The Nineteenth Century 75 



money or spirits; but this was refused by the men, and it then became a con- 

 test of one against many. Shaw shut himself up in his cabin, the door of which 

 he barricaded with trunks and boxes; and he also barred the port or small 

 window. After he had remained some time in this voluntary imprisonment, 

 without light or air, during the hottest part of the day, and 'under the line', 

 the crew, dressed as Neptune and his satellites, came thundering at his cabin- 

 door, and with oaths and imprecations demanded admission. This he refused, 

 but at the same time renewed his offer of a compromise. Mr. Patterson, the 

 fourth mate, entreated the crew, but in vain, to accept the offer made to 

 them. The men, becoming chafed with the opposition, resolved now to obtain 

 their way by force, regardless of consequences. They tried to force the door, 

 but failed. Mr. Raymond, third mate, sanctioned and approved the conduct 

 of the men; and suggested that while some were engaged in wrenching the 

 door off its hinges, others should effect an entry through the port. A sailor, 

 armed with a sword and bludgeon, was lowered by a rope down the outside 

 of the ship; and he succeeded in getting into the cabin, just at the moment 

 when the other sailors forced open the door. Lieutenant Shaw defended him- 

 self for a time with his sword, and fired off his pistols — more for the sake of 

 summoning assistance than to do injury, for they were not loaded. The whole 

 gang now pressed round him, and after wresting the sword from his hand, 

 dragged him upon deck. There he clung for some time to the post of the 

 cuddy-door; and, finding the first and third mates to be abetting the seamen, 

 he called out loudly for the captain. The captain's cabin-door, however, was 

 shut, and he either did not or would not hear the appeal. So impressed was 

 the sensitive mind of the lieutenant with the indignity in store for him, that he 

 actually endeavoured to throw himself overboard, but this was prevented 

 by Mr. Patterson. Unmoved by all his entreaties, the crew proceeded with the 

 frolic on which they had set their hearts, and which, after the resistance they 

 had encountered, they resolved not to forego on any terms. They seized the 

 heutenant, dragged him along the quarter-deck to the middle of the ship, and 

 placed him sitting in a boat half-filled with filthy liquid. His eyes being 

 bandaged with a dirty napkin, a nauseous composition of tar and pitch was 

 rubbed over his face, as 'Neptune's shaving soap,' and scraped off again by 

 means of a rusty hoop, which constituted 'Neptune's razor.' He was then 

 pushed back with violence into the boat, and there held struggling for some 

 seconds, with his head immersed in the noisome liquid. Injured in body 

 by this rough treatment, he was much more wounded in his mental feelings; 

 and when the ship arrived at Bombay, he brought action against the first 

 and third mates. The fourth mate bore witness in his favour; and the captain, 

 as a witness, declared that he did not hear the cry for assistance; but it is 

 known that captains, at that time, were mostly unwilling to interfere with 

 the sailors. The damages of 400 rupees ( £40), though more than the mates 

 rehshed to pay, could scarcely be deemed a very satisfactory recompense for 

 the inflictions which the heutenant had undergone. 



