"Pretty soon he came up to where I was a-gettin' the tackle ready to
lower the stone in the hold, and he says:
"'Well, you made your word good, Cap'n, but I want to tell you that
nobody but an American could a-done it. It would cost me my commission
if I should try to do what you have done.'
"'Well, gentlemen,' I says, 'what was wrong about it? What's the matter
with the Screamer's rig?'
"'Well, the size of the rope for one thing,' says the Colonel, 'and the
boom.'
"'Well, p'haps you ain't looked it over,' I says, and I began
unravelling an end that stuck out near the shackle. 'If you'll look
close here'--and I held the end of the rope up--'you'll see that every
stran' of that rope is made of the best Manila yarn, and laid as smooth
as silk. I stood over that rope myself when it was put together. Old Sam
Hanson of New Bedford laid up that rope, and there ain't no better
nowhere. I knew what it had to do, and I warn't goin' to take no chances
of its not doin' it right. As to that boom, I want to tell ye that I
picked that boom out o' about two hundred sticks in Tom Carlin's
shipyard, in Stonington, and had it scraped and ironed just to please
me.
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