Mrs. Davidson and P.P.I.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 118, 21 May 1910, Page 10

Mrs. Davidson and P.P.I.

By C J. CUTCLUFE H^NE, Author of " Adventures of Captain Kettle," " Kate Meredith," otc. (All Eights Eeserved.)

"They'ie savage brutes all three of them," said the Second Engineer thoughtfully, as he wrapped his cut knuckles with a piece of waste. "I've that Englishman who has the impudence to call himself Fairfield, in my watch, "and on the twice I've had to speak to him I've always had a spanner handy. To give him his due, though, he has always done his work well at sea, and Lord knows with this filthy Jap coal they've their ■work cut out to keep steam." "Then whose head were you breaking?"' asked the Third Engineer, who bad just come 011 watch. "I don't quite know, but by the look •f my knuckles it must have been as hard as a cannon ball. It was quite dark inside the bunker when the slushlamp was kicked over, and as the chap, .whoever he was, was whanging about [with a fire-slice, I concluded not to have any. braiiis spHb, and not out." "It wasn't one of your own watch, then?" '-'No. 1 counted them, and they were all there. It was one of your beautie^' 'iSounds like a tough among my crew ,who. calls himself Clydebank. A big, araw-'boned Scot, with lean square shoulders, and ha-nds liko hydraulic shears. But he'd be too eievsr to let you catch him." "How could you catch anybody in this. rotten old tank? Here are four doors .to that bunker, and if there wasn't a door handy, anyone with a foot on him could kick out a .plate. Gee ! Did you tear that sea hit her ?" The s.s. Buzzard lifted, stopped, shook violently, and made a noise that one «ould fancy would be made by a gigantic ■biscuit-box kicked along a gutter by a gigantic boy. Her engines raced, and .the standards" heaved cheerfully against the bed-plates. By the sobbing of her condensers and pumps, it was plain that something- was seriously wrong with a igodd many things on that side of the engine-room. In the eaclier days, when she had been the B.M-S. Enteric, she liad been pushed along at the top ji: ier speed through assorted Western .Ocean weather, regardless of wear and strain. It pays them to work ships to death on that service. And when she ,was sold out of the Line to her present owners, who made her into an uneconomical cargo trap by ( the simple process of gutting her of 'cabins and saloons, and smoke rooms,, and bathrooms, and adding cargo thatches, they had not thought it necessary to give her even so much as a itck of paint by way of fitrther overhaul, and as a consequence she was *"tender" in every par J jacle of her fabric. "If she gets about three ,more snacks like- thai," opined the- Third, "you won't, getvback to marry Mrs.. Davidson. lYon'lT' be' neatly dTowneCt here in the. Bay." "1 wish Mrs. Davidson — " the Second Engineer began, and there broke off. '•'Well," Uie said, "it's your watch. No special orders, except 'that* if it lulls, which ifc won't, you're to repack that bilge-pump. The old Chief always .seems to- ho hoping we'll get ahead on leaks enough to take down that, ipump. I"ll just go to the mess-room 'for a moiatnful of grub, and then turn in." fie swung off up the steep iron ladder, »nd onoe more the Buzzard took it green over hbr decks, and shivered in every square inch 01 ber fabric. "Go it, old girl," said the Third, as lie jammed himself against the log-desk, and began to- make chalk entries on a slate. "I guess those ducks in Grimsby icnew what they were doing when they took put all those P.P.l.'s." ,"His superior stopped sharply on the ladder. "What's that?" he -called down. "I just heard it. casually before we sailed. Quite a lot of people seemed to think the old tank wouldn't g'ethomo again, and insured her against, total loss. ' ' Tho Second Engineer swallowed. "Well,, they'r-e the owners. Why shouldn't theyj' "Owners be sugared," sakl the cheerful Third. "Theso people who take out P.P.I. — Policy Proves Interest, yon know, are just outsiders wlao think they know a bit, and are betting that the boat's inlended to sink. I beliieve that sort of insurance is bang illegai, but the underwriters take it all right, and pay too when a loss comes. Well, so long." 1 Out on the deck the scene was sufficiently terrific to have daunted men in the big liners. The great Biscay waves rolled up all white headed above their dark green bases. The heads were blown off the gale, and formed a spindrift that cut tho face like whips. The great masses of warter hurled themselves against the weak steamer with such a force that one gasped to sec her emerge from each shook. And here-and thero-'over the bay tho masts and funftels erf the shipping swung about against the sky in ridiculous impotence. As the watch changed, and the Third Engineer took over charge, inside a noisy, black, wave-beaben bunker where as firemen and not coal-trimmers they neither of them had any light to be, little Rakes, the Yankee, was questioning his big friend, Clyde&ank. "Well, did you dot him?" "I .tried to," said the tall Soot, "but he dodged me. I lammed at him hard with a fire slice, and I'll bet he's sore, but i couldn't get home emough to cripple him. Besides, he hooped it. Mr, Second's not a funk as a general thing, but I guess he's got a bit of conscience stowed away somewhere, and it was hurting him like sciatica just then." "What was the game? Could you make it out?" "Clear as a bell. There's been a seacock into that bunker. Put there, I guess, before it was a bunker when the old tank was a steam hotel. Part of a marble bath where the first-class passengers dabbled with their tootsies, and swagged about? having cold baths, and thought they were roughing it in a devil of a way. ,Well, the seacock's gene, and there's a plate over the hole, bolted on. It's been covered with coals until to-day, but we worked them out in this morning's watch, as Mr. Second .engineer would know, and he came to attend to that patch with a spanner. 1 watched him, and I tell you my fingers itched. He was deliberately setting about to scuttle the boat. When he'd all the bolts off but two, I came out cf the shadow and knocked over his slush iamp with a knot* of coal, and then, went for 'him. Gee, but the man was fright-ened.,-He hit like a steam hammer. tep\ that Jump over my ear." "That's all right," said the lean little Yankee. "You'd fgpl frightened yourself if you wore trying to sink asteamcr, and some person or persons unknown dropped on you whilst you were dojng it. I believe the reward for barratry in Great Britain is about seven years' penal servitude. In the States, where wore neater, we lynch for it." Later on, the two foregathered with their friend, Fairfield, in the alleyway which led to the firemen's forecastle, And compared notes. Ha was a hag-

