Captain Thompson,
Instead Of Giving Him The Place Of A Mate Off Duty, Put Him Into
The Narrow Between-Decks,
Where a space, not over four feet high,
had been left out among the hides, and there compelled him to
Live
the whole wearisome voyage, through trades and tropics, and round
Cape Horn, with nothing to do, - not allowed to converse or walk
with the officers, and obliged to get his grub himself from the
galley, in the tin pot and kid of a common sailor. I used to
talk with him as much as I had opportunity to, but his lot was
wretched, and in every way wounding to his feelings. After our
arrival, Captain Thompson was obliged to make him compensation
for this treatment. It happens that I have never heard of him
since.
Henry Mellus, who had been in a counting-house in Boston, and left
the forecastle, on the coast, to be agent's clerk, and whom I met,
a married man, at Los Angeles in 1859, died at that place a few years
ago, not having been successful in commercial life. Ben Stimson left
the sea for the fresh water and prairies, and settled in Detroit as
a merchant, and when I visited that city, in 1863, I was rejoiced to
find him a prosperous and respected man, and the same generous-hearted
shipmate as ever.
This ends the catalogue of the Pilgrim's original crew, except
her first master, Captain Thompson. He was not employed by the
same firm again, and got up a voyage to the coast of Sumatra for
pepper.
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