CHAPTER XIII.—Continued.

Clutha Leader, Volume V, Issue 222, 11 October 1878, Page 7

CHAPTER XIII. — Continued.

, The ship being- in port at thd Capp, and two hundred hammers tapping at < her, Dodd went ashore in search of Captain Robarts,, and made the Agrn over to him in the friendliest way, adding warmly that he had found every reason to be satisfied with the officers and the crew. To his surprise, Captain Kobarts received all this ungraciously. ' You ought to have remained on board, sir, and made over the command on the quarter-deck.' Dodd replied, politely, that it would have been more formal. * Suppose I return immediately, and man the side for } r ou : and then you board her, say in half an hour,' 1 1 shall come when I like,' replied Robarts, crustily. ;. ': ' And when will you like to come V inquired Dodd, with imperturbable good-humour. 'Now: this moment: and I'll trouble you to come along 1 with me.' * Certainly, sir.' They got a boat, and went out to the ship : on coming alongside, Dodd thought to meet his wishes by going first and receiving him ; but the jealous, cross-grained fellow, shoved roughly before hinrand led the way up the ship's side. Sharpe and the rest saluted him : he did not return the salute, but said hoarsely, ' Turn the hands up to muster^' When they were all aft, he noticed one or two with their caps on. * Hats off, and be — — - to you !' cried he. 'Do you know where you are ? Do you know who you are looking at ? If not, I'll show you. I'm here to restore discipline to this ship : so mind how you run athwart my hawse : don't you play with the bull, my men ; or you'll find his horns sharp. Pipe down ! Now, you sir, bring me the log-book.' He ran his eye over it, and closed it contemptuously : * Pirates, and hurricanes 1 / never fell in with pirates nor hurricanes : I have heard of a breeze, and a gale, but I never knew a seaman worth his salt say ' hurricane.' Get another log-book, Mr Sharpe; put down that it begins this day at noon ; and enter, that Captain Robarts came on deck, found the ship in a miserable condition, took the command, mustered the officers and men, and stopped the ship's company's grog for a week, for receiving him with hats on.' Even Sharpe, that walking Obedience, was taken aback. * Stop — the ship's company's — grog — foi* a week, sir V 1 Yes, sir, for a week ; and if you fling my orders back in my face instead of clapping on sail to execute them, I'll have you towed ashore on a grating : your name is Sharpe : well my name is Damnedsharpe ; and so you'll find. In short, the new captain came down on the ship like a blight. He was especially hard on Dodd : nothing that commander bad done was right, nor, had he done the contrary, would that have been right; he was disgracefully behind time ; and he ought to have put in to the Isle of France, which would have retarded him : his rope bulwarks were lubberly : his rudder a disgrace to navigation : he, Kobarts, was not, so green as to believe that any master had really sailed sixteen hundred miles with it, and, if he had, more shame for him. Briefly a marine criticaster. All this was spoken at Dodd — a thing no male does unless he is an awful snob — and grieved him, it was so unjust. He withdrew wounded to the little cabin he was entitled to as a passenger, and hugged his treasure for comfort. He patted the pocket-book, and said to it * Never you mind. The greater Tartar he is, the less likely to sink you, or run you on a lee shore.' With all his love of discipline, Robarts was not so fond of the ship as Dodd. While his repairs were going on, he was generally ashore"; and by this means missed a visit. Commodore Collier, one of the smartest sailors afloat, espied the Yankee makeshift from the quarter deck of his vessel, the Salamanca, fifty guns. In ten minutes he was under the Agra's stern inspecting it; then came on board, and was received in form by Sharpe and the other officers. ' Are you the master of this ship, sir?' he asked. 'No, commodore. I am the first mate : the captain is ashore.' 1 I am sorry for it. L want to talk about his rudder.' : 'Oh he had nothing to do with that,' replied Sharpe, eagerly : ' that was our dear old captain : he is on board. Young gentleman ! ask Captain Dodd to oblige me by coming 1 on deck ! Hy ! and Mr Fullalovetoo.' ' * Young gentleman V inquired Collier, ' What the' devil officer ls'tbat V 1 That is a name we give the middies ; I don't know why.' : ' Nor I neither : ha ! . ha !' Dodd and Fullalove came on deck, and Commodore Collier bestowed the highest compliments on the il makeshift;" Dodd begged him to transfer them to the; real inventor j and introduced Fullalove. . '.]-' ,Ay,V said Collier, ' I know you Yankees are very handy. I lost my rudde? at sea once, and had to ship a makeshift : but it was a curst complicated thing ; not a patch upon yours, MrFullalore. Yours is ingenious, and Bimple. Shiri has been in action, I see : i

