- Latter Part Of The Afternoon, Breeze Increases, Ship
Lies Over To It, And Clouds Look Windy.
Spray begins to fly over
the forecastle, and wets the yarns the boys are knotting; - ball
them up and put them below.
- Mate knocks off work and clears up
decks earlier than usual, and orders a man who has been employed
aloft to send the royal halyards over to windward, as he comes
down. Breast backstays hauled taught, and tackle got upon the
martingale back-rope. - One of the boys furls the mizen royal. - Cook
thinks there is going to be "nasty work," and has supper ready
early. - Mate gives orders to get supper by the watch, instead of
all hands, as usual. - While eating supper, hear the watch on deck
taking in the royals. - Coming on deck, find it is blowing harder,
and an ugly head sea is running. - Instead of having all hands on the
forecastle in the dog watch, smoking, singing, and telling yarns,
one watch goes below and turns-in, saying that it's going to be an
ugly night, and two hours' sleep is not to be lost.
Clouds look black and wild; wind rising, and ship working hard
against a heavy sea, which breaks over the forecastle, and washes
aft through the scuppers. Still, no more sail is taken in, for the
captain is a driver, and, like all drivers, very partial to his
top-gallant sails. A top-gallant sail, too, makes the difference
between a breeze and a gale. When a top-gallant sail is on a ship,
it is only a breeze, though I have seen ours set over a reefed
topsail, when half the bowsprit was under water, and it was up
to a man's knees in the scuppers. At eight bells, nothing is said
about reefing the topsails, and the watch go below, with orders to
"stand by for a call." We turn-in, growling at the "old man" for
not reefing the topsails when the watch was changed, but putting
it off so as to call all hands, and break up a whole watch below.
Turn-in "all standing," and keep ourselves awake, saying there is
no use in going asleep to be waked up again. - Wind whistles on
deck, and ship works hard, groaning and creaking, and pitching
into a heavy head sea, which strikes against the bows, with a
noise like knocking upon a rock. - The dim lamp in the forecastle
swings to and fro, and things "fetch away" and go over to
leeward. - "Doesn't that booby of a second mate ever mean to
take in his top-gallant sails? - He'll have the sticks out of
her soon," says old Bill, who was always growling, and, like
most old sailors, did not like to see a ship abused. - By-and-by
an order is given - "Aye, aye, sir!" from the forecastle; - rigging
is heaved down on deck; - the noise of a sail is heard fluttering
aloft, and the short, quick cry which sailors make when hauling
upon clewlines. - "Here comes his fore-top-gallant sail in!" - We
are wide awake, and know all that's going on as well as if we were
on deck. - A well-known voice is heard from the mast-head singing out
the officer of the watch to haul taught the weather brace. - "Hallo!
There's S - - - aloft to furl the sail!" - Next thing, rigging is
heaved down directly over our heads, and a long-drawn cry and a
rattling of hanks announce that the flying-jib has come in. - The
second mate holds on to the main top-gallant sail until a heavy
sea is shipped, and washes over the forecastle as though the
whole ocean had come aboard; when a noise further aft shows
that that sail, too, is taking in. After this, the ship is
more easy for a time; two bells are struck, and we try to get a
little sleep. By-and-by, bang, bang, bang, on the scuttle - "All
ha-a-ands, a ho-o-y!" - We spring out of our berths, clap on a
monkey-jacket and southwester, and tumble up the ladder. - Mate
up before us, and on the forecastle, singing out like a roaring
bull; the captain singing out on the quarter-deck, and the second
mate yelling, like a hyena, in the waist. The ship is lying over
half upon her beam-ends; lee scuppers under water, and forecastle
all in a smother of foam. - Rigging all let go, and washing about
decks; topsail yards down upon the caps, and sails flapping and
beating against the masts; and starboard watch hauling out the
reef-tackles of the main topsail. Our watch haul out the fore,
and lay aloft and put two reefs into it, and reef the foresail,
and race with the starboard watch, to see which will mast-head its
topsail first. All hands tally-on to the main tack, and while some
are furling the jib, and hoisting the staysail, we mizen-topmen
double-reef the mizen topsail and hoist it up. All being made fast
- "Go below, the watch!" and we turn-in to sleep out the rest of the
time, which is perhaps an hour and a half. During all the middle,
and for the first part of the morning watch, it blows as hard as
ever, but toward daybreak it moderates considerably, and we shake
a reef out of each topsail, and set the top-gallant sails over
them and when the watch come up, at seven bells, for breakfast,
shake the other reefs out, turn all hands to upon the halyards,
get the watch-tackle upon the top-gallant sheets and halyards,
set the flying-jib, and crack on to her again.
Our captain had been married only a few weeks before he left Boston;
and, after an absence of over two years, it may be supposed he was
not slow in carrying sail. The mate, too, was not to be beaten by
anybody; and the second mate, though he was afraid to press sail,
was afraid as death of the captain, and being between two fears,
sometimes carried on longer than any of them.
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