CRACKING ON--PROGRESS HOMEWARD--A PLEASANT SUNDAY--A FINE SIGHT--BY-PLAY
It is usual, in voyages round the Cape from the Pacific, to keep to the
eastward of the Falkland Islands; but as it had now set in a strong,
steady, and clear south-wester, with every prospect of its lasting, and
we had had enough of high latitudes, the captain determined to stand
immediately to the northward, running inside the Falkland Islands.
Accordingly, when the wheel was relieved at eight o'clock, the order
was given to keep her due north, and all hands were turned up to square
away the yards and make sail. In a moment, the news ran through the
ship that the captain was keeping her off, with her nose straight for
Boston, and Cape Horn over her taffrail. It was a moment of
enthusiasm. Every one was on the alert, and even the two sick men
turned out to lend a hand at the halyards. The wind was now due
south-west, and blowing a gale to which a vessel close hauled could
have shown no more than a single close-reefed sail; but as we were
going before it, we could carry on.
Accordingly, hands were sent aloft, and a reef shaken out of the
top-sails, and the reefed foresail set. When we came to masthead the
topsail yards, with all hands at the halyards, we struck up "Cheerily,
men," with a chorus which might have been heard half-way to Staten
Land. Under her increased sail, the ship drove on through the water.
Yet she could bear it well; and the captain sang out from the
quarter-deck--"Another reef out of that fore-topsail, and give it to
her!" Two hands sprang aloft; the frozen reef-points and earings were
cast adrift, the halyards manned, and the sail gave out her increased
canvas to the gale. All hands were kept on deck to watch the effect of
the change. It was as much as she could well carry, and with a heavy
sea astern, it took two men at the wheel to steer her. She flung the
foam from her bows; the spray breaking aft as far as the gangway. She
was going at a prodigious rate.
Still, everything held. Preventer braces were reeved and hauled
taut; tackles got upon the backstays; and each thing done to keep all
snug and strong. The captain walked the deck at a rapid stride, looked
aloft at the sails, and then to windward; the mate stood in the
gangway, rubbing his hands, and talking aloud to the ship--"Hurrah, old
bucket! the Boston girls have got hold of the tow-rope!" and the like;
and we were on the forecastle, looking to see how the spars stood it,
and guessing the rate at which she was going,--when the captain called
out--"Mr. Brown, get up the topmast studding-sail! What she can't
carry she may drag!" The mate looked a moment; but he would let no one
be before him in daring.
He sprang forward--"Hurrah, men! rig out the topmast studding-sail
boom! Lay aloft, and I'll send the rigging up to you!"--We sprang
aloft into the top; lowered a girt-line down, by which we hauled up the
rigging; rove the tacks and halyards; ran out the boom and lashed it
fast, and sent down the lower halyards, as a preventer. It was a clear
starlight night, cold and blowing; but everybody worked with a will.
Some, indeed, looked as though they thought the "old man" was mad, but
no one said a word. We had had a new topmast studding-sail made with a
reef in it,--a thing hardly ever heard of, and which the sailors had
ridiculed a good deal, saying that when it was time to reef a
studding-sail, it was time to take it in. But we found a use for it
now; for, there being a reef in the topsail, the studding-sail could
not be set without one in it also. To be sure, a studding-sail with
reefed topsails was rather a new thing; yet there was some reason in
it, for if we carried that away, we should lose only a sail and a boom;
but a whole topsail might have carried away the mast and all.
While we were aloft, the sail had been got out, bent to the yard,
reefed, and ready for hoisting. Waiting for a good opportunity, the
halyards were manned and the yard hoisted fairly up to the block; but
when the mate came to shake the catspaw out of the downhaul, and we
began to boom-end the sail, it shook the ship to her centre. The boom
buckled up and bent like a whip-stick, and we looked every moment to
see something go; but, being of the short, tough upland spruce, it bent
like whalebone, and nothing could break it. The carpenter said it was
the best stick he had ever seen. The strength of all hands soon
brought the tack to the boom-end, and the sheet was trimmed down, and
the preventer and the weather brace hauled taut to take off the
strain. Every rope-yarn seemed stretched to the utmost, and every
thread of canvas; and with this sail added to her, the ship sprang
through the water like a thing possessed. The sail being nearly all
forward, it lifted her out of the water, and she seemed actually to
jump from sea to sea. From the time her keel was laid, she had never
been so driven; and had it been life or death with every one of us, she
could not have borne another stitch of canvas.
