AN AFRICAN SHIP CAPTAIN'S FAILINGS.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 48, 20 September 1864, Page 3

AN AFRICAN SHIP CAPTAIN'S FAILINGS.

{From " Savage Africa," by W. Windwood Reade.) I stopped at the barque wliere I had , left some of my things. The captain was away aboard the hulk on a visit, so handing over my weather-beaten canister to the steward, I requested him to make me some tea. When he brought it he told me there had been an " awful row," and spun a long yarn, which, as he spoke in a low voice for fear of being overheard, and as I, not caring for servant's scandal, did not listen, was thrown away upon me. The mate came down and said to me, " Have you any trade powder with you, Mr Reade?" " I have one cask," said I. " Then look after ifc, sir, whatever you do, for that man has said he will blow up the ship." I turned round and looked at the Malay. His thin Ups were pinched together. "This is my report of the matter, carpenter," said the mate to that dignitary, who had just come below. "If you think it'll do why, I'll copy it in the log-book now lam about it." The carpenter took the slate oufc of the chief officer's hand, and read it out in an under tone. It was as nearly as I can remember as follows : — " April 28 — The mate having given the steward an order in the absence of the captain, the steward answered that he would see him dammned first. When the mate repeated the order and called him a eaucy fellow, ho ran into his bunk where he had two guns ready loaded, and aimed one at me bufc providentially it flashed in the pan. I had him pufc into irons. At two o'clock p.m., the master camo on board in a state of beastly intoxication, and ordered the steward to be taken oufc of irons, although he had threatened to shoot me and blow up the ship as soon as he was loose. As they were taking the irons off him, the master, seeing he was mad drunk, asked where he had got the liquor from, and when he found the steward had stole some rum whicli he kept for his private use he snatched up an axe and would have killed the man on the spot had not the ship's carpenter canted off the blow with his arm." Having heard ail this, I expressed my surprise that the captain should be in a state of " beastly intoxication." lie had never drank anything stronger that water in my presence, and hacl repeatedly told me that he civ d not take a glass of beer, even in England, without its completely upsetting him. This innocent remark was followed by " startling disclosures." " It appeared" that the captain had been a warrant-officer in the navy, and had commanded several merchant men ; but his vice had always proved his ruin, and ho had been long out of employ when this vessel was fitting out for sea. His specious tongue then won him a berth which first class men do. not care to accept ; and he was drunk before the vessel was clear of the Mersey. " The only time he has be.Mi sober, Mr. Reade," continued' the mate " was afc Bapuk, when you was there, and then he'd got himself into such a horful diseased state as he could'nt drink. Ah ! what a time we've had ! Here's been the crew as sick as sheep, and we lying in that rotten hole (that's what I call it leastways) not taking enough in a week to pay a day's expenses. I've talked to him times on times, sir ; Ive asked him what he will do when they turn him out of it, as they surely will ; I've even wrote ifc down on the slate, and showed it to him. Well, he blubbered like a cow ; but what good's that ? What goes out of him blubbering, goes in again from the bottle, hot and strong. That ain't the wust, or near the wust, Mr. Reade. The second mate as is gone was a plain, free-spoken kind of man, and he made no secret of it that he'd tell the owners a tale or two as soon as he got home, how the captain drank up a locker of beer and wine as had been shipped in cases of sickness — how he sar ved out the crew, flo<>*o-ing on 'em, let alone hi 3 adulterations witli them oily black girls, when he's got a wife of his own at Liverpool and all. Well, sir, the second mate fell ill at Brass—for that's where he went to fust; and a rare, nasty, fever-stricken, God forgotten place is Brass— tho wust river in all that stinking Bight. Well, sir, the second mate was laving on these here lockers 'down' with fever, very bad. and the captain he was below drunk (or"pretending to be drunk as some of 'em says), and he says to him, ' Cheer up, old fellow,' says he, 'cheer up and have a drop o'somethhig, and you'll be all right to-morrow.' 'Wait a moment," he says, ' and I'U give you a composing draught.' It was a composing draught ; for it was a tumbler of brandy and raw laudanum mixed. And the mate he drank it up, and never spoke again." Mongilombo's warning, and the carpenter's persistent refusal to tbe captain's medicines flashed upon me. "We're afraid to go to sea with that man," said the mate. "He durs'nt go to Liverpool." I advised them to write to the Consul of Fernando Po as soon as they arrivod at Gaboon, where the captain intended to victual his barque on the voyage home. I then paddled over to the bulk, where the last doubts I might have had regarding the real drunkard were dispeUed. He was lying ou a sofa with an empty brandy-bottle by his side, and a very red face. He explained to me that he was prevented by some mysterious impediment from rising as politeness suggested, and thafc there were sensations in his head which he was at a loss to understand. Muttering something about his poor steward who had been put in irons by his drunken mate, and having asked me if I had shot any gun-ill — I—las,1 — las, he dropped offinto a swinish sleep. To finish thia character. When the barque arrived at the G-aboon, which was not tiU' a month afterwards, the mate and the carpenter went to the Rev. W. Walker, of whom they had heard me speak in high terms, and whose feUow-labourers at Corsica bad rendered them many kindnesses, and they told him the story which I have just related. Mr. Walker visited the captain, informed him that his officers and crew demanded a consular investigation, and advised him to avoid that investigation by making over liis command to the chief oflicer, and leaving the ship. The captain was guilty and alarmed. Against him were charges of cruel treatment, embezzlement, and wilful murder. Only the Malay remained on his side ; even supposing that the affair of the axe had not altered that youth's affections. And so he took a step which is perhaps without parallel ; he accepted the advice of one who was a foreigner, who had no kind of authority over him, anoY whom ho detested as vilUaiisdetested good men. He gave up thecommandof afine vessel, and landed his chest and carcass at a place, where he possessed nothing but his bad name. Thelast time I saw him was on board the English vessel that left me at Prince's Island. He told me with his unaltered assurance ; . tliafche had sent his barque* home, and had stayed behind to collect his debts, and was now on his way to Fernando Po to obtain the assistance of fche Consul. I could see that lie had hopes of utilising me; as.he had left the Gaboon with the intention of returning to Fernando, Po. , He was- lodged in., the. mate's cabinf and ' after'dinrier, that oflicer came inand said to the skipper, " Howon*t : take anything, sir-, says he's determined to turnover a nev^ leaf.'^ ;'" But he must take something," Isaidlthe captain,I" if it's L only a 'dr■bp , . , • , 'think Yhi^will ; J corns very owdacious o verity 4^ mr^ed t J»e bf the sot-up* eowne with the stavranr oka tho Key m

the locker. I peeped into the mate's cabin an hour afterwards. The mate had ; turned in. , The man was drinking alone. I walked on 'deck' an hour longer. Then I looked down the skylight.;? Hewa» raising a bottle to his mouth. His watery y eyes fluttered from, side. to side till suddenly . .th^Ybecai^. J charged with blood. VEH3 face fromipiicpleYVeMTrte. 1 ..- --! livid; he tried with red and swollen hands, to grasp unseen objects and fell to ',the r floor— dead;