Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 64, No. 398, December 1848Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 64, No. 398, December 1848
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
"Now," says the mate, "the chap'll be liker a sailor to-morrow.
He's got some spunk in him, though, by the way he let drive at you, my
lad," says he: "that fellow'll either catch the cat or spoil the
monkey. Look after him, Jacobs, my lad," says the third mate; "he's in
my watch, and the captain wants him to rough it out; so show him the
ropes, and let him taste an end now an' then. Ha! ha! ha!" says he
again, laughing, "'tis the first time I ever see a embreller loosed
out at sea, and but the second I've seen brought aboard even! He's the
greenest hand, sure enough, it's been my luck to come across! But
green they say's nigh to blue, so look out if I don't try to make a
sailor of the young spark!"
Well, for the next three or four days the poor fellow was knocked
about on all hands: he'd got to go aloft to the 'gallant cross-trees,
and out on the yard foot-ropes the next morning, before breakfast;
and, coming down, the men made him fast till he sent down the key of
his bottle-chest to pay his footing. If he closed his eyes moment in
the watch, slash comes bucketful o' Channel water over him; the third
mate would keep him two hours on end, larnin' to rig out a sternsail
boom, or grease a royal mast. He led a dog's life of it, too, in the
half-deck: last come, in course, has al'ays to go and fill the bread
barge, scrub the planks, an' do all the dirty jobs. Them _owners'
prentices_, sich as he had for messmates, is always worse to their own
kind by far nor the "_common sailors_," as the long-shore folks calls
a foremast-man. I couldn't help takin' pity on the poor lad, bein' the
only one as had seen the way of his upbringing, and I feelt a sort of
a charge of him like; so one night I had a quiet spell with him in the
watch, an' as soon's I fell to speak kind-ways, there I seed the water
stand i' the boy's eyes. "It's a good thing," says he, tryin' to gulp
it down--"it's a good thing mother don't see all this!" "Ho, ho!" says
I, "my lad, 'tis all but another way of bein' sea-sick! You doesn't
get the land cleared out, and snuff the blue breeze nat'ral like, all
at once! Hows'ever, my lad," says I, "take my advice--bring your
hammock an' chest into the fok'sle; swap half your fine clothes for
blue shirts and canvass trowsers; turn-to ready and willing, an' do
all that's asked you--you'll soon find the differ 'twixt the men and a
few petty officers an' 'prentices half out their time. The men'll soon
make a sailor of you: you'll see what a seaman is; you'll larn ten
times the knowledge; an', add to that, you'll not be browbeat and
looked jealous on!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account