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Updated: June 9, 2025
They did not notice the approach of the sailors, with their naked feet; and the latter sprang upon them, threw them down, bound, and gagged them, without a sound save a few short exclamations of surprise being uttered. Three or four of the sailors now coiled a rope against the fo'castle door, to prevent its being opened.
There fell an evil calm like this come two year ago when I was wrecked in a ship-of-the-line within sight of Havana. Four hundred men sank with her." "If my sailors were not penned in the fo'castle " suggested the merchant skipper. "None o' that," was the stern retort. "This ship is a prize to Blackbeard and so she stays, and you will sink or swim with her."
I've seen older sailor-men than you who wouldn't have taken the risk." Never before had she appeared more splendid in his eyes than at this moment. After changing his clothes in the fo'castle, he sat for a long time, his chin in his hands, very thoughtful.
Thus, in time, he had acquired a reputation for being unreliable and a wind-bag, with the result that skippers were chary of engaging him. Not to be too prolix, at the time Captain Scraggs made the disheartening discovery that he had to have a skipper for the Maggie, Mr. Gibney found himself reduced to the alternative of longshore work or a fo'castle berth in a windjammer bound for blue water.
"Who does a man's work," Chris retorted. "And because I do a man's work I have as much right to call you by your first name as you me. We are all equals in this fo'castle, and you know it. When we signed for the voyage in San Francisco, we signed as sailors on the Sophie Sutherland and there was no difference made with any of us. Haven't I always done my work? Did I ever shirk?
But the battered, hairy sea-dogs who had fought it out in hand-to-hand conflicts on the Caribbean were for leaving the brig in safe water and sending fifty men in boats to board the Revenge at the first break of day. In the midst of the fo'castle argument, Captain Bonnet sent for Jack Cockrell and told him: "You are to keep out of harm's way, my young gamecock.
"'Any of the waiters or the chambermaids? asked Peter. "I'd been expectin' he'd ask that, and I hated to answer. "'One of the waiters was a little late, says I. 'Willie wa'n't on hand immediate. Said he went to wash his hands. "Now the help gen'rally washed in the fo'castle the servants' quarters, I mean but there was a wash room on the floor where the Sterzer-Robinsons roomed.
I will be relieved when I get good and ready, and I will not be ready until I get back from Antofagasta. Shipped crew yesterday afternoon. All arrived drunk. Next morning all hands sober. Realizing predicament, riot resulted. Fearing lose crew, Murphy and I manhandled and locked in fo'castle. When your telegram arrived it found Murphy minus front tooth, myself black eye.
She was skipper of all the hired hands and, bein' as Effie was prettier than she was, never lost a chance to lay the poor girl out. She put the other help up to pokin' fun at Effie's green ways and high-toned notions, and 'twas her that started 'em callin' her 'Lady Evelyn' in the fo'castle servants' quarters, I mean. "'I'm a-comin', 'screams Effie, startin' for the door.
The paper stated shortly that both ships had been impudently stopped in mid-Atlantic by a big war-vessel flying the Chilian flag; that the cruiser had been seriously damaged and had lost twenty of her men; while a shell had been fired into the fo'castle of the passenger ship and two of her men killed, with other such details as you know.
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