gared wreck of a man, this one who called himself Fairfield, with the manners of a gentleman sprouting out [ through the sulphurous language of the [ stokehole. "The holders of these P.P.I, insurances," said the Englishman at length, "seom good sound business men. They don't intend to bo landed with any loss of their preminums.. Good Lord, I wonder how many people there are now on board who are standing in with them 1 to lose the ship. First the Old Man piles her up on the rocks outside Aden, and wasn't he mad when His Britannic Majesty's cruiser insisted on pulling the old tank off into deep water again? Then somebody knocks out a shackle in the steering chains just at a critical moment, and we nearly got run down by tho Dutch boat at Gibraltar Bay." "Yon shackle might have jarred loose," said Clydebank judicially. "She's very ill-found aU round. "I'll swear it didn't. I saw it for myself* There were fresh, clean hammer marks on it where some one ha'": knocked out the pin. And then to clinch the lot there's the Second Engineer — who by the way may well have been the boy who doctored the shackle — caught lcd-handed talcing the clout off that old seacock. It's amusing.'' "He may be at it again now." It was Rakes who made the suggestion. Ho was always the suspicious member of the trio. "I don't think so. Once scared off, he's not likely to tackle that job again. Besides if he sank tho old tub now with this sea running he'd drown himself with the lot of us, and that's no man's game. You can bet your sweet lives they'll one or other of them be up to some other little racket. The old Buzzard's seen her last of dry land, that's a sure thing." "It I could see my way of standing in over the deal," said little Rakes. "It's about time I made a bit of a haul over something. I'm sick to death of heaving coal.' 1 "Don t try and be dishonest, especially when you've no chance of bringing >t olt.' 1 Faiivfield stretched his lean, sinewy arms and yawned. Clydebank brought down a shining black fist on the edge of the bunk. "No, I say, no. She's not going to sink. Mrs. Davidson took out one of thoseP.P.I, insurances, and I'm going to dish that woman's ambitious schemes, if 1 have to stand watch and watch all through the rest of the trip. And you two must help." "The underwriters ought to pay us a bit," said Rakes rebelliously. "Underwriters be sugared. The gory old tank could tank and welcome for <iil I cared if it wasn't that I've got to get even with, that woman." "I rather bai* shooting at a petticoat," said Pairfield. He always had a soft corner for women. "That was not a mash of yours," said the Scot sourly. "Oh. if you make a point- of it, said , Fairfield, "of course we'll chip in." ■ The Buzzard wallowed on nortnwards through the Bay with her tender boilers and her tender skin shuddering under each blow of the seas, and her worn-out old engines grinding like a coffee-mill. She was hove-to for thirty hours, and made only sixty miles of her distance to Ushant Light during the next /twenty-four hours. Iho Second Engineer took to the whisky-bottle ; the old Chief spoke to him sharply about it. The Captain drank even harder than he had been doing al 1 the way home from Bombay, which is Baying a great deal. Clydebank and nis two friends slept soundly in the half-swamped forecastle because the weather just then was far to bad for barratry. ; But it was nervous work for all that. Tho Third Engineer voiced a very general .sentiment when as he put back the pickle bottle into the rack which hung above the mess-room table, he 2marked : ■■i'hose- peopie ashore who took out those P.P.l's wore probably scoundrels., but it doesn't in the least follow ' that they were fools. It's a carrion crow sort of game, this P.P.1., and it ought to fasstopped by Parliament if Parliament ever thought about sea-going: engineers and sailors, which it doesn't. But anyway, there it is, and I can't help thinking the old tank's booked."' "I don't see how it matters to you,' 1 said the Second. "Your Kit's insured, you told me- so, and if the men who underwrote the steamer aTe gat at, well they area's friends of yours." "I'd sooner see Lloyds landed than not. if it comes to that; serve them right for allowing these P.P.I, gamblers. It's that small trifle my own life I'm thinking about. I should hate to bo drowned and win their bets." "Drowned be hanged. D'ye think you're the only man on board? If the old tub goes down, you can bet it will be in smooth water." The Third Engineer started, and then he got up. "Here," he said, "I don't* know what you're thinking about." "I'm thinking about Mrs. Davidson," said the other muzzily. "If she gets tho £6000 she's aiming at, I can marry her, and she'll buy me a partnership" in a fine works ashore with the money. Yes, you may take it I'm thinking of Molly Davidson.'" "Then tainlr of some other kin a of heaven for a change. No you don't have that whisky -bottle : you've more- than enough on board already. You're due on watch now, and you'd 'better go below if you can get there without tumbling down the ladder." " 'Crect. Well, ol' man, le's pray for smoo' water." The Second Engineer went out to go on duty, and the Third stared at the fiddles which tried to jerk themselves off the mess-room table. "That was a pretty straight tip," he mused. "However, ol course it stands to reason they won't scuttle her till they get into smooth water. It isn't ray job to split. It does a man no good to be messed up with the law-bugs. But I suppose that goat will marry Mrs. Davidson if he brings this off." Thus exit the Third Engineer from the sphere of interference. There remainec 1 then three very ruffianly firemen between the s.s. Buzzard and the bottom of the sea, and although up to now Lloyds do not know it, and before have not recognised it, I hope they will take this, the only intimation, and send suitable acknowledgments. I suppose legitimately on ship and cargo, the Buzzard was insured i'or a matter of between £90,000 and £120,000. Under P.P.I. 1 have gathered that there was another £50,000 or £60,000 ciapped on 10 this : and although the exact figures are hard to get at, it is fair to estimate that my three friends saved various underwriters at least £150,000 sterling, which they would have had to pay up on a "total loss/ if all had gone weD — or shall I put it, if all had gone as intended. Smooth water came when they passed Ushant and got into the Channel, and with it danger. The Captain risked his certificate, and gave a conrse which if followed would have either knocked Guernsoy out of the water, or crumpled the shaky Buzzard past hei collision bulkhead against its iron rocks ; and after that he retired to the seclusion of the charthouse, with a whisky accompaniment. But the mate on watch, unsuspicious creature, knowiDg nothing

