4S6 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Nov. 28, 1903. 
'in ii/i 
WASHING DOAVK. 
ing and howling, and our prospects of getting to sea 
for a few days began to seem more remote than ever. 
Finally the tug returned with the captain, all ready 
to -tow us out, when the mate, as tho' to add another 
to the many trials of the skippers life, decided that 
he was too sick to go and asked to be put ashore. 
So back again went the captain and tug, and Captain 
Potter spent a good part of one afternoon of the hottest 
day of the year in hunting up and capturing a mate; 
and at last about 4 o'clock, returned with a candidate 
who, staggering up the ladder, dumped chest and bags 
and boxes and bundles enough for a cruise to the moon 
on the deck and disappeared in the forecastle with the 
sailors. 
"Now, Mr. Hubner (to the second mate), pass a 
hawser to the towboat and tell the donkeyman he can 
heave away when he wants to. What do you think of 
that? That man was sober when I signed him. He 
has been doing some quick work. Never mind, I'll 
straighten those boys out before we get very far. If 
you will take the wheel we will get outside and see 
what we can do." 
As I stood at the wheel and steered the schooner 
after the tug, 1 pitied that captain, and at the same 
time admired the nerve that would start to sea with a 
big schooner and no one to handle her. Here was a 
vessel worth $75,000, to say nothing of the passenger, 
going to sea with only three men out of eleven fit for 
duty; three men to handle a schooner of 1,800 tons, 
night coming on and in the hurricane season. 
I wonder what we would have done had we had the 
breeze on that night that we had the following. Gone 
ashore probably on the rocks at the mouth of the Ken- 
nebec and those dogs were getting $35 a month. Talk 
about the poor sailor — rubbish — the poor captain and 
owners come" in, too. 
How calm and beautiful was that day; the green 
shores and white beaches shining in the sun seemed the 
epitomd of peace and happiness; and as the incompara- 
ble coast of Maine faded from sight astern I could 
not but contrast the purity of the world about us with 
the miserable human element expressed in those sail- 
ors forward, who could see no further than a bottle of 
rum, and who, living in an atmosphere which developed 
physical strength, were almost rotten with poor whiskey 
and dissipation. 
The immense hawser cast of? from the tug was drag- 
ging astern; tlie anchor was hanging from the bows 
and the sails, loosed, lay on the booms, save the fore- 
sail, which had been hoisted part way by the sober 
ones. The mate was still out of sight, and until their 
rum was gone it would be impossible to do anything 
with the sailors. An empty bottle flew over the rail; 
one step nearer business that meant. At length a few 
staggered up and began to make sail more by instinct 
than reason. The messenger was dragged along by 
men barely able to stand, and with heads aching enough 
to split, I warrant; though the heave of the vessel as 
she felt the roll of the open sea, seemed in some degree 
to counteract their unsteady gait. All sorts of calls 
were rung in on the engine man by anybody who hap- 
pened to think to pick the bell, and the wonder was 
that the gaffs and booms were not hoisted clear to 
the masthead. Finally the lower sails were set, and 
then they tried to get the anchor on the rail. 
Nobody was killed, thanks to something which pro- 
tects fools and drunkards, but when the ring painter 
had been rove and the anchor hauled up, the whole 
crowd, with the exception of the second mate, beat a 
retreat into the forecastle to join in another round of 
poison, leaving him hanging on for dear life, and no- 
body to pass and secure the ring-stopper, while a 
6,000-pound anchor was hanging at the cathead. 
"Mr. Hansen, Mr. Hansen, will you please come and 
give me a hand with this anchor? Mr. Hansen, won't 
you send a man to help me with this tackle? Mr. Han- 
sen, Mr. Hansen." 
I couldn't help noticing the manner in which the sec- 
ond mate, almost automatically, it seemed, took "Mr. 
Hansen's" position for all that it implied. Mr. Han- 
sen was the mate, and as such was supposed to have 
general charge of all operations on board, and, be he 
drunk or sober, a good man or the worst drunken sot 
that could get a job as mate, he was the "mate" and 
in authority; and here was a young man worth six like 
"Mr. Hansen," looking to him for orders and accept- 
ing without question his intrusion over him in the ves- 
sel, and ready to jump at the bid of a man who was 
a stranger to the captain, and picked up at the last min- 
ute through necessity. 
