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- rising a little, and lying motionless on his back to breathe—little but
his nose exposed. The buoy gained, he cuts the skins adrift, ties them
round his body, and in the same adroit manner makes good his return.
This feat is very seldom attempted, for it needs the utmost caution,
address, and dexterity; and no one but a super-expert burglar, and
faultless Leander of a swimmer, could achieve it.
From the greater privileges which they enjoy, the “_forward officers_,”
that is, the Gunner, Boatswain, etc., have much greater opportunities
for successful smuggling than the common seamen. Coming alongside one
night in a cutter, Yarn, our boatswain, in some inexplicable way,
contrived to slip several skins of brandy through the air-port of his
own state-room. The feat, however, must have been perceived by one of
the boat’s crew, who immediately, on gaining the deck, sprung down the
ladders, stole into the boatswain’s room, and made away with the prize,
not three minutes before the rightful owner entered to claim it.
Though, from certain circumstances, the thief was known to the
aggrieved party, yet the latter could say nothing, since he himself had
infringed the law. But the next day, in the capacity of captain of the
ship’s executioners, Yarn had the satisfaction (it was so to him) of
standing over the robber at the gangway; for, being found intoxicated
with the very liquor the boatswain himself had smuggled, the man had
been condemned to a flogging.
This recalls another instance, still more illustrative of the knotted,
trebly intertwisted villainy, accumulating at a sort of compound
interest in a man-of-war. The cockswain of the Commodore’s barge takes
his crew apart, one by one, and cautiously sounds them as to their
fidelity—not to the United States of America, but to himself. Three
individuals, whom he deems doubtful—that is, faithful to the United
States of America—he procures to be discharged from the barge, and men
of his own selection are substituted; for he is always an influential
character, this cockswain of the Commodore’s barge. Previous to this,
however, he has seen to it well, that no Temperance men—that is,
sailors who do not draw their government ration of grog, but take the
money for it—he has seen to it, that none of these _balkers_ are
numbered among his crew. Having now proved his men, he divulges his
plan to the assembled body; a solemn oath of secrecy is obtained, and
he waits the first fit opportunity to carry into execution his
nefarious designs.
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