We established friendly relations with her crew, meeting some of them
ashore at the concerts. Frenchy made the acquaintance of her cook and
the "doctor" presented him with a can of curry powder. But no matter
how friendly the crew of the _Morning Star_ might be when ashore, they
were careful to never go aboard the _Fuller_; also the moral atmosphere
of this vessel was so strong that it pervaded the clothing of the whole
ship's company, for none of them ever was seen in any of the barrooms
frequented by sailors. However, Peter had met them while attending
lauas and they were as fond of swipes as the next man, quite human,
even to the extent of getting gloriously drunk.
One class of visitors on board the _Morning Star_, who seemed
in the majority, were the army officers. And by the word "army" as
generally used in the capital of the Hawaiian Republic at that time,
was meant the Salvation Army. The Salvationists were very influential
in affairs along the waterfront. We had been in port about a week
when their advance guard came over our rail, sort of spiritual Uhlans
descending upon us, after dusk, as we sat about between the time of
clearing away the supper kids and lighting our pipes for a stroll
ashore. And let it here be said that whatever good they may do in
other fields, and there is no denying this, they were working in ground
already fairly moral when they boarded the _Fuller_. My observation
has been that the moral index, if I may coin a term, is inversely
proportional to the amount of work. Hard workers, physical and mental,
are as a rule fairly moral.
On the ship _Fuller_ was gathered at that time as decent a lot of men
as ever sailed the seas. I have listened to more obscenity in a short
space of time among men who held themselves educated than fouled our
ears during the whole voyage about which I am writing. For one thing,
we always had something interesting to talk about, and our few leisure
hours were too precious to throw away.
The head scouts of the army were no doubt attracted by the rather
cheerful noises coming from our band, an organization making use of all
the typical sailor instruments, the accordion, several mouth organs, a
jew's-harp, and a drum made by Jimmy Marshall out of a small paint keg
with canvas stretched on both ends. The missioners from the good ship
_Morning Star_ were very much interested, no doubt scenting talent for
their concerts, and the party came aboard on what might be called a
cutting out expedition.
"Yes, we were getting lots to eat." "No, the ship was not particularly
hard. The captain was all right." "Yes, the mate did swear a lot; in
fact he was a bad man, but we had seen worse." "Yes, the life of a
sailor is a hard one. We all liked Honolulu. Etc. Etc." Old Smith had
the party in tow, and acted as spokesman while the parley was going on.
Jimmy in the meantime buzzed around, all eagerness to get in his fine
work at panning the ship, the grub, and everything else.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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