"Twice afore I mentioned thot door tull the owners," said Captain MacElrath.
He was on the brudge wuth me, an' I told hum tull take a look tull the wedges o' number one hatch.
The sea must a-caught hum on the upper brudge deck, carried hum clean across the fiddley, an' banged hum head-on tull the pipe cover.
"Oh, ut wasna onythun' tull greet about," Captain MacElrath assured him.
"Dud ye send word tull the wife?" had been his greeting to the clerk.
An' the owners paid a fine tull the Government of a hundred pounds each for them.
"But thot's their way--'we regret tull note,' 'we beg tull advise,'
'We regret tull note your long passage from Voloparaiso tull Sydney wuth an average daily run o' only one hundred an' suxty-seven.
"An' me on a wunter passage, blowin' a luvin' gale half the time, wuth hurricane force in atweenwhiles, an' hove to sux days, wuth engines stopped an' bunker coal runnun' short, an' me wuth a mate thot stupid he could no pass a shup's light ot night wi'out callun' me tull the brudge.
"An' when I come un tull Auckland short o' coal, after lettun' her druft sux days wuth the fires out tull save the coal, an' wuth only twenty tons in my bunkers, I was thunkun' o' the lossin' o' time an' the expense, an' tull save the owners I took her un an' out wi'out pilotage.
A shup o' ours was un tull Auckland recently an' uncurred no such charge.
"But dud they say a word tull me for the fufteen pounds I saved tull them?