I Have Here Gone Out Of My Narrative Course In Order That Any Who
Read This May Form As Correct An Idea Of A Sailor's Life And Duty
As Possible.
I have done it in this place because, for some time,
our life was nothing but the unvarying repetition of these duties,
which can be better described together.
Before leaving this
description, however, I would state, in order to show landsmen how
little they know of the nature of a ship, that a ship-carpenter
is kept in constant employ during good weather on board vessels
which are in, what is called, perfect sea order.
CHAPTER IV
A ROGUE - TROUBLE ON BOARD - "LAND HO!" - POMPERO - CAPE HORN
After speaking the Carolina, on the 21st August, nothing occurred
to break the monotony of our life until
Friday, September 5th, when we saw a sail on our weather (starboard)
beam. She proved to be a brig under English colors, and passing
under our stern, reported herself as forty-nine days from Buenos Ayres,
bound to Liverpool. Before she had passed us, "sail ho!" was cried again,
and we made another sail, far on our weather bow, and steering athwart our
hawse. She passed out of hail, but we made her out to be an hermaphrodite
brig, with Brazilian colors in her main rigging. By her course, she must
have been bound from Brazil to the south of Europe, probably Portugal.
Sunday, Sept. 7th. Fell in with the north-east trade winds.
This morning we caught our first dolphin, which I was very eager to see.
I was disappointed in the colors of this fish when dying. They were
certainly very beautiful, but not equal to what has been said of them.
They are too indistinct. To do the fish justice, there is nothing more
beautiful than the dolphin when swimming a few feet below the surface,
on a bright day. It is the most elegantly formed, and also the quickest
fish, in salt water; and the rays of the sun striking upon it, in its
rapid and changing motions, reflected from the water, make it look
like a stray beam from a rainbow.
This day was spent like all pleasant Sabbaths at sea. The decks are
washed down, the rigging coiled up, and everything put in order;
and throughout the day, only one watch is kept on deck at a time.
The men are all dressed in their best white duck trowsers, and red
or checked shirts, and have nothing to do but to make the necessary
changes in the sails. They employ themselves in reading, talking,
smoking, and mending their clothes. If the weather is pleasant,
they bring their work and their books upon deck, and sit down upon
the forecastle and windlass. This is the only day on which these
privileges are allowed them. When Monday comes, they put on their
tarry trowsers again, and prepare for six days of labor.
To enhance the value of the Sabbath to the crew, they are allowed on
that day a pudding, or, as it is called, a "duff." This is nothing
more than flour boiled with water, and eaten with molasses.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 18 of 324
Words from 8800 to 9328
of 170236
