The next day I went on board and commenced my duties, and in order to ingratiate myself into the good graces of the captain, I did even more than could have been expected of me.
We sailed on the sixteenth of March from the foot of Spring street, and proceeded to Keyport, where we remained till Sunday. While here, I scraped the mast of the sloop, did a lot of carpenter work, and evidently pleased Captain Burr very much by my earnestness in trying to make everything look ship-shape.
We arrived at Gravesend on Saturday afternoon, and waited there for a fair wind.
At last we put to sea, and when we were off the Ocean House, I went to the forecastle, and got an axe, which I put in the boat hanging to the davit aft.
The younger Watts was at the helm, and I asked him to allow me to steer a little while. He consented, and went forward.
In a few minutes I left the helm, and taking the axe, went to him, and asked him if he saw Barnegat Light. He said he did not. I told him to look again, and pointed with my hand.
He turned round and looked in my face a moment, but even if he had suspected my cruel purpose, he would have read no indication of it there, for I was as calm as though I were going to do the simplest and most innocent thing in life.
Had I been under human influences, the confident and trusty way in which he turned his eyes to mine, would have made me hesitate, but no such thought entered my heart, and I pointed again and told him to “Look there; ain’t that it!”
He turned his head, and peered through the darkness in the direction I pointed, and as he did so, I struck him on the back of the head with the axe, and knocked him down.
He fell!