HOMEWARD BOUND
And we're off to Mother Carey
(Walk her down to Mother Carey!)
Oh, we're bound for Mother Carey where she feeds her chicks at sea!
_Kipling._
Bare feet, gripping the cool deck of the fo'c'sle head, still wet with
the washdown, pattered in rhythmic circles to the music of the pawls,
sounding over the early morning stillness of Honolulu Harbor. We were
heaving up the anchor, having already taken in our quarter moorings.
The pilot was aboard; Captain Nichols stumped the poop with his
characteristic jerky stride, all business; second mate Tom was aloft
with a half dozen hands, and the pleasant swish of falling canvas,
and the rattle of blocks and running gear, sounded above as they cast
off the long sea gaskets. About us in the harbor the men o' war and
transports lay silent to their moorings, sleeping off the effect of a
day and night of revelry ashore. Mr. Zerk stood out over the bow on
the port cathead, his hand on the catfall, as he leaned far over.
"Five fathom shackle at the water!" he sung out.
"All right! Bring her short!" came the order from the poop.
"Aye, aye, sir! Walk her up, up, boys! Walk her up, _and wake her up_."
Old Smith got the tune and presently the dirge of an anchor chantey
echoed across the water as we bent our weight against the capstan bars.
"Paddy come back and turn in your slack,
Heave round the capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl.
We're leavin' Honolulu girls, and never will come back,
Heave round the capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl.
An' happy days all lie behind, good-bye to swipes and rum,
Heave round the capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl."
"Short stay, sir!" bawled the mate, and we stopped our song. The faint
echo of a cheer wafted across the harbor; we recognized the hail from
our friends on the _British Monarch_, watching to see us off.
"Break her out, sir!" answered the captain, sending his voice along
the length of the ship in sharp, snappy syllables.
"Aye, aye, sir!"
At "_short stay_," I was ordered to the wheel and as I slipped the
spokes from the beckets, the crowd at the bars again put their beef to
the cable, and the anchor left bottom. The tug fastened to our quarter
got her signal from the pilot; we heard the jangle of bells in her
engine room; we commenced to move.
"Hard a port!" ordered the pilot.
"Hard over, sir!"
"Steady so! Steady so!" We were heading toward the old marine railway,
the line of the Esplanade having swung under the jib guys with
remarkable swiftness, as I turned the wheel to meet her.
"Port handsomely!" I gave her wheel. "Port, I say! _Hard a port!_"
"Hard a port, sir!" Again the shore shot past her bow, and then the
blue water of the harbor mouth lay fair ahead.
"Steady! Starb'd a point! Steady so!"
We were pointing out through the narrow entrance of Honolulu Harbor.
Forward they had hooked the cat and the fall was brought "_two
blocks_" while the great hook hung upright, dripping the slimy harbor
silt.
The mate then assumed charge of the deck, sheeting home and hoisting
away as fast as the men could man the ropes. A light off shore breeze
on the port quarter bellied out the canvas. The buoys, barrel buoy
to starboard, spar buoy to port, slipped past us. Presently the tug
started to drag her head to port, as the ship's way increased, and I
had to give her wheel to meet her.
"Guess we are all right now, Pilot."
"All right, Captain. All clear ahead and plenty of water from here to
the Horn. Good luck and a quick passage."
They shook hands, the pilot waved a farewell to the mate down in the
waist, then jumped onto the wheel house of the tug from our mizzen
channels. A few squeaky toots by way of a salute as she cast off, and
the tug swung sharply about and headed back to port; the last link
binding us to Honolulu had been severed.
At eight bells, breakfast time, I was relieved and, on my way forward,
I stopped for a parting glance back at Honolulu. What was my surprise
when I found it well down on the horizon, the Island of Oahu stretching
a mere blur of bluish green across our wake. A lump rose in my throat
for I did wish to have another look at that fair city of dreams, but it
was already a thing of the hazy past; a figment of memory; the port of
phantasmagoria; a jumble of many colored people, of smells, of music;
of green and restful bowers, of feverish energy and of indolence, of
days of dirty, sweaty labor, and of nights of romantic adventures. And
what of Jimmy Marshall, I wondered, left behind with his uniform and
drum?
Yes, we were out to sea again, the cool breeze wafting us along, out
on the restless ocean as before, months and months ago too numerous to
remember, when we sailed to the eastward with the Navesink Highlands
dropping far behind us in the sunset. Now the only difference was the
fact that the Island of Captain Cook, the first port of Stevenson on
his retirement to the Pacific, and that vivid stage upon which Father
Damien lived and died, was fading away far to the north.
At breakfast we again separated into watches but with orders to turn to
again, as the first day was to be one of "all hands." We were glad to
a man that the homeward passage had commenced. The drop in temperature
put snap into us and Australia celebrated our departure by tearing
down the dingy mosquito bar triced above his bunk. He balled this up
and hove it over the side with the remark, "Here goes me night cage;
good-bye forever."
The breeze was blowing strong, a splendid northeast trade, and the
smooth sea made our progress something very cheering. At two bells I
was called aft and, with Brenden and Frenchy, helped heave the log chip
under direction of Captain Nichols.
