



Produced by David T. Jones, Juliet Sutherland and the
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GRAHAM'S MAGAZINE.

VOL. XXXII. PHILADELPHIA, MARCH, 1848. No. 3.




THE CRUISE OF THE GENTILE.

BY FRANK BYRNE.


CHAPTER I.

_In which the reader is introduced to several of the dramatis personae._


On the evening of the 25th of March, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine, the ship Gentile, of Boston,
lay at anchor in the harbor of Valetta.

It is quite proper, gentle reader, that, as it is with this ship and
her crew that you will chiefly have to do in the following yarn, they
should be severally and particularly introduced to your notice.

To begin, then. Imagine yourself standing on the parapet of St. Elmo,
about thirty minutes past five o'clock on the evening above mentioned;
the Gentile lies but little more than a cable's length from the shore,
so that you can almost look down upon her decks. You perceive that she
is a handsome craft of some six or seven hundred tons burthen,
standing high out of water, in ballast trim, with a black hull, bright
waist, and wales painted white. Her bows flare very much, and are
sharp and symmetrical; the cut-water stretches, with a graceful curve,
far out beyond them toward the long sweeping martingal, and is
surmounted by a gilt scroll, or, as the sailors call it, a
fiddle-head. The black stern is ornamented by a group of white figures
in bas relief, which give a lively air to the otherwise sombre and
vacant expression, and beneath the cabin-windows is painted the name
of the ship, and her port of register. The lower masts of this vessel
are short and stout, the top-masts are of great height, the extreme
points of the fore and mizzen-royal poles, are adorned with gilt
balls, and over all, at the truck of the main sky-sail pole, floats a
handsome red burgee, upon which a large G is visible. There are no
yards across but the lower and topsail-yards, which are very long and
heavy, precisely squared, and to which the sails are furled in an
exceeding neat and seaman-like manner. The rigging is universally taut
and trim; and it is easy to perceive that the officers of the Gentile
understand their business. The swinging-boom is rigged out, and
fastened thereto, by their painters, a pair of boats, a yawl and gig,
float lovingly side by side; and instead of the usual ladder at the
side, a handy flight of accommodation steps lead from the water-line
to the gangway.

Now, dear reader, leaving the battlements of St. Elmo, you alight upon
the deck of our ship, which you find to be white and clean, and, as
seamen say, sheer--that is to say, without break, poop, or
hurricane-house--forming on each side of the line of masts a smooth,
unencumbered plane the entire length of the deck, inclining with a
gentle curve from the bow and stern toward the waist. The bulwarks are
high, and are surmounted by a paneled monkey-rail; the belaying-pins
in the plank-shear are of lignum-vitae and mahogany, and upon them the
rigging is laid up in accurate and graceful coils. The balustrade
around the cabin companion-way and sky-light is made of polished
brass, the wheel is inlaid with brass, and the capstan-head, the
gangway-stanchions, and bucket-hoops are of the same glittering metal.
Forward of the main hatchway the long-boat stands in its chocks,
covered over with a roof, and a good-natured looking cow, whose stable
is thus contrived, protrudes her head from a window, chews her cud
with as much composure as if standing under the lee of a Yankee
barn-yard wall, and watches, apparently, a group of sailors, who,
seated in the forward waist around their kids and pans, are enjoying
their coarse but plentiful and wholesome evening meal. A huge
Newfoundland dog sits upon his haunches near this circle, his eyes
eagerly watching for a morsel to be thrown him, the which, when
happening, his jaws close with a sudden snap, and are instantly agape
for more. A green and gold parrot also wanders about this knot of men,
sometimes nibbling the crumbs offered it, and anon breaking forth into
expressions which, from their tone, evince no great respect for