the captain's neglect of a sensible warning. + +After supper, the captain turned in, while the mate and I, both feeling +very uneasy, paced the deck till about nine o'clock, at which hour the +wind had become perceptibly lighter, and the captain was called. He came +on deck, trotted up and down in his pyjamas for a few minutes, sat on +the rail, like a monkey on a fence, and then asked the mate snappishly +what he was "scared about?" + +The mate made no reply, and the captain was just going below again, when +two fishing canoes, with four natives in each, came quite near us, both +heading for the shore; and the skipper asked me to hail them and see if +they had any fish to sell. I did so. + +"No," was the reply; "we are going back again, because much rain and +wind is coming from the westward, and we want to get over the reef +before the surf becomes too great." Then one of them stood up and +added-- + +"Why does not the ship go away quickly. This is a very bad place here +when the wind and the sea come from the west. Your ship will be broken +to pieces." + +"What do they say?" inquired the little man. + +I translated what they had said. + +"Bosh, I say again," was the reply, "the glass has been as steady as a +rock for the past three days," and then, to my intense anger, he added +an insinuation that my fears had led me to deliberately misinterpret +what the natives had said. The retort I made was of so practical a +nature that the mate had to assist the skipper to his feet. + +A quarter of an hour later, as the mate and I still walked the deck, +discussing the captain's shortcomings, the wind died away suddenly, and +then several of our native crew came aft, and said that a squall was +coming up from the westward, and the mate, though neither he nor myself +could then see any sign of it, went below and again called the captain. + +He came on deck, with one hand covering his injured left optic, told +me he would settle with me in the morning, and then took a long look +astern, and there, certainly enough, was a long streak of black rising +over the horizon. The mate stood by waiting his orders. + +"It's not coming near us," said the little man more snappishly than +ever, as he marched up and down the poop. + +"I say it is," said Laird bluntly, "and I consider this ship will be +ashore, if we don't slip and tow out a bit before it is too late." + +The mate's manner had some effect on the obstinate little animal--"Oh, +well, if there's such a lot of old women on board, I'll give in. Call +the hands, and we'll heave up." + +"Heave up!" echoed the mate in angry astonishment, "what's the use of +trying to heave up now! That squall will be on us in ten minutes, and +if we had an hour to spare, it would be none too long. Why, man, it's +a dead calm, and the swell will send us into the surf on the reef quick +enough without our dragging the ship into it. Reckon the best and only +thing we can do, is down boats, and then slip cable right-away. We might +get a show then to lay along the reef, and get clear." + +"I'm not going to lose a new cable and anchor to please any one," was +the stupid reply. (He could very easily have recovered both anchor and +cable with the assistance of the natives on the following day, or indeed +months after.) + +Then he sang out to the men to man the windlass. + +The hands, realising the danger, turned to with a will, but within five +minutes the first breath of the squall caught us, and sent us ahead, +as was evident by the way the slackened cable came in through the +hawsepipe. + +We had out fifty-five fathoms of chain, and before twenty-five were in, +the squall was upon us properly; the brigantine went gracefully ahead, +overran her anchor, plunged into the roaring breakers on the reef, and +struck bows on. + +In another moment or two a heavy sea caught her on the starboard +quarter, canted her round, and dashed her broadside on to the reef with +terrific violence. Then, fortunately for our lives, two or three further +rollers sent her crashing along till she brought up against two or +three coral boulders, whose tops were revealed every now and then by the +backwash. In less than twenty minutes she was hopelessly bilged, and her +decks swept by every sea. + +We carried three boats, and our native sailors showed their pluck and +skill by actually getting all three safely into the water, two on the +lee side, and one on the other. + +The captain, now conscious of his folly, became very modest, and gave +his orders quietly. The crew, however, took no notice of him and looked +to the mate. He (the captain) ordered me into the first boat, in which +were the ship's papers, charts, chronometer, &c. I refused, and said I +preferred getting on shore in my own way. + +I had seen that two native boys (passengers) had run out on to the +bowsprit, and, watching their chance, had dropped over into a curling +roller, and were carried safely ashore. + +I had with me on board about nine hundred silver Mexican and Chili +dollars--some in a cash box, the rest in a bag. Calling my native +servant, Levi, I asked him if he thought all the boats would get ashore +safely. He shook his head, said that it was doubtful, and that it would +be better for me to throw the bag and the cash box over the lee side, +where they were pretty sure to be recovered in the morning at low tide. + +"All the boats will capsize, or get stove in, going over the reef, or +else will be smashed to bits on the shore," he said, "and the natives +will steal everything they can lay their hands on, especially if the +white men are drowned. So it is better to throw the money overboard." + +I took his advice, and going on deck, we dropped both box and bag +overboard, just where Levi pointed out a big boulder, against which the +brigantine was crushing and pounding her quarter. + +Again refusing to enter any of the boats, I watched my chance, and ran +for'ard, followed by Levi, and as soon as a big roller came along, we +dropped, and were carried ashore beautifully. Some hundreds of natives +and the white trader were on the look out, and ran in and caught us +before the backwash carried us out again. + +The mate's boat had already reached the shore without accident, owing to +the splendid manner in which he and his native crew had handled her; but +both the captain and second mate came to grief, their boats broaching to +and capsizing just as they were within a few fathoms of the shore. + +However, no lives were lost, and although next morning the brigantine's +decks had worked out of her and came ashore, the hull held together for +some weeks, and we saved a lot of stores. My money I recovered two or +three days later, though it had been carried more than a hundred yards +away from the spot where it had been dropped overboard. The tin cashbox +(which I had tied up in an oilskin coat, parcelled round with spun yarn, +and weighted inside with several hundred Snider cartridges) was found +buried in sand and broken coral, in a small pool on the reef; it +presented a most curious appearance, being almost round in shape. The +canvas bag was found near by, under a ledge of the reef, together with +the binnacle bell--which was doubled flat--and a dinner plate! The +bag (of No 2 canvas) had been hastily rolled up by Levi in the cabin +table-cloth, weighted with all the loose Snider cartridges we could find +in the darkened trade room, and tied up at each end like a "roly-poly." +This proved its salvation, for when we dug it out (under three fathoms +of water) the outer covering came away in fine shreds, and some of the +big Mexican sun dollars had cut through the canvas. + +So ended my second experience, and the only satisfactory thing about it +to me, after losing over a thousand pounds worth of goods through the +captain's obstinacy, was that when he was fussing about after the wreck +trying to get one of the anchors ashore, he managed to lose his right +forefinger. I regret to say that whilst I dressed the stump and bound up +his hand for him, I could not help telling him that I was sorry it was +not his head that had been knocked off--previous to our going ashore. +'Twas very unchristianlike, but I was very sore with the man for his +pig-headedness, and then he so bewailed the loss of his finger; never +thinking of the fact that the boatswain had all but lost an eye, but had +never even murmured at his hard luck. + +***** + +My third experience of a "pig-headed" master mariner, followed very +quickly--so quickly, that I began to think some evil star attended my +fortunes, or rather misfortunes. + +After living on the island for three months, after the loss of the +brigantine, two vessels arrived on the same day--one, a schooner +belonging to San Francisco, and bound to that port; the other, the +_George Noble_, a fine handsome barquentine, bound to Sydney. Now, it +would have suited me very well to go to California in the schooner, +but finding that the skipper of the wrecked brigantine had arranged +for passages for himself, officers and crew in her, I decided to-go to +Sydney in the _George Noble_, purely because the little man with the +missing finger had become so objectionable to me--brooding over my +losses, and wondering how I could pay my debts--that I felt I could +not possibly remain at close quarters with the man in a small schooner +without taking a thousand pounds worth of damage out of him during the +voyage, which "taking out" process might land me in a gaol with two +years imprisonment to serve. So I bade goodbye to good mate Laird, and +the boatswain with the injured eye, and the native crew who had acted so +gallantly; and then with Levi standing by my side, holding my ponderous +bag of my beloved Mexican dollars in one hand, and a few articles of +clothing in the other, I told Captain ------ that I considered him to +be an anthropoid ape, an old washerwoman, and a person who should be +generally despised and rejected by all people, even those of the dullest +intellects, such as those of the members of the firm who employed him. +And then recalling to my memory the sarcastic remark of the mate of the +_Rimitara_, to the pompous captain of the _Tuitoga_ about the command +of a canal boat, I wound up by adding that he had missed his vocation +in life, and instead of being skipper of a smart brigantine, he +was intended by Providence to be captain of a mud-dredge, for which +position, however, he had probably barely sufficient intelligence. + +Feeling very despondent--for I had but nine hundred Mexican and Chilian +dollars to meet a debt of eleven hundred pounds, and had out of this to +keep myself and servant for perhaps six months until I got another start +as a trader, I went on board the _George Noble_ and bargained with her +captain for a passage to Sydney, at which port I knew I could at once +meet with an engagement. + +The captain of the _George Noble_ was a very decent and good-natured +German, named Evers. He agreed to take me and my henchman to Sydney for +125 dollars--I to live aft, the boy to go for'ard with the sailors, and +lend a hand in working the ship, if called upon in an emergency. The +vessel, I found, was owned by a firm of Chinese merchants in Sydney, and +carried a Chinese supercargo, but he was the only Celestial on board, +the firm only employing him on account of their having so many Chinese +traders throughout the equatorial islands of the Pacific. + +I had not been long on board the _George Noble_ when I discovered that +Evers, who was a fine sailorman and a good navigator as well, was one +of the "pig-headed" kind. His mate, second mate, and carpenter, were +Britishers, as were nearly all the crew, but they and the skipper could +not agree. There was no open rupture--but Evers had the idea that both +his officers and men disliked him because he was a "Dutchman." Perhaps +this was so, but if it was, the officers and men never showed their +dislike at being commanded by a foreigner--they knew he was a good +seaman, and gave him unvarying respect and obedience. Nevertheless, +Captain Evers never spoke a friendly word to any one of his officers, +and when he had to speak to them, he did so in such a manner of strained +politeness and severity, that it was really unpleasant to hear him. + +On our way to Sydney we called at various islands of the Gilbert Group, +and finally went into Apaian Lagoon, where the barquentine had to load +one hundred tons of copra (dried coco-nut). During the time I had been +on board, Evers and myself had become very intimate, and, I am glad to +say, through me, he and his officers became quite friendly with each +other. And we all spent many happy evenings together. But I could see +that Evers was extremely jealous of his second mate's reputation as a +South Sea pilot, and he would very often purposely question him as to +the entrance of such and such a passage of such and such an island, +and then deliberately contradict his officer's plain and truthful +statements, and tell him he was wrong. Foster, a good-humoured old +fellow, would merely laugh and change the subject, though he well knew +that Captain Evers had had very little experience of the navigation +of the South Seas, and relied upon his charts more than upon his local +knowledge--he would never take a suggestion from his officers, both of +whom were old "island" men--especially the second mate. + +We loaded the hundred tons of copra, and were ready for sea by nine +o'clock one morning, when a number of large sailing canoes came off, +crowded with natives from a distant part of the island, all anxious to +buy firearms and ammunition in view of a great expedition against the +adjacent island of Tarawa. They all possessed either plenty of money +or copra, and Evers did a remarkably good, though illegal business, and +sold them over a hundred rifles. By the time they had finished, however, +it was past one o'clock, and I concluded that we could not leave the +lagoon till the following morning. To my surprise, and the second mate's +open-mouthed astonishment, the skipper, who was highly elated with his +morning's trading, told the mate to clear the decks, and get ready to +heave up. + +"Why, he's mad!" said the second officer to me. + +Now I must explain: