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Updated: June 18, 2025
And Klumpf played an accordion. Schantze replied in the same vein, beginning, "Euer Majestät " The sailors marched forward again, to their music, like pleased children. For custom was that they should have plum duff this day, and plenty of hot grog.... Before I was aware, I was caught up by several arms. For I had never before crossed the line. So I must be initiated.
They had caught the fellow and were dragging him forward by the back and scruff of the neck, while he deliberately hung limp and let his feet drag as if paralysed from the waist down. The captain stood over the group, that had come to a halt below. The captain was in good humour. "Bring him up here." The shanghaied man stood facing Schantze, with all the deference of a sailor, yet subtly defiant.
"Well, let us thank God," he finished, "for the Sailors' Aid Society and the dear old maids at Sydney!" I walked off, thinking. Franz had sworn me not to tell. Yet I was tempted to. It would get me in right with Captain Schantze. We shaped to the Cape of Good Hope with great, southern jumps. We were striking far south for the strong, steady winds.
Miller turned irritably on them. "And what's the matter with you!"... "Bring him up here!" shouted Captain Schantze. Four sailors picked Franz up and carried him, unresisting, bumping his back on the steps as he sagged like a sack half full of flour.... "Here! I've had about enough of this!" cried the captain, furious, "tie him to the rail again!..."
I was of a mind to tell the captain who was drinking his liquor but here again I feared, and cursed myself for fearing. When the mate told him of where he had found me, at last what he had done what I had said Schantze laughed.... But, later on, he sympathised with me and unexpectedly remarked: "Johann, how can you expect a heavy-minded numbskull like Miller to understand!"
Cautiously I spoke to the cook about what Karl and I were doing. For he knew, of course, that I knew of his marauding ... and of the mates' and sailmaker's ... so it was safe to tell him. "You'd better be careful," the cook admonished me. "But what could Captain Schantze want with so many bottles of syrup and soda water aboard?"
I had seen the captain the captain had also seen me. Now I started to take anything I could lay my hands on. I snatched off the wall two silver-mounted cavalry pistols, a present from his brother to Schantze. I added a bottle of kümmel to the ham and the rye bread. The kümmel a present for Hoppner.
We both hurried in ... stood facing each other, too scared to laugh at the situation. The captain had a heavy hand and carried a heavy cane when he went ashore. He had the cane with him now. After a long time: "You tell him there is none," whispered Karl. "Well, what's wrong in there?" cried Schantze impatiently. "We can't find a single bottle, sir!" I repeated, louder. "What? Come out here!
A great hulk of a man was lounging over the rail of the poop-deck, looking down over the dock. I started aft. "Hist!" the cook motioned me back mysteriously. "Be sure you say 'Sir' to him frequently." "Beg pardon, sir. But are you Captain Schantze, sir?" "Yes. What do you want?" "I've heard you needed a cabin boy." "Are you of German descent?" "No, sir." "What nationality are you, then?"
But, to my own surprise, something brave and strange entered into me. I would not be humiliated before a countryman of my mother's, that was what it was! I looked the captain straight in the eye. "Sir, I did not do it, and I won't be whipped!" "Wha-at!" ejaculated Schantze, astonished at my novel behaviour. "I didn't touch the syrup."
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