CHAPTER L

Clutha Leader, Volume XXVI, Issue 1376, 16 February 1900, Page 7

CHAPTER L

SECOND OF THE URANIA. For many days I had been tramping round the London docks, from Katherine's to Tilbury, looking for a ship. But no one seemed to want a mate or a second, or, in fact, anything at all in the way of officers* And my clothes were getting shabby, my boots worn and thin, and the bottoms of my trousers beginning to fag out like a bunch of ropeyarns — a very sure sign, this last, of a southerly wind in their pockets. This particular fine midsummer afternoon I had been doing the South-West India Dock, and, after a score of rebuffs, I brought up in despair, and took a seat on the platform of one of the hydraulic cranes, in front of a big iron sailer, to think things over a bit, and have a rest. I sat down and mechanically watched the ship. As I could see, she was nearly ready for a start, with her sails all bent and her cargo under hatches. Urania was the name on her bows, and she was a big lump of a vessel with lofty spars and square yards, straightbowed and round-sterned ; some 1,800 tens or so I guessed her at. As my ey« listlessly took in these details, two men came down the gangway and stepped on to the dock* One — the taller of the pair — wore a frock coat, patent leather boots with great spats, and a bell-topper hat. He was a sandy-whiskered, red-faced customer, with small, cold, twinkling blue eyes ; and, spite of his swell, long-shore rig, labelled sailor all over to any man who used the sea. His companion was a shorter, stouter man, clean-shaved except for a heavy reddish moustache completely hiding his mouth, but with the same peculiar restless blue eyes as the other. He was dressed in a suit of tweeds and hard-felt hat, and, as unmistakably as his companion, bore about him the stamp of a seafarer. The men were brothers. They stood talking in low tones at the foot of the gangway. Presently odd words came to my ears. The tall man was speaking. ' Sign on in the morning,' I heard. . . ' Foreigners to a man . . . wait till we get to sea . . . know all about it then , . any poor swab'll do ... we've only our two selves to consider . . . ay, ay, you'll be as wise as myself then . . . always an inquisitive dog. The speaker laughed, andj was stepping briskly off, leaving the other standing there with a puzzled expression on his rather heavy features, when moved by some sudden impulse, I stuffed my pipe away, and cut across his path, mouthing for the twentieth time that day the sickening question, • Want a male or a sreond, sir V He stopped instantly, his dancing little eyes playing all over me, from ■well-worn cap to worn-out boots, as he pulled at his straw-coloured beard and took my measure. ' Ticket V he asked sharply, at last. And out from my breast pocket came the thin tin case containing discharges and my chief mate's certificate. 1 TJra, nm,' he muttered, as he just glanced at the latter, and then ran through the long list of ' V.G. mate's discharges that I placed in his hands. 4 1 could do with a second, if Mr Baleston there hasn't got one in view. On your uppers, eh 1 Glad to take anything, I s'pose, eh V His manner was distinctly bad, almost insulting, and I had hard work to stomach it, as I answered surily enough in the affirmative. ' Want a second mate, Mr Baleston V he sung out. ' This chap's papers are all right. Anybody you know for the job, eh V ' No,' replied the mate, approaching and taking stock of me, much as the other had done. 4 There's dozens of 'em at the office, though. Still, I suppose this man'll do as well as any of the rest.' ' All right,' said the captain — for such he was — turning to me. •Be on hand at Green's in the morning, and you'll get first show.' ' Baleston, Baleston,' remarked the grey-haired old Home superintendent, when I told him the captain's name. ' Why, yes, of course I've heard of him. He's one of your advanced, newfangled navigators — goes in for hydrography and half-a-dozen different ologies, and all that sort of thing. Unlucky beggar, though, in spite of his scientific fads. Lost a ship, I recollect, some years back, for the same firm he's with now — Shroud, Cat block, and Co., isn't it 1 He got the sack at last. And now, you say, they've given hij.i the Urania. Well, J only hope he'll have better luck with her ! Curious how forgiving some firms are !' Next morning, in company with a crew composed wholly of Germans, Swedes, and a couple- of Norwegians, I found myself on the Urania's articles. Not :that I cared much about the nationality of the crowd, for just then I felt willing to get away in a ship «piipped by 'baboons, so long as I Sv'as

at sea. Nor ever did I experience more pleasure than in seeing the wellknown greens and whites of the channel landscape slip by, outward hound.