At last I was informed by Mr Cruden that I might transfer my chest and
myself on board the _Black Swan_. Accordingly, the old porter wheeled
the former down to the docks, while I walked by its side. I gave the
old porter a shilling for his trouble: his eye brightened, and he
blessed me, and muttered something about wishing that I had fallen into
better hands; but he was afraid, apparently, of saying more, and casting
another glance at me, I suspect of commiseration, he tottered off to his
daily avocations. My chest, which was a very small one, was stowed away
by one of the seamen under a bunk in the forecastle. I thought that I
was to have a cabin under the poop, and to mess with the captain; but
when I made inquiries, no one could give any information, and the
captain was nowhere to be seen. Everything on board appeared in the
wildest confusion; and I must own that I got most unaccountably in
everybody's way, and accordingly got kicked out of it without the
slightest ceremony.
Silas had not arrived, so I could not go to him for information. I
therefore climbed up out of the way, to the boat, placed amidships, on
the top of the booms. Soon afterwards the emigrants' bag and baggage
began to arrive. I was amused by observing the odd and mixed collection
of things the poor people brought with them, some of the more bulky
articles of which were not admitted on board. The Jew harpies were on
the quays ready to snap them up, giving little or nothing in return. I
thought that it was a great pity that there were no means to enable
these poor people to obtain better information before they left home, to
have saved them the expense of dragging so much useless lumber about
with them. I pitied them, not because they were going to another land
where they could get food and employment, but for their helpless
ignorance, and the want of any one fit to lead or direct them, as also
for the treatment they were receiving at the hands of the countrymen
they were leaving for ever.
Many of them resented bitterly the impositions practised on them; and I
saw some of them, with significant gestures, take off their shoes and
shake the dust over the ship's side as they stepped on board, while they
gave vent to their feelings in oaths not lowly muttered. Henceforth,
instead of friends and supporters, they were to be foes to England and
the English--aliens of the country which should have cherished and
protected them, but did not. Such things were--such things are: when
will they cease to be? What a strange mixture of people there were,
from all parts of the United Kingdom--aged men and women; young brides
and their husbands; mothers with tribes of children, some with their
infants still unweaned--talking many different dialects, weeping,
laughing, shrieking, and shouting! At last they got their berths
allotted to them, and they began to stow away their provisions and
baggage between decks. Some kept going backwards and forwards from the
ship to the shore, and no notice being given, many of them were left
behind when the ship hauled out of dock, and had to come on board in
boats, at a considerable expense, after being well frightened at the
thoughts that we had sailed without them.
We lay out in the stream for another whole day, with the Blue Peter
flying, to show that we were ready for sea, and to summon any passengers
who might yet remain on shore. Silas Flint was one of the last to come
on board, before we left the dock. He appeared following a porter, who
wheeled down his chest, containing all his property. He did not even
give me a look of recognition as he passed me; but he at once plunged
below with his chest, and he studiously avoided coming near me. This I
thought odd and unkind, nor could I comprehend the cause of this
behaviour.
I was sitting very disconsolate by myself among the emigrants, and
wondering when the captain would come on board, and when I should begin
to learn to be a seaman, when I felt the no pleasing sensation of a
rope's end laid smartly across my shoulders. I turned quickly round to
resent the indignity, when I encountered the stern glance of the first
mate, Mr Stovin, fixed on me, while the "colt" in his hand showed that
he was the aggressor. "And so you are the youngster who wanted to make
himself useful, are you?" he exclaimed in a sneering voice.
"I am," I replied; "and I'll thank you in future not to take such
liberties with my back."
He burst into a loud laugh. "O my young cock-a-hoop, you show fight, do
you?" he exclaimed. "Well, we'll see what you are made of before long."
"I'm ready to do my duty when you show me the way," I answered in as
calm a voice as I could command; and I believe this reply, and the
having kept my temper, gave him a more favourable opinion of me than he
was before inclined to form, and somewhat softened his savage nature.
