spital. Paul sought out the captain and after a
close examination was engaged in the position vacated by the sick man.
The bark was the George, of North Shields, England. Paul induced
Captain Moore also to ship his companion before the mast. The same day
she weighed anchor and stood away on her course to Alameira. The crew
of this little bark was a happy family. The captain was an easy, quiet
humane man and a thorough sailor; the second mate was the owner's son
who came out more to gain experience than to do duty as an officer. This
was a far different craft from the blood-stained and wild Pilgrim that
was then ploughing her way to the westward. An oath or an angry word was
newer heard on the decks of the George, and the sailors seemed to do
more work than the sullen and harassed seamen on the Pilgrim. They
sailed up the beautiful coast of Andalusia and close in to the foot of
the mountains that towered from the clear blue, waters of the
Mediterranean far above the clouds, where their snow-white caps were
cool and refreshing to look at from the burning deck below. The bark was
laden with coal consigned to a firm in Alameira and the captain's
instructions were to bring back a cargo of Spanish grass and copper ore.
At Alameira they had to anchor in an open roadsted and the George's
cargo was discharged into lighters. The method of discharging coal where
there are no steam engines or docks to run alongside, is rather
primitive and is known as "jumping." An upright stairs or ladder is made
on the deck by lashing spars together. A block is fastened far above in
the rigging over the hatch through which a rope is rove leading down
into the hold. The end of this rope is fastened to a long spar just the
height of the ladder and terminating in a number of lines called whips.
These are grasped by six or eight sailors who climb the ladder, made of
spars, that has been set over the hatch. When the large bucket is filled
with coal below, the order is given to jump. The seamen simultaneously
spring from the spar while banging on to the whips, and their combined
weight brings up the huge tub of coal, which is grasped by the
lighter men and dumped over the side into their boat. When the cargo of
coal was discharged they commenced taking in copper ore until she was
sufficiently ballasted to proceed up the coast to Motril to finish her
cargo with Spanish Grass. This article is a coarse grained material
something l