LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2253, 18 May 1881, Page 3

LITERATURE.

CRACKING ON SAIL

J- T. Golbkick, in - Hartford Times.” A large percentage of disasters at saa are directly due to the passion of driving or cracking on. American shipmasters excel in this particular—no other ships are so recklessly managed, and no ships in the world are so poorly manned. Then, too. if a man has ageneral ideaof seamanship and wealth.or wealthy friends, he is at once pat in command, i'er.ihty in resources, energy and promptness to execute, and other uamelesa qualifications ought to be essential elements in the man who assumes the discharge of a shipderailwl IC e' aUd ,- V - 0t shi P°™ers seem to ignore all that, seeking to find the half, the uhird, or even the quarter, interest, as of a deal more importance. It is very true that a good many good + hsve command of ships who ari indebted to wealth or influence for the dls--5“? on ' Bn J tfae ™Io is to give tho vessel to the man who puts the most money in the venture without regard to the necessary ability to handle a ship, y The Messrs Blunt, Fitch and Wadleigh were shipowners, and their office in Scnth Thnv had 0 arge , y °?- h Amoric « business. } r h JZ ship* in the Liverpool trade, not speaking of the round dozen of coacters owned by this firm. The firm always insisted on a money qualification in a captain, and the result was that their ships were drrven until they were almost worthless. Then they were loaded np with odds and ends, heavily insured, and sent to sea. They rarely came back. If they came back they were sure to disappear the next trip, and the captain was bound to find a new ship waiting for mm, &

OccasionaUy the Messrs Blunt, Fitch and V\ adleigb would lose a ship unexpectedly, but as long as they were safe on the Underwriters books they did not much care about the ship s company, or inquire if anybody was saved. J

The ship Planet belonged to the above farm, and when my story commences she was in the Waterloo dock “ taking In’ emigrants and their stores. Her destination was New York, and she advertised to sail in a day or two. She was a half-clipper, heavily sparred, and bearing the evidence about her that eho was not allowed to loiter by the way. She had all the features of a safe and trustwoithy ship, and so there was no difficulty found m securing the four hundred and odd passengers that were about to trust themselves to the tender mercy of the Atlantic. Xhe captain was a slonohy individual, with bloated features and a auspicious redness in his face, but he rarely came on deck or Interfered with the first officer who performed his duty with a great flourish, evidently oalcnlated to impress the passengers with a due sense of his importance, The day before the ship hauled out into the stream, a quiet, gentlemanly appearing man came on board, and. after a keen stare at the mate and a glance at the cabin accommodations, engaged a state room. As this man elbowed his way among the passengers, those who noticed him little thought that the day would come when their safety depended upon his ability to handle a ship. He did not stay long, but hastened away to send his ‘traps’ on beard. Tho next morn*nß> ss the ship was hauling out, he came on board and sundry trunks and boxes marked ‘R. H. W.’ wore stowed away in the hold. A small leather trank and a valise were transferred to his state-room, after which he disappeared from view.

The next time he emerged from the cabin the ship had cleared the channel and was running to the westward with a light breeze under a perfect cloud of canvas—studding sails on both sides up to the main-to’-gallant sail, and the crew a hard-looking, vicious gang of Liverpool men—the hardest characters in the world—were being driven abont from sheets to braces. The captain was engaged In his favorite amusement of 1 cursing and blasting the eyes ' of the man at the wheel, and it was evident at a glance that that rad face and those blear eyes were the result of a long debauch. Each lurch of the ship caused him to sway to and fro by the backstay, which was his usual bolding-on place when ‘slightly sprung.’ The mate was a fair seaman, but standing in mortal fear of the captain—and the same might be said of the other officers, who stood in mortal fear of the mate. It was the mate’s watch, and he was busily engaged in securing things for the long trip across the Western Ocean, The passengers, in openeyed wonder, looked at the crew as they scurried about the decks, surprised that a man could calmly take such hearty abuse without at least resenting it by word or look.

After a day or two out things became shaken into their places. The captain in port and thesame man at sea were altogether different individuals. Now he was a cross, sulky man, with a villainous odour of whisky clinging to him.

There were about a dozen cabin passengers, and after each of them had received a snub or two, they preferred to let the captain alone. The quiet man didn’t seem to have eyes for anything but a book, which was his constant companion. Occasionally a game of chess, checkers or Spanish poles enlivened the cabin people, and when these things failed to interest, they would saunter about the deck until it was time to retire. The other passengers, mostly Irish and Dutch, had a bad time of it, and bitterly complained of the trashy stuff served out to them, as if they were dogs. ITor the first ten days baffling winds and a nasty head sea did not tend to make the captain a very amiable man, but on the morning of the eleventh day out a fresh breeze from the north-east overtook her, and all the morning the hasty tramping of the sailors intimated to those below that there were lively times on deck. The hoarse orders of the mate were succeeded by the still hoarser roars of the captain, sotting studding sails, and when the cabin passengers began to crawl on deck the ship was covered with canvas from the lower sails to her royals. All that day the wind increased in violence, and, in the dog watches, was increased to a gale. Still, those in the ship did not notice that so much on account of the fact that she was running from it. The sea, too, came in regular ridges, and the heavy pressure on her masts kept her steady, so she skimmed along with a gliding motion. Toward night, it being the mate’s watch, he took in the studding sails and hauled in the royals. He was getting ready to clew up the main sail when the captain staggered on deck, and, lurching in the direction of the backstay, he managed to grasp it as he roared out —

‘ Hio J What the are you doing, Jamison I Didn’t I tell you to crack on with this wind in onr starn ? Send the hands up to loose those royals agin, and just pack that mains’l on her, you lubberly coward. What in are you afraid of—a capful of wind, hey ?'

The mate strode up to the backstay and explained that there was an occasional squall passing over; that she was steering wild, and eo he thought he’d ease her a little.

‘ She’s going twelve knots now, which is fast enough, I take it, ’ ‘Ton slap that mainsail on to her, you fool. Don't you suppose I know what I’m about? and if you’re soared go below and put your head in a bag.’ The mate strode away; the three royals were set, the mainsail sheeted, and the Planet, trembling in every joint, wont boring Into the night that was now fairly shutting down on the flying ship and the heaving ocean.

The captain, chuckling to himself at hia own daring, crawled back to his state-room, took another * nip,’ and reeled back to hia post at the backstay. After a bit he got it through his head that the studding-sails were taken in, and he roared out—

* Stand by to set the maintopmaat atun’sail I*

This order made the men express a hope that he’d take the sticks out of her, and the mate had the hardihood to say that the old man was either very drunk or getting crazy, but ho went about the difficult job of netting the studding-sail, and after an hour’s labor succeeded in sotting it. As the night wore on, the wind increased in volume, the waves grew higher and broader, and the ship began to steer wildly. Occssionally a big sea would overtake her and lap inboard over the rail. She began to roll heavily, and the watch below in the forecastle turned out and gravely discussed the unusual incidents of a ship running away from a tempest under a press of sail.

{To he continued .)