The boy stood in dark shadows outside the Pewter Tankard near Boston Harbor. He was afraid. The only light came from a quarter moon high in the sky. It was late at night and the shadows spooked him, but desperation and a rumbling stomach drove him.
The Pewter Tankard was the lowest of the low dives on the waterfront in 1801. Although it sold food it was primarily a bar frequented by sailors from the nearby ships. The boy was not there for drink; he was there hoping to get food.
He heard someone approaching in the dark and his heart pounded faster. A man emerged from the shadows. To the boy he appeared enormous, well over six feet and burly. Even in the dim light the boy could see an angry scar extending from the man’s left eye down to the edge of his mouth. The boy apprehensively moved into the moonlight and asked, “Please, mister, could you get me a little food?”
The man stopped and looked at the boy. His gaze was none too friendly, but at last he replied, “No, but I can show ya how to earn it. Come.” With that he entered the tavern, sure that the boy would follow.
The tavern smelled of stale food and beer. There were three men sitting at a table near the door. The only other person in the tavern was the bartender, whose girth was huge; his height was not much more than the boy’s. He had a friendly face but his bulbous nose displaying red veins attested to the fact that the man not only sold beer but consumed a great deal himself.
As the man and the boy walked past the bar, the bartender said, “Got a new one, Max? He looks a little young even for you.”
“He’ll do, Phillip,” Max muttered and led the boy into a back room.
“I’ll be closing the bar in a bit, so don’t expect anything from the bar or the kitchen,” the bartender called after him.
“I’ll be quick,” said Max as he closed the door behind him.
A small lantern on a table in the room gave just enough light for the man to see what he was doing. He spoke an order and the boy whimpered.
Minutes later, the bartender heard a scream followed by a muffled yelp.
When Max emerged from the back room, the boy was not with him. The bartender looked questioningly at Max, who said, “He’s sleeping.” Then he walked out the door.
The other men had left the tavern, so when Max was gone the bartender walked to the back room, opened the door, and looked in. “Shit!” he exclaimed. The boy was lying face down on the cot crying. He was naked and his rectum was bleeding.
The bartender sat beside the boy and gently rubbed his back, observing the child’s red hair, tight with curls, and his freckled face.
The boy looked up, sniffled, and said, “He stuck his dong ─”
“Ya don’t have ta tell me what he did,” the man replied. “Yer not the first and probably not the last. Can ya sit up?”
The boy tried. At first the pain in his rectum was too great. As the man encouraged him, the boy was at last able to stand. He grabbed his trousers to hide his nakedness from the bartender, who said, “Ya don’t have t’ hide it. I’ve seen it all before. Why don’t ya put on yer clothes and come to the bar? I’ll give ya somethin’ to eat.” With that he left the boy and returned to the bar.
A few minutes later, the boy hobbled through the door and up to the bar.
“He left me some coins,” the boy said. “I can pay for my food.”
“Not necessary,” replied Phillip. This is on me.” With that he passed a plate across the bar and told the boy to dig in.
The bar was almost too high for the boy to see his food, but he certainly didn’t want to sit anywhere. There was a nondescript slab of meat on the plate, along with some sort of mushy blob which might once have been potato, but the boy was very hungry, so he grabbed the meat in his hand and took a bite. Very shortly, the food was gone.
“What’s yer name?” Phillip asked when the boy had finished eating.
“Zachary Bouchard, sir,” the boy replied.
“Do yer parents know where ya are?” the man asked, quite certain he’d get a negative reply.
“They’re dead,” answered the boy. “Died of the fever a year ago.”
Zachary was indeed an orphan. His parents and two male siblings had died of rheumatic fever, which was greatly feared. Two other siblings, both girls, survived. The three of them were taken to the orphanage in Boston.
“So where have ya been living?” continued the bartender.
“At the orphanage, but Mr. Dexter beats the boys, so I ran away yesterday.”
“Hmm,” murmured the bartender. “There’s a ship out there in the harbor which will set sail in a day or two. Do ya have any hankerin’ to go to sea?”
“Oh, yes sir. That’s why I’ve been hanging around the docks.”
“Well, one of the lieutenants is looking to sign up a few crew members, so maybe he can get ya on as a powder monkey.” He did not mention that if Zachary joined the ship, Phillip might get a small finder’s fee.
