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Chapter XXIX
Chapter XXIX
Loading for Home - A Surprise - Last of an Old Friend - The Last Hide - A Hard
Case - Up Anchor, for Home! - Homeward Bound
We turned-in early, knowing that we might expect an early call; and
sure enough, before the stars had quite faded, "All hands ahoy!" and we were
turned-to, heaving out ballast. A regulation of the port forbids any ballast
to be thrown overboard; accordingly, our long-boat was lined inside with
rough boards and brought alongside the gangway, but where one tub-full went
into the boat, twenty went overboard. This is done by every vessel, for the
ballast can make but little difference in the channel, and it saves more than
a week of labor, which would be spent in loading the boats, rowing them to the
point, and unloading them. When any people from the Presidio were on board,
the boat was hauled up and ballast thrown in; but when the coast was clear,
she was dropped astern again, and the ballast fell overboard. This is one of
those petty frauds which every vessel practices in ports of inferior foreign
nations, and which are lost sight of, among the countless deeds of greater
weight which are hardly less common. Fortunately a sailor, not being a free
agent in work aboard ship, is not accountable; yet the fact of being
constantly employed, without thought, in such things, begets an indifference
to the rights of others.
Friday, and a part of Saturday, we were engaged in this work, until we
had thrown out all but what we wanted under our cargo on the passage home;
when, as the next day was Sunday, and a good day for smoking ship, we cleared
everything out of the cabin and forecastle, made a slow fire of charcoal,
birch bark, brimstone, and other matters, on the ballast in the bottom of the
hold, calked up the hatches and every open seam, and pasted over the cracks of
the windows, and the slides of the scuttles, and companionway. Wherever smoke
was seen coming out, we calked and pasted, and, so far as we could, made the
ship smoke tight. The captain and officers slept under the awning which was
spread over the quarter-deck; and we stowed ourselves away under an old
studding-sail, which we drew over one side of the forecastle. The next day,
from fear that something might happen, orders were given for no one to leave
the ship, and, as the decks were lumbered up with everything, we could not
wash them down, so we had nothing to do, all day long. Unfortunately, our
books were where we could not get at them, and we were turning about for
something to do, when one man recollected a book he had left in the galley. He
went after it, and it proved to be Woodstock. This was a great windfall, and
as all could not read it at once, I, being the scholar of the company, was
appointed reader. I got a knot of six or eight about me, and no one could have
had a more attentive audience. Some laughed at the "scholars," and went over
the other side of the forecastle, to work, and spin their yarns; but I carried
the day, and had the cream of the crew for my hearers. Many of the
reflections, and the political parts, I omitted, but all the narrative they
were delighted with; especially the descriptions of the Puritans, and the
sermons and harangues of the Round-head soldiers. The gallantry of Charles,
Dr. Radcliffe`s plots, the knavery of "trusty Tompkins," - in fact, every part
seemed to chain their attention. Many things which, while I was reading, I had
a misgiving about, thinking them above their capacity, I was surprised to find
them enter into completely.
I read nearly all day, until sundown; when, as soon as supper was over,
as I had nearly finished, they got a light from the galley; and by skipping
what was less interesting, I carried them through to the marriage of Everard,
and the restoration of Charles the Second, before eight o`clock.
The next morning, we took the battens from the hatches, and opened the
ship. A few stifled rats were found; and what bugs, cockroaches, fleas, and
other vermin, there might have been on board, must have unrove their life -
lines before the hatches were opened. The ship being now ready, we covered the
bottom of the hold over, fore and aft, with dried brush for dunnage, and
having levelled everything away, we were ready to take in our cargo. All the
hides that had been collected since the California left the coast, (a little
more than two years,) amounting to about forty thousand, were cured, dried,
and stowed away in the house, waiting for our good ship to take them to
Boston.
