Saunders worked his passage to England, was picked up by a
press-gang, escaped, and so returned to Salem. It was the fate of
Juba Hill, the black cook from Boston, to be detained among the
Arabs as a slave. It is worth noting that a black sea-cook
figured in many of these tales of daring and disaster, and among
them was the heroic and amazing figure of one Peter Jackson who
belonged in the brig Ceres. While running down the river from
Calcutta she was thrown on her beam ends and Peter, perhaps
dumping garbage over the rail, took a header. Among the things
tossed to him as he floated away was a sail-boom on which he was
swiftly carried out of sight by the turbid current. All on board
concluded that Peter Jackson had been eaten by sharks or
crocodiles and it was so reported when they arrived home. An
administrator was appointed for his goods and chattels and he was
officially deceased in the eyes of the law. A year or so later
this unconquerable sea-cook appeared in the streets of Salem,
grinning a welcome to former shipmates who fled from him in
terror as a ghostly visitation. He had floated twelve hours on
his sail-boom, it seemed, fighting off the sharks with his feet;
and finally drifting ashore. "He had hard work to do away with
the impressions of being dead," runs the old account, "but
succeeded and was allowed the rights and privileges of the
living."

The community of interests in these voyages of long ago included
not only the ship's company but also the townspeople, even the
boys and girls, who entrusted their little private speculations
or "adventures" to the captain. It was a custom which flourished
well into the nineteenth century. These memoranda are sprinkled
through the account books of the East Indiamen out of Salem and