Part 6 (1/2)
everything's changed from what it was when I used to follow the sea. I wonder sometimes if the sailors have as queer works aboard s.h.i.+p as they used. Bless ye! Deephaven used to be a different place to what it is now; there was hardly a day in the year that you didn't hear the s.h.i.+pwrights' hammers, and there was always something going on at the wharves. You would see the folks from up country comin' in with their loads of oak knees and plank, and logs o' rock-maple for keels when there was snow on the ground in winter-time, and the big sticks of timber-pine for masts would come crawling along the road with their three and four yoke of oxen all frosted up, the sleds creaking and the snow growling and the men flapping their arms to keep warm, and hallooing as if there wan't nothin' else goin' on in the world except to get them masts to the s.h.i.+p-yard. Bless ye! two o' them teams together would stretch from here 'most up to the Widow Jim's place,--no such timber-pines nowadays.”
”I suppose the sailors are very jolly together sometimes,” said Kate, meditatively, with the least flicker of a smile at me. The captain did not answer for a minute, as he was battling with an obstinate snarl in his line; but when he had found the right loop he said, ”I've had the best times and the hardest times of my life at sea, that's certain! I was just thinking it over when you spoke. I'll tell you some stories one day or 'nother that'll please you. Land! you've no idea what tricks some of those wild fellows will be up to. Now, saying they fetch home a cargo of wines and they want a drink; they've got a trick so they can get it.
Saying it's champagne, they'll fetch up a basket, and how do you suppose they'll get into it?”
Of course we didn't know.
”Well, every basket will be counted, and they're fastened up particular, so they can tell in a minute if they've been tampered with; and neither must you draw the corks if you could get the basket open. I suppose ye may have seen champagne, how it's all wired and waxed. Now, they take a clean tub, them fellows do, and just shake the basket and jounce it up and down till they break the bottles and let the wine drain out; then they take it down in the hold and put it back with the rest, and when the cargo is delivered there's only one or two whole bottles in that basket, and there's a dreadful fuss about its being stowed so foolish.”
The captain told this with an air of great satisfaction, but we did not show the least suspicion that he might have a.s.sisted at some such festivity.
”Then they have a way of breaking into a cask. It won't do to start the bung, and it won't do to bore a hole where it can be seen, but they're up to that: they slip back one of the end hoops and bore two holes underneath it, one for the air to go in and one for the liquor to come out, and after they get all out they want they put in some spigots and cut them down close to the stave, knock back the hoop again, and there ye are, all trig.”
”I never should have thought of it,” said Kate, admiringly.
”There isn't nothing,” Cap'n Sands went on, ”that'll hender some masters from cheating the owners a little. Get them off in a foreign port, and there's n.o.body to watch, and they most of them have a feeling that they ain't getting full pay, and they'll charge things to the s.h.i.+p that she never seen nor heard of. There were two s.h.i.+pmasters that sailed out of Salem. I heard one of 'em tell the story. They had both come into port from Liverpool nigh the same time, and one of 'em, he was dressed up in a handsome suit of clothes, and the other looked kind of poverty-struck.
'Where did you get them clothes?' says he. 'Why, to Liverpool,' says the other; 'you don't mean to say you come away without none, cheap as cloth was there?' 'Why, yes,' says the other cap'n,--'I can't afford to wear such clothes as those be, and I don't see how you can, either.' 'Charge 'em to the s.h.i.+p, bless ye; the owners expect it.'
”So the next v'y'ge the poor cap'n he had a nice rig for himself made to the best tailor's in Bristol, and charged it, say ten pounds, in the s.h.i.+p's account; and when he came home the s.h.i.+p's husband he was looking over the papers, and 'What's this?' says he, 'how come the s.h.i.+p to run up a tailor's bill?' 'Why, them's mine,' says the cap'n, very meaching.
'I understood that there wouldn't be no objection made.' 'Well, you made a mistake,' says the other, laughing; 'guess I'd better scratch this out.' And it wasn't long before the cap'n met the one who had put him up to doing it, and he give him a blowing up for getting him into such a fix. 'Land sakes alive!' says he, 'were you fool enough to set it down in the account? Why, I put mine in, so many bolts of Russia duck.'”
