The storm lasted six days. After that we got light winds, and soon
crossed what sailors call the line. Not that there is any line or mark
on the earth or sea; but as the world is round, and turns round and
round the sun, as an orange with a stick through it might be made to
turn round a candle, it is that part which is nearest the sun. The sun
at noon, in that part, all round the world, is overhead, and so it is
just the hottest part of the world. It was hot, indeed. The pitch
bubbled out of the seams in the decks, one calm day, and we could have
fried a beefsteak, if we had had one, on any iron plates on the deck. I
was glad when, after running for a thousand miles or so, we got cooler
weather, though the sun was still hot enough at noon. Our ship was very
well found, the men said, and we had no lack of food--salt beef, and
peas, and rice, and flour, and sometimes suet and raisins for puddings.
They said we were much better off than many ship's companies; we had
enough of good food, and our officers were just, and did not overwork
us.
I heard tales of what happens on board some ships, where the food is bad
and scanty; the men are worked well-nigh to death, often struck by the
master and the mates, and treated like dogs. I was thankful that I
hadn't gone to sea in one of those ships.
At last I found we were going round Cape Horn, which is the south point
of America. We had a fair wind, and not much of it; but a gale had been
blowing somewhere, for there was a swell, such as I had never thought to
see. The water was just like smooth up-and-down chalk downs, only as
regular as furrows in a field. The big ship just seemed nothing among
them, as she now sunk down in the hollow, and then rose to the top of
the smooth hill of water. To our right was seen Cape Horn itself; it is
a high head of land, sticking out into the sea, all by itself. Very few
people have ever been on shore there, and no one lives there, as there
is no ground to grow anything, and the climate is cold and bleak. You
know that the two ends of the earth, or poles, as they are called, the
north and south, are very cold; ice and snow all the year round, and
Cape Horn is near the south end.
After we passed it, for some time we steered north, and soon got into
warm weather again. You see the hot part of the world is midway between
the north and south pole, so sailing north from the south pole we find
it hotter and hotter, and so we do sailing south from the north pole.
We find our way over the sea, far away from land night or day, just as
well as on shore. Besides the sun and stars to guide us, we have the
compass. It is a wonderful thing, though it is so simple-looking; just
a round card, resting on a spike in a brass basin. In the card is a
long steel needle, and the point of it is rubbed with a stuff called
loadstone, and it takes the card round and round, and always points to
the north. The north, and all the other points, are marked on the card;
so when we look at it we see what way the ship's head is. The ship is
guided by a rudder, and a compass is placed just before the man who
steers, that is, turns the rudder--this way or that--so that he can look
at it, and know which way to turn the rudder, and so to keep the ship on
her course.
Then the shape of all parts of the world is mapped down on paper, and
the distances, that is to say, an inch on the paper, maybe, stands for
fifty miles, and so the captain knows where he is going, and how far he
has to go, though he has never been there before. We have a log line,
with marks on it, and by letting that run out astern we judge how fast
the ship is going; then the compass tells us the course she is steering,
that is, the way she is going, and that we call "dead reckoning." But
the captain has besides wonderful instruments of brass and glasses, and
he looks through them at the sun, or stars, and moon, and then he makes
sums on paper; and then he has some curious watches, which never go
wrong, and with them and his sums he can tell just where the ship is,
though we haven't seen land for six or eight weeks, or more. It is
curious to sail on day after day, and week after week, and not to see
land, and yet to know that it is all right, and that we shall reach the
very port we are bound for, unless we fall in with a storm, and lose our
masts, and get cast away, or spring a leak and founder; but then when we
come to think of the thousands of ships at sea, and that not one in a
hundred gets lost, we needn't count on that. So you understand, what
with the "dead reckoning," and the curious instruments I told you of--
one of them is called a sextant--the captain can take his ship right
across the pathless ocean, just as easily as a coachman does his coach
along a high-road. You see sailors on shore, and they seem often
harum-scarum, idle fellows, but at sea everything is done with the
greatest order, and every man and boy has his proper duty, just as the
servants in a large country-house. The crew are divided into watches,
called the starboard and larboard, or port, watches; the chief mate
commands one, the second mate the other. While one watch is on duty the
other goes below to sleep, or take their meals, except when all hands
are wanted on deck. Every hour a bell is struck to show how time goes.
Every four hours the watch is changed, except in the evening, from four
to eight o'clock, when there are two watches, called dog-watches, that
is to say, from four to six, one; and from six to eight, another. The
reason of this is that the people who are on watch at one time one
night, may not be on watch the same time the next night, which they
would be if there were six instead of seven watches, which you will find
there are in the twenty-four hours. I used to be very glad when my
first watch was over, and I was able to turn in from twelve to four,
when I had to be up again to keep the morning watch. That was no idle
time, for as soon as it was daylight we had to scrub and wash down
decks, and to put everything in order for the day, just as housemaids
put the house in order.
Night and day, fine weather or foul, a man is stationed either at the
mast-head, or yard-arm, or forward, to keep a look-out ahead for any
ship, or land, or shoals, or rocks, which may be near. Many a ship has
been lost when a good look-out has not been kept; one ship has run into
another, and both have sunk, or the ship has run on rocks not seen till
too late.
When we get near the land we use a lead and line, to learn the depth of
water. This is called heaving the lead, as the lead is swung round with
the arm to fall far ahead. There are knots on the line a fathom apart,
which we can tell by the feel.
When a ship gets in shallow water, she can anchor; but in storms the
waves are so high, and the wind so strong, that she may be torn from her
anchors and driven ashore.
When a ship gets into harbour, the sails are furled, and the anchors
dropped, but even then a watch is kept on deck.
When we got to the south of the line, we saw that the stars overhead
were all different to those we see in England. I marked one set of
stars more than all the rest. It is called the Southern Cross. The
world is round, and there are thousands of stars and other worlds round
us, on every side, all made and kept in their places and governed by
God. I often thought of that as I stood on deck at night, and felt that
the same great God was loving and caring for me, a poor sailor-boy.