CHAPTER VI. THE SEA! THE SEA!
He left me, then, as he had to watch the men on deck. I felt,
when he went on deck, that the morning had been a nightmare; but
now I was to be flunkey well as slave, a new humiliation. I did
not think how many times I had humiliated others by letting them
do such things for me. I had done so all my life without a
thought. Now, forsooth, I was at the point of tears at having to
do it for others, even though one of the others was my rightful
King. Grubbing about among the lockers, I found a canvas
table-cloth, which had once been part of a sail. I spread this
cloth with the breakfast gear, imitating the arrangements made at
home at Oulton. The mate came down some minutes after I had
finished. He caught me sitting down on the top of the lockers,
looking out at the ships through the open port.
"Here," he said roughly. "You've got to learn manners, or I'll
have to teach you. Remember this once for all, my son. No one
sits in the cabin except a captain or a passenger. You'll take
your cap off to the cabin door before I've done with you. Nor you
don't sit down till your work's done. That's another thing. Why
ain't you at work?"
"Please, sir," I said, "I've laid the table. What else am I to
do?"
"Do," he said. "Give the windows a rub. Then clean your hands,
ready to wait at table. No. Hold on. Have you called Mr. Scott
yet?"
"No, sir. I didn't know I had to."
"My," he answered. "Have you any sense at all? Go call them. No.
Get their hot water first at the galley."
I suppose I stared at him; for I did not know that this would be
a duty of mine. "Here. Don't look at me like that," he said. "You
make me forget myself." He went to the locker, in which he
rummaged till he produced a big copper kettle. "Here's the hot
water can," he said. "Nip with it to the galley, before the cook
puts his fire out. On deck, boy. Don't you know where the galley
is?"
I did not know where the galley was in this particular ship. I
thought that it would probably be below decks, round a space of
brick floor to prevent fire. But as the mate said "on deck" I ran
on deck at once. I ran on deck, up the hatch, so vigorously, that
I charged into a seaman who was carrying a can of slush, or
melted salt fat used in the greasing of ropes. I butted into him,
spattering the slush all over him, besides making a filthy mess
of grease on the deck, then newly cleansed. The seaman, who was
the boatswain or second mate, boxed my ears with a couple of
cuffs which made my head sing. "You young hound," he said,
"Cubbadar when your chief passes." I went forward to the galley,
crying as if my heart would break, not only at the pain of the
blows, which stung me horribly, but at the misery of my life in
this new service, that had seemed so grand only seven or eight
hours before. At the galley door was the cook, a morose little
Londoner with earrings in his ears. "Miaow, Miaow," he said,
pretending to mimic my sobs. "Why haven't you come for this 'ot
water before? 'Ere 'ave I been keepin' my fire lit while you been
enjoyin' a stuffin' loaf down in that there cabin." I was too
miserable to answer him. I just held out my kettle, thinking that
he would fill it for me. "Wot are you 'oldin' out the kettle
for?" he asked. "Think I'm goin' to do yer dirty work? Fill it at
the 'ob yourself." I filled it as he bade me, choking down my
tears. When I had filled it, I hurried back to the 'tweendecks,
hoping to hide my misery down in the semi-darkness there. I did
not pass the second mate on my way back; but I passed some of the
seamen, to whom a boy in tears was fair game. One asked me what I
meant by coming aft all salt, like a head sea, making the deck
wet after he'd squeegeed it down. Another told me to wait till
the second mate caught me. "I'd be sorry then," he said, "that
ever I spilt the slush;" with other sea-jests, all of them pretty
brutal. It is said that if a strange rook comes to a rookery the
other rooks peck it to death, or at any rate drive it away. I
know not if this be true of rooks (I know that sparrows will
attack owls or canaries, whenever they have a chance), but it is
true enough of human beings. We all hate the new-comer, we are
all suspicious of him, as of a possible enemy. The seamen did to
me what school-boys do to the new boy. I did not know then that
there is no mercy for one sensitive enough to take such "jests"
to heart. At sea, the rough, ready tom-fool boy is the boy to
thrive. Such an one might have spilt all the slush in the ship,
without getting so much as a cuff. I was a merry boy enough, but
I was sad when I made my first appearance. The sailors saw me
crying. If I had only had the wit to dodge the bosun's blows, the
matter of the slush would have been turned off with a laugh,
since he only struck me in the irritation of the moment. He would
have enjoyed chasing me round the deck. If I had only come up
merrily that is what would have happened. As it was I came up
sad, with the result that I got my ears boxed, which, of course,
made me too wretched to put the cook in a good temper; a cause of
much woe to me later. The seamen who saw me crying at once put me
down as a cry-baby, which I really was not; so that, for the rest
of my time in the ship I was cruelly misjudged. I hope that my
readers will remember how little a thing may make a great
difference in a person's life. I hope that they will also
remember how easy it is to misjudge a person. It will be well for
them if, as I trust, they may never experience how terrible it
feels to be misjudged.
