The Constant Wading In The Water, In All Weathers, To Take
Off Hides, Together With The Other Labors, Is Too Much For Old Men,
And For Any Who Have Not Good Constitutions.
Beside these two men
of ours, the second officer of the California and the carpenter of
the Pilgrim broke down under the work, and the latter died at Santa
Barbara.
The young man, too, who came out with us from Boston in
the Pilgrim, had to be taken from his berth before the mast and
made clerk, on account of a fit of rheumatism which attacked him
soon after he came upon the coast. By the loss of the sailmaker,
our watch was reduced to five, of whom two were boys, who never
steered but in fine weather, so that the other two and myself had
to stand at the wheel four hours apiece out of every twenty-four;
and the other watch had only four helmsmen. "Never mind - we're
homeward bound!" was the answer to everything; and we should not
have minded this, were it not for the thought that we should be
off Cape Horn in the very dead of winter. It was now the first
part of May; and two months would bring us off the cape in July,
which is the worst month in the year there; when the sun rises at
nine and sets at three, giving eighteen hours night, and there is
snow and rain, gales and high seas, in abundance.
The prospect of meeting this in a ship half manned, and loaded
so deep that every heavy sea must wash her fore and aft, was by
no means pleasant.
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