“What’s a powder monkey?”
“It’s a boy who carries the gunpowder to his gun crew during a battle.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“No more than any other job on a warship. Would ya like me to pass the word to the lieutenant?”
Zachary nodded.
“Well, nothin’ll happen till mornin’, so why don’t ya go back to the room and get some sleep. I’ll call ya when the sun’s up.”
“Can I stay out here? I don’t ever want to go in that room again.”
Phillip agreed and fetched a dirty blanket and pillow. Zachary took them and lay in a corner. Soon he was fast asleep.
The bartender looked at him, shook his head sadly, and climbed some stairs in the corner to his bedroom above the tavern.
* * *
The next thing the boy knew, he was being shaken gently by the bartender. Light was filtering through the two very small, dirty windows. He and the bartender were the only people in the room. The man handed him a stale bun and gave him a glass of dirty water, which the boy drank greedily.
Soon a young man in a naval uniform entered the tavern, looked at the boy, and asked the bartender, “Is this him?”
The bartender nodded. Zachary had turned when the man entered and stood admiring the man’s uniform.
“The lieutenant, Mister Appleton, is waiting outside. Come along.”
“Yes, sir.”
Outside the bar stood a man in a very impressive uniform as well as two more sailors.
“How old are you?” asked Mister Appleton.
“Eleven sir, I think.” The man nodded before saying, “As a powder monkey you’ll get two meals a day and some clothes. You’ll be a volunteer, so you won’t get paid, but you’ll be learning to sail.”
“Yes, sir.”
Turning to the sailor who had retrieved Zachary from the bar, he told him to take the boy to the ship.
Zachary followed the sailor towards a white rowboat tied up at a wharf. In the boat, six men waited, talking quietly. The sailor led the boy down to the boat, told him to climb in, and told the oarsmen to take the new powder monkey to the ship. Then he turned and walked into town to rejoin Mr. Appleton.
The oarsmen said nothing but rowed the boat out to the ship. Zachary was a little nervous as the boat pulled away from the shore, but he believed that in time he’d get used to being on water. There was a ladder attached to the side of the ship, and one of the men told Zachary to climb up. At the top of the ladder, a hand grasped his arm firmly and helped him aboard.
Zachary looked around in awe. He had never been on a ship before, and the vessel seemed huge. He saw men working high above the deck in the rigging. He was sure he’d never be able to climb up as high as the men were, but they acted as though there was no cause for alarm. Other men were working on the deck, coiling ropes, cleaning the deck, and performing numerous other tasks which he soon learned were simply a part of life on a ship. Boats were arriving with supplies, everything from gunpowder to food to kegs of fresh water.
The man helping him aboard introduced himself as the bo’sun and took Zachary to a little table. “Can you sign your name? the man asked. When Zachary nodded, the man told him to sign his name in the log, pointing where the boy should sign. Zachary signed and the bo’sun said he could explore the ship until a midshipman had time to talk with him. Then he turned away and walked towards the stern, leaving Zachary on his own.
As Zachary walked around the deck, gazing at the rigging and the guns and trying to stay out of the way of the working men, another boy came up to him. “Are you a new powder monkey?” the boy asked.
Zachary nodded shyly.
Holding his hand out, the boy said, “I’m Tony. I’m almost thirteen, which makes me the oldest of us.”
After Zachary introduced himself, Tony asked, “Where did Mr. Appleton find you?”
“In a bar on the waterfront.”
“What were you doing there?”
“Trying to beg some food.”
“What about your family?”
Zachary explained that his parents and two brothers had died of rheumatic fever. “Me and my two younger sisters were put in an orphanage, but I ran away because the man who runs the orphanage beats the boys.”
Tony saw that Zachary was close to tears, so he decided to change the subject. “Would you like a tour of the ship?”
Zachary nodded.
“Well, this ship is a brig. It has two masts as you can see. Each mast can hold several sails. All the sails are named according to where they are on the mast. You can learn their names in time if you’re interested, but that doesn’t really have anything to do with our job. Come on. I’ll show you the rest of the ship.” He went on to discuss terms that were used on a ship, like ‘fore’ and ‘aft’, ‘yardarm’ and ‘mast’.
At one point he stopped and said, “This is our berth.”
