PERSONAL NARRATIVES OF THRILLING ADVENTURES, BY LOUIS BECKE

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8793, 3 December 1906, Page 4

PERSONAL NARRATIVES OF THRILLING ADVENTURES, BY LOUIS BECKE

(Author of " Hodman, the Boatsteerer," " Tom Gerrard." and other stirring novels).

No. I. SOME SKIPPERS I HAVE SAILED WITH. [All Eights Reserved.] In following such widely-different occupations as that of a shore trader, shark catcher, "recruiter" for the Kanaka labour trade and supercargo, I have sailed with many captains — British* American and foreign. Some were good fellows, some were bad, come were neither, and some were so perfectly colourless in their dispositions and characters that I cannot even remember their names. For some dead and gone, I shall have ever the most grateful and kindly memoriestrue comrades and good sailor-men. For others— were any one of them now alive, and I was told that he-was about to be hanged, I should apply for a Press ticket to witness the execution. Many of these mariners I met when I was free from my duties— as passenger. And a' passenger who is also a seafaring man, has plenty of time to note and- study the idiosyncracies of the lord who rules the ship. I shall first speak of one of the "Capable " and one of the "incapable kind together. The latter had been a lieutenant in the Navy, and had to leave the Service, for gross faults—intemperance principally. But, having some, money, and many friends, he managed to obtain the command of a newly-built splendid bngantme (the Tuitoga), belonging to King George of Tonga. At this time I had taken passage m Sydney for Samoa, via Tonga, in a smart little barque (tha Rimitara), commanded by a Captain Rosser, who was regarded as the doyen of island skippers. He was a " Bluenose," stood over six feet in hie stockinged feet, was a maii of most determined courage, unflinching resolution, and was widely known and# respected all over the South Pacific. Both vessels sailed from Sydney at the same hour on the same day, and both were bound for Tonga. We were towod out almost side by side, and the flashy, ex-naval skipper called out to Rosser , offering to bet him £50 to £5 that he would be lying at anchor in Tonga two days before the Rimitara. Rosser merely replied that he did not make beta with ' strangers, and then sarcastically added that he hoped the speaker had some sailors on his new command.' "You'll want 'em," he said. • ' Then Roeser turned to me with a fim smile, and observed that the ing of Tonga was trying a risky experiment in putting such a man in command of his new brigantine. All that flash fellow knows about a sailing ship he learned on a Service training brig, and he's going to make a holy mess of things." , Lieutenant Raye (so I will call him) did make a "holy mess of things. % _ Five days later, at' daylight, Rosser called me to come and look at some-, thing pretty." The something pretty was the brigantdne. She was in a tern- , ble mess. He| fore and main royal and top-gallant masts were gone, and 6he was on her beam ends, and all her boats gone. Rosser sent assistance, ( and we stood by her for two days. We/got into Nukualofa Harbour ten days ahead, and then, when the Tuitoga come in to port, she ran on a reef, and our ikipper and crew floated her off. This " incapable " afterwards shot himself in a fit of "D.T.'s"— a sensible tect. v i Another "incapable" with whom I Bailed as a, passenger, was a good seaman, but a. hopeless navigator. He was » conceited little ape — a Scotsman— and took a rooted dislike to me when I mendaciously told him that I had never beard of "Bobbie Burns," and did not believe any other person, had heard of each a post. I hadwith me -over £2000 • worth of trade goods, and during; the voyage became alarmed at Captain Macpherson's (so I will call him) rudimentary knowledge of navigation, although he certainly was a thorough eailor-man. Against the advice of the mate and myself, he anchored close in to the. reef of Peru Island in the Gilbert Group, during calm but unsettled weather, and tori, hours later the vessel was driven on to the reef by a furious squall, became a total wreck, and I lost everything I possessed, except some nine hundred dollare in American and Chili money. This enabled me to take a passage for Sydney with the good-na-tured skipper of the barque George Noble. , Captain Erers (a German, but not a naturalised British subject) was a good 'navigator and a splendid seaman, but a most obstinate, pig-headed fellow. Also, he had a rooted idea that his officers and crew had a contemptuous dislike for him, on account or his being German-born. This led him to vacillate between two courses — sometimes he would be pompously silent, and hardly speak; at others, stupidly overbearing, like most Teutons in authority. All ships in leaving Apaian Lagoon, do so.in the morning, for the passage is on the west, is studded wiua many coral boulders, called from their shape '■ mushrooms," and it would be almost impossible to miss striking one with a bright afternoon sun shining in one's ©y«e. At noon on the day. we were leaving there was a strong breeze blowing, And I oasualjy observed to Evens that, if it were not so, we should be too late to get out of the passage— ten miles distant. In an instant he became sulky, and reminded me that he, and not I, was master of the ship, and that he would leave when it suited him. I was snubbed. We sailed at two o'clock — four hours too late, and soon ran down to the passage. The barque was then under all sail, and making eleven, knots, but as soon as we entered the narrow pas- ' sage, through which a six-knot current was rushing, her speed became terrific. The skipper was, with myself, on the fore-yard (he having sulkily given me permission to come up), and every now and then shouting

