{"id":11290,"date":"2018-09-19T10:19:59","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T14:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=11290"},"modified":"2018-09-19T10:19:59","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T14:19:59","slug":"id-rather-ye-saw-on-the-ship-knees-than-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=11290","title":{"rendered":"I’d Rather Ye Saw on the Ship Knees Than Mine."},"content":{"rendered":"

September 19 is Talk like a Pirate Day, so here’s a selection of dialogue from Walter Scott’s The Pirate.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

“The lads,” he said, “all knew Cleveland, and could trust his seamanship, as well as his courage; besides, he never let the grog get quite uppermost, and was always in proper trim, either to sail the ship, or to fight the ship, whereby she was never without some one to keep her course when he was on board. \u2014 And as for the noble Captain Goffe,” continued the mediator, “he is as stout a heart as ever broke biscuit, and that I will uphold him; but then, when he has his grog aboard \u2014 I speak to his face \u2014 he is so d\u2014d funny with his cranks and his jests, that there is no living with him. You all remember how nigh he had run the ship on that cursed Horse of Copinsha<\/a>, as they call it, just by way of frolic; and then you know how he fired off his pistol under the table, when we were at the great council, and shot Jack Jenkins in the knee, and cost the poor devil his leg, with his pleasantry.”1<\/sup><\/p>\n

“Jack Jenkins was not a chip the worse,” said the carpenter; “I took the leg off with my saw as well as any loblolly-boy in the land could have done \u2014 heated my broad axe, and seared the stump \u2014 ay, by\u00a0\u2014 ! and made a jury-leg that he shambles\u00a0about with as well as ever he did \u2014 for Jack could never cut a feather.”2<\/sup><\/p>\n

“You are a clever fellow, carpenter,” replied the boatswain, ” a d\u2014d clever fellow! but I had rather you tried your saw and red-hot axe upon the ship’s knee-timbers than on mine, sink me!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u2014 But that here is not the case \u2014 The question is, if we shall part with Captain Cleveland here, who is a man of thought and action, whereby it is my belief it would be heaving the pilot overboard when the gale is blowing on a lee-shore. And, I must say, it is not the part of a true heart to leave his mates, who have been here waiting for him till they have missed stays. Our water is wellnigh out, and we have junketed till provisions are low with us. We cannot sail without provisions \u2014 we cannot get provisions without the good-will of the Kirkwall folks. If we remain here longer, the Halcyon frigate will be down upon us \u2014 she was seen off Peterhead two days since, \u2014 and we shall hang up at the yard-arm to be sun-dried. Now, Captain Cleveland will get us out of the hobble, if any can. He can play the gentleman with these Kirkwall folks, and knows how to deal with them on fair terms, and foul, too, if there be occasion for it.<\/p>\n

“And so you would turn honest Captain Goffe a-grazing, would ye?” said an old weatherbeaten\u00a0pirate,\u00a0<\/span>who had but one eye; “what though he has his humours, and made my eye dowse the glim in his fancies and frolics, he is as honest a man as ever walked a quarter-deck, for all that; and d\u2014n me but I stand by him so long as t’other lantern is lit!”<\/p>\n

1\u00a0<\/sup>This was really an exploit of the celebrated Avery the\u00a0pirate,\u00a0who suddenly, and without provocation, fired his pistols\u00a0under the table where he sat drinking with his messmates, wounded one man severely, and thought the matter a good jest. What is still more extraordinary, his crew regarded it in the same light.<\/p>\n

2<\/sup>A ship going fast through the sea is said to cut a feather, alluding to the ripple which she throws off from her bows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September 19 is Talk like a Pirate Day, so here’s a selection of dialogue from Walter Scott’s The Pirate. “The lads,” he said, “all knew Cleveland, and could trust his seamanship, as well as his courage; besides, he never let the grog get quite uppermost, and was always in proper trim, either to sail the … Continue reading I’d Rather Ye Saw on the Ship Knees Than Mine.<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[2735,3300],"class_list":["post-11290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","category-goofing","tag-talk-like-a-pirate-day","tag-walter-scott"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}