Yet, Strange As It May Seem, I Did Then And Afterwards Take
Pleasure In These Reflections, Hoping By Them To Prevent My Becoming
Insensible To The Value Of What I Was Leaving.
But all my dreams were soon put to flight by an order from the
officer to trim the yards,
As the wind was getting ahead; and I
could plainly see by the looks the sailors occasionally cast to
windward, and by the dark clouds that were fast coming up, that we
had bad weather to prepare for, and had heard the captain say that
he expected to be in the Gulf Stream by twelve o'clock. In a few
minutes eight bells were struck, the watch called, and we went below.
I now began to feel the first discomforts of a sailor's life.
The steerage in which I lived was filled with coils of rigging,
spare sails, old junk and ship stores, which had not been stowed
away. Moreover, there had been no berths built for us to sleep in,
and we were not allowed to drive nails to hang our clothes upon.
The sea, too, had risen, the vessel was rolling heavily, and
everything was pitched about in grand confusion. There was a
complete "hurrah's nest," as the sailors say, "everything on top
and nothing at hand." A large hawser had been coiled away upon
my chest; my hats, boots, mattress and blankets had all fetched
away and gone over to leeward, and were jammed and broken under
the boxes and coils of rigging. To crown all, we were allowed
no light to find anything with, and I was just beginning to feel
strong symptoms of sea-sickness, and that listlessness and
inactivity which accompany it. Giving up all attempts to collect
my things together, I lay down upon the sails, expecting every moment
to hear the cry of "all hands, ahoy," which the approaching storm would
soon make necessary. I shortly heard the rain-drops falling on deck,
thick and fast, and the watch evidently had their hands full of work,
for I could hear the loud and repeated orders of the mate, the trampling
of feet, the creaking of blocks, and all the accompaniments of a coming
storm. In a few minutes the slide of the hatch was thrown back, which
let down the noise and tumult of the deck still louder, the loud cry of
"All hands, ahoy! tumble up here and take in sail," saluted our ears,
and the hatch was quickly shut again. When I got upon deck, a new
scene and a new experience were before me. The little brig was close
hauled upon the wind, and lying over, as it then seemed to me, nearly
upon her beam ends. The heavy head sea was beating against her bows
with the noise and force almost of a sledge-hammer, and flying over the
deck, drenching us completely through. The topsail halyards had been
let go, and the great sails filling out and backing against the masts
with a noise like thunder.
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