Thick Stockings And Drawers Were Darned And
Patched; Mittens Dragged From The Bottom Of The Chest And Mended;
Comforters Made
For the neck and ears; old flannel shirts cut up
to line monkey jackets; south-westers lined with flannel, and
A
pot of paint smuggled forward to give them a coat on the outside;
and everything turned to hand; so that, although two years had
left us but a scanty wardrobe, yet the economy and invention
which necessity teaches a sailor, soon put each of us in pretty
good trim for bad weather, even before we had seen the last of the
fine. Even the cobbler's art was not out of place. Several old
shoes were very decently repaired, and with waxed ends, an awl,
and the top of an old boot, I made me quite a respectable sheath
for my knife.
There was one difficulty, however, which nothing that we could do
would remedy; and that was the leaking of the forecastle, which made
it very uncomfortable in bad weather, and rendered half of the
berths tenantless. The tightest ships, in a long voyage, from the
constant strain which is upon the bowsprit, will leak, more or less,
round the heel of the bowsprit, and the bitts, which come down into
the forecastle; but, in addition to this, we had an unaccountable
leak on the starboard bow, near the cat-head, which drove us
from the forward berths on that side, and, indeed, when she was
on the starboard tack, from all the forward berths.
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