We hauled the ship in to a pier in Brooklyn, near where the Norwegian America Line now has its dock, and we began to unload the ballast. We hired some Irish boys to help us with that. The captain was ashore every day from morning till night, and the responsibility for ship and everything was on me. We had put up a platform on a scaffold extending from the main hatch to the railing. On this platform I was helping empty the baskets of ballast into the lighter at our side. I knew the city was full of thieves, but I was now located so I could see what happened all over the ship. But here comes a man onboard, and stood a while looking, now this way, now that. Then he went forward to the side of the forecastle where there was a piece of the gunwale I could not see. I had my eye with him, and thought when he came back and went ashore I would be able to see if he had taken anything. Then, it occurred to me he was gone quite a hile, and I was just about to go forward and look what he was doing, when he came quietly walking back and went ashore. I saw he had nothing in his hands. But I wondered what kind of a man this was, and what he really wanted.
In the evening, the captain coming on board, asked me if the ship had been visited by thieves that day. I said I did not think so. 'Yes', he said, 'somebody told me he had seen two men in a boat rowing away from our ship with a lot of cordage in their boat.' Then I began to understand the purpose of the visit of the stranger. I had not thought they would come to the ship in a boat when we were moored at the pier. Now I understood what that man was doing forward, out of my sight. Then we both went forward to see what had been taken. Sure enough; they had stolen everything, loose and fast. The captain felt terribly bad. He was part owner of the ship. I knew I was responsible. He could deduct the value of the cordage from my pay. So I asked him his estimate of the value of it. He said it was at least $15.00. 'Alright,' I said, 'I'll pay for it.' That might end his miserable wailing about it. But this event was not to be disposed of so easily.