Our ship was on a trading voyage, and had a
supercargo on board, who was to direct all her motions after she arrived at the Cape, only being limited to a certain number of days for stay, by charter-party, at the several ports she was to go to.
I was
supercargo. We sailed out of New York, ostensibly for the north-west coast, with sealed orders--"
M'Kay should go in her as
supercargo, taking with him Mr.
Morrel," said Dantes, observing the owner's impatience, "here is your
supercargo, M.
I saw him, with my mind's eye, on the schooner on which he worked, wearing nothing but a pair of dungarees; and at night, when the boat sailed along easily before a light breeze, and the sailors were gathered on the upper deck, while the captain and the
supercargo lolled in deck-chairs, smoking their pipes, I saw him dance with another lad, dance wildly, to the wheezy music of the concertina.
Then a time charter, Norfolk, Virginia, loading mysterious contraband coal and sailing for South Africa under orders of the mysterious German
supercargo put on board by the charterers.
He was his mother's
supercargo, and his business was to comb all the Paumotus for the wealth of copra, shell, and pearls that they yielded up.
A noo boarder and lodger, sir, and looking fit and taut as a fiddle; slep' like a
supercargo, he did, right alongside of John--stem to stem we was, all night."
For he was not to remain a sailor, or a
supercargo, or whatever he was going to be.
As there is no motive for concealment, I am permitted to use them, and accordingly send you a transcript, simply omitting technical details of seamanship and
supercargo. It almost seems as though the captain had been seized with some kind of mania before he had got well into blue water, and that this had developed persistently throughout the voyage.
"You're the hoight av impidence, an' I'm persuaded ye'll corrupt our
supercargo in a week."
My captains made faster runs than ever and earned bigger bonuses, as did my
supercargoes, who saw to it that my schooners did not loaf and dawdle along the way.