T
Between eleven and twelve o'clock the steward woke up, soaked some fish, and went back to his bunk. The second mate was standing on'deck near the wheel, leaning on the 'after house, apparently asleep, until Folke Wassen, at the wheel, made a noise with his feet which waked the second mate. Then the second mate went up onto the house and down into it and soon returned to the deck. At midnight, which was eight bells, it was time to change the watch. Therefore the first mate came on deck and relieved the second mate, who went down to his room. Charley Brown came aft and relieved Folke Wassen at the wheel, who went forward to the fore castle. Loheac was on the lookout. Purdok was called, came up from the forecastle, sat on the forward house and went to sleep. It was a dark night, and when Charley Brown took the wheel the only lights near him were the light in the binnacle for the compass just before him, and a dim light in the window of the chart-room. A man with both hands on the wheel could lean over to his right and look into the chart-room, as Slice did when he was there, and as Charley Brown did when he arrived, and Loheac also. Charley Brown saw the feet and legs of someone whom he supposed to be the passenger lying on the cot, for Charley had never been into the after house, and sup posed that the cot was in that place for the passenger. At one o'clock, the first mate says that he went to his room, and took a drink of his own whiskey, of which he had several quarts, got his luncheon, and returned to the deck. During the next hour, there was a stiff breeze blowing on the starboard quarter. Most of the sails were set. The sea was in waves, which made it necessary to move the helm constantly. The vessel was sailing about six or seven knots an hour, but the first mate gave her about eight on the log book because of the current. She was about
eight hundred miles from Boston, out at sea. The first mate walked athwartships, and from time to time disappeared from Charley Brown's sight. Before two o'clock, and not long before it, the first mate was not in sight on deck, and a noise in the chart-room startled Charley Brown. He was standing, as the regular custom was, to the starboard of the wheel, with both hands on it, and his feet were on a grating two and a half inches above the deck, which was placed under the wheel for the helmsmen to stand on. He looked through the window and saw the first mate in the act of striking with something that had a handle like an axe. He struck down towards the head of the person whom Charley had seen on the cot. But the cot had been upset, and the man was lying on the floor. Charley saw only that blow. Then the first mate immediately went forward into the main cabin, and in half a minute or less, Charley heard a shriek from the direction of Mrs. Nash's cabin. Charley was much frightened, and watched the after companionway of the after house, the starboard side of which was only four feet from the center of the wheel, for fear that he would be attacked from there. In five or six minutes from the time when Charley missed the first mate from the deck, he returned up the forward companion-way and walked across the top of the after house, which served as part of the deck, towards the port side, about as far as the after part of the mizzen rigging. There he had to step down onto the boards at the port side of the house in order to walk aft. He walked aft, turned the corner of the house and walked up to starboard, passing between the wheel and the binnacle, and going near the window. He smelt of liquor. Charley was terribly scared, and looked to see whether the first mate carried a weapon. He even thought of jumping overboard to get out of the way. But the first mate merely turned and walked back to the port side and aft of the house, and soon went to starboard.
