“Captain, I hope you won’t require me to answer that. He did not injure me; he was beside himself, and after he got to thinking he came back of his own accord.”
“You’ll have to tell everything, Mr. Osborn; this is a most serious affair. But I’ll ask Collins a few questions first. Collins, what have you to say?” he demanded sternly of the pale, anxious, enlisted man.
“Mr. Osborn has not told it all, sir. I got rid of my irons and got into the catamaran. Mr. Osborn grabbed me, but I gave him a quick jerk and he landed in the catamaran. While he was unconscious I gagged him with my neckerchief and passed the boat’s painter around his arms and legs so that he couldn’t give an alarm or make any resistance. Then I sculled the boat ashore. I didn’t know what to do, sir; I was wild. I have always tried before this to do what was right, and it seemed to me I was suddenly becoming a bad, desperate character. I took the gag off Mr. Osborn’s mouth and he talked to me and made me feel I was my own worst enemy. My grief and anxiety about my wife and the awful feeling of having irons on, as if I were a criminal, caused me to give way to impulses; Mr. Osborn made me feel that there was some good in me in spite of the way I had used him. Then he made me feel that the officers were really friends, not enemies of the enlisted men. Well, sir, I knew I had done an awful thing, but Mr. Osborn brought me to believe that the best thing I could do was to come back to the ship, that that would undo part of the wrong I had done. Oh, sir, I am not a desperate character. I have always tried to be a good man, but of late it has seemed to me I hadn’t a friend—and then my mother’s death and my wife’s illness—I’m only an enlisted man, sir, but I have the same feelings——” and here Collins broke down completely and was shaken with convulsive sobs.
“Mr. Osborn, I again congratulate you. You have done far more than if you had overpowered Collins and brought him bound aboard ship. You have not only prevented him from completing a most serious offense but I believe you have saved a good man,” here Captain Waddell glanced kindly at the contrite Collins, “not only to the Navy, but to himself and to his family, which is far more important. By the way, Mr. Osborn, years ago I had a friend of your name, Ralph Osborn, in Toledo. Are you related to him?”
“He was my father, sir. He gave me a letter of introduction to you.”
“You should have presented it, but we’ll talk about that later. Now, Graham,” to the executive officer, “what is your recommendation about Collins?”
“Captain, when he came to the mast at Newport News he was in the fourth conduct class and asked for special liberty. At the time I was aggravated and didn’t believe him and treated him harshly. I have since learned he had told the truth about his mother and wife. My unnecessary harshness undoubtedly drove him to jumping ship at Newport News and led to the occurrence this morning. Sir, I would recommend extreme clemency. He has certainly proved there is some good in him. He could be severely punished and made permanently bad. But I believe he has good impulses and I would be glad to show him that naval officers are the enemies only of those enlisted men who are bad characters.”
“May I say a word, sir, about Collins?” asked an enlisted man, stepping before the captain and Mr. Graham. It was Chief Water Tender Hester; he had stood near during the conversation above recorded and had heard it all.
Captain Waddell looked earnestly and fixedly at Hester. Then a strange expression came into his eyes.
“What is your name?” he asked.