LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 SAN DIEGO 
 
m 
 
OUT OF GLOUCESTER 
 
"That s one end of the stays l halliards." 
 
OUT OF 
 GLOUCESTER 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES B. CONNOLLY 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS 
 NEW YORK:::::::::::::::::i 9 03 
 
COPYRIGHT, igoa, BY 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS 
 
 Published, October, igoa 
 
 TROW DIRECTORY 
 
 MINTING AND BOOKBINDINa COMPAMT 
 NIW v >. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A CHASE OVERNIGHT i 
 
 ON THE ECHO o THE MORN 31 
 
 FROM REYKJAVIK TO GLOUCESTER 69 
 
 A FISHERMAN OF COSTLA 93 
 
 TOMMIE OHLSEN S WESTERN PASSAGE . . . .131 
 CLANCY 191 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 That s one end of the stays 1 halyards" . . Frontispiece 
 
 FACING 
 
 She s an able, handsome lady, PAGE 
 
 And she s go-o-ing home 10 
 
 "I cuts away the starboard oar below" . . . . 58 
 
 The "Crow s Nest" 72 
 
 Leapin from the top of one sea to the top of another . 86 
 
 "Pole her off to the end of the quay " 104 
 
 "Look across now," said Gerald, "that s Arran you 
 
 see ahead " no 
 
 "Any worse than the one you got on now?" . .262 
 
A CHASE OVERNIGHT 
 
Lights out and southern courses, 
 Let her head come round, 
 
 Devil take the British forces 
 Here s the Echo, homeward bound. 
 
 She left Egg Isle at sunset, 
 
 And to Le Have at dawn 
 A-sailin down the wind 
 
 Came the Echo o the Morn. 
 
 Two cutters and a cruiser 
 
 Chased the Echo on her way 
 They said : " She can t get by us, 
 
 We ll get her in the Bay." 
 
 (From the ballad of " The Echo o the Morn.") 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 THE Gloucester seining fleet had been cruis 
 ing off Georges Bank, when one of those 
 New England north-easters came swooping down 
 on them. Thereupon, as nothing was to be 
 gained by hanging on (you cannot set for mack 
 erel in a gale), every vessel in the fleet made fast 
 its dory in the waist, looked to the painter of 
 the seine-boat astern, and then seventy or eighty 
 seiners took on a beautiful slant and made a roar 
 ing regatta of it to Provincetown, the nearest port 
 of refuge. 
 
 In the early morning hours this gale had struck 
 in on Georges. It was somewhere along in the 
 middle of the afternoon when the first of the fleet 
 showed their noses past the little light-house that 
 marks the entrance to the harbor of Province- 
 town. One after the other they came leaping 
 past the light. It was a quick look to see how 
 things lay, a haul over for one last leg, a rush 
 across the harbor, a shoot into the wind, and 
 then, after the fashion of tired gulls with wet 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 wings, a lowering of sodden sails and a thankful 
 settling into handy anchorages. 
 
 By dusk of this stormy day most of the sein 
 ing fleet was safely in. Of this Provincetown was 
 soon made aware, for among these ten or twelve 
 hundred robust fishermen there had to be the 
 inevitable boisterous percentage with some tor 
 menting energy to work off and with no desire to 
 be hushed. Such started in at sundown ; and 
 from then on, until dawn of next morning in 
 many cases, they did what they could to keep 
 that staid hamlet from drifting into a too early 
 sleep. 
 
 But, after all, only a small number of the fisher 
 men were of the riotous kind. The greater part, 
 indeed, were sensible men, who preferred to stay 
 aboard their own vessel for the evening, or to 
 drop over and see an old shipmate or two on 
 some other craft near by. These knew of old 
 the delights of a fo c s le night in a snug harbor, 
 with no watch to keep, no work to do ; where 
 you have only to talk or listen, to " smoke up " 
 and " mug up " ; to keep your pipe going and to 
 help yourself to hot coffee off the stove and good 
 grub out of the locker; to enjoy yourself to the 
 utmost in that region of bliss, where there is no 
 hurry and all things are dry ; to let your soul 
 simmer in that delicious atmosphere of tuneful 
 
 4 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 song, stirring story, and reflective blue smoke ; to 
 harken to the wailing of the winds without and 
 to know, in delightful, reposeful security no less, 
 that this time they are wailing for somebody else. 
 
 These deep-sea fishermen, in their heartiness 
 of hospitality, are the chosen of the Lord. With 
 them, the best in the locker is ever ready for the 
 caller,. be he castaway stranger, chance acquaint 
 ance, or cherished friend. Of the ways of their 
 mates all fishermen are, of course, aware. And 
 so, when two, who had been mildly celebrating 
 ashore, dropped into their dory at the end of a 
 long, planked dock, and set out in the direction 
 of the harbor lights in Provincetown this night, it 
 is likely that they were anticipating an agreeable 
 finish to their evening. It was only midnight and 
 there were yet some cheering hours to sun-up, 
 when, by skippers orders, the seining fleet would 
 be standing out to sea again. 
 
 One of these two was a big man, " able-look 
 ing," a fisherman would have said ; the build of 
 the other signified less. The big man was easily 
 in command. He sat on the after thwart, set the 
 stroke, directed all movements, and attended to 
 the hailing. It was well he owned a voice of rare 
 power ; one of only moderate force would have 
 succumbed early to the opposition of the shriek 
 ing gale and the reluctance of comfortable people 
 
 5 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 below to come up and answer bothersome ques 
 tions. 
 
 They were looking, it would seem, for that 
 reliable craft, the William Walker, which all men 
 should know by her new-painted green sides, 
 with gold stripe along the run, white mast-heads, 
 and blue seine-boat towing. But a description 
 dealing merely in color is but a poor guide at 
 night, as many, many disturbed crews explained. 
 
 When the two left the long dock, the position 
 of the William Walker had been plainly defined. 
 " No west by nothe about ; and ten minutes 
 steady rowin* about." Could anything be 
 clearer ? So, when the two set out, their confi 
 dence had been a perfect thing. The big man, 
 indeed, taking account of the blackness, had said : 
 " We don t even need to get near enough to see 
 her, Martin. Just a smell of her and we ll know 
 her " which was possibly true, but unfortu 
 nately, as was explained later, the wind was off 
 shore that night. 
 
 So round and round they rowed. The big 
 man threw his voice into the recesses of comfort 
 able bunks, and from these, wrathful men, who 
 desired not to be disturbed, had to climb out 
 and ascend to rain-swept decks, to answer curi 
 ous questions as to the location of a lively schoon 
 er, the William Walker by name, with green- 
 
 6 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 painted sides and gold stripe along the run, with 
 white mast-heads, and blue seine-boat towing. 
 The searchers were treated to some plain lan 
 guage after the first round of their uncertain 
 route, notably from over the rails of that bunch 
 of fine, able fishermen, the Eliza Parkhurst, the 
 Norumbega, the Grayling, the Harry Belden, the 
 Richard Wainright, all of Gloucester, and par 
 ticularly when they disturbed the slumbers of 
 those redoubtable old hookers, the Herald of the 
 Morning and the Good Will to Men, also of 
 Gloucester, from where, it is said, they hailed as 
 privateersmen in their palmy days. 
 
 The two men in the dory had made the fleet 
 pretty well acquainted with the distinguishing 
 marks of their vessel, with the green-painted sides 
 and the gold stripe along the run, with the white 
 mast-heads and the blue seine-boat towing, but 
 to no effect ; and many times had they robustly 
 hailed, " Aho-oy the Wil-1-liam Walker," but no 
 William Walker rose up to greet them from out 
 of the darkness of the night. 
 
 It was while they were waiting for the anathe- 
 matic responses from the deck of the Good Will 
 to Men (it was the third series from her deck), 
 waiting for the voice of wrath to die down the 
 wind, that the big man came to a final decision. 
 
 Resting dejectedly on his oars, the big man 
 7 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 said: " Seventy-odd seiners here and every blessed 
 one of em with a riding-light up, and which is 
 ours, Martin ? It s as bad as the candles and the 
 lookin -glasses goin round, ain t it ? Look at 
 em." 
 
 " Yes, tis kind of puzzlin*. What ll we do 
 now ? " 
 
 " Do ? We ll go aboard the next vessel we 
 find awake. We made a good try and even the 
 skipper couldn t kick now. Pick out any one 
 where there s a light below and we ll go aboard." 
 " Well, there s a fellow to wind ard. I can t 
 see onto her deck from here, but they must have 
 a light below, for they re noisy enough for a 
 christening. Listen to em." 
 
 "Yes. What s that they re singin ? Catch it?" 
 
 " Wait ; they ll start again. There, hear it ? " 
 
 Being to the leeward of the vessel indicated, 
 
 the words came clearly enough to the men in the 
 
 dory when they stopped rowing for a stroke or two. 
 
 She s the schooner Lucy Foster, 
 She s a seiner out of Gloucester, 
 She s an able, handsome lady, 
 She can go. 
 
 The song seemed to inspire the big man. He 
 at once set a stroke that made his dory mate pant. 
 He explained by saying, " Martin, boy, but I 
 must get into that. I don t know who they are, 
 
 8 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 but I used to be seine-heaver on the Lucy. Hit 
 her up." He put his broad back into the row 
 ing and hummed the words while the chorus 
 went on : 
 
 The way she ll walk to wind ard, 
 You would think that nothing hindered. 
 She s an able, handsome lady, 
 See her go. 
 
 That brought them to the side of the vessel. 
 The big man was over the rail with a vault and a 
 " Look to the painter, you, Martin." Onward 
 v/ent the fo c s le choir : 
 
 For 
 
 She can sail to set you crazy, 
 Not a timber in her s lazy, 
 She s the handsome Lucy Foster 
 
 And she s go-o-ing home. 
 
 The big man was down the gangway in time to 
 swell the great tide that surged up to all throats 
 for that last line. 
 
 "And she s go-o-ing home," he roared. " That 
 was the girl, the Lucy. Hulloh, Johnnie Hardy ! 
 When d you get in ? Hulloh, Dannie hulloh, 
 Mike hulloh, Ezra hulloh, everybody. Drive 
 her again, boys. Drive her now." He swirled 
 his great arm through the thick smoke by way of 
 marking time, and the whole fo c s le, waving 
 pipes or mugs to add emphasis, followed him with 
 
 9 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 extreme unction. Men sitting on lockers, men 
 lounging in bunks, men standing by the galley 
 stove, made a stop in their eating, drinking, or 
 smoking, to add vigor to the chant : 
 
 When she swings the main boom over 
 And she feels the wind abaft, 
 The way she ll walk to Gloucester 11 
 Make a steamer look a raft. 
 
 " Hurroo, fellows ! Drive her ! Here s the 
 best part of it. Now ! 
 
 Oh, the Lucy s left the ground, 
 And there s nothing standing round 
 Can hold the Lucy Foster 
 When the Lucy s homeward bound. 
 
 " She was the girl, I tell you ; warn t she, John 
 nie Hardy? All hands, now, heave away and 
 help the Lucy home. Now then whoop ! 
 
 For she s the Lucy Foster, 
 She s a seiner out of Gloucester, 
 She s an able, handsome lady, 
 
 And she s go-o-ing home. 
 
 " That s what, boys. Let Martin and me 
 mug up and get over near the fire to dry out, and 
 we ll have it again." 
 
 "And when did you get in, Steve Perkins?" 
 shouted an uproarious half-dozen at once. 
 
 " Just afore dark. But we went ashore, Mar 
 io 
 
- 6 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 tin and me, and we ve been pulling all over the 
 bay tryin to find the William Walker again. 
 Seen anything of " 
 
 " Aho-o-oy, aho-o-oy! " roared Hardy. "Seen 
 anything of the William Walker round here? 
 Green-painted sides, with a gold stripe along the 
 run, white mast-heads, and a little blue seine-boat 
 towin ? Ho, ho," roared Hardy. 
 
 " Blessed Lord ! How d you know ? " 
 
 "How? Have we no ears, man ? And that 
 was you, Steve ? If we d known, we d have hove 
 you a line. But we only says, Who in hell s 
 that crazy man ? and didn t mind." 
 
 " That so ? Well, what vessel s this ? " 
 
 " Henry Clay Parker." 
 
 " No ? The old Henry Clay ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir, the old Henry C. Been fixed up 
 down here a bit. New woodwork here and 
 there, and a few planks for ard since that last 
 jam-up she had. Changed her looks some inside 
 here, but she s the same old Henry you used to 
 know, Steve." 
 
 " Good old Henry. The only vessel that 
 ever beat the Lucy. Remember that, Johnnie? " 
 
 " M-m . That was a race, that one. I was 
 telling the boys here awhile ago the date 
 brought it up and I got started telling what the 
 Lucy could do. Five year ago to-night it was, 
 
 IX 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 Steve, and a night like to-night, outside. Blow? 
 M-m ." 
 
 "It did blow, didn t it? There s lots of us 
 glad to be here to-night with our gear safe ; but 
 that night we came through with everything 
 that d hang onto the hoops, didn t we, John 
 nie ? " 
 
 "Yes, sir. And it s queer now, Steve, you 
 was on the Parker that time and I was on the 
 Lucy." 
 
 "Yes; you with the Irishman and me with 
 Billie Simms. There was a desp rate pair of 
 fishermen for carryin sail, Billie and the Irish 
 man, and if an able seaman ever sailed out of 
 Gloucester (and there s been one or two out of 
 there, I guess), there was a pair of em. And 
 that Irishman could sail a vessel, couldn t he ? " 
 
 "Could he? Man, but he was a driver. 
 But he was pretty shrewd, too, Stevie, outside of 
 sailin a vessel. He d molded in thirty tons of 
 lead next to her keel bout a month before that 
 race, prayin to catch the Parker in a breeze." 
 
 " Didn t we hear of it ? And when Billie put 
 into Halifax two trips before that that time he 
 said he d have to get a new seine didn t he 
 make it his particular business to lay pig-iron 
 enough under her floor to stiffen a kettle-bot 
 tomed coaster ? Oh, you never heard anybody 
 
 12 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 say, I guess, that Billie Simms didn t have all his 
 senses any time, did you ? And so, when the 
 Lucy stood down to us that evenin , Billie began 
 to grin to himself, for he knew what the Irish 
 man was after." 
 
 " I mind the time well, Stevie. The Irishman 
 sings out : * Hello, Billie, you ll be headin to 
 the west ard soon by the look o things ? 
 
 " l Pretty soon, perhaps, says Billie. 
 
 " f That s what I was thinkin , says the Irish 
 man, with this nice little breeze working easth- 
 erly. I had it in my mind to run to market my 
 self. And I says to myself, now I ve got a couple 
 of hundred barrels nice fat mackerel below, and, 
 by the looks o things, Billie Simms he s got a 
 couple of hundred, too. Why, we ought to be 
 fine company goin home, thinks I, and while 
 we re about it, we might try tacks on the way 
 home, or have a fine run of it, if the wind stays 
 eastherly. 
 
 " You mean you want to race the Lucy again 
 the Henry ? says Billie. 
 
 " c Och, no. Tisn t me would be wantin* to 
 make such a boast as to sail the little Lucy agin 
 a big, able vessel like the Par-r-ker, Billie. 
 
 " And mind you, Stevie, they were the one 
 tonnage the Lucy a bit deeper, but the Hemy 
 a mite wider. 
 
 13 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 " When it comes to heavy weather, goes on 
 the blarneyin Irishman, * the whole fleet knows 
 the Par-r-ker, but just for the pure love of it, or 
 for a bit of money, if you like it better, we might 
 satisfy ourselves on a disputed p int or two of 
 sailinY 
 
 " You mean to race from here to Boston to 
 T wharf? asked Billie. 
 
 " * Well, now, it might look like a race, but 
 seein that it s fair wind comin and we re both 
 goin to market anyway, and the Irishman and 
 Billie went on you know how they went on, 
 Stevie." 
 
 " Yes. They both wanted to race bad enough, 
 but the Irishman wanted to have it to say after 
 ward that he didn t come lookin for a race, and 
 Billie wanted to make it look as though the 
 Irishman caught him kind of unready like and 
 forced him into it there d be more credit in 
 winning, if they could make people believe some 
 thing like that. 
 
 " And both of them primed for it, with ballast 
 just right for a blow, and fish and salt stowed a& 
 careful below as if it was for th America s cup. 
 Well, to shorten up the story, boys, they bet 
 their share of the trip ; that is, what would be 
 coming to them from their share as one of the 
 crew, their skipper s percentage and their share 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 as owner each of them owned half his vessel. 
 That was it, warn t it, Johnnie ? " 
 
 " That s right. Twelve hundred and odd dol 
 lars apiece put up on that race. And the Irishman 
 thought it was just as good as his before they 
 started at all. When we put after the Parker, he 
 says : f B ys, there ll be somethin* for all hands 
 out o this. Nobody turns in to-night. Crack 
 everything onto her now, when she comes about 
 tops ls, stays l, big jib and balloon and we ll put 
 after the Par-r-ker. There s a man knows the 
 Georges, Billie Simms. He ll do for our pilot and 
 we ll keep him in sight/ The Irishman was only 
 two years out of Galway then, and he wasn t ac 
 quainted with the Banks like your skipper, Steve." 
 
 " As far as that went, Johnnie, there warn t 
 many of em knew the Georges like old Billie. 
 And you d better believe that when Billie greed 
 to race he knew just what he was about. He 
 had no sentimental notions about the Henry 
 Clay. He knew well s anybody that the Parker 
 couldn t hold the Lucy Foster in fair, straight 
 sailin . He said as much when he pointed her 
 up and takes a look at the Lucy over into the 
 wind astern. 
 
 " { Boys, says Billie, it s goin* to be a gale in 
 a hurry, the way things is lookin* now. And 
 there ain t no vessel of her tonnage afloat 11 beat 
 
 15 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 the Lucy Foster into port with the Irishman 
 aboard in heavy weather. They talk about her 
 bein a summer-weather boat and all that sort of 
 foolishness, but I know better. She ll stand up 
 if she s druv to it and there s the man ll drive her 
 to it. But for all that we ll come pretty near 
 beatin the Irishman t night. Put her kites on 
 and let her roll into it. We ll hang onto em s 
 long s we can. 
 
 " So we put on every stitch and she began to 
 roll into it for fair. We could just make out the 
 Lucy then. That was about seven o clock and 
 we d just got our lights up." 
 
 " I remember it, Steve. We was trailin your 
 green light s close as we could. The Irishman 
 said he was going to stay on your quarter till we 
 were off the Banks. Once clear of the shoals he 
 said he was goin to say good-by." 
 
 " Yes. Billie figured the Irishman d play it 
 about that way. You know what real shoal spots 
 there is all along to the west ard of where we 
 were then. Billie knew them so well that he had 
 a chart of his own. He had things down on that 
 chart that weren t down on any gover ment chart. 
 Soon s we got fair away he gave me the wheel 
 and went down and got out that private chart of 
 his and began to study it on the cabin floor. He 
 had the lead kept goin , too. Billie was a genious 
 
 16 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 cuss with charts. He had red, blue, and green 
 colored ink on this one for difPrent shoals. One 
 bad shoal was all in red ; sixteen feet of water s 
 all there was there. Billie kept his finger on that 
 spot a long time and studied all round it. 
 Every once in a while he d sing out, See what s 
 under us now, and Archie Nickerson d heave 
 the lead and sing out what it was there. And 
 Billie d say, Keep her as she is for a while, 
 Steve, and I d keep her jammed up to it, almost 
 due no the bout half a point east. We was 
 certainly goin along then. 
 
 " Bime-by, Billie comes up from his chart and 
 takes a look at the bottom of the lead and begins 
 to study. Pretty soon he sings out all at once : 
 * Stand ready to blow out the side-lights when I 
 give the word a man to each and both together. 
 Steve, he turns to me you and me ll hold 
 the wheel the rest of this night. We ll let her 
 go off now four points good. Yes, more yet 
 there bout no west. Let her run that way. 
 Now let that lead go again there. We ll shake 
 up the Irishman afore a great while. 
 
 "Then the lead goes and we gets twenty 
 fathom. Pretty soon comes fifteen fathom. 
 Then it comes fourteen, thirteen twelve eleven 
 ten-n-n. When it got to ten fathom it held 
 awhile. We was thinkin you fellows on the 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 Lucy, Johnnie, was feelin kind o queer bout 
 then ten fathom and shoalin . Of course you 
 kept the lead goin ? 
 
 "You better believe we kept it goin and 
 watched it comin . When it got down to ten 
 fathom the Irishman began to get interested. 
 4 Ten fathom, is it ? he says. Faith, it s deep 
 enough in itself, but that s gin rally as shoal as I 
 sail my own vessel at night in a blow on Georges. 
 But Billie knows where he s goin or if he don t, 
 then he ought to. Then we got nine fathom. 
 He didn t say anything. When it came eight, he 
 didn t open his head, either; but he begins to 
 watch the compass and from that to lookin ahead 
 after the Parker s green light we could see your 
 starboard light all the time, we being to wind ard. 
 When it comes seven fathom, he begins to get 
 warmed up. Blessed Mother, he says, * but 
 Billie Simms will be taking us off Georges by a 
 short cut. Keep the lead hove and up for ard 
 there don t lose sight of the Par-r-ker s light. 
 
 " And how d he take it when it got still 
 shoaler ? " 
 
 "When we sings out Si-i-ix/ he only says 
 * Skatin pur-rty close, that, b ys. And then we 
 says Fi-i-ive, and we roars it out, because we 
 were beginning to get worried, knowing the des- 
 p rate kind of a man he was. But he only walks 
 
 18 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 backward and for ard, nervous like, between the 
 house and the rail to wind ard and says, c Well, 
 b ys, it s but six inches in draught betune us, and 
 what s six inches ? where there s a channel for 
 the Par-r-ker we ll find one for the Lucy. Hould 
 as near in her wake as you can to Archie Drum 
 at the wheel. * Don t let her light get away from 
 you, Archie b y, or we ll be bakin in pur-r-gatory 
 before mor-r-nin . 
 
 " Then we sung out c Fo-our and a ha-a-alf-f ! 
 and then c Fo-o-our-r ! Thre-e-e and a ha-a-alf-f, 
 
 THRE-E-E AND A HA-A-ALF-F WC hollered it 
 
 twice, just to wake him up to it. In twenty-one 
 feet of water and it shoalin and we drawin fif 
 teen ! and goin into it at about fourteen knots 
 an hour. The Irishman runs for ard at that, 
 jumps into the fore riggin and looks ahead. We 
 gets three fathom. We roared it out so you 
 
 could hear us a mile, I guess, and then " 
 
 " The Parker s lights went out, Johnnie." 
 " Yes, just then I guess it was, Stevie ; for the 
 lookout hollered out somethin* and the Irishman 
 comes jumpin back aft. 
 
 " f Hard up, hard up ! he yells to Archie. 
 Swing her off, swing her off, the Parker s gone 
 under Billie drove her to it, by hell ! Swing 
 her off, or we ll find bottom too ! Let jibs, tops l, 
 and stays l tacks and sheets run ! Turn loose 
 
 19 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 balloon halliards and take in on downhaul ! Stand 
 by to ease fore and main sheets ! Jump to it, 
 b ys, jump to it ! Well, sir, I don t know what 
 ever saved that vessel from capsizing with the 
 sail she had on. We worked like streaks, but 
 she had to come round in a hurry, and the way 
 that the Irishman and Archie at the wheel drove 
 them spokes up was a caution. 
 
 " She laid over to it till the sea was in the com 
 panion-way. She laid over so fast that we thought 
 it was all up rolled over on her side, and so fast 
 that Archie Drum let go the wheel ; let go and 
 would have left it altogether, only the Irishman 
 grits out : c Hang on, man, hang on. Blessed 
 Mother ! don t you know better than to let her 
 come up with all that water on her deck ? Hold 
 her to it till she gets a chance to roll it over the 
 way it came ! Yes, sir, that was the Irishman 
 for you. He let her have it for fair buried her 
 under it. We grabbed hold of ring-bolts and 
 sheets to keep from sliding overboard to looard. 
 But she came up. * I knew she d come, says 
 he, for twas meself that saw to her ballast and 
 she had to come, b ys if the ballast didn t shift. 
 She was sure enough a vessel and we didn t blame 
 the skipper then for the way he was stuck, on her. 
 But what did you fellows do on the Parker then., 
 Steve?" 
 
 20 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 " Well, when we saw the Lucy s port light 
 work out of sight and then the green light go 
 swingi n across our stern and then the port light 
 again go tearin away from us, we knew how it had 
 been on the Lucy. How Billie cackled ! There, 
 he says, he s the Mad Irishman, sure enough ; 
 but I ll bet something nice that them three-fathom 
 soundings and our lights goin out with it made 
 him hop. Ho, ho ! and another cable length 
 and he d been clear over it and in water as safe as 
 the middle of the Atlantic. Then Billie ordered 
 in the light sails. We ve been takin too many 
 chances with them, tryin to set a pace for the 
 Lucy. And then what do you suppose he did ? 
 Headed her more westerly than she was before. 
 Yes, sir ; west no west straight for Cape Cod. 
 There was a short cut for you. f And hold that 
 course till we re by Highland Light, he says, 
 and then we ll put her straight s she ll go for 
 Minot s. Ha, ha ! laughs Billie. We could 
 hear him above the wind l Think of the Irish 
 man beatin to the no th ard and we gettin* it two 
 points abaft the beam under all we can carry ! 
 Ha, ha ! My, but Billie laughed." 
 
 " Yes, and we d ha been beatin to the no th 
 ard yet, I guess, Steve, if the Irishman hadn t 
 got to thinkin over the way the Parker went out 
 of sight. It was gettin on toward midnight. 
 
 21 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 We d shortened sail after we thought the Parker 
 went down, and we was feelin pretty blue, thinkin 
 of all you fellows gone. We were all up on deck, 
 when all of a sudden the Irishman began to swear. 
 He was swearin so fast that we couldn t keep up 
 with him half of it in Irish. 
 
 " * Let her wear round, he yells, to Dannie 
 Hickey at the wheel. Let her come round till 
 the wind s over the quarther. Put her west half 
 no the that will be bringin us to Highland 
 Light. I don t believe that dom Billie Simms is 
 gone down at all. Cr-a-ack on all she s got now, 
 b ys. We ll get them yet, we ll get the divils 
 yet. Would you think a Christian would play 
 such a thrick ? But we ll get them, we ll have 
 them be mor-r-nin . We ll show them yet what 
 the little gur-rl can do. 
 
 " You must have come then, Johnnie ? " 
 " Come ? Man, she was an ocean liner hooked 
 up. You must know, when the Parker came a 
 hundred and twenty miles or so in nine hours, 
 how we came. Come ? She fairly leaped with 
 every for ard jump. On my soul, I thought 
 she d pull the spars out of herself. She was boil 
 ing along, fair boiling, man. She d stand up on 
 her rudder and throw her breast at the clouds, 
 then she d bury her knight-heads under. But 
 she didn t carry all her sail long. That fancy 
 
 22 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 six-hundred-yard balloon, the sentimental sum 
 mer-gauze balloon, as the fleet called it, didn t 
 stay on a great while. W-ur-r-up ! and twas up 
 in the sky. But she went along. * Can you 
 sail, you little divil, can you sail ? the Irishman 
 kept sayin*. * We ll show them, we ll show them. 
 Go it, my Lucy, go it. Man, but we came 
 along. She fair screeched, did the Lucy, that 
 night. Just think of it, Steve she, with that 
 howling no the-easter over the quarter and the 
 Parker somewhere ahead ! Could they fix things 
 better for her to sail ? Yes, sir, she screeched 
 and the Irishman stampin up and down between 
 the house and the wind ard rail. And never a 
 let up all that night. I ll bet old Billie was 
 some surprised when he saw us in the morn- 
 in ." 
 
 " Warn t he ! Warn t all of us on the Parker ? 
 Twas barely sun-up and we were inside Minot s 
 Light, fair in the harbor, you might say, and 
 Billie d just said : Well, boys, I guess we can 
 let up on her now. The wind s jumpin to the 
 no west and risin too. I wonder where the 
 Irishman is now, with his circular no therly 
 courses. He hadn t half said that when some 
 body hollered : Hi, skipper, who s that astern ? 
 
 " We all looked and damned if there warn t 
 the Lucy. She warn t too plain it was a dark 
 
 2 3 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 kind of a sun-up, you know but anybody could 
 tell the Lucy as far as they could see her. 
 
 " Billie looks. What the devil the Lucy ! 
 he says. And drivin ? My soul, look at her 
 comin* ! Make sail ! he hollers. Up with 
 them tops ls and balloon. Up with them ! he 
 hollers. Somebody shift tacks for that fore 
 tops l there. We ll jibe over and shoot through 
 The Narrows. Bend on that stays l, boys ! Fly 
 fly boys ! the devil himself is after us now. 
 We made sail. It was howlin from the no west 
 now, mind you, and we tackin up The Narrows. 
 
 " Whis-s-st ! went the big balloon from the 
 bolt ropes. Whis-s-st ! went the fore tops l 
 nothing left of that but a few rags and the bolt 
 rope bangin round on the hoops. And we wasn t 
 a bit sorry when the tops l went shiftin tacks in 
 a bloody no wester, ain t no joke up aloft, not the 
 way the Parker was diving." 
 
 " We saw them go, Steve. Oh, the Irishman 
 hopped around and laughed. t We ll get them 
 yet ! We can carry them ! he was yellin and 
 then the gale took an extra good grip on the 
 Lucy s fore tops l that she d carried all night long 
 and pulled it out by the roots. Our two top 
 mast heads was springin together all this time 
 like they was two whips, ana the Irishman fit to 
 be nailed up in a mackerel barrel, he was so mad. 
 
 24 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 And then when he saw the Parker shoot into The 
 Narrows ! The N arrows, of all the places in a 
 no wester The Narrows in Boston Harbor with 
 a big fisherman at that tide ! " 
 
 " Well, Billie knew his business that time, 
 Johnnie. It was tack, tack, tack, all the way 
 through. Eight times we tacked before we 
 were clear of it. You see, Billie figured he could 
 take more chances than the Irishman here, he 
 knew the harbor so well. Twas like the short 
 cuts on Georges. But the devil was in the Irish 
 man. Where we went he followed. We took 
 some chances on the Parker, but imagine the 
 Lucy pilin on behind us and the skipper barely 
 knowin the regular channel a Galway fisherman 
 two years out." 
 
 " Well, we came to the last reach. I m 
 doubtful about this one, boys, says Billie. But 
 I don t care much if she does hit. If I don t 
 crowd her by and we have to put back, the Irish- 
 man ll beat us in. And I d just as soon have 
 the Henry pile up anywhere along here, as have 
 that happen this trip now. If she can t get by, 
 why she can t, that s all ; but we ll know we 
 made a try for it. If the Lucy comes after us, 
 she s takin more chances yet. 
 
 " But the fairies were with us, as the Irishman 
 would say. We slid by and out, and then we 
 
 25 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 humped it for the dock. We looked to see how 
 you fellows made out, Johnnie. 
 
 " ( My soul, but he s a game one, says Billie, 
 watchin the Irishman. f Look at him bangin 
 her right up where we went. I know he s never 
 been through The Narrows in his life. But it 
 don t matter the devil and a steamer couldn t 
 get us now, if nothin* parts. 
 
 " Billie began to take more short cuts. We 
 went over places I ll swear charts said we couldn t. 
 But we had to there was the Irishman comin 
 hand over fist. Wherever the Parker went, there 
 was the Lucy along pretty soon. It was a race 
 and it warn t ended till both vessels were at the 
 wharf. 
 
 "Well, Billie just barely got it. When we 
 made to shoot into the slip, there was the Irish 
 man roundin to under our stern. He was 
 standin aft by the wheel himself. When he 
 comes abreast of us in the dock our stern-line 
 was barely made fast when his was hove upon the 
 wharf he shakes his fist at Billie. 
 
 " * You win in all truth, Billie Simms, but 
 which vessel, think ye, is the best after all ? 
 
 " * Oh, says Billie, laughin , * this ain t been 
 no race. We just happened to be ready to run 
 to market, as you remarked last night, and here 
 we are. This old pung ll do to carry home fish 
 
 26 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 in a pinch, but if I had a good vessel, a real 
 good vessel, like some I know in the fleet 
 
 " c A good vessel ? Go and get one, Billie 
 Simms. Build one of the Lucy s tonnage and 
 I ll race you vessel agin vessel and the winner 
 take them both. I ll show you the way, Billie 
 Simms, from here to Georges and back again, or 
 from here to hell and back again, if we can get 
 back. 
 
 " * Oh, don t get so hot over it. I m not 
 say in the Lucy ain t a pretty good vessel. In 
 summer breezes now, I ain t the least doubt she d 
 keep up with most any of the seinin fleet most 
 any of em." 
 
 The big seine-heaver halted here in his narra 
 tive while he poured himself out a mug of coffee 
 from the boiler on the stove and helped himself 
 to a wedge of pie from the grub locker. But 
 some of the crew rose up from lockers and bunks 
 and queried impatiently, "And what did the 
 Irishman say to that ? " 
 
 "H-m-m . What did he say? Ask 
 
 Johnnie there he was nearer than me to him. 
 What did he say, Johnnie ? " 
 
 " What did he say ? Well, let it go, what he 
 said. Some of you young men wouldn t be im 
 proved by hearin what the Irishman said to 
 Billie. I couldn t repeat it in cold blood. I d 
 
 27 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 have to have provocation, like the Irishman, y* 
 see. But the two of them got over it. After 
 they d sold their fish, they got together in the 
 Parker s cabin and Billie admits that so far as he 
 knew the Lucy was the fastest vessel of her ton 
 nage, take her on all- round sailin , goin out of 
 Boston or Gloucester. Of course, that pleased 
 the Irishman and he said that Billie always was 
 an able seaman, and then this was after they d 
 sold their fish and settled up Billie let him 
 make a copy of that private chart of the Georges. 
 And while the Irishman was makin it, Billie 
 says : I never before let anybody make a copy 
 of that chart nobody but you. It ll be worth 
 a lot to you, that chart, says Billie. 
 
 "At that the Irishman looks up at Billie. 
 Will it be worth twelve hundred dollars to me 
 ever, d ye think ? 
 
 " ( H-m-m, says Billie, I dunno ; but it s 
 been worth twelve hundred to me, and then he 
 laughs, and then the Irishman laughs. And 
 afterward they went up on Atlantic Avenue and 
 had a few drinks together. And I guess nobody 
 ever worked any short cuts or beat the Irishman 
 off the Georges since." 
 
 " No," said the big man, replacing his empty 
 mug in the locker. " No, I ll bet they didn t. 
 Boys, I could talk till this fo c s le was black 
 
 28 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 about the Lucy and the Irishman. I was seine- 
 heaver on her for two seasons. But me and 
 Martin 11 have to be goin along and hunt up 
 the William Walker. In this light I guess we ll 
 be able to make out her green sides and blue 
 seine-boat. Good-by, Johnnie ; good-by, every 
 body." 
 
 From the rigging of the Barker they picked 
 out their vessel easily enough in the growing 
 light. On the way they passed the famous 
 Lucy, clear white at this time, with a gold stripe 
 along her run. Steve stopped rowing to admire 
 her. 
 
 " She cert nly do look beau-ti-ful, the Lucy. 
 She s a man for strength and a woman for good 
 looks. A lady s yacht lyin there, but a fisher 
 man when there s somethin doin able for the 
 highest wind and the biggest sea that ever came 
 out of the North Atlantic. Give me the Lucy 
 in a gale, before all the three-stack liners that 
 ever steamed out of New York. She ll shake 
 you up she ll jump my soul but she ll jump ! 
 She s a little thing and needs to be lively to get 
 out of the way, but, man, she ll bring you home 
 at last, and that s the main thing with men that 
 fish on the Banks. Watch her, Martin. Watch 
 her an hour from now, when the sun s lookin up 
 over the Cape Cod shore and see the way she ll 
 
 29 
 
A Chase Overnight 
 
 trip in and out among the fleet. When you see 
 her round The Race and lay her thirty-odd foot 
 spike bowsprit s uth-east by east about then 
 you ll surely know the seining fleet is standin 
 out to sea. For 
 
 At three o clock the cook he stirred 
 To bake the fine hot bread, 
 At four the skipper passed the word 
 That jumped us out of bed ; 
 In half an hour we d made all sail 
 And broke the mud-hooks free, 
 At five o clock the seining fleet 
 Was standing out to sea. " 
 
 And once again the big man roared it out : 
 
 And at fi-ive o clock the sei-eining fleet 
 Was standing out to sea. 
 
 And with that he and Martin boarded the 
 long-sought William Walker. 
 
ON THE ECHO O THE MORN 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 IN the harbor of Halifax, a hundred sail or so 
 of the American seining fleet, Gloucestermen 
 mostly, had come flying in before a "smoky sou 
 wester." Supper finished and clothes-bags over 
 hauled, the men were disposed to go ashore and 
 explore the slopes of the city, where, it was hoped, 
 some relaxation might be found while the gale 
 should be blowing by outside. 
 
 Fishermen in port have many methods of dis 
 pelling care ; but this tale concerns only the fan 
 cies of a choice dozen or so, who, on this particular 
 night, chose to gather in a retired back-room on a 
 side street not far removed from the big govern 
 ment dry-dock. Here, in snug privacy, behind 
 close-drawn curtains, were recounted tales of other 
 days and other ports, while, in a hearty, sociable, 
 unhurried way, the flowing bowl went round. 
 
 These were master fishermen, skippers all, bar 
 ring one "Sylvie s passenger" so rated because 
 he was aboard the North Wind, of which Sylvester 
 Warren was master, solely for pleasure. The 
 
 33 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 passenger s presence has but little to do with the 
 story, and might not, indeed, have been men 
 tioned at all, were it not that because of his extreme 
 ignorance of certain fishing history, the story 
 tellers of the evening at times went into detail, 
 which, for themselves, they would have ignored. 
 
 It was really in deference to the passenger that 
 Wesley Marrs, masking his narrative beneath 
 explanations to his fellow-skippers, tried to set 
 forth clearly, without going to too great a length, 
 the peculiar ways of Billie Simms, whose tem 
 perament, it would seem, was known to the mar 
 iners present as though it were that of a brother. 
 " It s your watch, Wesley," somebody had said,and 
 Wesley s speech, after he had rekindled his pipe, 
 flowed from him quite as the good ale gurgles 
 from the fresh-tapped keg, with little spurts and 
 gushes at times, but smoothly enough, and with a 
 head of speed that told of the great store behind. 
 The gathering knew that now they had got him on 
 deck, Wesley was good to hold the wheel till day 
 light. 
 
 "You re right about the Portugee, Sylvie, he 
 could crack on with the best of em " the last 
 tale had been of desperate sail-carrying. " You re 
 right," went on Wesley, " he d hang on bout s 
 long as anybody, after he d got educated up to it. 
 To my way of thinking, the Portugee and the 
 
 34 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 Irishman and Elllie Simms and a few others ll get 
 their happiness in the next world by being made 
 skippers of vessels that can t be drew under, nor 
 turned over, with spars that can t be busted, and 
 sails that can t be stirred from the hoops. But 
 Billie Simms was something more than just a 
 driver. Billie had original ideas. Anything out 
 the ord nary run was what caught Billie. I mind 
 one trip, he tried to see how much fish he could 
 take home from Iceland. When he got ready to 
 leave Rikievik, he had a load aboard, let me tell 
 you. We didn t have to hoist the dories aboard 
 at all, she was that deep nary a tackle -just slid 
 em over the rail. And he got very proud to get 
 that halibut home though we d have bet he 
 wouldn t, if there d been anybody to bet with. 
 
 " Then, there was the time up Iceland way, too, 
 when he thought he d like to remember some 
 Gloucester and Boston friends and he takes aboard 
 one of those Iceland donkeys and three blue foxes. 
 And he talked blue foxes to us till ten more of us 
 got blue foxes he had a way of describing things 
 till you felt as f there was nothing on earth so de 
 sirable as the things he was talking about. So we 
 set sail from Rikievik this time with the donkey 
 and thirteen of those blue Iceland foxes. The 
 donkey was all right. We made a little stall for 
 him on deck, just aft the main hatch, and all we 
 
 35 
 
On the Echo o* the Morn 
 
 had to do was to feed him reg lar and run him 
 round the house every morning for exercise, with 
 a painter to him, so if he rolled overboard we 
 could haul him back. It was when the foxes got 
 loose down the hold and set up such an awful 
 barkin that we couldn t sleep night or day, that 
 our troubles began. Man, there was the job to 
 get them foxes in the hold. Chasin polar bears 
 on the ice, like Prentice was telling about awhile 
 ago, ain t a mark to crawlin after blue foxes in 
 close quarters. They used to get between the 
 top of the fish and the deck bout a foot and a 
 half space and we had to go and grab em. Bare 
 hands? Of course. And when we d begin to crowd 
 em in a corner, their eyes d shine, and give me 
 the polar bears with axes if the axes are sharp. 
 But that ain t what I had in mind to tell give 
 me a match, somebody I can never keep a pipe 
 agoin when I get started talking. That s it, boy. 
 I ll tell you bout a real lively trip with Billie 
 Simms, where we did take a chance once." 
 
