Being So Deep And Heavy, She Wanted
The Buoyancy Which Should Have Carried Her Over The Seas, And She
Dropped
Heavily into them, the water washing over the decks; and
every now and then, when an unusually large sea met
Her fairly
upon the bows, she struck it with a sound as dead and heavy as
that with which a sledge-hammer falls upon the pile, and took
the whole of it in upon the forecastle, and rising, carried it
aft in the scuppers, washing the rigging off the pins, and carrying
along with it everything which was loose on deck. She had been
acting in this way all of our forenoon watch below; as we could
tell by the washing of the water over our heads, and the heavy
breaking of the seas against her bows, (with a sound as though
she were striking against a rock,) only the thickness of the
plank from our heads, as we lay in our berths, which are directly
against the bows. At eight bells, the watch was called, and we
came on deck, one hand going aft to take the wheel, and another
going to the galley to get the grub for dinner. I stood on the
forecastle, looking at the seas, which were rolling high, as far
as the eye could reach, their tops white with foam, and the body
of them of a deep indigo blue, reflecting the bright rays of the
sun. Our ship rose slowly over a few of the largest of them,
until one immense fellow came rolling on, threatening to cover
her, and which I was sailor enough to know, by "the feeling of
her" under my feet, she would not rise over. I sprang upon the
knight-heads, and seizing hold of the fore-stay with my hands,
drew myself upon it. My feet were just off the stanchion, when
she struck fairly into the middle of the sea, and it washed her
fore and aft, burying her in the water. As soon as she rose out
of it, I looked aft, and everything forward of the main-mast,
except the long-boat, which was griped and double-lashed down
to the ring-bolts, was swept off clear. The galley, the pig-sty,
the hen-coop, and a large sheep-pen which had been built upon the
forehatch, were all gone, in the twinkling of an eye - leaving the
deck as clean as a chin new-reaped - and not a stick left, to show
where they had stood. In the scuppers lay the galley, bottom up,
and a few boards floating about, the wreck of the sheep-pen, - and
half a dozen miserable sheep floating among them, wet through,
and not a little frightened at the sudden change that had come
upon them. As soon as the sea had washed by, all hands sprung
out of the forecastle to see what had become of the ship and in
a few moments the cook and old Bill crawled out from under the
galley, where they had been lying in the water, nearly smothered,
with the galley over them. Fortunately, it rested against the
bulwarks, or it would have broken some of their bones. When the
water ran off, we picked the sheep up, and put them in the long-
boat, got the galley back in its place, and set things a little
to rights; but, had not our ship had uncommonly high bulwarks and
rail, everything must have been washed overboard, not excepting
Old Bill and the cook.
Bill had been standing at the galley-door, with the kid of beef in his
hand for the forecastle mess, when, away he went, kid, beef, and all.
He held on to the kid till the last, like a good fellow, but the beef
was gone, and when the water had run off, we saw it lying high and dry,
like a rock at low tide - nothing could hurt that. We took the loss
of our beef very easily, consoling ourselves with the recollection
that the cabin had more to lose than we; and chuckled not a little
at seeing the remains of the chicken-pie and pan-cakes floating in
the scuppers. "This will never do!" was what some said, and every
one felt. Here we were, not yet within a thousand miles of the
latitude of Cape Horn, and our decks swept by a sea not one half
so high as we must expect to find there. Some blamed the captain
for loading his ship so deep, when he knew what he must expect;
while others said that the wind was always southwest, off the Cape,
in the winter; and that, running before it, we should not mind the
seas so much. When we got down into the forecastle, Old Bill, who
was somewhat of a croaker, - having met with a great many accidents
at sea - said that if that was the way she was going to act, we might
as well make our wills, and balance the books at once, and put on
a clean shirt. "'Vast there, you bloody old owl! You're always
hanging out blue lights! You're frightened by the ducking you got
in the scuppers, and can't take a joke! What's the use in being
always on the look-out for Davy Jones?" "Stand by!" says another,
"and we'll get an afternoon watch below, by this scrape;" but in
this they were disappointed, for at two bells, all hands were
called and set to work, getting lashings upon everything on deck;
and the captain talked of sending down the long top-gallant masts;
but, as the sea went down toward night, and the wind hauled abeam,
we left them standing, and set the studding-sails.
The next day, all hands were turned-to upon unbending the old
sails, and getting up the new ones; for a ship, unlike people
on shore, puts on her best suit in bad weather. The old sails
were sent down, and three new topsails, and new fore and main
courses, jib, and fore-topmast staysail, which were made on
the coast, and never had been used, were bent, with a complete
set of new earings, robands and reef-points; and reef-tackles
were rove to the courses, and spilling-lines to the top-sails.
These, with new braces and clew-lines, fore and aft, gave us a
good suit of running rigging.
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