Books: Many Cargoes
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W.W. Jacobs >> Many Cargoes
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16 Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
MANY CARGOES
BY
W.W. JACOBS
Second Edition
New York
1894
CONTENTS
A CHANGE OF TREATMENT
A LOVE PASSAGE
THE CAPTAIN'S EXPLOIT
CONTRABAND OF WAR
A BLACK AFFAIR
THE SKIPPER OF THE "OSPREY"
IN BORROWED PLUMES
THE BOATSWAIN'S WATCH
LOW WATER
IN MID-ATLANTIC
AFTER THE INQUEST
IN LIMEHOUSE REACH
AN ELABORATE ELOPEMENT
THE COOK OF THE "GANNET"
A BENEFIT PERFORMANCE
A CASE OF DESERTION
OUTSAILED
MATED
THE RIVAL BEAUTIES
MRS. BUNKER'S CHAPERON
A HARBOUR OF REFUGE
A CHANGE OF TREATMENT
"Yes, I've sailed under some 'cute skippers in my time," said the night-
watchman; "them that go down in big ships see the wonders o' the deep,
you know," he added with a sudden chuckle, "but the one I'm going to
tell you about ought never to have been trusted out without 'is ma. A
good many o' my skippers had fads, but this one was the worst I ever
sailed under.
"It's some few years ago now; I'd shipped on his barque, the John
Elliott, as slow-going an old tub as ever I was aboard of, when I wasn't
in quite a fit an' proper state to know what I was doing, an' I hadn't
been in her two days afore I found out his 'obby through overhearing a
few remarks made by the second mate, who came up from dinner in a hurry
to make 'em. 'I don't mind saws an' knives hung round the cabin,' he ses
to the fust mate, 'but when a chap has a 'uman 'and alongside 'is plate,
studying it while folks is at their food, it's more than a Christian man
can stand.'
"'That's nothing,' ses the fust mate, who had sailed with the barque
afore. 'He's half crazy on doctoring. We nearly had a mutiny aboard once
owing to his wanting to hold a post-mortem on a man what fell from the
mast-head. Wanted to see what the poor feller died of.'
"'I call it unwholesome,' ses the second mate very savage.' He offered
me a pill at breakfast the size of a small marble; quite put me off my
feed, it did.'
"Of course, the skipper's fad soon got known for'ard. But I didn't think
much about it, till one day I seed old Dan'l Dennis sitting on a locker
reading. Every now and then he'd shut the book, an' look up, closing 'is
eyes, an' moving his lips like a hen drinking, an' then look down at the
book again.
"'Why, Dan,' I ses, 'what's up? you ain't larning lessons at your time
o' life?'
"'Yes, I am,' ses Dan very soft. 'You might hear me say it, it's this
one about heart disease.'
"He hands over the book, which was stuck full o' all kinds o' diseases,
and winks at me 'ard.
"'Picked it up on a book-stall,' he ses; then he shut 'is eyes an' said
his piece wonderful. It made me quite queer to listen to 'im. 'That's
how I feel,' ses he, when he'd finished. 'Just strength enough to get to
bed. Lend a hand, Bill, an' go an' fetch the doctor.'
"Then I see his little game, but I wasn't going to run any risks, so I
just mentioned, permiscous like, to the cook as old Dan seemed rather
queer, an' went back an' tried to borrer the book, being always fond of
reading. Old Dan pretended he was too ill to hear what I was saying, an'
afore I could take it away from him, the skipper comes hurrying down
with a bag in his 'and.
"'What's the matter, my man?' ses he, 'what's the matter?'
"'I'm all right, sir,' ses old Dan, "cept that I've been swoonding away
a little.'
"'Tell me exactly how you feel,' ses the skipper, feeling his pulse.
"Then old Dan said his piece over to him, an' the skipper shook his head
an' looked very solemn.
"'How long have you been like this?' he ses.
"'Four or five years, sir,' ses Dan. 'It ain't nothing serious, sir, is
it?'
"'You lie quite still,' ses the skipper, putting a little trumpet thing
to his chest an' then listening. 'Um! there's serious mischief here I'm
afraid, the prognotice is very bad.'