out orders to the steersman, orders th&'t could hardly be heard owing to the roar of the currents He had the blinding glare of the sun full in his eyes, and I am 6ure he could not see where he was going — I .know that I could not see anything ahead. Suddenly he called exit, "Starboard a little," and in a few seconds there came a terrific cra^h,- and both he and I were jerked off the footrope, toppled, over the yard on to the bellying foresail," rolled down, and landed almost in each, other's arms, half-dazed, but unhurt. Everyone on deck was thrown down, and tihen the barque canted to port, swung round with a fearful grinding and groaning, and with our canv«i6 all in disorder, was whirled out of the passage into clear water, , where we brought to and anchored, and lowering a boat- examined the ship for'axd^ She had struck' on ■ a coral " mushroom,'' carried away six feet of the stem from below the water-line, and started _so many timbers that she making ten inches of water an hour. It coet £700 to repair her after we reached Sydney,, and poor Evers was furious when, on his next visit to Apaian, the local trader thanked him for clearing the passage. "You ran smack^ agin a big 'mushroom' standin' in the, middle, an 3 broke it •off short, twenty feet below. Hope you'll try and do the same thing this time, and knock down another." One of the worst skippers withi whom I ever sailed when I was a " recruiter" in the Kanaka labour trade (" blackbirding," as it is generally termed) had once been a chaplain and naval instructor in tEe Navy. He. was not only a good navigator and sailor, but was one of the best Continental linguists I have ever come across. Soft and sweet in his speech, Jie was at the same time a savage despot, and had no more CO3Vscience than a rat where his own interests were concerned. He and I frequently came into collision over his treatment of the native crew, for I, being Recruiter, was th£ responsible man, and- he merely vthe sailing piaster. I objected to his conduct, pointing out that if he interfered with the crew, except as regarded the actual working of the ship, the result would he disastrous,- and that it was in my power to suspend him and put the chief officer in his place. He laughed in his &oft way, and then in the coolest and calmest manner made me a .proposition :-— "Now look here. * I am talking plainly. You are getting £35 a month as v -Reeruiter, and a bonus of £2 for every Kanaka we land in good health and condition in Fiji. That pays you. I get only £20 a month. That doesn't suit me. Now we have sixty ' blackbirds' 1 on board, worth £100 each, in Guatemala, where no questions will be asked. The ship is worth another £6000, and can b© cold anywhere on the Central American coast for at leaet £4000. I'll fake the papers so that there will be no trouble. Are you a business man, or a fat-head?" I treated his suggestion as a joke, but he persisted, and then finally, find-

ing I would not accede to his villainous project, he dropped the subject. A week or two later wo reached Levuka, in Fiji, where I gaid him off at the Consulate. He went away smilingly, and later on I found that with him went twelve £5 notes belonging to me, which he had taken from the botcom of the ship's cash-box. This he h^d opened, regarding the few hundred dollars in silver money as too bulky to take. I never saw him again. One skipper with whom I sailed as supercargo was what would now be called a " Chrk'tian Scientist." He was a thorough sailor, and a good man. but made me start? when on© day he begged me not to give c'hlorodyne to a sailor who was nearly dying with dysentery. " Prayer is the only thing that will cure him," he said. " I shall now pray for him., direct to the Almighty. In two hours he will be recovered. 55 He prayed, but I gave the sufferer the chlorodyne, together with some cold arrowroot and water. And in two hours the man was certainly better. He ultimately recovered, but the skipper took all the credit upon himself, and said that a medicine chest was not only a useless thing on board a fillip, but an affront to the Almighty. A remarkable contrast to the last man was the notorious Captain ' Bully Hayes, with wlioni it was my fortune to sail for two years. Hayes was an extraordinary character, brave and generous to a fault. He was also a merciless tyrant, and sometimes acted more like a savage than a whit© man. He was strikingly handsome, over six feet in height, and with a pair of bright blue eyes, which, could shine with merriment, or blaze with fury. During the two years I was with him, we visited many hundreds of islands, trading for cocoanut oil,' pearl-shells, shark fins, etc., and, in all this time Hayes never committed an act of piracy. I need hardly say that had he attempted such a thing I should have quickly severed my connection with him. For me personally the man had a great liking, and I was able to dissuade him from many acts of violence and cruelty. He was a rigid disciplinarian, and yet would often permit his crew to indulge in the wildest orgies, both afloat and on shore. Flogging was the usual punishment for an offence. On one ooaeaon I came on board, and found a young German A.8., who had deserted, triced up, awaiting a flogging. I took Hayes aside, and ©aid, "If you flog that man, it will be murder. He has a very weak heart — that I know for a fact." After some consideration Hayes ordered the man to be untied, but put him in irons for a we&k. One extraordinary old man, with whom I was a partner on a shark fishing cruise to Palmyra Island, was a very heavy drinker, and when in his cups would always dress in a frock suit and top hat, gloves, etc. Once after a long bout, he was seized with delirium tremens, and I and our native crew, had to strait-jacket him. I ran the schooner into an uninhabited atoll, and stayed there for a week, until the old I fellow was better. He was very grateful to me, and at the end of the cruiser— which was highly profitable — presented me with a valuable gold watch. He always called me his " doctor." I