“We sleep here?” asked a surprised Zachary.
Tony laughed and said, “No, this is where we eat. The crew is divided into small groups called messes. Each mess has a designated spot to eat. The chest there holds our knives and forks as well as tin plates and a tin pail and pan to carry the food from the galley. There are eleven messes altogether on the Bradford.
As Zachary followed, Tony led him through a hatch in the deck and down a ladder which he called a companionway to the next deck.
“This is the berth deck, but a lot of us sleep up on the gun deck when the weather’s good. He pointed out the officers’ quarters including the captain’s cabin at the stern. Then he led Zachary down another level to what he said was the hold. “It’s below the waterline,” he explained, “so the gunpowder is stored down here where it can’t get hit during a battle. If it caught fire, it would blow the whole ship out of the water and us along with it. Our job is to take bags of powder up to the gunners as quickly and safely as we can. There are nine of us and eighteen guns, so we each supply two guns, one on the starboard side and one on the larboard. Usually that works because only one side of the ship is facing the enemy, but if we have an enemy on each side, we can get pretty busy during a battle. Otherwise, we don’t have a lot to do, but we’re usually assigned odd jobs. A lot of them are cleaning various parts of the ship. Some of us are learning things like the names of the ropes in the rigging so that when we’re too old to be monkeys anymore we can sign on as crew members.”
Time and again Zachary nodded to indicate that he understood.
“You don’t say much, do you?” asked Tony.
Zachary shook his head.
“That’s okay,” said the older boy. “You’ll soon meet the other powder monkeys, find out what watch you’re on, and then meet some of the crew members. They’ll get you talking. Let’s head back up to the gun deck.”
Back on the main deck, Zachary asked, “What’s a watch?”
“Well, the crew is divided into two watches. One watch works on deck and in the rigging while the other watch sleeps. They reverse every four hours so the watch that was sleeping can work and the watch that was working can sleep. ‘Course, in a battle, both watches work.”
Tony and Zachary walked about the deck, Tony naming things like the mainmast, the foremast, the boom protruding out from the bow of the ship. He explained that in addition to the sails on the masts, triangular sails were sometimes put on the lines running out to the end of the boom.
The most fascinating things to Zachary were the guns. Standing beside one, with his hand resting affectionately on the weapon, Tony said, “This one and the one directly across from us are manned by my gun crews,” he said. “This is where I bring the powder during a battle.
“These guns are called carronades. The carronades don’t shoot as far as a cannon, but they’re easier to manage. They don’t have the kick of a cannon, but they do move about a little, so each time they’re fired they have to be aimed again. Up close, we can fire a devastating broadside into the enemy.”
It was clear to Zachary that Tony was proud of his job, his crews, and his guns. “How do you shoot one?” he asked.
Tony explained how the gun was loaded, aimed, and fired, and how it had to be cooled off before it could load again.
“What’s a broadside?” Zachary asked.
“It’s when the guns on the side of the ship facing the enemy are all fired at once. Sometimes, one broadside can end a battle right away. Other times, ships continue to fire at each other, trying to put their enemy out of commission.”
As they walked back toward the middle of the ship, a man swiftly descended a rope, landing on the deck right beside them.
Zachary gasped. The man was Max, the one who had hurt him the night before.
Max was equally surprised. He looked at Zachary, and then put his forefinger to his lips, silently telling the boy to say nothing. Then the man turned away and walked toward the bow of the ship.
“Do you know him?” asked Tony.
Trying not to give anything away, Zachary said, “I just met him once on shore.”
“Well, don’t do anything to upset him,” Tony said. “He’s got a mean temper and he’s been known to seriously injure boys.”
Zachary had no intention of aggravating Max. Tony, who had tasks to accomplish, said goodbye and walked towards the stern. Zachary leaned against one of the carronades and decided he’d just watch until a midshipman came to get him.
Looking about he wondered if the other crew members were as dangerous as Max. As he stood, he felt a hand none too gently squeezing his shoulder. The hand easily turned him around and there was Max, not six inches from the boy.
“Did ya tell Tony about last night?” Max asked.
“No, Max.”
“It’s Mister Martin to you. Ya keep yer yap shut if ya know what’s good for ya. It’d be a shame if ya fell overboard some dark night.”
The man turned and walked away leaving Zachary trembling.