With their cheerful help we made wonderful
progress; and when at last the wind hauled into a favourable
quarter, and they were compelled to leave us, the back of our
work was broken, only the tedious task of boiling being left to
finish.
Never, I am sure, did two ships' companies part with more hearty
good-will than ours. As the ungainly old tub surged slowly out
of the little harbour, her worn-out and generally used-up
appearance would have given a Board of Trade Inspector the
nightmare; the piratical looks of her crowd were enough to
frighten a shipload of passengers into fits; but to us who had
seen their performances in all weathers, and under all
circumstances, accidental externals had no weight in biassing our
high opinion of them all. Good-bye, old ship; farewell, jolly
captain and sturdy crew; you will never be forgotten any more by
us while life lasts, and in far other and more conventional
scenes we shall regretfully remember the free-and-easy time we
shared with you. So she slipped away round the point and out of
our lives for ever.
By dint of steady hard work we managed to get the last of our
greasy work done in four days more, then faced with a will the
job of stowing afresh the upper tiers of casks, in view of our
long journey home.
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