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Chapter III
Chapter III
Ship`s Duties - Tropics
As we had now a long "spell" of fine weather, without any incident to
break the monotony of our lives, there can be no better place to describe the
duties, regulations, and customs of an American merchantman, of which ours was
a fair specimen.
The captain, in the first place, is lord paramount. He stands no watch,
comes and goes when he pleases, and is accountable to no one, and must be
obeyed in everything, without a question, even from his chief officer. He has
the power to turn his officers off duty, and even to break them and make them
do duty as sailors in the forecastle. Where there are no passengers and no
supercargo, as in our vessel, he has no companion but his own dignity, and no
pleasures, unless he differs from most of his kind, but the consciousness of
possessing supreme power, and, occasionally, the exercise of it.
The prime minister, the official organ, and the active and superintending
officer, is the chief mate. He is first lieutenant, boatswain, sailing-master,
and quarter-master. The captain tells him what he wishes to have done, and
leaves to him the care of overseeing, of allotting the work, and also the
responsibility of its being well done. The mate (as he is always called, par
excellence) also keeps the log-book, or which he is responsible to the owners
and insurers, and has the charge of the stowage, safe keeping,` and delivery
of the cargo. He is also, ex-officio, the wit of the crew; for the captain
does not condescend to joke with the men, and the second mate no one cares
for; so that when "the mate" thinks fit to entertain "the people" with a
coarse joke or a little practical wit, every one feels bound to laugh.
The second mate`s is proverbially a dog`s berth. He is neither officer
nor man. The men do not respect him as an officer, and he is obliged to go
aloft to reef and furl the topsails, and to put his hands into the tar and
slush, with the rest. The crew call him the "sailors` waiter," as he has to
furnish them with spun-yarn, marline, and all other stuffs that they need in
their work, and has charge of the boatswain`s locker, which includes
serving-boards, marlinespikes, etc., etc. He is expected by the captain to
maintain his dignity and to enforce obedience, and still is kept at a great
distance from the mate, and obliged to work with the crew. He is one to whom
little is given and of whom much is required. His wages are usually double
those of a common sailor, and he eats and sleeps in the cabin; but he is
obliged to be on deck nearly all his time, and eats at the second table, that
is, makes a meal out of what the captain and chief mate leave.
The steward is the captain`s servant, and has charge of the pantry, from
which every one, even the mate himself, is excluded. These distinctions
usually find him an enemy in the mate, who does not like to have any one on
board who is not entirely under his control; the crew do not consider him as
one of their number, so he is left to the mercy of the captain.
The cook is the patron of the crew, and those who are in his favor can
get their wet mittens and stockings dried, or light their pipes at the galley
on the night watch. These two worthies, together with the carpenter and
sailmaker, if there be one, stand no watch, but, being employed all day, are
allowed to "sleep in" at night, unless all hands are called.
The crew are divided into two divisions, as equally as may be, called the
watches. Of these the chief mate commands the larboard, and the second mate
the starboard. They divide the time between them, being on and off duty, or,
as it is called, on deck and below, every other four hours. If, for instance,
the chief mate with the larboard watch have the first night-watch from eight
to twelve; at the end of the four hours, the starboard watch is called, and
the second mate takes the deck, while the larboard watch and the first mate go
below until four in the morning, when they come on deck again and remain until
eight; having what is called the morning watch. As they will have been on deck
eight hours out of twelve, while those who had the middle watch - from twelve
to four, will only have been up four hours, they have what is called a
"forenoon watch below," that is, from eight, A. M., till twelve, M. In a
man-of-war, and in some merchantmen, this alternation of watches is kept up
throughout the twenty-four hours; but our ship, like most merchantmen, had
"all hands" from twelve o`clock till dark, except in bad weather, when we had
"watch and watch."
An explanation of the "dog watches" may, perhaps, be of use to one who
has never been at sea. They are to shift the watches each night, so that the
same watch need not be on deck at the same hours. In order to effect this, the
watch from four to eight, P. M., is divided into two half, or dog watches, one
from four to six, and the other from six to eight. By this means they divide
the twentyfour hours into seven watches instead of six, and thus shift the
hours every night. As the dog watches come during twilight after the day`s
work is done, and before the night watch is set, they are the watches in which
everybody is on deck. The captain is up, walking on the weather side of the
quarter-deck, the chief mate on the leeside, and the second mate about the
weather gangway. The steward has finished his work in the cabin, and has come
up to smoke his pipe with the cook in the galley. The crew are sitting on the
windlass or lying on the forecastle, smoking, singing, or telling long yarns.
At eight o`clock, eight bells are struck, the log is hove, the watch set, the
wheel relieved, the galley shut up, and the other watch goes below.
The morning commences with the watch on deck`s "turning-to" at day-break
and washing down, scrubbing and swabbing the decks. This, together with
filling the "scuttled butt" with fresh water, and coiling up the rigging,
usually occupies the time until seven bells, (half after seven,) when all
hands get breakfast. At eight, the day`s work begins, and lasts until sundown,
with the exception of an hour for dinner.