But Mr. Hansen was deaf to things of so little im- 
portance as getting an anchor on the rail. Finally, the 
-second mate called me, and between us we caught a 
turn, he secured the anchor, the mate and his gang re- 
appeared, and with a steady stream of bad language 
the shank painter was passed, the mass of metal hoisted 
on the rail, lashed down, and the job was done. Then 
a man was sent to each masthead to loose the topsails. 
I really expected to see them all come down by the 
air line. What faculty can protect a man aloft who 
cannot keep his feet on deck I do not know, but they 
got there, missing a ratline now and then; and after 
some time the hail came down, "Ready the fore!" 
"Ready the mizzen, sir!" "Ready the spanker top- 
sa — i — 1!" The main was not heard from. After a 
half hour the mate's befuddled brain grasped the fact 
that the man at the main could not handle the sail, 
and he sent another man up to help him. As the second 
man hauled himself up into the crosstrees, one about 
as fit as the other, the first one, realizing what was 
going on, full of indignation, leaning far out over the 
ratlines of the topmast rigging, thus addressed the 
mate, who stood on the deck below him: 
"What do you mean, sir? Don't you suppose I can 
loose a topsail? What do you mean by sending this 
man up here? Do you mean to insult me? If I can 
get down I will tell 3'ou what I think of you." 
The idea of that rum-soaked wretch being open to 
SWAY HIM UP. 
insult and the expressive "if" were killing. 
Leaving No. 2 to try to loose the topsail. No. i_suc- 
ceeded in regaining the deck, and rolling up to the 
mate, started in with a long harangue; but in two 
minutes they had their arms about each others' necks 
in maudlin endearment. But the climax came later. 
The captain ordered the outer jib loosed, and one of 
the men started out on the jib boom, another followed 
and another, till five of them were out there doing 
nothing, when the mate came along and joined the 
group on the end of the spar. Six men bunched at the 
end of a jib boom trying to loose a sail that a boy 
could loose in three minutes, were never seen before. 
I turned and looked at the skipper. "Well," he said, 
"I've been going master of a vessel twenty-three years 
atid I never saw anything like that before. I've had 
drunken crews; you always have them; but when the 
mate takes hold and joins in I'm done. I'll give that 
felloAV his two and sixpence as soon as I can." 
Morning dawned, with a moderate southerly wind, 
and close-hauled, the schooner made but little progress. 
We held on the starboard tack, and at dafk the wind, 
which had been breezing gradually, blew a fresh gale, 
and we reefed the spanker. This is always exciting; 
when the air that sweeps through the rigging is warm 
and the rain that beats in your face is warm, and the 
v-essel is light and up out of water, it is not especially 
dangerous; when the thermometer is at freezing and 
the loaded craft is awash in the bitter seas, then it is 
another story. That night it was play. The messenger 
is passed to the reef tackle and the band hauled taut; 
then the heavy sail is "skinned" a little at a time until 
the first line of nettles is reached; but the job is to 
find the corresponding nettle on the lee side, and with 
00 canvas, the heaviest made, which resists your efforts 
to move it like so much sheet iron, it is no easy task 
to find the right points in the dark. And from a reef- 
ing plank bending under the weight of three or four 
men, you cannot use your strength to advantage. 
The schooner was heeled over and pitching in the 
sea, and the big sail slacked down to the second reef 
band, bellied out to leeward; the second mate was at 
the earing astride the boom, and all hands were ranged 
along the spar while the water foamed along under our 
feet, and the spirit of excitement possessed everybody. 
Without steam it would be killing work to handle those 
big sails, but the invisible messenger along the deck 
yanks the kinks out of things in a hurry, and with the 
band as taut as the boom itself, we knot the points and 
hoist away again. That night we "jogged along." 
Reports on shore gave it as a fierce gale, but it did not 
seem so to me at the time. Possibly the A'Cssel was so 
big that she did not make much fuss in the compara- 
tively smooth water; she lay down under the reefed 
spanker and four "lowers" and soaked along, not do- 
ing much to Avind'ard. In fact, I do not believe we 
made anything to wind'ard; we wore ship several 
times during the night; she wouldn't tack. These long 
schooners, when light, are awful things to handle, and 
ELEVEN KNOTS AND BREEZING UP.' 
CAPTAIN POTTERj OF THE LOUISE E. CRARY," WHO SPENT 
TflHEE DAYS IN AN OPEN BOAT IN THE DEAD OF WINTER. 
