Miles Wallingford: Sequel to "Afloat and Ashore"Cooper, James Fenimore
General
Miles Wallingford: Sequel to "Afloat and Ashore"
Cooper, James Fenimore
Merchant mariners -- Fiction; Sea stories; Seafaring life -- Fiction
Mr. Sennit brought on board with him, as a prize-crew, ten foremast men,
besides a master's-mate, of the name of Diggens. Under ordinary
circumstances, this last dignitary would have been of sufficient skill to
take the ship in: but this was the first prize Lord Harry had taken; she
promised to be valuable if condemned; and I suppose he and his young,
gentleman-like luffs were desirous of getting rid of their vulgar
associate. At any rate, Messrs. Sennit and Diggens both came on board us,
bag and baggage.
The various changes, the lunch, and the chase of the morning, had so far
worn away the day, that the two vessels did not make sail until four
o'clock, P.M., when both ships filled at the same time; the Speedy on a
wind, with two reefs in her top-sails, as when first seen, to play about
for more prizes, and the Dawn under studding-sails, with the wind nearly
over the taffrail. When all was ready, each ship started away from the
vacant point on the ocean, where they had been lying for hours, moving on
diverging lines, at a rate that soon put a wide expanse of water
between them.
I felt the circumstance of being left under the command of such a man as
Sennit almost as sensibly as I felt the loss of my ship. He and the mate
established themselves in my cabin, within the first hour, in a way that
would have brought about an explosion, had not policy forbade it, on my
part. Sennit even took possession of my state-room, in which he ordered
his own cot to be swung, and from which he coolly directed my mattress to
be removed. As the lockers were under locks and keys, I permitted him to
take possession without a remonstrance. Diggens stowed his bedding in
Marble's berth, leaving my mate and myself to shift for ourselves. At a
suggestion from Marble, I affected great indignation at this treatment,
directing Neb to clear away a place in the steerage, in which to live, and
to swing hammocks there for Marble and myself. This movement had some
effect on Sennit, who was anxious to get at the small-stores; all of which
were under good locks, and locks that he did not dare violate, under an
order from the admiralty. It was, therefore, of much importance to him to
belong to my mess; and the necessity of doing something to appease my
resentment became immediately apparent to him. He made some apologies for
his cavalier conduct, justifying what he had done on the score of his rank
and the usages of navies, and I thought it prudent to receive his excuses
in a way to avoid an open rupture. Sennit was left in possession of the
state-room, but I remained in the steerage; consenting, however, to mess
in the cabin. This arrangement, which was altogether premeditated on my
part, gave me many opportunities of consulting privately with Marble; and
of making sundry preparations for profiting by the first occasion that
should offer to re-take the ship. In that day, re-captures were of pretty
frequent occurrence; and I no sooner understood the Dawn was to be sent
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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