For Instance, At Our
Embarkation, To Drink The Health Of The Friends We Were Leaving, And
To Hope For A
Quick and prosperous voyage; then, when the wind was
favourable, its health was drunk, with the request that it would
Remain so; when it was contrary, with the request that it would
change; when we saw land, we saluted it with a glass of wine, or
perhaps with several, but I was too ill to count; when we lost sight
of it, we drank a farewell glass to its health: so that every day
brought with it three or four distinct and separate occasions for
drinking wine. {21}
The sailors drank tea-water without sugar every morning and evening,
with the addition of a glass of brandy; for dinner they had pease,
beans, barley, or potatoes, with salted cod, bacon, "or junk;" good
sea-biscuit they could get whenever they chose.
The diet is not the worst part of these poor people's hardships.
Their life may be called a continual fight against the elements; for
it is precisely during the most dreadful storms, with rain and
piercing cold, that they have to be continually upon deck. I could
not sufficiently admire the coolness, or rather the cheerfulness and
alacrity with which they fulfilled their onerous duties. And what
reward have they? Scanty pay, for food the diet I have just
described, and for their sleeping-place the smallest and most
inconvenient part of the ship, a dark place frequently infested with
vermin, and smelling offensively from being likewise used as a
receptacle for oil-colours, varnish, tar, salt-fish, &c. &c.
To be cheerful in the midst of all this requires a very quiet and
contented mind. That the Danish sailors are contented, I had many
opportunities of observing during the voyage of which I am speaking,
and on several other occasions.
But after all this long description, it is high time that I should
return to the journey itself.
The favourable gale which had thus wafted us to the coast of Iceland
within seven days, now unfortunately changed its direction, and
drove us back. We drifted about in the storm-tost ocean, and many a
Spanish wave {22} broke completely over our ship. Twice we
attempted to approach the Westmann Islands {23} (a group belonging
to Iceland) to watch an opportunity of casting anchor, and setting
ashore our fellow-traveller Herr Bruge; but it was in vain, we were
driven back each time. At length, at the close of the eleventh day,
we reached Havenfiord, a very good harbour, distant nine miles from
Reikjavik, the capital of Iceland.
In spite of the very inopportune change in the direction of the
wind, we had had an unprecedentedly quick passage. The distance
from Copenhagen to Iceland, in a straight line, is reckoned at 1200
geographical miles; for a sailing vessel, which must tack now and
then, and must go as much with the wind as possible, 1500 to 1600
miles. Had the strong wind, which was at first so favourable,
instead of changing on the seventh day, held on for thirty or forty
hours longer, we should have landed in Iceland on the eighth or
ninth day - even the steamer could not have accomplished the passage
so quickly.
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