It seemed to work all right, and
the old ark herself looked as if she was as intelligent as any of
them; but the sight was not an agreeable one to men accustomed to
discipline. The contrast when the TAMERLANE came along an hour
or so after was emphatic. Every man at his post; every order
carried out with the precision of clockwork; the captain pacing
the quarter-deck as if she were a line-of-battle ship--here the
airs put on were almost ludicrous in the other direction.
Although she was only "a good jump" long, as we say, whenever an
order was given, it was thundered out as if the men were a mile
away each officer appearing to vie with the others as to who
could bellow the loudest. That was carrying things to the
opposite extreme, and almost equally objectionable to merchant
seamen.
We were thus left alone to finish our trying-out except for such
company as was afforded by the only resident's little schooner,
in which he went oyster-dredging. It was exceedingly comfortable
in the small harbour, and the fishing something to remember all
one's life. That part of New Zealand is famous for a fish
something like a bream, but with a longer snout, and striped
longitudinally with black and yellow.
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