Part 12 (1/2)
”I asked Cooper why he was so fond of Welch. He only grunted in an uneasy way at first; but, when I pressed for a reply, he let out two words--'Capital company'; and got away from me.
”Their friends.h.i.+p, though often roughly expressed, is really a tender and touching sentiment. I think either of these sailors would bare his back and take a dozen lashes in place of his messmate. I too once thought I had made such a friend. Eheu!
”Both Cooper and Welch seem, by their talk, to consider the s.h.i.+p a living creature. Cooper chews. Welch only smokes, and often lets his pipe out; he is so voluble.
”Captain Hudson is quite a character, or, I might say, two characters; for he is one man when he is sober, and another when he is the worse for liquor; and that, I am sorry to see, is very often. Captain Hudson, sober, is a rough, bearish seaman, with a quick, experienced eye, that takes in every rope in the s.h.i.+p, as he walks up and down his quarter-deck. He either evades or bluntly declines conversation, and gives his whole mind to sailing his s.h.i.+p.
”Captain Hudson, drunk, is a garrulous man, who seems to have drifted back into the past. He comes up to you and talks of his own accord, and always about himself, and what he did fifteen or twenty years since. He forgets whatever has occurred half an hour ago; and his eye, which was an eagle's, is now a mole's. He no longer sees what his sailors are doing alow or aloft; to be sure he no longer cares; his present s.h.i.+p may take care of herself while he is talking of his past ones. But the surest indicia of inebriety in Hudson are these two. First, his nose is red.
Secondly, he discourses upon a seaman's _duty to his employers._ Ebrius rings the changes on his 'duty to his employers' till drowsiness attacks his hearers. _Cicero de officiis_ was all very well at a certain period of one's life, but _bibulus nauta de officiis_ is rather too much.
”N. B.--Except when his nose is red not a word about his 'duty to his employers.' That phrase, like a fine lady, never ventures into the morning air. It is purely post-prandial, and sacred to occasions when he is utterly neglecting his duty to his employers, and to everybody else.
”All this is ridiculous enough, but somewhat alarming. To think that _her_ precious life should be intrusted to the care and skill of so unreliable a captain!
”Joseph Wylie, the mate, is less eccentric but even more remarkable. He is one of those powerfully built fellows whom Nature, one would think, constructed to gain all their ends by force and directness. But no such thing; he goes about as softly as a cat; is always popping out of holes and corners; and I can see he watches me and tries to hear what I say to her. He is civil to me when I speak to him; yet I notice he avoids me quietly. Altogether, there is something about him that puzzles me. Why was he so reluctant to let me on board as a pa.s.senger? Why did he tell a downright falsehood? For he said there was no room for me; yet, even now, there are two cabins vacant, and he has taken possession of them.
”The mate of this s.h.i.+p has several barrels of spirits in his cabin, or rather cabins, and it is he who makes the captain drunk. I learned this from one of the boys. This looks ugly. I fear Wylie is a bad, designing man, who wishes to ruin the captain, and so get his place. But, meantime, the s.h.i.+p might be endangered by this drunkard's misconduct. I shall watch Wylie closely, and perhaps put the captain on his guard against this false friend.
”Last night, a breeze got up about sunset, and H. R. came on deck for half an hour. I welcomed her as calmly as I could: but I felt my voice tremble and my heart throb. She told me the voyage tired her much; but it was the last she should have to make. How strange, how h.e.l.lish (G.o.d forgive me for saying so!) it seems that _she_ should love _him._ But, does she love him? Can she love him? Could she love him if she knew all?
Know him she shall before she marries him. For the present, be still, my heart.
”She soon went below and left me desolate. I wandered all about the s.h.i.+p, and, at last, I came upon the inseparables, Welch and Cooper. They were squatted on the deck, and Welch's tongue was going as usual. He was talking about this Wylie, and saying that, in all his s.h.i.+ps, he had never known such a mate as this; why, the captain was under his thumb, he then gave a string of captains, each of whom would have given his mate a round dozen at the gangway, if he had taken so much on him as this one does.
”'Grog!' suggested Cooper, in extenuation.
”Welch admitted Wylie was liberal with that, and friendly enough with the men; but, still, he preferred to see a s.h.i.+p commanded by the captain, and not by a lubber like Wylie.
”I expressed some surprise at this term, and said I had envied Wylie's nerves in a gale of wind we encountered early in the voyage.
”The talking sailor explained, 'In course, he has been to sea afore this, and weathered many a gale. But so has the cook. That don't make a man a sailor. You ask him how to send down a to'-gallant yard or gammon a bowsprit, or even mark a lead line, and he'll stare at ye like Old Nick, when the angel caught him with the red-hot tongs, and questioned him out of the Church Catechism. Ask Sam there if ye don't believe me. Sam, what do you think of this Wylie for a seaman?'
”Cooper could not afford anything so precious, in his estimate of things, as a word; but he lifted a great brawny hand, and gave a snap with his finger and thumb that disposed of the mate's pretensions to seamans.h.i.+p more expressively than words could have done it.
”The breeze has freshened, and the s.h.i.+p glides rapidly through the water, bearing us all homeward. H. R. has resumed her place upon the deck; and all seems bright again. I ask myself how we existed without the sight of her.
”This morning the wind s.h.i.+fted to the southwest; the captain surprised us by taking in sail. But his sober eye had seen something more than ours; for at noon it blew a gale, and by sunset it was deemed prudent to bring the s.h.i.+p's head to the wind, and we are now lying to. The s.h.i.+p lurches, and the wind howls through the bare rigging; but she rides buoyantly, and no danger is apprehended.
”Last night, as I lay in my cabin, unable to sleep, I heard some heavy blows strike the s.h.i.+p's side repeatedly, causing quite a vibration. I felt alarmed, and went out to tell the captain. But I was obliged to go on my hands and knees, such was the force of the wind. Pa.s.sing the mate's cabin, I heard sounds that made me listen acutely; and I then found the blows were being struck inside the s.h.i.+p. I got to the captain and told him. 'Oh,' said he, 'ten to one it's the mate nailing down his chests, or the like.' But I a.s.sured him the blows struck the side of the s.h.i.+p, and, at my earnest request, he came out and listened. He swore a great oath, and said the lubber would be through the s.h.i.+p's side. He then tried the cabin door, but it was locked.
”The sounds ceased directly.
”We called to the mate, but received no reply for a long time. At last Wylie came out of the gun-room, looking rather pale, and asked what was the matter.
”I told him he ought to know best, for the blows were heard where he had just come from.
”'Blows!' said he; 'I believe you. Why, a tierce of b.u.t.ter had got adrift, and was b.u.mping up and down the hold like thunder.' He then asked us whether that was what we had disturbed him for, entered his cabin, and almost slammed the door in our faces.
”I remarked to the captain on his disrespectful conduct. The captain was civil, and said I was right; he was a cross-grained, unmanageable brute, and he wished he was out of the s.h.i.+p. 'But you see, sir, he has got the ear of the merchant ash.o.r.e; and so I am obliged to hold a candle to the Devil, as the saying is.' He then fired a volley of oaths and abuse at the offender; and, not to encourage foul language, I retired to my cabin.
”The wind declined toward daybreak, and the s.h.i.+p recommenced her voyage at 8 A. M.; but under treble reefed topsails and reefed courses.