"Is it?" said the boatswain's mate. "I guess you've never sailed with Caldwell or Dewey. If you had you'd know that either of them would be more horrified at the idea of any such sloppy work, even on the deck of an old hulk, than at doubling the risk of his ship. They're dandies, both of 'em."
"If anything gets afoul of the hulks," remarked a sailor who had not spoken before, "it will probably be this old spinning wheel. The Secretary of the Navy that ordered a side-wheeler for a war ship must have been born and brought up in the backwoods. If we could have got the Colorado over the bar I wouldn't be here. She's the ship we ought to have if we're going to knock those forts to pieces."
"I'm not sure that the largest ships are the best for this work," said the sailmaker. "This whole fleet was built for sea service, and it's out of place in a river like this."
"Of course it's a loss not to have the Colorado with us," said the boatswain's mate. "But the best thing that was aboard of her is with us."
"What's that?" said several.
"That old sea dog Bailey," answered the boatswain's mate. "He's no dandy, but he knows what to do with a ship in a fight or in a storm or anywhere else. I was with him on the Lexington in forty-six, when we went round Cape Horn to California. That was the beginning of the Mexican War. We carried troops and army officers. Bill Sherman, who commanded a brigade at Bull Run, was among them. So was General Halleck—he was only a lieutenant then."
"Bailey's on the Cayuga now," said the sailor from the Colorado, "and if Farragut understands his business he'll let him lead the line, unless Farragut leads it himself in the flagship. I wish I could be with him; but when we had to leave the Colorado outside they scattered our crew all through the fleet, and I just had the luck to be sent to this old coffee mill."
"As long as Doc. Dewey's on the bridge you needn't be afraid of her," said Sim Nelson, "whether she's a spinning wheel or a coffee mill—and your opinion seems to vary on that point. There was lots of good fighting before propellers were invented, but you appear to think we can't do anything without a propeller."
"A propeller isn't very likely to be struck by a shot," said the man from the Colorado; "but these old windmill sails going round on each side of this tub can hardly help being hit."
"Now you just quit worrying, and settle your mind on an even keel," said Sim Nelson. "There's such a thing as ability, and there's such a thing as luck. Ability and luck don't always go together—more's the pity! There's McDowell at Bull Run, as able as any general there, and he planned the battle well, and our boys put up a good stiff fight; but just at the last the luck turned against him, and then where was he? 'Tisn't so with Doc. Dewey. I've known him ever since we were boys, and his ability and luck always went together. I've no doubt there are plenty of good officers in the fleet, but I'm glad to have him on the bridge of the ship that I sail in, whether it's an old spinning wheel, or a coffee mill, or a windmill, or whatever other name you may invent for it."