"'Prog what, sir?' ses Dan, staring.
"'Prognotice,' ses the skipper, at least I think that's the word he
said. 'You keep perfectly still, an' I'll go an' mix you up a draught,
and tell the cook to get some strong beef-tea on.'
"Well, the skipper 'ad no sooner gone, than Cornish Harry, a great big
lumbering chap o' six feet two, goes up to old Dan, an' he ses, 'Gimme
that book.'
"'Go away,' says Dan, 'don't come worrying 'ere; you 'eard the skipper
say how bad my prognotice was.'
"'You lend me the book,' ses Harry, ketching hold of him, 'or else I'll
bang you first, and split to the skipper arterwards. I believe I'm a bit
consumptive. Anyway, I'm going to see.'
"He dragged the book away from the old man, and began to study. There
was so many complaints in it he was almost tempted to have something
else instead of consumption, but he decided on that at last, an' he got
a cough what worried the fo'c'sle all night long, an' the next day, when
the skipper came down to see Dan, he could 'ardly 'ear hisself speak.
"'That's a nasty cough you've got, my man,' ses he, looking at Harry.
"'Oh, it's nothing, sir,' ses Harry, careless like. 'I've 'ad it for
months now off and on. I think it's perspiring so of a night does it."
"'What?' ses the skipper. 'Do you perspire of a night?'
"'Dredful,' ses Harry. 'You could wring the clo'es out. I s'pose it's
healthy for me, ain't it, sir?'
"'Undo your shirt,' ses the skipper, going over to him, an' sticking the
trumpet agin him. 'Now take a deep breath. Don't cough.'
"'I can't help it, sir,' ses Harry, 'it will come. Seems to tear me to
pieces.'
"'You get to bed at once," says the skipper, taking away the trumpet,
an' shaking his 'ed. 'It's a fortunate thing for you, my lad, you're in
skilled hands. With care, I believe I can pull you round. How does that
medicine suit you, Dan?'
"'Beautiful, sir,' says Dan. 'It's wonderful soothing, I slep' like a
new-born babe arter it.'
'"I'll send you some more,' ses the skipper. 'You're not to get up mind,
either of you.'
"'All right, sir,' ses the two in very faint voices, an' the skipper
went away arter telling us to be careful not to make a noise.
"We all thought it a fine joke at first, but the airs them two chaps
give themselves was something sickening. Being in bed all day, they was
naturally wakeful of a night, and they used to call across the fo'c'sle
inquiring arter each other's healths, an' waking us other chaps up. An'
they'd swop beef-tea an' jellies with each other, an' Dan 'ud try an'
coax a little port wine out o' Harry, which he 'ad to make blood with,
but Harry 'ud say he hadn't made enough that day, an! he'd drink to the
better health of old Dan's prognotice, an' smack his lips until it drove
us a'most crazy to 'ear him.
"Arter these chaps had been ill two days, the other fellers began to put
their heads together, being maddened by the smell o' beef-tea an' the
like, an' said they was going to be ill too, and both the invalids got
into a fearful state of excitement.
"'You'll only spoil it for all of us,' ses Harry, 'and you don't know
what to have without the book.'
"'It's all very well doing your work as well as our own,' ses one of the
men. 'It's our turn now. It's time you two got well.'
"'WELL? ses Harry, 'well? Why you silly iggernerant chaps, we shan't
never get well, people with our complaints never do. You ought to know
that.'
"'Well, I shall split, 'ses one of them. "'You do!' ses Harry, 'you do,
an' I'll put a 'ed on you that all the port wine and jellies in the
world wouldn't cure. 'Sides, don't you think the skipper knows what's
the matter with us?'
"'Afore the other chap could reply, the skipper hisself comes down,
accompanied by the fust mate, with a look on his face which made Harry
give the deepest and hollowest cough he'd ever done.
"'What they reely want,' ses the skipper, turning to the mate, 'is
keerful nussing.'
