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Updated: July 11, 2025
"The captain called us by the poop-rail, and said we must abandon the ship any time. "We were twenty men all told. We had four whale-boats and a yawl. Plenty for all of us. We provisioned and watered the boats. But we stayed by the Mongol. We were far from any port and we dared not go adrift in open boats. "Then came a calm. The gas could not lift. It settled down on us.
But that dunnage had not been searched; and in it might be all sorts of dangerous weapons and equally dangerous whisky, the possession of which could bring an unpleasant solution to the problem. So Mr. Jackson and Mr. Becker leveled their pistols over the poop-rail, and the chief mate roared: "Let those things alone let 'em alone, or we'll drop some more o' you."
"They talk about running the easting down," Mr. Pike chortled to me, as we clung to the poop-rail to keep from fetching away and breaking ribs and necks. "Well, this is running your westing down if anybody should ride up in a go-devil and ask you." It was a wretched, glorious night. Sleep was impossible for me, at any rate. Nor was there even the comfort of warmth.
A fat, heavy, seafaring-looking man in a short pilot jacket came up to him as he was uttering rapid commands to the sailors aloft in stentorian accents from the poop-rail.
Here, at the moment of leaving the tug, we made our "departure" that is to say, technically began the voyage, despite the fact that we had already travelled a full twenty-four hours away from Baltimore. It was about the time of casting off, when I was leaning on the poop-rail gazing for'ard, when Miss West joined me.
From a corner of the apartment the giant dragged a brass culverin, mounted on a swivel, stolen from the poop-rail of some tall Indiaman in years gone by. This was charged with powder, and Milo searched for effective missiles for it.
"Clear away stu'ns'l gear!" These successive orders were now jerked out in rapid rotation by Mr Bitpin, who stood at the poop-rail bellowing away like a wild bull, Captain Farmer remaining alongside him and surveying with critical eye all that was done as the hands scrambled up the rigging and bustled about the deck, casting off ropes and getting the booms prepared; until, anon, the captains of the fore and maintops and the captain of the forecastle, as well as the gunner's mate, whose task it was to see to the main topmast studding sail, reported "All ready!"
"`Oh! my friend, he called out, as I covered him with my revolver from my rampart behind the poop-rail on the top of the ladder, where a roll of tarpaulin served us for shelter. `Don't be too handy with your pistol. We have got firearms too, now. Stop a minute. I have got something to say to you.
"But all that's stopped now," he lamented. "A sailor's a gentleman these days. You can't raise your voice or your hand to them." At this moment he was addressed from the poop-rail above by the second mate, a medium-sized, heavily built, clean-shaven, blond man. "The tug's in sight with the crew, sir," he announced. The mate grunted an acknowledgment, then added, "Come on down, Mr.
For before he could get so far, giving a fierce growl, the dog at once sprang up at him, his fangs meeting in the Haytian's throat, whereupon the latter, toppling backwards over the poop-rail, fell into the waist below, with the dog hanging on to him; and I noticed presently that both were dead, the brave animal who had come so opportunely to the rescue of the colonel, his master, being stabbed to the heart by a knife which the negro still held in his lifeless hand, while his own neck had been torn to pieces by the dog whom death could not force to relinquish his grip!
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