"A willing hand will have no want of masters," he observed. "And mind,
what I tell you to do you'll do as well as you can, and we shan't fall
foul of each other."
I will now describe the _Black Swan_. She measured nearly eight hundred
tons, was ship-rigged, and had been built many years. She carried
eighteen hands forward, with two cooks and a steward, besides the
captain, four mates, and a doctor.
There were about four hundred and forty steerage passengers, who, I may
explain, are the poorer classes; and I think there were ten cabin
passengers, who berthed in the cabin and messed with the captain. The
steerage passengers brought their own provisions, but the captain was
obliged to provide them with water and biscuit, just to keep life in
them; indeed, without it many of them would have died. It was, I felt,
like severing the last link which bound us to our native shores, when
the pilot left us at the mouth of the Mersey, and with a fair wind we
stood down the Irish Channel.
I cannot say that before I quitted home I had any very definite idea of
the life of a sailor; but I had some notion that his chief occupation
was sitting with his messmates round a can of grog, and singing songs
about his sweetheart: the reality I found was very different.
The first time I had any practical experience of this was when, the
pilot having left us, and the wind having veered round to the
north-east, the captain ordered the ship to be kept away before it. His
eye happened to fall upon me for the first time, dressed in my sea
toggery, and seated, with my hands in my pockets, on the booms.
"Hillo, Jim--what's-your-name--we'll have none of your idling ways here
if you belong to this ship, as I've a notion you do," he exclaimed.
"Aloft there with you, then, and help furl the mizzen topsail. Be smart
about it, or I'll freshen your way with a rope's end, and we'll see if
you give me an answer."
By this last observation, I guessed that the mate had told him of the
answer I had given him, and I felt that the wisest thing I could do was
to obey him without making any reply. What, however, he meant by
"furling the mizzen topsail" I had not the slightest notion; but as I
saw that he pointed to the mizzen-mast, and that several lads and men
were ascending the mizzen rigging, I followed them. I was a good
climber, so I had no fear of going aloft; and while I was in the top,
luckily one of my new messmates, who was already lying out on the yard,
exclaimed, "Hillo, Peter, lend us a hand here, my lad." On hearing
this, I immediately threw myself on the yard, and following his
directions I made a very fair furl of it. I got no praise certainly for
this, but I escaped blame; and I saw by the way the other mizzen-top men
treated me, that they considered me a smart lad, and no flincher.
From that moment I was never idle. I followed a piece of advice honest
Dick Derrick gave me on this occasion: "Never let go with one hand till
you've got a good gripe with the other; and if you cannot hold on with
your hands, make use of your teeth and legs; and mind, clutch fast till
you've picked out a soft spot to fall on." Dick Derrick taught me to
hand, furl, and steer, to knot and splice, to make sinnet and spun-yarn,
and the various other parts of a seaman's business. I was ambitious to
learn; and I found the work, when taught by him, both easy and pleasant.
I was placed in the second mate's watch, and had to keep my watch
regularly. In this I was fortunate. William Bell was his name. He was
a quiet, gentlemanly young man, who always kept his temper, however
roughly spoken to by the captain. It was through no want of spirit that
he did not reply to the abuse thrown at him, as I afterwards discovered,
but because it was the wisest and most dignified course to pursue. As I
said before, I expected to mess in the cabin, and to be a sort of
midshipman; but when I went up to the captain and told him so, he
laughed at me, and asked me if I would show him any written agreement on
the subject, for that he knew nothing at all about it. All he could say
was, that I was entered as a ship's boy; that as such I must be berthed
and messed, and do duty. If I did not like it, he would see what Mr
Stovin had to say to me. I saw that there was no help for me; so,
following Silas Flint's advice, I determined to grin and bear it.
