A Lad Who Had Been At
Work At The Royal Mast-Head, Came Down Upon The Deck, And Took
A Turn Round The Long-Boat; And Looking Very Pale, Said He Was
So Sick That He Could Stay Aloft No Longer, But Was Ashamed To
Acknowledge It To The Officer.
He went up again, but soon gave
out and came down, and leaned over the rail, "as sick as a lady
passenger."
He had been to sea several years, and had, he said, never been
sick before. He was made so by the irregular, pitching motion
of the vessel, increased by the height to which he had been above
the hull, which is like the fulcrum of the lever. An old sailor,
who was at work on the top-gallant yard, said he felt disagreeably
all the time, and was glad, when his job was done, to get down
into the top, or upon the deck. Another hand was sent to the
royal mast-head, who staid nearly an hour, but gave up. The work
must be done, and the mate sent me. I did very well for some time,
but began at length to feel very unpleasantly, though I had never
been sick since the first two days from Boston, and had been in all
sorts of weather and situations. Still, I kept my place, and did
not come down, until I had got through my work, which was more
than two hours. The ship certainly never acted so badly before.
She was pitched and jerked about in all manner of ways; the sails
seeming to have no steadying power over her.
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