MEN OF THE ''ALEXANDER'' 23 



drunk, and most of theni were tipsy. All had 

 bottles and demijohns of whiskey. Everybody 

 was full of bad liquor and high spirits that first 

 night on the brig. A company of jolly sea rovers 

 were we, and we joked and laughed and roared 

 out songs like so many pirates about to cruise 

 for treasure galleons on the Spanish Main. 

 Somehow next morning the rose color had faded 

 out of the prospect and there were many aching 

 heads aboard. 



On the morning of the second day, the officers 

 came out to the vessel. A tug puffed alongside 

 and made fast to us with a cable. The anchor 

 was heaved up and, with the tug towing us, wet 

 headed for the Golden Gate. Outside the har- 

 bor heads, the tug cast loose and put back into 

 the bay in a cloud of smoke. The brig was left 

 swinging on the long swells of the Pacific. 



The captain stopped pacing up and down the! 

 quarter-deck and said something to the mate. 

 His words seemed like a match to powder. Im- 

 mediately the mate began roaring out orders. 

 Boat-steerers bounded forward, shouting out the 

 orders in turn. The old sailors sang them out in 