Captain Sands seemed to enjoy this reminiscence, and to our satisfaction, in a few minutes, after he had offered to take the oars, he went on to tell us another story.
”Why, as for cheating, there's plenty of that all over the world. The first v'y'ge I went into Havana as master of the Deerhound, she had never been in the port before and had to be measured and recorded, and then pay her tonnage duties every time she went into port there afterward, according to what she was registered on the custom-house books. The inspector he come aboard, and he went below and looked round, and he measured her between decks; but he never offered to set down any figgers, and when we came back into the cabin, says he, 'Yes--yes--good s.h.i.+p! you put one bloon front of this eye, _so!_' says he, 'an' I not see with him; and you put one more doubloon front of other eye, and how you think I see at all what figger you write?' So I took his book and I set down her measurements and made her out twenty ton short, and he took his doubloons and shoved 'em into his pocket. There, it isn't what you call straight dealing, but everybody done it that dared, and you'd eat up all the profits of a v'y'ge and the owners would just as soon you'd try a little up-country air, if you paid all those dues according to law. Tonnage was dreadful high and wharf.a.ge too, in some ports, and they'd get your last cent some way or 'nother if ye weren't sharp.
”Old Cap'n Carew, uncle to them ye see to meeting, did a smart thing in the time of the embargo. Folks got tired of it, and it was dreadful hard times; s.h.i.+ps rotting at the wharves, and Deephaven never was quite the same afterward, though the old place held out for a good while before she let go as ye see her now. You'd 'a' had a hard grip on't when I was a young man to make me believe it would ever be so dull here. Well, Cap'n Carew he bought an old brig that was lying over by East Parish, and he began fitting her up and loading her for the West Indies, and the farmers they'd come in there by night from all round the country, to sell salt-fish and lumber and potatoes, and glad enough they were, I tell ye. The rigging was put in order, and it wasn't long before she was ready to sail, and it was all kept mighty quiet. She lay up to an old wharf in a cove where she wouldn't be much noticed, and they took care not to paint her any or to attract any attention.
”One day Cap'n Carew was over in Riverport dining out with some gentlemen, and the revenue officer sat next to him, and by and by says he, 'Why won't ye take a ride with me this afternoon? I've had warning that there's a brig loading for the West Indies over beyond Deephaven somewheres, and I'm going over to seize her.' And he laughed to himself as if he expected fun, and something in his pocket beside. Well, the first minute that Cap'n Carew dared, after dinner, he slipped out, and he hired the swiftest horse in Riverport and rode for dear life, and told the folks who were in the secret, and some who weren't, what was the matter, and every soul turned to and helped finish loading her and getting the rigging ready and the water aboard; but just as they were leaving the cove--the wind was blowing just right--along came the revenue officer with two or three men, and they come off in a boat and boarded her as important as could be.
”'Won't ye step into the cabin, gentlemen, and take a gla.s.s o' wine?'
says Cap'n Carew, very polite; and the wind came in fresher,--something like a squall for a few minutes,--and the men had the sails spread before you could say Jack Robi'son, and before those fellows knew what they were about the old brig was a standing out to sea, and the folks on the wharves cheered and yelled. The Cap'n gave the officers a good scare and offered 'em a free pa.s.sage to the West Indies, and finally they said they wouldn't report at headquarters if he'd let 'em go ash.o.r.e; so he told the sailors to lower their boat about two miles off Deephaven, and they pulled ash.o.r.e meek enough. Cap'n Carew had a first-rate run, and made a lot of money, so I have heard it said. Bless ye! every s.h.i.+pmaster would have done just the same if he had dared, and everybody was glad when they heard about it. Dreadful foolish piece of business that embargo was!
”Now I declare,” said Captain Sands, after he had finished this narrative, ”here I'm a telling stories and you're doin' all the work.
You'll pull a boat ahead of anybody, if you keep on. Tom Kew was a-praisin' up both of you to me the other day: says he, 'They don't put on no airs, but I tell ye they can pull a boat well, and swim like fish,' says he. There now, if you'll give me the oars I'll put the dory just where I want her, and you can be getting your lines ready. I know a place here where it's always toler'ble fis.h.i.+ng, and I guess we'll get something.”
