When This Was Through, We Stripped To Our Drawers,
And Taking Pieces Of Soap And Strips Of Canvas For Towels,
We turned-to and soaped, washed, and scrubbed one another down,
to get off, as we said, the California dust;
For the common wash
in salt water, which is all Jack can get, being on an allowance of
fresh, had little efficacy, and was more for taste than utility.
The captain was below all the afternoon, and we had something
nearer to a Saturnalia than anything we had yet seen; for the
mate came into the scuppers, with a couple of boys to scrub him,
and got into a battle with them in heaving water. By unplugging
the holes, we let the soap-suds off the decks, and in a short time
had a new supply of rain water, in which we had a grand rinsing.
It was surprising to see how much soap and fresh water did for
the complexions of many of us; how much of what we supposed to
be tan and sea-blacking, we got rid of. The next day, the sun
rising clear, the ship was covered, fore and aft, with clothes
of all sorts, hanging out to dry.
As we approached the line, the wind became more easterly, and
the weather clearer, and in twenty days from San Diego, -
Saturday, May 28th, at about three P. M., with a fine breeze from
the east-south-east, we crossed the equator. In twenty-four hours
after crossing the line, which was very unusual, we took the regular
south-east trades. These winds come a little from the eastward of
south-east, and, with us, they blew directly from the east-south-
east, which was fortunate for us, for our course was south-by-west,
and we could thus go one point free. The yards were braced so that
every sail drew, from the spanker to the flying-jib; and the upper
yards being squared in a little, the fore and main top-gallant
studding-sails were set, and just drew handsomely. For twelve
days this breeze blew steadily, not varying a point, and just so
fresh that we could carry our royals; and, during the whole time,
we hardly started a brace. Such progress did we make, that at the
end of seven days from the time we took the breeze, on
Sunday, June 5th, we were in lat. 19° 29' S., and long. 118° 01' W.,
having made twelve hundred miles in seven days, very nearly
upon a taught bowline. Our good ship was getting to be herself
again, had increased her rate of sailing more than one-third since
leaving San Diego. The crew ceased complaining of her, and the
officers hove the log every two hours with evident satisfaction.
This was glorious sailing. A steady breeze; the light trade-wind
clouds over our heads; the incomparable temperature of the Pacific,
- neither hot nor cold; a clear sun every day, and clear moon and
stars each night; and new constellations rising in the south, and
the familiar ones sinking in the north, as we went on our course,
- "stemming nightly toward the pole." Already we had sunk the north
star and the Great Bear in the northern horizon, and all hands
looked out sharp to the southward for the Magellan Clouds, which,
each succeeding night, we expected to make.
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