 Puff puff puff, went Wesley, smoking up, 
 and then he laid his course afresh. 
 
 "Some of you, maybe, have got this story 
 straight before, but some of you never got it first 
 hand, may be, and, anyway, your passenger, Silvie, 
 might like to hear exactly how it did happen. 
 
 " It was right on this very Nova Scotia coast 
 36 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 that we were seining the summer I m talking 
 about. It s Billie and the Echo o the Morn, 
 I m talking about now. Billie used to be a dog 
 after mackerel those days. He d get em, if there 
 was any around to get. This was the height of the 
 time when so many American vessels were being 
 seized by the English cutters for fishing inside 
 the three-mile limit. You know what hard feel 
 ings there used to be between the Canadians and 
 our fellows about fishing inside the shore line. 
 American fishermen were being fined right and 
 left, the Gover ment at Washington was doing 
 little but make talk, and at home, in Gloucester, 
 everybody was boiling over about it. 
 
 " The Clayton brothers owned the Echo. 
 They re out of business now, but some of you 
 had dealings with em may be. One was strong 
 on religion had Bibles fore and aft on every one 
 of his vessels and the other was a hot sport, and 
 on account of their difference of opinion, they used 
 to split on the names of the vessels. That s how 
 there came the Mutineer, then the Peace on Earth t 
 then the Buccaneer, and the Three Shepherds. 
 The Avenger and the Good Will to Men was 
 launched the same week, and the Roisterer was 
 chased off the stocks by the Echo o the Morn. 
 I mind well the launchin of em both. 
 
 " But if they split on the names, they had 
 37 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 identical ideas bout skippers and crews. Read 
 the Bible, men, the old fellow would say, and 
 abide by what you find therein. We alj found 
 some pretty husky fighting men in that same 
 Bible. The other brother s instructions to skip 
 pers was mostly, * Bring home the fish. 
 
 "Billie Simms had been offered a big percent 
 age to take the Echo, and he shipped as fine and 
 able a crew as ever I sailed with. The Echo was 
 a handsome vessel, just off the stocks then, and I 
 mind the curiosity of the Gover ment sailing cut 
 ters down this way to try tacks with her. We 
 went along for quite a while without getting more 
 than our share of official calls from the cutters 
 they were slow in the stays, most of em. We 
 used to keep track of the cutters, read the battles 
 in the old man s Bibles reg lar, and keep a sharp 
 watch for fish aloft. 
 
 "As the Echo s hull was beginning to get 
 known along the coast, they begins to crowd us 
 pretty close. And one day they ketched us at 
 what they said was inside the three-mile limit, 
 where, of course, we had no business to be if it 
 was inside. I m in doubt to this day whether we 
 were inside the line or not, and I wouldn t hold 
 back the truth of it now, but anyway they said 
 we was. They always gave themselves the bene 
 fit of any doubts, these lads, when they were 
 
 38 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 dealing with American fishermen. There was 
 two of em and one a steam cutter. It was no 
 disgrace, p raps, it being a flat calm and they 
 mounting six guns apiece, but they had the laugh 
 on us, the two cutters, and they walked us into 
 Barnsley between them, the sailing lad to wind- 
 ard, where Billie said she d never got by rights, 
 and the steam fellow to looard. Into the harbor 
 of Barnsley they walked us, with two hundred 
 barrels of mackerel in our hold. 
 
 " They made the Echo fast to the dock, 
 stripped the sails off her the first thing and put 
 them in a sail-loft near by. Then they asked 
 Billie to step up to the custom-house, where they 
 asked him a lot of questions, which he didn t an 
 swer gen rally, and when he did, they didn t put 
 them down, Billie being a bit hot. 
 
 " The crew was all turned loose, of course. It 
 was the vessels they wanted, they used to say. 
 They d set a fine, they said, and they d have no 
 trouble getting it, for if the owners didn t settle, 
 they d sell the Echo at public auction and get it 
 that way. There was a Gloucester vessel caught 
 two weeks ahead of us and fined $3,000. 
 
 " Things looked bad for the Echo. Billie tele 
 graphed to the owners how it happened. I was 
 there when he wrote the message. Don t do 
 anything till you hear further from me. May- 
 
 39 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 be we can settle to better advantage at this end, 
 was the winding up of it. * Everybody in the 
 place here will know what the message said in 
 side of an hour, Billie said, coming out of the 
 telegraph office. And they did. They was 
 laughing at us to our face and asking what soft 
 kind of a settlement we expected to make with 
 the Provincial Gover ment. 
 
 " Next day Billie just laid around and waited 
 in the morning. In the afternoon he took a 
 couple of us and a small boat and we sailed out 
 to where the two cutters were anchored, three or 
 four cable-lengths off-shore. Billie had a talk with 
 the Captain of the steam cutter, which was just 
 opposite the sailing lad, p raps seventy or eighty 
 fathom between them, and they were taking up 
 the harbor pretty well there, where the harbor 
 made a kind of a neck. I tell you, Captain/ 
 says Billie, looking across the way, * a vessel that 
 tried to sail out of here unbeknownst would get 
 the devil, wouldn t she having to go between 
 you two ? 
 
 " That s what she would, said the Captain. 
 My, but he laughed just to think of it. 
 
 " It would be a good harbor, this one, says 
 Billie again, taking a look around, if twas only 
 a mite wider up here. 
 
 " * Well, it s wide enough below, says the Cap- 
 40 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 tain. Deep water clear up to the shore. A 
 blind man could pilot a vessel in and out here. 
 He d only have to keep her off the rocks. 
 Then he takes Billie down below and tells him 
 all about the steam gear. c Ready to move at 
 half a minute s notice, he says, when he conies 
 up on deck again. * You can t expect to get 
 ahead of one of these machines with a sailing ves 
 sel, he says not when her machinery is in 
 working order. 
 
 " I see, says Billie, not when the steam 
 gear s clear. 
 
 " Then we gets into the small boat again and 
 sails around to have a look at the harbor, which 
 was just about as they said it was deep water to 
 the shore. The last thing Billie said when he 
 stepped out of the small boat was : f This time 
 t morrow morning the tide ll be just like it is 
 now. It was past three o clock then, and the 
 tide a fair ebb. 
 
 " That night about ten o clock it was pretty 
 quiet in Barnsley. We warn t very much sur 
 prised when Billie passed the word, in a quiet 
 way, to slip the boarding-house we were staying 
 at, and meet him outside. Billie soon told us 
 what the game was, and we started right away. 
 Four of us dropped down to the sail-loft, caught 
 the watchman, gagged him, and tied him up. 
 
 41 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 He wouldn t tell us where the key was, and we 
 broke in the door. We found the Echo s sails 
 done up in packages, sealed up fine with red wax 
 all official. We rolled the watchman up in 
 some old sail, so he wouldn t catch cold through 
 the night, and then we hustled our packages 
 down to the dock. We met a lad on the way 
 who wanted to know what we was at. We tied 
 him up, and took him along. 
 
 " We found Billie had everything ready at the 
 dock, with the vessel s two custom-house watch 
 men and the dock watchman all tied up nice, and 
 laid near the dock shed. We set our man in 
 alongside, and they laid there like a row of 
 Egyptian mummies not a sound out of them, 
 they being all gagged. - , 
 
 " We set to work. First, we spoilt them fine 
 red wax seals with an axe, then started to bend on 
 the sails. And let me tell you we druv things. 
 Six of the crew stayed up to the street end of the 
 dock to take" care of any curious people that 
 might happen to start to stroll down to take a 
 look at the Echo. There was three of that kind, 
 dark as it was. The three of them was captured, 
 two of them policemen. Fitting on the sails we 
 couldn t find any main tops l in the bunch. We 
 must have left it behind, but we couldn t stop to 
 go back after it to the sail-loft. We were driving 
 
 42 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 you see, trying to get ready in time for the ebb 
 tide, and out the harbor before daylight. We 
 was all strung up, of course, thinking of what we 
 had ahead of us. We were pretty near done with 
 the sails, only the head sails left to fit on, when 
 somebody said : Skipper, what about the steam 
 cutter ? Think we ll get by her ? 
 
 " Billie studied awhile. * I ve been thinking 
 of her, and I guess we d better tend to her now. 
 Wesley, you, Hiram and Mike Feeney come with 
 me. The rest of you ll have time to fit those jibs 
 while we re gone. We first gets out about twenty 
 fathom of small chain, and a small anchor out of 
 the hold, puts them into the dory the dory and 
 seine-boat was astern the Echo and paddles over 
 toward the steam cutter. Well, now you c n 
 believe we did sorrie gentle rowin toward that 
 cutter oars tie4 yp in old rags, and the chain 
 wrapped in blankets out of the bunks below, for 
 the first three or four fathom. 
 
 " Billie himself goes overboard when we were 
 under the stern of the cutter. We paid the chain 
 out to him, handing it out, link by link, as if we 
 were handing out men s lives. Billie was a dog 
 in the water. He drops under and toggles the 
 cutter s screws with the chain takes two or three 
 turns around each blade. Man, but he did a 
 careful job. When he gets back in the dory 
 
 43 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 again a water rat wouldn t ha* made so little 
 noise we paid out the chain careful oh, care 
 ful and paddles away. When we got the chain s 
 length out, we lowered the little anchor to the 
 bottom, easy as could be, with a small line. Then 
 we worked back to the Echo, where they had 
 everything ready to leave. 
 
 " We warped her out of the dock oh, first, 
 Harvey goes up and covers up our row of pris 
 oners under the shed, gives em a drink all round, 
 and left em. They were found there in the morn 
 ing, I s pose. 
 
 " So we warped her clear of the dock the sails 
 had been hoisted afore we stirred at all, and you 
 may be sure we had the masts and hoops pretty 
 well slushed. We bore down on the two cutters. 
 By their lights we knew they were laying broad 
 side to each other, up and down stream just as 
 they laid that afternoon. We knew we couldn t 
 get outside either one, so Billie pointed the Echo 
 up to go between. The wind was all right not 
 enough for fine work but enough for the trick, 
 and Billie callated the tide bout right it was 
 with us. 
 
 " We bore down. Of course, we was pray 
 ing to get by without being seen. But it wasn t 
 quite dark enough for that. Our sails must ve 
 showed, for we hadn t got between them at all, 
 
 44 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 when there came a hail from the steam cutter 
 to port she was What vessel s that ? We 
 stood on a little longer, and she hailed again, 
 and the sailin cutter to starboard she hailed 
 too, and they both hailed ac if they meant busi 
 ness { What vessel s that ? 
 
 " Billie standin by the wheel, sings out : * We er 
 the Echo o the Morn, seiner, of Gloucester. 
 Report me, will you, to-morrow? The harbor 
 master was off duty, and the Custom-house was 
 closed when we left. 
 
 " When he got that out we could hear the 
 greatest racket on both cutters. They began to 
 sing out port and starboard both * Put about 
 or we ll fire, says one. * Go back or we ll sink 
 you, hollers the other. 
 
 " Fire and sink hell, says Billie. You ll 
 only sink yourselves firin across at each other. 
 And that was right, though I swear I don t think 
 another man aboard would ve thought of that but 
 Billie. 
 
 "That must ve set them thinkin , for they 
 shut up for a few seconds. Then we heard the 
 orders to make sail aboard one and the bells from 
 the bridge on the other. The sailin lad won t 
 bother us, says Billie. * She s a square-ended 
 old tub, and till they get that collar and necktie 
 off the propeller I don t think the steam boy ll 
 
 45 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 do much either/ There certainly must ve been 
 some riotin in the hold of that steam cutter. 
 We heard the orders to slip the cable and the 
 bells her Captain rung from the pilot-house. 
 There was an awful flurry astern of her, and then 
 such howls from above and below, from the 
 bridge and the steam department. * I callate, 
 says Billie, c our little toggle chain and anchor s 
 gone into action. We were sliding by all the 
 time. 
 
 " They let go a couple from their bow, but we 
 was bowlin along then, all of us lying flat on 
 deck, all but Billie. He stood to the wheel, 
 back to em, contemptuous like. * They re firm 
 wide, he says, and out the harbor he drives her. 
 
 " We were barely outside when a big steamer 
 lit up like a barroom passed outside of us and 
 swung in for Barnsley. 
 
 " c What do you make of that ? we asks 
 Billie. 
 
 " A cruiser from Halifax, sure s fate, come to 
 take the Echo in charge. I guess we d better 
 take to more private courses before daylight 
 comes along. 
 
 " We put inside the islands along the coast 
 soon s it got so s we could see at all. It was 
 takin* chances going inside and driving her like 
 we were, but we had to. If we stayed outside 
 
 46 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 the cruiser d get us on her way back. We kept 
 two men to the mast-head all that day, pickin 
 out channels and passages ahead. There was 
 times when we did t know whether she d go 
 another mile or another length ahead, but, as 
 Billie said, f We got to. Pile her up along here 
 and there s a fighting chance for the owners to 
 get insurance money, while if we go outside, it s 
 all up, and the owners don t get so much as a 
 dollar out of the hull or a single barrel of them 
 mackerel in the hold. If they intended to fine 
 us a couple of thousand dollars afore, they ll fine 
 her all she s worth after this, not to speak of the 
 partic lar jail we d fetch up in. So we druv her 
 along inside the coast islands. 
 
 "In the middle of the afternoon the lookouts 
 to the mast-head reported smoke to the east ard 
 and coming down the coast. We were well on 
 toward Halifax, then along Egg Island way, 
 twenty odd miles east of here and Billie says : 
 * Might just as well lay her up here for a while/ 
 So he picked out a cut behind a high island and 
 we slid in there. Some of us went and made a 
 landing in the seine-boat and climbed up the 
 bluff of the island. It was our cruiser of the 
 night before sure enough, and she was everlast- 
 in ly poundin along. We laid low among the 
 broken rocks, and when she went by we could 
 
 47 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 make out her tops full of lookouts. By and by 
 comes two cutters steaming along. One of them 
 was our Barnsley cutter the chain and anchor 
 lad. They went on by, with more racket than so 
 many fire-engines ashore, and Billie said they 
 must ve had their safety-valves strapped down the 
 way they were steaming. 
 
 " * There ll be a rondeevoo of Her Majesty s 
 naval forces down Massachusetts Bay this time 
 to-morrer, says Billie, and all in honor of the 
 Echo o the Morn. But we ll beat em yet, 
 we ll beat em yet. Can t you see the Echo, 
 boys, runnin the blockade ? We ll run for Le 
 Have Bank to-night, boys, and we ll beat em 
 yet. 
 
 " When dark came, we put to the s uth ard, 
 and all night long we drove her, everlastin ly 
 druv her till sun-up, when the log showed a hun 
 dred miles since sunset, and we were in among 
 the haddockin fleet off Le Have. We hunted 
 around for one of the firm s vessels till we found 
 the Buccaneer. Crump Taylor was skipper of 
 her then. You all know Crump, of course, so I 
 don t need to tell you the kind of a man he was. 
 Crump hadn t been thinking of going home just 
 then, but he takes all in and comes along when 
 Billie tells him the story. The Quickstep, John 
 McLeod, Soudan you know, was all filled up 
 
 48 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 and ready to leave. He said he d like mighty 
 well to wait and run home along with the two 
 of us, when Billie told him how things stood. 
 Might be of use, you can t tell, and we re most 
 out of grub anyway, says Soudan. 
 
 " Well, we first fits the Buccaneer s main tops l 
 onto the Echo, then swaps the Echo s seine-boat 
 for the Buccaneer s dories piles the nest of em 
 in our waist, making us look like any other had- 
 docker, and the three of us wings it out to the 
 west ard afore as sweet and fair a breeze as ever 
 fanned a vessel off Le Have. 
 
 " That was long bout dusk. Night sailin* 
 gen rally is best in cases like that. The next 
 afternoon we was in sight of Massachusetts Bay, 
 Boston, I might say, when we notices the smoke 
 of a steamer to s uth ard coming our way. The 
 Buccaneer right away that was Crump he be 
 gins to drag behind, and points off" no therly a little 
 as if she had a mind for a harbor on the Maine 
 coast. And he hauls his seine-boat the Echo s 
 seine-boat alongside, snug up, as if he wanted to 
 hide it. 
 
 " Of course, they warn t letting any manoeuvre 
 of that kind get by them on the cruiser, and they 
 makes off after Crump. The Buccaneer and the 
 Echo, mind, was as like as two number one 
 mackerel. The onlv difference that day was the 
 
 49 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 Buccaneer carried no main tops l, which, as I said, 
 had been put onto the Echo. 
 
 " The cruiser comes along and lets go a blank 
 at Crump. He keeps right on. Then in a little 
 while comes another blank, which Crump didn t 
 pay much attention to. Then comes a solid shot, 
 close enough, it looked to us. Crump seemed a 
 bit slow yet, and they sent another solid shot 
 plump through her fores l, this one. I guess 
 that was close enough for Crump, and he jams 
 the Buccaneer into the wind and waits. Crump 
 told us all about the rest of it afterward, for we, 
 of course, was making long legs of it to west ard. 
 
 "You d laugh if you could hear Crump tell 
 about how the cruiser s gig comes roundin by his 
 stern, where Crump d hung a piece of old sail, 
 as if he wanted to hide the name, by the way. 
 They rows alongside. A petty officer a petty 
 officer, mind, as if that was good enough for a 
 fisherman he steps aboard by way of the seine- 
 boat, which had her name Echo o the Morn 
 on her as plain s could be. This fellow smiles, 
 reads the name, and steps over the Buccaneer s 
 rail, looks up aloft, and says, for a starter: 
 There s a tops l up in a Barnsley sail-loft that 
 would come mighty nigh to fitting that main top- 
 m st of yours. 
 
 " He says that and smiles at Crump. You c n 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 imagine Crump leanin* agin the main riggin* in 
 that easy way of his, and looking up to the mast 
 head, and sayin c It do look kind of bare, don t 
 it? 
 
 " c Yes, says the navy boy, e and I s pose you 
 wish to know what we want ? 
 
 " c I can t say s I do, says Crump. 
 
 " * P raps you would like to hear ? 
 
 " Oh, I dunno s I ll have any melancholy 
 night-watches if I don t hear, says Crump, but 
 if it ll ease you any, why, drive her. 
 
 " Well, the cruiser lad goes on with a long 
 mess of stuff about the American schooner, the 
 Echo o the Morn, seized by Her Majesty s 
 cutters the Calenso and the Seal for violation 
 of the International Fishing Laws Treaty, and 
 stolen from the custody of the Dominion Gover - 
 ment s officers on the night of August the twenty- 
 seventh, at Barnsley, Nova Scotia, and, further, 
 there was charges of several assaults and batteries, 
 not only to official persons, but to private per 
 sons, and so on. It took him nigh fifteen min 
 utes to tell it all. 
 
 " f God. save the Queen, says Crump, and 
 spits over the rail you know Crump s way 
 that s all official, I s pose. 
 
 " * Yes, sir and be careful. The navy lad 
 was pretty hot. 
 
 5 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 " ( Yes ? says Crump. 
 
 " f Yes, fires back the navy lad. 
 
 " * Well, you said it pretty nice, but what s it 
 got to do with me ? 
 
 " What s it got do you deny that you are 
 the American fishing schooner, the Echo o the 
 Morn ? 
 
 " * We re cert nly a fisherman, answers Crump, 
 * there s our gurry kids on deck under your nose, 
 and a hundred thousand of fresh fish in the hold, 
 if you want more proof, and we re cert nly Ameri 
 can there s our flag to the peak for that but 
 it s most interestin news to me that we re the 
 Echo o the Morn, though I ll admit we do look 
 something like her, the two of them havin been 
 built off the same moulds and rigged to the same 
 plans. 
 
 " The Englishman only grins and looks over 
 the side and points to the name on the seine- 
 boat. 
 
 " Ho, ho, laughs Crump, as if he d just 
 caught on, ho, ho. The Englishman smiles 
 and Crump goes on. You re the boys for cute- 
 ness, you navy lads. But, gen rally, down our 
 way, when we want to get at a vessel s name, we 
 look at what it says astern of her or on the trail- 
 board under her bow for ard ; and, mind you, 
 the canvas was hanging over the stern and the 
 
 52 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 letters for ard so chafed that you couldn t have 
 read em twenty feet away. 
 
 ft The Englishman smiles his everlastin* smile 
 and sings out to his boat s crew to drop astern 
 and look at the name. We have to be certain, 
 he says. 
 
 " One of the men in the boat lifts the canvas 
 and peeks underneath. 
 
 " What name ? sings out the petty officer, 
 all ready to smile at Crump. 
 
 " Buccaneer, of Gloucester." 
 
 " What ? he screeches. He runs aft, pulls 
 the canvas clear, leans way over and looks for 
 himself. Then he runs for ard, bends over the 
 knight-heads, and spells it out there. Back he 
 comes, not quite so spry. I ve heard of such 
 things as painting over names. Don t carry this 
 thing too far, he bellows at Crump. 
 
 " Yes, says Crump, it do look like fresh 
 paint, don t it ? 
 
 " f That will do, roars the Englishman. 
 Where are your papers ? 
 
 " Crump makes a great bluff to study some 
 more. Fin lly he says, turning to the crew : 
 Boys, let you all bear witness to this thing, for a 
 claim for damages ll come out of it sure s I m 
 skipper of this vessel and my name s Henry 
 Taylor. This man bear witness to all I say, 
 
 53 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 boys this man is acting outside of his rights 
 now, but it must never be said that Gloucester 
 fishermen don t abide by the law. And he goes 
 on for ten minutes or so in a patriotic way till the 
 Englishman wouldn t stand for any more of it. 
 After that Crump uses up about twenty minutes 
 finding his papers below. Of course the papers 
 were all right. When the Englishman, after look 
 ing them all over, had handed them back, and as 
 they were going up on deck again, Crump says, 
 * Of course I might ve shifted those papers, too, 
 or made em myself or something like that. If 
 you like you can step down to the fo c s le and 
 see whether all the tin pans and cook s dishes is 
 properly marked, or 
 
 " You could have exchanged outfits just the 
 same. You could have met this vessel My, 
 but he was hoppin round, accordin to Crump, 
 and you oughter heard Crump tell it. 
 
 " * Yes, goes on Crump, * maybe, and swapped 
 suits of sails, too. In the leach of that fores l 
 that s handy to you there maybe you c n make 
 out where the word Buccaneer is stencilled on 
 not that I ain t saying it wouldn t be possible to 
 swap sails, too I ve heard of such things as fit 
 ting on sails in a hurry. I ve 
 
 " c That will do. Where d you get that seine- 
 boat r 
 
 54 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 <c f And of course, goes on Crump, paying no 
 attention, f the Echo o the Morn, being a mack 
 erel catcher, would be likely to have gurry kids 
 all over her deck, wouldn t she? and her hold 
 full of fresh fish, too lift the main hatch there, 
 boys, and show the gentleman. 
 
 " c Where did you get that seine-boat ? yelled 
 the navy boy. 
 
 " f On La Have, yells back Crump. c Slowed 
 aboard on La Have at the same time we lost our 
 dories and our tops l. An awful blow. In all 
 my experience 
 
 <C ( 
 
 A blow on La Have? See here, there s 
 been no blow off that way reported in Halifax 
 lately. 
 
 " * Maybe not maybe but there s lots of 
 things happens on La Have that ain t reported in 
 Halifax. 
 
 " The Englishman was fair boiling now, but at 
 the same time he was beginning to come out of 
 his dream. All of a sudden, Crump says, he puts 
 his glasses onto the Echo and the Quickstep and 
 then all at once he wakes up, jumps into the gig, 
 and sings out, * Pull away, pull. 
 
 " f Good-by, calls out Crump after him in his 
 sociable way, ( and next time you happen to be in 
 Barnsley you might send me that tops l you 
 think would fit us so well. Mark it "Henry C. 
 
 55 
 
On the Echo o* the Morn 
 
 Taylor, Master Schooner Buccaneer, Gloucester, 
 Massachusetts, U.S.A.," and I ll be sure to get 
 it. Good-by, hollers Crump again, and I ll pay 
 the freight, but he says he didn t get any answer. 
 
 " Well, the cruiser was pretty near hull down 
 to us when she come round on her heel again, 
 thanks to Crump, and it was getting pretty late in 
 the afternoon. We could see by the way smoke 
 was coming out of her that they were driving her. 
 But the wind holding, we knew she couldn t get 
 us short of two hours, and that gave us time to 
 do something, with the night coming on. 
 
 "The last thing we did on the Echo for the 
 cruiser s partic lar benefit was to rig up our side 
 lights on the blades of two long seiner s oars and 
 lash em straight up in a dory. That raised them 
 up about as high as side-lights ought to be, y see. 
 Then Billie tells us what he was going to do. The 
 dory was lowered over the side and I dropped into 
 her. He heaves a splitting knife after me, and 
 says, * You ll need that. There was an everlastin 
 long painter a forty-fathom line coiled in her 
 bow. Billie hails Soudan and tells him what to 
 do. Soudan throws the Quickstep up and waits 
 for us. The Echo hauls across the Quickstep s 
 bow and Billie casts me off as the Echo shoots 
 by. I hove the long painter to the Quickstep 
 and they takes it and drops me astern. The 
 
 56 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 Echo goes winging off with nary a light up at all, 
 and me in the dory, and the dory like any vessel 
 with her lights up proper being towed along to 
 beat the devil, in the wake of the Quickstep, and 
 she hauling away for Minot s Light as if she was 
 crazy to get to Boston. 
 
 " When the cruiser overhauled us I could 
 hear her screws long before she got to us she 
 ranges up to starboard and sings out for us to 
 heave to. Both of you, hollers the voice. I 
 couldn t see her clear, except for her lights, but 
 I could hear her plain enough, for she lets go a 
 blank at the same time that makes me feel like 
 curling up in the dory. f Blessed Lord, thinks 
 I, if ever they send one of those six-inch fel 
 lows aboard of this dory, where ll I be ? I was 
 praying that Soudan wouldn t try any of Crump s 
 tricks and be too slow to come to. 
 
 " But Soudan throws her up pretty prompt 
 and waits. Then I heard the cruiser s falls 
 makin ready to lower away a boat and it was my 
 move. I outs with my splitting knife and cuts 
 down the red light to get that out the way. That 
 being to port, of course they couldn t see it, and 
 I puts it out and heaves it overboard. Then I 
 cuts away the starboard oar below, slashes the 
 lashin s from the light the green light, toward 
 them opens the slide, blows out the light and 
 
 57 
 
On the Echo 6* the Morn 
 
 heaves that over all this jumpin , mind you. 
 Then I jumps over the bow, cuts the painter free 
 behind me, and hits out for the Quickstep. Let 
 me tell you I was drivin . 
 
 " I hadn t got fair started, hauling myself 
 along by the painter and under water most of the 
 time, when I hears : 
 
 " Aboard the le ward schooner, there ! Put 
 up your side-lights again, or we ll fire. 
 
 " Of course I didn t say anything to that, but 
 keeps on. 
 
 " They hollers again, gets no answer, and then 
 boom ! Man, it nigh lifted me out of the 
 water ! And boom ! another one. Blessed 
 Lord, thinks I, c if one of them goes astray and 
 gets me in the small of the back But all the 
 time I was putting in big strokes for the Quick 
 step, my hair fair curlin up with thinking of one 
 of those shells jibing to wind ard and ketching me. 
 
 "Anyway, I got aboard. It was Soudan 
 helped me over the stern of the Quickstep. 
 
 " Are you all right ? he says. 
 
 " All right, says I, but I guess the dory s 
 shook up some. 
 
 " Yes, he says. They ve spoiled her carryin 
 capacity by this time, I guess. There s number 
 eight they ll be giving her a broadside soon. 
 Boom! Boom! Boom! they went. Bout 
 
 58 
 
I cuts away the starboard oar below." 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 the time they must have figured out they d blown 
 the Echo out the water, they stopped. Then we 
 could hear their boats rowin our way and soon 
 we made out one of them heading for us. There 
 was a warrant officer in charge of the one coming 
 to board us the same lad that boarded the Buc 
 caneer. We found out when we swapped stories 
 with Crump afterward. 
 
 " I say, this lad sings out, she didn t get 
 away that time, did she ? And he steps over 
 the rail. 
 
 " ( No, says Soudan, like a man that d lost a 
 young wife. f I guess you fixed her that time. 
 
 " Pretty soon the second boat comes alongside. 
 This one had a sure-enough officer, a lootenant, 
 in charge. He was sorter worked up. f Cap 
 tain, he says to Soudan, f I m sorry for those 
 men. Here s all we found, an oar and some 
 pieces of a dory, apparently, and some lines 
 with hooks in a half-barrel trawls, you call 
 them ? 
 
 " { A tub of trawls, I guess, says Soudan. 
 Fetch a torch, boys. He looks and goes on : 
 * Yes, that s one of their tubs of trawls, sure 
 enough. 
 
 " < We could find nothing else. Isn t it queer ? 
 says the officer. 
 
 " * The tides hereaway are queer, says Soudan, 
 59 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 without so much as a wink. We are now over 
 a most peculiar place, on one edge of Middle 
 Bank, in Massachusetts Bay, and there s queerer 
 spots here than was ever in the Bay of Fundy or 
 on the Grand Banks. 
 
 " Really ? says the officer. 
 
 " Yes, says Soudan, for queer tides and 
 eddies this is the spot. There s been some mys 
 terious disappearances traced to here. But, let 
 ting that go, this is a bad business, Lootenant, 
 blowing up the Echo. 
 
 " Yes, it certainly is bad horrible. But they 
 should not have put the lights out as they did. 
 What were they thinking of she directly under 
 our guns ! 
 
 " Yes/ says Soudan, Billie oughter had 
 more respect for a real man-o -war. Maybe 
 he thought you was only a cutter in the 
 dark? 
 
 " Thought? Didn t he see us just before 
 dark, when we boarded the other fellow, the 
 Buccaneer ? 
 
 " c Yes, says Soudan, he did. He must 
 have. I saw you and he must have. But it s 
 liable to lead to big things, to international com 
 plications in-ter-nation-al compli-ca-tions he 
 rolls it out like an election orator it may ter- 
 min-ate in bloody war, says Soudan. 
 
 60 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 " * War ? says the officer, studying, e war? 
 
 " Or eye-dem-ity, says Soudan. You oughter 
 seen Soudan swell out. 
 
 " l Possibly very likely yes, yes, most like 
 ly, says the officer. Then he takes down Sou 
 dan s full name, name of vessel, name of vessel s 
 owner, gets all the figures he can about the Echo 
 Soudan raising the builder s price a few thou 
 sand gets Billie s name, and names of crew and 
 all that. Then he puts off, goes back to the 
 cruiser, the petty officer with him, and they 
 steams off her course about east by south, 
 which would clear Cape Sable and put her on 
 her way to Halifax, where I s pose she got in 
 next night with her bearings all hot and a great 
 tale to tell. 
 
 " Next morning, when we came into Gloucester 
 in the Quickstep, there was the Echo lying in 
 the stream and her colors all set, the sassiest- 
 looking little vessel in the whole North Atlantic. 
 The city was just getting warmed up to the thing 
 when we arrived. The newspapers had been full 
 of the seizure down East. England, they said, 
 was trying to crowd us on the fishery laws and 
 the United States was a little slow picking it up, 
 and so the country was boiling over when they 
 heard about the Echo s escape. It was speeches, 
 mass meetings, and editorials all hot and lots 
 
 61 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 of people got a chance to blow off steam. When 
 the Echo was reported escaped, there warn t many 
 ever really thought she d get by the cutters and 
 the cruiser that was known to be after her. Then 
 there was the three days or so when they didn t 
 know where she was. So all Gloucester came 
 running down to the docks when the word was 
 passed that she was home. c The Echo s in 
 the Echo s in/ was ringing all over Gloucester 
 like a fire alarm. The Quickstep and Buccaneer, 
 coming in four or five hours afterward, had can 
 nons fired for em as they sailed up the harbor, 
 but that was only the overflow it was the Echo s 
 crew that got it. People came from everywhere 
 to look at the Echo and shake hands with Billie 
 and us. It was Captain William Simms and the 
 darin crew of the Echo o the Morn. Yes, sir. 
 They wrote songs about it half a dozen or more 
 and City Hall was lit up and bonfires in the 
 streets in the middle of Main Street, man. And 
 there was parades with red and blue and green 
 lights and all kinds of queer fireworks. One 
 showed the Echo running through a fleet of 
 men-o -war, every blessed one of em blazing 
 broadsides at her and she never losing a spar. 
 For a few days lots of people didn t do a tap of 
 work just stood on the curb-stones and talked 
 about the Echo. Whenever one of us showed up 
 
 62 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 there d be a rush and we d have to tell how it hap 
 pened all over again. We was given the freedom 
 of the city, which meant, as Hiram Whitaker said, 
 that you could go into any bar-room in Gloucester 
 and order all the drinks you wanted and as many 
 times as you wanted and not be allowed to pay 
 for em. Hiram cert nly got drunk that week. 
 There was a purse made up and we got a hun 
 dred and fifty dollars apiece out of that, besides 
 a good share from the two hundred barrels in her 
 hold, which fetched patriotic prices, everybody 
 wantin to get hold of some of the Echo s mack 
 erel. It beat reg lar fishin* all out. Billie got a 
 big solid silver punch-bowl, and there was smaller 
 bowls for the rest of us, and they gave me a mon 
 strous big meersh m pipe, gold mounted, with my 
 name in gold letters on the case. That was for 
 standing by the lights in the dory, they said. 
 And smoke it? h-m-m no more than I m 
 smoking this one now I wonder how long it s 
 been out. I m bad as Billie Simms himself. 
 He never could keep a pipe going when he got 
 started talking. When he got goin , he d forgot 
 who made him man, the imagination he had ! 
 But if somebody ll give me another match and 
 is there anything at all left in that bowl there, 
 Sylvie?" 
 
 " Oh, there s a good round left yet, Wesley." 
 63 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 " Enough to sluice out the scuppers with, 
 ch?" 
 
 " Just about. And the passenger here wants 
 to know if you ll sing one of the Echo s songs 
 the one they sang at the big banquet. You got 
 time. Just a second now, Wesley, boy. There ! 
 there s one swashing over the rail for you. 
 Here you go, Prentice here s for you, John 
 Harkins, and pass that to the passenger. All 
 you others reach over and get your own, and 
 stand by while Wesley sings. Hold up a second 
 yet draw the curtains there and let in a little 
 light the sun s most up. Might s well open 
 up the windows, hadn t we, and let some of this 
 smoke blow away ? it s as thick as any banker s 
 fo c s le on the run home. Smells fine and sweet, 
 that, don t it? It s the last of the sou wester 
 there ll be mackerel schoolin after this little blow, 
 fellows. Maybe a full hold for some of us to 
 day, if cutters don t get too fresh. I swear, but 
 some day we ought to turn, three or four crews of 
 us, and gaff one of them, hah ? and tear round 
 down the coast and chase everything that ain t 
 American into harbor when mackerel is school 
 ing, hah, Wesley ? " 
 
 " Ho, but Billie Simms d be the boy for that, 
 Sylvie. Well, here s a shoot and devil take the 
 cutters no, no, they have that for their work, I 
 
 64 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 s pose. Here s to fish a plenty for all of you, 
 and to the Echo o the Morn." 
 
 " Drive her, Wesley, drive her," voiced Sylvie 
 for the bunch, "and stand by all hands while 
 Wesley sings." 
 
 So Wesley sang. His attitude was character 
 istic left hand deep in his waistband pocket and 
 right hand gripping his glass ; one shoulder 
 braced to wind ard and feet well apart, to meet 
 the heave of the deck, evidently ; eyes bent on 
 the lookouts at the forem st-head and a voice 
 pitched to reach that same forem st-head with 
 certainty, against a fresh and rising head breeze 
 standing so, as if he were to the wheel, Wesley 
 sang the ballad of the Echo o the Morn. 
 Twelve or fourteen good stanzas there were, the 
 plain tale of the Echo all over, done into rhyme 
 by a fo c s le poet, who must have held in high 
 esteem the vessel and her crew and those very 
 able auxiliaries, " Crump " Taylor and " Soudan " 
 McLeod : 
 
 From the loft we took her sails, and bent em in the night, 
 And sailed her out the harbor, with cutters left and right. 
 
 Sou west by su the we drove her till the sea was fair aroar, 
 And we never touched a halyard as to La Have we bore. 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 Lights out and southern courses, let her head come round, 
 Devil take the British forces, here s the Echo homeward bound. 
 
 Crump Taylor towed her seine-boat, Soudan towed her lights, 
 And the Echo slipped the cruiser in the darkness of the night. 
 
 So Wesley sailed the Echo again, omitting not 
 a single course of the lively vessel nor a single 
 order of the audacious Billie, sailed her from the 
 dock at Barnsley, out the harbor, down the coast, 
 off to La Have Bank, westerly again, across the 
 Bay of Fundy and into Massachusetts Bay, till at 
 length he sailed her up the harbor of Gloucester 
 and rounded her to off the owner s dock, very 
 proudly, with colors gayly flying, to main peak 
 and both trucks. Wesley s fellow-skippers en 
 tered heartily into the chorus. " Drive her, boys, 
 drive her give her a full now and drive her," 
 they said. And under Wesley s pilotage they 
 drove her: 
 
 Here s to the keel of her, here s to the sails of her, 
 The mast and the hemp and the deck and the rails of her; 
 Here s to the length, and the depth, and the beam of her, 
 To every blessed plank and bolt and every blessed seam of her. 
 Here s to the everlastin* glory of the Echo o the Morn. 
 
 And 
 
 May she live to sail away, to the boom of Judgment-day, 
 When we hope to see her sailin to the toot of Gabr el s horn. 
 
 With feet well braced and bodies swaying, the 
 66 
 
On the Echo o the Morn 
 
 skippers roared the toast after a fashion that must 
 have carried every syllable of every line to every 
 awakening sleeper in the block. 
 
 They themselves liked the effect of it so well 
 that they sang it over again, and it was to the 
 long roll of one particularly sluggish line, 
 
 To every blessed plank and bolt and every blessed seam of her, 
 
 that they heaved themselves out and down the 
 side street. From here, with the rhythmic tramp 
 of mariners ashore, they wore into the main street, 
 bore s utherly, chanting all the while, though so 
 berly and with less exuberation now, for the city 
 was coming awake and beginning to stare. And 
 by and by they jibed over to their dock, where 
 boisterous crews in waiting were trolling farewell 
 ditties of their own. 
 
 They piled into their seine-boats, and with 
 long oars and a monstrous big one steering they 
 all drove out into the harbor. They raced past 
 the big dry dock, past the revenue cutters, their 
 hereditary enemies, now with steam up, past the 
 Admiral s great battle-ship and her attendant 
 cruisers the best part of the British North At 
 lantic squadron past all these and other miscel 
 laneous craft, until, with the booming of the 
 morning gun from the Citadel, they were in 
 among their own again. 
 
 67 
 
FROM REYKJAVIK TO 
 GLOUCESTER 
 
Twas sou sou -west, 
 Then west sou -west. 
 
 From Rik-ie-vik to Gloucester} 
 *Twas strainin sails 
 And buried rails 
 
 Aboard the Lucy Foster. 
 
 Her planks did creak 
 From post to peak, 
 
 Her topm sts bent like willow ; 
 " I ll bust her spars," 
 Says Wesley Marrs, 
 
 But I ll beat the Bounding Billow." 
 
 Gloucester Fithermetfi Song. 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 LEV ATE D above the head of a deep wharf- 
 slip, low flanked by a ship-chandler s shop 
 to one side and a sail-maker s loft to another, 
 commanding a fine view of the docks and harbor 
 beneath, and of the bay beyond, perched up 
 where nothing coming or going past Eastern 
 Point will fail to be noticed this is the lookout 
 tower of the Great Eastern Fish Company of 
 the port of Gloucester, which, be it known, is the 
 first fish mart of our country. In the official 
 bulletins of the company this place is known 
 as the " Observatory," but in the every-day 
 speech of the fishermen of Gloucester it is bet 
 ter and more fittingly described as the " Crow s 
 Nest." 
 
 To attain this aerie it is needful to go round 
 and round long flights of steps, that creak to your 
 weight and sway to the wind as you climb. After 
 you get there, you find a room of three flat walls 
 and a rounded front, of which the rear, or west 
 side, is blocked off by the staircase whereby you 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 came. Coast charts, bank soundings, world maps, 
 and magazine illustrations of a nautical and sport 
 ing nature are tacked to the wall on your left. 
 On the wall at your right the southerly are 
 several pairs of marine glasses, a long telescope, 
 and an aneroid barometer, hung from nails driven 
 here and there, wherever space is to be found 
 among the relief models of what all men know to 
 be fast-sailing fishermen. A fresh varnished but 
 much dented spar, an old topmast most likely, 
 butts through the centre of the ceiling and is 
 braced to the floor. 
 
