Toward Morning,
The Rain Ceased, And The Air Became Sensibly Colder, So That We Found
Sleep Impossible, And Sat Up, Watching For Daybreak.
No sooner
was it light than we went ashore, and began our preparations for
loading our vessel.
We were not mistaken in the coldness of the
weather, for a white frost was on the ground, a thing we had never
seen before in California, and one or two little puddles of fresh
water were skimmed over with a thin coat of ice. In this state
of the weather and before sunrise, in the grey of the morning,
we had to wade off, nearly up to our hips in water, to load
the skiff with the wood by armsfull. The third mate remained
on board the launch, two more men staid in the skiff, to load
and manage it, and all the water-work, as usual, fell upon the
two youngest of us; and there we were, with frost on the ground,
wading forward and back, from the beach to the boat, with armsfull
of wood, barefooted, and our trowsers rolled up. When the skiff
went off with her load, we could only keep our feet from freezing
by racing up and down the beach on the hard sand, as fast as we
could go. We were all day at this work, and towards sundown,
having loaded the vessel as deep as she would bear, we hove up
our anchor, and made sail, beating out the bay. No sooner had
we got into the large bay, than we found a strong tide setting
us out to seaward, a thick fog which prevented our seeing the
ship, and a breeze too light to set us against the tide; for we
were as deep as a sand-barge. By the utmost exertions, we saved
ourselves from being carried out to sea, and were glad to reach the
leewardmost point of the island, where we came-to, and prepared
to pass another night, more uncomfortable than the first, for we
were loaded up to the gunwale, and had only a choice among logs
and sticks for a resting-place. The next morning, we made sail at
slack water, with a fair wind, and got on board by eleven o'clock,
when all hands were turned-to, to unload and stow away the wood,
which took till night.
Having now taken in all our wood, the next morning a water-party
was ordered off with all the casks. From this we escaped, having
had a pretty good siege with the wooding. The water-party were
gone three days, during which time they narrowly escaped being
carried out to sea, and passed one day on an island, where one
of them shot a deer, great numbers of which overrun the islands
and hills of San Francisco Bay.
While not off, on these wood and water parties, or up the rivers
to the missions, we had very easy times on board the ship. We were
moored, stem and stern, within a cable's length of the shore, safe
from south-easters, and with very little boating to do; and as it
rained nearly all the time, awnings were put over the hatchways,
and all hands sent down between decks, where we were at work,
day after day, picking oakum, until we got enough to caulk the ship
all over, and to last the whole voyage. Then we made a whole suit
of gaskets for the voyage home, a pair of wheel-ropes from strips
of green hide, great quantities of spun-yarn, and everything else
that could be made between decks. It being now mid-winter and
in high latitude, the nights were very long, so that we were not
turned-to until seven in the morning, and were obliged to knock
off at five in the evening, when we got supper; which gave us
nearly three hours before eight bells, at which time the watch
was set.
As we had now been about a year on the coast, it was time to think
of the voyage home; and knowing that the last two or three months
of our stay would be very busy ones, and that we should never have
so good an opportunity to work for ourselves as the present, we all
employed our evenings in making clothes for the passage home, and more
especially for Cape Horn. As soon as supper was over and the kids
cleared away, and each one had taken his smoke, we seated ourselves
on our chests round the lamp, which swung from a beam, and each one
went to work in his own way, some making hats, others trowsers,
others jackets, etc., etc.; and no one was idle. The boys who
could not sew well enough to make their own clothes, laid up grass
into sinnet for the men, who sewed for them in return. Several of
us clubbed together and bought a large piece of twilled cotton,
which we made into trowsers and jackets, and giving them several
coats of linseed oil, laid them by for Cape Horn. I also sewed
and covered a tarpaulin hat, thick and strong enough to sit down
upon, and made myself a complete suit of flannel under-clothing,
for bad weather. Those who had no south-wester caps, made them,
and several of the crew made themselves tarpaulin jackets and
trowsers, lined on the inside with flannel. Industry was the order
of the day, and every one did something for himself; for we knew
that as the season advanced, and we went further south, we should
have no evenings to work in.
Friday, December 25th. This day was Christmas; and as it rained
all day long, and there were no hides to take in, and nothing
especial to do, the captain gave us a holiday, (the first we had
had since leaving Boston,) and plum duff for dinner. The Russian
brig, following the Old Style, had celebrated their Christmas
eleven days before; when they had a grand blow-out and (as our
men said) drank, in the forecastle, a barrel of gin, ate up a
bag of tallow, and made a soup of the skin.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 92 of 167
Words from 93087 to 94120
of 170236