Finding that she would bear the sail, the hands were sent below, and
our watch remained on deck. Two men at the wheel had as much as they
could do to keep her within three points of her course, for she steered
as wild as a young colt. The mate walked the deck, looking at the
sails, and then over the side to see the foam fly by her, slapping his
hands upon his thighs and talking to the ship--"Hurrah, you jade,
you've got the scent!--you know where you're going!" And when she
leaped over the seas, and almost out of the water, and trembled to her
very keel, the spars and masts snapping and creaking,--"There she
goes!--There she goes,--handsomely!--as long as she cracks she
holds!"--while we stood with the rigging laid down fair for letting go,
and ready to take in sail and clear away, if anything went. At four
bells we hove the log, and she was going eleven knots fairly; and had
it not been for the sea from aft which sent the ship home, and threw
her continually off her course, the log would have shown her to have
been going much faster. I went to the wheel with a young fellow from
the Kennebec, who was a good helmsman; and for two hours we had our
hands full. A few minutes showed us that our monkey-jackets must come
off; and, cold as it was, we stood in our shirt-sleeves, in a
perspiration; and were glad enough to have it eight bells, and the
wheel relieved. We turned-in and slept as well as we could, though the
sea made a constant roar under her bows, and washed over the forecastle
like a small cataract.
At four o'clock, we were called again. The same sail was still on the
vessel, and the gale, if there was any change, had increased a little.
No attempt was made to take the studding-sail in; and, indeed, it was
too late now. If we had started anything toward taking it in, either
tack or halyards, it would have blown to pieces, and carried something
away with it. The only way now was to let everything stand, and if the
gale went down, well and good; if not, something must go--the weakest
stick or rope first--and then we could get it in. For more than an
hour she was driven on at such a rate that she seemed actually to crowd
the sea into a heap before her; and the water poured over the spritsail
yard as it would over a dam. Toward daybreak the gale abated a little,
and she was just beginning to go more easily along, relieved of the
pressure, when Mr. Brown, determined to give her no respite, and
depending upon the wind's subsiding as the sun rose, told us to get
along the lower studding-sail. This was an immense sail, and held wind
enough to last a Dutchman a week,--hove-to. It was soon ready, the
boom topped up, preventer guys rove, and the idlers called up to man
the halyards; yet such was still the force of the gale, that we were
nearly an hour setting the sail; carried away the outhaul in doing it,
and came very near snapping off the swinging boom. No sooner was it
set than the ship tore on again like one that was mad, and began to
steer as wild as a hawk. The men at the wheel were puffing and blowing
at their work, and the helm was going hard up and hard down,
constantly. Add to this, the gale did not lessen as the day came on,
but the sun rose in clouds. A sudden lurch threw the man from the
weather wheel across the deck and against the side. The mate sprang to
the wheel, and the man, regaining his feet, seized the spokes, and they
hove the wheel up just in time to save her from broaching to; though
nearly half the studding-sail went under water; and as she came to, the
boom stood up at an angle of forty five degrees. She had evidently
more on her than she could bear; yet it was in vain to try to take it
in--the clewline was not strong enough; and they were thinking of
cutting away, when another wide yaw and a come-to, snapped the guys,
and the swinging boom came in, with a crash, against the lower rigging.
The outhaul block gave way, and the topmast studding-sail boom bent in
a manner which I never before supposed a stick could bend. I had my
eye on it when the guys parted, and it made one spring and buckled up
so as to form nearly a half circle, and sprang out again to its shape.
The clewline gave way at the first pull; the cleat to which the
halyards were belayed was wrenched off, and the sail blew round the
spritsail yards and head guys, which gave us a bad job to get it in.
