Short stories; United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
“Wal, the rest on 'twon't take long to tell. The old man had her fitted up
in good shape by the time the ice was out of the river, and run her up to
Bangor in ballast, and loaded her there for New York. He had an ugly trip
down the coast: lost his deck load and three men overboard in a southeaster
off Nantucket Shoals. It made the whole ship's company feel pretty solemn,
but the old man took it the hardest of any of 'em, and from that time seems
as if he lost his grip; the old scare settled back on him blacker 'n ever.
There wan't a man aboard of her that liked her. They all knew her story,
that she was the Alcázar from nobody knows where, instead of the Stranger
from Newburyport. The cap'n had Newburyport put on to her because he was a
Newburyport man and all his vessels was built there. But she hadn't more 'n
touched the dock in New York before every one on 'em left her, even to the
cook. 'I'm leery o' this 'ere ship,' says one big Cornishman. 'No better
than a floatin' coffin, anyway,' was what they all said of her; and I guess
the cap'n would 'a' left her right there himself if it hadn't been for the
money he'd put into her. I expect he was a little too fond of money, may
be; but I've knowed others just as sharp's the old cap'n that didn't seem
to have his luck. The mate saw him two or three times while he was a-lyin'
in New York, and noticed he was drinkin' more 'n usual. He come home
light and anchored off the bar, just as a southeaster was a-comin' on. It
wouldn't 'a' been no trouble for him to have laid there, if he'd had good
ground-gear; but there 'twas ag'in, he'd been a leetle too savin'. He'd
used the old cables he found in her. The new mate didn't know nothin' about
her, and he put out one anchor. The cap'n had taken a kag o' New England
rum aboard and been drawin' on it pretty reg'lar all the way up, and as
the gale come on he got kind o' wild and went at it harder 'n ever. About
midnight the cable parted. They let go the other anchor, but it didn't snub
her for a minute, and she swung, broadside to, on to the bar. The men clum
into the riggin' before she struck, but the old cap'n was staggerin' 'round
decks, kind o' dazed and dumb-like, not tryin' to do anythin' to save
himself. The mate tried to git him into the riggin', seein' he wan't in no
condition to look out for himself; but the old man struck loose from his
holt and cried out to him through the noise:--
“'Let me alone! I've got to go with her. I tell ye I've got to go with
her!'
“The mate just had time to swing himself back into the mizzen-shrouds
before the sea broke over her and left the decks bare. The old ship pounded
over the bar in an hour or so, and drifted up here on to the beach where
she is now. Every man on board was saved except the cap'n. He 'went with
her,' sure enough.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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