Dana, Richard Henry, 1815-1882; Sailors; Seafaring life; Voyages and travels
Sam seemed to have got funny again, and he and John the Swede learned
that Captain Thompson had several months before sailed in command of a
ship for the coast of Sumatra, and that their chance of proceedings
against him at law was hopeless. Sam was afterwards lost in a brig off
the coast of Brazil, when all hands went down. Of John and the rest of
the men I have never heard. The Marblehead boy, Sam, turned out badly;
and, although he had influential friends, never allowed them to improve
his condition. The old carpenter, the Fin, of whom the cook stood in
such awe (ante p. 41), had fallen sick and died in Santa Barbara, and
was buried ashore. Jim Hall, from the Kennebec, who sailed with us
before the mast, and was made second mate in Foster's place, came home
chief mate of the Pilgrim. I have often seen him since. His lot has
been prosperous, as he well deserved it should be. He has commanded
the largest ships, and when I last saw him, was going to the Pacific
coast of South America, to take charge of a line of mail steamers.
Poor, luckless Foster I have twice seen. He came into my rooms in
Boston, after I had become a barrister and my narrative had been
published, and told me he was chief mate of a big ship; that he had
heard I had said some things unfavorable of him in my book; that he had
just bought it, and was going to read it that night, and if I had said
anything unfair of him, he would punish me if he found me in State
Street. I surveyed him from head to foot, and said to him, "Foster, you
were not a formidable man when I last knew you, and I don't believe you
are now." Either he was of my opinion, or thought I had spoken of him
well enough, for the next (and last) time I met him he was civil and
pleasant.
I believe I omitted to state that Mr. Andrew B. Amerzene, the chief
mate of the Pilgrim, an estimable, kind, and trustworthy man, had a
difficulty with Captain Faucon, who thought him slack, was turned off
duty, and sent home with us in the Alert. Captain Thompson, instead of
giving him the place of a mate off duty, put him into the narrow
between-decks, where a space, not over four feet high, had been left
out among the hides, and there compelled him to live the whole
wearisome voyage, through trades and tropics, and round Cape Horn, with
nothing to do,--not allowed to converse or walk with the officers, and
obliged to get his grub himself from the galley, in the tin pot and kid
of a common sailor. I used to talk with him as much as I had
opportunity to, but his lot was wretched, and in every way wounding to
his feelings. After our arrival, Captain Thompson was obliged to make
him compensation for this treatment. It happens that I have never
heard of him since.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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