At The End Of Each Watch, When We Came Below, We Took Off Our Clothes
And Wrung Them Out; Two Taking Hold Of A Pair Of Trowsers, - One
At Each End, - And Jackets In The Same Way.
Stockings, mittens,
and all, were wrung out also and then hung up to drain and chafe
dry against the bulk-heads.
Then, feeling of all our clothes,
we picked out those which were the least wet, and put them on,
so as to be ready for a call, and turned-in, covered ourselves
up with blankets, and slept until three knocks on the scuttle
and the dismal sound of "All starbowlines ahoy! Eight bells,
there below! Do you hear the news?" drawled out from on deck,
and the sulky answer of "Aye, aye!" from below, sent us up again.
On deck, all was as dark as a pocket, and either a dead calm,
with the rain pouring steadily down, or, more generally, a violent
gale dead ahead, with rain pelting horizontally, and occasional
variations of hail and sleet; - decks afloat with water swashing
from side to side, and constantly wet feet; for boots could not
be wrung out like drawers, and no composition could stand the
constant soaking. In fact, wet and cold feet are inevitable
in such weather, and are not the least of those little items
which go to make up the grand total of the discomforts of a winter
passage round the Cape. Few words were spoken between the watches
as they shifted, the wheel was relieved, the mate took his place
on the quarter-deck, the look-outs in the bows; and each man had
his narrow space to walk fore and aft in, or, rather, to swing
himself forward and back in, from one belaying pin to another, -
for the decks were too slippery with ice and water to allow of
much walking. To make a walk, which is absolutely necessary to
pass away the time, one of us hit upon the expedient of sanding
the deck; and afterwards, whenever the rain was not so violent
as to wash it off, the weatherside of the quarter-deck and a part
of the waist and forecastle were sprinkled with the sand which we
had on board for holystoning; and thus we made a good promenade,
where we walked fore and aft, two and two, hour after hour, in our
long, dull, and comfortless watches. The bells seemed to be an
hour or two apart, instead of half an hour, and an age to elapse
before the welcome sound of eight bells. The sole object was to
make the time pass on. Any change was sought for, which would
break the monotony of the time; and even the two hours' trick at
the wheel, which came round to each of us, in turn, once in every
other watch, was looked upon as a relief. Even the never-failing
resource of long yarns, which eke out many a watch, seemed to have
failed us now; for we had been so long together that we had heard
each other's stories told over and over again, till we had them
by heart; each one knew the whole history of each of the others,
and we were fairly and literally talked out.
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