148 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SEALER 



we owed him for his criticism of our diet and other indignities. 

 He would have slain us, but that he was at heart a very good 

 man, though subject to magnificent rages, which were as often 

 against the order of nature as against man. He was built for 

 hard fighting, to command a fleet in battle, and was out of place 

 with his troublesome crew, and in the uncomfortable situation 

 where he was teased by the men he was supposed to command. 



I am glad to say that the process of disciplining Skipper Small 

 seems on the whole to have been skilfully conducted by the 

 crew. We determined that we would promptly and in silence 

 obey every order he gave; we would as far as in us lay disregard 

 his rather rare outbreaks, taking them as we did the weather. 

 Only once did I reprove him for his wondrous profanity, which, 

 as I found out afterward, was famed the seas about. I was on 

 the middle watch with him one bad night when the weather was 

 most vexing. After a long whack at the earth and sky, he turned 

 the torrent on me. To give him a lesson, I woke up the cook and 

 told him to report to the skipper, who was at the wheel. When 

 he asked why I had done this, I told him that the cook was the 

 only person on the craft who by custom was expected to take 

 abuse, for he was the only hired man except the skipper. There 

 is a saying that "those who go down to the sea in schooners see 

 hell" ; that there is truth in the adage I can testify. It is evi- 

 dent that even a good high-grade captain can breed a lot of it. 

 I am glad to say that when we had been out a month or so our 

 troubles with Skipper Small were over. He was large of heart 

 and mind; he seemed to like our venturesome humor, and 

 became much interested in what we were about, and we fell 

 quite in love with his superb manliness. We taught him some- 

 thing of natural history, and he in turn taught me a good bit 

 of the sailor's arts, so that at the end of it I could hand, reef, 

 and steer as well, or make and work up observations except 

 by the methods of "lunar intervals," which he did not know 

 how to use. 



From Bird Rock, we made our way towards Anticosti, as 



