246 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 23, 1905. 
Stories of Some Sea Dogs/ 
II. — the Sailors' Friend. 
In the many years I was officer and master of sailing 
vessels I do not remember that I ever made a voyage 
without haying a dog for a companion on board ship, and 
strange as it may seem, I never bought one in those days, 
for I had the good fortune always either of being pre- 
sented with one, or of picking up a canine waif on the 
wharf or in' the street that pleaded as only a dog can for 
a master and a home. I have always been a lover of dogs 
from childhood up, for the dog’s sake, and in later years 
the love has grown into admiration and respect begotten 
of my knowledge of his great value as a to be always 
trusted friend. Few men living have more reason to be 
grateful to the canine race than I, for repeatedly has my 
life been saved by a dog. In every instance but one — that 
of a fire in the house — the dogs to whom I owe so much 
have been far from being of recorded pedigree or cbam- 
pions that have won their distinction at bench shows. 
My dogs invariably belonged to the class “mongrel,” but 
in their class they have in every instance been worthy of 
the championship and all the cups and medals that could 
be given to a bench champion. My dogs often were of 
much mixed breeds, and when they came to me were in 
need of conditioning to make them fairly presentable 
even on the quarter deck of a ship. But it was my good 
fortune to have picked up dogs who were intelligent 
enough to know that I w'ould make a good master, and 
that with me they would secure a good home and such 
treatment as brings out the best traits of their character. 
The individual dog of whose record I shall write at 
this time, followed me one evening when I was return- 
iiig to the ship from the theater. It was a bitter cold 
night. The poor fellow fell in with me and at first fol- 
lowed at a respectful distance; but as I spoke to him 
kindly he came nearer, and at last I patted his head and 
he licked my hand. That settled his fate with me, and 
we jogged along to the West India Dock gates, for w^e 
were in London at the time, and it was not long before 
we were in the warm cabin. I w^ent to the pantry and 
gave him a good square meal and a drink of good clean 
water and then went to my room. The dog followed me 
and I pointed out a place for him to lie down, and turned 
in for a comfortable night’s rest. As the crew came 
strolling on board after their evening on shore he would 
growl, as he evidently was not quite familiar with his 
surroundings, but made no further outcry. 
When I awoke in the morning he was sitting up ready 
to greet me, and was profuse in his salutations. When 
the steward turned out I introduced the dog to him as I 
did the tvm mates when they came into the after cabin 
where I lived. When breakfast had been served I felt 
sure that the dog then knew who belonged aft, and that 
they would be treated accordingly. After the breakfast 
was cleared away the steward and I gave the dog a thor- 
ough cleansing, and his improved appearance was ample 
reward for our expenditure of time and soap. The next 
thing was to introduce him to the cook and the men for- 
ward so that he might familiarize himself with their 
faces, and when he became watchman that there would 
be no trouble in the men getting on board or in moving 
about the vessel at night. I had always done this when 
I adopted a new dog, and found the trouble taken to 
bring about this acquaintanceship was worth the time ex- 
pended, besides the dog invariably received better treat- 
ment from the men for the early introduction. 
We were in London for several weeks, and daily the 
dog, whom I had named Nip, grew in favor fore and aft, 
for he was a mild mann'ered fellow, very affectionate, and 
best of all was remarkably observant of what was going 
on and could readily distinguish between a stevedore, 
who had a right to come on board, and the sneak thief 
who lost no opportunity to carry off anything he could 
lay his hands on. He acquired his name before he had 
been on board a week from nipping one of these gentry, 
and nipped him so well that we secured the fellow and 
handed him over to the police, who recognized in him 
one of the cleverest fellows of his fraternity and whom 
the police had long been anxious to catch in some flag- 
rant act for which they could transnort him to a penal 
colony. Nip the dog was his undoing, and his clever- 
ness was the direct means of sending this fellow on a 
long journey over the sea to remain away from his native 
land for many years; however, he probably in due time 
secured a ticket-of-leave and eventually died out in the 
colonies a respected citizen like many of his predecessors 
whose passage had been paid by the Queen. 
I am half inclined to believe that Nip had been at sea 
before, and that this was not his maiden voyage, as he 
took so naturally to the ocean and ship’s affairs; at any 
rate, he was quite at home in any part of the ship and 
did not mind a heavy squall,, or a protracted gale of wind. 
Weather was all the same to him, be it sunshine or storm, 
and he was the best lookout on the ship. He could smell 
a passing vessel when no one on board could see it, and 
would smell the land hours before it came in sight, and 
in many ways was a valuable aid to navigation. As a 
membf’- of the “anchor watch” when in port his equal 
was not to be found among the twenty men who com- 
Tio.sed the crew. No boat could come near the ship but 
Nip would give us timely notice; and once while lying at 
*-For the first story of the series see issue of Aug. 12, 1905. 