A half hour served to clear all away, and she was suffered to drive on
with her topmast studding-sail set, it being as much as she could
stagger under.
During all this day and the next night, we went on under the same sail,
the gale blowing with undiminished force; two men at the wheel all the
time; watch and watch, and nothing to do but to steer and look out for
the ship, and be blown along;--until the noon of the next day--
Sunday, July 24th, when we were in latitude 50° 27' S., longitude 62°
13' W., having made four degrees of latitude in the last twenty-four
hours. Being now to northward of the Falkland Islands, the ship was
kept off, north-east, for the equator; and with her head for the
equator, and Cape Horn over her taffrail, she went gloriously on; every
heave of the sea leaving the Cape astern, and every hour bringing us
nearer to home, and to warm weather. Many a time, when blocked up in
the ice, with everything dismal and discouraging about us, had we
said,--if we were only fairly round, and standing north on the other
side, we should ask for no more:--and now we had it all, with a clear
sea, and as much wind as a sailor could pray for. If the best part of
the voyage is the last part, surely we had all now that we could wish.
Every one was in the highest spirits, and the ship seemed as glad as
any of us at getting out of her confinement. At each change of the
watch, those coming on deck asked those going below--"How does she go
along?" and got for answer, the rate, and the customary addition--"Aye!
and the Boston girls have had hold of the tow-rope all the watch, and
can't haul half the slack in!" Each day the sun rose higher in the
horizon, and the nights grew shorter; and at coming on deck each
morning, there was a sensible change in the temperature. The ice, too,
began to melt from off the rigging and spars, and, except a little
which remained in the tops and round the hounds of the lower masts, was
soon gone. As we left the gale behind us, the reefs were shaken out of
the topsails, and sail made as fast as she could bear it; and every
time all hands were sent to the halyards, a song was called for, and we
hoisted away with a will.
Sail after sail was added, as we drew into fine weather; and in one
week after leaving Cape Horn, the long topgallant masts were got up,
topgallant and royal yards crossed, and the ship restored to her fair
proportions.
The Southern Cross we saw no more after the first night; the Magellan
Clouds settled lower and lower in the horizon; and so great was our
change of latitude each succeeding night, that we sank some
constellation in the south, and raised another in the northern horizon.
Sunday, July 31st. At noon we were in lat. 36° 41' S., long. 38° 08'
W.; having traversed the distance of two thousand miles, allowing for
changes of course, in nine days. A thousand miles in four days and a
half!--This is equal to steam.
Soon after eight o'clock, the appearance of the ship gave evidence that
this was the first Sunday we had yet had in fine weather. As the sun
came up clear, with the promise of a fair, warm day, and, as usual on
Sunday, there was no work going on, all hands turned-to upon clearing
out the forecastle. The wet and soiled clothes which had accumulated
there during the past month, were brought up on deck; the chests moved;
brooms, buckets of water, swabs, scrubbing-brushes, and scrapers
carried down, and applied, until the forecastle floor was as white as
chalk, and everything neat and in order. The bedding from the berths
was then spread on deck, and dried, and aired; the deck-tub filled with
water; and a grand washing begun of all the clothes which were brought
up. Shirts, frocks, drawers, trowsers, jackets, stockings, of every
shape and color, wet and dirty--many of them mouldy from having been
lying a long time wet in a foul corner--these were all washed and
scrubbed out, and finally towed overboard for half an hour; and then
made fast in the rigging to dry. Wet boots and shoes were spread out
to dry in sunny places on deck; and the whole ship looked like a back
yard on a washing day. After we had done with our clothes, we began
upon our own persons. A little fresh water, which we had saved from
our allowance, was put in buckets, and with soap and towels, we had
what sailors call a fresh-water wash. The same bucket, to be sure, had
to go through several hands, and was spoken for by one after another,
but as we rinsed off in salt water, pure from the ocean, and the fresh
was used only to start the accumulated grime and blackness of five
weeks, it was held of little consequence.
