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 Mackenzieâs 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 Spencerâs father. In a rare moment of verbal economy, he wrote: âThe word was accordingly given, and the execution took place.â That was all.
But his literary urge soon reasserted itself. There were lessons to be drawn.
âThe crew were now ordered aft, and I addressed them from the trunk on which I was standing.
âI 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.â And there was the âsocial position to which this young man had been born,â showered with every possible advantage and set on a path that would lead in time to a ship of his own.
Yet âafter a few monthsâ service at sea most wretchedly employed,â Philip Spencer had instead âaspired to supplant me in command, which I had only reached after nearly thirty years of faithful servitude.â He told his silent audience that âthey might rise to command in the merchant serviceâto 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.â
About Cromwell: âHe must have received an excellent education; his handwriting was even elegant; but he had fallen through brutish sensuality, and the greedy thirst for gold.â
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 âwhich the supercargo, a Mr. Thorndyke, had brought a keg of doubloons,â with Collins âalone entrusted with the secret of its being on board.â He kept the secret, but when, on the Somers, he mentioned it the boatswainâs mate, a jeering Cromwell had said that âhad the case been his he would have run away with the keg.â
âThis 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 CollinsâCromwell at the yard-arm, and Collins piping with his call.â
Not really in conclusion, though, because Smallâs behavior needed to be explained. He âhad 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.â Perhaps, though, his soul was not entirely forfeit: âHe had, however, at least died invoking blessings on the flag of his country.
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