"'I wish you'd let me nuss 'em,' ses the fust mate, 'only ten minutes--
I'd put 'em both on their legs, an' running for their lives into the
bargain, in ten minutes.'
"'Hold your tongue, sir,' ses the skipper; 'what you say is unfeeling,
besides being an insult to me. Do you think I studied medicine all these
years without knowing when a man's ill?'
"The fust mate growled something and went on deck, and the skipper
started examining of 'em again. He said they was wonderfully patient
lying in bed so long, an' he had 'em wrapped up in bedclo'es and carried
on deck, so as the pure air could have a go at 'em. WE had to do the
carrying, an' there they sat, breathing the pure air, and looking at the
fust mate out of the corners of their eyes. If they wanted anything from
below one of us had to go an' fetch it, an' by the time they was taken
down to bed again, we all resolved to be took ill too.
"Only two of 'em did it though, for Harry, who was a powerful, ugly-
tempered chap, swore he'd do all sorts o' dreadful things to us if we
didn't keep well and hearty, an' all 'cept these two did. One of 'em,
Mike Rafferty, laid up with a swelling on his ribs, which I knew myself
he 'ad 'ad for fifteen years, and the other chap had paralysis. I never
saw a man so reely happy as the skipper was. He was up an down with his
medicines and his instruments all day long, and used to make notes of
the cases in a big pocket-book, and read 'em to the second mate at
mealtimes.
"The fo'c'sle had been turned into hospital about a week, an' I was on
deck doing some odd job or the other, when the cook comes up to me
pulling a face as long as a fiddle.
"'Nother invalid,' ses he; 'fust mate's gone stark, staring mad!'
"'Mad?' ses I.
"'Yes,' ses he. 'He's got a big basin in the galley, an' he's laughing
like a hyener an' mixing bilge-water an' ink, an' paraffin an' butter
an' soap an' all sorts o' things up together. The smell's enough to kill
a man; I've had to come away.'
"Curious-like, I jest walked up to the galley an' puts my 'ed in, an'
there was the mate as the cook said, smiling all over his face, and
ladling some thick sticky stuff into a stone bottle.
"'How's the pore sufferers, sir?' ses he, stepping out of the galley
jest as the skipper was going by.
"'They're very bad; but I hope for the best," ses the skipper, looking
at him hard. 'I'm glad to see you've turned a bit more feeling.'
"'Yes, sir,' ses the mate. 'I didn't think so at fust, but I can see now
them chaps is all very ill. You'll s'cuse me saying it, but I don't
quite approve of your treatment.'
"I thought the skipper would ha' bust.
"'My treatment?' ses he. 'My treatment? What do you know about it ?'
"'You're treating 'em wrong, sir,' ses the mate. 'I have here' (patting
the jar) 'a remedy which 'ud cure them all if you'd only let me try it.'
"'Pooh!' ses the skipper. 'One medicine cure all diseases! The old
story. What is it? Where'd you get it from?' ses he.
"'I brought the ingredients aboard with me,' ses the mate. 'It's a
wonderful medicine discovered by my grandmother, an' if I might only try
it I'd thoroughly cure them pore chaps.'
"'Rubbish!' ses the skipper.
"'Very well, sir,' ses the mate, shrugging his shoulders. "O' course, if
you won't let me you won't. Still I tell you, if you'd let me try I'd
cure 'em all in two days. That's a fair challenge.'
"Well, they talked, and talked, and talked, until at last the skipper
give way and went down below with the mate, and told the chaps they was
to take the new medicine for two days, jest to prove the mate was wrong.
"'Let pore old Dan try it first, sir,' ses Harry, starting up, an'
sniffing as the mate took the cork out; 'he's been awful bad since
you've been away.'
"'Harry's worse than I am, sir,' ses Dan; 'it's only his kind heart that
makes him say that.'
"'It don't matter which is fust,' ses the mate, filling a tablespoon
with it, 'there's plenty for all. Now, Harry.'
"'Take it,' ses the skipper.
"Harry took it, an' the fuss he made you'd ha' thought he was swallering
a football. It stuck all round his mouth, and he carried on so dredful
that the other invalids was half sick afore it came to them.