The log line, soaked with water, was wound on a large reel. Brenden
stood on one side of the wheel house and held this over his head, each
hand gripping a handle of the reel as he faced squarely aft. He was far
enough forward from the taffrail so we could tend the line. The log
chip, a small quadrant of wood weighted on its circular side to make it
swim upright in the water, was attached to the line by a triple bridle,
the two parts from the ends of the circle being seized to a small
wooden plug that fitted snugly to a wooden socket seized to the part
of the log line running from the apex of the chip. This arrangement
holds the chip upright and perpendicular to the direction of the log
line; when the line is given a sharp jerk, the plug disengages, the
chip capsizes, and can be easily hauled aboard. It is really a sort of
miniature sea anchor.
Captain Nichols stood by with the sand glass. Frenchy was told to cast
the chip overboard, while I stood at the rail to see the line run
clear. Twenty fathoms of the "stray line" went over first, the end
being marked by a piece of red bunting. As this ran over the taffrail
the skipper called out "Turn," at the same time turning the glass
himself. He was greatly pleased with the whole proceeding and danced
around much after the manner of a small boy with a new kite. The sand
glass was a twenty-eight second one, and the captain had dried it out
in the galley that morning and then compared it with his chronometer.
The line was tearing over the rail like wild and as the captain called,
"Up!" Frenchy grabbed the line.
Examining the line we found we were making 10.2 knots.
At the time of shouting "Up!" Captain Nichols stepped over to the Bliss
taffrail log trailing on the weather quarter and noted the dial. An
hour later we again hove the old-fashioned log and checked our reading
on the patent log. For the information of landsmen, it may be well
to say that a knot on the log line--and here is where the term comes
from--is a distance of forty-seven feet, four inches (for a 28-second
glass), the same proportional part of a sea mile or "knot" of 6,080
feet that 28 seconds is of an hour. The different knots along the line
are distinguished by fish line tucked into the strands and a knot cast
for each mark away from the start. Tenths are estimated, the length
between knots being divided by shreds of white bunting into five parts.
If sailing fast, as we were, a _short glass_ is sometimes used; this
registers fourteen seconds and the readings on the log line must be
doubled. In passing it may be well to mention that the old-fashioned
log chip, where speeds are not over, say fifteen knots, is the most
reliable method of measurement of rate of speed through the roster ever
devised. Also, the fact that the sea mile or "knot" is six thousand
and eighty feet, and not five thousand two hundred and eighty feet as
ashore, is due to the fact that in navigating a ship over the sea it is
necessary to have a standard of measurement bearing a simple relation
to the size and shape of the earth. One sea mile is the length of one
minute of arc measured on the meridian, 6,080 feet. This is the mean
value, for, owing to the flattening at the poles, the minute of arc
varies slightly from the poles to the equator.
Ten knots and over is fair going for any sailer, and extra fine for
trade wind sailing. Our hopes for a quick passage were high. The water
boiled past us in a smother of swishing foam, a cheerful chatter when
homeward bound, while aloft every inch of sail was doing its full duty.
Before noon we got the anchor scrubbed clean and at once unshackled the
cables and sent them below, bowsing the jackasses into the hawse pipes,
as on the passage out. Both bower anchors were then secured inboard and
lashed to heavy ring bolts on the fo'c'sle head, the cat and fish falls
were unrove, stopped up and stowed below.
We put in the afternoon rousing up this rope and that, tautening every
stitch of canvas to its full extent. Our new second mate was given his
first lessons in the handling of a watch at sea, and did well enough,
considering the fact that Chief Mate Zerk kept the center of the stage,
as was his habit whenever anything transpired on the deck. At four
bells the starboard watch went below, and we stood the first dog watch.
In the second dog watch we sat around yarning, still being too full
of rational rest to seek our bunks. We watched Tommy handle things
alone--but for all that Captain Nichols was always to be seen far aft,
stumping the poop, and keeping a mighty watchful eye on the progress of
events. During the night watches he was particularly in evidence. Tommy
gained confidence faster than he did experience and assumed a certain
air of superiority that was galling to his former watchmates. Old Smith
was the one to carry things along by setting a correct example to the
men. Often when Tom did not know just what to do, Old Smith would start
things by jumping to the proper rope and the order would tally along
afterward. On the other hand, things got so that when Tom gave the
wrong orders the watch would disregard them and do what they thought
was right. Old Smith, Hitchen, Axel and Charlie Horse knew as much
about sailing as any second mate, and the result was not disastrous,
although at times a trifle ragged.
The captain shaped a course due south, magnetic, running along the
meridian of one hundred and fifty-eight degrees west from Greenwich.
This carried us to the eastward of Karatoo Island and we then put more
easting in the course and sailed past the Walker Islands, crossing the
equator when five days out from Honolulu; a fair bit of travelling
for a vessel of the latter sailing ship days. Here the trades failed
us and again we were to wallow in the stagnant latitudes that try
the spirit and vex the soul. But the ship's company forward were in
excellent humor and anything but sea weary. We employed the time below,
not given over to sleeping, in sewing our much worn clothing, in
scrubbing clothes, an art in which we were expert, and in yarning about
the times gone by.
As the days spread into weeks we thought more and more of the times to
come, and of course discussed them at great length. Much of our mental
intercourse had a hopeful, speculative trend. Being wholly human and
with all the weaknesses that sailor flesh abounds in, it is not to be
wondered at if the ambitions of that voyage never fully materialized;
judging by my own, I can say they did not. I wanted to command another
such ship as the _Fuller_, to stump to windward and set the course,
to have all night in, and eat delicious viands at the cabin table.
Stranger fate was to await me before I cast my anchor in the fair cove
called home, with kids to crawl upon my knee and call me "Dadda," and a
wife to remind me now and then that I am not captain here.