Frederick William Wallace

“ I have seen some hard cases in my day, but that whaler's crew impressed me as being the most cut-throat looking crowd I ever clapped eyes on. Not a man but what had a scar or disfigurement of some sort on his person; all had a lurching hard-bitten appearance, while the language they used was vile enough for an Atlantic packet ship's fo'c's'le.
⁠THE vessel seemed to me to be rather an unusual craft for the whaling business, by recollection of sundry Nantucketers and Vineyard Haven "spouters" I had seen at sea being vastly different from the Acturus in almost every way. ”

“ Benin and the Dahomey coast, I surmised that he had been a slaver captain or officer at some time in his life. Men who can calmly "jettison" their living cargo into a shark-infested sea when pursued by a cruiser, have case-hardened their hearts against any appeal to feeling and compassion. ”

“ WHEN a man has been "on the beach" for a long spell, he appreciates being at sea again. New York and starvation seemed like a bad dream, and I was looking forward to a good time on the Magician. Her skipper seemed a very fine sort of man, and the mates were as good as sailors will allow mates to be. The grub was "lime-juicer style"—not much of a variety, but it was of good quality and the bread barge was always filled without question. ”

“ IT IS with some little trepidation that I start in spinning this yarn, because I have an instinctive feeling that it will be ridiculed and curtly dismissed as being what old sailors would call "a twister." When a man has been kicked out of a Consul's office and designated as a "crazy shellback;" when he has been laughed at and called ugly names; when his most solemn oath has been the subject for incredulous jeers and his character as a sober citizen is doubted, he naturally becomes apprehensive in opening up afresh an affair which he has tried hard to forget. ”

“ One man believes me, and it is with reluctance that I concede to his request and give to the world a secret which has rankled in my mind for many, many years. A sensitiveness to the shafts of ridicule has always been the weak point in my armor, but by employing fictitious names of persons and vessels concerned, I shield myself from being made a target for personal remarks of a derisive and satirical nature. ”

“ He laughed pleasantly and walked away for'ard.
"What a game!" I ruminated, but as I turned his conversation over in my mind I began to think I was more of a fool than he was. What pile of dollars was to be made out of a few barrels of stores? Why should he ask me if I'd ever killed a man? I was beginning to get horribly tangled up in my thoughts, and as I was not particularly quick-witted. I judged I had better go below and in the privacy of my berth overhaul my experiences from the hour I was thrown aboard the Arcturus. ”

“ As I was not an officer of the ship I had no right to go prying around the vessel, but on the occasional strolls I made to the fo'c's'le head I found nothing to characterize the Arcturus as being anything but what she was—a whaling bark bound on her lawful occasions with a perfect right to cruise wherever she listed in pursuit of the cetaceans. ”

“ Scratching a match, I found the bulkhead lamp and lit it, and by its feeble light I saw that the room was of the ordinary type, with bunk and drawers underneath, a washstand with a tumbler and water-bottle rack over it, a small table and a clothes locker. At the foot of the bunk was a bookshelf equipped with a brine-stained "Navigator," by Nathaniel Bowditch, a book of azimuth tables, "Nautical Almanac," directories and "Sailing Directions" ”

“ It was evident that they had fallen among friends by the manner in which the others hung around listening to every word they were saying. However, I did not pay much attention to them, though I could hardly credit any sailor leaping overboard from a homeward-bound Britisher and taking a chance of being picked up in a shark-infested sea by an American whaling bark. The fellows looked tough enough to have done anything up to murder, and there was a possibility that they had done as Captain Silvera had said. ”

“ We don't want him after that. . . . Need good navigator to pick it up. . . . Afterwards I can take her to 'Frisco. . . . Think Dixon knows anything?"
It was Slocum's voice—he of the red shirt—and he was talking to Silvera.
"Nawthin' . . . Doped out both times, . . . Albemarle . . . Sea King. Get him to fetch us to Hiva Nuku. . . . Jake Thompson'll have his schooner there an' we'll ship th' stuff. . . . Give his a toss to th' sharks. . . ." ”

