“Have you made many voyages?” asked the captain.
“Several, sir, up the Mediterranean, to Lisbon, Madeira, and the Baltic, as mate,” said Ralph.
“You consider yourself competent, then, to navigate a vessel in any part of the world,” observed the captain, after a short pause.
“Yes, sir; I should have no fears as to the correctness of my observations,” answered Ralph, modestly, though he spoke with confidence.
“I will consider what can be done, and will not lose sight of you,” observed the captain, walking away.
There were grumblers and discontented men, as there are on board most ships. Dick Bracewell was among them. He soon got tired of the strict discipline, grumbled at being compelled to turn out neatly-dressed and clean, and at being only allowed to smoke his pipe at certain times and in one part of the ship, and more than all at having his grog stopped, or being compelled to drink it mixed with nine parts of water when he had neglected his duties or broken through any regulations, as was not unfrequently the case. Having had a good deal of money in his pocket when pressed, he was able to buy from others their allowance of grog.
At length, one evening when Ralph went below, to his sorrow he found his old shipmate unusually uproarious, now singing and shouting, now ready to quarrel and fight with any one who interfered with him. Ralph was doing his best to get him to sit down quietly by himself, when the hammocks were piped below and the men sprang up on deck to bring them down from the hammock-nettings. “I’m off for mine,” cried Dick, getting on his legs and staggering along the deck. “I look as sober as a judge, whatever I may be, though I feel very jolly.” Ralph tried to stop him, but Dick, breaking from his friend, scrambled up the ladder, shouting out, “I’m a free man, and no one shall stop me from doing what I choose.” His shouts drew the attention of one of the officers towards him. He was ordered aft with his hammock, carrying which, he went staggering along till he rolled over with it on the deck. In vain he tried to get on his feet, so he lay still, with just enough consciousness left to know that he was in a sad scrape, without a chance of getting out of it till his back and the cat had become acquainted. The officer of the watch, knowing that it would be useless to speak to him, sent for two marines, between whom he was taken below and forthwith placed in irons, thus to remain till he had recovered his senses. The inevitable consequence followed. The next morning Dick received two dozen lashes as a punishment for drunkenness.
Dick, who had been one of the merriest fellows on board, now became morose and surly, even to his best friends; and as the men were afraid of selling him their liquor, he could not drown his care, as he would have tried to do had he been able. “Don’t talk to me, Ralph,” he said one day when his old shipmate was trying to arouse him to a better state of mind. “I’m determined to take French leave, and you’re not the man I think you, if you try to stop me.”
“I have always been your friend, Dick, and I should prove that I am so still if I prevented you from doing a mad thing, which would be sure to bring you into a worse condition than you are now. You would, most probably, be retaken, or should you escape, you would to a certainty get drunk, spend all your money, and be left a beggar in a strange land.”
“I’ve a notion that I can take as good care of myself as you, or any other man, though you have been mate of the Amity, and expect some day to walk the quarter-deck of this ship,” answered Dick, with a scornful laugh, his old feeling of envy of Ralph reviving in his mind. “I shall have to touch my hat and ‘sir’ you, while you top the officer over me. Ha! ha! ha!”