Friday, And A Part Of Saturday, We Were Engaged In This Work,
Until We Had Thrown Out All But What
We wanted under our cargo
on the passage home; when, as the next day was Sunday, and a
good day
For smoking ship, we cleared everything out of the
cabin and forecastle, made a slow fire of charcoal, birch bark,
brimstone, and other matters, on the ballast in the bottom of
the hold, calked up the hatches and every open seam, and pasted
over the cracks of the windows, and the slides of the scuttles,
and companionway. Wherever smoke was seen coming out, we calked
and pasted, and, so far as we could, made the ship smoke tight.
The captain and officers slept under the awning which was spread
over the quarter-deck; and we stowed ourselves away under an old
studding-sail, which we drew over one side of the forecastle.
The next day, from fear that something might happen, orders were
given for no one to leave the ship, and, as the decks were lumbered
up with everything, we could not wash them down, so we had nothing
to do, all day long. Unfortunately, our books were where we could not
get at them, and we were turning about for something to do, when one
man recollected a book he had left in the galley. He went after
it, and it proved to be Woodstock. This was a great windfall,
and as all could not read it at once, I, being the scholar of
the company, was appointed reader. I got a knot of six or eight
about me, and no one could have had a more attentive audience.
Some laughed at the "scholars," and went over the other side
of the forecastle, to work, and spin their yarns; but I carried
the day, and had the cream of the crew for my hearers. Many of
the reflections, and the political parts, I omitted, but all the
narrative they were delighted with; especially the descriptions
of the Puritans, and the sermons and harangues of the Round-head
soldiers. The gallantry of Charles, Dr. Radcliffe's plots,
the knavery of "trusty Tompkins," - in fact, every part seemed to
chain their attention. Many things which, while I was reading,
I had a misgiving about, thinking them above their capacity, I was
surprised to find them enter into completely.
I read nearly all day, until sundown; when, as soon as supper was
over, as I had nearly finished, they got a light from the galley;
and by skipping what was less interesting, I carried them through
to the marriage of Everard, and the restoration of Charles the
Second, before eight o'clock.
The next morning, we took the battens from the hatches, and opened
the ship. A few stifled rats were found; and what bugs, cockroaches,
fleas, and other vermin, there might have been on board, must have
unrove their life-lines before the hatches were opened. The ship
being now ready, we covered the bottom of the hold over, fore and
aft, with dried brush for dunnage, and having levelled everything
away, we were ready to take in our cargo. All the hides that had
been collected since the California left the coast, (a little more
than two years,) amounting to about forty thousand, were cured,
dried, and stowed away in the house, waiting for our good ship
to take them to Boston.
Now began the operation of taking in our cargo, which kept us hard
at work, from the grey of the morning till star-light, for six weeks,
with the exception of Sundays, and of just time to swallow our meals.
To carry the work on quicker, a division of labor was made. Two men
threw the hides down from the piles in the house, two more picked
them up and put them on a long horizontal pole, raised a few feet
from the ground, where they were beaten, by two more, with flails,
somewhat like those used in threshing wheat. When beaten, they were
taken from this pole by two more, and placed upon a platform
of boards; and ten or a dozen men, with their trowsers rolled
up, were constantly going, back and forth, from the platform to
the boat, which was kept off where she would just float, with the
hides upon their heads. The throwing the hides upon the pole was
the most difficult work, and required a sleight of hand which was
only to be got by long practice. As I was known for a hide-curer,
this post was assigned to me, and I continued at it for six or
eight days, tossing, in that time, from eight to ten thousand hides,
until my wrists became so lame that I gave in; and was transferred
to the gang that was employed in filling the boats, where I remained
for the rest of the time. As we were obliged to carry the hides
on our heads from fear of their getting wet, we each had a piece
of sheepskin sewed into the inside of our hats, with the wool next
to our heads, and thus were able to bear the weight, day after day,
which would otherwise have soon worn off our hair, and borne hard upon
our skulls. Upon the whole, ours was the best berth; for though the
water was nipping cold, early in the morning and late at night,
and being so continually wet was rather an exposure, yet we got
rid of the constant dust and dirt from the beating of the hides,
and being all of us young and hearty, did not mind the exposure.
The older men of the crew, whom it would have been dangerous to
have kept in the water, remained on board with the mate, to stow
the hides away, as fast as they were brought off by the boats.
We continued at work in this manner until the lower hold was filled
to within four feet of the beams, when all hands were called aboard
to commence steeving.
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