about the P.P.I, interests, -pleasantly shared tho news with ono of his fellow- , officers, and together they decided "to save the Old Man's ticket." They altered the course to one that kept them' in mid-Channel, and agreed that if questioned they would unanimously swear that this was the coarse their revered skipper had given them. It may be that the Second Engineer was relying on his Captain, and so did nothing till the Channel Islands wore well astern, and it was clear that the Buzzard could not blunder on to one of them; it may be that ho was working independently; Ido not know. But anyway it was not until the ancient steamer weis off Dover, and bucking into an ugly head-sea, that ho made any further attempt to impede her progress. But at that state of the game Clydebank caught him tampering with the thrust-blocks. Now the thrust-blocks were by the shaft tunnel mouth, which is aft of the engine-room, and Clydebank (as a fireman) had no business there at all. Clydebank s particular Hades was the other side of the engine-room forward bulkhead. Nothing but sheer naked suspicion could havo brought him to that part of the ship. But he got there in time to find twothirds of the holdiug-down bolts of the thrust-blocks kicking about loose on the floor-plates, and the rest stripping their threads under the heavy bucking of the shaft in the seaway. It was a marvel that the ancient shaft had not been carried away already. Both the Second-En-gineer and Clydebank were armed with heavy spanners, and both hit at onco; but the Second's eye was bemused with whisky, and Clydebank could hit straight, drunk or sober. The fracture of the Second Engineer's wrist was a compound, and the pain made him faint. Clydebank put back enough nuts to hold things generally into place, and then retired; and when tho Second Engineer was found, it was gathered from his hazy account that he was trying to replace stripped nuts, and had saved a broken shaft at the expense of his wrist. As he admitted himseli, it was a poor tale; but (the Third being silent) nobody came forward with a better, and Mr. Second emerged ashore with a broken wrist, and much cedit for having practically saved his ship. 1 regret to let the villain of the piece score, but in those circumstances, score he did. I think it is Mrs. Davidson who has some of my sympathy. She embarked capital in a financial operation in the hope that the speculation would bring much money and a husband. All I can gather she got out of it were some hard words from an inebriated Scottish fireman, who was egged on to speech by two perfectly sober companions, a tall thin Englishman, and a perky littlo Yankee. j Saul the Scot in his final peroration : "I'll teach ye, Mrs. Molly Davidson, to keep my spare shirt for rent due, when I go to sea." |