Apaian Lagoon is a vast atoll completely enclosed on +the eastern and southern sides by a low, narrow strip of land, densely +covered with coco-palms, and on the northern and western by a continuous +chain of tiny islets connected by the reef. On the western side there +are two narrow ship passages, both exceedingly dangerous on account +of their being studded with numerous coral "mushrooms"--i.e., enormous +boulders of coral rock, which, resembling a mushroom in shape, come to +within a few feet of the surface of the water. Through these passages, +the tide, especially the ebb, rushes with great velocity--six or seven +knots at least--and vessels when leaving the lagoon, generally waited +till slack water, or the first of the flood, when with the usual strong +south-east trades, they could stem the current and avoid the dangerous +"mushrooms." But no shipmaster would ever attempt either of these +passages, except in the morning, when the sun was astern, and he could, +from aloft, con the ship. After two or three o'clock, the sun would be +directly in his face, and render it almost impossible for him to get +through without striking. + +Here then was the position when Evers, cheerfully smoking a cigar, and +smiling all over his handsome face, gave the order to heave up. It was +blowing very strongly, the tide was on the ebb, the sun was directly +in our faces, and we were to tear through a narrow passage at racehorse +speed without being able to see anything. + +I ventured to suggest to him that it was a bit late for us to get under +way. + +"Not a bit of it. Come along with me up on the foreyard, and you'll see +how the _George Noble_ will skip through." + +We certainly did skip, for before the anchor was secured, we were +dashing westwards for the passage at eight or nine knots, and Evers kept +calling out to the mate to make more sail. By the time we were abreast +of the passage, the _George Noble_ had every stitch of her canvas on +her, and was fairly "humming" along at nearly thirteen knots over the +smooth water, and then when she spun into the narrow passage through +which a seven-knot current was tearing, her speed became terrific, and I +held my breath. The second mate and boatswain were at the wheel, and +the crew were standing by the braces. The silence on board was almost +painful, for the terrible roar of the current as it tore along the coral +walls of the passage, deadened every sound. + +"Starboard a little," shouted Evers to a sailor stationed in the fore +rigging below us, who repeated the order to a man on the rail, who in +turn passed the word aft. + +"Steady, there, steady!" + +I tried in vain to discern anything ahead of us--the blinding, blazing +sun prevented my seeing aught but a mad seething swirl of water just +beneath our bows, and on each side of us. Evers, however, seemed very +confident. + +"We'll be through in another two minutes--" he began, and then came a +terrific shock, and both he and I were jerked off the footrope, and +toppled over the yard on to the bellying foresail! + +We both rolled down on top of the windlass, and landed almost in each +others arms, half dazed. I sat down on deck to consider who I was, and +what was the matter, and Evers made a wobbly run aft, the ship still +ripping along, for we had been checked in our mad career for a second or +two only. + +In two or three minutes we were outside, and clear of danger, and Evers, +now much subdued, brought to under the lee of the reef, and anchored. +Then we lowered a boat, and made an examination of the ship for'ard. +Nothing was wrong with her above her water-line, but three feet further +down her stem was smashed into a pulp, and bits of timber kept coming +to the surface every now and then. An hour later we had nine inches of +water in the hold, and the consequence of Evers's pig-headedness was +that we had to keep the pumps going day and night, every two hours, till +we rigged a windmill, which was kept going till we reached Sydney. + +Six months later, the local trader of Apaian wrote to me, and told me +that Evers "has improved the passage into the lagoon very much. You ran +smack into a big mushroom, standing up right in the middle, and broke it +off short, about fifteen feet below the surface. Hope the _George Noble_ +will do the same thing next time." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of "Pig-Headed" Sailor Men, by Louis Becke + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "PIG-HEADED" SAILOR MEN *** + +***** This file should be named 24954-8.txt or 24954-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/9/5/24954/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: "Pig-Headed" Sailor Men + From "The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton and Other + Stories" - 1902 + +Author: Louis Becke + +Release Date: March 29, 2008 [EBook #24954] +Last Updated: March 8, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "PIG-HEADED" SAILOR MEN *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + “PIG-HEADED” SAILOR MEN + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Louis Becke + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h4> + T. FISHER UNWIN, 1902 <br /> <br /> LONDON + </h4> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + Crossing from Holyhead to Ireland one night the captain of the steamer and + myself, during an hour's talk on the bridge, found that we each had sailed + in a certain Australian coasting steamer more than twenty years before—he + as chief officer and I as passenger; and her shipwreck one Christmas Eye + (long after), which was attended by an appalling loss of life, led us to + talk of “pig-headed” skippers generally. His experiences were large, and + some of his stories were terrible even to hear, others were grotesquely + humorous, and the memory of that particularly pleasant passage across a + sea as smooth as a mill pond, has impelled me to retell some of the + incidents I related to him of my own adventures with obstinate, + self-willed, or incapable captains. + </p> + <p> + My first experience was with a gentleman of the “incapable” variety, and + befell me when I was quite a lad. I had taken my passage in a very smart + little Sydney (N.S.W.) barque bound for Samoa <i>via</i> the Friendly + Islands. She was commanded by a Captain Rosser, who had sailed her for + nearly twenty years in the South Sea trade, and who was justly regarded as + the <i>doyen</i> of island skippers. He was a “Bluenose,” stood six feet + two in his stockinged feet, and was a man of the most determined courage, + unflinching resolution, and was widely known and respected by the white + traders and the natives all over the South Pacific. + </p> + <p> + In those days there was quite a fleet of vessels engaged in the South Sea + trade, and most of them were owned in, and sailed from Sydney, and I could + have secured a passage in any one of three other vessels, but preferred + the <i>Rimitara</i> (so I will call her), merely because the agent had + told me that no other passengers were going by her. Captain Rosser himself + frankly told me that he did not like passengers, but when he learned that + I had been to sea before, and intended settling in Samoa as a trader, his + grim visage relaxed, and he growled something about my finding the + accommodation ample enough, as I was to be the only passenger. + </p> + <p> + The <i>Rimitara</i> was lying off Garden Island, and as she was to sail at + eleven in the morning I went on board at ten with the captain himself. + Just ahead of the barque was a very handsome brigantine, also bound for + the Friendly Islands. She had been launched only a few weeks previously, + and had been built for His Majesty King George of Tonga, at a cost of + £4,000, as a combined cargo and despatch vessel. As Rosser and I stepped + on the barque's poop the captain of the brigantine—whose decks were + crowded with visitors—hailed the former and challenged him to a + race. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, race with yourself, sir,” was Rosser's abrupt reply, as he bade his + chief mate heave up, and then seeing that a number of ladies were standing + beside the captain of the brigantine, he raised his hat, and added more + good-humouredly that although the <i>Rimitara</i> was not a yacht like the + <i>Tuitoga</i>, he would bet the captain of the latter ten pounds that the + barque would be at anchor in Nukualofa Harbour forty-eight hours before + him. + </p> + <p> + “Make it fifty,” cried the master of the new ship, amid the cheers of his + guests. + </p> + <p> + Rosser shook his head, and replied with apparent unconcern (though he was + really angry) that ten pounds was enough for any one to lose. “But,” he + added, “don't think I'm going to race you. I'm just going to dodder along + as usual.” (He kept his word most thoroughly.) + </p> + <p> + We got underway first, and were just passing out between Sydney Heads + under easy sail, when the brigantine overtook us, and passed us like a + race-horse galloping past a trotting donkey. She presented a beautiful + sight as she swept by with yards braced up sharp to a good south-east + breeze, and every stitch of her brand-new canvas drawing. One of the + officers had the bad manners to take up a coil of small line, and make a + pretence of heaving it to us for a tow rope. Rosser looked on with an + unmoved face, though our own mate made some strong remarks. + </p> + <p> + “Guess it's that champagne he's drunk,” was all that Rosser said as he + turned away, and I have no doubt he was right, for we afterwards learned + that nearly every one aft on board the brigantine was half-drunk when she + lifted anchor, the visitors having brought on board half a dozen cases of + champagne—as a matter of fact we had seen the steward opening + bottles on the poop. In an hour the <i>Tuitoga</i> was a long way ahead. + </p> + <p> + Rosser said to us at dinner— + </p> + <p> + “That brigantine will come to grief. She's overmasted, and the fellow who + has her ought not to be trusted with her. He's going to make a mess of + things.” + </p> + <p> + Then in his slow, drawling manner, he told us that the command of the <i>Tuitoga</i> + had been given to an ex-lieutenant of the navy, whose knowledge of sailing + vessels was confined to his youthful experiences on one of the service + training brigs; but King George of Tonga was anxious to secure an English + naval officer to command the new ship, and out of some hundreds of eager + applicants, Lieutenant Raye had been selected. + </p> + <p> + By sundown the brigantine was hull down ahead of us, though the barque was + a very smart vessel, and we were then making eleven knots. At midnight, I + heard the mate give orders to take in royals and topgallant sails, and + going on deck, found the wind had almost died away. + </p> + <p> + Rosser was on deck, and told me that we were “going to get it hot from the + N.E. before long;” and by four in the morning we were under topsails and + lower courses only, the ship flying before a most unpleasant sea. I turned + in again, and slept till daylight, when the second mate gave me a call. + </p> + <p> + “Come on deck and see something pretty.” + </p> + <p> + The “something pretty” was the brigantine, which was in sight about a mile + away on our lee bow. She was in a terrible mess. Her fore and main royal + masts and topgallant masts and jibboom had apparently all been carried + away together, and she was almost lying on her beam ends. We ran down to + her, and saw that her crew were busy in cutting away the spars and sails + alongside. All her boats were gone, and her for'ard deck house had + started, and was working to and fro with every sea. + </p> + <p> + In less than half an hour the mate and six hands from the barque were on + board, assisting the crew, cutting away the wire rigging and trimming the + cargo, the shifting of which had nearly sent her to the bottom. I went + with the boat to lend a hand, and the second mate of the brigantine told + me that the young captain had refused to listen to the mate's suggestion + to shorten sail, when the officer told him that the wind would certainly + come away suddenly from the N.E. The consequence was that a furious squall + took her aback, and had not the jibboom—and then the upper spars—carried + away under the terrific strain, she would have gone to the bottom. The + worst part of the business was that two poor seamen had been lost + overboard. + </p> + <p> + “He's a pretty kind of man for a skipper if you like,” said the second + officer bitterly. “He ought to be hanged for pretending he's a sailorman. + It's sheer murder to put such a jackass in command of a deep-water sailing + ship.” + </p> + <p> + After rendering all possible assistance to the brigantine, we left her + about mid-day; and had been lying at anchor for two weeks in Nukualofa + Harbour before she put in an appearance outside the reef. A native pilot + went out in a canoe, but the captain haughtily declined his services, and + would not even let him come on board—he wanted to show people that + although he had never seen Naknalofa Harbour before, he could bring his + ship in without a pilot. In less than half an hour, a swirling eddy caught + the vessel, and earned her broadside on to the reef, where she would have + been battered to pieces, had not our two boats gone to her assistance, and + with great difficulty got her off again. Captain Rosser several times + countermanded orders given by his chief officer—an experienced + seaman—and bullied and “jawed” his crew in the most pompous and + irritating manner, and finally when we succeeded in getting the vessel off + the reef with the loss of her false keel and rudder, and were towing her + into smooth water inside the reef, he came for'ard, and abruptly desired + our chief mate to cease towing, as he meant to anchor. + </p> + <p> + “Anchor, and be hanged to you,” replied our officer with angry contempt; + “the kind of ship you ought to command is one that is towed by a horse + along a path in the old country.” + </p> + <p> + We cast off and left him to his own conceit and devices. He let go in less + than five fathoms, paid out too much cable, and went stern first on to a + coral patch, where he stuck for a couple of days, much to our delight. + </p> + <p> + Within six months this gentleman succeeded in getting the brigantine + ashore on four occasions, and she had to return to Sydney to be repaired + at a cost of £1,700. