We Were To Stand Two
In A Watch, And As The Nights Were Pretty Long, Two Hours Were To
Make A Watch.
The second mate was to keep the deck until eight
o'clock, and all hands were to be called at daybreak, and the word
was passed to keep a bright look-out, and to call the mate if it
should come on to blow from the south-east.
We had also orders
to strike the bells every half-hour through the night, as at sea.
My watchmate was John, the Swedish sailor, and we stood from
twelve to two, he walking the larboard side, and I the starboard.
At daylight all hands were called, and we went through the usual
process of washing down, swabbing, etc., and got breakfast at
eight o'clock. In the course of the forenoon, a boat went aboard
of the Ayacucho and brought off a quarter of beef, which made us
a fresh bite for dinner. This we were glad enough to have, and the
mate told us that we should live upon fresh beef while we were on
the coast, as it was cheaper here than the salt. While at dinner,
the cook called, "Sail ho!" and coming on deck, we saw two sails
coming round the point. One was a large ship under top-gallant
sails, and the other a small hermaphrodite brig. They both backed
their topsails and sent boats aboard of us. The ship's colors had
puzzled us, and we found that she was from Genoa, with an assorted
cargo, and was trading on the coast. She filled away again, and stood
out; being bound up the coast to San Francisco. The crew of the
brig's boat were Sandwich Islanders, but one of them, who spoke a
little English, told us that she was the Loriotte, Captain Nye,
from Oahu, and was engaged in this trade. She was a lump of a thing
- what the sailors call a butter-box. This vessel, as well as the
Ayacucho, and others which we afterwards saw engaged in the same trade,
have English or Americans for officers, and two or three before the
mast to do the work upon the rigging, and to rely upon for seamanship,
while the rest of the crew are Sandwich Islanders, who are active,
and very useful in boating.
The three captains went ashore after dinner, and came off again at
night. When in port, everything is attended to by the chief mate;
the captain, unless he is also supercargo, has little to do, and is
usually ashore much of his time. This we thought would be pleasanter
for us, as the mate was a good-natured man and not very strict.
So it was for a time, but we were worse off in the end; for wherever
the captain is a severe, energetic man, and the mate is wanting in
both these qualities, there will always be trouble. And trouble we
had already begun to anticipate. The captain had several times found
fault with the mate, in presence of the crew; and hints had been
dropped that all was not right between them. When this is the case,
and the captain suspects that his officer is too easy and familiar
with the crew, then he begins to interfere in all the duties, and to
draw the reins taughter, and the crew have to suffer.
CHAPTER X
A SOUTH-EASTER - PASSAGE UP THE COAST
This night, after sundown, it looked black at the southward and
eastward, and we were told to keep a bright look-out. Expecting
to be called up, we turned in early. Waking up about midnight,
I found a man who had just come down from his watch, striking a light.
He said that it was beginning to puff up from the south-east, and that
the sea was rolling in, and he had called the captain; and as he threw
himself down on his chest with all his clothes on, I knew that he
expected to be called. I felt the vessel pitching at her anchor,
and the chain surging and snapping, and lay awake, expecting an
instant summons. In a few minutes it came - three knocks on the
scuttle, and "All hands ahoy! bear-a-hand up and make sail."
We sprang up for our clothes, and were about halfway dressed,
when the mate called out, down the scuttle, "Tumble up here, men!
tumble up! before she drags her anchor." We were on deck in an instant.
"Lay aloft and loose the topsails!" shouted the captain, as soon as
the first man showed himself. Springing into the rigging, I saw that
the Ayacucho's topsails were loosed, and heard her crew singing-out
at the sheets as they were hauling them home. This had probably
started our captain; as "old Wilson" (the captain of the Ayacucho)
had been many years on the coast, and knew the signs of the weather.
We soon had the topsails loosed; and one hand remaining, as usual,
in each top, to overhaul the rigging and light the sail out, the rest
of us laid down to man the sheets. While sheeting home, we saw the
Ayacucho standing athwart our bows, sharp upon the wind, cutting through
the head sea like a knife, with her raking masts and sharp bows running
up like the head of a greyhound. It was a beautiful sight. She was
like a bird which had been frightened and had spread her wings in flight.
After the topsails had been sheeted home, the head yards braced aback,
the fore-top-mast staysail hoisted, and the buoys streamed, and all
ready forward, for slipping, we went aft and manned the slip-rope
which came through the stern port with a turn round the timber-heads.
"All ready forward?" asked the captain. "Aye, aye, sir; all ready,"
answered the mate. "Let go!" "All gone, sir;" and the iron cable
grated over the windlass and through the hawse-hole, and the little
vessel's head swinging off from the wind under the force of her backed
head sails, brought the strain upon the slip-rope.
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