 The east side is all of glass. This is the side 
 that opens on to a little quarter-deck balcony, and 
 looks out to sea. This balcony may be entirely 
 closed in by an arrangement of shutters that 
 work over and down like companion hatches, 
 although you find out later that you have to 
 climb to the upper deck by way of an outside 
 rope ladder to make them work. In the centre 
 of one of the hatches, when you come to look, is 
 a brass-bound port-hole, plainly intended for 
 stormy weather. A realistic bit of railing, really 
 the taffrail of a fisherman wrecked off Thatcher s, 
 is there to guard the unwary once over the low 
 rail and you are down to the waters of the dock. 
 There is a row of scuppers along the balcony s 
 deck, and under the rail are a couple of cleats, to 
 
 72 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 which are made fast the halyards that run to the 
 flag at the masthead. 
 
 Only one chair is in this place, after the fashion 
 of up-to-date fishermen, which always carry a 
 hinged chair in the cabin for the skipper s use. 
 This chair is for the lookout on duty. All others 
 must sit on the lockers against the walls, or squat 
 on the stair-landing at the rear, or content them 
 selves with leaning over the stern of the quarter 
 deck. All this goes to make up the famous 
 " Crow s Nest," of that abode of modern vikings, 
 the fishing port of Gloucester. 
 
 It is the business of the lookout on duty to 
 take his station in front of the window and watch 
 for incoming vessels. If it is a fine day, like this 
 one, he will hoist the window-sashes back to the 
 pulleys, push forward his chair, and rest his feet 
 on the rail. When he sights an inbound fisher 
 man, he will identify her at the earliest possible 
 moment, and make immediate report of same to 
 the office. 
 
 Two men are paid for this work, each standing 
 watch in his turn. Being keen of eye and ac 
 quainted with the minutest peculiarities of every 
 schooner in the fleet, these men can name vessels 
 at incredible distances. In some cases, where 
 neither knowledge nor eyesight could possibly 
 avail, they make marvellous guesses for which 
 
 73 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 they do not attempt to account. It may be a 
 sixth sense that enables them to pick out and 
 identify a vessel while she is yet but a blur in the 
 haze to most of us. 
 
 Their business, as has been said, is to make 
 early report of incoming vessels. They do that 
 very well, and it is for that they are paid ; but their 
 pleasure and their most arduous occupation lies in 
 the absorbing art of conversation. In the skilful 
 development of this faculty they are aided by a 
 volunteer staff of regular callers, who much prefer 
 to put in time at this congenial observatory than 
 to attend to any fatiguing business that might 
 arise to meet them were they to stroll incautious 
 ly along the wharves. 
 
 What subject might suggest itself to the council 
 of Crow s Nest at any particular lull, no prophet 
 could say with certainty ; but on a day like this, 
 a beautiful summer morning, with a gentle east 
 erly sighing in over the rail, and the docks and 
 the harbor below alive with the loading and out 
 fitting of many seiners, it could not very well get 
 far away from the doings of the mackerel fleet. 
 
 Fourteen of the seining fleet were in, and this 
 favorable easterly would be sure to bring in more. 
 It had been an extraordinary season for the 
 seiners. There was plenty of mackerel to be 
 had, and they were bringing great prices. Stocks 
 
 74 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 of three and four thousand dollars were getting 
 common for vessels, and men no longer boasted 
 of sharing anything under a hundred dollars for 
 a short trip. It promised to be an unprecedented 
 season altogether, and the watchers in the tower, 
 when next they resumed the conversation, were 
 disposed to rejoice. 
 
 " It s a good thing for Gloucester, it s a fine 
 thing for the men," observed the lookout in the 
 chair. " Won t be so many have to go to 
 Georges or the big banks this winter to find grub 
 and rent for the wife and children. Here s a lad 
 coming in now wait, till I make sure with the 
 glass yes, the Lucy Foster. Bill, report the 
 Lucy Foster, Captain Marrs, to the office, will 
 you ? Ten days she s been gone. This lad ll 
 be glad enough for a good mackerel season, for 
 he does hate haddockin in winter. He went 
 last winter, and he says he s had enough of that 
 kind offishin ." 
 
 " Shouldn t think he d have to the money 
 he s made, Petie." 
 
 " No, he oughtn t to, but Wesley s been a 
 spender. But this spring, before he went on the 
 southern mackerel cruise, he gave it out that he 
 was going to save. I don t know myself what s 
 drivin him he s close-mouthed enough for all 
 he s so reckless some ways. But I wouldn t be 
 
 75 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 surprised if he was stowin away something 
 against getting married this fall. He s certainly 
 piling up a stock and hustlin as if he intended 
 to have a little salvage to draw on when he made 
 up his mind to stop ashore a winter and start 
 housekeeping. And if he does get married, J 
 s pose that ends the Lucy for carryin* the broom. 
 I don t expect we ll hear of any more piling on 
 sail to see how much she really can stand up 
 under, or layin* her over to see how far she ll go 
 without capsizing." 
 
 " Why ? " put in one of those slow-witted 
 ones, who must always have things explained in 
 detail. 
 
 " Why ? why ? " snorted the man in the chair. 
 " Did y ever see any of the drivers keep it up 
 long after gettin* married ? Don t it tame the 
 wildest of em when they get to thinkin that 
 p raps the wife and children s waitin for them at 
 the end of the trip ? " 
 
 " Well, I dunno. I don t see as Archie Nich 
 ols slacked any since he got married." 
 
 " Archie Nichols ? Good Lord ! does he 
 count? Married a no-use woman that s druv 
 him to drink and worse things than he ever took 
 up with before. Leave Archie out. And look 
 at the others. There s Tommy Bolton now. 
 What do his crew tell you about him now ? 
 
 76 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 Do you hear of him pullin the spars out of his 
 vessel since he settled down to a home of his 
 own ? Can t you see him any afternoon now be 
 tween trips walking down Main Street abreast of 
 his little woman and the latest fat baby on his 
 arm ? Ever hear of Billie Simms in this year o 
 grace havin to go on the railway bout every 
 other trip or so to have the Henry Clay Parker 
 overhauled for strained seams for ard ? I guess 
 not. Nor Wesley Marrs, nowadays ; and he s 
 only engaged, at the worst tryin to see what he 
 can do with the Lucy without getting her hove 
 down. I guess not." 
 
 " I say, Peter," inserted a subtle one, who 
 measured exactly the temper of the sage in the 
 chair, and was eager to forward the psychological 
 moment, " was Wesley Marrs such a devil for 
 driving, after all ? " 
 
 " Devil ? He was all the devils, when it came 
 to carryin sail. Now I was with him three years. 
 My last trip, when I fell from the masthead in 
 among the gurry kids and broke my knee-cap, I 
 was with Wesley Marrs in the Lucy Foster. I m 
 telling you this man d spread a whole mains l to 
 a gale as quick as your wife or mine d hang out 
 a bed-sheet to the sun. When a sail went into 
 the air^busted Wesley used to follow it with 
 his eyes and then say, surprised-like : Don t 
 
 77 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 it beat hell the rotten canvas they puts on ves 
 sels these days ? 
 
 "You must have been with him, Peter, when 
 that record run was made from Iceland when 
 the Lucy and the English yacht had their big 
 race." 
 
 " Was I ? Twenty-eight hundred miles, they 
 call it, from Rikievik to Gloucester, and the 
 Lucy came down in nine days and ten hours. 
 That s going, people, for any vessel ; but this 
 one that time had her hold full of fletched 
 halibut." 
 
 " What was it brought him along so fast ? " 
 
 " Well I guess wind had as much to do with 
 it as anything. Just plain wind, out of the bosom 
 of the North Atlantic, and p raps a little, just a 
 little, of Wesley Marrs drivin her." 
 
 " Who beat ? " interjected a voice that should 
 never have been allowed to disturb the silence of 
 this generally well-posted company. 
 
 The man in the chair looked around with much 
 curiosity to discover the inquirer. It was a young 
 fellow, plainly not long in Gloucester, one of 
 those lads who so frequently come there to try 
 fishing and quite often make good fishermen 
 but who are sometimes a great trial to their friends 
 while acquiring the rudiments. 
 
 " Who beat ? " echoed Peter in scorn. " And 
 78 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 whend you get in and where d you get your 
 fish ? " 
 
 " I say, Peter," put in the subtle questioner on 
 whom devolved the duty of holding the story to 
 its course, " were you there when the match was 
 made ? " 
 
 " Was 1 ? Warn t the skipper and me and Joe 
 Lane gittin down to a little table over a glass 
 you don t stand up to a bar there generally and 
 the skipper was pretty well pleased. You see he d 
 only bought out the Wild Irishman s half of the 
 Lucy late that spring and this was his first trip. 
 He paid $5,000 cash for the Irishman s half our 
 firm owned the other half same as now. And the 
 last thing the Irishman said when he signed the 
 papers and took the money was : * Now, Wesley, 
 b y, you re gettin a great vessel fourteen thou 
 sand to build, but we ll say nothing of that. You re 
 gettin a vessel that nothing of her tonnage any 
 where can sail away from. While I owned her 
 she was the jewel of the fleet. Don t let anything 
 cross her bow, Wesley, b y. The Irishman went 
 to the Pacific Coast that time to look up seals 
 Behring Sea way. 
 
 " Well, Wesley was telling us about that very 
 talk with the Irishman and saying how the Lucy 
 could sail and everything like that. You know 
 how he d be likely to carry on talkin bout his 
 
 79 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 vessel. This swell-dressed Englishman was takin* 
 it all in. We didn t know who he was, though 
 we suspicioned he was English every time we 
 looked at him. At last he mixes in. He says : 
 
 " Excuse me, but I gather you are fishermen 
 up here for halibut ? 
 
 " You re right, says Wesley. 
 
 " < From the States ? 
 
 " * From America ? Yes from Gloucester, 
 says Wesley. 
 
 " Ah, from Gloucester. Fine, able fishermen 
 from there, I hear, he kind of drawed his words 
 out * hardy, courageous, fine, able seamen 
 
 " And fine able vessels, says Wesley, warmin 
 up right away. We guessed easy enough what 
 was in Wesley s mind. Somebody or other d 
 been writing stories bout Gloucester fishermen 
 bout that time and putting them in the old style 
 pinkies and square-ended tubs that was the fashion 
 when some of your fathers and mine went to sea. 
 I never yet went among strangers in any of the 
 new vessels that they didn t seem to be surprised 
 at the build of our vessels, and, of course, the 
 Lucy Foster and a few others of that model struck 
 em dumb. Anyway, to get along with the story, 
 the Englishman was surprised to hear that the 
 Lucy was a fisherman he d an eye for fine ves 
 sels, y see and had noticed her in the harbor. 
 
 80 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 But he didn t know much about our kind of 
 people and Wesley kind of explained some things 
 to him. 
 
 " Then the Englishman told his story. He 
 owned the big schooner yacht, the all-white fellow 
 with the varnished top-rails and yellow stripe 
 along the run. We d had an eye on her, by the 
 way, and a handsome craft she was. That was his 
 cruiser. He d come in the day before from some 
 queer place on the coast of Norway and he didn t 
 see anything in Rikievik to hold him. He was 
 bound for America next by way of Boston, New 
 port, New York, Baltimore, and so on down, 
 so s to be among the West Indies for the 
 winter. 
 
 " Well, he was a pretty hot sport, this one, and 
 you all know the kind of a boy Wesley used to 
 be when anybody spoke against his Lucy. They 
 had an argument, back to the days of the old 
 America and all that. Finally, they greed to race 
 to Gloucester. The Englishman said he d just 
 as leave run into Gloucester so long as it was so 
 handy to Boston. 
 
 " This Englishman was all right. He says 
 about the money : * Your word is sufficient for 
 me, Captain. Men that look like you will pay 
 up. If you lose, you pay over a thousand dol 
 lars. If I lose, I pay over to you a thousand, 
 
 81 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 to settle as soon as both boats get into Gloucester. 
 And in the matter of time allowance the Bound 
 ing Billow, you must have noticed, is half as big 
 again as you are. She isn t loaded down like you, 
 and I can afford to give it. She has never been 
 beaten at ocean racing, by the way, and I am 
 willing to give you time allowance for our larger 
 measurement. 
 
 " To hell with time allowance, says Wesley. 
 When fishermen race, they all start together. 
 And first vessel home wins. You re a little 
 longer and more beam and draught let it go. 
 And s for being loaded down the Lucy could 
 stow away half as many more halibut, and I wish 
 she had it, the way halibut s been this summer. 
 Don t worry about the Lucy. Those couple of 
 hundred thousand of fletched halibut down below 
 11 just give her a grip on things sort o stiffen 
 her up and keep her from layin over too much 
 when it comes to blow and it s coming to blow 
 or I don t know. There ll be wind stirrin before 
 you or me see Eastern Point, and the vessel 
 that ll carry the sail ll be the lad for the trip. I 
 tell you, man, with all of these September gales 
 coming our way, you won t think you re yachting 
 off Cowes. I hope your gear s been overhauled 
 lately, says Wesley, and with that they left to 
 get things ready. 
 
 82 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 " There was a gentle gale stirrin from the 
 no th ard when we sailed out of Rikievik next 
 day, Friday. Wesley liked the look o* things 
 pretty well. We put out behind the English 
 man, him under two-reefed mains l and the Lucy 
 under a single reef two jibs and whole fores l, 
 both of us. That was along bout dark. Wesley 
 didn t make any attempt to push by the yacht 
 just laid to wind ard of her. He did love to get 
 to wind ard of a vessel lay off her quarter and 
 watch her. And for most of the rest of that 
 night, we stayed there so. 
 
 " When the sun ought to have been pretty 
 near to showin up again, Wesley says : * Boys, 
 I can t see but what the Lucy s holdin her own, 
 and I guess we ll wear off to the east ard just a 
 little. We might s well get out of sight of this 
 fellow quick s we can now. I ve a notion, too, 
 this breeze ll be coming from that quarter before 
 a great while, and there s nothing the Lucy likes 
 quite so well as to take it just a tri-i-fle slanting 
 when it blows. 
 
 " I don t know whether the Bounding Billow 
 people saw us get away or not p r aps they 
 didn t care. Anyway, they didn t come after us. 
 We sunk their port light down afore daylight, 
 and by good sun-up there wasn t a sail of her in 
 sight. 
 
 83 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 " Well, it didn t come to blow same s Wesley 
 thought it would and, nacherally, he was roarin* 
 round fine. We shook out the reef in the 
 mains l before noon-time of that first day, and 
 later we set both tops ls and that whoppin gauze 
 balloon of the Lucy s. And she carried em easy, 
 too. We warn t loafing altogether ; we was makin* 
 nine knots right straight along. But that wasn t 
 pleasing Wesley. 
 
 " Next day and the next it was the same story, 
 and part of the next day it was lighter yet. We 
 hove the log, and got only eight knots for twenty- 
 four hours hand-runnin . Then, almost all at 
 once, from a nice summer breeze it jumped to 
 a gale. And it was a gale one of those healthy, 
 able zephyrs that makes up north there and gets 
 a good runnin start afore it tears things loose 
 in the forties. 
 
 " Whoo-o-ish it whistled ! A regular old bus 
 ter of a no theaster whoo-o-ish ! and Wesley 
 dancin on and off the break while he watched it 
 comin on. * I m thinkin , he says, we can stow 
 some of those summer kites for a while. Might 
 put the tops ls in gaskets, boys, and that balloon 
 in stops. We won t be likely to need them any 
 more this trip. This is the breeze I ve been 
 waiting for struck in a little late, but it ll make 
 up for lost time soon. 
 
 84 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 " And it sure was making up for lost time. 
 The mains l pretty soon had to be tucked up, 
 and on the next day tucked again. And 
 before another day we had to take it in alto 
 gether, get the trys l out the hold and fit that 
 on. Now you know it was blowing some when 
 Wesley Marrs had the Lucy under a trys l and 
 a yachtin* fellow somewhere round racing him 
 for a thousand dollars a side ; and, what was 
 more, the name of the thing after they got into 
 Gloucester. 
 
 " We went that way for thirty-odd hours, and 
 Wesley was almost satisfied. Maybe, says he, 
 if this fine breeze holds, we ll make up for 
 those yachtin days in the fifties. What kind of 
 weather, fellows, do you s pose the Bounding 
 Billow s making of it ? Think now she s hand 
 ling it like the Lucy, hay ? I d give something 
 to know if she s carryin a whole fores l and both 
 jibs right now. Boys, he says, * but this is fine 
 weather. In forty-eight hours, and this fine 
 breeze holds, we ll be raisin* Thatcher s twin 
 lights ! Wesley was mighty well satisfied with 
 the way things was lookin just then. 
 
 " That was Friday night late. After midnight 
 it was, for I went on watch at twelve o clock. 
 I remember well Wesley and Murdie Greenlaw 
 at the wheel when I came out of the cabin door 
 
 85 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 to go for ard. We was driving through it and 
 she layin over. Man , but she was layin over. 
 I ll tell you how she was layin over. That 
 very afternoon it was that Billie Henderson had 
 walked along her weather run from her stern 
 to her fore-rigging. You ve heard of that trick, 
 some of you. Yes, sir we had a line on him 
 in case he slipped that s the truth. 
 
 " Well, it must have been getting on toward 
 one o clock, for I was figuring on being called aft 
 to take the wheel for my second hour; and then 
 in one more hour a fellow could go below and 
 dry off and have a good sleep. We were driving 
 through it two jibs, fores l and trys l. We 
 hadn t seen the top of her port-rail for more than 
 two days ; and this was one of those nights when 
 the water gets full of phosphorus. It d been 
 a new moon gone down, and rain that morning, 
 and you all know how the water fires after rain 
 and a new moon. It was fair afire now. And 
 the Lucy ! she was leapin from the top of one sea 
 to the top of another. We made a lane you 
 could see for a cable length behind, and there 
 was blue smoke, I swear, coming from each 
 side. 
 
 " Her nose would poke under and we would 
 get it all over. I had my elbow crooked in the 
 fore-rigging so I wouldn t wash off. When she d 
 
 86 
 
Leapin from the top of one sea to the top of another. 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 rise, she d throw the water over her shoulder, and 
 it d run the whole length of her deck and race 
 over the taffrail. That was only the spray, mind 
 you. She was taking it over the rail all the time, 
 besides, as if she had no rail at all. The skipper 
 and Murdie at the wheel must ve been pulp. 
 Three or four others were in the waist five or 
 six men besides the skipper had to be on 
 deck all the time. We was all in oilskins and 
 red-jacks, of course, and we was all properly 
 soaked. 
 
 " Well, we was whoopin along; we d just shot 
 by some lumberin old tramp steamer that was 
 making awful bad weather of it, and somebody 
 in the waist d just called out, * We re this far, 
 anyway, thank the Lord. The cook had his 
 head out the fo c s le gangway just a narrow slit 
 to sing out to us on deck when we saw the skip 
 per jump into the main riggin and look ahead, 
 and then jump back on deck again as if he saw 
 a ghost. He hollers : 
 
 " c If there ain t the Englishman ahead, and 
 carryin a two-reefed mains l! A two-reefed main- 
 s l ! And goin like a liner ! I ll be damned if 
 I ll stand on the deck of the Lucy Foster and 
 see the Bounding Billow beat her home. I ll 
 bust the Lucy s spars, but I ll beat him. Bend 
 on the stays l. I guess the Lucy can carry as 
 
 87 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 much sail as that window-frame boat. Bend on 
 that stays l. 
 
 " You can bet that shook the boys up. A 
 stays l ! And her planks rattlin then ! Dan 
 Ross most of you know Dan big Dan, that 
 was lost on the Fredonia afterward Dan was 
 nearest me under the weather rail. He says, 
 I ll fix that stays l. And he did fix her, as he 
 thought. He yanks the halyards loose and they 
 goes flyin aloft. We could just make them out 
 slinging between the fore and main rigging like 
 long devils, with the block on the end. 
 
 " Dan hollers out : Stays l halyard-ends loose 
 and can t get hold of em they re aloft. 
 
 " The skipper says : Go after them. 
 
 " Dan roars back : * What do you take me 
 for? 
 
 " For a man, hollers the skipper ; * but I 
 guess I was mistaken. 
 
 " Show me a man crazy enough to go after 
 them, says Dan. 
 
 " * Here s one, roars the skipper, and so help 
 me, if he didn t start aloft. Blowing? My 
 blessed soul, we needed cotton hooks to hang on 
 by. The boys was curled up under the wind ard 
 rail with their fingers into the ring-bolts. And up 
 went Wesley Marrs to looard, mind you. And 
 however he managed it we couldn t half make 
 
 88 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 out what he was doing up there but he got hold 
 of them. 
 
 " Down he comes with the ends fast around his 
 waist. { Here, he says to Dan, f take hold of 
 that. He unwound about two fathom of it. 
 1 That s one end of the stays l halyards you run 
 aloft a little while back. That snaps into the 
 after upper corner of the stays l, so long as we got 
 to make things plain to you. And this he 
 gave him the other end this is what you haul 
 on. Is that plain enough? Then see if you can 
 hang on to it, so s better men than yourself won t 
 have to go aloft in a gale to get them down again. 
 Now then, up with that stays l. Call all hands 
 for ard there, cook and call all hands aft there, 
 Murdie and up with that stays l ! Up with it. 
 
 " And up she went. Such a slattin* afore we 
 got her up ! But she got there and then ! If 
 she was leapin before she was high-diving now. 
 The water was firing like I was telling you, firing 
 like an ocean of big diamonds and white sulphur 
 mixed; and there was that blue smoke you could 
 almost smell coming out from both sides of her 
 wake. I misdoubted if we d ever get home. If 
 I d had a knife handy, you d have seen the stays l 
 go into the sky. But I didn t have a knife, nor 
 nobody else on deck, and all we could do was 
 to hope we d get in to walk down Main Street 
 
 89 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 just once again, and swearin* we d never ship 
 another trip with that crazy Wesley Marrs, so 
 long s we lived again. Yes, sir, that was an awful 
 run home. We carried our stays l past the 
 Point. And that s the same Lucy and the same 
 Wesley Marrs coming in the dock there now." 
 
 " And what happened to the Bounding Billow ? 
 Did you pass her ? " 
 
 " The Bounding Billow? Hell, no. We got 
 in Monday morning at five o clock. There 
 warn t any Bounding Billow in sight that night 
 just one of them ghost dreams of Wesley s. The 
 Englishman didn t get along till about the middle 
 of the week." 
 
 " And what did he have to say ? " 
 
 " The Englishman ? Oh, that was funny, too 
 but hold up a second and see what that tele 
 phone wants, one of you." 
 
 " It s the office, Petie. They want to know 
 what Captain Marrs got." 
 
 " Oh, all right. He ll make fast and be up 
 the wharf in a minute, tell them. He s getting 
 ready to step ashore now." 
 
 It was a man of medium height and easy swing 
 who came up the dock with half his crew in tow. 
 He had the sunburned skin of a healthy boy 
 and the vigorous jaw of a man of action. He 
 spat out tobacco-juice as he rolled along, but his 
 
 90 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 teeth showed white and unconquerable when he 
 grinned up at the look-out. It was the voice of 
 a moderate blow, a summer gale at play, that an 
 swered the hail from Crow s Nest. 
 
 " Hulloh, Peter," it roared. " Any signs of 
 fish up there, boy ? " 
 
 " Hulloh, skipper. What you got ? " 
 
 " Four hundred barrels." 
 
 " Good. Where d you get em ? " 
 
 " Off Monhegan mostly. One school off 
 Middle Bank on the way down. All medium 
 schools. How s the market ? " 
 
 " Fourteen and a quarter to-day." 
 
 " Good. Report me to the office, will you ? 
 four hundred barrels. Come along down, Peter, 
 and wash the gurry out your throat. Tell em 
 all up there to come." 
 
 " In a minute. Here, Johnnie " Peter lit on 
 a boy of tender years, a boy of an age that or 
 dinarily would not have been allowed to breathe 
 this smoky atmosphere, but in this case a boy 
 who was sometimes suffered to skirt the edge of 
 the blessed circle because of his tractable ways 
 and certain useful connections. He was a pur 
 veyor of supplies and a nephew of the firm, a 
 willing boy and not too obtrusive. " Here, 
 Johnnie, telephone the office that the Lucy Fos 
 ter hails for four hundred barrels, small schools 
 
 91 
 
From Reykjavik to Gloucester 
 
 and fine fish and take charge while we re gone. 
 We ll be at the Anchorage if anything heaves in 
 sight. But make sure before you disturb us ; 
 don t get worried by any coasters or yachts, 
 mind. Do a good job now, and I ll tell your 
 uncle about you, and maybe some day he ll let 
 you have a vessel of your own. Come along, 
 fellows, and p r aps we can get it out of Wesley 
 himself just what the Englishman did say after he 
 got in and found the Lucy three days before him. 
 And p r aps we c n get a word out him bout his 
 marriage if it is coming off this fall." 
 
 And down the winding stairs the chief look-out 
 and his staff worked their way. It was tack and 
 jibe, until they reached the street below ; then it 
 was wear off and a straight run of it, in the wake 
 of Wesley to the Anchorage. 
 
 Up in the Crow s Nest the flag went to the 
 mast-head for the Lucy Foster, arrived with four 
 hundred barrels of fine mackerel. And Johnnie, 
 a born hero-worshipper, looked out to sea for in 
 coming fishermen, bravely singing all the whiie : 
 
 "I ll bust her spars," 
 
 Says Wesley Marrs, 
 
 " But I ll beat the Bounding Billow." 
 
A FISHERMAN OF COSTLA 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 i 
 
 captain of the coast steamer almost 
 -* laughed aloud at the absurdity of the ques 
 tion. " Go to Kilronan, in the outer Arran Isl 
 and, to-day ? No, sir, not for all the money your 
 clients have in prospect. Even if my steamer 
 had not two loose plates forward, and her con 
 denser all out of gear, as my engineer says, I 
 would not head her out in the bay to-day not 
 for all the money of one of your American mill- 
 ionnaires. No, sir." 
 
 " But consider the urgency," panted the stran 
 ger. " Consider - " 
 
 " Consider the urgency ? Consider the steam 
 er," retorted the captain. " Lord, you d never 
 need to say you ve just arrived from strange 
 parts. If you d been in Galway for more than 
 ten minutes, you d have known that this howling 
 westerly gale that s sweeping in on this coast 
 would make a junk-pile in quick order of any old 
 iron steamer of the tonnage of mine. In quick 
 order, yes, sir up on the rocks she d go it s 
 
 95 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 all rocks on this coast. And then where would 
 my captain s papers be ? " 
 
 " Name your price," persisted the stranger. 
 He dropped his suit-case, put his hand to his in 
 side coat-pocket, and drew out a thick wallet. 
 " Name your price. I ll charter the steamer for 
 a week, and you can have her back at the end of 
 twenty-four hours, and it s only two hours run 
 to Kilronan, as you said yourself. Two hours 
 out and two hours back, four hours steaming be 
 sides the waiting while I m looking over the rec 
 ords with your parish priest and parish clerk 
 six hours all told and my business will be done 
 with. What do you say? Name your price." 
 
 " No, no, I m sorry, but I would not try it 
 even if my steamer was ready, for the value of 
 the whole estate you say may be at stake. No, 
 no," replied the steamer captain. 
 
 " Then what am I to do ? At the hotel I 
 stopped just long enough to make inquiries, and 
 they sent me to you. They told me that if you 
 would not take me to Arran, nobody out of Gal- 
 way would take me, unless it were a Claddagh 
 fisherman across the harbor in one of their little 
 sailing-vessels. And then they added that if I 
 could get a fisherman ready to risk it, it is more 
 than likely he could not do anything against this 
 storm it s a head wind to Arran." 
 
 96 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 " They told you right. Lord bless you, no 
 hooker could ever beat out this gale. Kilronan 
 bears about west from here, and this wind s 
 straight from the west-northwest. If the wind 
 was blowing from offshore now, why you might 
 speak of taking a hooker, if you would find any 
 body crazy enough to try it. Though as for 
 that part of it, you ll find Irishmen crazy enough 
 to try almost anything I mean if you can show 
 em a half-decent reason for it. They won t do 
 it just for the money, remember no, sir, not for 
 all the money that wallet of yours ll hold but if 
 you could work up their feelings " 
 
 "If the wind were blowing from off-shore ? " 
 repeated the stranger absently. " But is there 
 no place around here on the coast from which the 
 wind blows toward Arran ? " 
 
 " Ha ! Why, that s so, too ! There s the 
 north shore there s Costla. From Costla to 
 Kilronan the wind won t be behind you, mind, 
 but it will be a fair wind fair enough for a pas 
 sage. But, my soul, think of the risk." 
 
 "Risk? in the boat?" 
 
 "In the boat ? yes crossing Gal way Bay in 
 this gale." 
 
 " Would your fishermen here be afraid ? They 
 told me other tales of them, captain." The 
 stranger smiled in an exasperating way. 
 
 97 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 " See here," said the captain. " Don t you 
 run away with any notion that our fishermen here 
 abouts won t fish when any other men on earth 
 would go out and fish in small boats. But let 
 me tell you, it s one thing to fish because the wife 
 and children at home need the help, and another 
 thing here," the captain broke off with some 
 heat, " look here now, and I ll tell you. A while 
 ago you said you d go to any labor and any risk 
 to reach Kilronan to-day, and be back here to 
 morrow morning ? " 
 
 " Yes," said the stranger, " any labor and any 
 risk so as to be back here and aboard the train 
 that will connect with the White Star steamer 
 out of Queenstown to-morrow morning. If I 
 don t do this thing, and take that steamer so as 
 to be back in time, my trip over here is of no 
 avail. And it means more than a dead loss of time 
 and money to the firm. I m a young lawyer in a 
 big office, and this thing means a lot to me. You 
 tell me what to do and I ll do it at any risk." 
 
 " You will ? Well, you go to Costla that s 
 on the coast on the north side of Galway Bay, as 
 I said. It s the nearest place on the mainland to 
 Kilronan. There s a fair road from here to there ; 
 it s on the mail-car route that goes out of the 
 western side of Galway. You go to Costla. 
 First, of course, you go to the Royal Hotel up 
 
 98 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 the street that s where you just came from and 
 tell them you want a jaunting-car, a fast horse, 
 and a good driver. Get Pat Kelley if you can, 
 and have him arrange to have a fresh horse for 
 you at Spiddle. There s always a fresh horse to 
 be had at Spiddle, and that s half way to Costla. 
 You ought to be at Costla Bay in two hours and 
 a half. It s twenty-five miles. When you get 
 to Costla, ask for Gerald Donohue. Anybody 
 will tell you where to find him, though, there being 
 two Geralds, you want to ask for the right one. 
 One has a son in the Coast Guards. You don t 
 want him he s old and stays ashore now. You 
 want the other Gerald that s a fisherman and has 
 no son in the Coast Guards. He did have a son 
 that would be old enough for that now, but he 
 lost him the time the last big wave swept over 
 Glasher Rock. Anyway, you tell Gerald what 
 you told me when you first hopped off that car 
 a while ago. Tell him that if you can t get those 
 records with the proper certification and be back 
 aboard to-morrow morning s New York steamer 
 out of Queenstown, your clients a family of 
 children, did you say ? well, tell him they ll 
 lose a fortune. Tell Gerald that and put it 
 strong to him. Tell him what you told me, that 
 the fortunes of those children, whose father was 
 Kilronan born, may be hanging on your getting 
 
 99 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 to Kilronan and back by to-night, and trust Ger 
 ald to put you across the bay to Arran Island if 
 any living man will do it. And if he gets you 
 across to Arran, then he ll make small work of 
 bringing you on to Galway afterward, for it will 
 be a fair wind from Arran back to Galway. He ll 
 only have to keep her from swamping on the way 
 back. And if Gerald won t do it, you can give 
 it up no man on the coast will do it." 
 
 " Thank you, thank you, I m off. O jar- 
 vey " the stranger leaped to the jaunting-car 
 " to the Royal Hotel ! Lash her now ! " 
 
 The captain gazed after him. "The Lord save 
 us, I wonder is there ever one of them American 
 business men that s got time to take a full breath." 
 
 II 
 
 It was at ten o clock in the morning that the 
 American left the steamer-captain. At one in the 
 afternoon he was down by a small stone quay 
 at an inner point of Costla Bay talking to a fish 
 erman of the place, Gerald Donohue, the right 
 Gerald Donohue, the one that had no son in the 
 Coast Guards. Stout, bearded, and hardy-look 
 ing was Gerald of the blue eyes and simple speech. 
 
 " Sure it s the moving tale you re telling me," 
 he was saying. " But do you think what it means 
 
 100 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 if my little vessel is lost ? The wife and the small 
 childer " 
 
 " Well, as to that, Mister Donohue, I can only 
 say that the heirs the people we re fighting for 
 will see that your family shall not want. When 
 they hear the story, as hear it they must, for I ll 
 be with you and they ll naturally make inquiries 
 if we re lost then you can count on it that your 
 family will not be forgotten. It won t be a hun 
 dred pounds, or two hundred, or three hundred 
 that they " 
 
 Gerald raised his hand. "We ll not speak of 
 the money. The man that would cross Galway 
 Bay to-day for money, and wife and childer be 
 hind him, would be staining his soul with the 
 black marks of a sin that the fires o Purgatory 
 would never burn out never. But for Dannie 
 Costello s childer that has to fight for the money 
 he left behind sure tis a hard thing. The childer 
 that can t get their own father s money man, but 
 it is the hard nature that is fighting them. I knew 
 Dannie for ten years before he left Arran the 
 one age we were. And him the manager of a 
 boy before he was old enough to walk. And a 
 fine, kind boy he was. And only the year before 
 last he sent fifty pound at Christmas-time for the 
 little stone church they re trying to build in Kil- 
 ronan. Yes, sir, the big heart had Dannie. And 
 
 101 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 now he s dead, you tell me, and they re schemin , 
 the villains, to keep the poor childer out o the 
 money. Sure an awful thing is law now, isn t it ? 
 Here, Tammie " he turned to a twelve-year-old 
 lad who was standing near and watching the surf 
 break over the rocks below him. " Tammie, run 
 up to the house like a good boy and get the two 
 suits of oil-clothes make haste now while I 
 will be reefing down the mainsail and taking in a 
 bit of the jib. Make haste, Tammie, for it s 
 makin* the wind is all the time. Yes, sir, it must 
 be makin when it isn t going down. And it s 
 big boots and plenty of oil-clothes we ll need this 
 day. And do yourself get into the hooker, sir, 
 yourself and your valise, while I do be reefin 
 down." 
 
 The "hooker" was a black-painted, or rather 
 black-tarred, jib-and-mainsail boat of perhaps 
 twenty-five feet on deck and eight feet beam. 
 Forward she was decked over, but aft was 
 merely an open space, wherein was a lot of broken 
 rock in her bottom for ballast. Having been 
 used at odd times for carrying peat to the islands 
 in the bay, a great deal of loose loam had man 
 aged to sift down into the crevices of the stone, 
 thereby giving more than usual stability to the 
 ballast. 
 
 The lawyer stood on the ballast and watched 
 
 102 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 the fierce surf as it broke over the rocks that 
 edged the little bay. He could not quite see the 
 full glory of the surf of the greater bay outside, 
 the bay they were soon to attempt to cross, but 
 he saw enough to get a faint idea of what it might 
 be like, and as he pondered over the prospect he 
 began to experience his first slight sinking of the 
 heart since he left Galway, and almost to wish 
 that to somebody else had fallen what now prom 
 ised to be a hazardous undertaking. 
 
 While the lawyer was soberly meditating, the 
 fisherman was rushing preparations. Three reefs 
 were put in the black mainsail, and the jib was 
 taken in until not more than half its original size 
 was spread. The hatch to the little hole forward 
 was battened down and running gear overhauled. 
 Gerald did not like the look of the jib. " It s 
 old, and a touch of rot in it. If there was time, 
 there s a bit of a storm-sail below I would put on 
 her by way of a jib instead of that old rag, but 
 there s not the time here comes Tammie, with 
 his load of boots and oil-clothes. 
 
 " Throw it aboard, Tammie. 
 
 "Ah, poor b y, ye had a great load of it, sure 
 enough. Here, sir " he turned to his passen 
 ger " take off your shoes and get into a pair of 
 these boots, and put the oil-clothes over your 
 other clothes. Be sure but you will need them." 
 
 103 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 They were soon ready. " Push off, Tammie," 
 said the fisherman to his boy. " Pole her off to 
 the end of the quay, and then go back and tell 
 your mother I won t be back for three days 
 maybe, for I ll have to go to Galway to put the 
 gentleman on his way. Go back now." 
 
 " Can t I go with you, father ? " asked the boy. 
 
 " Go with me ! The Lord forbid sure the 
 hair would rise off your head with the fright when 
 you d see the waves out in the big bay." 
 
 " I wouldn t be afraid with you, father." 
 
 " Whisht ! and go along with you. Tis your 
 mother wouldn t sleep till you was back again. 
 Go home now, and tell her as I just told you to 
 tell her " 
 
 " She knows where you re going. When I 
 asked for the big boots and oil-clothes, she asked 
 me what you wanted them for, and I told her." 
 
 " You did ? And what did she say ? " 
 
 " She said, Tis the foolish man your father 
 is, Tammie, but God speed him. Can t I stay 
 on the high rocks and watch you sail across, 
 father ? " pleaded the boy. 
 
 " No, b y, no. It s too windy and cold there." 
 
 " But I want to see you sail the hooker across 
 the bay, father. It s fast she ll sail in this wind, 
 and I want to see her go." 
 
 " Then go up to the Coast-Guard station and 
 104 
 
" Pole her off to the end of the quay. 1 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 watch from there with your cousin Malachi. 
 Tis there you will be able to see beautiful from 
 the look-out up top. Go now, Tammie, and say 
 God-speed for us." 
 
 Under the fisherman s hands the little hooker 
 was skilfully worked from out of this rock-strewn 
 inlet of water known as Costla Bay into the much 
 larger body of water known as Galway Bay. The 
 American had only to dodge the spray as it came 
 aboard, and Gerald to dodge with the hooker the 
 rocks that stuck their sharp points above the sur 
 face. 
 
 "Look across now," said Gerald they were 
 clear of the sunken rocks inside " that s Arran 
 you see ahead. Eleven mile from here just 
 beyond where you see the water all white. That s 
 the surf breaking there if you can see it." 
 
 " I think I can see it, but I m not sure." 
 From the stern of the jumping hooker the law 
 yer was trying to see things ahead and at the 
 same time keep his feet. 
 
 " Not sure, ye say ? Faith, but it s the weak 
 eyes a man gets when he stops long ashore. 
 That s Kilronan, and the long stone wall there is 
 the pier. That s where we are going, if God is 
 willing to the other side of that pier. Now 
 keep under the rail and out of the wet, if you can, 
 for we re fair into it now." 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 What the American knew of the practical 
 workings of the sea had been gained altogether 
 from his recent trip between New York and 
 Queenstown. For one twenty-four hours during 
 that six days passage there had been enacted 
 what the saloon referred to as "an awful storm." 
 Some spray had come aboard the main deck of 
 the liner, and most of the passengers lay in their 
 berths while the awful storm should go by. Our 
 young lawyer had been among the brave ones 
 who had stuck it out in the smoking-room. 
 He remembered very well how he had been 
 thinking of the future time when he should be 
 reeling off the details of that storm to home cir 
 cles. But that steamer was 600 feet in length, 
 with a wall of sixty feet from the water s surface 
 to the top-rail, and, to preserve the proportions, 
 this little hooker was about the size of one of the 
 liner s deck-boats, with less than two feet of free 
 board that is, when she stood on an even keel. 
 To preserve the proportions, this little vessel 
 should be now sailing in a mill-pond in a sum 
 mer zephyr. Even that something less than two 
 feet of freeboard would have been a most com 
 forting thing were it there now, which it was not, 
 for the hooker by now, working clear of the main 
 shore, and the wind coming abeam, was taking a 
 great slant. At first she only rolled over to her 
 
 1 06 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 deck amidships, and the water did not bother them 
 over-much. Spray had come across her bows 
 from the very first, but, as they went on, sheets 
 of spray began to come over bows, midship, and 
 quarter, and slap them from head to toe even 
 when they crouched back in the stern. Still, even 
 the lawyer did not mind that. He had some 
 philosophy in his make-up, and, having been 
 warned by that surf over the rocks of Costla Bay, 
 he had made up his mind to some discomfort. 
 But it was not until the hooker had worked out 
 from the lee of the land for a mile or so, and the 
 real force of the wind from all the wide Atlantic 
 began to hit her, that the young man from the 
 inland region of a great continent began to see 
 more clearly than ever that he had embarked on 
 an enterprise of some risk. He derived his great 
 est pleasure, after they were well into it, from 
 discovering the rail when it showed above the sea, 
 as it did every now and then when the fisherman 
 held her up a trifle. 
 
 The fisherman seemed to read the young 
 man s thoughts. "I could make it a bit more 
 pleasant," he explained, " but we would never 
 make Kilronan if I did. If we went to looard 
 we d never in this world work her back in the 
 wind." 
 
 "I see," said the lawyer, "but doesn t she lay 
 107 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 rather away over sometimes? Isn t there dan- 
 ger?" 
 