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + My next two experiences were with the pig-headed type. I had made an + agreement with the master of a Fiji-owned vessel—also a brigantine—to + convey myself and my stock of trade goods from an island in the Tokelau or + Union Group (South Pacific) to Yap, in the Caroline Islands in the + North-west, where I intended starting a trading business. This captain was + as good a seaman as ever trod a deck, and had had a rather long experience + of the island trade, but a mule could not surpass him in obstinacy, as I + was soon to learn, to my sorrow. + </p> + <p> + A week after leaving the Tokelaus, we dropped anchor on the edge of the + reef of one of the Gilbert Group, to land supplies for a trader living + there. The coast was very exposed to all but an easterly wind, and neither + the mate nor myself liked the idea of anchoring at all. The skipper, + however, brought his vessel close in to the roaring breakers on the reef, + let go his anchor in six fathoms, and then neatly backed astern into blue + water sixty fathoms deep. Here we lay apparently safe enough, for the + time, the wind being easterly and steady. + </p> + <p> + By sunset we had finished landing stores and shipping cargo, and when the + captain came off in the last boat, we naturally expected him to heave up + and get out of such a dangerous place, but to our surprise he remarked + carelessly that as the men were very tired, he would hold on until + daylight. + </p> + <p> + “I wouldn't risk it if I were you,” said the trader, who had come aboard + in his own boat to “square up.” “You can't depend on this easterly breeze + holding all night, and it may come on squally from the west or south-west + in a few hours, and take you unawares.” + </p> + <p> + “Bosh!” was the reply. “Hoist the boats up, Mr. Laird, and tell the men to + get supper.” + </p> + <p> + “Very well, sir,” replied the mate, none too cheerfully. + </p> + <p> + Just as the trader was going ashore, he said to me aside, quietly, “This + little monkey-faced skipper is a blazing idiot” (our captain was a very, + very little man). “I told him again just now, that if the wind comes away + from west or south-west, or even if it falls calm, he'll find he's caught, + to a dead certainty. But he as good as told me to mind my own business.” + </p> + <p> + Naturally enough I was anxious. I had on board trade goods which had cost + £1,100, and of course had not one penny of insurance on them. The + brigantine, however, was well insured, though I do not impute this fact as + being the cause of the captain's neglect of a sensible warning. + </p> + <p> + After supper, the captain turned in, while the mate and I, both feeling + very uneasy, paced the deck till about nine o'clock, at which hour the + wind had become perceptibly lighter, and the captain was called. He came + on deck, trotted up and down in his pyjamas for a few minutes, sat on the + rail, like a monkey on a fence, and then asked the mate snappishly what he + was “scared about?” + </p> + <p> + The mate made no reply, and the captain was just going below again, when + two fishing canoes, with four natives in each, came quite near us, both + heading for the shore; and the skipper asked me to hail them and see if + they had any fish to sell. I did so. + </p> + <p> + “No,” was the reply; “we are going back again, because much rain and wind + is coming from the westward, and we want to get over the reef before the + surf becomes too great.” Then one of them stood up and added— + </p> + <p> + “Why does not the ship go away quickly. This is a very bad place here when + the wind and the sea come from the west. Your ship will be broken to + pieces.” + </p> + <p> + “What do they say?” inquired the little man. + </p> + <p> + I translated what they had said. + </p> + <p> + “Bosh, I say again,” was the reply, “the glass has been as steady as a + rock for the past three days,” and then, to my intense anger, he added an + insinuation that my fears had led me to deliberately misinterpret what the + natives had said. The retort I made was of so practical a nature that the + mate had to assist the skipper to his feet. + </p> + <p> + A quarter of an hour later, as the mate and I still walked the deck, + discussing the captain's shortcomings, the wind died away suddenly, and + then several of our native crew came aft, and said that a squall was + coming up from the westward, and the mate, though neither he nor myself + could then see any sign of it, went below and again called the captain. + </p> + <p> + He came on deck, with one hand covering his injured left optic, told me he + would settle with me in the morning, and then took a long look astern, and + there, certainly enough, was a long streak of black rising over the + horizon. The mate stood by waiting his orders. + </p> + <p> + “It's not coming near us,” said the little man more snappishly than ever, + as he marched up and down the poop. + </p> + <p> + “I say it is,” said Laird bluntly, “and I consider this ship will be + ashore, if we don't slip and tow out a bit before it is too late.” + </p> + <p> + The mate's manner had some effect on the obstinate little animal—“Oh, + well, if there's such a lot of old women on board, I'll give in. Call the + hands, and we'll heave up.” + </p> + <p> + “Heave up!” echoed the mate in angry astonishment, “what's the use of + trying to heave up now! That squall will be on us in ten minutes, and if + we had an hour to spare, it would be none too long. Why, man, it's a dead + calm, and the swell will send us into the surf on the reef quick enough + without our dragging the ship into it. Reckon the best and only thing we + can do, is down boats, and then slip cable right-away. We might get a show + then to lay along the reef, and get clear.” + </p> + <p> + “I'm not going to lose a new cable and anchor to please any one,” was the + stupid reply. (He could very easily have recovered both anchor and cable + with the assistance of the natives on the following day, or indeed months + after.) + </p> + <p> + Then he sang out to the men to man the windlass. + </p> + <p> + The hands, realising the danger, turned to with a will, but within five + minutes the first breath of the squall caught us, and sent us ahead, as + was evident by the way the slackened cable came in through the hawsepipe. + </p> + <p> + We had out fifty-five fathoms of chain, and before twenty-five were in, + the squall was upon us properly; the brigantine went gracefully ahead, + overran her anchor, plunged into the roaring breakers on the reef, and + struck bows on. + </p> + <p> + In another moment or two a heavy sea caught her on the starboard quarter, + canted her round, and dashed her broadside on to the reef with terrific + violence. Then, fortunately for our lives, two or three further rollers + sent her crashing along till she brought up against two or three coral + boulders, whose tops were revealed every now and then by the backwash. In + less than twenty minutes she was hopelessly bilged, and her decks swept by + every sea. + </p> + <p> + We carried three boats, and our native sailors showed their pluck and + skill by actually getting all three safely into the water, two on the lee + side, and one on the other. + </p> + <p> + The captain, now conscious of his folly, became very modest, and gave his + orders quietly. The crew, however, took no notice of him and looked to the + mate. He (the captain) ordered me into the first boat, in which were the + ship's papers, charts, chronometer, &c. I refused, and said I + preferred getting on shore in my own way. + </p> + <p> + I had seen that two native boys (passengers) had run out on to the + bowsprit, and, watching their chance, had dropped over into a curling + roller, and were carried safely ashore. + </p> + <p> + I had with me on board about nine hundred silver Mexican and Chili dollars—some + in a cash box, the rest in a bag. Calling my native servant, Levi, I asked + him if he thought all the boats would get ashore safely. He shook his + head, said that it was doubtful, and that it would be better for me to + throw the bag and the cash box over the lee side, where they were pretty + sure to be recovered in the morning at low tide. + </p> + <p> + “All the boats will capsize, or get stove in, going over the reef, or else + will be smashed to bits on the shore,” he said, “and the natives will + steal everything they can lay their hands on, especially if the white men + are drowned. So it is better to throw the money overboard.” + </p> + <p> + I took his advice, and going on deck, we dropped both box and bag + overboard, just where Levi pointed out a big boulder, against which the + brigantine was crushing and pounding her quarter. + </p> + <p> + Again refusing to enter any of the boats, I watched my chance, and ran + for'ard, followed by Levi, and as soon as a big roller came along, we + dropped, and were carried ashore beautifully. Some hundreds of natives and + the white trader were on the look out, and ran in and caught us before the + backwash carried us out again. + </p> + <p> + The mate's boat had already reached the shore without accident, owing to + the splendid manner in which he and his native crew had handled her; but + both the captain and second mate came to grief, their boats broaching to + and capsizing just as they were within a few fathoms of the shore. + </p> + <p> + However, no lives were lost, and although next morning the brigantine's + decks had worked out of her and came ashore, the hull held together for + some weeks, and we saved a lot of stores. My money I recovered two or + three days later, though it had been carried more than a hundred yards + away from the spot where it had been dropped overboard. The tin cashbox + (which I had tied up in an oilskin coat, parcelled round with spun yarn, + and weighted inside with several hundred Snider cartridges) was found + buried in sand and broken coral, in a small pool on the reef; it presented + a most curious appearance, being almost round in shape. The canvas bag was + found near by, under a ledge of the reef, together with the binnacle bell—which + was doubled flat—and a dinner plate! The bag (of No 2 canvas) had + been hastily rolled up by Levi in the cabin table-cloth, weighted with all + the loose Snider cartridges we could find in the darkened trade room, and + tied up at each end like a “roly-poly.” This proved its salvation, for + when we dug it out (under three fathoms of water) the outer covering came + away in fine shreds, and some of the big Mexican sun dollars had cut + through the canvas. + </p> + <p> + So ended my second experience, and the only satisfactory thing about it to + me, after losing over a thousand pounds worth of goods through the + captain's obstinacy, was that when he was fussing about after the wreck + trying to get one of the anchors ashore, he managed to lose his right + forefinger. I regret to say that whilst I dressed the stump and bound up + his hand for him, I could not help telling him that I was sorry it was not + his head that had been knocked off—previous to our going ashore. + 'Twas very unchristianlike, but I was very sore with the man for his + pig-headedness, and then he so bewailed the loss of his finger; never + thinking of the fact that the boatswain had all but lost an eye, but had + never even murmured at his hard luck. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + My third experience of a “pig-headed” master mariner, followed very + quickly—so quickly, that I began to think some evil star attended my + fortunes, or rather misfortunes. + </p> + <p> + After living on the island for three months, after the loss of the + brigantine, two vessels arrived on the same day—one, a schooner + belonging to San Francisco, and bound to that port; the other, the <i>George + Noble</i>, a fine handsome barquentine, bound to Sydney. Now, it would + have suited me very well to go to California in the schooner, but finding + that the skipper of the wrecked brigantine had arranged for passages for + himself, officers and crew in her, I decided to-go to Sydney in the <i>George + Noble</i>, purely because the little man with the missing finger had + become so objectionable to me—brooding over my losses, and wondering + how I could pay my debts—that I felt I could not possibly remain at + close quarters with the man in a small schooner without taking a thousand + pounds worth of damage out of him during the voyage, which “taking out” + process might land me in a gaol with two years imprisonment to serve. So I + bade goodbye to good mate Laird, and the boatswain with the injured eye, + and the native crew who had acted so gallantly; and then with Levi + standing by my side, holding my ponderous bag of my beloved Mexican + dollars in one hand, and a few articles of clothing in the other, I told + Captain ——— that I considered him to be an anthropoid + ape, an old washerwoman, and a person who should be generally despised and + rejected by all people, even those of the dullest intellects, such as + those of the members of the firm who employed him. And then recalling to + my memory the sarcastic remark of the mate of the <i>Rimitara</i>, to the + pompous captain of the <i>Tuitoga</i> about the command of a canal boat, I + wound up by adding that he had missed his vocation in life, and instead of + being skipper of a smart brigantine, he was intended by Providence to be + captain of a mud-dredge, for which position, however, he had probably + barely sufficient intelligence. + </p> + <p> + Feeling very despondent—for I had but nine hundred Mexican and + Chilian dollars to meet a debt of eleven hundred pounds, and had out of + this to keep myself and servant for perhaps six months until I got another + start as a trader, I went on board the <i>George Noble</i> and bargained + with her captain for a passage to Sydney, at which port I knew I could at + once meet with an