“Richard Flint,” replied the landlord, “and he is an able seaman.”
The captain wrote Flint’s name and rate on the shipping articles, and then kneeling down beside him, placed the pen between his nerveless fingers, and seizing his hand in his own, described a cross with it upon the shipping articles. This done, the captain passed the pen over to his mate, who signed his own name opposite Flint’s, and the latter stood on the shipping articles in this way:
his
Richard X Flint, A. B.
mark
Jacob Schwartz,
Second Mate, and witness to signature.
Although the whole proceeding was most outrageous, the form was according to law, and Flint, had he recovered his senses at that moment, would have been held for the cruise in spite of himself. Remonstrance would have been of no avail, and resistance would have rendered him liable to punishment.
But this was not all the wickedness that was perpetrated upon the unconscious seaman. While the mate was signing his name to the articles the captain produced his pocket-book and counted out forty dollars in bills, which he placed in Flint’s hand, and closing his fingers over them, turned to the man who lay next to him, and whom he shipped and paid in the same manner.
Guy had been a puzzled witness of the whole proceedings, but now he thought he begun to understand it.