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Updated: June 2, 2025
Mr Bryce, the chief-mate of the Flying Cloud, was one of those unfortunate men who are always more or less in an ill humour. He was, like poor Mrs Gummidge, "contrairy," and so disputatious that it was almost impossible for anyone to make a statement that he would not either deny outright or strive to prove fallacious.
"There'll be good picking in that French gentleman, Master Miles, for those who come in at the beginning of the plunder!" The chief-mate then told me to go below and turn up all hands, making as little rumpus about it as possible.
And, to cheer me up still more, I sees the little Lily coming back to look for her chief-mate. "If you'll believe me, Harry, I'm of opinion that devil saw you comin' as well as myself, and that he knowed he'd have to make up his mind pretty soon, or lose me altogether, for he began to swim round me now tolerable smart, and presently he makes a dive.
It is now nearly three years ago since I sailed from Valparaiso for Canton, whence we were to proceed to Bombay, and so home round the Cape of Good Hope. I was then chief-mate. We met with nothing but calms for the first three weeks of our passage, after which the weather changed, and we had a succession of adverse gales until we were within fifteen degrees of the line.
Arrived then at this spot, with one hand still to his nose, he bawled "Bouton-de-Rose, ahoy! are there any of you Bouton-de-Roses that speak English?" "Yes," rejoined a Guernsey-man from the bulwarks, who turned out to be the chief-mate. "Well, then, my Bouton-de-Rose-bud, have you seen the White Whale?" "WHAT whale?" "The WHITE Whale a Sperm Whale Moby Dick, have ye seen him?
This, however, was not so formidable a matter as it at first sight appeared; for, the hold being tightly packed with cargo, the water could only get into the interstices, and a comparatively small quantity would consequently show a large rise in the pump-well. A strong gang was now sent on board the barque, with the chief-mate in command; and the pumps were at once manned.
However, it could not be helped, and Captain Blyth was obliged to content himself with the hope that Mr Bryce who had come to him with a very good recommendation would turn out to be a better chief-mate than, at the moment, seemed likely.
Sail ho! right ahead Mr Bryce," he reported to the chief-mate. The mate, who was sitting smoking on a hen-coop, to leeward, close to the break of the poop, rose slowly to his feet, walked to the weather side of the deck, and, shading his eyes with his hand, looked ahead, but was apparently unable to see anything.
The chief-mate stood by the wheel assisting the steersman; the crew clustered on the starboard side of the forecastle, casting uneasy glances now at the chaos of foaming water ahead, and then at the face of their captain, which was occasionally seen in the pale light of a stray moonbeam.
The captain praised us, and, as a matter of course in that day, he called all hands to "splice the main-brace." After this, the watch was told to go below, as regularly as if nothing had happened. As for the captain himself, he and Mr. Marble and Mr. Kite went prying about the ship to ascertain if anything material had been cut by what the chief-mate called "the bloody Indian matchlocks."
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