engagement. + </p> + <p> + The captain of the <i>George Noble</i> was a very decent and good-natured + German, named Evers. He agreed to take me and my henchman to Sydney for + 125 dollars—I to live aft, the boy to go for'ard with the sailors, + and lend a hand in working the ship, if called upon in an emergency. The + vessel, I found, was owned by a firm of Chinese merchants in Sydney, and + carried a Chinese supercargo, but he was the only Celestial on board, the + firm only employing him on account of their having so many Chinese traders + throughout the equatorial islands of the Pacific. + </p> + <p> + I had not been long on board the <i>George Noble</i> when I discovered + that Evers, who was a fine sailorman and a good navigator as well, was one + of the “pig-headed” kind. His mate, second mate, and carpenter, were + Britishers, as were nearly all the crew, but they and the skipper could + not agree. There was no open rupture—but Evers had the idea that + both his officers and men disliked him because he was a “Dutchman.” + Perhaps this was so, but if it was, the officers and men never showed + their dislike at being commanded by a foreigner—they knew he was a + good seaman, and gave him unvarying respect and obedience. Nevertheless, + Captain Evers never spoke a friendly word to any one of his officers, and + when he had to speak to them, he did so in such a manner of strained + politeness and severity, that it was really unpleasant to hear him. + </p> + <p> + On our way to Sydney we called at various islands of the Gilbert Group, + and finally went into Apaian Lagoon, where the barquentine had to load one + hundred tons of copra (dried coco-nut). During the time I had been on + board, Evers and myself had become very intimate, and, I am glad to say, + through me, he and his officers became quite friendly with each other. And + we all spent many happy evenings together. But I could see that Evers was + extremely jealous of his second mate's reputation as a South Sea pilot, + and he would very often purposely question him as to the entrance of such + and such a passage of such and such an island, and then deliberately + contradict his officer's plain and truthful statements, and tell him he + was wrong. Foster, a good-humoured old fellow, would merely laugh and + change the subject, though he well knew that Captain Evers had had very + little experience of the navigation of the South Seas, and relied upon his + charts more than upon his local knowledge—he would never take a + suggestion from his officers, both of whom were old “island” men—especially + the second mate. + </p> + <p> + We loaded the hundred tons of copra, and were ready for sea by nine + o'clock one morning, when a number of large sailing canoes came off, + crowded with natives from a distant part of the island, all anxious to buy + firearms and ammunition in view of a great expedition against the adjacent + island of Tarawa. They all possessed either plenty of money or copra, and + Evers did a remarkably good, though illegal business, and sold them over a + hundred rifles. By the time they had finished, however, it was past one + o'clock, and I concluded that we could not leave the lagoon till the + following morning. To my surprise, and the second mate's open-mouthed + astonishment, the skipper, who was highly elated with his morning's + trading, told the mate to clear the decks, and get ready to heave up. + </p> + <p> + “Why, he's mad!” said the second officer to me. + </p> + <p> + Now I must explain: Apaian Lagoon is a vast atoll completely enclosed on + the eastern and southern sides by a low, narrow strip of land, densely + covered with coco-palms, and on the northern and western by a continuous + chain of tiny islets connected by the reef. On the western side there are + two narrow ship passages, both exceedingly dangerous on account of their + being studded with numerous coral “mushrooms”—i.e., enormous + boulders of coral rock, which, resembling a mushroom in shape, come to + within a few feet of the surface of the water. Through these passages, the + tide, especially the ebb, rushes with great velocity—six or seven + knots at least—and vessels when leaving the lagoon, generally waited + till slack water, or the first of the flood, when with the usual strong + south-east trades, they could stem the current and avoid the dangerous + “mushrooms.” But no shipmaster would ever attempt either of these + passages, except in the morning, when the sun was astern, and he could, + from aloft, con the ship. After two or three o'clock, the sun would be + directly in his face, and render it almost impossible for him to get + through without striking. + </p> + <p> + Here then was the position when Evers, cheerfully smoking a cigar, and + smiling all over his handsome face, gave the order to heave up. It was + blowing very strongly, the tide was on the ebb, the sun was directly in + our faces, and we were to tear through a narrow passage at racehorse speed + without being able to see anything. + </p> + <p> + I ventured to suggest to him that it was a bit late for us to get under + way. + </p> + <p> + “Not a bit of it. Come along with me up on the foreyard, and you'll see + how the <i>George Noble</i> will skip through.” + </p> + <p> + We certainly did skip, for before the anchor was secured, we were dashing + westwards for the passage at eight or nine knots, and Evers kept calling + out to the mate to make more sail. By the time we were abreast of the + passage, the <i>George Noble</i> had every stitch of her canvas on her, + and was fairly “humming” along at nearly thirteen knots over the smooth + water, and then when she spun into the narrow passage through which a + seven-knot current was tearing, her speed became terrific, and I held my + breath. The second mate and boatswain were at the wheel, and the crew were + standing by the braces. The silence on board was almost painful, for the + terrible roar of the current as it tore along the coral walls of the + passage, deadened every sound. + </p> + <p> + “Starboard a little,” shouted Evers to a sailor stationed in the fore + rigging below us, who repeated the order to a man on the rail, who in turn + passed the word aft. + </p> + <p> + “Steady, there, steady!” + </p> + <p> + I tried in vain to discern anything ahead of us—the blinding, + blazing sun prevented my seeing aught but a mad seething swirl of water + just beneath our bows, and on each side of us. Evers, however, seemed very + confident. + </p> + <p> + “We'll be through in another two minutes—” he began, and then came a + terrific shock, and both he and I were jerked off the footrope, and + toppled over the yard on to the bellying foresail! + </p> + <p> + We both rolled down on top of the windlass, and landed almost in each + others arms, half dazed. I sat down on deck to consider who I was, and + what was the matter, and Evers made a wobbly run aft, the ship still + ripping along, for we had been checked in our mad career for a second or + two only. + </p> + <p> + In two or three minutes we were outside, and clear of danger, and Evers, + now much subdued, brought to under the lee of the reef, and anchored. Then + we lowered a boat, and made an examination of the ship for'ard. Nothing + was wrong with her above her water-line, but three feet further down her + stem was smashed into a pulp, and bits of timber kept coming to the + surface every now and then. An hour later we had nine inches of water in + the hold, and the consequence of Evers's pig-headedness was that we had to + keep the pumps going day and night, every two hours, till we rigged a + windmill, which was kept going till we reached Sydney. + </p> + <p> + Six months later, the local trader of Apaian wrote to me, and told me that + Evers “has improved the passage into the lagoon very much. You ran smack + into a big mushroom, standing up right in the middle, and broke it off + short, about fifteen feet below the surface. Hope the <i>George Noble</i> + will do the same thing next time.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of “Pig-Headed” Sailor Men, by Louis Becke + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK “PIG-HEADED” SAILOR MEN *** + +***** This file should be named 24954-h.htm or 24954-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/9/5/24954/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: "Pig-Headed" Sailor Men + From "The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton and Other + Stories" - 1902 + +Author: Louis Becke + +Release Date: March 29, 2008 [EBook #24954] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "PIG-HEADED" SAILOR MEN *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +"PIG-HEADED" SAILOR MEN + +By Louis Becke + +T. FISHER UNWIN, 1902 + +LONDON + + +Crossing from Holyhead to Ireland one night the captain of the steamer +and myself, during an hour's talk on the bridge, found that we each had +sailed in a certain Australian coasting steamer more than twenty years +before--he as chief officer and I as passenger; and her shipwreck one +Christmas Eye (long after), which was attended by an appalling loss of +life, led us to talk of "pig-headed" skippers generally. His experiences +were large, and some of his stories were terrible even to hear, others +were grotesquely humorous, and the memory of that particularly pleasant +passage across a sea as smooth as a mill pond, has impelled me to +retell some of the incidents I related to him of my own adventures with +obstinate, self-willed, or incapable captains. + +My first experience was with a gentleman of the "incapable" variety, and +befell me when I was quite a lad. I had taken my passage in a very +smart little Sydney (N.S.W.) barque bound for Samoa _via_ the Friendly +Islands. She was commanded by a Captain Rosser, who had sailed her for +nearly twenty years in the South Sea trade, and who was justly regarded +as the _doyen_ of island skippers. He was a "Bluenose," stood six +feet two in his stockinged feet, and was a man of the most determined +courage, unflinching resolution, and was widely known and respected by +the white traders and the natives all over the South Pacific. + +In those days there was quite a fleet of vessels engaged in the South +Sea trade, and most of them were owned in, and sailed from Sydney, and +I could have secured a passage in any one of three other vessels, but +preferred the _Rimitara_ (so I will call her), merely because the agent +had told me that no other passengers were going by her. Captain Rosser +himself frankly told me that he did not like passengers, but when he +learned that I had been to sea before, and intended settling in Samoa +as a trader, his grim visage relaxed, and he growled something about +my finding the accommodation ample enough, as I was to be the only +passenger. + +The _Rimitara_ was lying off Garden Island, and as she was to sail at +eleven in the morning I went on board at ten with the captain himself. +Just ahead of the barque was a very handsome brigantine, also bound for +the Friendly Islands. She had been launched only a few weeks previously, +and had been built for His Majesty King George of Tonga, at a cost of +L4,000, as a combined cargo and despatch vessel. As Rosser and I stepped +on the barque's poop the captain of the brigantine--whose decks were +crowded with visitors--hailed the former and challenged him to a race. + +"Oh, race with yourself, sir," was Rosser's abrupt reply, as he bade +his chief mate heave up, and then seeing that a number of ladies were +standing beside the captain of the brigantine, he raised his hat, and +added more good-humouredly that although the _Rimitara_ was not a yacht +like the _Tuitoga_, he would bet the captain of the latter ten pounds +that the barque would be at anchor in Nukualofa Harbour forty-eight +hours before him. + +"Make it fifty," cried the master of the new ship, amid the cheers of +his guests. + +Rosser shook his head, and replied with apparent unconcern (though he +was really angry) that ten pounds was enough for any one to lose. "But," +he added, "don't think I'm going to race you. I'm just going to dodder +along as usual." (He kept his word most thoroughly.) + +We got underway first, and were just passing out between Sydney Heads +under easy sail, when the brigantine overtook us, and passed us like a +race-horse galloping past a trotting donkey. She presented a beautiful +sight as she swept by with yards braced up sharp to a good south-east +breeze, and every stitch of her brand-new canvas drawing. One of the +officers had the bad manners to take up a coil of small line, and make +a pretence of heaving it to us for a tow rope. Rosser looked on with an +unmoved face, though our own mate made some strong remarks. + +"Guess it's that champagne he's drunk," was all that Rosser said as he +turned away, and I have no doubt he was right, for we afterwards learned +that nearly every one aft on board the brigantine was half-drunk when +she lifted anchor, the visitors having brought on board half a dozen +cases of champagne--as a matter of fact we had seen the steward opening +bottles on the poop. In an hour the _Tuitoga_ was a long way ahead. + +Rosser said to us at dinner-- + +"That brigantine will come to grief. She's overmasted, and the fellow +who has her ought not to be trusted with her. He's going to make a mess +of things." + +Then in his slow, drawling manner, he told us that the command of +the _Tuitoga_ had been given to an ex-lieutenant of the navy, whose +knowledge of sailing vessels was confined to his youthful experiences on +one of the service training brigs; but King George of Tonga was anxious +to secure an English naval officer to command the new ship, and out of +some hundreds of eager applicants, Lieutenant Raye had been selected. + +By sundown the brigantine was hull down ahead of us, though the barque +was a very smart vessel, and we were then making eleven knots. At +midnight, I heard the mate give orders to take in royals and topgallant +sails, and going on deck, found the wind had almost died away. + +Rosser was on deck, and told me that we were "going to get it hot from +the N.E. before long;" and by four in the morning we were under topsails +and