 " Danger ? not a bit. Not yet, anyway. 
 Don t you worry now. So she shows the rail 
 anywhere near the level water you re safe as if 
 you was in the Coast-Guard station we left behind 
 us. Tis when she puts that plank above her 
 rail under that plank that s used to hold the 
 turf in her whenever we have a big load of it 
 now when that goes under water will be the time 
 to say a quick litany, especially if the ballast 
 shifts." 
 
 " That plank under ! Good Lord ! wouldn t 
 she turn bottom up then ? " 
 
 " I couldn t say. I never tried her, but it is 
 likely, sir." 
 
 " And if she tips over, what shall we do ? " 
 
 " Troth, and I couldn t say as to that, either ; 
 but swim, I m thinkin ." 
 
 " Swim ! I d have but a small chance, then, 
 when I can barely swim a hundred yards in the 
 smoothest water." 
 
 " Faith, then we d last the one as long as the 
 other, for sorra the stroke at all can I swim. But 
 that s neither here nor there, for it s the small 
 chance we d have if she capsized here. Look at 
 her now, sir." 
 
 The hooker was then lifting so that the lawyer, 
 108 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 gazing at her forward deck, could easily imagine 
 himself looking uphill ; and when she pitched 
 down and her bows went clear under until she 
 was all water to her mast, he thought she was 
 about to engulf herself. That was happening 
 almost continuously, but she did have steady 
 streaks. When the wind was steady, she simply 
 lay down while the sea rushed over her side and 
 swirled over the feet of the two men in the stern. 
 
 " The Lord save us, but she s making great 
 time, isn t she, sir? Great speed, but maybe 
 twouldn t do her no harm if you was to keep the 
 bailer going. That s the bailer, that tin pail there 
 by your valise. Man, but that valise is catching 
 it and a finer valise I never set eyes on. I know 
 it s a shame, too, to make a regular-paid passen 
 ger work his way, but with yourself bailing you ll 
 have a better chance to make that same passage 
 you ll be paying for later, if you make it. Tis 
 the great sport sailing when you re sure you ll get 
 home all right, isn t it, sir ? " 
 
 " Yes," answered the lawyer, " it must be." 
 His voice had not the viking ring, but his bailing 
 was all that could be desired. 
 
 The hooker footed on, with the seas tossing 
 her about as a wooden bucket is tumbled in a 
 beach surf. She went down into the hollows until 
 the lawyer thought she was never coming up, and 
 
 109 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 she went up on the heights until he thought she 
 would stay up altogether. The seas were green 
 and each had a crest of white that reminded the 
 andsman of the long teeth of an angry dog. 
 The body of the sea would rush on, and by 
 its sheer weight throw the hooker far and high, 
 then the white teeth would leap up and pounce 
 down and make as if trying to tear her planks 
 apart. 
 
 The lawyer, to gather inspiration, would look 
 up now and then from his bailing to study the 
 face of the fisherman. Once he fancied he saw 
 a fleeting shade of worriment in the blue eyes. 
 With some trepidation he asked if there were 
 anything wrong. If this man of the sea was dis 
 turbed, certainly it was time for himself, a lands 
 man, to watch out. 
 
 " That jib there," answered the fisherman after 
 a long gaze forward; "I ve been thinkin it won t 
 hold much longer. Beginnin to rip it is at the 
 foot of it. Stand up now and hold the tiller when 
 I put her in the wind. Wait, wait until I put 
 her into the wind. Have a care now, and let me 
 show you. By the Lord, but that was a blast ! 
 Och, it s gone ! May the divil go with it ! " 
 The jib had ripped from the foot up, and was 
 slatting off in strips to leeward, like half a dozen 
 long-tailed burgees. 
 
 no 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 " Hold her as she is," said the fisherman. 
 " She ll stay there now while I dive into the hold 
 for ard for a bit of storm-sail that we ll make a 
 jib of. I always mistrusted that old jib." 
 
 The hooker rode the waves so much more 
 easily with her head to the wind that the lawyer, 
 though he had not the slightest idea of how it 
 was all brought about, wondered why they had not 
 done something like this before. Certainly this 
 was better than to let her heel over until she 
 threatened to roll bottom up. 
 
 Forward the fisherman had got out a small 
 triangle of canvas, and was swiftly making ready 
 to attach it to the old jib sheet and halyards. 
 To expedite matters he was forced to lie out on 
 the little bowsprit and allow himself to be buried 
 with that plunging stick every time a sea came his 
 way. He quickly made a pair of rough hanks of 
 a piece of old line, cut away such pieces of the old 
 jib as threatened to hamper operations, came back 
 inboard and hoisted away on his halyards. 
 
 " There," said he, jumping aft, beard, hair, and 
 the oil-skins running brine, " there. Now we ll 
 go our way again." 
 
 The hooker lay over again, and the lawyer 
 resumed his bailing, stopping only long enough 
 to ask Gerald why he could not have kept her as 
 she was when he was putting the new sail in place. 
 
 in 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 " She was so steady then," he said, " so steady 
 that is, compared to what she is now." 
 
 " Steady, yes," said Gerald, grimly. " A pity 
 she wouldn t be half-way steady, and she hove-to. 
 But let her lay so long enough and think you 
 where would she be, or where would you be or 
 me be ? Look over the rail at your elbow now. 
 See where the sea breaks over that ledge. Twen 
 ty feet high it spouts, and that ledge runs far out 
 from the shore into the bay. That s where she d 
 drift, and we d be fools enough to let her. How 
 long would you live, I m asking you, sir, in that 
 b iling if you was lucky enough not to break 
 your bones in the first smash?" 
 
 "Oh," said the lawyer, "I didn t know." 
 After a pause he continued : " No, I didn t 
 know. If I knew what it was going to be 
 I would never have dragged you out here, nor 
 come out here myself no, not for all the reputa 
 tion I ever expect to make. I didn t know." 
 
 " What ! " exclaimed the fisherman, " and 
 Dannie s childer dependin on ye ? " 
 
 " Oh, I forget them. Yes, I would come 
 but what s that awful place ahead ? " 
 
 " That s where the shoal makes out from 
 Arran. That s the bad spot for us. Tis that 
 we ll have to weather if ever we make Kilronan. 
 Man, but it s cruel to look at, isn t it now ? 
 
 112 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 There s where we ll have to let her take the wind 
 in full. All this time, d y see, we ve been close- 
 hauled, but we ll have to swing her off now if 
 we d pass here. Watch out now and get a hold 
 of something if you love life." 
 
 He put the tiller up into the wind, and around 
 came her head. The wind took her fairly, and 
 over she went. The lawyer thought she was 
 going altogether, and the fisherman said " Holy 
 Mary ! " Her solid rail went far under, and the 
 turf-board above that went clear under also, and 
 the water that rushed into the open part of her 
 aft seemed about to swamp her. 
 
 " She s going ! " called the lawyer " My God, 
 she s going!" He grabbed the tiller in his excite 
 ment. 
 
 " Let be the tiller I m steering ! Take a 
 grip of my waist, or anything, but let be the 
 tiller ! " 
 
 " I m up to my knees," said the lawyer. 
 
 " To your knees, is it ! Man, but you ll be up 
 to your waist, maybe, before she stops, and then 
 over your head, maybe. Hold on now hold on 
 yet. Holy Mary, but she s getting it. But, by 
 the Lord, she ll make it yet. She s coming, by my 
 soul, she s coming. Twas a blow that, but she ll 
 right yet. Give her a chance, give her a chance 
 now." 
 
 "3 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 For a full two minutes she lay there, within 
 an ace of being hove-down before she showed 
 signs of coming up. Then slowly she began to 
 right, with the fisherman nursing her. Slowly, 
 slowly she came up. She was safe at last. For 
 a while she was logy as any old derelict with the 
 loose water that sloshed about in the open space 
 aft, but she had righted and that was the really 
 important thing. 
 
 " A bad little place that, sir," observed Gerald 
 when he had got her straightened away again. 
 " A point makes out from the shoals there, d y 
 see ? We had to shoot around it like, y* see, and 
 that made all the trouble. Twas that more than 
 all the rest of the passage, though the Lord 
 knows tis rough enough it is but twas that s 
 been on my mind the last half hour. You 
 didn t know that? Why would you? but the 
 Lord be thanked we re by it now. There s been 
 more than one vessel capsized and more than one 
 crew lost there, though twasn t all of them had 
 ballast that stood like ours. Man, but the turf 
 between the stones under our feet tis as good 
 as the pig iron and the melted lead they puts in 
 the bottom of the yachts. Yes, sir, every bit as 
 good. When it holds, I mean. Sometimes it 
 don t hold. And maybe it was the hand o* 
 God that jib blowing out back there. If it 
 
 114 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 didn t go then, twould go that last time and that 
 was a bad place to be stopping to bend on a new 
 sail don t you think but it was, sir ? " 
 
 " Yes," said the lawyer. Still bewildered, he 
 stood looking back at the boiling point they had 
 passed. " Awful, awful, wasn t it ? " he ex 
 claimed. 
 
 " Yes, sir awful, you might say, but don t 
 stop bailing now because we re past it. She ll be 
 a bit livelier, d y see, with some of the water out 
 of her. That s why I have the stern of her with 
 a few planks out so the water that comes over 
 the rail will go back in the sea again." He 
 grinned slyly. " She gets clear of a lot of water 
 that way. But keep bailing you re doin fine at 
 the bailing, sir." 
 
 The lawyer continued to bail, and Gerald held 
 to the tiller until the happy moment when they 
 shot around the end of the pier. "There," 
 said Gerald, " we re in at last, and here s Kil- 
 ronan." He pointed the hooker up for the pier, 
 cast loose the halyards, let the sails run, and 
 dropped her gently alongside the pier steps. 
 
 " And are we here ? " asked the lawyer, as if he 
 could hardly believe it. 
 
 " Here you are yes, sir Kilronan. Go up 
 those steps ahead, and from the top of the pier 
 you can see the parish priest s place. The parish 
 
 "5 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 priest and the parish dark will have all the rec 
 ords you ll be wanting, I think. And there s a 
 notary or something like that who will do the 
 swearing the dark can t do. And while you re 
 gone I ll be eating some bread and fish and mak 
 ing a cup of tea, for I ve had no dinner this day 
 and I m fair famished. When you get back, sir, 
 we ll put for Galway. Make haste, sir, and if 
 the Lord is good, you ll be in time for your 
 Queenstown steamer in the morning." 
 
 In two hours the young lawyer came back, 
 radiant. " It s all right, it s all right," he sang 
 out to Gerald. 
 
 " Is it ? Well that s fine. And now we ll off 
 to Galway. Come aboard, sir." 
 
 " Will it be bad going to Galway ? Any more 
 of those bad shoal points to be passed ? " 
 
 " Not a bit. Tis only running we ll be going 
 to Galway in this wind. We have but to hold 
 her up past the light-house till we re well into 
 Gregory Sound, and we re all right. She ll make 
 great dives with her head, but it s hard to capsize 
 her that way head first. Twill be rough, maybe, 
 till we re past the Sound, but after that we ll put 
 for the lee of the islands, and with a fair wind 
 and smooth water and Dan Costello s childer in 
 mind and we ll have you in Galway to-night, 
 with the help of God." 
 
 116 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 That night in his room at the hotel in Galway, 
 and while he was waiting for the porters to put 
 his few pieces of baggage in the jaunting-car, the 
 American drew out his thick wallet to settle up 
 with the fisherman. He laid five 10 Bank of 
 England notes on the table. "There, Captain 
 Donohue," said he, " there s your ^50 as prom 
 ised, and your work was worth it ten times 
 over." 
 
 Donohue regarded him with wonder. " Fifty 
 pounds ? No, no " he pushed the money back 
 across the table "no, no; I m not taking 
 ^50 out of you, sir. Let me have two pounds, 
 a pound for to-day, and a pound for another day 
 I ll be waiting here while the gale blows by." 
 
 "Two pounds? Don t be foolish now, Cap 
 tain. I said this morning that I d give you 
 ^50 to take me across Galway Bay. And 
 here are the fifty pounds that I said I d give 
 you." 
 
 " Yes, yes, you said you d give me it, but I 
 never said I d take it. Put up your money. It 
 isn t for the money I d be risking making a widder 
 of Mora and orphans of the childer. No, sir; 
 two pounds is my price this day one day to-day, 
 and another day to-morrow when I won t be able 
 to get back to Costla, by the look of things now. 
 No, no, sir; I m telling you now tis never for 
 
 117 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 money I d do it. Forty years ago, when I was a 
 little lad, I knew Dannie Costello. Twas Dan 
 put me many s the time in the way of makin a 
 shillin with him now and again. Dan Costello 
 was good to me. And twas a long ways a shillin 
 went in them days starvation days we had then. 
 Yes, tis true, we haven t too many comforts now, 
 but we manage to get along. When you see the 
 childer again, sir and if they are anything like 
 their father, sir, sure they ll be the fine childer 
 when you see them, give my respects to them, 
 sir. A friend of their father s, tell them. Tell 
 them that, if you will, and I ll thank you. Two 
 pounds no more, no more. What ? The sail ? 
 Well, put in a pound for the old sail. Troth, and 
 it was an old sail, and I ll be cheating you at that. 
 Three pounds I ll take. No more. I couldn t. 
 Thank you, sir, and hurry now if you would 
 catch the cars for Queenstown. Good-by, sir, 
 good-by, and remember me kindly to Dan 
 Costello s childer." 
 
 118 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 III 
 
 When the roar of the hurrying train had be 
 come no more than one of a thousand other far 
 away echoes in the night, the fisherman returned 
 through the narrow streets of the old city to the 
 big dock, to the end of which was tied his little 
 hooker. He sloshed around with the tin pail 
 and bailed out such water as he could find by 
 feeling in the dark. He shook the reefs out of 
 the mainsail, hoisted it clear to the blocks, that it 
 might have a chance to dry, and then looked up 
 at the shadow of it as it hung. " There, that s 
 off my mind, and now for a little bit of comfort." 
 He felt his way forward and dropped through the 
 hatchway into the little hole of a cabin. 
 
 Here he groped about in the extreme darkness 
 until his fingers rubbed against a piece of a can 
 dle and a card of matches that protruded from 
 somewhere up between the deck-planking and a 
 transverse beam. The matches he struck one 
 after the other until he got one that would stay 
 alight long enough to get the candle going. He 
 raked over the ashes on the little stone slab that 
 served him for a hearth, but found them all 
 damp. " Man," he murmured, " but the water 
 surely came through her old j ints this day." He 
 went to a locker, took out a small piece of very 
 
 119 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 soft wood, from which, after whittling into shav 
 ings, he managed to get a tiny blaze. " The 
 very air has salt water in it," he whispered to 
 himself. After another while he felt hopeful of 
 getting a kettle of water to boil. " Twas good 
 the locker s half-way dry with the wood in it. 
 We ll have tea yet, by the Lord." The thought 
 gave him intense satisfaction. " A pot of fine 
 hot tea, yes, and something to eat with it. And 
 I m fair famished." From the bottom of a tin 
 box he took out a sliver of salt fish and a scone 
 of bread. " Faith, but that s fine luck just 
 enough for a bite for myself. Not a great deal 
 of it a child could eat it, and Father Doherty 
 himself wouldn t say it was too much for a fast- 
 day, but twill go fine after the wet, hard day 
 fine, fine." He shook out the last pinch of tea 
 from the caddy into the kettle. 
 
 The water was slow to boil, and the smoke of 
 the fire drove him to the hatchway for fresh air. 
 " I ll have to get a little chimbly for this place 
 another year the smoke of it sometimes is fair 
 overpowerin ." He gazed out of the hatch and 
 across the dark waters. " A wee little bit more 
 and I could see Costla Bay with the lights in the 
 Coast-Guard station yes. Mora, tis little is 
 the sleep you ll be giving yourself this night nor 
 another night till I m home again. Sure the 
 
 120 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 childer themselves, the wee little ones, will be 
 asking for their father when they hear the wind 
 scream over the rocks of Costla. And off in 
 America now what place was it that young man 
 said ? some saint city away, oh, far away, from 
 the coast. But never mind. If ever you come 
 t America, Captain Donohue says he. c I m 
 no captain, says I. I m master with one grown 
 lad for a crew, of a little black hooker a fisher 
 man of Costla am I, says I. Well, captain or 
 no captain, says he, * there s commanders in the 
 R yal Navy, says he, c and in every other navy, 
 says he, c that wouldn t crossed Galway Bay to 
 day for all their hopes of promotion. And if 
 ever you come to St. Louis that s it, St. 
 Louis, by my soul * if ever you come to St. 
 Louis, be sure to come to me, and tis myself and 
 Dan Costello s children will have the warm wel 
 come for you yes, he said that. Oh, oh, the 
 poor childer that s the thousands of miles livin* 
 from where their father was born. And havin 
 the law to fight with it ! Wirra, wirra, but the 
 Lord needs to be good to childer that s got the 
 law to fight. Yes, indeed, yes." 
 
 He took another long look toward Costla ere 
 he dropped below. He noted the progress of 
 the boiling kettle of tea. " In a minute twill be 
 done. A bite to eat, a sup to drink, and my 
 
 121 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 pipe, and then to a good sleep. My pipe, where 
 is it ? Yes, yes, to be sure, where I left it on the 
 shelf in the bunk." He reached across the bunlc 
 and began to feel about for the pipe. The 
 weight of his arm on the blankets caused him to 
 disturb a small body that was huddled deep 
 among the bed-clothes. The body, squirming, 
 startled the fisherman. " My soul ! what s that ! " 
 
 The bundle rolled over and spoke. " It s me, 
 father." 
 
 " Tammie, Tammie, you scart me most to 
 death. How on earth came you here, Tam 
 mie?" 
 
 " I asked mother could I come, and she said 
 yes, and the driver of the mail-cart took me up. 
 I wanted to be sure you got to Galway. You 
 know you said maybe the gale would last so you 
 mightn t be home for three days, and I wanted to 
 go back and tell mother in the morning." 
 
 " Back to Costla in the morning ? And if the 
 mail-car is full and no room for the likes of 
 you ? " 
 
 " Then I can walk, father." 
 
 " The Lord save us, but it s little boys that 
 makes us ashamed, with the faith they has," said 
 Gerald. " Here, come out of that bunk that s 
 as wet as the wide bay, till I put in it some of 
 my old clothes from the locker the locker, the 
 
 122 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 only dry place in the hooker, and it isn t over- 
 dry at that. They ll be poor bed-clothes, but 
 they ll be half-way dry for you, alanna. And 
 how did you come aboard anonst to me ? " 
 
 " I was waiting for you since the mail-cart got 
 in at eight o clock. I saw you when you came in 
 the dock, and then I saw you and the American 
 gentleman go to the hotel. I knew you would 
 be back here when I saw you go to the station 
 with him, so I came down here and I was waiting 
 for you here, but I fell asleep while I was wait 
 ing, father." 
 
 " Oh, the poor b y. And you re hungry, I ll 
 be bound, Tammie ? " 
 
 " A little, father." 
 
 " A little, father ? Come here by the fire. 
 You re fair famished. Don t try and hide it 
 from me. Can t I see it in the mouth and the 
 eyes of you tis fair famished you are. Here 
 now, here s the fine dried hake, and the fine 
 scone your mother baked yesterday mornin, and 
 the fine hot tea. Eat and drink now and then 
 go to sleep with you." 
 
 " And won t you eat too, father ? " 
 
 " Me eat? Sure, didn t me and the gentle 
 man ate till we almost busted at the hotel ? " 
 
 " At the hotel ? What did you have there, 
 father ? Was it fine ? and a lot of it ? " 
 
 123 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 " Fine ? and a lot of it ? There was every 
 thing any man could think of, and a lot some 
 men could never think of. There was turkey 
 and duck and puddin " 
 
 " Plum-puddin , father? " 
 
 " Plum-puddin and three other kinds." 
 
 " Ooh ! " 
 
 "And pasties and grapes and jellies and 
 oranges and bananas and cake oh, there was 
 lashin s of everything, things I don t know the 
 names of at all." 
 
 " M-m-m but you did eat a lot for the little 
 time you was in the hotel, father." 
 
 " For the little time ? Of course. We raced 
 through it so we wouldn t miss the cars. And 
 how did you come to know we was in the hotel 
 only a little time ? " 
 
 " Don t you remember me saying I was out 
 side in the road to see you come out and go up 
 the street with the gentleman ? " 
 
 " I forgot that. But you was outside all the 
 time ? Watchin your betters ? Tammie, don t 
 ever you do that again. You don t know what 
 private business they might be wantin to talk 
 over. Don t ever you do that again, Tammie. 
 And have another mug o tea now." 
 
 " Yes, father." 
 
 " And ate up the fish and bread." 
 124 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 " It s all eat up, father." 
 
 " Sure, and so it is. O Tammie, only all the 
 shops is closed, but tis we two, just the two of 
 us down here, would be having the fine supper 
 now me, with pound notes in my pocket. But 
 there s a little droppeen o tea left, alanna. Take 
 it and finish it up now, like a good b y." 
 
 " I m full, father." 
 
 " And you re sleepy by the looks of you." 
 
 " A little, father. I was up at four o clock 
 this morning. I was up that time you left this 
 morning to see if the hooker was all right when 
 you heard the gale coming on. I saw you goin 
 out, though you didn t see me, cause it was dark 
 ooh, wasn t it dark, m-m-m " He winked 
 his eyes, rested his head against the edge of the 
 bunk, and suddenly went off to sleep. 
 
 The fisherman bent over him. " The poor 
 b y, tired to death he is with his five-and-twenty 
 mile and the mail-car this evenin . Well, well, 
 the faith of a child ! " He gathered him up 
 and laid him tenderly in the bunk. " Tis old 
 rags that s under you, poor b y, but they re half 
 dry and maybe they ll save you from going back 
 to your mother with your lungs choked with the 
 cold." 
 
 He turned to the fire. From the board that 
 had served as a plate for Tammie he swept off 
 
 125 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 the crumbs and swallowed them with relish. 
 What was left of the tea he poured out into a 
 mug less than half a mug it made and drank 
 it off. " My soul, but that s fine." He smacked 
 his lips over it. He kept smacking while he 
 was making ready to light his pipe by a dying 
 ember that he coaxed from the hearth. With 
 his pipe going, he leaned back against the planks 
 of the hooker s side, and through the smoke and 
 half light regarded the face of the lad as it shone 
 from among the pile of old clothes in the bunk. 
 
 " And to think of him walking the twenty-five 
 mile over the road to Costla in the mornin . 
 Many s the time I walked it myself at his age, and 
 I know what it is. But it s a stout lad I was to 
 him with his little thin legs, and the little feet 
 and toes blue with the cold, and maybe nobody 
 along the whole way to know how far he came, 
 and to ask him in to have a bite to ate and a sup 
 to drink. Glory be, but is that water ? " 
 
 He shifted about and felt his back. " Water, 
 no less, and there isn t a j int in her old bones 
 the sea didn t squeeze through to-day. But 
 she s the greatest little one of them all out of 
 Costla. I wouldn t give her for some that s twice 
 as young. Thirty-five year this summer. Thirty- 
 five year the prime of life. Many s the gale my 
 own father sailed her. And many s the gale my- 
 
 126 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 self has sailed her, and many a gale I ll sail her 
 yet, with God s blessing. Sure I d like to know 
 the time she made across the bay this day. My, 
 but she fair leaped across the bay. Ah, ah, but 
 the bones of me is getting old. They crack with 
 every move I make with every move, yes. And 
 that young man from America, God-speed to 
 him. And the poor childer of Dan Costello 
 the poor, poor childer the Lord pity them ! If 
 I was gone now, tis the hard time my own would 
 have. You re a brave little man, Tammie, but 
 what could you do ag in the world poor, poor 
 Tammie poor, poor childer." 
 
 His eyes, turning from the figure in the bunk, 
 regarded intently the red glow of the fire on the 
 hearth. The glow became duller under his gaze 
 and the air about him grew colder. It occurred 
 to him that a little more wood on the fire would 
 be a fine thing, but when he came to look in the 
 locker there was no more wood. " Glory be," he 
 said, softly, " but it went fast." He thought to 
 close the hatch, but, looking up, his eyes were 
 caught and held by the shine of the stars. " The 
 blessed little stars ! " he whispered ; " even when 
 it s windy and cold it is, ye re there to make the 
 night fine. And the little bit of candle" he 
 strove to shield it for a moment from the wind 
 " tis no use, twill soon be out. And it s falling 
 
 127 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 asleep anonst to myself I am and maybe the little 
 lad cold in the bunk." 
 
 He tucked the blankets more closely about the 
 boy, laid the tips of his fingers on the flushed 
 cheek, and whispering softly, "Tammie, alanna, 
 is it asleep you are ? " bent his head low for an 
 answer. The boy s gentle breathing was the best 
 answer. " That s good, and now, maybe, I ll get 
 a bit of sleep myself twas the long wet day this 
 day yes, the long wet day." 
 
 But, tired as he was, he forced eyes and ears to 
 do duty for a while yet. He must make certain 
 that all was well. Listening, he made out that 
 beneath the old hull the tide was still running. 
 He hearkened for some minutes to the sound of 
 it. Less noise there was now to be sure, but 
 wasn t that to be expected with the slack water 
 coming on ? Once more he gazed up through 
 the hatchway. The stars were yet shining not 
 so shiny maybe as a while ago, but how else would 
 they be and the gray dawn coming on ? The fire, 
 dying a minute back, was dead altogether now, 
 but who could blame it with not so much as the 
 shaving of a match to put on it ? Sure even a 
 man would die and he wasn t fed yes. And the 
 candle, the little bit of candle, going no, but 
 gone out entirely. And my own pipe gone out 
 with it. 
 
 128 
 
A Fisherman of Costla 
 
 He lay quiet for a time before he moved a 
 hand to take the pipe from his lips, but somehow 
 he couldn t get a match to light. Well, there d 
 been smoking enough. And, after all, why should 
 the pipe be going when everything else was gone? 
 Sure all the light and heat was gone. Pipe, 
 candle, stars, fire all gone out. But Tammie 
 listen yes, he was sleeping fine. The poor boy, 
 poor Tammie the poor, poor little Costello 
 childer the poor fatherless childer everywhere 
 to all poor childer may God be good may God 
 be good 
 
 Gradually the weary head sagged until it was 
 fairly on the shoulder nearest the bunk ; gradually 
 the legs, which had been drawn up at the knees, 
 straightened out until they found a brace against 
 the edge of the hearthstone ; unnoticed, the pipe 
 slipped from the relaxing fingers ; softly the lips 
 murmured beneath the beard " to all poor chil 
 der may God be good " the shaggy head settled 
 into the peak of the hooker "may God be good" 
 and this fisherman of Costla, his day s work 
 done, was off for his night s rest. The morrow 
 would bring its own labors. 
 
 129 
 
TOMMIE OHLSEN S WESTERN 
 PASSAGE 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western 
 Passage 
 
 ALONG the rocky shores of Old Cape Ann 
 an easterly gale was stirring. In from the 
 sea by way of the Point, across the harbor, and 
 through the streets of Gloucester it moved bois 
 terously. Up on the hill it sent unfastened blinds 
 aswirling, jarred bricks from unstable chimneys, 
 and eventually forced all the old ladies with the 
 shawls to draw in their heads, slam down the 
 window-sashes, and protest, with tight lips and 
 shaking heads, that not for some time yet would 
 it be safe for a body to venture out no indeed, 
 not even if the glass was arisin . Down along the 
 wharf-front it whistled through halyards, stays, 
 and the unclewed tops ls of vessels in the docks, 
 and from the more lofty roofs picked up and 
 skied to the clouds everything that was not made 
 fast with at least a double hitch. The most 
 heavenward structure down that way, the observa 
 tion-tower of the fish-syndicate, shook and bent 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 as if it were not more than a church-steeple, and 
 the very top of the tower, the " Crow s Nest," 
 swayed in a way to suggest to one imaginative in 
 mate the snapping of a whip, and to another, this 
 one even more imaginative possibly, the evolu 
 tions, as he put it, of a burgee to the main truck. 
 It was a northeast gale from Newfoundland to 
 Cape Cod, the Weather Bureau said, with some 
 minor wrecks along the coast. 
 
 Up in Crow s Nest they read all the weather 
 reports, but it took more than weather reports to 
 disturb their peace of mind. They knew that a 
 fleet of distressed coasters had come bumping into 
 the harbor over night for refuge, and that a string 
 of storm-flags was still flying from the roof of the 
 Custom-house they could see all that and a lot 
 more from their aery, but they were not worrying 
 particularly up in Crow s Nest. It was too bad, 
 of course, about the coasters, but coasters and 
 fishermen weren t the same not by a blame 
 sight, not by a ding-blame sight not meaning 
 any disrespect to the coasters. And as for the 
 storm-flags, a lot of wind out to sea was no reason 
 that there d be lives lost on the Banks. Wind, 
 just plain wind, never hurt anybody. And this 
 was only a summer gale anyway, and it was able 
 vessels and able seamen sailing out of Gloucester. 
 This breeze might give the passengers on ocean- 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 liners something to talk about on winter-nights 
 for a few years after they got back to the prairies 
 again, but good Lord ! there were skippers out 
 of Gloucester who, if they happened to be in a 
 hurry home, wouldn t bother to reef for this 
 no, sir, wouldn t stop to reef, but keep her com 
 ing all the way. Lord, yes, keep her coming all 
 the way. 
 
 They were doing very well up in Crow s Nest 
 this tempestuous morning. With a fine drying 
 fire in the stove, and close by the stove a new level 
 of fresh, inviting sawdust, with what looked like 
 a sufficiency of tobacco in sight and what appeared 
 to be a disposition to pass it around, with hatches 
 drawn and a new tin-patch on the roof with all 
 tight and dry and snug, why shouldn t they be 
 doing well ? The storm without seemed only to 
 better the humor of those within. They heark 
 ened to the roaring of the gale outside, and they 
 all began to feel as if they had just come off 
 watch a hard watch in the thick o fog, with 
 sheets straining and seas breaking over her quar 
 ter and bathed in the glow that comes of that 
 kind of thinking and wrapped twice around in 
 the belief, on this particular morning, that in all 
 Gloucester their quarters were not to be improved 
 upon, could they be feeling otherwise than com 
 fortable up in Crow s Nest ? 
 
 US 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 The helpers, who clung to the locker-seats like 
 barnacles, felt to the full the measure of all this 
 comfort. Blissfully they sat and smoked and 
 spat toward the outlying parts of the box of saw 
 dust. To be sure, they did have their little 
 troubles. Every little while, in obedience to 
 " Old Peter s " voice of authority, somebody or 
 other would have to detach himself from his posi 
 tion on the locker and stand his watch. With a 
 lingering motion that suggested something of the 
 tenacious love of a periwinkle for a low-water 
 rock, the commanded one would tear himself off, 
 make his way to the port-hole, take a look out, 
 and report to old Peter, the one man there who 
 drew pay, and who, sitting in his easy-chair with 
 his feet on the edge of the sawdust-box in the 
 centre of the room and his back to the seaward- 
 side, should have been enjoying the greatest com 
 fort of all. He should have been, it would seem, 
 but for an hour now the volunteers had reported 
 nothing but mist and white-caps out to sea, and 
 Peter was getting nervous. The picture of the 
 catastrophe, if one of the firm s vessels should 
 steal in unreported, photographed itself on his 
 mind so frequently that he felt impelled at length 
 to ease his nerves, even at the risk of slightly 
 wounding the feelings of an aide-de-camp or two 
 of his staff. " With this gale behind em," said 
 
 136 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 Peter, by way of breaking more gently to them 
 his very low estimate of their worth as look-outs 
 " with this gale behind em, it seems to me 
 there ought to be some of the fleet comin along 
 soon. In a breeze of this kind, the fairest kind 
 of a wind to the east ard, and enough of it to suit 
 the most desp rate sail-carriers out of Gloucester, 
 they oughter be comin along like a drove of wild 
 horses pretty soon, don t you think ? Anyway, 
 maybe I d better take a look for myself. No 
 offence meant ; but you lads brought up ashore, 
 you haven t the eyes for it quite not quite. 
 And you re gettin to love your comfort too well. 
 Anyway, I callate I d better take a look for my 
 self." 
 
 He rose regretfully, stuffed his pipe into his 
 pocket and had a look for himself. 
 
 What he saw, off-shore, was a tumble of long 
 seas and a field of scud flying before the gale in 
 many patches ; and, inshore, the swift advance of 
 many lines of bold-marked ridges piling high in 
 a green-white tumult above the rocks of the Cape. 
 He viewed them calmly, as a man who has fought 
 them views them to sea, the crested, sweeping 
 waves and the flick-lashing of the wind whipping 
 over them ; and along the rocky shore, the bold 
 rollers tumbling over, piling up, and crashing 
 high, and the wake of the fierce under-tow swirl- 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 ing back again. He watched it for a while, this 
 play of the sea, not alone that little part of the 
 sea almost beneath him, but also that greater 
 part far out from him, and then took note of the 
 sky above ; not near so thick massed now were 
 the clouds, as when he had last looked out, an 
 hour ago, nor driving so turbulently, and yet they 
 were still flying with great speed. " They ll be 
 gone by noon," thought Peter, "and we ll walk 
 home to dinner with the sun shining through 
 again, or I don t know." 
 
 Musing thoughtfully over that, he drew his 
 pipe from his pocket and struck a match. The 
 match sputtered and went out. He lit a second, 
 and then then it was he saw her. Waiting for 
 the second match to blaze, and looking unprepar 
 edly out through her port-hole, but with an habit 
 ual watchfulness withal, his keen old eyes saw her. 
 A shaft of sunlight breaking prematurely through 
 the thinning clouds struck her and lit her up, just 
 as his eyes happened to rest on the right spot, 
 and he saw her a flash of a handsome fisherman, 
 long and narrow black hull that shone and gold 
 stripe that glittered. Jumbo, jib, fore, main, 
 and both topsails in his admiration he noted 
 every sail of her, as might any landsman who 
 had never learned to take in hull and rig entire, 
 the whole thing at a glance. " By the Lord, but 
 
 138 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 she s an able vessel ! " breathed Peter, " and her 
 skipper, whoever he is, is a-sockin it to her. 
 Drive her, drive her, God bless you, drive her. 
 Two tops ls ! By the Lord, but you re the lad 
 to get her home drive her ! " 
 
 Unconsciously he had spoken the last few 
 words aloud, and now the whole room was at 
 his shoulder. It took such an announcement as 
 that to wake them up. " Two tops ls did you 
 say? In this breeze? Where? where?" 
 
 " Look," answered Peter with an indicating 
 arm. " Look. See her now ? Where s the 
 glasses ? Maybe I c n make her out." He 
 looked, and knew her. " It s the Nannie O, by 
 the Lord! See her now?" They looked and 
 saw her. They did not know her from any other 
 vessel, but they saw the low, black hull with all 
 the white sail. Tearing around the Point she 
 was then, with her lee cat-heads just showing out 
 of water. 
 
 " Are you sure that s the Nannie, Peter ? " in 
 quired a doubting one at his shoulder. " Are 
 you sure ? Wasn t it only yesterday some skip 
 per reported leaving her seven or eight hundred 
 miles to the east ard only a few days ago and she 
 not ready to leave for two or three days. Some 
 where up on the Grand Banks she was then last 
 Thursday, I think it was and not goin to leave 
 
 139 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 for two or three days and now only Tuesday. 
 That skipper got in only yesterday afternoon, 
 Peter, and he made a pretty fair passage himself, 
 they said." 
 
 " Hush," chided Peter, " there s passages and 
 passages. It s Tommie Ohlsen himself. Ain t 
 he a dog though ? Four lowers and two tops ls, 
 his deck awash to the hatches, two men to the 
 wheel and the rest of the crew huggin up under 
 the weather-rail yes, and glad they re so near 
 home, I ll bet. Only yesterday afternoon, Wai- 
 lie Manning the Cleopatra in from a shackin 
 trip it s him what one o you meant, I s pose 
 Wallie reports the Nannie seven hundred and 
 fifty mile to the east ard and not goin to leave 
 afore Saturday night. * Any message ? says 
 Wallie to Tommie * any message ? * Nothin 
 particular, says Tommie. ( Might tell the old man, 
 when you get in, he might be gettin a new fore- 
 gaff ready for the Nannie. This one we got now 
 went to hell on the way out fixed it up as well 
 as we could, but if we has to jibe her over again 
 all standin something s liable to happen to the 
 Nannie if it comes thick and there s rocks under 
 our lee goin home. Main topm st a little sprung, 
 but we c n make that go a while longer, I cal- 
 late. And when will you be leavin for home? 
 asks Wallie. * Not afore Saturday night at dark, 
 
 140 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 anyway, says Tommie. We ll fish the week 
 out, anyway. If we have good luck we ll swing 
 her off Saturday night. If the wind s fair and 
 we have any luck fishin Saturday night, but 
 not before, says Tommie. Good-by. Report 
 me to the wife, if you happen to go by the 
 house, and he waves his hand to Wallie as the 
 Cleopatra goes shootin by. 
 
 " So Saturday night he must ve sailed and here 
 it s only Tuesday morning. Two days and three 
 nights, and seven hundred and fifty miles, I s pose 
 we c n say, he s come. I ll bet there was some 
 draggin of sail on the Nannie comin home. 
 Two men to the wheel to hold her, the deck 
 jumpin , if I know Tommie, and life-lines out 
 maybe and himself with his arm hooked into the 
 main riggin all the way home. Maybe I that s 
 sailed with him don t know." 
 
 " The wind must ve been fair all the way," 
 hazarded somebody over by the stairs, "when 
 she made such good time." 
 
 " Fair enough if it s the same way to the east - 
 ard as it s been here at Cape Ann the last three 
 or four days. Tommie wouldn t want it any 
 fairer than this. It oughter suited Tommie like 
 a fish on every hook abaft the beam and plenty 
 of it. That s what pleases Tommy, wind any 
 where along there abaft the beam over the 
 
 141 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 quarter. Man, I mind how pleased he was that 
 time we put into that Norwegian port up to the 
 no the- ard just afore we left for home that sum 
 mer, after Tommie d made that long cruise for 
 new halibut-grounds. Went clear up to Spitz- 
 bergen afore he stopped that trip. The Lord 
 knows how many thousand miles we sailed the 
 Nannie that trip. I know we got about s far as 
 some of them North Pole hunters ever gets. At 
 eighty north I know we was ketchin halibut, but 
 the ice chased us south again. The Nannie O 
 warn t no polar-boat, you see, full of solid beams 
 inside and with grub for about four hundred men 
 and dogs for four hundred year, and so Tommie 
 flew before the ice, and that s the time he put 
 into this Norwegian port. What was the name 
 of it now? ha? Christiansund ? No, not Chris- 
 tiansund I mind Christiansund, where you shoot 
 in the harbor at one end and out the other. 
 Twas away farther north than that. Stamsund? 
 No, I mind that, too. No, not Ellingsund, but 
 some name like that. Anyway, up that way it 
 was some sund port up there to the no the- ard. 
 Tommie, you know, was born somewhere up in 
 Norway in one of them sort of bays fjords they 
 calls em up near them cod-fishing islands, the 
 Lofodens. But he came away from there so 
 early that it didn t leave any bad effects. You 
 
 142 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 know what I mean. There s some able fisher 
 men up there, let me tell you, but they don t 
 have the vessels nor the gear we have. There s 
 where they go out in open boats no bigger than 
 one of our seine-boats not so big sometimes 
 with just one square sail in the middle and they 
 can t hug no nearer than six points to the wind, 
 though in their national pride, as you might say, 
 they ll tell you they c n get within five points 
 and sometimes four points, which is fool-talk on 
 the face of it. For with one square sail in the 
 middle of her and no keel to amount to anything 
 and loose rock in the bottom for ballast, how 
 could they? Anyway, out they go, and in the 
 winter, too, fifty or sixty miles off shore, and of 
 course they sometimes get caught, a lot of em, 
 and don t come back. I see by the paper the 
 other day where a hundred of em was lost lately 
 in one gale. 
 
 " Now Tommie was brought up to that when 
 he was a little boy, and when he comes over this 
 side, why he was just ripe for Gloucester. He 
 learned fast. You c n just imagine how a big fast 
 able Gloucester schooner would hit a Norwegian 
 boy who d been having to go out and ketch fish 
 in open boats. Anyway, he warn t fishing out o 
 Gloucester many years afore he begins to get 
 ideas about things, being a husky, intelligent lad 
 
 143 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 and not scared of anything that ever came out 
 the sea. He got chances with the best skippers 
 out o Gloucester. He got a lot of ideas about 
 carryin sail specially. One thing he got good and 
 hard into his head was that a real skipper never 
 takes in his mains l while anybody else in sight s 
 got one standing. And when he did get that 
 into his head an you know how the right kind 
 of a boy ll go the limit to be as good as some 
 body he admires well when Tommie after fishin* 
 with half a dozen of the craziest sail-carriers out 
 of here, when he d been with them a while and 
 then gets a vessel of his own, why it got so that 
 men with families used to talk it over on the 
 corner afore they shipped with Tommie. Of 
 course, Tommie had sort of soaked in the atmos 
 phere, as you might say, by that time. 
 
