ABSTRACT
AS agreed, H.M.S. Sharpshooter cast off the Samson when the two vessels had reached the Horsburgh Lighthouse, and the same afternoon Captain Barkspur was at his moorings at the man-of-war anchorage of Singapore harbour. The Samson drifted in next morning, and Northwood dropped his anchor in the roads and went ashore to look after his affairs. In due course he worked round to McAlister’s, the ship-chandler’s, the rendezvous of all the skippers in the port, where they would smoke and swap yams about themselves and their ships, all to the ultimate benefit of the worthy McAlister, with whom they ran up long bills at very tall prices.
