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, Sept. 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 has 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 22d; 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 topsail, 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 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° 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 sailor 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 look-out. 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--"You'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 the harangue, he was sent
into his state-room, 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 Kennebee, 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 fore-mast 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 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 25º 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 sun-down, 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 south-west,
called Pomperos, 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 look-out,
and if they saw lightning at the south-west, 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 south-west, and in about ten minutes we saw a
distinct flash. The wind, which had been south-east, 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 on for some time directly before it,
tearing through the water with everything flying. Having called all
hands, we close-reefed the topsails and trysail, furled the courses and
job, set the fore-top-mast 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.
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 sun-down the gale moderated a little, and it began to clear off
in the south-west. 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 day-break, 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 north-east. These were
the Falkland Islands. We had run between them and the main land of
Patagonia. At sun-set the second mate, who was at the masthead, 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.
[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 forwards!" "Lay yourselves aft!" etc.