Barbados he showed his splendid qualifications as a night 
Avatchman by keeping away from us the harbor thieves, 
who were very daring in plundering the ships that lay in 
the harbor. We lay in that harbor for twenty days and 
never a penny’s worth of stuff was taken from us. The 
lookout man might go to sleep, and he often did, but Nip- 
was never known to have slept after the anchor watch 
w'as set at eight bells. He even on one occasion, when a' 
vei-y heavy squall was coming down on us, gave us time- 
ly warning so that we had time to let go a second anchor 
and saved the ship from dragging her single anchor and 
going on shore, as four vessels did that night because the 
human anchor watchers were asleep, and when the squall 
struck their vessels it was too late to have the second 
anchor bite before the vessel was on the beach. 
Nip's champion record, however, was made on a voy- 
age from Deniarara to New Haven. We were heavily 
laden with sugar, rum, and a lot of scrap iron ' whicli 
had been taken on board the last thing, and was the 
cause of much trouble to me, as it affected the compasses 
and kept me on the anxious seat all the voyage. In those 
days we did not know so much as is known at the pres- 
ent day how to correct the errors due to local attraction. 
We had some twenty-five passengers on board, most of 
them ladies who were going north to visit friends, and 
some others journeying to England by the way of the 
States, so that^ my cares and responsibilities were un- 
usually large this, voyage. Nothing marred the early part 
of the trip save the bother with the compasses ; the 
weather was fine, the winds favorable and everything 
went smoothly until w'e crossed the Gulf Stream, where 
W'-e fell in with a succession of gales varying in intensity 
and duration, and for days at a time the weather condi- 
tions were such that the sun failed us — no observations 
could be made, and we were trusting to dead reckoning. 
This, coupled with tlae vagaries of our compasses, ren- 
dered certain navigation a puzzling problem. I was con- 
vinced that besides local attraction I was being bothered 
by unusual sets of currents, and life was miserable in the 
extreme. How'ever, I kept pressing the ship to the north- 
ward as opportunity offered, but was never sure of my 
western position. The bad weather had reduced my 
chance of making a reasonably quick run home, and as I 
had to double Montauk Point to get into Long Island 
Sound, I could have no assistance by picking up my posi- 
tion from landmarks like Barnegat, or floating marks like 
Sandy Hook Light Ship. When I got on soundings they 
did not agree with our supposed position, and I confessed 
to myself that I was “all at sea” as to where we really 
w'ere. I was getting well up with my northing, and be- 
came doubly anxious, and somewhat exhausted from the 
lack of sleep, and was brain tired with anxiety, but nerved 
myself up for the strain and tried not to let the passen- 
gers particularly see that I was worried in the least, for 
if they became tire least panicky then my troubles would 
be increased fourfold. 
I had calculated that I was some thirty miles off the 
Long Island coast on Sunday morning and had several 
casts of the lead which seemed to verify my calculations, 
but I resolved that nothing should be left undone to safe- 
guard the ship and her valuable freight of life and prop- 
erty. Early in the day I sent a man to each masthead to 
see if he could see over the fog and mist, and if possible 
to catch a glimpse of land, but nothing could be seen. 
When we went down to dinner at noon the only one of 
the after guard that did not put in an appearance at the 
table was Nip, who always sat on the floor at my right 
hand side, but I did not miss him at the time. True to 
his nature he was on the lookout on the topgallant fore- 
castle, where the mate and two men were peering into the 
fog.' We had just finished our soup when I heard Nip 
barking furiously; I could not resist the temptation to 
find out what had attracted his attention, and dropping 
my knife and fork rushed on deck and went forward. 
Nothing could be seen, but Nip could not be pacified, and 
with my previous experiences under like circumstances 
with dogs, it flashed into my mind that Nip smelt land, 
and it was best to heed his warning. I instantly ordered 
the ship to be put about, and we headed off to the east- 
ward and I felt easier, and returned to the dinner table 
feeling assured that no harm could come to the ship on 
her altered course. We had not progressed far with our 
meal before there was a sudden shift of wind, the fog 
was blown to the leeward of us and with a gentle breeze 
from the northward the vista which opened up before us 
was the lowland of Long Island, and close on board. 
But for Nip’s timely warning and my quick understand- 
ing of a dog’s capabilities as a reliable lookout, we would 
have undoubtedly been in the breakers with a great loss 
of life. 
Nip received an ovation from the passengers and crew 
that would have crushed any human being, but he did 
not seem to mind it, and seemed more anxious to secure 
a belated dinner than the caresses of his human friends. 
Several of the passengers wanted to buy him, but the 
combined passenger list did not have money sufficient to 
induce me to part with my canine friend. 
I left the ship at New Haven after she was discharged, 
and took Nip with me to New York, v'here I had secured 
another command, and we started off for a voyage tO' 
Jamaica. I told my new officers and men of the record 
of Nip, and bespoke for him kindly consideration. The 
story I told won for him a most kindly reception and he 
evidently felt that his new shipmates were his friends, for 
be was soon mingling with them as freely as he had done 
/ other vessel. He was frequently to be found with 
I the lookout at night, and the men considered it a great 
treat tO' have Nip as a companion in their lookouts. So 
far as_ Nip was concerned, the outward voyage was bare 
of incident ; we discharged our cargo and Nip had a few 
scraps on shore with Kingston dogs, in which he general- 
ly came off the victor. 
