This Was Not So Much
Expressly Allowed, As Winked At.
We could do it if we did not
ask leave.
If the look-out was caught napping, the whole watch
was kept awake.
We made the most of this permission, and stowed ourselves away
upon the rigging, under the weather rail, on the spars, under the
windlass, and in all the snug corners; and frequently slept out
the watch, unless we had a wheel or a look-out. And we were glad
enough to get this rest; for under the "all hands" system, out of
every other thirty-six hours, we had only four below; and even
an hour's sleep was a gain not to be neglected. One would have
thought so, to have seen our watch, some nights, sleeping through
a heavy rain. And often have we come on deck, and finding a
dead calm and a light, steady rain, and determined not to lose
our sleep, have laid a coil of rigging down so as to keep us out
of the water which was washing about decks, and stowed ourselves
away upon it, covering a jacket over us, and slept as soundly as
a Dutchman between two feather beds.
For a week or ten days after crossing the line, we had the usual
variety of calms, squalls, head winds, and fair winds; - at one
time braced sharp upon the wind, with a taught bowline, and in
an hour after, slipping quietly along, with a light breeze over
the taffrail, and studding-sails out on both sides; - until we fell
in with the north-east trade-winds; which we did on the afternoon of
Sunday, August 28th, in lat. 12° N. The trade-wind clouds had been
in sight for a day or two previously, and we expected to take them
every hour. The light southerly breeze, which had been blowing
languidly during the first part of the day, died away toward noon,
and in its place came puffs from the north-east, which caused us
to take our studding-sails in and brace up; and in a couple of
hours more, we were bowling gloriously along, dashing the spray
far ahead and to leeward, with the cool, steady north-east trades,
freshening up the sea, and giving us as much as we could carry
our royals to. These winds blew strong and steady, keeping us
generally upon a bowline, as our course was about north-north-west;
and sometimes, as they veered a little to the eastward, giving us
a chance at a main top-gallant studding-sail; and sending us well
to the northward, until -
Sunday, Sept. 4th, when they left us, in lat. 22° N., long. 51° W.,
directly under the tropic of Cancer.
For several days we lay "humbugging about" in the Horse latitudes,
with all sorts of winds and weather, and occasionally, as we were in
the latitude of the West Indies - a thunder storm. It was hurricane
month, too, and we were just in the track of the tremendous hurricane
of 1830, which swept the North Atlantic, destroying almost everything
before it.
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