In A Few Minutes The Slide Of The Hatch Was Thrown Back, Which
Let Down The Noise And Tumult Of The Deck Still Louder, The Loud Cry Of
"All Hands, Ahoy!
Tumble up here and take in sail," saluted our ears,
and the hatch was quickly shut again.
When I got upon deck, a new
scene and a new experience were before me. The little brig was close
hauled upon the wind, and lying over, as it then seemed to me, nearly
upon her beam ends. The heavy head sea was beating against her bows
with the noise and force almost of a sledge-hammer, and flying over the
deck, drenching us completely through. The topsail halyards had been
let go, and the great sails filling out and backing against the masts
with a noise like thunder. The wind was whistling through the rigging,
loose ropes flying about; loud and, to me, unintelligible orders constantly
given and rapidly executed, and the sailors "singing out" at the ropes in
their hoarse and peculiar strains. In addition to all this, I had not got
my "sea legs on," was dreadfully sick, with hardly strength enough to hold
on to anything, and it was "pitch dark." This was my state when I was
ordered aloft, for the first time, to reef topsails.
How I got along, I cannot now remember. I "laid out" on the yards and
held on with all my strength. I could not have been of much service,
for I remember having been sick several times before I left the topsail
yard. Soon all was snug aloft, and we were again allowed to go below.
This I did not consider much of a favor, for the confusion of everything
below, and that inexpressible sickening smell, caused by the shaking up
of the bilge-water in the hold, made the steerage but an indifferent
refuge from the cold, wet decks. I had often read of the nautical
experiences of others, but I felt as though there could be none worse
than mine; for in addition to every other evil, I could not but remember
that this was only the first night of a two years' voyage. When we were
on deck we were not much better off, for we were continually ordered
about by the officer, who said that it was good for us to be in motion.
Yet anything was better than the horrible state of things below.
I remember very well going to the hatchway and putting my head down,
when I was oppressed by nausea, and always being relieved immediately.
It was as good as an emetic.
This state of things continued for two days.
Wednesday, Aug. 20th. We had the watch on deck from four till eight,
this morning. When we came on deck at four o'clock, we found things
much changed for the better. The sea and wind had gone down, and the
stars were out bright. I experienced a corresponding change in my
feelings; yet continued extremely weak from my sickness. I stood in
the waist on the weather side, watching the gradual breaking of the
day, and the first streaks of the early light. Much has been said of
the sun-rise at sea; but it will not compare with the sun-rise on shore.
It wants the accompaniments of the songs of birds, the awakening hum
of men, and the glancing of the first beams upon trees, hills, spires,
and house-tops, to give it life and spirit. But though the actual
rise of the sun at sea is not so beautiful, yet nothing will compare
with the early breaking of day upon the wide ocean.
There is something in the first grey streaks stretching along the
eastern horizon and throwing an indistinct light upon the face of
the deep, which combines with the boundlessness and unknown depth
of the sea around you, and gives one a feeling of loneliness,
of dread, and of melancholy foreboding, which nothing else in
nature can give. This gradually passes away as the light grows
brighter, and when the sun comes up, the ordinary monotonous sea
day begins.
From such reflections as these, I was aroused by the order from
the officer, "Forward there! rig the head-pump!" I found that no
time was allowed for day-dreaming, but that we must "turn-to" at the
first light. Having called up the "idlers," namely carpenter, cook,
steward, etc., and rigged the pump, we commenced washing down the decks.
This operation, which is performed every morning at sea, takes nearly
two hours; and I had hardly strength enough to get through it. After
we had finished, swabbed down, and coiled up the rigging, I sat down
on the spars, waiting for seven bells, which was the sign for breakfast.
The officer, seeing my lazy posture, ordered me to slush the main-mast,
from the royal-mast-head, down. The vessel was then rolling a little,
and I had taken no sustenance for three days, so that I felt tempted to
tell him that I had rather wait till after breakfast; but I knew that
I must "take the bull by the horns," and that if I showed any sign of
want of spirit or of backwardness, that I should be ruined at once.
So I took my bucket of grease and climbed up to the royal-mast-head.
Here the rocking of the vessel, which increases the higher you go
from the foot of the mast, which is the fulcrum of the lever, and the
smell of the grease, which offended my fastidious senses, upset my
stomach again, and I was not a little rejoiced when I got upon the
comparative terra firma of the deck. In a few minutes seven bells
were struck, the log hove, the watch called, and we went to breakfast.
Here I cannot but remember the advice of the cook, a simple-hearted
African. "Now," says he, "my lad, you are well cleaned out; you
haven't got a drop of your 'long-shore swash aboard of you.
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