Captain John Crane, 1800-1815

by Thomas Wallace Knox

I began to think I was going to get off easily; but my belief proved to be ill founded. After the question concerning my education Neptune asked,—

"Do you intend to be a faithful servant of my realm?"

When I opened my mouth to reply, a paint-brush, which had been dipped in the water from the trough under the grindstone, was shoved into my mouth, and then the same brush, with more of the unsavory liquid, was passed back and forth upon my face after the manner of a lathering-brush.

Neptune then ordered me to be shaved; and the shaving was to be performed with a piece of iron hoop, in which notches like the teeth of a saw had been filed. I received several scratches on my face; and while I was wincing under them a bucket of water was thrown over me, and the bandage which covered my eyes was removed. I was then let loose, and permitted to see the remainder of the fun.

One by one all the greenhorns were brought up and went through substantially the same ordeal. Some were handled much more severely than others. David was let off about the same as I was; and we found when the show was over that we had been treated more leniently than any one else. We wondered why this was the case until we learned that the Tritons who attended Neptune were none other than our friends, Bill Haines and Joe Herne.

If there had been passengers on board who had never crossed the line before they would have been subjected to the same treatment, unless they had paid a fine of two or three dollars each, which they generally pay without hesitation. The money thus obtained is spent in luxuries for the crew, either at the time or at the ship's port of destination. On English passenger ships, going from England out to India around the Cape of Good Hope, I am told that the sailors reap quite a harvest out of this ceremony of "Crossing the Line."

We rounded the Cape of Good Hope in fine style, the wind being in our favor and carrying us rapidly along. The captain had held well to the southward, so that we barely caught a glimpse of the shores of Africa. We could see the outline of the mountains that form the southern end of that continent, but nothing more than the outline.

The day after we passed the Cape of Good Hope I had the watch aloft in the forenoon. Just as it struck eight bells I gave a last look around the horizon before descending to the deck, when my eye caught a speck on the water very nearly abeam of us. It was altogether too far away to be made out, and I hesitated whether to report it or not. Something impelled me to do so, and I hailed the deck and told what I had seen. The captain and first officer were just making their noon observations, and the second mate came aloft to see what I had discovered. He brought the captain's glass, and after a careful scrutiny he said that the object was evidently a boat, but he could not determine if there was any one in it.

"We'll settle that very soon," said the captain when the mate had made his report. "Brace the yards around, and run for the boat or whatever else it is."