Part of the
Acorn Archive
Hearts of Oak
Captain J L Vivian Millett
Part 8
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Part Eleven Part Twelve
We
eventually got to Dunkirk, where we discharged our cargo, and proceeded to West
Hartlepool to load. The captain told Erskine that he did not require him
another voyage, whereupon the latter went to the firm and reported how
constantly the captain had been drunk during the voyage. I was summoned as a
witness, but, for some reason best known to themselves, the owners decided to
give the captain another chance. I heard afterwards that he drank more than
ever on his next voyage, and, as a matter of fact, was locked up for being
drunk and disorderly in Genoa, so, on this coming to the owners' ears, they
dismissed him from their service on his return home. Poor Erskine, however, had
to look for another job, I meanwhile being left in charge of the ship.
It was
bitterly cold weather, and I caught a chill which settled on my lungs. I became
seriously ill and had to go home. I could not shake the chill off, and the
doctors, fearing I might be going into consumption, ordered me off to a warmer
climate to escape the bitter winter that we were then experiencing. My brother
was in the Indian Civil Service in the Bombay Presidency, and so I decided that
the only way that I could afford to go to a warmer climate was to live on him.
My owners got a friend of theirs to give me a passage to Bombay in one of their
steamers, and I left England, and, although on arrival at Bombay I was not
well, I certainly had improved in health. I stayed with my brother for four
months, but unfortunately my illness turned to asthma, and at times the attacks
were so bad that for a week at a time I was unable to lie down. The doctor
advised my returning home, as summer was then approaching in England, and I got
a cheap passage in a cargo boat to Trieste, eventually arriving home in May.
The asthma not being any better, I was in the doctors' hands the whole summer
trying various remedies, but without result, and, winter approaching again,
they ordered me off, either to the Cape or Australia, as a last hope of saving
my life.
I was given
a passage to Sydney, New South Wales, in a steamer called the BAYLEY. I joined
her on November 5, 1888, in a terrific snow-storm, which brought on the most
severe attack of asthma that I had ever had. I was so bad that, when sitting up
in my berth in the cabin, I heard the captain say to the owner (who had come
aboard to wish him good-bye) "Why on earth did you allow that young fellow
to come with us? He will be dead before we get to Las Palmas"; and I must
say that I did not care much if I did die, so the remark had no effect on me.
When I
was packing up my things at home, my dear mother (who was always buying me
stuff that she saw advertised to cure asthma) packed me, against my will, a
bottle of patent medicine called "Doctor Hare's Cure for Asthma" and
my first evening aboard the ship, being so ill, I decided to try this new
remedy. The directions stated, "A tablespoonful to be taken three times a
day, with a cold bath in the morning".
I took one dose and immediately felt the benefit, and after a fairly
good night I awakened feeling much batter. The ship was then off Dover, and I
wondered whether I should carry out the further instructions on the bottle and
take a cold bath. I decided it was a case of "kill or cure" so I
asked the steward whether I could have a cold salt-water bath, a thing which I
had never taken previously, except in hot weather. The steward calmly said,
"Do you want to kill yourself?" to which I replied, "I do not
care, but I want a cold bath". He prepared it, and although it was
bitterly cold weather I plunged into it, with the result that I thought I was
going to give up the ghost! I scrambled out, dried myself thoroughly, and, to
cut a long story short, within a week after finishing the bottle of medicine,
and taking cold baths every morning, the phlegm on my lungs all came away, and
I was practically free from asthma. By the time we got to Australia I had no
trace of it, and have never had it since.
We had
an uneventful voyage out, and on arrival at Sydney I determined to stay out
there for a time, in order to make sure that my health was quite recovered. I
applied to Howard Smith & Co. for a third mate's job in one of their
coasting steamers, and was accepted and appointed to their S.S. GAMBIER, a
small double-funnel passenger boat, formerly owned by Alfred Holt & Co. I
remained in her for two months, when for some reason or another I was shifted
to the S.S. ERA, a collier employed
between Newcastle and Melbourne, and considered by all the officers the most
desirable ship of the fleet, as the round trip took less than a fortnight,
giving us always a free Sunday in Melbourne. I soon got to know people. My
greatest friends were a Congregational minister and his three very pretty
daughters. I was in love with all three; but that is thirty-five years ago, and
I suppose now they are all grandmothers, although I can still visualize them as
the sweet, pretty little things that they were when I was in love with them.
I
carried on my duties as third mate in the same manner that I had been
accustomed to under Bully Pringle, but the Australian sailors and officers were
not accustomed to "hard case" methods, and although I never had any
man turn on me, yet I became well known in the company for a
"driver". To my surprise, however, although I was junior third
officer of the company, four months after I joined I was offered the second
officer's berth in my old ship, the GAMBIER. I joined her and found that she
had a new captain in the shape of a young bachelor, who, although he knew his
work, was no disciplinarian, in that he made love openly to all the pretty
girls amongst the many passengers we carried between Melbourne and Sydney. He
allowed those who were in any way good-looking to do just as they liked, and on
the bridge sometimes he was to be seen sitting on one side surrounded by three
or four girls, while I (who was supposed to be keeping watch) had three or four
on the other side. He and I being the two youngest, as the third mate and chief
officer were elderly men, had some lovely times, but this is a story that I am
not going to tell!
