Sailor's wife

“ For loving women might be parted from their husbands for months and years, even supposing that the latter lived through the storm and stress of their careers; while even this was, after all, the brightest side of both the sailor's and the sailor's wife's existence. ”

“ CHAPTER II STEPHEN CHARKE A year before this momentous day when Arabella Waldron was to set sail for India in her uncle's full-rigged ship, the Emperor of the Moon, there had come to her that supreme joy which is the most sweet experience of a young girl's life. The man she was madly in love with had asked her to be his wife, and, so far as it was possible to forecast the future, it seemed that before them both there stretched a long vista of happy years to be spent together, or as many years together as a sailor and his wife can pass during the greater part of their lives. ”

“ I am afraid, however, I shall not keep you long enough in the Scud to show you what she can do at need.”
“I think a woman unwise who ever marries a sailor,” said Mabel abruptly, and almost involuntarily.
“This is a strange opinion; why do you hold it?”
“Because a sailor's wife is certain to have a rival in his vessel. My uncle Cap, too, says that a sailor should never marry.”
“He means salt-water sailors,” returned Jasper, laughing. “If he thinks wives not good enough for those who sail on the ocean, he will fancy them just suited to those who sail on the lakes. ”

“ The sailor is more given to sentiment proper than perhaps any other class of men, and generally speaking a more romantic feeling for woman is cherished on board ship than anywhere else in the world. If we wish to find in these times quietly romantic enthusiasm, we must be the companion of the sailor on his lonely watch, or listen to him as he lies on the forecastle and talks with naïve simplicity about his wife or his sweetheart—how their attachment came about, and what he means to buy for her when he gets into port. ”

“ A sailor’s wife comes up—who speaks English—with a very wistful face, and begins to hint, that them black pictures are very bad likenesses, and very dear too for a poor woman, and how much would a painted one cost, does his honour think? ”

“ She either did not hear the question or would not answer.
"Are you married?" asked the captain of me, smoking very slowly to get the true relish of the tobacco, whilst the second mate chewed his food with vacant eyes, squinting [214] straight ahead or meeting in a traverse on his plate.
"No, sir," I replied.
"Are your parents living?" he said.
"My mother is alive," I answered.
"Ah!" said he, speaking as one in a reverie, "A sailor should not marry. What is more uncertain than the sea? The mariner's wife can never make sure of her husband's return. ”

“ She gloried in being a sailor's wife, but she must pay the tax of quick alarm for belonging to that profession which is, if possible, more distinguished in its domestic virtues than in its national importance. ”

“ The father, who was a hearty old farmer, asked me to call in again before I sailed, for at this time I was master’s mate of the Savage sloop of war. She was just commissioned at Chatham, and as we did not expect to sail for three weeks, I had plenty of time to make love.” “But did you think it prudent to marry, knowing that you could scarcely support yourself, much less a wife?” demanded the younger. “That’s all true,” replied he; “but don’t put me in mind of my misfortunes. I was in love, you know, and when a man is in love, why, he’s two-thirds a woman. ”

“ Does the language of the deep sound strange in the mouth of a woman? The wives and daughters of military men may deliver themselves in the speech of the barracks and nobody thinks anything of it. Why should not the daughter of a sailor and the wife of a sailor possess the language of her father and of her husband’s profession, and talk it whenever the need arises without raising wonder? ”

“ There was only one other lady on board, the wife of the owner, and a much older woman, so Annie was a little queen for the time and received unlimited attention from every man but her husband, who showed however to greater advantage in her eyes than he had ever done before, for he knew how to manage a yacht as well as he knew how to manage a horse, and was, in fact, the best sailor on board. ”

“ A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap,
And mounch’d, and mounch’d, and mounch’d. “Give me,” quoth I.
“Aroint thee, witch!” the rump-fed ronyon cries. ”

“ My wife, Mary, was a bright little creature, always ready to make the best of things, but even she would declare pathetically that she might as well have married a sailor as a landsman who was so seldom at home! ”

