Fortunately, I needed
no help from any one, and no medicine; and if I had needed help,
I don't know where I should have found it.
Sailors are willing
enough; but it is true, as is often said - No one ships for nurse
on board a vessel. Our merchant ships are always under-manned,
and if one man is lost by sickness, they cannot spare another
to take care of him. A sailor is always presumed to be well,
and if he's sick, he's a poor dog. One has to stand his wheel,
and another his lookout, and the sooner he gets on deck again,
the better.
Accordingly, as soon as I could possibly go back to my duty,
I put on my thick clothes and boots and south-wester, and made
my appearance on deck. Though I had been but a few days below,
yet everything looked strangely enough. The ship was cased in
ice, - decks, sides, masts, yards, and rigging. Two close-reefed
top-sails were all the sail she had on, and every sail and rope
was frozen so stiff in its place, that it seemed as though it
would be impossible to start anything. Reduced, too, to her top-
masts, she had altogether a most forlorn and crippled appearance.
The sun had come up brightly; the snow was swept off the decks,
and ashes thrown upon them, so that we could walk, for they had
been as slippery as glass.
It was, of course, too cold to carry on any ship's work, and we had
only to walk the deck and keep ourselves warm. The wind was still
ahead, and the whole ocean, to the eastward, covered with islands
and field-ice. At four bells the order was given to square away
the yards; and the man who came from the helm said that the captain
had kept her off to N. N. E. What could this mean? Some said that
he was going to put into Valparaiso, and winter, and others that
he was going to run out of the ice and cross the Pacific, and go
home round the Cape of Good Hope. Soon, however, it leaked out,
and we found that we were running for the straits of Magellan.
The news soon spread through the ship, and all tongues were at
work, talking about it. No one on board had been through the
straits, but I had in my chest an account of the passage of the
ship A. J. Donelson, of New York, through those straits, a few
years before.
The account was given by the captain, and the representation was
as favorable as possible. It was soon read by every one on board,
and various opinions pronounced. The determination of our captain
had at least this good effect; it gave every one something to
think and talk about, made a break in our life, and diverted our
minds from the monotonous dreariness of the prospect before us.
Having made a fair wind of it, we were going off at a good rate,
and leaving the thickest of the ice behind us.
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