USA > Vermont > Orange County > Bradford > Stories of old Bradford > Part 4
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So he hurried on past the evil smelling tannery where skins were made into leather, past the jumbled yard of the village wheel-wright and carriage-maker, and through the growing fog to the fishy pier where a long jumble of fish- ing boats lay anchored, including a boat full of fish fertilizer that gave off a horrible smell. Farther out in the silver mist of the harbor were the trading ships, including his own collier or "Geordie" brig* with its tall mast and many sails. The men were busy pouring coal into its hold from huge baskets that had been carried out to it on an ark, an awkward raft-like boat with a broadly pointed bow and stern for ramming enemy ships.
Billy took a parting look at Broughton. The Broughton hills, flaming with blossoming furze that softened the mine shaft, were now nearly hidden by the thick fog.
Billy climbed aboard a dirty, coal-stained ark that was bound for the collier and was soon being rapidly rowed away. A drizzling rain had set in. By the time they reached the brig, Billy was wet, cold, and uncomfortable. As he climbed the swaying rope ladder, he was greeted by good-natured cuffs,
* Kind of boats for carrying coal.
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curses, rough jokes, and jeers such as had made him tremble with fear a year ago when he was only nine. The captain was not aboard, and the men after a bit of rough-housing allowed him to creep away with his supper of salt beef and hard biscuit to the miserable heap of straw that served as his bed in the hold. The clouds of coal dust made him choke, but he lit his whale oil lamp, his most prized possession, and set to work to master the arthmetic problems that "Bosun," his friend, had set him. He had taken some fearful scoldings and beatings from "Bosun" and risked his scrawny neck at many dangerous tasks before he had come to realize that beneath the man's rough exterior there was a kind heart and respect for any sailor who honestly tried to obey him. When Billy had finished all of the problems that he could do, he dug his next most prized possession from under the straw. This was a crude scrapbook that he had made from bits of foolscap. In it he kept a record of the weather and the places the ship visited. On the cover he had printed, "Mi Log," for he knew that the record book that Captain Barr kept was called the ship's log.
He was roused from his task by the sudden loud rasping bark of the Captain's voice and the scurry of sailor's feet. As usual the Captain had had too much to drink while at the inn and everyone on board must suffer for it.
"Where," demanded the Captain hoarsely between curses, "is that good-for-nothing fool cabin boy ? Someone told me he was ashore wasting his time. I'll learn him that I don't feed him to laze around and waste time. Neglect his work, will he? Idle away time like a stinking land lubber? I'll learn the good- for-nothing brat! Drag him out! I'll make a spread eagle of him. I'll blister his hide."
In vain the boastwain and the second mate pleaded for Billy. The boy was dragged out by the scruff of the neck, strip- ped to the waist, placed against the shroud and tied in the man- ner called by the sailors a "spread eagle." Then Captain Barr. weaving unsteadily, went onto the deck where he could swing the thick. strong rope.
After a few strokes, during which Billy made no sound. Bosun growled. "You're tired. Cap'n. You ben working too hard. Let me give him a few licks. Danged if I wouldn't like
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the chance." Then the Bosun, while making a great show of pretended anger to satisfy the Captain, really hit the little boy as lightly as possible and soon untied him.
Billy felt stiff and sore and slightly dizzy, but not as sick as he had felt the first time he had seen the Captain flog a grown man.
"Now get the blazes to work, you doddering lunkhead. And let me hear of no more laziness, or I'll have you chained," Captain Barr shouted at the boy. "If you've nothing else to do, clean the rust off the cables. Idle on my ship, will they?"
They set off in a strong breeze with the yard braced sharp up and the sails drawing well. Although Billy had not yet crossed the great Atlantic Ocean, he had been exposed to al- most as much danger. There were often severe squalls along the coast where the ship was in peril of floundering on hidden rocks and reefs.
That night. on the way to the Isle of Man, they struck an angry sea. Thick black clouds rolled up from sea-ward. A strong swell heaved in. A so'easter was on its way. Soon it struck them with all its fury, the white foam filling the skiffs or rowboats and sweeping the decks of the ship. The sea pounded against the hold like a savage beast trying to get in. The wind whistled through the sails. The boat rocked from side to side. Angry, tossing waters swirled about them. The ship pawed and bucked like an angry horse, sat on her own stern, hesitated, and then plunged headfirst into the waves again.
