William John Hopkins

“ The wind was playing a tune on every rope on the ship [Pg 15] and singing a song besides, so that the noise, up there on the deck, was fearful.
"Trying to get an anchor out in the river," yelled the mate, putting his hands to his mouth like a trumpet. "Wharf's going to be flooded as the tide rises. Afraid she'll capsize!"
"You can't do it alone," yelled Captain Jacob.
"No," yelled the mate. "Can't! Get some men!"
"Good!" yelled Captain Jacob. And the mate climbed down the side. ”

“ So the sailors didn't care very much about doing a lot of things that didn't need to be done, but they did them, as slowly as they could, because, if they said that they wouldn't do things that the mates or the captain told them to do, that would be mutiny. And mutiny, at sea, is a very serious thing for everybody. It satisfied Captain Solomon and the mate well [Pg 47] enough to have the men do things slowly, so long as they did them. For they knew that the men would do things quickly if there was any need for quickness. ”

“ The bales and the barrels and the boxes seemed to fly out of the hatchways and to alight on the deck like a flock of great birds. And the men who had to handle them and to cast off the hooks did it in the liveliest way that can be imagined, and they hustled the boxes and the barrels and the bales to one side so that there should be room for the next thing that came up. And there was a great noise of a lively chanty, that the sailors sang all the time, without stopping. ”

“ The Industry sailed along over the great ocean for many days, and she had good weather and nothing happened that was worth mentioning. Captain Sol had his eyes open, because there was a war between England and France and sometimes an English warship would meet an American ship and stop her and do things that neither the captain nor the crew of the American ship liked to have done. But there didn't seem to be anything that the American ship could do except run away; and sometimes they could get away and sometimes it wouldn't do any good to try. ”

“ Little Jacob and little Sol were very much interested in watching the elephants and in seeing how wise they were; for they piled the logs just as well as if a man had told them where to put each one. And Captain Solomon said that they piled the logs better than any man there could have done it. And little Jacob caught sight of one elephant that had his ears torn and had only one tusk. [Pg 164]
When he caught sight of that elephant, little Jacob called out. "Look, Captain Solomon!" he cried. "See! There is the elephant that grandfather told about, that will let little boys ride him." ”

“ They went down, half sliding and half letting themselves down by their hands, and Captain Jacob and the mate and all the men that were on the ship went down that way. They all had been sailors, and a sailor has to learn to do such things and not to be afraid. And they all splashed into the water that was on the top of the wharf. Then they let out the ropes from that end, but they didn't let them go. And the Industry lay out in the river, at anchor, about five fathoms from the end of the wharf. A fathom is six feet, and sailors generally measure distances in fathoms instead of in feet. ”

“ Little Jacob could hear the humming of their long fins, but he couldn't see their fins, they went so fast. Little Sol had thought they were wings; and it was as nearly [Pg 79] right to call them wings as to call them fins.
"Oo—o, Sol!" cried little Jacob. "Aren't they pretty? And aren't they small? And don't they fly fast?"
"M—m," said little Sol.
"Look at these over there!" cried little Jacob, again. "See! They are flying faster than the ship is going. They are beating us!"
Little Jacob was pointing to some fish that were flying in the same direction that the Industry was sailing. ”

“ And he asked Ephraim if there was a chance to be a sailor on the Industry. But Ephraim said that they had a full crew and there wasn't any chance, for the old man was very strict. He called Captain Solomon the old man, but he wasn't an old man at all, for he wasn't quite forty years old; but sailors always call the captain the old man. And Ephraim was afraid of Captain Solomon, but he needn't have been afraid, for Captain Solomon was a kind man, although he was rather gruff and stern to the sailors. ”

“ The shark's mouth was big enough to take in a man whole. And then the mate, who still had his hand on the rope, jerked it with all his might.
What happened then was never quite clear to little Jacob. He heard the sailors running away with their end of the rope and shouting a chanty and stamping their feet. And he saw the water alongside the ship being all foamed up by an enormous monster that seemed large enough for a whale. Then some water came up from the ocean and hit him in the face, so that he couldn't see for a few minutes and his jacket was all wet through. ”

“ Then Captain Sol sent one gang of men down into the hold of the Industry by the after hatch, with the mate to tell them what to do; and he sent another gang of men into the hold by the fore hatch, with the second mate to tell them what to do. And he divided the sailors that were left into two parts, six men for the fore hatch and six men for the after hatch. The sailors were all stripped to the waist and barefooted, for they knew, from the way the crew was divided up, that they would have to work hard and as quickly as they could. ”

“ Little Jacob looked and he saw a fish that was less than a foot long, and the color on its back was a deep, ocean blue, and the fins were a darker blue, and it was all silvery underneath. And it had long fins coming out of its shoulders, almost as long as the fish, and they looked very strong and almost like a swallow's wings.
By and by little Jacob looked up at [Pg 84] Captain Solomon. "Why do the men want to catch so many of them?" he asked. "Because it's fun?" ”