Kate and I cracked our clams on the gunwale of the boat, and cut them into nice little bits for bait with a piece of the sh.e.l.l, and by the time the captain had thrown out the killick we were ready to begin, and found the fis.h.i.+ng much more exciting than it had been at the wharf.
”I don't know as I ever see 'em bite faster,” said the old sailor, presently; ”guess it's because they like the folks that's fis.h.i.+ng. Well, I'm pleased. I thought I'd let 'Bijah take some along to Denby in the cart to-morrow if I got more than I could use at home. I didn't calc'late on having such a lively crew aboard. I s'pose ye wouldn't care about going out a little further by and by to see if we can't get two or three haddock?” And we answered that we should like nothing better.
It was growing cloudy, and was much cooler,--the perfection of a day for fis.h.i.+ng,--and we sat there diligently pulling in cunners, and talking a little once in a while. The tide was nearly out, and Black Rock looked almost large enough to be called an island. The sea was smooth and the low waves broke lazily among the seaweed-covered ledges, while our boat swayed about on the water, lifting and falling gently as the waves went in sh.o.r.e. We were not a very long way from the lighthouse, and once we could see Mrs. Kew's big white ap.r.o.n as she stood in the doorway for a few minutes. There was no noise except the plash of the low-tide waves and the occasional flutter of a fish in the bottom of the dory. Kate and I always killed our fish at once by a rap on the head, for it certainly saved the poor creatures much discomfort, and ourselves as well, and it made it easier to take them off the hook than if they were flopping about and making us aware of our cruelty.
Suddenly the captain wound up his line and said he thought we'd better be going in, and Kate and I looked at him with surprise. ”It is only half past ten,” said I, looking at my watch. ”Don't hurry in on our account,” added Kate, persuasively, for we were having a very good time.
”I guess we won't mind about the haddock. I've got a feelin' we'd better go ash.o.r.e.” And he looked up into the sky and turned to see the west. ”I knew there was something the matter; there's going to be a shower.” And we looked behind us to see a bank of heavy clouds coming over fast. ”I wish we had two pair of oars,” said Captain Sands. ”I'm afraid we shall get caught.”
”You needn't mind us,” said Kate. ”We aren't in the least afraid of our clothes, and we don't get cold when we're wet; we have made sure of that.”
”Well, I'm glad to hear that,” said the cap'n. ”Women-folks are apt to be dreadful scared of a wetting; but I'd just as lief not get wet myself. I had a twinge of rheumatism yesterday. I guess we'll get ash.o.r.e fast enough. No. I feel well enough to-day, but you can row if you want to, and I'll take the oars the last part of the way.”
When we reached the moorings the clouds were black, and the thunder rattled and boomed over the sea, while heavy spatters of rain were already falling. We did not go to the wharves, but stopped down the sh.o.r.e at the fish-houses, the nearer place of shelter. ”You just select some of those cunners,” said the captain, who was beginning to be a little out of breath, ”and then you can run right up and get under cover, and I'll put a bit of old sail over the rest of the fish to keep the fresh water off.” By the time the boat touched the sh.o.r.e and we had pulled it up on the pebbles, the rain had begun in good earnest. Luckily there was a barrow lying near, and we loaded that in a hurry, and just then the captain caught sight of a well-known red s.h.i.+rt in an open door, and shouted, ”Halloa, Danny! lend us a hand with these fish, for we're nigh on to being s.h.i.+pwrecked.” And then we ran up to the fish-house and waited awhile, though we stood in the doorway watching the lightning, and there were so many leaks in the roof that we might almost as well have been out of doors. It was one of Danny's quietest days, and he silently beheaded hake, only winking at us once very gravely at something our other companion said.
”There!” said Captain Sands, ”folks may say what they have a mind to; I didn't see that shower coming up, and I know as well as I want to that my wife did, and impressed it on my mind. Our house sets high, and she watches the sky and is al'ays a worrying when I go out fis.h.i.+ng for fear something's going to happen to me,' specially sence I've got to be along in years.”
This was just what Kate and I wished to hear, for we had been told that Captain Sands had most decided opinions on dreams and other mysteries, and could tell some stories which were considered incredible by even a Deephaven audience, to whom the marvellous was of every-day occurrence.