This Appeared To Be A
Very Reasonable Request, And The Crew Agreed That If He Did Not
Make Sail Before Noon, They Would Go Aft.
Noon came, and no sail
was made.
A consultation was held again, and it was proposed to
take the ship from the captain and give the command of her to the
mate, who had been heard to say that, if he could have his way,
the ship would have been half the distance to the Cape before
night, - ice or no ice. And so irritated and impatient had the
crew become, that even this proposition, which was open mutiny,
punishable with state prison, was entertained, and the carpenter
went to his berth, leaving it tacitly understood that something
serious would be done, if things remained as they were many hours
longer. When the carpenter left, we talked it all over, and I gave
my advice strongly against it. Another of the men, too, who had
known something of the kind attempted in another ship by a crew
who were dissatisfied with their captain, and which was followed
with serious consequences, was opposed to it. S - - -, who soon
came down, joined us, and we determined to have nothing to do
with it. By these means, they were soon induced to give it up,
for the present, though they said they would not lie where they
were much longer without knowing the reason.
The affair remained in this state until four o'clock, when an
order came forward for all hands to come aft upon the quarter-
deck.
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