The Flying Bo'sun: A Mystery of the Sea

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Flying Bo'sun, by Arthur Mason
NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1920
Copyright, 1920 by Henry Holt and Company
DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER WHOSE SYMPATHY MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR ME TO GO TO SEA
Hardship is a stern master, from whom we part willingly.
But it is often true that real men learn thereby to handle their fellow-men, to love them, and to make the most of their own manhood. In no class is this more marked than among those who have been formed by the training of the sea.
Hundreds have lost their lives there, hundreds more have been coarsened through ignorance and because of rough living, but the survivors, who have used what God gave them of brain and muscle to the best advantage, are a lot of men to be trusted mightily.
I am proud to have known such men, and to have lived the life that made them what they are, and, above all, proud to have sailed before the time when steam began to drive the square-rigger from the seas.
Therefore I have ventured to set before the public a narrative of my own experience, somewhat condensed, but little changed, even in some parts that may seem hard to believe, but sailors are known to be superstitious. Should this book fall into the hands of other sailors, I think it will interest them, and landsmen may care for the truthful record of a day that is almost gone.
A. M.
Her name was the Wampa, graceful to look at, with her tall and stately masts, rigged with fore and aft sails. She was known as one of the fastest schooners sailing to the Southern Seas.
That afternoon in December found her loading lumber in a rather quaint saw-mill town on the Puget Sound. Her Captain, who was a Swede, was tall and handsome and had none of the earmarks of the old salt. He seemed to be very nervous as he walked up and down the poop deck. Once he called out, Olsen, put one more truck load on, then get your deck lashings ready. She is down now, she has eight inches of water on the after deck. With that he jumped ashore saying, If I can find a mate we will sail this evening.