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Captain John Crane, 1800 - 1815

<h2 id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</h2> A VOYAGE TO CHINA.—CROSSING THE LINE.—MALAY PIRATES.—WHAMPOA ANCHORAGE.—MORE TROUBLES WITH GREAT BRITAIN. The castaways whom we took on board from the Evelyn were in a destitute condition; at least the sailors were, and so was the second mate. Captain Graham had saved a bag of gold and some Bank of England notes, and the same was the case with Captain Woods, and so they were by no means crippled for the want of money. The three sailors were not at all sorry at the opportunity they had for coming to the United States without being under obligations to go away again when their ship sailed. Before three days were over they had signed articles on board an American ship and were off to sea again, this time under the flag of the United States. The Washington was warped into her berth and made fast. Word was sent to the office of the owners, notifying them that the ship's voyage to the Mediterranean and back was ended. Of course, all were anxious to go on shore; and after the sails had[166] been furled, and all necessary work performed, liberty was granted to everybody. In half an hour from the time we were tied up at the dock, the captain, officers, passengers, and crew, had all gone ashore, and there was no one on board except the shipkeeper, who had been sent from the owners' office to take charge of the newly arrived craft. Word had been passed around that everybody would be paid off at the owners' office on the following morning; and you may be sure that officers and crew were on hand to receive their pay. Several of the sailors came back to the ship at night to sleep, as they had no money wherewith to pay for their lodging on shore. When they obtained their pay on the following morning, the majority of the men started out to enjoy it; and it is safe to say that within a week their pockets were empty, and they were compelled to ship for another voyage. I kept a small portion of my money and sent the rest to my parents, to whom I wrote a description of a sailor's life as I had found it. The fact is, I began that letter soon after we passed the Straits of Gibraltar on our homeward voyage. I was only able to write a few lines on the first day, but I kept adding to it whenever I had an opportunity; so that by the time I reached Boston the letter covered several pages of foolscap. David had been doing the same thing, and our letters went away together. [167] We found some letters awaiting us at the owners' office, one of them of quite recent date. Everybody in both the families was well; and in every letter they told us how much we were missed. We were half inclined to make a visit to Pembroke, but finally concluded not to do so, as the journey would be expensive for us in case we traveled by stage-coach, and fatiguing if we made it on foot. We decided to remain in Boston and look out for berths on the first good ship that was leaving port. We thought it quite possible that we might sail on the Washington; but after calling two or three times at the ship, and also at her owners' office, we concluded that she would be delayed too long in port to suit us. The third day after our arrival, we heard of a fine new ship, the "Aurora," which was up for China. Her cargo was nearly all on board, and she would sail in a few days. We went on board of her; and then we went to her agents and found that what we had heard was true. Bill Haines and Joe Herne accompanied us, or rather we accompanied them, as it was Haines who first heard of the Aurora, and advised our visiting her. The four of us had stuck together, going to the same boarding-house to live, and going about together on sight-seeing excursions. The result of our investigation was that we signed articles for the Aurora; and when she sailed out of[168] Boston on her way to China we trod her deck with a good deal of satisfaction. None of us cared to go to the Mediterranean again and run the risk of becoming an Algerine slave; and, furthermore, we thought it was a good chance to see the world by taking the course we did. At that time not many American ships had visited China, the trade of the United States being principally with the West Indies, the west coast of Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, and the ports of Great Britain and Europe. The United States had about one and a quarter million tons of commercial shipping, and it was evident that in the course of time a voyage to China would be almost as common as a trip to any of the West Indian ports. Our voyage to China was not very eventful; we had no severe gales at all on the way out, though we had several heavy blows which might have troubled a landsman if he had been caught in one of them a day or two after going to sea for the first time. When we reached the region of the equator we were caught in the calm belt, which is well known to sailors, and had an exasperating delay under the rays of a tropical sun that beat down pitilessly upon us, while we lay with sails hanging loose from the yards, and with scarcely a sign of motion anywhere. When we crossed the equator, the greenhorns (all those who[169] had never before been in the southern hemisphere) were treated to a visit by Neptune. This is an invariable custom on shipboard, and sometimes the victims are severely handled. In our case the morning after we crossed the line all the greenhorns were locked up in the forecastle and not allowed to come on deck until the preparations were complete. One of the older sailors was dressed to resemble Neptune, with beard and hair made of rope-yarn, and carrying in his right hand a trident with a small fish impaled on one of its prongs. He slipped quietly over the bows, then hailed the ship, and came on board. After a short parley with the captain, he said he wished to see those who had recently entered his service. Neptune was attended by two Tritons, who were dressed in much the same grotesque fashion that he was. When he asked for his new servants, one of the greenhorns was let out from the forecastle and taken in hand by the Tritons. It was my fortune or misfortune to be the first victim. I was blindfolded and led before Neptune, who questioned me in a loud and imperious tone as to my name and birthplace. Then he asked if I'd been to school, and whether I'd learned anything. I began to think I was going to get off easily; but my belief proved to be ill founded. After the question concerning my education Neptune asked,— [170] "Do you intend to be a faithful servant of my realm?" When I opened my mouth to reply, a