Graham's Magazine, Vol. XL, No. 5, May 1852Various
General
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XL, No. 5, May 1852
Various
Literature -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals
“‘Hows’iver, this much be sartin—eyther we must git rid o’ the two
Jonases, which is left, or the old Tartar are a doomed craft—ship and
cargo. Now, for the steward—t’other one once out of the way—his hash
is soon settled. I’d think no more of fetchin’ him a clip with my adze
than of strikin’ a shirk with a head-spade. I mistrusted the villain
iver since I fust sot eyes on the yaller frontispiece of ’im, with his
two gray toplights shinin’ like a cat’s in the dark. He’s as deep in as
t’other, and without his reason, it may be—hows’iver, to the pint—look
ye, I says there’s only one man in the ship which can manhandle the
bloody skipper, if he’s once put to the stumps.’
“‘Dat be Frank, de man-o’-war-man, I reckon,’ observed the cook.
“‘Or the Portagee,’ said the cooper, ‘or, if I’m to have a second guess,
nearer the mark, the Kanacker, John Kapooley.’
“‘John Kapooley be d—d! and the rest, too,’ said old Kennebunk,
scornfully. ‘I see it’s all lost time, as the students say at Cambridge,
to teach a nigger a logic, or a bung-driver to sarcumvent any thing but
hoops, heads and staves,’ he muttered, pushing the galley door farther
open to empty his mouth, though, luckily, he did not see me, as I sat
close abaft.
“‘I say, mates, there’s but one man which kin help us in this
quandary—and that’s the new mate.’
“‘Why, Chips,’ said the cooper, ‘Lord love you, he’s hand and glove with
him you knows of. ’Taint no manner of use of countin’ on him. He’d no
more listen to our story than the old Turk at the paliss yonder.
Besides, he’s used to sailin’ in other sort of crafts altogether, and
sticks up his nose at us whalemen. He’s jist the same sort as the Jonas
hisself, and they two is bound to stick togither this cruise—blow high,
blow low—till wind and wave parts ’em.’
“‘Dat bin ’xactly my notion, too,’ said the black, ‘him too much an
out-an-out sailor to go agin de captin.’
“‘Well, Bungs,’ answered the carpenter, ‘it’s many a long day since
you’ve been to sea afore this cruise, and you speak accordin’ to your
lights, I dare say. As to the doctor, why I can’t expect much better of
him, seein’ that he’s not long out of the bonds o’ iniquity. (The cook
was a runaway slave.) But, you see, I’ve talked the whole matter over
with Browning, and Shadduck, and Frank, the man-o’-war’s-man, as stands
for the whole o’ the starboard-watch—and says I to them, says I, what’s
to come o’ it, my lads, s’posin’ we _does_ get the ship out o’ this
blessed mess—a ghost aft, the cholery, the Turks and the tiffoons—and
the bloody skipper runs away with her, craft and cargo, after all—and
leaves us in some foreign port to go to grass with the greenhorns.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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