After I
had been a few months second mate, one voyage when we returned to Melbourne we
found that the secretary of our union had decided that we should all strike for
higher wages. He came aboard our ship to induce us to join in the strike, and
assured us that when he gave the signal every officer of every ship engaged in
the coasting trade of Australia would strike immediately the ship was in port.
I did not care whether I struck or not, as I had resolved to go home to England
as soon as I could get a ship, so I willingly threw in my lot with
the
others and agreed to strike. Two days later the signal was given, and all the
officers left their ships, but, as I was doing so, the marine superintendent of
the company begged me to reconsider my decision, since he had already marked me
for the chief officer's berth in the S.S. GAMBIER. I was gratified at his
thinking so highly of me, but pointed out to him that I was only on the coast
temporarily, and so thought that as other officers, who had their homes in
Australia, were striking, I could not play them a dirty trick by not joining
them. He was very persistent, and even went so far as to promise me command
within a couple of years from that time, which gave me furiously to think, as,
after all, I was only twenty-three years of age; but I set my face against the
temptation and left the ship. All the officers thought they were little tin
heroes, and accepted the assurance of the secretary blindly that the whole of
the coasting trade would be hung up because there would be no officers to run
the ships. As a matter of fact, the coasting trade was not hung up, for neither
the secretary nor the officers had realized that there were hundreds of
sailing-ship officers out of jobs, or in shore jobs, who were only too glad to
have the opportunity of going into coasting steamers; with the result that
within a week every steamer was running, fully manned by blackleg officers, and
all of us out of jobs.
I had
saved up some money, with which I proceeded to have a mighty good time with my
girl friends; but at the end of two months found that I had better get to
England or else I should be penniless. One of the coasting steamers, named
the WASTWATER, was loading wool for
England, so I applied for and was given the third mate's job. The skipper, an
old man, was a splendid navigator. His knowledge of the stars was very
extensive, and all I know about astronomy I learned from him on the passage to
England.
We
arrived home in due course, and, after a holiday, I applied to my old company,
and they appointed me second officer of a new ship that was just being built
for them, named the S.S. PEMBRIDGE, in which I made a voyage to Calcutta,
during which nothing of any interest occurred. When I got home again I found
that Bully Pringle had applied to the company for me as his chief officer in
the S.S. BROOKFIELD. I did not care much about going with him again, but
realizing that, with all his little peculiarities, he was a splendid man for a
young fellow to receive his training from, I accepted the position and joined
the ship at Harwich. The second mate was a young fellow named George Herbert.
This was in 1890, thirty-four years ago, and I am pleased to say that Herbert
and I have remained the closest of friends during all those long years. He was
half an inch or an inch less in height than myself and was of sturdy build,
and, like all officers who made more than one voyage with Bully Pringle, had no
fear and was always ready for a scrap.
We went
to bunker at Shields prior to proceeding in ballast to New York for orders.
Owing to depression in trade, Shields was overstocked with sailors and firemen,
so I had a choice of hundreds of men applying to ship. I engaged all young
fellows who were sailing-ship men. Two of them, I remember, had their
certificates, and when we sailed from Shields, we had about as good a crowd of
seamen as any steamer ever had. Herbert was quite ready to co-operate with me
in driving the men, and we soon had Pringle very pleased with the way we got
the work done.
As
usual, I carried a pair of boxing-gloves, and while Herbert and I sailed
together in fine weather we were constantly slogging away at each other
whenever we had a chance. We were both (as I have already said) about the same
size and so were a good match. When we got tired of hammering each other, which
we did most unmercifully, we used to invite the engineers to take us on, but
there was "nothing doing". In port, sometimes, we used to have
admiring audiences in the evening watching us, both from the shore and from
other ships. I remember at Galveston the captain brought some of his friends
(masters of other steamers in the port) on board, and as they came over the
gangway they saw Herbert and me laying into each other for all we were worth.
Of course we knocked off, and one of the captains told us that his officers
could knock seven bells out of us. Herbert asked me to find out which ship he
was master of, so I went in and asked him and he told me it was the ENDEAVOUR.
Herbert immediately put the boxing-gloves under his arm and went along the
wharf and got aboard the ship, asking the watchman where he could find the
chief officer. He was told that all the officers were in the chart-room playing
cards, so he went along the bridge and knocked at the chart-room door. Somebody
yelled out, "Come in" and on entering Herbert found three officers
inside. He informed them that their skipper had told him and myself that they
could knock seven bells out of us, and that he had come round to invite them to
do it! He told me afterwards that he never saw officers more taken aback in
their lives, and they hastily proceeded to tell him that they were not fighting
men. He came back extremely disappointed; and when he told me about it, I at
once told the steward that I wanted to see our skipper, and on his coming out I
told him what had occurred. Of course he appreciated the joke and went in and
pulled the leg of the captain of the ENDEAVOUR; and I heard afterwards that he
took it out of his officers to such an extent that they were sick to death of
hearing how they had been challenged and were not men enough to take it on!
This
continual scrapping with the gloves between Herbert and myself not only kept us
in good condition but gave all the men the impression that we were able to use
our fists to a far greater extent than we really were; the consequence being
that, during the whole time we were together, we never had much trouble in
handling either the seamen or the firemen.
Raymond
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