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Chapter XXXI
Chapter XXXI
Bad Prospects - First Touch of Cape Horn - Icebergs - Temperance Ships -
Lying-Up - Ice - Difficulty on Board - Change of Course - Straits of Magellan
There now began to be a decided change in the appearance of things. The
days became shorter and shorter; the sun running lower in its course each day,
and giving less and less heat; and the nights so cold as to prevent our
sleeping on deck; the Magellan Clouds in sight, of a clear night; the skies
looking cold and angry; and, at times, a long, heavy, ugly sea, setting in
from the southward, told us what we were coming to. Still, however, we had a
fine, strong breeze, and kept on our way, under as much sail as our ship would
bear. Toward the middle of the week, the wind hauled to the southward, which
brought us upon a taught bowline, made the ship meet, nearly head on, the
heavy swell which rolled from that direction; and there was something not at
all encouraging in the manner in which she met it. Being so deep and heavy,
she wanted the buoyancy which should have carried her over the seas, and she
dropped heavily into them, the water washing over the decks; and every now and
then, when an unusually large sea met her fairly upon the bows, she struck it
with a sound as dead and heavy as that with which a sledge-hammer falls upon
the pile, and took the whole of it in upon the forecastle, and rising, carried
it aft in the scuppers, washing the rigging off the pins, and carrying along
with it everything which was loose on deck. She had been acting in this way
all of our forenoon watch below; as we could tell by the washing of the water
over our heads, and the heavy breaking of the seas against her bows, (with a
sound as though she were striking against a rock,) only the thickness of the
plank from our heads, as we lay in our berths, which are directly against the
bows. At eight bells, the watch was called, and we came on deck, one hand
going aft to take the wheel, and another going to the galley to get the grub
for dinner. I stood on the forecastle, looking at the seas, which were rolling
high, as far as the eye could reach, their tops white with foam, and the body
of them of a deep indigo blue, reflecting the bright rays of the sun. Our ship
rose slowly over a few of the largest of them, until one immense fellow came
rolling on, threatening to cover her, and which I was sailor enough to know,
by "the feeling of her" under my feet, she would not rise over. I sprang upon
the knight-heads, and seizing hold of the fore-stay with my hands, drew
myself upon it. My feet were just off the stanchion, when she struck fairly
into the middle of the sea, and it washed her fore and aft, burying her in the
water. As soon as she rose out of it, I looked aft, and everything forward of
the main-mast, except the long-boat, which was griped and double-lashed
down to the ring-bolts, was swept off clear. The galley, the pig-sty, the
hen-coop, and a large sheep-pen which had been built upon the forehatch,
were all gone, in the twinkling of an eye-leaving the deck as clean as a
chin new reaped - and not a stick left, to show where they had stood. In the
scuppers lay the galley, bottom up, and a few boards floating about, the wreck
of the sheep-pen, - and half a dozen miserable sheep floating among them,
wet through, and not a little frightened at the sudden change that had come
upon them. As soon as the sea had washed by, all hands sprung out of the
forecastle to see what had become of the ship and in a few moments the cook
and old Bill crawled out from under the galley, where they had been lying in
the water, nearly smothered, with the galley over them. Fortunately, it rested
against the bulwarks, or it would have broken some of their bones. When the
water ran off, we picked the sheep up, and put them in the long-boat, got
the galley back in its place, and set things a little to rights; but, had not
our ship had uncommonly high bulwarks and rail, everything must have been
washed overboard, not excepting Old Bill and the cook. Bill had been standing
at the galley-door, with the kid of beef in his hand for the forecastle
mess, when, away he went, kid, beef, and all. He held on to the kid till the
last, like a good fellow, but the beef was gone, and when the water had run
off, we saw it lying high and dry, like a rock at low tide - nothing could
hurt that. We took the loss of our beef very easily, consoling ourselves with
the recollection that the cabin had more to lose than we; and chuckled not a
little at seeing the remains of the chicken-pie and pan-cakes floating in
the scuppers. "This will never do!" was what some said, and every one felt.
