Man Overboard.

Observer, Volume 9, Issue 574, 28 December 1889, Page 14

Man Overboard.

When a boy, I was one of the crew of a small schooner that used to ran the mails twice a week between two ports, sixty miles apart. The crew consisted of one captain, one mate, one cook, one steward, one sailor, and yours truly. The mate was the captain's wife's nephew, the cook and . steward (brothers) were first cousins of the mate ; the sailor was step-son-in-law to the captain (the crews of small vessels at our place are mostly relations) ; but I, | the boy, was related to nobody. We were not often at sea at night, and there was no regular j watch kept ; sometimes all hands on deck, or only one man. 1 One night we were becalmed half way across. The mate was on deck, the captain was reading ;in the cabin, and the rest of us were asleep ; our i passengers (one and a half we had that trip) were seasick, and attending to business. IS"' What is half a passenger, and where was i the other half '? and ' Oh, Uncle !' with other ! exclamations from the youngsters. ' You young monkeys, you would be all only half passengers, if you were going anywhere in a ship, as you are all under twelve years of age. 1 The vessel was hardly moving through the water, and the mate was walking the deck, and trying hard to keep his eyes open, and seeing j something wrong with the clew of the main-sail, he stepped on the rail to put it right, when his | foot slipped and over he went, giving a yell as he touched the water, which brought the captain up with a jump, crying • Man overboard,' and S brought all hands on deck pretty quick. We all rushed to get the boat over ; but in the hurry and scuffle when we got the boat across j the rail, and were launching her out, her stem caught under the foot of the foresail, and there she hung. Ths captain out knife, cut the sail, and the boat went over stern first and filled : but the plucky steward jumped in with an. oar, and managed to get the mate who was keeping himself afloat, and he held on to the boat, and was towed alongside, ,got on board, served with a glaBG of brandy, and was soon all right. The passenger, a young woman, hearing the noise on deck, thought the packet was sinking, and rushed to the hatch, holding up her child, and imploring the captain in piteous tones to save her child ; no matter about herself. The captain of course was too busy to attend to her until after the boat_ was launched, and as she could not get on deck to be in the way, no one paid much heed to her. Finding appeals of no "avail, she tried abuse ; called the captain and crew unfeeling monsters, that none of us would ever see Heaven, if we abandoned a helpless woman and her child to the merciless sea, while we escaped in the boat ; but after the mate was safe, the captain had time to pacify her, and explain the cause of the rumpus. She was a very shamefaced woman next day, when she left us. That was my last trip in the E.M. Packet ' Velocity.' I left home, and was absent eight years, and on my return, I learnt that of all that gallant crew I was the only one left. The captain died in his bed; the mate, raised to master, was lost in the Atlantic with all hands ; the cook and steward joined the American army, and were killed during the war, and the sailor died of yellow fever in the West Indies. And now off to bed all of you.' 'Please Uncle Paul, we want you to write down your yarns, and send them to the Observer.' Oh 1 that's what the confab was about, when I was having my smoke ; but my dears, you know that I can't spell right ; am weak in grammar, and could not make a story look readable. All: 'But if you tell the O.M. that all his young readers have not a sailor uncle who can tell yarns, and that we, your young friends, wish it, he will oblige you.' So Mr Editor, if you will be so kind, and find the above worthy a corner in the Observer, you will oblige my young friends, and their uncle, Paul Jones, A.B.