 "Well, this time I m telling about he was 
 in what I call the proper temper to try some sail- 
 carryin . The few years he d been skipper up to 
 a while afore this he d been in old plugs, but, be- 
 ginnin to do pretty well, the firm built him the 
 Nannie O, and Tommie cert nly thought he was 
 fixed then. And he had a right to think he was, 
 for if ever an able vessel sailed past Eastern 
 Point it was the Nannie O in her younger days. 
 And he did love that vessel ! Man, but I mind 
 how his eyes used to shine every time he took a 
 
 144 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 look at her. * Ain t she able-lookin ? he d say, 
 and look around to see that everybody else 
 thought so, too. Even now, looking at her com 
 ing in the harbor, you don t have to look twice to 
 see she s an able vessel. And if she s able now, 
 think what she must ve been afore she was druv 
 to death. She s got iron hoops around her now 
 from chain-plates to chain-plates, fore and aft, to 
 hold her together, and the signs are on her where 
 she spits out her oakum reg larly. But this time 
 I m telling you she was only two year old, and 
 able ! able, I m telling you, able as Tommie 
 himself, and Tommie is able. I ve seen him, 
 when I was on the Nannie O, take a buoy-line 
 and throw the bight of it around the main-boom 
 the best manila line, mind thick as a clothes 
 line, I m telling you shore-people, if there s any 
 here and pull on that with one finger the long 
 finger of his right hand a steady pull, mind, and 
 no trick-work, just a steady pull, and break it. 
 I call that an able man, and that s what Tommie 
 did and c n do to this day and he s getting old 
 now, too." 
 
 " How old, Peter ? " asked one of the kind that 
 must always have the details of things. 
 
 " O Lord, I dunno. I mean old for his age. 
 Lord, he s got just as much fire now as ever he 
 had. You just try to cross his bows once and 
 
 45 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 see. But, anyway, he had the fire in him this 
 time. He was the right age, I call it, for a man 
 to like to take chances in the middle thirties 
 not too long married, and restless as a cat if he 
 was so much as a week away from home. He 
 cert nly was restless that trip kept things jump 
 ing ! If you d only seen the way he drove into 
 that port in Norway a heavy no therly gale. 
 We threw her into the wind just long enough to 
 pick up the pilot I remember him just as well 
 a big lad all oiled up, and I mind how we gaffed 
 him over the rail like a big, broad-backed halibut, 
 with the salt water runnin off him. He could 
 talk pretty good English, this lad, like a lot of 
 them Norwegian pilots, and he begins to talk as 
 soon s he s found the deck under his feet. First 
 he sings out to take in tops ls and reef the mains l. 
 It d done you good to seen him wave his hands 
 and give orders. You will drown, says he. 
 
 " Drown a dog-fish ! " says Tommie. " The 
 Nannie O s carried her tops ls to here, and I cal- 
 late she ll carry em a few miles farther." 
 
 " But she cannot." 
 
 " But she can," says Tommie. 
 
 " Then I will not will not take the respon 
 sibility," says the pilot. 
 
 " Then you needn t. Who in the name of 
 creation asked you to?" says Tommie. "All 
 
 146 
 
Tomraie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 you got to do is to stand by and pick out the 
 buoys, an bime-by collect your fees, and I ll 
 tend to the handlin of her." 
 
 It was a blowing a livin gale, mind, in from 
 the no the- ard, and Tommie druv her in for this 
 queer-named port with four lowers and two 
 tops ls like you see him comin past the whistlin 
 buoy now if you look out the port-hole. There 
 was one of them tourist steamers we passed on 
 the way one of them big steamers that d been 
 up to see the midnight sun, I s pose, and the 
 passengers was huddled up on deck and watchin* 
 us. I mind how some of em pulled out their 
 handkerchiefs and waved em at us. Oh, but 
 Tommie liked that ! 
 
 "We oughter have our flag to the main peak," 
 he says, " to show em what she is." He looks 
 aloft to see in his mind how the flag d look, and 
 the more he looks aloft the more ideas he gets. 
 "Yes, and the balloon and stays l to her she d 
 stand it. I know she d stand it. She s able for 
 it, I know," he says, and he looks up at her top- 
 sticks they was bending then like two whips and 
 some of us was having a cold chill to think he d 
 try it. But he shakes his head at last. "Twouldn t 
 be seamanlike, would it? It d be like putting 
 on airs, bein so close to port. Wouldn t it, 
 Peter ? " he says, turnin to me, though he 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 didn t gen rally ask for advice, and I said it 
 cert nly would. 
 
 We was getting into the harbor then, which 
 was the other side of an opening about forty feet 
 wide, where the ends of the two quays didn t 
 quite come together. It was a nice little harbor 
 inside, but crowded this time with all kind of 
 craft, all in from the gale. 
 
 " Is there room, do you think, Skipper ? " I 
 says when we began to get pretty near. 
 
 " Oh, we oughter be able to squeeze in," says 
 Tommie. 
 
 " You must not, you must not," says the pilot. 
 He d been a sort of passenger since we d got the 
 channel fixed in our minds, but now he was corn- 
 in to life again assertin* his authority like. 
 " You must not, you must not," he says, speak- 
 in* up to Tommie. 
 
 " Hush," says Tommie. 
 
 " But I won t take the responsibility," says he. 
 
 " I ll take it off you," says Tommie. 
 
 " But I m pilot," says he. 
 
 " But I m skipper," says Tommie. 
 
 " But you must not," says he. 
 
 " Mustn t hell," says Tommie, gettin* mad. 
 " Let her swing," he says to me at the wheel. 
 " Give the Nannie O a full and let her roll ! " 
 And through the passage she went flyin and the 
 
 148 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 waves from under her bows went up against the 
 quays like she was an ocean-liner hooked up. 
 
 And when she got in ! On the deck of every 
 vessel in the harbor they crowded to see who 
 was the strange schooner comin in carryin* her 
 tops ls when everything under sail that day had 
 come in with what they had in the way of lower 
 sails reefed down. Tommie went to the wheel 
 himself and, man, you ought ve seen him shoot 
 her ! Up she came, and whing ! My soul, I 
 thought she d go another quarter-mile the way 
 he slammed her into the wind ! And she would 
 have, only just in time he sings out and cl-i-i-nk ! 
 over goes the anchor, and whr-r-r down comes 
 jibs and fores l, and there we was all standin . 
 Our mains l was shakin in the wind wild as could 
 be and the reef-points on it crackin like a hun 
 dred whips, but there we was sure enough right in 
 the middle of them all, with their eyes poppin 
 out at us. " Break out her flag to the main peak 
 and let em know what country this one s from," 
 says Tommie. And we flies our big, new en 
 sign, and in a second, from half a dozen steam 
 ers round us and four or five steam-yachts if 
 there was one I ll bet there was a hundred people, 
 men and women, flashed out little American flags 
 on sticks and waves em up and down like crazy 
 people. Warn t we surprised though ? 
 
 149 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 There was a big steam-yacht almost alongside 
 us, and " From what port do you hail ? " sings out 
 a fellow from the bridge of her. 
 
 " Gloucester," sings out Tommie, with his face 
 flushin and his eyes shinin out through the rain 
 and salt water drippin from his face. 
 
 " By God ! " sings out the steam-yacht fellow, 
 " I knew it, I knew it only a Gloucester fisher 
 man would do it or could do it. Come aboard, 
 won t you, Captain, and have dinner with me ? " 
 
 " There s twenty-two of us all told," says 
 Tommie, kind of remindin him like. 
 
 " All right," says the steam-yacht lad he was 
 game all right, " come aboard, the twenty-two of 
 you," and we went aboard half an hour later, all 
 but the cook, who d been sent ashore for grub 
 and the letters, and we had dinner in the cabin of 
 the millionnaire s yacht. 
 
 Well, we was at that dinner, when the talk of 
 yachts and fishermen came up. Tommie d been 
 telling of some sailin done by Gloucester fisher 
 men some fast passages from the Banks mostly. 
 Of course, he didn t forget to tell a few things 
 about his own Nannie O, while he was about it. 
 One of them Valkyries some of you here that s 
 always talkin yachtin ll remember one of em 
 was just then comin over to race for the America s 
 cup off Sandy Hook. 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 " Now, how do you think you d make out 
 with her ? " asks this millionnaire a sugar- 
 millionnaire he was, I think. " How would your 
 vessel and the Valkyrie make out in a race ? " 
 
 " An ocean-race ? " asks Tommie. 
 
 " Yes," he answers. 
 
 " We wouldn t have to wet our rail," says 
 Tommie. 
 
 " How do you make that out ? " asks the 
 yachting fellow. 
 
 " How else could it be in an ocean-race ? " 
 says Tommie. " We re built for heavy weather 
 and yachts ain t. They re aloominum, or some 
 other queer metal, that s about as thick as a coat 
 o spar-varnish, and we re three-inch oak. They 
 race a vessel about four times, and then have to 
 break her up for old junk, while with us, it s 
 eight or ten years afore a vessel gets real loose 
 loose so the men have to wear rubber-boots in 
 the fore-hold. No, sir, aloominum and three- 
 inch oak ain t the same thing. No, sir, the Nan 
 nie was built to stay to sea in North Atlantic 
 winters, and in the worst part of the North At 
 lantic the shoals where the fish feeds ; but these 
 yachts, so far s I c n see they re built bout as 
 stiff" as window-sashes, and they do most of their 
 cruisin in sight o land. Of course they do 
 sometimes cross the ocean I know that but 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 Lord, the care they take when they do ! And at 
 home, if it looks bad, they re forever runnin to a 
 harbor. Now," says Tommie, " imagine what 
 they d say of a fisherman in Gloucester if he was 
 to up anchor and come home every time he saw 
 a breeze making. S pose he could get in every 
 time, though of course he couldn t, for he d be 
 caught away offshore, two or three or four hun 
 dred miles or more sometimes. But s pose he did 
 spend his time dodgin gales ? He d do a lot of 
 fishin , wouldn t he ? And he d get a lot of men 
 to ship with him, wouldn t he ? So our vessels 
 must be built strong. And in an ocean race 
 now" Tommie shook his head, sad-like, to 
 think what Gloucester fishermen misses for not 
 gettin chances in ocean races. 
 
 " Do you mean to say that you would race 
 your vessel against the Valkyrie say across the 
 ocean ? " asks the yachting sharp, after studyin 
 Tommie awhile. 
 
 " Race the Nannie against the Valkyrie across 
 the ocean ? " Tommie looks at the steam-yacht 
 lad like he was somethin queer came up in the 
 trawls. " Why, if I thought the Nannie O 
 couldn t beat any blessed yacht of her length 
 afloat across the Western Ocean, I d sell her for 
 a wood-carrier to some Nova Scotia trader on 
 my life I would. Race her against the Valkyrie 
 
 152 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 across the ocean ? Why twould be a sin and a 
 shame why, don t you know these cup-chal 
 lengers goes over under storm-sail and we ve 
 got everything in God s world to put on the 
 Nannie?" 
 
 " But if it is light weather, wouldn t she have 
 sail enough to creep along as fast as a fisherman 
 and " 
 
 " Would she creep along ? " says Tommie. 
 " And do you callate the Nannie can t waltz 
 along in moderate weather, a nine or ten knot 
 breeze now what ? " 
 
 " And if it comes heavy weather," goes on the 
 yachting chap, to finish up his argument, " she ll 
 have sail enough, anyway." 
 
 Tommie brought his fist down on the table at 
 that, the dishes rattlin* against each other like 
 ten-pins. " The Lord forgive you, but can you, 
 a man that knows enough about the sea to be 
 runnin a big steam-yacht like this can you im 
 agine a breeze when I d be keepin only storm- 
 sail on the Nannie if I was racin her. This ves 
 sel of mine is a Gloucester fisherman that was 
 built to go halibutin to go halibutin , man. 
 Look here, now, when does this Valkyrie leave 
 for America ? " Tommie was ready to explode. 
 
 " Oh, but you couldn t start with her on even 
 terms," says the yachting lad, " because she s due 
 
 53 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 to leave England to-day. That s what put me in 
 mind of her. She s to leave Plymouth to-day, 
 and that s a thousand, yes twelve hundred miles, 
 nearer America than this place is." 
 
 " To-day ? " says Tommie. " That s too early. 
 I want to go ashore and send a letter or two 
 home maybe telegraph the owners. But to 
 morrow, yes we ll sail to-morrow. We re bound 
 home, anyway. We only put in here to get grub 
 and ice and water and send letters home. What 
 time to-day will this yacht sail ? " 
 
 " I don t know exactly. Along in the middle 
 of the day sometime." 
 
 " Well, let s average it up and call it twelve 
 o clock," says Tommie. " Now, to-morrow at 
 noon I swings the Nannie O off for Gloucester. 
 I ll give that Valkyrie her ten or twelve hundred 
 mile start, and if I don t beat her across the 
 Western Ocean ten or twelve hundred mile and 
 all then you c n call my vessel any kind of a 
 name you want. Put the Nannie s whole sail to 
 her storm-sail to offset the thousand-mile start. 
 We ll sail the Nannie to Gloucester and they ll 
 sail the Valkyrie to New York. Gloucester may 
 be a couple of hundred mile nearer than New 
 York. But she ll have a thousand miles on us 
 then which don t matter. Good-by," says 
 Tommie. " I m goin aboard to see what the 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 cook s got for the passage, but to-morrow at 
 twelve you give us your whistle and we ll up jibs 
 and off for Gloucester and bime-by we ll see." 
 
 " If you beat her," says the millionnaire, " I ll 
 give you something handsome for the sport of it." 
 
 " Never mind the something handsome," says 
 Tommie. " But I ll reach the other side afore 
 that bloody English yacht, or sink the Nan 
 nie O." 
 
 " Hooray ! " says the steam-yacht lad, " and 
 here s to " he fills the glasses all around 
 " What will we drink to now ? Come now, Cap 
 tain, a toast what ll we drink to ? " 
 
 " Plenty wind," says Tommie. 
 
 And we got plenty wind. We never waited 
 till next day. We goes aboard, Tommie gets a 
 letter from the cook, reads it two or three times, 
 jumps on deck all at once, says, " Break her out," 
 and we turned to. It was blowin then worse 
 than when we came in. The steam-yacht lad was 
 there on the bridge in his rain-coat. " I say, 
 Captain, but you re not going to start to-day ? " 
 he hollers out to Tommie. 
 
 " Why not ain t this the day ? " Tommie 
 hollers back. We were heaving on the anchor 
 then, and Tommie looks around. We all looks 
 around. We thought maybe that word had come 
 that the Valkyrie d been delayed. 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 " Think of the risk, the needless risk," says 
 the yachting sharp. 
 
 " Risk ? " says Tommie, " risk with the Nan 
 nie O ? The Lord forgive you, you don t know 
 her." 
 
 She was beginning to pay off then, with Tom 
 mie at the wheel, and the millionnaire lad walking 
 aft to keep up the talk. He sings out, " Can I 
 cable any message to the other side for you to 
 the owners, say, to let them know you are 
 coming ? " 
 
 " The owners no," says Tommie. " But 
 hold on I nigh forgot you might telegraph my 
 wife and tell her I m on the way home." 
 
 "All right. What ll I say?" 
 
 " Just say," says Tommie, " Comin home, 
 and sign it Tommie. Just * Comin home, 
 Tommie, just like that. And send it to Mrs. 
 Captain Tommie Ohlsen, Gloucester." 
 
 " Nothing more, Captain ? " 
 
 " Nothing more," says Tommie. 
 
 " But won t I say you re going to hurry ? 
 Maybe she d like to know you re hurrying." 
 
 " Good Lord ! " says Tommie. " She ll know 
 that without writing it down," and he puts the 
 wheel down and swings the Nannie off, and bangs 
 her out the harbor. 
 
 So out we goes and from then on we had it. 
 156 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 None of you here have been through it that I 
 know one of them crazy drivers of skippers 
 making a passage. Some of you, maybe, have 
 heard how they come from the Banks that way, 
 six or eight hundred or a thousand miles, nothin 
 but a high sea to the lee quarter and a roarin 
 wake all the way. Well, cert nly we had it across 
 the Western Ocean that time four thousand 
 miles, or forty-two hundred I think they said it 
 was from that Norwegian port to Gloucester. 
 Well, we had it four thousand and odd mile of 
 sea rushin by, with two men lashed to the wheel, 
 life-lines out, and hatches battened most of the 
 time, everybody on deck hangin on to some 
 thing, the lee rail buried gen rally and once in a 
 while her sheer-poles going under. Day in and 
 day out we had it, the wind singin through her 
 rigging, boom-jaws creaking, the planks in her 
 deck quiverin , and her mast-heads strainin . 
 Four thousand and odd mile o that it was 
 enough to drive a man crazy. There was some 
 of the gang took to their bunks that passage just 
 to get away from the strain of it hauled the 
 blankets over their heads so s they wouldn t have 
 to listen to the everlastin singin up on deck. 
 Yes sir, from her trucks to her keel she was 
 groanin . But Tommie ! Lord, he enjoyed 
 every foot of that passage. He d stand on the 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 quarter over by the main rigging, or maybe some 
 times aft by the corner of the house for a change. 
 He d be lookin for ard the length of her or over 
 the rail and then up. " Lord," he d say, " but 
 ain t she able, the Nannie ! And ain t she beau- 
 ti-ful ? she s cert nly an able dog, this one ! " 
 And he d shake his head and smile at whoever 
 was to the wheel, and if whoever was to the 
 wheel didn t say she was beautiful and able if he 
 didn t speak right up and say she was the ablest 
 vessel he ever stood on and the most beautiful 
 if he didn t speak right up, he d get nothing 
 but black looks from Tommie for the rest of his 
 watch, for Tommie cert nly loved the Nannie. 
 All he studied that passage was how to keep more 
 sail on her he did most of his sleeping in the 
 daytime so he could watch her better at night. 
 " It s at night a fisherman gains," he d say. 
 " Any vessel at all c n sail in the daytime, but it 
 takes a fisherman to do her best sailin at night." 
 And of course that s so. Everybody knows if 
 you leave sail on your vessel all night she ll make 
 great gains afore mornin that is, if the other fel 
 low is careful and takes some of his off. The 
 way the Nannie d come along in the dark 
 ten, eleven, and twelve knots it warn t noth- 
 in*. Thirteen, fourteen yes, and fifteen knots 
 it was sometimes. The Nannie just eat em up, 
 
 158 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 and Tommie walking the deck all night keepin* 
 the sail to her and watchin her. Whenever he 
 was ready to turn in he slept about three hours 
 in twenty-four all the way across the last thing 
 he d say afore his head went down the cabin 
 steps d be, " Keep the sail on her and call me if 
 it moderates." Most skippers I sailed with used 
 to say afore they turned in to call em if it 
 breezed up, but Tommie used to say to call him 
 if it moderated. Though we wouldn t need to 
 call him even then. If ever she stopped her 
 leapin for two minutes he could feel the change 
 in his sleep. Her gettin back on a more even 
 keel used to roll him away from the lee corner of 
 his bunk, I s pose, and in another minute he d be 
 on deck. 
 
 There was an ungodly big stays l Tommie was 
 forever wantin to see on the Nannie, and I mind 
 we must ve been half-way across one day, when 
 he took it into his head that the Nannie d look 
 perfectly beautiful with that stays l up there be 
 tween the topm sts. That was the day he put 
 her under the nose of the big liner. Wait till I 
 tell you about the liner. " Here s one of them 
 English liners comin , and I know they ll be 
 watching us," Tommie said when he first sighted 
 her, " and we might s well show em how an 
 American vessel c n sail." So up goes the stays l. 
 
 59 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 From her trucks half-way to the deck it came, 
 and it about filled all the space fore and aft be 
 tween the masts. The whole crew had to bear on 
 the after sheet to get it flat enough to suit Tom 
 mie, and then, when we couldn t do any more 
 with it by straight fore-and-aft haulin , he has us 
 run a piece of line up and down from a ring bolt 
 under her rail to across the sheet, and we all 
 swayed on that again. You wouldn t think a 
 man in mid-ocean would bother with the fine 
 points o sailin , especially when there was plenty 
 wind as it was. But Tommie did, and you d 
 better believe that sheet was some flat when we 
 got through with it. Tommie looks for ard the 
 Nannie was most buryin herself afore he put the 
 stays l on her at all, but with the stays l on her, 
 why, she was sailin pretty much on her side. 
 " My soul, Skipper ! " says Albert Frazer to the 
 wheel with me both of us fast to the wheel, me 
 to the wind ard and with a line to the starboard 
 bitt, and him to looard with a line to the port 
 bitt " My soul, Skipper ! if that don t take the 
 spars out of her it ll cert nly throw her down/* 
 says Albert. " Hush, boy," says Tommie, 
 "hush, boy not the Nannie." And he looks 
 aloft. " But she do look beau-ti-ful with that 
 stays l, don t she ? " And he looks aloft again, 
 and then ahead to the liner. " And here s the 
 
 1 60 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 liner comin . I ll bet they re sayin aboard her 
 now, l By the Lord, but there s an able vessel ! 
 and pointing their glasses at us, I ll bet, and 
 wonderin who we are." He d hardly got that 
 out, standin back by the corner of the house just 
 the other side of me, when qu-r-r and the Nan 
 nie shivered. Qu-r-r it came again and she 
 takes a lurch, and over on her side she went. 
 The three of us aft, the Skipper, Albert, and my 
 self, was taken off our feet. Me and Albert 
 being lashed, was all right we stayed aboard. I 
 was slammed over the wheel-box, and Albert into 
 the lee scuppers, but the Skipper, not bein 
 lashed to anything, he goes over the rail. I 
 didn t see him goin , bein almost drowned my 
 self, but when I looked up he was gone. I hol 
 lers, and in a second Albert hollers back. " All 
 right," he says, and there he was with just a hold 
 of the Skipper s wrist, and the Skipper ahold of 
 the rail, but bein dragged under the Nannie s 
 overhang. Twas nothing but his awful grip 
 saved him. The fingers of one hand hung onto the 
 rail all the time. That awful strength in them 
 wrists and fingers of his saved him. Did I tell 
 you how he could part a buoy-line pulling by 
 one finger ? Yes ? Well, he climbs aboard. " By 
 the Lord," says he, " but there s the devil s own 
 suction under that overhang." And that s all the 
 
 161 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 thought he gives it. We was worryin then about 
 the Nannie afraid she was goin to roll clean 
 over, and stay over maybe but no. Just as the 
 Skipper climbs back over the rail she stops rollin* 
 down, and the Skipper, grabbin the wheel quick, 
 she begins to come up fine. She was all right 
 again in about two minutes, but her rails was hardly 
 beginnin to show signs of raisin again afore the 
 Skipper begins to talk again. " Quite a squall 
 that, Skipper," I says. " Squall ? Twasn t a 
 squall did that, Peter. An unlucky sea, an un 
 lucky sea, Peter." He wouldn t give in, d y see, 
 that them sails was too much for the Nannie. 
 " If twas any other vessel," he goes on, " she d 
 been hove down altogether. Shoot her under the 
 bow of that liner give her a full now ! " he says, 
 " and let s see what she ll do. Let her swing 
 now ! " he says, " and let s see what she ll do. 
 By the Lord, but she s an able dog any other 
 vessel and her spars d been floating out on the 
 water now maybe her keel up. Yes, sir, any 
 other vessel. Do you and Albert let her have 
 it now, Peter." 
 
 Well, we let her have it again, and Lord ! 
 but the wind roared into her. Wh-sh it went, 
 and wh-sh-sh it went and then wh-sh-sh and 
 wh-r-r-up it went all at once, and away went 
 that ungodly stays l. " Thank the Lord ! " 
 
 162 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 says Albert. "Amen," says I but behind the 
 Skipper s back both of us, you better b lieve. 
 The Skipper looks up after the stays l floatin 
 half way up to the sky and eyes it sad-like. 
 " By the Lord," he says, " but the firm ought 
 to change their sail-maker. Ain t it a shame ? " 
 he says, " and we were goin along so fine, too 
 and strangers lookin at her." And turning 
 to us at the wheel, " Well, we got to make the 
 best of it, I s pose ; watch this fellow ahead 
 now, and when I sing out, put the wheel up 
 and shoot the Nannie under her nose." And 
 under the very nose of her we sent the Nannie 
 flyin . Not much closer could we get without 
 us or her gettin in trouble most likely us. 
 
 They crowds for ard on the liner to get a look 
 at us. I know we must ve been a sight for 
 what few passengers was peekin down on us 
 over the rail. Albert and me to the wheel was 
 buried to our waists, and the skipper hangin on 
 to the main riggin on the lee riggin so s to be 
 nearer the liner standin to his knees in the 
 wash comin over the rail. On the bridge of the 
 liner one of the officers holds up a megaphone 
 and points it down on Tommie. " Lucky for 
 you that sail blew out, Captain," he hollers. 
 " Lucky hell," hollers back Tommie Tommie 
 didn t need any megaphone. "That stays l 
 
 163 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 never blew out. Twas the halyards slipped and 
 we turned it loose. That stays l ! Good Lord ! 
 this one d carry four stays ls if there was spars 
 enough to hang em on to." And you oughter 
 seen the lads on the bridge poke their eyes at 
 him. " Yes," says Tommie, lookin* back we 
 was leapin past her quarter then "yes," says 
 Tommie, "look at us. Look, you fish-eyed 
 son of a rock-lobster, look. You re 600 and odd 
 feet long, and eight times round your house is a 
 mile, and you think you re the only thing that 
 sails the sea. Three stacks and two screws, and 
 you re thinkin you could take us aboard and 
 not so much as crowd the saloon-passengers on 
 the promenade-deck. And so you could, and 
 your bridge is as high as our mast-head, but by 
 the Lord ! the Nannie don t need any steam-gear 
 to get her home, and she ll carry her four lowers 
 when you re rollin runnels under." And he 
 shook his fist back at the liner. " Lucky we 
 lost our stays l, is it ? " And for an hour after 
 ward you could hear him sputterin , " Lucky for 
 the Nannie the stays l blew out, was it ? Lucky 
 for this one, was it ? " The sparks kept comin 
 out of him for an hour after the lad on the 
 bridge of the liner had spoke his piece about the 
 Nannie and her stays l. 
 
 And that s the way we came drivin across the 
 164 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 Western Ocean that passage. Never less than 
 four lowers, no matter how it blowed, but more 
 gen rally with both tops ls and sometimes with 
 the big balloon. The skipper, he d be standin 
 on the quarter or aft, as I said, with one eye 
 aloft like a gimlet all the time, to see how the 
 Nannie s spars was standin it. The other eye d 
 be ahead watchin for I don t know what, unless 
 it was a sight of the Valkyrie, though if ever he 
 really expected to get a sight of her I can t say, 
 for once we was clear of that Norwegian port, 
 from one end of the passage to the other, I never 
 heard him say one word about her. There was 
 something else on his mind, I don t know what. 
 All it was d be a look to the chart every noon 
 after he d take a sight that s whenever the sun d 
 be out, which it warn t more n half the time a 
 look at the log and the compass to check up, and 
 then, " So many days out and we re so far. A 
 fair average now, and we ll be home in so many 
 days " him figuring it up on the slate that he d 
 bring up out the cabin and lay on top the house, 
 when it warn t too wet outside. 
 
 When he started out he didn t expect to make 
 the passage in less than three weeks. I heard 
 him say that myself. He never looked at that 
 time of the year for a better chance than that. 
 And three weeks is good sailin , let me tell you, 
 
 165 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 for that distance with everyday luck in the way 
 o wind. If it had been in winter now he d nach - 
 rally count on plenty o wind all the way over, 
 but it was too much luck to expect it this time. 
 But we did get it, and the Nannie kept a-goin , 
 and the average kept a-raisin. When we started 
 out I remembered he said 200 miles a day 
 wouldn t be bad, but toward the end of it, seein 
 himself goin along so fine, he begins to get ner 
 vous. " This fine breeze ll die out," he began 
 to say when we was beginnin to near this side, 
 " this fine breeze ll die out and maybe we won t 
 make such a fine passage after all." 
 
 He comes up on deck one day with a book of 
 all kinds of sporting-records along with his sex 
 tant, and says, " Ever since my first trip on the 
 Nannie O, and I found she was a devil to sail, 
 it s been deep in my heart to break all the best 
 of those Atlantic records if ever I got a chance, 
 and now I ve got a chance and a reason. Yes, 
 by the Lord, a reason." None of us knew what 
 he meant by a reason, unless it was beatin the 
 Valkyrie, which he seemed to ve forgotten all 
 about, or beatin the clipper-ship record, which 
 he d only seemed to just bring up. However, 
 he goes on to read from the sporting-almanac. 
 " From New York to Queenstown the sailin - 
 record for yachts is twelve days and nine hours. 
 
 166 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 How much would that be from Norway to 
 Gloucester? Figure it out some of you." So 
 we brings the chart up on deck and spreads it 
 out on the house, a man to each corner to hold 
 it down, and logged it off with a pair of dividers. 
 " Call it 2,850 miles from New York to Queens- 
 town," we says, " and 4,200 miles from Norway 
 to Gloucester. That d be over eighteen days for 
 our passage," we says. 
 
 " If this breeze holds out I m sure we ll beat 
 that," says Tommie, " but here s a better one," 
 and he reads out of the book of records again. 
 " Here s a dog of a record. Here s a sailin - 
 record an old clipper-ship record I callate that 
 must be from Liverpool to Boston the west 
 ern passage twelve days and six hours. That s 
 sailin for you, that s sailin . Some of those old 
 clippers were dogs, warn t they ? They cert nly 
 was. Now twelve days and six hours from Liv 
 erpool to Boston chart the distance that ll be 
 how long for our passage ? " We figures it out 
 on the slate and tells him seventeen days as 
 near as we could figure it. " Seventeen days is 
 it ? " he says. " By the Lord, we ll beat that a 
 day and that ll be sailin sixteen days. Let s 
 see now. We re fourteen days to here this noon. 
 Call it noon, anyway only a few minutes now 
 to twelve o clock. I ll take a sight and see where 
 
 I6 7 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 we are. And d y know, but I wouldn t be sur 
 prised, but if this breeze hold s out, we ll give 
 that clipper-ship record a good beatin ? " 
 
 "But, Skipper, she was a i,5OO-ton square- 
 rigger," speaks up somebody ; " a big brute of a 
 square-rigger." 
 
 "What s the odds if she was I5,ooo-ton, and 
 rigged triangular, so long s we beat her ? " says 
 Tommie. 
 
 "In this little one a i2O-ton?" says the 
 growlin lad again. 
 
 " Yes, in this little one, if she was but twenty 
 ton without the hundred, what difference does it 
 make so she sails, and let me tell you she ain t 
 too little to dare," says Tommie, begin nin to 
 get mad, and nobody said any more about that. 
 
 He takes a sight, and finds that we was in 
 44.30 latitude and 56 longitude then. That 
 put us half way between the Grand Banks and 
 Quero, somewheres to the southerly edge of 
 Saint Peer Bank and our soundings showed it, 
 too. About 650 miles that s sea miles from 
 home then, and fourteen days out. 
 
 " Six hundred and fifty miles and forty-eight 
 hours to go. She ll make it," says Tommie, 
 " the Nannie ll make it. Let this breeze hold 
 out and we ll make her make it. All hands 
 come aft now and listen to me. Split yourselves 
 
 1 68 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 into two gangs and stand by from now on to 
 trim sheets night and day. No more card-play- 
 in for ard, no more poker, nor forty-fives, nor 
 whist, nor no more takin it easy in your bunks 
 when you re not on watch. From this out no 
 more sleep for any body aboard this one not 
 until we get into Gloucester. And if there s 
 anybody ain t in oilskins he d better get into 
 them, for it s wet decks and everybody standin 
 by from now on. No more sail comes down 
 unless it blows down. There s your orders if 
 I m not on deck any time," he says, and looks 
 around to make sure everybody heard him. 
 " Sway up," he says, and we begins to sway up. 
 Everybody heaves away on the halyards, and 
 when we couldn t pull in another inch, when 
 everything was flat as boards, he goes around 
 deck and takes an extra half-hitch to every hal 
 yard. " Now they won t slip," he says, and 
 there was the divil in his eye. 
 
 That night in a thick o fog we ran by Sable 
 Island. We must ve gone pretty close to the 
 no the-east bar because one time we found our 
 selves in twenty fathom of water. That sound- 
 in worried some of us, but not the Skipper. 
 " Will we hold her up," we says. " Blessed 
 Lord, no," he says, " keep her goin . Straight 
 courses makes short passages. If we go seesaw- 
 
 169 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 ing all over the ocean, there s no telling when 
 we ll get home. Twenty fathom," he says. 
 " And we drawin only fifteen feet three or four. 
 Keep her goin ." And we kept her goin , lis 
 tening for the surf because we knew we d never 
 see the light in that fog. Straight to the west - 
 ard we druv her, and some time afore mornin it 
 must ve been we went by the no the-west bar, 
 because at daybreak we could make out a surf 
 under our lee quarter, and that couldn t be any 
 thing but the no the-west bar. 
 
 From there the no the-west bar we got the 
 fairest kind of a slant. " Wing her out for Cape 
 Sable," says Tommie. And we wung her out, 
 and down the Cape shore she flew, with the ten 
 dories in her waist as good s a stuns l to her. It 
 came thick o fog again and all the way along the 
 Nannie was goin it blind. Drivin by the no - 
 therly edge of La Have we thought we might 
 fall foul o somebody, but not a smell of a sail 
 did we get till we almost ran into a three-masted 
 schooner layin to anchor just to the east ard of 
 Cape Sable. Layin to an anchor she was, mind 
 you, and we swingin both tops ls. We was 
 comin along, all foam and smoke then, and 
 couldn t see the length of the vessel, when all at 
 once we heard voices and then almost under our 
 bowsprit was this big three-master. We whipped 
 
 170 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 the Nannie clear just in time to save her or 
 maybe to save both of us, I don t know how. 
 I only know we was close enough to brush her 
 paint as we went wingin by and then we heard 
 the voice sayin you know, some of you, how 
 you c n hear a voice sometimes in the fog when 
 you can t see anybody the voice said, " I ll be 
 dinged if I didn t just thought I saw a little two- 
 masted schooner goin by with everything on." 
 
 " Everything on ? " said another voice " in 
 this breeze ? " and we could hear him laugh 
 " saw a ghost, I guess." 
 
 Tommie was listening to it. " A ghost ? " he 
 says. " By the Lord, if this one d go into you, 
 head on, you wouldn t think it was any ghost 
 if ever she hit you, head on. A ghost? Huh, 
 if that ain t a coasterman all over. Cause they 
 can t carry sail themselves they don t think any 
 body else can. Have an ear out for the whistle 
 now, boys, for we re pretty close in-shore, I think." 
 
 It was the Cape Sable whistling-buoy he 
 meant, but we didn t have to listen for the 
 whistle because the fog lifted not long after we 
 passed the coaster to an anchor, and the light 
 house itself stood out clear enough. At five 
 o clock, or maybe a little later in the afternoon, 
 we came tearin up abreast of it and then we 
 straightened her out for home. " The home-leg, 
 
 171 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 boys," says Tommie, "west, half no the, and 
 drive her drive her, drive by the Lord, DRIVE 
 HER ! " He snaps his big arm across his body 
 like he was tryin to snap a whip. Man, man, 
 but she went along ! That was a run that one, 
 from Cape Sable to Gloucester on the Nannie 
 that time. Two hundred and twenty-five mile, 
 sea-mile of course, they call it, and the Nannie 
 made it in something over fourteen hours. Twas 
 nothin* but the air full o mist from the foam 
 under her rail. Man, but she did lay down to 
 it. She fair smoked. " The Nannie always 
 could sail on her side," said Tommie, watchin her 
 " always could." There was a big coaster run- 
 nin out from the Bay of Fundy just afore dark. 
 She was under two jibs and reefed fores l just 
 wallerin* she was. " What you doin* out in a day 
 like this ? " hollers Tommie. The nearer Tom 
 mie was gettin to home the more playful he was 
 gettin . They looks over the rail at us again and 
 one of em hollers as we went swingin by. " Go 
 it, you crazy Gloucester fishermen. Keep on 
 and you ll find bottom some day," but Tommie 
 only laughed at him. That was just afore dark. 
 
 Early in the morning, when we could almost 
 smell Cape Ann, we overhauled a tramp-steamer. 
 She was pluggin along about nine or ten knots an 
 hour, I should say. There was a grouchy-lopkin , 
 
 172 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 bushy-whiskered fellow on her bridge, duckin* 
 his head to the breeze and the rain. We went 
 by him like he was goin the other way. " Any 
 message ? " says Tommie, and he leaned back in- 
 terested-like to get the answer. " Any mes 
 sage ? " says Tommie " we re goin home." 
 
 " Goin to hell, more likely," says the fellow 
 on the bridge. 
 
 " Not in the Nannie O," laughs Tommie, 
 " but if we was we d report you comin ," and he 
 laughs again. 
 
 He was all jokes en that home-stretch, but it 
 was desp rate, just the same, the way he druv her. 
 " We ll make it, we ll make it sixteen days," 
 he kept sayin all the way along. He d never so 
 much as winked an eye, mind you, from the time 
 he first took the extra half-hitches the other side 
 of Quero, and he was watchin out now like two 
 men. He was the first man to raise the lights on 
 Thatcher s. There was two others to the mast 
 head with him, but the others said afterward that 
 he made out the lights ten minutes afore they 
 did, and, leanin against the back-stay, he looked 
 his fill. For five minutes he didn t look away, 
 and, comin slidin down to deck, he said, "We re 
 most home, most home," he said ; that was all, 
 but oh, his eyes, and the way he said it ! 
 
 The rocks of old Cape Ann hove in sight, and 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 then, rounding Eastern Point, Tommie took the 
 wheel himself. " We ll surprise em," he says, 
 and druv her into the harbor as if she had an 
 other 4,000 miles to go and not a minute to lose. 
 It was whing bang past the whistling-buoy, a 
 leg across and a leg back. Even in the inner 
 harbor the way he held her nose to it was a 
 scandal. " Might s well keep her goin ," he 
 says, and he lashes her like a race-horse clear up 
 to her berth off the owner s dock the same 
 berth you c n see him to now if you look. But 
 the way he came in just now ain t nothin* to it. 
 Whing bang it was in with tops ls, down 
 with jibs, let go anchor, down with fores l, let the 
 mains l stand "And there she is," says Tom 
 mie, " the able Nannie O, with the fastest 4,000 
 and a couple o hundred mile ever charged to a 
 vessel across the Western Ocean. What time by 
 the Gloucester clock for ard ? " The clock in 
 the fo c s le d been set to Gloucester time and 
 never changed since we left home, and that s 
 what he meant when he asked the time by the 
 Gloucester clock. 
 
 " Half-past seven," came the answer. 
 
 " Half-past seven nigh five hours yet to six 
 teen days and that s sailin* ! " 
 
 Man, but his eyes were shinin . " We ll go 
 ashore now," he says, " and get the news." And 
 
Tommle Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 we goes ashore. He was for hurryin off himself, 
 but we asked him to inquire about the Valkyrie 
 seem we made such a drive of it we wanted a 
 little satisfaction, and so he inquires, " Any word 
 of that English yacht, that Valkyrie that s comin 
 over to race for the America s cup," he asks. 
 
 Not in yet, they told him, but she d been re 
 ported by one or two Cunarders and some other 
 fast liners. And they tells him how this steamer 
 and that steamer reported her. Accordin to one 
 of em she was hove-to in longitude so-and-so 
 and latitude so-and-so, they said I forget now 
 just what. 
 
 " What day was that," asks Tommie, and they 
 reckons it up and tells him. 
 
 " Hove-to that day ! " says Tommie. " Why, 
 man, that Nannie carried both tops ls that day. 
 What else?" 
 
 And they tells him on such-and-such a day she 
 was reported by another steamer in longitude so- 
 and-so and latitude so-and so, and makin heavy 
 weather of it. 
 
 Tommie reckons that up. " Why," says he, 
 " that must Ve been the day afore we blew out 
 that rotten stays l. That day ! why, that day 
 we had the stays l and balloon both on her. 
 That day ! why, that day the gang was playin* 
 draw down for ard, and I mind some of em 
 
 75 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 sayin , when we was eatin dinner, how it was the 
 first day in a week they didn t have to put 
 weights on the silver pieces to keep them from 
 hoppin off the table. Good Lord ! " says Tom 
 mie, " but there s none of em fit to carry ice for 
 the Nannie she s cert nly an able vessel. But 
 I must be gettin along home," and he goes up 
 the street at a fourteen-knot clip. 
 
 That was all well and good. The Valkyrie 
 got in a week later, though Tommie warn t pay- 
 in any more attention to her, by that time, than 
 if he d never heard of her. There was a new 
 baby up to his house, and he was taken up with 
 that. But the millionnaire lad, when he heard 
 of it, was tickled to death, they say, and soon s 
 he got over on this side, in the fall, he comes in 
 to Gloucester to see Tommie, and he gave him 
 the finest 
 
 " Peter, Peter," interrupted the one volunteer 
 look-out who had not abandoned his post, " ain t 
 this the Nannie s captain comin up the dock ? 
 Ain t this Tommie Ohlsen himself? " The in 
 quirer s voice was suppressed with excitement. 
 
