tween
master and mate. The former may have been a duffer at the manoeuvre
himself, but that did not bother him now that the position had changed.
Even a consciousness of the mate's knowledge of his fallibility did not
qualify his hostile remarks; indeed, the recollection of it never
failed to increase his anger. As a matter of fact, the knack of doing
it was a gift that no amount of training could create if it was not
inborn. I have known apprentices, after they have been at sea a year or
two, become really adepts at swinging ship at a single anchor, and many
of the seamen prided themselves in being able to do it well. A more
difficult task was that of preventing turns getting in the cable when
riding with both anchors down, and in skilled hands it could very often
be obviated. The thoughtful master or officer made a practice of coming
on deck at irregular hours during the night while anchored in a
roadstead, so that the men might become impressed with the idea of
never relaxing their vigilance. Notwithstanding this care it was not an
infrequent thing for the watch to be caught napping. On one occasion a
collier brig had been windbound for several days in the Yarmouth roads.
The mate was accustomed to pay nocturnal visits on deck, and had
suspected that a great deal of napping was done before the galley fire,
and he had his suspicion confirmed when coming up one night
unexpectedly, and, stealthily making his way to the galley, he found
both doors closed; no one was to be seen anywhere; he looked down into
the forecastle and saw one hammock vacant, so he made his way to the
galley again and listened, and heard someone snoring. He asked who was
there several times and got no answer. He then tried the door, but the
inmate had anticipated an invasion and had wedged it so that no one
could open it from without. The mate was seized with a superstition, or
exasperation, or both, so he drew a belaying pin from the rail, brought
it strongly in contact with the door, and loudly asked who was there. A
husky voice from within answered in broad Northumbrian accent: "Thor's
neebody heor!" "Then by Gox," said the excited mate, "Ye'ar the beggar
I've been luckin' for these last few neights!" The slumberer was the
person who ought to have been pacing the deck. Needless to say, he
became the object of much vituperation, and was never again trusted to
look after the lives of his shipmates or the property of his employer.
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