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Updated: September 25, 2025
Obedient to my wishes, the ship fell off, and I soon got a glimpse, from the spot where I stood, at the wheel, of the wreck a little clear of the weather cat-head. By this time, the wind was so light, and the ship had got to be so deep in the water, that the motion of the last was very slow.
The designer was one El Osta Abdullah, a former employee of General Gordon's in Khartoum Arsenal. There were several steam engines; the principal one driving the main shafting was of 28 horse-power. The fly-wheel was 4 feet in diameter. There were five lathes, one cat-head lathe 36 inch, three drills, and other tools including a slotting machine, all in perfect going order.
There are many ropes in the ship, and you have a great deal to learn before I shall be willing to trust you with the anchor at the cat-head." "What is the cat-head, sir?" asked Kendall "Do you wish to go to sea without knowing what the cat-head is?" replied the principal. "You shall know in due time. To-morrow we shall select the officers, fifteen in number, who are to occupy the after cabin."
Seeing that they persisted in coming nearer, I fired the second shot so close to the chap who wanted to "yammerschooner" that he changed his mind quickly enough and bellowed with fear, "Bueno jo via Isla," and sitting down in his canoe, he rubbed his starboard cat-head for some time.
Oppressed by the fear that goes with evil-doing, the man hesitated for a moment before attempting to retrieve what constructively was his property. In that fateful moment the bag opened and a woebegone little black cat-head appeared; and then the whole of a delighted little black cat-body emerged and cuddled with joy-purrs of recognition in its deliverer's arms!
Gradually she loses her way, hardly moving, with the three figures on her forecastle waiting attentively about the cat-head for the last order of, perhaps, full ninety days at sea: "Let go!" This is the final word of a ship's ended journey, the closing word of her toil and of her achievement.
We enter'd the greater Number of our Men, who were so warmly received, that but few came off; and as she was preparing to board us in her Turn, if we had not, by a lucky Shot, brought her Main-top-mast by the board, by which Accident we got off, she had certainly carried us. Upon this we got our Fore-Tack to the Cat-head, hoisted our Top-sails a-trip, and went away all Sails drawing.
And when the cat-tackle-fall was strung along, and all hands cook, steward, and all laid hold, to cat the anchor, instead of the lively song of "Cheerily, men!" in which all hands join in the chorus, we pulled a long, heavy, silent pull, and as sailors say a song is as good as ten men the anchor came to the cat-head pretty slowly.
As the ship had been only two or three days in commission, few seamen had as yet entered; but shortly afterwards they came on board in sufficient numbers; and I have sometimes ascribed the facility with which we got the ship manned, not a little to the attractive agency of the diverting vagabond, recently come from town, the fame of whose tricks soon extended over Portsea; such as catching hold of the end of the sail-maker's ball of twine, and paying the whole overboard, hand over hand, from a secure station in the rigging; or stealing the boatswain's silver call, and letting it drop from the end of the cat-head; or his getting into one of the cabin ports and tearing up the captain's letters, a trick at which even the stately skipper can only laugh.
Alabaster kohl-pots, clumsy forms to 1450; tubes of stone, glaze, wood, or reed 1450-1200. Bubastites, XXII-XXV Dynasties, 950-664 B.C. Clumsy large jars, widening to bottom, small handles. Green glazed figures of cat-head goddess, cats, pigs, and sacred eyes; coarse glass beads, yellow and black: copper wire bracelets. Glass beads with blue spots in circles of brown and white.
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