Now began the operation of taking in our cargo, which kept us hard at
work, from the grey of the morning till star-light, for six weeks, with the
exception of Sundays, and of just time to swallow our meals. To carry the work
on quicker, a division of labor was made. Two men threw the hides down from
the piles in the house, two more picked them up and put them on a long
horizontal pole, raised a few feet from the ground, where they were beaten, by
two more, with flails, somewhat like those used in threshing wheat. When
beaten, they were taken from this pole by two more, and placed upon a platform
of boards; and ten or a dozen men, with their trowsers rolled up, were
constantly going, back and forth, from the platform to the boat, which was
kept off where she would just float, with the hides upon their heads. The
throwing the hides upon the pole was the most difficult work, and required a
sleight of hand which was only to be got by long practice. As I was known for
a hide-curer, this post was assigned to me, and I continued at it for six or
eight days, tossing, in that time, from eight to ten thousand hides, until my
wrists became so lame that I gave in; and was transferred to the gang that was
employed in filling the boats, where I remained for the rest of the time. As
we were obliged to carry the hides on our heads from fear of their getting
wet, we each had a piece of sheepskin sewed into the inside of our hats, with
the wool next to our heads, and thus were able to bear the weight, day after
day, which would otherwise have soon worn off our hair, and borne hard upon
our skulls. Upon the whole, ours was the best berth; for though the water was
nipping cold, early in the morning and late at night, and being so continually
wet was rather an exposure, yet we got rid of the constant dust and dirt from
the beating of the hides, and being all of us young and hearty, did not mind
the exposure. The older men of the crew, whom it would have been dangerous to
have kept in the water, remained on board with the mate, to stow the hides
away, as fast as they were brought off by the boats.
We continued at work in this manner until the lower hold was filled to
within four feet of the beams, when all hands were called aboard to commence
steeving. As this is peculiar operation, it will require a minute description.
Before stowing the hides, as I have said, the ballast is levelled off,
just above the keelson, and then loose dunnage placed upon it, on which the
hides rest. The greatest care is used in stowing, to make the ship hold as
many hides as possible. It is no mean art, and a man skilled in it is an
important character in California. Many a dispute have I heard raging high
between professed "beach-combers," as to whether the hides should be stowed
"shingling," or "back-to-back, and flipper-to-flipper;" upon which point
there was an entire and bitter division of sentiment among the savans. We
adopted each method at different periods of the stowing, and parties ran high
in the forecastle, some siding with "old Bill" in favor of the former, and
others scouting him, and relying upon "English Bob" of the Ayacucho, who had
been eight years in California, and was willing to risk his life and limb for
the latter method. At length a compromise was effected, and a middle course,
of shifting the ends and backs at every lay, was adopted, which worked well,
and which, though they held it inferior to their own, each party granted was
better than that of the other.
Having filled the ship up, in this way, to within four feet of her beams,
the process of steeving commenced, by which an hundred hides are got into a
place where one could not be forced by hand, and which presses the hides to
the utmost, sometimes starting the beams of the ship, resembling in its
effects the jack-screws which are used in stowing cotton. Each morning we
went ashore, and beat and brought off as many hides as we could steeve in the
course of the day, and, after breakfast, went down into the hold, where we
remained at work until night. The whole length of the hold, from stem to
stern, was floored off level, and we began with raising a pile in the after
part, hard against the bulkhead of the run, and filling it up to the beams,
crowding in as many as we could by hand and pushing in with oars; when a large
"book" was made of from twenty-five to fifty hides, doubled at the backs,
and put into one another, like the leaves of a book. An opening was then made
between two hides in the pile, and the back of the outside hide of the book
inserted. Two long, heavy spars, called steeves, made of the strongest wood,
and sharpened off life a wedge at one end, were placed with their wedge ends
into the inside of the hide which was the centre of the book, and to the other
end of each, straps were fitted, into which large tackles were hooked,
composed each of two huge purchase blocks, one hooked to the strap on the end
of the steeve, and the other into a dog, fastened into one of the beams, as
far aft as it could be got. When this was arranged, and the ways greased upon
which the book was to slide, the falls of the tackles were stretched forward,
and all hands tallied on, and bowsed away until the book was well entered;
when these tackles were nippered, straps and toggles clapped upon the falls,
and two more luff tackles hooked on, with dogs, in the same manner; and thus,
by luff upon luff, the power was multiplied, until into a pile in which one
hide more could not crowded by hand, an hundred or an hundred and fifty were
often driven in by this complication of purchases. When the last luff was
hooked on, all hands were called to the rope-cook, steward, and all - and
ranging ourselves at the falls, one behind the other, sitting down on the
hides, with our heads just even with the beams, we set taught upon the
tackles, and striking up a song, and all lying back at the chorus, we bowsed
the tackles home, and drove the large books chock in out of sight.
The sailor`s songs for capstans and falls are of a peculiar kind, having
a chorus at the end of each line. The burden is usually sung, by one alone,
and, at the chorus, all hands join in, - and the louder the noise, the better.
