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A List To Starboard 1909 By: Francis Hopkinson Smith (1838-1915) |
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By F. Hopkinson Smith 1909
I A short, square chunk of a man walked into a shipping office on the East
Side, and inquired for the Manager of the Line. He had kindly blue eyes,
a stub nose, and a mouth that shut to like a rat trap, and stayed
shut. Under his chin hung a pair of half moon whiskers which framed his
weather beaten face as a spike collar frames a dog's. "You don't want to send this vessel to sea again," blurted out the
chunk. "She ought to go to the dry dock. Her boats haven't had a
brushful of paint for a year; her boilers are caked clear to her
top flues, and her pumps won't take care of her bilge water. Charter
something else and lay her up." The Manager turned in his revolving chair and faced him. He was the
opposite of the Captain in weight, length, and thickness a slim,
well groomed, puffy cheeked man of sixty with a pair of uncertain, badly
aimed eyes and a voice like the purr of a cat. "Oh, my dear Captain, you surely don't mean what you say. She is
perfectly seaworthy and sound. Just look at her inspection " and he
passed him the certificate. "No I don't want to see it! I know 'em by heart: it's a lie, whatever
it says. Give an inspector twenty dollars and he's stone blind." The Manager laughed softly. He had handled too many rebellious captains
in his time; they all had a protest of some kind it was either the
crew, or the grub, or the coal, or the way she was stowed. Then he added
softly, more as a joke than anything else: "Not afraid, are you, Captain?" A crack started from the left hand corner of the Captain's mouth,
crossed a fissure in his face, stopped within half an inch of his stub
nose, and died out in a smile of derision. "What I'm afraid of is neither here nor there. There's cattle
aboard that is, there will be by to morrow night; and there's a lot of
passengers booked, some of 'em women and children. It isn't honest to
ship 'em and you know it! As to her boilers send for the Chief Engineer.
He'll tell you. You call it taking risks; I call it murder!" "And so I understand you refuse to obey the orders of the Board? and
yet she's got to sail on the 16th if she sinks outside." "When I refuse to obey the orders of the Board I'll tell the Board, not
you. And when I do tell 'em I'll tell 'em something else, and that is,
that this chartering of worn out tramps, painting 'em up and putting 'em
into the Line, has got to stop, or there'll be trouble." "But this will be her last trip, Captain. Then we'll overhaul her." "I've heard that lie for a year. She'll run as long as they can insure
her and her cargo. As for the women and children, I suppose they don't
count " and he turned on his heel and left the office. On the way out he met the Chief Engineer. "Do the best you can, Mike," he said; "orders are we sail on the 16th." On the fourth day out this conversation took place in the smoking room
between a group of passengers. "Regular tub, this ship!" growled the Man Who Knew It All to the Bum
Actor. "Screw out of the water every souse she makes; lot of dirty
sailors skating over the decks instead of keeping below where they
belong; Chief Engineer loafing in the Captain's room every chance he
gets there he goes now and it's the second time since breakfast. And
the Captain is no better! And just look at the accommodations three
stewards and a woman! What's that to look after thirty five passengers?
Half the time I have to wait an hour to get something to eat such as it
is. And my bunk wasn't made up yesterday until plumb night. That bunch
in the steerage must be having a hard time." "We get all we pay for," essayed the Travelling Man. "She ain't rigged
for cabin passengers, and the Captain don't want 'em. Didn't want
to take me except our folks had a lot of stuff aboard. Had enough
passengers, he said." "Well, he took the widow and her two kids" continued the
Man Who Knew It All "and they were the last to get aboard. Half the
time he's playing nurse instead of looking after his ship... Continue reading book >>
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