Our Captain Had Been Married Only A Few Weeks Before He Left Boston;
And, After An Absence Of Over Two Years, It May Be Supposed He Was
Not Slow In Carrying Sail.
The mate, too, was not to be beaten by
anybody; and the second mate, though he was afraid to press sail,
was afraid as death of the captain, and being between two fears,
sometimes carried on longer than any of them.
We snapped off three
flying-jib booms in twenty-four hours, as fast as they could be
fitted and rigged out; sprung the spritsail yard; and made nothing
of studding-sail booms. Beside the natural desire to get home,
we had another reason for urging the ship on. The scurvy had begun
to show itself on board. One man had it so badly as to be disabled
and off duty, and the English lad, Ben, was in a dreadful state,
and was daily growing worse. His legs swelled and pained him so
that he could not walk; his flesh lost its elasticity, so that if
it was pressed in, it would not return to its shape; and his gums
swelled until he could not open his mouth. His breath, too, became
very offensive; he lost all strength and spirit; could eat nothing;
grew worse every day; and, in fact, unless something was done for
him, would be a dead man in a week, at the rate at which he was
sinking. The medicines were all, or nearly all, gone; and if we had
had a chest-full, they would have been of no use; for nothing but
fresh provisions and terra firma has any effect upon the scurvy.
This disease is not so common now as formerly; and is attributed
generally to salt provisions, want of cleanliness, the free
use of grease and fat (which is the reason of its prevalence
among whalemen,) and, last of all, to laziness.
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