One of the many sights in Manila was the enormous government cheroot factory, where nearly twenty thousand people, mostly women, are employed.
We loaded here with hemp and sugar, which we carried home to Boston by the way of the Cape of Good Hope, having an uneventful passage of one hundred and sixty-five days to Boston Light.
CHAPTER VII
RECAPTURING A RUNAWAY
I did not long remain as second mate, for the very next voyage the chief mate was lost overboard one morning from the top of the poop-house. The watch were about to set the spanker, and Mr. Brown, who had the watch, was standing very imprudently to leeward of the boom, when the last turns of the gasket were thrown off and the gaff flying over struck him in the head with great violence and knocked him over the quarter-rail.
The ship was at once hove to, and a boat was lowered, but nothing was seen of him, and the supposition was that he was stunned by the blow and sunk at once, to rise no more.
So I was promoted to his place; and although full young to assume the responsibilities attendant upon the position, I managed to satisfy the captain so well that when we arrived in port I was confirmed in the place. About a year later I was sent for to go as chief mate in the Laodicea, another ship belonging to the same firm. In this vessel I made a voyage to the East Indies.
Early in 1848, while in New York, I received a letter from the owners requesting me to come on to Boston and take command of the Mystic, a fine new ship of nearly one thousand tons, lately launched at East Boston and fitting out for a voyage to Valparaiso.
So my cousin, the owner, had fulfilled his promise, and before I was twenty-one years of age I was to have command of a fine half-clipper ship. I wasted no time, but went on to Boston as speedily as possible, where I found my ship at Commercial Wharf and work already commenced on her lading.
I at once assumed the command; and as the owners were very anxious to get the ship to sea in the shortest time possible, I pushed things to the extent of my ability and secured as officers a Mr. King, whom I had known for several years as an experienced and thoroughly trustworthy man, as chief mate, and a Mr. Robinson, whom I did not know personally, but who brought me such excellent recommendations that I engaged him on the strength of them, as second mate. That I did not more closely examine into the character of this man was a very unfortunate oversight, as it afterward proved.