On Board the "Rocket"

by Robert C. Adams

The men all took sly glances after him, and whispered to each other that they thought there'd be a fight now; and some offered to bet the mate would come out best. The captain was very much the mate's superior in size and build; but the latter was a perfect tiger when aroused, and was just as fearless, in fact, as the captain in his harangues to his officers pretended to be.

As soon as he got aft the captain caught a glance of his eye, and his brick-wall plans were entirely dispelled. In a conciliatory tone he began, "Mr. Morrison, I think there's no need of your getting so excited about a little thing. You know every one has their little ways."

"I know you have," said the mate, "and very contemptible ones they are. I came aboard of this ship with as good a will as ever a man had, and meant to do my duty faithfully, but you've interfered with all my work; you stop every job that I get under way, and though I've been twenty-five years to sea, I'm not trusted even to bend a jib or brace the foreyard."

"But you know I'm captain of the ship, Mr. Morrison."

"Then you ought to keep in the captain's place, unless there's nobody below you that knows anything. But from the first day I came on board, you've undertaken to do my work, and you don't know whether I am capable of it or not; and you've done it so poorly, I'm ashamed to have the ship go into port. I've always seen a captain show some respect to his mate; but you never have a civil word for me on duty, and your silly, lying stories don't make up for it."

"You must make allowances," replied the captain; "you can't expect a man always to be smooth-tempered. When Mr. Jones was with me, I—"

"Mr. Jones was a fool, if all you say of him is true," interrupted the mate. "No one with any respect for himself can make allowance enough for you; your knock-down principles and vile language are disgraceful."

For every word the captain advanced, the mate brought out two dozen, and so fast there was no interrupting him. At last the captain found a retreat by noticing that the sails were lifting, and he gave the order to brace forward the yards and take in the lower-studding-sail. Going to the cabin he for once left the mate to work alone, and afterwards found some relief to his pent up rage by calling the two boys to come aft with a watch-tackle and taughten up the ropes.

There was kept hanging up in front of the cabin a fathom of ratline stuff, doubled up and seized, so as to make a loop for the hand and bring the two ends together. Slipping this over his hand and shaking the ends, he called out the ropes to the boys, and if they made any mistake, or were not quite lively enough, he gave them what he called a dose of rope-yarn tea, by bringing the "cat" down on their backs. This treatment made them so bewildered and frightened that they made all the more blunders, and half of the time got hold of the wrong ropes, giving the captain an excuse for beating them to his heart's content.

He found this such a good relief for a pent-up temper that he frequently put it in practice, when galled by the mate's contempt and indifference, and all through the voyage the boys were made the scape-goats for Mr. Morrison's sins against the captain.