A Part Of The Crew Slept
Here, In Hammocks Swung Fore And Aft From The Beams, And Triced Up
Every Morning.
The sides of the between-decks were clapboarded,
the knees and stanchions of iron, and the latter made to unship.
The crew said she was as tight as a drum, and a fine sea boat,
her only fault being, that of most fast ships, - that she was wet,
forward.
When she was going, as she sometimes would, eight or
nine knots on a wind, there would not be a dry spot forward of
the gangway. The men told great stories of her sailing, and had
great confidence in her as a "lucky ship." She was seven years
old, and had always been in the Canton trade, and never had met
with an accident of any consequence, and had never made a passage
that was not shorter than the average. The third mate, a young
man of about eighteen years of age, nephew of one of the owners,
had been in the ship from a small boy, and "believed in the ship;"
and the chief mate thought more of her than he would of a wife and
family.
The ship lay about a week longer in port, when, having discharged
her cargo and taken in ballast, she prepared to get under weigh.
I now made my application to the captain to go on board. He told
me that I could go home in the ship when she sailed (which I knew
before); and, finding that I wished to be on board while she was on
the coast, said he had no objection, if I could find one of my own
age to exchange with me, for the time.
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