Dana, Richard Henry, 1815-1882; Sailors; Seafaring life; Voyages and travels
Henry Mellus, who had been in a counting-house in Boston, and left the
forecastle, on the coast, to be agent's clerk, and whom I met, a
married man, at Los Angeles in 1859, died at that place a few years
ago, not having been successful in commercial life. Ben Stimson left
the sea for the fresh water and prairies, and settled in Detroit as a
merchant, and when I visited that city, in 1863, I was rejoiced to find
him a prosperous and respected man, and the same generous-hearted
shipmate as ever.
This ends the catalogue of the Pilgrim's original crew, except her
first master, Captain Thompson. He was not employed by the same firm
again, and got up a voyage to the coast of Sumatra for pepper. A
cousin and classmate of mine, Mr. Channing, went as supercargo, not
having consulted me as to the captain. First, Captain Thompson got
into difficulties with another American vessel on the coast, which
charged him with having taken some advantage of her in getting pepper;
and then with the natives, who accused him of having obtained too much
pepper for his weights. The natives seized him, one afternoon, as he
landed in his boat, and demanded of him to sign an order on the
supercargo for the Spanish dollars that they said were due them, on
pain of being imprisoned on shore. He never failed in pluck, and now
ordered his boat aboard, leaving him ashore, the officer to tell the
supercargo to obey no direction except under his hand. For several
successive days and nights, his ship, the Alciope, lay in the burning
sun, with rain-squalls and thunder-clouds coming over the high
mountains, waiting for a word from him. Toward evening of the fourth
or fifth day he was seen on the beach, hailing for the boat. The
natives, finding they could not force more money from him, were afraid
to hold him longer, and had let him go. He sprang into the boat, urged
her off with the utmost eagerness, leaped on board the ship like a
tiger, his eyes flashing and his face full of blood, ordered the anchor
aweigh, and the topsails set, the four guns, two on a side, loaded with
all sorts of devilish stuff, and wore her round, and, keeping as close
into the bamboo village as he could, gave them both broadsides,
slam-bang into the midst of the houses and people, and stood out to
sea! As his excitement passed off, headache, languor, fever, set
in,--the deadly coast-fever, contracted from the water and night-dews
on shore and his maddened temper. He ordered the ship to Penang, and
never saw the deck again. He died on the passage, and was buried at
sea. Mr. Channing, who took care of him in his sickness and delirium,
caught the fever from him, but, as we gratefully remember, did not die
until the ship made port, and he was under the kindly roof of a
hospitable family in Penang. The chief mate, also, took the fever, and
the second mate and crew deserted; and although the chief mate
recovered and took the ship to Europe and home, the voyage was a
melancholy disaster.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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