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Chapter IV
Chapter IV
A Rogue - Trouble on Board - "Land Ho!" - Pompero - Cape Horn
After speaking the Carolina, on the 21st August, nothing occurred to
break the monotony of our life until Friday, September 5th, when we saw a sail
on our weather (starboard) beam. She proved to be a brig under English colors,
and passing under our stern, reported herself as forty-nine days from Buenos
Ayres, bound to Liverpool. Before she had passed us, "sail ho!" was cried
again, and we made another sail, far on our weather bow, and steering athwart
our hawse. She passed out of hail, but we made her out to be an hermaphrodite
brig, with Brazilian colors in her main rigging. By her course, she must have
been bound from Brazil to the south of Europe, probably Portugal.
Sunday, September 7th. Fell in with the north-east trade winds. This
morning we caught our first dolphin, which I was very eager to see. I was
disappointed in the colors of this fish when dying. They were certainly very
beautiful, but not equal to what had been said of them. They are too
indistinct. To do the fish justice, there is nothing more beautiful than the
dolphin when swimming a few feet below the surface, on a bright day. It is the
most elegantly formed, and also the quickest fish, in salt water; and the rays
of the sun striking upon it, in its rapid and changing motions, reflected from
the water, make it look like a stray beam from a rainbow.
This day was spent like all pleasant Sabbaths at sea. The decks are
washed down, the rigging coiled up, and everything put in order; and
throughout the day only one watch is kept on deck at a time. The men are all
dressed in their best white duck trowsers, and red or checked shirts, and have
nothing to do but to make the necessary changes in the sails. They employ
themselves in reading, talking, smoking, and mending their clothes. If the
weather is pleasant, they bring their work and their books upon deck, and sit
down upon the forecastle and windlass. This is the only day on which these
privileges are allowed them. When Monday comes, they put on their tarry
trowsers again, and prepare for six days of labor.
To enhance the value of the Sabbath to the crew, they are allowed on that
day a pudding, or, as it is called, a "duff." This is nothing more than flour
boiled with water, and eaten with molasses. It is very heavy, dark, and
clammy, yet it is looked upon as a luxury, and really forms an agreeable
variety with salt beef and pork. Many a rascally captain has made friends of
his crew by allowing them duff twice a week on the passage home.
On board some vessels this is made a day of instruction and of religious
exercises; but we had a crew of swearers, from the captain to the smallest
boy; and a day of rest and of something like quiet, social enjoyment, was all
that we could expect.
We continued running large before the north-east trade winds for several
days, until Monday -
September 22nd, when, upon coming on deck at seven bells in the morning,
we found the other watch aloft, throwing water upon the sails; and looking
astern, we saw a small clipper-built brig with a black hull heading directly
after us. We went to work immediately, and put all the canvas upon the brig
which we could get upon her, rigging out oars for studding-sail yards; and
continued wetting down the sails by buckets of water whipped up to the
mast-head, until about nine o`clock, when there came on a drizzling rain. The
vessel continued in pursuit, changing her course as we changed ours to keep
before the wind. The captain, who watched her with his glass, said that she
was armed, and full of men, and showed no colors. We continued running dead
before the wind, knowing that we sailed better so, and that clippers are
fastest on the wind. We had also another advantage. The wind was light, and we
spread more canvas than she did, having royals and sky-sails fore and aft, and
ten studding-sails; while she, being an hermaphrodite brig, had only a gaff
top-sail, aft. Early in the morning she was overhauling us a little, but after
the rain came on and the wind grew lighter, we began to leave her astern. All
hands remained on deck throughout the day, and we got our arms in order; but
we were too few to have done anything with her, if she had proved to be what
we feared. Fortunately there was no moon, and the night which followed was
exceedingly dark, so that by putting out all the lights on board and altering
our course four points, we hoped to get out of her reach. We had no light in
the binnacle, but steered by the stars, and kept perfect silence through the
night. At daybreak there was no sign of anything in the horizon, and we kept
the vessel off to her course.
Wednesday, October 1st. Crossed the equator in long. 24 degrees 24` W. I
now, for the first time, felt at liberty, according to the old usage, to call
myself a son of Neptune, and was very glad to be able to claim the title
without the disagreeable initiation which so many have to go through. After
once crossing the line you can never be subjected to the process, but are
considered as a son of Neptune, with full powers to play tricks upon others.
This ancient custom is now seldom allowed, unless there are passengers on
board, in which case there is always a good deal of sport.
It had been obvious to all hands for some time that the second mate,
whose name was F___, was an idle, careless fellow, and not much of a sailor,
and that the captain was exceedingly dissatisfied with him. The power of the
captain in these cases was well known, and we all anticipated a difficulty.
