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Updated: May 18, 2025
At the trial, during which the "old maids" and The Sailors' Aid Society came to the fore, Captain Schantze roared his indignant best so much so that the judge warned him that he was not on his ship but on English ground.... Franz got a handsome verdict in his favour, of course.
"I don't understand," replied Schantze; he was playful now, as a cat is with a mouse ... or rather, like a big boy with a smaller boy whom he can bully. After all, Schantze was only a big, good-natured "kid" of thirty. Then Franz ran through one language after another ... Spanish, Italian, French.... The captain noticed me out of the tail of his eye. His big, broad face kindled into a grin.
Captain Schantze, First Mate Miller, Second Mate Stange, stood waiting the ceremonial on the officers' bridge, an amused smile playing over their faces. A big, boy-faced sailor named Klaus, and the ship's blacksmith, a grey-eyed, sandy-haired fellow named Klumpf, followed the sailmaker close behind, as he swept along in his regalia, solemnly and majestically. And Klaus beat a triangle.
"What are you doing here on deck, you rascal!" He gave me an affectionate, rough pull of the ear. "Polishing the brass, sir!" "And taking everything in at the same time, eh? so you can write a poem about it?" His vanity flattered, Schantze began answering Franz back, and, to and fro they shuttled their tongues, each showing off to the other and to me, a mere cabin boy.
The cook had sent me into the store-room for some potatoes. Miller, the first mate, was quite fat and bleary-eyed. He used to go about sweating clear through his clothes on warm days. At such times I could detect the faint reek of alcohol coming through his pores. It's a wonder Schantze didn't notice it, as I did.
"The English custom's officer who comes aboard here is an old friend of Schantze's, and a teetotaler ... so the captain always treats him to soda water." "But Karl and I have drunk it all up already," I confessed slowly. "You'll both catch a good hiding then when he calls for it and finds there is none." The next day the customs man came aboard. "Have a drink, Mr. Wollaston?" Schantze asked him.
But one of the boys in your party strayed away ... went to another saloon and had a few more drinks ... and someone stuck him with a knife in the short ribs ... he's in the hospital." "But can't Captain Schantze pick up another man right away?" "The consulate's closed till ten to-morrow morning.
Captain Schantze caught him with the full force of his big, open right hand on the left side of his face.... Whish! Captain Schantze caught him with the full force of his open left, on the other cheek! The shanghaied man stiffened. He trembled violently. "Do it a thousand times, my dear captain. I won't sign till you kill me." "Take him forward.
I enjoyed the malicious wantonness of my acts, and my prospective jump into the unknown ... all the South Seas waited for me ... all the world! But, though every moment's delay brought detection and danger nearer, I found time for yet one more stroke. With a laughable vision of Schantze smashing Miller all over the cabin, I wrote and left this note pinned on the former's pillow: Dear Captain:
"And you shall get it, my man!" answered the mate proudly, "for you have been assaulted on English ground, as I'll stand witness." A whistle was blown. Men came running. Soon Franz was outside the jurisdiction of Germany. The next day Captain Schantze stalked about, hardly speaking to Miller. He was angry and laid the blame at the latter's door.
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