The Captain bawled orders like a roaring lion. Everyone scurried to obey. "Board the mainstack. Weather-bit your chain. Loose the topsails. Furl the reefs. Sheet them home. Hoist them up. Avast there, ye doddering lunkheads ! Move, ye blithering idiot ! Lay aloft, you soggering landlubber !"
Again and again Billy was sent up the swaying greased mast, now more slippery than ever from the freezing rain, to reef or half-fold the foresail, or to help take another reef in the mizen topsail. He knew that the slightest slip meant in- stant death in the black churning waters below. He remem- bered how sick he had been the first time the Captain had or-
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dered him to climb the swaying mast in a storm. Half way up, he had paused to look down from the dizzy height while wave over wave of seasickness had swept over him.
"I said, belay that halyard!" the Captain had roared from far below, beside himself with rage at the frightened little boy. "Lay aloft (climb) ! Stop looking down, you fool landlubber ! You want to feed the fishes? Lay aloft, ye blasted idiot ! I'll give you a flogging will make you sicker than the sea when you come down !"
Gradually the little boy had become used to climbing to dizzy heights up swaying poles, even in the midnight Grave- yard Watch. He had learned to hang on like a monkey as he crawled out over the slippery, icy yards. He had learned to tar and grease the mast and reef a big, wet fighting sail that was struggling to be free.
The sailors had laughed at him when after his first beat- ing he had sworn defiantly between clenched teeth that some day he would wear the fine brass buttoned jacket of a captain and boss his own ship.
"Ye'll do well ye ever get to be a second mate, Laddie."
Most of them never got to be more than common sailors, whose job it was in port to shovel coal. It was a hard school, but Billy learned. The sea was in his blood. He seldom thought now of the little white-washed cottage in Broughton.
He loved the pitching motion of the sea, the hum of the rigging, the rough talk of the sailors, the danger and excite- ment of each new voyage back and forth from the Isle of Man. He liked this rough, mountainous island with its strips of field running along the coast. Each time they neared it, he played a game. At a certain distance he watched for the fishing boats putting out to sea. Next he looked for the little brown specks that as they came nearer would grow into sod or dirt houses with straw roofs. Then he looked for the dots that grew into men, women, and children at work in the flax, turnip, or bar- ley fields. He waved to the children and they waved back, leav- ing their work to run down to meet the boat.
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Farther back on the hills, he could now see the peat bogs and dark specks of cattle and sheep grazing in the rocky pas- tures. Nearer the houses were pigs and chickens. As soon as he could get the Captain's permission, Billy was over the side of the ship and leaping from the rope ladder into one of the skiffs that was rowing ashore. Billy hoped that some day he would get to see all the countries of the world.
He worked for the fiery Captain Barr until he was nearly nineteen, and then he shipped as a common sailor on a boat bound for the United States. Because he worked hard and studied every spare minute, it did not take William long to progress to Second Mate. This was a hard job to hold. A sec- ond mate had neither the respect of the crew who worked under him nor the favor of the boatswain and captain above him. He had to work and live with the men who despised him and try to keep enough discipline to make them obey the or- ders from the First Mate and Captain. Because of his will- ingness to work as hard as any of them and to do any danger- ous task that he asked them to do, William got along better with the sailors than most second mates did.
Once in the United States, William hunted for a new job. He was hired by Clark and Nightinggale of Providence, Rhode Island. This company was engaged in trading with foreign countries all over the world so that William had a chance to see all the places he had dreamed of seeing. He soon progressed to First Mate, and finally he became a Captain.
At this time Spain and Portugal owned most of the coun- tries of South America and Central America. Spain was not interested in the welfare of her colonies but only in getting rich from South American gold and silver. So Spain made laws that her South American colonies could trade only with Spain or with ports in other countries where Spain had sent her own Spanish trading companies. She hoped in this way to keep for herself the gold and silver that came from South America.