Before I end my explanations, it may be well to define a day`s work, and
to correct a mistake prevalent among landsmen about a sailor`s life. Nothing
is more common than to hear people say - "Are not sailors very idle at sea? -
what can they find to do?" This is a very natural mistake, and being very
frequently made, it is one which every sailor feels interested in having
corrected. In the first place, then, the discipline of the ship requires every
man to be at work upon something when he is on deck, except at night and on
Sundays. Except at these times, you will never see a man, on board a
well-ordered vessel, standing idle on deck, sitting down or leaning over the
side. It is the officers` duty to keep every one at work, even if there is
nothing to be done but to scrape the rust from the chain cables. In no state
prison are the convicts more regularly set to work, and more closely watched.
No conversation is allowed among the crew at their duty, and though they
frequently do talk when aloft, or when near one another, yet they always stop
when an officer is nigh.
With regard to the work upon which the men are put, it is a matter which
probably would not be understood by one who has not been at sea. When I first
left port, and found that we were kept regularly employed for a week or two, I
supposed that we were getting the vessel into sea trim, and that it would soon
be over, and we should have nothing to do but to sail the ship but I found
that it continued so for two years, and at the end of the two years there was
as much to be done as ever. As has often been said, a ship is like a lady`s
watch, always out of repair. When first leaving port, studding-sail gear is to
be rove, all the running rigging to be examined, that which is unfit for use
to be got down, and new rigging rove in its place: then the standing rigging
is to be over-hauled, replaced, and repaired, in a thousand different ways;
and wherever any of the numberless ropes or the yards are chafing or wearing
upon it, there "chafing gear," as it is called, must be put on. This chafing
gear consists of worming, parcelling, rounding, battens, and service of all
kinds - both rope-yarns, spun-yarn, marline and seizing-stuffs. Taking off,
putting on, and mending the chafing gear alone, upon a vessel, would find
constant employment for two or three men, during working hours, for a whole
voyage.
The next point to be considered is, that all the "small stuffs" which are
used on board a ship - such as spun-yarn, marline, seizing-stuff, etc., etc. -
are made on board. The owners of a vessel buy up incredible quantities of "old
junk," which the sailors unlay, after drawing out the yarns, knot them
together, and roll them up in balls. These "rope-yarns" are constantly used
for various purposes, but the greater part is manufactured into spun-yarn. For
this purpose every vessel is furnished with a "spun-yarn winch"; which is very
simple, consisting of a wheel and spindle. This may be heard constantly going
on deck in pleasant weather; and we had employment, during a great part of the
time, for three hands in drawing and knotting yarns, and making spun-yarn.
Another method of employing the crew is, "setting up" rigging. Whenever
any of the standing rigging becomes slack, (which is continually happening,)
the seizings and coverings must be taken off, tackles got up, and after the
rigging is bowsed well taught, the seizings and coverings replaced; which is a
very nice piece of work. There is also such a connection between different
parts of a vessel, that one rope can seldom be touched without altering
another. You cannot stay a mast aft by the back stays, without slacking up the
head stays, etc., etc. If we add to this all the tarring, greasing, oiling,
varnishing, painting, scraping, and scrubbing which is required in the course
of a long voyage, and also remember this is all to be done in addition to
watching at night, steering, reefing, furling, bracing, making and setting
sail, and pulling, hauling and climbing in every direction, one will hardly
ask, "What can a sailor find to do at sea?"
If, after all this labor - after exposing their lives and limbs in
storms, wet and cold,
"Wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch:
The lion and the belly-pinched wolf
Keep their furs dry; -"
the merchants and captains think that they have not earned their twelve
dollars a month, (out of which they clothe themselves,) and their salt beef
and hard bread, they keep them picking oakum - ad infinitum. This is the usual
resource upon a rainy day, for then it will not do to work upon rigging; and
when it is pouring down in floods, instead of letting the sailors stand about
in sheltered places, and talk, and keep themselves comfortable, they are
separated to different parts of the ship and kept at work picking oakum. I
have seen oakum stuff placed about in different parts of the ship, so that the
sailors might not be idle in the snatches between the frequent squalls upon
crossing the equator. Some officers have been so driven to find work for the
crew in a ship ready for sea, that they have set them to kounding the anchors
(often done) and scraping the chain cables. The "Philadelphia Catechism" is,
"Six days shalt thou labor and do all thou art able,
And on the seventh-holystone the decks and scrape the cable."
This kind of work, of course, is not kept up off Cape Horn, Cape of Good
Hope, and in extreme north and south latitudes; but I have seen the decks
washed down and scrubbed, when the water would have frozen if it had been
fresh; and all hands kept at work upon the rigging, when we had on our
pea-jackets, and our hands so numb that we could hardly hold our
marline-spikes.
I have here gone out of my narrative course in order that any who may
read this may form as correct an idea of a sailor`s life and duty as possible.
I have done it in this place because, for some time, our life was nothing but
the unvarying repetition of these duties, which can be better described
together. Before leaving this description, however, I would state, in order to
show landsmen how little they know of the nature of a ship, that a
ship-carpenter is kept in constant employ during good weather on board vessels
which are in, what is called, perfect sea order.
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