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'Look here, muster, says I, 'when I'm shuftun' a shup ot night I follow the law, an' the law dustunctly says I must regulate me actions by the lights o' the shuppun'. Your lighter never hod no ridun' light, nor dud I look for ony lighter wuthout lights tull show ut. "'The mate says he beguns. "'Domn the mate, says I. 'Dud your lighter hov a ridun' light?
Ut was plain murder o' the lives o' all of us, for ut was no the time for the buggest shup afloat tull be runnun'. Run? Never hov I seen the like! Ut was beyond all thunkun', an' me goun' tull sea, boy an' men, for forty year. I tell you ut was fair awesome.
Ut's a puir job thus sea-farmun'. Me managin' un all seas an' weather an' perils o' the deep a shup worth fufty thousand pounds, wuth cargoes ot times worth fufty thousand more a hundred thousand pounds, half a million dollars uz the Yankees say, an' me wuth all the responsubility gettun' a screw o' twenty pounds a month.
"An' next marnun', just uz I'm after dressun', the steward says, 'A mon tull see ye, sir. 'Fetch hum un, says I. An' un he come. 'Sut down, says I. An' he sot down. "He was the owner of the lighter, an' when he hod told hus story, I says, 'I dudna see ony lighter. "'What, mon? says he. 'No see a two-hundred-ton lighter, bug oz a house, alongside thot shup?
A shup o' ours was un tull Auckland recently an' uncurred no such charge. We beg tull advise you thot we conseeder thus pilotage an onnecessary expense which should no be uncurred un the future." "But dud they say a word tull me for the fufteen pounds I saved tull them? No a word.
He asks every shup he meets upon the sea tull ot last he meets wuth a shup thot's been tull Voloparaiso, an' the captun o' thot shup tells hum the way. An' Jummy scratches hus head an' says he understands an' thot ut's a very sumple motter after all." The skipper chuckled at the joke, and his tired blue eyes were merry for the moment.
"'We smashed thot lighter, says he, comun' up the lodder tull the brudge an' the pilot stondun' there wuth his ears cocked tull hear. "'What lighter? says I. "'Thot lighter alongside the shup, says the mate. "'I dudna see no lighter, says I, and wuth thot I steps on hus fut guid an' hard.
"'I was goin' by the shup's lights, says I, 'an' I dudna touch the shup, thot I know. "'But ye dud touch the lighter, says he. 'Ye smashed her. There's a thousand dollars' domage done, an' I'll see ye pay for ut.
'Then you are dootun' the chief engineer, says they. 'I'm no dootun', says I, 'but I canna see my way tull sign. Come wuth me tull the shup. The launch wull cost ye naught an' ut 'ull brung ye back. An' we wull see what MacPherson says. "But they would no come. Ot Portland I got the bill un a letter. I took no notice. Ot Hong-Kong I got a letter from the owners.
"An' there was the motter o' them fire-bars ot Newcastle. The firm ashore made them heavier than the engineer's speecifications, an' then forgot tull charge for the dufference. Ot the last moment, wuth me ashore gettun' me clearance, they come wuth the bill: 'Tull error on fire-bars, sux pounds. They'd been tull the shup an' MacPherson hod O.K.'d ut. I said ut was strange an' would no pay.
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