166 TEE CRUISE OF TEE " CACEALOT" 



summons from Goliath brought us all aft again at the 

 double quick. Most of the fracas had been witnessed 

 from the ship, so that but a minute or two was needed 

 to explain how or why it begun. Directly that explana- 

 tion had been supplied by Mistah Jones, the order was 

 issued for the culprits to appear. 



I have before noticed how little love was lost between 

 the skipper and his officers, Goliath having even once 

 gone so far as to give me a very emphatic opinion of his 

 about the "old man" of a most unflattering nature. 

 And had such a state of things existed on board an 

 English ship, the crew would simply have taken charge, 

 for they would have seen the junior officers flouted, 

 snubbed, and jeered at ; and, of course, what they saw 

 the captain do, they would not be slow to improve on. 

 Many a promising young officer's career has been 

 blighted in this way by the feminine spite of a foolish 

 man unable to see that if the captain shows no respect 

 to his officers, neither will the crew, nor obedience either. 



But in an American ship, so long as an officer 

 remains an officer, he must be treated as such by every 

 man, under pain of prompt punishment. Yankee 

 skippers have far too much nous to allow their hands 

 to grow saucy in consequence of division among the 

 after-guard. So now a sort of court-martial was held 

 upon the unfortunates who had dared to attack Goliath, 

 at which that sable hero might have been the apple of 

 Captain Slocum's eye, so solicitous was he of Mistah 

 Jones' honour and the reparation to be made. 



This sort of thing was right in his line. Naturally 

 cruel, he seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself in the 

 prospect of making human beings twist and writhe in 

 pain. Nor would he be baulked of a jot of his pleasure. 