After I had called the two gentlemen, I gave the glass
bull's-eyes in the swing ports a rub with a cloth. I was at work
in this way when the two gentlemen entered. Mr. Jermyn smiled to
see me with my coat off, rubbing at the glass. He also wished me
good morning, which Mr. Scott failed to do. Mr. Scott took no
notice of me one way or the other; but sat down at the locker,
asking when breakfast would be ready. "Get breakfast, boy," Mr.
Jermyn said. At that I put my glass-rag into the locker. I
hurried off to the galley to bring the breakfast, not knowing
rightly whether it would be there or in another place. The cook,
surly brute, made a lot of offensive remarks to me, to which I
made no answer. He was glad to have someone to bully, for he had
the common man's love of power, with all his hatred of anything
more polished than himself. I took the breakfast aft to the
cabin, where, by this time, the ship's captain was seated. I
placed the dish before Mr. Jermyn.
"Why haven't you washed your hands, boy?" he asked, looking at my
hands.
"Please, sir, I haven't had time."
"Wash them now, then. Don't come to wait at table with hands like
that again. I didn't think you were a dirty boy."
I was not a dirty boy; but, having been at work since before six
that morning, I had had no chance of washing myself. I could not
answer; but the injustice of Mr. Jermyn's words gave me some of
the most bitter misery which I have known. For brutal,
thoughtless injustice, it is difficult to beat the merchant ship.
I stole away to wash myself, very glad of the chance to get away
from the cabin. When I was ready, it was time to clear the
breakfast things to the galley, to wash them with the cook.
Luckily, I had overheard Mr. Jermyn say "how well this cook can
devil kidneys." I repeated this to the cook, who was pleased to
hear it. It made him rather more kind in his manner to me. He did
not know who Mr. Scott really was. He asked me a lot of questions
about what I knew of Mr. Scott. I replied that I'd heard that he
was a Spanish merchant, a friend of Mr. Jermyn's. As for Mr.
Jermyn, he knew' an uncle of mine. I had helped him to recover
his pocket-book; that was all that I knew of him; that was why he
had given me my present post as servant. More I dared not say;
for I remembered the Duke's sharp sword on my chest. We talked
thus, as we washed the dishes; the cook in a sweeter mood (having
had his morning dram of brandy); I, myself, trying hard to win
him to a good opinion of me. I asked him if I might clean his
copper for him; it was in a sad state of dirt. "You'll have work
enough 'ere, boy," he said, tartly, "without you running round
for more. You mind your own business." After this little snap at
my head (no thought of thanks occurred to him) he prepared
breakfast for us, out of the remains of the cabin breakfast. I
was much cheered by the prospect of food, for nearly three hours
of hard work had given me an appetite. At a word from the cook, I
brought out two little stools from under the bunk. Then I placed
the "bread-barge," or wooden bowl of ship's biscuits, ready for
our meal, beside our two plates.
Breakfast was just about to begin, when my enemy, the boatswain,
appeared at the galley door. "Here, cook," he said, "where's that
limb of a boy? Oh, you're there, are you? Feeding your face. Get
a three-cornered scraper right now. You'll scrape up that slush
you spilled, before you eat so much as a reefer's nut." I had to
go on deck again for another hour, while I scraped up the slush,
which was, surely, spilled as much by himself as by me, since he
was not looking where he was going any more than I was. I got no
breakfast. For after the grease was cleaned I was sent to black
the gentlemen's boots; then to make up their beds; then to scrub
their cabin clean. After all this, being faint with hunger, I
took a ship's biscuit from the locker in the cabin to eat as I
worked. I did not know it; but this biscuit was what is known as
"captain's bread," a whiter (but less pleasant) kind of ship's
biscuit, baked for officers. As I was eating it (I was polishing
the cabin door-knobs at the time) the captain came down for a
dram of brandy. He saw what I was eating. At once he read me a
lecture, calling me a greedy young thief. Let me not eat another
cabin biscuit, he said, or he'd do to me what they always did to
thieves:--drag them under the ship from one side to another, so
that the barnacles would cut them (as he said) into Spanish
sennet-work. When I answered him, he lost his temper, in sailor
fashion, saying that if I said another word he'd make me sick
that ever I learned to speak.