We soaped down and scrubbed one another with towels and pieces of
canvas, stripping to it; and then, getting into the head, threw buckets
of water upon each other. After this, came shaving, and combing, and
brushing; and when, having spent the first part of the day in this way,
we sat down on the forecastle, in the afternoon, with clean duck
trowsers, and shirts on, washed, shaved, and combed, and looking a
dozen shades lighter for it, reading, sewing, and talking at our ease,
with a clear sky and warm sun over our heads, a steady breeze over the
larboard quarter, studding-sails out alow and aloft, and all the flying
kites aboard;--we felt that we had got back into the pleasantest part
of a sailor's life. At sundown the clothes were all taken down from
the rigging--clean and dry--and stowed neatly away in our chests; and
our southwesters, thick boots, guernsey frocks, and other
accompaniments of bad weather, put out of the way, we hoped, for the
rest of the voyage, as we expected to come upon the coast early in the
autumn.
Notwithstanding all that has been said about the beauty of a ship under
full sail, there are very few who have ever seen a ship, literally,
under all her sail. A ship coming in or going out of port, with her
ordinary sails, and perhaps two of three studding-sails, is commonly
said to be under full sail; but a ship never has all her sail upon her,
except when she has a light, steady breeze, very nearly, but not quite,
dead aft, and so regular that it can be trusted, and is likely to last
for some time. Then, with all her sails, light and heavy, and
studding-sails, on each side, alow and aloft, she is the most glorious
moving object in the world. Such a sight, very few, even some who have
been at sea a great deal, have ever beheld; for from the deck of your
own vessel you cannot see her, as you would a separate object.
One night, while we were in these tropics, I went out to the end of the
flying-jib-boom, upon some duty, and, having finished it, turned round,
and lay over the boom for a long time, admiring the beauty of the sight
before me. Being so far out from the deck, I could look at the ship,
as at a separate vessel;--and there rose up from the water, supported
only by the small black hull, a pyramid of canvas, spreading out far
beyond the hull, and towering up almost, as it seemed in the indistinct
night air, to the clouds. The sea was as still as an inland lake; the
light trade-wind was gently and steadily breathing from astern; the
dark blue sky was studded with the tropical stars; there was no sound
but the rippling of the water under the stem; and the sails were spread
out, wide and high;--the two lower studding-sails stretching, on each
side, far beyond the deck; the topmast studding-sails, like wings to
the topsails; the top-gallant studding-sails spreading fearlessly out
above them; still higher, the two royal studding-sails, looking like
two kites flying from the same string; and, highest of all, the little
skysail, the apex of the pyramid, seeming actually to touch the stars,
and to be out of reach of human hand. So quiet, too, was the sea, and
so steady the breeze, that if these sails had been sculptured marble,
they could not have been more motionless. Not a ripple upon the
surface of the canvas; not even a quivering of the extreme edges of the
sail--so perfectly were they distended by the breeze. I was so lost in
the sight, that I forgot the presence of the man who came out with me,
until he said, (for he, too, rough old man-of-war's-man as he was, had
been gazing at the show,) half to himself, still looking at the marble
sails--"How quietly they do their work!"
The fine weather brought work with it; as the ship was to be put in
order for coming into port. This may give a landsman some notion of
what is done on board ship.--All the first part of a passage is spent
in getting a ship ready for sea, and the last part in getting her ready
for port. She is, as sailors say, like a lady's watch, always out of
repair. The new, strong sails, which we had up off Cape Horn, were to
be sent down, and the old set, which were still serviceable in fine
weather, to be bent in their place; all the rigging to be set up, fore
and aft; the masts stayed; the standing rigging to be tarred down;
lower and topmast rigging rattled down, fore and aft; the ship scraped,
inside and out, and painted; decks varnished; new and neat knots,
seizings and coverings to be fitted; and every part put in order, to
look well to the owner's eye, on coming into Boston. This, of course,
was a long matter; and all hands were kept on deck at work for the
whole of each day, during the rest of the voyage. Sailors call this
hard usage; but the ship must be in crack order, and "we're homeward
bound" was the answer to everything.
