Sailors Are Willing
Enough; But It Is True, As Is Often Said - No One Ships For Nurse
On Board A Vessel.
Our merchant ships are always under-manned,
and if one man is lost by sickness, they cannot spare another
to take care of him.
A sailor is always presumed to be well,
and if he's sick, he's a poor dog. One has to stand his wheel,
and another his lookout, and the sooner he gets on deck again,
the better.
Accordingly, as soon as I could possibly go back to my duty,
I put on my thick clothes and boots and south-wester, and made
my appearance on deck. Though I had been but a few days below,
yet everything looked strangely enough. The ship was cased in
ice, - decks, sides, masts, yards, and rigging. Two close-reefed
top-sails were all the sail she had on, and every sail and rope
was frozen so stiff in its place, that it seemed as though it
would be impossible to start anything. Reduced, too, to her top-
masts, she had altogether a most forlorn and crippled appearance.
The sun had come up brightly; the snow was swept off the decks,
and ashes thrown upon them, so that we could walk, for they had
been as slippery as glass.
It was, of course, too cold to carry on any ship's work, and we had
only to walk the deck and keep ourselves warm. The wind was still
ahead, and the whole ocean, to the eastward, covered with islands
and field-ice.
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