I will not go into the details of the rest of that first day's
misery. I was kept hard at work for the whole time of daylight,
often at work beyond my strength, always at work quite strange to
me. Nobody in the ship, except perhaps the mate, troubled to show
me how to do these strange tasks; but all swore at me for not
doing them rightly. What I felt most keenly was the injustice of
their verdicts upon me. I was being condemned by them as a dirty,
snivelling, lying, thieving young hound. They took a savage
pleasure in telling me how I should come to dance on air at
Cuckold's Haven, or, in other words, to the gallows, if I went on
as I had begun. Whereas (but for my dishonest moment in the
morning) I had worked like a slave since dawn under every
possible disadvantage which hasty men could place in my way.
After serving the cabin supper that night I was free to go to my
hammock. There was not much to be glad for, except the rest after
so much work. I went with a glad heart, for I was tired out. The
wind had drawn to the east, freshening as it came ahead, so that
there was no chance of our reaching our destination for some
days. I had the prospect of similar daily slavery in the schooner
at least till our arrival. My nights would be my only pleasant
hours till then. The noise of the waves breaking on board the
schooner kept me awake during the night, tired as I was. It is a
dreadful noise, when heard for the first time. I did not then
know what a mass of water can come aboard a ship without doing
much harm. So, when the head of a wave, rushing across the deck,
came with a swish down the hatch to wash the 'tweendecks I
started up in my hammock, pretty well startled. I soon learned
that all was well, for I heard the sailors laughing in their
rough, swearing fashion as they piled a tarpaulin over the open
hatch-mouth. A moment later, eight bells were struck. Some of the
sailors having finished their watch, came down into the
'tweendecks to rest. Two of them stepped very quietly to the
chest below my hammock, where they sat down to play cards, by the
light of the nearest battle-lantern. If they had made a noise I
should probably have fallen asleep again in a few minutes; for
what would one rough noise have been among all the noise on deck?
But they kept very quiet, talking in low voices as they called
the cards, rapping gently on the chest-lid, opening the lantern
gently to get lights for their pipes. Their quietness was like
the stealthy approach of an enemy, it kept a restless man awake,
just as the snapping of twigs in a forest will keep an Indian
awake, while he will sleep soundly when trees are falling. I kept
awake, too, in spite of myself (or half awake), wishing that the
men would go, but fearing to speak to them. At last, fearing that
I should never get to sleep at all, I looked over the edge of the
hammock intending to ask them to go. I saw then that one of them
was my enemy the boatswain, while the other was the ship's
carpenter, who had eaten supper in the galley with me, at the
cook's invitation. As these were, in a sense, officers, I dared
not open my mouth to them, so I lay down again, hoping that
either they would go soon, or that they would let me get to sleep
before the morning. As I lay there, I overheard their talk. I
could not help it. I could hear every word spoken by them. I did
not want their talk, goodness knows, but as I could not help it,
I listened.
"Heigho," said the boatswain, yawning. "I sha'n't have much to
spend on Hollands when I get there. Them rubbers at bowls in
London have pretty near cleaned my purse out."
"Ah, come off," said the carpenter. "You can always get rid of a
coil of rope to someone, on the sly, you boatswains can. A coil
of rope comes to a few guilders. Eh, mynheer?"
"I sold too many coils off this hooker," said the boatswain. "I
run the ship short."
"Who sleeps in the hammock there?" the carpenter asked.
"The loblolly boy for the cabin," the boatswain answered. "Young
clumsy hound. I clumped his fat chops for him this morning."
"Mr. Jermyn's boy?" said the carpenter, sinking his voice.
"There's something queer about that Mr. Jermyn. 'E wears a false
beard. That Mr. Scott isn't all what he pretends neither."
"I don't see how that can be," the boatswain said, "I wish I'd a
drink of something. I'm as dry as foul block."
"There'd be more'n a dram to us two, if Mr. Scott was what I
think," said the carpenter. "I'm going to keep my eye on that
gang."
"Keep your eye on the moon," said the boatswain.
"I tell you what'd raise drinks pretty quick."
"What would?"
"That loblolly boy would."
"Eh?" said the carpenter. "Go easy, Joe. He may be awake."
"Not he," said the boatswain, carelessly glancing into my
hammock, where I lay like all the Seven Sleepers condensed. "Not
he. Snoring young hound. Do him good to raise drinks for the
crowd."
"Eh," said the carpenter, a quieter, more cautious scoundrel than
the other (therefore much more dangerous). "How would a boy like
that?" He left his sentence unfinished.