Here we were, not yet within a thousand miles of the latitude of Cape Horn,
and our decks swept by a sea not one half so high as we must expect to find
there. Some blamed the captain for loading his ship so deep, when he knew what
he must expect; while others said that the wind was always southwest, off the
Cape, in the winter; and that, running before it, we should not mind the seas
so much. When we got down into the forecastle, Old Bill, who was somewhat of a
croaker, - having met with a great many accident at sea - said that if that
was the way she was going to act, we might as well make our wills, and balance
the books at once, and put on a clean shirt. "`Vast there, you bloody old owl!
You`re always hanging out blue lights! You`re frightened by the ducking you
got in the scuppers, and can`t take a joke! What`s the use in being always on
the look-out for Davy Jones?" "Stand by!" says another, "and we`ll get an
afternoon watch below, by this scrape;" but in this they were disappointed,
for at two bells, all hands were called and set to work, getting lashings upon
everything on deck; and the captain talked of sending down the long top -
gallant masts; but, as the sea went down toward night, and the wind hauled
abeam, we left them standing, and set the studding-sails.
The next day, all hands were turned-to upon unbending the old sails,
and getting up the new ones; for a ship, unlike people on shore, puts on her
best suit in bad weather. The old sails were sent down, and three new
topsails, and new fore and main courses, jib, and fore-topmast staysail,
which were made on the coast, and never had been used, were bent, with a
complete set of new earrings, robands and reef-points; and reef-tackles
were rove to the courses, and spilling-lines to the top-sails. These, with
new braces and clew-lines, fore and aft, gave us a good suit of running
rigging.
The wind continued westerly, and the weather and sea less rough since the
day on which we shipped the heavy sea, and we were making great progress under
studding-sails, with our light sails all set, keeping a little to the
eastward of south; for the captain, depending upon westerly winds off the
Cape, had kept so far to the westward, that though we were within about five
hundred miles of the latitude of Cape Horn, we were nearly seventeen hundred
miles to the westward of it. Through the rest of the week, we continued on
with a fair wind, gradually, as we got more to the southward, keeping a more
easterly course, and bringing the wind on our larboard quarter, until -
Sunday, June 26th, when, having a fine, clear day, the captain got a
lunar observation, as well as his meridian altitude, which made us in at. 47
degrees 50 `S., long. 113 degrees 49` W.; Cape Horn bearing, according to my
calculation, E.S.E. 1/2 E., and distant eighteen hundred miles.
Monday, June 27th. During the first part of this day, the wind continued
fair, and, as we were going before it, it did not feel very cold, so that we
kept at work on deck, in our common clothes and round jackets. Our watch had
an afternoon watch below, for the first time since leaving San Diego, and
having inquired of the third mate what the latitude was at noon, and made our
usual guesses as to the time she would need, to be up with the Horn, we turned
- in, for a nap. We were sleeping away "at the rates of knots," when three
knocks on the scuttle, and "All hands ahoy!" started us from or berths. What
could be the matter? It did not appear to be blowing hard, and looking up
through the scuttle, we could see that it was a clear day, overhead; yet the
watch were taking in sail. We thought there must be a sail in sight, and that
we were about to heave-to and speak her; and were just congratulating
ourselves upon it - for we had seen neither sail nor land since we had left
port - when we heard the mate`s voice on deck, (he turned-in "all standing,"
and was always on deck the moment he was called,) singing out to the men who
were taking in the studding-sails, and asking where his watch were. We did
not wait for a second call, but tumbled up the ladder; and there, on the
starboard bow, was a bank of mist, covering sea and sky, and driving directly
for us. I had seen the same before, in my passage round in the Pilgrim, and
knew what it meant, and that there was no time to be lost. We had nothing on
but thin clothes, yet there was not a moment to spare and at it we went.