“ Sailors have no use for a vessel that is likely to prove a "terror" when running the easting down.
We dropped the land astern that morning. During the day the wind held strong and we sailed "at the rate of knots" with a main-skysail set. Towards nightfall the wind hauled southerly with fog. When I came on watch at four next morning, the ship was pitching and rolling in a lumpish sea, while fog shrouded everything. The wind was coming away squally, and when our star-bowlines mustered aft, the second mate passed the word, "In royals and flying jib!" ”

“ If I were destined to die, then I would take good care that others went with me. Briefly, I determined that I would put the Arcturus ashore on one or other of the dangerous rocks which fringed the Horn!
I lay awake the best part of the night, smoking and thinking. At daylight I slipped into my pocket a steel watch chain I had found in the desk and went on deck. Francisco, the watch officer, was lolling over the break rail for'ard, and a stupid Chileno was at the wheel. ”

“ I could hear their feet shuffling along the planks overhead; heard the barking, "One! Two! Three! An' heave!" as they swung their burden, and then the sullen splash as the body struck the water. Captain Silvera's harsh voice roused me from the terror of my thoughts at this unfeeling piece of desecration.
"Your room's ready for ye, Mister Dixon, but afore ye turn in. I'd like ye t' fix up our course. I want t' shape for th' Western Islands. Here's th' chart, dividers, rulers an' pencil."
I gave him the course in a few seconds, and he shouted it up the open companionway to the deck officer. ”

“ When he went on deck, I heard him singing out for the fore and main royals, topmast staysails and gaff-topsail to be set.
"Now," said I to myself, "slam away, you bloody-minded pirate! Four bells in the first watch'll have us trying to push Staten Island out of the water and a grand lee shore the cliffs will make with this souther blowing. There are no lights in this part of the world and there's sure to befog inshore, and it's a safe bet that no lookout will ever report land until the breakers are heard." ”

“ D'ye see him hangin' to th' martingale an' wavin'——"
Startled, I glanced at the clipper's name board on the quarter rail and read, Sea King.
"Sea King . . . Three skys'l-yarder . . . Melbourne . . . John?" I muttered, and I felt that something was going to happen which would materially clear the fogginess of my mind and elucidate the mystery of the whaling bark Acturus and her peculiar skipper. ”

“ To calm my nerves and add realism to my feigned sleep, I poured out a small drink from the water bottle and tossed it off. Within a minute I could feel the drug working its soporific influence. I had a faint recollection of hearing the boom of the gun again, and then I lost consciousness. ”

“ As homeward-bound deep water clippers are in a hurry to get to port, none of them thought of backing the maintopsail to "gam" with a dirty "spouter."
"Too good a breeze hereabouts for those fellows, Captain," I remarked one day, after a big clipper with stuns'l out had ignored our signal. "We'll have to get down in the Variables for speaking ships. Up in the Trades they're all for cracking on."
"Aye, I reckon so," he answered. "I want t' git some stuff for th' medicine chest an a little lime-juice. Don't want no scurvy t' break out now th' fresh meat an' vegetables are done." ”

“ Silvera laughed.
"My dear Dixon, it's easy seen that you've never been skipper of a whalin' craft. As a marchant sailor it'll seem queer to you. but it's or'nary enough to us spouter men. We never git nawthin' from the outward-bounders. They have th' best part of their v'y'ge afore them an' consequently they keep a tight fist on their anti-scorbutics 'cause they never know how long they're agoin' t' be box-haulin' about in the Variables north an' south o' th' Line. ”

“ Whaleships have a kind o' rovin' commission; they kin go anywhere an' cruise aroun' without causin' suspicion. Ye kin carry a pile o' boats an' keep steady masthead lookouts, an' your papers allow you to enter any port.
"Havin' both been whalemen, we decided that a whaler would be th' best kind o' craft to use. A schooner would be too small an' liable to be overhauled by th' first gunboat what seen her cruisin' around, an' a marchant vessel would be more suspicious than anythin', so th' whaler was th' best lay. ”

“ The bark had been lying to the wind all night with fore and main royals and topgallantsails furled, and when I gave Silvera the course, he sung out to the watch loafing for'ard:
"Swing th' mainyard! Make sail!"
To the second mate pacing to leeward he said:
"Get the muslin on her, Mr. Fernandez. We've a long stretch to make an' we don't want to be all year makin' it. Rouse out yer stu'n's'l gear. Get th' booms out an' set lower an' topm'st stu'n's'ls to port. Clew up th' maintack an' sheet everything well down. This little barky is goin' t' sail now!" ”

