We Had
Now All Got On Our "Cape Horn Rig" - Thick Boots, South-Westers Coming
Down Over Our Neck And Ears, Thick Trowsers And Jackets, And Some With
Oil-Cloth Suits Over All.
Mittens, too, we wore on deck, but it would
not do to go aloft with them on, for it
Was impossible to work with
them, and, being wet and stiff, they might let a man slip overboard,
for all the hold he could get upon a rope; so, we were obliged to
work with bare hands, which, as well as our faces, were often cut
with the hail-stones, which fell thick and large. Our ship was
now all cased with ice, - hull, spars, and standing rigging; - and
the running rigging so stiff that we could hardly bend it so as
to belay it, or, still worse, take a knot with it; and the sails
nearly as stiff as sheet iron. One at a time, (for it was a long
piece of work and required many hands,) we furled the courses,
mizen topsail, and fore-topmast staysail, and close-reefed the
fore and main topsails, and hove the ship to under the fore,
with the main hauled up by the clewlines and buntlines, and ready
to be sheeted home, if we found it necessary to make sail to get
to windward of an ice island. A regular look-out was then set,
and kept by each watch in turn, until the morning. It was a tedious
and anxious night.
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