 " Ha ? " exclaimed Peter, hopping for the 
 port-hole "a stout, round man, but not fat 
 an able-looking man lemme see. Yes, that s 
 him. That s Tommie himself. Wait a minute 
 till I hail him. Maybe he ll come up, and then 
 
 176 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 you c n get a good look at an able seaman. And 
 maybe he ll tell us about this last trip I ll bet 
 
 he druv her. Hi " Peter threw back the 
 
 hatches on the seaward side of Crow s Nest. 
 " Hi-i Captain Ohl-sen Good Lord, but what 
 a breeze he ll never hear me hi-i Cap-tain 
 Ohl-sen" 
 
 " Hi " came back from the man below. 
 " Hi, Peter that you ? " 
 
 " Yes. What kind of a trip did you have ? " 
 
 " Ha ? " called back the voice. 
 
 " What kind of a trip did you 
 have ? " 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " What kind of a trip oh, I can t make 
 you hear in this gale. Won t you come up, 
 Captain ? " Peter motioned with his arm, the 
 man below waved back, and Peter drew in his 
 head and hauled the hatches to again. " He ll 
 be here now in a minute. Get off the locker two 
 or three of you loafers in case Tommie d like to 
 sit down for a minute. Maybe he ll stop long 
 enough to tell us about his last passage he 
 must ve come home flyin . Here he comes. 
 Hear him comin up the stairs ? Climbs to the 
 mast-head like that. Can t you imagine him 
 puttin his feet down, every step a ratline and a 
 swing from one side to the other. Hush." 
 
 177 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 From below the level of the top step of the 
 flight of stairs leading into the room, he came 
 gradually into view head, shoulders, body, and 
 legs successively appeared. When he was all up 
 and inside he fitted admirably the picture drawn 
 of him by Peter round head, round neck, round 
 body, round legs, round all over, but not a pound 
 of fat, eyes deep-set and very blue, jaw salient, 
 skin red-tanned. Master mariner he was, master 
 mariner he looked, and once he stepped within 
 the room the loungers of Crow s Nest paid him 
 that which was their rarest homage a deferential 
 silence. 
 
 In two glances he took in the room. One swept 
 the walls the charts, glasses, sporting-prints, and 
 models of vessels hung or tacked thereto ; the 
 second a return glance measured up the crowd. 
 
 " I don t see that last T Wharf flyer here, 
 Peter the one they tell me s been raisin the 
 devil with the Georges fleet. And some of the 
 old faces gone, too, Peter. Gone to work? 
 Which ? No ? Lord, Lord, but queer things 
 happens. Well, forty thousand halibut, ten 
 thousand cod, and five thousand or so mixed 
 haddock, hake, and one thing and another. No, 
 boy, no, keep your seat I ll be goin along in a 
 minute. What s new, Peter ? " 
 
 " Nothing much. Forty thousand halibut, ten 
 178 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 thousand let me put that down afore I forget it. 
 There. What kind of weather d you have, Cap 
 tain ? " 
 
 " Oh, moderate. A beat out most the way, 
 but a fair wind back." 
 
 " Must ve been fair comin home, Captain, 
 an plenty of it. Wallie Manning reported you 
 not goin to leave till Saturday night, and only 
 Tuesday mornin now." 
 
 " That s right fair as a man could ask comin 
 home. Seven hundred and fifty mile to the 
 east ard when we swung her off an raised 
 Thatcher s in fifty-nine hours not bad that now, 
 was it?" 
 
 " Lord, but that s great goin , Captain. And 
 they say she ain t in her best trim now, Captain ? 
 But she must ve come right along ? " 
 
 " Y oughter seen her, Peter. Lord, Peter, 
 there s no stoppin the Nannie once she starts to 
 come. She s a credit to the people that built 
 her that vessel." 
 
 " Blowin much ? " 
 
 " Well, not real heavy. She carried both 
 tops ls all the way." 
 
 " Is that so ? thought I saw you comin in 
 with em swung up both clear past the Point ? " 
 
 " Till we threw her into the wind and let go 
 our anchor." 
 
 179 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 " But Wallie said he most got hove-down 
 comin across the Bay of Fundy." 
 
 " Did, eh ? But what can you expect in a 
 breeze with that one he s got. She c n drift 
 bout s fast as any vessel I know she ain t half 
 bad in a light breeze no, I don t callate there s 
 too many of em c n get away with her in one of 
 them palm-leaf zephyrs. But what d Wallie 
 have to say ? he gen rally carries home a bit of 
 gossip." 
 
 " Oh, nuthin much, except to report you and 
 two or three others. He says he did ketch the 
 divil comin across the Bay o Fundy, though." 
 
 " Did he ? comin across the Bay of Fundy, 
 eh ? That d be when d you say he got in ? 
 Yesterday noon ? That d be about the night be 
 fore last when he most got hove down, wouldn t 
 it? Let me see now where was the Nannie 
 then ? Night before last Sunday . Comin 
 across Western Bank we was then yes. Some- 
 where s to the south ard of Sable Island we was. 
 Blowin hard where he was, did he say ? Well, 
 where we was there was just wind enough to wet 
 the Nannie s rail. Well, to be fair, maybe we was 
 takin a bucket or two on deck now and again. 
 Of course the vessels makes a difference. When 
 the Nannie d be just dippin her rail the Cleo- 
 patra d be about hove down, wouldn t she ? Yes. 
 
 1 80 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 But any word of George Hawley, Peter? No? 
 Well, I didn t think there would be. Another 
 good old wagon that one he s got the Sea- Horse. 
 Where d y s pose he ever got the name? It 
 must ve been about three o clock Sunday after 
 noon that he came wallerin* along bound to the 
 west ard. He said somethin about the Nannie 
 an the Sea-Horse, and I asked him wouldn t he 
 wait and I d put the dories right out an haul the 
 trawls. * I can t leave them ten skates o gear 
 out there, you know, George can t you wait a 
 little while ? I says. * No, says George, f this 
 one s got the bit in his teeth talks like that on 
 account of the name, I s pose. e Got the bit be 
 tween his teeth, says George, c but I ll report 
 you. Will you ? says I. You re good- 
 natured as hell, but I callate the Nannie ll do her 
 own reportin this trip. Yes ? he says like 
 that * yes-s ? like that. Yes, I says, the 
 Nannie ll report herself this trip, and if there s 
 one vessel the Nannie beats home this passage, 
 that vessel ll be the Sea-Horse. It was begin 
 ning to breeze up then and when we swung off 
 that night it was a fine fresh no the-easter. The 
 Nannie hopped along pretty lively, and, knowin 
 the Nannie was comin along behind, don t 
 y know, George was sockin it to the Sea-Horse. 
 He s hobblin along the road somewhere now, I 
 
 181 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 s pose, with the bit still between his teeth. Puts 
 her under a reefed tops l, some of em, in a fresh 
 breeze and calls it drivin. Any word of the 
 Lalla Rookh?" 
 
 " Not a word." 
 
 " No ? I thought it d be that way. Another 
 good, old chariot, the Lalla Rookh. I s pose if 
 we had a magic glass an could get a look, we d 
 see her rollin along somewhere between here and 
 Cape Sable. Just afore dark, Saturday night, we 
 made her out bout s far to the south ard s we c d 
 see goin about as straight west as she c d go 
 with her four lowers about all she c d stand up 
 under. Well, I must be goin . Forty thousand 
 halibut, ten thousand cod, and five thousand 
 mixed, and tell the old man, Peter, to get a place 
 for the Nannie on the railway to-morrow morn- 
 in . I told Wallie about the fore gaff, and I ex 
 pect he s spoke of that. I wonder did he tell 
 em up to the house that I d be home pretty 
 soon after him I expect he has." 
 
 " I expect he has, Captain. I saw your wife 
 this mornin when I was coming by the house. 
 She was out in the yard, with a boy to each side 
 of her, and the baby aloft. She said she d word 
 o you from Captain Manning, but she ll hardly 
 be expectin you to-day, will she ? " 
 
 "Will she? Won t she? You don t know 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 her, Peter. She s always expectin me if there s 
 any reason. There s a couple of the children 
 fresh-washed and out on the front steps now, I ll 
 bet out where they c n see me soon s I turn the 
 corner a pair of em peekin* over the rail, and 
 the littlest fellow inside with his nose flattened 
 against the pane all keepin watch. To the 
 mast-head of a seiner they won t be lookin any 
 harder for mackerel than them children for me, 
 once they hear I m on the way. And one of em 
 has a birthday to-day, Peter. Don t you know 
 I didn t drive the Nannie for nothing this time, 
 Peter. He s just that odd he knows there 
 oughter be somethin comin to him on his birth 
 day. He s been askin his mother, I know, 
 and his mother s been tellin him whether to ex 
 pect me home or not. And he ll have the chart 
 out and marked off the Nannie s passage on it, 
 and showing it to the next younger yes. His 
 mother put em up to that. She pitches into me, 
 though, for carryin sail. Tommie, she ll say, 
 1 Tommie, why do you ? She gets reports from 
 other skipper s wives, d y* see. You must not, 
 Tommie. She says that, Peter, but good Lord, 
 Peter, you know women. If she thought for a sec 
 ond that I wouldn t pull the spars out the Nannie 
 to get home a night sooner, why she d well you 
 
 know women, Peter. At your age, you know " 
 
 183 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 " I expect I know as much as the next, Cap 
 tain, though that ain t too much, but I know 
 more about the other thing sail-carryin Cap 
 tain. I was only just now tellin about that pas 
 sage you made from Norway that time. That 
 was a passage ! " 
 
 " Warn t it ? " The sudden smile made him 
 look a most genial man. 
 
 " And you cert nly did give the Valkyrie the 
 divil that time, Skipper." 
 
 " The Valkyrie the Valkyrie, Peter P " 
 
 " Why, yes, the cup-challenger." 
 
 " Oh, the yacht ! Oh, her. But that warn t 
 no fair race. We was bound to beat her, we car- 
 ryin everything and they soakin* along so s not 
 to wrack her for the cup-races. And we not 
 carin how we get home so long s we got home. 
 Lord, Peter, but 1 just had to make a passage 
 that time I just had to. It s tough, I tell you, 
 to think of your wife havin all the trouble alone 
 you not there to stand by. By the Lord ! I 
 said to myself, but here s somethin to race for. 
 The yacht? I ll lose her! It was worth sink- 
 in* the Nannie and the Nannie s a good vessel 
 just to see her face when I stepped in the 
 room. Yes, sir, she thought I was a thousand 
 miles away, and still a-comin . And do you 
 mind the christenin , Peter ? Warn t it a chris- 
 
 184 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 tenin j though? Tom O Donnell said it made 
 him think of bein back in Galway. But I must 
 be goin Peter. The wife, d ye see, will be half- 
 expectin maybe to see me turn the corner any 
 minute to-day, knowin I left for home Saturday 
 night, as Wallie told her. And to-day is the lit 
 tle lad s birthday, too the same little lad that 
 was born the day I got home from Norway. The 
 same lad, and he ll have the chart out and be 
 helpin the Nannie along." His smile was now 
 a transfiguration. " And that s why I ll have to 
 hurry along. Of course, a man with as many 
 children s I ve got now couldn t run home so sto 
 hit every birthday comes along, but when there s 
 a chance when you re filled up and a little driv- 
 in 11 get you home in time why, a man might s 
 well carry a bit, mightn t he ? You oughter be 
 more careful, the wife says she says, but Lord, 
 Peter, if she thought for a minute that I d let 
 any vessel that sails the sea out-carry the Nan 
 nie named after herself, too, and she Irish d y* 
 think she d think half so much of me ever again ? 
 No, sir, and I always callate, so long s a spar ll 
 stay in her, the Nannie, to keep her goin , if it s 
 on a home passage. Well, I must be goin*. 
 When I get started, I want to talk all day. 
 Good-by, Peter report me to the office. Good- 
 by, all," and down the stairs he went. 
 
 185 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 With the disappearance of the sturdy physique, 
 the round legs, round body, round neck, and 
 round head, with the last sight of the wavy hair 
 below the rim of the hat, the entire gang in 
 Crow s Nest relaxed and took full breaths again. 
 
 Peter first broke the silence. He took an ex 
 tra long pufF on his pipe, before taking it from 
 his lips to speak. " Did you see the jaws and 
 eyes of him ? And now do you b lieve me when 
 I tell you that no skipper out o Gloucester ever 
 made him take his mains l in ? I mind now the 
 time, in my fishin days on the Nannie, when I 
 said to myself, Peter, if ever you see home 
 again you re the lucky man. If ever you walk 
 Main Street again you c n bet somebody s been 
 prayin for you. The times I said that, and 
 b lieved it, yes b lieved it like my old mother 
 b lieves in prayers, and I b lieved each time till 
 I turned round and looked at Tommie. He d 
 be aft buried to his waist maybe but there 
 he d be and I d get a good look at him. All I 
 c d see of his face d be the eyes and the jaw his 
 eyes and jaw stickin out the jaw like the coun 
 ter of the Nannie. But that s all a man d want 
 to see, them eyes and that jaw. Lord almighty ! 
 but he s a man to tie your hopes o Heaven to, 
 is Tommie Ohlsen in a blow. Yes, sir, the sight 
 o Tommie Ohlsen standin aft on the Nannie in 
 
 1 86 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 one of them winter gales man, man, it s like 
 another anchor." 
 
 " I ll bet he s a dog! " came explosively from 
 one of the gang. 
 
 " Maybe he ain t ! And did you see the walk 
 of him ? " was the sympathetic chime of another. 
 "It made me feel seasick just to see him heave 
 himself across the floor, and when he shot his 
 eyes my way, why " 
 
 " Hush, now, and lemme see " Peter was 
 back to work again " What was it he said ? 
 Wait now oh, yes, here it is. Forty thousand 
 halibut, ten thousand ring up, one of you and 
 report that The Nannie O, Captain Tommie 
 Ohlsen, in from Grand Banks with forty thou 
 sand halibut, ten thousand cod, and five thousand 
 mixed fish. Got that ? All right hold on now 
 don t forget about a place on the railway for 
 the Nannie to-morrow. If they asks what s the 
 matter with her say you don t know. Captain 
 Ohlsen was in such a hurry, say to em, that he 
 forgot to say what was the matter with her." 
 
 " It will be her oakum, won t it Peter ? " 
 queried a well-versed one from the lockers. 
 
 " Most likely some calkin she needs. It s 
 gen rally calkin when she don t want new spars." 
 
 " But, Peter, you started to tell us what the 
 millionnaire yachtsman gave Tommie when he 
 
 187 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 came to Gloucester." Among the loungers in 
 Crow s Nest was always one or two who could be 
 depended upon to keep run of the plot of any 
 story. " I heard somebody saying one day down 
 the dock that Captain Ohlsen got a swell ba 
 rometer and chronometer for some fast passage 
 he made was that it ? " 
 
 "It was. And the best money could buy they 
 were, with long inscriptions on the both of em." 
 
 " And has he got them now ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir, he has. The glass is hangin in 
 the cabin of the Nannie to this day, and the 
 chronometer s up in his dinin -room to home, 
 where the children has it to play with. And he 
 certn ly " 
 
 " Peter," interrupted the look-out of the mo 
 ment, " I think there s another vessel coming 
 round the Point, but she ain t carrying any top- 
 s ls like the Nannie O." 
 
 Peter hopped up. " Lord, you don t mean to 
 say you sighted a vessel ? You re right. Let 
 me see now where s the glasses ? A fresh hali- 
 buter, ain t she ? Yes an by the Lord, it s the 
 Sea-Horse, George Hawley. Said he d report 
 the Nannie, did he? Lord, Lord, I d give a 
 dollar if Tommie was here now. And you re 
 right he ain t swingin no tops ls. He ll come in 
 Hawley will and he ll be some surprised to 
 
 188 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 see the Nannie in before him. There she is 
 layin as quiet as if she d never been as far away 
 as Thatcher s in her life. Goes up on the railway 
 every other trip she does now, the Nannie does, 
 and she s gettin old, some of them ll tell you- 
 this same George Hawley one of them but she s 
 a pretty able vessel yet a pretty able vessel yet 
 and the skipper that can drive her is Tommie 
 Ohlsen when he wants to make a passage which 
 he gen rally does about every time he swings her 
 off for home. Wait till I light my pipe, now ; 
 there " puff puff. " He s cert nly a dog is 
 Tommie Ohlsen only some day he won t come 
 home. Just a lee-tie too long he ll hang on 
 some day, and Tommie Ohlsen won t come home 
 any more. No, sir, for all his able seamanship, 
 some day Tommie Ohlsen won t come home any 
 more." 
 
 Puff puff went Peter, while the others, 
 studying him, began to figure out the kind of a 
 gale it would have to be when Tommie Ohlsen 
 would fail to come home. It would need to be 
 a gale that indeed yes. But puff puff went 
 Peter, and removing his pipe ominously he said 
 it again, softly, looking at the stove and as if to 
 himself, " And some day Tommie Ohlsen won t 
 come home any more." They hearkened to that, 
 even as they hearkened to the gale that still raged 
 
 189 
 
Tommie Ohlsen s Western Passage 
 
 outside, and for a time they were quieter than 
 ever. "It would have to be the awful gale 
 that it cert nly would." They all agreed to 
 that and were downcast. But hope subdued is a 
 buoyant thing. They had seen the man himself, 
 and " Shucks," said one, " I d like to see the 
 gale that he couldn t stand off with an able ves 
 sel under him. It never came out the ocean, 
 I don t believe the gale that would send Tom 
 mie Ohlsen to the bottom not with the Nannie 
 O under him no, sir," : and " Shucks " burst 
 out a chorus, " that s right. Not Tommie Ohl 
 sen why, all Gloucester knew him Lord yes." 
 And just then the sun streaming through the 
 open port-hole of Crow s Nest added its cheerful 
 suggestion of everlasting hope. 
 
 190 
 
CLANCY 
 
Clancy 
 
 i 
 
 IN the harbor of St. Pierre, Miquelon, an 
 American fisherman, the Tubal Cain, was 
 lying at anchor, and tramping her quarter was 
 her master, Joshua Bradley, now so indignant 
 that the deck-planks were ringing under his boot- 
 heels. Only a most godly effort of will was 
 holding down the righteous wrath of Captain 
 Joshua, who had just discovered that Clancy was 
 not aboard. 
 
 "If ever I ship a drinking man again may 
 
 the ! Drunk coming out o* Gloucester so 
 
 drunk he like to fell from the mast-head drunk 
 all the time we was laying over in Halifax yes, 
 by Jehoshaphat, drunk and now drunk here 
 and drunker, I ll bet, than he ever was to the 
 west ard, because what with cassy wine and red 
 rum so cheap most anybody s got money enough 
 to get drunk and stay drunk Yes, by the hosts 
 of Pharaoh, yes, sir." 
 
 Captain Joshua stamped the quarter and looked 
 wrathfully toward the town. From his New 
 
Clancy 
 
 England point of view there was nothing uplift 
 ing in the situation. The one man of the crew 
 that knew every harbor on the south coast of New 
 foundland, the one man that knew every cove and 
 headland in Placentia Bay, the one man that knew 
 all the native fishermen in all their moods this 
 one man was now drunk as great Jehoshaphat 
 yes, sir, drunk as by the rod o Moses there 
 warn t no comparisons strong enough. And the 
 worst of it he was drunk ashore. If he was 
 drunk in his berth now, they could swing her off 
 and go along, and let him come-to on the drive 
 across the gulf. But he was drunk ashore ! 
 
 Captain Joshua turned to that member of the 
 crew who had earned distinction as being the last 
 man in Clancy s company. " Where d you say 
 you left him ? " 
 
 " Oh, up in one of them caffies one of them 
 caffies with a queer name, up by the square where 
 the blue pump is out in the middle." 
 
 " Where the pump is ? You don t mean the 
 Caffy Middy ? " suggested Captain Josh, but with 
 the air of a cautious man, like one who sought not 
 to get a reputation as being really knowing in re 
 gard to such places. 
 
 "That s it, Captain the Caffy Middy." 
 
 " And when d you leave him, did you say ? " 
 
 " Bout one this morning." 
 194 
 
Clancy 
 
 " Bout one ? H-m-m a good time for you 
 to be comin aboard. He was drunk then, I 
 s pose ? " 
 
 " Oh-h, not real drunk. He could hold his 
 feet all right." 
 
 " Could he though ? MustVe felt proud of 
 himself. Could hold his feet, could he ? " 
 
 " Yes, because he came across the room where 
 I was talking to one of the waiter girls the one 
 in the green waist. Maybe you noticed her, 
 Captain, when " 
 
 " Noticed her ? " roared Captain Josh. " And 
 how in the name o* the Lost Tribes d y* s pose 
 I d come to notice her? " 
 
 " Oh, I didn t know but what you dropped in 
 to rubber round to kind o keep an eye out for 
 Tommie maybe." 
 
 " No, I didn t drop in to kind o keep an eye 
 on Tommie. D y think I got no business 
 ashore but rubberin into caffies or lookin out for 
 Tommie ? What d he do then ? " 
 
 " Oh, he comes over. Get out, he says to 
 me, { allay the likes o you to try and polley-voo 
 to a French lady the likes o you ! He was 
 good-natured enough, but he pushes me out 
 the way just the same. 
 
 " e Maybe you think she d like to talk with you 
 with that swelling on your jaw, says I. He d a 
 
 J95 
 
Clancy 
 
 fine big lump on his jaw where I guess some 
 Frenchman maybe three or four slammed him. 
 Maybe you think you re the handsome boy 
 round here ? I says. 
 
 " c Tain t handsome boys tis winnin ways 
 that counts, he says. Ness pah, belle mazelle ? 
 he goes on, and winds up with, Let me whisper 
 in her ear. So I left him whisperin and came 
 aboard." 
 
 " And when was that, d y* say one o clock ? " 
 
 " Oh, one or two, along there." 
 
 " H-m-m one or two or three or four, I s pose 
 any old time so long s I was turned in. Two 
 o clock in the mornin if it warn t three or four 
 or five or six and whisperin to a lady a real 
 lady, of course, being as it was in the CafFy 
 Middy. And he s whisperin yet if I know him. 
 I ve knowed him to stay whisperin for a week 
 once he started in. Maybe some of you could 
 go ashore and get him. Did you say he warn t 
 real drunk ? " 
 
 " Well, not what you d call ossified. His 
 tongue was loose anyway. Bong swor, mazelle, 
 he was saying, f bong swor. Tain t like I can t 
 polley-voo French, he says, when I was going 
 away. Tain t like I can t say a word to the 
 lady in her own beautiful language her belle 
 languajh. This ain t my first stop ashore in 
 
 196 
 
Clancy 
 
 Miquelon no, nor my twenty-first maybe. Bong 
 swor, mazelle, he goes on, vooz eightay so belle 
 most belle vooz. I followed him along that 
 far because I knew that much French myself." 
 
 "Huh!" sniffed Captain Joshua, "I don t 
 guess you d have to follow him so much further for 
 all the French he knows ! And if it warn t for 
 them few kegs of red rum we got below, and me 
 dependin on him to squeeze it through for me, 
 I d say to the devil with him. I s pose he ll get 
 to thinkin soon we can t get along without him, 
 but two of you drop into that dory and waltz up 
 to the Caffy Middy and see what condition he s 
 in get him aboard if you can. Yes, by Jehosh- 
 aphat, he ll get to thinkin the vessel can t get 
 along without him. Get her under way the rest 
 of you, while the dory s gone. Make sail, main 
 and fore, and then start the chain and we ll up 
 jibs and be ready to go by the time the dory s 
 back." 
 
 II 
 
 When Tommie Clancy came to himself in the 
 Cafe du Midi he first sought to discover what day 
 it was. 
 
 " Kell ay le joor ? " he inquired of the rather 
 elderly woman behind the bar. 
 
 " I spik no Anglish," she returned. 
 197 
 
Clancy 
 
 " What the Pardong, mazelle. Well, let me 
 think now. O yes, kell ay larjoordwee Mon 
 day, Tuesday, Wednesday Lundi, Mardi, Mer- 
 credi, Jeudi " 
 
 " Oh-h Mercredi oui, oui, Mercredi ! " 
 " Wednesday ! By the Lord, then Captain 
 Josh has sailed away sailed away. * He lounged 
 toward the nearest window, looked out across 
 the harbor and began, not without melody 
 
 Oh, my captain sailed away 
 Out o Massachusetts Bay 
 In the merry month o May, 
 
 To go a-whalin . 
 And my captain says to me 
 Before he sailed to sea 
 "If you get drunk," says he, 
 
 "You get a whalin ." 
 
 And I says, " O Captain mine " 
 My eyes were runnin* brine 
 " Your evil thoughts of me 
 
 Give me sorrow. 
 I m going ashore," says I, 
 " I ll behave most proper-lie, 
 And be with you at the dawnin* 
 
 Of the morrow." 
 
 But my captain sailed away 
 Without me o er the bay 
 My captain sailed away 
 To go a-whalin*. 
 198 
 
Clancy 
 
 Bout the rime he sailed away 
 Out o Massachusetts Bay 
 They had me in a cell 
 Awaitin bailin . 
 
 Oh, my captain sailed away 
 Out o 
 
 "Let him sail!" and with that Tommie sud 
 denly abandoned his warbling, turned, and caught 
 the eye of a rather fleshy and very black-haired 
 man of middle age, who sat at a table, the only 
 other man in the place, and who, as Tommie s 
 gaze met his own, promptly stepped forward and 
 with a beaming smile inquired, " I can help you 
 perhaps ? " 
 
 Tommie look him over. "You speak pretty 
 good English, mosseer. Frenchy-voo ? " 
 
 " Not ex-act-ly." 
 
 "Anglish?" 
 
 " Not ex-act-ly." 
 
 " Not ex-act-ly. Not French, not English, 
 and I know you re no American the trade-mark 
 ain t on you, but you speak pretty good English 
 for a foreigner." 
 
 " I am half French, half English my father 
 English, my mother French. My name it is 
 Miller." 
 
 " Miller ? And I ll bet you re a fox." 
 199 
 
Clancy 
 
 The stranger smiled. " No, no no no fox, 
 as you say." 
 
 " No ? Well, my name is Clancy." 
 
 " I know. And your vessel has sailed yester 
 day morning. The captain he could not wait. 
 Two men they tried to wake you, but . You 
 were well you were 
 
 " Drunk ? " 
 
 " Oh-h no. Sleepy, I should say." 
 
 " Sleepy, the devil ! I was drunk." 
 
 " Drunk ? Well, perhaps so if you yourself 
 say it yes. They said the men that your 
 captain he did not like it. They said you could 
 come after him when you got sober or go back 
 to Gloucester, as you pleased. He did not like 
 it you drinking too much cassis wine." 
 
 " Did he ? the blessed old deacon. What 
 under the sun ever drove him to fishing, I don t 
 know. Said I could go back to Gloucester, eh ? 
 Well, maybe I will. Wait, now when does the 
 steamer leave for Halifax ? " 
 
 f< There is one in two days." 
 
 "Then I ll take it if I ve got enough money. 
 Wait, now, till I see." 
 
 Tommie overhauled his pockets. He gathered 
 from his trousers, his vest, and the little finger 
 pocket in his coat, a loose collection of French, 
 English, and American coins. "Wait now." He 
 
 200 
 
Clancy 
 
 sorted them out on the bar, and began to figure. 
 " Let me see now. Coppers don t count, do 
 they ? Here s two American quarters and here s 
 a queer French piece, and three Newfoundland 
 quarters though where they come from I don t 
 know and here s some dimes, and Wait, now, 
 till I figure it up. Seventy-five and seventy-five 
 and twenty-five makes one seventy-five. And 
 ten French and three tens Newfoundland and 
 three tens American and this queer piece that 
 don t go, I suppose but here s a French franc 
 twenty ? That s two sixty-five, ain t it ? By the 
 Lord, but I m flush. Two sixty-five. And how 
 much to Halifax by the cheapest ticket? If 
 ever I get to Halifax How much, now, from 
 here to Halifax ?" 
 
 " To Halifax ? About five dollairs third 
 class." 
 
 " Five dollars ? Wait now. There s two 
 fifty. That ll get me half way. That won t do, 
 will it ? No half-way stations at sea, is there ? 
 No. Wait now. Two fifty. See here, Mister 
 Miller. You re a sporting gent, I know. I can 
 see that by the look of you. Sporting blood is 
 just running around as loose as can be inside of 
 you, I ll bet. I ll cut cards with you for this two 
 fifty. There s a pack on that table there." 
 
 " Very well, sair." 
 
 201 
 
Clancy 
 
 They cut. Tommie turned a queen and the 
 stranger a four. 
 
 "You win, Mistair Clancy. I will try you 
 again. Do you say, Yes ? For the five dollairs ? 
 Very well, sair. One two-spot oh, oh, one two- 
 spot. And you, Mistair Clancy ? " 
 
 " Me ? " Tommie flipped it up. " One ten- 
 spot, Mister Miller." 
 
 " You are lucky, Mistair Clancy. Shall we 
 say again ? Twenty dollairs you will then have, 
 if you win." 
 
 " Twenty dollars, eh ? That s right if I win. 
 I don t like the way you said it, Mistair Miller, 
 but here s a go. And if I win, Mistair Miller, 1 
 stop card-cutting right here and I go by first 
 cabin to Halifax. I want to warn you so you 
 won t feel put out. Here you are. A king ! 
 there s a hot one for you, a king ! " 
 
 " And I a king also ! " 
 
 " Follow your hand, old man. Now what ! 
 an ace? Good Lord, what am I up against? 
 Wait now. Watch the professair. Wait now 
 watch a deuce ! Blessed Lord, think of that 
 a measly little two-spot and after the king ! If 
 I was only half-way in it, but a deuce against an 
 ace ! Wait now. Here s this dime and nickel 
 fifteen cents. Come now, give me a run for 
 the fifteen cents. Come now, where s your An- 
 
 202 
 
Clancy 
 
 glo- Franco sporting blood ? Give me a run for 
 the fifteen, Mister Miller. Come now." 
 
 " As you say, Mistair Clancy, but I do not 
 like that to take your last cent. I would not 
 be like what you call a sporting gent." Mr. Mil 
 ler smiled like an honest fellow. 
 
 " Well, maybe you re right. It looks like 
 reneging, too, after sayin I was going to quit if 
 I won that last one. But the fifteen ain t any use 
 to me, so let s have a drink with it. Come now, 
 and if the mazelle behind the bar ll let us have 
 two drinks for it, we ll have a little touch." 
 
 " With pleasure, Mistair Clancy. You are 
 what you call in your country gam gam* 
 game ! Ah, that is it you are game ! It is in 
 your eye." 
 
 "In my eye? h-m like that twenty I thought 
 I had when I saw the king. No, you re not a 
 fox oh no. Drink up and let s have another 
 little touch. Oh, I forgot I m broke. If I 
 was in Halifax now I know a party in Halifax 
 but maybe you can tell me how I m going to 
 get a passage to Placentia Bay." 
 
 " I think I know. And have a leet-le ha 
 tush with me. That is a new word for me 
 a leet-le tush. Have a tush with me, Mistair 
 Clancy." 
 
 " I don t mind. And you think you can land 
 203 
 
Clancy 
 
 me in Placentia pretty soon ? Well, you do and 
 you re all right. Here s a shoot." 
 
 " And me a shoot also." Mr. Miller touched 
 his lips to the glass. " And now let us go to 
 that table in the corner and I will tell you. But 
 perhaps we may need some wine while we talk. 
 Antoinette O, Antoinette." He motioned to 
 the woman behind the bar, and she brought over 
 a bottle and two glasses. 
 
 They poured out another drink. Miller bowed 
 and just touched his glass. Tommie nodded and 
 drained his to the bottom. He smacked his lips, 
 fingered the bottle, studied the label, said, " Ah, 
 cassy, ain t it ? " with much satisfaction, set the 
 bottle down regretfully, looked resolutely over 
 to his new acquaintance, and said, " Drive her." 
 
 " I have in the harbor," began Miller, " a fine 
 vessel, a fine vessel. She was one time of Glouces 
 ter, one of your fishermen. She is a very good 
 schooner and you will like her, I know." 
 
 " I will like her is that so ? " 
 
 " Wait. One time here in Saint Pierre we did 
 a very good business in Newfoundland herring. 
 Every spring our sheeps our schooners come 
 over from France and go over to bait in New 
 foundland in Fortune Bay, in Placentia Bay, at 
 Saint John s, and so on. You understand ? " 
 
 " So far, yes. But what is it all about ? " 
 204 
 
Clancy 
 
 " One mo-ment. Our fishermen but first, 
 let us have anothair leetle tush, as you say. 
 Come now, as you also say, Mistair Clancy. 
 Come now. It is good wine of the best, is it 
 not ? " 
 
 " Of the swellest. And I don t know but I 
 will. Have a touch yourself? " 
 
 " No, no, but drink you you, who are my 
 friend. You honor me." 
 
 " That so ? Well, stick to me, old man, and 
 you ll die in honor. Here s a shoot." 
 
 " Thank you. Well, our French fishermen 
 can no more come over to the Newfoundland 
 coast and get bait without without we get pair- 
 mit, and pairmit costs a dollair and a half the ton. 
 A dollair and a half the ton our sheeps must pay. 
 You know that, Mistair Clancy ? Very well. I 
 have, I myself, four sheeps which fish on the 
 banks. Well, there is twelve hundred tons at a 
 dollair and a half the ton. I have also four more 
 sheeps of Bordeaux in the old country which 
 look to me. Their captains come to me every 
 year for bait. There is twelve hundred tons 
 more. Twelve and twelve, that is twenty-four 
 hundred tons at a dollair and a half the ton. 
 How much must I pay, Mistair Clancy? You, 
 who are the quick cal-cu-la-tor, how much shall 
 I pay ? " 
 
 205 
 
Clancy 
 
 "How much? Wait now. I ll have to stop 
 drinking cassy if I ve got to figure. Wait now. 
 
 yes thirty-six hundred dollars." 
 
 " Well, do you see nothing, Mistair Clancy ? " 
 " I begin to get a glimmer. Thirty-six hun 
 dred dollars before you can buy any bait for your 
 own little fleet this spring ? " 
 
 " Ex-act-ly and why ? Because over in New 
 foundland they know that Saint Pierre and Miq- 
 uelon belong to France and that we cannot help 
 ourself. They think so and they are right may 
 be. Will you honor me, my friend ? Ah, yes 
 a leet-le tush allow me. It is good wine yes. 
 
 1 will drink with you this time. To your very 
 fine health, Mistair Clancy." 
 
 " Throw it into you, and here s hoping you ll 
 die the way you like best." 
 
 " Thank you. And if I can obtain the bait I 
 can have twenty other sheeps for which to furnish 
 bait this spring to come. Now, our captains say 
 they will not go to Newfoundland and pay the 
 tax a dollair and a half the ton. They will not 
 pay the tax to the English flag. They will get 
 bait some other place. But no-tice, Mistair 
 Clancy, no-tice. If bait is here our fishermen 
 will buy. If herring is here our fishermen will 
 buy yes, oh, yes. And over there in New 
 foundland, in Fortune Bay, in Placentia Bay, 
 
 206 
 
Clancy 
 
 everywhere is plenty herring for how much? 
 For how much, Mistair Clancy ? " 
 
 " Oh, cheap, dirt cheap. On the Tubal we 
 expected to pay a dollar and a quarter or a dollar 
 and a half." 
 
 " There one dollair and a half shall we say ? 
 And here how much ? Five dollairs. Yes. There 
 it is. My schooner now here in Saint Pierre will 
 carry fifteen hundred barrels, if you load her deep. 
 And you would load her deep, most deep, I am 
 sure, Mistair Clancy. Over to Placentia Bay, 
 where your vessel now is Captain Bradley it 
 is not far, not more than one hundred miles clear 
 up to head of bay not much more one hundred 
 miles. A short voyage that is. You begin to see. 
 You know the coast well, Mistair Clancy nobody 
 better. And you are a bold man, a bold man, 
 Mistair Clancy. You are a man how shall I 
 say ? a man of resource, yes. You know your 
 bees-i-ness that is it, Mistair Clancy you know 
 your bees-i-ness hah ? " 
 
 " M-m Easy there or I ll take to blushing. 
 Let s have another little touch and think it over. 
 Here, better get another bottle this one s 
 ashore." 
 
 " Anothair bottle cert-ain-ly. A dozen if 
 you weesh it. O, Antoinette, Antoinette of the 
 same, Antoinette. She goes. It comes. It 
 
 207 
 
Clancy 
 
 comes, my friend. And you are a man who likes 
 li-i-fe, Mistair Clancy. You like wine, music, 
 the dance, the pree-ty face a-ha-a you like to 
 li-i-ve, Mistair Clancy, and you do not fear to 
 take a chance, as you would say in your country. 
 You see, I know you fishermen of Gloucester 
 and I spik your style sometimes. Shall I drink 
 to our success ? you shall have one-quartair of 
 the profits." 
 
 " Yes ? But ain t you kind of rushing things 
 along?" 
 
 " Ah, but you are not one who hes-i-tates. No 
 sair, not you, Mistair Clancy. Your good health, 
 your very best health, mon ami my friend." 
 
 " Well, here s a shoot. I m stranded and 
 you re a fox. What kind of a crew can I get ? " 
 
 " Whatever you weesh. Yourself, a cook, and 
 four men, five men, seex men, or more if you 
 weesh it so." 
 
 " Six men and a cook will be plenty to handle 
 her if she s that vessel layin* down at your dock. 
 I s pose that s your dock and store near where 
 our vessel was layin Monday. Our skipper 
 must ve bought his rum from you ? " 
 
 " Ah-h say nothing. Your skippair is a fox, 
 as you yourself would say. Reads the Bible, but 
 a fox." 
 
 " H-m-m you ve got Captain Josh properly 
 208 
 
Clancy 
 
 tagged, ain t you ? And I s pose you ve got me 
 sized up, too ? " 
 
 " Oh, Mistair Clan" 
 
 " Oh, Mistair Miller ! It s all right. You 
 can t hurt my reputation. I ve been three times 
 disrated three times I ve been skipper, and three 
 times back to the forehold. That s pretty near 
 the record for a man of thirty-six. That s all, 
 thirty-six. A little gray around the temples and 
 a little strained in the heart, but only thirty-six, 
 Old Man." 
 
 " Ah, you have the vi-vac-ity of a boy, Mistair 
 Clancy. You have the nerve what a soldier is 
 in you ! And when you are going, I shall give 
 you a letter of credit to a collector of customs 
 over there, who will protect you in his district. 
 You understand ? He will wink the eye, look 
 the othair way. But do not use it unless you are 
 about to be captured, because he will want a 
 share, you understand, a share. He knows not of 
 this schooner that it is my schooner. No. And 
 so, you understand, why pay out more than is 
 nec-es-sary ? But, of course, if you are in a tight 
 place " 
 
 " I can use it," finished Clancy. " But don t 
 try and fool me like you re fooling this collector 
 you re speaking of. No double-cross or you and 
 
 me ll get in a knot. Remember, you do unto me 
 
 209 
 
Clancy 
 
 as you would have me do unto you, as Captain 
 Josh is fond of saying. But if it s to be the other 
 way, you do me and you can count on it I ll do 
 you or try to. I ll stop at nothing nothing 
 once the war s on. And now you want to fit this 
 vessel out. By the way, what s her name ? " 
 
 " Any name you please for this voyage." 
 
 " For this voyage ? you re sure a fox. Well, 
 call her the Marguerite." 
 
 "As you say. This very day it shall be 
 painted on Marguerite. It is pree-ty." 
 
 " So was she. Let s have one to Marguerite 
 
 Oh, have you seen my Marguerite ? 
 O Marguerite, O Marguerite 
 
 But of course you ain t. Nor nobody else 
 around here she s a dream. Here s a shoot. 
 Now you want to load her up with plenty of cassy 
 wine and red rum plenty of cassy wine and red 
 rum in her fore and after runs. I ll attend to the 
 stowing of it after we put out." 
 
 " It is done cassis wine and red rum. And 
 a case of champagne for yourself in your own 
 locker." 
 
 "Well now, by the Lord a case of cham 
 pagne ! Good ! Miller, you re all right. And 
 I ll load her so full of herring that we ll have to 
 
 210 
 
Clancy 
 
 pile the chain anchor on the hatches to keep em 
 under." 
 
 " Ah, what a man ! They told me about you. 
 What a man ! They told me." 
 
 " Did they ? Did Captain Josh quote some 
 thing from Scripture to specially fit my case ? 
 And we ll need some ready money. Now you 
 don t know but what I might jump out on you, 
 so I don t ask you for any money, but give it to 
 some one of the crew you can trust. Make one 
 of them purser." 
 
 " The cook, Mistair Clancy, shall be my 
 brothair." 
 