lower courses only, the ship flying before a most unpleasant sea. I +turned in again, and slept till daylight, when the second mate gave me a +call. + +"Come on deck and see something pretty." + +The "something pretty" was the brigantine, which was in sight about a +mile away on our lee bow. She was in a terrible mess. Her fore and main +royal masts and topgallant masts and jibboom had apparently all been +carried away together, and she was almost lying on her beam ends. We ran +down to her, and saw that her crew were busy in cutting away the spars +and sails alongside. All her boats were gone, and her for'ard deck house +had started, and was working to and fro with every sea. + +In less than half an hour the mate and six hands from the barque were +on board, assisting the crew, cutting away the wire rigging and trimming +the cargo, the shifting of which had nearly sent her to the bottom. I +went with the boat to lend a hand, and the second mate of the brigantine +told me that the young captain had refused to listen to the mate's +suggestion to shorten sail, when the officer told him that the wind +would certainly come away suddenly from the N.E. The consequence was +that a furious squall took her aback, and had not the jibboom--and then +the upper spars--carried away under the terrific strain, she would have +gone to the bottom. The worst part of the business was that two poor +seamen had been lost overboard. + +"He's a pretty kind of man for a skipper if you like," said the +second officer bitterly. "He ought to be hanged for pretending he's +a sailorman. It's sheer murder to put such a jackass in command of a +deep-water sailing ship." + +After rendering all possible assistance to the brigantine, we left her +about mid-day; and had been lying at anchor for two weeks in Nukualofa +Harbour before she put in an appearance outside the reef. A native pilot +went out in a canoe, but the captain haughtily declined his services, +and would not even let him come on board--he wanted to show people that +although he had never seen Naknalofa Harbour before, he could bring +his ship in without a pilot. In less than half an hour, a swirling eddy +caught the vessel, and earned her broadside on to the reef, where she +would have been battered to pieces, had not our two boats gone to her +assistance, and with great difficulty got her off again. Captain Rosser +several times countermanded orders given by his chief officer--an +experienced seaman--and bullied and "jawed" his crew in the most pompous +and irritating manner, and finally when we succeeded in getting the +vessel off the reef with the loss of her false keel and rudder, and +were towing her into smooth water inside the reef, he came for'ard, and +abruptly desired our chief mate to cease towing, as he meant to anchor. + +"Anchor, and be hanged to you," replied our officer with angry contempt; +"the kind of ship you ought to command is one that is towed by a horse +along a path in the old country." + +We cast off and left him to his own conceit and devices. He let go in +less than five fathoms, paid out too much cable, and went stern first +on to a coral patch, where he stuck for a couple of days, much to our +delight. + +Within six months this gentleman succeeded in getting the brigantine +ashore on four occasions, and she had to return to Sydney to be repaired +at a cost of L1,700. + +***** + +My next two experiences were with the pig-headed type. I had made an +agreement with the master of a Fiji-owned vessel--also a brigantine--to +convey myself and my stock of trade goods from an island in the Tokelau +or Union Group (South Pacific) to Yap, in the Caroline Islands in the +North-west, where I intended starting a trading business. This captain +was as good a seaman as ever trod a deck, and had had a rather long +experience of the island trade, but a mule could not surpass him in +obstinacy, as I was soon to learn, to my sorrow. + +A week after leaving the Tokelaus, we dropped anchor on the edge of the +reef of one of the Gilbert Group, to land supplies for a trader living +there. The coast was very exposed to all but an easterly wind, and +neither the mate nor myself liked the idea of anchoring at all. The +skipper, however, brought his vessel close in to the roaring breakers +on the reef, let go his anchor in six fathoms, and then neatly backed +astern into blue water sixty fathoms deep. Here we lay apparently safe +enough, for the time, the wind being easterly and steady. + +By sunset we had finished landing stores and shipping cargo, and when +the captain came off in the last boat, we naturally expected him to +heave up and get out of such a dangerous place, but to our surprise he +remarked carelessly that as the men were very tired, he would hold on +until daylight. + +"I wouldn't risk it if I were you," said the trader, who had come aboard +in his own boat to "square up." "You can't depend on this easterly +breeze holding all night, and it may come on squally from the west or +south-west in a few hours, and take you unawares." + +"Bosh!" was the reply. "Hoist the boats up, Mr. Laird, and tell the men +to get supper." + +"Very well, sir," replied the mate, none too cheerfully. + +Just as the trader was going ashore, he said to me aside, quietly, "This +little monkey-faced skipper is a blazing idiot" (our captain was a very, +very little man). "I told him again just now, that if the wind comes +away from west or south-west, or even if it falls calm, he'll find he's +caught, to a dead certainty. But he as good as told me to mind my own +business." + +Naturally enough I was anxious. I had on board trade goods which had +cost L1,100, and of course had not one penny of insurance on them. The +brigantine, however, was well insured, though I do not impute this fact +as being the cause of the captain's neglect of a sensible warning. + +After supper, the captain turned in, while the mate and I, both feeling +very uneasy, paced the deck till about nine o'clock, at which hour the +wind had become perceptibly lighter, and the captain was called. He came +on deck, trotted up and down in his pyjamas for a few minutes, sat on +the rail, like a monkey on a fence, and then asked the mate snappishly +what he was "scared about?" + +The mate made no reply, and the captain was just going below again, when +two fishing canoes, with four natives in each, came quite near us, both +heading for the shore; and the skipper asked me to hail them and see if +they had any fish to sell. I did so. + +"No," was the reply; "we are going back again, because much rain and +wind is coming from the westward, and we want to get over the reef +before the surf becomes too great." Then one of them stood up and +added-- + +"Why does not the ship go away quickly. This is a very bad place here +when the wind and the sea come from the west. Your ship will be broken +to pieces." + +"What do they say?" inquired the little man. + +I translated what they had said. + +"Bosh, I say again," was the reply, "the glass has been as steady as a +rock for the past three days," and then, to my intense anger, he added +an insinuation that my fears had led me to deliberately misinterpret +what the natives had said. The retort I made was of so practical a +nature that the mate had to assist the skipper to his feet. + +A quarter of an hour later, as the mate and I still walked the deck, +discussing the captain's shortcomings, the wind died away suddenly, and +then several of our native crew came aft, and said that a squall was +coming up from the westward, and the mate, though neither he nor myself +could then see any sign of it, went below and again called the captain. + +He came on deck, with one hand covering his injured left optic, told +me he would settle with me in the morning, and then took a long look +astern, and there, certainly enough, was a long streak of black rising +over the horizon. The mate stood by waiting his orders. + +"It's not coming near us," said the little man more snappishly than +ever, as he marched up and down the poop. + +"I say it is," said Laird bluntly, "and I consider this ship will be +ashore, if we don't slip and tow out a bit before it is too late." + +The mate's manner had some effect on the obstinate little animal--"Oh, +well, if there's such a lot of old women on board, I'll give in. Call +the hands, and we'll heave up." + +"Heave up!" echoed the mate in angry astonishment, "what's the use of +trying to heave up now! That squall will be on us in ten minutes, and +if we had an hour to spare, it would be none too long. Why, man, it's +a dead calm, and the swell will send us into the surf on the reef quick +enough without our dragging the ship into it. Reckon the best and only +thing we can do, is down boats, and then slip cable right-away. We might +get a show then to lay along the reef, and get clear." + +"I'm not going to lose a new cable and anchor to please any one," was +the stupid reply. (He could very easily have recovered both anchor and +cable with the assistance of the natives on the following day, or indeed +months after.) + +Then he sang out to the men to man the windlass. + +The hands, realising the danger, turned to with a will, but within five +minutes the first breath of the squall caught us, and sent us ahead, +as was evident by the way the slackened cable came in through the +hawsepipe. + +We had out fifty-five fathoms of chain, and before twenty-five were in, +the squall was upon us properly; the brigantine went gracefully ahead, +overran her anchor, plunged into the roaring breakers on the reef, and +struck bows on. + +In another moment or two a heavy sea caught her on the starboard +quarter, canted her round, and dashed her broadside on to the reef with +terrific violence. Then, fortunately for our lives, two or three further +rollers sent her crashing along till she brought up against two or +three coral boulders, whose tops were revealed every now and then by the +backwash. In less than twenty minutes she was hopelessly bilged, and her +decks swept by every sea. + +We carried three boats, and our native sailors showed their pluck and +skill by actually getting all three safely into the water, two on the +lee side, and one on the other. + +The captain, now conscious of his folly, became very modest, and gave +his orders quietly. The crew, however, took no notice of him and looked +to the mate. He (the captain) ordered me into the first boat, in which +were the ship's papers, charts, chronometer, &c. I refused, and said I +preferred getting on shore in my own way. + +I had seen that two native boys (passengers) had run out on to the +bowsprit, and, watching their chance, had dropped over into a curling +roller, and were carried safely ashore. + +I had with me on board about nine hundred silver Mexican and Chili +dollars--some in a cash box, the rest in a bag. Calling my native +servant, Levi, I asked him if he thought all the boats would get ashore +safely. He shook his head, said that it was doubtful, and that it would +be better for me to throw the bag and the cash box over the lee side, +where they were pretty sure to be recovered in the morning at low tide. + +"All the boats will capsize, or get stove in, going over the reef, or +else will be smashed to bits on the shore," he said, "and the natives +will steal everything they can lay their hands on, especially if the +white men are drowned. So it is better to throw the money overboard." + +I took his advice, and going on deck, we dropped both box and bag +overboard, just where Levi pointed out a big boulder, against which the +brigantine was crushing and pounding her quarter. + +Again refusing to enter any of the boats, I watched my chance, and ran +for'ard, followed by Levi, and as soon as a big roller came along, we +dropped, and were carried ashore beautifully. Some hundreds of natives +and the white trader were on the look out, and ran in and caught us +before the backwash carried us out again. + +The mate's boat had already reached the shore without accident, owing to +the splendid manner in which he and his native crew had handled her; but +both the captain and second mate came to grief, their boats broaching to +and capsizing just as they were within a few fathoms of the shore. + +However, no lives were lost, and although next morning the brigantine's +decks had worked out of her and came ashore, the hull held together for +some weeks, and we saved a lot of stores. My money I recovered two or +three days later, though it had been carried more than a hundred yards +away from the spot where it had been dropped overboard. The tin cashbox +(which I had tied up in an oilskin coat, parcelled round with spun yarn, +and weighted inside with several hundred Snider cartridges) was found +buried in sand and broken coral, in a small pool on the reef; it +presented a most curious appearance, being almost round in shape. The +canvas bag was found near by, under a ledge of the reef, together with +the binnacle bell--which was doubled flat--and a dinner plate! The +bag (of No 2 canvas) had been hastily rolled up by Levi in the cabin +table-cloth, weighted with all the loose Snider cartridges we could find +in the darkened trade room, and tied up at each end like a "roly-poly." +This proved its salvation, for when we dug it out (under three fathoms +of water) the outer covering came away in fine shreds, and some of the +big Mexican sun dollars had cut through the canvas. + +So ended my second experience, and the only satisfactory thing about it +to me, after losing over a thousand pounds worth of goods through the +captain's obstinacy, was that when he was fussing about after the wreck +trying to get one of the anchors ashore, he managed to lose his right +forefinger. I regret to say that whilst I dressed the stump and bound up +his hand for him, I could not help telling him that I was sorry it was +not his head that had been knocked off--previous to our going ashore. +'Twas very unchristianlike, but I was very sore with the man for his +pig-headedness, and then he so bewailed the loss of his finger; never +thinking of the fact that the boatswain had all but lost an eye, but had +never even murmured at his hard luck. + +***** + +My third experience of a "pig-headed" master mariner, followed very +quickly--so quickly, that I began to think some evil star attended my +fortunes, or rather misfortunes. + +After living on the island for three months, after the loss of the +brigantine, two vessels arrived on the same day--one, a schooner +belonging to San Francisco, and bound to that port; the other, the +_George Noble_, a fine handsome barquentine, bound to Sydney. Now, it +would have suited me very well to go to California in the schooner, +but finding that the skipper of the wrecked brigantine had arranged +for passages for himself, officers and crew in her, I decided to-go to +Sydney in the _George Noble_, purely because the little man with the +missing finger had become so objectionable to me--brooding over my +losses, and wondering how I could pay my debts--that I felt I could +not possibly remain at close quarters with the man in a small schooner +without taking a thousand pounds worth of damage out of him during the +voyage, which "taking out" process might land me in a gaol with two +years imprisonment to serve. So I bade goodbye to good mate Laird, and +the boatswain with the injured eye, and the native crew who had acted so +gallantly; and then with Levi standing by my side, holding my ponderous +bag of my beloved Mexican dollars in one hand, and a few articles of +clothing in the other, I told Captain ------ that I considered him to +be an anthropoid ape, an old washerwoman, and a person who should be +generally despised and rejected by all people, even those of the dullest +intellects, such as those of the members of the firm who employed him. +And then recalling to my memory the sarcastic remark of the mate of the +_Rimitara_, to the pompous captain of the _Tuitoga_ about the command +of a canal boat, I wound up by adding that he had missed his vocation +in life, and instead of being skipper of a smart brigantine, he +was intended by Providence to be captain of a mud-dredge, for which +position, however, he had probably barely sufficient intelligence. + +Feeling very despondent--for I had but nine hundred Mexican and Chilian +dollars to meet a debt of eleven hundred pounds, and had out of this to +keep myself and servant for perhaps six months until I got another start +as a trader, I went on board the _George Noble_ and bargained with her +captain for a passage to Sydney, at which port I knew I could at once +meet with an engagement. + +The captain of the _George Noble_ was a very decent and good-natured +German, named Evers. He agreed to take me and my henchman to Sydney for +125 dollars--I to live aft, the boy to go for'ard with the sailors, and +lend a hand in working the ship, if called upon in an emergency. The +vessel, I found, was owned by a firm of Chinese merchants in Sydney, and +carried a Chinese supercargo, but he was the only Celestial on board, +the firm only employing him on account of their having so many Chinese +traders throughout the equatorial islands of the Pacific. + +I had not been long on board the _George Noble_ when I discovered that +Evers, who was a fine sailorman and a good navigator as well, was one +of the "pig-headed" kind. His mate, second mate, and carpenter, were +Britishers, as were nearly all the crew, but they and the skipper could +not agree. There was no open rupture--but Evers had the idea that both +his officers and men disliked him because he was a "Dutchman." Perhaps +this was so, but if it was, the officers and men never showed their +dislike at being commanded by a foreigner--they knew he was a good +seaman, and gave him unvarying respect and obedience. Nevertheless, +Captain Evers never spoke a friendly word to any one of his officers, +and when he had to speak to them, he did so in such a manner of strained +politeness and severity, that it was really unpleasant to hear him. + +On our way to Sydney we called at various islands of the Gilbert Group, +and finally went into Apaian Lagoon, where the barquentine had to load +one hundred tons of copra (dried coco-nut). During the time I had been +on board, Evers and myself had become very intimate, and, I am glad to +say, through me, he and his officers became quite friendly with each +other. And we all spent many happy evenings together. But I could see +that Evers was extremely jealous of his second mate's reputation as a +South Sea pilot, and he would very often purposely question him as to +the entrance of such and such a passage of such and such an island, +and then deliberately contradict his officer's plain and truthful +statements, and tell him he was wrong. Foster, a good-humoured old +fellow, would merely laugh and change the subject, though he well knew +that Captain Evers had had very little experience of the navigation +of the South Seas, and relied upon his charts more than upon his local +knowledge--he would never take a suggestion from his officers, both of +whom were old "island" men--especially the second mate. + +We loaded the hundred tons of copra, and were ready for sea by nine +o'clock one morning, when a number of large sailing canoes came off, +crowded with natives from a distant part of the island, all anxious to +buy firearms and ammunition in view of a great expedition against the +adjacent island of Tarawa. They all possessed either plenty of money +or copra, and Evers did a remarkably good, though illegal business, and +sold them over a hundred rifles. By the time they had finished, however, +it was past one o'clock, and I concluded that we could not leave the +lagoon till the following morning. To my surprise, and the second mate's +open-mouthed astonishment, the skipper, who was highly elated with his +morning's trading, told the mate to clear the decks, and get ready to +heave up. + +"Why, he's mad!" said the second officer to me. + +Now I must explain: Apaian Lagoon is a vast atoll completely enclosed on +the eastern and southern sides by a low, narrow strip of land, densely +covered with coco-palms, and on the northern and western by a continuous +chain of tiny islets connected by the reef. On the western side there +are two narrow ship passages, both exceedingly dangerous on account +of their being studded with numerous coral "mushrooms"--i.e., enormous +boulders of coral rock, which, resembling a mushroom in shape, come to +within a few feet of the surface of the water. Through these passages, +the tide, especially the ebb, rushes with great velocity--six or seven +knots at least--and vessels when leaving the lagoon, generally waited +till slack water, or the first of the flood, when with the usual strong +south-east trades, they could stem the current and avoid the dangerous +"mushrooms." But no shipmaster would ever attempt either of these +passages, except in the morning, when the sun was astern, and he could, +from aloft, con the ship. After two or three o'clock, the sun would be +directly in his face, and render it almost impossible for him to get +through without striking. + +Here then was the position when Evers, cheerfully smoking a cigar, and +smiling all over his handsome face, gave the order to heave up. It was +blowing very strongly, the tide was on the ebb, the sun was directly +in our faces, and we were to tear through a narrow passage at racehorse +speed without being able to see anything. + +I ventured to suggest to him that it was a bit late for us to get under +way. + +"Not a bit of it. Come along with me up on the foreyard, and you'll see +how the _George Noble_ will skip through." + +We certainly did skip, for before the anchor was secured, we were +dashing westwards for the passage at eight or nine knots, and Evers kept +calling out to the mate to make more sail. By the time we were abreast +of the passage, the _George Noble_ had every stitch of her canvas on +her, and was fairly "humming" along at nearly thirteen knots over the +smooth water, and then when she spun into the narrow passage through +which a seven-knot current was tearing, her speed became terrific, and I +held my breath. The second mate and boatswain were at the wheel, and +the crew were standing by the braces. The silence on board was almost +painful, for the terrible roar of the current as it tore along the coral +walls of the passage, deadened every sound. + +"Starboard a little," shouted Evers to a sailor stationed in the fore +rigging below us, who repeated the order to a man on the rail, who in +turn passed the word aft. + +"Steady, there, steady!" + +I tried in vain to discern anything ahead of us--the blinding, blazing +sun prevented my seeing aught but a mad seething swirl of water just +beneath our bows, and on each side of us. Evers, however, seemed very +confident. + +"We'll be through in another two minutes--" he began, and then came a +terrific shock, and both he and I were jerked off the footrope, and +toppled over the yard on to the bellying foresail! + +We both rolled down on top of the windlass, and landed almost in each +others arms, half dazed. I sat down on deck to consider who I was, and +what was the matter, and Evers made a wobbly run aft, the ship still +ripping along, for we had been checked in our mad career for a second or +two only. + +In two or three minutes we were outside, and clear of danger, and Evers, +now much subdued, brought to under the lee of the reef, and anchored. +Then we lowered a boat, and made an examination of the ship for'ard. +Nothing was wrong with her above her water-line, but three feet further +down her stem was smashed into a pulp, and bits of timber kept coming +to the surface every now and then. An hour later we had nine inches of +water in the hold, and the consequence of Evers's pig-headedness was +that we had to keep the pumps going day and night, every two hours, till +we rigged a windmill, which was kept going till we reached Sydney. + +Six months later, the local trader of Apaian wrote to me, and told me +that Evers "has improved the passage into the lagoon very much. You ran +smack into a big mushroom, standing up right in the middle, and broke it +off short, about fifteen feet below the surface. Hope the _George Noble_ +will do the same thing next time." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of "Pig-Headed" Sailor Men, by Louis Becke + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "PIG-HEADED" SAILOR MEN *** + +***** This file should be named 24954.txt or 24954.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/9/5/24954/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: "Pig-Headed" Sailor Men + From "The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton and Other + Stories" - 1902 + +Author: Louis Becke + +Release Date: March 29, 2008 [EBook #24954] +Last Updated: March 8, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "PIG-HEADED" SAILOR MEN *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + “PIG-HEADED” SAILOR MEN + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Louis Becke + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h4> + T. FISHER UNWIN, 1902 <br /> <br /> LONDON + </h4> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + Crossing from Holyhead to Ireland one night the captain of the steamer and + myself, during an hour's talk on the bridge, found that we each had sailed + in a certain Australian coasting steamer more than twenty years before—he + as chief officer and I as passenger; and her shipwreck one Christmas Eye + (long after), which was attended by an appalling loss of life, led us to + talk of “pig-headed” skippers generally. His experiences were large, and + some of his stories were terrible even to hear, others were grotesquely + humorous, and the memory of that particularly pleasant passage across a + sea as smooth as a mill pond, has impelled me to retell some of the + incidents I related to him of my own adventures with obstinate, + self-willed, or incapable captains. + </p> + <p> + My first experience was with a gentleman of the “incapable” variety, and + befell me when I was quite a lad. I had taken my passage in a very smart + little Sydney (N.S.W.) barque bound for Samoa <i>via</i> the Friendly + Islands. She was commanded by a Captain Rosser, who had sailed her for + nearly twenty years in the South Sea trade, and who was justly regarded as + the <i>doyen</i> of island skippers. He was a “Bluenose,” stood six feet + two in his stockinged feet, and was a man of the most determined courage, + unflinching resolution, and was widely known and respected by the white + traders and the natives all over the South Pacific. + </p> + <p> + In those days there was quite a fleet of vessels engaged in the South Sea + trade, and most of them were owned in, and sailed from Sydney, and I could + have secured a passage in any one of three other vessels, but preferred + the <i>Rimitara</i> (so I will call her), merely because the agent had + told me that no other passengers were going by her. Captain Rosser himself + frankly told me that he did not like passengers, but when he learned that + I had been to sea before, and intended settling in Samoa as a trader, his + grim visage relaxed, and he growled something about my finding the + accommodation ample enough, as I was to be the only passenger. + </p> + <p> + The <i>Rimitara</i> was lying off Garden Island, and as she was to sail at + eleven in the morning I went on board at ten with the captain himself. + Just ahead of the barque was a very handsome brigantine, also bound for + the Friendly Islands. She had been launched only a few weeks previously, + and had been built for His Majesty King George of Tonga, at a cost of + £4,000, as a combined cargo and despatch vessel. As Rosser and I stepped + on the barque's poop the captain of the brigantine—whose decks were + crowded with visitors—hailed the former and challenged him to a + race. