We Snapped Off Three
Flying-Jib Booms In Twenty-Four Hours, As Fast As They Could Be
Fitted And Rigged Out; Sprung The Spritsail Yard; And Made Nothing
Of Studding-Sail Booms.
Beside the natural desire to get home,
we had another reason for urging the ship on.
The scurvy had begun
to show itself on board. One man had it so badly as to be disabled
and off duty, and the English lad, Ben, was in a dreadful state,
and was daily growing worse. His legs swelled and pained him so
that he could not walk; his flesh lost its elasticity, so that if
it was pressed in, it would not return to its shape; and his gums
swelled until he could not open his mouth. His breath, too, became
very offensive; he lost all strength and spirit; could eat nothing;
grew worse every day; and, in fact, unless something was done for
him, would be a dead man in a week, at the rate at which he was
sinking. The medicines were all, or nearly all, gone; and if we had
had a chest-full, they would have been of no use; for nothing but
fresh provisions and terra firma has any effect upon the scurvy.
This disease is not so common now as formerly; and is attributed
generally to salt provisions, want of cleanliness, the free
use of grease and fat (which is the reason of its prevalence
among whalemen,) and, last of all, to laziness. It never could
have been from the latter cause on board our ship; nor from the
second, for we were a very cleanly crew, kept our forecastle in
neat order, and were more particular about washing and changing
clothes than many better-dressed people on shore. It was probably
from having none but salt provisions, and possibly from our having
run very rapidly into hot weather, after having been so long in
the extremest cold.
Depending upon the westerly winds, which prevail off the coast in
the autumn, the captain stood well to the westward, to run inside
of the Bermudas, and in the hope of falling in with some vessel
bound to the West Indies or the Southern States. The scurvy had
spread no farther among the crew, but there was danger that it
might; and these cases were bad ones.
Sunday, Sept. 11th. Lat. 30° 04' N., long. 63° 23' W.; the Bermudas
bearing north-north-west, distant one hundred and fifty miles.
The next morning, about ten o'clock, "Sail ho!" was cried on deck;
and all hands turned up to see the stranger. As she drew nearer,
she proved to be an ordinary-looking hermaphrodite brig, standing
south-south-east; and probably bound out, from the Northern States,
to the West Indies; and was just the thing we wished to see.
She hove-to for us, seeing that we wished to speak her; and we
ran down to her; boom-ended our studding-sails; backed our main
topsail, and hailed her - "Brig, ahoy!" - "Hallo!" - "Where are you
from, pray?" - "From New York, bound to Curaçoa." - "Have you any
fresh provisions to spare?" - "Aye, aye!
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