The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mr. Trunnell, by T. Jenkins Hains

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Title: Mr. Trunnell

Author: T. Jenkins Hains

Release Date: August 1, 2004 [EBook #13073]

Language: English

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Mr. Trunnell

Mate of the Ship "Pirate"

By T. Jenkins Hains

Author of "The Wind-jammers," "The Wreck of the Conemaugh," etc.

1900

To _All Hands under the lee of the weather cloth this is inscribed_

MR. TRUNNELL

I

By some means, needless to record here, I found myself, not so many years
ago, "on the beach" at Melbourne, in Australia.

To be on the beach is not an uncommon occurrence for a sailor in any part
of the world; but, since the question is suggested, I will say that I was
not a very dissipated young fellow of twenty-five, for up to that time I
had never even tasted rum in any form, although I had followed the sea
for seven years.

I had held a mate's berth, and as I did not care to ship before the mast
on the first vessel bound out, I had remained ashore until a threatening
landlord made it necessary for me to become less particular as to
occupation.

It was a time when mates were plenty and men were few, so I made the
rounds of the shipping houses with little hope of getting a chance to
show my papers. These, together with an old quadrant, a nautical almanac,
a thick pea coat, and a pipe, were all I possessed of this world's goods,
and I carried the quadrant with me in case I should not succeed in
signing on. I could "spout it," if need be, at some broker's, and thus
raise a few dollars.

As I made my way along the water front, I noticed a fine clipper ship of
nearly two thousand tons lying at a wharf. She was in the hands of a few
riggers, who were sending aloft her canvas, which, being of a snowy
whiteness, proclaimed her nationality even before I could see her hull.
On reaching the wharf where she lay, I stopped and noticed that she