“ Ah! What I owe him," cried Bessy, heaving a long sigh, as if to express by it gratitude too deep for words. "But what I was a-going to say, ma'am, was, that I hopes as how Mr. Curtis will be good enough to put me again on the widows' list for the loaves. I've really such a hard pull to live, I don't know how we can get on without it;" and there was another long-drawn sigh.
"Ha!" thought the indignant sailor. "The gratitude was for favours to come."
"I don't see how my husband can put you on the needy widows' list," said the clergyman's quiet little wife ”

“ So much the better; qualities I should admire in a wife. One of those Volney girls I understand is going to be married to that Irishman O’Loughlin, who has just been made a commander. He has impudence and brass enough for anything ”

“ It has happened that when a husband has led this deputy to his wife, who was great with child, and has asked with tears that he might be left behind as she had no one to care for her, the sailor has beaten her with cudgels in order to make her go, and the poor husband also, despite his resistance. ”

“ I am a sailor's daughter. Many times I saw my mother weeping and pitied her simplicity. There is no use weeping for what men do in distant lands. It is always bitter enough for a woman who loves her husband, but it has no bad consequences and must be pardoned.... But now.... Now!..."
The wife became irritated on recalling his recent infidelities.... Her rivals were not the public women of the great ports, nor the tourists who could give only a few days of love, like an alms which they tossed without stopping their progress. ”

“ Thou bringest the sailor to his wife,
And travell'd men from foreign lands;
And letters unto trembling hands;
And, thy dark freight, a vanish'd life. ”

“ Are owners’ objections to their accompanying their husbands agreeable to them? It is quite possible for a woman to love a sailor without loving the sea; and though owners deserve no praise for their hard and fast rule touching captains’ wives, as there is not an atom of sentimental regard for the ladies in it, I cannot but think it a good rule, as it saves many a woman from following her husband into a life to which nothing could have courted her but the sense of wifely duty. ”

“ There is no body of men who should be so careful in choosing their wives as sailors, no matter what their rank may be. If they have children, the sailor, or captain, sees little of them, and can have no part in their training, whereas the mother has it in her power to fashion their lives either for good or evil. ”

“ Said he, My sweeting, at this (illegible text) meeting,
Oh! give consent for to be my Bride.
I must acknowledge I do adore thee,
with all the tender respects of love;
None ever conquer'd my heart before thee,
whom I admire and prize above.
Then richest jewel, O be not cruel;
but lay thine angry frowns aside;
And my dear sweeting, at this bless d meeting,
Oh! give consent for to be my Bride.
Said she, A Sailor I don't admire,
because they travel to foreign parts,
The more their company we desire,
the more they leave us with aching hearts,
And we lament with sad vexation ”

“ And cry’d, loving husband, what’s the meaning of this.
⁠My dear I’m not come to deprive you of rest,
But my dear loving wife, I must needs have my chest,
For we are going to sea with a prosperous gale,
Our anchor is weigh’d and our ship under sail. ”

“ Now, if there’s one thing more than another sticks in my throat, it is the thought of a man being dependent on a woman, let her be who she may, for his support, if he can support himself. Now I had the greatest affection and respect for my wife, but this feeling always came between me and my happiness. While living with her I only spent my own prize-money on myself; and though I would gladly have remained with her, as soon as I was appointed to a ship I resolved to go to sea. I was not worse off than any post-captain or other officer in the service in this respect. ”

“ There are sick men swinging uneasily in their hammocks; and one poor fellow, whose fever threatens to terminate fatally, tosses painfully in his cot. His messmates gently bathe his hot brow, and, watching every movement, nurse him as tenderly as a woman. Strange, that the rude heart of a sailor should be found to possess such tenderness as we seldom ask or find, in those of our own sex, on land! There, we leave the gentler humanities of life to woman; here, we are compelled to imitate her characteristics, as well as our sterner nature will permit. ”

