The White Squall Part 15

On board the _Josephine_, however, all went along pleasantly enough, although we were becalmed and the seamen, had plenty of leisure time for airing their grievances.

Captain Miles, it is true, did not come on deck looking jolly and beaming with good-humour, as he used to do when we were bowling along before a stiff breeze; but he was not a bit cantankerous, and if there was no legitimate work to occupy the crew with, he did not go out of his way unnecessarily to "haze" them by inventing new sorts of tasks, as a good many other masters of vessels are in the habit of doing in similar cases. As for Mr Marline, he was of a most even disposition, taking all things that came with his usual equanimity and never giving a rough word to anyone.

Davis, the second mate, whom I have already mentioned as having been promoted from the fo'c's'le, was a very different sort of man; for, being without education and any good principle, he took advantage of his position, whenever the captain's eye was not upon him, to bully those with whom he had previously a.s.sociated on an equality. He was "very much above them now," he thought, and showed it as it was in the nature only of a low-minded fellow to do.

Like most "Jacks in office," he was always trying to a.s.sert his position; and, as a natural result, he was not by any means in good favour with the men, who resented his overbearing way all the more from the fact of their having formerly been hail-fellow-well-met with him, which of course they could not readily forget, if he did.

Still, things went on pretty smoothly on board while the calm lasted, despite the little roughnesses which the second mate's way of evincing his authority produced--and which I could not avoid noticing, for I'm sure he used to be "down" on me whenever he had a chance of calling me to account for going where I had no business to, as I confess I sometimes did, although I used to be encouraged by the men, and Mr Marline would wink at my escapades. We all found it terribly dull, though; for, even the fish were too lazy to come to the surface to be caught, and so we were deprived therefore of our old pastime of angling for them from the bowsprit in the afternoons and evenings.

Day after day, the _Josephine_ rolled her hull from port to starboard and then back again to port on the tumid sea, which, save throbbing with a dull heavy swell, had now lost all its life and action:--day after day we looked in vain for a breeze from sunrise to sunset; day after day our watchful longing was all in vain; there, day after day, for over a week, we rolled and lay!

Captain Miles used to come up regularly on the p.o.o.p at noon to take the sun, from a sense of duty; but it was almost a useless task, as we hardly varied a mile in our position from the commencement of the calm, the vessel remaining close in with the fiftieth parallel of longitude and in lat.i.tude thirty-two North.

Mr Marline liked to chaff the captain about this, telling him that his s.e.xtant wanted polis.h.i.+ng up a bit and that the gla.s.ses were wrong.

However, that all went for nothing with his chief, who well knew where the fault lay, fully understanding that the instrument was not to blame; but, as regularly as he brought out the s.e.xtant he used to laugh at Mr Marline's stereotyped joke.

As related in Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner":--

"Day after day, day after day We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted s.h.i.+p Upon a painted ocean!"

Had it not been for the two darkeys, Jake and Cuffee, I don't know what we should have done for fun.

These comical fellows were a constant source of amus.e.m.e.nt to us; for, although they did not come to fisticuffs again, they were always quarrelling and making friends afterwards in the oddest way possible.

Their disputes usually arose from some little trifle concerning their order of precedence, each being highly jealous of his dignity, and resenting in a moment any fancied slight or want of proper respect on the part of the other.

When Jake came on board in the summary way in which he "took his pa.s.sage" at the beginning of our voyage, of course he had no wardrobe, or anything to wear save what he stood up in when he emerged dripping from the sea after the capsize of the boat in which he had come off to the s.h.i.+p. Captain Miles, however, had given him some cast-off slops, and the hands forward had also rigged him out from their chests, so that in a short time he made a very presentable appearance. This was especially the case on Sunday's, when his dress was most conspicuous, Master Jake being something of a dandy like most negroes, and anxious to take the s.h.i.+ne out of his fellows.

Somehow or other Cuffee the cook got jealous of this feature in his brother darkey's character.

On week-days he did not mind submitting to any slight superiority Jake might have over him in his sailor-like rig; but one Sunday the latter donned an old blue coat that had been presented to him by Mr Marline.

It was ornamented with brilliant bra.s.s b.u.t.tons, and the effect was completed by a bright bandana handkerchief which he had begged from me, and this, contrasting with a white s.h.i.+rt and duck trousers, made his toilet so thoroughly effective that Cuffee was greatly aggrieved.

"You tink youself one fine gen'leman now, I s'pose?" he said, with a snort of indignation, when Jake went down into the waist in all this grand array after prayers on the p.o.o.p. "Fine fedders make fine birds, yah, yah!"

"Me tinks what I like," replied Jake nonchalantly, proceeding forward to the topgallant forecastle, where he sat down in such a lordly manner that Cuffee, unable to stand it any longer, hurriedly went into his caboose and bringing out a bucket of dirty water pitched it over Jake with much heartiness, sousing him from head to foot.

"Dere, you big fool of n.i.g.g.ah, take dat!" he cried triumphantly. "Guess dat'll take de s.h.i.+ne out ob your ole coat, wid yer grandy airs an'

b.u.mptiousness!"

The men on the fo'c's'le shouted with laughter, and Jake rushed to resent the affront; but they held him back until his temper evaporated, and then the two made it up somehow, for afterwards I saw that Jake was enjoying a savoury mess of lobscouse which Cuffee had cooked for him in amends for the bucket of greasy water.