"By the time the other three 'ad 'ad theirs it was as good as a
pantermime, an' the mate corked the bottle up, and went an' sat down on
a locker while they tried to rinse their mouths out with the luxuries
which had been given 'em.
"'How do you feel?' ses the skipper.
"'I'm dying,' ses Dan.
"'So'm I,' ses Harry; 'I b'leeve the mate's pisoned us."
"The skipper looks over at the mate very stern an' shakes his 'ed
slowly.
"'It's all right,' ses the mate. 'It's always like that the first dozen
or so doses.'
"'Dozen or so doses!' ses old Dan, in a far-away voice.
"'It has to be taken every twenty minutes,' ses the mate, pulling out
his pipe and lighting it; an' the four men groaned all together.
"'I can't allow it,' ses the skipper, 'I can't allow it. Men's lives
mustn't be sacrificed for an experiment.'
"''T ain't a experiment,' ses the mate very indignant, 'it's an old
family medicine.'
"'Well, they shan't have any more,' ses the skipper firmly.
"'Look here,' ses the mate. 'If I kill any one o' these men I'll give
you twenty pound. Honour bright, I will.'
"'Make it twenty-five,' ses the skipper, considering.
"'Very good,' ses the mate. 'Twenty-five; I can't say no fairer than
that, can I? It's about time for another dose now.'
"He gave 'em another tablespoonful all round as the skipper left, an'
the chaps what wasn't invalids nearly bust with joy. He wouldn't let 'em
have anything to take the taste out, 'cos he said it didn't give the
medicine a chance, an' he told us other chaps to remove the temptation,
an' you bet we did.
"After the fifth dose, the invalids began to get desperate, an' when
they heard they'd got to be woke up every twenty minutes through the
night to take the stuff, they sort o' give up. Old Dan said he felt a
gentle glow stealing over him and strengthening him, and Harry said that
it felt like a healing balm to his lungs. All of 'em agreed it was a
wonderful sort o' medicine, an' arter the sixth dose the man with
paralysis dashed up on deck, and ran up the rigging like a cat. He sat
there for hours spitting, an' swore he'd brain anybody who interrupted
him, an' arter a little while Mike Rafferty went up and j'ined him, an'
it the fust mate's ears didn't burn by reason of the things them two
pore sufferers said about 'im, they ought to.
"They was all doing full work next day, an' though, o'course, the
skipper saw how he'd been done, he didn't allude to it. Not in words,
that is; but when a man tries to make four chaps do the work of eight,
an' hits 'em when they don't, it's a easy job to see where the shoe
pinches."
A LOVE PASSAGE
The mate was leaning against the side of the schooner, idly watching a
few red-coated linesmen lounging on the Tower Quay. Careful mariners
were getting out their side-lights, and careless lightermen were
progressing by easy bumps from craft to craft on their way up the river.
A tug, half burying itself in its own swell, rushed panting by, and a
faint scream came from aboard an approaching skiff as it tossed in the
wash.
"JESSICA ahoy!" bawled a voice from the skiff as she came rapidly
alongside.
The mate, roused from his reverie, mechanically caught the line and made
it fast, moving with alacrity as he saw that the captain's daughter was
one of the occupants. Before he had got over his surprise she was on
deck with her boxes, and the captain was paying off the watermen.
"You've seen my daughter Hetty afore, haven't you?" said the skipper.
"She's coming with us this trip. You'd better go down and make up her
bed, Jack, in that spare bunk."
"Ay, ay," said the mate dutifully, moving off.
"Thank you, I'll do it myself," said the scandalised Hetty, stepping
forward hastily.
"As you please," said the skipper, leading the way below. "Let's have a
light on, Jack."
The mate struck a match on his boot, and lit the lamp.
"There's a few things in there'll want moving," said the skipper, as he
opened the door. "I don't know where we're to keep the onions now,
Jack."
"We'll find a place for 'em," said the mate confidently, as he drew out
a sack and placed it on the table.
"I'm not going to sleep in there," said the visitor decidedly, as she
peered in. "Ugh! there's a beetle. Ugh!"
