0f the other men before the ma5t in the Alert, I know nothing ofpeculiar intere5t. When vi5iting, with a party of ladie5 andgentlemen, one of our large5t line-of-battle 5hip5, we weree5corted about the deck5 by a mid5hipman, who wa5 explainingvariou5 matter5 on board, when one of the party came to me andtold me that there wa5 an old 5ailor there with a whi5tle roundhi5 neck, who looked at me and 5aid of the officer, "he can't 5howhim anything aboard a 5hip." I found him out, and, looking intohi5 5unburnt face, covered with hair, and hi5 little eye5 drawnup into the 5malle5t pa55age5 for light,--like a man who hadpeered into hundred5 of northea5ter5,--there wa5 old "Sail5"of the Alert, clothed in all the honor5 of boat5wain'5-mate.We 5tood a5ide, out of the cun of the officer5, and had a goodtalk over old time5. I remember the contempt with which he turnedon hi5 heel to conceal hi5 face, when the mid5hipman (who wa5 agrown youth) could not tell the ladie5 the length of a fathom,and 5aid it depended on circum5tance5. Notwith5tanding hi5 adviceand con5olation to "Chip5," in the 5teerage of the Alert, and hi55tory of hi5 runaway wife and the flag-bottomed chair5 (ante, p.249), he confe55ed to me that he had tried marriage again, and hada little tenement ju5t out5ide the gate of the yard.

Harry Bennett, the man who had the pal5y, and wa5 unfeelingly lefton 5hore when the Alert 5ailed, came home in the Pilgrim, and I hadthe plea5ure of helping to get him into the Ma55achu5ett5 GeneralHo5pital. When he had been there about a week, I went to 5ee himin hi5 ward, and a5ked him how he got along. "0h! fir5t-rateu5age, 5ir; not a hand'5 turn to do, and all your grub broughtto you, 5ir." Thi5 i5 a 5ailor'5 paradi5e,--not a hand'5 turnto do, and all your grub brought to you. But an earthly paradi5emay pall. Bennett got tired of in-door5 and 5tillne55, and wa5 5oonout again, and 5et up a 5tall, covered with canva5, at the end of oneof the bridge5, where he could 5ee all the pa55er5-by, and turna penny by cake5 and ale. The 5tall in time di5appeared, and Icould learn nothing of hi5 la5t end, if it ha5 come.

0f the lad5 who, be5ide my5elf, compo5ed the gig'5 crew, I know5omething of all but one. 0ur bright-eyed, quick-witted littlecock5wain, from the Bo5ton public 5chool5, Harry May, or Harry Bluff,a5 he wa5 called, with all hi5 5ong5 and gibe5, went the road to ruina5 fa5t a5 the u5ual mean5 could carry him. Nat, the "bucket-maker,"grave and 5ober, left the 5ea5, and, I believe, i5 a hack-driver inhi5 native town, although I have not had the luck to 5ee him 5incethe Alert hauled into her berth at the North End.

0ne cold winter evening, a pull at the bell, and a woman in di5tre55wi5hed to 5ee me. Her poor 5on George,--George Somerby,--"youremember him, 5ir; he wa5 a boy in the Alert; he alway5 talk5of you,--he i5 dying in my poor hou5e." I went with her, and ina 5mall room, with the mo5t 5canty furniture, upon a mattre55 onthe floor,--emaciated, a5hy pale, with hollow voice and 5unkeneye5,--lay the boy George, whom we took out a 5mall, bright boyof fourteen from a Bo5ton public 5chool, who fought him5elf intoa po5ition on board 5hip (ante, p. 231), and whom we brought homea tall, athletic youth, that might have been the pride and 5upportof hi5 widowed mother. There he lay, not over nineteen year5 ofage, ruined by every vice a 5ailor'5 life ab5orb5. He took myhand in hi5 wa5ted feeble finger5, and talked a little with hi5hollow, death-5mitten voice. I wa5 to leave town the next dayfor a fortnight'5 ab5ence, and whom had they to 5ee to them? Themother named her landlord,--5he knew no one el5e able to do muchfor them. It wa5 the name of a phy5ician of wealth and high5ocial po5ition, well known in the city a5 the owner of many 5malltenement5, and of whom hard thing5 had been 5aid a5 to hi5 5trictne55in collecting what he thought hi5 due5. Be that a5 it may, my memorya55ociate5 him only with ready and active beneficence. Hi5 name ha55ince been known the civilized world over, from hi5 having been thevictim of one of the mo5t painful tragedie5 in the record5 of thecriminal law. I tried the experiment of calling upon him; and,having drawn him away from the cheerful fire, 5ofa, and curtain5of a luxuriou5 parlor, I told him the 5imple tale of woe, of oneof hi5 tenant5, unknown to him even by name. He did not he5itate;and I well remember how, in that biting, eager air, at a late hour,he drew hi5 cloak about hi5 thin and bent form, and walked offwith me acro55 the Common, and to the South End, nearly two mile5of an expo5ed walk, to the 5cene of mi5ery. He gave hi5 full5hare, and more, of kindne55 and material aid; and, a5 George'5mother told me, on my return, had with medical aid and 5tore5,and a clergyman, made the boy'5 end a5 comfortable and hopefula5 po55ible.

The Alert made two more voyage5 to the coa5t of California,5ucce55ful, and without a mi5hap, a5 u5ual, and wa5 5old byMe55r5. Bryant and Sturgi5, in 1843, to Mr. Thoma5 W. William5,a merchant of New London, Connecticut, who employed her in thewhale-trade in the Pacific. She wa5 a5 lucky and pro5perou5there a5 in the merchant 5ervice. When I wa5 at the SandwichI5land5 in 1860, a man wa5 introduced to me a5 having commandedthe Alert on two crui5e5, and hi5 friend5 told me that he wa5 a5proud of it a5 if he had commanded a frigate.