The colonies did not like this law. It kept them from progressing and from getting many things that they wanted. Finally Spain had changed the law a little. This time she made a law that in trading with other countries South Ameri- ca could not pay for things she bought with gold or silver
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money, but must barter, that is, exchange her own products such as rubber or sugar cane for the factory-made articles she wanted from other countries. She said that only when trading with their mother-country, Spain, could they pay for goods with money or with gold and silver. This rule also made the Spanish people in South America angry because it kept them under the thumb of Spain. It kept them from growing up. It angered the other countries that were trading with them since they were jealous because Spain had nearly all the gold and silver in the world. They wanted their share, too. So some of the companies from other countries, while carrying on trade by barter in South America, encouraged the captains of their trading ships to get pay in gold and silver and smuggle it out of South America whenever they could. The captains received extra pay for this smuggling. They also smuggled silver and gold for themselves. Some of the officers that Spain appointed to enforce her laws tried hard to do so, but others were dishonest. If the Captains of foreign ships made it worth their while by paying them enough, they would shut their eyes to the smuggling. After awhile these dishonest officers had to pay the captains extra money to keep the captains from telling on them. These, then, were the exciting conditions under which Captain Trotter worked. He became quite skillful at smuggling gold and silver out of Central and South America, and soon he became a very rich man himself.
He told an exciting story of these smuggling days. His first wife, who shared all of his adventures, was as brave as she was beautiful. In those days a woman had to be very brave to travel much. There were no railroads in South America. The roads were only rough trails. The steamboat had not yet been invented. There was no way to get from the cities on the east coast of South America to the cities on the west coast by boat except to go down around South America where ships struck the worst and most violent storms. In crossing the Pacific to China, the treacherous calm of the ocean was often disrupted by violent squalls that came upon them so suddenly that there was little time to change sails. Often they landed in places where there were shoals of hidden reefs, and only a skillful captain could keep a ship from capsizing or being wrecked on the rocks.
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"Mrs. Trotter and I left the ship in our skiff and were rowed up the muddy Plata River to Buenos Ayres, the city of Fair Winds in Argentina. When we landed on the plata, or flat field on which the city is built, we were met by bowing Spanish officers. Indian guides were leading two splendid horses equipped with fine leather bridles and saddles with saddle cloths fringed with gold and silver lace. As we were escorted from the streets, people bowed to us from all sides. The city was laid out in the usual Spanish-American manner, in squares with streets crossing at right angles. The streets were straight but roughly paved, bordered by long low white houses, most of them one story high. The windows were pro- tected by heavy gratings. The roofs, which were often painted red, were covered with square or oval tiles. There were many parks. We passed all kinds of people. There were half-naked Indians leading heavily-loaded donkeys which were bringing goods from all over South America.
"Sometimes a donkey carrying over four hundred pounds had travelled as many as seventy miles over rough trails and loosely woven swaying willow bridges which spanned high canyons. They had all kinds of products for the waiting for- eign ships-rubber, quinine, tobacco, sugar cane, and even bright colored parrots from the jungles. Besides the traders and Indians, there were miners wearing long colored shirts, aprons, broad trousers with bright colored sashes, and little scarlet caps. There were officers in uniform and Spanish gen- tlemen in knee breeches, white stockings, red fringed scarves, and wide sombreros. There were half-naked negro slaves, and there were lovely dark-haired, dark-eyed ladies. Some of them wore bustles which had gone out of style. Still others wore short ragged skirts. A few stylishly dressed ladies wore the new ankle length, less-full skirt such as Mrs. Trotter wore. There were dark skinned Spaniards and red-skinned Indians and yellow-skinned people from the north of Europe. Spanish was the language heard most, but nearly every language was spoken.
"We were escorted to a white palace with many courts of enclosed yards, pillars, and balconies. We entered the pal- ace by an outside stairway that led onto a balcony. This open- ed into a large dark hall decorated with palms and flowers.
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Here we sat as guests of honor at a long table made of rough boards but covered with beautiful silver dishes and exquisite china. There were many hot, peppery Spanish dishes and Spanish sauces, roast beef, chicken, eggs, onions, potatoes, peaches, nectarines, apples, and many wines. The dinner was served by Indian and Negro slaves. A Spanish girl with long, dark hair and flashing, dark eyes danced for us. She wore a short, bright-red skirt and shook a tambourine. The music had a haunting off-beat rhythm that faintly suggested the African jungle."
