'Yes, sir,' said the rest.
'And when you got home you had two months' pay or thereabouts to draw, less what you paid for clothes out of the slop chest. That is, you spent six months at sea and a week ashore for about ten pounds and a bad headache. Whereas if you had stayed by your ships you might have saved yourselves the headache, saved your clothes, and have got back to England with a pay-day of twenty pounds. Jacobs, what is the worst kind of a fool you know?'
And Jacobs answered promptly—
'If you please, sir, it's a sailor.'
'I don't say that it is always your fault if you desert,' went on Ticehurst, after he had drawn the reply which was the moral of his tale. 'I know some of you may have been run out of your ships; and I know that some captains are too careful about giving the men any of the money due to them. But this is a comfortable ship.'
'It is,' said the men with a unanimous hum.
'And I propose to keep it so,' said the 'old man.' 'And what I want is to keep you on board. I'm going to take no precautions against your skipping, I'm going to treat you like men. I'm going to allow you a pound a week each out of your wages for the month we shall be in Portland, and at six o'clock every man-jack of you not absolutely required can go ashore and stay ashore all night so long as you turn up in the morning.'
This was Williams's revolution. The mate gave a disgusted grunt and walked away to the lee rail. But the men raised a cheer. The skipper lifted his hand.
'I know this is going a long way beyond the custom of any ship,' he said, 'and I don't mind owning I'm doing it, partly to prevent the biggest boarding-house master in Portland getting hold of you. It's true that so far as I've worked it out your staying by the ship will save the owners in wages about five pounds a man. But that's not the reason I'm doing it. I'm on this lay because I shall have to pay Healy' (muffled groans from the men) 'a hundred and fifty dollars a head for every fresh man I ship. I had a row with him last voyage, and don't propose to put money in his pocket again. And if he gets so much from me, as you know, he'll get your advance note besides. Think it over. That'll do.'
And the watch below went forward.