The Inside Was Then
Painted, From The Skysail Truck To The Waterways - The Yards Black;
Mast-Heads And Tops, White; Monkey-Rail, Black, White, And Yellow;
Bulwarks, Green; Plank-Shear, White; Waterways, Lead Color, Etc.,
Etc.
The anchors and ring-bolts, and other iron work, were blackened
with coal-tar; and the steward kept at work, polishing the brass
of the wheel, bell, capstan, etc.
The cabin, too, was scraped,
varnished, and painted; and the forecastle scraped and scrubbed;
there being no need of paint and varnish for Jack's quarters.
The decks were then scraped and varnished, and everything useless
thrown overboard; among which the empty tar barrels were set on
fire and thrown overboard, on a dark night, and left blazing
astern, lighting up the ocean for miles. Add to all this labor,
the neat work upon the rigging; - the knots, flemish-eyes, splices,
seizings, coverings, pointings, and graftings, which show a ship in
crack order. The last preparation, and which looked still more
like coming into port, was getting the anchors over the bows,
bending the cables, rowsing the hawsers up from between decks,
and overhauling the deep-sea-lead-line.
Thursday, September 15th. This morning the temperature and
peculiar appearance of the water, the quantities of gulf-weed
floating about, and a bank of clouds lying directly before
us, showed that we were on the border of the Gulf Stream.
This remarkable current, running north-east, nearly across
the ocean, is almost constantly shrouded in clouds, and is the
region of storms and heavy seas. Vessels often run from a clear
sky and light wind, with all sail, at once into a heavy sea and
cloudy sky, with double-reefed topsails. A sailor told me that
on a passage from Gibraltar to Boston, his vessel neared the
Gulf Stream with a light breeze, clear sky, and studding-sails
out, alow and aloft; while, before it, was a long line of heavy,
black clouds, lying like a bank upon the water, and a vessel coming
out of it, under double-reefed topsails, and with royal yards sent
down. As they drew near, they began to take in sail after sail,
until they were reduced to the same condition; and, after twelve
or fourteen hours of rolling and pitching in a heavy sea, before a
smart gale, they ran out of the bank on the other side, and were in
fine weather again, and under their royals and skysails. As we drew
into it, the sky became cloudy, the sea high, and everything had the
appearance of the going off, or the coming on, of a storm. It was
blowing no more than a stiff breeze; yet the wind, being north-east,
which is directly against the course of the current, made an ugly,
chopping sea, which heaved and pitched the vessel about, so that
we were obliged to send down the royal yards, and to take in our
light sails. At noon, the thermometer, which had been repeatedly
lowered into the water, showed the temperature to be seventy;
which was considerably above that of the air, - as is always
the case in the centre of the Stream.
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