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, race with yourself, sir,” was Rosser's abrupt reply, as he bade his + chief mate heave up, and then seeing that a number of ladies were standing + beside the captain of the brigantine, he raised his hat, and added more + good-humouredly that although the <i>Rimitara</i> was not a yacht like the + <i>Tuitoga</i>, he would bet the captain of the latter ten pounds that the + barque would be at anchor in Nukualofa Harbour forty-eight hours before + him. + </p> + <p> + “Make it fifty,” cried the master of the new ship, amid the cheers of his + guests. + </p> + <p> + Rosser shook his head, and replied with apparent unconcern (though he was + really angry) that ten pounds was enough for any one to lose. “But,” he + added, “don't think I'm going to race you. I'm just going to dodder along + as usual.” (He kept his word most thoroughly.) + </p> + <p> + We got underway first, and were just passing out between Sydney Heads + under easy sail, when the brigantine overtook us, and passed us like a + race-horse galloping past a trotting donkey. She presented a beautiful + sight as she swept by with yards braced up sharp to a good south-east + breeze, and every stitch of her brand-new canvas drawing. One of the + officers had the bad manners to take up a coil of small line, and make a + pretence of heaving it to us for a tow rope. Rosser looked on with an + unmoved face, though our own mate made some strong remarks. + </p> + <p> + “Guess it's that champagne he's drunk,” was all that Rosser said as he + turned away, and I have no doubt he was right, for we afterwards learned + that nearly every one aft on board the brigantine was half-drunk when she + lifted anchor, the visitors having brought on board half a dozen cases of + champagne—as a matter of fact we had seen the steward opening + bottles on the poop. In an hour the <i>Tuitoga</i> was a long way ahead. + </p> + <p> + Rosser said to us at dinner— + </p> + <p> + “That brigantine will come to grief. She's overmasted, and the fellow who + has her ought not to be trusted with her. He's going to make a mess of + things.” + </p> + <p> + Then in his slow, drawling manner, he told us that the command of the <i>Tuitoga</i> + had been given to an ex-lieutenant of the navy, whose knowledge of sailing + vessels was confined to his youthful experiences on one of the service + training brigs; but King George of Tonga was anxious to secure an English + naval officer to command the new ship, and out of some hundreds of eager + applicants, Lieutenant Raye had been selected. + </p> + <p> + By sundown the brigantine was hull down ahead of us, though the barque was + a very smart vessel, and we were then making eleven knots. At midnight, I + heard the mate give orders to take in royals and topgallant sails, and + going on deck, found the wind had almost died away. + </p> + <p> + Rosser was on deck, and told me that we were “going to get it hot from the + N.E. before long;” and by four in the morning we were under topsails and + lower courses only, the ship flying before a most unpleasant sea. I turned + in again, and slept till daylight, when the second mate gave me a call. + </p> + <p> + “Come on deck and see something pretty.” + </p> + <p> + The “something pretty” was the brigantine, which was in sight about a mile + away on our lee bow. She was in a terrible mess. Her fore and main royal + masts and topgallant masts and jibboom had apparently all been carried + away together, and she was almost lying on her beam ends. We ran down to + her, and saw that her crew were busy in cutting away the spars and sails + alongside. All her boats were gone, and her for'ard deck house had + started, and was working to and fro with every sea. + </p> + <p> + In less than half an hour the mate and six hands from the barque were on + board, assisting the crew, cutting away the wire rigging and trimming the + cargo, the shifting of which had nearly sent her to the bottom. I went + with the boat to lend a hand, and the second mate of the brigantine told + me that the young captain had refused to listen to the mate's suggestion + to shorten sail, when the officer told him that the wind would certainly + come away suddenly from the N.E. The consequence was that a furious squall + took her aback, and had not the jibboom—and then the upper spars—carried + away under the terrific strain, she would have gone to the bottom. The + worst part of the business was that two poor seamen had been lost + overboard. + </p> + <p> + “He's a pretty kind of man for a skipper if you like,” said the second + officer bitterly. “He ought to be hanged for pretending he's a sailorman. + It's sheer murder to put such a jackass in command of a deep-water sailing + ship.” + </p> + <p> + After rendering all possible assistance to the brigantine, we left her + about mid-day; and had been lying at anchor for two weeks in Nukualofa + Harbour before she put in an appearance outside the reef. A native pilot + went out in a canoe, but the captain haughtily declined his services, and + would not even let him come on board—he wanted to show people that + although he had never seen Naknalofa Harbour before, he could bring his + ship in without a pilot. In less than half an hour, a swirling eddy caught + the vessel, and earned her broadside on to the reef, where she would have + been battered to pieces, had not our two boats gone to her assistance, and + with great difficulty got her off again. Captain Rosser several times + countermanded orders given by his chief officer—an experienced + seaman—and bullied and “jawed” his crew in the most pompous and + irritating manner, and finally when we succeeded in getting the vessel off + the reef with the loss of her false keel and rudder, and were towing her + into smooth water inside the reef, he came for'ard, and abruptly desired + our chief mate to cease towing, as he meant to anchor. + </p> + <p> + “Anchor, and be hanged to you,” replied our officer with angry contempt; + “the kind of ship you ought to command is one that is towed by a horse + along a path in the old country.” + </p> + <p> + We cast off and left him to his own conceit and devices. He let go in less + than five fathoms, paid out too much cable, and went stern first on to a + coral patch, where he stuck for a couple of days, much to our delight. + </p> + <p> + Within six months this gentleman succeeded in getting the brigantine + ashore on four occasions, and she had to return to Sydney to be repaired + at a cost of £1,700. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + My next two experiences were with the pig-headed type. I had made an + agreement with the master of a Fiji-owned vessel—also a brigantine—to + convey myself and my stock of trade goods from an island in the Tokelau or + Union Group (South Pacific) to Yap, in the Caroline Islands in the + North-west, where I intended starting a trading business. This captain was + as good a seaman as ever trod a deck, and had had a rather long experience + of the island trade, but a mule could not surpass him in obstinacy, as I + was soon to learn, to my sorrow. + </p> + <p> + A week after leaving the Tokelaus, we dropped anchor on the edge of the + reef of one of the Gilbert Group, to land supplies for a trader living + there. The coast was very exposed to all but an easterly wind, and neither + the mate nor myself liked the idea of anchoring at all. The skipper, + however, brought his vessel close in to the roaring breakers on the reef, + let go his anchor in six fathoms, and then neatly backed astern into blue + water sixty fathoms deep. Here we lay apparently safe enough, for the + time, the wind being easterly and steady. + </p> + <p> + By sunset we had finished landing stores and shipping cargo, and when the + captain came off in the last boat, we naturally expected him to heave up + and get out of such a dangerous place, but to our surprise he remarked + carelessly that as the men were very tired, he would hold on until + daylight. + </p> + <p> + “I wouldn't risk it if I were you,” said the trader, who had come aboard + in his own boat to “square up.” “You can't depend on this easterly breeze + holding all night, and it may come on squally from the west or south-west + in a few hours, and take you unawares.” + </p> + <p> + “Bosh!” was the reply. “Hoist the boats up, Mr. Laird, and tell the men to + get supper.” + </p> + <p> + “Very well, sir,” replied the mate, none too cheerfully. + </p> + <p> + Just as the trader was going ashore, he said to me aside, quietly, “This + little monkey-faced skipper is a blazing idiot” (our captain was a very, + very little man). “I told him again just now, that if the wind comes away + from west or south-west, or even if it falls calm, he'll find he's caught, + to a dead certainty. But he as good as told me to mind my own business.” + </p> + <p> + Naturally enough I was anxious. I had on board trade goods which had cost + £1,100, and of course had not one penny of insurance on them. The + brigantine, however, was well insured, though I do not impute this fact as + being the cause of the captain's neglect of a sensible warning. + </p> + <p> + After supper, the captain turned in, while the mate and I, both feeling + very uneasy, paced the deck till about nine o'clock, at which hour the + wind had become perceptibly lighter, and the captain was called. He came + on deck, trotted up and down in his pyjamas for a few minutes, sat on the + rail, like a monkey on a fence, and then asked the mate snappishly what he + was “scared about?” + </p> + <p> + The mate made no reply, and the captain was just going below again, when + two fishing canoes, with four natives in each, came quite near us, both + heading for the shore; and the skipper asked me to hail them and see if + they had any fish to sell. I did so. + </p> + <p> + “No,” was the reply; “we are going back again, because much rain and wind + is coming from the westward, and we want to get over the reef before the + surf becomes too great.” Then one of them stood up and added— + </p> + <p> + “Why does not the ship go away quickly. This is a very bad place here when + the wind and the sea come from the west. Your ship will be broken to + pieces.” + </p> + <p> + “What do they say?” inquired the little man. + </p> + <p> + I translated what they had said. + </p> + <p> + “Bosh, I say again,” was the reply, “the glass has been as steady as a + rock for the past three days,” and then, to my intense anger, he added an + insinuation that my fears had led me to deliberately misinterpret what the + natives had said. The retort I made was of so practical a nature that the + mate had to assist the skipper to his feet. + </p> + <p> + A quarter of an hour later, as the mate and I still walked the deck, + discussing the captain's shortcomings, the wind died away suddenly, and + then several of our native crew came aft, and said that a squall was + coming up from the westward, and the mate, though neither he nor myself + could then see any sign of it, went below and again called the captain. + </p> + <p> + He came on deck, with one hand covering his injured left optic, told me he + would settle with me in the morning, and then took a long look astern, and + there, certainly enough, was a long streak of black rising over the + horizon. The mate stood by waiting his orders. + </p> + <p> + “It's not coming near us,” said the little man more snappishly than ever, + as he marched up and down the poop. + </p> + <p> + “I say it is,” said Laird bluntly, “and I consider this ship will be + ashore, if we don't slip and tow out a bit before it is too late.” + </p> + <p> + The mate's manner had some effect on the obstinate little animal—“Oh, + well, if there's such a lot of old women on board, I'll give in. Call the + hands, and we'll heave up.” + </p> + <p> + “Heave up!” echoed the mate in angry astonishment, “what's the use of + trying to heave up now! That squall will be on us in ten minutes, and if + we had an hour to spare, it would be none too long. Why, man, it's a dead + calm, and the swell will send us into the surf on the reef quick enough + without our dragging the ship into it. Reckon the best and only thing we + can do, is down boats, and then slip cable right-away. We might get a show + then to lay along the reef, and get clear.” + </p> + <p> + “I'm not going to lose a new cable and anchor to please any one,” was the + stupid reply. (He could very easily have recovered both anchor and cable + with the assistance of the natives on the following day, or indeed months + after.) + </p> + <p> + Then he sang out to the men to man the windlass. + </p> + <p> + The hands, realising the danger, turned to with a will, but within five + minutes the first breath of the squall caught us, and sent us ahead, as + was evident by the way the slackened cable came in through the hawsepipe. + </p> + <p> + We had out fifty-five fathoms of chain, and before twenty-five were in, + the squall was upon us properly; the brigantine went gracefully ahead, + overran her anchor, plunged into the roaring breakers on the reef, and + struck bows on. + </p> + <p> + In another moment or two a heavy sea caught her on the starboard quarter, + canted her round, and dashed her broadside on to the reef with terrific + violence. Then, fortunately for our lives, two or three further rollers + sent her crashing along till she brought up against two or three coral + boulders, whose tops were revealed every now and then by the backwash. In + less than twenty minutes she was hopelessly bilged, and her decks swept by + every sea. + </p> + <p> + We carried three boats, and our native sailors showed their pluck and + skill by actually getting all three safely into the water, two on the lee + side, and one on the other. + </p> + <p> + The captain, now conscious of his folly, became very modest, and gave his + orders quietly. The crew, however, took no notice of him and looked to the + mate. He (the captain) ordered me into the first boat, in which were the + ship's papers, charts, chronometer, &c. I refused, and said I + preferred getting on shore in my own way. + </p> + <p> + I had seen that two native boys (passengers) had run out on to the + bowsprit, and, watching their chance, had dropped over into a curling + roller, and were carried safely ashore. + </p> + <p> + I had with me on board about nine hundred silver Mexican and Chili dollars—some + in a cash box, the rest in a bag. Calling my native servant, Levi, I asked + him if he thought all the boats would get ashore safely. He shook his + head, said that it was doubtful, and that it would be better for me to + throw the bag and the cash box