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Updated: May 17, 2025
"Lay aft to the main-brace." The men on watch hesitated a moment and then came crowding aft and began to cast off the weather-brace from its belaying-pin.
Reeling and staggering to the fore-rigging, I clutched at and hung on to a belaying-pin, and looked about me fore-and- aft.
As the mate called out to the hands to loose the topgallant sails, and half a dozen men sprang aloft, the captain turned to Barry. "Oh, I had quite forgotten those gaol-birds. Bos'un, bring a light. Come with me, Mr. Barry, and," he added, "bring one of these with you," as he took a belaying-pin out of the rail.
Before I could even think of rising, Kidd, who, as he struck, shouted to Yawl to "kill the Indian," was kneeling on my back with his fingers round my windpipe. "At last! I have you now, you conceited jackanapes, you d d sea-lawyer. Where have you got them diamonds? You won't answer! Shall I throttle you, or brain you with this belaying-pin?
The seas outside assailed our bows, and their fury thrilled me, and seemed a part of my desire to slay. I tore off my jacket and started for the scuttle with the belaying-pin gripped in my hand, bent on battering down the barrier which kept us from the upper deck. "Not that," said Riggs, seizing me.
With the handle of the belaying-pin gripped in one hand, and the knife in the pocket of my nankeen jacket ready for an emergency, I felt my way along the port side toward the foot of the companion, determined to get out of the stinking hole and try my chances in the open.
About midway of the pass there was a cry and a scurry, a man was seen to leap upon the rail, and, throwing his arms over his head, to stoop and plunge into the sea. "Steady as she goes," the captain cried, relinquishing the wheel to Huish. The next moment he was forward in the midst of the Kanakas, belaying-pin in hand.
Now the Flamingo's boats were officered by two cool, profane mates, who had no nerves themselves, and did not see the use of nerves in other people. "Kids with them," added the second mate. "And if any of you rats of men shove your way down here," said the chief mate, "before all the skirt is ferried across, you'll get knocked on the head, that's all. Savvy that belaying-pin I got in my fist?
This was rank heresy, and moreover seemed to imply something. Captain Nugent wondered dismally whether life ashore would infect him with the same opinions. "What about that man of mine who threw a belaying-pin at me?" The harbour-master quailed at the challenge. The obvious retort was offensive.
I struck with a belaying-pin in preference, because I hoped that I might subdue him without killing him." He was acquitted, and soon after offered command of a new ship built to trade with India. The charm of life in Virginia appealed more and more strongly to the sailor.
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