John smiled pleasantly, and his silence encouraged the Captain to continue.  “Why, sir, the very insurance offices speak of a ship as she, and what’s more they talk naturally of the ’life and death of a ship,’ and I can tell you, sir, if you had ever seen a ship fight for her life and go down to her death, you would say they were right.  Mr. Hatton, there is no sadder sight than a ship giving up the fight, because further fight is useless.  Once I was present at the death of a ship.  I pray God that I may never see the like again.  Her captain and her men had left her alone, and from the boats standing abaft, they silently watched her sinking.  Sir, many a man dies in his bed with all his kin around, and does not carry as much love with him as she did. Why-a!  The thought of that hour brings a pain to my heart yet—­and it is thirty years ago.”

“You are a true sailor, Captain.”

“To be sure I am.  As the Fife men say, ’I was born with the sea in my mouth.’  I thank God for it!  Often I have met Him on the great deep, for ‘His path is on the waters.’  I don’t believe I would have found Him as easy and as often, in a cotton-spinning factory—­no, I don’t!”

“A good man like you, Captain, ought to have a wife and a home.”

“I’m not sure of that, Mr. Hatton.  On my ship at sea I am lord and master, and my word is law as long as I stop at sea.  If any man does not like my word and way, he can leave my ship at the first land we touch, and I see that he does so.  But it is different with a wife.  She is in your house to stay, whether you like it or not.  All you have is hers if you stick to the marriage vow.  Yes, sir, she even takes your name for her own, and if she does not behave well with it, you have to take the blame and the shame, whether you deserve it or not.  It is a one-sided bargain, sir.”

“Not always as bad as that, Captain.”

“Why, sir, your honored father, who lorded it over every man he met and contradicted everything he didn’t like, said, ‘Yes, my dear,’ to whatever Mrs. Hatton desired or declared.  I hed to do the same thing in my way, and Mrs. Hatton on board this yacht was really her captain.  I’m not saying but what she was a satisfactory substitute, for she hed the sense to always ask my advice.”

“Then she acted under orders, Captain.”

“To be sure.  But I am Captain Lance Cook, of Whitby, a master navigator, a fourth in direct line from Captain James Cook, who sailed three times round the world, when that was a most uncommon thing to do.  And every time he went, he made England a present of a few islands.  Captain James Cook made his name famous among Englishmen of the sea, and I hevn’t come across the woman yet I considered worthy to share it.”

“You may meet her soon now, Captain.  There is a ‘new woman’ very much the fashion these days.  Perhaps you have not seen her yet.”