"
Dodd ran to the helm and looked down; the brat was right: the blows which
had so endangered the ship, had broken the rudder, and the sea had washed
away more than half of it. The sight and the reflection made him faintish
for a moment. Death passing so very close to a man sickens him
_afterwards,_ unless he has the luck to be brainless.
"What is your name, urchin?"
"Ned Murphy, sir."
"Very well, Murphy, then you are a fine little fellow, and have wiped all
our eyes in the ship: run and send the carpenter aft."
"Ay, ay, sir."
The carpenter came. Like most artisans, he was clever in a groove: take
him out of that, and lo! a mule, a pig, an owl. He was not only unable to
invent, but so stiffly disinclined: a makeshift rudder was clean out of
his way; and, as his whole struggle was to get away from every suggestion
Dodd made back to groove aforesaid, the thing looked hopeless. Then
Fullalove, who had stood by grinning, offered to make a bunkum rudder,
provided the carpenter and mates were put under his orders. "But" said
he, "I must bargain they shall be disrated if they attempt to reason.
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