pray how was that,' if -I may be so bold ?' ' Pirates, commodore/ said Sharpe. ' We fell in with a brace of Portuguese { devils, latine-rfg-ged, and carried ten guns apiece, in- the Straits of Gaspar : fought 'em from noon till sundown, riddled on* 1 , and ran down the other, and sunk her in a moment. That was all your doing, oaptaiu ; so tlon't try to shift it on other people ; for we won't stand it.' ' If he denies it, I won't believe him,' said Collier: 'for he has got it in his eye. Gentlemen will yon do me the. honour to dine with me to-day on board the flag-ship ?' Dodd and Fullalove accepted. Sharpe declined, with regret, on the score of duty. And as the cocked hat went down the side, atter saluting- him politely, he could not help thinking to himself what a difference between a real captain, who had something to be proud of, and his own unticked cab of a skipper with the manners of a pilot-boat. He told Robarts the next day : Robarts said nothing; but his face seemed to turn greenish ; and it embittered his hatred of Dodd the inoffensive. • It is droll, and sad, bit true, that Christendom is full of men in a hurry to hate. And a fruitful cause is jealousy. The schoolmen, or rather certain of the schoolmen — for nothing is much shallower than to speak of all those disputants as one school — defined women, ' a featherless biped vehemently addicted to jealously.' Whether she is more featberless than the male can be decided at a trifling expense of time, money, and. reason : you have but to go to court. But as. for envy arid jealousy, I think it is pure, unobservant, antique Cant which has fixed them on the female character distinctively. As a molehill to a mountain, is women's jealousy to men's. Agatha may have a host of virtues and graces, and yet her female acquaintance will not hate her, provided she has the moderation to abstain from being downright pretty. She may sing like an angel, paint like an angal, talk, write, nurse the sick, — all like an angel, and not rouse the devil in her fair sisters : as long as she did, not dress like an angel. But, the minds of men being much larger than women's, yet very little greater, they hang jealousy on a thousand pegs. Where there was no peg, I have seen them do with a pin. Captain Robarts took a pin : ran it into his own heart, and hung that sordid passion on it. He would get rid of all the Doddites before he sailed. He insulted Mr Tickell, so that he left the service, and entered a mercantile house ashore : he made several of the best men desert : and the ship went to sea short of hands. This threw heavier work on the crew ; and led to many punishments, and a steady current of abuse. Sharpe became a mere machine, always obeying, never speaking : Grey was put under arrest for remonstrating against ungentlemanly language : and Bayliss, heing- at bottom of the same breed as Robarts, fell into his humour, and helped- hector the petty officers and men. The crew, depressed and irritated, went through their duties pully-hauly-wise. Thei-e was no song under the forecastle in the first watch, and ofte.n no grog on the mess table at one bell. Dodd never came on the quarter-deck without being reminded he was only a passenger, and the ship was now under naval discipline. ' /was reared in the royal navy, sir,' would Robarts say : ' second lieutenant aboard the Atalanta : that is the school, sir; that is the only school that breeds seamen.' Dodd bore j scores of similar taunts as a Newfoundland puts up with a terrier in office : he seldom replied, and, when he did, in a few quiet dignified words that gave no handle. Robarts, who bore the name of a lucky captain, had fair weather all the way to St. Helena. The guard-ship at this island was the Salamanca. She had left the* Cape a week before the Agra. Captain Robarts, with his characteristic good breeding, went to anchor in-shore of Her Majesty's ship : ..the wind; failed at a critical moment, and a foul became inevitable : Collier was on his quarterdeck, and saw what would happen long before Robarts did ; he gave the needful orders, and it was beautiful to see how in half a minute the frigate's guns were run in, her ports lowered, her yards toppled on end, and a spring carried out and hauled on. The Agra struck abreast her own forechains on the Salamanca's quarter. (Pipe.) "Boarders away. Tomahawks ! cut everything thab holds !'* was heard from the .frigate's quarter-deck. Rush came a boarding party on to th« merchant ship, -and hacked away without mercy all her lower rigging that held on to the frigate, signal halyards and all; others boomed her off with capstan bars, &c, and in two minutes the ships were clear. A lieutenant and boat's crew came for Robarts, and ordered him on board the Salamanca, and to make sure of his coming took him back with them. He found Commodore Collier standing stiff as a ramrod on his" quarter deck. ' Are you the master of the Agra ?,',:■ (His quick eye, hadrecogriised her in a moment.) . , :, r 'I am, sir.' ; ' Then she was commanded by a seaman : and is commanded by a; lubber. Don't apply for your papers this week; for you won't get them. ' Good morii. ing. Take him away.' F^f^^V-v-'V"" », They, returned Robarts to his -ship ; "and a /suppressed grin on a score of

