This Is One Of Those Petty Frauds Which Every
Vessel Practises In Ports Of Inferior Foreign Nations, And Which
Are Lost Sight Of, Among The Countless Deeds Of Greater Weight
Which Are Hardly Less Common.
Fortunately a sailor, not being a
free agent in work aboard ship, is not accountable; yet the fact
of being constantly employed, without thought, in such things,
begets an indifference to the rights of others.
Friday, and a part of Saturday, we were engaged in this work,
until we had thrown out all but what we wanted under our cargo
on the passage home; when, as the next day was Sunday, and a
good day for smoking ship, we cleared everything out of the
cabin and forecastle, made a slow fire of charcoal, birch bark,
brimstone, and other matters, on the ballast in the bottom of
the hold, calked up the hatches and every open seam, and pasted
over the cracks of the windows, and the slides of the scuttles,
and companionway. Wherever smoke was seen coming out, we calked
and pasted, and, so far as we could, made the ship smoke tight.
The captain and officers slept under the awning which was spread
over the quarter-deck; and we stowed ourselves away under an old
studding-sail, which we drew over one side of the forecastle.
The next day, from fear that something might happen, orders were
given for no one to leave the ship, and, as the decks were lumbered
up with everything, we could not wash them down, so we had nothing
to do, all day long.
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