On our homeward run nothing of importance occurred 
until we were in the latitude of Charleston. The wind 
was light, the sky somewhat overcast, and the sea was 
quite snaopth. Nip was forward on the topgallant fore- 
castle sitting on his haunches listening to the chattering 
of the lookout man who was talking dog to the noble 
fellow, Avhen he suddenly jumped up and began barking 
and making a great noise about something he had either 
scented or seen on the surface of the water. The lookout 
coidd see no sign of sail, boat or even big fish; but the 
action of the dog made it clear to the man as well as to 
the watch on deck that something unusual had attracted 
Nip’s attention, and all eyes were .strained to see if any- 
thing was in sight. But no one could discover that there 
was any visible warrant for the dog’s behavior. He sud- 
denly leaped off the forecastle and ran along aft barking 
more strenuously than ever, and as he came up on the 
poop deck I came up out of the cabin. Just then the 
man at the wheel shouted out: “There is a man over- 
board ; I hear him crying out ‘help !’ ” 
The helm was put hard down and the main topsail laid 
to the mast and as quickly as possible a boat was cleared 
away and manned, and was soon putting in the direction 
from which the cry came. In perhaps ten minutes we 
sa w the boat returning, and received a hail from it : 
“We have got him.” When the boat was hoisted up even 
with the rail there was lifted from her a fine strapping 
fellow who was then unconscious. We got him on deck 
and found him without any clothing. From the boat 
Avas taken a large oaken draw bucket which had served 
as the man’s life preserver. 
It was not long before he had recovered sufficiently 
to tell us that he was one of the crew of a small whaling 
.schooner. At the time he fell overboard he was drawing 
water in the waist, and losing his balance had fallen into 
the sea unobserved by any of his shipmates. This oc- 
curred at about 7 o’clock the evening previous, and he 
had been afloat nearly thirty hours Avith nothing to sup- 
port him but that oaken bucket. After he had been in 
the water for some hours he had divested himself of all 
of his clothing, and being a good swimmer, had no diffi- 
culty in keeping himself afloat, although he was fast 
losing strength and had about given up hope of being 
able to last much longer. He had suffered terribly for 
the lack of water and from the rays of the mid-day sun, 
but said he had hoped to be picked up by his own vessel, 
which he savi' twice during the day on the horizon and 
once she was within about two miles of him, but they 
failed to see him. He had relieved his hand grasping 
strain on the buckH, by making the lanyard of the bucket 
into a loop in Avhich he sat and maintained his upright 
position by using a portion of the rope for a girth which 
kept the upturned bucket close to his chest. The com- 
pressed air in the bucket was sufficient tO' insure his 
safety so long as his strength held out and the sea con- 
tinued smooth. He saw our running lights as soon as 
they Avere visible above the horizon, and his greatest fear 
was that we might run over him, but he had hoped by 
husbanding his voice to warn us in time and also to en- 
able us to locate his position and rescue him. He heard 
Nip’s barkings and felt sure that the dog had discovered 
him, and said to himself: “Would to God that dogs 
could talk.” When we passed him slowly by, his spirits 
began to droop, but when he saw the ship come up to the 
Avind with her maintopsail to the mast, he knew that he 
was saved, and managed to keep his voice till the boat 
reached him, Avhen he fainted away. His recovery was 
rapid, and in a few hours he was about the decks, little 
the worse for his thirty-hour SAvim. To Nip he ascribed ■ 
all the credit of his rescue, and it was willingly accorded 
to the clever dog. 
From the hour the man and Nip met they were insep- 
arable, while to me dear old Nip was a treasure worth 
his weight in gold, and no money could have induced me 
to part with him. A couple of days after we arrived in 
New York Nip was missing, and we searched high and 
low for him. I advertised for him, but no replies came, 
although I promised a handsome reward to him who re- 
turned the dog. Just before I sailed on my next voyage 
a letter post-marked Belfast, Me., reading as follows : 
“My Dear Captain— I will to my dying day remember, 
and thank you for picking me up at sea, and for your 
kindness to me while on board your ship. I know you 
are grieving over your loss of Nip, but he is with me 
and will be till he or I dies. That he will have a good 
home I can guarantee, better than he ever could have on 
shipboard. I have had enough of the sea for my lifetime; 
so has Nip. I send you my best wishes. Nip worlld if 
he could. Good-by. God bless you. — Harry.” 
I could hardly blame him for wanting Nip for a com- 
panion, but did not exactly like the manner in which he 
acquired possession of my dog. But who could blame the 
man? I consoled myself that Nip would have a kind mas- 
ter and_ a good home. So I sought out another canine 
companion, but he never ranked as high in my estimation 
as did dear, good, clever, honest old Nip. B. S. Osbon. 