"It's quite dead," said the mate reassuringly. "I've never seen a live
beetle on this ship."
"I want to go home," said the girl. "You've no business to make me come
when I don't want to."
"You should behave yourself then," said her father magisterially. "What
about sheets, Jack; and pillers?"
The mate sat on the table, and, grasping his chin, pondered. Then as his
gaze fell upon the pretty, indignant face of the passenger, he lost the
thread of his ideas.
"She'll have to have some o' my things for the present," said the
skipper.
"Why not," said the mate, looking up again--"why not let her have your
state-room?"
"'Cos I want it myself," replied the other calmly.
The mate blushed for him, and, the girl leaving them to arrange matters
as they pleased, the two men, by borrowing here and contriving there,
made up the bunk. The girl was standing by the galley when they went on
deck again, an object of curious and respectful admiration to the crew,
who had come on board in the meantime. She stayed on deck until the air
began to blow fresher in the wider reaches, and then, with a brief good-
night to her father, retired below.
"She made up her mind to come with us rather suddenly, didn't she?"
inquired the mate after she had gone.
"She didn't make up her mind at all," said the skipper; "we did it for
her, me an' the missus. It's a plan on our part."
"Wants strengthening?" said the mate suggestively.
"Well, the fact is," said the skipper, "it's like this, Jack; there's a
friend o' mine, a provision dealer in a large way o' business, wants to
marry my girl, and me an' the missus want him to marry her, so, o'
course, she wants to marry someone else. Me an' 'er mother we put our
'eads together and decided for her to come away. When she's at 'ome,
instead o' being out with Towson, direckly her mother's back's turned
she's out with that young sprig of a clerk."
"Nice-looking young feller, I s'pose?" said the mate somewhat anxiously.
"Not a bit of it," said the other firmly. "Looks as though he had never
had a good meal in his life. Now my friend Towson, he's all right; he's
a man of about my own figger."
"She'll marry the clerk," said the mate, with conviction.
"I'll bet you she don't," said the skipper. "I'm an artful man, Jack,
an' I, generally speaking, get my own way. I couldn't live with my
missus peaceable if it wasn't for management."
The mate smiled safely in the darkness, the skipper's management
consisting chiefly of slavish obedience.
"I've got a cabinet fortygraph of him for the cabin mantel-piece, Jack,"
continued the wily father. "He gave it to me o' purpose. She'll see that
when she won't see the clerk, an' by-and-bye she'll fall into our way of
thinking. Anyway, she's going to stay here till she does."
"You know your way about, cap'n," said the mate, in pretended
admiration.
The skipper laid his finger on his nose, and winked at the mainmast.
"There's few can show me the way, Jack," he answered softly; "very few.
Now I want you to help me too; I want you to talk to her a great deal."
"Ay, ay," said the mate, winking at the mast in his turn.
"Admire the fortygraph on the mantel-piece," said the skipper.
"I will," said the other.
"Tell her about a lot o' young girls you know as married young middle-
aged men, an' loved 'em more an" more every day of their lives,"
continued the skipper.
"Not another word," said the mate. "I know just what you want. She
shan't marry the clerk if I can help it."
The other turned and gripped him warmly by the hand. "If ever you are a
father your elf, Jack," he said with emotion, "I hope as how somebody'll
stand by you as you're standing by me."
The mate was relieved the next day when he saw the portrait of Towson.
He stroked his moustache, and felt that he gained in good looks every
time he glanced at it.
Breakfast finished, the skipper, who had been on deck all night, retired
to his bunk. The mate went on deck and took charge, watching with great
interest the movements of the passenger as she peered into the galley
and hotly assailed the cook's method of washing up.
"Don't you like the sea?" he inquired politely, as she came and sat on
the cabin skylight.
Miss Alsen shook her head dismally. "I've got to it," she remarked.
"Your father was saying something to me about it," said the mate
guardedly.
"Did he tell the cook and the cabin boy too?" inquired Miss Alsen,
flushing somewhat. "What did he tell you?"
"Told me about a man named Towson," said the mate, becoming intent on
the sails, "and--another fellow."
