The Sandman: His Sea Stories Part 12

"There!" said he. "I'll bet dollars to b.u.t.tons there never was a ship unloaded any quicker than we've unloaded this one. Now go to your dinner, and we'll finish this stowing this afternoon."

And he told the mate to serve out to the sailors a little rum. They had been working very hard and they would have a lot more hard work to do before the day was done. It was the custom, in those days, to serve out rum to the crew now and then; perhaps once a week. It wasn't a good custom, perhaps, but it was a custom. Captain Sol never once thought of breaking that custom, but he gave each man a very little, and then they had their dinner.

And, after they had finished their dinner, the sailors who had been on deck in the morning went down into the hold and the sailors who had been in the hold in the morning stayed on deck. But the mates had to go down, and sometimes Captain Sol was in the hold and sometimes he was on deck.

For he wanted to see for himself how the work was being done.

They put the heaviest things they had left next to those great, heavy things that were stowed in the middle of the ship at the very bottom.

And they kept lowering down the heaviest things that they had on deck, and the sailors who were in the hold stowed them. They packed them very tightly, so that, no matter how much the ship should pitch and toss and roll, the cargo should not get loose. For it is a very bad thing for the cargo to shift, and a ship might be lost if its cargo shifted, in a storm. It is only in a storm that such a thing is likely to happen.

At last they had lowered the last bale and the last box that they had on deck, and they had been stowed. And the men who were in the hold called out for more, and the men on deck said that there wasn't any more. The mates were surprised, for there was some room left in the hold that there hadn't been the way the cargo was stowed at first. And the mates came up, and the sailors came up, and they were just dripping wet.

And Captain Sol thanked the men for working so willingly all day, and he said that he thought that they would all be glad because the ship would ride easier, after this, and wouldn't take in so much water; and it would be much easier to handle sail in rough weather. And he said that he supposed they thought they ought to have a little more rum. He was going to serve it out to them, but he warned them that it would be a very little.

And, at that, the men all roared out, and Captain Sol went to the quarter deck and stood by the railing that divided it from the rest of the ship. He had a jug beside him. And the men came up, with their tin cups in their hands, and they held their cups up high, one at a time.

And Captain Sol poured a very little rum into each cup, and the man with the cup went forward.

But, while Captain Sol was doing that, there was one sailor near the middle of the ship who felt as if he would rather have a dousing of cold water than all the rum in the jug. And that man got one of those buckets that were used to get salt water from the ocean for washing down decks and for other things. The bucket had a long rope for a handle. And he dropped the bucket overboard and gave the right jerk to the rope, and he pulled it up, full of water. Then he stopped a man who was going by with his cup, and asked him to throw the water over him. The other man asked him where he would have it.

"Alow and aloft," said the sailor who had got the water, "and fore and aft."

[Ill.u.s.tration]

So the other sailor began to throw the water over him. But, just then, there was another sailor just going by, and the temptation was too great. He threw what water was left in the bucket over that other sailor. And that sailor gave a great roar, and ran to get another bucket. And he filled it and tried to throw the water on the man who had wet him down; but he couldn't find him. So he threw the water over another man.

And that man ran for a bucket, and in about a minute all the sailors were chasing each other around, throwing water over everybody they met.

There was a great noise and uproar, but everybody was good-natured about it, for they were all very hot and the salt water felt very pleasant to them. And, of course, the clothes that they had on were all wet through, but n.o.body had on anything much besides his breeches, and it didn't matter. And Captain Sol and the mate stood on the quarter deck and laughed at them.

And, when the men had got tired of playing, they went down to their supper; and Captain Sol went down to write in his log-book.

Nov. 6. Had cargo out and restowed it between 9 a. m. and 6 p. m., with an hour for dinner. I w'ld like to see the gang of lumpers that can do half as well. So ends this day.

And that's all.

THE PRIVATEER STORY

Once upon a time there was a wide river that ran into the ocean, and beside it was a little city. And in that city was a wharf where great ships came from far countries. And a narrow road led down a very steep hill to that wharf, and anybody that wanted to go to the wharf had to go down the steep hill on the narrow road, for there wasn't any other way.

And because ships had come there for a great many years and all the sailors and all the captains and all the men who had business with the ships had to go on that narrow road, the flagstones that made the sidewalk were much worn. That was a great many years ago.

That wharf was Captain Jonathan's and Captain Jacob's and they owned the ships that sailed from it; and, after their ships had been sailing from that wharf in the little city for a good many years, they changed their office to Boston. After that, their ships sailed from a wharf in Boston.

Once, in the year 1807, the brig _Industry_ sailed from Boston for far countries with Captain Sol as her captain. There was, at that time, a great war between France and Spain, on one side, and England and some other countries, on the other side; but the English ships had to do almost all the fighting, for their side, that was done on the ocean.

And there were a good many English and French and Spanish privateers sailing about, seeing how much harm they could do to the ships that belonged to the other side.

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A privateer was a vessel that was fitted out by private persons, just as if Captain Jonathan and Captain Jacob had made up their minds that the _Industry_ should be a privateer, if the United States was at war. And they would fit her out with guns and swords and cutla.s.ses, and they would get a crew for her, and they would ask the government if she could be a privateer. And the government would probably have said that she could, and they would have sent Captain Jonathan and Captain Jacob some papers, called "letters of marque and reprisal," which said that the _Industry_ was a United States privateer and that she could take ships as prizes and sell them. Governments do not do that, now, and a privateer is no better than a pirate; but they all did it a hundred years ago.

