HE HELPS WASH THE DECKS, AND THEN GOES TO BREAKFAST
The next thing I knew, was the loud thumping of a handspike on deck as
the watch was called again. It was now four o’clock in the morning, and
when we got on deck the first signs of day were shining in the east.
The men were very sleepy, and sat down on the windlass without
speaking, and some of them nodded and nodded, till at last they fell
off like little boys in church during a drowsy sermon. At last it was
broad day, and an order was given to wash down the decks. A great tub
was dragged into the waist, and then one of the men went over into the
chains, and slipped in behind a band fastened to the shrouds, and
leaning over, began to swing a bucket into the sea by a long rope; and
in that way with much expertness and sleight of hand, he managed to
fill the tub in a very short time. Then the water began to splash about
all over the decks, and I began to think I should surely get my feet
wet, and catch my death of cold. So I went to the chief mate, and told
him I thought I would just step below, till this miserable wetting was
over; for I did not have any water-proof boots, and an aunt of mine had
died of consumption. But he only roared out for me to get a broom and
go to scrubbing, or he would prove a worse consumption to me than ever
got hold of my poor aunt. So I scrubbed away fore and aft, till my back
was almost broke, for the brooms had uncommon short handles, and we
were told to scrub hard.
At length the scrubbing being over, the mate began heaving buckets of
water about, to wash every thing clean, by way of finishing off. He
must have thought this fine sport, just as captains of fire engines
love to point the tube of their hose; for he kept me running after him
with full buckets of water, and sometimes chased a little chip all over
the deck, with a continued flood, till at last he sent it flying out of
a scupper-hole into the sea; when if he had only given me permission, I
could have picked it up in a trice, and dropped it overboard without
saying one word, and without wasting so much water. But he said there
was plenty of water in the ocean, and to spare; which was true enough,
but then I who had to trot after him with the buckets, had no more legs
and arms than I wanted for my own use.
I thought this washing down the decks was the most foolish thing in the
world, and besides that it was the most uncomfortable. It was worse
than my mother’s house-cleanings at home, which I used to abominate so.
At eight o’clock the bell was struck, and we went to breakfast. And now
some of the worst of my troubles began. For not having had any friend
to tell me what I would want at sea, I had not provided myself, as I
should have done, with a good many things that a sailor needs; and for
my own part, it had never entered my mind, that sailors had no table to
sit down to, no cloth, or napkins, or tumblers, and had to provide
every thing themselves. But so it was.
The first thing they did was this. Every sailor went to the cook-house
with his tin pot, and got it filled with coffee; but of course, having
no pot, there was no coffee for me. And after that, a sort of little
tub called a “kid,” was passed down into the forecastle, filled with
something they called “burgoo.” This was like mush, made of Indian
corn, meal, and water. With the _“kid,” a_ little tin cannikin was
passed down with molasses. Then the Jackson that I spoke of before, put
the kid between his knees, and began to pour in the molasses, just like
an old landlord mixing punch for a party. He scooped out a little hole
in the middle of the mush, to hold the molasses; so it looked for all
the world like a little black pool in the Dismal Swamp of Virginia.
Then they all formed a circle round the kid; and one after the other,
with great regularity, dipped their spoons into the mush, and after
stirring them round a little in the molasses-pool, they swallowed down
their mouthfuls, and smacked their lips over it, as if it tasted very
good; which I have no doubt it did; but not having any spoon, I wasn’t
sure.
I sat some time watching these proceedings, and wondering how polite
they were to each other; for, though there were a great many spoons to
only one dish, they never got entangled. At last, seeing that the mush
was getting thinner and thinner, and that it was getting low water, or
rather low molasses in the little pool, I ran on deck, and after
searching about, returned with a bit of stick; and thinking I had as
good a right as any one else to the mush and molasses, I worked my way
into the circle, intending to make one of the party. So I shoved in my
stick, and after twirling it about, was just managing to carry a little
_burgoo_ toward my mouth, which had been for some time standing ready
open to receive it, when one of the sailors perceiving what I was
about, knocked the stick out of my hands, and asked me where I learned
my manners; Was that the way gentlemen eat in my country? Did they eat
their victuals with splinters of wood, and couldn’t that wealthy
gentleman my father afford to buy his gentlemanly son a spoon?
All the rest joined in, and pronounced me an ill-bred, coarse, and
unmannerly youngster, who, if permitted to go on with such behavior as
that, would corrupt the whole crew, and make them no better than swine.
As I felt conscious that a stick was indeed a thing very unsuitable to
eat with, I did not say much to this, though it vexed me enough; but
remembering that I had seen one of the steerage passengers with a pan
and spoon in his hand eating his breakfast on the fore hatch, I now ran
on deck again, and to my great joy succeeded in borrowing his spoon,
for he had got through his meal, and down I came again, though at the
eleventh hour, and offered myself once more as a candidate.
But alas! there was little more of the Dismal Swamp left, and when I
reached over to the opposite end of the kid, I received a rap on the
knuckles from a spoon, and was told that I must help myself from my own
side, for that was the rule. But _my_ side was scraped clean, so I got
no _burgoo_ that morning.
But I made it up by eating some salt beef and biscuit, which I found to
be the invariable accompaniment of every meal; the sailors sitting
cross-legged on their chests in a circle, and breaking the hard
biscuit, very sociably, over each other’s heads, which was very
convenient indeed, but gave me the headache, at least for the first
four or five days till I got used to it; and then I did not care much
about it, only it kept my hair full of crumbs; and I had forgot to
bring a fine comb and brush, so I used to shake my hair out to windward
over the bulwarks every evening.