With us, the chorus seemed almost to raise the decks of the ship, and might be
heard at a great distance, ashore. A song is as necessary to sailors as the
drum and fife to a soldier. They can`t pull in time, or pull with a will,
without it. Many a time, when a thing goes heavy, with one fellow yo-ho-ing, a
lively song, like "Heave, to the girls!" "Nancy oh!" "Jack Crosstree," etc.,
has put life and strength into every arm. We often found a great difference in
the effect of the different songs in driving in the hides. Two or three songs
would be tried, one after the other, with no effect; - not an inch could be
got upon the tackles - when a new song, struck up, seemed to hit the humor of
the moment, and drove the tackles "two blocks" at once. "Heave round hearty!"
"Captain gone ashore!" and the like, might do for common pulls, but in an
emergency, when we wanted a heavy, "raise-the-dead" pull, which should
start the beams of the ship, there was nothing like "Time for us to go!"
"Round the corner," or "Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies!"
This was the most lively part of our work. A little boating and beach
work in the morning; then twenty or thirty men down in a close hold, where we
were obliged to sit down and slide about, passing hides, and rowsing about the
great steeves, tackles, and dogs, singing out at the falls, and seeing the
ship filling up every day. The work was as hard as it could well be. There was
not a moment`s cessation from Monday morning till Saturday night, when we were
generally beaten out, and glad to have a full night`s rest, a wash and shift
of clothes, and a quiet Sunday. During all this time, - which would have
startled Dr. Graham - we lived upon almost nothing but fresh beef; fried
beefsteaks, three times a day, - morning, noon, and night. At morning and
night we had a quart of tea to each man; and an allowance of about a pound of
hard bread a day; but our chief article of food was the beef. A mess,
consisting of six men, had a large wooden kid piled up with beefsteaks, cut
thick, and fried in fat, with the grease poured over them. Round this we sat,
attacking it with our jack-knives and teeth, and with the appetite of young
lions, and sent back an empty kid to the galley. This was done three times a
day. How many pounds each man ate in a day, I will not attempt to compute. A
whole bullock (we ate liver and all) lasted us but four days. Such devouring
of flesh, I will venture to say, was seldom known before. What one man ate in
a day, over a hearty man`s allowance, would make a Russian`s heart leap into
his mouth. Indeed, during all the time we were upon the coast, our principal
food was fresh beef, and every man had perfect health; but this was a time of
especial devouring; and what we should have done without meat, I cannot tell.
Once or twice, when our bullocks failed and we were obliged to make a meal
upon dry bread and water, it seemed like feeding upon shavings. Light and dry,
feeling unsatisfied, and, at the same time, full, we were glad to see four
quarters of a bullock, just killed, swinging from the fore-top. Whatever
theories may be started by sedentary men, certainly no men could have gone
through hard work and exposure for sixteen months in more perfect health, and
without ailings and failings, than our ship`s crew, let them have lived upon
Hygeia`s own baking and dressing.
Friday, April 15th. Arrived, brig Pilgrim, from the windward. It was a
sad sight for her crew to see us getting ready to go off the coast, while
they, who had been longer on the coast than the Alert, were condemned to
another year`s hard service. I spent an evening on board, and found them
making the best of the matter, and determined to rough it out as they might;
but my friend S - was determined to go home in the ship, if money or interest
could bring it to pass. After considerable negotiating and working, he
succeeded in persuading my English friend, Tom Harris, - my companion in the
anchor watch - for thirty dollars, some clothes, and an intimation from
Captain Faucon that he should want a second mate before the voyage was up, to
take his place in the brig as soon as she was ready to go up to windward.
The first opportunity I could get to speak to Captain Faucon, I asked him
to step up to the oven and look at Hope, whom he knew well, having had him on
board his vessel. He went to see him, but said that he had so little medicine,
and expected to be so long on the coast, that he could do nothing for him, but
that Captain Arthur would take care of him when he came down in the
California, which would be in a week or more. I had been to see Hope the first
night after we got into San Diego this last time, and had frequently since
spent the early part of a night in the oven. I hardly expected, when I left
him go to windward, to find him alive upon my return. He was certainly as low
as he could well be when I left him, and what would be the effect of the
medicines that I gave him, I hardly then dared to conjecture. Yet I knew that
he must die without them. I was not a little rejoiced, therefore, and
relieved, upon our return, to see him decidedly better. The medicines were
strong, and took hold and gave a check to the disorder which was destroying
him; and, more than that, they had begun the work of exterminating it. I shall
never forget the gratitude that he expressed. All the Kanakas attributed his
escape solely to my knowledge, and would not be persuaded that I had not all
the secrets of the physical system open to me and under my control. My
medicines, however, were gone, and no more could be got from the ship, so that
his life was left to hang upon the arrival of the California.