"I took a little notice of HIM just to spoil the other," said the girl,
"not that I cared for him. I can't understand a girl caring for any man.
Great, clumsy, ugly things."
"You don't like him then?" said the mate.
"Of course not," said the girl, tossing her head.
"And yet they 've sent you to sea to get out of his way," said the mate
meditatively. "Well, the best thing you can do"--His hardihood failed
him at the pitch.
"Go on," said the girl.
"Well, it's this way," said the mate, coughing; "they've sent you to sea
to get you out of this fellow's way, so if you fall in love with
somebody on the ship they'll send you home again."
"So they will," said the girl eagerly. "I'll pretend to fall in love
with that nice-looking sailor you call Harry. What a lark!"
"I shouldn't do that," said the mate gravely.
"Why not?" said the girl.
"'Tisn't discipline," said the mate very firmly; "it wouldn't do at all.
He's before the mast."
"Oh, I see," remarked Miss Alsen, smiling scornfully.
"I only mean pretend, of course," said the mate, colouring. "Just to
oblige you."
"Of course," said the girl calmly. "Well, how are we to be in love?"
The mate flushed darkly. "I don't know much about such things," he said
at length; "but we'll have to look at each other, and all that sort of
thing, you know."
"I don't mind that," said the girl.
"Then we'll get on by degrees," said the other. "I expect we shall both
find it come easier after a time."
"Anything to get home again," said the girl, rising and walking slowly
away.
The mate began his part of the love-making at once, and, fixing a gaze
of concentrated love on the object of his regard, nearly ran down a
smack. As he had prognosticated, it came easy to him, and other well-
marked symptoms, such as loss of appetite and a partiality for bright
colours, developed during the day. Between breakfast and tea he washed
five times, and raised the ire of the skipper to a dangerous pitch by
using the ship's butter to remove tar from his fingers.
By ten o'clock that night he was far advanced in a profound melancholy.
All the looking had been on his side, and, as he stood at the wheel
keeping the schooner to her course, he felt a fellow-feeling for the
hapless Towson, His meditations were interrupted by a slight figure
which emerged from the companion, and, after a moment's hesitation, came
and took its old seat on the skylight.
"Calm and peaceful up here, isn't it?" said he, after waiting some time
for her to speak. "Stars are very bright to-night."
"Don't talk to me," said Miss Alsen snappishly.
"Why doesn't this nasty little ship keep still? I believe it's you
making her jump about like this."
"Me?" said the mate in amazement.
"Yes, with that wheel."
"I can assure you "--began the mate.
"Yes, I knew you'd say so," said the girl.
"Come and steer yourself," said the mate; "then you'll see."
Much to his surprise she came, and, leaning limply against the wheel,
put her little hands on the spokes, while the mate explained the
mysteries of the compass. As he warmed with his subject he ventured to
put his hands on the same spokes, and, gradually becoming more
venturesome, boldly supported her with his arm every time the schooner
gave a lurch.
"Thank you," said Miss Alsen, coldly extricating herself, as the male
fancied another lurch was coming. "Good-night."
She retired to the cabin as a dark figure, which was manfully knuckling
the last remnant of sleep from its eyelids, stood before the mate,
chuckling softly.
"Clear night," said the seaman, as he took the wheel in his great paws.
"Beastly," said the mate absently, and, stifling a sigh, went below and
turned in.
He lay awake for a few minutes, and then, well satisfied with the day's
proceedings, turned over and fell asleep. He was pleased to discover,
when he awoke, that the slight roll of the night before had disappeared,
and that there was hardly any motion on the schooner. The passenger
herself was already at the breakfast-table.
"Cap'n's on deck, I s'pose?" said the mate, preparing to resume
negotiations where they were broken off the night before. "I hope you
feel better than you did last night."
"Yes, thank you," said she.
"You'll make a good sailor in time," said the mate.
"I hope not," said Miss Alsen, who thought it time to quell a gleam of
peculiar tenderness plainly apparent in the mate's eyes. "I shouldn't
like to be a sailor even if I were a man."
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