It is usual, in voyages round the Cape from the Pacific, to keep
to the eastward of the Falkland Islands; but as there had now set
in a strong, steady, and clear southwester, 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 southwest, 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 topsails, and the reefed foresail set. When we came to
mast-head the topsail yards, with all hands at the halyards, we
struck up ``Cheerly, 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 everything 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 novelty; 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 chip home, and threw her
continually off her course, the log would have shown her to have
been going somewhat faster. I went to the wheel with a young
fellow from the Kennebec, Jack Stewart, 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 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 mad, and began to steer wilder than ever. 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 the ship from broaching to, though as she
came up the studding-sail boom stood 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 clew-line 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
clew-line gave way at the first pull; the cleat to which the
halyards were belayed was wrenched off, and the sail blew round
the spritsail yard 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 violence; 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 lat. 50° 27' S., lon. 62° 13' W.,
having made four degrees of latitude in the last twenty-four hours.
Being now to the northward of the Falkland Islands, the ship was
kept off, northeast, 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 a 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.'' Every
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 top-gallant-masts were
got up, top-gallant and royal yards crossed, and the ship restored
to her fair proportions.
The Southern Cross and the Magellan Clouds settled lower and lower
in the horizon; and so great was our change of latitude that each
succeeding night 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.,
lon. 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, trousers, 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 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 trousers
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 abroad,-- we felt that we had got back into the
pleasantest part of a sailor's life. At sunset 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 or 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 good 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. To give a landsman some notion of
what is done on board ship, it may be truly said that 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 to be 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, and to all critics,
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 southeast trades, blowing about east-southeast, which
brought them nearly two points abaft our beam. They 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 things, too, are often interesting, as they
show the customs and states 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 backstays, coming up with the seizings,
hauling here, belaying there, and full of business, standing
between the knight-heads to sight the mast,-- when the captain
came forward, and also began to give orders. This made confusion,
and the mate 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, Captain Thompson, 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,'' &c., &c.
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, in strict
law, 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 somewhat 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. Once, on the coast, the mate had seized the steward, when
the steward suddenly lowered his head, and pitched it straight
into Mr. Brown's stomach, butting him against the galley, grunting
at every shove, and calling out ``You Brown!'' Mr. Brown looked
white in the face, and the heaviest blows he could give seemed to
have no effect on the negro's head. He was pulled off by the
second mate, and Mr. Brown was going at him again, when the
captain separated them; and Mr. Brown told his tale to the
captain, adding ``and, moreover, he called me Brown!'' From this
time ``moreover, he called me Brown,'' became a by-word on board.
Mr. Brown went aft, saying, ``I've promised it to you, and now
you've got it.'' But he did not seem to be sure which had ``got
it''; nor did we. We knew Mr. Brown would not leave the thing in
that equivocal position all the voyage, if he could help it. This
afternoon the mate asked the steward 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 committed the unpardonable offence of leaving 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 darkey tried to butt him, as before, 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. Mr. Brown was satisfied to let
him alone after that, as he had, on the whole, vindicated his
superiority in the eyes of the crew.