Sunday, April 24th. We had now been nearly seven weeks in San Diego, and
had taken in the greater part of our cargo, and were looking out, every day,
for the arrival of the California, which had our agent on board; when, this
afternoon, some Kanakas, who had been over the hill for rabbits and to fight
rattlesnakes, came running down the path, singing out, "Kail ho!" with all
their might. Mr. H., our third mate, was ashore, and asking them particularly
about the size of the sail, etc., and learning that it was "Moku-Nui Moku,"
hailed our ship, and said that the California was on the other side of the
point. Instantly, all hands were turned up, the bow guns run out and loaded,
the ensign and broad pennant set, the yards squared by lifts and braces, and
everything got ready to make a good appearance. The instant she showed her
nose round the point, we began our salute. She came in under top-gallant
sails, clewed up and furled her sails in good order, and came-to, within
good swinging distance of us. It being Sunday, and nothing to do, all hands
were on the forecastle, criticizing the new-comer. She was a good,
substantial ship, not quite so long as the Alert, and wall-sided and kettle
- bottomed, after the latest fashion of south-shore cotton and sugar wagons;
strong, too, and tight, and a good average sailor, but with no pretensions to
beauty, and nothing in the style of a "crack ship." Upon the whole, we were
perfectly satisfied that the Alert might hold up her head with a ship twice as
smart as she.
At night, some of us got a boat and went on board, and found a large,
roomy forecastle, (for she was squarer forward than the Alert,) and a crew of
a dozen or fifteen men and boys, sitting around on their chests, smoking and
talking, and ready to give a welcome to any of our ship`s company. It was just
seven months since they left Boston, which seemed but yesterday to us.
Accordingly, we had much to ask, for though we had seen the newspapers that
she brought, yet these were the very men who had been in Boston and seen
everything with their own eyes. One of the green-hands was a Boston boy,
from one of the public schools, and, of course, knew many things which we
wished to ask about, and on inquiring the names of our two Boston boys, found
that they had been schoolmates of his. Our men had hundreds of questions to
ask about Ann street, the boarding-houses, the ships in port, the rate of
wages, and other matters.
Among her crew were two English man-of-war`s-men, so that, of course, we
soon had music. They sang in the true sailor`s style, and the rest of the
crew, which was a remarkably musical one, joined in the choruses. They had
many of the latest sailor songs, which had not yet got about among our
merchantmen, and which they were every choice of. They began soon after we
came on board, and kept it up until after two bells, when the second mate came
forward and called "the Alerts away!" Battle-songs, drinking-songs,
boat-songs, love-songs, and everything else, they seemed to have a complete
assortment of, and I was glad to find that "All in the Downs," "Poor Tom
Bowline," "The Bay of Biscay," "List, ye Landsmen!" and all those classical
songs of the sea, still held their places. In addition to these, they had
picked up at the theatres and other places a few songs of a little more
genteel cast, which they were very proud of; and I shall never forget hearing
an old salt, who had broken his voice by hard drinking on shore, and bellowing
from the mast-head in a hundred north-westers, with all manner of ungovernable
trills and quavers - in the high notes, breaking into a rough falsetto - and
in the low ones, growling along like the dying away of the boat-swain`s "all
hands ahoy!" down the hatch-way, singing, "Oh, no, we never mention him."
"Perhaps, like me, he struggles with
Each feeling of regret;
But if he`s loved as I have loved,
He never can forget!"
The last line, being the conclusion, he roared out at the top of his
voice, breaking each word up into half a dozen syllables. This was very
popular, and Jack was called upon every night to give them his "sentimental
song." No one called for it more loudly than I, for the complete absurdity of
the execution, and the sailors` perfect satisfaction in it, were ludicrous
beyond measure.
The next day, the California commenced unloading her cargo; and her
boats` crews, in coming and going, sang their boat-songs, keeping time with
their oars. This they did all day long for several days, until their hides
were all discharged, when a gang of them were sent on board the Alert, to help
us steeve our hides. This was a windfall for us, for they had a set of new
songs for the capstan and fall, and ours had got nearly worn out by six weeks`
constant use. I have no doubt that this timely reinforcement of songs hastened
our work several days.
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