You're worse than a Mahon soger!" and other still
more choice extracts from the sailor's vocabulary. After the poor
fellow had taken the harangue, he was sent into his state-room,
and the captain stood the rest of the watch himself.
At seven bells in the morning, all hands were called aft and told
that F - - - was no longer an officer on board, and that we might
choose one of our own number for second mate. It is usual for the
captain to make this offer, and it is very good policy, for the
crew think themselves the choosers and are flattered by it, but have
to obey, nevertheless. Our crew, as is usual, refused to take the
responsibility of choosing a man of whom we would never be able
to complain, and left it to the captain. He picked out an active
and intelligent young sailor, born near the Kennebee, who had been
several Canton voyages, and proclaimed him in the following manner:
"I choose Jim Hall - he's your second mate. All you've got to do is,
to obey him as you would me; and remember that he is Mr. Hall."
F - - - went forward into the forecastle as a common sailor, and lost
the handle to his name, while young fore-mast Jim became Mr. Hall,
and took up his quarters in the land of knives and forks and tea-cups.
Sunday, October 5th. It was our morning watch; when, soon after the
day began to break, a man on the forecastle called out, "Land ho!"
I had never heard the cry before, and did not know what it meant,
(and few would suspect what the words were, when hearing the strange
sound for the first time,) but I soon found, by the direction of
all eyes, that there was land stretching along our weather beam.
We immediately took in studding-sails and hauled our wind, running in
for the land. This was done to determine our longitude; for by the
captain's chronometer we were in 25º W., but by his observations we
were much farther, and he had been for some time in doubt whether
it was his chronometer or his sextant which was out of order.
This land-fall settled the matter, and the former instrument was
condemned, and becoming still worse, was never afterwards used.
As we ran in towards the coast, we found that we were directly off
the port of Pernambuco, and could see with the telescope the roofs
of the houses, and one large church, and the town of Olinda. We ran
along by the mouth of the harbor, and saw a full-rigged brig going in.
At two, P.M., we again kept off before the wind, leaving the land on
our quarter, and at sun-down, it was out of sight. It was here that
I first saw one of those singular things called catamarans. They are
composed of logs lashed together upon the water; have one large sail,
are quite fast, and, strange as it may seem, are trusted as good
sea boats.
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