“ Captain Solomon spoke to the mate. [Pg 37] "Put her about on the other tack," he said, "and head for Boston, while we fight it. If we get it under, as I think we will, we'll lose only a couple of hours. If we don't, we can get help there. We ought to make Boston by daylight."
"Aye, aye, sir," said the mate. And he gave the orders in a sharp voice, and most of the crew jumped for the sails and the ropes and pulled and hauled, and they soon had the ship heading for Boston. But the second mate and a few of the sailors got lanterns and lighted them. ”

“ It's a terrible strain."
"If a man was to go out to her," began the mate, slowly, "he might be able to give her more. He could shin up those warps——"
"Don't think of it!" said Captain Jacob. "Don't think of it!"
As he spoke, the ship's bow lifted to a great sea, there was a dull sound that was scarcely heard, and she began to drift, slowly, at first, until she was broadside [Pg 26] to the wind. The anchor chain had broken; but the great ropes that were fastened to the wharf still held her by the stern. Then she drifted faster, in toward the wharves. ”

“ The lead was kept going, every half hour or so, all night. And, towards sunrise, they got twenty fathoms, and the lead brought up grains of black sand and grains of yellow sand, and they put away the lead line. ”

“ For Joe had to take John Wilson home again after he had got a vessel piloted safely in to the wharf that she was going to.
Captain Sol met John Wilson when he came on board and shook hands with him.
"Hello, John," he said. "I hoped we should get you." [Pg 322]
"Hello, Sol," said John Wilson. "You haven't been reported at Manila, yet, and you have no business to be here."
"So?" asked Captain Sol. "Three ships sailed from Manila for Boston ahead of me. They'll be along in the course of time." He smiled to himself at the thought of his having passed those ships. ”

“ The Spaniards never once thought of fighting, but surrendered right off. It would have been very foolish for them to fight, for they were only ten men, in a ship that wasn't fitted for fighting; and the English ship was a big ship fitted up on [Pg 285] purpose to fight, and she had a crew of three or four hundred men.
So a boat soon put off from the English ship, with sailors in it, and came to the side of the Industry. And Captain Sol was hurrying to put a ladder over, so that the English officer could come up without any trouble. ”

“ So the things that little Sol did were an amusement to the sailors and to the mates; and sometimes they were an amusement to Captain Solomon and sometimes they weren't. When they didn't amuse Captain Solomon they didn't usually amuse little Sol, either.
Every captain of a ship keeps a sort of diary, or journal, of the voyage that ship [Pg 88] is making. This diary is usually called the ship's log. And every day he writes in it what happened that day; the courses the ship sailed and the number of miles she sailed on each course; the sails that were set and the direction and strength of the wind ”

“ And the mate didn't say anything, but they watched the wreck burning. It burned fiercely, but the flames didn't blaze very high, for she hadn't any masts nor any rigging. And the light of the fire made the moonlight look pale and white. And [Pg 209] they watched her getting farther and farther away as the Industry sailed on her course.
"I hope," said Captain Solomon, "that there's something aboard of her to sink her." ”

“ Then he put down the glass and hurried down to the sloop.
"Hurry up, Joe," he said. "The old Industry's coming in. And she's in a hurry, too. That Cap'n Sol's carrying [Pg 318] royals and skysails. That's all that showed. Like enough he's got stu'n'sails on her, too. He seems to want to get in to-night; and we've got to hurry, for she'll keep right on to his wharf, pilot or no pilot."
"He hasn't been reported at Manila," said Joe.
"No," said John Wilson, "he hasn't. But he'll report his own arrival there. There's few can carry sail with Cap'n Sol." ”

“ He was very fond of his grandfather because Captain Jonathan was always nice and kind and gentle and he seemed to understand little boys. And, at last, little Jacob jammed his hat on straight and got up and ran down into the cabin to write his mother a letter. Captain Solomon would leave the letter in Java for some ship to take home. When he had written the letter he felt better.
When the two little boys came out on deck the next morning, they went forward among the sailors; and they wished each man a Merry Christmas and they gave [Pg 127] each one some little thing that they had found. ”

“ The exact part of the ocean that the ship is in is usually found by looking at the sun, just at noon, through a little three-cornered thing, called a sextant, that is small enough for the captain or the mate to hold in his hands ”

“ 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 [Pg 264] 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. ”

“ And there is another reason why ships do not always go the shortest way. In some parts of the ocean the ocean water is moving in one direction and in other parts of the ocean the water is moving in another direction. ”

“ Little Jacob hoped that it would; but little Sol didn't seem to care. And, all of that day, they watched for more ships, and they saw land, now and then, far off on the horizon. It was very hot, for they were almost at the equator; so that even little Sol was contented to keep still. [Pg 145] And, towards night, they saw one of the sailors getting the lead line ready.
The lead is just a big lump of lead, like a sinker that is used on a fishing line, and it is tied to the end of a long line that has the fathoms marked on it in much the same way that the log line has the knots marked ”