We went on for several days, employed in this way, nothing remarkable
occurring; and, at the latter part of the week, fell in with the
south-east trades, blowing about east-south-east, which brought them
nearly two points abaft our beam. These blew strong and steady, so
that we hardly started a rope, until we were beyond their latitude.
The first day of "all hands," one of those little incidents occurred,
which are nothing in themselves, but are great matters in the eyes of a
ship's company, as they serve to break the monotony of a voyage, and
afford conversation to the crew for days afterwards. These small
matters, too, are often interesting, as they show the customs and state
of feeling on shipboard.
In merchant vessels, the captain gives his orders as to the ship's
work, to the mate, in a general way, and leaves the execution of them,
with the particular ordering, to him. This has become so fixed a
custom, that it is like a law, and is never infringed upon by a wise
master, unless his mate is no seaman; in which case, the captain must
often oversee things for himself. This, however, could not be said of
our chief mate; and he was very jealous of any encroachment upon the
borders of his authority.
On Monday morning, the captain told him to stay the fore-topmast plumb.
He accordingly came forward, turned all hands to, with tackles on the
stays and back-stays, coming up with the seizings, hauling here,
belaying there, and full of business, standing between the knightheads
to sight the mast,--when the captain came forward, and also began to
give orders. This made confusion, and the mate, finding that he was
all aback, left his place and went aft, saying to the captain--
"If you come forward, sir, I'll go aft. One is enough on the
forecastle."
This produced a reply, and another fierce answer; and the words flew,
fists were doubled up, and things looked threateningly.
"I'm master of this ship."
"Yes, sir, and I'm mate of her, and know my place! My place is
forward, and yours is aft!"
"My place is where I choose! I command the whole ship; and you are
mate only so long as I choose!"
"Say the word, Capt. T., and I'm done! I can do a man's work aboard!
I didn't come through the cabin windows! If I'm not mate, I can be
man," etc., etc.
This was all fun for us, who stood by, winking at each other, and
enjoying the contest between the higher powers. The captain took the
mate aft; and they had a long talk, which ended in the mate's returning
to his duty. The captain had broken through a custom, which is a part
of the common-law of a ship, and without reason; for he knew that his
mate was a sailor, and needed no help from him; and the mate was
excusable for being angry. Yet he was wrong, and the captain right.
Whatever the captain does is right, ipso facto, and any opposition to
it is wrong, on board ship; and every officer and man knows this when
he signs the ship's articles.
It is a part of the contract. Yet there has grown up in merchant
vessels a series of customs, which have become a well understood
system, and have almost the force of prescriptive law. To be sure, all
power is in the captain, and the officers hold their authority only
during his will; and the men are liable to be called upon for any
service; yet, by breaking in upon these usages, many difficulties have
occurred on board ship, and even come into courts of justice, which are
perfectly unintelligible to any one not acquainted with the universal
nature and force of these customs. Many a provocation has been
offered, and a system of petty oppression pursued towards men, the
force and meaning of which would appear as nothing to strangers, and
doubtless do appear so to many "'long-shore" juries and judges.
The next little diversion, was a battle on the forecastle one
afternoon, between the mate and the steward. They had been on bad
terms the whole voyage; and had threatened a rupture several times.
This afternoon, the mate asked him for a tumbler of water, and he
refused to get it for him, saying that he waited upon nobody but the
captain: and here he had the custom on his side. But in answering, he
left off "the handle to the mate's name." This enraged the mate, who
called him a "black soger;" and at it they went, clenching, striking,
and rolling over and over; while we stood by, looking on, and enjoying
the fun. The darky tried to butt him, but the mate got him down, and
held him, the steward singing out, "Let me go, Mr. Brown, or there'll
be blood spilt!" In the midst of this, the captain came on deck,
separated them, took the steward aft, and gave him half a dozen with a
rope's end.
The steward tried to justify himself; but he had been heard to talk of
spilling blood, and that was enough to earn him his flogging; and the
captain did not choose to inquire any further.