"Hook Cat!" - The Fall Was
Stretched Along The Decks; All Hands Laid Hold; - "Hurrah, For The
Last Time," Said The Mate; And The Anchor Came To The Cat-Head To
The Tune Of "Time For Us To Go," With A Loud Chorus.
Everything
was done quick, as though it were for the last time.
The head
yards were filled away, and our ship began to move through the
water on her homeward-bound course.
The California had got under weigh at the same moment; and we
sailed down the narrow bay abreast and were just off the mouth,
and finding ourselves gradually shooting ahead of her, were on
the point of giving her three parting cheers, when, suddenly, we
found ourselves stopped short, and the California ranging fast
ahead of us. A bar stretches across the mouth of the harbor,
with water enough to float common vessels, but, being low in
the water, and having kept well to leeward, as we were bound
to the southward, we had stuck fast, while the California,
being light, had floated over.
We kept all sail on, in the hope of forcing over, but failing in
this, we hove aback, and lay waiting for the tide, which was on
the flood, to take us back into the channel. This was somewhat
of a damper to us, and the captain looked not a little mortified
and vexed. "This is the same place where the Rosa got ashore,"
observed the redheaded second mate, most mal-a-propos.
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