 "Shall he, though? the cook? All right. 
 How do you say cook in French ? " 
 
 " Oh le cuisinier, le chef, le cordon bleu may 
 be, but " 
 
 " Quee-see-neer chef cord-ong, cord-ong 
 bloo in case I have to call him in a hurry, you 
 know. Quee-see-neer chef how s that last ? 
 O yes, cord-ong bloo. I ll remember those." 
 
 " Very well. His name is Jean, my brothair 
 Jean. He spiks English and French also." 
 
 "Jean Jane I ll remember that, too. Jane, 
 O Jean, my pretty Jane. Speaks English and 
 French, does he? That ll be good to have 
 somebody aboard c n speak English and French 
 both. In case we have to slip the anchor or take 
 
 211 
 
Clancy 
 
 off sail so s to hide against a black rock in a hurry 
 and the crew don t get on to my accent quick 
 enough, I ll wake the cook. You ve got to be 
 ready for such things. You can t tell, our luck 
 might be as bad s that. We may have to heave 
 a cask over with a line made fast to it, of course 
 a good strong painter and little buoys like they 
 use for lobster pots. Who knows, we may have 
 to heave a collector of customs over " 
 
 " The Collector ! But with care, Mistair 
 Clancy, with care." 
 
 " With care cert nly, with care. By the Lord, 
 but I b lieve a murder wouldn t jar you so long s 
 you run no danger of getting found out. I really 
 b lieve but don t you worry. We may set a 
 tide-waiter adrift " 
 
 " Of course, Mistair Clancy, they look into 
 those things adreeft in a good harbor." 
 
 " Be sure in the best. Don t worry we ll 
 pick out a harbor with plenty of water when we 
 turn them adrift. But strategy strategy that ll 
 be lawful in this case." 
 
 " Of course, Mistair Clancy. And now a shake 
 of the hand and one leet-le tush. I like that 
 one leet-le tush." 
 
 " Do you now ? But nothing wonderful. You 
 know what Shakespeare said, One touch of cassy 
 makes the whole world kin. He knew. They 
 
 212 
 
Clancy 
 
 say that when Shake was in his prime he didn t 
 do a thing to the old red stuff himself. Well, 
 here s a shoot." 
 
 Ill 
 
 After a time it came to the ears of the collector 
 of customs at Good Hope that a smart-looking 
 vessel with a French crew was doing illegal things 
 in and about the more retired harbors and coves 
 of the bay. 
 
 " Pooh, pooh," said the collector, when the 
 matter was first brought to his attention " pooh, 
 pooh I ve been on those wild-goose chases be 
 fore. Now, if it was an American vessel one of 
 those Gloucester fishermen it might be differ 
 ent, though even they are beginning to have a 
 care. There was Captain Bradley of the Tubal 
 Cain only last week. He s got his lesson. But 
 a Frenchman ! he wouldn t dare pish, Harvey, 
 pish." 
 
 Though the collector in that fashion sniffed at 
 the first word of these alleged illegal acts, yet he 
 was brought gradually to believe in the truth of 
 the rumors ; and so, forsaking his slippers and 
 his comfortable chair by the glowing grate, he got 
 into his boots and went aboard the Sleepless, in 
 which he was wont, when his periods of action 
 
 213 
 
Clancy- 
 were on, to cruise after smugglers and other ene 
 mies of the customs law. 
 
 A good little vessel was the Sleepless, of about 
 sixty tons, schooner rigged and mounting two 
 one-pounders on her forward deck. The col 
 lector came aboard, made known his wishes, and 
 immediately retired to the cabin for a preparatory 
 nap; the captain issued his orders, walked the 
 quarter, and they were off on a hunt for the 
 audacious Frenchman. 
 
 It was a most elusive craft they found them 
 selves chasing. If there were people along shore 
 who, making no profit out of the French vessel, 
 went out of their way to volunteer enlightening 
 information to the customs officers, there were 
 also others who, having profited by her and hop 
 ing to profit again, went just as far out of their 
 way to circulate mystifying reports of her. Be 
 tween the two, the true and the misleading, the 
 collector spent some days in a baffling search. 
 
 But he caught up with her at last. In a re 
 tired back cove, into which the Sleepless seemed 
 to find her way by accident, they stumbled on 
 the Frenchman. There she was, lying at a 
 rum-cask mooring, which plainly was arranged to 
 be slipped in a twinkling ; with all her lower sails 
 standing, there was the Frenchman Marguerite 
 was the name disclosed by the glass and even 
 
 214 
 
Clancy 
 
 then her crew were dumping herring into the 
 hold. 
 
 " Great Scott ! " said the collector, " loaded to 
 the scuppers. Bear down, Captain Harvey, and 
 let them see our guns. We ll teach them." 
 
 " Ahoy " he called out as the Sleepless ap 
 proached " ahoy aboard the schooner." 
 
 A man with a great black beard and showing a 
 great shock of black hair, when he removed his 
 cap to rub his forehead, came out of the cabin and 
 answered, " Ahoy vat ees it ? " 
 
 " I ll tell you when I come aboard, you pi 
 rate." He came over in his dory, stepped over 
 the rail, and approached the bewhiskered man. 
 " Now then, Mosseer, what are you doing 
 here ? " 
 
 "Vat?" 
 
 "Vat? Don t you vat me. What are you 
 doing here, I say. At what port did you enter ? 
 Where are your papers ? Let me see them. 
 Don t you stand there and grin at me get your 
 papers. Do you understand? your papers 
 pa-a-pers pa-a-a-pers, do you understand? I 
 am the Collector of Customs at Good Hope." 
 
 " I spik no Anglish, Your Highness." 
 
 "You don t? Does nobody speak English 
 here ? " 
 
 " Nobody ? Oui, oui. One -ho ho Jane, 
 215 
 
Clancy 
 
 attenday. Your Highness, Jane comes soon and 
 spiks." The French skipper bowed low. 
 
 " Hah Jane ! Women aboard, you licentious 
 pirate, with your big beard and gaudy red shirt 
 and cap Jane, hay ? " 
 
 " Oui, oui Jane Come queek, Jane. Oh 
 Cord-ong bloo come queek. Hees Highness, 
 he waits. Queek, Jane queek." 
 
 " Oui, oui, mon capitaine one mo-ment. Que 
 voulez-vous what weesh you, mon capitaine ? " 
 A voluble fellow was he who now bounced up 
 out of the fo c s le and came running along the 
 deck to the group on the quarter. 
 
 To him the collector turned. " So you re 
 Jane, hah?" 
 
 " Oui, Your Highness, Jane Jean as you 
 say. I am the cook." 
 
 " The cook, eh ? Well, tell this captain of 
 yours that I am the Collector of Customs at 
 Good Hope Wellington Spriggs, Collector of 
 Customs, and I have reason to believe, good rea 
 son to believe, that he has not registered at any 
 port in Newfoundland that he has not paid the 
 tonnage, and is therefore getting bait in defiance 
 of the law of the law of the law of Newfound 
 land in defiance of the law of Great Britain. 
 Tell him that. Wait, tell him first I want to see 
 his papers that will settle it. If he has cleared 
 
 216 
 
Clancy 
 
 in any of our ports he must have the collector s 
 receipt for his tonnage tax, and he must have his 
 ship s papers, anyway." 
 
 " Ah-h pa-pairs. It ees the documents you 
 weesh ah-h. O yes. Mon capitaine " the 
 cook turned to his commander " le gentilhomme 
 Hees Highness veut voir wish to see les 
 documents the pa-pairs." 
 
 " Yes, his papers," broke in the collector, 
 "and show them quick, tell him, or I ll take him 
 into custody now now. Do you hear? now. 
 I shall take him at once to Placentia and from 
 there telegraph to Saint John s to have the cutter 
 come and seize this vessel and put you all in 
 jail in jail, do you hear? Tell this pirate cap 
 tain of yours with the whiskers tell him that. 
 Yes, I mean you " he glared at the whisk 
 ered captain. " Don t you show your teeth at 
 me." 
 
 Mr. Spriggs stamped his foot and shook his 
 fist at the French captain, who drew himself up 
 with great dignity. " Je ne comprong, sair no 
 understand, sair " and to his cook, "Jane, 
 queek, queek vat says thees gentle-home gen 
 tle-home bah ! " 
 
 " II dit, mon capitaine, qu il veut voir les doc 
 uments the pa-pairs." 
 
 " Vooly-he to see mon pa-pairs, Jane ? " 
 217 
 
Clancy 
 
 " Oui, oui, mon capitaine." 
 
 " Direz-voo to heem, Jane no. Non ! Vouly- 
 voo tang say mong coor, je vooz arm, biang 
 mang, ploo belle, mong doo, quee-see-neer, cord- 
 ong bloo, cord-ong bloo, sackray blur sack-r-r-ay 
 blur I say whoop-ee ein zwei drei certain- 
 mong skaal, slainte, prosit mong pa-pairs 
 ness pah, Jane ? " 
 
 " Oui, oui, mon capitaine oui, oui." 
 
 " Ah, ah, say to heem, Jane say to the gen 
 tle-home, Jane go to the dev-eel, go to the 
 dev-eel, Jane go to the dev-eel." 
 
 " What ! " whooped the collector, " what ! To 
 my face, too, you pirate to my face ! " 
 
 "Yes, sair to your fass. You do not like? 
 Then go to the hell, Mistair Mistair kell ay 
 votre nom cochon peeg. Go to the deveel, 
 sair to the hell, I say dam dam." 
 
 " Oh-ho, that s it, is it? I ll soon have you 
 fixed. You ll come with me to Placentia, and in 
 short order, too. I ll telegraph to Saint John s for 
 the cutter. I d telegraph this minute if there 
 was a station here. We shall see, we shall see, 
 sir. In the morning we shall be in Placentia. 
 Tell your captain, you you, you interpreter 
 tell him we leave for Placentia at once at once. 
 I shall stay aboard to see that he goes there. I 
 am now in charge of this schooner. My own 
 
 218 
 
Clancy 
 
 schooner will go along with us. You understand, 
 Frenchy ? Compronnay voo ? " 
 
 " Yes, sair." The cook turned to the captain 
 and started to translate the collector s speech, but 
 that impetuous character burst forth before the 
 cook had finished, " Ha, je dee, it ees oon out- 
 raj h oon out-r-r-a-a-jh." 
 
 " It is the law," returned the collector, majesti 
 cally. " It is the law the law of England of 
 Great Britain. To defy it is to defy the flag 
 the British Empire itself. Go you " he waved 
 a hand to the men who had rowed him from the 
 Sleepless to the Marguerite " go you to the 
 Sleepless and tell Captain Harvey to follow on 
 behind. I stay aboard to see that no evidence is 
 destroyed, and that my wishes are obeyed." 
 
 IV 
 
 With Collector Spriggs on her quarter, arms 
 folded, the Frenchman sailed out of Folly Cove. 
 Clearing the point thatjutted into the little bit of 
 water running out of the cove, the Frenchman, by 
 the collector s direction, hauled up and laid her 
 course for Placentia across the bay. Less than 
 a cable s length astern followed the Sleepless. 
 Standing on her after-deck, Captain Harvey, the 
 
 219 
 
Clancy 
 
 collector s right-hand man, followed every move 
 of the Frenchman. 
 
 " Placentia, sure enough," observed Captain 
 Harvey to the man at the wheel. " We ll be 
 there nicely in the morning. Yes, sir, even with 
 this light breeze we ll be to Placentia in the 
 morning." 
 
 The sun by this time was beginning to drop 
 below the high hills astern, and the sails of the 
 Frenchman, though she was not more than a 
 cable s length ahead, had already begun to merge 
 into the haze of a blue dusk. Captain Harvey, 
 noting this, said : " I think we d do well to get 
 up abreast of that fellow. We want to be able to 
 see her lights, so s we can keep right close when it 
 gets darker." 
 
 That was plainly the opinion of everybody 
 aboard the Sleepless, but when it came to putting 
 the plan into execution they found it was not so 
 easy. The Frenchman was drawing ahead. 
 
 " Who d ever think a vessel loaded so deep 
 could beat us in this light breeze, and her with 
 only her lower sails on ? " 
 
 " Seems to me I can make out her tops l set," 
 volunteered one of the crew. 
 
 "What? But maybe so, too. Maybe Mister 
 Spriggs is getting impatient, but wouldn t you 
 think he d sing out to us first. First thing we 
 
 220 
 
Clancy 
 
 know she ll be slipping away, and there they ll be 
 in Placentia long before we are, maybe. I think 
 we d better get word to him. Drop the dory 
 over, two of you, and row to him. It s a light 
 breeze yet and you ll have no trouble ketching 
 her. Go ahead and ask Mister Spriggs some 
 thing about it get more instructions." 
 
 Two men, putting off in the dory, were soon 
 clear of their own vessel and gaining on the 
 Frenchman. But they had yet half the distance 
 to make when it began to breeze up a trifle. Not 
 much of a wind as yet, but enough to render 
 futile the efforts of the men in the dory. 
 
 "She s leaving us," said one of them. 
 
 " She cert nly is," rejoined the other. 
 
 " Yes, and it seems to me she s got her sheets 
 eased off pretty free for a vessel going to Placen 
 tia. Don t it you ? " 
 
 " I was thinking that, too pretty well to the 
 south she s heading. I think you d better hail 
 her." 
 
 " All right. Ahoy Mis-ter Spriggs a-ho-o-y 
 there the Marguerite. A-ho-o-y Mis-ter 
 Spriggs a-ho-o-y the Mar-guer-i-i-te." 
 
 No answer. 
 
 " Maybe they don t understand English. 
 Can t you ahoy in French ? " 
 
 " What is it in French P " 
 
 221 
 
Clancy 
 
 " I dunno, don t you ? " 
 
 " No. But that cook they got ought to un 
 derstand English." 
 
 " Yes, but maybe he s below getting supper or 
 something." 
 
 " That s so. But Mister Spriggs oughter 
 heard." 
 
 " Yes, but maybe he s below too, talking to 
 the French captain." 
 
 " That s so, too. Well, let s hail him again." 
 
 Again they hailed, both of them, but no an 
 swer came back. They hailed a third time, and, 
 still getting no answer, dropped back alongside 
 the Sleepless, climbed aboard, and reported. 
 
 " H-m " grunted Captain Harvey, " h-m 
 but that s funny. Do our sidelights show clear 
 there forward ? " 
 
 " Clear, sir," answered the watch. 
 
 " Clear, eh ? H-m I m sure I don t know 
 what to make of it all. I don t understand her 
 swinging off so far to the south ard. Go into 
 the fore-rigging, one or two of you, and hold her 
 in sight s long as you can." 
 
 They tried to hold her in sight, but it was 
 only a short time before they were unable to 
 make out even the shadow of her sails. The 
 captain of the Sleepless, thinking it over, came to 
 the conclusion that his superior had some inex- 
 
 222 
 
Clancy 
 
 plicable reason for changing his course. At any 
 rate he himself had his orders to take the Sleep 
 less to the port of Placentia. Doubtless Mr. 
 Spriggs would tell them all about it in the morn 
 ing. Certainly he himself could do no more 
 than abide events. At his usual hour, therefore, 
 he might just as well turn in, which he did, and 
 slept soundly. In the early morning he awoke 
 refreshed, ascended to the deck and cast a cheer 
 ful look into the mists about him. 
 
 "No sight or sound of her ? " he queried of 
 the man at the wheel. 
 
 " No, sir." 
 
 " That s queer now. But no it ain t either. 
 If she s been ahead of us all night, she s probably 
 in the harbor now. Let s see. We ll be in there 
 ourselves in another half-hour and then we ll see 
 her, if we haven t passed her in the night. None 
 of the watch didn t report passing any sail in the 
 night, did they ? " 
 
 " No, sir." 
 
 " Oh, well. Soon s we re in the harbor and it 
 comes light we ll see." 
 
 They made the harbor and in due time the 
 sun arose and it became broad light. The cap 
 tain and the crew of the Sleepless gazed ahead. 
 No Frenchman there certainly. Nor behind, no 
 nor to either side. They went ashore, climbed 
 
 223 
 
Clancy 
 
 the highest eminence on the near-by hills and 
 gazed afar. No Frenchman. " It s queer now, 
 ain t it ? " said the captain of the Sleepless. 
 
 During that day the crew of the Sleepless kept 
 unceasing watch. During the night that fol 
 lowed they also kept watch. Through all the 
 next day they stood expectant, and throughout 
 the long night that followed their vigilance never 
 slackened. At any moment the Frenchman might 
 come in with their chief aboard. Daybreak found 
 them still standing watch. But the Frenchman 
 came not, nor any word of her. 
 
 On the morning of this day, the third day of his 
 chief s mysterious absence, the captain of the Sleep 
 less began to have the gravest kind of doubts. 
 Suppose the Frenchman had gone astray ? Just 
 where she might have strayed to Captain Harvey 
 could not clearly state. He was puzzled. He 
 was not a morbidly imaginative man, but he was 
 beginning to have an idea by this time that some 
 thing had happened to Mr. Spriggs. 
 
 He telegraphed to half a dozen places in the 
 bay and waited patiently the entire forenoon for 
 the answers. He even telegraphed to Saint 
 John s. " Maybe he took her to Saint John s," 
 Captain Harvey had said to the telegraph opera 
 tor the whole port was in his confidence now. 
 " You can t always tell about Mister Spriggs. 
 
 224 
 
Clancy 
 
 Sometimes he s as deep as that five-mile hole 
 out in the Atlantic. Maybe he took her to Saint 
 John s. You can t tell, can you ? " 
 
 The operator agreed that a man never could 
 tell and suggested a telegram of inquiry to Saint 
 John s. The mate also said you couldn t always 
 tell about Mister Spriggs. " Maybe he s at 
 Saint John s straight to head-quarters. The 
 Lord knows he s gone long enough." 
 
 To these two Captain Harvey listened hope 
 fully, and so it came that he telegraphed to Saint 
 John s. But from there as elsewhere it was always 
 the same reply " No word of Collector Spriggs 
 of Good Hope, nor of a strange vessel loaded 
 with herring and hailing from Saint Pierre, Ameri 
 can built and with a French crew no word." 
 
 Then Captain Harvey cleared his decks for 
 action. He started on a cruise for the French 
 man. During what was left of that day, through 
 all of that night, through all the next day and all 
 the night after, he hunted Placentia Bay from 
 Good Hope to the port of Placentia and across 
 to the southward. He held up everything that 
 hove in sight dories, skiffs, jacks, American fish 
 ermen and coast steamers. Had they seen Mis 
 ter Spriggs, Collector of Customs of Good Hope, 
 or an American-built vessel, Gloucester model, 
 
 with a French crew aboard her skipper a man 
 
 225 
 
Clancy 
 
 with a lot of black hair and black beard and a 
 red shirt and red cap, who could talk a little 
 broken English ? 
 
 No, they hadn t no vessel of that model with 
 a skipper with that queer kind of rigging. In 
 despair Captain Harvey put for home. " We ve 
 done our best," said he, " we ve done our best. 
 All we can do now, so far s I c n see, is to lay 
 our course for Good Hope and break it to his 
 family." 
 
 The Sleepless, returning from her unsuccessful 
 cruise after Collector Spriggs, and with her crew 
 decidedly perplexed, was about to round the 
 northern point of the entrance to the harbor of 
 Good Hope, when into view, from around the 
 southern point, came an American fisherman, 
 which, Captain Harvey soon saw, desired to 
 speak him. 
 
 " Good Lord ! " he ejaculated, while the two 
 vessels were yet quite a little distance apart, " if 
 that ain t Mister Spriggs standing there forward ! 
 see him ? " 
 
 At sight of their chief the men of the Sleepless 
 marvelled with their captain. They did not cheer 
 Mr. Spriggs was not the kind of man at sight 
 
 226 
 
Clancy 
 
 of whom subordinates rose up and cheered but 
 they were glad to see him now. His reappear 
 ance relieved a great suspense, and the explanation 
 that he would doubtless make promised to solve 
 a most puzzling mystery. 
 
 The collector, with solemn port, stepped aboard 
 his own vessel. He was followed over the rail by 
 an able-looking man with a red cap on his head, 
 a lump on his temple, and two bottles of wine 
 under his arm. The crew of the Sleepless had 
 never to their knowledge seen this big man before, 
 but they knew him for an American despite that 
 red cap, which was plainly of Saint Pierre make. 
 
 " Mister Clancy," said Collector Spriggs, turn 
 ing to the stranger, "let me introduce Captain 
 Harvey Captain Harvey, Mister Clancy." 
 
 " Glad to know you, Captain. When d you 
 get in ? " said Mr. Clancy gravely. 
 
 "Just arrived," answered Captain Harvey. 
 
 "And my crew, Mister Clancy." The col 
 lector waved an arm that included the whole deck. 
 
 " Glad to know you." Mr. Clancy genially 
 waved an arm the free arm that also embraced 
 the whole deck. 
 
 " Mister Clancy saved my life," said the col 
 lector, in the tone of an orator before an audience. 
 " If it were not for Mister Clancy I would now 
 be on the bottom off Galantry Head in seventy- 
 
 227 
 
Clancy 
 
 five fathoms of water. Wouldn t I, Mister 
 Clancy?" 
 
 " Seventy-two, if the charts are right," replied 
 Mr. Clancy. 
 
 " Hard and fast on a rock the vessel went, with 
 the waves breaking over her. It was terrible, 
 wasn t it, Mister Clancy ? " 
 
 "Awful." 
 
 " Dreadful w-h-h A man could hardly have 
 a narrower escape and live to go home and tell 
 the tale. They can t imagine the danger, can 
 they, Mister Clancy ? Appalling, wasn t it ? " 
 
 "Appalling? Lord, yes desp rate. It was 
 looking like life insurance gone over the rail 
 that s what it was." 
 
 " Even Mister Clancy s iron nerve was shaken, 
 Captain. It was enough to scare any man, wasn t 
 it ? " continued the collector. 
 
 " Enough to scare ? Great Lord, I thought I d 
 die of fright. My hair rose on end." 
 
 " There ! Harvey, that may give you an idea 
 of it. But come below with us, Captain, and 
 you ll hear the whole story. First, however, put 
 the Sleepless on her way to Captain Joshua Brad- 
 ley s vessel, the Tubal Cain. Where is she now, 
 Captain ? " 
 
 " Passed her early this morning on the way 
 here. She s about a dozen miles up the bay 
 
 228 
 
Clancy 
 
 taking in herring," answered Harvey. To the man 
 at the wheel he gave the course, then dropped 
 down into the cabin, where he found Clancy, who, 
 with one of the bottles that he had brought aboard 
 placed carefully on the locker beside him, was 
 holding the other firmly by the neck and looking 
 about him with the question : " You haven t got 
 a corkscrew handy, Collector, have you ? " 
 
 " Wait wait " said the collector. " This is 
 on me. I have some stuff here that I know you 
 will appreciate." He lifted a hatch in the cabin 
 floor, and from down in the run passed up a bottle 
 of wine. " There sh-h don t let the crew hear 
 us." 
 
 " What s it ? " whispered Clancy " cassy, too ? 
 My, but you re a fox. No duty, I ll bet. Come 
 now, duty or no duty ? " 
 
 The collector laid a finger beside his nose. 
 " There s a fellow over in Saint Pierre named 
 Miller but don t you let on " 
 
 " M-m " Clancy slid nearer. " M-m I 
 comprong, as they say in Saint Peer." 
 
 "Ah-a you compronnay we both compron- 
 nay don t we, eh ? " The collector dug an 
 elbow into Clancy s ribs. " Well, Miller and 
 myself understand each other understand each 
 other. Compronnay-voo ? " 
 
 " Collector," said Clancy, " but you re a fox. 
 229 
 
Clancy 
 
 And to look at you, who d ever think it and 
 you policy the French like a native." 
 
 " Ha-ha " chuckled the collector. 
 
 " You cert nly are a fox. Now what chance 
 has a poor thick fisherman like myself got against 
 the likes o* you. Lord, I remember when I 
 came down here in a vessel of my own twelve 
 year ago, how near I came to gettin seized for 
 a couple of little ten-gallon kegs of red rum and 
 a few cases of cassy that somebody said I was 
 trying to smuggle in and you coming after me. 
 Now I never was trying to get anything through 
 without paying duty. Lord, I know better than 
 try to get ahead of you, Collector. Tommie, 
 I says to myself by way of good advice, d y* 
 see ? Tommie, I says, don t you be advised 
 by men like Billie Simms and Tom O Donnell 
 and Sam Adams and that kind. Don t you, I 
 says to myself, * for if Collector Spriggs ever gets 
 after you, it s all over. Mind that time, Col 
 lector?" 
 
 " Don t I ? And I notice you never did get 
 caught trying it again." 
 
 " No, nor I didn t get caught that time either. 
 Why ? Because I didn t have any to ketch. I 
 leave that kind of work to them that thinks 
 they re smart, which I ain t. No, sir, I admit I 
 ain t. But I say " Clancy gazed solicitously 
 
 230 
 
Clancy 
 
 about him " you haven t got a mug to pour this 
 cassy into, have you, Collector ? " 
 
 " Yes, I have. Here you are. No, after 
 you." 
 
 " You, Captain Harvey ? " Clancy pushed 
 over the mug. 
 
 " No, after you, Mister Clancy. * 
 
 " Well, if you both insist. M-m but just the 
 smell of it s good. Here s a shoot." 
 
 The collector then took a drink and Captain 
 Harvey took a drink and the collector started to 
 tell the story of his cruise on the Marguerite, so 
 that Captain Harvey might know how it was. 
 
 " After I got aboard the Frenchman up there 
 in Folly Cove," he began, " everything was all 
 right for a time till that French captain maybe 
 you didn t get a good look at him, Harvey the 
 big fellow with all the whiskers and the lot of 
 hair and the red shirt and red cap like Mister 
 Clancy s " 
 
 " It s the same cap, Collector remember ? " 
 interposed Clancy. 
 
 " That the Frenchman s cap ? How is that? " 
 inquired Harvey. 
 
 " Wait, Harvey, wait. We ll come to that. 
 Let me tell it." 
 
 " Yes, Captain, let the collector tell it and 
 he s the man to tell ! a story proper, let me tell 
 
 231 
 
Clancy 
 
 you. Go on, Collector. But before you start, 
 s pose we have a little touch -just a little touch 
 of cassy. Nothing like a little wine to aid the 
 memory and assist the imagination. Now, then, a 
 little touch, eh ? " 
 
 " Well, just a little, thank you," said the col 
 lector. " And just a little, thank you," said Har 
 vey. 
 
 " And Mister Clancy just a little, thank 
 you," said that able seaman softly to himself, and 
 slid it smoothly down. 
 
 " Well, after I was aboard a little while," re 
 sumed the collector, " that big captain he was a 
 big fellow, wasn t he, Mister Clancy ? " 
 
 " Big ? My soul, yes a whale." 
 
 " Bout your height and weight, wasn t he, 
 Mister Clancy ? " ventured Captain Harvey, as 
 one who observes things. 
 
 " Mister Clancy s height and weight ! Great 
 Scott, Harvey, where were your eyes ? As big 
 again as you, wasn t he, Mister Clancy ? " 
 
 " As big again P Lord, yes, and twice as big 
 again. A reg lar whale, we re telling you, Cap 
 tain. I don t guess you had a good look at him, 
 Captain." 
 
 " No, maybe I didn t. No, I don t think I 
 did, come to think of it now," interposed Harvey 
 hastily. 
 
 232 
 
Clancy 
 
 " No, I don t think you did," commented the 
 collector severely. 
 
 " But where did Mister Clancy come in ? " 
 queried Captain Harvey, with his forehead wrink 
 ling under the mental strain. 
 
 " Now, Harvey, let me tell it and you ll see 
 where Mister Clancy comes in." 
 
 " Yes, Captain, you let the collector tell it and 
 you ll see. I come in later like Jack Harkaway 
 we used to read about when we was young. In 
 the nick o time I come. Bing bing my trusty 
 revolver cracks out and two redskins bite the 
 dust. Go ahead, Collector smoke up." 
 
 " Well, that big captain motions to me " 
 
 " in French, was it, Collector ? make it plain 
 to Captain Harvey, you know." 
 
 "Yes, in no, he just motions first and then 
 he says " 
 
 "in French ? " 
 
 " Yes. f Permittay-mwaw, meaning Allow 
 me or f Come with me, the way they say it in 
 French. He meant, c Allow me to escort you to 
 the cabin French style, you know. So we 
 went below and he produces a bottle." 
 
 " Cassy, Collector ? Make it all clear to Cap 
 tain Harvey." 
 
 " Cassy, yes and says " 
 
 "Ah, Collector, I know what he said, I ll bet." 
 233 
 
Clancy 
 
 Clancy leaned genially toward Spriggs. " Come 
 now, will you take me? I ll bet I know. He 
 said, * Have a little tush ? There, that s what 
 he said, wasn t it ? Ain t I right ? Of course. 
 And so long as it s on our minds, suppose we 
 have a little touch -just one little touch." Clancy 
 filled a mug for the collector, who took his drink 
 like a man mesmerized, as also did Harvey. 
 Clancy himself took one that drained the bottle, 
 which he then rolled under the stove. " There s 
 one dead. Go on, Collector drive her." 
 
 " Well, to be sociable, you see, I took a drink 
 a small drink. And he took a drink an 
 enormous drink. We had a few more, four or 
 five, maybe, I taking moderate drinks and he 
 taking much larger ones. I foresaw that at the 
 rate he was then going he would soon have more 
 than was good for him, but I did not foresee how 
 he would act when he got under the influence. 
 It was about this time I thought I heard a creak 
 ing as if they were hoisting sails and paying out 
 sheets, but I wasn t quite sure. However, no 
 matter about that, the big French captain kept 
 getting drunker and drunker. He got so drunk 
 at last that he finally insisted on waltzing with me. 
 Well, I knew, you understand, we couldn t do 
 much waltzing in a fisherman s cabin and a 
 stove in the middle of the floor too. But, merely 
 
 234 
 
Clancy 
 
 to humor him, of course, I pretended to waltz 
 with him, and we waltzed till we knocked the 
 stove over." 
 
 " Oon, doo, traw, 
 Balance like mwaw," 
 
 hummed Clancy. 
 
 " What s that ? " exclaimed the collector, gaz 
 ing at Clancy in surprise. " How d you know 
 that ? " 
 
 "How? Don t you mind me being in the 
 hold jammed up against the cabin bulkhead ? 
 Don t you mind me telling you about that com 
 ing over in Billie Simms s vessel ? " 
 
 "That s so. I forgot that." 
 
 " What s chat ? " asked Captain Harvey. 
 " Mister Clancy aboard the Frenchman ? " 
 
 " Now, Harvey," rejoined the collector, " if 
 you ll compel yourself to listen, maybe I ll get 
 through with my story." 
 
 " Hush, Captain, hush," said Clancy. " Let 
 the collector tell it. And if Captain Harvey 
 speaks again, Collector, I ll gag him. Your 
 wheel, Collector, and drive her." 
 
 "Well, when the stove went over, the ashes 
 fell out and scattered all over the floor, and that 
 seemed to make the French captain mad all at 
 once. He began to swear frightfully in his own 
 language, and I, seeing that trouble might ensue, 
 
 235 
 
Clancy 
 
 started to go up on deck. It was my idea, you 
 see, to call out to you on the Sleepless to come 
 aboard with your crew. But he anticipated me. 
 I think now that he was too cunning to allow me 
 to do that, in spite of the liquor that was in him. 
 At any rate he got to the companion-way before 
 me and said something to the man at the wheel 
 no, he didn t say he motioned, and they drew 
 the slide over the companion-way tight. That 
 made it pretty dark in the cabin. You may re 
 member it was nearly night when I went aboard. 
 Now, with the cabin dark, I began to think that 
 this fellow, not being able to see very well, would 
 forget all about me, perhaps fall asleep and let 
 me go to sleep too, for I was beginning to feel 
 drowsy. 
 
 " But no. He was cunning, as they say mad 
 men are quite frequently in their frenzies. He 
 lit the binnacle lamp and then the cabin lamp 
 and started to look around for me. I was in the 
 port after bunk by this time, up beneath the over 
 hang, and I thought he wouldn t notice me, but 
 he did. * A-ha-a he began, and mark the 
 fiendish cruelty of the monster to use his few 
 English words so as make me the better under 
 stand his awful intentions. I keel you, I keel 
 you. Just to hear him say that, in the way he 
 said it it would freeze any man s blood just to 
 
 236 
 
Clancy- 
 hear him. He went over to a locker on the 
 other side of the cabin, and, lifting the cover, be 
 gan to rummage around. ( I get axe and keel 
 heem the dam Anglishman he kept mutter 
 ing to himself. I don t think he intended me to 
 hear those words about the axe, but I did my 
 ears are sharp. I saw the horrible doom that 
 was awaiting me, for I knew that I didn t have 
 one chance in a thousand with that inhuman 
 monster. But even then I kept my wits about 
 me and looked around for a chance to escape. I 
 saw the door of the lazaretto wide open almost 
 beside my bunk it was and so, while he was 
 hunting in his drunken way for the axe, I slipped 
 out of the bunk and into the lazaretto, took the 
 key out the door, drew the door to after me 
 noiselessly and locked it. It was lucky for me 
 that the lazaretto locked that way. I found a 
 coil of rope inside and rolled it against the door 
 and then braced myself against the rope. Then 
 I heard the big brute lumbering back and groping 
 in the bunk for me. f Where you where you 
 come out here, sair I could hear him plain s 
 could be. * Come out here, sair you dam 
 Anglishman come out here, sair, for I keel you 
 come out. Well, I heard him groping about 
 for a long time before it seemed to occur to him 
 that I wasn t in the bunk. I began to get a 
 
 237 
 
Clancy 
 
 chill then, expecting every minute to hear the 
 axe come crashing through the lazaretto door. 
 But it didn t. It strikes me now that it was a 
 peculiar thing that he never happened to think 
 that I might be inside the lazaretto. But it is a 
 fact that it didn t seem to occur to him. But he 
 began to feel in all the other bunks for me. I 
 could hear him plainly even with the door of the 
 lazaretto locked. Well, he didn t find me in any 
 of the other bunks, of course, and lumbering 
 around the cabin, probably very much puzzled 
 by my sudden disappearance, he must have stum 
 bled against the cabin steps and thereby got an 
 idea in his head. Anyway, as if it had just oc 
 curred to him, he muttered, { A-ha he go on 
 the deck oop on the deck he go and lock me 
 down here ah, dam Anglishman. He began 
 to holler then to the man at the wheel, I imag 
 ine Henri, Henri till the slide over the 
 companion-way was pushed back. Then I could 
 hear his heavy feet pounding the deck over my 
 head and his curses and the stumbling of his big 
 boots as he went forward. 
 
 " Well, I was somewhat worried, I admit it 
 now. Naturally anyone would be, but I never 
 lost my head. Though I saw no more of the 
 French captain I heard him though, as I will 
 tell you later I made up my mind that I was 
 
 238 
 
 
Clancy 
 
 f 
 
 not out of danger by any means, and I stuck to 
 my hiding-place. All that long night, wide 
 awake, I lay in the lazaretto. They kept coming 
 and going in the cabin. 1 was wondering all the 
 time how the crew accounted for my disappear 
 ance, but a remark dropped by one of them en 
 lightened me. One of them said and judging 
 by the way their voices came to me they must 
 have been sitting around the stove at the time 
 I see not Mistair Spriggs, said he. f Ho, ho, 
 says another, le capitaine put heem under the 
 floor, so s-q-q-wik I shuddered. He meant 
 to imply that the captain had cut my throat and 
 stowed my dead body down in the run. That 
 may give you an idea, Captain Harvey, of the 
 kind of a man the big French captain was and of 
 the kind of a crew he had. He was a what was 
 it you called him in Captain Simms s cabin when 
 we were coming over ? " 
 
 " Blue-beard ? " suggested Clancy. 
 
 " That s it Blue-beard. That s just the name 
 for him." 
 
 " But wasn t you feeling hungry all the time ? " 
 queried Captain Harvey. 
 
 "After the first day and night, yes. But I ll 
 tell you how fortunate I was about food. At 
 night they were in the habit of bringing food and 
 wine back in the cabin to eat before turning in. 
 
 2 39 
 
Clancy 
 
 They always brought more than they could eat, 
 you see, and after they were asleep and the lamp 
 turned low I would steal out and get some of 
 what was left on the lockers bread, cheese, sar 
 dines and wine. They never noticed mornings 
 that any of their food was gone. 
 
 " Well, things went along so until the third 
 night. It was well after midnight but yet far 
 from morning, as I have since estimated, when I 
 was awakened by an awful stamping on the deck 
 over my head, and the rudder post behind me 
 beginning to creak and the vessel to heel over. 
 I was directly under the wheel, you see. Well, 
 I couldn t swear to what they were saying very 
 well, for they were shouting in French, with only 
 a word or so in English occasionally, but I could 
 make out the big captain s voice every now and 
 then twas he, I think, was speaking the Eng 
 lish words. Whatever it was, it didn t last long. 
 Two or three of them seemed to be coming aft 
 on the run, and then there was a sudden flurry, 
 and blows and curses and bodies falling. l They re 
 killing somebody, I said to myself. I was still 
 wondering what it was all about, when all at once 
 the vessel shoved up forward and the bottom 
 planks were scraping the rocks. She lifted once, 
 twice, again and again began to pound and 
 then the water began to come through her. I 
 
 240 
 
Clancy 
 
 could hear it I could feel it it was swashing 
 on the cabin floor. Instantly I realized my 
 danger and jumped for the lazaretto door, and 
 was about to turn the key and get out and take 
 chances with the big captain even rather than 
 stay there and drown like a rat, when I heard 
 somebody drop down the companion-way and 
 swash around in the water that was pouring into 
 the cabin. I heard a voice it was the voice of 
 the big captain. I don t know what he said, but 
 I knew his voice. And then I heard him ap 
 proaching swash swash swash * He has 
 found me out and is coming to finish me, I 
 thought. I heard his hand on the door. * Open, 
 open, he called. No, I said. Open, he 
 said again. t No, I said determinedly, and then 
 crash crash * I m gone, I said to myself. 
 One more crash and the door gave way, a big 
 boot followed the door, and then the head of 
 Mister Clancy ! " 
 
 " No ! " ejaculated Harvey. 
 
 " Yes, Mister Clancy wasn t it ? " appealed 
 the collector. 
 
 "Yes, sir me Jack Harkaway in the nick 
 o time just like I told you would happen, Cap 
 tain. Yes, sir, me, and in the nick o time. And 
 when I come to think of it now, I must say that 
 I think it is worth having a little touch on. 
 
 241 
 
Clancy 
 
 We ll open one of mine now. Yes, yes, Col 
 lector, one of mine. What do you say now ? 
 A little touch, eh ? Just a wee little touch. 
 Why, of course. There you are, throw that 
 into your forehold and tell me if you don t feel 
 better." 
 
 VI 
 
 "And now, Harvey," said the collector when 
 they all had a "little touch," "Mister Clancy 
 will tell the rest, so that you may know how it 
 all came out." 
 
 " Yes," said Clancy, carefully setting the newly 
 opened bottle on end again, " I will clear up 
 the mystery. First, I must tell you, Captain, 
 that all the time Mister Spriggs was under the 
 overhang, a prisoner, as you might say, I was in 
 the after-hold a prisoner too. You see, I d 
 stolen aboard the Marguerite one night when 
 she was in Saint Peer Harbor. I d been having 
 what you might call a little wine-time ashore and 
 my vessel had sailed without me. That s the 
 vessel we re heading for now. By the way, 
 oughtn t we be getting near it, Captain ? " 
 
 " I ve told em on deck to tell us when we re 
 there," said Harvey. 
 
 " Good. But I d better make a short story of 
 242 
 
Clancy 
 
 it anyway. Lemme see, where was I ? Oh, yes, 
 stowin myself aboard the Marguerite at the dock 
 in Saint Peer Harbor. Well, I d climbed aboard 
 and while I was stepping high, so s not to wake 
 anybody that might be having a kink in his bunk 
 below, I stepped over the after-hatch combing 
 and into the hold. She s got a deep hold, by 
 the way, the Marguerite has for a vessel her size, 
 but why people leave hatches off at night I don t 
 know. I hit something hard down near her bot 
 tom somewhere. Just what it was I don t know, 
 but " 
 
 " Her ballast, maybe," suggested Harvey. 
 
 " Maybe or her chain anchor. Anyway, 
 what it was don t matter. I know it warn t lem 
 on jelly. I went down and out, and when I came 
 to again the vessel was moving and I was tied 
 hand and foot and a gag in my mouth. Of course, 
 being fixed like that I couldn t say much, even 
 if I had anything to say, which I don t think I 
 did, being still maybe a little bit foggy about 
 things. To tell you the truth, I think now that 
 I thought then that I was still asleep and that 
 when I woke up I d found myself back in the 
 Caffy Middy with the waiter girl bringing on an 
 other round of cassy. 
 
 " Well, by and by a man came along with a 
 lantern and takes the gag out of my mouth and 
 
 243 
 
Clancy 
 
 puts some grub alongside me and a cup of coffee, 
 and says, Who you ? who you ? just like that, 
 savage-like, Who you ? kinder weak on Eng 
 lish, y see." 
 
