Frank Brown, Sea Apprentice

by Frank Thomas Bullen

And the fact that he had successfully striven to learn his navigation and do all the writing that it demanded was the best proof possible of his sterling quality of dogged perseverance. Moreover the owner informed him that, in consequence of his proved ability, he would be paid a small wage of £3 per month, although, of course, he was not really entitled to any until the close of his indentures. The ship was loading salt in Liverpool for Calcutta, and was due to sail in a week’s time, so the sooner he joined her the better.

This summons drove all other thoughts out of his head, and he became immediately like a keen hound straining at the leash, never even noticing the wistful looks cast upon him by his mother and sisters, and, it must be confessed, by several young ladies of their acquaintance also, who were piqued, as well as amazed, by his undisguised indifference to their charms and arch glances. No one mentioned the matter to him, but if they had he would certainly have retorted at once, “I have no time for silly spooning around at my age, nor inclination either.” Yet there was not the slightest fear of his developing into either a prig or a superior person, his work was the thing, that’s all.

Two days after he received the summons found him speeding towards Liverpool, full of eagerness as well as curiosity to see his new ship. He had rather a hard parting from his people, for, besides their sorrow at losing him at all, they had hoped to keep him at home until after Christmas, the great family festival being due in about a fortnight. But once away he speedily forgot all about that part of his life, and counted the stations with the utmost impatience until his train steamed into Lime Street.

In twenty minutes he was alongside the Thurifer, and his heart swelled with pride. He had expected a grand ship, but not one so splendid as this. Her mighty masts towered into the sky full 200 feet from the waterline, her lower yards were over 100-feet spread, the fore and main, that is; and although the jibboom was rigged in, he could see what a gigantic spar it was. Moreover the extraordinary number of her yards delighted and awed him, for, while the Sealark and Woden had only carried ten yards altogether, two masts each, being barques, the Thurifer carried seven on each of her three masts, and Frank could just imagine what a mountain of white she would appear at sea with all her great area of canvas spread and drawing. But he was specially charmed with her figurehead. She had been named by a man who had been attracted by the sound of the word without knowing its meaning, but when the carver was asked to design a figurehead for her, he, being an artist, made a splendid figure of a priest in full canonicals, who held a thurible on high by its triple chain, and the effect was exceedingly grand, especially when, as now, it was properly painted and gilded in its correct colours.

All this observation of his took but very little time, and he soon called a couple of idlers and bade them carry his traps on board. He was met at the gangway by a huge forbidding-looking man whom he instinctively recognised as the mate. This gentleman, although I strain courtesy in calling him so, with a deepening of the set scowl on his heavily bearded face, growled out in a deep voice, “Well, what do you want?”

“I am the third mate, come to join the ship, sir,” replied Frank, looking him squarely in the eyes.

“Ho, ho,” retorted the mate with a very definite sneer, “you’re the sucking skipper we’ve been hearing so much about, then, Captain Frank Brown, I presume,” with an ungainly bow of mockery.

Poor Frank flushed crimson and stood irresolute, not knowing what to do. Go forward he could not, for the mate barred the way, and he had never felt so awkward since the day he joined the Sealark. Suddenly the mate seemed to notice that he was blocking the gangway, and moved aside, saying as he did so, “Ah, well, I s’pose you think yourself a little tin god on wheels now, and it’ll be my painful dooty to put you in your right place again. And I won’t have any third-officer nonsense either, mind you; you’re Brown, senior apprentice, that’s all, and don’t you forget it. Go and get your dunnage stowed away as soon as you can, I’ve got a job for you.”

And Frank, feeling dazed and cut to the very soul, hastened into the half deck like a man in a dream, while the mate stood and chuckled to himself over the impression he had made on the boy who, as he thought, needed taking down a peg or two.

Frank’s first impulse was to sit and be sorry for himself, but happily his natural strength of spirit and determination came to his assistance, and he hastily unpacked such of his traps as contained his working rig, and in ten minutes appeared in a well-worn suit of dungaree, from which all its original blue had faded, looking eminently fit and workmanlike. Going up to the mate, who was standing picking his teeth in front of the saloon, he said, “I’m ready for work now, sir.”