Under the able guidance of this impassive pagan, who merely waved his hands in the direction in which he wanted the ship to go, she was brought gently to her allotted¹ moorings in the splendid harbour, amid the great crowd of cosmopolitan² shipping³ which is the outward and visible sign of this mighty⁴ seaport⁵ of the Far East. Down went one anchor after another in orthodox style (which beautiful manœuvre I would like to explain, but dare not for fear of being tedious), the sails were clewed up or hauled down, and the deed was done.

 

“Give the sails a harbour furl, men,” shouted Mr. Cope; and lovingly they rolled and patted into regulation shape the great squares of canvas, whose precision of outline when fast owed nothing to painted coverings put on afterwards, but were the hall mark of good seamanship. Then the yards were trimmed and squared, the ropes coiled up, the decks swept, and at four o’clock, “That’ll do for to-day, men,” sounded gratefully on the ears of the crew, who sauntered towards the forecastle with the air of men who had earned their reward.

 

In the next berth⁸ lay a big Yankee ship, the[223] Colorado, of New York, which had come in almost side by side with the Sealark. But what an amazing difference in the methods followed on board of the two ships! In the English vessel⁹, an occasional quiet order which was just sufficiently¹⁰ loud to be heard; in the American, a very hurricane of oaths and yells which raged incessantly¹¹, no matter how well and rapidly the work was done. Of course it was done well, slipshod seamanship in a Yank being quite unthinkable; but at what a price! Then when the Sealark’s crew received that consideration from their commander to which they were really entitled, the crowd of the Colorado seemed only just to have begun their work. Frank watched, fascinated, the tremendous energy of the mates, the desperate efforts of the men, heard the ghastly chorus of profanity by which the whole work was accompanied.

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