118 THE SEA. 



lost at sea a little while before, in a ship so loaded that when Mr. B 1, a Custom House 



officer who had to go on board for some reason while she was lying in the river, was 

 told, ' She's yonder ; you can easily find her, she is nearly over t' head in the water/ Mr. 



B 1 told me, 'I asked no questions, but stepped on board; this description was quite 



sufficient/ 



11 Mrs. R s, H n Place, told me her young brother was an orphan with herself. 



She said her sister brought him up till she was married. Then her husband was kind to 

 him, and apprenticed him to the sea. He had passed as second mate in a sailing ship, 

 but (he was a fine young fellow I have his portrait) he was ambitious to ( pass in steam ' 



also, and engaged to serve in the S ship, leaking badly, but was assured on signing that 



she was to be repaired before loading. The ship was not repaired, and was loaded, as he 

 told his sister-mother, 'like a sand-barge/ Was urged by his sister and her husband not 

 to go. His sister again urged him as he passed her door in the morning. He promised 

 he would not, and went to the ship to get the wages due to him. Was refused payment 

 unless he went, was over-persuaded and threatened, and called a coward, which greatly 

 excited him. He went, and two days afterwards the ship went down. Her husband and 



Mrs. R s also told me that he and his wife ' had a bit crack/ and decided to do all 



they could to ( persuade Johnnie not to go/ The young man was about twenty-two. 



"Mr. J H 1 told me that the captain was his friend, and the captain was 



very down-hearted about the way in which she was loaded (mind, she was loaded under 



the owner's personal supervision). The captain asked him (Mr. A ) to see his wife off 



by train after the ship had sailed. She, poor soul, had travelled to that port to see him 

 off. The captain said to him, ( I doubt Fll never see her more ! ' and burst out crying. 

 Poor fellow, he never did see her more. 



"Now come with me to 3G, C , and see Mrs. J e R e. She is a young 



woman of superior intelligence, and has a trustable face very. She may be about seven- 

 and-twenty. She lost her husband in the same ship. He was thirty years of age, and, 

 to use her own words, ' such a happy creature ; so full of jokes/ He was engaged as 

 second engineer, at 4 10s. and board. ( After his ship was loaded he was a changed 

 man ; he got his tea without saying a word, and then sat looking into the fire in a 

 deep study, like. I asked him what ailed him, and he said, more to himself than to me, 

 " She's such a beast ! " I thought he meant the men's place was dirty, as he had 

 complained before that there was no place to wash. He liked to be clean, my husband, 

 and always had a good wash when he came home from the workshop, when he worked 

 ashore. So I said, " Will you let me come on board to clean it out for you ? " And he 

 said, still looking at the fire, "It ain't that," Well, he hadn't signed, only agreed, so 

 I said, "Don't sign, Jim," and he said he wouldn't, and went and told the engineer 

 he shouldn't go. The engineer "spoke so kindly to him," and offered him 10s. a 

 month more. He had had no work for a long time, and the money was tempting/ 

 she said, "and so he signed. When he told me I said, "You won't go, Jim, will you?" 

 He said, "Why, Minnie, they will put me in gaol if I don't go." I said, "Never 

 mind, you can come home after that," " But/' said he, " they called me a coward, and 

 you would not like to hear me called that/" 