F___ (called Mr. by virtue of his office) was but half a sailor, having always
been short voyages and remained at home a long time between them. His father
was a man of some property, and intended to have given his son a liberal
education; but he, being idle and worthless, was sent off to sea, and
succeeded no better there; for, unlike many scamps, he had none of the
qualities of a sailor - he was "not of the stuff that they make sailors of."
He was one of that class of officers who are disliked by their captain and
despised by the crew. He used to hold long yarns with the crew, and talk about
the captain, and play with the boys, and relax discipline in every way. This
kind of conduct always makes the captain suspicious, and is never pleasant, in
the end, to the men; they preferring to have an officer active, vigilant, and
distant as may be, with kindness. Among other bad practices, he frequently
slept on his watch, and having been discovered asleep by the captain, he was
told that he would be turned off duty if he did it again. To prevent it in
every way possible, the hen-coops were ordered to be knocked up, for the
captain never sat down on deck himself, and never permitted an officer to do
so.
The second night after crossing the equator, we had the watch from eight
till twelve, and it was "my helm" for the last two hours. There had been light
squalls through the night, and the captain told Mr. F___, who commanded our
watch, to keep a bright lookout. Soon after I came to the helm, I found that
he was quite drowsy, and at last he stretched himself on the companion and
went fast asleep. Soon afterwards, the captain came very quietly on deck, and
stood by me for some time looking at the compass. The officer at length became
aware of the captain`s presence, but pretending not to know it, began humming
and whistling to himself, to show that he was not asleep, and went forward,
without looking behind him, and ordered the main royal to be loosed. On
turning round to come aft, he pretended surprise at seeing the master on deck.
This would not do. The captain was too "wide awake" for him, and beginning
upon him at once, gave him a grand blow-up, in true nautical style - "Your`re
a lazy, good-for-nothing rascal; you`re neither man, boy, soger, nor sailor!
you`re no more than a thing aboard a vessel! you don`t earn your salt; you`re
worse than a Mahon soger!" and other still more choice extracts from the
sailor`s vocabulary. After the poor fellow had taken this harangue, he was
sent into his stateroom, and the captain stood the rest of the watch himself.
At seven bells in the morning, all hands were called aft and told that
F___ was no longer an officer on board, and that we might choose one of our
own number for second mate. It is usual for the captain to make this offer,
and it is very good policy; for the crew think themselves the choosers and are
flattered by it, but have to obey, nevertheless. Our crew, as is usual,
refused to take the responsibility of choosing a man of whom we would never be
able to complain, and left it to the captain. He picked out an active and
intelligent young sailor, born near the Kennebec, who had been several Canton
voyages, and proclaimed him in the following manner: "I choose Jim Hall - he`s
your second mate. All you`ve got to do is to obey him as you would me; and
remember that he is Mr. Hall." F___ went forward into the forecastle as a
common sailor, and lost the handle to his name, while young foremast Jim
became Mr. Hall, and took up his quarters in the land of knives and forks and
tea-cups.
Sunday, October 5th. It was our morning watch; when, soon after the day
began to break, a man on the forecastle called out, "Land ho!" I had never
heard the cry before, and did not know what it meant, (and few would suspect
what the words were, when hearing the strange sound for the first time,) but I
soon found, by the direction of all eyes, that there was land stretching along
on our weather beam. We immediately took in studding-sails and hauled our
wind, running in for the land. This was done to determine our longitude; for
by the captain`s chronometer we were in 25 degrees W., but by his observations
we were much farther, and he had been for some time in doubt whether it was
his chronometer or his sextant which was out of order. This land-fall settled
the matter, and the former instrument was condemned, and, becoming still
worse, was never afterwards used.
As we ran in towards the coast, we found that we were directly off the
port of Pernambuco, and could see with the telescope the roofs of the houses,
and one large church, and the town of Olinda. We ran along by the mouth of the
harbor, and saw a full-rigged brig going in. At two, P.M., we again kept off
before the wind, leaving the land on our quarter, and at sundown, it was out
of sight. It was here that I first saw one of those singular things called
catamarans. They are composed of logs lashed together upon the water; have one
large sail, are quite fast, and, strange as it may seem, are trusted as good
sea boats. We saw several, with from one to three men in each, boldly putting
out to sea, after it had become almost dark. The Indians go out in them after
fish, and as the weather is regular in certain seasons, they have no fear.
After taking a new departure from Olinda, we kept off on our way to Cape Horn.
