bboom--and then
the upper spars--carried away under the terrific strain, she would have
gone to the bottom. The worst part of the business was that two poor
seamen had been lost overboard.

"He's a pretty kind of man for a skipper if you like," said the
second officer bitterly. "He ought to be hanged for pretending he's
a sailorman. It's sheer murder to put such a jackass in command of a
deep-water sailing ship."

After rendering all possible assistance to the brigantine, we left her
about mid-day; and had been lying at anchor for two weeks in Nukualofa
Harbour before she put in an appearance outside the reef. A native pilot
went out in a canoe, but the captain haughtily declined his services,
and would not even let him come on board--he wanted to show people that
although he had never seen Naknalofa Harbour before, he could bring
his ship in without a pilot. In less than half an hour, a swirling eddy
caught the vessel, and earned her broadside on to the reef, where she
would have been battered to pieces, had not our two boats gone to her
assistance, and with great difficulty got her off again. Captain Rosser
several times countermanded orders given by his chief officer--an
experienced seaman--and bullied and "jawed" his crew in the most pompous
and irritating manner, and finally when we succeeded in getting the
vessel off the reef with the loss of her false keel and rudder, and
were towing her into smooth water inside the reef, he came for'ard, and
abruptly desired our chief mate to cease towing, as he meant to anchor.

"Anchor, and be hanged to you," replied our officer with angry contempt;
"the kind of ship you ought to command is one that is towed by a horse
along a path in the old country."

We cast off and left him to his own conceit and devices. He let go in
less than five fathoms, paid out too much cable, and went stern first
on to a coral patch, where he stuck for a couple of days, much to our
delight.

Within six months this gentleman succeeded in getting the brigantine
ashore on four occasions, and she had to return to Sydney to be repaired
at a cost of L1,700.

*****

My next two experiences were with the pig-headed type. I had made an
agreement with the master of a Fiji-owned vessel--also a brigantine--to
convey myself and my stock of trade goods from an island in the Tokelau
or Union Group (South Pacific) to Yap, in the Caroline Islands in the
North-west, where I intended starting a trading busine