Sailing the Graveyard Sea by Richard Snow

Author:Richard Snow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2023-11-21T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

ALTHOUGH IT MAY HAVE taken some restraint on Captain Mackenzie’s part, that connoisseur of executions was wise enough not to describe the death throes of his mutineers in a document that was to go to the secretary of the navy, and that would surely be read by Philip Spencer’s father. In a rare moment of verbal economy, he wrote: “The word was accordingly given, and the execution took place.” That was all.

But his literary urge soon reasserted itself. There were lessons to be drawn.

“The crew were now ordered aft, and I addressed them from the trunk on which I was standing.

“I called their attention first, to the fate of the unfortunate young man, whose ill-regulated ambition, directed to the most infamous end, had been the exciting cause of the tragedy they had just witnessed. I spoke of his honored parents, of his distinguished father, whose talents and character had raised him to one of the highest stations in the land.” And there was the “social position to which this young man had been born,” showered with every possible advantage and set on a path that would lead in time to a ship of his own.

Yet “after a few months’ service at sea most wretchedly employed,” Philip Spencer had instead “aspired to supplant me in command, which I had only reached after nearly thirty years of faithful servitude.” He told his silent audience that “they might rise to command in the merchant service—to respectability, competence, and to fortune. But they must advance regularly, and step by step; every step, to be sure, must be guided by truth, honor, and fidelity.”

About Cromwell: “He must have received an excellent education; his handwriting was even elegant; but he had fallen through brutish sensuality, and the greedy thirst for gold.”

The captain had worked him into a parable, and called Collins up on the trunk to share it with the crew. It was the story the youngster had told the tribunal the day before, about his shipping in an Indiaman onto “which the supercargo, a Mr. Thorndyke, had brought a keg of doubloons,” with Collins “alone entrusted with the secret of its being on board.” He kept the secret, but when, on the Somers, he mentioned it the boatswain’s mate, a jeering Cromwell had said that “had the case been his he would have run away with the keg.”

“This tale contained all the moral that it was necessary to enforce. I told the boys, in conclusion, that they had only to choose between the morality of Cromwell and that of Collins—Cromwell at the yard-arm, and Collins piping with his call.”

Not really in conclusion, though, because Small’s behavior needed to be explained. He “had also been born for better things. He had enjoyed the benefits of education, was a navigator, had been an officer in a merchantman, but he could not resist the brandy which had been proffered to him, nor the prospect of dishonorable gain.” Perhaps, though, his soul was not entirely forfeit: “He had, however, at least died invoking blessings on the flag of his country.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.