In Addition To, And Perhaps Partly As A Consequence Of, This State
Of Things, There Was Trouble Brewing On Board The Vessel.
Our mate
(as the first mate is always called, par excellence) was a worthy
man; - a more honest, upright, and kind-hearted man I never saw;
but he was too good for the mate of a merchantman.
He was not the
man to call a sailor a "son of a b - -h," and knock him down with a
handspike. He wanted the energy and spirit for such a voyage as ours,
and for such a captain. Captain T - - - was a vigorous, energetic
fellow. As sailors say, "he hadn't a lazy bone in him." He was
made of steel and whalebone. He was a man to "toe the mark,"
and to make every one else step up to it. During all the time that
I was with him, I never saw him sit down on deck. He was always
active and driving; severe in his discipline, and expected the same
of his officers. The mate not being enough of a driver for him, and
being perhaps too easy with the crew, he was dissatisfied with him,
became suspicious that discipline was getting relaxed, and began
to interfere in everything. He drew the reins taughter; and as,
in all quarrels between officers, the sailors side with the one who
treats them best, he became suspicious of the crew. He saw that
everything went wrong - that nothing was done "with a will;" and in
his attempt to remedy the difficulty by severity, he made everything
worse.
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