- The
Cloud Spreads And Comes On; - The Tub Of Yarns, The Sail, And Other
Matters, Are Thrown Below, And The Sky-Light And Booby-Hatch Put
On, And The Slide Drawn Over The Forecastle.
- "Stand by the royal
halyards;" - the man at the wheel keeps a good weather helm, so as
not to be taken aback.
The squall strikes her. If it is light,
the royal yards are clewed down, and the ship keeps on her way;
but if the squall takes strong hold, the royals are clewed up,
fore and aft; light hands lay aloft and furl them; top-gallant
yards clewed down, flying-jib hauled down, and the ship kept off
before it, - the man at the helm laying out his strength to heave
the wheel up to windward. At the same time a drenching rain,
which soaks one through in an instant. Yet no one puts on a
jacket or cap; for if it is only warm, a sailor does not mind
a ducking; and the sun will soon be out again. As soon as the
force of the squall has passed, though to a common eye the ship
would seem to be in the midst of it, - "Keep her up to her course,
again!" - "Keep her up, sir," (answer); - "Hoist away the top-gallant
yards!" - "Run up the flying jib!" - "Lay aloft, you boys, and loose
the royals!" - and all sail is on her again before she is fairly
out of the squall; and she is going on in her course. The sun
comes out once more, hotter than ever, dries up the decks and
the sailors' clothes; the hatches are taken off; the sail got up
and spread on the quarter-deck; spun-yarn winch set a whirling
again; rigging coiled up; captain goes below; and every sign of
an interruption is removed.
These scenes, with occasional dead calms, lasting for hours, and
sometimes for days, are fair specimens of the Atlantic tropics.
The nights were fine; and as we had all hands all day, the watch
were allowed to sleep on deck at night, except the man at the
wheel, and one look-out on the forecastle. This was not so much
expressly allowed, as winked at. We could do it if we did not
ask leave. If the look-out was caught napping, the whole watch
was kept awake.
We made the most of this permission, and stowed ourselves away
upon the rigging, under the weather rail, on the spars, under the
windlass, and in all the snug corners; and frequently slept out
the watch, unless we had a wheel or a look-out. And we were glad
enough to get this rest; for under the "all hands" system, out of
every other thirty-six hours, we had only four below; and even
an hour's sleep was a gain not to be neglected. One would have
thought so, to have seen our watch, some nights, sleeping through
a heavy rain. And often have we come on deck, and finding a
dead calm and a light, steady rain, and determined not to lose
our sleep, have laid a coil of rigging down so as to keep us out
of the water which was washing about decks, and stowed ourselves
away upon it, covering a jacket over us, and slept as soundly as
a Dutchman between two feather beds.
For a week or ten days after crossing the line, we had the usual
variety of calms, squalls, head winds, and fair winds; - at one
time braced sharp upon the wind, with a taught bowline, and in
an hour after, slipping quietly along, with a light breeze over
the taffrail, and studding-sails out on both sides; - until we fell
in with the north-east trade-winds; which we did on the afternoon of
Sunday, August 28th, in lat. 12° N. The trade-wind clouds had been
in sight for a day or two previously, and we expected to take them
every hour. The light southerly breeze, which had been blowing
languidly during the first part of the day, died away toward noon,
and in its place came puffs from the north-east, which caused us
to take our studding-sails in and brace up; and in a couple of
hours more, we were bowling gloriously along, dashing the spray
far ahead and to leeward, with the cool, steady north-east trades,
freshening up the sea, and giving us as much as we could carry
our royals to. These winds blew strong and steady, keeping us
generally upon a bowline, as our course was about north-north-west;
and sometimes, as they veered a little to the eastward, giving us
a chance at a main top-gallant studding-sail; and sending us well
to the northward, until -
Sunday, Sept. 4th, when they left us, in lat. 22° N., long. 51° W.,
directly under the tropic of Cancer.
For several days we lay "humbugging about" in the Horse latitudes,
with all sorts of winds and weather, and occasionally, as we were in
the latitude of the West Indies - a thunder storm. It was hurricane
month, too, and we were just in the track of the tremendous hurricane
of 1830, which swept the North Atlantic, destroying almost everything
before it. The first night after the tradewinds left us, while we
were in the latitude of the island of Cuba, we had a specimen of
a true tropical thunder storm. A light breeze had been blowing
directly from aft during the first part of the night which gradually
died away, and before midnight it was dead calm, and a heavy black
cloud had shrouded the whole sky. When our watch came on deck at
twelve o'clock, it was as black as Erebus; the studding-sails were
all taken in, and the royals furled; not a breath was stirring;
the sails hung heavy and motionless from the yards; and the
perfect stillness, and the darkness, which was almost palpable,
were truly appalling.
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