His officers were, in the language of one of these defendants, "o' the same breed o' dorg." No others could or would sign with him. His crews were invariably put on board in the stream or at anchorage--never at the dock. Drunk when coerced by the boarding-masters into signing the ship's articles, kept drunk until delivery, they were driven or hoisted up the side like animals--some in a stupor from drink or drugs, some tied hand and foot, struggling and cursing with returning reason.
Equipped thus, the _Wilmington_, bound for Melbourne, discharged her tug and pilot off Sandy Hook one summer morning, and, with a fresh quartering wind and raising sea, headed for the southeast. The day was spent in getting her sail on, and in the "licking into shape" of the men as fast as they recovered their senses. Oaths and missiles flew about the deck, knock-downs were frequent, and by eight bells in the evening, when the two mates chose the watches,--much as boys choose sides in a ball game,--the sailors were well convinced that their masters lived aft.
Three men, long-haired fellows, sprawling on the main-hatch, helpless from seasickness, were left to the last in the choosing and then hustled into the light from the near-by galley door to be examined. They had been dragged from the forecastle at the mate's call for "all hands."
"Call yourselves able seamen, I suppose," he said with an oath, as he glared into their woebegone faces.
"No, pard," said the tallest and oldest of the three, in a weak voice. "We're not seamen; we don't know how we got here, neither."
The mate's answer was a fist-blow under the ear that sent the man headlong into the scuppers, where he lay quiet.
"Say 'sir' when you speak to me, you bandy-legged farmers," he snarled, glowering hard at the other two, as they leaned against the water-tank. "I'm pard to none of ye."
They made him no answer, and he turned away in contempt. "Mr. Tomm," he called, "want these Ethiopians in your watch?"
"No, sir," said the second mate; "I don't want 'em. They're no more use 'an a spare pump."
"I'll make 'em useful 'fore I'm done with 'em. Go forrard, you three. Get the bile out o' yer gizzards 'fore mornin', 'f ye value yer good looks." He delivered a vicious kick at each of the two standing men, bawled out, "Relieve the wheel an' lookout--that'll do the watch," and went aft, while the crew assisted the seasick men to the forecastle and into three bedless bunks--bedless, because sailors must furnish their own, and these men had been shanghaied.
