CHAPTER II

AN ALL-BRITISH SHIP

We flew the Dutch flag, we were registered in a Dutch port, but every
timber in that British-built ship creaked out a protest, and there
paced the quarter-deck five registered Dutchmen who could not croak
"Gott-verdammter!" if their lives depended on it, and who guzzled "rice
taffle" in a very un-Dutch manner. Generally they forgot that they had
sold their birthright. Ever their eyes turned southward, which was
homeward, and only the mention of the Labor party brought to their
minds the reason for leaving their native land. Each visit to port
rubbed in the fact that they were now Dutchmen, as there were always
blue papers to be signed and fresh taxes to be paid.

There was George Hym, who was a member of every learned society in
England. The only letter of the alphabet he did not have after his
name was "I," and that was because he did not happen to have been born
in Indiana. Had that accident happened to him, even the Indiana
Society would have given him a place at the speaker's table. He was
the skipper of our fleet, had an extra master's certificate entitling
him to command even the _Mauretania_. Many yarns were invented to
explain his being with us. It was as if "John D." should be found
peddling hair-oil.

Some said he had murdered his grandmother-in-law and dare not pass the
time of day with Mr. Murphy in blue. Others claimed that the crime was
far greater--_the murder of a stately ship_--and that the marine
underwriters would have paid handsomely for the knowledge of his