THE "FLYING DUTCHMAN."

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 381, 28 March 1849, Page 3

THE " FLYING DUTCHMAN."

Under this title we, have received a series of papers published on board the Lalla Rookh, the joint production of the passen^ gers, to vary the monotony of the long voyage. The idea seems to have been adopted when the voyage was half over, and the journal was continued with a commendable perseverance until the arrival of the Lalla Rookh at New Zealand, when the Dutchman had reached its fifteenth number. The editor in his opening address explains in the usual manner the professed objects of his journal, which seems intended to embrace every subject but politics and personalities. , As many of our reader may perhaps feel desirous of sharing the amusement which the Dutchman has afforded a select few, we have extracted some articles from its numbers which we proceed to lay before them. Our extracts are chiefly from thepoetical contributions to this outward bound chronicle as perhaps affording the greatest variety. The first is a new song set to an old tune, being a pathetic appeal to the Captain to put in at the Cape, which appears to have been successful :—: —

THE PASSENGERS' APPEAL. Tune —" Molly Bawn." Oh ! Captain, dear, why pass Cape Town While we're all wearied here at sea; If you'd but say, " Put the helm down," On Mother Earth we soon would be. The Cape de Verds we did not call at; We were to touch at Trinidada, And Glass's Island ; yet for all that From each, from all, we're far awa\ Oh ! Captain, dear, why pass Cape Town, 850., &c, &o. The Cape, you know, o'erflows with plenty; Its fruits are sweet, its skies are fair; I'U wager you one pound to, twenty We'd aU be happy were we there. Our w.ater 's scarce —the Steward snarling; How nice would cream be with our tea r Then come, say " Helm down*," Captain, darling; And Cape Town soon we all shall see. Oh! Captain, dear, why'pass Cape Town, &c, &c, &c.

Our next is of a more ambitious character, being a travestie of the tent scene in Richard the Third-— A DRAMATIC SKETCH. Scene— The Half-deck. Time—. Midnight. The Steward discovered asleep.

The ghost of a Duok m Let me sit heavy on thy soul to-night, And always : in my life thou didst So treat me, as. to make grim death At la.st deserve, from me a welcome ! f The ghosts of two Sheep appear. The pangs vjith which we died now visit thee ! The giddiness we staggered under in the boat, Whence with' such ruthless hands' thou and thy son Did drag us, light upon you twain. ~ 'a s Tb-mo.rrow in the- cuddy think on ug, ■ - l : And di;op thq soup tureen ; despair and sigh: May plates fall from thy hands, and tumblers ; Thy bread b& f burnM, and all thy hashes spoil'd. The shadow of a ZQ gallon cask qpptoachesi Dream on, I will not wake thee now, Tho' jriany a day and night thou shalt be 'haunted - IBy my poor spectre t— I t that was drained, -

By thee for eighty days, and ne'er refus'd To give thee from my scanty store of spirits, (How slender for a voyage long as this !) Thou cruelly left canted over : See me now Emptied to my last drop, and bungless ! The Steward starts out of his dream. Coming, Sir ! — yes, Sir ! — Kayle, another plate : Soft, I did but dream : This comes of eating ' giddy' mutton, and trying To pass it off for what I knew it was not. As for that Duek — 'tis true he died— what then ? Am I a murderer ? My only marvel is How, living on its wits, it liv'd so long. But then the Brandy, — ah ! that fatal leak Which has recall'd to other minds than mine The proverb stern, that waste makes woeful want. I'll try at least to prove that twenty gallons Lasting three months was, certes, passing strange. What do I fear? — myself? Oh ! could 1 sleep Unvisited by dreams. My garter I will tie A little tighter, to keep off this cramp. To-morrow 's Sunday : — well, perhaps some scouse And pudding will suffice.

