Afloat and Ashore | Page 8

at first; and
we then shook hands again to cement the compact of eternal friendship,
although I took care this time that my demonstrative boatswain should
not give me so forcible a squeeze with his huge fist as before,
observing as I looked round the vessel and up at her towering masts
overhead: "What a splendid ship!"
"Aye, she's all that, ivery inch of her from truck to kelson," he
answered equally enthusiastically; "an' so's our foorst mate, a sailor all
over from the sole av his fut to the crown av his hid."
"And the captain," I inquired, "what sort of a man is he?"
"Arrah, now you're axin' questions," he rejoined with a sly look from
his roguish eyes. "D'ye happen to know what's inside av an egg, now,
whither it's a chicken, sure, or ownly the yoke an' white, till ye bhrake
the shill?"
"No," said I laughing. "But, we don't find chickens generally in our
eggs at home."
"Wait till ye thry one on shipboord," he retorted. "Still, ye can't deny
now that ye don't know for sure what's insoide the shill till ye bhrake it,
an' say for yoursilf--eh?"

"No," I assented to this reasoning; "but, I don't see what that's got to do
with the captain."
"Don't ye, honey?" replied he with another expressive wink. "Wait till
ye can say for yourself, that's all."
"Oh!" I exclaimed, understanding now that he was shrewd enough not
to commit himself to any opinion on the point; so, I did not pursue the
inquiry any further.
"Sure, ye'll excuse me, Misther Gray-ham," he said presently, after
another word or two on irrelevant matters; "but I must stop yarnin' now,
as I expexes the foorst mate aboord ivery minnit, an' he'll be groomblin'
like a badger wid a sore tail if those lazy lubbers ain't hove all the cargy
in. We've got to warp out o' dock this arternoon, an' the tide'll make
about `six bells'!"
"When is that?" I asked, to know the meaning of this nautical term,
which I guessed referred to the time of day, as my friend the boatswain
turned round again towards the stevedores, hurrying them on and
making them work with a will.
"Thray o'clock. Sure, I forgot ye didn't savvy our sailor's lingo at all, at
all," he explained to me between the interval of his orders to the men,
shouted out in the same high key as at first. "An', be the same token, as
it's now jist toorned two bells, or one o'clock, savin' your prisince, I've
got no toime to lose, me bhoy. Jist d'ye go oop that ladder there, an'
wait out av harum's way till I've done me job an' can come for ye."
He pointed as he spoke to the steps or stairway leading from the main-
deck, where I had been standing alongside of him, to the poop.
I at once obeyed him; and, ascending with alacrity the poop ladder, was
able to see from that elevated position the capital way in which he
urged on and encouraged the men, until, as if by magic, the heavy
boxes and lumbering crates that had but a short time before almost
covered the jetty beside the ship, were all hoisted inboard and lowered
down into her hold.

Here, below, another gang of stevedores, not less busy than those above,
took charge of the stowage of the cargo, slamming the chests and crates
about, and so ramming and jamming them between the decks by the aid
of jack-screws, that they were soon packed together in one
homogeneous mass--so tightly squeezed that not even a cockroach
could have crawled in between them, not a single crack or cranny being
left vacant.
"Thare now! Sure, an' that job's done wid anyhow for this v'yge, plaize
the pigs, ma bouchal!" exclaimed the boatswain with a jolly laugh, after
seeing the main-hatchway covered and battened down, and a tarpaulin
spread over it to make all snug, gazing round with an air of proud
satisfaction, as he slowly made his way up the poop ladder again and
came up to where I was standing by the rail looking over. "Don't ye
think we've made pretty sharp work of it at the last, sorr, eh?"
"I'm sure you have, Mr Rooney," I replied enthusiastically. For, I could
not help admiring the way in which he had got the stevedores to work
so steadily and speedily in getting in the cargo and clearing the ship's
deck, so that it was now trim and orderly in place of being littered over
with lumber as previously--the active boatswain helping one here,
encouraging another there, and making all laugh occasionally with
some racy joke, that seemed to lighten their labour greatly and cause
them to set to their task