Early next morning, the morning watch of sailors, whose custom was to
fetch the day's supply of water for the galley and cabin, discovered that
the barrels were empty. Mr. Jackson was so alarmed that he immediately
called Captain Doane, and not many minutes elapsed ere Captain Doane had
routed out Grimshaw and Nishikanta to tell them the disaster.
Breakfast was an excitement shared in peculiarly by the Ancient Mariner
and Dag Daughtry, while the trio of partners raged and bewailed. Captain
Doane particularly wailed. Simon Nishikanta was fiendish in his
descriptions of whatever miscreant had done the deed and of how he should
be made to suffer for it, while Grimshaw clenched and repeatedly clenched
his great hands as if throttling some throat.
"I remember, it was in forty-seven--nay, forty-six--yes, forty-six," the
Ancient Mariner chattered. "It was a similar and worse predicament. It
was in the longboat, sixteen of us. We ran on Glister Reef. So named it
was after our pretty little craft discovered it one dark night and left
her bones upon it. The reef is on the Admiralty charts. Captain Doane
will verify me . . . "
No one listened, save Dag Daughtry, serving hot cakes and admiring. But
Simon Nishikanta, becoming suddenly aware that the old man was babbling,
bellowed out ferociously:
"Oh, shut up! Close your jaw! You make me tired with your everlasting
'I remember.'"
The Ancient Mariner was guilelessly surprised, as if he had slipped
somewhere in his narrative.
"No, I assure you," he continued. "It must have been some error of my
poor old tongue. It was not the _Wide Awake_, but the brig _Glister_.
Did I say _Wide Awake_? It was the _Glister_, a smart little brig,
almost a toy brig in fact, copper-bottomed, lines like a dolphin, a sea-
cutter and a wind-eater. Handled like a top. On my honour, gentlemen,
it was lively work for both watches when she went about. I was super-
cargo. We sailed out of New York, ostensibly for the north-west coast,
with sealed orders--"
"In the name of God, peace, peace! You drive me mad with your drivel!"
So Nishikanta cried out in nervous pain that was real and quivering. "Old
man, have a heart. What do I care to know of your _Glister_ and your
sealed orders!"
"Ah, sealed orders," the Ancient Mariner went on beamingly. "A magic
phrase, sealed orders." He rolled it off his tongue with unction. "Those
were the days, gentlemen, when ships did sail with sealed orders. And as
super-cargo, with my trifle invested in the adventure and my share in the
gains, I commanded the captain. Not in him, but in me were reposed the
sealed orders. I assure you I did not know myself what they were. Not
until we were around old Cape Stiff, fifty to fifty, and in fifty in the
Pacific, did I break the seal and learn we were bound for Van Dieman's
Land. They called it Van Dieman's Land in those days . . . "
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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