Captain Scraggs | Page 3

She had cost him
fifteen hundred hard-earned dollars.
Scraggs--Phineas P. Scraggs, to employ his full name, was precisely
the kind of man one might expect to own and operate the Maggie.
Rat-faced, snaggle toothed and furtive, with a low cunning that
sometimes passed for great intelligence, Scraggs' character is best
described in a homely American word. He was "ornery." A native of
San Francisco, he had grown up around the docks and had developed
from messboy on a river steamer to master of bay and river steamboats,
although it is not of record that he ever commanded such a craft.
Despite his "ticket" there was none so foolish as to trust him with
one--a condition of affairs which had tended to sour a disposition not
naturally sweet. The yearning to command a steamboat gradually had
developed into an obsession. Result--the "fast and commodious S.S.
Maggie," as the United States Marshal had had the audacity to advertise
her.
In the beginning, Captain Scraggs had planned to do bay and river
towing with the Maggie. Alas! The first time the unfortunate Scraggs
attempted to tow a heavily laden barge up river, a light fog had come
down, necessitating the frequent blowing of the whistle. Following the
sixth long blast, Mr. McGuffey had whistled Scraggs on the engine
room howler; swearing horribly, he had demanded to be informed why
in this and that the skipper didn't leave that dod-gasted whistle alone. It
was using up his steam faster than he could manufacture it. Thereafter,
Scraggs had used a patent foghorn, and when the honest McGuffey had
once more succeeded in conserving sufficient steam to crawl up river,
the tide had turned and the Maggie could not buck the ebb. McGuffey
declared a few new tubes in the boiler would do the trick, but on the
other hand, Mr. Gibney pointed out that the old craft was practically

punk aft and a stiff tow would jerk the tail off the old girl. In despair,
therefore, Captain Scraggs had abandoned bay and river towing and
was prepared to jump overboard and end all, when an opportunity
offered for the freighting of garden truck and dairy produce from
Halfmoon Bay to San Francisco.
But now a difficulty arose. The new run was an "outside" one--salt
water all the way. Under the ruling of the Inspectors, the Maggie would
be running coastwise the instant she engaged in the green pea and
string bean trade, and Captain Scraggs's license provided for no such
contingency. His ticket entitled him to act as master on the waters of
San Francisco Bay and the waters tributary thereto, and although
Scraggs argued that the Pacific Ocean constituted waters "tributary
thereto," if he understood the English language, the Inspectors were
obdurate. What if the distance was less than twenty-five miles? they
pointed out. The voyage was undeniably coastwise and carried with it
all the risk of wind and wave. And in order to impress upon Captain
Scraggs the weight of their authority, the Inspectors suspended for six
months Captain Scraggs's bay and river license for having dared to
negotiate two coastwise voyages without consulting them. Furthermore,
they warned him that the next time he did it they would condemn the
fast and commodious Maggie.
In his extremity, Fate had sent to Captain Scraggs a large, imposing,
capable, but socially indifferent person who responded to the name of
Adelbert P. Gibney. Mr. Gibney had spent part of an adventurous life
in the United States Navy, where he had applied himself and acquired a
fair smattering of navigation. Prior to entering the Navy he had been a
foremast hand in clipper ships and had held a second mate's berth.
Following his discharge from the Navy he had sailed coastwise on
steam schooners, and after attending a navigation school for two
months, had procured a license as chief mate of steam, any ocean and
any tonnage.
Unfortunately for Mr. Gibney, he had a failing. Most of us have. The
most genial fellow in the world, he was cursed with too much brains
and imagination and a thirst which required quenching around pay-day.

Also, he had that beastly habit of command which is inseparable from a
born leader; when he held a first mate's berth, he was wont to try to
"run the ship" and, on occasions, ladle out suggestions to his skipper.
Thus, in time, he had acquired a reputation for being unreliable and a
wind-bag, with the result that skippers were chary of engaging him.
Not to be too prolix, at the time Captain Scraggs made the
disheartening discovery that he had to have a skipper for the Maggie,
Mr. Gibney found himself reduced to the alternative of longshore work
or a fo'castle berth in a windjammer bound for blue water.
With alacrity, therefore, Mr. Gibney had