Seeing at once that the man was in much too quarrelsome a condition to be satisfactorily reasoned with, Leslie had at once left him and gone below; only to return, however, within the next ten minutes to find Purchas stretched at full length upon a hencoop, fast asleep and snoring stertorously.
On the morning following this incident Leslie, finding the skipper once more sober and, as usual under those circumstances, quite genial and friendly, tackled him again upon the subject.
“I want to talk to you very seriously, Purchas,” he said, as the two walked the weather side of the deck together, smoking, after breakfast. “You are now the skipper of this brig, you know; and, as such, are accountable to nobody but your owners for your conduct. But this, as I have understood you to say, is your first command; and whether you retain it or not after the termination of this voyage must necessarily depend to a very great extent upon your behaviour now. Insobriety is, as I need hardly tell you, the one unpardonable sin in the eyes of a shipowner. No man will knowingly entrust his property to the care of another who, even only occasionally, permits himself to take too much liquor, because he can never know just when that overdose may be taken. He is always ready to believe that it may be imbibed at the most inopportune moment, and that the master of his ship may be under its influence at the precise instant when the safety of the ship, crew, and cargo demand his utmost vigilance and most intelligent resource. And although you may imagine that what you do out here in mid-ocean cannot possibly reach the ears of your owner, you must not forget that sailors have a keen eye for what goes on aft; a skipper cannot get drunk without the fact reaching the sharp ears of those in the forecastle. It is one of the easiest things in the world for an officer to acquire, among his crew, a reputation for insobriety; and, once they get ashore, you may trust them to talk about it freely, very often adding embellishments of their own. The reputation of a ship-master is in the hands of his crew; and if he is foolish enough to afford them the opportunity, they may be depended upon to ruin it for him. Besides, I want you to remember your responsibilities as master of this brig. I will undertake to look after her and see that nothing goes wrong during the time that I have charge of the deck; but I cannot always be on deck, you know; and if you should happen to be intoxicated and incapable—as you were last night—while I am below, what would be the result of a sudden squall, for instance? Or how is the craft to be kept clear of possible collision on a dark and dirty night? There are a thousand sudden emergencies constantly threatening the seaman, any one of which may arise at a moment’s notice.”
“Yes, yes,” answered Purchas, somewhat impatiently; “I know all about that. I’ve heard it all a thousand times before; heard it until I’m sick of it. But there’s no call to make a fuss about it; I own up that I was just a little bit ‘sprung’ last night; but what of it? The night was fine and clear, the ‘glass’ was steady, and there wasn’t nothin’ anywheres within sight of us; so where was the danger?”
“There was none, as it fortunately happened,” admitted Leslie. “But who is to know what will occur within the limits of a four-hours’ watch? Suppose, for instance, that I had not chanced to notice your condition, and had turned in; and that while you were lying unconscious upon that hencoop a sudden squall had struck the brig, what would have happened? Why, the craft might have been dismasted, or even, perhaps, capsized! And where should we all have been, in that case?”
“Well, ye see, we warn’t dismasted, let alone capsized, so there’s no harm done,” answered Purchas, testily. “All the same,” he added, in more moderate tones, “I’m willin’ to admit that there’s a good deal of reason in your argufication, so I’ll go slow in future; I don’t say that I won’t take a glass or so of grog of an evenin’ if I feels to want it; but I’ll take care not to swaller enough of it to capsize me again.”
“You would do far better to swear off it altogether,” asserted Leslie. “You would be glad, afterwards, that you had done so. You are an excellent seaman; and I shall be more than glad to help you to perfect yourself in navigation, if you will allow me, so that there should be nothing to stand in the way of your getting your master’s certificate upon your return to England. And with that, and a reputation for reliability such as you can acquire during this voyage, there should be nothing to prevent your continuing in the command of this brig, or even of your getting something very much better. And now, I think, it is about time for us to get our sights for the longitude.”