These
"Rope-Yarns" Are Constantly Used For Various Purposes, But The
Greater Part Is Manufactured Into Spun-Yarn.
For this purpose
every vessel is furnished with a "spun-yarn winch;" which is very
simple, consisting of a wheel and spindle.
This may be heard
constantly going on deck in pleasant weather; and we had employment,
during a great part of the time, for three hands in drawing and
knotting yarns, and making them spun-yarn.
Another method of employing the crew is, "setting up" rigging.
Whenever any of the standing rigging becomes slack, (which is
continually happening), the seizings and coverings must be taken
off, tackles got up, and after the rigging is bowsed well taught,
the seizings and coverings replaced; which is a very nice piece of work.
There is also such a connection between different parts of a vessel,
that one rope can seldom be touched without altering another.
You cannot stay a mast aft by the back stays, without slacking up
the head stays, etc. If we add to this all the tarring, greasing,
oiling, varnishing, painting, scraping, and scrubbing which is
required in the course of a long voyage, and also remember this
is all to be done in addition to watching at night, steering,
reefing, furling, bracing, making and setting sail, and pulling,
hauling, and climbing in every direction, one will hardly ask,
"What can a sailor find to do at sea?"
If, after all this labor - after exposing their lives and limbs in
storms, wet and cold,
"Wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch;
The lion and the belly-pinched wolf
Keep their fur dry; - "
the merchants and captain think that they have not earned their
twelve dollars a month, (out of which they clothe themselves,) and
their salt beef and hard bread, they keep them picking oakum -
ad infinitum. This is the usual resource upon a rainy day, for
then it will not do to work upon rigging; and when it is pouring
down in floods, instead of letting the sailors stand about in
sheltered places, and talk, and keep themselves comfortable,
they are separated to different parts of the ship and kept at
work picking oakum. I have seen oakum stuff placed about in
different parts of the ship, so that the sailors might not be
idle in the snatches between the frequent squalls upon crossing
the equator. Some officers have been so driven to find work for
the crew in a ship ready for sea, that they have set them to
pounding the anchors (often done) and scraping the chain cables.
The "Philadelphia Catechism" is,
"Six days shalt thou labor and do all thou art able,
And on the seventh - holystone the decks and scrape the cable."
This kind of work, of course, is not kept up off Cape Horn,
Cape of Good Hope, and in extreme north and south latitudes;
but I have seen the decks washed down and scrubbed, when the
water would have frozen if it had been fresh; and all hands
kept at work upon the rigging, when we had on our pea-jackets,
and our hands so numb that we could hardly hold our marline-spikes.
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