The story begins by the finding of an elderly naval man by a traveler, and the former's recital of the verse, "Oh, I am a cook and a captain bold, And the mate of the Nancy brig, And a bo'sun tight, and a midshipmite. And the crew of the captain's gig." Upon the inquiry as to how he can be all three different people, his recital proceeds with the comic wreck of the good ship "Nancy Bell," after which the survivors jump overboard into the painted waves and make for the shore. The next situation indicates that, "For a month we'd neither wittles nor drink, Still a-hungry we did feel. So we drawed a lot, and, accordin' shot The captain for our meal." A large paper cannon dispatches the captain. And the succeeding scenes show the disappearance into the pot of the mate, the midshipmite, the bo'sun tight and the crew of the captain's gig. The effect of these scenes is ludicrous in the extreme and we are all prepared to laugh at the consternation shown in the face of the lone mariner when, after having made way with all his fellow seamen, a small ship appears on the horizon, fires a gun and supposedly rescues him from having to eat himself. As he finishes his tale of war we fade back to the original scene where the apparitions of his former shipmates appear and we can well believe with him that, "I never larf, and I never smile, And 1 never lark nor play. But sit and croak, with a single joke."