Captain Sol had thought about it a great deal, for privateers weren't very particular what ships they captured; and he wondered whether he ought to carry a whole lot of guns. He always had some guns on the ship, but not enough to make a fight with, if the other vessel had a whole lot, as privateers always did. But, finally, he decided that he had better not, or he might be taken for a pirate. For his country wasn't at war and, of course, he hadn't any papers. Pirates that are captured are usually short lived. So he had sailed away without any guns worth mentioning.

The _Industry_ sailed along over the ocean for about two weeks and nothing much happened, and she wasn't so very far from the coast of Spain; perhaps she was three or four hundred miles away.

For, on that voyage, she was bound to Leghorn, first, and then she was going to Java and Manila. And, in the middle of the forenoon of that day, the lookout in the crosstrees of the _Industry_ reported a sail heading directly for them.

Captain Sol was worried about it and asked the sailor about the rig of the vessel. And the sailor said that he couldn't tell what her rig was because he couldn't see any more than her upper sails, and not much of them; but she seemed to be a brig, and he thought she was fast, by the way she was rising. He thought he should be able to see her hull in less than half an hour.

Captain Sol said a bad word and took his gla.s.s and went up to the crosstrees himself. But he couldn't see enough, there, so he went on, up the mast. And he rested the gla.s.s against the rigging and looked. It took him a long time to see anything, the rigging jumped around so; but at last he managed to see. And he came down quickly and spoke to the man at the wheel, who looked at him as if he expected some orders.

"Keep her as she goes," he said. "It won't do any good to try to run away from that vessel. She can sail three feet to our two. And, whoever she is, she has no business with us, anyway."

But Captain Sol knew that it would make very little difference whether she had any right to stop them or not. If her captain wanted to he would. And the mates knew that, and the sailors knew it. So Captain Sol ordered one of the sailors to hoist the United States flag, and he kept on.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "THAT WAS A SIGNAL FOR THE _Industry_ TO STOP"]

The brig kept rising fast and, in a short time, they could see her hull from the deck of the _Industry_. They saw that she was a Spanish privateer; and she hoisted the Spanish flag and kept on. And, pretty soon, she was nearly abreast of the _Industry_; and she turned a little, and there was a little puff of smoke from her side, and the sound of the report came over the water a second or two later.

That was a signal for the _Industry_ to stop. But the _Industry_ seemed to have grown deaf, and she didn't stop, and no sailor made a move to touch a rope. And the Spanish brig seemed to be a little angry, and she turned again and there was a bigger puff of smoke from her side and a cannon ball came skipping across the water, ahead of the _Industry_.

That was a hint that she had better stop, if she knew what was good for her. But Captain Sol only had another United States flag hoisted, and it was a bigger flag than the first one.

When the Spanish brig saw that the _Industry_ wasn't going to stop, she seemed to get very angry. There was another puff of smoke from her side, and a solid shot tore through one of the sails of the _Industry_, leaving a ragged hole.

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"Well," said Captain Sol, "she's begun to talk. I guess we may as well heave to."

So he had the sailors fix the sails so that the ship wouldn't go ahead.

But the sailors worked slowly, and the mates didn't hurry them, either.

And, in a few minutes, a boat put off from the Spanish brig, and the boat was filled with men. They had a pretty long way to row because Captain Sol hadn't stopped when he was asked to. But, after a while, they were at the side. The officer in the Spanish boat was very much excited and talked very fast. He wanted Captain Sol to put a gangway or a ladder over the side, so that he could get on board easily.

But Captain Sol winked at the mate and made believe that he didn't understand.

"No compreeny," he said, leaning over the side. For he thought that they could come aboard any way they were able. He had had the ship stopped for them.

"Donkey!" said the officer, in Spanish. And he scrambled up, followed by ten of his men. The other men stayed in the boat.

And Captain Sol was very polite, but he couldn't talk Spanish and he made believe he couldn't understand what was said. Really, he knew enough Spanish to be able to understand what the officer said, but he couldn't speak Spanish. After a while, the officer tried French, but Captain Sol made believe that he couldn't understand that, either, and he said, in English, that he was very sorry that he didn't have any Frenchmen in the crew. So the officer gave up trying to make Captain Sol understand.

And he made the crew of the _Industry_ go in the boat, but he left Captain Sol and the mates, and ten men for a prize crew. And he told Captain Sol that he was to take the ship to Cadiz. He kept saying that name over and over.

Captain Sol knew that it would be of no use to resist, and he didn't.

And the crew bade him good bye, and the boat was rowed away. Then his new Spanish crew fixed the sails so that the ship would go ahead. He thought they were pretty clumsy about it, but he didn't say anything.

And the _Industry_ sailed away towards Cadiz, and the Spanish brig turned to the north.

They sailed all the rest of that day towards the coast of Spain, which was on their way to Leghorn, anyway. Captain Sol kept his eyes open, for he hadn't given up hoping for a chance to get the ship back again; but the chance didn't seem very good, with only the two mates and himself against the ten Spaniards. And, that night, there must have been something the matter with the watch that the Spaniards kept, for, when there was light enough to see, in the morning, there was a big English warship close to them. She was big enough to swallow the _Industry_ whole and never to know the difference. Captain Sol laughed right out loud when the Spaniards first saw her; he had known about her nearly half the night.