Jake, however, paid out the cook for the indignity a little later on; for, when Cuffee came up on the forecastle while the hands were there yarning in the evening, he gave him the cold shoulder.

"Wat for you come hyar?" he asked the poor cook. "Dis is de place for sailor man, not for de idlers aboard. You go back inter yer ole caboose, cookee!"

There was another laugh at this, and Captain Miles hearing what had been said, every word being distinctly audible on the p.o.o.p, began speaking to Mr Marline about the imitative habits of negroes.

"They are just like monkeys," he said; "and, in dress and in language will copy anyone they think superior to them, no matter how ridiculous their imitation may be--a sort of burlesque of the original."

"Yes," replied Mr Marline. "Jake, I have noticed, has taken Jackson for his model on week-days. Have you observed how he copies him in every particular?"

"Well, he couldn't have a better study for a thorough sailor," said the captain, adding, to my great delight, for I was very proud of poor Jake, who was faithful to me to the death; "and the darkey, mind you, Marline, has studied Jackson to good effect, for he's already a smart seaman.

He's as quick aloft as anyone on board when any sudden call comes."

"He's all that," answered Mr Marline heartily; "but I was going to observe, that, while Jake copies Jackson for his week-day model, he tries to imitate you on Sundays."

"Me!" exclaimed Captain Miles bursting into a loud laugh. "You, you mean, with that swell blue coat that you gave him, and which you used, no doubt, to win all the ladies' hearts with ash.o.r.e, when it was in its prime!"

"Oh, no," retorted the mate, smiling too. "When Jake has got his Sunday rig on, he walks up the p.o.o.p-ladder to prayers with all your dignity.

Why, anyone would take him to be the skipper of the s.h.i.+p!"

"Talking of prayers and n.i.g.g.e.rs," said Captain Miles at this point, turning the conversation, as he thought the mate was having a sly poke at him, "I heard one day a little time back a rather good yarn about two darkeys, and, as it was told by a clergyman at a missionary meeting, I don't suppose there can be any great harm in the story."

"Well, heave ahead with it," interposed Mr Marline.

"You see," began the captain, "these two n.i.g.g.e.rs--we'll call them Josh and Quashee for shortness--happened to be in a boat which got drifted out to sea accidentally, from the tow-rope slipping or something else; and, they didn't know their danger till suddenly they found themselves far from land, with no oars in the boat and no means of getting to sh.o.r.e again. To make matters worse, too, the sea began to get up on account of the wind rising."

"I wish it would do so now," said Mr Marline with much emphasis.

"So do I," returned Captain Miles with equal heartiness; "but, as there isn't any chance of that as far as I can see, I may as well go on with my story."

"Do, sir," said the other.

"Well, then," continued the captain, "as soon as Josh and Quashee realised their peril, of course they got into a great funk; but, after puzzling their brains as to the best means of getting back, and shouting themselves hoa.r.s.e in calling for help, they gave up the thing as a gone case, sitting down on the thwarts and bewailing their fate. Josh, the younger negro, however, had the most go in him, and presently he roused up.

"'Say, Quashee,' he asked of the other, 'can you pray, sonny?'

"'No, Josh,' replied Quashee gloomily. 'I nebber learnt, nohow.'

"'Can you sing hymn, den?' questioned his brother in misfortune again.

"'No, Josh,' answered the other still more gloomily. 'Um can't pray, can't sing hymn, can't do nuffin'!'

"'Den,' said Josh as if a brilliant idea had suddenly struck him, 'we must hab collection--must do sumfin' to git out ob dis hole, an' I know when dey don't pray or sing in de chapel dey always hab collection; so we'll hab one now!'"

"I wouldn't mind betting," observed Mr Marline, when he had done laughing at this anecdote, "that the clergyman who related the story did it as a sort of introduction for 'pa.s.sing round the hat' at the very meeting where you heard it!"

"That's just precisely what he did!" replied Captain Miles, joining in the other's laugh; "and, it was a very good introduction to a collection, too, I think!"

It was on a Sunday evening that the little fracas between Jake and Cuffee occurred. This squabble terminated amicably enough; but the next day, Monday, a bit of a real row happened on board, which did not end quite so agreeably to one of the persons concerned.

It was a blazing hot day, with the sun like a ball of fire in the heavens above and the sea steaming below with the heat. The atmosphere was close and hazy, making it so stifling that one could hardly breathe freely--just exactly the sort of weather, in fact, that is met with on the West Coast of Africa at the mouths of some of those pestilential and swampy rivers there that have been the death of so many gallant officers and seamen annually sent to the station for the purpose of putting down the slave-trade and protecting greedy traders in their pursuit of palm- oil and gold dust!

During the afternoon of this day, when the sun was about its hottest, making the pitch melt and ooze out from the seams of the deck planking, Davis, who had charge of the starboard watch, came up from below to relieve Mr Marline.

He was late in coming to his post, and I could see he had been drinking, a habit he had lately taken to indulging in, especially after the calm set in; and, as he mounted the p.o.o.p-ladder, he certainly did not look particularly amiable, for his dark eyes were glaring and his tumbled hair gave him a most ferocious appearance.

The men were mostly doing nothing, lying along the waist under what shelter they could find from the fiery rays of the scorching sun; for, although there was an awning over the p.o.o.p, there was nothing forwards to s.h.i.+eld them from the heat unless they crouched under the lee of the bulwarks and water-casks.