paint-brush, which had been dipped in the water from the trough under the grindstone, was shoved into my mouth, and then the same brush, with more of the unsavory liquid, was passed back and forth upon my face after the manner of a lathering-brush. Neptune then ordered me to be shaved; and the shaving was to be performed with a piece of iron hoop, in which notches like the teeth of a saw had been filed. I received several scratches on my face; and while I was wincing under them a bucket of water was thrown over me, and the bandage which covered my eyes was removed. I was then let loose, and permitted to see the remainder of the fun. One by one all the greenhorns were brought up and went through substantially the same ordeal. Some were handled much more severely than others. David was let off about the same as I was; and we found when the show was over that we had been treated more leniently than any one else. We wondered why this was the case until we learned that the Tritons who attended Neptune were none other than our friends, Bill Haines and Joe Herne. If there had been passengers on board who had never crossed the line before they would have been[171] subjected to the same treatment, unless they had paid a fine of two or three dollars each, which they generally pay without hesitation. The money thus obtained is spent in luxuries for the crew, either at the time or at the ship's port of destination. On English passenger ships, going from England out to India around the Cape of Good Hope, I am told that the sailors reap quite a harvest out of this ceremony of "Crossing the Line." We rounded the Cape of Good Hope in fine style, the wind being in our favor and carrying us rapidly along. The captain had held well to the southward, so that we barely caught a glimpse of the shores of Africa. We could see the outline of the mountains that form the southern end of that continent, but nothing more than the outline. The day after we passed the Cape of Good Hope I had the watch aloft in the forenoon. Just as it struck eight bells I gave a last look around the horizon before descending to the deck, when my eye caught a speck on the water very nearly abeam of us. It was altogether too far away to be made out, and I hesitated whether to report it or not. Something impelled me to do so, and I hailed the deck and told what I had seen. The captain and first officer were just making their noon observations, and the second mate came aloft to see what I had dis[172]covered. He brought the captain's glass, and after a careful scrutiny he said that the object was evidently a boat, but he could not determine if there was any one in it. "We'll settle that very soon," said the captain when the mate had made his report. "Brace the yards around, and run for the boat or whatever else it is." The order was obeyed; and in a little while we hove-to within a hundred yards of the object I had sighted, and which proved to be a boat. Here we lowered the gig with the mate and a crew, and just as it struck the water we saw two heads rising above the gunwale of the strange craft. Then two more appeared; and it was evident that we had rescued four castaways by my discovery. The boat and its inmates were soon at the side of the Aurora, the men were brought on deck, the boat was hoisted in and secured, and our ship filled away on her course. They were part of the crew of an American ship from Boston to Calcutta. She had foundered two days before, and the crew had taken to the boats with the intention of making Cape Town; and we afterwards learned that the other boats were picked up near that port. Judge of my surprise and satisfaction when I found that one of the men we rescued was the son of Samuel Bickford, the man at whose[173] house David and I were entertained on our first night away from home, as told in the second chapter of this narrative. Certainly I had repaid his hospitality which I had never forgotten. In fact, I was thinking about it not more than five minutes before I saw the speck on the water. When we reached the Straits of Sunda it was whispered around that we might have an affair with the pirates that infest this region. The captain had all the guns carefully overhauled and made ready for work; and for a week or more the crew of each gun had been trained so as to know what to do. We carried the same armament as did the Washington, about which I have already told the reader. The arm-chest was brought up, and the guns and pistols which it contained were cleaned and prepared for service; and the men who claimed to be most efficient with these weapons were detailed to handle them in case their use became necessary. In fact, we got ourselves all ready to meet the pirates, and some of the younger sailors were rather disappointed when we passed safely into the China Sea without encountering any of them. These Malay pirates are a great pest and annoyance to mariners; and I wonder that the civilized nations do not band together and wipe them out of existence. But I've already wondered why they[174] don't do the same thing with the Algerine pirates; and I suppose I may keep on wondering about these things for the rest of my life. In one respect the Malays are worse than the Algerines. When the Malays capture a ship they kill everybody on board, sparing neither age nor sex; while the Algerines rarely kill anybody, except in actual fighting, reserving their prisoners to sell them into slavery. Whether this mercy is due solely to their cupidity or for other reasons I am unable to say. I said we did not encounter any Malay pirates; but we should have done so, had it not been for a wind that came up one afternoon. We were becalmed in a channel, about six miles wide, between two islands. It was a dead calm, and the only motion there was on the ship was given to her by the current that carried us along perhaps half a mile per hour. While we lay there we saw a long boat, full of men, pulling along the coast of one of the islands, and disappearing among the trees that fringe the shore. Presently we saw the same boat, with two others of similar size and appearance, coming out from among the trees and steering in our direction. There seemed to be about forty men in each boat, twenty of them rowing or paddling, and another twenty standing or sitting idle. [175] The captain ordered everything to be made ready to give them a warm reception. The two guns on our starboard side were loaded with canister shot, and made ready for business. The long gun amidships was loaded in the same way; and it was the captain's intention to give the fellows all three of those guns in succession, as soon as they got within