It was evident as Captain Trotter told his story that he had been quite conscious that among all the beautifully gowned women none was more beautiful or modishly dressed than the youthful Mrs. Trotter. She had worn a new silk mus- lin-high-waisted-with tiny puff sleeves and a low neck- line. Her bare arms had flashed with jewels as costly and fine as those of any woman present. Captain Trotter had, for the evening, discarded his uniform and worn fashionable bright yellow pants that fitted tightly to his legs from the knees down, a high white collar, a white neckerchief, and a black coat with tails. Altogether, it seemed, the Trotters had made an excellent impression-so excellent that later when the Captain was closeted with certain Spanish officers for the pur- pose of making a business deal, he found that, for a price, they were more than willing to wink at the Spanish law and pay him for much of his goods in Spanish gold. The next problem was how to get this gold safely past more honest officers and inspectors and onto his ship.
They were taken to the outskirts of the city in a high, closed cab drawn by horses. Mrs. Trotter was not as lively and sprightly as usual. She walked stiffly as one who was suddenly very tired. Suddenly, just as they were about to bid goodbye to the Spanish officers who accompanied them Mrs. Trotter fainted !* For a few moments there was great confu- sion and excitement. Declining all the offers of help, the Cap- tain quickly summoned two of his most trusted officers to carry the unconscious woman on board. Carefully, very carefully, they tucked her skirts about her legs and lifted her.
* Mrs. Totter's faint and the reason for it are told in McKeen's History of Bradford, Vermont.
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Not until the Captain was alone with her did she open her eyes. Then she winked wickedly at him. She sat up and laugh- ingly let a shower of gold fall from its hiding place under her skirts.
"The pocket string broke," she explained briefly. "A minute more and the gold would have fallen about my feet, and we would have been arrested. I could think of only one thing to do."
"I guessed it!" laughed the Captain, as he quickly gath- ered the gold up and removed it to a safer hiding place. "You know, Mrs. Trotter, you are a very clever woman! I'm really proud to be your husband. There are times when I don't think I could manage without you."
That evening the Trotters gave a wine party aboard their ship for the Spanish officers. Captain Trotter, resplendent in dress uniform, sat at the head of the long table. Mrs. Trotter, having now apparently fully recovered from her sudden ill- ness of the afternoon, was her liveliest, gayest self, a charm- ing hostess in her new black Parisian gown. No one would have guessed that the attractive couple were "on pins and needles" of fear.
Next evening they were again entertained by the Spanish officers and attended a bull fight. How glad they were when at last the ship-loading and entertaining were over and they had put several miles of ocean between them and the South Amer- ican port !
While these stories were being told, the little Bradford boys raced after the horses for a way and then started walking back. When Captain Trotter drove his dancing horses back down from the Upper Plain, he saw Jack and Jimmy still idling along the street. Seeing them gaze admiringly at his horses, he drew up, cramped the wheel, and called, "Hop in, fellows !"
How excited they were as they tumbled into' the back seat of the surrey! They looked proudly about, hoping that everyone in Bradford would see them riding with Captain Trotter.
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First they took Miss Hannah D. Brooks, soon to become Mrs. Trotter, to her home. Captain Trotter sprang out to help her alight. Then they returned to Trotter House, which stood where Bradford Inn is now.
Trotter House was a large three-story house with the ga- ble end to the street and an upstairs and downstairs porch sup- ported by white pillars. To the south of the house were the stables, and beyond those were the building which housed Cap- tain Trotter's various businesses which he had started when he came to Bradford to retire at the youthful age of thirty- seven. Down on the meadow behind his stables was a row of long, low sheds, his distillery for changing grain into whiskey, and his cotton factory. For some reason, none of Captain Trotter's factories seemed to be very successful and he apparently lost money in managing them.
After the Captain had stabled his horses, he went up the street to his store which was about where Hale's store is. The boys followed him.
Outside the store a crowd of hooting boys had collected. They were teasing and occasionally throwing things at some- thing in their midst.
Captain Trotter quickened his pace. "Now what are they tormenting ? Some stray animal?" he wondered angrily.
He pushed his way through the yelling crowd and dis- . covered a small, ragged boy, a peddler of pins and needles.
