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. When
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, for 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 "sailor's
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, marline-spikes, 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 the 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 the 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
alteration 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 twenty-four 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 is on the lee side, 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 sun-down, 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 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 overhauled, 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, roundings,
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.--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 them
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 taut, 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. 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 fur dry;--"
the merchants and captain 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 pounding 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 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.