easy range. The small arms were brought up and distributed, and the men who held them were stationed near the ship's bow to resist the Malays in case they came near enough to board the Aurora. These Malay pirates always board a ship over the bows. They're as active as monkeys, and go nearly naked; and sometimes they grease their bodies all over, so that it's difficult to hold them if you attempt to capture them. I felt my heart beat fast as I saw these scoundrels coming towards us, as the word had been passed around that all our lives would be taken in case of the capture of the ship. I think the boats were about half way from the land to the ship when I noticed a ripple on the water astern of us, and at the same instant heard the captain give an order to brace around the yards. The breeze came on very quickly; it filled our sails; we heard the rippling of the water under our bows; and as our motion through the water became[176] perceptible we saw that our unwelcome visitors had stopped rowing. They saw that we were in motion, and pursuit was of no further use. When we were within about two hundred miles of Canton we were caught in the outer edge of a hurricane; but so completely were we on the edge of it that it neither alarmed nor damaged us. We reached Whampoa Anchorage, at the mouth of Pearl River, the stream on which Canton stands, without accident of any sort. Here we discharged our cargo, and took in one for home. It consisted principally of tea and silks; a great deal of the former, and not much of the latter. I wanted very much to go up the river and see Canton, but all requests for liberty on shore were denied, at least, so far as Canton was concerned. The larboard watch had half a day in the foreign quarter of Whampoa, and the starboard watch had the same allowance, but, of course, not at the same time. From what I saw of the Chinese during my single visit to land I did not think they would be an agreeable people to live among. Perhaps they are better at Canton; but of course I cannot say anything upon this point from actual knowledge. In due time our cargo was completed, and the hatches were closed and battened down; then we laid in our supply of water and such provisions as we needed, and the very day that all was ready we had[177] a fine wind down the bay and out into the China Sea. Everything favored us on the way home, and in due time we sailed into Boston Harbor; and my voyage to China came to an end. My next voyage was to the West Indies; in fact, I made several voyages there, and should have made more of them had it not been for the difficulties which arose between France and England on the one hand, and the United States on the other. On one occasion the brig on which I was serving was seized by the British authorities in a West Indian port, and the cargo was confiscated for a technical violation of the laws. The confiscation of the ship, as well as the cargo, was threatened; but we succeeded in saving her, and obtaining permission to leave port. On our way home we were chased, and narrowly escaped capture, by a French ship-of-war. We were at peace with France at that time, and also with England; but England and France were at war, and they made it very annoying and risky business for neutrals to trade with either of them. In November, 1806, Napoleon issued from his camp in the capital of Prussia the famous manifesto which is called the Berlin Decree. It declared the ports of the whole of the British dominions in a state of blockade, prohibited all correspondence and commerce with the British Islands, ordered that all[178] letters or packets written in England or to an Englishman in the English language should be seized at French post-offices, and proclaimed that all neutral vessels trading with England should be liable to seizure and confiscation. As a retaliation for this, Great Britain issued an "Order in Council," which declared that the whole coast of Europe, from the Elbe in Germany to Brest in France, was in a state of blockade, and making orders in regard to neutrals similar to those enacted by the Berlin Decree. Of course these two orders affected American commerce very seriously, as it virtually cut off our trade with the two countries with which nearly all our commerce was concerned. In December, 1807, Napoleon issued another decree at Milan, which was more rigorous, indeed, than that issued from Berlin. It declared every vessel which should submit to being searched by the British cruisers, or should pay any tax, duty, or license money to the British government, or should be found on the high seas or elsewhere, bound to or from any British port, denationalized and forfeited. Spain and Holland issued the same orders; and the effect of these various decrees was to cripple American commerce, and leave its ships rotting in the harbors where they lay. When the decrees and orders were issued they took effect immediately; all vessels then[179] in French ports were confiscated, and their owners were unable to obtain any redress for their loss. When the news of these decrees and orders in council reached the United States, President Jefferson called Congress together earlier than usual, and sent a message to inform the members of what had occurred, and recommending the passage of an embargo act, "an inhibition of the departure of our vessels from the ports of the United States." The Senate passed the act laying an embargo on all shipping, foreign and domestic, in the ports of the United States, with specified exceptions, and ordering all vessels abroad to return home forthwith. The House passed the bill; and it was signed by the President, and became a law. It was an attempt to compel England and France to respect our rights by withholding all intercourse with them. Looking back at it, I think it accomplished nothing, or a good deal worse than nothing. About fourteen months after its passage it was repealed; but at the same time Congress passed a law forbidding all commercial intercourse with France and England until the decrees and the orders in council had been set aside. David and I had been getting on very well in our sea-faring lives down to this time. As long as we were sailors before the mast we kept together; but[180] when the time for promotion came we were drawn apart. I had risen to the rank of second mate, and so had David; but we found ourselves without occupation for a considerable part of the time. We were also separated from our friends, Bill Haines and Joe Herne, and only met at rare intervals. <hr class="chap" /> [181] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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