The boys of the other watch were in the tops, taking in the top-gallant
studding-sails, and the lower and topmast studding-sails were coming down by
the run. It was nothing but "haul down and clew up," until we got all the
studding-sails in, and the royals, flying-jib, and mizen to top-gallant sail
furled, and the ship kept off a little, to take the squall. The fore and main
top-gallant sails were still on her, for the "old man" did not mean to be
frightened in broad daylight, and was determined to carry sail till the last
minute. We all stood waiting for its coming, when the first blast showed us
that it was not be trifled with. Rain, sleet, snow, and wind, enough to take
our breath from us, and make the toughest turn his back to windward! The ship
lay nearly over on her beam-ends; the spars and rigging snapped and cracked;
and her top-gallant masts bent like whip-sticks. "Clew up the fore and main
top-gallant sails!" shouted the captain, and all hands sprang to the
clewlines. The decks were standing nearly at an angle of forty-five degrees,
and the ship going like a mad steed through the water, the whole forward part
of her in a smother of foam. The halyards were let go and the yard clewed
down, and the sheets started, and in a few minutes the sails smothered and
kept in by clewlines and buntlines. - "Furl `em, sir?" asked the mate. - "Let
go the topsail halyards, fore and aft!" shouted the captain, in answer, at the
top of his voice. Down came the topsail yards, the reef - tackles were manned
and hauled out, and we climbed up to windward, and sprang into the weather
rigging. The violence of the wind, and the hail and sleet, driving nearly
horizontally across the ocean, seemed actually to pin us down to the rigging.
It was hard work making head against them. One after another, we got out upon
the yards. And here we had work to do; for our new sails, which had hardly
been bent long enough to get the starch out of them, were as stiff as boards,
and the new earings and reef-points, stiffened with the sleet, knotted like
pieces of iron wire. Having only or round jackets and straw hats on, we were
soon wet through, and it was every moment growing colder. Our hands were soon
stiffened and numbed, which, added to the stiffness of everything else, kept
us a good while on the yard. After we had got the sail hauled upon the yard,
we had to wait a long time for the weather earing to be passed; but there was
no fault to be found, for French John was at the earing, and a better sailor
never laid out on a yard; so we leaned over the yard, and beat our hands upon
the sail to keep them from freezing. At length the word came - "Haul out to
leeward," - and we seized the reef-points and hauled the band taught for the
lee earing. "Taught band - Knot away," and we got the first reef fast, and
were just going to lay down, when - "Two reefs - two reefs!" shouted the mate,
and we had a second reef to take, in the same way. When this was fast, we laid
down on deck, manned the halyards to leeward, nearly up to our knees in water,
set the topsail, and then laid aloft on the main topsail yard, and reefed that
sail in the same manner; for, as I have before stated, we were a good deal
reduced in numbers, and, to make it worse, the carpenter, only two days
before, cut his leg with an axe, so that he could not go aloft. This weakened
us so that we could not well manage more than one topsail at a time, in such
weather as this, and, of course, our labor was doubled. From the main topsail
yard, we went upon the main yard, and took a reef in the mainsail. No sooner
had we got on deck, than - "Lay aloft there, mizen-top-men, and close - reef
the mizen topsail!" This called me; and being nearest to the rigging, I got
first aloft, and out to the weather earing. English Ben was on the yard after
me, and took the lee earing, and the rest of our gang were soon on the yard,
and began to fist the sail, when the mate considerately sent up the cook and
steward, to help us. I could now account for the long time it took to pass the
other earings, for, to do my best, with a strong hand to help me at the dog`s
ear, I could not get it passed until I heard them beginning to complain in the
bunt. One reef after another we took in, until the sail was close-reefed, when
we went down and hoisted away at the halyards. In the mean time, the jib had
been furled and the staysail set, and the ship, under her reduced sail, had
got more upright and was under management; but the two top-gallant sails were
still hanging in the buntlines, and slatting and jerking as though they would
take the masts out of her. We gave a look aloft, and knew that our work was
not done yet; and, sure enough, no sooner did the mate see that we were on
deck, than - "Lay aloft there, four of you, and furl the top-gallant sails!"
This called me again, and two of us went aloft, up the fore rigging, and two
more up the main, upon the top-gallant yards. The shrouds were now iced over,
the sleet having formed a crust or cake round all the standing rigging, and on
the weather side of the masts and yards. When we got upon the yard, my hands
were so numb that I could not have cast off the knot of the gasket to have
saved my life. We both lay over the yard for a few seconds, beating our hands
upon the sail, until we started the blood into our fingers` ends, and at the
next moment our hands were in a burning heat. My companion on the yard was a
lad, who came out in the ship a weak, puny boy, from one of the Boston
schools, - "no larger than a spritsail knot," nor "heavier than a paper of
lamp-black," and "not strong enough to haul a shad off a gridiron," but who
was now "as long as a spare topmast, strong enough to knock down an ox, and
hearty enough to eat him." We fisted the sail together, and after six or eight
minutes of hard hauling and pulling and beating down the sail, which was as
stiff as sheet iron, we managed to get it furled; and snugly furled it must
be, for we knew the mate well enough to be certain that if it got adrift
again, we should be called up from our watch below, at any hour of the night,
to furl it.