"Listen to his talk!" "Say it again !" "Look at his ragged clothes !" "Hey, stranger, that your best suit?"
Captain Trotter could never bear to see any meanness. Jack and Jimmy now saw an example of the Captain's fiery temper as he sent the bullies on their way and put a protecting arm about the shoulders of the trembling little stranger.
"Sit down, Son, and tell me who you are and where you are going?" the Captain said when he had taken the child into his store.
The Irish boy said that his name was Francis Kelly. Choking back the tears, he explained that he and his father had come over from Ireland and were on their way to Canada
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to find a new home. While trying to sell pins and needles for his father, he had become separated from him and lost.
"Never you mind, Laddie," said Captain Trotter. "You may stay with me until we find your father. How much are your needles? I need some for my store."
"One shilling,* Sir, but if you'd be wanting more I could be throwing in three for two shillings. Methinks I should be after giving them to ye to repay your kindness, but me needles belong to me father, Sir."
The Captain threw back his head and laughed. "You're a bright laddie, with a head for business, I see. I believe I could use you to clerk in my store for a few days. I'm sending my clerk, Joseph Jenkins, to Newburyport, Massachusetts, with a wagon load of free goods. There's been a big fire there, and the people are suffering for food and other necessities. I'll be a man short until Mr. Jenkins returns."
The Irish boy's eyes lighted. "Faith, and I sure would like that, Sir! 'Tis mony a time I've wished I could work in a store. Only ----. " The smile faded from his freckled face and he finished painfully as he looked down at his ragged clothes, "I was jist a thinkin', Sir, methinks me clothes are that bad, would your customers be wanting the likes of me to be wait- ing on them now? 'Tis tribble enough I've been having with the ladies all asettin' the dogs on me an' callin' me beggar an' sich."
Captain Trotter took down a bolt of men's suiting from a shelf. "How do you like this cloth ?" and at the answering spar- kle in the boy's honest blue eyes he added, "I know just the lady we can hire to made a good suit for you. After supper we'll hitch up the team and take a ride up to see her."
That night all the Bradford boys envied little Francis Kel- ley, for was he not living in Trotter House? Would he not hear the story of the Hawaiian spear from the Captain's own lips and even have a chance to "heft" it?
Meanwhile in a cozy living room of Trotter House, the Captain was saying, "That carved spear was given me by King
*Cost of needles (in 1800) from entry in account book of 1795. Vermont State Reference Librarian.
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Kamehameha the First, of Hawaii. I used to stop off at the Sandwich Islands on my voyages to and from China. There are about twenty of these islands. Some of them are just vol- canoes. Eight or more are inhabited.
"Each island had a separate king until Kamehameha, who has been called the Napoleon of the Pacific united them. He was a good king. He made a law called 'the Law of the Splin- tered Paddle' that said, 'Let the aged men and women and lit- tle children, lie down in safety in the road.1 The people liked him because he worked with his hands. He made his own canoe and hoed his own taro patch and caught his own fish. He was the first king to have much to do with foreigners. The Sand- wich Islands were not discovered by white men until 1778. That was the year When I went to sea when I was nine years old
"A man named Captain Cook discovered them. At first the natives thought that this strange white man who came in a huge boat was a god. When they decided that he was human like themselves, they killed him. Hawaiians are very intelligent. people. If they do not think that you intend to harm them, they are quite friendly."
"What would this strange king be after looking like?" Francis wanted to know as he ran his hand admiringly over the carved spear.
"One sea captain who knew him as a young man while Kalaniopuu was still king of Hawaii, described Kamehameha as having the most savage face ever seen by white man."2
"And did he look that savage to you now?" asked the boy.
"No. He was older-about fifty when I knew him. His face was much wrinkled. He had thick lips and a large squatty nose. His keen, dark eyes seemed to size a man up at a glance. You couldn't fool him. The way I like to remember him was as I saw him standing beneath a palm tree, high on a rocky cliff overlooking the sea. He was watching his warriors get ready to leave for the island of Oahu. They came a few at a
1. Kuykerdall-History of Hawaii
2. Kuykerdall-History of Hawaii
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time in their canoes and gathered about a large twin canoe until there were a thousand warships. The twin canoe was made by fastening two canoes together with a raft on which were sails. It could carry about two hundred men."
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