The sight gave me
courage and strength, and I determined no old shipmate should hear of a
blue-jacket's hanging himself on a picket, in a fit of the horrors.
Casting off the bowlines, I replaced the handkerchief on my neck, and made
the best of my way towards those blessed mast-heads, which, under God's
mercy, were the means of preventing me from committing suicide.
As I came up to the gate of the yard, the marine on post sung out to me,
"Halloo, Myers, where are you come from? You look as if you had been
dragged through h--, and beaten with a soot-bag!" This man, the first I
met at the Navy Yard, had been with me three years in the Delaware, and
knew me in spite of my miserable appearance. He advised me to go on board
the Fulton, then lying at the Yard, where he said I should find several
more old Delawares, who would take good care of me. I did as he directed,
and, on getting on board, I fell in with lots of acquaintances. Some
brought me tea, and some brought me grog. I told my yarn, and the chaps
around me laid a plan to get ashore on liberty that night, and razee the
house from which I had been turned away. But I persuaded them out of the
notion, and the landlord went clear.
Alter a while, I got a direction to a boarding-house near the Yard, and
went to it, with a message from my old shipmates that they would be
responsible for the pay.
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