“ The Bride touched her husband's sleeve in a lull in the handshaking and congratulations. "Isn't it rather nice to see people enjoying themselves! Don't you feel as if you wanted everybody to be as happy as we?—Look at Betty and that boy.... Champagne, if you please! How ill the child will be; and she's got to go back to school to-morrow...."
Her husband laughed softly. "Pretty little witch.... Torps has taken it away from her and given her some lemonade instead. Where's Mother?—Oh, I see: hobnobbing with the Colonel over a cup of tea. What a crush! Dear, can't we escape soon....?" ”

“ Moreover, being well off, and having re-married, he was now going to take his young wife on a cruise with him.
"And who was the captain of your brig in Fiume?"
"One of my late wife's brothers, and as he seems to have disapproved of my second marriage, he has discarded my ship."
"And is he married?"
"Of course, he is; did you ever know any unmarried captain? Land rats always seem to look upon marriage as a halter, whilst we sailors get spliced as young as possible. Perhaps it's because we are so little with our better halves that we are happy in married life." ”

“ Mother hobbled way about her work muttering, and for a moment I thought of the smell of bacon and the pretty voice from the schooner's cuddy calling Captain Dane to breakfast.
In my heart I hoped the captain's wife was not going to sea with us. I sailed once in a ship with a captain's wife aboard; she was not only wife, but captain too! That ship was a regular hell. I don't know how it was managed, but she got every one on board quarreling. Men seem to get along together all right until a woman comes among them; then it all goes wrong. Yet women are nice enough things as they go. ”

“ Norwegian skippers often take their wives with them on their voyages. The captain's wife aboard the false Maleta would seem natural and tend to disarm suspicion, and, besides, British naval officers are always courteous and considerate toward women. In the presence of the captain's wife, a prize officer who might board us would be more obliging toward us all. We had a blonde wig for Schmidt and an outfit of women's clothes. We took great pains in schooling him to play the part of the captain's wife correctly. One difficulty was his big feet. Not even a Norwegian skipper's wife had such feet. ”

“ The captain's wife, who had been on many voyages, asked the sailors over the dead body of her husband to be as loyal to her as they had been to him, and every man swore fealty to the woman, whom they knew to be worthy of command. ”

“ Ralph embraced Josephine rapturously as the crew danced, shouted, and flung up their caps for very joy. It was arranged that the happy pair, accompanied by the ship's company, should steal away that very night at twelve, in order to be married without a moment's delay, and as they all knew a chorus which happened to fit the situation exactly, they sung it as loud as they could:
Let's give three cheers for the sailor's bride,
Who casts all thoughts of rank aside,
Who gives up home and fortune too,
For the honest love of a sailor true! ”

“ So he became engrossed by love of her and remained all day a-gazing at the casement disturbed and perturbed, and as often as she approached the window and peered out therefrom, he would stare at her and say to her, “O my lady and O core of my heart, good morning to thee; and do thou have mercy upon one sore affected by his affection to thee; one whose eyes sleep not by night for thy fair sake.” “This pimp be Jinn-mad!” quoth the Captain’s wife, “and as often as I look out at the window he dareth bespeak me: haply the folk shall say:—Indeed she must needs be his mistress.” ”

“ Many a lady's heart was lost that night. "What is it always makes a sailor so dangerous a rival?" Ella used to say, when rallied on her partiality for a "bluejacket," that she loved it because it was the colour of so many things dear to her: the sky was blue, the waves of the deep mysterious sea were blue, and the wreaths of that fairy flower, which bears the magic name forget-me-not, were of the same charmed hue. Some such reason, I suppose, it is that makes every maiden love a sailor. ”

“ Be that as it may, it is certain that he prevailed on her, some time after their marriage, to make him a present of a fine schooner yacht, which was brought round from Cowes to our coast-town, and kept always waiting ready for him in the harbor.
His wife required some little persuasion before she could make up her mind to let him have the vessel. She suffered so much from sea-sickness that pleasure-sailing was out of the question for her; and, being very fond of her husband, she was naturally unwilling that he should engage in an amusement which took him away from her. ”