t was a two and a
half days' job. Then the mate set me over my two friends to "break out"
casks of beef and pork from the fore-peak. As I hadn't been much to sea
it rather amused me to find myself bossing two men who had been at it
all their lives. But I have to own that they were two of the stupidest
men I ever met, though they were not bad fellows. Then the time came for
us to go to London by the "run." They offered us 30s. for the run to
London river. This, with the five shillings a day I had earned by six
days' work on board, made L3. I had practically spent nothing while I
was working in her, although we left the Home too early in the morning
to have breakfast there. We used to go to a coffee-stall near the dock
entrance and get what is described by Cockneys as "two doorsteps and a
cup of thick" for about 2d. We went home for dinner and supper. Thus I
had nearly all my L3 for the boss of the Home. He got the money when we
were out in the "stream" with the tug ahead of us.

We were only one night at sea. We washed her down and cleaned her a bit
generally and made her look a little decent, and I had the look-out that
night. As we towed the whole distance we came up London river next
afternoon. It was a gloomy and miserable day, which made London horrible
to behold. It was like entering hell itself to come up into the parts
where the big warehouses stand and where the docks are. We came at last
to Limehouse, where she was to be dry-docked. I was at the wheel then,
and it took us two hours before we got her in and had her settled down
upon the blocks with the shores to hold her. Then I took my
round-bottomed chest and left her. The mate, who had taken a fancy to
me, asked me to ship in her for her next voyage, but I said I meant to
"swallow the anchor" and have no more of that kind of work. My
experience in Hull--the semi-starvation, the fighting, the loneliness
and general blackguardism of the whole show--had somewhat sickened me of
the life. And yet seamen are good fellows, and might be much better if
it were not for the greed of owners, who feed them badly, house them
vilely, and think of nothing in the world but dividends. Seamen know
what they know, and they resent with bitterness the way they are
treated. They have a bitter saying, "That's good enough for hogs, dogs
and sailors." The day must come when England will cry to her children of
the sea, and weep because they are not.

THE GLORY OF THE MORNING