 " French ? " suggested Harvey. 
 
 " Man, but you do catch on to things," said 
 Clancy, admiringly. " That s it, French. 1 didn t 
 answer, and he says again, Who you ? Merican, 
 Anglish or vat ? Then I said I was American 
 Gloucester fisherman. He says, Oh ! Well, 
 sir, that s all the talk we had day in and day out 
 him coming down, taking the gag out of my 
 mouth and feeding me three times a day for I 
 don t know how many days. Ten days I think 
 it must ve been no more talk than that till the 
 night you came aboard, Mister Spriggs. Then 
 another fellow comes down, this one a lad that 
 could talk almost as good English as myself 
 could talk it as fast anyway a big, husky, black- 
 skinned fellow the cook he was, near s I could 
 make out." 
 
 " H-m I know him," broke in Harvey ; 
 " black fellow, big and heavy the interpreter the 
 time you boarded the Marguerite, Mister Spriggs 
 don t you remember, Mister Spriggs ? " 
 
 " Yes, it was the cook, Harvey," said the col 
 lector. " Captain Simms and Mister Clancy and 
 myself decided that point to our satisfaction on 
 
 244 
 
Clancy 
 
 the way over from Saint Pierre this morning. It 
 was the cook. Proceed, Mister Clancy." 
 
 " Well, the cook he comes down this night 
 and says, * Remembair do you mind how he 
 used to put those airs in, Collector c remem- 
 bair, he says, and I can tell you, Captain, he was 
 a villainous looking gazabo, and the Collector 
 can tell you too." 
 
 " If ever a man had murder in his eyes, Har 
 vey, he was the man," affirmed the collector. 
 
 " Collector, you ve certainly got him right. 
 It s just as you say. If ever a man had murder 
 in his eye, he was the man. A proper man for a 
 murderer, and the more I think of it, Collector, 
 the more I can t help thinking that it was all a 
 plot now from the start. You see, with you out 
 of the way, they could do all the smuggling they 
 wanted in Placentia Bay." 
 
 " Woo-o," shivered the collector. 
 
 " Yes, and with you out of the way, where 
 would the British gover ment be ? Now, now, 
 Collector, I know. I know what all the Ameri 
 can fishermen say. He s a dog, they says. 
 He s a killer in his line you can t get around 
 Collector Spriggs of Good Hope. No, sir. Of 
 course, I don t pretent they don t cuss you out 
 pretty often. That s nacheral, and you being a 
 man that knows human nature can hardly blame 
 
 245 
 
Clancy 
 
 them for that, now could you? Could you, now? 
 Be honest now, could you blame our skippers 
 for cussing you out when you get ahead of them 
 so often could you now ? " 
 
 "Well, I can t say as I could. It is a very 
 natural feeling, Mister Clancy." 
 
 " Nacheral ? It s as nacheral as wanting to take 
 a drink when you re thirsty. Well, to go back, 
 Captain Harvey. This cook this night the 
 night the Collector came aboard he says going 
 away, Remembair vat happens on thees sheep 
 you do not know you do not hear you do 
 not see. Remembair say notting, or you are 
 as a dead mans. You say notting, hein hein 
 with his face up to mine, and me with a gag 
 between my jaws. 
 
 " Of course, I said nothing. A man with half 
 a wet towel in his mouth don t generally have too 
 much to say. I only just rocked my head fore 
 and aft like one of them East India idols that 
 bows fore and aft as you put a finger to em, and 
 the cook he goes away. I mind that night well, 
 for that was the first night I began to see what 
 tough people I was up against. That was the 
 night, Collector, the French captain nigh did for 
 you in the cabin." 
 
 " Woo-o " shuddered the Collector, " wasn t 
 it awful?" 
 
 246 
 
Clancy 
 
 <c Awful ? I should say. Iron nerves you 
 must have, Collector, to be able to sit there now 
 and listen to me telling it." 
 
 " My friends say my nerve is good," admitted 
 the Collector. 
 
 "It cert nly must be. Do you remember him 
 waltzing around the cabin with you, him going 
 
 Oon doo traw 
 Balance like mwaw. 
 You are a daisy 
 But you have your faults. 
 Your right foot is lazy, 
 Your left foot is crazy, 
 But don t be un-ais-y 
 I ll tache you to waltz. " 
 
 " Was that what he was saying all the time ? " 
 broke in the collector, like a man on whom a 
 mysterious truth has just dawned. "Are you 
 sure ? " 
 
 " Sure as c n be. I was tied up in the after- 
 hold and gagged, but my ears were free and I 
 could hear him through the bulkhead. And I 
 could see you both after awhile through a little 
 knot-hole I could just reach to look through. 
 Man, but the crust of him ! whirlin you around 
 to that kind of stuff and trying to sing it in Eng 
 lish with an Irish brogue the crust of him 
 the Irish brogue ! " 
 
 247 
 
Clancy 
 
 " It was impudent, now I come to think of it." 
 
 " Impudent ? It was real sassy. Anyway, the 
 second night after that the cook comes to me 
 again and this time you must mind, Captain, I 
 told the collector this on board Billie Simms s 
 vessel on the way over this was the time, Cap 
 tain, he wanted me to do the awful thing. You d 
 never guess, Captain Harvey, what he wanted me 
 to do." 
 
 " What was it ? " inquired Harvey in a whisper. 
 
 " He wanted me to kill the French captain." 
 
 "No!" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " What murder him ? " 
 
 " I s pose that s what he meant. * Keel heem, 
 he said." 
 
 " What awful people those Frenchmen ! " 
 ejaculated Harvey. 
 
 " Aren t they ? " 
 
 "And what did you say to that, Mister 
 Clancy?" 
 
 " I said, Nev-air, nev-air, giving it to him in 
 his own kind of talk, y see." 
 
 " And what did he say ? " 
 
 " Nothing, but just fetched me one with the 
 back end of an axe on the side of the temple. 
 See that lump? Well, that s where the axe 
 
 bounced off." 
 
 248 
 
Clancy 
 
 " Good heavens ! A wonder you were not 
 killed ? " 
 
 " Warn t it ? But you see he didn t hit me 
 hard enough. He only just let the weight of the 
 axe drop just over my right eye. You ve seen 
 a blacksmith now, haven t you, Captain, let his 
 hammer drop on the anvil not pounding like 
 he was hammering horse-shoes into shape, but 
 just a little light crack in between the real blows 
 maybe to illustrate an argument he s having 
 with the loafers hanging round the shop, or 
 maybe only to hear the old anvil ring. It s a 
 cheerful sound, ain t it, the ringing of the ham 
 mer on the anvil ? Did you ever recite in 
 school 
 
 Oh, listen to the clanging of the hammer on the anvil 
 
 Goes fine, don t it? Well, this blacksmith of 
 a cook just let the back end of his axe clang on 
 my temple just let it bounce off once or twice, 
 so I d remember not to forget. And I didn t." 
 
 At this point Clancy was interrupted by the 
 voice of one of the crew. " Captain Harvey, 
 we re getting close to the Tubal Cain." 
 
 " All right," answered Harvey up the com 
 panion-way. " Put over the dory, and have it 
 ready. Go on, Mister Clancy." 
 
 " Lemme see, where was I ? " 
 249 
 
Clancy 
 
 " He d just hit you on the forehead with an 
 axe." 
 
 " Oh, yes. But ain t it most time for a little 
 touch ? Can t stop ? All right, just as you say, 
 Captain. Well, that little tap threw me into 
 what, if I was a lady, you might call a swoon. 
 I d been in a swoon yet, maybe, but I was awak 
 ened by a hollerin and shouting and stampin 
 and cursin on deck, and then the vessel laid over 
 like she was being put by the wind, and then 
 we heard her grinding upon the rocks grind 
 ing grinding she went. Somebody or other 
 was thrown over the side I heard him splash. 
 Then the water came up through her bottom 
 where the planks was gone and then over her rail 
 and deck amidships and down the hatch. Well, 
 I began to think that with the water rushing 
 down there like that the hold was no place for 
 me, and I got up and climbed out." 
 
 " Climbed out ? " ejaculated Captain Harvey. 
 " But wasn t you tied ? " 
 
 " Eh what !" it was Collector Spriggs speak 
 ing now, startled into sudden action by Captain 
 Harvey s question. " That s so. Were you 
 not tied, Mister Clancy ? " 
 
 " Now, Captain now, Collector wait and let 
 me tell it. I ll have to hurry, won t I, if we re so 
 handy as your man said to my vessel ? He said 
 
 250 
 
Clancy 
 
 we was most alongside, didn t he? Here, before 
 we go, just a little touch to finish up this bottle. 
 Now, Collector, just a little touch. It ll never hurt 
 you in the world ; nor you, Captain. There you 
 are throw that in there, now, don t you feel 
 better already? Come now, don t you? Of 
 course you do. Where was I ? Oh, yes the 
 vessel upon the rocks and men fightin on the 
 deck and the sea pourin into her hold. When 
 I got on deck, there was the crew of the French 
 man goin off in the dory I c d just see them in 
 the dark. And there was a man s body just 
 driftin by her rail amidships, with a red cap with 
 tassels on it. It kind of groaned the body did 
 and I made a grab for it, but the tide carried 
 it by and I only caught the red cap, and that 
 came off. I was bareheaded myself, so I put the 
 cap on my own head this cap I m wearing 
 now." 
 
 " And that s how you come to be wearing the 
 French captain s cap ? I was wondering how you 
 got it. So he s dead ? " 
 
 " Yes, Captain Harvey, he s dead." 
 
 "And a good job," injected the collector, "a 
 good job. Go on, Mister Clancy, and tell 
 Harvey how near I came to being drowned in 
 the wreck of the Marguerite." 
 
 " Oh, yes, that was the exciting part. There 
 251 
 
Clancy 
 
 was a dory astern, and I was just going to jump 
 into that and try to pick up the French captain, 
 when I happened to think of Mister Spriggs be 
 ing down under the overhang maybe locked in 
 and not able to get out. Charity begins at 
 home, thinks I, and I jumps below and tells him 
 what s happened, and we jumps in the dory and 
 rows up Saint Peer Harbor till we spy Billie 
 Simms s vessel, and he takes us to Good Hope, 
 where we meets with you, and there you are." 
 
 "Yes, Harvey, there you are. It happened 
 just as Mister Clancy tells it. Was it not 
 wonderful, and did I not have a narrow escape, 
 Harvey?" 
 
 " Most miraculous," commented Harvey. 
 " And the French captain is dead ? " 
 
 " Dead, yes, and a good thing," answered Col 
 lector Spriggs, " for if ever a brute sailed the sea 
 he was one. Just think how he would have 
 made way with me killed me with the axe in 
 
 the cabin ! " 
 
 " Oon doo traw 
 Balance like mwaw " 
 
 hummed Clancy absently. 
 
 " Mister Clancy, I wish you would not sing 
 that," observed Spriggs. 
 
 " Oh, all right, Collector, only I was thinking 
 to myself how lucky you were." 
 
 252 
 
Clancy 
 
 " Lucky indeed. Where would I be now only 
 I had the wit to think of getting under the over 
 hang and stay there ? " 
 
 " That s right, Collector. You cert nly stood 
 by the overhang in good shape. When I came 
 down after she d gone up on the rocks I thought 
 for a minute we d both be drowned there be 
 tween stopping to break in the door and rescuin 
 them two bottles o cassy. But that s past now. 
 We made it, didn t we, Collector ? Up the 
 cabin steps, and the deck sinking under our 
 feet. Over the rail and into the dory with us, 
 and then the lucky thing finding Billie Simms 
 to take us over, which reminds me we need a 
 little touch, now the story s ended. Where s 
 that bottle ? O Lord, empty ! Two dead " he 
 kicked it under the stove " I ve half a mind to 
 open this one. No, I ll keep it for Captain Josh. 
 Well, I m off. It s a shame to hurry away from 
 you, Collector, and from you, Captain, with your 
 entertaining ways, but I know you both want to 
 get back to Good Hope. So good-by. Good- 
 by, good luck." 
 
 Clancy leaped up the cabin-steps and onto the 
 deck. In four strides he was in her waist. 
 " Where s that dory ? Oh, yes " he dove over 
 the rail and into the dory. " Good-by good- 
 by " he waved his last bottle of cassis back to 
 
 Ml 
 
Clancy 
 
 Spriggs and Harvey who had just reached the 
 deck " I ll see you at Good Hope en the way 
 back to Gloucester. So long, and now, fellows " 
 he beamed on the two men who were rowing 
 " drive her, fellows, drive her, for 
 
 My captain calls and I must go, 
 
 So, brothers, row, row, row. 
 
 I ll hang my harp on a weeping willow tree, 
 
 I ll take my blooming kit and go, go, go." 
 
 Clancy s tuneful, if somewhat husky, voice 
 floated back to Collector Spriggs and Captain 
 Harvey as they stood by the rail of the Sleepless 
 and watched the dory flying toward the Tubal 
 Cain. 
 
 " Now, was it not all wonderful, Harvey ? " 
 again inquired the Collector. 
 
 " Yes, sir. You were lucky, Mister Spriggs." 
 
 " Wasn t I ? Captain Simms, after hearing the 
 story on the way over here in his vessel, said it 
 was almost incredible. He said if he hadn t 
 known Mister Clancy, known him personally and 
 by reputation, he would not have known what to 
 make of it no, he wouldn t," he said. 
 
 " It was wonderful, Mister Spriggs. But what 
 puzzles me is how Mister Clancy got loose in 
 the hold when he was tied up so tight. I meant 
 to ve asked him I did ask him, now that I think 
 of it, but he forgot to answer." 
 
 254 
 
Clancy 
 
 " So he did, didn t he ? I meant to ask him 
 that, too. I will when I see him again. But that 
 French captain is dead, Harvey. I d hardly be 
 lieve it only that Mister Clancy is in possession of 
 his red cap. I know the cap. That s one good 
 thing, Harvey the French captain." 
 
 " Yes, it s good he s gone. But I wonder how 
 Mister Clancy ever got loose in the hold after 
 he was tied up so tight and gagged. I wish he 
 hadn t forgotten to explain that." 
 
 " Oh, he ll explain that when we see him next 
 time," said the Collector, reassuringly. "You 
 don t know Mister Clancy like I know him. 
 He s one of those simple, appreciative men that 
 you can t but like after you get to know him. 
 He thinks there s nobody like me." 
 
 VII 
 
 Captain Joshua Bradley was perplexedly over 
 hauling some bills and receipts in the cabin of 
 the Tubal Cain when he heard the scraping of 
 boot-heels on deck. 
 
 " H-m that s him." Captain Joshua had 
 hardly grunted that when Clancy, cheerful and 
 smiling, dropped down the companion-way. 
 
 One or two things had gone wrong with Cap 
 tain Joshua, and so he found it easy to meet his 
 
 255 
 
Clancy 
 
 returned scapegrace with a face that was screwed 
 up to express what might be considered a proper 
 degree of righteous reprobation. 
 
 " By the Lord, Skipper," greeted Clancy, beam 
 ingly, " but I m glad to see you. When d you 
 get in?" 
 
 " When d I get in ? Go to Halifax with you. 
 How came you to be in the Collector s vessel ? 
 Oh, never mind how I know. I s pose you think 
 it all right to be messing with a man that fined 
 me a couple of hundred dollars and threatened to 
 seize my vessel, too the thick-headed, feathery, 
 cacklin* old hen." 
 
 " Sh-h Skipper. Wait now till I tell you. 
 I ve got one on the Collector. He seized my 
 vessel, too." 
 
 " Your vessel ! What in the name o* Tophet 
 are you talking about ? your vessel ! " 
 
 " My vessel, yes, sir. You don t know. Of 
 course you don t know. How could you but 
 
 Jer swee le capitaine de la Marguerite, 
 De la Marguerite, de la Marguerite 
 Jer swee le capitaine de la Marguerite, 
 My Marguerite so belle 
 
 " Oh, but wait now and let me tell you. And 
 we ll open this bottle of cassy while we re waiting. 
 Just a second now and we ll have a little touch 
 just you and me, Skipper." 
 
 256 
 
Clancy 
 
 Clancy seized a pair of woollen stockings that 
 were lying by the fire and crowding them into the 
 heel of the bottle began the muscular operation of 
 jolting the cork out of the bottle. He never 
 ceased to talk during all the time he was doing it. 
 " Now let me tell you in a minute I ll have this 
 cork loose best cassy in Saint Peer. Wait till 
 you get a whiff and I ll bet you ll be saying so, 
 too. If you d be gettin a mug ready of course 
 you ve got a mug handy, Skipper? In your 
 stateroom of course. Ought to knowed. There, 
 try that for a throat gargle. Ain t it all right ? 
 What ? You bet. Oh, no, I don t know a thing 
 about cassy wine. Oh, no, not a thing ! Well, 
 when you put out of Saint Peer that morning, 
 abandoning me like " 
 
 " Abandoning you ? Why, you son of Ana 
 nias, I sent two men up after you and they 
 nearly raised the roof off Caffy Middy till Miller 
 told em they d have to stop making so much 
 noise " 
 
 Miller ? " 
 
 " Yes, Miller the man I bought my rum off 
 that was afterward seized by old Spriggs. And 
 who ever told old Spriggs I don t know, but if he d 
 been told by Miller he couldn t have been more 
 prompt." 
 
 "He was." 
 
 257 
 
Clancy 
 
 "Was what?" 
 
 " Told by Miller. Sh-h Captain Josh, abate 
 thy wrath, righteous though it be, and I ll tell 
 you how I fixed Miller. But first finish that up 
 and let s have another little touch. Saved this 
 bottle for you out the wreck. Came near losing 
 old man Spriggs to rescue it for you." 
 
 " What wreck ? " 
 
 " Oh, we was in a wreck me and old man 
 Spriggs and I hauled him out. He was down 
 under the overhang ossified with " 
 
 " What ! Old Spriggs drunk ? " 
 
 " No, no, fright. He d got over his drunk." 
 
 " And you saved him ? Why in the name of 
 David didn t you let him drown ? the old 
 granny." 
 
 " Well, I s pose twouldn t be an awful loss to 
 the world. But as twas owin to me he was 
 there in the first place and there was his family. 
 Well, anyway but drink that up and let s have 
 another. What do you say now, Skipper 
 another little touch. Who was the prophet in the 
 Good Book that said : A little wine for thy 
 stomach s sake ? You mustn t go back on the 
 Good Book, you know. No, sir, not on the 
 Good Book. Come now, another little touch ? " 
 
 "Well, just a little. M-m by gosh, but 
 that s good cassy, Tommie." 
 
 258 
 
Clancy 
 
 "Ain t it now? Trust me saved from the 
 wreck for you, Skipper for you, mind. Well, 
 to go back. When I came to in the Caffy Middy, 
 the first man I met was Miller." 
 
 " I hope you punched him P " 
 
 " Hoped I punched him, Captain Josh ? Cap 
 tain Josh, think of the Bible lessons of your 
 youth. Not as 1 blame you much, though, 
 come to think. Maybe if I knew as much then 
 as I do now, I d ve soaked him good and 
 proper and taken a chance with the Johnny 
 Darmes. Well, I first thought of going back to 
 Halifax, but 1 had only half passage. So me and 
 Miller cut cards to see if I d have enough for my 
 passage or nothing at all. I won and then won 
 again, making me in ten dollars. That was pas 
 sage and drink money over, but I began to think 
 I d like to go in style. Yes, I thought I might 
 just as well go saloon, and when Miller says, 
 Twenty or nothing ? I says, * All right. We 
 cut me a king him a king. Then he cut. 
 What d y s pose ? An ace ? Yes. * Tommie, I 
 says to myself, * but there was a most suspicious 
 twirl to those cards. Tommie, says I, f you re 
 up against it he s doing you, but you can t 
 prove it. He left me a two to cut and I was 
 broke." 
 
 By the Lord ! " 
 
 *59 
 
Clancy 
 
 " Yes. So he finding me in the humor and all 
 the time helping the humor along with plenty of 
 cassy he just wetting his lips and letting me 
 take em down to the heel, which I didn t object 
 to, being pretty thirsty he makes the offer that 
 I come over here to Placentia and pick up herrin* 
 without paying the tonnage tax. You get a 
 quartair of the profits, says he. That meant a 
 thousand dollars to me on a good trip. * I ll go 
 you, says I, and we fits out the Marguerite and 
 I comes over. 
 
 " We were getting along all right until Spriggs 
 gets wind of it and after a lot of hide and seek 
 playing in and out behind the rocks and coves 
 he corrals us up at Folly Cove. We d been 
 ashore to dances three nights running and maybe 
 was a bit sleepy this day. Dancing all night and 
 drivin your work all day you can t keep it up, 
 Captain Josh, can you ? " 
 
 " You cert nly can t." 
 
 " That s what I say now. Let s have a little 
 touch on that. You do give good moral advice, 
 Captain Josh. Here y are. Throw it into you, 
 and here s a shoot on me. Well all this time I 
 was supposed to be a Frenchman from Saint 
 Peer. I d a big wig of hair and a big brush of 
 beard and a red shirt and cap to rig up with 
 all ready handy in case I needed em the red 
 
 260 
 
Clancy! 
 
 cap with a swell tassel you oughter ve seen it- 
 decorated gorgeous." 
 
 " Any worse than the one you got on now ? " 
 
 " By the Lord, Captain Josh, I forgot. This 
 is the cap, and the shirt see here. I ve been 
 buttoned up to the chin ever since, so s the Col 
 lector wouldn t see all the way over with Billie 
 Simms." 
 
 " H-m Billie Simms. You and him must ve 
 told old Spriggs some fine yarns between you." 
 
 " Oh, if you d only heard ! * By the Lord/ 
 Billie says to the Collector, * if twas anybody else 
 but my old friend Clancy told me I wouldn t 
 believe it. No, Mister Spriggs, I wouldn t. We 
 was telling the story between us of the cruise of 
 the Marguerite but here and there where 
 Spriggsy didn t know about I was fillin in the 
 gaps and Billie never letting a wink out of 
 him, not a wink. { By the Lord, Billie d say, if 
 twas anybody else, Collector, but Tommie Clancy 
 was telling it, I wouldn t believe it, no, sir. 
 
 " Well, to go back. When the Collector came 
 aboard the Marguerite up in Folly Cove and he 
 begins to talk to me, and me bein* a Frenchman 
 by the way and not able to understand English, 
 has to have a man talk for me so I sings out for 
 my cordong bloo " 
 
 Your what ? " 
 
 261 
 
Clancy 
 
 " My cor-dong bloo my cook. I sings out 
 for the cook to come and interpret interpret, 
 mind you, Captain Josh. And a proper villain 
 was that same cook, but I fixed him later 
 Miller s brother, by the way, Cap." 
 
 " No ? Then I "hope you killed him ? " 
 " Not quite. At least there s no report he s 
 dead yet. But that part comes later about me 
 and the cook. The Collector and myself gets in 
 a knot and finely he winds up by sayin we was in 
 custody and orderin us over to Placentia. Just 
 think of ordering a man to take his own vessel 
 over to be soaked ! The Lord only knows what 
 we wasn t going to get to the mines, I callate. 
 "Well, we starts off with the Collector aboard and 
 his schooner and crew following on behind. When 
 we were clear of the cove, with a promise of 
 breezin up, and by way of bein nice to the 
 Collector, I invites him into the cabin, where I 
 begins to throw cassy into him and to work on 
 his imagination, and I gets very drunk by the 
 way I m the French captain all the time, mind. 
 Waltzay-voo, I says 
 
 Oon doo traw 
 Balance like mwaw. 
 
 I starts and him so rattled oh, Lord ! After 
 the waltz I went hunting for an axe to kill him- and 
 
 262 
 
" Any worse than the one you got on now?" 
 
Clancy 
 
 him, with his hair standing up with horror, spies 
 the lazaretto open, hops in and locks the door. 
 Well, we put in a lot of time dodging into quiet 
 coves and we keeps him in there two days and 
 three nights all the time working toward Saint 
 Peer giving him a chance to steal out nights and 
 get grub. It was a sin and a shame, I know, to 
 fool him like that, but Lord, he was a proper 
 mark ! 
 
 " Now, all the time I was playing the collector, 
 the cook Miller s brother was playing me, and 
 it was quite a while before I was sure that some 
 thing was wrong. But I put this and that to 
 gether, and I made out that when we got into 
 Saint Peer I was to get the double cross, as they 
 say ashore. The quarter profits Miller promised 
 me over a thousand dollars it might have 
 been with our load wasn t comin , d y see? 
 And if I made a holler I was to be turned over 
 to the Johnny Darmes and slapped into the 
 lock-up for kidnapping the collector. Well, 
 when I woke up to that I was a proper mad 
 man, but I kept it all to myself till we was 
 almost into Saint Peer Harbor. About two 
 o clock in the night it was this time there was 
 one man to the wheel, a watch for ard and the 
 rest in the fo c s le when I goes to the fo c s le 
 companion-way and called a couple of em up. 
 
 263 
 
The dories/ says I c put two over the side and 
 let one of em drop astern. They dropped em 
 over. * Now tell the chef to come up. Tell 
 the quee-see-neer to come up, I says, and they 
 go below and sends the cook up. f Chef, says I, 
 t you ve got a roll of money below and twelve 
 hundred or a thousand of it s comin to me, and 
 I want to be paid off. Your brother said that 
 just as soon s I brought this vessel in sight of 
 Saint Peer Harbor with a load of herrin I could 
 draw my quarter profits. Now, I might find an 
 American vessel in the harbor and get a passage, 
 maybe, to Placentia Bay, where my vessel, the 
 Tubal Cain, Captain Bradley, is, and I don t want 
 to lose any time, so will you be so good and kind 
 as to let me have the money ? Just like that I 
 said it, as nice and polite as any Frenchman that 
 ever drank Christmas wine in the Cafry Middy 
 itself. It was a kind of a lightsome night, and 
 all the time I was talking I could make out some 
 thing of the cook s face specially his eyes, and 
 they looked wicked, as though he was going to 
 soak me one. They re hell on good manners, 
 some of them Saint Peer Frenchmen, and this 
 one was a killer for politeness in his way, Cap 
 tain Josh, but it was a jeesly aggravatin way. 
 
 " The cook smiles. But the smile, Captain 
 Josh, the smile ! I ketches that smile, and I 
 
 264 
 
Clancy 
 
 says quick, Cordong, if I don t get the money 
 now, the Marguerite goes up on the rocks. Do 
 I get it ? Well, he dropped his politeness, made 
 a swipe at me and I made one at him. We landed 
 pretty near together, but me a bit first, maybe, 
 and he goes back and down the fo c s le steps. 
 As he goes down, I hollers, * A bah with you ! 
 A bah, Captain Josh, means c to hell with you 
 in French. I got that out just as the for ard 
 watch, getting onto the game, steps over and 
 swings at me. I sends the watch after the cook, 
 then jumps back aft to the wheel and says to the 
 lad there, < Get out ! raus mit sie ! allay ! 
 a bah ! I wanted to be sure he understood me, 
 and he went for ard after I helped him along 
 with a few good, swift kicks. The Marguerite all 
 this time d been goin free, straight for the har 
 bor, but when I got clear of the man at the 
 wheel I hauled her up and, pointing her up 
 plump for the nearest bit of shore, I lets her 
 drive. She didn t have but a cable-length to go, 
 there was plenty of wind and she laid over to it 
 fine. When I made sure she was so close she 
 couldn t go wrong, I put the wheel in the becket 
 and waited for the cook and his gang, who was 
 now hopping out of the fo c s le and jumping aft 
 for me. They came piling along by the house. 
 There was two in the wind ard gangway and an- 
 
 265 
 
Clancy 
 
 other one to looard all of them close up by 
 the time I let go the wheel and was ready for 
 em. I went for the two to wind ard. With the 
 first one I buried my fist somewhere in his nice 
 fat jowls, and down he goes, blocking up the 
 gangway. The next one conies, and it was the 
 cook, and he had some kind of a rolling-pin in 
 his hand not a pie-crust rolling-pin, for them 
 Frenchmen, you know, Skipper, don t have pies 
 like us, but he had some kind of a rolling-pin, 
 and he steps up on the chest of the fellow who 
 was down and makes a swipe at me lunges at 
 me with the rolling-pin and misses misses, 
 Skipper, and then I had him. Then I had him. 
 Do you mind the time I stayed ashore and 
 went to Carson City to see the Corbett-Fitz- 
 simmons fight? Mind how the owners kicked 
 up because it was in Lent, and me fresh-fishin , 
 and the market away up ? Well, that fight was 
 all right, and old Fitz he s the real thing. You 
 oughter seen that fight, Captain Josh." 
 " I wish I had. Excitin , warn t it ? " 
 " Excitin a dog of a fight. Well, after they d 
 been fighting about an hour, old Fitz begins to 
 draw him good and begins to get him where he 
 wants him. I was close down to the ring and 
 could see it all Fitz winkin* at his wife she 
 was there over Corbett s shoulder, and Corbett, 
 
 266 
 
Clancy 
 
 because he didn t have the stuff in him, beginning 
 to look blue and frizzled gray, like an old had 
 dock too long out o water. They came to the 
 last round. Fitz makes a bluff, and Corbett 
 swings and misses misses, mind, Skipper just 
 like the cook at me, only Corbett didn t have a 
 rolling-pin. He swings and misses, and his 
 stomach sticks out, and Fitz old Fitz lets him 
 have it, a nice, sweet hook in the stomach you 
 and me d call it, though twas the solar plexus they 
 called it. Well, when Fitz hits him in the solar, 
 Corbett kind of collapses and lets his jaw fall 
 for ard for ard, mind, toward old Fitz, and when 
 it does, Fitz, the hefty lad, jolts him with the other 
 hand and drives it back aft again. Left right 
 see, like this and Mister Corbett he goes down 
 and out. Well, I said to myself when Corbett 
 was lifted out of that, if ever a man comes at me 
 like Corbett did Fitz, that I d know how to 
 handle him. So when the cook makes a swipe 
 at me this time, the Fitz-Corbett fight pops up 
 in the back of my head, and when he swipes and 
 misses I remembers Carson City. He near lost 
 his balance with his swing, and 1 lets him have 
 the first one full and fair in the stomach, like 
 Fitz, and then when he kind of collapses, same 
 as Corbett did, and his head comes for ard to me, 
 I sent my right across sort of half across close- 
 
 267 
 
Clancy 
 
 hauled you might say into his jaw and, Skip 
 per, cordong bloo he goes down and out. When 
 I landed him first, he was standing with legs 
 astraddle the other fellow at the after corner of 
 the house. When his head hit the deck, it was 
 at the for ard corner of the house, and the Mar 
 guerite, Skipper, has got a pretty fair length of 
 house. A pretty fair jolt I call that, Captain 
 Josh, standing to one side and looking at it now 
 in cold blood. As a connosoor yourself now, 
 Skipper, what do you say ? " 
 
 " Lord in Israel, yes and then what, Tommie? 
 What about the fellow to looard ? " 
 
 " Him to looard ? He came at me afore I could 
 turn fair around from the cook and hit me with 
 somethin side the head a belayin -pin, I callate. 
 That s where that lump came from. I had to 
 tell some awful good lies to old Spriggs and Har 
 vey to explain that lump and bime-by when you 
 meet them you ll have to sort of return evasive 
 answers you know, Skipper, not exactly lie, but 
 dodge the truth like you know. I told em I 
 was hit with an axe while tied up in the hold." 
 
 " What d you tell em that for ? " 
 
 " Man, I had to fix up a story for everything 
 on the Marguerite and gettin started on my story 
 kinder hurried like, on the impulse of the moment 
 as you might say, I had to go through with it. 
 
 268 
 
Clancy 
 
 You got to be consistent, Skipper, in everything 
 you do if you want to win out. And when once 
 I d said a thing to Spriggs I just had to stick to 
 it or they d have begun to think maybe that I 
 warn t tellin the truth, and that wouldn t do, you 
 know. Why, if ever they thought that Tommie 
 Clancy and the French captain was one and the 
 same man ! Good Lord ! they d have the whole 
 British North Atlantic squadron up from winter 
 quarters in Bermuda afore they d let me get away 
 yes. Just let old Spriggs get to considerin 
 the outrage to his dignity him a representative 
 of the Crown, you know Good Lord, don t you 
 see, Skipper ? " 
 
 " That s so. But after that fellow hit you on 
 the head with the axe or belayin -pin or whatever 
 it was, then what ? " 
 
 " Well, I went down pretty saggy. But I gets 
 up as soon s I could shaking in the wind a 
 little bit I was, but I soon begins to find my head 
 again and when I does I starts for him. He 
 makes another swipe, but this time I dodges and 
 as he goes by I ketches him and let s him have 
 it oh, Skipper, but I gives him a full. Right 
 under his port ear I took him, Skipper look, 
 like that, see ? and he lifted from between the 
 wheel and the cabin hatch to over under her lee 
 rail. By the Lord, Skipper, but it was a dream 
 
 269 
 
Clancy 
 
 of a punch, every bit as good as the one I hand 
 ed the cook, and under the lee rail he goes." 
 
 " Solomon s wives ! Lucky he didn t go over 
 board, Tommie ? " 
 
 " That s what he was. But she s got a pretty 
 high rail the Marguerite has and he stayed aboard. 
 Lay there, says I, and just then she went up 
 on the rocks. For ard she heaved two or three 
 times heaved and pounded, with the planks 
 grinding off her and her booms, fore and main 
 both, thrashing the water to looard, and then she 
 keels over and lays down on her side. At that 
 the other fellows who was coming for me turns 
 and flies for the dory over her side amidships. 
 Come back and get your dead ones, I calls after 
 them. It was lookin desp rate for the lad under 
 the lee rail, so I picks him up and drops him 
 for ard of the house beside the cook to wind ard. 
 The other lad the one I hit first had got up 
 himself, and the cook was beginning to know he 
 was alive again, so a couple of them coming back 
 helped the men I d punched into the dory. I 
 was thinking o* jumping over the stern into the 
 other dory myself, when I happens to think of 
 old Spriggs below in the lazaretto. So I dives 
 below and makes my way round in the water in 
 the cabin. She was filling fast, mind, and I had 
 to drag him out when I did find him. He 
 
 270 
 
Clancy 
 
 thought I was the French captain all the time, 
 d y see. Up to the very second I showed my 
 head through the lazaretto door after driving my 
 boot through before it, he thought I was the 
 French captain yes, he did. I grabs him, hauls 
 him out, just barely saving two bottles o cassy 
 on the way. That was presence of mind, Cap 
 tain Josh. I saved them two bottles o cassy in 
 the rush the last case aboard I minded as it was 
 floating round on top of the water in the cabin 
 the water up to our chests hauls old Spriggs 
 up the cabin steps, drags him out on deck, heaves 
 him into the dory and jumps in on top of him, 
 near breaking his ribs and nigh bursting the bot 
 tles besides, and puts off for the harbor where we 
 finds Billie Simms and gets aboard. Billie took 
 us to Good Hope and from there Spriggs took 
 us here. There now, what do you say to that, 
 Captain Josh ? " 
 
 " Whew-w " said Captain Joshua. 
 
 " Yes, and on the way back here me rigging 
 up a romance one with a plot in it to Collec 
 tor Spriggs to account for me being aboard the 
 Marguerite. And tryin to keep Billie Simms 
 in order on the way over while I was telling it 
 and then later tryin to answer questions from 
 the skipper of the Sleepless. My soul, Captain 
 Josh, but my head s fair buzzin* with the strain 
 
 271 
 
Clancy 
 
 of it all ! And I m dry, Skipper, dry, which is 
 very natural, and maybe even a Bible man like 
 yourself will admit it is very proper, too under 
 the circumstances under the circumstances, mind. 
 Won t you now ? Of course you will you d 
 have to be fair-minded, and there being just 
 enough in this bottle the bottle I saved from 
 the wreck for you s pose we have another little 
 touch ? What d y say now ? A little touch 
 to finish the bottle ? Oh, Skipper, hush now., 
 Hush hush. Here you go now, stow that 
 away with the other good stuff gone before 
 gone but not forgotten. Ain t that good now, 
 Captain Josh? Ain t it? I ll bet. I knew 
 you d like it. There s lots of things you d learn 
 to like, Captain Josh, if only you d let yourself 
 try them. What you want, Captain Josh, is a 
 little more looseness-like in your soul take the 
 lock off it. You want to be a little more of what 
 they call in Saint Peer the bong vee-vong. 
 Yes, sir, and an able vee-vong you d make, too, 
 because you ve got it in you. And here s to 
 you, Captain Josh, here s to you. Here s hoping 
 you ll load this brig so deep with herrin that you ll 
 have to plug her scuppers up and a good market 
 after you get home skaal, as the Swedes say 
 slainte, as Tom O Donnell used to say prosit, as 
 Dutch Harry used to say vive, and in the words 
 
 272 
 
Clancy 
 
 of four other languages Chinese, Chinook, Choc- 
 taw, and whatever the other was I had in mind 
 which I don t remember now Skipper, here s to 
 your damn good health." 
 
 " Drink hearty, Tommie, drink hearty, and 
 by the Lord in Israel, Tommie, you re all 
 right." 
 
 " No, Skipper, I ain t all right. But I d like 
 to be and I m ready to start in right now. If 
 you had a pledge handy now I d sign I would 
 and keep it yes, sir, keep it." 
 
 " I m condemned, but I believe you would, 
 Tommie." 
 
 " I know I would. But we re getting senti 
 mental. Let s get back to earth. How much 
 herrin do you callate you got up on the scaffold 
 and on deck, Skipper ? " 
 
 " Oh, maybe a hundred and fifty or two hun 
 dred barrels." 
 
 " Well, don t you think we d better be getting 
 em below ? " 
 
 " I dunno. I was callating to let em stay a 
 while longer. What do you think ? " 
 
 " Let em stay ? Good Lord, no. Get em 
 below and make way for others. This bay s full 
 of herrin right now and I know where they are. 
 I ll tend to them herrin , Skipper, and you turn 
 in and have a kink for yourself. I know you ve 
 
 273 
 
Clancy 
 
 been sitting up nights on account of me, but you 
 just forget all that now. I ll have the gang mak 
 ing the tackles sing in ten minutes and don t you 
 worry. Just wait now till I get into my oil 
 skins and watch them herrin disappear like ice 
 in the Gulf Stream yes, sir. Let me see now 
 where s my oil-skins ? Oh, yes, here. So long, 
 Skipper. Turn in now and have a kink for your 
 self, while I go on deck and take charge." 
 
 Up the companion-way went Clancy and soon 
 the creaking and pounding and general hullaba 
 loo from above told the skipper s experienced ear 
 that that able seaman was keeping all hands on 
 the jump. 
 
 " And if he does get drunk now and then " 
 Captain Josh was preparing to turn in for the 
 sleep that Clancy had so soothingly advised him 
 to take " even if he does, the Lord knows he 
 don t mean no harm by it. And when he does 
 get to work he s good as three. He cert nly 
 knows his business. Listen to him now." 
 
 From the deck came floating down : 
 
 " Jer swee le capitaine de la Marguerite, 
 De la Marguerite, de la Marguerite 
 Jer swee le capitaine de la Marguerite, 
 My Marguerite so belle. 
 
 My Marguerite, my Marguerite, 
 With the face so sweet and waist so neat, 
 274 
 
Clancy 
 
 And eyes ! Mong doo her eyes ! 
 Oh, eyes like stars in a well." 
 
 " Listen to him now." Captain Joshua kicked 
 off his boots. " Marguerite, I s pose, is the last 
 girl he made love to. There he goes again." 
 
 The somewhat husky but ever tuneful baritone 
 went on : 
 
 " Last time I saw my Marguerite^ 
 My Marguerite, my Marguerite 
 I said to her, Cher Marguerite, 
 You certainly are belle. 
 She kisses me, I kisses her, 
 She coos to me, Oh, oh, mong coor I 
 I holds her tight, says I, My gem, 
 Says she, Je t aime, je t aime, je t aime ! " 
 
 " What in the name o Tophet that c Je tern, 
 je tern, je tern/ is, I don t know. But, O Lord, 
 what s the use of trying to keep track of what s in 
 Tommie s brain." From force of habit Captain 
 Joshua took a look at the barometer on the wall. 
 " Twenty-nine six. There ll be a breeze soon. 
 But Tommie ll have everything snug before that 
 comes. ,Coat o Joseph, but he s off again." 
 
 And face ! and feet ! 
 Mong doo ! her feet ! 
 And eyes like stars in a well, 
 And eyes like stars in a well." 
 275 
 
Clancy 
 
 " Them eyes must ve been wonders," mur 
 mured the skipper of the Tubal Cain. He 
 rolled yet farther into his bunk, turned his face 
 to the side of the vessel, pulled the blanket over 
 his head and decided to forget Clancy and go to 
 sleep ; but the last thing he heard before he did 
 finally get to sleep was an even more beatific 
 reference to the wonderful eyes, 
 
 And eyes like stars in a well oh, hell 
 And eyes like stars in a w e 1-1 1." 
 
 And by that, even though he did not long 
 remain awake to think it out, the master of the 
 Tubal Cain knew that Clancy was himself again. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 276 
 
from which it was borrowed.