The third is a police report which from the nature of the parties concerned appears to be well adapted for telling to the maj rines — High Court oj? Neptune. — A high Court of submarine Admiralty jurisdiction was held the other day at one of the stations about 3 miles below the South Pole by,bis Majesty in person, assisted by Arnphitrite qn the right, and half a dozen Nereids on the left, to try an immense lot of fish of all sorts and sizes for desertion. The information was laid by the Great Sea Serpent who stated, that while making his usual circumnavigation of the globe to make new surveys and other purposes of the arts and sciences, in obedience to his Majesty's commands, he was quite astonished at the great scarcity of fish in all parts near the surface, but especially of whales, sharks, dolphin, boneta, albicore, and flying fish. He was for some time puzzled' to accouDt for this general desertion, till by taking a short trip to the bottom he soou found out the riddle, viz. : that owing to a meati pusillanimous feeling in the present degenerate race they had formed a league to forego the glotious presence af the sun, the beauty of the heavens, and the freshness of the air (except when compelled by sheer necessity to rise) and like crawling reptiles to grovel at the j bottom instead of coming forward like fish to to be caught ; he further stated that in his cruize he had fallen in with three ships ! belonging to his Majesty's " own right little island," first, the Dadalus, of that navy " that had braved, &c," Capt. M'Quhae (whom he was proud to acknowledge as his friend); 2nd, the Wide Awake, Capt. Cheeks, with whom he exchanged a few courtesies ; and lastly, with the Dawnie Dummiedykes, Willie Willison, commander, frae the lang town o'Kjrkaldy, all of whom made the same complaint, and begged of him to lay their grievance before his Majesty, and prayed that a law may be passed to compel said deserters to return to their lespective stations for the purposes aforesaid. The Serpent having finished was ordered to take a berth lower down in order that his Majesty might see a lot of whales that were stowed behind his tail quite out of sight. His Majesty commenced by observing, that as his court was not a court of law, but of justice, he should not allow the time either of the Court, or the reporter of the Flying Dutchman, to be occupied by listening to a parcel of foolish questions foreign to the purpose, and since they have all heard the Serpent's charge (tho truth of which was beyond a doubt), he should merely allow the speaker of each tribe to make the best defence he could, commencing at the whale; A large black whale, who appeared to be one of the j oldest inhabitants of the "ocean, here lifted up ! his head from beneath the lateral fin of the ! Serpent, and said, the' real truth was that they had but one choice left, either to cut or become exterminated, that they had adopted the first, and taken refuge immediately under the two poles, where they could defy all the art of man to reach them, but why they should be stigmatised as reptiles on that account he did not know, but should not let the matter rest there (order). An old sperm fish then stood forward, and ! said that his party had been still worse used, which they had borne patiently for years, till at last they had discovered a snug berth at the bottom of the Pacific, but bo living creature should wring the secret frQm him unless the serpent, who was always ppking his nose into other fishes affairs, .happened to find it out, but if .he caught him there he'd he Mowed if he would not serve him out. jA^orpoise next addressed fais. Majesty in defence of himself and genus, for all of whom he could answer,, and stated, th.astli.iy had been as much about as ever, but i£ the Serpent took, them ioxflatf.sk he vras preqiously deceived, he begged to assure that informer that they bad seen as many ships as himself, and ten times more, but instead of stopping to hold long yarns with them (no reflections) they.alwayjs foundjit, more convenient to, ,cut their toc&y, atfd aj? to. the terni r*ptik .they might

shake flippers with each other, especially the serpent. Here his Majesty having stated that the Court stood adjourned till 10 o'clock next day our reporter left ; as he is in attendance on the court while we are writing, next week we shall be able to give the continuation of the interesting proceedings along with his Majesty's judgment on the same.

In the last extract the editor bids adieu to his readers. IMITATIONS. NO. 9. Our task is done, our labours end in peace ; Our narrative is spun, and what is writ is writ ; ' Our theme is now an echo, here we cease ; The prose, therhyme, .and if there were, the wit: The torch must be extinguish' d which hath lit The 'Dutchman's 1 lamp, illumin'd wisdom's cell, Where shadows grave and gay alternate flit : Here calmly then we sound the parting knell — The last, the dying strain, that faintly says, Farewell!