We sighted Cape Clear, the south-westernmost point of Ireland. I longed
to be able to swim on shore and return home. I did not the less wish to
see the world, but I did not much like the company with whom I was
likely to see it; Mr Stovin and his rope's-ending were not agreeable
companions. From Cape Clear we took a fresh departure. A ship is said
to take her departure from a point, the distance and the bearing of the
point being ascertained when her course is marked off from the spot
where she then is. At four p.m. Cape Clear bore five miles north-east
of us, or rather we were five miles south-west of the Cape. This spot
was marked on the chart; and the distance run, and the course by
compass, were each day afterwards pricked off in like manner on the
charts. The distance run is measured by the log, which is hove every
two hours.
The log is a small triangular piece of wood, secured to the end of a
long line, on which divisions are marked, bearing the same proportion to
a mile which a half-minute bears to an hour. One man holds a
half-minute glass in his hand--another a reel on which the line is
rolled--a third, the mate, takes the log and heaves it overboard,
drawing off the line with his left hand. Thus, as the log remains
stationary in the water, according to the number of divisions or knots
run off while the sand in the glass is running, will be shown the number
of miles the ship is going in the hour. Instead of miles, the word
knots is used, evidently from the knots marked on the line.
The mode I have thus briefly described of finding the ship's course is
called "dead reckoning." This, of course, is liable to errors, as
careless steering, the compasses being out of order, or a current, may
carry her far from her supposed position; at the same time, when the sky
is obscured, it is the only mode of finding the way across the ocean.
It can be correctly ascertained by observation of the sun, moon, and
stars, taken with a sextant and a chronometer; but I shall be led to
give an epitome of the science of navigation if I attempt to explain the
mode of using them.
In shallow waters, where the bottom has been accurately surveyed, a
clever pilot will find his way with the lead. At the end of the lead a
cavity is made, which is filled with grease; and according to the sort
of mud, sand, or shells which adhere to it, he tells his position.
This, and many other parts of navigation, Mr Bell, during our night
watches, took great pains to explain to me; but it was not till I had
been some time at sea that I comprehended them clearly.
Mr Bell never spoke to me in the day-time; for if the captain saw him,
he was certain to send me to perform some kind of drudgery or other. I
was set to do all the dirty work in the ship, to black down the rigging,
to grease the masts, etcetera, etcetera; indeed, my hands were always in
the tar-bucket; but it served the useful purpose of teaching me a
seaman's duty, and of accustoming me to work. The captain and first
mate's abusive language, however, I could not stand; and my feelings
resented it even more than the blows they were continually dealing me.
I have said little about the emigrants. If my lot was bad, theirs was
much worse. They were looked upon by the officers as so many sheep or
pigs, and treated with no more consideration. Crowded together below,
allowed to accumulate filth and dirt of every description, their diet
bad and scanty, and never encouraged to take the air on deck, disease
soon broke out and spread among them. Old and young, married and single
of both sexes, were mingled indiscriminately together; and the scenes I
witnessed when I was obliged to go below turned me sick with disgust, as
they made my heart bleed with sorrow.
The surgeon had little more knowledge of his profession than I had, and
had not the slightest notion of what ought to be done to stop the
ravages of disease. He physicked indiscriminately, or bled or starved
his patients, without paying the slightest regard to their ailments.
When they died they were thrown overboard, with scant ceremony; but the
men had the greatest difficulty in tearing the bodies of the Irish from
their friends, or of children from their wretched parents; and it was
heart-rending to listen to the shrieks and howls of grief as this was
attempted to be done.
However, I do not wish to dwell on these scenes, or to discourage
emigration. I fully believe that by thoroughly cleansing the ship, and
by serving out good provisions, disease might then have been arrested.
The object is to prevent the occurrence of such disorders for the
future, by the introduction of a well-organised system. In spite of all
obstacles, emigration will go forward; but it depends on every one of
us, whether it will prove a curse or a blessing to those who go forth,
whether the emigrants are to be in future friends or deadly foes to the
country they quit.