I had been on the look-out for a moment to jump below and clap on a
thick jacket and south-wester; but when we got on deck we found that eight
bells had been struck, and the other watch gone below, so that there were two
hours of dog watch for us, and a plenty of work to do. It had now set in for a
steady gale from the south-west; but we were not yet far enough to the
southward to make a fair wind of it, for we must give Terra del Fuego a wide
berth. The decks were covered with snow, and there was a constant driving of
sleet. In fact, Cape Horn had set in with good earnest. In the midst of all
this, and before it became dark, we had all the studding-sails to make up
and stow away, and then to lay aloft and rig in all the booms, fore and aft,
and coil away the tacks, sheets, and halyards. This was pretty tough work for
four or five hands, in the face of a gale which almost took us off the yards,
and with ropes so stiff with ice that it was almost impossible to bend them. I
was nearly half an hour out on the end of the fore yard, trying to coil away
and stop down the topmast studding-sail tack and lower halyards. It was
after dark when we got through, and we were not a little pleased to hear four
bells struck, which sent us below for two hours, and gave us each a pot of hot
tea with our cold beef and bread, and, what was better yet, a suit of thick,
dry clothing, fitted for the weather, in place of our thin clothes, which were
wet through and now frozen stiff.
This sudden turn, for which we were so little prepared, was as
unacceptable to me as to any of the rest; for I had been troubled for several
days with a slight tooth-ache, and this cold weather, and wetting and
freezing, were not the best things in the world for it. I soon found that it
was getting strong hold, and running over all parts of my face; and before the
watch was out I went aft to the mate, who had charge of the medicine-chest,
to get something for it. But the chest showed like the end of a long voyage,
for there was nothing that would answer but a few drops of laudanum, which
must be saved for any emergency; so I had only to bear the pain as well as I
could.
When we went on deck at eight bells, it had stopped snowing, and there
were a few stars out, but the clouds were still black, and it was blowing a
steady gale. Just before midnight, I went aloft and sent down the mizen royal
yard, and had the good luck to do it to the satisfaction of the mate, who said
it was done "out of hand and ship-shape." The next four hours below were but
little relief to me, for I lay awake in my berth, the whole time, from the
pain in my face, and heard every bell strike, and, at four o`clock, turned out
with the watch, feeling little spirit for the hard duties of the day. Bad
weather and hard work at sea can be borne up against very well, if one only
has spirit and health; but there is nothing brings a man down, at such a time,
like bodily pain and want of sleep. There was, however, too much to do to
allow time to think; for the gale of yesterday, and the heavy seas we met with
a few days before, while we had yet ten degrees more southing to make, had
convinced the captain that we had something before us which was not to be
trifled with, and orders were given to send down the long top-gallant masts.
The top-gallant and royal yards were accordingly struck, the flying jib -
boom rigged in, and the top-gallant masts sent down on deck, and all lashed
together by the side of the long-boat. The rigging was then sent down and
coiled away below, and everything was made snug aloft. There was not a sailor
in the ship who was not rejoiced to see these sticks come down; for, so long
as the yards were aloft, on the least sign of a lull, the top-gallant sails
were loosed, and then we had to furl them again in a snow-squall, and shin
up and down single ropes caked with ice, and send royal yards down in the
teeth of a gale coming right from the south pole. It was an interesting sight,
too, to see our noble ship, dismantled of all her top-hamper of long
tapering masts and yards, and boom pointed with spear-head, which ornamented
her in port; and all that canvas, which a few days before had covered her like
a cloud, from the truck to the water`s edge, spreading far out beyond her hull
on either side, now gone; and she, stripped, like a wrestler for the fight. It
corresponded, too, with the desolate character of her situation; - alone, as
she was, battling with storms, wind, and ice, at this extremity of the globe,
and in almost constant night.
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