“ My name's Silvera—Captain Rodriquez Silvera, an' this vessel's the whalin' bark Arcturus, bound on a southern sperm-whale cruise. I'm no navigator, 'cept by dead reckonin', an' my first officer, who was supposed to do th' navigatin', has gone an' died on me. Came aboard in Noo Bedford full as a tick, took to his bunk, an' croaked this mornin'. You'll come in nice an' handy to take his place, an' I reckon you won't kick, eh? ”

“ SILVERA UNBOSOMS HIMSELF
"IF YOU get clear, Dixon, I'll have you make a report on what I'm goin' to say. Go to th' nearest Yankee Consul an' tell him th' whole yarn. I'll bet it'll raise his hair some. Now if you'll listen I'll spin you th' story.
"I've been most kinds of a sailor in my day—privateerin', slavin', an' running' th' slave embargo. Then I went my last two or three voyages whalin' as boat-steerer an' harpooneer. In '61, me and our cooper, a man called Jake Thompson, jumped the ship in New Zealand an' sundowned it for the Otago gold diggin's. ”

“ I'll have him cleared out now so's ye kin take aholt an' start right in."
He arose and clambered up the companionway steps, and I could hear him calling to the watch on deck. When he came below again, four ragged-looking, unkempt ruffians followed him.
"Git that stiff outa his bunk an' heave him over th' rail——"
"Sew him up, sir?" inquired one of the men.
"Heave him over, I said," snapped Captain Silvera sharply. "I've got no canvas to waste on that beach-comber. Ye kin lash somethin' to his heels as a sinker— No, blast him, jest shove him over as he is. Go ahead, now!" ”

“ They seem to have been composed of every nationality under the sun—Americans, Portuguese, Scotch, English, Polynesians, Scandinavians, and negroes; a rough-and-tough looking crowd, but all expert whalemen, filling the positions of harpooners, boat steerers, coopers, blacksmiths and seamen. ”

“ I considered myself unusually fortunate when the muster, of an English ship bound for Australia came along to the boarding-house and picked me out to make up his crew. Though I was a qualified navigator and holding a "lime-juice" ticket for competency us master mariner, I was only too glad to stick my fist on the articles of the ship Magician as an able seamen at twenty-five dollars a month and two months' advance. My fifty dollars was to be paid after the ship had sailed, and Mr. ”

“ Ef you got a chanst to make a pile of dollars easily would you be particular as to how ye got it? Especially ef nobody 'ud ever know or find out? A pile of dollars, mind—a fortune enough to 'low ye to retire an' live at ease for th' rest of yer days. ”

“ All boats returned within half an hour to our vessel. Man in red shirt coming off with Silvera.
Time, 6 p.m., January 21, 1867. Latitude, 14° 10' North. Longitude 31° 6' West. 780 miles east of Cape Verde.
⁠IT WAS piracy—nothing more and nothing less. Horrified by the events I had witnessed, I laid back on my pillow, while the crew hoisted their boats and booty aboard. A number of men came down into the cabin and I was conscious that Silvera was among them. Snatches of their conversation fell upon my ears. Our villainous Portuguese Yankee skipper was giving orders. ”

“ He was drunk when he come aboard in Noo Bedford an' fell down th' cabin gangway an' stove his thick skull. I cal'late that's what finished him."
Then, with an assumption of heartiness, he slapped me on the back.
"You don't want t' mind our little joke this mornin', Dixon. We whalers are rough an' ready but we don't mean no harm. Marchant ways ain't whaleship ways. Thar' ain't no brass an' gold lace aboard these craft, but you'll find things'll be all right ef ye do yer duty. Now I reckon ye'll find Lamson's rig-out 'ull about fit ye, so jest take 'em an' use 'em. ”

“ The knife and sheath were supported around my waist by a strap which originally formed part of a horse's harness, but when Sullivan saw it, he promptly took it away from me, saying:
"Young fellow, I wouldn't wear that belt. There is nawthin' looks so well on a sailor as a good smart rope-yarn." ”