over the lee side, where they were pretty + sure to be recovered in the morning at low tide. + </p> + <p> + “All the boats will capsize, or get stove in, going over the reef, or else + will be smashed to bits on the shore,” he said, “and the natives will + steal everything they can lay their hands on, especially if the white men + are drowned. So it is better to throw the money overboard.” + </p> + <p> + I took his advice, and going on deck, we dropped both box and bag + overboard, just where Levi pointed out a big boulder, against which the + brigantine was crushing and pounding her quarter. + </p> + <p> + Again refusing to enter any of the boats, I watched my chance, and ran + for'ard, followed by Levi, and as soon as a big roller came along, we + dropped, and were carried ashore beautifully. Some hundreds of natives and + the white trader were on the look out, and ran in and caught us before the + backwash carried us out again. + </p> + <p> + The mate's boat had already reached the shore without accident, owing to + the splendid manner in which he and his native crew had handled her; but + both the captain and second mate came to grief, their boats broaching to + and capsizing just as they were within a few fathoms of the shore. + </p> + <p> + However, no lives were lost, and although next morning the brigantine's + decks had worked out of her and came ashore, the hull held together for + some weeks, and we saved a lot of stores. My money I recovered two or + three days later, though it had been carried more than a hundred yards + away from the spot where it had been dropped overboard. The tin cashbox + (which I had tied up in an oilskin coat, parcelled round with spun yarn, + and weighted inside with several hundred Snider cartridges) was found + buried in sand and broken coral, in a small pool on the reef; it presented + a most curious appearance, being almost round in shape. The canvas bag was + found near by, under a ledge of the reef, together with the binnacle bell—which + was doubled flat—and a dinner plate! The bag (of No 2 canvas) had + been hastily rolled up by Levi in the cabin table-cloth, weighted with all + the loose Snider cartridges we could find in the darkened trade room, and + tied up at each end like a “roly-poly.” This proved its salvation, for + when we dug it out (under three fathoms of water) the outer covering came + away in fine shreds, and some of the big Mexican sun dollars had cut + through the canvas. + </p> + <p> + So ended my second experience, and the only satisfactory thing about it to + me, after losing over a thousand pounds worth of goods through the + captain's obstinacy, was that when he was fussing about after the wreck + trying to get one of the anchors ashore, he managed to lose his right + forefinger. I regret to say that whilst I dressed the stump and bound up + his hand for him, I could not help telling him that I was sorry it was not + his head that had been knocked off—previous to our going ashore. + 'Twas very unchristianlike, but I was very sore with the man for his + pig-headedness, and then he so bewailed the loss of his finger; never + thinking of the fact that the boatswain had all but lost an eye, but had + never even murmured at his hard luck. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + My third experience of a “pig-headed” master mariner, followed very + quickly—so quickly, that I began to think some evil star attended my + fortunes, or rather misfortunes. + </p> + <p> + After living on the island for three months, after the loss of the + brigantine, two vessels arrived on the same day—one, a schooner + belonging to San Francisco, and bound to that port; the other, the <i>George + Noble</i>, a fine handsome barquentine, bound to Sydney. Now, it would + have suited me very well to go to California in the schooner, but finding + that the skipper of the wrecked brigantine had arranged for passages for + himself, officers and crew in her, I decided to-go to Sydney in the <i>George + Noble</i>, purely because the little man with the missing finger had + become so objectionable to me—brooding over my losses, and wondering + how I could pay my debts—that I felt I could not possibly remain at + close quarters with the man in a small schooner without taking a thousand + pounds worth of damage out of him during the voyage, which “taking out” + process might land me in a gaol with two years imprisonment to serve. So I + bade goodbye to good mate Laird, and the boatswain with the injured eye, + and the native crew who had acted so gallantly; and then with Levi + standing by my side, holding my ponderous bag of my beloved Mexican + dollars in one hand, and a few articles of clothing in the other, I told + Captain ——— that I considered him to be an anthropoid + ape, an old washerwoman, and a person who should be generally despised and + rejected by all people, even those of the dullest intellects, such as + those of the members of the firm who employed him. And then recalling to + my memory the sarcastic remark of the mate of the <i>Rimitara</i>, to the + pompous captain of the <i>Tuitoga</i> about the command of a canal boat, I + wound up by adding that he had missed his vocation in life, and instead of + being skipper of a smart brigantine, he was intended by Providence to be + captain of a mud-dredge, for which position, however, he had probably + barely sufficient intelligence. + </p> + <p> + Feeling very despondent—for I had but nine hundred Mexican and + Chilian dollars to meet a debt of eleven hundred pounds, and had out of + this to keep myself and servant for perhaps six months until I got another + start as a trader, I went on board the <i>George Noble</i> and bargained + with her captain for a passage to Sydney, at which port I knew I could at + once meet with an engagement. + </p> + <p> + The captain of the <i>George Noble</i> was a very decent and good-natured + German, named Evers. He agreed to take me and my henchman to Sydney for + 125 dollars—I to live aft, the boy to go for'ard with the sailors, + and lend a hand in working the ship, if called upon in an emergency. The + vessel, I found, was owned by a firm of Chinese merchants in Sydney, and + carried a Chinese supercargo, but he was the only Celestial on board, the + firm only employing him on account of their having so many Chinese traders + throughout the equatorial islands of the Pacific. + </p> + <p> + I had not been long on board the <i>George Noble</i> when I discovered + that Evers, who was a fine sailorman and a good navigator as well, was one + of the “pig-headed” kind. His mate, second mate, and carpenter, were + Britishers, as were nearly all the crew, but they and the skipper could + not agree. There was no open rupture—but Evers had the idea that + both his officers and men disliked him because he was a “Dutchman.” + Perhaps this was so, but if it was, the officers and men never showed + their dislike at being commanded by a foreigner—they knew he was a + good seaman, and gave him unvarying respect and obedience. Nevertheless, + Captain Evers never spoke a friendly word to any one of his officers, and + when he had to speak to them, he did so in such a manner of strained + politeness and severity, that it was really unpleasant to hear him. + </p> + <p> + On our way to Sydney we called at various islands of the Gilbert Group, + and finally went into Apaian Lagoon, where the barquentine had to load one + hundred tons of copra (dried coco-nut). During the time I had been on + board, Evers and myself had become very intimate, and, I am glad to say, + through me, he and his officers became quite friendly with each other. And + we all spent many happy evenings together. But I could see that Evers was + extremely jealous of his second mate's reputation as a South Sea pilot, + and he would very often purposely question him as to the entrance of such + and such a passage of such and such an island, and then deliberately + contradict his officer's plain and truthful statements, and tell him he + was wrong. Foster, a good-humoured old fellow, would merely laugh and + change the subject, though he well knew that Captain Evers had had very + little experience of the navigation of the South Seas, and relied upon his + charts more than upon his local knowledge—he would never take a + suggestion from his officers, both of whom were old “island” men—especially + the second mate. + </p> + <p> + We loaded the hundred tons of copra, and were ready for sea by nine + o'clock one morning, when a number of large sailing canoes came off, + crowded with natives from a distant part of the island, all anxious to buy + firearms and ammunition in view of a great expedition against the adjacent + island of Tarawa. They all possessed either plenty of money or copra, and + Evers did a remarkably good, though illegal business, and sold them over a + hundred rifles. By the time they had finished, however, it was past one + o'clock, and I concluded that we could not leave the lagoon till the + following morning. To my surprise, and the second mate's open-mouthed + astonishment, the skipper, who was highly elated with his morning's + trading, told the mate to clear the decks, and get ready to heave up. + </p> + <p> + “Why, he's mad!” said the second officer to me. + </p> + <p> + Now I must explain: Apaian Lagoon is a vast atoll completely enclosed on + the eastern and southern sides by a low, narrow strip of land, densely + covered with coco-palms, and on the northern and western by a continuous + chain of tiny islets connected by the reef. On the western side there are + two narrow ship passages, both exceedingly dangerous on account of their + being studded with numerous coral “mushrooms”—i.e., enormous + boulders of coral rock, which, resembling a mushroom in shape, come to + within a few feet of the surface of the water. Through these passages, the + tide, especially the ebb, rushes with great velocity—six or seven + knots at least—and vessels when leaving the lagoon, generally waited + till slack water, or the first of the flood, when with the usual strong + south-east trades, they could stem the current and avoid the dangerous + “mushrooms.” But no shipmaster would ever attempt either of these + passages, except in the morning, when the sun was astern, and he could, + from aloft, con the ship. After two or three o'clock, the sun would be + directly in his face, and render it almost impossible for him to get + through without striking. + </p> + <p> + Here then was the position when Evers, cheerfully smoking a cigar, and + smiling all over his handsome face, gave the order to heave up. It was + blowing very strongly, the tide was on the ebb, the sun was directly in + our faces, and we were to tear through a narrow passage at racehorse speed + without being able to see anything. + </p> + <p> + I ventured to suggest to him that it was a bit late for us to get under + way. + </p> + <p> + “Not a bit of it. Come along with me up on the foreyard, and you'll see + how the <i>George Noble</i> will skip through.” + </p> + <p> + We certainly did skip, for before the anchor was secured, we were dashing + westwards for the passage at eight or nine knots, and Evers kept calling + out to the mate to make more sail. By the time we were abreast of the + passage, the <i>George Noble</i> had every stitch of her canvas on her, + and was fairly “humming” along at nearly thirteen knots over the smooth + water, and then when she spun into the narrow passage through which a + seven-knot current was tearing, her speed became terrific, and I held my + breath. The second mate and boatswain were at the wheel, and the crew were + standing by the braces. The silence on board was almost painful, for the + terrible roar of the current as it tore along the coral walls of the + passage, deadened every sound. + </p> + <p> + “Starboard a little,” shouted Evers to a sailor stationed in the fore + rigging below us, who repeated the order to a man on the rail, who in turn + passed the word aft. + </p> + <p> + “Steady, there, steady!” + </p> + <p> + I tried in vain to discern anything ahead of us—the blinding, + blazing sun prevented my seeing aught but a mad seething swirl of water + just beneath our bows, and on each side of us. Evers, however, seemed very + confident. + </p> + <p> + “We'll be through in another two minutes—” he began, and then came a + terrific shock, and both he and I were jerked off the footrope, and + toppled over the yard on to the bellying foresail! + </p> + <p> + We both rolled down on top of the windlass, and landed almost in each + others arms, half dazed. I sat down on deck to consider who I was, and + what was the matter, and Evers made a wobbly run aft, the ship still + ripping along, for we had been checked in our mad career for a second or + two only. + </p> + <p> + In two or three minutes we were outside, and clear of danger, and Evers, + now much subdued, brought to under the lee of the reef, and anchored. Then + we lowered a boat, and made an examination of the ship for'ard. Nothing + was wrong with her above her water-line, but three feet further down her + stem was smashed into a pulp, and bits of timber kept coming to the + surface every now and then. An hour later we had nine inches of water in + the hold, and the consequence of Evers's pig-headedness was that we had to + keep the pumps going day and night, every two hours, till we rigged a + windmill, which was kept going till we reached Sydney. + </p> + <p> + Six months later, the local trader of Apaian wrote to me, and told me that + Evers “has improved the passage into the lagoon very much. You ran smack + into a big mushroom, standing up right in the middle, and broke it off + short, about fifteen feet below the surface. Hope the <i>George Noble</i> + will do the same thing next time.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of “Pig-Headed” Sailor Men, by Louis Becke + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK “PIG-HEADED” SAILOR MEN *** + +***** This file should be named 24954-h.htm or 24954-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/9/5/24954/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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