- -fl faces showed him the clear command- | ing tones ot the commodore had reached «f his own deck. He soothed himself by | stopping the men's grog and mast- | heading three uiidshipuien that same | afceruoon. ?j The night before he weighed anohor M this disciplinarian was drinking very % late in a luw public-house. . There was | not much . moon, and the officer in, | charge of the ship did not see the gig :| coming 1 till it was nearly alongside" 1 then all was done in a flurry. | •Hy! man the side! Lanterns A there ! Jump, you boys !or you'll J catch pepper.' 1 The boys did jump, and little Mur- | phy, not knowing the surgeon had or- 'i dered the ports to be drooped, bounded $ over the bulwarks an antelepe, lighted | on the- midship port, which stood at ') this angle /, and glanced off into the f the ocean, lantern foremost ; he made | his little hole in the water within a <| yard of Captain Robarts. That Dig- | nity, though splashed, took no notice | of so small an incident as a gone ship- i boy : anH if M urphy had been wise and , J stayed with JNep. all had been well. | But the poor urchin inadvertently came j up agaiu, and without the lantern. 1 One of the gig's crew grabbed him by . J the hair, and prolonged his existence -i by an inconsiderate impulse. : ; ' Where is the other lantern ?' was :i Hobarts's first word on reaching 1 the t deck : as if he didn't know. } ' Gone overboard, sir, with the boy \ Murphy.' ' Stand forward, you sir,' growled - ", Robarts. . • Murphy stood forward, dripping 1 and shivering with cold and fear. ' What d'ye mean by going over- ; board with the ship's lantern V 1 Hch your arnr sure some unary divil drooped the port; and the lantern and me we had no foothold at all •• at all, and the lantern went into the > say, bad luck to ut ; and I went afther to try and save vt — for your arnr.' ' - * Belay all that !' said Robarts ; 'do you think you can blarney me, .; you young monkey 1 Here, Bosen's mate' take a rope's-end and start him ! — Again! — Warm him well !— That,s, '■ right.' As soon as the poor child's shrieks ; subsided into sobs, the disciplinarian gave him Explanation, for Ointment. ' I can't have the company's stores expended this way.' ' The force of discipline could no farther go' than to flog zeal for falling overboard : so, to avoid anticlimax in that port, Robarts weighed anchor at daybreak : and there was a southwesterly breeze waiting for this favourite of fortune, and carried him past - the Azores. Off Ushant it was westerly j and veered to the nor- west just ■ before they sighted the Land's End : never was such a charming passage from the Gape. The sailor, who had the luck to sight Old England first, nailed his starboard shoe to the mainmast for contributions; and all hearts beat joyfully : none more than David Dodd's. His eye devoured the beloved shore : he hugged the treasure his own ill luck had jeopardised* — but Robarts had sailed it safe into British waters—and forgave the man his ill manners for his good luck. Robarts steered in for the Lizard ; but, when abreast the Point, kept well out again, and opened the Channel, and looked out for a pilot. One was soon seen working out towards him, and the Agra brought to; the pilot descended from his lugger into his little boat, rowed alongside, and came on deck : a rough, tanned sailor, clad in flushing ; and in build and manner might have passed for Rohan's twin brother. 'Now then, you sir, what will you take this ship up to the Downs for V * Thirty pounds.' Robarts told him roughly he would not get thirty pounds out of him. * Thyse and no higher my Bo,' answered the pilot, sturdily : he had bean splicing the main brsce, and would have answered an admiral. Robarts swore at him lustily : Pilot discharged a volley •in return with admirable promptitude. Robarts retorted, the other rough customer rejoined, and soon all Billingsgate thundered on the Agra's quarter-deck. Finding, to his infinite disgust, his visitor as great a blackguard as himself, and not to be outs worn, Robarts ordered him to quit the ship on pain of being man-handled over the side, ; Robarts hurled back a sugar- plum or two of the same, kind, and then ordered Bayliss to clap on all sail, and keep a mid channel course through the night. At daybreak Dodd was on f deck, and found the ship flying through a fog 1 so thick, that her forecastle -was invisible from the poop, and even her foremast loomed indistinct and looked; distant... 'j You'll be foul of something 1 : or other, . : Sharpe/ said be. . r ; ri 1 ;«-Wb£t " is', that, to you T . .- l^'donf t^ ~\-?fi aliow^pa|sengers4o^handle mpship^lfei: ; / ij. \ 'TheiijT do; pray/handle h^r;y^mpsl^|j ;; 1 capfc'aijs.i^ ing: Happy-go-lucky; up i;tHejCKarii^||v' s ;./ c|^ •."' 'That is rigKv,daptainf?R6'balss9pife you , had Jbufc the?; JBfntishj;uhjn^^ yourself;'; '■- > -. -iv'<ly^^tfi-~^o^p^^o^^ \ ;V| ;■ * Perhaps .you^ili^^^^ •-. i .' I should roe ael|ffhtea|^^ut%nis#^#>?fy Docfd retired ' a^iew^'siepl^lnfi^^^^^^*^