They All Say That Rum Only Warms Them For
A Time; Yet, If They Can Get Nothing Better, They Will Miss What
They Have Lost.
The momentary warmth and glow from drinking it;
the break and change which is made in a long, dreary
Watch by
the mere calling all hands aft and serving of it out; and the
simply having some event to look forward to, and to talk about;
give it an importance and a use which no one can appreciate who
has not stood his watch before the mast. On my passage round Cape
Horn before, the vessel that I was in was not under temperance
articles, and grog was served out every middle and morning watch,
and after every reefing of topsails; and though I had never drank
rum before, and never intend to again, I took my allowance then
at the capstan, as the rest did, merely for the momentary warmth
it gave the system, and the change in our feelings and aspect of
our duties on the watch. At the same time, as I have stated,
there was not a man on board who would not have pitched the rum
to the dogs, (I have heard them say so, a dozen times) for a
pot of coffee or chocolate; or even for our common beverage -
"water bewitched, and tea begrudged," as it was.(1)
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1. The proportions of the ingredients of the tea that was made for
us (and ours, as I have before stated, was a favorable specimen of
American merchantmen) were, a pint of tea, and a pint and a half
of molasses, to about three gallons of water.
These are all boiled down together in the "coppers," and before
serving it out, the mess is stirred up with a stick, so as to give
each man his fair share of sweetening and tea-leaves. The tea
for the cabin is, of course, made in the usual way, in a tea-pot,
and drank with sugar.
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The temperance reform is the best thing that ever was undertaken
for the sailor; but when the grog is taken from him, he ought to
have something in its place. As it is now, in most vessels, it is a
mere saving to the owners; and this accounts for the sudden increase
of temperance ships, which surprised even the best friends of the
cause. If every merchant, when he struck grog from the list of
the expenses of his ship, had been obliged to substitute as much
coffee, or chocolate, as would give each man a pot-full when he
came off the topsail yard, on a stormy night; - I fear Jack might
have gone to ruin on the old road.(2) But this is not doubling
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(2) I do not wish these remarks, so far as they relate to the
saving of expense in the outfit, to be applied to the owners
of our ship, for she was supplied with an abundance of stores,
of the best kind that are given to seamen;, though the dispensing
of them is necessarily left to the captain, Indeed, so high was
the reputation of "the employ" among men and officers, for the
character and outfit of their vessels, and for their liberality
in conducting their voyages, that when it was known that they had
a ship fitting out for a long voyage, and that hands were to be
shipped at a certain time, - a half hour before the time, as one of
the crew told me, numbers of sailors were steering down the wharf,
hopping over the barrels, like flocks of sheep.
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Cape Horn.
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