This May Give A Landsman Some Notion
Of What Is Done On Board Ship.
- All the first part of a passage is
spent in getting a ship ready for sea, and the last part in getting
her ready for port.
She is, as sailors say, like a lady's watch,
always out of repair. The new, strong sails, which we had up off
Cape Horn, were to be sent down, and the old set, which were still
serviceable in fine weather, to be bent in their place; all the
rigging to be set up, fore and aft; the masts stayed; the standing
rigging to be tarred down; lower and topmast rigging rattled down,
fore and aft; the ship scraped, inside and out, and painted;
decks varnished; new and neat knots, seizings and coverings
to be fitted; and every part put in order, to look well to the
owner's eye, on coming into Boston. This, of course, was a long
matter; and all hands were kept on deck at work for the whole of
each day, during the rest of the voyage. Sailors call this hard
usage; but the ship must be in crack order, and "we're homeward
bound" was the answer to everything.
We went on for several days, employed in this way, nothing remarkable
occurring; and, at the latter part of the week, fell in with the
south-east trades, blowing about east-south-east, which brought
them nearly two points abaft our beam. These blew strong and
steady, so that we hardly started a rope, until we were beyond
their latitude. The first day of "all hands," one of those little
incidents occurred, which are nothing in themselves, but are great
matters in the eyes of a ship's company, as they serve to break the
monotony of a voyage, and afford conversation to the crew for days
afterwards. These small matters, too, are often interesting, as they
show the customs and state of feeling on shipboard.
In merchant vessels, the captain gives his orders as to the ship's
work, to the mate, in a general way, and leaves the execution of
them, with the particular ordering, to him. This has become so fixed
a custom, that it is like a law, and is never infringed upon by a wise
master, unless his mate is no seaman; in which case, the captain must
often oversee things for himself. This, however, could not be said
of our chief mate; and he was very jealous of any encroachment upon
the borders of his authority.
On Monday morning, the captain told him to stay the fore-topmast
plumb. He accordingly came forward, turned all hands to, with
tackles on the stays and back-stays, coming up with the seizings,
hauling here, belaying there, and full of business, standing between
the knightheads to sight the mast, - when the captain came forward,
and also began to give orders. This made confusion, and the mate,
finding that he was all aback, left his place and went aft, saying to
the captain -
"If you come forward, sir, I'll go aft.
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