"Sell him to one of these Dutch East India merchants," said the
boatswain. "There's always one or two of them in the Canal, bound
for Java. A likely young lad like that would fetch twenty pounds
from a Dutch skipper. A white boy would sell for forty in the
East. Even if we only got ten, there'd be pretty drinking while
it lasted."
This evidently made an impression on the carpenter, for he did
not answer at once. "Yes," he said presently. "But a lad like
that's got good friends. He don't talk like you or I, Joe."
"Friends in your eye," said the other. "What's a lad with good
friends doing as loblolly boy?"
"Run away," the carpenter said. "Besides, Mr. Jermyn isn't likely
to let the lad loose in Haarlem."
"He might. We could keep a watch," the boatswain answered. "If he
goes ashore, we could tip off Longshore Jack to keep an eye on
him. Jack gets good chances, working the town."
"Yes," said the other. "I mean to put Longshore Jack on to this
Mr. Jermyn. If I aren't foul of the buoy there's money in Mr.
Jermyn. More than in East Indian slaves."
"Oh," the boatswain answered, carelessly, "I don't bother about
my betters, myself. What d'ye think to get from Mr. Jermyn?"
The carpenter made no answer; but lighted his pipe at the
lantern, evidently turning over some scheme in his mind. After
that, the talk ran on other topics, some of which I could not
understand. It was mostly about the Gold Coast, about a place
called Whydah, where there was good trading for negroes, so the
boatswain said. He had been there in a Bristol brig, under
Captain Travers, collecting trade, i.e. negro slaves. At Whydah
they had made King Jellybags so drunk with "Samboe" (whatever
Samboe was) that they had carried him off to sea, with his whole
court. "The blacks was mad after," he said, "the next ship's crew
that put in there was all set on the beach. I seed their bones
after. All picked clean. But old King Jellybags fetched thirty
pound in Port Royal, duty free." He seemed to think that this
story was something laugh at.
I strained my ears to hear more of what they said. I could catch
nothing more relating to myself. Nothing more was said about me.
They told each other stories about the African shore, where the
schooners anchored in the creeks, among the swamp-smells, in
search of slaves or gold dust. They told tales of Tortuga, where
the pirates lived together in a town, whenever they were at home
after a cruise. "Rum is cheaper than water there," the bo'sun
said. "A sloop comes off once a month with stores from Port
Royal. Its happy days, being in Tortuga." Presently the two men
crept aft to the empty cabin to steal the captain's brandy. Soon
afterwards they passed forward to their hammocks.
When they had gone, I lay awake, wondering I was to avoid this
terrible danger of being sold to the Dutch East India merchants.
I wondered who Longshore Jack might be. I feared that the
carpenter suspected our party. I kept repeating his words,
"There's money in Mr. Jermyn," till at last, through sheer
weariness, I fell asleep. In the morning, as cleared away
breakfast, from the cabin-table, I told Mr. Jermyn all that I had
heard. The Duke seemed agitated. He kept referring to an
astronomical book which told him how his ruling planets stood.
"Yes," he kept saying, "I've no very favourable stars till July.
I don't like this, Jermyn." Mr. Jermyn smoked a pipe of tobacco
(a practise rare among gentlemen at that time) while he thought
of what could be done. At last he spoke.
"I know what we'll do, sir. We'll sell this man as carpenter to
the Dutch East India man. We'll give the two of them a sleeping
draught in their drink. We'll get rid of them both together."
"It sounds very cruel," said the Duke.
"Yes," said Mr. Jermyn, "it is cruel. But who knows what the sly
man may not pick up? We're playing akes, we two. We've got many
enemies. One word of what this man suspects may bring a whole
pack of spies upon us. Besides, if the spies get hold of this boy
we shall have some trouble."
"The boy's done very well," said the Duke.
"He's got a talent for overhearing," Mr. Jermyn answered. "Well,
Martin Hyde. How do you like your work?"
"Sir," I answered, "I don't like it at all."
"Well," he said, "we shall be in the Canal to-night, now the wind
has changed. Hold out till then. think, sir," he said, turning to
the Duke, "the boy has done really very creditably. The work is
not at all the work for one of his condition."
The Duke rewarded me with his languid beautiful smile.
"Who lives will see," he said. "A King never forgets a faithful
servant."
The phrase seemed queer on the lips of that man's father's son;
but I bowed very low, for I felt that I was already a captain of
a man-of-war, with a big blazing decoration on my heart. Well,
who lives, sees. I lived to see a lot of strange things in that
King's service.
