Edward Barry

Edward Barry, by Louis Becke

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Title: Edward Barry South Sea Pearler
Author: Louis Becke

Release Date: November 10, 2007 [eBook #23440]
Language: English
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EDWARD BARRY
(South Sea Pearler)
by
LOUIS BECKE

[Frontispiece: Barry lifted her in his arms and carried her down to the
boat.]

T. Nelson & Sons London and Edinburgh Paris: 189, rue Saint-Jacques
Leipzig: 35-37 Königstrasse 1914

CONTENTS.
CHAP.
I. "EDWARD BARRY--'DEAD BROKE'" II. THE MAYNARDS III.
THE BRIG MAHINA IV. MR. BILLY WARNER OF PONAPÉ V.
VELO, THE SAMOAN, PROPHESIES. VI. IN ARRECIFOS
LAGOON VII. ALICE TRACEY VIII. MRS. TRACEY TELLS HER
STRANGE STORY IX. "ALLA GOODA COMRADE" X. A
REPENTANCE XI. CAPTAIN RAWLINGS PROPOSES "A LITTLE
CELEBRATION" XII. BARRY AND VELO DISCOURSE ON
MARRIAGE XIII. "THE LITTLE CELEBRATION COMES OFF"
XIV. BARRY HOISTS THE FLAG OF ENGLAND XV. FAREWELL
TO ARRECIFOS XVI. EXIT RAWLINGS AND THE GREEK XVII.
BARRY RECEIVES A "STIFFENER" XVIII. ON BOARD THE
NEW BARQUE

EDWARD BARRY.
CHAPTER I.
"EDWARD BARRY--'DEAD BROKE.'"
A wild, blustering day in Sydney, the Queen City of the Southern Seas.
Since early morn a keen, cutting, sleet-laden westerly gale had been
blowing, rattling and shaking the windows of the houses in the higher
and more exposed portions of the town, and churning the blue waters of
the harbour into a white seethe of angry foam as it swept outwards to
the wide Pacific.
In one of the little bays, situated between Miller's Point and Dawe's
Battery, and overlooked by the old-time Fort Phillip on Observatory
Hill, were a number of vessels, some alongside the wharves, and others
lying to their anchors out in the stream, with the wind whistling
through their rain-soaked cordage. They were of all rigs and sizes, from
the lordly Black Ball liner of a thousand tons to the small fore and aft
coasting schooner of less than fifty. Among them all there was but one
steamer, a handsome brig-rigged, black-painted and black-funnelled
craft of fifteen hundred tons, flying the house flag of the Peninsular and
Oriental Company. Steamers were rare in Sydney Harbour in those
days (it was the year 1860), and the Avoca had pride of place and her
own mooring buoy, for she was the only English mail boat, and her
commander and his officers were regarded with the same respect as if
they and their ship were the admiral and staff of the Australian
squadron.
Leaning with folded arms upon one of the wharf bollards, and
apparently oblivious of the driving sleet and cutting wind, a shabbily
dressed man of about thirty years of age was looking, pipe in mouth, at
the mail boat and the sailing vessels lying in the stream. There were
four in all--the steamer, an American whaling barque, a small brig of
about two hundred tons flying the Hawaiian Island colours, and a big,
sprawling, motherly-looking full-rigged ship, whose huge bow ports
denoted her to be a lumberman.

The man put his hand in his pocket and jingled together his few small
remaining coins; then he turned away and walked along the wharf till
he reached the side of a warehouse, the lee of which was sheltered from
the wind and rain. He leant his back against the wall and again handled
the coins.
"Seven shillings and two coppers," he said to himself, "and a waterman
would want at least three shillings to pull round here from the Circular
Quay in such nasty weather. No, Ted Barry, my boy, the funds won't
run it. But that brig is my fancy. She's all ready for sea--all her boats up
with the gripes lashed, and the Custom House fellow doing his dog-trot
under the awning, waiting for the skipper to come aboard, and the tug
to range alongside as soon as this howling gale takes off a bit. I'll wait
here for another hour and watch for him."
Sitting under the lee of the wall, he again filled his pipe and began to
smoke placidly, scanning with a seaman's eye the various vessels lying
alongside the wharves.
Work had ceased for the day, the lumpers and longshore men had gone
to their homes, and the usual idlers and loafers, which are always to be
found in the immediate vicinity of shipping,