We met with nothing remarkable until we were in the latitude of the river
La Plata. Here there are violent gales from the southwest, called Pamperos,
which are very destructive to the shipping in the river, and are felt for many
leagues at sea. They are usually preceded by lightning. The captain told the
mates to keep a bright lookout, and if they saw lightning at the southwest, to
take in sail at once. We got the first touch of one during my watch on deck. I
was walking in the lee gangway, and thought that I saw lightning on the lee
bow. I told the second mate, who came over and looked out for some time. It
was very black in the southwest, and in about ten minutes we saw a distinct
flash. The wind, which had been southeast, had now left us, and it was dead
calm. We sprang aloft immediately and furled the royals and top-gallant sails,
and took in the flying jib, hauled up the mainsail and trysail, squared the
after yards, and awaited the attack. A huge mist capped with black clouds came
driving towards us, extending over that quarter of the horizon, and covering
the stars, which shone brightly in the other part of the heavens. It came upon
us at once with a blast, and a shower of hail and rain, which almost took our
breath from us. The hardiest was obliged to turn his back. We let the halyards
run, and fortunately were not taken aback. The little vessel "paid off" from
the wind, and ran for some time directly before it, tearing through the water
with everything flying. Having called all hands, we closereefed the topsails
and trysail, furled the courses and jib, set the fore-topmast staysail, and
brought her up nearly to her course, with the weather braces hauled in a
little, to ease her.
This was the first blow, that I had seen, which could really be called a
gale. We had reefed our topsails in the Gulf Stream, and I thought it
something serious, but an older sailor would have thought nothing of it. As I
had now become used to the vessel and to my duty, I was of some service on a
yard, and could knot my reef-point as well as anybody. I obeyed the order to
lay^1 aloft with the rest, and found the reefing a very exciting scene; for
one watch reefed the fore-topsail, and the other the main, and every one did
his utmost to get his topsail hoisted first. We had a great advantage over the
larboard watch, because the chief mate never goes aloft, while our new second
mate used to jump into the rigging as soon as we began to haul out the
reef-tackle, and have the weather earing passed before there was a man upon
the yard. In this way we were almost always able to raise the cry of "Haul out
to leeward" before them, and having knotted our points, would slide down the
shrouds and back-stays, and sing out at the topsail halyards to let it be
known that we were ahead of them. Reefing is the most exciting part of a
sailor`s duty. All hands are engaged upon it, and after the halyards are let
go, there is no time to be lost - no "sogering" or hanging back, then. If one
is not quick enough, another runs over him. The first on the yard goes to the
weather earing, the second to the lee, and the next two to the "dog`s ears:"
while the others lay along into the bunt, just giving each other elbow-room.
In reefing, the yard-arms (the extremes of the yards) are the posts of honor;
but in furling, the strongest and most experienced stand in the slings, (or,
middle of the yard,) to make up the bunt. If the second mate is a smart
fellow, he will never let any one take either of these posts from him; but if
he is wanting either in seamanship, strength, or activity, some better man
will get the bunt and earings from him; which immediately brings him into
disrepute.
[Footnote 1: This word "lay," which is in such general use on board ship,
being used in giving orders instead of "go;" as, "Lay forward!" "Lay aft!"
"Lay aloft!" etc., I do not understand to be the neuter verb lie,
mispronounced, but to be the active verb lay, with the objective case
understood; as, "Lay yourselves forward!" "Lay yourselves aft!" etc.]
We remained for the rest of the night, and throughout the next day, under
the same close sail, for it continued to blow very fresh; and though we had no
more hail, yet there was a soaking rain, and it was quite cold and
uncomfortable; the more so because we were not prepared for cold weather, but
had on our thin clothes. We were glad to get a watch below, and put on our
thick clothing, boots, and south-westers. Towards sundown the gale moderated a
little and it began to clear off in the southwest. We shook our reefs out, one
by one, and before midnight had top-gallant sails upon her.
We had now made up our minds for Cape Horn and cold weather, and entered
upon every necessary preparation.
Tuesday, Nov. 4th. At daybreak saw land upon our larboard quarter. There
were two islands, of different size but of the same shape; rather high,
beginning low at the water`s edge, and running with a curved ascent to the
middle. They were so far off as to be of a deep blue color, and in a few hours
we sank them in the northeast. These were the Falkland Islands. We had run
between them and the main land of Patagonia. At sunset the second mate, who
was at the mast-head, said that he saw land on the starboard bow. This must
have been the island of Staten Land; and we were now in the region of Cape
Horn, with a fine breeze from the northward, top-mast and top-gallant
studding-sails set, and every prospect of a speedy and pleasant passage round.
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