Chapter 13

My next craft was the Camillus, a ship that was bound to Greenock, via
Charleston. We got to the latter port without accident, and took in a
cargo of cotton. The ship was all ready for sailing of a Saturday, and the
captain had gone ashore, telling me he would be on board early in the
morning, when we could haul out and go to sea, should the wind be
favourable. I gave the people their Saturday's night, and went into the
cabin to freshen the nip, myself. I took a glass or two, and certainly had
more in me than is good for a man, though I was far from being downright
drunk. In a word, I had too much, though I could have carried a good deal
more, on a pinch. The steward had gone ashore, and there being no
second-mate, I was all alone.

In this state of things, I heard a noise, and went on deck to inquire
what was the matter. My old ship, the Franklin, was shifting her berth,
and her jib-boom had come foul of our taffrail. After some hailing, I got
on the taffrail to shove our neighbour off, when, by some carelessness of
my own, I fell head-foremost, hitting the gunwale of the boat, which was
hanging, about half way up to the davits, into the water. The tide set me
away, and carried me between the wharf and the ship astern of us, which
happened to be the William Thompson, Captain Thompson, owner Thompson,
mate Thompson, and all Thompson, as Mathews used to have it. Captain
Thompson was reading near the cabin windows, and he luckily heard me
groan. Giving the alarm, a boat was got round, and I taken in. As the
night was dark, and I lost all consciousness after the fall, I consider
this escape as standing second only to that from the shark in the West
Indies, and old Trant's gun, the night the Scourge went down. I did not
recover my recollection for several hours. This was not the effect of
liquor, but of the fall, as I remember everything distinctly that occurred
before I went from the taffrail. Still I confess that liquor did all the
mischief, as I had drunk just enough to make me careless.

In the morning, I found myself disabled in the left arm, and I went to a
doctor. This gentleman said he never told a fellow what ailed him until he
got his whack. I gave him a dollar, and he then let me into the secret. My
collar-bone was broken. "And, now," says he, "for another dollar I'll
patch you up." I turned out the other Spaniard, when he was as good as his
word. Going in the ship, however, was out of the question, and I was
obliged to get a young man to go on board the Camillus in my place; thus
losing the voyage and my berth.

I was now ashore, with two or three months of drift before me. Since the
time I joined the Washington, I had been going regularly ahead, and I do
think had I been able