On that first voyage the _Narcissus_ carried general cargo to northern
ports on the West Coast. Then she dropped down to a nitrate port and
loaded nitrate for New York, and about the time she passed through the
Panama Canal the Blue Star Navigation Company wired its New York agent
to provide some neutral business for her next voyage. Freights were
soaring by this time, due to the scarcity of the foreign bottoms which
formerly had carried Uncle Sam's goods to market, and Cappy Ricks and
Matt Peasley knew the rates would increase from day to day, and that
in consequence their New York agents would experience not the
slightest difficulty in placing her--hence they delayed as long as
they could placing her on the market.

On the other hand, the New York agents, realizing that higher freight
rates meant a correspondingly higher commission for them on the
charter, held off until the _Narcissus_ had almost finished
discharging at Hoboken before they closed with a fine old New York
importing and exporting house for a cargo of soft coal from Norfolk,
Virginia, to Manila, or Batavia. The charterers were undecided which
of these two cities would be the port of discharge, and stipulated
that the vessel was to call at Pernambuco, Brazil, for orders. The New
York agents marvelled at this for--to them--very obvious reasons; but
inasmuch as the charterers had offered a whopping freight rate and
declined to do business on any other basis, and since further the
agent concluded it was no part of his office to question the motives
of a house that never before had been subjected to suspicion, he
concluded to protect himself by leaving the decision to the owners of
the _Narcissus_. Accordingly he wired them as follows:

"Blue Star Navigation Company,